Front Cover May - WorldCargo News Online

WorldCargo
MAY 2003
news
Bubenzer launches spreader
Bubenzer Bremsen has released
further details of its crane spreader
design, having earlier announced
its intention to enter the market
this year (see WorldCargo News
March 2003, p1). Bubenzer Systems
has two telescopic spreader
designs ready: a ship-to-shore
crane single lift, 20-40-45 ft model
designated BSS 20-45 F; and an
RTG/RMG 20-40ft version designated
BSG 20-40. The first quay
crane spreader will reportedly go
to an Italian customer in September
this year.
Bubenzer sees room in the market
for a spreader that requires significantly
less maintenance and
causes less downtime. Its design has
no hydraulics, with telescoping,
flippers and twistlocks all powered
by electric drives (twistlocks can be
operated manually in emergencies).
Bubenzer is pitching its all-electric spreader at high speed quay crane applications
Bubenzer says that the electric
drive system has not compromised
operational speeds - telescoping
from 20–40ft takes 22 secs and
flipper up/down movement 5-6
secs regardless of whether one or
two flippers are used or all four
simultaneously. The flipper drives
feature an overload clutch and
continuous motor power. The
Hunterston hub study
Clydeport plc, which was acquired
by Peel Holdings last year,
has announced a full environmental
study by Halcrow Group
Ltd for its proposed container
transhipment terminal at
Hunterston in the UK (see World-
Cargo News, January 2003, pp24-
25). Work is already underway on
the comprehensive scoping study
and the results are expected to be
available in June.
“The environment is a hot
topic in port developments
throughout the world and the fact
that we are having this study carried
out at such an early stage
shows our high level of commitment
to the environment and the
construction of the proposed
Hunterston container terminal,”
remarked Bill Burns, the Scottish
managing director of Clydeport’s
Hunterston Container Hub
Company Ltd who was formerly
commercial director of Salalah
Port Services in Oman.
RTG/RMG design is fitted with
gather guides rather than flippers,
mounted with an “easy change”
system.
The all-electric design, says
Bubenzer, eliminates oil leaks, reduces
energy costs and extends
maintenance intervals. The only
lubrication necessary is to the
twistlocks and an automatic greasing
system is fitted. All twistlocks
are bearing-free and mounted
with a “quick change system” for
replacing the pin without any special
tools. To reduce wear and
noise, shock absorbing systems
have been incorporated at the end
beams as well as inside the telescoping
mechanism.
The double girder structure is
made of heavy reinforced steel and
the quay crane version weighs
around 10.2 tonnes while the
RTG/RMG version weighs 7.2
tonnes. Bubenzer says this is actually
lightweight for a spreader in
the H2B4 design class under
DIN15018 where minimum fatigue
life is 2 million cycles. A
twinlift spreader is currently under
development and is expected
to be launched around the end of
the year.
Bill Burns is confident that Hunterston
can play a major hub port rôle
“Sustainable development and
sound environmental practice are
central to the successful realisation
of Clydeport’s objectives at
Hunterston,” added Halcrow’s
environmental manager Martin
Cole. Halcrow’s study, said Cole,
will initially focus on the identification
and resolution of strategic
environmental issues that will
help Clydeport to achieve a facility
which is both environmentally
sound and conforms to European
current best practice.
The Hunterston project is
seven months into a year-long
consultation period. If given the
go-ahead, the terminal will be
aimed at serving major trade
routes to Europe and Asia and include
transatlantic crossings. The
plans envisage Hunterston acting
as a port for all of the UK and
northern Europe - relay as well
as transhipment and UK origin/
destination traffic.
As previously reported,
Hunterston, a leading coal import
terminal, has the natural advantage
of having one of the deepest
sea entrance channels in northern
Europe adjacent to a
brownfield site. It does not need
to be dredged on an annual basis
and is flexible enough to cope
with the continued increase in
the size of container vessels.
It has planning safeguards for
future port development dependent
on deep draft access. The rail
link is used for coal traffic and
container trains would be little
affected by passenger trains.
Kalmar cranes
for Antwerp?
There are reports that an order for
10 superpost-Panamax cranes for
Antwerp’s Delwaidedok, slated to
be MSC’s “home” terminal in the
port, is likely to be awarded to
Kalmar Industries bv (ex-Nelcon)
in Rotterdam. The company is already
believed to have landed an
order for one crane for Antwerp,
from P&O Ports.
Should Hessenoordnatie and
MSC finally ratify the Delwaidedok
deal with the Antwerp port
authority, a third rail will be laid
at 100ft centres in order to keep
the weight of the cranes within
acceptable limits.
It is not known whether the
cranes would be of the traditional,
“bespoke” Nelcon design, as previously
supplied successfully to
Hessenatie and Noordnatie (and
most recently again to Eurokai in
Hamburg), or of the less expensive,
modular Unitype design, as
supplied to Uniport Rotterdam
and on order from the Port of
Rouen.
The order would be a major
coup for Kalmar, which has
EC acts
on ILUs
The European Commission (EC)
has raised a few eyebrows in the
container shipping industry with
the publication last month of a
proposed new Directive on Intermodal
Loading Units (ILUs) as
part of a new programme to promote
short sea shipping in Europe.
The proposed Directive is designed
to harmonise certain features
of ILUs (defined as containers
and swap bodies) in order to
facilitate interoperability and promote
greater use of intermodal
transport. More controversially, the
proposed Directive defines a new
European Intermodal Loading
Unit (EILU), optimised for the
transport of metric pallets and
combining the advantages of containers
and swap bodies. Curiously,
however, its use is not to be made
mandatory.
Critics point out that the dimensions
of the proposed EILU,
which are oriented towards current
swap body sizes, will inevitably
make it incompatible with the
ISO container system and that the
Commission has totally overlooked
the possibility of road-legal
45ft containers being adopted
as the European ILU of choice.
(For full details see page 45).
Nelcon lattice boom crane handling
MSC’s 16-wide FLAMINIA at Europa
tidal terminal on Antwerp’s right bank
farmed out crane fabrication in
Rotterdam to Hollandia in an effort
to get costs down (see
WorldCargo News, March 2003,
p3), but the company is thought
likely to walk away from any deal
if the price demanded by HNN/
PSA is too low. ZPMC is believed
to be still in the hunt for this deal.
The specifications in terms of
size and performance characteristics
are believed to be similar to
those set for the planned, but now
aborted, HNN-MSC joint venture
on the left bank at Deurganckdok.
As previously reported in
WorldCargo News (February 2003,
p20), Hessenatie’s original Letter
of Intent (LoI) with Fantuzzi
group (Fantuzzi-Reggiane SpA)
for the cranes in 2000 (see
WorldCargo News, July 2000, p23)
expired. According to local reports
in Antwerp, Fantuzzi group declined
to rebid on the specifications
in the LoI.
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
80 tonne SWL box cranes 4
Canadian Arctic port? 13
SRA under new fire 16
Navis into depots 22
BENELUX REVIEW
Unease in Antwerp 25
Maasvlakte II variant 27
Praxis makes perfect? 30
PORT DEVELOPMENT
DPA spreads its wings 32
TERMINAL OPERATIONS
Bandwidth questions 33
Getting IT right 34
CARGO HANDLING
Stopping brake problems 37
The crane power game 40
E-COMMERCE
A multi-channel approach 43
INTERMODAL
Towards EILUs 45
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Liner bags in demand 47
Box funding on the rise 51

WorldCargo
news
Gottwald piles it on
Gottwald Port Technology reports
that in the first four months of this
year it delivered 24 harbour mobile
cranes, including eight 4-rope
grabbing cranes (‘G’ suffix), of
which one, for the Port of Zadar
in Croatia, has diesel-hydraulic
drive (HMK 60 HG model).
The supply record includes
three HMK 260 Es for PSO Iran
- one for Bandar Anzali and two
for Noshahr - and five HMK 300
Es for Italian operators - Porto di
Carrara (two), TFG Napoli (one)
and Terminal Intermodale Venezia
(two). Two HMK 300 Es went to
Hutchison’s Freeport, Bahamas
operation and the other one on
the list went to Soyak, Istanbul.
Two HMK 330 EGs went to
Brazil, to Rocha Top in Paranaguá
and to Loxus Graneis in Imbituba.
These cranes are the first of their
type anywhere in Latin America
although the two-rope equivalent
(ie HMK 300 E) is in service in
Brazil and Chile. The other HMK
330 EG went to Terminales
Marítimas in Santander, Spain.
A newly-delivered Gottwald HMK 280 E recently carried out the inaugural
lifts at PD Teesport’s £20 mill second container terminal (TCT2), handling
Far East origin containers for north British consignees feedered from Felixstowe
on Corus Shipping’s ELKE. TCT2 will be fully operational this autumn with
two new Liebherr widespan gantry cranes.
The cranes for Freeport have
twinlift Bromma spreaders (and
one spare spreader) and the tower
has been extended by 5m to allow
a better view over the ship.
Since the luffing cylinder is also
5m higher, the allowable deck
stack for working the outer row
of a Panamax ship is 6-high. The
cranes can handle any container
within a 13 x 5 lengthwise block
without having to be gantried.
The Freeport cranes were commissioned
in February, although
the order was finalised only in
November last year.
Alimak’s
new lift
Alimak, the leading manufacturer
in the container crane access lift
market, is introducing a new lift
concept, designated Alimak SE-L,
at the TOC 2003 exhibition in
Genoa next month.
Alimak states that the new series
is built on the same quality
standards as the Alimak SE-family,
but has been reengineered to
meet special challenging demands
of the shipping, port and terminal
industry. “The L-concept,” says
Alimak, “will be good news both
for the daily management of loading
and unloading as well as for
the customer’s finance management.”
By launching at TOC, continues
Allan Leth, manager for
Alimak’s division for container
crane access lifts, “we get first hand
impressions and immediate feedback
from our main target group.
It will be a nice reward for all the
hard work we put in developing
the L-concept.”
Over the past 2-3 years, Swedenbased
self-loading trailer (SLT)
maker Hammar Maskin AB has
enjoyed considerable success in
Malaysia and the company is consolidating
its position with the
establishment of a fully-owned local
company. More than 50
Hammar “sideloaders” have now
been sold into the Malaysian container
haulage market, and Hammar
wants to get closer to the market,
offering both local production and
after sales service under its own
name and administration.
As well as serving Malaysian
customers better, the new company
is intended to be Hammar’s
Asian region offices, says Anders
Hallberg, area manager for
Hammar, pointing out that AFTA,
the free trade treaty between the
ASEAN countries, is due to be
launched in January next year.
Hammar Maskin (M) Sdn Bhd
CARGO HANDLING
Hammar adds
in Malaysia
is headed up by Chris Joon, who
has been working with Hammar
sideloaders since 1996. The company
is based in Port Klang and
Joon is responsible for setting up
a new nationwide 24/7 maintenance
service. The value of spare
parts and component stocks held
by the new company, adds
Hallberg, has been increased to
more than MYR400,000 (>
E95,000), to ensure immediate
availability of any part and component
to customers, while
Hammar service technicians will
be providing a round-the-clock
call service.
This is the third Hammar
daughter company to be created
in the Australasia region, following
Hammar Australia in Sydney
in 1995, run by Peter Levison, and
Hammar New Zealand in Auckland
in 1995, run by Fred
Sandberg.
Chris Joon is heading up Hammar’s new Malaysian operation
MES consolidates
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding
Co (MES) has moved crane
production to the newly-established
Oita Steel Structure & Material
Handling Machinery Factory
at Oita in the north eastern part of
Kyushu. Previously steel structure
and material handling manufacture
was spread over facilities at Tamano,
Chiba and Oita.
In a statement MES said that
centralising production at Oita will
Dear Sir,
I refer to the front page item in
the March 2003 issue of
WorldCargo News about an apparent
microburst event, which
led to a crane collapse in
Surabaya. You stated that “it is
being surmised that there was a
failure in the crane’s braking system”
and that “cranes should
properly be able to withstand
them [microbursts].”
These statements are, I believe,
in error. I doubt that the
crane’s braking system failed
and, moreover, I doubt whether
any cranes are properly able to
withstand a high velocity
microburst with brakes
alone. Microbursts often have
generate savings and higher production
efficiency through a “product
mix production system” in
which big steel fabricated bridges
and container cranes (Paceco
Portainers and Transtainers) are
manufactured on the same production
line in a huge factory building.
Around 90 personnel have been
shifted from Tamano to Oita, which
has been given an annual sales target
of ¥13 bill.
Wind speed issues
wind speeds of ≥70 mph I have
not heard of a crane with the
ability to hold itself with brakes
alone in a 70 mph wind. Therefore,
the statements are likely to
foster a false attitude about a
crane’s braking system.
I am belatedly attaching my
recent paper at the AAPH seminar
in Oakland, California, on
crane risks in microburst phenomena
and damage prevention
considerations
Sincerely
Tom Simmons
Independent port consultant,
Gulfport, Miss, USA
Editor’s note: See p37
2
May 2003

CARGO HANDLING
Liebherr lands a Hook in NY
Ireland-based Liebherr Container Cranes
has secured an order for four superpost-
Panamax container cranes (18-wide deck
stow on a 50m outreach) for Howland
Hook Container Terminal in New York,
part of OOCL’s Container Leasing and
Terminals arm in North America, which
also includes Global in New York,
LBCTI in Long Beach and TSI and
Vanterm in Vancouver, BC).
The cranes, which will be fitted with
Liebherr’s latest dc Digivert drive controls
and Winscan crane management system,
have a rail span of 30.48m,
backreach of 25m and lift height above
rail of 36.57m. SWL is 65 long tons (LT)
with separating centre twinlift spreader.
The supplier of the spreaders is still to
be nominated. Hoist speed is 53 m/min
with 65 LT, 68 m/min with 50 LT and
170 m/min with empty spreader. Trolley
speed is 240 m/min and long travel
46 m/min, with 5 mins for boom hoist.
The cranes will be shipped part-big from
Ireland and should be handed over in July
and August next year (two each month).
At the start of this year Liebherr finalised
a contract with Point Lisas Industrial
Port Development Corporation
Ltd (PLIPDECO) in Trinidad for one
superpost-Panamax container crane,
rated at 50 tonnes under twinlift spreader
and 58 tonnes under hook beam. Waterside
outreach is 47m (17-wide deck
stow), rail span is 23.5m and backreach
12m. Lift height under spreader is 34m/
15.2m above and below rail.
These cranes will also be fitted with
Liebherr’s dc Digivert drive controls and
its Winscan crane management system.
Hoist speeds are 70/175 m/min for rated
load and empty spreader respectively, with
240 m/min for the trolley and 46 m/min
for the long travel. Liebherr already has
one container crane reference in Trinidad
& Tobago - a 50 LT Panamax crane
supplied to PATT’s Port of Spain in 2000.
Liebherr has also been busy commissioning
several projects and has just
handed over a 55 tonne-51m (18-wide)
superpost-Panamax crane to Liscont in
Lisbon, marking its eighth post-Panamax
crane for a company associated with
Eurogate in just two years. Four cranes
have been operational at Medcenter, Gioia
Tauro since late 2000 and three are currently
being installed at LSCT, La Spezia.
A 40 tonne-35m ship-to-shore gantry
crane and a 7+1, 1 over 5 RTG-8, the
latter fitted with Liebherr’s own automated
steering system and Liebherr ac
drive controls (Liebherr’s third RTG with
ac controls), were recently handed over
to DFT Dublin. Other recent deliveries
include four 40.6 tonne, 7+1, 1 over 5
RTG-16s with Liebherr dc drive controls
to Gulftainer for its operation at
Sharjah Container Terminal, UAE.
Last December Liebherr handed over
its first ship-to-shore container crane in
the Ukraine, a 40tonne-40m (14-wide)
unit for Odessa Commercial Seaport, an
existing customer for harbour mobile
cranes from Liebherr-Werk Nenzing. The
gantry crane has a lift height of 29m/13m
above and below rail and is again fitted
with Liebherr’s own dc Digivert drive
controls and Winscan CMS.
The company is currently working
on two 40 tonne-35m (waterside)-48m-
17.5m widespan gantry cranes, with a lift
height of 24m above rail for PD Teesport
in the UK, similar to the one installed in
Waterford last year and the one currently
being installed at Containerships’ facility
in Helsinki.
WorldCargo
news
US ports take Eagle
Following the earlier announcement of
a contract worth over US$40 mill,
placed by the US Customs for the supply
of its mobile Eagle X-ray scanning
machines (see WorldCargo News February
2003, p37), US cargo surveillance
specialist ARACOR has confirmed the
imminent delivery of the first two units.
One is going to the port of New
York/New Jersey and the second to Los
Angeles, with both scheduled to be
brought into service within a few
months. These will join a test machine
that has been in operation in Miami
for some time, and are amongst the first
of their type to be deployed commercially
within the US.
The contract between ARACOR
and US Customs is due to run for five
years (until 2007) and is likely to involve
the delivery of numerous Eagle
machines, as well as the provision by
ARACOR of comprehensive technical
support.
Mounted on a straddle carrier, the
Eagle is fully transferable under its own
power and utilises a medium strength
6MeV X-ray source to check containers
for concealed narcotics, contraband,
weapons and explosives.
Airtrax in
FiLCO deal?
It is reported that Airtrax, Inc, the USbased
designer of omni-directional
“Sidewinder” FLTs (see WorldCargo News,
October 2002, p29), is negotiating a stake
in FiLCO GmbH. The latter is a special
vehicle of the Filipov family, which took
over the bankrupt Clark Material Handling
GmbH from the German receivers
last month, after a proposed deal with Korea-based
Young An Hat Company, which
had already bought Clark Materials Handling
Company in the US (see WorldCargo
News, February 2003, p3), fell through
when it was rejected by the company’s
employees.
Airtrax president Peter Amico said that
if the deal went through Airtrax intended
to produce its innovative ATX-
Sidewinder omni-directional FLT at the
German plant. “This arrangement could
help transform Airtrax into a global player
virtually overnight,” he said.
Fil Filipov, who heads FiLCO, is currently
president of Terex Cranes. At one
time, Clark was a German dealer for
PPM-built reach stackers, now also owned
by Terex, which is also a former owner of
Clark (up to 1996). Filipov himself ran
Clark Material Handling in Europe for
two years. However, Filipov has stressed
that FiLCO is completely separate from
and has nothing to do with Terex Corporation
or Terex Cranes.
In another development, Clark Material
Handling GmbH’s spare parts business,
Clark Central Parts, has been acquired
by Belgium-based TVH Forklift
Parts. A TVH statement said the agreement
included the sale of the spare parts
business, intellectual property and existing
stock of parts for old and new FLTs.
May 2003 3

WorldCargo
news
Pandora opens the box
Working on a commission from the
Home Office’s Immigration and
Nationality Directorate, Roke
Manor Research, Siemens’ UKbased
research and development
arm, has developed a new technology
to combat smuggling of illegal
immigrants through UK ports.
Known as Pandora, the detection
system displays the presence
of people concealed in vehicles as
they are driven through it. The
technology is entirely “passive,”
with no energy transmitted, so it
is completely safe to individuals
passing through it. A prototype has
been successfully tested at the
French port of Calais.
Vehicles such as trailers or containers
are scanned from the side
as they drive at normal speed
through the Pandora device without
causing any delay to traffic entering
or leaving the port. A colour
or black and white image,
similar to that of an airport X-ray
hand luggage scanner, is displayed
to the Pandora operator, who
alerts security staff to stop and
search any suspect vehicle.
According to Martin Harman,
senior project manager at Roke
WorldCargo
news
VOLUME 10 NUMBER 5 • ISSN 1355-0551
EDITORIAL:
CHRIS MUNFORD • PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
E-Mail: cmunford@worldcargonews.com
VINCENT CHAMPION • EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
E-Mail: vchampion@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: speskett@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: mforder@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: scatchpole@worldcargonews.com
ADMINISTRATION & CIRCULATION:
GILL TILBURY • SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR
E-Mail: gtilbury@worldcargonews.com
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E-Mail: nvigorito@worldcargonews.com
CORRESPONDENTS:
PAUL AVERY (ASIA)
DALE CRISP (AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND)
FRANCO CORBELLINI (FRANCE)
ITALY AGENT:
PAOLA ANDREANI, EDICONSULT INTERNAZIONALE
Telephone: +39 010 583 684 Fax: +39 010 566 578
E-Mail: genova@ediconsult.com
The Pandora detection system has been successfully tested at the port of Calais
Manor Research, “ We have combined
our expertise in advanced
software design, mechanical and
electronic engineering to develop
this passive detection system in a
short timescale. We designed a prototype
for the Home Office in
August of last year and now we have
produced two Pandora systems, taking
about four months to design
and build them, with acceptance
trials completed in March.”
Recent figures released by the
Home Office show that the
number of people seeking asylum
in the UK rose to 86,000 in 2002.
As a measure to tackle the widespread
abuse of the asylum system,
the UK’s borders are being further
strengthened by cutting-edge
technology aimed at helping to
detect illegal immigrants.
In the future, Pandora technology
could be deployed not only
for border and immigration control,
but for much wider applications,
such as a security device for
monitoring trucks arriving at large
events like the Olympic Games or
for screening deliveries to sensitive
locations such as military bases
and government establishments. It
could also be used to detect drugs
and contraband.
Corrigendum
We regret that lack of clarity of
expression led to some confusion
in our last article on RTGs (March
2003, pp30-31).
For the record, Kalmar has fitted
its Smartrail auto-steering and
position determination system to
all the RTGs in Jebel Ali, including
the six units supplied last year
by Liebherr. To date, 46 RTGs in
Jebel Ali have been fitted on site
with Smartrail by Kalmar under
the terms of an agreement with
Dubai Ports Authority reached in
2000 (see WorldCargo News, September
2000, p1).
We would also like to point
out that to date, Kalmar has supplied
five RTGs with Smartrail to
DFT Dublin. The article mentioned
only the three supplied in
1999. The two supplied last year
were in fact logged in WorldCargo
News’ last RTG market survey
(October 2002, p35).
ZPMC’s 80 tonne
container gantries...
ZPMC has received an order from
Dubai Ports Authority (DPA) for
four superpost-Panamax cranes
with a rated load SWL of 80
tonnes, a record to date for any
container crane, equating to 115
tonnes on the ropes.
It is clear that DPA is looking
down the road to double twin 20
capability (ie 4 TEU/2 FEU), taking
advantage of new spreader
technology which is becoming
available from companies such as
Bromma or Stinis (viz: Bromma’s
telescopic version of Tandem or
Scissorslift from Stinis).
The deal is part of a new con-
tract placed with ZPMC by DPA
for a total of eight container cranes
(the other four are rated at 60
tonnes SWL for twinlift or 50
tonnes for single lift) and 12 RTGs.
All the electrotechnical installations
for these cranes and RTGs,
slated for delivery in the early part
of next year, are coming from Siemens
Netherlands, whose order
from ZPMC is worth almost €10
mill. This includes Siemens’ latest
Touchmatic semi-automated drive
control system for the quay cranes.
The lift capacity for the 80 tonne
cranes, says Siemens, equates to
almost 2 megawatts.
Ican of Japan has relocated two Panamax container cranes from Nagoya to
Vishakapatnam in India. One is an A-frame Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’
design, while the other was built by NKK. Both are around 20 years old and
equipped with crane OEM spreaders. Before shipping, Ican carried out two
major modifications to the cranes. The sill beams and lower legs were modified
to increase the span from 17m to 20m and the drive systems were adapted
from a 60Hz power supply to 50Hz which required new dc inverters. The cabs
were also upgraded. The cranes were loaded onto NYK Hinode’s SEA BARON
at Nagoya in mid-March and arrived in Vishakapatnam early in April
New port for Brunei?
Brunei is considering building a
new container port as part of a bid
to attract new industries and reduce
the economy’s reliance on
oil and gas.
The government has hired the
UK’s Halcrow Group to study
whether a port could be built on
the island of Pulau Muara Besar,
which could attract major shipping
lines as customers.
“Within South East Asia, there
is certainly demand for more
berths,” said Richard Clarke, director
for ports and dockyards of
the Halcrow Group. “The question
is whether Brunei would be
the right place.”
Brunei is aiming to attract
US$4.5 bill in investments by
2008 following a fall in per-capita
income of more than 40 per cent
between 1981 and 2001 because
of a drop in prices for oil and gas,
which account for more than 90
per cent of the country’s exports.
If it gets the green light, the
new port would be 20 km north
of Bandar Seri Begawan, close to
the existing Muara Container Terminal,
which is operated by Singapore
port operator PSA Corp.
CARGO HANDLING/PORT NEWS
...just a
touch for
HIT cranes
Hutchison’s Hongkong International
Terminals (HIT) arm in
Hong Kong is now working with
Siemens’ Hipac Touchmatic semiautomation
system, with touchscreen
controls, on two recentlydelivered
superpost-Panamax
cranes from ZPMC at Berth 10,
Terminal 7, Kwai Chung.
At the time of writing, the system
was being phased in and the
drivers were on manual for “trolley
out” but can use Touchmatic
for “trolley in” moves. In due
course, the system will go live on
a third ZPMC crane and it is being
installed on a similarly-proportioned
Hyundai-Paceco Portainer,
both on the same berth as the first
two cranes.
HIT’s technical manager C K
Cheng remarks that Touchmatic
is expected to boost the productivity
of inexperienced drivers. In
addition, its experienced and
skilled drivers have the option of
turning on Touchmatic if they feel
they are starting to tire during
their shift.
HIT believes that the good
driver will always beat automation
when he is working at or near his
peak, but if he tires or flags towards
the end of the shift then
Touchmatic becomes a useful tool
to help him. Crane shifts at HIT
are very intensive and the benchmark
for a skilled operator is 30
moves/crane hour averaged over
the whole shift.
As previously reported in
WorldCargo News, the first
Touchmatic installation is at
Eurokai, Hamburg, on a (pre-
Kalmar) Nelcon post-Panamax
crane. In addition to this and the
HIT contract, the system is installed
on three Krupp cable cranes employed
in a civil engineering project
in Turkey. Pendulation length in this
case is 218m and trolley travel over
a river gorge is 608m.
Siemens is understood to have
taken orders for 12 more systems
for use on port cranes - for 11
ZPMC container cranes for Dubai
Ports Authority (eight) and the
Port of Beirut (three) and for a
vintage Krupp gantry grab
unloader at the Port of Ghent in
Belgium, which is being modernised
and refurbished.
JAPAN AGENT:
HIDEO NAKAYAMA, NAKAYAMA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL INC.
Telephone: +81 3 3479 6131 Fax: +81 3 3479 6130
E-Mail: nmi@tka.att.ne.jp
KOREA AGENT
JO, YOUNG-SANG, BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Telephone: +82 2 739 7840 Fax: +82 2 732 3662
E-Mail: biscom@unitel.co.kr
SPAIN AGENT
ANDREW DOUGALL, COMUNICADO SL
Telephone: +34 942 52 86 62 Fax: +34 942 52 86 77
E-Mail: andrewdougall@comunicadopublishing.com
PUBLISHED BY WCN PUBLISHING
Northbank House, 5 Bridge Street, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8BL,
England. Telephone: +44 1372 375511 Fax: +44 1372 370111
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4
May 2003

PORT NEWS
Row rumbling on
in Chittagong
Mohiuddin Chowdhury, mayor of
Chittagong City Corporation, has signalled
his opposition to the new container
terminal planned by Stevedoring Services
of America (SSA). The so-called
Patenga Container terminal project has
been mired in political controversy for
several years (for last report see WorldCargo
News, June 2002, p13).
Chowdhury says that he is not opposed
in principle to the creation of a
private sector container terminal in the
city, although he would not support such
a facility on the Karnaphuli River estuary.
“We opposed the [SSA] proposal...
because it tried to establish a huge container
port and terminal at the very entrance
to the river Karnaphuli” and would
make the established container handling
facility in Chittagong Port “completely
dysfunctional.”
He added that the Karnaphuli Channel
is extremely narrow and only navigable
for large vessels at high tide. “A private
port at the estuary will create various obstructions,
blocking the 10m channel,” he
insisted, expressing his belief that it would
also be a threat to the nearby military base
and the local international airport.
As an alternative, the mayor suggested
creating a container port outside the main
channel or even in the outer anchorage.
In fact, anywhere along the 25km
Sandwip Channel linking Patenga and
Shitakunda would be suitable, given the
ability to anchor up to 500 vessels there.
Furthermore, it would be cheap and easy
for the government to build suitable infrastructure
to link such a terminal to the
national roads network, he added.
The SSA proposal was for a terminal
to be established at Patenga on a 212-
acre site. This was approved by the government
in 1997, but subsequently frozen
by a High Court injunction. From
Patenga, 70 per cent of incoming containers
would be barged to a new inland
bonded terminal at Pangaon, near Dhaka.
A new terminal is needed to relieve
congestion at the established container
terminal in Chittagong, which boosted
throughput last year from 486,289 TEU
to 526,353 TEU. Within the port, a new
facility, the New Mooring Container Terminal,
is expected to be completed by
Schenker
in Trieste
Schenker, part of Stinnes Logistic (DB AG
group), has taken a concession on an 18.5
hectare parcel at the Port of Trieste’s Scalo
Lengami (Timber Terminal), with full
access to the 345m long quay, which has
a depth of 11m alongside. Most of the
terminal is occupied by warehouses and
distribution centres.
Schenker is aiming the terminal at
flows of forest products and other conventional/neo-bulk
moving between Asia
and Austria/southern Germany/central
and south eastern Europe), taking advantage
of improvements in rail and road connections
to the northern Adriatic port.
Schenker Italia argues that using
Trieste as a gateway will save up to 2000
n/m by sea to north Continent ports as
well as shorten the land miles compared
to moving cargo over the northern ports.
With road pricing set to be introduced
in Germany next year, this could be a significant
incentive to alter the logistic patterns
for shippers/consignees north of the
eastern Alpine arc.
Other concessionaires at Scalo
Legnami include timber importer and
trader Translignum (43,000 m 2 ) and general
freight forwarder and terminal operator
Pacorini (18,000 m 2 ). It is speculated
that Pacoroni wants to “swap” its
concession on Molo V for Schenker’s concession
at Scalo Legnami, in order to
“defragment” its operations in the port.
December 2005 (see WorldCargo News
October 2002, p5).
● US Customs officials will commence
pre-shipment security checks at Chittagong
Port as from the start of the new fiscal year.
Some 50,000 TEU/year pass through the
port en route for the US containing mostly
garments and frozen fish. In future, each of
these will have to be individually checked
as part of the US Container Security Initiative
(CSI) agreement.
Kuwait plans ahead
Proposals are under consideration to upgrade
facilities at Kuwait’s Shuwaikh and
Shuaiba container terminals to increase
handling capacity and reduce vessel turnaround
times. In addition, a refurbishment
programme for existing equipment may
be carried out.
Recent reviews have highlighted the
requirement to deepen the entrance
channel to Shuwaikh to allow larger vessels
to utilise the facility, says Kuwait Ports
Authority (KPA), which is also considering
transferring two harbour mobile
cranes to the container terminal from
another berth.
“The container terminals of Kuwait
must progress ahead of demand and the
momentum to expand and improve the
facilities, to ensure that both ports are in
a position to handle container traffic professionally
and productively, must be
maintained,” said Sheikh Dr Sabah Jaber
Al Sabah, KPA’s director and general
manager.
He noted that the two ports should
be viewed as serving not only Kuwait o/
d cargoes but also “our neighbouring
countries as well.” Hence, KPA has more
than half an eye on Iraqi reconstruction
cargo flows. Kuwait has already been
nominated by the UN as a point of entry
for humanitarian cargo destined for Iraq.
WorldCargo
news
KPA’s official spokesman Capt Tawfiq
added that geared vessels are to be allowed
to use more of the ports’ berths, while
additional berths for geared vessels and a
berth window booking system will be
operated at the dedicated container terminals.
Tawfiq categorically denied rumours
that Shuaiba will be closed to commercial
traffic.
At Iraq’s Umm Qasr port, meanwhile,
Bechtel has awarded a dredging contract
to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock to improve
vessel access and has seconded several
experts to SSA, which won the port
management contract (see last month’s
WorldCargo News, p4), to evaluate the condition
of the port’s grain elevator and
grain handling facilities and the power
needed for the port to operate (see also
this issue, p32).
May 2003 5

WorldCargo
news
CT9 takes shape
Although Hongkong International
Terminals (HIT) has spare
capacity of at least 1 mill TEU/
year at its 10 berths at Hong
Kong’s Kwai Chung container
port, it will officially commission
the first of its two berths at Container
Terminal 9 (CT9) in July.
The 350m berth, with a
draught of 15.5m will have an
annual handling capacity of
500,000 TEU and is the first addition
at Kwai Chung in eight
years. Three of the planned nine
superpost-Panamax quay cranes
for HIT’s two CT9 berths have
already been installed, while a further
two have just arrived at the
port. The latter Hyundai Heavy
units have an outreach of 63m and
a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes.
HIT managing director Eric Ip
said the new berth will be a welcome
addition. “It will enhance
overall operational efficiency, particularly
over the weekends when
all the berths are taken up and a
couple of ships have to wait a bit
for berthing,” he said.
HIT’s annual handling capac-
6
Two more HHI quay cranes arrived at HIT’s T9 facility last month
ity at its existing 10 berths is nearly
7.5 mill TEU, but it shifted only
5.67 mill TEU last year, up 5.6 per
cent over the 2001 figure. HIT accounted
for round 47 per cent of
the throughput at Kwai Chung,
where growth is expected to be
between 8 and 10 per cent this year.
Ip dismissed suggestions that it
would be uneconomical to operate
from two locations - CT9 is
located across the Rambler Channel
at Tsing Yi island - when
growth at the terminal is slow.
“The berth will be ready and
we are obliged to operate it. Over
the years the two new berths will
fill up anyway,” Ip told Worldcargo
News. The second, adjoining berth
will be ready at the end of 2004,
making the operation even more
efficient, he said.
Four berths at CT9 will be operated
by Modern Terminals Ltd
(MTL), which was originally allocated
two berths at CT9. MTL
will swap its two berths at CT8
(West) with Asia Container Terminals’
two allocated CT9 berths.
Port and Maritime Board secretary
Raymond Fan said the government
would decide on the location
of CT10 by the end of this
year. The move is in response to
property tycoon Gordon Wu’s
proposal to build a bridge linking
Hong Kong with Macau and
Zhuhai to bring cargo from factories
in the western part of the
Pearl River Delta in south China
to a new terminal to be constructed
at Lantau island.
“A couple of years ago we said
we would not need CT10 until
2010. But we have different data
now. I am not saying that we have
decided to bring construction
forward, just that we are revisiting
the matter,” Fan said.
Current operators at Kwai
Chung, including CSX World Terminals,
have opposed this idea, saying
Hong Kong would not need
new terminals until at least 2016.
“With additional capacity
from CT9 added over the next
two years, Kwai Chung will be
able to handle 19 mill TEU in
2005,” said Ip.
“Further investments in technology
would increase annual capacity
to 24 mill TEU by 2012.
Even if throughput grew at a
healthy five per cent, Hong Kong
would not need more capacity
until at least 2016,” he said.
Construction work on Pakistan’s
new deepwater port at Gwadar is
proceeding ahead of schedule, according
to Finance Minister
Shaukat Aziz.
Work on the US$248 mill first
phase of the port, which involves
the construction of three multipurpose
berths, began in March
last year and is scheduled for completion
in March 2005. China is
providing US$198 mill for the
project, about 460 km west of
Pakistan’s main southern port city
of Karachi and 120 km east of the
Iranian border.
Aziz said the Asian Development
Bank had agreed to build a
road from Gwadar to the Afghanistan
border. The coastal highway
from Karachi to Gwadar - which
is partly funded by the government
of Saudi Arabia - is also
moving ahead of schedule.
Pakistan is developing Gwadar
as a free port hub along the lines
of Jebel Ali in the UAE to help it
PORT NEWS
Work on Gwadar
ahead of schedule
boost trade with landlocked Afghanistan
and Central Asian states.
Pakistan has also acceded to a request
from the UAE to lease a
portion of land being developed
for building the port, which is also
slated to handle 30 bill m3 of natural
gas from Turkmenistan’s
Daulatabad gas field annually.
Pakistani officials hope the gas
project will improve the prospects
for building a parallel crude oil
pipeline and help upgrade road
and rail links along the route.
As reported in last month’s issue
of WorldCargo News (p4), the
Pakistan government has already
started negotiations with private
local and overseas port operators to
develop Phase 2 of Gwadar on a
BOT or BOO basis. Phase 2 - with
an estimated cost of US$524 mill -
involves the construction of 23
berths and includes two container
terminals, two dry bulk terminals,
two oil terminals, a ro-ro terminal
and a general cargo terminal.
Third for Port of
the Americas
ICTSI and construction and engineering
giant Fluor Daniel have
become the third party to file an
official proposal to qualify for the
bidding for the development and
operation of the Port of the
Americas at Ponce in Puerto Rico,
says PRIDCO’s executive director
Héctor Jiménez-Juarbe.
As previously reported (see
WorldCargo News October 2002,
pp27-28), requests were previously
received from PSA International
and from the Mainports PR Inc
consortium, which includes operators
in Rotterdam, CSX Lines
(and Maersk Sealand still?). These
two have already been qualified.
PRIDCO is aiming to issue its
formal RFP later this year and
award the port next year. Meantime
it is under pressure to drum
up more interest from other potential
operators. The project is in
the final process of obtaining environmental
permits and the business
plan and financial structure is being
finalised with the advice of
Moffatt & Nichol Engineers and
Goldman Sachs. It is hoped to begin
dredging the Ponce canal
(down to 16.5m) next January. It is
hoped to have phase 1 (US$124.4
mill infrastructure cost, 200-
300,000 TEU/year capacity) ready
early in 2005. On final build-out
(after phase 30 total capacity is
slated at 1.5 mill TEU/year.
PRIDCO has always maintained
that Port of the Americas is
viable even within the constraints
of Jones Act shipping, which effectively
rules it out as a transhipment
centre for US mainland o/d cargoes.
In a guarded statement,
Edgardo Torres-Caballero, a senior
official at the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, said that the Commonwealth’s
resident commissioner
at the US Congress, Hon Anibal
Acevedo-Vilá, “is committed to
bringing together Jones Act
stakeholders to work towards consensus
on how to make the Port of
the Americas most viable creating
thousands of...jobs for US citizens.
The commissioner believes the
economic stimulus from the port
development will increase cargo
along the US-Puerto Rico route,
which will benefit Jones Act shippers
directly.”
CICT sees action
Cagliari International Container
terminal (CICT), where Eurogate
company Contship Italia SpA recently
took majority control (see
WorldCargo News February 2003,
p5), has started to handle regular
transhipment traffic.
An inaugural call was recently
made by P&O Nedlloyd’s CHES-
APEAKE BAY, which is deployed in
the Famex service of the Grand
Alliance, offloading 500 containers
for reloading to feeder ships.
P&ON is expected to transfer all
its Grand Alliance transhipment
traffic (ie including Hapag-Lloyd,
NYK and OOCL) between North
America and the Eastern Mediterranean
to CICT from Contship
Italia’s Medcenter hub in Gioia
Tauro. Until the end of last year this
business was transhipped over
Malta. It is nor clear how the extra
East Med feedering costs over
Cagliari compared to Malta or
Gioia Tauro are being absorbed.
Maersk Sealand has also been
transloading some containers at
CICT which would normally be
handled at Gioia Tauro or
Algeciras, but it is not known how
“permanent” these calls will be.
Contship Italia’s takeover plan for
CICT envisages a throughput of
800,000 TEU/year by the end of
2005 and 100 more jobs.
As things stood, Contship Italia
took over the 71 per cent share in
CICT formerly held by the P&O
ports and GIP joint venture. However,
there are rumours that P&O
Nedlloyd was offered a minority
stake. No-one will confirm or
deny this so, if the stories are true,
it is also unclear whether the shares
would be from the 29 per cent
mainly owned by CASIC or from
Contship Italia. In any event, why
is P&ON prepared to call at CICT
under Consthip Italia’s control but
was not when the facility was run
by P&O Ports?
May 2003

