Salvador expansion halted by court

Brazil’s 6th Public Finance Court has upheld an injunction to suspend the expansion of the container terminal at the Port of Salvador, in the state of Bahia

The judge, Ruy Eduardo Almeida Britto, ruled that the lack of authorisation from the Municipal Environmental Council (Coman) meant that the work lacked continuity, so ordered that the license granted by the City of Salvador be suspended.

Although Coman is mostly advisory in nature, in cases involving the concession of authorisations of works that have environmental impact its rulings are key. Indeed, in this case, the majority of its council agreed that the expansion of the Port of Salvador would cause great damage to the environment of the city, because it does not comply with the Municipal Plan of Coastal Management.

The judge stressed that he believed the financial argument for the expansion should be viewed as secondary to that of the environmental impact on the city.

Tecon Salvador is operated by Wilson, Sons and handled 323,000 TEU last year, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%.

The expansion project would have involved investment of US$193M.

Following the ruling, it is incumbent on the city to suspend the license and ensure that all work is stopped immediately. Failure to do so would incur a daily fine of US$1,200 for the container terminal.

Source: WorldCargo News

April container record for Rotterdam

April was the best ever month for Rotterdam container handling by tonnage - 13.6 Mt, as against 13.2 Mt handled in the previous record month, August 2018

The result follows a record Q1 2019 after a record whole year 2018. In unit terms, April’s 1.3M TEU was a fraction below the August 2018 result, however. The Rotterdam port authority (HbR) released these figures at the 2019 Transport & Logistics Trade Fair in Munich, being held this year from 4 to 7 June.

The announcement seems was a peg for the Dutch port to hang the hat of its key digital transformation selling point. Together with the announcement, a round-up was distributed of the 15 apps and other digitisation projects that the Port of Rotterdam has in place or in progress.

This includes the latest initiative, the ’hyper-smart’ Container 42, which contains an array of sensors and communications equipment for measuring changes in parameters like vibration, slope, position, sound, local air pollution, humidity and temperature.

The unit also has solar panels, which can be used to determine how much power a container can generate during a given journey by ship, train or truck. TLM Munich is the first stop in the first leg of this container’s two-year data-collecting mission around the world.

Amidst many digital (and physical) tools, the Container Exchange Route (CER) is a further boost for Rotterdam container handling. The internal lane will connect all Maasvlakte I and II container facilities.

Source: WorldCargo News

Dunkirk to cut port tariffs for cleaner vessels

Dunkirk port authority is introducing an environmental rebate for ships complying with ESI (Envionmental Ship Index) norms

The initiative was announced today (3rd June) during European Sustainable Development Week and meets objectives of the Air Climate Energy Territorial Pact (PACET) already adopted by the Dunkirk urban community.

The ESI was initiated by the IAPH and awards ships scores or points on the basis of their emissions. Shipping lines calling Dunkirk are invited to sign a new charter to work towards these goals.

The port authority has not put a price on the rebate, but says it will be based on the number of ESI-compliant calls by the individual shipping line or charterer (typically bulk shippers using the port), pro-rated to the total number of such vessel calls at the port, on an annualised basis.

Signing off the new agreement in Dunkirk

The picture above shows (L to R): João Menezes (Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque); Stéphane Raison (CEO, Port of Dunkirk); Dominique Pair (ArcelorMittal Dunkerque); and Bertrand Demester, DFDS Seaways.

Source: WorldCargo News