More STS cranes arrive for Liverpool2

Three more ZPMC quayside container cranes have sailed up the River Mersey yesterday, destined for Peel Ports’ Liverpool2 container terminal, as part of the second phase of the Liverpool2 project

The cranes’ arrival follows a record-breaking October for Peel Ports’ container operations at the Port of Liverpool. Quayside and landside throughput in October exceeded all previous figures on record with year-on-year growth of 12%.

Mark Whitworth, Chief Executive Officer of Peel Ports, said: “An increasing number of businesses understands that it makes more sense to ship products closer to their end destinations. The investment we’ve made in these cranes and elsewhere at the port is crucial to providing us with the capacity to meet growing demand, especially with Liverpool handling record container volumes in October.”

The cranes arrived on ZHEN HUA 25 on 2 December. The vessel left Shanghai on 15 September and sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. Each crane weighs around 1600 tonnes.

The cranes can operate at speeds more than 30 moves per hour and facilitate 1,500 moves in each tidal window, says Peel Ports. They are capable of twin-pick and outreach of 24 containers up to 10 high on deck, and safe working loads of up to 85 tonnes (under hook). They can operate in wind speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88 kmph).

Peel Ports recently entered into an agreement with MSC affiliate TIL. The proposed joint venture involves the development of the Liverpool2 container terminal "and will enable Peel Ports to accelerate its ambitious growth plans."

Peel Ports is investing more than £100M in STS cranes and CRMGs from ZPMC for Liverpool2

Source: WorldCargo News

HHLA aims to become a climate neutral company by 2040

Chairwoman of the Executive Board, Angela Titzrath, said: “We will be further intensifying our sustainability efforts under our ‘Balanced Logistics’ brand"

Timed to coincide with the opening of the UN meeting on climate change starting today (2 December) in Madrid, Spain [COP 25], the HHLA statement said the aim is to make the entire HHLA group climate neutral by 2040, under the “Balanced Logistics” brand.

Angela Titzrath (pictured left), Chairwoman of HHLA’s Executive Board, said: “The people of Hamburg can rely on HHLA. We are well aware of our responsibility to protect the climate and that is why we are implementing specific measures for efficient and more sustainable container handling and environmentally friendly transport chains.

"Regardless of the dynamic that the climate protection debate has taken on recently, HHLA has been making a significant effort to increase the energy efficiency of its processes, conserve resources and consistently reduce emissions for many years now.

CTA's Li-ion battery AGVs are recharged off a "green" grid

Titzrath continued: “We understand ‘Balanced Logistics’ as finding a balance between economic success, good working conditions, social responsibility and environmental and climate protection."

HHLA states that it Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) became the first handling facility for containers in the world to be certified climate-neutral by TÜV Nord, in 2019. Operations at CTA are now primarily powered by green electricity. Terminal processes that still produce CO2 emissions today will be gradually electrified, or their transition to electrical power will be field-tested, states HHLA.

HHLA’s compensation measures for CO2 emissions include wind farms in India, low-friction anti-fouling paint for ship hulls and reforestation of rainforests in Panama. CTA’s CO2 footprint will be reviewed again by TÜV Nord next year.

HHLA has also developed "HHLA Pure," a product aimed at ensuring climate neutral transport chains from the port into the European hinterland. This product allows HHLA, the biggest operator in Europe’s biggest intermodal rail port, to involve it rail affilliate Metrans, which uses energy efficient electric trains and lightweight flat wagons, to transport more containers within the same train length.

Forwarding company Jakob Weets and transport logistics company Cargo-Partner are pilot customers for Metrans under the HHLA Pure umbrella. If, for example, handling and rail transport of a 20ft container from CTA to Prague, roughly 700 km away, generates a CO2 footprint of around 80 kg, this certified value can be compensated for by HHLA Pure.

“We review not only the economic value and benefit for our customers of every process optimisation and every new technical development, but also the sustainability aspect,” said Titzrath. “HHLA considers innovation and technical excellence to be key to fulfilling our responsibilities and developing sustainable solutions.”

Source: WorldCargo News

Autonomous trucks for Maasvlaktes' internal Container Exchange Route

The Container Exchange Route (CER) on the Rotterdam Maasvlaktes will be operated with transponder-guided autonomous trucks and chassis

The Container Exchange Route (CER) on the Rotterdam Maasvlaktes will get autonomous transport by truck trains, rather than multi-trailer train sets (MTS), as earlier proposed. MTS of up to 10 TEU using powerful drawbar tractors were a familiar site at ECT before automation was introduced.

A self-contained dual lane corridor with no public roadway access or egress, the CER will facilitate inter-terminal traffic between all container terminals, empty depots and distriparks at the MVI and MVII terminals. Transponder cut-outs have recently been bored in the road surface that had already been built.

Scheduled for completion in late 2020, the CER will total about 14 kms of paved roadway, including three viaducts measuring an aggregate 2 kms. Another 5.5 kms of on-dock dedicated track will run on the terminals connected.

This Port of Rotterdam authority graphic shows 6 TEU/3 FEU autonomous truck trains

“We don’t want to be overtaken by autonomous transport on the public road system and then establish that we’ve invested tens of millions of Euros in the wrong solution – meaning Multi Trailer Systems,” a port authority spokesman told WorldCargo News.

“It may be a while before unmanned container trucks will roll on the public roads in the Rotterdam port area on a large scale, but the CER is not a public road. There’s no other traffic, which makes the deployment of unmanned vehicles much more feasible. From external research we’ve learnt that autonomous transport on the CER is both technically possible and cheaper.

"The technique is developing so rapidly, that we’d be overtaken if we fail to make this move now. We’re convinced that autonomous transport will contribute considerably to efficient goods handling.”

"Robots don’t pay taxes and don’t buy goods," says the banner second line. (Photo: FNV Havens)

The spokesman added that the CER track had already been designed to accommodate any type of vehicle in terms of viaduct gradients, corner widths, etc. Also, the cable tracks in the shoulder were designed with sufficient extra capacity.

The spokesman declined to answer questions concerning equipment tendering or ordering, outside vendors for the autonomous transport segment, overall IT engineering and project coordination. The CER is budgeted at €175M, with €75M from the port authority and an estimated €100M from the terminal operators.

The CER project aspires to enable the entire Maasvlakte container sector to operate as one single facility, freely moving container as inter-terminal traffic to and from inland barges and trains. It aims to reduce, and ideally replace, terminal hopping and simultaneously increase call sizes, especially so for inland barges.

The Port of Rotterdam estimates that the CER will deliver an additional 1M containers annually, but this may be an underestimate. Earlier this year, the CEO of Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG), Ronald Lugthart, told WorldCargo News that it could eventually draw 2M to 3M TEU a year from the Hamburg-Le Havre range ports, including those in the UK.

The port authority’s decision in favour of unmanned transport has not gone down well with the leading transport union, FNV Havens, as it eliminates the prospect of 100 MTS driver jobs. Rotterdam dockers have already demonstrated against this outside the port authority’s offices - see the picture above.

Sticking to the MTS concept would have come in handy, now that Steinweg may have alternative work for a maximum 50 of the 200 staff at Uniport, the city centre terminal it is closing down. Negotiations for a social plan for the 150 remaining staff started on 26th November.

Latest graphic from Rotterdam Port authority showing the entire CER

Source: WorldCargo News