PORT NEWS
Oakland enhances security
The Port of Oakland, California,
has awarded a US$4.75 mill maritime
security enhancement contract
to Florida-based ADT Security
Services Inc, a unit of Tyco
Fire & Security. Under the contract,
ADT will install an integrated
security system using advanced
technology to assist
Oakland’s overall security assessment
and improvement programme.
The contract is being
funded through a 2002 seaport
security grant award from the federal
Transportation Security Administration
(TSA).
The contract calls for automated
access control, video surveillance
and perimeter intrusion
detection, as well as an integrated
communications infrastructure.
The system design has already
been completed for two of the
marine terminals and installation
is scheduled to begin immediately.
“Maintaining the safety and security
of port workers and visitors
and the integrity of our seaport
operations are of paramount
Klaipeda
contract
Bremenports GmbH & Co KG
has been retained as consultants for
a 420m bulk cargo quay extension
at the Lithuanian port of
Klaipeda. This is Bremenports’ first
international consultancy deal
since it took over the activities of
the former Bremen Ports’ Authority
early last year, although BLG
Consult carried out some work
in Klaipeda last year and prior to
that BLG had a (short-lived) deal
with Klasco concerning Klaipeda
Container terminal.
“Our company can show the
experience of many decades in
planning and building of quays
and terminals,” remarked Bremenports’
director Jürgen Holtermann.
“This applies not only to aspects
of planning and civil engineering,
but also to strategic port development
from the view of terminal
operators and port enterprises.”
Lithuania is gearing up to become
a full member of the EU
and this, it is widely assumed, will
stimulate the country’s foreign
trade and thus benefit Klaipeda.
All of Oakland’s marine terminals will be equipped with the new security system
importance,” said Tay Yoshitani, the
port’s executive director.
Working with another Tyco
International unit, Earth Tech, Inc,
ADT engineered the communications
infrastructure primarily
through the use of proven
encrypted wireless technologies. A
wireless network eliminated the
need for 31 miles of trenching and
attendant interruptions of terminal
operations, thus saving millions of
dollars in labour and capital costs.
The new integrated security
management technology will
provide terminal operators for the
10 port terminals included in the
contract with firewalled, password-protected
command and
control capabilities through a
web-enabled remote management
system. This creates the ability
to share video and data with
the local, state and federal enforcement
agencies that have police
jurisdiction over the port.
SPR cooling off
in the Garden
Savannah Portside Refrigeration
Inc (SPR) has opened new refrigerated
warehouse space with
USDA meat inspection services at
the Garden City Terminal at the
Georgia Ports Authority (GPA)’s
Port of Savannah.
SPR is initially focusing on the
inbound meat trade from Australia
and New Zealand as well as exports
of US poultry and other meat
and foodstuffs worldwide. USDA
has issued a Grant of Inspection for
the facility and has an on-site inspector
for meat imports.
“Refrigerated containers
through the Port of Savannah have
increased by more than 15 per
cent over last year,” said GPA executive
director Doug J Marchand.
“With the resumption of cold
storage services and the opening
of this new facility, we expect to
see this segment of our container
business surge.”
Refrigerated cargo moving
through the Port of Savannah exceeded
40,000 TEU last year, with
exports comprising close to 85 per
cent of the total business,
Marchand noted.
The new facility at Garden
City Terminal has 40,000 ft 2 of ondock
cold storage with an additional
28,000 ft 2 available for future
expansion. For the most efficient
export refrigeration and
transit, SPR offers cross-docking,
storage and “blast freeze” services.
As an on-terminal facility, SPR
can handle 40ft, maximum weight
containers. “The advantage of this
new facility is its location,” said
Marchand. “With direct ship-toport
access on the Garden City
Terminal, clients are able to ship
more cargo in one container, thus
significantly reducing costs.”
Other improvements to GPA’s
refrigerated cargo business include
the recent purchase and installation
of 200 additional reefer plugs
on the terminal. The additional
access to electrical outlets will
greatly increase capacity for this
important cargo, Marchand noted.
A shot at
Luanda
International Container Terminal
Services Inc (ICTSI), APM Terminals
and three (still unnamed)
Angolan companies are competing
for the right to develop and
operate the port of Luanda for the
next 20 years. The port authority
(EPL) is expected to declare the
winner this July or August and
award the contract, which has possibilities
for renewal, by the end
of this year. The five contenders
submitted their final offers in
March, with ICTSI said to have
tendered around US$10 mill.
The terms of reference call for
establishing a local operating company,
in which the winner will
initially have a 50 per cent equity
stake. The balance will be divided
equally between an Angolan company
and a Brazilian group that
has been successfully conducting
business in the country over the
past 20 years.
Container throughput at
Luanda currently stands at
160,000 TEU/year, a figure projected
to grow by 10 per cent annually.
Angola’s economy is considered
to be strong as it has huge
reserves of oil , diamonds, gold and
other minerals.
The port also has the potential
to handle international cargoes for
landlocked Zaire and Zambia. But
its infrastructure will require substantial
rebuilding. The winning
bidder will also need to deploy
three quay cranes and eight RTGs
under Phase I. At present, containers
discharged by geared vessels are
stacked randomly in the container
yard by two independent operators
using reach stackers.
“We estimate completion in
approximately 3-4 years, at which
time capacity will be around
300,000 TEU/year. Expansion of
the container yard will be offdock,”
said an ICTSI spokeswoman,
adding that ICTSI has no security
concerns since the current government
is “very stable and focused on
rebuilding the country.”
ICTSI, which is poised to take
over Baltic Container Terminal in
Gdynia shortly (see WorldCargo
News, March 2003, p4) has confirmed
that it is also targeting the
Port of Beirut in Lebanon as well
as ports in Kenya. No details have
been made available.
WorldCargo
news
ATI defends its corner
Asian Terminals Inc (ATI) has dismissed
suggestions of any irregularity
in the operation of its new
domestic passenger/cargo terminal
at Manila South Harbor, which
up to now has serviced only international
shipping traffic.
The terminal, named after
President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo’s late mother, started operations
in January. However, it
continues to receive “a lot of flak”
because it now caters exclusively
to the Aboitiz Transport Group,
whose owners are known to be
Arroyo’s close political allies. ATI
said other shipping lines would be
welcome to use the facility. At
present, however, the terminal’s
Pier 15 has only enough berths
for Aboitiz vessels.
ATI also defended the Philippine
Ports Authority (PPA)’s
decision to charge its investments
in the project (at least Pesos700
mill so far) against the US$300
All-weather Kokkola
The Port of Kokkola on Finland’s
west coast is to build its first allweather
terminal (AWT), with
completion slated for autumn next
year. The multi-purpose facility is
expected to cater mainly for timber
products as well as the metals
trade, or indeed any product that
needs extra care and protection
from weather damage.
The port’s marketing director
Torbjorn Witting notes that Finnish
sawmills are producing more
specialty, value-added timber
products and the AWT will help
avoid the need for special packaging
and shipping delays due to
bad weather.
mill that it is obliged to spend over
a 10-year period to modernise the
South Harbor complex. “No such
restriction in our contract,’ an ATI
spokeswoman said.
The controversy is not expected
to die down easily. Critics
claim that PPA officials have virtually
shelved the modernisation
programme for the North Harbor,
the Port of Manila’s main domestic
terminal, because they want to
protect ATI’s latest project.
Meanwhile, container traffic at
the ATI-managed Manila South
Harbor terminal rose by just 4 per
cent in 2002 to 614,309 TEU,
compared with the 11 per cent
growth achieved by rival ICTSI
at Manila International Container
Terminal, which handled 1.04 mill
TEU. Of the ATl figure, 320,633
TEU or slightly more than half
consisted of imports. The rest were
export containers, of which 80 per
cent were empties.
Kokkola’s all-weather terminal will be
the first in the Nordic region
The AWT is claimed to be the
first in the whole of the Nordic
region and the design seems more
akin to the Waterland AWTs in
Amsterdam (see WorldCargo News,
September 2002, p6) than the
Gevelco design in Rotterdam (see
WorldCargo News, May 2002, p28).
The Kokkola AWT will be
able to cater for ships up to 9600
dwt with a storage capacity of
24,000 m 2 and another 70,000 m 2
immediately behind it. It will have
road and rail access and be worked
by an overhead gantry crane.
May 2003 9

WorldCargo
news
PORT NEWS
HK operators dismiss
Shenzhen challenge
Hong Kong container terminal operators are not
worried by plans to build two new ports at Dachan
Bay and Nansha in the Pearl River Delta across the
border in south China.
The Dachan project is being spearheaded by
Modern Terminals Ltd (MTL), the second-largest
operator at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung container
port, which has flagged its interest to take a majority
stake in the facility (see WorldCargo News April
2003, p4). If approved, the first phase, to be completed
by 2010, will have five berths built at a cost
of Yuan7 bill (US$845 mill). It will be located near
existing terminals at Shekou and Chiwan in western
Shenzhen.
Shenzhen seeks
dredge approval
Hong Kong is considering a request from authorities
in Shenzhen in south China for approval to
dredge the 20 km-long Tonggu channel to improve
access to container terminals at Chiwan and Shekou
in western Shenzhen.
This is the first time a Chinese entity has sought
such consent for a cross-border project. The
Shenzhen Port Tonggu Channel Development Office
will appoint a consultant to assess the project’s
impact on the marine environment in Hong Kong
waters. Shenzhen authorities hope to meet all requirements
and start dredging this year for completion
in 2005.
The Tonggu channel runs from the mouth of
Shenzhen Bay to waters south west of Lantau Island.
It is 20.2 km long, of which about 4.5 km are
in Hong Kong waters. The channel is considered
vital to the expansion of ports at Chiwan, Mawan
and Shekou as well as to the building of a new container
port at Dachan Bay.
The western Shenzhen ports, which have 85
berths, processed 56 mill tonnes of cargo last year.
They are hampered by the existing channel, however,
which is too shallow for large cargo ships. Vessels
heading to Shekou now sail through Hong
Kong’s Ma Wan channel and seas off north Lantau,
which are buffeted by strong tidal currents.
To overcome the physical limits and pave the
way for further port development, the Shenzhen
authorities proposed the Tonggu channel in the early
1990s. Under the plan, the channel would be
dredged to 13.5m initially, 15.7m by 2008 and 17m
at a later stage.
But the plan has encountered several obstacles
since it was first proposed. The project was a priority
of the Hong Kong and Mainland Co-ordination
Committee of Large Infrastructure Projects in
the mid-1990s, but became bogged down when the
Sino-British relationship soured in the lead-up to
the handover of Hong Kong.
Despite consensus on the need for the navigation
channel, the committee failed to reach agreement
on any aspect of the project. At one stage, it
seemed to be on a fast track when Hong Kong’s
Civil Engineering Department sought HK$50 mill
(US$6.41 mill) from the legislature in 1996 to study
its impact on the environment and traffic.
But that report was never released after its completion
in 1998. A departmental source said the report
was left “idle” because the project had been
suspended.
PSA results
PSA Corporation has posted its financial results for
calendar 2002. Turnover rose 29.5 per cent to
Sing$2960 mill, but pre-tax profit fell 31.7 per cent
to Sing$690.9 mill due mainly to lower revenues in
Singapore, where PSA has been forced to cut tariffs
and charges by competitive pressures from Tanjung
Pelepas, and to problems at Aden (see also p32).
Total container traffic handled by PSA came to
24.5 mill TEU, of which 16.5 mill TEU was in Singapore
(+8 per cent). The more than doubling of
overseas traffic to 7.8 mill TEU was due mainly to
the acquisition of Hessenoordnatie (HNN), whose
traffic kicked into PSA’s figures from April 2002.
Last year was also the first full year of PSA’s joint
venture operation in Guangzhou, which started up
in July 2001.
● PSA’s Tanjong Pagar terminal in Singapore has
received its first call from OOCL SHENZHEN, which is
touted to be the containership with the world’s largest
declared capacity - 8063 TEU.
10
Separately, Guangzhou authorities have received
the green light to build a terminal at Nansha in the
western part of the delta (see WorldCargo News April
2003, p9). Its four-berth first phase, costing Yuan10
bill (US$1.21 mill) will be built on Longxue island
south of Nansha and will be completed by September
next year.
“Nansha port is not comparable to Kwai Chung
in terms of water depth and facilities, and therefore
may not be positioned as direct rival to Hong Kong,”
said MTL managing director Erik Christensen. “Expected
continued growth in south China through-
put volumes will be able to cater for several ports in
the region,” he said.
“Nansha is not going to make any difference at
all to Hong Kong because it is in shallow river waters
prone to silting. They would have to dredge the
approach channel forever,” said Alan Lee, managing
director of CSX World Terminals, which operates
Berth 3 at Kwai Chung.
“Dachan Bay could be taken a bit more seriously,
but it is too far in the future to worry about
now,” he added.
According to Christensen, the Shenzhen municipal
government has basically agreed to a “trigger point
mechanism” for developing new terminal capacity,
taking into consideration terminal capacity in Hong
Kong and Shenzhen. “By having MTL as an investor
in Dachan Bay, there will be optimal collaboration
and coordination of capacity development between
Shenzhen and Hong Kong,” he said.
In any case, added Lee, it would be impossible
for the three existing terminals at Shenzhen - Yantian,
Shekou and Chiwan - to continue to record 50 per
cent growth forever. “The growth rate is high now
because the base figure is low. We have seen it in
Hong Kong too,” he said.
Last year, combined throughput at the three
Shenzhen terminals was 7.61 mill TEU, up 50 per
cent over the 2001 figure but still some way behind
the 19.1 mill TEU (up 7 per cent) moved through
Hong Kong.
Officials at Hong Kong International Terminals
(HIT), the largest operator at Kwai Chung, are not
worried either because affiliate Yantian International
Container Terminals (YICT) is the largest facility in
eastern Shenzhen and the fastest growing.
Said a shipping line executive: “It takes at least
five years to reach capacity at a new terminal. It will
be 2015 before the first terminal at Dachan will start
to pose any threat to Hong Kong. By that time the
growth rate at Shenzhen terminals will have come
down to single digits, as happened in Hong Kong.
Nothing lasts forever.”
Dateline 1997

PORT NEWS
Nigeria faces hub threat
The Nigerian government says it will take steps to
improve national ports which face a threat from
the planned Lomé hub in nearby Togo. Several ministers
have spoken out in recent weeks on the need
to improve port services in Nigeria in order to
compete with the impending challenge.
The managing director of the Nigerian Ports
Authority (NPA), Aminu Dabo, has promised that
facilities at all the nation’s ports which are currently
mothballed will be brought into use. Moreover,
in association with Nigerian firm Oceanic
Shipping Company, NPA intends to finance the
construction of larger berths for ro-ro vessels in
Lagos.
However, the government has not made any financial
commitments and it seems unlikely that much
will change until the threat becomes real and the
Lomé port is up and running. Although the management
of the NPA has recently been restructured
in preparation for privatisation, the government appears
to be banking on investment by future foreign
owners of the country’s ports to finance overdue
modernisation and improvement works.
The president of the National Council of Managing
Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Lucky
Amiwero, fears that contracts will be lost and cargo
traffic diverted before the privatisation process is
complete. He argues that Nigeria will also lose out
because of its failure to meet any of the International
Maritime Organisation (IMO) Conventions
on minimisation, simplification, harmonisation, and
facilitation of port procedures.
WorldCargo
news
Sydney volumes climbing
Container throughput is shooting ahead in Sydney
Abnormally high year-on-year container throughput
growth rates are continuing at Australian ports,
with Sydney/Port Botany racking up a 15.8 per cent
increase for the nine months to March 2003. Total
container throughput was 880,896 TEU, with full
container imports 17.3 per cent higher than for the
same period last year. However, while full container
exports were down by 3.3 per cent from last year, a
significant 43.7 per cent increase was recorded for
empty container shipments, reflecting the port’s ongoing
problem with import/export imbalances.
Although full container exports were down overall,
exports to the United States market increased by
9 per cent. In addition, coastal trade (exports) increased
by over 21 per cent. Major commodities
exported from Sydney ports to other Australian ports,
include paper products, iron and steel, food preparations
and chemicals. Coastal trade has been supported
by Sydney Ports Corporation’s’ initiative to decrease
wharfage charges as of 1 January 2003.
Total trade throughput at Sydney’s ports in the
year-to-date was 7 per cent higher than the same
period last year.
● The environmental impact statement for the proposed
third Port Botany container terminal (see
WorldCargo News December 2001, p40) will be
lodged with the NSW State Government in the middle
of this year. The Sydney Ports Corporation (SPC)
has substantially modified community and environmental
aspects of the local area adjacent to the Port
Botany terminals. SPC said the benefits have been
incorporated into a design which focuses on enhancing
the conservation values of the Penrhyn Estuary
and the recreational facilities of Foreshore Beach.
SPC said specialists had looked at national and
international examples of best practice when undertaking
their studies to ensure the Environmental
Impact Statement will meet the high standards required
by NSW’s environmental legislation, and
present the reasons why Port Botany is the optimal
solution for NSW’s container trade needs.
● The SPC has supported a proposal by Patrick to
expand its Brotherson Dock (Port Botany) terminal
facilities by 2.5 hectares and upgrade existing equipment
“to increase terminal efficiency and capacity.”
An EIS for this project has recently been exhibited.
Port Chalmers
noise issue
New Zealand’s Environment Court is considering a
case brought by local residents seeking tighter noise
controls at Port Chalmers, which is owned and operated
by Port Otago. Currently the port has to “mitigate
noise” for residential neighbours exposed to
more than 65 Ldn (average of 65dB(A) over a 24
hour period) but around 20 properties are regularly
exposed to noise in excess of the limit. Residents are
seeking lower limits that vary depending on proximity
to the port.
It is clear that the port, particularly the forestry
terminal, cannot operate within the existing limit
and enforcing even tougher restrictions would mean
an end to 24 hour operations, which is what the
residents really want. Port Otago is offering to buy
up to 70 affected properties or spend up to
NZ$30,000 per property for sound insulation. The
houses, for the very reason that they are so close to
the port, are not particularly valuable; purchasing
every affected property is estimated to cost NZ$5
mill compared to NZ$2 mill for sound insulation.
● Port Otago has purchased Tranz Rail’s Dunedin
container depot business, Rail Box. The deal is part
of a Heads of Agreement between the two parties
that includes a range of initiatives to promote greater
use of rail to and from Port Chalmers.
Dunedin and Port Chalmers are 12km apart and
linked by a solitary dual carriageway and single track
rail line. Since Port Chalmers secured P&ON’s weekly
RTW service container volumes have jumped around
20 per cent and a similar increase in road trucks has
renewed calls for greater use of the rail line.
Port Otago deputy CEO Geoff Plunket says the
first phase in the agreement will see the port relocate
its Dunedin container depot to the former Tranz
Rail site and establish repair, cleaning and other services.
The next stage will involve linking the site to
Port Chalmer’s Jade terminal operating software so
it can operate as an inland port. It is not yet clear
who will bear the extra cost of transferring containers
to rail for a 12km journey.
Dateline 1997 11

WorldCargo
news
Chennai ahead of target
Chennai Container Terminal Ltd
(CCTL), the P&O Ports subsidiary
set up to operate the container
terminal at Chennai in south India,
is well ahead of the cargo handling
target set for it thanks to new
and modern container handling
equipment brought in by the
company.
Under the terms of the 30 year
concession agreement, CCTL was
given the target of handling
350,000 TEU in the first year of
operations and 500,000 TEU by
2006. By the end of March this year,
CCTL had handled 424,665 TEU,
an increase of 23 per cent over the
previous year. “We will hit the
500,000 TEU target by 2004,” said
CCTL CEO Ganesh Raj.
The increase has been facilitated
by the installation of four
new ship-to-shore cranes and 10
RTGs, all ordered from Noell
The gross crane rate at CCTL has increased to 18 moves per hour
Crane Systems. On an average the
terminal handled 38 vessels a
month in 2002 against 20.5 in
2001. The gross crane rate increased
to 18 moves per hour in
2002 from just eight in 2001.
With all the new cranes now in
service, the new target for 2003
is 22 moves per crane hour.
The average turnaround time
for vessels came down to 24 hours
in 2002 against 96 hours the year
before. CCTL’s aim is to turn
Chennai container terminal into
a transhipment hub for the east
coast of India.
Subic pipe row smoulders on
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority
(SBMA) has dismissed suggestions
that the bidding rules for
the US$136.5 mill Subic container
terminal project were
slanted to prevent bids from Filipino
steel pipe pile manufacturers
(see World Cargo News, February
2003, p6).
The SBMA Bids and Award
Committee is in the process of
evaluating construction tenders
from Nishimatsu Construction
Co, Toyo Construction Co and the
Penta Ocean Construction Co
joint venture with TOA Corp and
Shimuzu Corp. A fourth contender,
Taisei Corp, pulled out just
before the March deadline.
“We will definitely sit down
with PCI [Pacific Consultants International]
to address the piles
issue and get the technical evaluation
committee of the BAC and
JBIC [Japan Bank for International
Cooperation] to come to a
sensible and technically sound
decision,” said Victor Mamon,
SBMA senior deputy administrator
for operations.
Critics regard the exclusion of
spirally-welded pipes as a violation
of JBIC policy as its procurement
guidelines state that “specifications
shall be so worded as to
permit and encourage the widest
possible competition.”
That provision may have been
breached in the case of other materials
required for the project. For
example, PCI specified Prodegol
PU coating from Goldschmidt TBI
GmbH of Germany for the steel
pipe, even though similar products
are available from other countries.
The Philippine Large Diameter
Pressure Pipe Manufacturers’
Association has expressed dismay
over the SBMA’s failure to address
the issue, saying it had contacted
Victor Mamon last November -
four months before the actual bidding.
The association says three of
its members are prepared to install
a mill in Subic to produce
spirally-welded piles with a maximum
thickness of 22mm.
According to local observers,
if SBMA sticks to its preference
for seamless and longitudinallywelded
pipes, the most likely beneficiary
would be Tokyo-based
Nippon Kokan.
Tanzanian
ports push
inland
Port authorities managing the
main four Tanzanian ports of Dares-Salaam,
Mtwara, Tanga and
Zanzibar have launched a concerted
campaign to handle a bigger
share of the cargo market for
the various landlocked states in the
region, which are forced to import
and export most goods
through neighbouring transit
countries.
The four ports have a combined
handling capacity of around
6 mill tons per annum, somewhat
in excess of current demand, and
there is also substantial room for
expansion at Dar- es-Salaam and
Mtwara.
The private consortium now
managing Dar-es-Salaam’s container
terminal, led by Hutchison
Port Holdings (HPH), plans to increase
capacity from 100,000 to
200,000 containers/year by 2010,
partly with the aim of attracting
more contracts from countries in
Tanzania’s hinterland.
The territory covered by the
modern day states of Burundi,
Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda
and Zambia has been served by
Tanzania’s ports since long before
the European partition of Africa.
However, over the past 10-15
years, the Kenyan port of Mombasa
and now also the Mozambican
ports of Beira, Maputo
and Nacala have begun to provide
increasingly stiff competition.
With so many landlocked or
virtually landlocked countries in
southern and central Africa, the
amount of cargo at stake is substantial.
PORT NEWS
San Diego digs deep
The California Coastal Commission
has approved a plan that will
see the Port of San Diego’s 40ft
harbour depth dredged to 42ft to
accommodate larger vessels. The
port, which has two cargo terminals,
has suffered from shallow
draughts and the inability of large
ships to reach the terminals without
first offloading part of their
cargo or waiting for high tide. This
does not affect its role as a car import
port because car carriers are
not especially deep draft vessels.
The dredging project is expected
to cost between US$9 mill
and US$30 mill and will remove
some 550,000 yds3 of silt from the
port’s turning basin north of the
Coronado Bridge. It is scheduled
to begin in 2004 and will be completed
in 2005.
It is part of a five-year plan by
the San Diego Unified Port District
targeted at more than doubling
container traffic at the port
and hopefully turning the tide on
the city’s money-losing shipping
business. This year the port is expected
to lose around US$7.6
mill.
Primary products handled
through San Diego include bulk
commodities such as sand, steel,
lumber and paper. In addition, its
refrigeration cargo handling facility,
which opened last October, is
expected to handle about 40,000
containers/year (Dole). The National
City Terminal, located south
of the city, is a primary handling
facility for automobiles and is favoured
by Honda, Acura and
Volkswagen.
PD Port Services claims that the intermodal rail service over its Grimsby
Container Terminal (GCT) on the Humber, UK is attracting an increasing
number of main line operators and shippers to the twice/week feeder service
provided by Norexcel between Grimsby and Rotterdam. The connection
enables customers to switch north Britain origin/destination cargoes away
from congested land routes to southern English ports, argues PD Port services’
managing director Jerry Hopkinson
12
May 2003

PORT NEWS
Bathurst Inlet port
A proposal to build a deepwater port on
Canada’s northern coast has been delayed,
partly because of concerns in Ottawa that
the plan could raise issues over international
jurisdiction in high Arctic waters.
The proposed port at Bathurst Inlet
would have implications far beyond the
immediate area, said Indian Affairs Minister
Robert Nault last month.
“The construction of a deepsea port
at Bathurst Inlet and the associated shipping
. . . raise environmental concerns for
the marine ecosystem, as well as national
and international questions regarding the
jurisdiction and use of Arctic waters,” remarked
Nault.
However, his concern over how the
port would affect Canadian sovereignty
in the north has baffled one of the project’s
proponents. According to Tony Keen of
Nuna Logistics, in Vancouver, BC, Nault
“seems to bring into doubt the jurisdiction
of Canada over the Arctic waters.”
On the contrary, said Keen, a Canadian
Arctic port would serve to reinforce
Canada’s sovereignty claims.
The USA has never formally acknowledged
that the normally icechoked
seas of the high Arctic are Canadian.
But with the thinning ice cover of
recent years, the possibility of regular
shipping through the Northwest Passage
has given the issue new urgency.
Still, Nault’s office, which has asked
the proponents to send an updated de-
WA spends
on ports
The Western Australian government has
announced port upgrades worth A$98
mill, including A$18.5 mill on infrastructure
associated with the HIsmelt project
at Kwinana and A$22.4 mill by the
Geraldton Port Authority to complete its
A$107.7mill port enhancement project.
The package also includes more than
A$75 mill of the A$137.6 mill common
user infrastructure package allocated for
industrial development on the Burrup
Peninsula (Dampier) and A$9.175 mill for
capital works at Bunbury.
Construction of the A$400 mill
HIsmelt Process Plant, owned and operated
by a consortium led by international
mining giant Rio Tinto, began at the end
of April. “The new HIsmelt technology
is the world’s most advanced for direct
pig iron smelting, and converting iron ore
to liquid pig iron through the injection
of non-coking coal and fine iron ore into
a molten bath,” WA Premier Geoff Gallop
said. “As the process does not need
sinter/pellet plants and coke ovens that
are used in traditional blast furnace technology,
it is cleaner steel making that is
more environmentally friendly than conventional
iron making - so very important
in a greenhouse gas-aware world.”
In Stage One, the HIsmelt plant will
produce 820,000 tonnes of pig iron per
annum, increasing to 1.64 mill tonnes per
annum by 2006 in Stage Two. It will be
commissioned in 2004.
As well as Geraldton’s port enhancement.
the government has provided A$26.3
mill towards the city’s Southern Transport
Corridor, which will provide an alternative
route for freight vehicles and rail freight
to improve access and efficiency for the
transport industry. During 2003-04, work
will commence with an A$8 mill allocation
by Main Roads WA and A$18.2 mill
towards the rail component.
As part of the Burrup infrastructure
package, Dampier Port Authority is to
spend A$15.1 mill on new projects, including
A$13 mill for channel dredging.
Bunbury is another major focus in the
Budget, with substantial infrastructure improvements
planned, consistent with the
government’s policy of promoting it as the
second container port in WA. In total,
A$9.175 mill has been provided for capital
works at the port, including A$3.9 mill to
complete construction of the container
facilities and inner harbour storage shed,
and more than A$4 mill to commence new
works, such as a woodchip conveyor.
scription of the project, seems to be signalling
caution. “The project clearly has
the potential to have impacts that reach
beyond the Nunavut settlement area,”
Nault wrote to the Nunavut Impact Review
Board. He also suggests that the
project may have to face a federal environmental
screening. That would be much
broader, and take longer, than the review
that Nuna was hoping for.
The proposed Bathurst port would
operate about 110 days a year and be big
enough to handle 45,000 dwt ships. It
would have an airstrip, accommodation
for 200 workers, a 200 mill litre fuel tank
farm and storage for nearly 363,000
tonnes of ore concentrate. An all-weather
road from the port that would serve various
possible mines has been dropped
from the first stage of the project, which
is being backed by a consortium of Inuitowned
businesses.
Studies funded by Ottawa, aboriginal
organisations and the private sector have
found the port would not only make shipping
ore cheaper but would also cut the
cost of bringing in everything from diesel
fuel to dry goods for future mines and
the 4400 people living in the region.
At Cambridge Bay, fuel would be
cheaper by one third and the freight cost
of general goods would be cut by 70 per
cent, the studies suggest. The port is expected
to cost about C$85 mill and could
stimulate up to C$925 mill of inward investment,
it is claimed.
Taiwanese carriers Evergreen, Yang
Ming and Wan Hai Lines are expected
to sign a final agreement in August to
develop a US$594 mill container and
logistics complex at Keelung port.
The carriers are part of the Taipei
Harbor Consortium that will sign a 50-
year BOT concession with the Transportation
and Communications Ministry.
The deal follows on from a memorandum
of understanding that was
signed between the consortium and the
Keelung Harbor Bureau.
The project involves the construction
of seven 500m berths with a depth
alongside of 14.5m, capable of handling
WorldCargo
news
Keelung venture on track
5,000 TEU ships. Development of the
terminal, expected to take 11 years, will
be fully funded by the consortium,
which will also pay the government for
the right to develop and operate the
complex.
The Keelung Harbor Bureau said
the consortium plans to raise NT$6.24
bill (US$179 mill) in equity funds,
equivalent to 30 per cent of the total
investment. The remainder will come
from syndicated bank loans. Under the
terms of the agreement, the consortium
must lodge NT$800 mill to guarantee
the contract when it is formally signed
in August.
May 2003 13

PORT/INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
P&OP escalates JNPT bid
P&O Ports, which was barred by
the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust
(JNPT) from bidding for the development
of a new container terminal
at Jawaharlal Nehru Port
(JNP) and lost a legal battle against
the decision in the Mumbai High
Court (see WorldCargo News February
2003, p1), has now moved
the case to the Indian Supreme
Court.
P&O has appealed against the
Mumbai High Court’s verdict,
which upheld JNPT’s decision
and said it had no jurisdiction to
turn down policies laid down by
the government in New Delhi. If
the petition is admitted by the
Supreme Court, it could derail the
process of converting an unused
bulk terminal at JNP into a container
terminal.
The port has received at least
12 expressions of interest from
major port and terminal operators
around the world and the
JNPT in the process of
shortlisting the bidders and calling
for financial bids. The container
terminal, which is expected
The Port of Le Havre Authority
(PAH) has provided a progress report
on construction of its new Port
2000 berths outside the locks. As
of the end of March, says PAH, 267
diaphragm panels had been concrete-reinforced.
This means a total
length of 1602m to get 1400m
of useful surface (ie four berths).
The diaphragm wall itself was
completed in February. Work on
the capping beam began late last
August and as of the end of March
660m (55 x 12m long sections)
P&OP was barred from bidding for the new JNP terminal as it already operates
the Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal at the port
to cost Rs9 bill (US$190.7 mill)
is being offered on BOT basis for
a period of 30 years.
JNPT had argued in the High
Court that since P&O Ports was
already operating the Nhava Sheva
International Container Terminal
(NSICT) at the port, it would virtually
gain monopoly status if it
won the bid for the second container
terminal. P&O Ports countered
that JNPT’s decision was discriminatory.
Port officials say that if P&O
Ports fails to get a stay order, they
will go ahead with calling for financial
bids. But there could be
problems if the petition is admitted
and a stay order is granted as
other bidders will not know
whether P&O Ports is in contention
or not.
Port 2000 making progress
had been completed. Removing
the earth for the dock and behind
the diaphragm wall began last November
while stabilisation work
(anchoring tie-rods behind the
wall) began in February this year.
In all, 14 mill m 3 of materials
were dredged in March and more
than 2700m of inner breakwater
delimiting the future back-up areas
have been built. The easternmost
box was backfilled up to +7m
before being made available for further
work under the public sector
contract for the construction of the
quay in order to remove sand materials
to be put above the tie-rods
and, later on, to place the dredging
materials coming from the dock in
front of the quay.
Prefabrication of the caissonpierheads
for the end of the outer
breakwaters began in Drydock 7
in February. They will be floated
onto the site before being secured
in place and filled with sand. The
superstructures will then be concreted
on the spot.
NSW rail still off track
as bridge reopens...
Portek bags Makassar
Singapore-based Portek International
has won a joint contract
with shipping line Pelayaran
Nusantara Meratus to operate
the Port of Makassar (Ujung
Pandang) at the Southern tip of
Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.
The contract is for a period
of 10 years and is reportedly
worth S$3 mill in its first full year
The controversial Menangle rail
bridge south of Sydney, the sudden
closure of which at the end
of March severely disrupted east
coast intermodal services (see
WorldCargo News April 2003 p10)
finally reopened on April 23 under
strict operational limits.
A 20 km/h speed limit was
imposed and a maximum axle load
of 23 tonnes applied but rail company
Pacific National, which was
forced to divert inter-capital freight
trains along circuitous alternate
routes, said it was at least pleased to
be able to resume its 40 trains-aday
usage of the bridge.
The New South Wales government
has committed to replacing
the 140-year-old bridge and two
others identified as being in critical
states of decay – but the delays
in implementing safety measures
on the dangerous Menangle structure
are now the subject of a NSW
Independent Commission Against
Corruption investigation.
According to a leaked report,
the state’s Rail Infrastructure Corporation
needs A$1.5 bill and 10
years to catch up on a huge backlog
of maintenance on the Sydney
network. The news is no surprise
in freight circles but has dismayed
all concerned as it further
reduces the likelihood of funds
being available for the separation
of freight and passenger networks
in Sydney. The shared infrastructure
is severely inhibiting plans to
shift more port traffic from road
to rail and has been identified as a
major impediment to cost and
operational efficiency on east coast
intermodal inter-capital services.
However, there is still no resolution
of the imbroglio between the
Federal and NSW governments
over the Australian Rail Track Corporation’s
proposal to lease NSW
interstate tracks. After almost two
years, millions of dollars of Federal
funds, destined for the freight network,
remain frozen as a consequence.
Recent meetings between
Deputy Prime Minister John
Anderson, NSW Treasurer Michael
Egan and NSW Transport Minister
Michael Costa produced the
usual joint statement saying they
agreed that a national approach to
rail operations is “a sensible and
necessary public policy,” but to noone’s
surprise, no indication on further
meetings or the likely timing
of a decision was given
of operation, rising to S$6 mill
within five years.
Portek already has a network
of operations in more than 10 different
locations in Indonesia, including
Banten (Cigading) and a
terminal in Jakarta, although this
latter deal has led to a row with
Hutchison (see WorldCargo News,
March 2003, p6).
WorldCargo
news
...PN to
quit rail?
In an adroitly-conceived local pressure
campaign, Australian rail operator
Pacific National (PN) has
threatened to close three metropolitan
Sydney rail freight terminals
- including the key Port Botany
facility - unless driver-only freight
train operations are implemented.
PN said it would stop interand
intrastate trains at Chullora
and switch local container traffic
to trucks in an effort to save some
A$50 mill per annum that should
have accrued through driver-only
operations (DOO).
The company said the savings
had been factored in at the time
of its purchase of the former
FreightCorp in February 2002 but
the NSW system was still operating
with two persons per train.
This was despite agreement having
been reached as far back as
1998, and payment during the intervening
period of a 5 per cent
allowance to drivers and an 8 per
cent allowance to signalmen to
compensate for increased responsibilities
flowing from DOO.
PN says it knows of no reason
why DOO has not been introduced
as agreed, and has been advised
by relevant authorities that
there is “no known safety reason”
either. DOO is already common
practice in other states.
It is understood that PN’s principal
target is Hunter Valley coal
train operations, but the company
has stated that with the expected
savings there unavailable, it must
look elsewhere. Thus the Enfield,
Cooks River and Port Botany rail
terminals might be closed and all
intermodal traffic shifted to road
ex-Chullora.
May 2003 15

