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WorldCargo
SEPTEMBER 2004
news
Konecranes/SMV deal
The products of SMV and KCI Konecranes are 100 per cent complementary
KCI Konecranes has announced
that it has entered into an agreement,
subject to regulatory approvals,
to acquire the Swedish lift
truck and reach stacker manufacturer
SMV Lifttrucks AB (SMV)
by the end of this year.
The acquisition will be for between
SEK180 mill and SEK220
mill, to be determined by August
next year according to SMV’s performance
up to that time. KCI
Konecranes will also assume
SMV’s net debt of SEK85 mill.
Originally set up in 1947 in
Silverdalen, SMV has existed in
its present guise since 1994 when
a number of top design, engineering
and marketing and sales executives
were recruited from a
demoralised (at the time) Kalmar
by a new private investor, Göthe
Parkander, to transform the declining
Silverdalen business with
an extended product range from
a new, purpose-built assembly
plant in Markaryd.
SMV’s net sales have grown
year by year and reached SEK374
mill last year, reckoned to be about
250 machines, followed by a
record high order intake this year.
Significantly the relative share of
output of “light” trucks (10-18
tonnes) is now down to about one
third compared to one half in the
early days after 1994, while output
of heavy fork lifts and dedicated
ECH mast trucks is up to
one third and so is output of reach
stackers. Products from SMV include
the innovative “Spectra”
FLT. Earlier this year, it launched
its Mark 2 (‘B’ series) reach stackers,
having already pioneered
CANbus controls in 1995.
SMV’s extensive dealer network
will strengthen KCI
Konecranes market position in the
ports, says KCI, adding that its own
sales network is mainly directed
towards the manufacturing industry.
“Now [our] presence in ports
will increase significantly.”
Mikko Uhari, president of
KCI Konecranes’ special cranes
business area (SCBA), points out
that SMV’s product portfolio is
fully complementary with KCI’s
own ship-to-shore container
crane, RTG and RMG portfolio
and thus considerably strengthens
its hand as a port equipment supplier,
following the trend set by
Kalmar, Fantuzzi and Liebherr.
The agreement settles the future
for SMV and it surely rules
out any prospect of a tie-up between
Kalmar and Konecranes.
The sale of SMV has not come as
a surprise in the industry, but the
buyer has, as SMV was widely
thought to be a target for Toyota.
SMV will come under the
SCBA. Its management team, now
headed by K-G Salomonsson following
the retirement this June of
Olle Osterlund who led the team
out of Kalmar in 1994, is expected
to remain in place. A spokesman
for SMV described the deal as a
“perfect win-win situation.”
Four eyeing up
CSXWT assets
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH),
Modern Terminals (MTL) and
China Merchants of Hong Kong,
as well as Singapore’s PSA International,
have expressed interest in
bidding for CSX World Terminal
(CSXWT)’s assets in Hong Kong
and overseas.
CSX Corp, the US-based parent
company of CSXWT, has put
its global ports network up for sale,
with Citibank acting as facilitator.
HPH officials declined to comment,
but spokespersons for MTL
and PSA confirmed having expressed
interest.
MTL, Hong Kong’s secondlargest
operator, is only interested
in CSXWT’s local facilities because
it does not have an international
network like HPH and PSA.
“We have indicated an interest in
some of CSX World Terminals’
assets in response to an invitation
from Citibank,” MTL spokeswoman
Joel Cheung told
WorldCargo News.
CSXWT’s facilities in Hong
Kong include the one-berth Container
Terminal 3 (CT3) and its
29.5 per cent stake in Asia Container
Terminals (ACT), which has
two berths at CT8 West at the
Kwai Chung container port.
CSXWT also operates container
terminals in Tianjin and
Yantai in China and has rights to
develop terminals in Qingdao,
China, and Pusan in South Korea.
It also operates a terminal in
In what is believed to be the biggest
ever deal for automatic paper
roll clamps for lift trucks in a stevedoring
environment, Barloworld
is sourcing around 30 “smart” AFC
(adaptive force control) clamps
from Cascade Corporation for
Project Enterprise, Forth Ports’
dedicated new import and distribution
facility for StoraEnso in
Tilbury. As previously reported
(WorldCargo News June 2004, p12),
Barloworld was mulling the AFC
design and the Bolzoni Auramo
“intelligent” clamp.
Paper handling at the new facility
is entirely automated until the
very last stage when the reels are
taken out of the “low bay” warehouse
and loaded to road delivery
trucks. Having the trucks fitted
with the latest clamp technology
enables Forth Ports to meet
StoraEnso’s requirement for minimum
damage levels in the whole
chain from mill to customer.
Barloworld is Hyster’s UK distributor
and there will be over 20
clamp trucks with hydrostatic
drive, mostly 5.5 tonners at
600mm LC and with a lift height
of 7m. There will also be a 13.6
tonne cushion tyre truck from
Taylor for handling jumbo reels.
Barloworld recently forged an
agreement with US-based Taylor
covering non-container handling
FLTs, including boat hoists for
Vladivostok, Russia, and facilities
in Germany (Germersheim), Venezuela
(Puerto Cabello), the Dominican
Republic (Caucedo) and
Australia (Adelaide).
Under the Citibank brief, the
deadline for expressions of interest
was August 23 and proposals
were accepted for all or part of
CSXWT’s global network.
The move to sell the assets
came after Hanjin Shipping of
South Korea, CSXWT’s largest
customer in Hong Kong, moved
its 600,000 TEU a year business
from CT3 to HPH’s Hongkong
International Terminals (HIT),
leaving Maersk Sealand as its largest
customer. Industry insiders say
Maersk Sealand will also leave
CT3 at the end of this year when
its five-year contract expires because
it is paying more in handling
charges to CSXWT than to MTL,
where it does most of its 1 mill+
TEU/year business.
PSA would be a new arrival at
Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung container
port as China Merchants is
the second-largest shareholder of
MTL. MTL and China Merchants
also have equity stakes in
Shenzhen’s Shekou and Chiwan
terminals, which have seen strong
throughput growth this year. Stateowned
China Merchants may also
be interested in CSXWT’s stakes
in the terminals in China.
● As this issue was going to press,
it was announced that a consortium
led by Hutchison Port Holdings
(HPH) had won the bid to
build and operate a US$600 mill,
six-berth expansion of Thailand’s
Laem Chabang port. The consortium,
comprising HPH,
Hutchison Thailand and Lexton
Thailand, beat off competition
from PSA International. A third
bid, from Dubai Ports International
(DPI), in association with
Regional Container Lines, was
disqualified on technical grounds.
HPH already operates the A2 Terminal
at Laem Chabang.
Bidders are queuing up to buy CSXWT’s CT3 facility in Hong Kong
Biggest ever order
for auto clamps
marinas, where Taylor is a recognised
world leader.
Other major contracts awarded
for the new Tilbury facility include
eight SECU translifters from
Liftec Oy and, through Transtec,
eight of Terberg’s top-rated
RT382 ro-ro tractors for hauling
the SECU units on them. The gcw
is around 125 tons. The tractors
are being fitted with a sideways
shiftable cabin to provide the
driver with a clear view round the
side of the 3.6m wide SECUs.
Interestingly, the Port of
Gothenburg considered this solution
when the Storabox system
was first introduced, but rejected
it on cost grounds and instead
opted for a fixed offset cab design
(Kalmar TRX 252 design).
The hydraulic shift means that
the RT382s can be deployed on
other duties apart from SECU
handling and this will help with
their eventual resale value. At the
same time, Terberg is understood
to have come up with a neat and
cost-effective way of moving the
cab hydraulically..
Transtec is also supplying six
Terberg RT222 ro-ro tractors
with a low chassis to pick up
DFDS Tor Line automatic trailer
trestles. Some 30 SECU-sized cassettes
are also being sourced, along
with ancillary equipment such as
surface sweepers.
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS
Remote control mobiles 2
East Coast/APMT deal 4
PSA/HPH eye Gwadar 9
Ecocombi returns 18
Singamas surge 20
PORT DEVELOPMENT
NAWC review 21
SCANDINAVIA REVIEW
A niche for Wallhamn 26
Århus gets green light 27
L Vänern-Duisburg ro-ro! 28
CMP targets cars 30
CARGO HANDLING
Lift truck update 31
Spreaders and databuses 36
Automated RMG options 40
ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
South Pacific ro-ro 42
Czech cassettes 44
REEFER INDUSTRY
Technology stays ahead 46
Enter PortaPack 48
CA gaining ground 50
TANK CONTAINERS
Component innovations 52
GCS cleans up 54

WorldCargo
news
Risk assessment
vital says HSE
The UK’s Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) has warned of
the need for an effective risk
assessment for all persons involved
in the operation of
cranes after the Port of
Felixstowe was prosecuted following
a fatal accident last year.
The warning follows the
death in June 2003 of Dennis
Burman, a 51-year old trainee,
who was crushed between railings
as he moved between a
fixed and moveable walkway on
a container crane’s platform
during a dock familiarisation
course. He then fell 120ft to the
ground.
Felixstowe Dock and Railway
Company Ltd was fined
£250,000 with £27,288 costs
after pleading guilty at an
earlier hearing. It admitted failing
to ensure that Mr Burman
and other workers were not exposed
to risks to their safety,
as required by the legislation.
HSE Inspector David
Gregory said: “In this instance
the crane driver intentionally
moved the cab. However his
view of the cross-over point between
the moving and fixed access
walkway was obscured. In
any event he was not able to
observe the cross-over point
whilst at the same time watching
where he was driving the
crane.
“A suitable and sufficient
risk assessment would have
identified the potential for a fatal
or serious injury at the crossover
point. Preventing access to
all personnel excluding the
driver whilst the crane was in
operation would have prevented
this incident. Alternatively, interlocking
the access gates on
the walkways to the movement
of the cab would have achieved
the same result.”
Gottwald Port Technology has
come up with a remote control
system for both Gottwald HMK
(mobile) and HSK rail portalmounted)
harbour cranes, in collaboration
with HBC-radiomatic
GmbH, based in Crailsheim, Germany,
a specialist in industrial radio
remote controls. “The new
remote control system is in line
with our strategic aim of continuously
developing new technologies
and answering customer
needs,” said Gottwald’s sales director
Giuseppe Di Lisa.
All crane functions, including
propping, are provided in a robust,
weather-proof unit equipped with
an LCD screen, hard buttons and
joysticks. The control elements are
identical to those found on the
operating console in the crane’s
tower cabin, so practically no additional
training is required.
The new system dispenses
with the need for a driving cabin
on the chassis or superstructure,
although it can still be fitted if the
customer wants it. “The crane
driver can move the crane from
CARGO HANDLING NEWS
Remote control from Gottwald
Remote control at the restricted SAPEC quay in Setúbal
one job site to another by walking
along beside the crane. Crane
operators do not need additional
staff to provide guidance in order
to avoid accidents when moving
the crane,” explains Di Lisa.
Many cranes, particularly
smaller ones such as the HMK
170, are often ordered without the
additional driver cabin and thus
have to be long-travelled by a
crane driver sitting in the tower
cabin some 20m above ground
level, which is not easy and requires
guidance staff.
Another benefit is that the crane
driver himself can change the lifting
gear when staying on the quay,
positioning the hook precisely into
the right position so that the
spreader or other lifting gear can
be easily attached to the hook. As
there is no need for additional staff,
accidents cannot occur as a result
of miscommunication between the
crane operator and ground staff.
Above all, says Gottwald, the
new tool enhances manoeuvrability
on sites with limited space. It
allows, for example, better positioning
of the crane when there
are strict propping regulations at
certain job sites due to quay loading
restrictions.
The crane operator walking
along beside the crane can easily
see the propping points indicated
on the quay. Also, when assembling
and commissioning a crane at the
operator’s site, the system ensures
more safety and economic efficiency
with less staffing.
“It goes without saying that
the new system underwent extensive
tests at Gottwald’s Düsseldorf
testing ground before market
launch,” said Manfred Kirchner,
head of testing and trials. “It shall
now be offered for all Gottwald
HMK and HSK cranes.” Although
HSK cranes usually operate on
rails, they can be equipped with
special travel gear (eg in Novorossiysk)
to access different sites.
