Poti expansion project cancelled

Natia Turnava, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development  in the Black Sea republic of Georgia, has suddenly cancelled the construction permit to  build a new port in Poti

The Minister made this announcement just a day after the permit was announced by her own Ministry’s Construction and Technical Supervision Agency. The head of the agency was reported to have been dismissed.

Mrs Turnava (photo left is from the Georgian Journal) stepped in after Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) warned that the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project was at risk if the Georgian government sanctioned construction of the new Poti port. She said she knew nothing about the Poti license and revoked it.

However, the Poti Municipality had previously reported that the agency had approved the terms of use and construction of a new multi-purpose terminal the north of the Poti sea port.

It seems that competing vested interest in Georgia are trying to torpedo their rivals’ projects in Poti and Anaklia respectively. In April, the country’s Minister for Regional Development and Infrastructure, Maia Tskitishvili, said that ADC urgently needed to meet key demands by the project’s main backers before they would commit.

Impression of a Anaklia deep water port from Anaklia Development Consortium

Source: WorldCargo News

Gdynia builds for the future

Poland’s second largest box port hopes to have built a new larger container-handling complex by 2027.

Port of Gdynia. (Picture Port of Gdynia Authority SA)

Speaking to WCN at Intermodal Asia 2019 in Shanghai, Jakub Koczara, manager of the marketing department, Port of Gdynia, stressed the need to expand and have facilities for handling mega ships deployed on Asia/Europe services. Currently, in Poland only DCT Gdansk has this capability.

The executive said: “Our external [offshore] port is needed as we do not have space to expand on our existing footprint near the city. Our plan is to build a four berth facility with a total wharf line of 2,500m that so that vessels of 400m+ with draughts of 16.5m can call. We envisage a throughput capacity of 2.5M TEU a year.”

However at an estimated development cost of €1.2B, it is something the port authority cannot do on its own. “We are looking for partners and we do not mind whether they are shipping lines, terminal operators or financial investors to help.”

In the meantime the port authority is dredging its existing fairway and container-handling facilities so that larger neo-panamax (14,000 TEU) ships can call. It is also electrifying and refurbishing about 7,000m of rail track in the western part of the port and developing new logistics and storage facilities on 150ha of land.

In 2018, Gdynia handled 803,871 TEU, up 14% on the previous year.

Source: WorldCargo News

Puerto Coronel claims electric "first"

Puerto Coronel says it is the first port in Chile to adopt lithium-ion battery FLTs

Puerto Coronel has acquired three e50L FLTs, with a lift capacity of 5 tonnes, from German manufacturer Kion, through its Chilean sales and service partner Linde High Lift. Javier Anwandter, the port’s general manager [in the centre of the picture on the left] says there are plans to double the fleet to six by the end this year. It will also test battery-powered 7 tonners from Linde in due course.

The port aims to double the fleet to six e50L FLTS by the end of this year

The e-trucks will be used for various handling duties in the port, mainly consolidating wood and pulp paper shipments and loading them in containers.

Linde e50L FLTs are equipped with lithium-ion batteries and, in normal operating conditions, the charge lasts up to 8 hours, with recharging taking no more than 3-hours, which is much faster than lead-acid batteries.

They are rated at 5 tonnes @ 500mm load centre and travel speed is 18 kph with or without load.

Source: WorldCargo News