WorldCargo
news
SRA under new fire
The UK’s Strategic Rail Authority (SRA)
is in the firing line again with national
newspapers reporting that one of its “spin
doctors“ has been bad-mouthing Lord
Berkeley, the chairman of the Rail Freight
Group (RFG), using “colourful language
usually associated with people of limited
education and/or self-control.”
For months Berkeley and the rail freight
industry at large have been questioning the
commitment of the SRA and, behind it,
the government, to expanding rail freight.
The row erupted in January when it was
announced that rail freight grants would
be suspended in England for fiscal 2003-
2004. (In Scotland and Wales the grants are
16
determined by regional government and
have not been suspended. For the record,
the Welsh Assembly has just awarded
£44,715 to Swansea Container Terminal
and EWS to allow containerised coal to
move by rail from the port to Celtic Energy’s
site at Onilwyn).
The SRA press chief’s reported remarks
were made in January and followed an interview
given by Berkeley to a rail industry
magazine, which led to the dismissal of
Julia Clarke, Lord Berkeley’s wife, from her
post as the SRA’s director of freight (see
WorldCargo News, January 2003, p17).
Last month the SRA reported five
freight facilities grants totalling £5.15 mill
in connection with English services, but
these were schemes which had been “in
the pipeline” and beat the budget chop
by a few days. In a bid to restore confidence,
the SRA has announced that it
expects to reopen talks on grants with
new applicants this autumn, with a view
to the schemes starting promptly in April
2004. However, the agreements would still
be subject to confirmation of the SRA’s
budget for 2004-5. It is not enough for
the SRA to say that it “expects” grants to
return in 2004-5, says the biggest UK rail
freight carrier, EWS.
EWS and the RFG have given a cautious
welcome to the SRA’s adoption of
new values for sensitive lorry miles used
for assessing rail freight grants. For example,
because the SRA has introduced a
congestion index, many motorway miles
will be assessed at £0.04/mile compared
to a flat rate of £0.20/mile previously.
On the other hand, medium and high
congestion areas will be assessed at £0.27/
mile and £0.69/mile respectively.
According to the RFG, background
papers issued by the SRA make clear that
it was overruled by the Department of
Transport (DfT) on key factors such as
pollution, climate change and accidents
and that “the basis for measuring congestion
and the cost of congestion (and hence
the value of congestion relief) is totally
inadequate.”
The latest figures from the DfT show
that GB-registered HGVs accounted for
149 bill/tkms of freight in 2002 (+0.3
per cent), while freight tonnage rose by
2.9 per cent from 1.581 bill tonnes in
2001 to 1.627 bill tonnes last year.
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
Hellinghausen
to leave ICF
René Hellinghausen is to step down from
his post as CEO of Intercontainer-
Interfrigo (ICF) SA at the end of this year.
Hellinghausen suffered a serious illness last
autumn but was quickly back at work to
try and ensure that the goals he had set
for ICF would come nearer to fruition.
According to an ICF press statement,
now that these objectives (financial rehabilitation,
turning round the Frigo business
sector, relaunching the combined
transport business sector with the “X.net”
hub in Herne and incorporation) have
to a large extent been attained,
Hellinghausen “expressed the wish to take
a few months’ break as soon as possible in
order to finish his convalescence. He then
plans to launch out into a new professional
challenge.” A successor is now being
sought.
Managing
the Yangtze
A mission of the Dutch government and
engineering and consulting bureau
Nedeco is due to travel to China to make
an inventory of water management tasks
which can alleviate the perennial problems
of the Yangtse River. The trip has
been delayed pending a diminution of the
SARS crisis.
China approached the Dutch because
of the expertise of both public and private
sector organisations in managing
water resources. Sometimes the Yangtze
bursts its banks and at other times depth
is too low for inland navigation. The problem
is how to distribute the available
amount of water and how to prevent pollution.
Nedeco was formerly involved in development
plans for the port of Shanghai
and the Yangtze River system. It is now
chaired by Bram Westerduin, a former
freight transport “mandarin” at the Dutch
Ministry of Transport.
Nigeria plans
ICD network
A project has been set up to improve
Nigeria’s inland freight distribution network.
Vice-president Atiku Abubakar said
that work has begun on constructing three
container freight stations (CFS) and five
new inland container depots (ICDs) across
the country.
It is hoped that the new network will
enable easier distribution of containers
once they reach the country’s ports on
the Gulf of Guinea. The ICDs are located
at Aba, Bauchi, Ibadan, Kano and Jos and
the CFS will be built at Gombe, Katsina
and Maiduguri.
The network has been planned by the
Nigerian Shippers’ Council, which had
concluded that slow and cumbersome
transport within Nigeria was affecting the
activities of shipping companies. One of
the organisation’s statutory functions is to
protect the cargo interests of Nigerian
importers and exporters.
Improved facilities were recommended
in a feasibility study ordered by
the federal ministry of transport and carried
out by HHLA Hamburg company
HPC and Nigerian firm Spring Foundation
Management Consultants. The network
will be run on a public private partnership
(PPP) basis. The federal government
will meet the construction costs and
award a concession to run each of the
facilities to private companies in return
for royalties. State governments are also
to be given a stake in each facility in return
for providing land for the venture.
Containers are to be transported to
the new stations and depots by rail and a
spokesperson for Nigerian Railway Corporation
said that it is investing in new
track infrastructure around the ports and
new locomotive capacity in order to supply
the new depots and stations.
May 2003

INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
UK-based MasterMover International Ltd claims high levels of interest in its newly-launched,
pedestrian-operated moving system for fully-laden trailers (Super TMS). As previously reported
in WorldCargo News the empty trailer TMS was introduced last year and is now in service
with Southfields, General Trailers and Boalloy. The Super TMS operates via a hydraulic ram
which attaches to the trailer front, lifting the supporting legs and transferring the weight. The
unit carries an on-board compressor and air receiver to control the trailer’s braking system via
conventional coiled hoses and snap fittings, headlights for night work and a volume-adjustable
motion bleeper
Albany-NY/
NJ barge
service
Under the aegis of the Port of New York/
New Jersey’s Port Inland Distribution
Network (PIDN) modal shift programme,
Columbia Coastal Transport has
introduced a new twice/week container
barge service between NY/NJ and the
Port of Albany, NY, dubbed Albany
Expressbarge. Through transport to/from
New England, eastern Canada and
upstate NY origin/destination points is
on offer. Today, more than 200,000 containers/year
are moved between NY/NJ
and sites in the north east, overwhelmingly
by road.
“With our twice weekly Albany
Expressbarge sailings, we bring this cargo
even closer to shippers and consignees in
Canada, New England and upstate New
York, arranging pick-up and delivery to
their doors,” remarked Bruce A Fenimore,
Columbia Transport’s president.
The service will call at six terminals
in NY/NJ - Maher Terminals in Elizabeth,
NJ, Howland Hook Container Terminal
in Staten Island, NY, APM Terminals
in Elizabeth, NJ, Port Newark Container
Terminal, Red Hook Container
Ter minal in Brooklyn, NY, and Global
Marine Terminal in Jersey City, NJ.
In Albany, the barge will call at Federal
Marine Terminals Inc. A container
depot and chassis pool will be maintained
in Albany in order to ensure quick access
to equipment.
Geest adds
chassis
Geest North Sea Line has taken delivery
of 50 Dennison lightweight skeletal trailers,
each with an unladen weight of just
4,000 kg and specified to carry 40ft and
45ft x 2.5m palletwide containers. They
will be used in Geest’s UK operations.
The move is a first for Geest, which
previously operated in the UK with a fleet
of leased skeletals. As with the previous
arrangement, the new chassis will be operated
by sub-contracted hauliers and
carry containers from Geest’s customers
to the docks at Tilbury, Hull and Teeside.
“Our leased skeletal fleet has included
Dennisons for some time and we have
been impressed by their performance and
durability,” said technical manager Danny
de Koning. “Dennison has a product that
meets the EU Directive 96/53 relating
to the carriage of 45ft containers and so
can be used legally throughout continental
Europe.”
TFG hub and spoke
TFG Transfracht International, the 50:50
HHLA and DB Cargo joint venture, is
reorganising the Albatros network (German
domestic services on which it now
concentrates having disposed of its CIS
interests). In future no direct block trains
will be operated from any seaport terminals
and, instead, all traffic will be consolidated
at the Hamburg-Maschen rail
yard, from where blocktrains will depart
for the hinterland.
Joint managing directors Klaus
Niemöhlmann and Max von Haller believe
the change will strengthen TFG’s
position in the market. Currently some
two thirds of the volume moves over
Hamburg and the rest over Bremen/
Bremerhaven, but there will be higher
frequency between Maschen and the latter,
while HHLA’s Hamburg-Lübeck
landbridge service (Baltic Shuttle operated
in the name of Combisped) is also
kicking in new traffic. Consolidating at
Maschen will enable TFG to introduce
more frequent departures, in line with
market requirements.
Despite HHLA’s shareholding, TFG
is recognised as a neutral operator. But it
is speculated that eventually it will be
integrated with other HHLA and DB
Cargo interests, such as Polzug and
Metrans.
TransNepal a year on
TransNepal Freight Services (Pvt) Ltd
(TFS) has successfully completed one
year of managing and operating both the
new, road-only ICDs in Nepal located
in Biratnagar and Bhairahawa, in the east
and west respectively of the Himalayan
mountain kingdom.
TFS, an Indo-Nepalese joint venture
of private Nepalese interests and
Mumbai-based TransIndia Freight
Services (Pvt) Ltd, was awarded the
contracts in April last year by the Nepal
Intermodal Transport Development
Board (NITDB), the custodian and
regulatory agency for the ICDs. Originally
it was reported that TransIndia
had won the contract to manage the
facilities on its own (see WorldCargo
News, March 2002, p15).
Meanwhile, the 38 hectare, rail-connected
ICD at Birgunj is still in mothballs
two years after it was built, in the
continuing absence of an Indo–Nepal rail
agreement. Three rounds of meetings between
officials from both countries have
already been held in Kathmandu and
New Delhi but no progress has been
made.
According to local sources, the terminal
and the unused handling equipment
(four reach stackers) need to be
protected from further deterioration and
damage by concluding the operational
agreement as soon as possible. Successful
operation of this ICD and - as a prerequisite
- competitive rail transit rates -
would help Nepal to become a member
of the WTO.
WorldCargo
news
Express Rail II tracks laid
The first tracks have been laid for the new
US$70 mill Express Rail II on-dock rail
terminal at the Elizabeth Port Authority
Marine Terminal at the Port of New York
and New Jersey.
The new terminal is being built on a
70 acre site, straddling the reconfigured
Maher and APM terminals, and will be
twice as large as the existing Express Rail
facility at Maher Terminals with the capacity
to handle 1 mill containers a year.
The first 50 acres are scheduled to open in
the first quarter of 2004. The second and
final phase of the larger facility’s construction
will be built under a separate contract
and be completed by the end of 2005.
A rail overpass and lead track to the
new site are already under construction.
The new entrance will allow uninterrupted
rail access to the terminal and remove
conflicts with truck traffic. This will
improve drayage efficiency and ease traffic
congestion through the Port Newark/
Elizabeth Marine Terminal.
“This past year, cargo volumes in the
port grew by 13 per cent,” said Port Authority
chairman Anthony Coscia . “By
Express Rail II will be twice as big as the current Express Rail facility at Maher Terminals
upgrading these facilities, we will ensure
that the port can handle future growth in
cargo activity and the US$1 bill we have
committed to port infrastructure improvements
over the next five years demonstrates
this commitment.”
Over the next 20 years, it is estimated
that rail and truck freight will grow by
90 per cent. Currently 13 per cent of all
freight leaves Port Elizabeth by rail, but
with improvements the volume will increase
to 25 per cent.
May 2003 17

INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
Quarante quatre
to French ports...
Rhône Saône Conteneurs (RSC),
part of CMA-CGM, is replacing
two 60 TEU barges with two 132
TEU barges to cater for traffic increases.
This represents a 60 per cent
increase in the operator’s capacity.
RSC set up its door-to-door
(river/road) service in October
2001 calling Lyon, Macon and
Chalon-sur-Saône, with two fixed
day weekly calls at Marseille-Fos.
Demand has increased steadily, if
not spectacularly, and last year
19,000 TEU were handled on/off
the barges at Fos.
The new units are equipped
with removable ballast systems
which will make it easier to cope
with the limited air drafts on the
France is set to take an important
step to faciliate intermodal distribution
by road to/from seaports.
From the end of June, 44 tonne
gross vheicles will be able to carry
containers to/from the seaports
without special permits. Up to
now such vehicles have been limited
to 40 tonnes gross, as France
has interpreted European road
regulations to favour only rail/
road combi-traffic and container
distribution over river ports with
the 44 tonne derogation.
For the time being at least, the
new derogation is aimed at encouraging
coastal shipping services.
The 44 tonne trip must not
exceed 150 km (one way) as the
crow flies to/from the port, while
the maritime leg has to be only
100 km as the crow flies.
How this restriction is to be
policed is anybody’s guess. Experience
elsewhere (eg the UK,
Benelux) shows that the 44 tonne
rule gradually creeps up until it
is allowed for all road transport,
subject only to techical requirements
(eg six axles, self-steer rear
axle) nominally aimed at protecting
the road surface. And, just as
elsewhere, rail traffic is likely to
be hardest hit.
...more capacity on
French waterways
river system (low bridges).
In another development, an
inland navigation service has been
started up by Port Fluvial de Lille
(PFL) to link its Halluin container
terminal with the Port of
Zeebrugge (Ocean Container Terminal
Hessenatie).
The weekly service is operated
by a 28 TEU barge, bug, which is
able to navigate on the Lys via
Courtrai (Kortrijk) and the Brugse
Ringvaart.
If the business develops as
planned, PFL hopes to charter a
second and larger barge (54 TEU)
but this would have to sail via the
Scheldt and would thus be more
expensive to operate.
SA transport plan
The South Australian government
has released a draft state
transport plan that targets moving
75 per cent of freight by rail
and sea within 15 years.
About 116 mill tonnes of freight
per annum are moved to, from and
within South Australia. Of this,
about 10 mill tonnes is carried by
sea and air, and 106 mill tonnes by
rail and road. The plan notes that
freight is carried between a diverse
range of origins and destinations
and, as a result, virtually all freight
movement in Adelaide, where most
of the state’s freight movement occurs,
is by road.
Road, rail and sea transport
are complementary and competitive,
the plan notes. “Efficient
transport requires each mode to
do the task to which it is best
suited. In many cases, this requires
several modes to work together.
“The government is concerned
that competition between
the modes sometimes hinders opportunities
for greater use of rail.
There is also potential for coastal
shipping to reduce the need for
transport of freight by land,” the
plan says.
Consideration is being given
to a A$65 mill deepening of the
channel at Adelaide’s Outer Harbor
to accommodate deeper draught
vessels - a development which
would significantly increase the
competitiveness of the port. “Improved
access to ports and better
intermodal facilities will also enhance
key ports such as Port Lincoln,
Port Giles, Ardrossan, Wallaroo,
Port Pirie, Thevenard and Whyalla
and could facilitate a revival in
coastal shipping,” the plan adds.
Neokemp
takeover
Mercurius Scheepvaart Groep
(MSG), based in in Zwijndrecht,
Holland, has, in co-operation with
its daughter company River Hopper,
taken over nine Neokemptype
container vessels from Neo
Logistic Services (NLS).
The River Hopper system,
aimed at the fast moving consumer
goods (FMCG) sector
(Distrivaart), was introduced last
year and Mercurius has also recently
introduced a barge for carrying
flour (see WorldCargo News,
December 2002, p24). As previously
reported, the Neokemps
were introduced to bring intermodal
transport to the many small
canals in the Dutch waterway network
and they are well-utilised.
NLS has thus disposed of all
its vessel owning interests and will
concentrate on container transport
and vessel chartering in order
to extend and improve its water-based
logistic services, under
the name of Barge Line Today,
which is based in Moerdijk.
P&O Ferrymasters is starting a new
southern England-Spain (Valencia
region) intermodal service with
Transfesa via the Channel tunnel.
The service will operate five days/
week and will initially see 30-40
loads/week being transported for
customers in the household goods
and food and drink industries from
the Valencia area to the south east
of England on a three-four day
service (door-to-door). It hopes to
be able to buy more slots when demand
warrants to carry up to 100
trailers/week. The trailers will stay
on Transfesa’s wagons all the way,
using its axle change station at
Cerbère (near Port Bou).
WorldCargo
news
Ferrymasters’ Spanish train
Following a test phase last year,
SNCF has decided to equip its
fleet of freight locos with a
Saphymo real-time tracking and
condition monitoring system.
The Saphymo unit comprises
a GPS receiver, communications
The new intermodal service will link the Valencia area with southern England
The British rail structure gauge
does not permit carriage of
Ferrymasters’ trailers but the service
is still an alternative to road
trunking through France and Spain.
Allen Bula, of Ferrymasters’ Iberian
SNCF Fret on track
black box and various sensors and
is installed on the roof of the loco.
The receiver is powered by
lithium cell which is claimed to
last for 18 months (straight life).
The system can be configured
for position fixes at set intervals
department, points out that Spanish
road transport activity is greatly
influenced by the citrus season,
while Ferrymasters’ price and service
levels are consistent no matter
what the time of year.
according to requirements and, in
addition, can be interrogated or
programmed to file regular status
reports or just exception reports.
Links to the host system are via
the GSM network.
The SNCF Fret loco fleet consists
of 3200 locomotives.The cost
of equipping them with the
Saphymo system is put at €7 mill.
CuxPort GmbH, the HHLA and Rhenus Midgard joint venture, has
opened a new rail combi-terminal on an area of 20,000 m 2 . The facility is
equipped with a new Kalmar reach stacker with a lifting capacity of 45
tonnes in the first row, fitted with an Elme piggyback attachment, enabling
the terminal to cater for swap bodies and trailers as well as containers. In the
first quarter of this year Cuxport took delivery of a new LHM 400 harbour
mobile crane with a maximum hook capacity of 105 tons, from Liebherr-
Werk Nenzing as a further boost to its quayside handling capabilities
May 2003 19

WorldCargo
news
Vos adds for Dow
Vos Logistics is investing €20 mill
in a new bulk logistics centre at
Terneuzen on the River Scheldt
in southern Holland. The facility
is under construction on an 8.5
hectare site acquired by Vos within
Ter neuzen’s Logipark Zeeland
Seaports industrial zone.
Once the initial construction
phase is complete, the new logistics
centre will feature a silo terminal,
a cross-dock transhipment
depot, a warehouse and a cleaning
station for tank and bulk containers.
There is extensive room for
further expansion.
The most important customer
of the new facility will be Dow
Terneuzen as the result of a 10-
year contract covering the storage,
packaging and transport of over
200,000 tons of polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) plastics granules
per year. The new Dow PET
plant, adjacent to Logipark, commenced
operations last month.
A total of 48 silo storage tanks
of 500 m 3 have been built to service
the Dow contract and 30,000
m 2 storage space has been made
available. Vos Logistics has also installed
facilities to palletise and
package more than 100,000 tons
of polyethylene granulates per year.
Vos will continue to enhance
the capabilities of its Terneuzen
site over the next couple of years
as part of a plan to make it one of
the company’s major depot locations.
It is envisaged that in time,
approximately 200 tractors will be
stationed there for the transport
of tank, silo and freight containers
and trailers.
The site is situated adjacent to
the new Westerschelde tunnel en-
Artist’s impression of the new Vosbulk logistics centre at Terneuzen
trance, ensuring access to all the
major motorway connections in
the region. In addition, a new rail
terminal is being built in the vicinity,
while access to the sea and
inland waterways is by means of
the centre’s quayside facilities in
Braakman harbour.
E-procurement for
small packages
ChemConnect has introduced procurement
services to help companies
optimise the purchase of relatively
small volumes of chemical
products. The Leveraged Procurement
Solution (LPS) combines
products into groups to increase
buying power and uses online negotiations
and auctions to make
transactions more efficient.
Companies typically use
online procurement tools to save
money on purchases of substantial
volumes of goods or highvalue
materials. ChemConnect
New bulk logistics service provider
Syrius has celebrated its first
anniversary by announcing it is to
add a further 300 tank containers
to its existing fleet over the next
18 months.
The Middlesbrough, UK-based
Syrius Group already operates more
than 450 IMO 1 tank containers
and, according to operations director
Graham Wall, supplied approximately
15 per cent of the world
market in flexitanks during the
2002/03 period. It is the company’s
aim to increase this market
share to some 20 per cent within
the next 12 months.
says its new service will help companies
streamline smaller purchases
of chemicals and that its
staff will work with companies to
identify goods that they may not
have considered for online negotiation.
They will then devise and
manage aggregation strategies to
create larger product lots to drive
supplier interest.
According to ChemConnect,
sellers will also benefit from efficient
online transactions and the
consolidation of smaller sales into
larger lots.
HAZCHEM NEWS
Den Hartogh
on the rails
Den Hartogh will commission a
new tank container storage terminal
at its Moerdijk complex in the
Netherlands this month. The €1
mill, crane-equipped facility is in
compliance with relevant national
requirements governing the storage
of hazardous materials and is
able to store up to 120 fully loaded
ISO and swap tank containers.
The new terminal is also railconnected
and within a short distance
of the country’s main train
marshalling centre, which is situated
halfway between Rotterdam
and Moerdijk. With the imminent
introduction of the new road toll
in Germany, Den Hartogh expects
a growing volume of its tank container
shipments in northern Europe
to move by rail in the coming
years and points out that its new
facility is well placed to link with
shuttle trains departing Rotterdam.
The Moerdijk area represents
the third biggest industrial zone in
the Netherlands, after Rotterdam
and Amsterdam, and amongst the
local premises are the chemical
plants of Shell and Basell. The
multimodal capabilities of the new
Den Hartogh facility, which is open
to third parties, are being promoted
as a means of helping get freight
off the roads and onto rail.
In recent months Den Hartogh
has regrouped its activities into four
strategic business units as part of an
effort to rationalise operations following
a series of mergers and acquisitions,
and the resultant growth
in transport, handling, storage and
cleaning activities.
Syrius off to flying start
Syrius plans to grow its tank fleet by 300 units over the next 18 months
Syrius was established in March
2002 as a provider of logistics management
solutions for companies
worldwide shipping bulk liquid
chemicals, foodstuffs and related
materials. Customers are able to
draw on a mix of transport options,
including tank containers, flexitanks
and intermediate bulk containers
(IBCs). The original expertise in
bulk liquids distribution activities
has now been augmented by growing
participation in the dry bulk
sector through the provision of
container liner bags.
Syrius has sales support in the
Benelux countries as well as a
Houston operation and sales support
in New Orleans. Close links
have been established with several
major tank lessors and Syrius is
also developing relationships with
a number of investor groups in
South Africa.
The company is focusing on
niche markets, with emphasis on
those regions that have not traditionally
been a focus for liquid and
dry bulk LSPs and shippers. Approximately
40 per cent of the
present Syrius workload is taken up
with NVOCC services in Africa,
while a further 20 per cent comprises
its commitments to the
flexitank and dry bulk liner sectors.
“We see the flexitank market
as a fast-growing sector, primarily
driven by commodity traders,”
stated Wall. “Along with the expansion
of our marketing activities,
Syrius is also developing its
joint venture approach in key locations
and its portfolio of supply
arrangements. Although much of
the growth in our first year of
operations stemmed from the
mature European and US markets,
we see greatest potential for future
expansion in countries like
China, India and the CIS states.”
Syrius recently selected the
Monitor software solution provided
by Real Logistics to manage its future
intermodal contract requirements.
“The Monitor system will
be integral to our operations, helping
to manage our rapidly expanding
global booking and billing requirements
as our operation builds,”
said Wall. “Our customers will benefit
from a system that offers sales,
finance and operational staff realtime
access to contract and billing
information.”
20
May 2003

HAZCHEM/CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
WorldCargo
news
FBI check for
US hazmat
drivers
Under a new security regime, which enters
into force this month, drivers of commercial
vehicles in the US with hazardous
material endorsements must undergo
a routine background records check.
Applicants for commercial driver licences
(CDLs) are now subject to a namebased
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
criminal history records check and a check
of federal databases. Under the programme,
which is being phased in over the next six
months, new applicants and existing drivers
applying to renew or transfer their
hazmat endorsement must provide fingerprints.
After 180 days, no state may issue,
renew or transfer a hazmat licence unless
the newly established Transport Security
Administration (TSA) has notified the state
that the individual holding the endorsement
does not pose a security threat.
The TSA states that the driver checks
will include a review of criminal, immigration
and FBI records. Any applicant
with a conviction for certain violent felonies
over the past seven years, or who has
been found mentally incompetent, will
not be permitted to obtain or renew the
hazmat endorsement. The checks also will
verify that the driver is a US citizen or a
lawful permanent resident.
In addition to felonies traditionally
deemed to be violent, the new
rulemaking also lists the following as disqualifying
crimes:
● Unlawful possession, use, sale, distribution
or manufacture of an explosive, explosive
device, firearm or other weapon.
● Distribution of, intent to distribute,
possession or importation of a controlled
substance.
● Dishonesty, fraud or misrepresentation,
including identity fraud.
● Crimes involving a severe transport security
incident.
● Improper transportation of a hazardous
material.
● Conspiracy or attempt to commit any
of these crimes.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) requires states
to establish a hazmat endorsement renewal
period of at least five years to ensure
that each holder of a hazmat endorsement
routinely and uniformly receives a
security screening.
Meanwhile, as part of the increased
commitment to transport security in the
US following the September 11 attacks, another
rulemaking was implemented on
March 25 requiring shippers and carriers
of hazardous materials to have a security
plan in place by September 25, 2003 and
employee training aimed at enhancing security
awareness completed by December
22, 2003. The training must also include a
component covering how to recognise and
respond to possible security threats.
The US Department of Transportation
(DOT) has warned hazmat shippers
and carriers that these recent rulemakings
constitute the first step in what may be a
series of US regulations governing the
security of hazardous materials shipments.
New wine transport joint venture formed
A new international joint venture in
Australia is targeting the burgeoning
wine transport and export market by
bringing together three specialist service
providers.
The new company, Owens-Braid,
brings together the skills and expertise
of New Zealand-based Owens Global
Logistics (OGL), John S Braid & Co
Ltd, the Scottish group which claims to
own and operate the largest fleet of
26,000 litre ISO tanks in this specialised
market and the world’s second-largest
flexitank fleet, and FBT Operations,
a Melbourne-based specialist in bulk
liquid distribution, which operates a
cleaning and storage depot and provides
flexitank fitting and support services.
Owens-Braid began operations on 31
March from the Melbourne, Sydney, and
Adelaide offices of OGL in Australia and
from its Auckland office in New Zealand.
Chief executive Shane Watson said the
joint venture was “long overdue” in meeting
the needs of the wine and spirits industry,
providing a comprehensive range
of services to transport the products to
the growing American, European and
other world markets.
“We look forward to playing a key role
in the development of wine and spirit
exports, using the extensive global networks
of Braid and OGL as well as providing
the servicing that is required for
all liquids storage units,” he said.
Watson said the wine industry’s 30
per cent growth in exports requires the
service sector to respond, consolidate
strengths and increase scope, capability
and capacity to meet customer demand.
This new venture would meet all such
criteria and would offer “the largest and
most modern fleet of ISO tanks available
globally and provide quality and cost
effective solutions.”
Owens-Braid has already secured
some key agency appointments in Australia,
where tank operator GCA will
use the new company for its ISO tank
agency services. GCA will also operate
an equipment interchange arrangement
with Braid whereby both companies
access each other’s fleet to obtain
increased utilisation, reduced
downtime and improved customer
service. The joint venture company has
also been appointed as the Australian
agent for Suttons International, the
UK-based chemical and gas tank container
operator.
Hoyer bags
De Haan
Hamburg-based Hoyer has boosted its
presence in the mineral oil logistics market
by acquiring the Dutch Abram De
Haan forwarding group.
With locations in Belgium, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg, De Haan has a
long track record in the mineral oil business,
though its activities also include gas
and waste transport as well as container
haulage.
The acquisition will see a further 138
trucks added to the Hoyer mineral oil
transport fleet. All 292 De Haan employees
will join Hoyer.
The move forms part of Hoyer’s plan
to become the leading operator in Europe
in the mineral oil logistics sector.
May 2003 21

WorldCargo
news
22
One year on from the launch of
the Navalink cable seal range, Japanese
container security specialist,
Navatech Co, has incorporated a
number of further design enhancements.
The introduction of Navalink
in 2002 marked a shift by
Navatech away from its former
exclusive manufacture of ultrahigh
strength barrier seals, in the
form of its long established
Navalock range, to address the
broader container security market.
Its cable seals, according to managing
director Victor Navarsky,
have already attracted interest as a
lower cost, “medium grade” security
product designed to immobilise
the container’s door locking
gear.
The latest modifications concern
the locking bush, which has
been enlarged and can now accommodate
laser engraved bar
codes. The angled, cylindrical
locking mechanism, into which
the bolt end is push-fitted, is also
encased within a clear plastic
shield to protect against damage
and deter any tampering.
The modified locking bush has
been incorporated into Navatech’s
three existing styles of cable, now
reclassified as Navalink C-10, C-
20 and C-60. Both the C-10 and
C-20 feature a flexible multi-strand
steel cable of 1.8mm diameter, offering
a pull resistance in excess of
0.4 tonnes, with the C-20 of
shorter length than the C-10. The
C-60 is a heavier duty version, with
cable diameter of 6.5mm. They are
designed to be wrapped tightly
around the door locking rods and
threaded through the handle aperture,
while the new-style angled
locking bush eliminates the possibly
of “spinning,” by which means
many conventional seals are defeated
and opened.
Navatech is also currently
working on an improved version
of its Navalock MkIII-A steel interlocking
bar, which is due to
enter commercial production
within six months. The basic design
is being simplified to reduce
its production cost to the point
where “the real Navalock is priced
at a level close to that paid for
CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
Navis enters depot arena
Best known for its range of container
terminal management systems,
Oakland-based Navis LLC
has broadened the scope of its offerings
with the launch of a new
management system for container
depots.
Navis Depot is a web-based
depot management system that
provides 24/7 visibility to critical
data at individual operations and
across a number of depots. As reported
in the August 2002 issue
of WorldCargo News (p36), the new
system has been extensively
trialled at a depot on the US west
coast.
Using Navis Depot, depot operators
can manage all of their
operations, such as gate and bookings
management, equipment
Enter the
Kaybolt
Container security seal manufacturer
Universeal has introduced its
own version of a cable-bolt seal
combination, known as Kaybolt.
The one-piece design has undergone
an extensive reworking
at the company’s main manufacturing
site in Malaysia. It comprises
an extended-length cable
section, into which is incorporated
a standard bolt seal for fitting in
the locking hasp in the container’s
left door handle. The cable can
be wrapped securely around both
of the container’s central door
locking rods.
The separate bolt head is attached
permanently to one loop
of the cable, whilst the locking
body also doubles as a fastening
point for both the bolt head and
cable end. As such, it contains a
special double-locking assembly,
configured at right angles, and
accommodates the patented cablefastening
device already featured
in the existing Flexigrip 200 cable
seal from Universeal. This ensures
that, once the seal is closed,
the cable remains buried inside the
seal body and so prevents any
manipulation.
damage estimates and repairs, invoicing
for storage, handling, repairs
and services rendered and
EDI on a Navis-hosted platform.
The platform provides full visibility
to critical information allowing
for further collaboration between
the main parties involved
in the M&R process - depots,
shipping lines and leasing companies.
According to Navis, many
container depots have been unable
to take full advantage of the
IT revolution due to a lack of investment
capital to purchase
highly sophisticated systems and
a lack of in-house expertise to run
these systems. Navis Depot offers
depots of all sizes a sophisticated
application that will help them
US-based container security
seal specialist TydenBrammall
has improved the specification
of its single-use cable seals in
order to better comply with the
US Customs C-TPAT (Customs-Trade
Partnership Against
Terrorism) programme.
All such devices are now
made using non pre-formed cable,
which, says TydenBrammall,
greatly inhibits any unauthorised
reuse of the seals.
Although this cable version
offers the same absolute locking
strength as its pre-formed
counterpart and requires the
same high-strength cutting tools
for removal, the individual cable
strands tend to spring apart
and fray wildly when cut, giving
an obvious and immediate
visual indication of tampering.
Crucially, it also prevents any
insertion of the cut cable end
back into the locking mechanism
to conceal the break-in,
TydenBrammall further recommended
that the protruding end
should also be cut after the cable
is secured into the lock body
manage their operations effectively
and efficiently. Up-front
capital investment is negligible, the
only hardware requirements being
a PC and an Internet connection,
while per transaction pricing
virtually eliminates the inherent
risks of typical software system
purchases.
Navis has selected key functionality
from its extensive suite
of terminal management applications
and packaged it into a highly
intuitive, fully featured depot management
system to bridge the IT
gap depots are currently experiencing.
Small or large depot customers
can benefit from a flexible
and scalable system allowing them
to purchase the solution that is
right for their operation.
Tougher range from
TydenBrammall
in order to leave a splayed end.
This fraying characteristic is
a consequence of the slightly
different method used to manufacture
non pre-formed cable,
whereby the tightness of the
spring steel cable’s spiral shape
is relaxed during the annealing
process and the ends are spotwelded.
The enhanced design is being
used in the manufacture of
all TydenBrammall’s disposable
cable seals targeted at the container
industry, including its
Magnum, Alum-A-Loc, Cable
Crimp Loc, E-Z Loc and Bar
Code Loc.
The newly enhanced version
of the Magnum seal features
0.25in (6mm) diameter
steel cable of standard 14in
length, which is fastened into a
drill-resistant lock body and offers
a pull strength of 4,000lbs
(1,800kg). The lock section has
also been enlarged to take a full
bar code or colour coded marking,
plus the cold stamping of
up to six characters and a sixdigit
serial number.
Navatech upgrades seal range
Navalock’s cable seal range now features a modified locking bush
look-alike products.” This follows
the recent receipt by Navatech of
full US Customs’ approval for all
security products in its range.
Further sophistication is now
also available in the form of the
company’s Mac Sema memory
button, which can be integrated
into all Navalock seals as an option.
This is an encryption device
that carries a unique, unchangeable
identification number and
thus permits port/customs inspectors
to access the shipper’s
manifest while validating the seal.
It similarly allows receivers to
check the contents prior to opening
the container.
The Mac Sema operates without
batteries, is military-approved,
and can withstand vibration, impact
shock, extremes in temperature,
magnetic fields and immersion
in water,without adverse effect.
May 2003

CONTAINER INDUSTRY NEWS
HeatWatch heralds smart liner
An electronic sensor adapted for monitoring
the temperature/condition of sensitive
products in transit has been developed
in the US and is now being marketed
for intermodal use by UK bulk
transport packaging specialist, Protective
Packaging Ltd (PPL).
Known as HeatWatch, the device is
manufactured by Media Recovery Inc
(MRI), in Dallas, and is available in a
number of formats for the protection of
dry bulk and packaged commodities such
as foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, chemicals,
adhesives and high-grade electronics/
computer components.
Many such items are carried in ocean
freight containers fitted with disposable
liners and the offering of HeatWatch by
PPL forms a central part of its “smart
liner” initiative. This has been adopted to
offer more sophisticated and tailored solutions
to the challenge associated with
shipping dry bulk goods over long distances
without spoilage or deterioration.
PPL already provides a range of advanced
thermal liner bags, suitable for protecting
whole container loads.
The generic HeatWatch model is designated
TR-1 and utilises an integrated
temperature recorder incorporating the
Dallas Semiconductor Thermochron
iButton developed by MRI. This is designed
to track and calculate product spoilage
by following a user-defined profile.
To achieve this, the user programs the
instrument to create an electronic simulation
of the goods being monitored. As
the TR-1 unit behaves and reacts exactly
like the commodity under carriage, the
user can access the device to determine
the likely ongoing product condition and
its remaining shelf life. These critical factors
are determined by the history of the
product’s transport/storage environment
and its specific spoilage characteristics.
Heatwatch TR-1 is available as a label,
clip-on or standalone version. The label
configuration is normally for application
to packages or cartons, and is clearly visible
to anyone handling the goods in transit.
This helps emphasise that the consignment
is of a sensitive type and should encourage
a greater attention to be paid to
its condition and the need for special care.
The clip-on style is aimed at very small
items and provides a limited footprint of
just one inch diameter for placing in confined
areas. The standalone unit is suited
for dry bulk shipments as it can be dropped
into the product at the start of the voyage.
All three types feature the same remote
intelligent sensor, which charts a
timeline of the product’s temperature history
and records changes within a wide
range of operating conditions. All data
gathered by the HeatWatch can be extracted
and read on a PC running companion
TR-1 software,.
The TR-1 is capable of operating in
temperatures of –40degC to +85degC, and
provides accuracy down to ±1degC from
–20degC to +70degC. The start-time is
programmable and accuracy of the clock
is within two minutes per month. Readings
can be taken as frequently as each
minute down to intervals of more than four
hours and there is an alarm to notify when
and if the temperature exceeds, or drops
below, the admissible range.
The recorder and supporting electronics
is contained within a hermetically
sealed stainless steel casing. It operates with
Windows compatible software and has an
expected active life of 10 years.
WorldCargo
news
Iljin quits box business
South Korea-based Iljin Global (formerly
Iljin Bloxwich/Bloxwich Korea)
has announced that it is to cease the
manufacture of container door gear
from the beginning of this month.
A letter to customers from Iljin
president S K Lee said that the container
side of its business had been in
the red for several years and the accumulated
deficit of the door hardware
business had seriously affected its automotive
business. The company had no
choice but to abandon the container
business as part of the rationalisation of
the Iljin group.
Formerly the world’s largest producer
of container door hardware, which it
manufactured under licence from UKbased
Bloxwich Engineering and its
Malaysian parent Mega First Corporation,
Iljin shifted production to a new
plant in Qingdao, China, in the late 1990s.
The move proved unsuccessful, however,
and production was moved back to Korea
with inevitable consequences.
According to unconfirmed reports,
former Iljin executive director S U Park
is negotiating to take over the container
door hardware business from Iljin and
restart production in China.
Cronos opts
for Infonet
Global communications services provider
Infonet has provided container lessor
Cronos with a new global network to
support software applications across the
group’s 16 offices throughout Europe, the
Americas, Asia and Australasia.
Cronos required a customised infrastructure
solution to guarantee the transfer
of business-critical data, which was
previously competing for space on the
network with other traffic such as internal
email. Infonet has provided the company
with a managed IT frame relay infrastructure
that facilitates the
prioritisation of customer-oriented traffic
and inter-office ordering requests over
less critical data.
All but one of Cronos’ worldwide offices
are now linked to the network via
Infonet’s own nodes. Each region is able
to respond rapidly to any customer enquiries,
which are prioritised across the network
via separate permanent virtual circuits.
Infonet’s DialXpress technology enables
Cronos’ remote workers to dial directly
into one of Infonet’s regional nodes without
incurring large telecomm charges.
Cronos network managers can
proactively monitor how the Infonet IT
infrastructure is performing and check the
status of links to the network through
Infonet’s PerspeXion reporting portal
(my.infonet.com).
Geoff Isherwood, head of IT at
Cronos said, “We have been very impressed
with the seamless migration of
regional Cronos offices on to the new
network and Infonet’s ongoing management
of the infrastructure. The added flexibility
of being able to send business-critical
data down a separate, prioritised channel
has been key to ensuring that we are
responding quickly to customers.”
May 2003 23

