Pontoon launch marks milestone in Tilbury2 development

A floating pontoon for the new Tilbury2 ro-ro terminal development at Port of Tilbury has been launched

The pontoon, measuring 55m x 45m, was launched from a slipway earlier this month from Ravestein BV yard in Deest, Holland. The pontoon finishing works is expected to be completed in October, when it will then be towed by tug along with the linkspan bridge, ready for installation before the end of the year.

Paul Scott, contracts director for Graham, said: “Once complete, the floating pontoon will provide large scale capacity for the loading and discharge of ro-ro vessels at the terminal, enabling a huge increase in the volume of cargo being transported across the quay. The economic and social benefits of this scheme, not just locally, but nationally, cannot be understated and this launch is an exciting milestone in the scheme’s progression.”

Peter Ward, Commercial Director at The Port of Tilbury said: “The launch of the pontoon is a significant part of the creation of our new port Tilbury2 and we are pleased that the construction is on track for Spring 2020. When operational, T2 will be the largest unaccompanied Ro-Ro terminal in the UK.”

The Tilbury2 project consists of the construction of a new port terminal and associated facilities on land at the former Tilbury Power Station on the north bank of the River Thames at Tilbury.

When operational in Spring 2020, Tilbury2 will be the UK’s largest unaccompanied freight ferry port, the country’s biggest construction processing hub and will see the creation of a new significantly larger rail head which can accommodate the longest freight trains of 775m.

The project is central to the Port of Tilbury’s £1B investment programme during 2012-20, which has seen it double the size of its business in the past 10 years and is projected to double the volume of cargo across the quay (from 16 Mt to 32 Mt) and increase direct employment (from 3,500 to 12,000 jobs) over the next 10-15 years.

P&O Ferries has already announced a launch unaccompanied ro-ro service into the new terminal, from Calais. This will be Calais’ first pure freight ro-ro service and the port’s first ro-ro service not associated with Dover.

To watch a video of the pontoon launch, see:

Source: WorldCargo News

Itapoá gets recognition

Porto Itapoá has won an award for raising U$116M to fund an expansion project.

Porto Itapoá, a private use terminal in Santa Catarina State, south Brazil, has won a Port Financing of the year award from LatinFinance Magazine.

Raising funds for expansion projects is key challenge for ports in the Latam region. "This prestigious award in the financial sector is the culmination of an excellent job at negotiating, shaping, and executing the Company’s new capital structure that made the expansion work possible”, said Mr. Cássio Schreiner, the President of Porto Itapoá.

Porto Itapoá’s main private investors are Grupo PortoSul (the forestry and transport company from Santa Catarina that was responsible for the conception of Porto Itapoá), the LOGZ Investment fund Logística Brasil SA (set up by BRZ Investimentos’ Private Equity department), and Aliança Navigation and Logistics (part of the A. P. Moller-Maersk group).

Porto Itapoá now has six STS cranes on 800m of quay

The US$116M in funding was raised from three banks in three equal amounts: IDB Invest, ING Bank, and Bank ABC Brasil.

The money was used to expand the facility by adding 170m of quay and 100,000 square metres of yard area, and purchase additional equipment to increase total capacity from 500,000 TEU to 1.2M TEU per year. With the work now completed Itapoá has 800m of quay, six STS cranes, 17 RTGs, 40 tractors, three reach stackers and three empty handlers.

The new funding also permitted the a capital restructuring, which was made by the repayment of two debentures debts issued in 2013 and 2016, allowing the company to expand the debt duration from three to six years and decrease interest costs by nearly 150bps.

“We’re very proud to receive another international award, in addition to the previous ones for social, environmental, and technological projects,” said Schreiner.

Source: WorldCargo News

Los Angeles sees box volume fall

Executive Director Gene Seroka calls for a negotiated settlement to trade war with China.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka has issued a strong statement on the trade war between the US and China after container volume at the largest container port in the US fell 2.7% in September year-on-year.

“The ill-advised U.S.-China trade war continues to wreak havoc on American exporters and manufacturers,” Seroka said. “We’ve seen declining exports for 11 consecutive months while our fastest growing market segment is exporting empty containers back to Asia. It’s likely we’ll see softer volumes in the fourth quarter. We must have a negotiated settlement of the trade war as it is beginning to impact the more than 3 million jobs in the U.S. that are tied to this port complex.”

On the US East Coast, the 10% and 9% increases in September volume just reported by the ports of Charleston and Virginia respectively seem inconsistent with falling volumes as the result of the trade war. Looking at Virginia, most of the growth was again in empty boxes, with export empties up 17% and import empties jumping 34%, but Virginia did, however, also handle more laden containers, both export (+9%) and import (+5%).

“As a result of peak season volumes and the ongoing trade tariffs, we are seeing a lot of imports and repositioning of empty containers,” said John F. Reinhart, the CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “In September, China granted an exemption from additional tariffs on some American soybean imports, pork and other agricultural products and this works in our favour as we have seen some rebound in those cargoes.”

When looking at Virginia’s September 2019 numbers it also has to be considered that the port did experience some slower months in 2018 as dealt with operational issues resulting from expansion projects at both its container terminals. When compared to September 2017 loaded export containers in Virginia were down nearly 7%, and loaded imports were up 4.5% in September 2019. Charleston has not yet published its detailed statistics.

Source: WorldCargo News