The remote control system, says
Gottwald, improves manoeuvrability
when the crane is being
mounted back on the rails.
Gottwald has revealed its new
system after some successful applications,
such as an HMK 170
EG used by SAPEC in Setúbal.
The quay here is very narrow, with
limited space, and the remote control
system is of great help controlling
and driving the crane.
The system is also fitted to an
HMK 170 E operated by the Port
of Le Havre Authority (PAH). The
crane sometimes has to be moved
more than 4 km between Quai de
Bougainville and Quai de
L’Europe and is not fitted with a
driver cabin on the chassis. “Applying
the remote control system
ensures comfortable, quick and
safe repositioning...we are very
satisfied with the equipment that
helps us save time, staff and
money,” remarked Karl Huard,
PAH’s maintenance officer, northern
container terminal.
New Fantuzzi trusts
It is understood that the shares of
Fantuzzi Reggiane Corporation
Holding have been transferred to
two offshore trust funds in Jersey
(CI), BPu Trustees Ltd and
Pirunico Trustees Ltd. Fantuzzi
group chairman Luciano
Fantuzzi and his daughter Patrizia
are the respective beneficiaries.
A similar move was previously
made in respect of Lupaf Holding,
the Luxembourg company
that owns Fantuzzi Immobiliare,
where the family’s real estate interests
are vested.
As previously reported (see
WorldCargo News May 2004, p4)
Fantuzzi’s bond liabilities and other
senior debt have been restructured
and extended. Undertakings given
by Fantuzzi group include a commitment
to reduce gearing, if required
by the creditors, by selling
off the Reggio Emilia site.
Fantuzzi’s net sales fell last year
to €482 mill from €566 mill in
2002, with a loss of €22 mill.
However, the appointment of a
new managing director and finance
director, Vincenzo Morelli
and Ezio Bertini, appears to have
brought some better news. Orders
received in the May-July
period this year are said to be
worth €120 mill, including deals
worth €46 mill with P&O Ports
group for its operations in the
sub-continent.
Liebherr reports a new order from Dock Sud, Buenos Aires, terminal operator
Exólgan Container Terminal SA for another 45m outreach (17-wide)
container crane, similar to the one it delivered to Exólgan in 1999. SWL
is 50 tonnes for twin 20 operations and 70 tonnes under hookbeam. Rail
span is 31.37m and backreach is 14m, while lift height above and below
rail are 32m and 15m respectively. Rated and empty hoist speeds are 60
m/min and 130 m/min and trolley speed is 200 m/min. The crane will
be fitted with Liebherr dc drives and will incorporate Liebherr’s Winscan
crane management system. The new crane will bring to 14 the number of
ship-to-shore container gantry cranes supplied by Liebherr to the various
terminals in Buenos Aires
2
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING NEWS
Big Alimak orders
Alimak has received orders from Kalmar
Industries Netherlands for its recently
introduced SE-L access lifts to be fitted
to all 25 container cranes ordered from
Kalmar by operators in Rotterdam and
Antwerp.
The orders were placed through
Alimak’s Netherlands distributor NIBM
Industrie en Bouwmachines bv. NIBM’s
regional sales manager Siebe Voolstra said
the deal was the largest it had ever received
in the container crane market.
The orders comprise 19 Alimak SE
300 Ls with heights of 33m and 39m
along with six 36m high SE 450 Ls. The
SE-L series incorporates the same quality
standards as the proven SE range of
lifts, says Alimak, and was engineered to
meet the demands of the shipping, ports
and terminals industries. The SE-L range,
which can also be provided with 400 kg
capacity (SE 400 L), features two car operating
systems - single-automatic or a
semi-automatic control system.
Kone plans
demerger
Kone Corporation has announced a plan
to divide into two companies, whose
shares would be listed on the Helsinki
stock exchange from next year. The stated
objective is to speed growth in both businesses.
Both divisions are debt-free, says
Kone, and would be able to pursue their
own market strategies.
The elevators and escalators division,
whose turnover this year is forecast at €2.9
bill, would continue under the name
Kone Corporation. Forecast sales for
Kone Cargotec Corporation, the container
handling (Kalmar Industries) and
truck crane/load handling (Hiab) division,
are €1.5 bill. Last year sales of Kalmar (including
Bromma) and Hiab were €719
mill and €623 mill respectively.
The plan marks the next stage in the
deconstruction of the business that Kone
acquired when it took over Partek. Noncore
businesses such as rock wool, minerals,
farm tractors and forestry machines have
already been sold off. Banking analysts say
that the profit on selling the non-core lines
and the cash flow gained from the continuing
ex-Partek operations has more than
paid for the original acquisition.
The plan again raised speculation in
Helsinki about a tie-up between Kone
Cargotec and KCI Konecranes, which was
spun off from Kone Corp 10 years ago.
However, such an already difficult match
(because of the conflict in the area of container
cranes and RTGs) would surely now
have been made imposssible by the announcement
that KCI Konecranes is to buy
SMV Lifttrucks AB (see page 1). A Kone
Cargotec/KCI Konecranes would in any
event have to be referred to national and
EU competition authorities and would
likely be rejected.
More concretely, one of the consequences
of a public listing for Kalmar is
that it would be subject to more detailed
disclosure requirements than its main
competitors in the business, which are
either Chinese or private.
Kalmar has been in this situation before
when its shares were listed on the
Stockholm exchange prior to delisting
after Partek progressively bought up all
the minority shares to complete the
merger with Sisu.
● Kalmar Industries is to invest around
US$100 mill in a new assembly plant in
the Shanghai area, mainly to serve the
Asian container handling equipment market,
the fastest growing area for most
Kalmar products. The site occupies 5 hectares
including 7000 m 2 of factory and
office buildings.
The new plant will be an important
step in Kalmar’s aim to penetrate the Asian
RTG market. Assembly operations will
start at the end of next year with terminal
tractors. The smaller plant currently
making these in Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao
area will become the base for Kalmar’s
service and support operations.
The first unit has been installed on
the crane for Interforest Rotterdam and
other deliveries are scheduled later this
year and next for the 24 cranes on order
in Antwerp - 10 for MSC Home Terminal,
the HNN/MSC joint venture in
Delwaidedok; eight for HNN - two for
Noordzeeterminal and six for
Deurganckdok; and six for Antwerp Gateway,
the P&O Ports/P&ON/Duisport
concession at Deurganckdok. (For full
crane specs, see WorldCargo News, July
2004, pp19-20).
Alimak SE-L series access lift on Interforest
Rotterdam’s new crane
Subject to receiving approval from relevant
competition authorities, the AP
Møller-Maersk Group is selling its subsidiary,
Maersk Data, to IBM for an undisclosed
sum.
Maersk Data chairman Jess Søderberg
told WorldCargo News that a major reason
for the sale was to strengthen Maersk
Data as Maersk Group’s preferred IT supplier.
“We believe that we will achieve
this by combining the individual
strengths of IBM and Maersk Data, under
the leadership of IBM, as our global
supplier of IT solutions,” he said.
Over the past few years, Maersk
Sealand has been embarked on a huge
project to replace its extensive array of
WorldCargo
news
IBM buys Maersk Data
mainframe systems with process driven
Windows-based systems. At the same
time, Maersk Data is also a preferred IT
supplier to APM Terminals (APMT),
both directly and through its subsidiary
company Global Transportation Solutions
(GTS). APMT’s needs have also
been growing as its terminal network has
expanded.
GTS is a value-added reseller of the
TOPS terminal operating system developed
in Australia by Real Time Business
Solutions and Container Automation
Systems.
“There are no plans to make any
changes to the role of GTS by us or by
IBM at this time” Søderberg said.
September 2004 3

WorldCargo
news
East Coast/APM M&R deal
WorldCargo
East Coast Crane and Electrical’s new contract with APM Terminals covers its
facilities in all the port ranges in the USA
news
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Entire contents © WCN Publishing 2004
New Jersey-based East Coast
Crane and Electrical Contracting
(ECC) has won a four-year crane
maintenance contract with APM
Terminals (APMT) in six US
states. The scope of the multi-million
dollar per year contract involves
maintenance of 20 ship-toshore
container cranes at six terminals,
with a dedicated workforce
of 60 full-time employees.
The contract covers APMT’s locations
in Elizabeth (NJ), Portsmouth
(Va), New Orleans, Houston,
Oakland and Tacoma.
“ECC will take over management
and oversight of general
maintenance on the cranes, including
preventive and predictive
programmes to maximise crane
availability and productivity, addressing
APMT’s goal of 99.9 per
cent uptime for its customers,” said
ECC president Jim Anastasio.
ECC has already performed
other work for APMT. Last year,
for example, it offloaded and assembled
three ZPMC cranes at
Elizabeth and is currently assembling
three more for the same facility.
It has also been responsible
for offloading and assembly of
around 20 Konecranes RTGs for
APMT over the last three years
at Elizabeth, Baltimore and Portsmouth,
while other projects have
involved relocation and modernisation
of port cranes at a number
of locations.
Currently, the company is installing
radiation portal monitors
for APMT in Elizabeth, after successfully
completing installation
of the initial pilot project for
Homeland Security contractors
Battelle and Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory at Global
Terminals, NJ. The APMT installation
is three times larger than
the Global project.
First crane for Suva
The port of Suva in the Fiji Islands
is currently evaluating tenders
for a mobile harbour crane
and is expected to make an announcement
on the successful
bidder shortly. Suva is the main
container terminal for the 300
or so islands that make up Fiji
and is currently handling around
50,000 TEU/year.
The existing wharf at Suva is
unable to support the wheel loads
of a mobile harbour crane or a
heavy FLT. Boxes are discharged
onto road trailers using ship’s gear
CARGO HANDLING/PORT NEWS
Impsa eyes second spot...
and productivity is low. In 2002
the Asia Development Bank
loaned the Maritime and Ports
Authority of Fiji US$16.8 mill to
upgrade quay structures at Suva
and Lautoka, the Island’s main
bulk and cruise port.
Some 300m of quay are being
repaired at Suva, with completion
scheduled for next year.
Once the upgrade is complete,
a mobile crane and heavy FLTs
will be able to operate on the
apron. FLT requirements will be
considered next year.
Impsa Malaysia’s plant at Lumut, Malaysia. The existing facility is in blue, the
area in red has been acquired for a new heavy machining and structures workshop
and assembly area
Impsa Port Systems is expanding
its operations in Malaysia and Brazil
as part of a strategic plan to
become the second largest global
container crane manufacturer.
The company’s Malaysian subsidiary,
Impsa Malaysia, has struck
a deal to acquire a construction
facility in Lumut from Torsco for
M$13.2 mill. The facility is one
of two that Impsa have previously
contracted for fabrication of
Malaysian cranes.
In August Torsco, a subsidiary
of IJM Corporation Bhd, purchased
a 40 per cent stake in Impsa
Malaysia from Emir Equity Sdn
Bhd, leaving Emir Equity with 20
per cent and Impsa Port Systems
Sdn Bhd with 40 per cent.
Torsco said that the acquisition
would enable it to go from being
a fabricator to being “involved in
the design, engineering, product
development and international
marketing for complete finished
products or systems...and provides
access to state-of-the-art technology
in ship-to-shore and RTGs.”
Torsco added that Impsa Malaysia’s
market territory has been
extended to include the whole of
Asia and the company “has submitted
bids worth more than
M$100 mill for cranes in Malaysia
and is confident of securing a
significant proportion of these.”
Impsa Malaysia’s order book
stands at M$206 mill. An order for
the electro-mechanical works for
Phase 2 of the Bakun Hydroelectric
Project is worth RM80 mill
while orders from PTP Tanjung
Pelepas for 15 RTGs (10 plus five
on exercised options) and three
quay cranes (plus three options -
see below) make up the balance.