WorldCargo
news
SHIPPING NEWS
Optimism and opportunity
in the reefer market
Drewry Shipping Consultants’ latest report
on the reefer shipping industry - Reefer
Shipping & Logistics - Re-engineering the
Cold Chain - indicates that a quiet revolution
is underway, reshaping the industry’s
underlying fundamentals and identifying
the need to become more customer focused
as the key to future success.
The big issue of the 1990’s was conventional
versus containers and this remains
important, but in a number of trade
areas the demarcation is now defined,
claims the report. However, more fundamental
influences are now coming to bear
as once powerful export boards disappear
and in their place the balance of power
shifts to the major retail chains.
“The retail chains view shipping as a
component within a sophisticated logistics
and supply chain management system,”
says the report’s author John Fossey.
“Those transporting or handling reefer
cargoes (in ships and within terminals)
will face new demands and methods of
distribution. Adversarial owner versus
charterer battles will need to give way to
co-operation and developing added value.
The word ‘transparency’ will loom larger.”
According to the report, the 2003 season
has provided a boost for the conventional
reefer ship sector, for which moves
to consolidate the industry can claim some
benefit. However, it cannot be complacent.
“There are key aspects of conventional,
palletised cargo working - particularly in
the major fruit trades - that should fit better
with the emerging supply chain requirements
than containerised options. The challenge
to the reefer sector is to convince
the client of this,” Fossey says.
The report, which indicates that the
reefer trades themselves continue to offer
growth potential with population growth
and increased wealth being key demand
drivers, provides a detailed prognosis on
production levels and global and seaborne
trade for bananas, citrus fruits, deciduous
fruits, exotics, meat, dairy products and
fish. It also includes seaborne trade matrices
based on the latest available data,
identifying amongst other things that seaborne
reefer trade increased from around
44 mill tonnes in 1998 to over 49 mill
tonnes in 2000. Alternative forecasts up
to 2010 are given.
The reefer and reefer container fleets
are given a statistical overview along with
insight into equipment and ship design
influences. Analysis and indicative data on
reefer ship operational costs, key voyage
expenses and likely future costs are detailed
within the report.
Copies are available in hard copy or
electronic format at price £950.00 from:
Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd, Drewry
House, Meridian Gate, 213 Marsh Wall,
London, E14 9FJ. E-mail: fossey
@drewry.co.uk
MOL/MHI
launch new
car carrier
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries (MHI) have
come up with a new car carrier design
aimed at reducing the risk of oil spillage
after a collision at sea. Patents have been
applied for. The bunker tank is fitted
within and flush with the top of the ballast
tanks, which are wider and flatter
(and hence lower) than in conventional
designs, in a double-hulled vessel.
A type of fuel oil disaster that occurred
with WWL’s car carrier TRICOLOR
can be avoided now says MOL.The ballast
tanks are in the form of a horizontal
“C” running across the vessel and consequently
stability is improved. Furthermore,
car-carrying capacity is increased.
The top of the fuel tank is now flush
with the top of the ballast tanks, thus
enlarging the bottom deck.
The first modified ship with a capacity
for 6400 passenger cars is due to be
ready in July 2004 from Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries’ Kobe shipyard. The
vessel has a length of 199m, a width of
32.26m and is 34.52m deep. Twelve such
carriers are due to be built between 2004
and 2006 by MHI, Shin Kurushima
Dockyard Co and Imbari Shipbuilding.
The Norwegian car carrier TRICOLOR
sank in the English Channel last December
with around 3000 premium motor
cars on board and carrying 2000 tonnes
of fuel oil, following a collision with a
French container vessel during heavy fog.
Subsequently other vessels hit the
TRICOLOR three times and a considerable
amount of fuel oil leaked into the sea.
● Eukor Car Carriers, the Korean shipping
company formed last year by
Wallenius Lines (40 per cent), Wilh
Wilhelmsen (40 per cent) and motor
manufacturers Hyundai and Kia (20 per
cent) to take over the former Hyundai
Merchant Marine (HMM) car carrier
fleet, has opened a new European headquarters
in London. The European operation
is headed up by Frank Brewer.
Box damage
by the book
GDV (Gesamtverband der Deutschen
Versicherungswirtschaft), the German transport
insurance association, claims in a
new handbook that up to 70 per cent of
all damage to containers can be avoided.
The massive book (1248 pages), co-written
by various experts, deals with all kinds
of damage to containers and various ways
and methods of securing cargoes inside
them.
According to one of the contributors,
Capt Winfried Strauch, many shippers
tend to disobey packing and securing
instructions due to cost pressures.
GDV first issued detailed guidance notes
on proper stowage and securing of goods
inside containers in 1998.
Another contributor, Dr Renate
Scharnow, is an engineer with 30 years
of experience in damage prevention
methods. She deals with climatic conditions,
special conditions of goods and
cargo damage prevention, damage
through wetness, corrosion, incorrect
storage etc.
Two sections cover legal aspects of
containerisation in connection with
reefer containers. Dr Yves Wild describes
the problems of reefer container transport
and development of damage analysis,
while Mathias Rühmann, who has
more than 20 years experience in this
field, describes several actual cases together
with the relevant court decisions.
The container damage handbook is
currently available in German only on
the Internet. By September an English
version should be available. Copies can
be obtained at a cost of €160-200 at
www.containerhandbuch.de
24
May 2003

BELGIUM: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
When the honeymoon is over
After many years of strong traffic growth
fostered by a competitive but at the same
time cooperative relationship between its
main stevedoring companies, the Port of
Antwerp is beset by economic and political
uncertainties, despite breaking new
traffic records last year.
When Hessenatie (HN) and Noord
Natie (NN) were the main container terminal
operators, there was a balance (although
HN was always the bigger of the
two). So, for example, when Lykes Line, a
NN client, wanted a riverside berth at a
time when NN was still planning its tidal
Noordzee facility, HN handled the ships
until the terminal was ready.
and MSC joint venture. Subsequently East
III was dedicated to P&O Ports and at
the same time West III was reserved for
HNN, provided only that the planned
merger of HN and NN was completed.
Van Gestel railed against APA “for
continually asking HNN to give up East
II [while] not fulfilling the [agreement to
reserve] West III for HNN.” He added
that HNN “is prepared to exchange East
II” on condition that P&O Ports agrees
to hand over berths 730-738 at
Delwaidedok to HNN-MSC. APA has
still officially to endorse this solution,
which would give P&O Ports a left bank
terminal three years earlier than originally
planned, with start-up around 2005.
Van Gestel has threatened a complete
somersault if the APA does not ratify this
“global deal.” The final agreement on
MSC and the Delwaidedok solution has
not been signed, so HNN and MSC still
have the option of “redefining their decisions”
- that is, keeping MSC’s “Home”
terminal at Deurganckdok West I and II,
and keeping East II and West III, which
was reserved by APA for HNN in 2000.
It is highly unlikely that APA would
now want HNN to retain the first eastside
terminal and it may not allow it to take
the concession for the third westside terminal
either. However, it is recognised that
having one operator on one site instead
of two can increase productivity by as
much as 35 per cent, which is a good argument
for allocating West III to HNN.
As things stand, HNN is fast approaching
capacity. Its container throughput increased
13 per cent last year and while
the Nordzee terminal is to commission
two more cranes and extend its paved areas,
both this terminal and the Europa
The Deurganckdok development has fuelled
major rows within the port community
Cracks in the wall
The changes started around the same time
as the go-ahead for the left bank
Deurganckdok complex was given.
Katoen Natie sold its Seaports Terminals
division to an outsider, P&O Ports and
HN and NN merged into Hessenoordnatie
(HNN). The moves were welcomed
by the port authority (APA), as
shortly after was PSA Corporation’s purchase
of HNN for some BEF240 bill.
A complete rethink about the
Deurganckdok concessions was needed
after Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC)
decided to withdraw its support from the
automated terminal joint venture with
HNN and concentrate instead all its activities
on the Delwaidedok, behind the
locks on the right bank, where its ships
were originally handled.
Although MSC blamed construction
delays at Deurganckdok, perhaps both it
and PSA baulked at the investment costs.
APA appears relaxed with the decision as
it frees up the Left Bank area and provides
renewed life in an existing area
which could have faced slow death. It also
gives the port a breathing space of at least
five years before it will need to make a
decision on future expansion.
Strong language
But something is not right. Breaking with
the “behind closed doors” tradition of the
port’s ruling circles, at the end of February
HNN issued a statement in which its
CEO Philip Van Gestel declared that
HNN “is deceived and angry
about...APA’s policy decision... concerning
the concessions at the Deurganckdok.”
The strong language was in response to
an APA statement regarding the settlement
concessions for the Deurganckdok.
These, as forecast in the February 2003
edition of WorldCargo News (pp19-20), relate
to the transfer of West 1 and II from
HNN-MSC to HNN, the transfer of East
II from HNN to P&O Ports, and an option
to transfer some of P&O Ports’ area
in the Delwaidedok to HNN-MSC.
It should be noted that while West I,
II and III refer to distinct terminals in
three phases, East II refers only to the
original timing of the construction phase
of the first terminal on the east side. This
will occupy 51-ha, with 1370m of linear
quay. (There is no “East I” as such).
Heart of the matter
Some observers question whether HNN
would have been so open were it not controlled
by PSA. This goes to the heart of
the relationship between HNN and PSA.
The presence of HNN in PSA’s portfolio
is necessary if the Singapore government’s
aim of privatising PSA is to succeed.
But some in Antwerp feel that while
HNN adds value to the PSA, the value of
HNN is being reduced in the process. Will
- indeed, can - an HNN controlled by
PSA maintain Antwerp’s outward and
flexible approach to shipping lines?
And there is another nagging question.
Would MSC still be “in” for the automated
terminal if HNN were not controlled
by PSA? For sure, some time
elapsed between PSA taking control and
MSC’s fateful decision. But that does not
necesaarily mean that post hoc, propter hoc
reasoning is a fallacy.
In any event, Van Gestel’s case rests on
the fact that under the original agreement
was that Deurganckdok West I and II and
East II were dedicated to the then HN
May 2003 25

WorldCargo
news
BELGIUM: PORT DEVELOPMENT
terminal are forecast to reach 90-95 per
cent capacity by the end of the year.
It is not yet decided what landside
handling system will be employed at the
West I and II terminal, although the automated
overhead bridge crane (OBC)
solution which HNN developed in conjunction
with Demag at considerable cost
has all but been ruled out.
OBCs may have suited MSC as 35 per
cent of its moves in Antwerp are in transhipment/relay,
but it would be too inflexible
for a common user facility. In any
event, although CP Ships group is currently
Antwerp’s second biggest container
line customer after MSC, its total
throughput does not justify the investment
of automated bridge cranes. Besides
which, most of its traffic is comprised of
import/export flows.
As such a straddle carrier operation,
in which Antwerp is a world leader, would
appear the preferred option, even though
RTGs would provide more density. In fact,
HNN is required to optimise the use of
the terminal area. If it were to adopt straddle
carriers, APA could argue that it was
not meeting the terms of its agreement.
In practice, APA is unlikely to force this
issue (unless invited to by PSA?)
Cutting the corner
A straddle carrier operation has been
given more impetus by the revised configuration
of West I. To meet environmental
mitigation requirements, a 25-
ha “chunk” will go from the corner and
it will no longer have a rectangular
shape. The port is considering appealing
against this decision, which is based
on a 1978 regional plan, as it cuts West
I by 25 per cent from 101-ha to 76-ha.
More crucially, it cuts the effective
working area by over 30 per cent.
P&O Ports has also made no decision
regarding landside handling at East II, although
again due to the awkward shape
of half this terminal, which borders a petrochemical
plant, straddle carriers would
be the obvious solution. It is still not clear
whether P&O Ports will take the whole
of the east side, unless it is confident it
can fill it. Maersk Sealand has put its name
forward for a dedicated terminal, but APA
appears reluctant to offer it West III as it
is not convinced that the carrier will be
able to fill the 800,000 TEU/year capacity
of this 53-ha site.
As noted, APA is under pressure to
allocate West III to HNN, which would
then command a continuous 2740m
quay wall. A compromise is for Maersk
Sealand to take a 2-berth area at East
II and leave P&O Ports the rest. P&O
Ports may choose, however, to retain
the full concession, even if it might be
surplus to its requirements, rather than
let a competitor in.
Locked out
A limitation of East III and West III is
their proximity to the proposed
Waaslandkanal lock which would connect
the existing Left Bank dock areas with
the Schelde through the Deurganckdok.
These inner docks are currently accessed
by the single Panamax-sized Kallo lock
and it has long been APA’s ambition to
have a second access point.
However, there is now less support for
New Record
Container traffic in Antwerp grew
14.2 per cent last year to a record 4.78
mill TEU and it accounted for 53.02
mt (ie 40 per cent) of the record 131.6
mt handled in the port. Container
shipping is thus now the port’s most
important business segment, although
its vocation as a general stevedoring
port remains strong.
The container figures, which partly
reflect a switch by MSC of some activity
from Felixstowe, equate to an
average weight of 11 tonnes/TEU.
This indicates a low incidence of
empty container shipments, which in
turn underlines Antwerp’s envied
cargo generation capabilities. ❏
the lock as it is calculated to be “revenue
negative,” with no chance of the estimated
€800 mill-€1 bill cost being recovered.
The official APA line is that “it is not yet
decided that there will even be a lock,
which will be decided at government
level, so there is no time frame.”
Second left?
Privately port officials believe the lock will
never be built. They would prefer to see
investment channelled elsewhere, to a second
rail tunnel for example (see below),
but another topic under discussion is a
second left bank tidal dock.
This is provisionally known as the
Saeftinge Dock and it will require the
complete destruction of the village of
Doel. There is already a large expanse of
empty water known as the Doeldok in
the enclosed left bank complex.
The APA maintains that the port will
be “full” by 2005, although this refers to
available land areas for container handling.
Given the willingness of MSC to operate
behind a lock, the environmentalists are
already arguing that priority should be
given to filling the under-utilised but
completed left bank docks first.
A government decision on the
Saeftinge project is anticipated around
2007, but given the strong environmental
opposition and the slow progress of
the Deurganckdok, this date must be open
to considerable doubt. ❏
Any old Iron?
Rail access limitations on the left bank
also influenced MSC’s decision to pull out
of the Deurganckdok project. The rail
tunnel under the Schelde is operating at
full capacity and a second tunnel is included
in SNCB’s €1.4 bill infrastructure
investment programme for Antwerp.
The 900m long Liefenshoek tunnel
would be double-tracked. Costed in the
region of €500-620 mill, it would, on its
own, only put greater pressure on the existing
right bank rail network. The Antwerp-Schijnpoort-Berchem
link is handling
some 300 freight trains/day and is
facing capacity problems.
Therefore, the new Liefenshoek tunnel
would be connected to a new loop
track to the Antwerp North marshalling
yards where it will then join a new line
to Lier, via Ekeren, Schoten, Wijnegem,
Wommelgem and Ranst. At Lier it will
connect to the existing rail network leading
to Germany; and Wallonia via Liège.
Unfortunately, the “Iron Rhine” is still
“derailed.” Two EIS have independently
concluded that this historic route is the
best option, both economically and environmentally,
for better rail access to
Germany from the Rhine seaports. The
scheme has the misfortune of crossing a
part of Holland and the Dutch want to
delay it for as long as possible.
The low point in the dispute with the
Dutch, says the APA, was reached “when
Dutch officials, acting on the instructions
of [then] Dutch transport minister
Netelenbos, broke off all preparations for
putting [their short section] of the Iron
Rhine back into use.”
The dispute is slated for international
arbitration but even the preliminary talks
about this have now been delayed. At this
rate, the Dutch Betuwe Line will be up
and running long before the Iron Rhine
comes back into play. ❏
26
May 2003

HOLLAND: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
Going Dutch over funding
While the Port of Rotterdam has
gained outline government support
for Maasvlakte II, there are still
doubts in some quarters that it will
go ahead. The initial planning stages
have been secured, although there are
still at least two more stages where
environmental issues will play a major
part. Meanwhile, the financing of
the project is still an open issue.
Under the original compromise
agreement reached for Maasvlakte II,
the City of Rotterdam, as owner of the
port, was to contribute half the infrastructure
investment required while the
government would provide the rest.
Currently, however, the Dutch government,
following finely balanced elections,
is still trying to form a stable Parliament
and until it succeeds, funding
decisions will not be taken.
Not so keen
Furthermore, in Holland today, there is a
distinct lack of enthusiasm for major longterm
development projects and the balance
has swung in favour of more immediate
“vote catching” projects. As such
Maasvlakte II probably faces as stiff a commercial
test as an environmental one.
As a way round the dilemma, the
City of Rotterdam has offered to lend
the government half of the latter’s contribution,
in effect paying 75 per cent
of the cost during the construction
phase. The state would initially contribute
25 per cent and the remaining
25 per cent of its commitment would
be repaid over “a number of years.”
Thus the city would provide €1.2 bill
of the €2.4 bill cost and fund a further
€600 mill as a loan to the government,
whose own direct contribution of €600
mill would mostly go on the construction
of the outer breakwaters. This financial
engineering makes government debt
look more healthy and, consequently, believes
Rotterdam Municipal Port Management
(GHR), is more acceptable.
Private party
Although the GHR is dependant on state
and city funding for the Maasvlakte II
development, it is due be corporatised in
any case, in a bid “to distance itself from
politics.” The legal structure of the port
will be changed to a commercial entity
albeit, in the short term at least, with only
one shareholder, the City of Rotterdam.
This new “NV” status will provide
GHR with greater flexibility when negotiating
contracts with its tenants. It will
also allow it more commercial freedom
including the ability to solicit funding on
the open market. However, in today’s climate,
it might not gain much from this.
GHR admits that it is on a learning
curve when it comes to behaving as a full
commercial entity. Recently it acquired
several sites in the port area for strategic
reasons, such as the redundant RDM ship
repair yard, but its latest venture is even
more ambitious in that it is a joint venture
with a private property developer.
The decision to buy the Hydro Agri
site at Vlaardingen may have been influenced
by the fact that the property developer
had the option on the property
and the port wanted to retain it for portrelated
activities rather than see it switched
to residential/commercial use, but it has
exposed it to a completely different way
of working. Previously, for example, GHR
was always automatically awarded full triple
A financial status, but in funding this
project it found itself subjected to more
scrutiny, as will be the norm when it
achieves its NV status.
Looking south
GHR is also pushing ahead with the incorporation
of the second phase of its
joint venture with Zeeland Seaports
(Terneuzen and Vlissingen). The original
Exploitatiemaatschappij Schelde-Maas
(ESM 1) was formed in 1995 to operate
the Scaldia facility in Vlissingen. This 100-
ha site was developed for neo-bulk activities
which cannot be handled at
Rotterdam as there is insufficient space.
The more ambitious ESM 2 is intended
to develop and operate all the
unallocated sites in Vlissingen, estimated
to occupy around 500-ha, including the
new Westerschelde Container Terminal
(WCT). The first phase of WCT will see
a 600m quay wall, including a dedicated
barge berth, served by four cranes. Ongoing
phases would provide a further
2000m of quay wall with 17.5m depth
alongside and 12 more cranes able to handle
12,500 TEU ships.
Technical preparation for WCT is
underway but it has met with an unexpected
legal challenge from the State
Council. It is hoped to resolve the issue
soon, in order to allow construction to
begin under the aegis of the ESM 2.
New-found flexibility to act in a commercial
manner may help GHR to attract
financing, but there are other commercial
matters it must address, not least
being the development of P&O
Nedlloyd’s planned container terminal
venture with ECT (Euromax).
The terminal has been delayed not just
by uncertainty over the construction and
ship access to the Maasvlakte II develop-
The Port of Rotterdam has come up with a
Maasvlakte II variant to ease concerns about
navigational problems. (Pink is new land area)
May 2003 27

WorldCargo
news
HOLLAND: PORT DEVELOPMENT
ment but also by uncertainty over
the future composition of the
company, given the speculation
that P&O would withdraw from
container shipping. Another point
is that P&O Ports has major
projects at Antwerp and on the
Thames Estuary (London Gateway)
in the pipeline. The most
pressing problem, however, is that
neither GHR nor P&ONL know
exactly where the quay wall will
be sited!
Ifs and buts
If Maasvlakte II is not constructed
due to funding problems, the quay
wall will be where it was originally
planned. If, however, the port
extension goes ahead, the quay
wall will be at least 100m or even
150m in front of the original position,
effectively almost doubling
the size of the terminal. Thus even
if P&ONL were to withdraw, the
GHR could not offer the site to
the Vervat companies (Hanno and
Uniport) as its seaward boundaries
have yet to be defined.
This helps explain why GHR
invited two Dutch consultancy
firms, Rups Adviseurs and Basis
& Beleid, to “revisit” the vexed
question of a “City Terminal” in
the Waal/Eemhaven area where
ECT Home Terminal, Hanno/
Uniport and Rotterdam Shortsea
Terminal (RST) would “pool their
resources.” If the inner port area
were “rationalised,” surplus port
areas could be given back to the
city. But what would Vervat gain
by giving up its push for a
Maasvlakte terminal?
Up front
The Euromax problem revolves
around the access configuration of
Maasvlakte II. Originally GHR
put up two different configurations,
with the most expensive at
€3.5 bill having direct access to
the western side, which would
have required a new deepwater
breakwater, or a €2.3 bill option
to use the uncompleted
Yangtzehaven and the existing
main approach channel. The latter
variant was the one which the
government agreed to plump for
but it was not liked by the shipping
community as it requires a
very tight 180 deg turn and was
thus not an ideal navigational solution.
It was dubbed the Yangtse
variant, as a play on Yangtzehaven
and a disparaging reference to the
crowded Yangtse waterway in
Shanghai (WorldCargo News, February
2003, p19).
New idea
The port’s engineers have accordingly
come up with a novel solution
to improve access by increasing
the turning circle through removing
approximately half the
existing land area on the south side
of the Yangtzehaven as far as the
northern boundary of the recently-commissioned
DFDS terminal
and the Lyondell petrochem
complex currently under
construction. The majority of the
existing Yangtzehaven will then be
backfilled to provide a 500m wide
access channel to Maasvlakte II.
This configuration, although
more expensive than the compromise
Maasvlakte II in that previously
reclaimed land will have
to be removed and dredged waterways
reclaimed, has the advantage
of allowing the siting of a
barge terminal on the north side
of the Yangtzehaven adjacent to
the Euromax facility.
A barge terminal was always
in the plans but, under the revised
proposal, it would no longer require
the relocation of at least
three of the massive oil storage
tanks at the Maasvlakte oil terminal.
Not only would this have been
logistically very difficult, the cleanup
and resurfacing costs would
have been very high. Under the
new plan, the barge terminal will
be located adjacent to Euromax
and in front of the tank farm, but
with minimal impact on it.
No hurry
P&ONL may still want its own
dedicated terminal but in terms
of throughput and capacity it is in
no hurry. ECT, its current stevedore
and partner in the joint venture,
still has capacity at its Delta
terminals in spite of giving up approximately
one quarter of its
concession on the Delta peninsula
to Maersk Sealand.
Maersk Sealand show no signs
of hurrying to move into this area,
Currently, a part of the DMU is being used to handle American military
cargoes. The facility is “fenced” by stacks of containers and the gate is manned by
armed US soldiers
which is essentially the space occupied
by the original Delta
Multi-User terminal (DMU) and
roughly a third of it is at present
unused for commercial traffic.
This area is being employed to
handle US military traffic and is
protected by a wall of containers
with its own entrance guarded by
armed US soldiers. Neither ECT
or Maersk Sealand are involved in
the operation which is being carried
out for the military by C
Steinweg Handelsveem, whose facility
at Botlek is too small for the
current volume of shipments.
Room for growth
ECT still has a further 450m of
quay on the south side of the
Delta adjacent to Delta Dedicated
West and the company’s
operations director Jan Gelderland
considers that capacity
“will not be reached until 2009,
but even then that is hard to
define with on-going improvements
in handling efficiencies.”
For instance, six more 1 over
3 automated stacking cranes
(ASCs) have recently been ordered
from Kalmar Industries BV
(ex-Nelcon) and it is likely that
these will replace some of the earlier
1 over 2 ASCs at DDN, the
former Delta Sea-Land terminal,
whose original 1 over 1 ASCs
could then be redeployed at the
DDW extension.
As this terminal has more
depth than DDN, stacking densities
are not so critical and the
smaller ASCs may suffice. “As
throughput builds up,”, considers
Gelderland, “we can always go
higher as the technology and software
is now, or soon will be, in
place to allow us to do so.”
New systems
But what is probably the biggest
undertaking at ECT since
Hutchinson assumed control is
the changeover to a single computer
system for DDN, DDW
and DDE. Commissioning is
scheduled for 2005.
Breaking with ECT’s previous
policy of developing its own software
in-house, Hutchison opted
to use outside services in the shape
of a joint venture formed between
Navis and Gottwald Port Technology
to develop a fully-integrated
automated computer management
program to replace the existing
15 year old model (see
WorldCargo News, May 2002,
pp51-52 and this issue, pXX).
The system will be fitted in
place under three phases so as not
to disrupt the working of the terminals.
Phase 1 will replace the inhouse
data with an “off the shelf”
package, while phase 2 will involve
replacing the automated control
process.
The control system for the
Gottwald AGVs has recently been
upgraded and they can now operate
more flexible routing patterns,
instead of the previous fixed
path “railway” system and can also
overtake a stationary AGV. The
new program will build on this
and provide even more flexibility,
which should lead to greater productivity
while keeping the same
speeds. Gelderland considers that
if the software “is clever enough
to avoid buffering, then AGVs are
better than straddle carriers.”
Back to basics
Last year’s modal split figures are
not yet available as previously
GHR based its figures on those
of ECT as it was the dominant
container stevedore handling
some three quarters of the port’s
containers. However, with the rise
of Hanno, the entry of Maersk
Sealand as an independent stevedore
(through APM Terminals)
and an increase in shortsea container
traffic, this model has had
to be abandoned. In 2001, the split
between road, barge and rail was
49:39:12 but it is thought that last
year saw greater road use.
This is mainly due to an increase
in throughput at RST,
which now accounts for over 1
mill TEU/year and mainly employs
trucking for time-sensitive
cargoes, although operators such
as Geest are investigating more use
of barges. Barge traffic is also expected
to increase this year with
Evergreen’s relocation from the
Home terminal to the Delta. Previously
Evergreen tended to truck
a large percentage of its containers
to/from this central location,
but a move to the Maasvlakte
makes barge transport more viable
for its > 280,000 TEU/year
throughput.
Better rail links
In addition, improvements to the
rail link connecting the
In the nine months since NYK bought the facility, the Paragon terminal in
Amsterdam has remained idle, apart from this berthing trial in February with
NYK APOLLO. It is rumoured that the terminal was on Eurogate’s shopping list
and that the deal Ceres struck with NYK surprised GHA
28
May 2003

HOLLAND: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
Maasvlakte with the main rail link, including
building a new tunnel under the
Oude Mass at Botlek, overhead 25kV
electrification of the port line, a new rail
connection to the northwest corner of
the Maasvlakte, which will eventually be
the start of the Betuwe line, are underway
and scheduled for completion by 2004-
05. The Maasvlakte rail terminal is also to
be extended, with phase 2 to be brought
into operation between 2004 and 2006.
Wide open spaces
The Port of Amsterdam not only has considerable
space available for development
it also has an unused, new ≥ 1 mill TEU/
year container terminal. NYK’s purchase
of a majority stake in the Paragon terminal
at the Amerikahaven, following its deal
to buy into Ceres last autumn, sparked
interest, which was revived when NYK
docked its new container ship NYK APOLLO
for berthing trials in January (WorldCargo
News, February 2003, p20), but the facility
remains unused.
The trials apparently went well and
some empty containers were exchanged,
but the terminal’s continuing
idleness well after over a year after it
was commissioned is the cause of some
red faces at the Amsterdam Municipal
Port Management (GHA), But GHA’s
new executive director, Hans Gerson,
remains confident. “If NYK did not intend
to use it, why would they have
bought Ceres,” he asks rhetorically.
ro services for cars (WorldCargo News,
September 2002, p1) but this has been
dismissed by Gerson and by Chris
Kritikos, Ceres’ founder and CEO.
Kritikos also categorically denied the rumour
that NYK had put some of the
cranes up for sale.
Gerson points out that when NYK
took over the Ceres operation, it also inherited
Ceres’ contract to undertake
stevedoring at Nissan’s car import facility
at Amsterdam’s Westhaven facility. As such,
it has more than adequate storage facilities
for new automobiles without using
the container terminal.
Catch 22
The Paragon terminal’s position behind
locks has often been cited as a fundamental
reason why the facility has not
been able to attract any customers, but
Gerson points to MSC’s recent decision
to establish its “home” terminal
behind the locks at Antwerp. This location,
he argues, requires considerably
more sailing time than Amsterdam and
yet both locations are, unlike Rotterdam’s
Maasvlakte developments, much
nearer the customer base.
Amsterdam and Antwerp also have
comparable inland waterway connections,
while Amsterdam has the advantage of
being close to a major international airport.
The first phase of a new road linking
the airport to the outer port areas,
where the NYK container terminal is
located, has been constructed.
GHA has also entered a joint venture
with the Schipol airport management
company to develop a distribution centre
on port land, mainly for air freight although
it could also serve as an air-sea
cargo interchange.
Chicken and egg
The main problem, Gerson considers,
is that there is no traditional container
handling “infrastructure” in Amsterdam
and the cargo will not come until this
is in place. But this is “chicken and egg”
problem. The agents, freight forwarders,
shipping lines, haulage companies,
etc, will not establish a presence in
Amsterdam until there is cargo.
Looking ahead, GHA’s view is that
with only one access lock, the port
could face congestion problems and a
second lock should, Gerson states, be
planned with a firm schedule before
any line will commit itself. The Antwerp
enclosed docks, for instance, are
accessed by two sets of twinned locks
which eliminate any congestion potential
and also reduce the risk of damage
trapping a ship inside.
While Gerson maintains that Amsterdam
has an exemplary lock safety
record and keeps a complete spare lock
gate on standby, it is a factor which
lines consider and is “an active selling
point against them.”
Studies are underway on a wider
lock, which will be put before government
to allow the financing to be
organised. There is a fear that between
the Betuwe Line and the
Maasvlakte II development, there
will not be enough funds available
for other transport and shipping-related
projects. ❏
Better with Eurogate?
Perhaps because it was a condition of
buying Ceres’ USEC/Gulf Coast operations?
It may have been better for Paragon
if a (rumoured) sale to Eurogate
group had gone through. Eurogate could
have approached all its customers at arm’s
length whereas NYK has to persuade fellow
alliance members to divert some calls
to a facility which apparently it is not
ready to use itself.
There was some speculation that
NYK would switch the terminal to ro-
From Zee to Zee
With Cobelfret’s new terminal now
open in Zeeland Seaports (ZP)’
Port of Vlissingen (Flushing), the
Port of Zeebrugge is to set to lose
car traffic of some 300,000 cars/
year as the Ford contract is
switched to the Dutch port.
Cobelfret has been handling
around 1.4 mill cars/year at
Zeebrugge, mainly short sea import
and export between Europe
and the UK, although it is anticipated
that the number will fall as
the Vlissingen terminal develops.
Cobelfret was unable to obtain
approval from the Zeebrugge port
authority to expand its ro-ro operations
onto the redundant Flanders
Container Terminal site. While this
was a “push” factor for Cobelfret,
it was also “pulled” by Vlissingen’s
better inland connections, particularly
waterways.
With Ford as top client, much
of Cobelfret’s Compagnie de
Manutention Vlissingen (CDMV)
traffic will be generated by the
Ford plant in Genk, Belgium, for
which Cobelfret has established a
barge link with its two North Sea
terminals. It is also setting up
Rhine services between Vlissingen
and Duisburg (WorldCargo News,
March 2003, p17).
Once completed, the Vlissingen
terminal will occupy 60-ha, with
the volume in its first full year forecast
at 350,000 cars and 80,000
trailers (including automotive
components). There is speculation
that Grimaldi will switch some
shortsea car traffic from Antwerp
to Vlissingen, particularly if it lands
a contract to carry Ford cars from
Spain to the UK/north continent. ❏
● The Port of Gent is seeking more
co-operation with ZP. Its membership
of ZP was mooted when
Terneuzen and Vlissingen first
merged into ZP, but a cross-border
alliance, on the lines of the Malmö-
Copenhagen merger, is currently
ruled out by Flemish law. ❏
May 2003 29

WorldCargo
news
HOLLAND: CARGO HANDLING
New cranes go with the swing
Praxis, the Dutch engineering
consultancy practice
specialising in materials
handling solutions, has come up
with a new lemniscate crane
claimed to be less expensive yet at
least as efficient as existing designs.
The consultancy, originally
formed in 1966, was acquired by
Figee in 1991, only to be returned
to its previous owner in 1995
when Figee changed hands.
Prior to 1991 Praxis had a
good working relationship with
Figee, frequently assisting in design
and engineering of Figee’s
lemniscate cranes. Today, Praxis argues
that while the Figee design
remains fundamentally sound,
changes in fabrication, machining
practices, drive systems, materials
etc, leave room to design a similar
but cheaper crane based on modern
engineering practices.
As previously reported
(WorldCargo News, January 2003,
p4) two large, Praxis-designed,
rail-mounted lemniscates were ordered
by Flushing Marine Terminals
(FMT) in Vlissingen and built
by HTJ International. The second
one is about to be commissioned.
The cranes are designed for grab
duty, container duty or hook duty,
respectively rated at 17.5 tonnes,
30 tonnes and 40 tonnes maximum
SWL at maximum outreach
of 37.5m. The lemniscate design,
unlike a conventional jib crane, has
the same lifting capacity throughput
the luffing range due to its
counterweight operation.
Lifting speeds with empty grab,
full grab and 40 tonnes are 120,
90 and 35 m/min respectively
while luffing speed is 60 m/min.
This will provide a bulk handling
rate of 650 t/h in grain and allow
up to 30 containers/hour to be
handled. Four rope spreader operation
is achieved by the hydraulic
extension of the top sheaves.
All drives are electric with a total
installed power of 500kW.
Mobile version?
The successful introduction of the
design has led HTJ to consider a
rubber-tyred mobile version.
While the boom could not - unlike
harbour mobiles up to a certain
size - be lowered to pass under
power lines or bridges when
changing quays, the lemniscate design,
says Praxis, is fully-balanced
and thus would impose significantly
lower ground pressure
loadings on the jacks compared to
a conventional harbour mobile.
As also previously reported
(WorldCargo news, December 2001,
p1) Praxis came up with a special
1 over 1 straddle carrier design and
the prototype from HTJ is just
now starting trials at FMT.
Floating grabber
Praxis also designed an unusual rotating
gantry grab crane for a floating
pontoon, to unload and
lighten vessels from handysize to
capesize. The unloader was ordered
by Sarat Chatterjee & Co/
Bothra Shipping Services of
Visakhapatnam, India. It was
partly-built in Holland and completed
and erected in India at
Hindustan Shipyards. The self-propelled
pontoon, measuring 44m
by 24m beam and designed in
Holland by Mark Straten Engineering
for HTJ, is certified for
operation in sheltered harbours.
The crane has a handling rate
of 650 t/h ship-ship at maximum
outreach of 42.5m from pontoon
over the moored vessel and 50m
from the centreline of the slew
ring. Lifting, trolley and slewing
speeds are 90 m/min, 120 m/min
and 0.5 rpm respectively from a
total installed power of 250kW,
with all drives electrically powered
from an on-board generator.
The grab discharges into a
The prototype RoadRunner 1 over 1 shuttle carrier has just been delivered for
testing to FMT, Vlissingen. In the background is one of the new lemniscate cranes
hopper between the crane legs and
above the slewing ring, which
in turn feeds a slewable conveyor
to backload barges and
smaller vessels moored on the
other side of the pontoon. This
arrangement disposes with the
need for a backreach extension
as the grab inward move is only
as far as the hopper.
The crane operates as a conventional
gantry crane and the
slewing function is not used under
load but to allow the crane
to access all parts of the hold
without constantly unmooring
and moving along the hull of
the deep-sea vessel. The slew
function is also employed when
the ship is moving between its
anchorage and the quay, with
the boom swung into the fore
and aft position.
Spreading the word
In Stinis and Smits Spreader Systems,
Holland possesses two independent
spreader manufacturers,
which compete with and yet in
some respects also complement
each other. Both are privatelyowned
businesses which have
grown on the back of innovation,
good quality products and the
flexibility to tailor-make spreaders
to suit individual requirements.
Stinis says it is currently fullybooked
with an order book of almost
90 spreaders for delivery
around the world. Around 80 per
cent of the orders relate to its twin
20 or Long-Twin designs. Work
is also continuing on the split
headblock (4 TEU), “scissorslift”
concept (for last report see World-
Cargo News, February 2003, p24).
For its part, Smits is also enjoying
some success in the high
speed, quay crane sector, including
the market for separating centre
twin 20s and it has recently
completed delivery of a five unit
order to Eurogate. The Smits’ design,
by virtue of its shock absorber-mounted
twistlocks, can
cater for a 6-inch height difference
between two 20fts.
Remote monitoring
In a bid to widen further its customer
base, Smits has invested in
remote monitoring systems based
on cellular phone data transmission
technology. In essence, a technician
in the Someren plant near
Eindhoven can “call” a spreader,
as long as power is on the unit,
and link into the onboard monitoring
systems.
This system is essentially a development
of the plug-in type diagnostic
unit Smits designed for
on-site fault finding and rectification,
with the cell phone card
replacing the hard wire link.
In the Smits design all motions,
from spreader extension/retraction
to flipper actuation, are carried
out by hydraulic cylinders.
Smits maintains that this is a less
expensive and lower maintenance
solution than hydraulic actuators
and chains. Another division of the
Smits group, located in Belgium,
manufactures hydraulic cylinders.
While some machining and
welding is carried out at Someren,
the site is employed mainly for
fabrication and erection and components
are sourced from other
plants in the Smits group. All machining
of the spreaders, for example,
is carried out by Smits
Machining Factory BV. A division
which supplies shock absorbers for
the automotive industry (mainly)
is now contributing to Smits’ latest
“silent” spreader design.
This solution, Smits estimates,
is some 10 per cent cheaper than
conventional outsourcing to lower
cost areas. Their prices might look
attractive but for sophisticated,
high stress structures such as crane
spreaders quality control is considered
more important. Smits’
sales manager Jan van Stiphout says
that the company is investigating
the Asian market closely and may
decide to enter it, but it would still
keep manufacturing “in-house.”
Expanding market
Van Stiphout estimates that the
spreader company is growing at
around 20 per cent/year and to
meet demand a new 4000 m 2 extension
will be added next year
following the acquisition of a
neighbouring factory. Production
is around 120 spreaders/year but
most of these are said to be high
value crane spreaders, with a much
lower share of FLT attachments
than the former Mandigers de
Jong whose spreader business lines
Smits took over a few years ago.
The change is a result of several
factors, such as the mobile
plant OEMs’ tendency to fit their
own attachments; or make arrangements
with other spreader
suppliers on the basis of a “volume
discount;” and the emergence
of a “new” market, the inland
container terminal sector.
This market is less demanding
than the quay crane sector in that
speeds are lower, cell guides are
extremely rare and handling rates
are lower. As such, it proved to be
a very good development ground
to enter the ship-to-shore crane
spreader market. ❏
Stinis says that some 80 per cent of its current order book is for its twin 20 or
Long-Twin spreader designs
30
May 2003

