Forth Ports rolls out Reactec HVAS monitoring across all its ports

Forth Ports Ltd has rolled out Reactec’s innovative wearable system to monitor the vibration exposure experienced by power tool users to reduce the risk of developing the incurable HAVS condition

Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), which is also known as Vibration White Finger, is one of the most common industrial diseases in the UK. The condition is usually caused by the prolonged use of power hand tools, whose vibrations can damage the blood vessels, nerves, muscles and joints of the hand, wrist and arm. 300,000 people in the UK suffer from the condition, for which there is no known cure, only prevention.

Forth Ports has acquired around 100 HAVwear watches, to upgrade its existing Reactec HAV management technology. HAVwear, is a wearable wrist worn device that determines in real-time an individual’s exposure to vibration during every day use of power tools which are used at the ports.

Forth Ports own and operate eight commercial ports in the UK - Tilbury (London), Grangemouth, Dundee, Leith, Rosyth, Methil, Burntisland and Kirkcaldy – and implements what it calls a ‘Safety F1rst’ culture at all levels across the business to protect employees, customers and visitors.

Grangemouth engineer Ross Taylor

Forth Ports has its own in-house engineering teams to maintain port equipment including container cranes, straddles carriers, fork lift trucks, trailers, etc. The Reactec team supported the implementation of the HAVwear watches and provided onsite "train the traine"r sessions to allow instructions to be disseminated across the group. The tools used across the business range from small battery screwdrivers to impact wrenches, with grinders, hammer drills and many other tools in between.

Grangemouth engineer Allan Stuart

Reactec’s analytical platform provides cloud-based reporting which allows dynamic risk assessment and exposure reduction. HAVwear has enjoyed significant sales since its launch in 2016 and is in use by a number of leading companies in the UK, including British Airways, Murphy Group, Morgan Sindall, Balfour Beatty, the Environment Agency, Siemens and Babcock. Reactec is targeting other industry sectors both in the UK and internationally.

Source: WorldCargo News

Halifax and Quebec on the infrastructure trail

Halifax is getting a new rail link between is box terminals, while Hutchison Ports will develop a new terminal in Quebec City.

Canada’s Minister of Transport Marc Garneau has announced a C$47.5M investment in two rail projects at Halifax under the Federal government’s C$2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund.

The first project involves new track to connect the port’s South End Container Terminal (Halterm) to its Fairview Cove Container Terminal by rail. The funding also includes the purchase of four new RMGs.

The second project is an upgrade for the Windsor Street Exchange, which is the main access road to the Port of Halifax, that will help reduce traffic congestion and improve safety.

Halifax Port Authority President and CEO Karen Oldfield said the infrastructure upgrades will “act as a catalyst for the digital transformation of our port. Now more than ever, the future of our port is not about trucks. It is about technology. The bricks and mortar changes will improve efficiency and increase physical capacity in the short term, and the digital advancements that are taking place will ensure that the additional capacity is fully optimized”.

As a step in its “digital transformation” the port has launched a Vessel Forecast Summary (VFS) application. Cargo owners and port service providers including terminal operators, pilots, tug operators, truckers and CN Rail can now access vessel ETA data through the Port of Halifax Operations Centre. Vessel data is provided by eeSea from Copenhagen, and users can see any difference between a vessel’s pro forma arrival date and an eeSea-estimated arrival date.

Just as Halifax is pushing ahead, The Quebec Port Authority (QPA) has announced an agreement with Hutchison Ports to develop a new terminal at Quebec City, to be named “Laurentia”. Quebec launched its plans for a new terminal at its existing Beauport site in 2017. The port has now signed a longterm commercial agreement with Hutchison Ports and CN Rail to build and operate the terminal.

The existing bulk operation at Beauport.

The terminal is expected to cost C$775M. The QPA is engaged in ”ongoing discussions with the federal and provincial governments to complete the financing”. The timeline is not known at this stage as the plan is still in the environmental assessment stage.

If it clears this hurdle, the facility will likely include equipment automation. “The agreement stipulates that Hutchison Ports will build the most environmentally and technologically advanced cargo-handling facility in North America. It is a unique opportunity for the Port of Québec’s future container terminal to become one of the terminals with the smallest ecological footprint in the world,” the parties said in the announcement.

Source: WorldCargo News

SCA sells Rotterdam terminal to Hans Vervat

The Rotterdam terminal of Swedish forestry pulp and paper shipper SCA is to be sold to Dutch port entrepreneur Hans Vervat, subject to approval of the local SCA Works Council

With this acquisition, Hans Vervat (pictured left) will add the 23-hectare SCA Logistics (Rotterdam) BV terminal to his contiguous 11-ha Matrans Holdings BV operation. The latter is Mr Vervat’s flagship operating company. Matrans ia Rotterdam’s leading container lashing and securing company and the group includes various companies in container lashing, depots and various container and non-container port and logistical services.

Located at the Prins Willem Alexanderhaven in the Eemhaven basin, SCA Logistics Rotterdam (formerly known as Interforest Terminal Rotterdam BV) last year handled around 800,000 tons of breakbulk foresry products, 120,000 TEU of containerised forestry products, mainly handled in feeder services, and 150,000 tonnes of general breakbulk cargoes.

The base load of paper, forestry pulp and wood from SCA represents around half the terminal’s traffic and is secured long-term, said the terminal’s director Roelf Buist.

SCA has reported that the sale is expected to reduce its net debt by SEK575M (€61M), including purchase price and offlay of financial leases.

The terminal will be integrated with Matrans' Mainport Container Services depot

Source: WorldCargo News