PTP will take delivery of the
first four RTGs in March 2006,
followed by six more by May. The
remaining five will be delivered
by July. All are 8-wheel, 40 tonne
cranes with a full ac drive system
designed and engineered by
Impsa from Siemens components,
while the spreaders will be from
Bromma.
More RTG orders are expected
soon as Northport at Port Klang
moves to replace around 80 straddle
carriers at Terminal 1 with an
RTG yard system.
Impsa Port Systems (IPS)’s director
of operations for Asia,
Gustavo Miller, said the deal was
part of “a strategic plan to place
Impsa Port Systems as the second
global player in this business.”
M$60 mill will be spent expanding
the Lumut facility to build up
to 16 quay cranes and 30 RTGs
per year in the first phase.
IPS is taking a similar approach
in Brazil from where it intends to
cover the Americas/Europe/West
Africa market. The company has
already secured contracts to provide
two cranes and five RTGs to
the Port of Santos and three 82
tonne units to APM Terminals for
Algeciras (see WorldCargo News
June 2004, p3). The RTGs will be
the first Impsa units in the Americas,
and the first with 16 wheels.
The Lumut facility, which is
equipped with a load-out dock for
fully-erect shipments, is intended to
become the main base for the Asian
market, but fabrication in other
places will still be considered in
certain cases. For example, IPS expects
to finalise a contract for one
quay crane for Surabaya (to replace
a unit destroyed in a wind accident)
with an outreach of 42m, lifting
height of 30m, and a rail gauge of
18m and this would be fabricated
in Indonesia.
...bags big
PTP order
The Port of Tanjung Pelepas has
ordered three cranes from Impsa
Malaysia (with an option for three
more) with a maximum lifting
capacity of 82 tonnes under the
spreader for twin 40ft operations
for its newly completed Phase II
quay. Although the new quay for
Phase II was piled for a future second
landside rail with a gauge of
42m, the cranes will be built for
the existing 100ft gauge.
Headblock and spreader options
are still being considered but
it is likely that the cranes will be
delivered with a standard headblock
for twin 20ft spreader operations
while twin 40ft operations are
proven at other terminals.
The cranes will have a 22-row
outreach and a lifting height above
rail of 41m with provision to extend
this by 7m at a later date. Although
PTP’s 10 most recent cranes
(five each from Noell and ZPMC)
have been full machinery trolley
designs, it is understood that this is
not preferred and the new units will
have a semi-rope system with a
maximum speed of 240 m/min
over a monogirder boom.
The drive system is full ac designed
and engineered by Impsa
using Siemens components. Delivery
is expected in November
2005, 16 months after the order
was placed.
4
September 2004

WorldCargo
news
APMT inks Xiamen deal...
APM Terminals (APMT) and the
Xiamen Port Affairs Co have concluded
an agreement to form a
50:50 joint venture for the development
of the Xiamen Songyu
Container Terminal.
Construction of the new
deepwater facility will begin immediately
with operations scheduled
to commence in December
2006. The 70 hectare greenfield
site will feature three berths along
1240m of quay, with a 17m water
depth alongside. Total investment
is put at Yuan3 bill (US$363 mill).
APMT is not the only terminal
operator eyeing future developments
at Xiamen, however. The
Xiamen city government is planning
to further expand facilities
at Haicang and Songyu ports and
is considering developing a new
port in the east to reduce reliance
on the ageing facilities at Dongdu
port in western Xiamen, which
currently handles around 75 per
cent of the cargo volumes.
HPH, which operates XICT in the Haicang area of Xiamen, is one of several
companies to have expressed interest in developing further facilities at the port
According to Wang Yongjun,
director of the Xiamen Port Administration,
Hutchison Port
Holdings (HPH) of Hong Kong,
which already operates Xiamen
International Container Terminals
(XICT), a joint venture with
Xiamen Haicang Port Co, at
Haicang in the Xiamen Special
Economic Zone, and PSA Corp,
which operates two joint venture
terminals at Fuzhou along the
Early start for Vallarpadam
India’s Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) has
said that Dubai Ports International
(DPI), which won the 30-
year concession to build and operate
the Vallarpadam international
container terminal near
Kochi in south India, should start
developing the terminal as soon
as possible.
When the tender for Vallarpadam
was floated no conditions
were set and it was understood
that the winner would build up
traffic to at least 400,000 TEU at
the existing Rajiv Gandhi Container
Terminal in Kochi before
shifting operations to Vallarpadam.
DPI itself has indicated it could take
three to four years before the transfer
would take place.
Now, however, the CCEA,
which cleared DPI’s revenue share
offer of 33.3 per cent for the Rs20
bill (US$436 mill) international
container terminal, wants to see the
development accelerated. “The
CCEA has cleared the project,” said
Shipping Minister T R Baalu.
“Now DPI will have to bring in
the required investment at the earliest
to construct the terminal and
start operations there.”
The CCEA’s approval includes
a government commitment to provide
rail and road connectivity as
well as dredging for the project
at a cost of more than Rs 9 bill
(US$196 mill).
According to local sources, the
CCEA is urging an early start on
Vallarpadam as fears have been
expressed that DPI may not actually
start work on the facility,
but rather may pull out of the
project after running the Rajiv
Gandhi terminal for a few years.
DPI has been allowed to pay
its upfront fee of Rs.350 mill
(US$7.6 mill) to the Kochi Port
Trust in half yearly instalments
over five years. But the staggered
payment will attract an interest
of 10 per cent per annum.
Fujian coast, have also expressed
interest in developing new facilities
at Xiamen.
Wang said that Yuan10-14 bill
(US$1.3-1.7 bill) will be needed
to develop the new facilities. In
order to raise funds for the proposed
developments, Xiamen Port
Affairs Co, the state-owned company
that runs most of the port
business in Xiamen, is firming up
plans to seek a listing on the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange.
“The company has applied to
the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,”
said Wang. “We are advancing towards
the goal of becoming one of
the world’s top 20 ports in 2010.”
Xiamen handled 2.3 mill TEU
last year, giving it a global ranking
of 29th and throughput is currently
growing at a rate in excess
of 30 per cent per annum
● The first two berths to handle
large container ships at
Zhangzhou China Merchants Port
(ZCMP), located at the estuary of
Jiulong river in Xiamen Gulf, are
expected to become operational
in autumn 2005. Most of the
dredging work for the new berths
has been completed and six caissons
fabricated, indicating the
project, costing Yuan1.5 bill
(US$180 mill), will be completed
by the end of this year. With a total
quay length of 580m and draft
of 17m, the berths will be able to
accommodate 50,000 dwt ships
and have combined annual handling
capacity of 400,000 TEU.
Three smaller container berths
at ZCMP, totalling 410m in
length, which began operations in
June last year, have an annual handling
capacity of 360,000 TEU.
They are currently handling more
than 10,000 TEU a month, a port
official said.
Four more small berths, totalling
570m in length, will be developed
over the next five years
with an annual handling capacity
of 400,000 TEU, he said.
APM Terminals (APMT) is taking
an additional 33 per cent stake in
Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (GPPL)
to hike its equity stake in the company
to 45 per cent.
The AP Moller subsidiary has
been planning to raise its stake in
the Indian port company for some
time, but was waiting for various
government clearances, which
have now come through. It was
not immediately clear whose stake
APMT is buying, but it is almost
certainly negotiating with Singapore’s
PSA International, which
holds a 20 per cent interest in
GPPL and which has announced
its decision to make a strategic exit
from the company.
Local newspaper reports
quoted an unnamed PSA International
official as saying it
planned to sell its equity to APMT
and other investors.
Sea King Infrastructure Ltd,
which founded the port company,
had already asked the government
to allow foreign investors to hold
PORT NEWS
...upping stake in
Pipavav port
APMT plans to turn Pipavav into a
regional transhipment hub
100 per cent of the equity in
GPPL, apparently with a view to
selling its own stake in the company
to APMT. Sea King has a 38
per cent stake in the company,
while other minor investors include
CDC Capital, AMP of Australia,
and New York Life.
APMT has already drawn up
plans to invest around Rs11 bill
(US$240 mill) in Pipavav to make
it a regional hub to compete against
other ports like Jebel Ali, Colombo
and Singapore, which are transhipment
ports for Indian cargo. The
plans include two more container
berths able to accommodate vessels
with a capacity of 8000 TEU.
The existing three berths, which
have a total length of 1030m and
are served by three second-hand
Kawasaki HI ship-to-shore gantries
and a Gottwald harbour mobile
crane, will be extended by 650m
over the next 18 months.
6
September 2004

PORT NEWS
15 more berths for
Pasir Panjang...
Earlier this month PSA chairman Stephen
Lee issued a statement announcing that
PSA “will be adding another 10 new
berths at Pasir Panjang Terminal (PPT)
in Singapore, to be developed over the
next 5-7 years. These 10 new berths will
add more than 3000m of quay length and
will be supported by over 130 hectares of
land. They are over and above the announcement
in May this year of the development
of five new berths at PPT.
Assuming the same equipment ratio
for the first five berths will be applied to
the next 10, PSA will be in the market
for a further 24 quay cranes and 84 RTGs
(on top of the 12 cranes and 42 RTGs
already ordered) in coming years. Based
on existing contracts with ZPMC and
Doosan these will cost over US$330 mill.
The announcement comes after PSA
recorded a 15 per cent rise in throughput
in the first six months of this year, handling
9.9m TEU at its four Singapore terminals.
By the end of July throughput
...PSA/PTP
alliance
Officials at PSA International and the rival
Malaysian Port of Tanjung Pelepas
(PTP) have refused to comment on renewed
speculation about an unlikely alliance
between the two.
Quoting an unnamed PTP source,
Malaysia’s Star newspaper reported recently
that PTP plans to put its Phase II
development into a separate entity, called
PTP2, which would allow PSA to become
a partner in some berths but not
the whole project. “We plan to do it this
way to allow PSA to come in and form a
partnership with us, but at the second tier
of the PTP group structure. That way,
there are no changes in the shareholding
of PTP,” the source said.
PTP chief executive Mohd Sidik
Shaik Osman has spoken before of cooperation
with PSA as both compete for
a share of the booming transhipment
trade. Two years ago, media reports linked
PSA’s parent, Temasek Holdings, with
PTP’s main shareholder, Malaysian Mining
Corp, but nothing came of it.
Opened in 2000, PTP has given PSA
a run for its money, luring both Maersk
Sealand and Evergreen Marine to its
berths. It is understood that PSA was keen
to buy into PTP in 2000 when Maersk
Sealand affiliate APM Terminals took a
30 per cent stake in the terminal.
With its Phase II coming on stream
this year, PTP faces an uphill battle to lure
a third major customer because PSA has
since reduced charges and signed longterm
contracts with major shipping lines.
“It makes sense for PSA to take up a stake
(in PTP2) as it now spends millions of
dollars on subsidies after having to slash
its rates,” the source told The Star.
“The partnership will result in PSA
moving some container trade [from Singapore]
to PTP. We need the volume as
we have become bigger with more berths.
If we didn’t expand, we wouldn’t be able
to accommodate a third main line operator,”
The Star quoted the source as saying.
PSA’s Singapore terminals have come
under capacity constraints in recent
months, while the first two berths of
PTP’s Phase II are operational and land
has been reclaimed for six more.
The arrival of Eddie Teh from
Hutchison Port Holdings of Hong Kong
as PSA chief executive has changed the
relationship between the two companies,
in the sense that they now talk to each
other. But it remains to be seen if this
friendliness will result in cooperation.
An alliance could transform the transhipment
business in the region, but while
it would make commercial sense it would
require strong political will. Significantly,
both Singapore and Malaysia have new
leaders and have shown a desire to resolve
bilateral issues.
reached 11.7 mill TEU and PSA is on
course to top 20 mill TEU this year and
topple Hong Kong as the world’s busiest
container port.
Jurong Port is also enjoying the current
boom and its throughput reached
397,000 TEU by the end of August, a 140
per cent increase on last year. Jurong is
having success luring smaller carriers away
from the PSA and recently signed United
Arab Shipping Company, the 10th line
to transfer some of its business to Jurong.