WorldCargo
news
Dubai set to fly?
Dubai Ports Authority (DPA) has not only
embarked on a prodigious expansion programme
at home (see WorldCargo News,
February 2003, p9 and, for information
on a ground-breaking crane order, pXX
this issue), it is also set to challenge Singapore
in the latter’s “back yard.”
The Emirate has signed an agreement
with Malaysian partners to continue the
development of Johor-Tanjung Pelepas as
a major new port and logistics hub.
Tanjung Pelepas has already proved a
major thorn in PSA’s side.
32
Last month Mohammad Ali Alabbar,
a key adviser to Dubai’s Crown Prince
Sheikh Mohammad Al Maktoum, signed
a MoU with Malaysian port magnate Syed
Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, aimed at setting up
a joint venture to invest in ports, logistics
and real estate projects in the Middle East
and Malaysia. Underscoring the MoU’s
high profile, it was witnessed by Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Industry sources are confident that
Dubai Ports International DPI) will figure
prominently in the deal. The planned
facility is likely to be a logistics hub with
mixed-use development, Mohammad Ali
Alabbar was quoted as saying.
Plenty to invest
He added that the joint venture intends
to tap a massive pool of money pulled
out of the US by Middle East investors
following 911. “Many Arabs took their
money out of the US...post 911...As a result,
we now have a lot of liquidity sloshing
around in the Middle East.”
DPA logged a 24 per cent increase in
container throughput in the first three
months of this year at Jebel Ali and Port
Rashid, handling 1.157 mill TEU. Last
year DPI handled 5.27 mill TEU. Of this,
DPA accounted for 4.19 mill TEU, while
the foreign interests, Jeddah South and
Djibouti, handled 0.899 mill TEU and
0.178 mill TEU respectively. Targets for
DPI are believed to be Vallarpadam and
Vizhingham in India’s Kerala state.
Elsewhere in the UAE, Halcrow
Group has been awarded a consultancy
contract by Abu Dhabi’s Port Services
Corporation (PSC), which wants to add
650m of quay with a depth of 15m alongside
at Mina Qaboos. This is ambitious, as
it would require conversion of the existing
seawall at Shutaify Bay.
Halcrow’s studies will examine future
demand - PSC wants to enhance Mina
PORT DEVELOPMENT
Qaboos’ transhipment rôle (only MSC
today) - and technical aspects and it will
also draw up a commercial and financial
plan for the long-term operation of the
port. The study should be completed by
the end of this year.
Salalah’s Aden gains
Elsewhere, last year’s terrorist attack in
Aden on the French tanker LIMBURG,
which followed the October 2000 attack
on the USS COLE, has boosted Salalah in
Oman at the expense of PSA-backed
Aden Container Terminal (ACT).
War risk premia for calls at Yemeni
ports have been raised nearly threefold to
between 0.4 and 0.5 per cent of the value
of a ship’s hull and machinery. For vessels
of around 5600 TEU, the raised premium
is as much as US$300,000 per call.
ACT handled 383,355 TEU last year,
just 1.6 per cent up on the figure for 2001.
After the LIMBURG attack, throughput fell
back by 81 per cent, from 42,502 TEU in
September to just 8064 TEU in December.
Singapore’s own APL was among the
first to divert ships from ACT to Salalah.
To try and woo back shipping, the Yemen
government is offering financial guarantees
up to US$150 mill to cover the cost
of terrorist acts in its waters.
Under strong competitive pressure
from Jebel Ali, Salalah Port Services has
cut labour and other costs. The port’s overall
operating costs were cut be three per
cent last year to ORials8.21 mill.
Band playing again?
Back in the Gulf region, the “on/off ”
story of Iran’s Bandar Abbas privatisation
scheme (WorldCargo News, May 2002,
p35) has taken another new twist, with
the government in Teheran dusting off its
previously cancelled plan for a BOT container
terminal container terminal in the
port. Ports &Shipping Organisation
(PSO) has begun pre-qualification of prospective
operators of the terminal. Among
the firms interested in bidding are said to
be P&O Ports, Maersk Sealand (APM
Ter minals) and Dubai-based regional
feeder operator Simatech Shipping, as well
as several Iranian companies.
Although no detailed specifications
have yet been issued, the estimated
US$20-30 mill project is expected to
cover new infrastructure, procurement of
equipment and operation of a new terminal
in the western part of the port.
PSO has previously engaged prospective
operators in talks, but last year announced
it would take over the project
itself. That decision was reversed under
plans by India, Iran and Russia to take
their previously agreed north-south international
transportation corridor project
(Baltic-Caspian-Indian Ocean) seriously
(WorldCargo News, February 2003, p18).
Detecting a change of mindset at PSO,
prospective bidders seem optimistic that
this time a deal is likely. In addition, Teheran
has come under pressure from
Moscow and New Delhi, which see
Bandar Abbas under its current set-up as
more of a hindrance than a help. Initial
plans to set a consortium of commercial
shipping and transport companies of the
three countries have been delayed.
Iran has a security motive to tie in
Bandar Abbas to western capital, as it is
“ringed” by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan
and has a tense relationship with
Pakistan. Somewhat confusingly, however,
PSO’s director of civil engineering,
Khodamorad Ahmadi,has stated that the
development budget for 2003-2004 includes
Rials3000 mill (US$37.5 mill) for
the second and third basins of Shahid
Rajaiei - next to, but not, Bandar Abbas.
The US has already turned down an
Iranian offer to channel aid for Iraq
through Bandar Khomeini. However, at
the time of writing, the few facilities
which are functioning at Umm Qasr -
where SSA has the management and operations
contract from USAID (last
month’s WorldCargo News, p4) - are
chronically overloaded.
The Jordanian government has suspended
tariffs, so the transit business from
Aqaba is entirely in the hands of truck
operators. Containers and trailers have to
be devanned at the Iraqi border. Aid containers
landed at Iskenderun or Mersin
have to be devanned in the port and, again,
most Turkish drivers will not venture
south of the border. ❏
May 2003

TERMINAL OPERATIONS
WorldCargo
news
Broad-shouldered or
narrow-minded?
For some time now LXE has been arguing
that 2.4Ghz spread spectrum technology
should be the radio frequency data
communication (RF) network of choice
in the ports industry. In some countries
(notably Japan and Korea) narrowband
frequencies are not available so spread
spectrum is the only option but in most
locations there is a choice.
Of the port installations LXE has completed
in the last two years, 90 per cent
were 2.4Ghz spread spectrum, while only
seven per cent were narrowband and the
other three per cent were 900Mhz spread
spectrum. This is in contrast to Psion
Teklogix. Edmund Rucels, the company’s
manager, global vertical marketing,
based in Canada, notes that narrowband
still represents the majority of installations.
Of Teklogix’s 275 port and intermodal
sites, just 15 per cent use 2.4GHz, but
notably almost all of these were installed
in the past two years.
The future is now
The advantages of 2.4GHz are wellknown
but to recap briefly spread spectrum
offers a much higher data rate (1-
22Mbps) compared to narrow band (4.6-
9.6 kbps). However, the strength and resilience
of a narrow band signal is much
higher and more access points are required
for a spread spectrum system, making it a
more expensive option than narrowband.
Another important point is that
2.4Ghz technology is regulated by the
IEEE802.11 standard. This ensures that a
conforming 2.4GHz wireless LAN can
connect to a TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) with a
simple access point, meaning that mobile
devices can communicate with a wired
network and run any software, just like
an ordinary workstation.
For Frans Kok, sales director of LXE
Emea in Holland, a 2.4GHz wireless LAN
is “the proper technical foundation for the
future.” It allows remote computers to use
software requiring a graphical user interface
(GUI), transfer files and can support
the emerging “Voice-over-IP” technology
that will allow verbal communication
over the wireless LAN.
LXE recently formed a partnership
with Spectralink that will see LXE integrate
its voice technology on wireless data
networking systems. Terminal personnel
will be able to talk to each other as well
as send data on the one wireless LAN.
Text message
There is little doubt that 2.4GHz is the
more powerful technology, but the question
is whether terminal operators need
it yet? Rucels from Teklogix considers that
when choosing a network, the yard management
system almost always dictates the
network requirement.
“A minority of yard operators are using
GUI...most applications are still in
character mode. As a result the
narrowband band width is sufficient for
most of these operations. When the application
is character mode there is a substantial
saving to be realised installing
narrowband instead of 802.11b.”
While this is the case now, software
suppliers are saying that a GUI is necessary
to achieve the full benefits of their
systems (for yard planning in particular),
but terminals need the proper network
(ie 802.11 standard) to take advantage of
it and provide for the increasing number
of third party systems that need to share
the network.
LXE is pushing the message that if
terminals are going to invest in RF, it
makes sense to implement the system that
is going to be (or is already) the standard
and gives the flexibility for adding new
products and functionality.
With regard to cost, Kok says that the
price of a 2.4Ghz infrastructure has gone
down considerably in the last two years
and a standard access point with a Nema
enclosure and outdoor antenna cost
More ports are opting for 2.4Ghz spread
spectrum wireless communication
networks, but combining spread spectrum
and narrow band technology is an option
A number of Psion Teklogix installations use
a mix of narrowband and spread spectrum, with
dual radio access points
around US$ 2000. “The coverage area of
2.4Ghz technology has also greatly improved,”
he adds, “with LXE’s Spire solution.
This combination makes a 2.4Ghz
technology system much easier to implement.”
He adds that 2.4GHz offers lower
cost of ownership as it can be managed
and supported like a wired LAN which
most terminals have the personnel and
skills to cover.
Teklogix is not standing against the
tide of better technology; rather its argument
is that terminals do not need to invest
in 2.4GHz if there is no immediate
benefit and they can migrate to it at a
latter date. “Operators know they can add
802.11b if and when an application requiring
adding bandwidth is deployed.
“They realise they do not have to build
out for the future. They can upgrade the
network as required. Psion Teklogix makes
that easy with the 9150-access point,
which supports both types of radio,
narrowband and 802.11b simultaneously,”
said Rucels. For the future Teklogix is
expanding its capabilities to include support
of GPS positioning systems, OCR
systems and electronic seals.
Going GUI
As mentioned above, yard planning software
increasingly requires a GUI, especially
where yard gantry cranes are used.
Teklogix is offering a “dual radio strategy”
whereby part of the terminal is covered
by spread spectrum and part by
narrowband. In most cases the ground staff
are covered by the narrowband network
while high machines such as RTGs are
covered by spread spectrum.
As many as one third of Teklogix’s
customers in China are employing
mixed systems, including Tianjin,
Ningbo and Shanghai Container Terminals.
In India Teklogix has a pure
narrowband system at Chennai Container
Terminal whereas Container
Corporation of India is using
narrowband for the yard and 2.4GHz
for its wireless distribution system.
The reason for the popularity of the
mixed approach, says Teklogix, is that ports
are looking to ways to minimise their
transition costs from narrowband to 2.4
and dual radio access points are an excellent
migration path. Furthermore, the
LXE claims to have brought down the cost of
spread spectrum infrastructure for ports
mixed system avoids problems managing
spread spectrum coverage at ground level
for terminal staff and low height machines
such as reach stackers. Rucels says that
Teklogix can overcome most of these
problems with a good site survey and appropriate
infrastructure, but narrowband
eliminates the coverage problem.
No need to combine
LXE, on the other hand, is adamant that
most customers want to use 2.4Ghz
spread spectrum through the whole terminal
to maximise the benefits of using
GUI applications. Kok adds that there is
no reason to combine the two technologies
in a new port.
“Virtually any port can be covered
completely with 2.4Ghz spread spectrum.
In ports with existing narrowband systems
it might make sense to run both
during a transition period or if there needs
to be a gradual switch from old to new
due to budgetary constraints.”
Where systems are being combined,
,LXE questions whether ports have the
necessary confidence in the supplier to
cover the site with 2.4GHz spread spectrum
only - a problem which LXE says it
has solved with the Spire antenna technology.
In one of the biggest challenges
of spread spectrum coverage in a port environment
to date, LXE recently implemented
a 2.4GHz system with Spire antennae
and Cisco access points at APM
Terminal’s 400-acre Pier 400 facility in
Los Angeles.
Straight and narrow
GPS-based autosteering systems are becoming
increasingly popular for RTGs
and they have implications for wireless
LAN selection. Broadly speaking,
autosteering creates two problems for a
wireless LAN: the amount of data
throughput is much higher; and, where
DGPS or other correction signals are used,
these must be transmitted as well. LXE
has some narrowband sites using a GPS
system, but Kok says that where it is used
in combination with other positioning
technologies such as a gyroscope,
narrowband will not work.
Teklogix, on the other hand, says that
the problem can be overcome in
narrowband with a parallel RF for the
correction signal from the fixed DGPS
receiver. In practice, says the company, this
parallel RF network is of no significant
cost, but is has proved somewhat tricky
to get a free primary user license for a
450MHz range in a port environment.
And even if the license is not a problem,
interference on these frequencies often is.
Teklogix has applications where GPS
speed, direction and loading information
is transmitted and Rucels says that they
require data terminals that not only communicate
with the wireless network but
also provide a means of passing all the
other data through the computer terminal.
“There could be a requirement for as
many as three serial ports to get the data
onto the wireless LAN.”
Another area where future technology
could make narrowband redundant
is electronic container seals, being tested
between Hong Kong and select US west
coast ports as well as between Vancouver,
BC and Seattle as part of the “Smart and
Secure Trade Lanes” initiative.
LXE is currently working on the
Vancouver/Seattle pilot and says a
2.4GHz, GPRS (general packet radio
service) or GSM is required as the
whole application (developed by Savi)
is based on Windows CE/ Web browser
as an operating system. ❏
April 2003 33

WorldCargo
news
TERMINAL OPERATIONS
Making sure one gets IT right
In the 1990s the market for container
terminal operating systems
(TOS) boomed, as Navis and others
successfully marketed off-theshelf
software to a wide range of
container terminals.
The market grew steadily as
more terminals saw the benefits
of buying a TOS rather than developing
their own and vendors
extended their products to cover
all areas of terminal operations:
reefer monitoring, gate systems,
optimised routing paths, etc.
This market is now slowing
down as the majority of terminals
have purchased a TOS and many
of the large stevedoring companies
have leveraged their size to
develop their own.
Shorter pockets
There is a steady trickle of contracts
for TOS at new terminals
and there are still terminals in developing
countries without a TOS.
However, smaller terminals can
A smaller pool of potential customers combined with
increasing integration in the transport industry is
challenging suppliers of terminal management
software to “rethink” the way they deliver services
afford less and many have looked
at off-the-shelf systems already but
found them too expensive. Software
suppliers need to find new
ways of meeting the needs at the
low cost end of the market, while
finding new services that can add
value to larger terminals and existing
clients.
Navis scales down
How to deliver a TOS to smaller
terminals while maintaining a premium
for larger clients is something
Navis has been wrestling
with since it first announced it was
developing a web-based product
for smaller terminals more than
two years ago. Robert Inchausti,
director of product marketing at
Navis, says that development is
nearly complete and the service
is expected to be launched in June
this year following testing with a
container depot in the USA.
The target market is smaller
terminals and depots of which
many use older legacy systems
and/or do not have the resources
to support their own software and
data management. Inchausti says
Navis is working to keep the pricing
plan simple and customers will
pay for the service through a single
user charge based on volume.
This will be Navis’ first real
foray into the Application Service
Provider (ASP) service delivery
model that has been gaining
some momentum in the container
terminal software market.
Look out for the ASP
Some suppliers, notably Maher
Terminals Logistics Systems
(MTLS) and Tideworks, have long
supported the ASP model and
both deliver services this way. As
previously reported, MTLS delivers
services to Baltic Container
Terminal in Gdynia, Poland, Massachusetts
Port Authority and Rio
Cubatão Logística Portuaria in
Brazil over the internet.
Tideworks delivers services to
several terminals operated by its
sister company SSA Marine (formerly
Stevedoring Services of
America) over the internet but
spokeswoman Michelle Boon says
that Tideworks “has found that
terminal operators are reluctant to
rely solely on the Internet for system
delivery. For this reason, we
offer several ASP-like variations
that offer terminal operating systems
through dedicated connections
that also have back-up connectivity.
We also host customers’
own servers in our datacenter and
in other cases manage servers remotely
for customers who want
to have their server on site.”
Other vendors are not convinced
that there is a real need or
demand for the ASP model. “We
do not feel that the interest in ASP
really exists,” says Cosmos director
Rudy Martens. “Our experience
shows that customers want
to rely on their own hardware.”
Martens acknowledges that the
internet has a place as it “is an ideal
communication platform” but says
customers still want to receive systems
in the “traditional” way.
Safe hands
It seems that most concerns about
the ASP model are in the areas of
security and reliability of service.
Jim Schreitmueller, Navis’ vice
president, field operations, says the
concerns are understandable. If a
crane goes down most terminals
can keep operating, but if the TOS
is not available the whole terminal
can grind to a halt.
However, adds Schreitmueller,
security has been addressed and
Navis is confident its systems will
be unbreakable. The stability of an
internet connection is something
Navis can do little about and, if
this is a concern, he says that a second
ISP should be considered.
Other companies are also targeting
the small and medium terminal
market. Global Transport
Solutions (GTS) is a joint venture
between Maersk Data (USA) and
Eurogate IT Services GmbH.
Maersk Data (USA) was formerly
Cosmos’ exclusive value-added
distributor for the USA.
GTS offers a suite of products
including e-Term, an internetbased
terminal management system
for smaller terminals, and
TOPS, licensed software for medium
and large terminals. TOPS
was developed by Realtime Business
Solutions (RBS) and its partner
Container Automation Systems
of Australia and is used by
Taiwanese lines Evergreen,
Uniglory and Wan Hai.
As previously reported RBS
signed an agreement with APM
Terminals to implement TOPS at
Constantza last year. GTS has now
been contracted to support the
TOPS at Constantza and is marketing
the product internationally.
Take your partners
Many vendors are looking to increase
sales through partnering
with major stevedores or shipping
lines. Total Soft Bank (TSB) of
Korea describes this as “securing
friendly markets through the captive
market strategy.”
TSB notes that as competition
gets tougher in the global marine
logistics market, it is making efforts
to secure a captive market by
investing in major port companies.
It has a strategic alliance with
Embarcadero Systems Corp.
(ESC), the daughter company of
US west coast stevedore Marine
Terminals Corp (MTC). It has also
established a joint venture Japanese
stevedore and logistics company
Kamigumi.
Increasingly, port IT services
Tacoma
dispute
It is understood that Navis may
take legal action against the
Port of Tacoma for breach of
contract after the port signed
a deal with Tideworks in
March to deploy Spinnaker at
its intermodal rail terminals.
As previously reported
(World Cargo News, April 2000,
p29) Tacoma had previously licensed
Sparcs 2.8 for its rail
planning needs. Navis VP Jim
Schrietmueller says software
was installed at Tacoma, but the
system never went live. As far
as Navis is concerned it still has
a contract with Tacoma. The
port declined to comment. ❏
in the US market are being provided
by firms owned or affiliated
with major stevedores. The OOIL
group has rolled out J-STEPS at
several terminals operated by its
subsidiary TSI, while MTC has
implemented a version of TSB’s
CATOS at nine marine terminals.
Most recently, Operadora
Portuaria de Manzanillo (OPM),
the largest container terminal on
the Pacific Coast of Mexico, announced
it was replacing Navis’
Sparcs system with Tideworks’
Spinnaker planning system. SSA
Marine now has a controlling interest
in OPM, although
Tideworks claims that the ownership
change took place after
OPM’s decision to select it.
Ownership or joint ventures
with stevedores must be something
of a double-edged sword for
IT suppliers. While they create
opportunities they also make doing
business with other terminals
operated by the stevedore’s competitors
extremely difficult.
Get integrated
As the market for TOS gets tighter,
several IT suppliers are turning their
attention to products and services
aimed at integrating the container
terminal with the wider transport
industry. In part this is being driven
by events in the USA. The widely
publicised ‘Lowenthal Law’ that
fines a terminal if trucks are idling
at the gate for 30 mins has led to a
surge of interest in OCR gate systems
and internet-based truck
booking systems.
However, while more gate
“transparency” will help, the real
bottom line is that gate hours have
to be extended but for this to
work shippers/consignees and
trucking firms must be prepared
to co-operate and take advantage
of the longer opening times.
At any rate, Schreitmueller says
that Navis is ready to meet terminals’
needs in this area through its
network of “Navis ready” certified
partners in the area of OCR,
RDT and position determination.
Navis offers its own WebAccess
product that provides third parties
with a browser interface for
accessing information from the
TOS. Schreitmueller says terminals
that make the best use of this
technology are those that can take
the lead and engage their constituents,
showing them how they can
use the information to improve
their business.
ESC approach
ESC’s vice president, sales and
marketing, Steven Lautsch agrees
that the TOS market is mature and
34
May 2003

TERMINAL OPERATIONS
WorldCargo
news
sees more value in focusing on integrating
the increasing array of systems that
terminals are either implementing or require
access to. Lautsch also sees that the
Lowenthal Law will focus attention on
truck queues across the USA and that
more terminals will look to integrate
OCR, vehicle booking and third party
security systems into their existing TOS.
In cooperation with Advent Inc of
New Jersey, ESC has developed WebTams,
an internet-based module of the CATOS
M21 TOS that allows shippers and lines
to access information on cargo in the terminal
over the internet. Another product,
Voyager Track, has an appointment
module for running a booking system.
ESC can integrate these products with
the terminal’s choice of OCR system and
wireless LAN provider.
MTC recently completed a three-year
project to install terminal management
systems at its nine terminals that collectively
handle 30 per cent of container
moves through the US west coast. The
latest deployment was at Total Terminals
Inc, Hanjin’s Seattle terminal operated by
MTC, where ESC installed CATOS 21
and its VoyagerTrack, WebTams and
VASTAC (Video Audio Security Terminal
Automation and Control) systems.
Data centres
As well as integrating the applications and
third party systems, ESC can host all the
software and manage the data at one of
its two data centres. Both are equipped
with large servers that are used by different
transport industry service providers,
spreading the cost over several users.
While others have noted that terminals
have yet to embrace the ASP model
Lautsch sees it as an “imperative” as the
whole transport industry becomes more
integrated and addresses the issue of supply
chain security. Lautsch is convinced
ASP has a future in the industry and points
to a contract ESC has to deliver services
to a 300,000 moves/year rail intermodal
terminal and host all software and data at
its data centres as evidence.
Interestingly none of the US software
suppliers seem interested in developing
their own OCR gate systems, other than
the software required to interface third
party hardware with the TOS. As previously
reported Cosmos has taken a different
route and developed its “VGS”
(Visual Gate System) that is in use at ECT
in Rotterdam.
Martens says the implementation at
Rotterdam has “proven to be very successful,
and has shown that VGS achieves
true gate automation and an important
reduction of the gate handling time. Negotiations
with other potential customers
are continuing. Meanwhile, Cosmos
has recently signed up new customers for
its TOS software - Générale de Manutention
Martinique and, in China, Tianjin
Port Sixth Stevedores Companies.
Taking the train
As well as more cost-effective products
for smaller terminals and container depots,
several vendors are looking harder
at rail terminals as a potential source of
business for their yard planning software.
As previously reported, Tideworks has
signed a contract to install Spinnaker at
Tacoma’s north and south intermodal rail
yards. Spinnaker is normally used in conjunction
with a TOS (usually Tideworks’
Mainsail) but most intermodal terminals
use the railroad’s general software for recording
arrivals/departures, etc..
Tacoma will be the first time that
Tideworks has deployed Spinnaker as a
stand-alone system and this required some
changes to the software. Michelle Boon
explains: “Some of the functionality that
is traditionally handled by the terminal
operating system, such as gate processing,
container history management and EDI
for gate activity, needed to be added to
Spinnaker to operate stand-alone.
“We are also interfacing Spinnaker
with several third party systems at the Port
of Tacoma, including the port’s automated
equipment identification server, railroad
line systems and terminal operating partner
systems.” In effect Spinnaker is being
used to run the yard system at the terminal
with yard planning, automated location
assignments and so on normally used
in a marine terminal.
In another rail-related development
ESC has signed a contract with CSX
Technology to deploy its VinTelligent
web-based tracking system for managing
CSX’s vehicle shipments in the US. CSX
moves one out three vehicles produced
in the US, some six million vehicles/year,
through its vehicle terminals operated by
subsidiary TDSI.
ESC describes VinTelligent as a “vehicle-centric
terminal operation system
delivered via the web” designed to track
the movement of automobiles and heavy
vehicles. Like a container terminal management
system it is divided into modules
covering terminal, vessel and train
planning, financial management and reporting.
Deployment has begun and complete
on-line functionality is expected to
be up and running by the end of 2004.
Finally, Hamburg Port Consulting
(HPC) has installed its CTIS (Container
Terminal Information System) at more
intermodal terminals operated by Polzug,
in which its mother company HHLA is a
major stakeholder. This year installations
have been completed at Poznan, Slawkow
and Wroclaw. HPC has also signed a contract
to implement CTIS at Hamina
Multimodal Terminal in Finland, whollyowned
by the Port of Hamina after
CSXWT sold its share in 2001.
HPC has recently extended its BTOS
(block-train operating system) by adding
a web interface for bookings, tariffs and
container tracking. CTIS “talks” XML
and can be connected to Java-based applications
via Java messaging services. ❏
BCT, Gdynia is among MTLS’s customers
via the ASP model
May 2003 35

WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Surplus cranes: Liability or opportunity?
The container industry has yet to
reach a stable, mature state.
Change has been, and still is, the
rule. Nowhere is this more obvious
than the ever-increasing size
of new dockside cranes
Meanwhile, the “workhorse”
cranes of the 1970s and 1980s
continue serving reliably and efficiently
for all but the widest
ships. Many of these cranes have
been modified. Some were simply
raised; others also had the
outreach extended and some were
equipped with modern electrics.
At load centre and transshipment
ports these older cranes have
become functionally obsolete and
are being replaced with new
jumbo size cranes. Thus there is a
growing glut of surplus cranes
with little or no resale market.
Worse, major ports are learning
that the disposal costs may be
extremely high per crane depending
on local environmental and
safety rules. The “wishful thought”
of deep ocean disposal has occurred
to some port managers stuck with
Prestressed rods are one very effective way to cut
the cost of voyage bracing and will thus help make
second-hand cranes more affordable*
* This article was written by William
Casper PE, of Tacoma, Washington
US-based crane consultants Casper,
Phillips & Associates
paying to demolish a crane that
many smaller and “wannabe” ports
would like but they cannot afford
the relocation cost.
This could soon change, however.
The trick is to find cheaper
ways to transport and modify these
surplus cranes. Concepts being
applied on a current project by
Pacific Gate Ltd (PGL) may become
the example that restores the
viability of relocating surplus
cranes to distant ports. They are:
● Select the smallest available
heavy lift vessel that is suitable
● Utilise prestressed tension rods
rather than pipes for bracing
● Make any necessary modifications
at a location that offers the
best combination of cost, quality
and delivery.
Transport vessel
For the current project PGL, a
UK-based company, used BigLift’s
HAPPY BUCCANEER for the transport
of two surplus IHI cranes
from Tacoma to Singapore (for
Johor). This vessel is just large
enough to carry both these cranes
and is equipped with twin 550
tonne SWL cranes. It has a favourable
wave motion response and a
maximum speed of 14.75 knots.
It was an excellent choice for this
particular move.
A transverse stow was selected
to take advantage of the IHI
cranes’ inherent lateral strength
against the voyage roll motions.
The cranes were loaded such that
their booms were on opposite
faces because the first crane had
to be shifted forward to clear space
for the second one. The forward
shift could not clear the lifting
crane unless the IHI boom was
raised and faced the dock.
Rubber-tyred dollies were
used on the dock to turn the first
IHI crane around. Then the dollies
were used on the ship for the
forward shift. After the first IHI
was in its final position the boom
was lowered. The second IHI was
simply lifted aboard and set down
between the twin lift cranes.
Brace yourselves
The cost of voyage bracing is a
major factor governing the viability
of relocating surplus cranes.
This cost is substantially less for
rod bracing than for equivalent
pipe bracing.
PGL used high tensile,
threaded rods to supplement the
IHI cranes’ inherent lateral
strength and to secure the load to
the HAPPY BUCCANEER’s deck.
These rods were pre-tensioned
just enough to assure they would
not go slack if the load were subjected
to the design level of wave
motions. Casper, Phillips and Associates
designed the voyage bracing
to resist voyage motions specified
by BigLift’s engineers.
In some places the existing
crane structure was not adequate
to resist safely the combination of
self weight, prestress and voyage
forces. Adding permanent cover
plates strengthened these areas.
The bracing was installed and
tensioned by Bickerton Iron
Works (BIW), which also installed
the strengthening plates and
loaded the IHI cranes using the
HAPPY BUCCANEER’s cranes. Much
of BIW’s work was done prior to
arrival of the vessel.
The slender rods are nearly
invisible from a distance and appear
quite insubstantial to those
familiar with the massive pipes
often used for voyage bracing.
However, rods are not only far
stronger than they appear but they
also add beneficial pre-compression
to existing crane members.
This pre-compression helps to
reduce fatigue damage caused by
load reversals that, during a typical
voyage, total more than
100,000 cycles. Potential fatigue
damage is often underestimated
when load reversal count is incorrectly
based on still water roll and
pitch frequencies. Vessel motion
tends to tune into actual wave frequencies
that are considerably
higher than still water frequencies.
Discharge in Singapore was
carried out with Asia Lift’s 1600
ton floating crane. After the cranes
were discharged, the required
modification works such as gauge
change and electrical system upgrade
were designed and executed
by FELS Cranes Pte Ltd.
Opportunity knocks
Space limitations will force major
ports to dispose of their surplus
cranes as they change over to high
speed, jumbo cranes. For now
there is a large supply of surplus
container cranes that have many
years of remaining functional life.
Feeder ports and aspiring ports
can take advantage of this favourable
buyer’s market if the purchase
price, relocation costs and modification
costs come to a viable
amount; and if they procure these
cranes before they are turned into
scrap steel! ❏
Johor-bound IHIs loaded aboard HAPPY BUCCANEER in Tacoma. Below are
closer views of the rod bracings recommended by the author
Inventory to spare
Having successfully sold off two
surplus, diesel-powered Starporters
to Rio Haina, the Port of
Seattle is trying to sell three more
cranes (Nos 38, 39 and 33) and is
now advertising for two of these
(38 and 39) to be removed. Next
year it expects to put two more
up for sale (35 and 37) and possibly
No 36 as well. Three more
cranes (65, 66 and 67) are now out
of service and may become available
in a year or two.
Nos 38 and 39 are 40 long ton
SWL Hitachi cranes delivered in
January 1980. They have an
outreach of 115ft and a rail gauge
of 50ft. They are installed at Terminal
37 and are powered off a
trench-mounted conductor bar.
Lift height is 81ft above rail, as it
is on No 33 at T25, a 1972-built,
40LT-113.5ft, 50ft rail span
Starporter. This crane is powered
by an on-board diesel genset.
Nos 35 and 37 are also 40LT-
113.5ft Starporters on a 50ft rail
gauge and powered off a conductor
rail, built in 1974 and 1976.
Lift height above rail of 37 is 81ft
but, following a previous modification,
that of 35 is 101ft. No 36
is the twin of 35 and was modified
at the same time, so its lift
height above rail is now also 101ft.
Both 35 and 36 have back-up
power from a diesel genset.
So far most of the cranes for
sale on the US west coast have
been first and second generation
cranes on a 50ft rail gauge. However,
65, 66 and 67 are 50LT post-
Panamax Paceco Portainers which
were built in 1988-89. They have
an outreach of 145ft and a 100ft
rail gauge and are also powered
off a conductor bar. At some time
they were modified, too, and lift
height above rail is 115ft.
Exactly how many cranes are
or could be available in the US is
not known, but the Seattle situation
is hardly unique. In Long
Beach, for example, the port is
scratching its head to try and dispose
of four surplus cranes, a
1972-built IHI on a 50ft rail gauge,
and three Paceco Portainers, of
which two are on 100ft rails.
Wasted resource
It is clear that a potential resource
for ports in poorer countries
is going to waste. The
cranes have plenty of fatigue life
left. Scrap prices are not attractive
and in any case it can cost
around US$100,000 to dismantle
a crane and move it off site.
It might be more useful simply
to give the crane to the remover,
provided only that the removal
is carried out free of charge
and the remover undertakes to
recycle a crane to a needy port
for an affordable price.
Possibly an institutional
“mindset” makes such a scenario
difficult to realise. If the
cranes have been written off,
there is a natural desire to “sell
high,” to generate a “windfall”
return. Conversely, if they have
not been adequately written
down, there will be reluctance
to accept a low price since this
would mean writing an unexpected
loss into the books.
Could used cranes be traded
more easily if they were counted
towards “carbon trading” between
rich and poor countries? As yet at
least, an organisational framework
to facilitate this does not exist. ❏
Could surplus cranes with plenty of unexpired fatigue life be brought under the
aegis of “carbon trading” to help rich and poor alike?
36
May 2003

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
Putting a stop to braking problems
As previously reported (World Cargo News,
March 2003, p1), a driver was killed in
Surabaya in February when his crane was
blown down the quay and collapsed. This
is not an isolated event; while compiling
this article anecdotal evidence of over 12
cases of cranes set in motion in ”wind
events” in the past year came to light.
The term “microburst” as mentioned
in the Surabaya case has become something
of a catch-all and, indeed, one US
consultant, Tom Simmons, doubts if this
incident was a microburst event at all
given the reported wind speeds (see his
letter, p2). Are preventable accidents caused
by wind gusts that are common at ports
being blamed on unstoppable forces?
Microbursts are localised outbursts of
winds created by downdraft pressures
rather than normal frontal weather patterns.
Sudden winds caused by microbursts
can reach over 200 kph (55.5 m/
sec), severe enough to set parked and
clamped cranes in motion. However, not
all crane runaways are caused by such severe
winds and questions must be asked
about brake selection and brake failure.
In addition, questions arise about operating
procedures and practices and
whether they are observed. But they have
to be dealt with by terminal operators,
their insurance companies and the victims
of accidents and their families.
The incident at Surabaya again raises
the question of the type of brake that is
most appropriate for gantry travel. After
acquiring Sime the Stromag group now
covers electromagnetic motor-mounted
brakes and thruster discs. Stromag’s John
Brierley says the choice between the two
“is personal preference...some people like
the robust construction of the disc brake
but this requires separate protection. Others
prefer motor-mounted brakes which
are totally protected from the environment...”
Both brakes are suitable for long
travel but, adds Brierley, “what is required
is sensible sizing of the brakes, both torque
and energy wise,” taking into account “all
conditions in the E-stop with crane travelling
at full speed, with maximum load
and maximum wind and any gradient.”
Over the years a vocal critic of electromagnetic
motor-mounted brakes has
been Ican of Japan. Ican recommends a
long travel system of dynamic wheel
brakes on the non-driving wheels and
thruster discs on the driving wheel motor
shaft. Technical director Rob Harrison
says while all braking systems meet the
necessary specification at the time they
are fitted, one of the key issues is maintenance
and thruster disc brakes are much
more easily inspected and adjusted.
Crane brakes are back in the spotlight
after “runaway” incidents in Vancouver,
BC, and Surabaya but there is little consensus
on how to prevent them
possible in an emergency situation.
The wear properties of any brake
should be properly considered when the
braking system is specified. Adequatelysized
brakes, says Brierley, can compensate
for some maladjustment and lack of
maintenance. Furthermore it is becoming
more common to request a “proving
switch for monitoring brake operation
and an additional switch for wear detection.
This data can be fed through the
crane PLC for maintenance purposes.”
Fitting thruster discs and dynamic
wheel brakes, says Harrison, is a “belts and
braces” approach that offers maximum
security, but is expensive. He argues that
the extra price of thruster disc brakes
compared with electromagnetic, motormounted
brakes is tiny in relation to the
crane, but crane OEMs are under pressure
to minimise component costs, so
price is often a key factor.
Conservative approach
This is not always the case and some
OEMs recommend more expensive solutions.
Pat O’Leary from Liebherr, for
example, says the company stopped using
motor-mounted brakes some 20 years
ago and prefers to install an “independent
brake on the gearbox shaft which is
conservatively rated. This practice ensures
that full braking is available even when a
motor is removed.” For storm brakes
Liebherr’s preferred option is an independent
rail head brake that O’Leary says
“acts as an efficient back up for the primary
braking system.”
In many cases, however, the choice of
braking system is not the crane manufac-
Maintaining the force
An electromagnetic, motor-mounted
brake requires the air gap between the
coil body and armature plate to be set to
the correct size. The gap is checked either
by removing the cover or inserting a
feeler gauge after removing inspection
bolts. Adjusting the air gap requires removing
the cover and turning the adjusting
bolts in equal amounts to maintain a
uniform gap. With a thruster brake the
air gap can be inspected, adjusted and
measured at one point and, therefore, it is
easier to maintain correctly over time.
Another problem is monitoring wear
of the friction lining group. On an
electromagnetic disc brake, wear is more
critical to performance as, unlike thruster
brakes, there is no automatic wear compensation.
If the brakes are not checked
properly, they can deteriorate to a level
where maximum performance is not
Dynamic wheel brake from Ican (IWB series)
May 2003 37

WorldCargo
news
Log-handling RMG retrofitted with Johnson’s new MB series motor end brakes. Such cranes
long travel at high speeds with light loads and this solution is claimed to soften the braking by
coming on over 500 m/s rather than 50-60 m/s for an electromagnetic brake
turer’s but the end user’s design consultant.
If the consultant specifies motormounted
brakes then Liebherr has to follow
suit but does so “reluctantly as their
efficiency and in particular adjustment and
verification of status is difficult to establish
with time.”
Another point is the in-service wind
speed limit of the crane. O’Leary explains
that operating wind speeds are usually 72
kph (20 m/sec) under FEM standards, but
some ports have persistently high winds
and specify higher in-service wind speeds.
Liverpool specified 80.5 kph for its most
recent Liebherr cranes, for example. Another
issue is the need to gantry safely to
anchor points or storm ties. In one case,
Liebherr built to a wind speed maximum
of 96 kph for gantry operation.
Holding power
Consultants Gottlieb Barnett and Bridges
(GBB) specify cranes all over the world
and project engineer Jim LaRose says that
for new crane projects, especially in
warmer climates where microbursts are
prevalent, wheel brakes are recommended.
Each terminal (and different cranes within
terminals) presents its own challenges and
what is best in one situation might not
be appropriate in another.
GBB was involved in the specs for two
new Paceco Portainers that SPA
Charleston ordered from Hyundai Heavy
Industries. LaRose explains: “The wheel
brakes and the motor brakes working together
had to be capable of holding the
crane on wet rails in a wind of 89 mph
(40 m/sec) in the most adverse direction.
The wheel brakes by themselves (no assist
from motor brakes) had to be capable
of holding the crane in a 60 mph wind.
“This is obviously a very stringent
specification, and to meet it, every gantry
wheel on the crane had to have a brake
on it.” This was an eight wheel/corner
arrangement, and on each corner, there
were four motor brakes (Pintsch Bamag)
and four wheel brakes (Bubenzer).
Johnson concurs
Vancouver, BC-based Johnson Industries
has come to the conclusion that braking
all the crane’s wheels is now the best option.
Norm Johnson explains: “As a consequence
of the many accidents which
have occurred over the past several decades,
and due to the increased size, height
and instability of container cranes, we have
concluded that all container crane wheels
should be braked. In addition, the maximum
acceptable wind speed for crane
operations should be 35 mph and gusting
over 40 mph should cause a mandatory
shutdown, automatic setting of storm
brakes, and operator evacuation.
Johnson continues that If a crane’s location,
exposure, design and height are
such that its maximum braking capacity
(ie with all wheels locked) is unable to
hold it in 75 mph winds, in-service limit
should be reduced accordingly.
“In the case of a wind shut down away
from a stowage and tie-down location, automatic
storm brakes should be augmented
by manual chocks by the operator
leaving the crane or by other terminal
personnel.”
Whatever braking system is fitted,
Johnson says that, when making the calculations,
conservative measures should be
used for exposure category, “importance
factor,” (ie the base case multiplier for
wind load calculations used by the American
Society of Civil Engineers to assess
risk to life and property), wind areas, pressure
centre elevations, shape factors, gust
factors and velocity pressure factors.
In addition, it is “essential to consider
the braking reduction caused by wind
overturning forces on the crane’s windward
side as well as the landside/waterside
unbalanced braking requirements for
boom-up and boom-down conditions.”
For storm brakes, Johnson is a firm
advocate of side-acting rail brakes as they
are not dependent on wheel loading, do
not create “uplift” and are not affected by
a reduced friction force on the windward
side of the crane. To a large extent the
effectiveness of a rail brake depends on
the condition of the rail and mushrooming
or misalignment at joints can damage
the brake. Where this is a problem Johnson
offers articulating rail clamps.
Several manufacturers consider that a
rail clamp cannot be a dynamic brake but
Johnson disagrees and considers there is
sometimes merit in fitting pads rather than
serrated shoes. Three years ago Johnson
Elevanja retrofitted dynamic rail clamps to
two ship unloaders at Port Talbot in Wales
after one was blown off its rails. There have
been no problems since.
CARGO HANDLING
Above: collapsed, runaway crane in Surabayah, in February this year. The driver died and
stevedores sheltering from the rain under an awning on the quay had a narrow escape. Below:
collapsed ship loader at Roberts Bank, Vancouver, BC, in January this year. The operator, Westshore
Terminals, blamed a freak gust of wind
Belts and braces
The approach Johnson is advocating can
be seen on ZPMC cranes at Waigaoqiao
in Shanghai. The crane has dynamic wheel
brakes, rail head storm brakes, an anchor
and wheel chocks (all of ZPMC’s own
manufacture). Some manufacturers would
argue that there is no point fitting rail
head storm brakes with dynamic wheel
brakes as the wheel brakes will hold the
crane once stopped and the rail head brake
will serve only to take weight off the
crane’s wheels, thereby reducing the efficiency
of the wheel brakes.
Whether or not this type of arrangement
is really needed, the rail head brake
does improve the total braking force once
the crane has stopped. When set a hydraulic
railhead storm brake will take weight
off the braked wheels and hence reduce
the braking force of the wheel brakes.
However, the coefficient of friction between
the pad of the static rail head brake
is higher than that between the steel of
the braked wheels and the crane rail.
Hence it will take more wind force to
overcome the crane with static rail head
storm brakes and wheel brakes than if it
had wheel brakes alone.
If, on the other hand, a rail head storm
brake is fitted with wheel brakes for added
protection against a runaway, in the event
that the crane is set in motion by a
microburst or wind gust, then there must
be doubt about its effectiveness. As noted
most rail head brakes are static brakes only
and applied against a moving crane would
only have the effect of reducing the effectiveness
of the dynamic wheel brakes.
Two more down
In January two quadrant ship loaders at
Westshore Terminals in Roberts Bank,
Vancouver, BC were blown over after
being hit by winds in excess of 100 kph.
It is understood that cranes at the adjacent
Deltaport container terminal were
also moved but not damaged. This is not
the first time a ship loader has collapsed
in Vancouver, BC; in 1999 one collapsed
at Vancouver Wharves in severe winds.
Westshore’s David Crook attributes
the accident to “freak winds” that surged
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May 2003

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
from 35 to 70 mph in less than a minute.
When winds reached 35 mph the terminal
began to shut down the quadrant loaders
but both were in gantry motion when
the gusts hit. The ship loaders are 30 years
old and have eight wheels at the waterside
rail and a fixed pivot point on the
landside. Four wheels were driven and two
motors were braked. For storm brakes
each had a 30,000lb scissor rail clamp acting
on the sides of the rail. Prior to the
accident Westshore had concerns about
operating the loaders in high winds and
their in-service limit was 35 mph whereas
for the rest of the terminal it is 40 mph.
Although extensively damaged both
ship loaders are being repaired. Westmar
Consultants of Vancouver has been contracted
to refurbish the cranes and a new
drive system is being fitted. All eight
wheels will be now be driven by ac inverter
drives and each drive will have an
integrated motor brake. For storm brakes
two side-acting 100,000lb rail clamps have
been specified per loader. Maximum inservice
wind speed is 40 mph and, once
applied, the clamps must hold the crane
in winds up to 100 mph. The clamps will
come on automatically in three situations:
when the crane is at rest for over 15 mins,
when wind speed reaches 30 mph and
Dynamic wheel brake and rail head push down
type clamp on ZPMC crane in Waigaoqiao
when there is a sudden wind event.
Westmar has awarded the contract for
the rail clamps to Hillmar. The new clamps
can be accessed from the landside inspection
door and will have a plexiglass window
for reading a counter that records
open/close operations, an oil level gauge
and a toggle indicator showing safe clamping
force or loss of force.
Opening the door allows easy access
to the oil change fitting and critical valves
on the hydraulic manifold. The serrated
shoes feature a new assembly design for
easier replacement and a second limit
switch is fitted for independent set indication
signal. The signal incorporated in
the PLC should prevent the crane from
moving until the rail clamps are fully released,
extending the life of the serrated
shoes and preventing rail surface damage.
Patent problems
Last year we reported that Sime-Stromag’s
new FAV series thruster disc brake featured
a patented wear compensator (World
Cargo News, May 2002, p47). In fact Sime-
Stromag has applied for a patent on its
wear applicator, but it is understood that
this is being challenged by at least one
manufacturer. Wear compensators are, of
course, not new but Sime-Stromag claims
it has come up with a unique design.
The compensation rod linking the two
arms has right and left-hand threads that
double the precision of compensation, says
the company. “In addition, the large stroke
of the free wheel stop allows compensation
even for small wear...so the compensation
system works properly in all conditions
with large or small lining wear per
brake and is at least four times more precise
than a standard system.”
Regardless of whether its patent application
succeeds, Sime-Stromag claims
the FAV is making a big impression on
the market with more than 70 units sold
so far and is confident “to double this figure
before end of 2003.” Not all customers
prefer the thruster design, however,
and Sime-Stromag has just booked an
order for 16 of its ‘T’ type hydrospring
calliper brakes for the refurbishment of
eight Noell cranes in Durban.
Also in South Africa, Svendborg of
Denmark is working hard, through Voith
SA, to promote disc brakes. The local
market has been slow to switch from
drums because, says Svendborg, drums are
cheaper and many users simply “haven’t
tried anything else.” The container crane
market also holds potential but has been
dominated by Sime through its distributor
Surtees and Stratford Engineering.
However, Voith recently bought out
Surtees and Stratford and Sime has discontinued
the relationship.
In the container crane sector, all
Svendborg’s orders last year were through
KCI Konecranes, including three BSFI 526
Separate issues
Bubenzer says that storm brakes should
be considered independently of the gantry
brakes and, in general, the type of brake
selected has nothing to do with whether
gantry brakes are motor-mounted electromagnetic
brakes or thruster brakes. For
storm brakes, Bubenzer says the best option
is a rail clamp (side acting design) as
there are no reaction forces on the crane
structure and the sides of the rail are often
cleaner than the top surface and are
subject to less wear.
It is not always possible to fit a side
acting rail clamp as the rail may not be
higher than the terminal surface or there
may be insufficient width for the clamping
arms. In this case, says Bubenzer, the
rail brake (a rail head storm brake) is a
good solution, but has the disadvantage
of “adding vertical reaction forces to the
crane structure once the brake is applied.”
Bubenzer also offers dynamic wheel
brakes, which are specified as standard by
some crane consultants. While acknowledging
the advantages of dynamic braking,
Bubenzer points out that a large
number of wheel brakes are often required
to achieve the specified holding force and
this is more expensive than other storm
brake solutions.
As previously reported (WorldCargo
News, March 2003, p1), Bubenzer has
launched the MA series, electromagnetic,
motor-mounted disc brakes. MA brakes
are available with nominal torque from
100 to 750Nm. They are made of stainless
steel and aluminium components and
fitted with sintered metal linings tested
to over 30,000 dynamic cycles.
One reason why Bubenzer developed
an encapsulated brake is to offer end users
the complete range of brakes from one
source. Bubenzer has long offered an electromagnetic,
caliper brake in a motor
mounted version (model SB17MX) but
acknowledges that many end users prefer
an “integrated” brake such as the MA series.
In designing the MA range Bubenzer
says its main target was to eliminate the
problems normally reported with their
operation including “torque adjustment
difficulties, regular re-adjustment for wear
compensation by having no control when
that should happen, limit switch adjustment
problems, heavy and difficult to
handle enclosures, heat resistance and wear
of linings, corrosion and required electrical
control units.”
No wear compensation is required at
up to 60 per cent of nominal brake torque.
Above this level, the brake must be adjusted
for wear as no automatic wear compensation
is available. Torque itself is fully
adjustable from 0-100 per cent without
removing the springs by adjusting screws
inside the cover with a special key. This
system also allows the release gap to be
adjusted at different points.
The first application for MA brakes
was in a steel mill in the USA. They have
recently been fitted with Siemens drives
on two container cranes in Taiwan. ❏
May 2003 39

WorldCargo
news
callipers for emergency brakes on
a quay crane for Copenhagen and
20 failsafe disc brakes and hydraulic
power units for 10 Konecranes
RTGs ordered by the Port of
Houston. The two hoist drums are
each equipped with a BSFI 531-
S-101 caliper disc brake with a
clamping force of 310kN. The
brakes and power units were delivered
on a special mounting plate
in just six weeks.
Rima takes two
Rima of Italy has received two
orders for rail clamps for high
speed RMGs. Rima’s Vincenzo
Marmorato says RMGs are a particularly
demanding application as
their light weight reduces the effectiveness
of a rail head storm
brake and frequent, high speed
long travel creates wear problems
for side acting rail-clamps.
Rima won the order for rail
clamps for 14 high speed Hans
Künz RMGs at HHLA’s CTA terminal
in Hamburg. To avoid contact
with the rail and properly position
the clamps, the design features
a guide with rollers acting on
the side of the rail. HHLA opted
for a special arrangement with
larger than usual guides built from
a special material and a lubricating
system for the transversal sliding
movement of the clamp body.
This month Rima is due to
supply rail clamps to Kranbau
Köthen for three high speed
RMGs under construction for
Röhrenwerk Gebr. Fuchs GmbH
in Siegen (one RMG) and
Infraserv’s “Trimodal Höchst” terminal
in Frankfurt-am-Main.
Self-blocking
Köthen has chosen Rima’s innovative,
self-blocking design, in
which the clamp jaws are connected
to the crane’s frame by a
swinging pendulum device. When
closed the jaws contact the top of
the rail but apply no clamping
force to the sides. Should the wind
overcome the gantry drive brakes
and the crane starts to move, the
pendulum activates the clamps to
act on the side of the rail.
This avoids wear on the braking
shoes during normal use. Another
advantage of the self-blocking
system, claims Rima, is that the
clamp is completely lifted out of
the rail while the crane is operating,
eliminating the risk of damage
through high speed contact
with the crane rail. ❏
Trolley speeds and acceleration
factors are reaching the limits for
conventional festoon systems. So
far the most popular alternative
has been the motorised cable trolley
but the cable chain will soon
have major new references.
As previously reported (World-
Cargo News, July 2002, p21 and
January 2003, p34), the trollies of
eight cranes ordered from ZPMC
last year by Virginia International
Terminals (VIT) for Norfolk will
have an energy chain system and
VIT has now confirmed that it
will come from Igus in Germany.
The trollies have a top speed of
244 m/min, an acceleration factor
of 0.74 m/sec 2 and total travel
is 126m. The first four cranes are
due from China in August.
The package comprises bus
and control cables, fibre optical
cables and the power cable for the
hoist. The specification follows a
successful trial with Igus on a
crane at Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
VIT’s engineering director
Dave Rudolf states that the trial
installation has clocked 1492 operating
hours which means 37,300
cycles (25 moves/hour). There has
been no downtime, says Rudolf,
while preventative maintenance
has entailed only inspection.
There was one incidence of
damage repair, after a ship’s crane
hit and dented the cable trough.
The system stayed operational, in
spite of the damages. Repair comprised
replacing a short section of
the trough. “In a nutshell,” says
Rudolf, “the system has performed
better than expected.”
Leapfrogging
For VIT, the cable chain post-dates
but has moved ahead of the inductive
power system which, at
one time, it looked like going
ahead with. As is well-known, VIT
installed the Contactless Power
System (CPS) from Paul Vahle,
together with Vahle’s Slotted Microwave
Guide (SMG) for data
transmission, on an elderly Paceco
Portainer which had analogue
drive controls at Newport News
more than three years ago.
By May 2001 VIT considered
the system was working well
enough to start using over vessels
instead of the festoon, which was
still there as a back-up. Between
May 2001 and August last year,
explains Rudolf, the CPS/SMG
system was used over 49 vessels for
a total of 413.5 hours, or around
10,000 cycles. Average time over
a vessel was 6.81 hours.
Although there was no problem
with hoist or gantry, operators
had a problem with the trolley
in the conversion of the power
from the drive through the CPS.
This resulted in loss of control at
low speeds, so positioning over a
container became “jerky,” with fast
starts and stops. VIT tried using a
digital master stick to alleviate the
problem but this did not work.
VIT’s view is that a crane with
digital controls would most likely
not experience the problems
which its drivers faced. “Overall,”
says Rudolf, “we feel that the
CPS/SMG system could be reliable
in a crane with a digital drive.
However, to date our preference
is the Igus energy chain as an alternative
to the standard festoon.”
Success elsewhere
The CPS is now a very successful
product for Vahle but, as the company’s
export sales manager Karl
Tillmanns, explains, in industrial
material handling applications,
such as automotive; naturally this
is where Vahle is concentrating its
resources, particularly as every
application is different and there
are no off-the-shelf solutions.
Furthermore, the CPS is rated
at 50 kW but power demand even
for rope-drive crane trollies is often
now above this threshold and
it would be very hard for Vahle to
justify R&D to meet this. Longterm
the ports industry may lose
out, because CPS would cost less
than motor-driven festoons and
save on size and weight, while a
cable carrier storage area and
maintenance platform would no
longer be required.
SMG has been successful in
the ports industry, since crane
maker KSR had practically standardised
on this solution for combining
with Vahle conductor systems
for the current supply on its
gantry crane trollies. It is not clear
whether Gottwald, having taken
over KSR’s know-how, will continue
with this arrangement but
there is no reason to suppose not.
CARGO HANDLING
Play the power game
Cable chains have made a big breakthrough in trolley
applications for high speed container cranes and a
big order for the long travel has also just been won
SMG is proven for interference-free,
high rates of data transmission
and Vahle has an extensive
development programme to
enlarge its application range and
cater for ever more sophisticated
automation requirements. Data
interfaces are already available for
the most commonly used bus systems
even in environmentally-difficult
locations such as foundries
and steel mills as well as harbours.
Combining waveguide technology
with long quayside conductor
systems can be problematic,
however, as Vahle previously
found in Long Beach, because of
problems such as misalignment of
the concrete trench and débris/
detritus in it, which tended to
damage the antenna guide.
Flexible response
Conductor rails are sometimes still
selected for very long linear quays
with a large number of cranes, but
generally speaking flexible cable
solutions have become more
popular because high rates of data
can be handled without EM interferences
using fibre optical cables
inside the power cables.
Recent orders for Vahle include
long travel cable reels and
monospiral spreader reels, all with
ac frequency control drives, for
two Noell cranes for Cartagena.
The spreader cable payout is 55m
and max hoist speed is 180 m/min.
The long travel reels, mounted
17m off the ground, each pay out
300m of HV cable and incorporate
f/o cable for signals wound
with a rotary transducer.
Four long travel reels have
been ordered by Kocks Krane for
its new project for four container
cranes for Israel, together with
heavy duty festoons for the 180
m/min machinery drive trollies.
For trolley speeds over about
200-210 m/min Vahle normally
recommends a motorised festoon
and, on the Cartagena cranes (240
m/min top speed on a total travel
of 96m), it is supplying a system
with two motorised trollies.
In some case, three motorised
trollies are recommended, depending
on various parameters
including the number of cable
loops, prevailing wind speeds, etc
which affect the “drag” behind the
first cable trolley. For a configuration
such as Cartagena, where
there are 14 loops including the
one behind the towing trolley, two
motors are normally sufficient.
Similar approach
A similar approach is taken by
Stemmann-Technik. By way of
example, explains the company’s
vice president, sales, Michael
Grunwald, the festoon for a machinery
trolley crane with a trolley
speed and acceleration of 210
Cavotec cable chain on the world’s biggest shipyard goliath crane, in Odense
40
April 2003

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
m/min and 0.8m/sec 2 was fitted with
three motorised trollies. Travel distance
was 115m and each of the 8m long loops
weighed some 1000 kg.
However, in another application, involving
a rope-drive trolley, two motorised
cable trollies were found to be sufficient,
even though the top speed was 240
m/min (same 0.8 m/sec 2 acceleration).
This is because the rope-drive trolley
and hoist solution required only light cable
packages - control cables, cab aircon
power, lighting, spreader reel, etc. The
loops were 5m deep and the weight on
each trolley was only 100 kg. Two trollies
near the cabin were motorised and an
auxiliary train trolley was fitted.
Optical allusions
Stemmann-Technik has been a leading
exponent of cable reeling solutions with
LWL rotary connectors to “wind” the f/
o cable links for around 15 years now and
has many references in the container ports
industry, bulk handling, mining, steelworks
and other heavy industrial applications.
The standard type contains 18 fibres
although up to 36 can be provided, depending
on the amount of data to be
transferred. Multi-mode cable has been
successfully applied for cable lengths up
to 4000m, while even longer lengths have
been handled with single mode cable.
For the past six years Stemmann-
Technik has also been providing spreader
cable reels with LWL cables. Applications
include the 46 bridge cranes at Pasir
Panjang, Singapore, Noell quay cranes in
Los Angeles and the Kalmar (ex-Nelcon)
automated stacking cranes at ECT, Rotterdam.
There are no restrictions imposed
by winding speeds or whether the reel is
of monospiral or cylindrical design.
Recently Stemmann-Technik has
brought to the market a new generation
of mini rotary connectors, of very compact
size and with integral wiring spaces.
They are particularly suited, says the company,
to spreader reels or high speed travel
reels on stacking cranes, where the space
for the reel installation is restricted.
Kabelskate is claimed to provide the best solution for long-travel applications of up to 500m
Panamax machinery trolley crane, but the
fact that the machinery trolley is normally
combined with a monobox boom to keep
the crane weight down. The clearance
available today under the underside of the
boom is typically 500-600mm and at
present the energy chains require around
800mm clearance. A design has already
been worked out for a lattice boom container
crane, however, with the first installation
being the Liebherr recently supplied
to Dublin Ferry Terminals.
Singapore project?
Igus is understood to have a major new
order to fit its energy chains as replacements
for a 30-year old conductor rail
system on an 800m quay. There are 10
cranes on this quay and some are required
to have up to 500m (± 250m of long
travel), so the chains have to “overlap” and
will be installed at different levels.
Unfortunately the customer involved
has put a block on all information but it
is believed to be PSA Corporation in Singapore.
Although Igus will say nothing, it
is known that the original system was
installed by Vahle and that Materials Handling
Engineering (MHE), a Demag
company which represents Vahle in Singapore,
has been contracted by Igus for
steel works and mechanical parts in connection
with a major project.
MHE has sub-contracted Vahle to provide
design and engineering services for
the steel works as well as the lifting trollies
for the cover plates. So wherever this
project is, it is the first time that Igus and
Vahle have collaborated.
Another significant supplier of cable
Growing chain gang
To date Igus has references for more than
500 RTGs/RMGs and 65 ship-to-shore
cranes, including container gantries and
gantry grab unloaders. The fastest system
to date, 300 m/min, has been in operation
on the widespan Dofasco ore bridges
in Canada for more than five years.
In the long-travel application, the
longest system to date covers a travel of
441m, installed on two Koch gantry grab
unloaders, built by STT in Slovenia, for
the Lekir Power plant in Malaysia. The
unloaders are also equipped with Igus
chains to power the main trolley and the
independent cab trolley. The Igus systems
were provided through Siemens (in
Erlangen, Germany), the main electrical
contractor for Koch in this project.
Recent installations include the trollies
of two Noell container cranes at STI San
Antonio and another two in Shekou.
These have trolley speeds of 240 m/min.
The booms are of the double girder type
and the trollies are rope-driven (World-
Cargo News, July 2001, pp33-34). To date,
the only installations on full machinery
trolley cranes have been the Noell bargeto-shore
cranes in Rotterdam, which are
relatively low speed.
However, says Igus’s crane projects
manager Theo Diehl, the limiting factor
is not the much greater mass, speed and
acceleration required for a fast, post-
Reel them in
The Conductique division of
Delachaux in France reports several
recent orders for cable reels for shipto-shore
container cranes. These include
retrofitting reels with frequency
control drives to two Paceco
Portainers in New Orleans, as well as
fitting the power reels and spreader
reels, again with frequency drives, to
the port’s two new Impsa cranes.
Elsewhere in the US, main power
reels with frequency drives have been
fitted to two new Konecranes’ cranes
for the Port of Savannah. In South Korea,
three main power cable reels with
magnetic coupler drives have been
supplied for new cranes. ❏
April 2003 41

WorldCargo
news
chains is Cavotec, through the Brevetti
product range. Brevetti systems are mostly
employed for trolley travel on RTGs, as
standard by some leading OEMs. To date
Cavotec has had no ship-to-shore crane
applications, for trolley or long travel, but
it has an important reference in the shape
of the world’s largest yet Goliath shipyard
crane, built by MAN-Takraf for the
Maersk shipyard in Odense. This crane is
fitted with eight cable chains, using a rope
trolley system patented by Brevetti.
Skating along
Meanwhile, a new design of energy chain
has been introduced by Kabelschlepp
GmbH in Germany. Called Kabelskate,
this is a double-sided chain with a rolling
carriage, based on the opposed running
principle. Whatever the speed and acceleration
of the upper carrier band, the
speed and acceleration forces on the rolling
carriage are half of those values.
The test carriage has a simple ‘C’ profile
and the rollers are made of low friction
POM (polyoxy methylene) in one
piece, with a simple groove design to hold
the lower chain band in position. For
larger carrier widths the rollers will be
separated and attached with bolts to a simple
carriage design. The task of the carriage
is to hold the rollers in position at
1m length intervals.
Kabelskate is said to be particularly
well-suited for very long travel applications
for cranes, up to 500m. Despite the
length and trailing mass, it requires exceptionally
low towing (push/pull) forces,
so the problems of carrier elongation and
shortening and the spontaneous “jumping
out” phenomenon are avoided.
Following an enquiry by a port in Asia,
Kabelschlepp developed the prototype
and tested it extensively in the huge hall
built for (bankrupt) CargoLifter’s airships
south of Berlin. The hall is 350m long,
ideal for the full-scale test of a 500m travel
length, with a 250m long carriage and
around 250m for each of the upper and
lower carriers (plus bending radius).
To simulate the real application, the
cable and carrier weighed 2000 kg (ie
carrier 4.5 kg/m and cable 3.5 kg/m) and
the carriage weighed 375 kg (1.5 kg/m),
but the push/pull force was only 350N
(35 kg) at a speed of 1m/sec constant
speed, so one man could easily move the
carriage. The rolling friction factor was
calculated to be only 0.005.
One man only
For this application requirement of 500m
of long travel, 46 m/min long travel speed
and 0.13 m/sec 2 acceleration, it was calculated
that the acceleration and friction
forces for the carrier would be just 260N
and 100N respectively. For the carriage
the forces were calculated at 25N and
250N respectively. From these values it
could be calculated that the total towing
force is just 597.5N, or around 60 kg.
This is much lower, says Kabelschlepp,
than can be achieved with a heavier, single-sided
gliding carrier or roller carrier
system, even if one accepts as the basis for
calculation the low friction factor claimed
for roller carrier systems.
The lower the towing forces, the less
the problems, says Herbert Wehler, the
director of Kabelschlepp’s carrier systems
business unit. Even for such a big system
of the length and mass tested (250m x 8
kg/m = 2000 kg), the low force requirement
means that when the carrier is
moved at the moving point (ie where it
joins the crane), the radius section (end
bend) also moves immediately. There is
no problem with elongation/contraction
or measurable backlash compensation, and
the cables need no special fixtures other
than strain relievers at both ends.
The tests have shown, adds Wehler, that
a pushing force of only 3300N is enough
to generate a contraction of 450mm on a
250m long carrier, or 350mm if one allows
for a 100mm settlement value. In
high ambient conditions, the elastic amplitudes
on the plastic carriers would be
even more marked. What is happening to
the cables under these circumstances, asks
Wehler rhetorically.
Furthermore, the longer the carrier,
the lower the force which can be tolerated
before the carrier “jumps out” of the
channel spontaneously. Jumping out is, in
effect, stress relief for the elastic deformations
which build up in the system. A
force of only 3300N will cause a 250m
Crane turntables are expensive and curved
rails are preferred for “90 deg turns.” This
usually means cutting off the corner from
access by the cranes, although at Ceres Paragon
terminal in Amsterdam, straight tracks
continue to near the end of the marginal
wharf and the southern wharf of the indented
dock via a points and crossover system
(see WorldCargo News, May 2001, p28).
A problem with curved tracks is to
power the cranes through them. Cavotec
has more than 15 years’ experience in this
field and it is interesting to note how the
technology has evolved. In the 1980s it
fitted a system to power Sumitomo cranes
fitted with Specimas “pull & store” reels
round a double curve (an ‘S’ bend) in
Tacoma. The cable was removed from the
reel guide and pulled with a catenary.
All the Samsung, low profile cranes at
Port Everglades to date have also been
fitted with Specimas pull and store reels.
When the port extended the terminal in
1998, the new cranes had to be able to
pass into a transversal wharf. They are fitted
with their own diesel gen set to negotiate
the curve and the cable is disconnected
from a Cavotec HV socket installed
in the wharf. When the curve has
been passed, the power cable is reconnected
to another socket.
At Ceres Paragon, the nine ZPMC
cranes again have Specimas pull and store
reels. Four can move between the south
side and the marginal quay. The cable is
taken out of the reel cable guide and laid
on small roller caddies.
Swivel guide
In the latest development, for an undisclosed
project (in the Far East), the design
involves a swivel guide on the portal
beam, to allow the cable to be pulled or
stored always in line with the bollards.
The swivel guide and pull reel are
mounted on a telescopic carriage. This can
be moved under electrical power to the
landside or waterside end by the operator,
using radio control, with switches for
the carriage and the HV cable reel.
CARGO HANDLING
Making the right turns
long carrier to jump out, says Kabelschlepp.
Previously the force limit was
thought to be in the 6000-7000N range.
Kabelskate can be used in all carrier
applications to reduce towing forces or
gliding wear, including high speed crane
trollies. It is understood that an installation
has been made on an intermodal
RMG in Germany.
Currently the design covers only double-sided
systems (ie opposed running
systems), but a solution for single-sided
Cavotec’s latest curve negotiation system will
not require manual cable support
systems is being developed. The doublesided
system is, in principle, self-guiding.
The relatively low speed, long travel application
for the quay cranes would not
have required a guide channel. In the
Berlin tests, not even fixing to the hall
floor was required!
In high speed/high acceleration applications,
a guide channel may be needed,
but this has to be decided on a case-bycase
basis. Width and stability of the system
are important criteria, as well as speed
During the curve travel, the cable is laid
on one trolley and gaps beside the rail and
the cable channel will be filled with wood
or covered. The cable trolley remains below
the cable until back cornering. The
trolley has a cable channel supported by
rollers and can be handled manually.
Gantrex job
Gantrex, now part of the Cavotec group,
has been awarded a contract to supply the
cable protection and crane rail support
components for an apron strengthening
and electrical upgrade project at Seattle’s
T46. It will supply 2600ft of 316L double-slot
channel Super Panzerbelt cable
protection covers from Specimas and
2310ft of runway/crane rail support system,
comprising Gantrex Weldlok 24 clips,
150RFS reinforced rail pad, continuous
soleplates and K3 formula epoxy grout.
Cable protection covers such as
Panzerbelt provide operational safety, protection
from traffic damage and from dirt
and rubbish accumulation in the trench.
There are no specific laws requiring cable
protection, but clearly leaving a medium-high
voltage cable unprotected
raises major safety concerns. At Ceres
Paragon in Amsterdam, for example, the
cable is not covered. In countries such as
Italy or the USA, cable covers are de rigeur
in ports, with Panzerbelt (mainly) or other
flexible covers. In a few cases (estimated
at 5 per cent), metal covers are fitted. ❏
and acceleration. In principle, a guide
channel may be required in a trolley application
on an RMG in a container or
intermodal yard, because of the
countervailing forces imparted by the
high speed long travel.
No data are available on sound outputs,
although Kabelskate is said to be
intrinsically relatively quiet. Upper and
lower chain bands are separated by the
rollers and these are in contact only with
the bands, not with other rollers. ❏
42
April 2003

E-COMMERCE
WorldCargo
news
Multi-channel approach to e-commerce
In 2002, there was a palpable air of
concern and frustration among ship
ping line e-commerce managers. The
online services they had launched with
such enthusiasm and hope over the previous
two years remained untried by the
vast majority of their customers. This grim
reality was most eloquently expressed by
a rhetorical question from one liner manager,
“When should we go to our company
Boards and tell them we lied about
the uptake of e-business services?”
Both lines and the carrier portals were
puzzled by the slow uptake of services.
The comments of Carsten Schneider of
CargoSmart were representative. “We
built a set of useful and user-friendly applications
for our customers and offered
them at no cost. This seemed like a simple
recipe for a win-win situation. What
we found was that leaving our customers
to train themselves and start using the
applications didn’t work. The fact that the
applications were free was not a sufficient
encouragement for them to get started.”
Old dogs, new tricks?
Schneider found that these adoption
problems were particularly prevalent in
large organisations. “I have found that the
more established a company, the more
rigid its work practices and the less the
will to change them even if they might
improve by using new tools,” he said.
Adoption was slow because there was
no real commitment to new ways of
working. Schneider concluded, “To be
honest, we overestimated the Internetreadiness
of some of our customers,”
This was certainly part of the story,
but customer inertia was not the only
thing holding back e-business. A leading
German forwarder, a. hartrodt, was keen
to push forward with e-business but compared
the situation in seafreight unfavourably
with that in the airline industry, particularly
with regard to data standards.
Will van der Schalk, hartrodt’s managing
director, cited carriers promoting
their own websites against the portals of
which they were members and bemoaned
the lack of integration between the portals
themselves. “The consequence of the
situation is that the customer still has to
cope with multiple interfaces if he wants
to stay flexible on carrier choice,” he said.
“So far, we’ve been spending money on
using those portals rather than saving any.
Hopefully this will change.”
Misconceptions
The truth is that failures or lack of
progress in the e-commerce sector were
due to common (and perfectly understandable)
misconceptions about what
the commercialisation of the Internet
would do for businesses.
The first problem surrounded the pervasiveness
of the Internet. Companies imagined
that with a phone line and a modem,
business users could access any application
online. While this might have
been true for the consumer market, it certainly
was not true for businesses where
IT capability was highly variable and
where processes were more complex. For
example, many offices restricted Internet
access to one PC per department; in others,
firewalls or bandwidth restrictions
made response times unbearably slow,
while problems with browser versions and
settings caused further performance problems.
The reality is that efficient business
Internet access is only now becoming the
norm. For the pioneers, workable Internet
access was only patchy.
The second problem is the nub of the
issue: securing e-business adoption is
about changing how people work - both
their processes and personal interactions.
This takes time and an enormous amount
of effort. The scale of the challenge in
getting e-business into the market was
underestimated by its proponents.
For those proponents, the virtues of
Internet applications were so obvious that
they assumed that everything would happen
quickly. They made this error because
they were focusing on the wrong business
challenges: technology and selling. Managers
geared their timescales to these challenges
(how long will it take us to develop
The initial raft of shipping line e-business offerings did not suit
their customers well enough. Better tuned products are now
starting to drive much faster adoption
this product; how long is the sales cycle to
get a signed contract?) and not to the much
longer timeframes of change management.
The words of Machiavelli are appropriate
in this respect: “There is nothing
more difficult to take in hand, more perilous
to conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the introduction
of a new order of things, because
the innovator has for enemies all those
who have done well under the old conditions,
and lukewarm defenders in those
who may do well under the new.”
Horses for courses
The third problem takes us back to old
economy marketing disciplines: the market
is not homogeneous for e-business
(any more than it is for any other product)
and one size does not fit all. Different
services are needed by different market
segments.
P&O Nedlloyd is one of a number
of lines that have been learning from this
experience and are adapting their e-business
strategies accordingly. Richard
Smith, senior product manager in
PONL’s Business Systems Division explains
the company’s approach. “We now
have four distinct e-business services (the
website www.ponl.com, INTTRA, EDI
and Offline) and are piloting a fifth,
youship, which is now being trialled in
the trans-Tasman trade [see WorldCargo
News March 2003, p23]. Each of these
services meets a particular customer requirement
or serves a particular market
segment.”
Smith sees INTTRA as the main
vehicle for the development of e-business
between PONL and its customers.
“The reality of the market is that most
May 2003 43