Suape goes shopping
ICTSI’s Tecon Suape SA (TSSA) container
terminal in north east Brazil is in
the market for two quayside gantry
cranes and two RTGs as part of a US$12
mill upgrade. This would comprise
TSSA’s first major orders since it began
operating the terminal in January 2002.
It is understood that five companies
were pre-qualified and invited to bid, using
the same e-bidding process it deployed
recently for ICTSI’s BCT Gdynia
concession. They are Impsa, Bardella,
Reggiane, Liebherr and ZPMC.
TSSA is bracing for further growth
in the reefer trade, led by shipments of
seedless grapes, shrimps and mangoes.
Shrimp exports to the US has grown such
that TSSA has expanded the reefer area to
10,000 m 2 and increased the number of
reefer plugs from 370 to almost 600. Additional
impetus to the port upgrade comes
from Brazil’s cabotage trade, which is said
to be expanding by 20 per cent annually.
ICTSI officials have not indicated
when the winning bidder(s) would be
announced, saying only that the new
equipment would be deployed by Q3/
2005. It is understood that the same e-
bidding process used recently for ICTSI’s
BCT Gdynia concession will be followed.
WorldCargo
news
The cranes are rquired to have an
outreach of 47m (17-wide) and have an
SWL of 2 x 32 tonnes (twin 20) at full
outreach. For the RTGs, ICTSI has
specified 6 + 1/1 over 5 x 9ft 6in high
dimensions. Additional requirements
include low-maintenance ac drives,
onboard computer monitoring and
anti-sway systems to reduce cycle times
and minimise downtime.
The upcoming purchases will bolster
TSSA’s existing pool of two Krupp
quay cranes and two Paceco Transtainers
sourced second-hand, backed by three
Fantuzzi reach stackers and other hardware.
Last year TSSA invested some
US$3.4 mill to expand the terminal’s
paved area and it now covers 40 per cent
of its total area of 29 hectares.
September 2004 7

WorldCargo
news
Mombasa delays...
Delays at the Kenyan port of Mombasa
have become so serious that the Kenya
International Freight and Warehousing Association
(KIFWA) has asked importers to
consider using other ports. The association
fears that high demurrage charges will make
using the port uneconomic. A large backlog
in processing containers has developed
over the past few months and KIFWA has
repeatedly appealed for improved coordination
between the Kenya Railways Corporation
(KRC) and the Kenya Ports Authority
(KPA).
At the end of August, KIFWA took out
a series of advertisements that stated,“The
association recommends to importers in
8
neighbouring countries and their clearing
and forwarding agents to choose alternative
means of transporting their containers
from the Port of Mombasa to Uganda.”
A large percentage of goods passing
through Mombasa are in transit to
Uganda and almost 1000 containers
bound for Uganda were delayed at Mombasa
at the time.
While poor port and rail performance
has contributed to the delays, the rising
level of transit traffic may also be a factor.
The amount of goods bound for Uganda
increased by 10 per cent from 1.70 mill
tonnes in 2002 to 1.87 mill tonnes last
year, while Rwandan transit traffic more
than doubled from 81,000 tonnes in 2002
to 171,000 tonnes.
The Kenyan and Ugandan rail authorities
have agreed to fund new improvements
to services. Meanwhile, Tanzania’s
port of Dar es Salaam is likely to
gain most from the problems at Mombasa
as it is the latter’s main rival for the
transportation of goods to and from a
wide swathe of East and Central Africa.
● KPA has spent KSh2 bill (US$25 mill
on linking all of its operations on a single
IT network. Over 6000 PCs have been
purchased and training provided to almost
7000 staff in an effort to fully automate
the processing of containers, bulk cargo
and paperwork at Mombasa and the KPA’s
other centres. The authority plans to transfer
all internal documentation to an electronic
format by the end of next year.
The increased movement of people and
goods between Kenya, Zanzibar and more
distant islands in the Indian Ocean has
prompted the Kenyan government to
announce the creation of the country’s
first new port for decades.
The small town of Shimoni near the
Tanzanian border had previously acted
only as an immigration point for those
entering across the land border. Fears over
the unregulated entry of people from
overseas prompted the parliamentary
committee on security to upgrade the
town’s status.
However, it is also possible that awarding
port status to Shimoni could pave the
PORT NEWS
...new port for Kenya
way for more commercial development.
At the end of the 1990s, Canadian mining
firm Tiomin Resources discovered
titanium deposits estimated to account for
around 14 per cent of global reserves
around 10 km from Shimoni.
A ship loading facility was planned for
Shimoni, which is currently a fishing village
popular with tourists. However, much
of this stretch of the Kenyan coast comprises
marine protected areas containing
mangrove forests, coral reefs and several
rare species. As a result, opposition to any
major port development has been strong.
A number of NGOs, such as the International
Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW), have produced environmental
and social impact reports on the planned
port. IFAW has suggested that the negative
impact of the port could be reduced
by careful environmental management,
while a synthetic rutile plant could be
built at the port to increase the value of
the scheme to the local economy. Granting
port status to Shimoni seems to indicate
that the Kenyan government is
considering giving the go-ahead to the
project.
Indian ports
up and down
According to figures released by the Indian
Ports Association (IPA), India’s major
ports recorded a 7.5 per cent growth
in cargo traffic to 85.7 mill tons in the
current financial year’s first quarter ended
June 30, but the figure was 2.3 per cent
below the government target of 87.8 mill
tons set for the period. During the same
period last year the ports handled 79.7
mill tons.
Only three ports - Mumbai in the west
and Tuticorin and New Mangalore in the
south - exceeded the quarterly target set
for them. New Mangalore port recorded
the highest increase of 37.8 per cent during
the first quarter, handling 7.5 mill tons
of cargo and exceeding its target by 24.6
per cent. In the same quarter last year it
handled 5.4 mill tons.
Mumbai port saw cargo volumes rise
by 20 per cent to 7.6 mill tons, beating its
target of 7 mill tons by 8.4 per cent, while
Tuticorin recorded an 8.7 per cent increase
to 3.7 mill tons, surpassing its target
of 3.5 mill tons by 5.8 per cent.
Ennore, the country’s first corporatised
port, and Mormugao were the only ports
which saw a decline in cargo handling.
Throughput at Ennore, which mainly
handles coal, fell by 2.3 per cent in the
first quarter to 2.45 mill tons, some 11.1
per cent short of the target of 2.76 mill
tons set for it. Mormugao saw a marginal
decline of 0.37 per cent to 6.49 mill tons
(primarily iron ore), but was 12.3 per cent
short of its target of 7.4 mill tons.
The remaining ports saw an increase
in traffic ranging from 0.72 per cent at
Kandla to 14.8 per cent at Chennai.
The IPA has also reported that container
throughput at the country’s major
ports hit 1.01 mill TEU between April
and June this year, up by 16 per cent on
the 879,000 TEU handled during the
same quarter of last year, but slightly below
the target of 1.09 mill TEU set by
the government.
Of the three main container handling
ports, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) near
Mumbai, which has two container terminals,
saw container traffic in the first
quarter of this year drop to 603,000 TEU,
against 628,000 TEU during the same
quarter last year. The government had set
a target of 867,000 TEU for the two facilities,
one of which is operated by P&O
Ports.
Chennai Container Terminal, also
operated by P&O Ports, handled 135,000
TEU against 114,000 TEU a year earlier,
but it too failed to reach the target of
147,000 TEU set by the government.
Tuticorin Container Terminal, operated
by PSA Corp along with its Indian
partner SICAL, handled 69,000 TEU
against 68,000 TEU a year earlier and also
missed its target of 72,000 TEU.
September 2004

PORT NEWS
PSA/HPH in the
hunt for Gwadar
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH)
of Hong Kong and Singapore’s PSA
International are among four companies
seeking long-term concessions
at Pakistan’s new Gwadar
deepwater port, a port official said.
HPH already operates the
two-berth Karachi International
Container Terminal (KICT) in Pakistan,
which it acquired from International
Container Terminals
Phase 1 of Gwadar is due to start
operations next March or April
Services Inc (ICTSI) of the Philippines
in 2001.
The port authority has invited
bids for the concession to operate
three multipurpose berths with an
overall quay length of 602m built
under Phase I of the Gwadar development,
which will be completed
ahead of schedule in December
and become operational in
March or April next year.
Phase I, which includes a 100m
service berth, a 4.35 km, 11.6-
12.5m deep navigation channel,
back up area and associated infrastructure,
was developed with the
aid of a US$298 mill loan provided
by China. Port officials said the
Ministry of Communications has
now submitted a revised plan for
Phase II to the Planning Commission.
Work is expected to start in
May 2005 for completion in 2010
at a cost of US$865 mill.
Phase II, slated to be built by
the private sector on a build-operate-own
or build-operate-transfer
basis, will accommodate 50,000
dwt container ships, 100,000dwt
dry bulk carriers and up to 200,000
dwt oil tankers. It will have seven
berths at three container terminals
with a quay length of 2,010m, a
305m long bulk cargo berth, a
305m grain berth and a twin-pier
oil terminal. The approach channel
will be dredged to 16-20m.
When Phase II is completed, a
4,000 hectare Special Industrial
Development Zone (SIDZ) will be
built north of Gwadar town about
30 km from the port.
Plans have also been drawn up
for an Export Processing Zone
(EPZ) for manufacturers shipping
goods to the Gulf region and central
Asian republics, while an oil
storage yard and refinery have been
proposed on a 1000 hectare site
north of Gwadar town .
Nod for SPC’s Botany plans
Independent consultants appointed
by Sydney Ports Corporation
(SPC) to review expansion
plans for Port Botany container
terminals ahead of the resumption
of a state government inquiry
into the project on October 19,
have given the SPC’s preferred
option the highest rating.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and
GHD evaluated a total of 11 options
– reduced to a shortlist of
five – before concluding that
SPC’s proposal of a single 60 hectare
expansion north of the existing
Patrick terminal scored best.
Judging was weighted 25 per
cent to logistics, including terminal
flexibility and use of existing
facilities, 25 per cent to environmental
factors, 10 per cent to local
amenity, 15 per cent to economics
and revenues and 20 per
cent to costs.
However, P&O Ports (P&OP),
whose strong promotion of an alternative
proposal involving
straight-line extensions of each side
of the existing Brotherson Dock
(see WorldCargo News June 2004,
p9), caused the inquiry to be adjourned
almost as soon as it started,
believes incorrect weighting was
given to the various criteria. Rather
unusually, P&OP argues greater
weight should have been given to
environmental factors.
The SPC believes its proposal
will provide Port Botany with
3.33 mill TEU of annual capacity
by 2025 (3.13 mill TEU if seasonal
factors are considered),
while P&OP claims 3.2 mill TEU
could be handled in a smaller area
with lower environmental impact
and 4 mill TEU with some pushing
of the envelope. However
SPC says the P&OP plan relies
too heavily on “improbable” productivity
gains and realistically
will handle only 2.6 mill TEU.
Although P&OP has advanced
its plan in the interests of
maintaining a “balanced duopoly”
with Patrick in the port, the SPC
has maintained its view that the
principal issue is capacity not
competition. It also concedes that
entry barriers remain high for a
third operator or common-user
terminal given the requirement
for a nationwide presence by any
stevedore hoping to compete
with the incumbents.
Meanwhile, the Australian
Shipowners Association (ASA)
says the New South Wales Government’s
decision to shift all
container (and later breakbulk)
traffic out of Sydney (Port
Jackson) is proving to be the biggest
hurdle to the possible re-establishment
of Australian-operated
coastal container services.
ASA says one potential operator
has advised that it is not high
crewing or operating costs under
the Australian flag that are preventing
a start-up, but lack of a
suitable berth in Sydney/Port
Botany.
Geelong
port land
reserved
The Victorian government has released
a draft land use study for
the Port of Geelong, intended to
accommodate an expected trade
increase of 35 per by 2020.
The Port of Geelong Strategic
Land Use Plan will ensure that
Geelong is equipped to meet future
challenges, effectively utilise
infrastructure and maximise its full
potential, Transport Minister Peter
Batchelor said. Geelong is Victoria’s
second largest port in terms
of volume, handling 25 per cent
of the state’s overseas exports.