WorldCargo
news
E-COMMERCE
of our customers deal with multiple
carriers. The logical place for
them to connect with us is the
portal, INTTRA. We are now
seeing rapid growth in e-business
activity through INTTRA, particularly
since the launch of
INTTRA’s online Shipping Instruction
functionality.”
INTTRA is also likely to be
the core of PONL’s effort to integrate
with customer systems.
“With a single integration to
INTTRA,” says Smith, “a customer
can link its systems to those
of multiple carriers far more
cheaply and quickly than it could
by going to each carrier individually.
INTTRA has done most of
the work already by integrating
with its members’ back end systems.”
Self service
Although INTTRA is likely to
be the mainstay, Smith sees distinct
and valuable roles for other
e-business products. “ There is a
huge market for our own e-business
services, accessible at
www.ponl.com. These are very important
as providers of information
to customers and they allow
us to innovate too.”
Smith cites online bills of lading
and electronic invoicing as
two important examples of this.
This agility helps the line keep
its own e-business services ahead
of those offered through its portal
and to keep its main supporters
in-house.
At the other end of the ITreadiness
spectrum are a whole
host of smaller, often lower tech,
customers who have not been
able to make proper use of the
services offered online. “We
found that there were a lot of
customers who wanted to engage
in e-business but who didn’t have
good enough Internet access to
use the online tools,” Smith explains.
“This might be because the
With youship, PONL is targeting small shippers and forwarders in the trans-
Tasman trade, a market segment in which the company has lost ground
Internet connection was poor or
unreliable or because Internet access
in the office was restricted -
there might be only one Internet
linked PC in a department.”
PONL’s answer to this situation
is its offline product. This is
a piece of software that can be
loaded onto a PC and provides
the templates necessary for Shipping
Instructions etc. The customer
fills in the templates offline
and emails the data when it is
ready. Smith says that adoption of
this product has been very encouraging.
“Customers are now
taking up this product very rapidly
in South Asia and we are now
looking at deploying it on a global
basis.”
APL has spotted this need too
and has responded with its own
Bill of Lading Instructions desktop
software. Like the PONL
offline product, it allows the user
to send BL Instructions through
standard e-mail. First the user creates
the BL Instructions offline
using input from standard templates,
MS Excel or text. Then, the
software automatically translates
the BL Instructions files into EDI
for upload into APL’s systems.
Follow my leader
PONL hopes to repeat the success
of its offline product with its
latest e-business service, youship.
This is aimed specifically at small
shippers and forwarders in the
trans-Tasman trade, a market segment
where PONL has lost
ground. The company has followed
the lead set by the budget
airlines and offers a complete, nofrills
online service. Customers
can make rate enquiries, check
space availability, make cargo
bookings and pay with a credit
card or direct debit. Additional
services such as insurance, customs
clearance, and inland haulage
can be selected and paid for
at the same time.
youship marks a radical departure
from existing customer-line
interaction processes, particularly
in respect of pricing. With youship,
haggling about rates on the phone
is a thing of the past. The shipper
logs in, selects the route and is
presented with a list of service options
with prices attached. The
shipper either accepts the rate or
he doesn’t. If he does, he hits the
“Book” button to make his
choice and moves on to the payment
process.
If the trial is successful, youship
will provide a new model for
large carriers to serve smaller
shippers effectively without deploying
expensive manpower. It
is conceivable too that this model
might be applied to larger forwarders,
who would also like to
book on spot rates. This pilot has
important implications for the
whole industry.
Multiple channels
Other lines are also realising the
importance of multiple e-business
channels. NYK, for example has
four online channels: its own
online Customer Service Center
and membership of all three portals,
INTTRA, GT Nexus and
CargoSmart (the only line that
has taken this step).
John Gurrad of MOL
America also sees multiple channels
as the way forward. “Our approach
is to say to the customer,
here is a range of possibilities, our
own online service, GT Nexus,
data integration direct to us or
data integration via GT Nexus.
The choice is yours.”
Gurrad thinks that integration
between portals would be of great
benefit to customers and carriers
alike. “We are seeing both customers
and carriers getting
caught by having to link to more
than one portal. This is inefficient
and inconvenient,” he says.
Admin efficiency
While getting back into lost markets
is obviously an attraction for
carriers, the real goal of e-business
is improved administrative
efficiency. The current paperbased
processes for capturing the
information required to create
and issue a Bill of Lading are
cumbersome, labour intensive
and prone to error. Typically customers
send Shipping Instructions
on barely legible faxes to the
line’s documentation staff, who
then type them into the line’s systems.
Moving this process online
ensures that the shipper inputs the
data and takes responsibility for
its accuracy. Allowing the shipper
to view the draft Bill of Lading
online also provides an opportunity
to eliminate errors before the
bill is issued, with large benefits
all round. While some shippers
might grumble that they are being
asked to do the carriers’ work
for them, the new process brings
benefits for everyone.
For these gains to be realised,
each of the differentiated e-business
services, addressing its particular
market segment, must plug
seamlessly into the same back end
systems. Smith says that PONL
has achieved this. “The back end
processes are identical for all our
e-business offerings. Since the underlying
process is neutral, we are
able to work with whatever suits
the customer best.”
Suits you sir
Smith’s latter point is vital. Part
of the problem with the initial raft
of e-business offerings was that
they did not suit the customers
well enough. Better tuned products
are now starting to drive
much faster adoption.
This is good, but not an end
in itself; the end is efficiency and
that end will not be achieved if
each new e-business product requires
the customisation of back
end systems to accommodate it.
However, if all the services fit into
the same back end infrastructure,
both effectiveness and efficiency
are achievable.
The development of e-business
in shipping has hardly started;
three years is nothing in an industry
that is centuries old. The
current state of affairs is rather
chaotic, but although it poses
challenges for customers and lines
alike it has advantages, most notably
the spur of competition.
As is already very clear, this
will continue to drive innovation
and, in the end, greater value to
customers. ❏
INTTRA announces
Rapid Reservation
Carrier portal INTTRA has
launched Rapid Reservation, a
service that provides registered
INTTRA shippers and forwarders
with an immediate carrier
reservation number when they
make a booking with most
INTTRA carriers.
Customers creating bookings
via INTTRA-ACT (the webbased
solution) or INTTRA-
LINK (integration solution) can
receive Rapid Reservation
numbers and continue the
booking process without delay.
Rapid Reservation can also be
used along with INTTRA's
Booking Notification System,
which automatically distributes
reservation numbers to all designated
parties involved in the
booking, completing the entire
booking process within a fraction
of the time required for the
traditional method.
“INTTRA’s unique position
as an industry-owned consortium
enables us to work together
with our carriers to offer Rapid
Reservation to more than 3,000
shippers and forwarders within
North America alone,” said
Harry Sangree, INTTRA senior
vice president of product
management.
“There is no question that
there is a demand for Rapid Reservation
among our customers,”
said Philippe Salles, CMA CGM
e-commerce manager, INTTRA.
“By participating in Rapid Reservation,
we expect to satisfy our
customers’ needs and increase our
market share.” ❏
44
May 2003

INTERMODAL
WorldCargo
news
Towards European intermodal loading units
Last month saw the European Commission
(EC) adopt a new programme
for the promotion of short
sea shipping in Europe, together with a
proposal for a Directive on Intermodal
Loading Units (ILU)s designed to facilitate
intermodal transport.
Driven by predictions that heavy
goods vehicle traffic on European roads
is likely to increase by 50 per cent by
2010 unless steps are taken to curb its
growth, the programme focuses on 14
actions to enhance the role of short sea
shipping. These include measures to remove
obstacles to the growth of short
sea shipping and improving its general
image by supporting the work of the European
Short Sea Network.
In addition, the programme strengthens
ongoing actions such as the development
of “motorways of the sea,” computerising
customs procedures and setting
up one-stop administrative shopping in
ports, as well as improving the environmental
performance of short sea shipping
by promoting the benefits of cleaner and
more efficient propulsion methods.
Laudable aims
All of which, of course, is laudable. Few
in the industry would argue against any
moves that encourage greater use of water
modes to get heavy goods vehicles off
the roads. Measures to reduce and simplify
customs procedures and improve
port efficiency, thereby reducing or eliminating
some of the bottlenecks that prevent
short sea shipping from competing
more effectively with road transport, will
undoubtedly be widely endorsed.
More controversial, however, is the
Commission’s proposal for a Directive on
ILUs (defined as containers and swap bodies)
and, more specifically, the creation of a
new European Intermodal Loading Unit
(EILU) “optimised for the transport of pallets”
and combining “the advantages of
swap bodies (especially their larger size, offering
a greater capacity) and containers
(especially their greater strength and the
possibilities to stack them).”
That is not to say that standardisation
of ILUs per se is seen as a negative move.
Indeed, when a wide range of professional
associations was consulted on the proposed
Directive in April 2002, there was
a general consensus on the usefulness of
standardising and harmonising certain
characteristics of ILUs, though the caveat
was “without banning the use of other
units.” The proposed Directive appears to
respect this caveat.
But the consultations also highlighted
“disagreement on common dimensions,
with people defending the dimensions
already used in ‘their’ mode of transport;
and an urgent demand from road hauliers and
shipowners to increase the weights and dimensions
authorised in road transport to take
account of the reality of extra-Community
trade, particularly containers which are more
than 13.6m long.”
The latter point has been totally ignored,
however, and the proposed Directive,
as far as the creation of an EILU is
concerned, is very much oriented towards
current swap body sizes. This has drawn
widespread condemnation from the container
shipping industry, including those
very short sea operators that the standardisation
and harmonisation of ILUs/
EILUs is designed to help.
Technical diversity
The EC’s basic premise is that there is
currently a wide range of ILUs available
to carriers (primarily 20ft/30ft/40ft ISO
containers and 7.15m/7.45m/7.82m and
13.6m swap bodies), but their diversity,
particularly in their handling and securing
devices, hampers the efficiency of
transhipment operations between modes.
To tackle this issue, the proposed Directive
specifies “essential requirements”
for new ILUs in terms of security, safety,
interoperability, handling, securing,
strength and coding and identification of
units (see page 46). Based on these essential
requirements, the Commission will
ask European standardisation bodies (ie
CEN - Comité Européen de Normalisation,
which is already working on the
As part of its efforts to promote short sea shipping, the EC has
published a proposed new Directive on intermodal loading units.
Industry reaction has been less than positive
development of standards for stackable
swap bodies) to define harmonised standards
in order to develop relevant parameters
for conformity with the essential requirements.
A regulatory committee composed
of representatives of the Member
States and of the Commission will establish
specific requirements for interoperability
covering the characteristics of
ILUs necessary to ensure they can be used
in several modes of transport.
Mandatory requirements
Though all existing ILUs would be allowed
to continue in service for the remainder of
their working lives without having to meet
the essential requirements (with the notable
exception of maintenance requirements),
the proposed Directive would make
it compulsory for ILUs put into service
after the date of implementation of the
Directive to comply with all the essential
requirements. They would also have to
carry a “CE” mark to show their conformity
with the essential requirements and another
specific symbol to facilitate their
identification in the handling process, as
well as comply with the requirements of
Directive 96/53/EC concerning maximum
road vehicle dimensions
As far as ISO containers are concerned,
the only major difference to the
status quo would be a requirement to fit
an anti-intrusion alarm device such as an
electronic seal. Observers note that there
is, as yet, no agreed standard for electronic
seals so compliance with this aspect may
be a problem. In the EC’s defence, however,
it is stated in the proposed Directive
that such devices should be fitted “as and
when these techniques develop.”
Depending on what CEN comes up
May 2003 45

WorldCargo
news
INTERMODAL
with in the development of
stackable swap body standards, it
is also possible that containers may
be subject to new requirements to
facilitate interoperability, though
based on what has emerged so far,
this seems unlikely. In short, therefore,
compliance with the requirements
for new ILUs should not
prove too onerous for the current
family of ISO containers.
A new dimension
Where the proposed Directive becomes
particularly contentious,
however, is in the EC’s specification
for “an optimal intermodal
loading unit” for Europe - the
EILU - that combines the benefits
of containers and swap bodies.
Since it uses metric pallet dimensions
as the basis for arriving at the
most desirable internal dimensions
for such a unit, “pallet-friendly”
swap body sizes are favoured over
ISO container sizes.
The proposed Directive specifies
a long EILU with an internal
length of 13.2m and an internal
width that allows two europallets
to be placed side-by-side lengthways
(ie 2 x 1200mm) or three
europallets to be placed side-byside
widthwise (ie 3 x 800mm),
with “sufficient margins for manoeuvre.”
In essence, therefore, the
proposal is for a unit with external
dimensions of 13.6m long x
2.5m wide, the maximum permissible
under Directive 96/53.
Such a unit would be capable
of accommodating 33 europallets
(1200mm x 800mm) or 26 UK
pallets (1200mm x 1000mm) in
one tier. By contrast, standard 40ft
x 8ft wide ISO containers can
only accommodate 25 europallets
or 22 UK pallets.
A short EILU is proposed with
an internal length of 7.2m and similar
internal width requirements.
This translates into a unit with external
dimensions of 7.45m x 2.5m
(or 2.55m), close to the maximum
that can be transported on road
trains in Europe without special vehicle
constructions. This would accommodate
18 europallets or 14
UK pallets, compared with 11
europallets or 9 UK pallets for
standard 20ft ISO boxes.
In the case of both the long
and short EILU, an external height
of 2,670mm is specified, apparently
because that is currently the
maximum possible in the UK using
low-height wagons.
Missing the obvious?
The basic incompatibility between
metric pallet sizes and ISO containers
is, of course, nothing new
and critics of the proposed Directive
have been quick to point out
that the Commission has overlooked
the fact that 2.5m wide
non-ISO palletwide containers
have been available in Europe for
over 20 years.
More recently, two ISO container
designs have been developed
- Cronos Containers’ cellular
palletwide container (CPC) and
Sea Containers’ SeaCell unit - offering
both optimum metric pallet
capacity, thanks to a 2.5m width at
the sidewalls, and full compatibility
with cellular ships and existing
ISO equipment thanks to their 8ft
wide end frames.
The 40ft version of both the
non-ISO and cell-compatible ISO
palletwide designs are highly efficient
in terms of pallet capacity,
being capable of accommodating
30 europallets or 24 UK pallets in
a single tier. Already widely used in
European short sea trades, deepsea
operators moving palletised cargoes
are also starting to opt for cell-compatible
40ft palletwide designs.
The emergence of 13.6m trailers
and swap bodies in Europe,
however, forced short sea container
operators to look to a larger
container size in order to compete
with road operators and 45ft
(13.716m) versions of both the
non-cellular and ISO cell-compatible
designs have been developed,
which precisely match the
33 europallet/26 UK pallet capacity
of the 13.6m swap body.
In order to comply with Directive
96/53, such units have to
be fitted with a chamfered front
end using the Geest-patented
Euro casting and similarly profiled
corner posts, but, due to the incorporation
of an intermediate
frame for stacking and handling
purposes, they remain fully
“interoperable” with all existing
ISO equipment.
Furthermore, such equipment
Annex 1: Essential requirements for intermodal loading units
Safety and security
Comply with the relevant provisions of the Interna
tional Convention for Safe Containers concluded in
Geneva on 2 December 1972
Minimise risk of damage in and between modes of
transport
Equip all new intermodal loading units with antiintrusion
alarm devices, for example a state-of-theart
electronic seal
Handling:
Enable efficient manipulation inter alia by means of
handling equipment adapted to ISO containers
Securing:
Make securing devices compatible with the four
modes of transport
Strength:
ILUs must not break open if they are accidentally
dropped
ILUs must be able to withstand everyday knocks
during handling without causing any damage which
might lead to the indication of periodic inspection not
being affixed
Coding and
Use state-of-the-art electronic coding and
identification of units:
identification
Intermodal loading units which are used in road transport must comply with the
requirements of Directive 96/53/EC
Annex 2: Essential requirements for the European intermodal loading unit
(in addition to the requirements referred to in Annex 1, which apply to all new intermodal
loading units, EILUs must meet the additional requirements below)
Weight and dimensions: Comply with the provisions of Directive 96/53
Type:
General-purpose dry cargo box
Internal length:
It should allow:
● 11 units of 1200mm for the long version
● 6 units of 1200mm for the short version
to be placed lengthways, with the necessary
margins for manoeuvre
Internal width:
It should allow two europallets (1200mm x800mm) or
two UK pallets (1200mm x1000mm) to be placed
lengthways (ie 2 x 1200mm) or three europallets to
be placed widthways (ie 3 x 800mm) side by side,
allowing sufficient margins for manoeuvre
External height:
2670mm
Strength of construction: The reference document for the strength values is
the ISO 1496 series of standards where applicable
- Stackability up to four loaded long units in sea
conditions
- Stackability corresponding to ISO 20ft containers
for loaded short units
- Sufficient racking strength for carriage in the above
height of stacks by inland waterways and short sea
shipping
- Top lifting capability
can be built cost-effectively at
container factories in China, while
the production of swap bodies, by
their very “non-standard” nature
is largely limited to Europe with
all the attendant cost implications.
And even the EC concedes
that the proposed new EILU sizes
would cause problems, stating that
“cellular ships and barges would
need to adjust their cell guides to
a new length.” Somewhat naively,
the proposed Directive says that
such adjustments could be
achieved at “marginal cost.” But
as one commentator points out,
“If that were the case it would
have been done long before now.”
The question that many industry
observers are asking, therefore,
is why create a new size, which does
not even have a true half size and
which will inevitably be incompatible
with what is happening on the
international stage, when there are
already designs available that are
fully compatible with the ISO system
and would achieve precisely
what the EC is trying to achieve
with the EILU?
Further still
Many in the industry would go
further still. At the ISO Plenary
Session in Florida this month, the
45ft x 8ft wide container is to be
proposed as a new work item with
a view to it becoming an ISO
standard size. The smart money
says the proposal will be accepted.
Containers of this size have
been used in the deepsea trades for
over a decade, but are barred from
operation on Europe’s roads as they
fall foul of Directive 96/53, which
allows a maximum load length of
12m behind the trailer kingpin
with a swing clearance requirement
of 2.04m in front. This translates
into a maximum length of 13.6m
at 2.5m width. Without a chamfered
front end, 45ft x 2.5m wide
palletwide containers exceed the
allowable dimension by 116mm,
while 45ft x 8ft wide units, including
those of cell-compatible configuration,
are just 81mm too long.
Deepsea and short sea operators
alike lobbied hard to persuade
Brussels to amend Directive 96/53,
or at least grant a dispensation, to
allow “standard” 45ft containers free
passage on Europe’s roads. Part of
the reasoning was that the legislation
gave “grandfather” rights to
existing 45ft units, allowing their
continued use for 10 years, which
suggests that safety is not an issue.
Those lobbying efforts failed,
but with 45ft now looking likely
to become an official ISO standard,
there are growing calls for the
Commission to consider a rethink
on the whole issue. The fact that
CEN is reportedly considering the
inclusion of 45ft chamfered end
units in its proposed stackable
swap body standard serves only to
reinforce the point.
If that were to happen, nonchamfered
45ft x 8ft units could be
used for extra-Community trade,
45ft x 2.5m palletwide units for European
domestic trade and cellcompatible
45ft units could operate
in both markets, bridging the
gap between the two. Crucially, the
EC’s essential requirements for
ILUs and EILUs would all be met.
No chance
As things stand, however, that
looks unlikely. An EC spokesman
told WorldCargo News that there
were no plans to review Directive
96/53 and that the Commission
was pushing ahead with its proposed
Directive on ILUs as “the
best means of achieving the EC’s
transport objectives,”
The Commission clearly feels
that the EILU has the potential to
change the European intermodal
scene in much the same way that
ISO Series 1 containers brought
about the container revolution. If
accepted, what is likely to emerge
is a similar situation to that in North
America where 48ft and 53ft x 8ft
6in wide containers have been developed
for domestic operations
and international trade continues
to be carried in ISO standard units.
Curiously, however, while the
proposed Directive states that
EILUs will have to comply with
the essential requirements for
ILUs as well as additional requirements
listed in Annex 2 (above),
it also says that the use of EILUs
will not be compulsory.
Which begs the question of
why a Directive is needed at all?
Experience shows that operators
are hard-headed when it comes to
spending money on equipment. If
the use of EILUs is not to be mandatory,
it seems likely that they will
continue to “vote with their wallets”
and select hardware that is
practical, rather than conform to an
inward-looking standard. ❏
46
May 2003

CONTAINER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
Dry bulk container liners stay in demand
The one-trip container
liner bag, designed principally
to facilitate the
carriage of loose dry bulk commodities
in standard dry freight
containers, is continuing to attract
interest from shippers, receivers
and operators alike. Its progress has,
indeed, been rapid in recent years,
with the annual worldwide sale of
liners growing at a rate well in excess
of container traffic as a whole.
Demand has been fuelled
mainly by a concerted move on
the part of dry bulk exporters/importers
to gear up their handling
methods in order to benefit from
the real cost savings to be made
from shipping in whole containerloads.
This is now favoured
strongly over the more traditional
use of 25kg or 50kg bags, which
is viewed as too labour intensive
and time consuming for many of
the increasingly mechanised plants
operated by exporters and their
consignees, as well as being less environmentally
sound.
The alternative use of dedicated
30ft or 40ft silo-type freight
containers, which do not require
liners but are much more expensive,
is similarly disadvantaged on
economic grounds.
Wider availability
Many prospective users have also
been encouraged by the growing
availability of container liners and
the increase in the number of suppliers.
The sector has grown rapidly
in recent years, with new firms
continually entering the field or
looking to diversify into it. Many
recent entrants are also producers
of FIBCs (flexible intermediate
bulk containers) or bulk liquid
tanks, and view the fabrication of
full-size container liners as a logical
progression. Product innovation
has also been key to promoting
an ever-greater uptake, as
manufacturing techniques have
both improved and become more
sophisticated.
The majority of liners are still
used to carry inert dry bulk materials,
including the precursor
petrochemicals used in plastics’
manufacture and various minerals
and other primary products.
However, many versions have
been adapted for the transport of
foodstuffs and agricultural produce,
“difficult” products (including
cattle hides and certain corrosive
chemicals), or commodities
sensitive to changes in temperature
and atmospheric conditions.
The latter include insulated, thermal
or “barrier” styles of bag, many
of which are relatively new to the
market.
Protective role
The container liner, in its basic
form, is used to seal out moisture
and other contaminants from the
product under carriage, while also
protecting the container interior
from cross-tainting. This type of bag
has existed for over 25 years, pioneered
by the likes of Powertex Inc
and Insta-Bulk (both of the US). It
is made from high-grade extruded
polyethylene (PE) film, usually of
multi-layered strength, and used to
transport a vast range of free flowing
powders and chemicals. All
such liners are seam-welded, come
supplied with an adapted bulkhead
and are single-trip and wholly
suited for recycling.
They are most commonly used
to convert standard dry freight 20ft
and 40ft (and even 45ft), containers
for deepsea dry bulk transport,
as well as being fitted to the majority
of 30ft bulk containers operated
internally within Europe.
Despite the steady rise in demand,
the manufacture of these
PE liners is still confined to a relatively
small number of proven producers,
including at least seven in
the US and four in the UK. Others
are based in South Africa, Australia
and mainland Europe and
now also within the Indian Sub-
Continent and Far East.
Woven alternative
The main alternative to the extruded
PE liner is a woven counterpart,
made from sewn
polypropylene (PP) or PE fabric.
Power Plastics SA
sale concluded
The sale of Power Plastics SA,
South Africa’s leading producer
of container liners, was concluded
last month, with the
company formally acquired by
South African businesswoman
and entrepreneur, Caryn Fomby.
The new owner has an extensive
background in the local
plastics industry and is looking
to further diversify manufacturing
activities at Power Plastics.
The ownership change severs
the company’s connection with
its former UK parent, Power
Plastics Ltd, which has itself been
subject to a recent management
buyout (see WorldCargo News
December 2002, p16).
Despite the present high exchange
rate of the rand, Power
Plastics SA is continuing to export
over 80 per cent of its container
liner output. Sales are continuing
strongly to Europe, South
America and Australia, with the
vast majority of output comprising
extruded PE types. Nevertheless,
as confirmed by general manager,
John Mills, both raw material
and production costs are ris-
As most global box trades continue to perform
strongly, there is no let up in demand for one-trip
liner bags used to containerise dry bulk commodities.
This is attracting ever more suppliers into the
field and driving further product innovation
ing at the South African factory,
while competition from lower
cost areas, including India and
Bangladesh, is intensifying. In response,
Power Plastics SA is continuing
its programme of design
innovation, having just created its
eighteenth variation of standard
PE liner bag.
The company introduced its
first woven liner bag two years
ago, specifically for the transport
of coffee and cocoa, and has
since been in continuous production
for the Nestle Group. It
has now adapted this model to
carry other products, including
fishmeal, which is being shipped
from nearby Walvis Bay (in Namibia)
to Australia, Japan and
even Europe (Rotterdam).
The South African company
also reports a “near exponential
increase” in its manufacture of
dunnage bags for container use
and growing interest in its recently
launched Bulk Liquid
Flex Tank. This is also suited for
container carriage, and comes
fitted with a specially designed
disposable inner liner. ❏
This version is less expensive to
produce, but because it is slightly
porous does not provide the same
totally impermeable barrier to
moisture as PE film. The presence
of microscopic fibres, released
from the stitching process, is also
a source of potential contamination
and could ruin a load of high
purity chemical.
However, woven liners are often
better suited to the carriage
of agricultural produce than their
extruded counterparts, as they allow
the commodity to “breathe”
and so prevent any condensation
of water vapour trapped within
the shipment. If unchecked, this
can result in discoloration, mould
Woven liners, like this Norseman design, are cheaper to produce than extruded
versions and are often better suited to the carriage of agricultural products
growth and eventual product deterioration.
Such liners have proven very
effective for the ocean transport
of grain, malt, seeds and root crops,
as well as tea, coffee and cocoa.
Their use has grown steadily in
recent years and also been fuelled
by a rise in production throughout
the Far East (and China in
particular). This is of mounting
concern to many established suppliers,
as some of the lowest priced
production is reputedly of less assured
quality.
Nevertheless, the woven liner
is clearly here to stay and could
eventually attract additional business
from the increasingly costconscious
chemical transport industry.
Already some suppliers
have developed an inner-lined
version offering a comparable
level of protection to the extruded
PE style, although this naturally
comes at a higher price.
Amongst the best known producers
of fabric liners are Norseman
BC (Canada) and Kemex
(Netherlands), although there is a
growing output (both independent
and licensed) throughout Asia.
One relative newcomer is Structure-Flex
in the UK, which has
long manufactured woven FIBCs
and commenced the marketing of
a generic container liner during
May 2003 47

WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
2002. This design has already undergone
extensive testing with a
number of prospective customers.
Woven liners are now also
available from several other manufacturers,
better known for their
extruded PE ranges, including
Insta-Bulk, Dacro, Powertex and
Power Plastics SA.
The majority of container liners are used to convert standard dry freight 20ft
and 40ft containers for deepsea dry bulk transport
Cost conscious
Although the basic woven liner
has improved technically in recent
years, it is still the prospect of substantial
cost savings that mainly
attracts customers to this type. In
addition to their cheaper material
and fabrication cost, these liners
are usually supplied with an inbuilt
fabric or webbed bulkhead,
which is braced with bars. This
offers further savings in comparison
with many traditional PE liner
systems, some of which still utilise
a more rigid (and expensive)
style of bulkhead, made from
composites or even timber.
Some of the least expensive
liners have been simplified yet further,
for example through the removal
of the roof section to give
the “tub” design, which is popular
with shippers of agricultural
products of the lowest value, or
those using open top containers.
This type of liner offers full product
aeration, while still preventing
direct contact with the container
floor/side panels. Crucially,
at around US$50-60 per 20ft, it is
priced at anything up to a third
less than a fully enclosed woven
liner, which, in turn, is roughly 50-
70 per cent of the cost of a highquality
extruded PE design.
As it is, the containerised shipment
of agricultural products has
grown rapidly in recent years. It
provides a convenient back-haul
trade out of North America, Europe
and Australia to Asia and
other regions where trade is
imbalanced. The increased availability
of a suitable low priced single-trip
liner has helped to cut the
cost of shipping such traffic, which
may itself be of low value, and so
increased its economic viability. An
increasing range of dry bulk produce,
including fruits, vegetables,
corn seed, malt, tobacco and soya
beans, is now routinely transported
from the US/Canada in lined
containers that would otherwise
have to be empty repositioned.
Much is moving to markets in the
Far East or Central/South
America, but also to Europe. A
growing share of this traffic is being
transported in 40ft containers,
in place of the more traditional
use of 20-footers, and is carried
in specially enlarged liners designed
to hold up to 30 tonnes of
product.
Chemical premium
Despite the increased importance
of the agricultural sector, the biggest
demand for container liners
is still generated by the global
transport of chemicals, with this
business alone largely maintaining
the huge annual manufacture of
extruded PE versions. Chemical
shippers, and their receivers, still
tend to pay more per liner than
the agri-business because their
products are frequently high value
and have to be kept contamination
free.
The latter typically feature
complex loading/discharge funnels
or bulkhead attachments, or
other add-ons such as agitators in
the floor section (to prevent product
aggregation or clumping) or
special fold out sections (to limit
the amounts of product becoming
trapped in the corner recesses).
As suggested, a standard extruded
PE liner can cost up to twice as
much as a woven fabric version,
even from a reputable supplier and
these more tailored types usually
command a far higher premium
and can be priced at several hundred
dollars. Many hundreds of
these individually customised designs
are in commercial production
today, and are available from
a growing spread of suppliers.
The chemical industry, in addition
to consuming the majority
of customised liners, has also been
instrumental in driving the development
of the most sophisticated
versions of liner, including the latest
generation of thermal or barrier
designs. Exporters and receivers
of dry bulk chemicals have
likewise been foremost in investing
in mechanised handling plant
and supporting silo storage capacity
at factory discharge/delivery
points around the world. This permits
entire container-loads of
product to be transferred simply
and often within a few minutes.
Many of these end-users are
now keen to purchase/hire additional
support equipment to aid
the handling process, including tilt
mechanisms, rotary/pneumatic
pumps and blowers, and adapted
loading/discharge chutes and conveyors.
A number of liner bag
manufacturers, in response, are already
viewing this to be an important
new area of diversification.
No barrier to growth
The growing use of barrier or
insulated styles of container liner
is another good indication of how
the sector is continuing to advance.
This type is still a relatively
costly option as it features an altogether
more complex design,
comprising a metallic foil (usually
aluminium) section sandwiched
between plastic (polyester/PE)
composite layers. It thus
safeguards against fluctuations in
temperature, as well as preventing
any ingress of moisture or atmospheric
gases from outside, and
so provides as near sterile an environment
as possible.
The range of manufacturers
offering this type of liner has
greatly increased in the past two
years, and today includes almost a
dozen names including Protective
Packaging (see news pages this issue),
Wallminster Group and
Philton Polythene Converters, all
of the UK, and CorrPakBPS and
EICO, in the US. The current aim
is to create a lower cost single-trip
version, which offers a much
larger potential for widespread deployment
than older more expensive
models, invariably designed
for multi-trip use.
The barrier liner, even in its
existing form, has already greatly
broadened the scope of liner application.
In addition to sealing dry
bulk products, the barrier liner can
also be used effectively to protect
packaged goods, ranging from
breakfast cereal to dried dog food,
from degradation caused by excessive
heat or moisture damage.
It can also, when used in conjunction
with desiccants or other inhibitors,
provide a stable shipping
environment for high value electronic
or computer equipment.
Smaller versions of thermal/barrier
wrap are also offered to cover
UK-based Linertech has enhanced
its position as a global
producer of container liners following
its acquisition last year by
leading bulk logistics service
provider, United IBC (part of
United Transport International)
and the appointment of former
general manager, Meirion Lewis,
as its new managing director.
United IBC has since nominated
Linertech as its favoured supplier
and is set to quadruple the
manufacturer’s output of extruded
PE liners.
This will firmly establish it
as one of the leading suppliers
in Europe, and possibly outstrip
the combined output from all
other firms in the UK. Crucially,
Linertech is expecting to achieve
significantly better production
economies of scale in future,
while securing its raw materials
at a very competitive cost
United IBC is reckoned to
be one of the largest annual purchasers
of container liners in
support of its huge intra-European
and global operations.
These, in conjunction with the
United IFF business, utilise a
combined fleet of around 15,000
x 30ft bulk containers.
individual pallet-loads within a
larger container stow. In addition
to protecting the consignment,
these opaque liners also effectively
conceal it from view. This is another
plus, as it helps to enhance
security.
Heavy duty
The application of the more
standard multi-ply PE liner has
also been extended in recent years,
with heavier duty versions being
developed for the containment of
aggressive or corrosive materials.
Here, the principal objective is to
protect the container from the
cargo, rather than the reverse, as is
normal when most types of dry
bulk chemical or agricultural
product are being transported.
The majority of containment
liners of this type are used in the
shipment of animal hides, which
is one of the most corrosive products
to be shipped, on behalf of
the leather/textile industries.
However, these liners have also
carried used vehicle batteries,
waste metal swarf (from machining
processes) and large pieces of
reconditioned machinery, all of
which may release oil, grease or
other contaminants into the environment.
Amongst the highest strength
liners to be produced for the above
type of application are the
RinoLiner and HideLiner offered
by ProTech Liner Systems (PTLS),
of the US. Indeed, this company
was formed several years back by
its parent firm, Richards Group,
in order to address specifically the
market for containment liners. As
explained by president, Louis
D’Eugenio, both the Rino and
Hide products were developed
around five years ago in response
to requests from shippers/carriers
of animal hides and feature a
heavy-gauge laminate made from
high density PE.
Soaking it up
D’Eugenio added that recent tests
have further revealed that, in addition
to holding the large quantities
of moisture released from untreated
cattle hides, these liners actually
have some absorption capacity and
can thereby reduce the amount of
water standing in contact with the
product. This, in turn, lessens the
task of draining once the consignment
is delivered, and minimises the
risk of leaking or other spillage. The
liner material has been found to act
as a “wick” and may transfer up to
20 gallons from the floor area to
the upper walls throughout a
lengthy voyage.
The RinoLiner has more recently
been used to carry dried
silica. This material has to be protected
from any moisture ingress
and must also be prevented from
making any contact with the container
floor or walls. The container,
in turn, needs to be protected because
of the cargo’s hazardous nature.
RinoLiners have, in other instances,
been used to seal in large
machinery blocks and even whole
vehicles. ProTech further offers a
roofless or tub style liner (known
as EnviroLiner) as part of its range,
suited for the shipment of less
ProTech Liner Systems’ HideLiner is made from a heavy-gauge PE laminate
to protect container interiors from the corrosive effects of wet animal hides
Linertech charts new course
Linertech is already planning
some product enhancements,
while investing in new research
and development facilities at its
main site in Elland (Yorkshire). Although
a sizeable share of manufacturing
is still carried out at this
plant, and at a sister factory in Waterford
(Ireland), the company recently
commenced its first production
overseas using three
nominated sub-contractors in the
Far East (including India and
South East Asia).
These latter plants were subject
to a stringent survey and have
proved well able to match the existing
quality out-turn achieved in
Europe. All raw materials are
sourced from two established European
extruders of high-grade
“poly-film,” as already approved by
Linertech.
This offshore production is already
yielding substantial cost
benefits, as well as enhancing the
firm’s ability to distribute its
products globally. The worldwide
distribution network is being expanded
further through the
opening of additional branch and
agency offices, while several key
personnel appointments are to be
announced shortly at the UK
head office. Sales are reported
to be growing at a particularly
rapid rate throughout Asia and
in Australia.
Despite its new position as
an in-house supplier to United
IBC, Linertech is keen to stress
its ongoing commitment to the
third party market and intends
to continue working closely
with other longstanding (and
new) customers. Much of its
liner output will thus still be of
deepsea 20ft and 40ft type in
addition to that going for
intermodal use in Europe.
Although it is expected to remained
focused on the manufacture
of extruded PE liners,
mainly for the chemical trades,
Linertech is already evaluating
other designs in order to secure
a greater share of the growing
agribusiness sector and that associated
with temperature sensitive
products.
Linertech has created a substantial
range of customised PE
liners, suited to a huge variety
of dry chemicals’ carriage. It was
reportedly this diversity in its existing
range that proved instrumental
in attracting the initial
interest of its new owner. ❏
48
May 2003