The plan will provide a coordinated
and integrated approach
to future development and management
of the Port of Geelong.
In particular it is intended to:
● Ensure the sustainability of the
port’s future operations.
● Provide guidance to the port
manager and operators in terms
of the planning of port-related development.
● Simplify the approvals process
for land use and development.
● Ensure appropriate buffers are
provided around port infrastructure.
● Integrate the recommendations
of the Corio Bay Coastal Action
Plan and other relevant planning
requirements.
The government says that if
bulk oil, oil products and alumina
imports are excluded, the balance
of port trade is predicted to increase
by 59 per cent by 2020. In
order to cater for this growth, the
plan suggests that a further berth
could be constructed immediately
to the north of Lascelles Wharf and
two new berths built at the eastern
ends of Corio Quay North
and Corio Quay South. The plan
also supports measures to improve
rail access to the port and highlights
the need to upgrade some
roads in the area.
The strategy was jointly developed
by the government and owners
Toll GeelongPort with consultants
Sinclair Knight Merz. The
Department of Infrastructure, together
with the Department of
Sustainability and Environment,
will work with the City of Greater
Geelong, port users and other
stakeholders to finalise the plan. The
draft strategy will then be open for
public comment, with a final plan
due to be released later this year.
WorldCargo
news
Last month saw Tuticorin Container Terminal (TCT) handle its one millionth
TEU since starting operations on 21 December 1999. The milestone occasion
on August 30 was attended by Shri N K Raghupathy, chairman of the
Tuticorin Port Trust, who gave the order for the discharge of the one millionth
container from APL’s TIGER ARROW. Operated by PSA SICAL Terminals,
a joint-venture between PSA Corp and South India Corporation (Agencies)
Ltd, TCT is a significant gateway port to South India and is well connected
by road and rail to the industrial centres of Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin,
Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiripur. Direct services connect the port to the
US east coast, Europe, China, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. It also has
feeder connections to Colombo, Singapore and Salalah. Last year’s container
throughput was 234,929 TEU
New port planned
on Lake Maracaibo
Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo management
authority, (Comlago),
which is located in Zulia state, has
published plans to implement a
three-phase port development
close to the Panama Canal. The
deep water facility will open a
coal terminal within three years,
a container terminal within five
years and a possible oil terminal
after a threshold of 10 years. At
present, around 61 mta of commodities
are shipped via the lake,
including coal, petroleum, cement,
grain, dry bulks and containers.
Mariela Rincón, who heads
up Comlago, noted recently, “We
will start with the coal terminal
as the coal industry here in Zulia
and in Guasare, to the north of
Zulia, wants to expand and cannot
because it does not have adequate
port infrastructure.” In the
future, he said, it would handle
20 mill tonnes per annum.
With the World Bank and Inter-American
Development Bank
said to be interested in financing
much of the project, basic infrastructure
spend will be the responsibility
of the government, with
the three terminals being taken
forward as BOT contracts by the
private sector. Zulia state government
has already committed
US$350,000 to the project, the
Dutch government US$190,000
and the Andean Development
Corporation (CAF) US$100,000.
Planning for the coal terminal is
already under way, with the bidding
process for the concession
being drawn up.
Construction of the port will
produce indirect savings since
large vessels will no longer have
to navigate Lake Maracaibo, nor
the Maracaibo strait or Tablazo
Bay, which empties into the Gulf
of Venezuela. By eliminating the
need to maintain the channel
feeding the lake, huge savings will
be made, while the cost of clearing
up vessel collisions and bridge
strikes will be reduced.
● Venezuelan timber company
Terranova has indefinitely suspended
plans to develop a US$15
mill port on the north bank of
the Orinoco River in Anzoátegui
State capable of accepting 20,000
dwt vessels.
The company cited a feasibility
report, which could not make
a direct financial case for the
project if Terranova were to be the
only user. However, if additional
users can be found, the potential
exists to build the port in the
medium to long term. Terranova
and the state holding for heavy industry
CVG originally signed an
agreement in May 2002 to take
the project forward as a 90:10
partnership.
September 2004 9

PORT NEWS
PMSi wins Freetown
scanner contract
Philip Lukuley (left), executive
Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime
Administration (SLMA), and Peter
Southwood, technical director, PMSi,
with the scanner concession agreement
PMSi (Port Maritime Security International),
which has more than
ten years’ experience managing security
at the Channel Tunnel, has
won a contract to install and operate
an X-ray container scanner at
the port of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The government of Sierra
Leone is planning to use the
relocatable X-ray machine to scan
all containers entering and exiting
the country’s main port. PMSi
has been awarded a ten year concession
agreement for the scanner
on a build, operate and transfer
(BOT) basis.
PMSi was initially brought in
to Sierra Leone to provide its DNV
(Det Norske Veritas)-certified
courses for ISPS code compliance
and then won a contract to manage
the total security of Sierra Leone’s
ports. “The Sierra Leone government
is seeking to ensure it
knows exactly what is being imported
and exported into the country.
Following a detailed assessment
of what is required, we felt that this
scanner was the best equipment for
their needs,” said PMSi commercial
director David Anthony.
The scanner will be used for a
variety of purposes, including
identification of revenue evasion,
false declarations of quantity and
value of goods, and illegal trafficking
of contraband, narcotics and
arms. PMSi plans to have the scanner
installed and the staff recruited
and trained by the end of the year.
No hoorays for X-rays
The Australian Customs Service
(ACS), stevedores, freight forwarders
and importers are at odds over
the cost arising from increased security
screening of boxes in major
Australian ports.
Stevedores have refused to grant
any additional free storage time -
normally three days - for boxes
taken out of terminals for scrutiny
at ACS’s container examination facilities
(CEFs) in Melbourne, Sydney,
Brisbane and Fremantle. But
shippers say boxes are constantly
delayed at the CEFs and by the time
they are returned, free storage has
expired, leaving importers, forwarders
and customs brokers with extra
costs.
Terminals have argued that the
problem would arise only rarely if
consignees and their agents operated
24/7 as the waterfront does,
and ACS appears to have supported
this case despite acknowledging
delays at X-ray facilities. ACS asserts
that criticism over delays is
overstated and ill-founded and that
less than 4 per cent of containers
are returned to storage with no
time remaining, or 0.2 per cent of
total laden import boxes.
ACS decided that no further
changes were required after a postimplementation
review by the Australian
National Audit Office and
an allocation of additional funds in
the Federal Budget to enable longer
operating hours for CEFs.
The Customs Brokers and Forwarders
Council of Australia
(CBFCA) and the Australian Federation
of International Forwarders
(AFIC) have told the Federal
government that the figure of 4 per
cent of X-rayed containers being
charged storage costs still adds up
to 3,500 instances.
The CBFCA said it was
“evident…that Customs have chosen
to ignore, or have no realistic
understanding of, the commercial
realities associated with delivery of
cargo and the difficulties of getting
time slots through the vehicle
booking system.”
ACS responded that individual
importers’ claims of massive charges
were not an accurate portrayal of
affairs; in one example a claim of
thousands of dollars turned out to
be a charge of A$162. ACS also
compared Australian X-ray and
examination costs of under A$300
per container with the A$440 paid
by US importers for X-ray alone,
and up to A$1,470 for a physical
WorldCargo
news
examination, which takes 5-7 days.
In July this year, as part of its
enhancements of maritime security,
the Australian government provided
additional funding for CEFs
to extend their hours of operation
in order to boost throughput to an
annual target of 100,000 containers
(133,000 TEU), which represents
7 per cent of total loaded import
containers.
The first three of six 1 over 2 ESW (diesel electric drive) Noell straddle carriers
ordered by CSX World Terminals in Adelaide were delivered last month.
Fantuzzi Reggiane Australasia is erecting and commissioning the machines.
The next three are scheduled to be handed over early next month. Fantuzzi
Australasia also recently completed delivery of 10 1 over 2 HSW (hydrostatic
drive) machines to P&O Ports’ West Swanson Terminal in Melbourne
Kerala action plan
The south Indian state of Kerala
has launched a 100-day action
plan to speed up the process of
finalising tenders for at least three
ports, including Vizhinjam.
The state government, which
wants to convert Vizhinjam into
an international container transhipment
terminal (see WorldCargo
News May 2004, p9), has received
at least seven technical bids, including
at least three from foreign
companies. The bids are due to be
opened on October 15.
The National Ports Authority
of South Africa and Hili Company
of Malta are reported to be among
the foreign companies which have
submitted technical bids. Dubai
Ports International (DPI), which
won the concession for the development
and operation of an
international container transhipment
terminal at Vallarpadam,
which is also in Kerala state, also
submitted an expression of interest
in Vizhinjam, but it is not clear
whether it is still in the race.
As previously reported, the first
phase of the project involves building
two mainline and four feeder
berths with a total quay length of
1400m. The final phase will have
The director general of the Port
of Rotterdam (GHR), Willem
Scholten, has been forced to
step down while €100 million
in loan guarantees he committed
the port to are investigated.
The loans were taken out
with Commerzbank AG and
Barclays PLC by locally-based
Rotterdam Droogdok Holding
(RDM). Scholten allegedly informed
neither the supervisory
board nor the city of Rotterdam.
According to local reports,
the matter became public when
the banks demanded to see the
cash collateral for the loans after
the bankruptcies of several
four mainline and nine feeder
berths with a quay length of 3500m.
The initial project cost, with stateof-the-art
equipment, is estimated
at Rs 18 bill (US$393 mill).
The Kerala government also
says it wants to see rapid implementation
of port projects at
Beypore and Azhikkal. Beypore
will cost around Rs.5 bill (US$109
mill) and Indian company
Parissons Group has submitted
technical as well financial proposals
for the project.
Six berths are being planned
for Beypore, but the state government
needs to deepen the draft at
the basin so that the port is able
to handle petroleum products as
well as general cargo.
The Azhikkal port project,
where there is also only one company
in the race - Sharjah-based
Universal Lubricants - was due to
be developed in four phases at a
cost of Rs 17.5 bill (US$382 mill)
to include an oil port, as well as a
shiprepair yard and facilities for
handling containers. The government
is conducting a reappraisal of
the project, however, to decide
whether it should go ahead with
the original plans or make changes.
Scholten resigns
of the subsidiaries of RDM in
the defence industry, including
a branch building submarines
for Taiwan which is a political
hot potato because of opposition
from Beijing.
It is not clear whether the
business units concerned will
resume commercial activities, so
the extent of GHR’s liabilities
is also uncertain. The opposition
in Rotterdam city council has
called for an inquiry.
The Dutch finance minister
Gerrit Zalm has stated that the
scandal will not affect the recent
agreement reached by the
government with the port on
Maasvlakte 2.
September 2004 11

WorldCargo
news
New coal terminal
Associated British Ports (ABP) has announced
its largest ever investment in a
terminal development - a new coal facility
at Immingham to serve the UK’s
electricity supply industry. At £44.5 mill,
it will cost about the same as ABP had to
write off when its Dibden Bay container
terminal plan was rejected.
The Immingham development represents
a major extension of the group’s
existing deepwater cargo berth, Humber
International Terminal (HIT), and will
be capable of handling up to 7.5 mill tons
of coal a year. It is being built on the back
of agreements between ABP and BHP
Billiton, Drax Power and EDF Energy.
Reflecting these agreements, the new
facility will be equipped with two 1500
tonne/hour unloaders - rail portalmounted
Gottwald HSK 360 EG cranes
with a capacity (load plus grab) of 50 tonnes
at 40m outreach - stacker/reclaimers, conveyors
and a high spec train loading station,
rather than the mobile plant deployed
at HIT (Gottwald rubber-tyred mobile
cranes, tipper trucks and wheel loaders).
As previously reported, ABP plans to
invest more than £400 mill over the next
10 years in developments in its core UK
ports business. As well as the new coal terminal,
construction work is due to begin
shortly on the development of a £27.5
mill investment in a riverside ro-ro facility
at Immingham.