CONTAINER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
corrosive products, such as agricultural
commodities, which need to be kept out
of contact with the container but also
require some ventilation.
Cool move
A recent innovation from PTLS is
ThermoPak, which comprises a thermal
bulkhead designed to effectively
compartmentalise the cargo-loading area
within a reefer container. The flexible section
is made from high-density Styrofoam,
contained within a strengthened cardboard
sleeve, and is designed to give a snug
fit across the reefer’s internal width. In
this way, a single reefer box can be used
to carry markedly different products, requiring
different ambient conditions. A
typical example, according to D’Eugenio,
is the combined carriage of deep frozen
meat/poultry with chilled salad crops.
Here, the frozen produce is loaded at the
far (machinery) end of the container,
which is also the coldest area, and then
sealed behind a ThermoPak. The chilled
cargo is placed at the door-end and thus
in front of the bulkhead, which contains
a small number of perforations to allow a
controlled amount of cold air to flow into
this compartment. This cools the consignment
as necessary, but is insufficient to
freeze it entirely.
D’Eugenio said that ThermoPak has
already been used successfully on longhaul
shipments from the US East Coast
to Saudi Arabia, and also found a strong
application on US routes to the Caribbean
and Central America. Here it is used
to optimise the transport of perishable
cargoes in support of the local tourist
trades and has typically cut the average
usage of reefer equipment by roughly 15
per cent. This equates to use of five reefer
containers in place of the six that would
be needed to ship the same mix of frozen
and chilled cargoes separately. Supportive
customers have included the
McDonalds chain, which is frequently
shipping a wide variety of perishables at
any one time.
rently looking to extend the company’s
involvement into the procurement/supply
of add-on handling equipment suited
for use in conjunction with the company’s
liner range. It has also enhanced its
quality control procedure and is looking
to further expand its already established
customisation and consultancy activities.
In for the long haul
A big rival to TBS is Powertex Inc, which
is one of the best known US (if not global)
manufacturers of container liners. Its
SeaBulk “Powerliner” system has been
used by the international chemical transport
industry for well over two decades.
The company has progressively extended
its range of extruded liners, and today
offers over 80 standard SeaBulk liner designs,
as well as a vast array of different
liner body materials. It has developed
containment and fluidising versions, a
design featuring a special agitating floor,
and more recently introduced a woven
type. It currently operates manufacturing
facilities in several countries around
the world, as well as its main sites in the
US.
Powertex, in line with many competitors,
is planning to further expand its range
of products/services on offer, and in particular
provide support equipment used
for dry bulk loading/discharge from containers.
This latest initiative has followed
the company’s recent completion of a
thorough market survey, which reviewed
the current dry bulk shipping industry and
role played by the container liner.
Stephen Podd, president and CEO of
Powertex, explained that the industry alliances
already existing between his company
and logistics service providers, and
manufacturers of materials handling systems
and tipping mechanisms, has enabled
Powertex to launch a “Total Implementation
Programme, whereby the entire
[bulk shipping] project is coordinated
from silo to silo.”
He stated that some shippers/receivers
still need to be convinced of the cost
efficiencies to be gained from using container
liners, as well as assisted in the
modification and upgrading of existing
loading and discharge systems. Powertex
intends to be better placed in future to
coordinate these necessary steps. It is a
development that also fits with Powertex’s
longer-term aim to increase its consultancy
base and become more of a solution
provider to the bulk transport and
logistics industry rather than purely
manufacturing/marketing products.
Accepted method
The container liner, according to Podd,
is now fast becoming the accepted
method of shipping most dry flowable
products around the globe. This contrasts
with only 10 or so years back, when the
liner concept was still relatively unfamiliar
and had to be promoted heavily to
many end-users.
Such sentiments are clearly shared by
Insta-Bulk, which has similarly been active
in the container liner market since the
earliest days. This company, which is now
part of the vast ITW group, is also stepping
up its consultancy activities and seeking
to provide an ever-greater spread of
ancillary services. In addition to offering a
Anti-corrosion
The latest development at ProTech has
concerned the modification of the PE
material used in its liner construction.
This has been impregnated with a newly
formulated substance, which has a capability
to absorb water vapour and certain
reactive gases, including oxygen and
hydrogen. It can, therefore, totally prevent
any corrosive oxidation or other atmospheric
damage and is expected to
compete with VCI (volatile corrosion inhibitor)
products, which are widely used
to protect very high value shipments, but
are generally expensive and more difficult
to use.
The exact composition of the new
“corrosion intercept” material is still
closely guarded, but it is applied to the
inner surface of the PE liner as a crosslinked
layer of several microns thickness.
Although it has yet to be launched officially,
a number of treated liners have already
been used to protect shipments of
steel rolls, sensitive electronics and machinery,
aircraft parts, and museum artifacts
(including works of art, delicate fabrics
and coins). Accelerated tests have further
shown that the corrosion inhibitor
will remain active for more than 10 years.
Product specific
TransBulk Systems (TBS), also based in
the southern US, was established by the
Richards Group at the same time as its
PTLS division and continues to operate
as an autonomous sister company, specialising
in the manufacture of product-specific
liners. Much of its output is of standard
extruded PE type, suited for the carriage
of bulk chemicals and certain staple
agricultural products, and it has so far
largely resisted any move into the production
of woven types. It has, however,
been increasingly pressured by the influx
of woven liners into the US from the Far
East, which although priced very competitively
are often of inferior quality.
In order to achieve some further cost
saving, as well as meet increasingly stringent
shipping rules, TBS recently opted
to incorporate an all-fabric bulkhead in
place of the former use of timber and
composites. Bob Hall, who came from the
materials handling sector, was appointed
as president of TBS last year and is cur-
May 2003 49

WorldCargo
news
CONTAINER INDUSTRY
comprehensive range of liners, including
its established GlobaLiner
and EnviroLiner types, the company
also produces various customised
models, add-on features and
equipment to assist unloading, such
as the Tamplin Tipkit.
Insta-Bulk gained further in
strength during 2002, through an
association and formal tie-up
with the Netherlands-based
manufacturer of container liners,
Dacro BV. The latter, which has
been operating since 1981, is also
an ITW subsidiary and, although
the two companies are keen to
retain their distinct identities and
different product ranges, they are
working together in some areas
of joint marketing and representing
each other in their respective
geographic areas.
Dacro has been producing extruded
PE liners since the mid-
1980s, and launched a woven PP
version in 1992. This was followed
by a woven PE type in 1996, and
an insulated/thermal design has
been developed even more recently.
Many of its bags are used
to carry malt and are fitted with a
special zipper in the bulkhead.
Others transport chemicals, and
feature a more conventional fourspout
attachment. The company,
in addition to its DacroLiner
range, also manufactures a range
of specialised slip-sheets.
Long established
One other longstanding North
American producer of container
liner bags is FellFab Ltd, based in
Ontario (Canada). This long established
engineering firm has manufactured
products for the bulk transport
and storage industries for over
50 years. It continues to offer its
proven Felco range, comprising liners
made from FelcoFilm (extruded
multi-layered PE) or FelcoLene
(woven polyolefin) in either 20ft or
40ft sizes. It also provides a variety
of bulkheads, made either from the
corrugated FelcoBoard composite
or using flexible or webbed materials,
according to customer requirement.
Improvements in bulkhead design
and the positioning of access
chutes and attachment points have
reduced the time needed for loading
or discharge to around 35
minutes (per cycle) for a full
45,000lb load, the company says.
CorrPakBPS, headquartered in
the southern US, but with manufacturing/distribution
sites at numerous
other locations around the
world, is yet another company to
offer a comprehensive range of
container liners for global end-use.
It also markets an extensive spread
of FIBCs. The company currently
sells both standard and “barless”
versions of woven container liner,
made either from PP or PE fabric,
as well as an extruded PE type
and insulated design incorporating
an aluminium barrier-foil section.
A further variation is its
roofless liner, designed for use in
open-top containers, and a topfill
version tailored specifically to
be compatible with the top-loading
30ft bulk container.
The roofless type, which is
typically used to carry grain,
comes fitted with four attachment
points for securing to each of the
four top-corners of an open top
container, plus extra securing devices
to hold the liner on the container
floor. In addition to its impressive
product range, Corr-
PakBPS is able to provide full inservice
advice and support to endusers,
through its extensive office
and manufacturing network based
in nine countries, including
Mexico, UK, Spain, South Africa,
South Korea, India, China and in
South East Asia.
Strong in the UK
Europe, and particularly the UK,
is still home to many well-known
producers of container liners.
Leading names in the UK are
Linertech, Zephyr Plastics and
Philton Polythene Converters.
Power Plastics is also well known,
but some years ago transferred all
container liner manufacture to its
sister company in South Africa.
The ownership link between the
UK and South African companies
has been severed following a recent
management buyout at the
UK firm and corresponding sale
of Power Plastics SA to a new
owner (see page 47). Despite this
change, both companies are still
working together in certain areas
and remain on good terms.
Insta-Bulk is among a number of liner bag manufacturers looking to broaden its
activities through the supply of ancillary handling systems
A smaller UK name is
Tigerbulk, which, as with its larger
competitors, is continuing to focus
on the manufacture of extruded
PE liners for clients both
in Europe and globally. Director
Robert Cammish, reports that
there has been some increase in
raw material prices of late following
the recent turbulence in the
Middle East. To tackle the problem,
Tigerbulk (amongst others)
has opted to use a slightly thinner
grade of PE film, but one that
through an improved formulation
actually offers a higher mechanical
strength.
Another relatively new and
more specialised UK liner bag
supplier is Wallminster, which
launched its Cargo Thermex barrier
liner in 2001 and has since
carried out further customisation
of the product. The company offers
both a full sized container
barrier liner, and one suited for
protecting individual pallet loads.
Wallminster has most recently
produced a more tailored version
for a particular customer, shipping
fish in bulk from Argentina to
Spain. The liner is of 10 m 3 capacity
and fully degassed at the
start of voyage, after being positioned
in the container and loaded
with product. It is then pumped
full of nitrogen or carbon dioxide,
which acts as an inert blanket.
This liner, which is suited for reuse,
features a special impermeable
gas barrier, which has been shown
to prevent any absorption of reactive
oxygen for periods in excess
of 20 days.
Euro zone
Amongst important European
producers of container liners are
Oellerking (Germany), Eceplast
(Italy) and Kemex (Netherlands),
as well as the aforementioned
Dacro. One other fast growing
European name is Caretex, which
is headquartered in Denmark, but
manufactures/distributes in other
regions, including Asia. Its product
range features three basic
types of liner, made from extruded
PE, which between them
can accommodate most commonly
encountered free flowing
dry bulk shipments.
Version PE-1012A, for example,
is suited for carrying plastic
resins and granules, PE-1015 for
minerals such as carbon black, and
PE-1002 for organic materials, including
fishmeal and malt.
Caretex, which was established in
1990, has also built up a bespoke
consultancy arm and offers a comprehensive
customer care management
programme.
Caretex also provides a patented
discharge frame/spout and
valve assembly, which can be
mounted on the container to facilitate
the emptying of an installed
liner. The Caretex liner
range features a specially positioned
discharge sleeve, which fits
inside the metal spout. Product
thus flows into the spout, but is
held by the incorporated valve,
which remains closed until full
discharge is ready to begin. The
spout is connected to a discharge
pipe, which is in turn attached to
a pump, then the valve is opened
allowing the product to be
pumped out of the liner and down
the pipe into an awaiting silo.
Caretex liners also come fitted
with special air bags that enable
the part-emptied liner to be reinflated
and so force out any remaining
or trapped product.
Bagging down under
The manufacture of liner bags is
now also gaining ground in Australia,
which (as in North America
and parts of Europe) frequently
experiences trade imbalance and
so is constantly looking to develop
new sources of outbound box traffic.
The increased export shipment
of chemicals and agricultural
products is one obvious solution,
and once again the increased availability
of liners has helped to make
such business more economically
viable.
Crasti and Company Pty, based
in New South Wales, is one firm
to have already addressed local
demand and has for some time
been offering a PE liner suited for
the carriage of a range of staple
dry bulk commodities (including
resins, grains, meals, beans, malt,
sugar and various minerals).
The Crasti design is suited to
any product weighing at less than
0.7 tonnes/m 3 , and has already attracted
growing interest from Australian
shippers, who endorse the
manufacturer’s own suggestion
that use of its liners greatly improves
product turnaround times
from factory/warehouse, while
also reducing the incident of pilferage,
product losses (due to accidents)
and waste levels. Moreover,
they better utilise the container’s
loading space, which further
cuts the overall cost of exporting.
Crasti has a competitor in the
shape of JMP Holdings, which
after a decade in the bulk handling
business has also recently enhanced
its range of dry bulk container
liners. This Melbournebased
company has similarly benefited
from a rapid surge in demand
from the local export sector.
Included amongst its current
range are PE versions tailored for
the carriage of sugar, malt and
polymer materials. Each has its
own adapted loading/discharge
system, with the “sugar liner,” for
example being suited for top-fill
(through hatches). The polymer
version is, meanwhile, constructed
for end-fill by way of pneumatic
conveyor system, while the malt
liner features a wide opening in
its top section, to accept a gravity
conveyor/auger filling system.
JMP also offers a roofless or
tub-style Hide Liner of its own
design, made from strengthened
woven material that can withstand
loading by forklift truck. This too
comes with a specially enlarged
access entry point.
The company also offers an
insulated liner, which is fully enclosed,
but again can be accessed
by way of lift-truck. It is claimed
to have sufficient insulation capacity
to accommodate the wide climatic
fluctuations that occur
within a container when crossing
the equator. ❏
50
May 2003

CONTAINER INDUSTRY
Box funding on the increase
The continuing buoyancy of
the global container shipping
industry has kept demand for
new box equipment strong
and world container output
looks certain to recover further
this year in comparison
to 2002 and 2001. Even though
the final production figure is
unlikely to regain its former
peak of almost 2 mill TEU
achieved in 2000, it might not
fall too far short. Current projections
suggest that up to 1.8
mill TEU will be built as all
types this year, which compares
with around 1.6 mill
TEU delivered in 2002 and just
1.3 mill TEU in 2001.
The year 2003 will, therefore,
be a strong one for container investment
and is already generating
a significant requirement for extra
funding. For, in addition to the expected
increase in output, newbuild
prices are currently rising as well -
a reflection of the continued
strength of demand and recent
jumps in the cost of steel and other
raw materials. Average Chinese exworks
prices are now virtually back
to their previous high point in
2000, when they last topped
US$1,500 per 20ft standard unit.
The cost of more specialised reefers
and tanks is increasing too.
On the up
Upwards of US$3.6 bill is forecast
to be spent on new box equipment
in the current year, which is well
up on 2002 and 2001, but falls short
of the record US$3.86 bill invested
in 2000. Around US$2 bill will
likely be committed to dry freight
boxes in 2003, with over US$1.1
bill due to be spent on reefers.
Despite the fact that the majority
of TEU deliveries planned
for 2003 will go to the leasing sector,
as was the case in 2002, shipping
lines (and other transport operators)
will continue to account
for the largest share of all purchasing
in pure investment terms as a
consequence of their proportionally
greater procurement of reefers,
tanks, domestic containers and
other higher value specials.
Indeed, in response to the
more upbeat state of the shipping
market in 2003, shipping lines
have already shown a much
greater willingness to purchase/
finance equipment for their
owned fleets than was the case last
year. During 2002, many lines
opted to make more use of leased
equipment, some because they
feared a renewed downturn in the
market, while others had other
calls on their capital, primarily to
pay for new vessels ordered when
the market outlook was more propitious.
Most lines were also suffering
a decline in revenue/earnings
at the time, which lessened
their scope for further borrowing.
Strong recovery
The majority of lines have since
witnessed a strong recovery in
their performance and are currently
experiencing real shortfalls
in box equipment.
And if these factors were not
sufficient incentive to attract shipping
lines back into the purchasing
arena, the latest drop in global
interest rates, to their lowest level
in a generation, has provided another
impetus. Furthermore, there
is, as yet, no apparent shortage of
funds available globally for container
purchase, even though some
categories of buyer are clearly better
placed than others.
The major leasing companies,
by virtue of their strong asset bases
and stable balance sheets, are still
able to raise most of the funds they
need by using asset-based
Newbuild container investment by owner and container type
for 2000-2003 (US$ million)
2000 2001 2002 2003*
Leasing companies
Dry freight 1,040 535 1,035 1,085
Integral reefer 330 230 340 365
Tank 105 65 110 120
Other** 50 35 30 30
Total 1,525 865 1,515 1,600
Operators †
Dry freight 1,250 890 720 900
Integral reefer 690 700 755 780
Tank 110 127 85 105
Other** 285 238 180 195
Total 2,335 1,955 1,740 1,980
Global total 3,860 2,820 3,255 3,580
Leaseco share (%) 39.5 30.7 46.5 44.7
Operator share (%) 60.5 69.3 53.5 55.3
Notes: *Projected at second quarter. **Includes palletwide, swap
body and US domestic containers. † Includes all purchases made
by, or financed for, shipping lines and other transport companies.
Source: Leasing company and manufacturing data
securitisation or more conventional
bank borrowing, revolving
credit or note issuance.
Secure future
Securitisation, because it utilises
the borrowers’ equity/assets to
part underwrite the loan, has become
a popular option for the
leasing sector as it can cut financing
costs significantly in comparison
to straight bank debt.
At least six of the largest leasing
names (GE SeaCo, Textainer,
Tr iton, Interpool, Gold and
Florens) have used securitisation
to fund their recent fleet growth,
while it is contributing a big share
of the US$1.5 bill plus being raised
annually by lessors to cover their
new box investment.
Illustrative is Interpool, which
has recently raised another US$50
mill through its long-running
securitisation programme. This
generated finance worth US$500
mill for the lessor in 2002.
Credit lines of comparable
type and size have been tapped by
Textainer and Triton, each of
which is likely invest up to
US$150 mill in new box equipment
this year. GE SeaCo will
similarly finance at least another
US$150 mill of new (mainly specialised)
containers in 2003, which
is close to the sum it invested during
2002. A broadly comparable
outlay is also forecast for Florens,
which also committed to over
US$150 mill of new container
investment in 2002.
At the same time, Capital Lease
has secured up to US$150 mill from
its investor partners in Germany, for
expenditure in 2003, while Cronos,
acting through its new joint financing
venture with Fortis Bank, has
raised over US$70 mill. Sizeable
internal funding (worth well over
US$100 mill) has, meanwhile, been
raised by Transamerica Leasing,
while additional new funds have
been secured by Gold Container,
via its parent Touax Group, and by
Unit Equipment Services (UES)
backed by investors in Germany/
Switzerland. The notable exception
is Gateway, which is still concluding
its longstanding financial restructure
and has yet to confirm any
investment for this year.
Pulling back
Nevertheless, despite the buoyant
market and the apparent abundance
of available finance, some
major banks are known to have
pulled back from supporting the
container sector. This has certainly
restricted the access of some shipping
lines to new funding, as the
latter are generally less able to exploit
other financing vehicles, such
as securitisation, due to their more
complex structure and operations.
This, on the other hand, has
created further opportunities for
the more specialised end of the
The demand for all types of
finance lease was naturally down
slightly in 2002, as compared to
earlier years when shipping lines
were investing more aggressively,
but still accounted for a relatively
big outlay. Much of US$1.75 bill
of new boxes purchased in 2002
by transport operators for their
own fleets was acquired through
finance leasing and per diem rates
are generally reported to have held
up more strongly than in the operating
term lease sector. Moreocontainer
financing sector and
particularly the providers of highly
tailored packages, which are less
daunted by cyclical swings in demand
and continue to offer a wide
(and growing) range of finance
lease options. The latter range from
the most straightforward type of
lease-purchase, featuring a standard
write-down of the debt over
8-10 years, to more sophisticated
structured financing deals containing
various early-break options.
As with the operating lease
business, the number of participants
offering finance lease remains relatively
select and unchanging.
Amongst the best-known firms to
focus on this sector are Unitas,
Container Leasing A/S, ING Lease,
HVB Leasing (formerly Bank Austria
Creditanstalt) and Nordea
Finans Danmark (formerly
Unileasing), though the latter is understood
to have written a decreasing
amount of container business
during the past two years. Finance
leases are also available from the
majority of operating container lessors,
with Interpool and Transamerica
Leasing (TAL) amongst the
most active in this area.
More to come
Despite the departure of GE Capital
Container Finance from the
box finance sector, the above firms
have since been joined by newcomers,
UES and Grand View Development
(HK) Ltd, both of
which are committing heavily to
finance lease in addition to building
up sizeable operating fleets.
WorldCargo
news
ver, demand will be even greater
this year, when operators are expected
to fund almost US$2 bill
of new box purchases.
Container Leasing of Denmark,
with its long track record,
remains very committed to the
finance-lease sector. It is continuing
to focus on the niche end of
the market, putting together
highly tailored deals covering container
(and vessel) purchases, typically
in the US$25-50 mill range.
Spokesman, Ernst Neilsen, confirmed
that the demand for finance
leasing from shipping lines
is increasing again and will be
greater this year than in 2002.
Unitas is similarly active, despite
conceding that the market
has been tough of late. The company,
which controls a current
equipment portfolio of around
200,000 TEU, financed to the tune
of US$350 mill, has recently recruited
Jonathan Harrison formerly
with GE Capital Container
Finance) as its new CEO and is
looking to build stronger partnerships
with its existing client base.
However, Harrison is mindful
of the way the container business
has been scaling up in recent years,
and stated bluntly that “even an injection
of US$1 bill does not go
far today.” In short, any firm specialising
in container financing has
increasingly to aim high. ❏
May 2003 51

WorldCargo
news
HAZCHEM TRANSPORT
Preparing ground for a bigger Europe
On the eve of EU enlargement,
the European
chemical logistics industry
faces major challenges as it
seeks to reconcile the differences
between its own infrastructure and
safety culture and those of the 10
Central and Eastern European
countries (CEECs) about to join
the Community.
The effort will entail providing
assistance to minimise the gap in
quality standards between the east
52
Western Europe has high expectations of its chemical
logistics industry in terms of safety and quality. With
EU enlargement imminent, Eastern Europeans face
challenges in their efforts to match these standards
and west as quickly as possible.
Since the communist yoke was
thrown off over a decade ago,
CEEC chemical producers and
their logistics service providers
(LSPs) have made great strides in
aligning their operations with
those in the west, as delegates to
the third European Petrochemical
Association (EPCA) Eastern
European chemical logistics seminar,
held last month in Budapest,
Hungary, heard.
International regulations have
been ratified, state enterprises have
been privatised, western companies
have invested heavily in the
region and industry associations
are beginning to speak with a
unified voice.
However, the business environment
created by 50 years of
central planning and underfunding
cannot be undone overnight.
CEEC chemical producers
are simply not able to make the
same commitment to sustainability,
environmental performance
and high safety standards as
their counterparts in the west.
Proper enforcement of applicable
standards also presents a problem.
Furthermore, Eastern Europe
is saddled with a transport network
characterised by a poor road
infrastructure and a rail system
geared up for bulk, trainload
movements but not intermodal
shipments.
Avoiding mistakes
The main aim of the series of
EPCA Eastern European chemical
logistics seminars has been to
bring east and west together so
that those active in chemical logistics
in the former Comecon
countries can learn from the experience
of their counterparts in
Western Europe. Furthermore, the
meetings enable those delegates
from the west to learn of the principal
constraints which exist in the
east to enable better targeting of
efforts to improve the situation.
Presentations by representatives
of the leading regulatory
bodies and industry associations in
Western Europe highlight the latest
developments in the fields of
new regulations from Brussels and
pan-European industry standards.
These, in turn, can assist those in
the east by providing an indication
of where implementation efforts
can best be focused.
The first two meetings in the
series were held in Prague, in 1999,
Combined transport in Eastern Europe will require some state support, at least
initially, if it is to achieve its potential
and in Krakow, Poland, in 2001.
The theme of the third EPCA
Eastern European meeting was
“Sustainable Chemical Transport
Logistics and Responsible Care
Through Partnerships.” EPCA was
assisted in the organisation of the
Budapest event by the European
Chemical Industry Council
(CEFIC), the European Chemical
Transport Association (ECTA),
the International Road Transport
Union (IRU), European Commission’s
Energy and Transport Directorate
(DG TREN) and the
Hungarian Chemical Industry
Association (MAVESZ).
The European chemical industry’s
commitment to sustainability
has been formalised in two
European Commission sustainability
policies for the chemical
and transport industries, which are
now under consultation. Once
adopted, they will set the framework
for the next 10 years and
drive innovation and competition.
The initiatives stress how important
it is for chemical producers
to work in partnership with
their LSPs to provide both parties
with an appreciation of each other’s
position. This, in turn, will
yield optimum, mutually beneficial
results.
Now implemented in 47 nations
worldwide, including 23 in
Europe, the Responsible Care
programme calls for the chemical
industry to make a public commitment
to continuous improvement
of its safety, health and environmental
performance, and to
listen to and engage with people
inside and outside the industry.
Eye off the ball
It was admitted during the EPCA
seminar proceedings that a degree
of complacency has crept in as regards
the implementation of Responsible
Care in the industrialised
nations and that work to meet
the targets originally envisaged
needs to be reinvigorated.
One recent new step taken in
the US is an agreement amongst
chemical companies that implementation
needs to be independently
verified and certified, with
company information and certification
status made transparent.
Europe is considering similar steps.
Of the 10 CEEC economies,
Hungary has been one of the best
performers of the past decade, due
in part to the fact that the communist
ethic was least entrenched
there and the political apparatus
least inclined to toe the party line.
In this environment, the country’s
chemical logistics sector has made
advances as good as any in the area.
Setting the scene for the event,
Miklós Szoboszlay, director general
of the Hungarian Ministry of
Economy & Transport, reported
that road transport accounts for 10
per cent of the 30 mill tonnes of
chemical transported in Hungary
each year, although road movements
are now growing as rapidly
as rail freight is decreasing.
Hungary joined the ADR
Agreement governing the road
transport of hazardous goods in
Europe in 1979 and adopted the
RID Regulations covering the rail
transport of dangerous goods in
1990. The country is poised to join
the ADN Agreement dealing with
the inland waterways transport of
dangerous goods, while legislation
enacting the EU’s Dangerous
Goods Safety Advisor (DGSA)
requirements was implemented on
January 1, 2003.
Chemical culture
“Chemical production accounts
for 15 per cent of Hungary’s industrial
turnover and 3.3 per cent
of GDP,” Árpád Olvasó, from
MAVESZ, told EPCA delegates.
“Chemical production has effectively
been privatised since 1998,
and today some 59 per cent of assets
are owned by foreign investors.
The industry joined the Responsible
Care programme in
1991 and in 2002 Hungary acceded
to the Kyoto Protocol.”
Although some 5 per cent of
the Hungarian chemical industry’s
capital expenditure is devoted to
environmental protection measures,
producers still face environmental
challenges, including the need to
phase out polluting technologies
and cut waste. At the same time
Hungary’s chemical producers are
now competing in the international
marketplace and are under pressure
to control costs, secure adequate
supplies of feedstock and improve
overall efficiencies.
Hungarian transport operators,
too, are faced with the task of
modernising their services. Miklós
Horváth of Masped Rt explained
to delegates that following the
demise of the large state-owned
transport fleets, private operators
have flourished in Hungary. Nevertheless,
there is a need for consolidation
in the transport industry
as part of the effort to ensure a
pool of LSPs able to meet the
May 2003

HAZCHEM TRANSPORT
WorldCargo
news
requirements of the chemical producers.
Service quality amongst the LSPs is
variable and the skills necessary for proper
contract tendering are often missing.
Horváth said that the EU enlargement
process will serve to boost the efficiency
of his country’s freight transport sector.
Safety advisors
European regulations require companies
involved in the transport and handling of
dangerous goods to appoint dangerous
goods safety advisers (DGSAs). Amongst
other obligations, DGSAs draft procedures
that incorporate lessons learned and
promote a continuous improvement in
the safety, health and environmental performance
of their company. The DGSA
regulations entered into force in Hungary
on January 1, 2003, two years after
the relevant Directive was implemented
in Western Europe.
Marianna Csuhay of the Hungarian
Ministry of Economy & Transport explained
to EPCA delegates that another
key role of DGSAs is to help their companies
understand and comply with a
complex and expanding set of controls
governing the handling and transport of
dangerous goods in Europe. This is an
important function in Hungary and other
Eastern European countries.
Hungarian DGSA regulations include
a provision specific to the country, namely
that DGSAs inform the Central Office
for Statistics (KSH) of all dangerous goods
shipments handled by their firm. A total
of 260 Hungarian companies have notified
the competent authority that they
use DGSAs while there are 180 registered
advisers in the country.
“To date, the main problem for our
ministry in implementing the DGSA requirements
has been the loose interpretation
that some companies place on the
escape clause included in the EC Directive
in order to obviate themselves of any
responsibility, ” Csuhay said. “The clause
states that companies not engaged in dangerous
goods handling as their main or
secondary activity, but are just involved
with such cargoes occasionally, are exempt
from the need to have a DGSA.”
Csuhay finished on a bright note,
pointing out that Hungarian DGSAs are
enthusiastic and committed to their responsibilities.
They have already formed
two industry associations, the presence of
which will no doubt facilitate implementation
of DGSA legislation in Hungary.
mental groups and regulatory bodies in
order to ensure that the chemical industry
is fairly and accurately represented.”
Borsodchem applies best available
technology (BAT) and uses skilled staff
for logistics operations on its premises in
order to prevent transport accidents. It also
maintains strict criteria which govern its
choice of LSP and ensures an open exchange
of all relevant information with
those LSPs that are chosen.
“For the country as a whole to achieve
continuous improvement in chemical
accident prevention, more rigorous application
of Responsible Care requirements
will be needed,” said Varga. ”This
translates into improving skill levels, preparing
internal procedures, establishing
benchmarks, carrying out the necessary
training and using BAT.” ❏
Hoyer helps Huntsman
through Russian winters
Huntsman Polyurethanes in the Netherlands
has chosen Hoyer as one of its
preferred logistics suppliers due to the
transport operator’s ability to meet the
challenges posed by a contract to move
large volumes of MDI, one of its hazardous,
temperature-sensitive products,
to difficult markets like Russia.
MDI is a chemical used in the manufacture
of polyurethanes and, at the point
of delivery to the customer, must have a
temperature of no less than 23degC. This
poses difficulties in the harsh Russian winters
when ambient temperatures remain
well below freezing for long periods.
Huntsman has worked with Hoyer in
the past and is aware of the operator’s
ability to maintain close control of the
temperatures of the products carried by
its road tankers and tank containers
through the use of super-insulated tanks
and onboard gensets.
Hoyer is also a pan-European logistics
service provider with an extensive
Eastern European network of customers
and depots as well as a full portfolio
of transport equipment. Familiarity with
the region extends to knowledge and
experience with the various alternative
transport routes to and from Huntsman
customers in Russia.
Notwithstanding all the arrangements
taken to prevent accidents from
occurring in the first place, MDI still
poses a flammability risk, which must
be taken into account, especially as there
may be a lack of adequate firefighting
resources on many parts of the transport
routes. In this case Hoyer and
Huntsman have adopted structural solutions
wherever possible in order to
avoid the risk of a fire and the need for
firefighting. ❏
Ready for emergencies
Another speaker from MAVESZ, Gyula
Pogány, told delegates about VERIK, the
Hungarian chemical industry’s emergency
response and information system and part
of the European International Chemical
Environment (ICE) response network.
Although VERIK was formally
launched in 1996, it is only in the last
two years that it has begun to function as
a nationwide system. In 2002 some 293
incidents involving dangerous goods and
of varying degrees of magnitude were
reported through the system, including
85 transport-related incidents. Of the latter,
67 per cent involved petroleum products,
12 per cent acids and alkalis, 14 per
cent alcohols and 2 per cent peroxides.
Based at the MOL Danube refinery,
VERIK is still in its infancy and needs further
promotion, Pogány said. Seven domestic
chemical companies have said they will
support the scheme, but Hungary’s emergency
authorities have not yet given formal
recognition to the initiative. MAVESZ
needs to reconsider some aspects of the
scheme, including the possibility of some
local satellite VERIK centres.
More Care
Bela Varga of Borsodchem provided a
viewpoint from an individual chemical
manufacturer. Specialising in chlorinebased
plastics materials, Borsodchem is the
largest manufacturer of PVC in the 10
CEEC nations, the sole producer of MDI
in Hungary and the biggest producer of
TDI in the country. It is also one of the
original signatories of the Responsible
Care initiative in Hungary.
“People in Hungary continue to be
anxious about the proximity of chemical
production plants to their homes,” said
Varga, “and MAVESZ members need to
strengthen communications links with
their LSPs, local communities, environ-
May 2003 53

WorldCargo
news
HAZCHEM TRANSPORT
Industry embracing Responsible Care
Europe’s chemical producers
and their logistics service providers
(LSPs) have taken steps
over the past decade to develop
programmes to enable
them to meet their obligations
under the Responsible Care
initiative. Because chemical
manufacturers are most vulnerable
when their products
leave the plant gates for delivery
to the final customer, it
is important that the producers
and their LSPs work
closely together in preparing
and implementing these programmes.
Jos Verlinden, CEFIC logistics
manager, explained to delegates
at the third European Petrochemical
Association (EPCA) Eastern
European chemical logistics seminar
in Budapest last month that
the chemical industry’s commitment
to Responsible Care in its
logistics activities is through voluntary
initiatives. Amongst other
benefits, a proactive approach
should lead to a good safety
record, thus minimising the risk
of industry being burdened with
unduly strict regulations.
Improved regimes
The voluntary initiatives launched
by the chemical industry include
the many individual Safety and
Quality Assessment System
(SQAS) modules, the International
Chemical Environment
(ICE) network of European emergency
response centres and the
Emergency Response Information
Cards (ERICards).
Verlinden also described the
ongoing work to upgrade these
initiatives. For example, SQAS
Road, following its complete revision
in 2000, now has 68 accredited
assessors in 15 counties, an
electronic database and is a selfsupporting
initiative.
He explained how the SQAS
Road system may best be assimilated
in the Central and Eastern
European countries (CEEC) and
how the process is being facilitated
through training sessions. In June
this year, representatives from the
CEEC national chemical industry
federations will attend a threeday
CEFIC training course in
Brussels, while a local SQAS
workshop in Prague last month
will be augmented by a similar
event in Budapest later this year.
“Chemical producers in
CEEC countries are advised to
promote SQAS and become familiar
with it as soon as possible,”
stated Verlinden. “This can be
done through, for example, the
carrying out of pilot assessments
of several of the major LSPs and
the sharing of the lessons learned
during the exercise.
“LSPs can get up to speed, too,
by carrying out self-assessments
using the SQAS questionnaire,
which has been translated into
Hungarian. The utilisation of time
available now will pay dividends
in the longer term,” he said.
SQAS Tank Cleaning is also
the subject of a major revision
similar to that carried out on
SQAS Road, and a target completion
date of January 1, 2004 has
been agreed.
Meanwhile, following a slow
start, there have now been 11 assessments
of European rail companies
under SQAS Rail, and the
initiative is picking up speed.
Five and counting
LSPs in Western Europe have also
implemented a number of measures
to get their own house in
order. The vehicle used to achieve
this goal is the European Chemical
Transport Association (ECTA).
As outlined to delegates by Dr
Horst Kubek of LKW Walter International
and ECTA vice chairman,
ECTA has produced five sets
of guidelines since it was established
in 1997. These guidelines,
which constitute industry best
practice for the LSP sector, cover
aspects such as the standardisation
of road transport equipment specifications,
16 hour per day operations
and standardised delivery
performance measurement.
ECTA efforts, said Kubek, are
The SQAS Tank Cleaning programme is currently the subject of a major upgrade
ongoing, and work is currently getting
underway, or is about to get
underway, on new standards governing
security and site access, human
resources, tank cleaning, emergency
response, productivity improvement
and subcontracting. In
addition, a revised edition of the
guidelines on the standardisation of
rail transport equipment is due to
be published by the end of this year.
Kubek encouraged Hungarian
LSPs to become members and
participate in the efforts of
ECTA’s many working groups. Of
particular relevance is the working
group on human resources,
which commenced its activities in
November 2002 and, amongst
other things, will be developing
driver training standards in an effort
to pre-empt possible legislation
from Brussels. With a scarcity
of drivers available for the growing
chemical road transport sector,
there is no doubt that Western
European transport firms will
be out to attract Eastern European
drivers in future.
Harnessing expertise
Luc Haesaerts of Haesaerts
Intermodal and ECTA chairman
made the final presentation of the
seminar, augmenting Kubek’s commentary.
ECTA owes its success to
its working groups, each of which
is tasked with compiling a particular
set of standards, guidelines or
recommendations reflecting industry
best practice. Members provide
their services to these groups free
of charge, he said.
One of the many new projects
with which ECTA is currently
engaged is accident/incident reporting,
the initiative being predicated
on a growing awareness in
the industry that learning from experience
represents one of the
most valuable sources of information.
ECTA and CEFIC have
launched a pilot data collection
project, which EPCA will manage
and which has a budget of
€30,000. Companies are being encouraged
to report all accidents,
incidents and near misses and all
the input will be non-attributable.
“The existing ECTA members
are urged to work together more
closely with LSPs in Eastern Europe
in the year ahead as the EU
is enlarged and new opportunities
open up for all participants,”
concluded Haesaerts. “Eastern European
transport companies have
the experience of long-haul driving
and an unparalleled knowledge
of doing business with countries
farther east which will stand
them in good stead.” ❏
BASF identifies ideal
logistics partners
As part of the process of reporting
on norms currently in place
in Western Europe at the EPCA
Eastern European chemical logistics
seminar, Joachim Prengel
of BASF looked at what chemical
producers expect of their logistics
service providers (LSPs).
As the speaker, who is also
chairman of the CEFIC Logistics
Committee, explained to
delegates, chemical manufacturers
worldwide are driven by the
need to meet the requirements
of their customers, who have
sophisticated needs, which include
delivery reliability, flexibility,
efficiency, just-in-time
deliveries, safety, a proactive approach
to continuous improvements,
innovative solutions,
competitive costing and a quality
service. Because LSPs are at
the interface between the producer
and the customer, chemical
producers require these same
attributes of their LSPs.
In chemical logistics, economics
takes second place to
safety, health and the environment
(SHE). For BASF, Prengel
said, accident prevention is the
number one priority and the
company uses CEFIC’s safety
and quality assessment system
(SQAS) suite of modules as the
basis for company-specific
evaluations of its LSPs. Responsible
Care, which is part of the
chemical industry’s commitment
to sustainable development,
provides the basis for a
programme of continuous improvement
in SHE matters.
“The central LSP management
department at BASF essentially
provides a 4th party logistics
(4PL) service by coordinating
the logistics needs of all
the company’s production
plants worldwide,” said Prengel.
“BASF utilises 100 LSPs for
bulk shipments and 120 for
packaged goods and is committed
to developing long-term relationships
with its service providers.”
In assessing its LSPs, Prengel
listed the following specific capabilities
that BASF looks for:
● Good management.
● Experience with handling
dangerous goods.
● Dedication to the Responsible
Care approach.
● Support of the BASF image
in final dealings with the customer.
● Competitive cost structure.
● Focus on present and future
market needs.
● Intelligent IT systems.
● Financial strength, with a diversified
customer base. ❏
54
May 2003