The Department for Transport is currently
considering the necessary planning
consents for the development of the third
riverside terminal in Hull, a £30-35 mill
shortsea container terminal. ABP is also
evaluating the development of a fourth
riverside terminal at Hull, as it expects
the trend towards feedering regional ports
from the Continent to continue.
Compared with the same period in
2003 , ABP’s group turnover in the first
half of this year was up 16 per cent at
£228 mill, with the contribution from
UK ports and transport increasing by six
per cent to £182.2 mill.
The UK’s Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds (RSPB) has reiterated its
strong oppostion to Hutchison Ports UK
(HPUK)’s Bathside Bay container terminal
project near Harwich. The five-month
public inquiry has just finished.
After Dibden Bay, which was finally
turned down in April, the RSPB has always
regarded Bathside Bay as the next
most damaging project of the four which
had been on the agenda in the south east
of England. Its preference is for container
port expansion to be allowed to go ahead
at HPUK’s Felixstowe South, where the
inquiry is due to start on 26 October.
The RSPB and other members of the
PORT NEWS
Leave it to the birds
Portswatch environmental coalition can
also probably live with P&O Ports’ London
Gateway project at Shellhaven on the
Thames. The timing may have played into
their hands as the decision on London
Gateway is expected within weeks.
If London Gateway gets the go-ahead,
HPUK’s case for the need for new container
port capacity at Bathside Bay may
well be undermined, particularly as its
own Felixstowe South project is following
closely behind.
“Permission for new port facilities
should only be given where they cause
the least possible damage to sites of international
importance for wildlife, protected
by EU and UK law. The proposal to expand
Felixstowe South will not harm
wildlife,” says the RSPB.
Haldia plans
to build on
Encouraged by a recent surge in exports,
the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is considering
a proposal to build a new multi-purpose
berth at the Haldia Dock complex.
The new berth is expected to cost
Rs200 mill (US$4.4 mill) and will bring
to 13 the total number of berths at Haldia.
Port officials said it was likely that the port
itself would build the berth rather than
concession it to a private investor on a
build, operate transfer basis.
In the first five months of the current
financial year beginning last April, Haldia
dock handled 14 mill tons of cargo. If this
momentum continues, total cargo throughput
in the year to next March will exceed
the target of 34 mill tons, against 32.3 mill
tons handled in the previous year.
Haldia has been handling large quantities
of iron ore and coking coal at its
berths this year. In the five months to August,
the dock complex also handled
53,000 TEU of containers against 51,000
TEU during the same period of last year.
New ports for
Colombia
Colombia’s Transport Ministry is to develop
three new ports in the next seven
to eight years costing a combined US$1.4
bill. These will be taken forward as private
sector BOT concessions.
Studies have already been completed
for the projected Agua Dulce expansion
of Buenaventura, adding 13 mill tonnes/
year of capacity at a cost of US$225 mill.
A US$700 mill deepwater hydrocarbons
terminal will also be built at
Tribuga, where a gas pipeline link has already
been agreed. Finally, a deepwater
port will be constructed at Urabá, where
a throughput of 10 mill tonnes/year will
be added at a cost of US$450 mill.
Urabá, which is in the department of
Antioquia on the Caribbean coast, currently
has a traffic of 2 mill tonnes of bananas
per year. The new port, which will
have matching levels of capacity, will be
given over to containers and general cargo.
The Ministry hopes that Urabá will capture
much of the Medellín traffic currently
channelled through the port of Cartagena,
since the proposed new facility will be just
320 km distant, as opposed to the 700 km
separating Cartagena and Medellín.
Road haulage costs in Colombia are
six times higher than international
benchmarks, so import/export traffic will
be significantly cheaper once the port is
in place.
Corrigendum
We regret there was a mistake in the
DCT Gdansk photo caption on p20
of the August 2004 issue of WorldCargo
News. The person on the left is not
Derek Peters but Gdansk port authority’s
vice president Zbigniew Perlinski.
We apologise for the confusion.
12
September 2004

PORT NEWS
Timber port for NT
A new port is being developed on
Melville Island, the largest of the Tiwi Islands,
located 60 km off the coast of Darwin
in Australia’s Northern Territory
(NT), to serve the island’s forest products
industry.
The local indigenous people, represented
by the Tiwi Land Council (TLC),
have formed a partnership with Australian-owned
forestry company, Sylvatech,
to develop the timber industry on the islands.
The Australian government recently
gave the TLC the go-ahead to acquire and
complete the construction of a deepwater
international port, Port Melville, to allow
the timber to be exported.
A$3.08 mill has been released from
the NT Aboriginal Benefit Account
(ABA) to pay for the completed first stage
of the project after an independent engineering
review, and a further A$1.21 mill
will be released for the second stage when
it is satisfactorily completed. The ABA receives
its revenue from mining royalties,
with the relevant federal minister able to
make payments from the fund for the
benefit of Aboriginal people in the NT.
The TLC has entered into a 30-year
lease with the port operator. TLC chair
Frederick Mungatopi said the Tiwi now
owned a pivotal piece of infrastructure
that would “enable us to further develop
our timber export industry.”
Sylvatech managing director Peter
Ryan said the Tiwi Forestry Project was
a long-term resource industry of world
scale, which will generate substantial and
valuable export income for Australia.
Currently encompassing the establishment
and management of around 10 000
hectares of tropical Acacia mangium and
pine plantations, the TFP will grow to a
planned scale of 35,000 hectares of Acacia
mangium over the next four to five
years. At this stage, the fully-integrated
project will also support the ongoing production
and export of 1 mill tonnes per
annum of high-grade woodchip. The
project is also now commencing a significant
sawn log export marketing programme,
initially to China and Vietnam,
which will generate millions of dollars in
annual revenue.
The first ship arrived at the new wharf
on August 25 to take on board 10,000
tonnes of export timber bound for Vietnam.
Further ships are due to arrive every
three weeks.
WorldCargo
news
Zim transfers hub to Táranto
Under strong pressure from customers,
Israel Corporation, the Ofer family vehicle
which controls Zim Lines, has
abandoned the Port of Haifa as its hub
port in the eastern Mediterranean and
transferred transhipment business to Evergreen’s
TCT concession at Táranto.
The move follows a series of strikes
by Israeli dock workers during July and
August and the continuing threat of
strike action as the year marches on. The
company emphasised, however, that it
would return to Haifa when the situation
there returns to normal.
The switch means that all tranship-
ment traffic handled over Haifa will now
be handled over Táranto and Haifa will only
be used for Israeli origin/destination boxes.
In effect, say analysts, this means about a
nine per cent drop in container traffic at
Haifa. The port is now expected to handle
around 800,000 TEU this year.
Meanwhile, the name Zim Israel
Navigation Company has been abandoned
in favour of Zim Integrated Shipping
Services Ltd to reflect the change in
the company’s service orientation postprivatisation
towards integrated logistic
services. The share package owned by the
Ofer brothers, Sammy and Yuli, has gone
up to 97.5 per cent following their recent
acquisition of the state’s 48.6 per
cent share for US$115 mill.
Zim will reportedly order 12 new
containerships, worth US$820 mill.
Eight will be 4250 TEU Panamax vessels,
for deployment in AMP Global
Service in 2006 and 2007, and the other
four will be 6350 TEU vessels for deployment
in 2008 and 2009 in its Asia-
North Europe service. In the first half
of this year Zim logged a 10 per cent
increase in containers transported, while
turnover was US$1.14 bill compared to
US$960 mill in the first half of 2003.
BOT plan
for Cebu
Plans to build a new international port
on the central Philippines island of Cebu
remain stalled by the huge cost involved,
but the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) is
still hoping to get the project off the
ground through a BOT scheme.
A March 2002 study prepared by Japan’s
Overseas Coastal Area Development
Institute (OCDI) and Pacific Consultants
International (PCI) had put the
total cost at some Pesos18 bill (currently
US$320.9 mill). “Based on our calculations,
we cannot repay that kind of loan,”
said a CPA spokeswoman. The CPA has
no budgetary allocation from the national
government and is totally dependent on
its own revenues.
The CPA appears to have baulked at
the idea of securing a soft loan from the
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
given the Philippines’ present fiscal
crisis and ballooning foreign debt, now
standing in excess of US$27 bill. It may
need to scale down the project, even assuming
that it can persuade private investors
to undertake a BOT venture.
Under the OCDI-PCI master plan,
the international container terminal
would initially have one 300m berth with
an annual capacity of 389,000 TEU, to
be increased to four berths by 2020 with
a total quay length of 1.2 km able to handle
1.3 mill TEU/year. The multi-purpose
terminal is envisaged to have two
190m berths by 2020 for a projected
annual throughput of 756,000 tonnes. All
told, the new port would cover an estimated
land area of about 60 hectares
straddling Liloan and Consolacion towns
some 18 km from Cebu City.
CPA officials say the main problem
at the existing Cebu International Port
(CIP) is not so much possible congestion
as the insufficient draft alongside its
690m berth (8.5m as against 13m at the
proposed facility).
Last year, CIP handled 115,281 TEU
- 11.8 per cent more than in 2002. Noncontainerised
cargo volume, however,
declined by 39.2 per cent to 346,891
tonnes.
September 2004 13

PORT NEWS
Liverpool passes ISPS test
The US Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) Department has
given the Port of Liverpool - the
UK’s major container gateway to
and from the US and Canada - a
clean bill of health after putting
its implementation of the International
Shipping and Port Facility
Security Code (ISPS) under
the microscope.
Two representatives of CBP
based at John F Kennedy Airport
in New York visited Liverpool’s
Seaforth Container Terminal last
month as part of a sweep of port
security measures across Europe.
They reviewed applications which
Port of Liverpool Police Chief
Officer Ray Walker claims represent
a unique security package
with the potential to be adopted
by other ports. “What’s more, the
US officers did not raise any flaws
in our network,” he said.
Among the measures implemented
by the Port of Liverpool
from July 1 this year is the
interlinking of a truck driver’s
documentation with video pictures
taken by cameras as he
presents his papers and a scan of
his photographic driving licence.
Only when all this information
has been compiled, compared and
cleared, is the driver given access
to the container terminal.
“It adds no time to the process
as far as the truck drivers are
concerned, but they tell us that
Liverpool’s checks and counter
checks are probably more rigorous
than at other UK container
ports,” Walker said.
In response to the ISPS Code,
Liverpool has converted the comprehensive
network of CCTV
cameras monitoring the whole port
to digital images, which offer better
pictures and storage, plus faster
and more efficient recall of data.
Security at Liverpool has also
been enhanced by springer spaniels
Jess and Sam, who have been
recruited by UK Nationwide Security,
the port’s second line of
defence after the Port Police, to
sniff out explosives, ammunition
and firearms.
Corpus Christi gets
OK for box terminal
The Port of Corpus Christi reports
that it has received the final
permit necessary for its La Quinta
Trade Gateway container terminal
project from the US Army
Corps of Engineers.
As previously reported, La
Quinta is a major component in
the port’s diversification plan and
is aimed at positioning it as a major
player in global distribution of
consumer goods. The 1100 acre
site is expected to enhance the
local economy significantly in
Firearms and ammunition sniffer dog Sam at work at Liverpool’s Seaforth
Container Terminal with handler Wayne Dwyer of UK Nationwide Security
terms of new jobs and revenue
streams.
“It isn’t just the ocean terminal,
it’s the railroad and highway
infrastructure supporting it. The
long-term solution to congestion
is to locate new ports in areas that
can accommodate the growth and
recognising this trend, the shipping
industry is looking to diversify its
ports and is looking to the east
coast and the Gulf coast for shipping
centres,” said port manager
John LaRue.
The specialist sniffer dogs are
used to check out containers, road
haulage and passengers’ luggage
going aboard Irish Sea ferries and
cruise ships. Both 18 month old
Jess, an expert in detecting explosives,
and five year old Sam, with
a nose for guns and ammunition,
are Home Office licensed and
approved.
Coffee imports are heading back
to Genoa after an absence of 10
years, following an agreement between
logistics company Centro
Smistamento Merci (CSM) and
importer Romani & Co.
Twenty 20ft containers with
440 tonnes of breakbulk beans
were handled in August under the
initial phase of the agreement.
Once things are in full swing, an
average of 80-100 containers/
month - breakbulk (sacks) and
India’s Infrastructure Development
Finance Corporation
(IDFC) has approved a long-term
loan of Rs1.15 bill (US$25 mill)
to Kakinada Sea Ports Ltd (KSPL)
to help it achieve financial closure
on its five-year-old port development
project .
Larsen and Toubro of India,
Konsortium Logistik Bhd of Malaysia
and Salgaokar Mineral Industries
Ltd each have a 26 per cent
share in KSPL, with the balance
held by financial institutions.The
first phase of the Kakinada project
began commercial operations five
years ago, but had not been able
to achieve financial closure. The
credit committee of the IDFC has
now approved a loan for a period
of 11 years.
Three berths with a combined
quay length of 610m are currently
in operation at Kakinada, which
WorldCargo
news
Coffee back on the Genoa menu
bulk (liner bags) - will arrive at
the facility in Genoa Distripark,
which is operated for the port
authority (APG) by CSM.
CSM, majority-owned by
Automarocchi (75 per cent share),
has reached an agreement with
APG to extend the rail-connected
terminal next year to provide
25,000 m 2 of warehousing on
three floors, one of which will be
dedicated to coffee and other “exotic”
products, with a further 3.7
Cash for Kakinada
hectares of open storage and marshalling,
at a cost of €6 mill. Handling
equipment today includes 15
warehouse trucks, a 16 tonne FLT
and a 32 tonne FLT, both from
Kalmar, and a Belotti and a Kalmar
reach stacker.
In a separate development,
CSM has opened a hazardous
cargo depot, the first of its kind in
Genoa, for IMO class goods. The
1000 m 2 facility has storage capacity
of 24 TEU.
is located in Andhra Pradesh state
in south India. Plans are in hand
to set up an LNG terminal and a
container handling facility at the
port. When the current dredging
programme is completed next
month, the port will be able to
handle all vessels requiring a minimum
draft of 12.5m.
The 30 year concession agreement
signed by KSPL calls for 20
per cent of the gross revenue of
the port to be paid to the state
government during the first five
years and 22 per cent per annum
thereafter.
Shenzhen terminals
hit by box charge
Finnish port operator Finnsteve Oy
Ab is to start operations next January
at the Port of Kotka’s Mussalso
container terminal, up to now a
preserve of Steveco Oy. Based at
Quay B, Finnsteve’s operations will
include container depot services.
For 2005 Finnsteve has signed
a letter of intent with feeder operator
Team Lines, which has
Shippers will have to pay an extra
Yuan120 (US$14.50) per laden
FEU and Yuan80 (US$9.70) per
TEU at Shenzhen’s container terminals
from next month. Transhipment
boxes will be exempt.
The charges, defined as “port
construction fees,” are designed to
recoup government expenditure
on port-related infrastructure, such
as roads, tunnels and bridges. The
proceeds will go to the Ministry
of Communications, which already
collects such charges at other
major ports and airports in China.
“It appears Beijing wants a slice
of the big bucks the Shenzhen terminals
are raking in from the burgeoning
box traffic,” a Hong Kongbased
shipping line executive said.
Hong Kong Shippers’ Council
executive director Sunny Ho
said the charge would be an additional
burden. “We already pay
terminal handling charges and
other fees,” he said.
But analysts said Shenzhen will
remain the preferred port for
Hong Kong companies with factories
in the Pearl River Delta
because it costs US$300 more to
ship a 40ft container through
Hong Kong than Shenzhen.
Throughput at Shenzhen rose
30 per cent to a record 8.52 mill
TEU in the first eight months of
this year, with the full-year figure
expected to top 13.5 mill TEU.
Finnsteve in Mussalo
hitherto been handled by Steveco.
Both Finnsteve and Team Lines
are part of Finnlines group, which,
unlike Steveco, has no affiliation
to any paper shippers.
Finnsteve is one of the biggest
port operators in Finland, but so
far it has concentrated on common
user activities at the ports of
Helsinki and Turku.
September 2004 15

WorldCargo
news
Curtains up for Containerlift
Containerlift, the UK operator of
Steelbro “Sidelifter” self-loading
trailers (SLTs), has introduced its
own intermodal service using the
“Curtainer,” a 40ft long, curtainsided,
container-type swap body.
Containerlift is among the
most successful operators of container-handling
SLTs in the northern
hemisphere, moving containers
to/from railheads on behalf of
shipping lines and/or rail companies
(eg EWS in Southampton).
The new swap body service is
the company’s first “retail” venture,
moving cargo for the domestic
shipper or his forwarder. The idea
is to use rail for the trunk haul and
Steelbros for the final delivery, including
grounding if required. In
any event the stuffer and consignee
get side access to the cargo.
The Curtainer’s 40ft length fits
Containerlift is now an intermodal operator in its own right
in with Containerlift’s SLT fleet
and provides the most economical
rail “slot” as part of a standard
60ft/3 TEU flatcar load. “It all
comes down ultimately to the
door-to-door cost per kilo or per
pallet,” says Containerlift director
Doug Baker.
Blow for
Lawson
Richard Lawson Autologistics Ltd,
the inland vehicle transportation
arm of Wallenius Wilhelmsen
Lines (WWL) in the UK, has gone
into administration. The company
is now operating under the supervision
of Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers.
“We believe this is the most
responsible action for the benefit
of the company, its customers, staff
and creditors,” stated Rune
Gisvold, chairman of the Board of
Richard Lawson Autologistics Ltd
and CFO of WWL. “We are confident
that there will be a future
for the company.”
The administration does not
affect Autocare UK Ltd, which is
trading as normal in its PDI and
defleeting activities and the reconditioning
and remarketing of used
vehicles.
Richard Lawson Autologistik
GmbH (Germany), Richard
Lawson Auto Logistic Poland Sp
Zoo (Poland) and Richard
Lawson Auto Logística Iberica SL
(Spain) are also unaffected.
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
PINE on the water
European inland waterways
freight transport is forecast to
grow by 35 per cent from now
to 2020, from 124 mtkms to 166
mtkms, according to the new
PINE study (Prospects of Inland
Navigation in an Enlarged Europe)
carried out for the EU. Transport
on the Rhine alone
is expected to increase by 60 per
cent during this time frame.
Despite the projected absolute
increase in t/kms, the relative
shares of inland navigation,
road and rail transport are expected
to remain constant at six,
80 and 14 per cent respectively.
The report forecasts that
about half of the inland waterways
freight will be made up of
traditional cargoes such as oil
products and building materials.
As these are already the mainstay
of canal/river transport, the
growth rate is likely to be low,
while transport of of coal, steel,
agri-bulks and fertilisers is expected
to stagnate.
The big growth area is container
transport, with a forecast
yearly growth rate of of five per
cent. The accession of new EU
member states in the east is expected
to lead to increases in the
volume of semi-finished products
moving from east to west
and the volume of finished
goods moving from west to east.
More container terminals
will be necessary, as shippers/consignees
rarely have riverside locations
and usually cannot take
up the full capacity of a container
barge. Apart from machinery, speciality
steel products, chemicals
and foodstuffs, recycled materials,
waste products and cars offer
good prospects for inland navigation,
even though market organisation
varies widely.
For waste, for example, there
is no time pressure on shipments,
while for high value
goods, JIT is increasingly being
viewed through the prism of the
“floating warehouse” concept
(eg GNSL, Distrivaart) where
the identity of the receiver may
not be known at the time of
shipment.
The report also calls for harmonisation
of the rules for inland
navigation, including
crewing requirements.
High speed river cat
A new, high speed, cargo catamaran
could significantly reduce the
number of truck trips on Europe’s
roads, according to FP6UK, the
body which supports UK applications
for financial support for
modal shift under the EU’s 6th
framework programme.
PACSCAT (partial air cushion
supported catamaran) is a 30-
Could the PACSCAT concept be deployed on the Danube
month project, with an EU grant
of almost €1 mill, to evaluate the
possibility of using high speed
river transport. Capacity of the
proposed catamaran is around
2000 tonnes, or 45 truck loads, and
it will have a speed of 25 mph (37
kph), to make transit times competitive
with road transport.
Vessel draught can be adjusted
from 2.5m to as little as 1.5m to
cope with shallow water, while air
draft can be similarly adjusted to
get under low bridge clearances.
The initial development will focus
on transport on the Rhine and
the Danube, says project coordinator
Jonathan Williams, but
he is confident that the design can
be adapted to make it a viable option
on many other waterways.
The air cushion on the catamaran
is contained between the side
hulls and end seals and is generated
by installed lift fans. The vessel will
be designed to operate using existing
berths and loading facilities on
the Rhine and Danube.
The PACSCAT project is led
by the University of Southampton,
with management support from
Marinetech South Ltd. Altogether
there are 14 European partners,
covering the chain from vessel design
to operation. The concept was
developed by UK naval architects
IMAA Ltd, which is the technical
co-ordinator of the project.
Bravo on the Brenner
A major new collaborative project
involving railway operators and
other transport firms has been set
up to convert more trucking between
Austria and Italy via the
Brenner to intermodal rail traffic.
BRAVO (Brenner rail freight
action strategy) comprises five different
traction providers (albeit
with cross-holdings): Trenitalia,
ÖBB, Railion Deutschland,
Lokomotion and RTC Rail Traction
Company; two UIRR operators,
Cemat and Ökombi; terminal
operator Interporto Bologna;
and Greek forwarder Hellas Transport.
The project managers are
KombiConsult (part of Kombivekehr)
and HaCon. Technical
support is expected from Swiss
wagon builder Cattaneo.
The EU-backed project is
aimed at providing seamless transport
and real-time tracking of
containers, swap bodies and, especially,
unaccompanied trailers, to
make a real impact on road traffic
through the Brenner.
In another transalpine move,
Italy-based intermodal rail operator
Hannibal SpA, the joint venture
of Trenitalia and Eurogate’s
Contship Italia SpA through the
latter’s Sogemar arm, has introduced
a new direct service for
containers (and swap bodies if
required) between its Milan-
Melzo hub and Zurich HBCT
terminal, initially on a three pairs/
week basis. The service, says
Hannibal, will provide Swiss customers
with access to the ports
of Genoa, La Spezia and Ravenna
within 36 hours and Gioia Tauro
within 60 hours.
Hannibal already links these
ports with Mannheim, Hamburg,
Bremerhaven, Stuttgart and Munich
in Germany, with Antwerp
and Rotterdam, and with Villach,
Wien, Salzburg, Linz, Graz and
Halle in Austria.
16
September 2004

INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
Intermodal Resource
outlines its AIMs
Intermodal Resource plc, which was
formed earlier this year as a holding company
for swap body and chassis lessor Axis
Intermodal and UK-based road trailer
rental company Trailerent, made its debut
on the AIM Market of the London
Stock Exchange last month.
The company raised £520,000 before
expenses through the placing of 5.2
mill new ordinary shares at £0.10 per
share. The shares opened at a 50 per cent
premium, pushing up its market capitalisation
to £6.2 mill. Strand Partners Ltd
acted as the group’s nominated adviser
and W H Ireland as its broker.
The funds will be used, said
Intermodal Resource CEO Robert
Montague, to grow Axis and Trailerent
organically and, should the opportunity
arise, inorganically. “This is a very positive
step for the group. Our experience
in the transport asset rental business
shows us that there is an opportunity
within the industry cycle to grow substantially.
The rental market is currently
expanding as customers see the many advantages
over outright purchase.
“Meanwhile, there is further room for
consolidation within the industry. The
prospects are very exciting,” Montague
maintained.
Montague, of course, is no stranger
to growing companies in the intermodal
transport sector. A decade ago, he built
Tiphook Container Rental (TCR) into
the world’s (then) largest container leasing
company and Central Trailer Rentco
(CTR) into Europe’s largest trailer rental
company. His association with Tiphook
ended in late 1993 when the company’s
assets were sold to Transamerica Leasing
and he parted company with CTR
shortly afterwards. CTR was sold to GE
subsidiary TIP Trailer Services in a £118
mill deal in 1997.
This time around, Montague’s ambitions
are more modest. “We aim to become
a significant player in what are
niche sectors of the intermodal equipment
rental market, able to react quickly
to changes in market demand. Listing on
AIM is a significant step in that direction”
he said.
Axis Intermodal was formed in 1995
and has already become one of Europe’s
leading lessors of intermodal swap bodies
and chassis with over 150 customers
across mainland Europe, including such
“blue chip” names as DHL, Gefco,
Steinle and the French, German and
Swiss postal services.
Following poor market conditions in
2001-2002, the company was restructured
and its fleet of 600 x 13.6m swap
bodies was sold to the leasing arm of Italian
container manufacturer Sicom, while
a nascent container division was sold to
Capital Lease. Offices in London, Rotterdam,
Antwerp and Hamburg were
closed and all operations are now centred
at the company’s headquarters in
Cologne.
The emphasis is now firmly on 7.45m
all-steel swap bodies and multi-functional
container/swap body chassis, which, said
Montague, is the equipment the market
wants today. The Axis fleet currently
comprises 2,300 swap bodies and 140
container chassis and a further 400 x
7.45m swap bodies have been ordered
from German builder Brueggen and 150
chassis from Schmitz Anhänger for delivery
this year.
The company has also contracted
Brueggen to “stretch” its early series
7.15m swap body equipment to 7.45m
units. The jumboised units are refurbished
and recodified and result in “as
new” equipment at a fraction of the
newbuild cost.
Axis now has a strong cashflow and
in the last financial year reported a turnover
of £2.15 mill, with operating profits
of £0.5 mill, Montague said.
Meanwhile Trailerent, which was set
up in 2003, commenced the rental of
trailers in the UK in April 2004 and will
have around 150 units on the road by
the end of this year. Initial deliveries have
covered reefer and curtainsided trailers,
though other types, including chassis are
now under consideration.
Trailerent has established a commercial
relationship with trailer builder
Schmitz Cargobull, whereby Schmitz offers
Trailerent competitive arrangements
with regard to pricing, financing of trailers,
delivery, maintenance and support
and joint sales and marketing.
Schmitz has also agreed to repurchase
the company’s stock at agreed dates and
pre-determined prices, which will maintain
the quality of Trailerent’s fleet whilst
minimising the company’s residual value
exposure.
Montague said that recent changes in
the UK market, in particular rental customers
increasingly demanding new
equipment for contracts on rental terms
that match their logistics contracts, provide
a significant opportunity for
Trailerent to grow. In addition, the company
enhances the group’s ability to offer
a pan-European service to customers
who have operations in both mainland
Europe and the UK.
Intermodal Resource’s listing on AIM will help
Axis to grow organically. The company has
already ordered 400 x 7.45m swap bodies
and 150 chassis for delivery this year
WorldCargo
news
September 2004 17

WorldCargo
news
FreightLink adds wagons
Freight volumes that are already
exceeding first-year projections for
the Adelaide-Darwin rail link have
encouraged operator FreightLink
to import additional container
wagons from Canada.
Some 55 two-pack wagons are
due to arrive next month to join
25 five-pack articulated wagons
under construction in South Australia.
FreightLink said that by the
end of July, it had carried 270,000
tonnes of freight, against a first-year
target of 380,000 tonnes, and was
in negotiation with a number of
parties over rail’s involvement in
several possible new projects.
Although most liftings have
been domestic freight, the Austral
Asia Railway (AAR) has also carried
10,200 tonnes of cargo destined
for South East Asia, shipped
through the port of Darwin. Swire
Shipping’s NT Express subsidiary
recently committed to a further 12-
month service by the 422 TEU NT
EXPRESS, which offers fortnightly
sailings to Singapore.
Despite the apparent success,
shipping lines serving eastern,
Freight volumes are running ahead of forecast on the Austral Asia Railway
southern and western Australian
ports have reported negligible impact
from the AAR, even though
space is currently very tight both
northbound and southbound on
the Australia-South East Asia route
and rates have been rising. Perhaps
surprisingly, FreightLink has announced
its own rates will rise by
between 15 and 19 per cent on
October 1, reflecting adjustments
necessary after a “proper assessment”
of the freight carried on the
Adelaide-Darwin route.
A 5.6 per cent stake in AAR
owner, Asia Pacific Transport (APT),
was recently acquired by Perpetual’s
Diversified Infrastructure Fund,
a development trumpeted as the
first such sale of equity in the
project. Perpetual said the APT investment
was expected to perform
strongly “due to the railway’s sustainable
competitive advantages
over long distances, regional development
along Australia’s central
north/south rail corridor and development
opportunities for international
trade with Asia through
the Port of Darwin.”
P&O says
cheers to
intermodal
P&O Ferrymasters has designed
a new rail/road combined transport
solution for a Dutch brewer’s
exports to Italy.
Up to now Bavaria Holland
Beer (BHB) has used road transport
to ship canned and bottled
lager, dark ale, malt and special
brews from its main brewery in
Holland to its major Italian distribution
centre in Milan.
Ferrymasters is now using swap
bodies and transporting the goods
by rail from Rotterdam.
An interesting aspect of this
deal is the remark of BHB’s purchasing
director Rien Coolen
that the combi-solution is not
only cheaper than all-road, but is
faster, more reliable and more secure
(from theft). Traditionally,
these are are all points where accompanied
road transport has
scored over combined transport.
So has the worm turned
INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
NCS Nord Container Service, the joint Port of Dunkirk/Port of Lille
company, is introducing a third and larger barge, the 78 TEU CARINA, to
its Lille-Dunkirk service to meet rising traffic trends between the two
ports, generated in particular by import demand from the Lille market. The
new barge will operate a weekly shuttle service and frequency can easily be
stepped up to twice a week. NCS currently operates two motor barges of
50 TEU and 20 TEU capacity in its timetabled, weekly service between
Dunkirk and the Lille, Dourges and Valenciennes river port facilities. The
new barge is expected to add another 5000 TEU/year to the traffic between
Dunkirk and Lille
“Ecocombi” tests
to start again
The Port of New York and New
Jersey has authorised US$5 mill
in planning and design funds for
a project to expand the new
ExpressRail Elizabeth Intermodal
Facility at the Elizabeth
Port Authority Marine Terminal
from 10 to 18 tracks. The
facility will commence operations
this month.
“Last year was a recordbreaking
year for the port, with
total cargo tonnage increasing
12 per cent over the previous
year and growth expected to
remain strong,” remarked port
authority chairman Anthony R
Coscia. “Cargo volume at the
existing ExpressRail facility has
grown at an average of 17 per
cent a year since on-dock rail
operations began in 1993.
“To manage this rapid
growth, we’re working with our
industry partners on rail and
port investments that will provide
a more efficient gateway
to accommodate the continued
trade growth that is so valuable
to our region.”
The authorisation also provides
for planning and design
The Dutch have authorised a new
round of tests with extra long
road rigs, comprising a rigid truck
with drawbar (B Double type).
Permits for the so-called
Ecocombi vehicles or LZVs, with
a length of 25.5m and an allowable
60 tonnes all-up weight, were
first issued in 1999, but because
of the restrictions on use only a
handful of operators took them
up (see WorldCargo News May
1999, p16).
This time, around 100 firms
and a total fleet of 300 Ecocombis
could be involved and the Transport
Ministry will take a more
proactive rôle examining the
“pros and cons” on specific corridors.
The new tests will last until
November 2006, after which,
says the Ministry, a firm decision
on whether to allow general use
of Ecocombis will be taken. At
present the Dutch apply the EU
length limit of 18.75m for drawbars
but allow an all-up weight
of 50 tonnes.
The LZVs allow for a 7.82m
rigid truck with a 13.6m drawbar
for swap bodies or one 20ft
and one 40ft container. Their use
is no longer confined to drayage
work to/from intermodal yards,
as in the earlier tests. In addition,
they can now be driven at any
time of day and maximum allowable
speed is no longer 50 km/h.
Funds approved for
ExpressRail expansion
of a second lead track that will
allow trains to arrive and depart
the facility simultaneously,
and the partial relocation of Bay
Avenue to increase safety by
minimising the possibility of
road/rail conflicts.
The Board also authorised
a 10-year agreement with Millennium
Rail, under which the
firm will operate and maintain
ExpressRail Elizabeth. As previously
reported, Millennium
Rail is a joint venture of APM
Terminals and Maher Terminals,
the port’s two largest tenants.
ExpressRail Elizabeth is part
of a comprehensive US$600
mill rail programme to develop
the ExpressRail system, which
will create dedicated rail facilities
for the port’s major container
terminals and additional
rail support track. These facilities
include ExpressRail Elizabeth,
ExpressRail Port Newark,
ExpressRail Staten Island at
Howland Hook Marine Terminal,
as well as the ExpressRail
Corbin Street intermodal support
facility and expanded rail
infrastructure on Staten Island.
18
September 2004

INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
PN heads north and south
Pacific National (PN), the now-dominant
Australian rail company jointly
owned by Toll and Patrick, is spreading
its wings further to give it expanded east
coast and southern Australian coverage.
PN recently completed the drawnout
takeover of RailAmerica’s Freight
Australia (see WorldCargo News August
2004, p11) and has begun job-shedding
and other rationalisation as it merges the
operations of the Melbourne-based company
with its own. As a condition of approval
of the sale, imposed by the Victorian
government, PN is relocating its
own Rural and Bulk Division head office
from Sydney to Melbourne, resulting
in all PN’s national bulk, grain and
port-related activities being run from
Victoria.
Despite concessions obtained by the
government and the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission
(ACCC), the takeover still rankles with
a number of independent rail operators,
terminal operators and freight forwarders,
who are using the government’s simultaneously
convened review of the
state’s rail access regime as a platform to
voice their concerns over PN’s market
power.
The Victorian Intermodal Freight
Maritime
adds depot
Maritime Transport Ltd, one of the UK’s
leading container transport companies, has
opened a new depot in the Port of Liverpool
and another new one is due to follow
shortly in another northern regional
port, in response to rising container traffic
through regional gateways.
The new Liverpool depot has a fleet
of 10 vehicles at a fully secure site at East
Hornby Dock, close to Seaforth Container
Terminal where throughput increased
by eight per cent last year.
If its Bristol experience is anything to
go by, the local Maritime fleet in Liverpool
will grow quickly to meet demand.
Maritime opened its depot at Bristol in
September last year with five vehicles, but
this has expanded to 16 of its own plus
more than 20 non-owned vehicles.
Maritime stands out against a generally
depressed container haulage background.
The company, headquartered in
Felixstowe and with other depots at
Southampton, London (Tilbury and
Thamesport), Manchester and Birmingham,
has seen its turnover rise from
around £18 mill in 2001 to a (forecast)
£45 mill this year.
Group (VIFG), headed up by CRT’s
Colin Rees, has gone so far as to suggest
a state subsidy might be required to ensure
independents can continue to obtain
access to Victoria’s rail freight network
at economic rates. VIFG fears that
PN, Like Freight Australia before it, will
effectively exclude competition by setting
access fees at prohibitive levels.
Meanwhile, PN will cross the border
into Queensland early in 2005 to enter
that state’s intrastate market for the first
time when it begins scheduled services
between Brisbane and Cairns in the far
north. Toll-owned QRX will shift its
considerable business to PN in a move
that will cost some 700 Queensland Rail
(QR) jobs.
The move had been widely expected,
especially after Toll managing director
Paul Little said QRX had “suffered
badly” from substantial rail linehaul rate
increases imposed by QR. “In addition,
poor service levels provided by this monopoly
rail linehaul provider impacted
customer service standards and
QRX’s cost structure,” he said. “These
issues have led to strong customer support
for the Pacific National rail services,
scheduled to be established throughout
Queensland in the first half of next
calendar year.”
LTF, the Franco-Italian company
charged with executing the Lyon-Turin
rail tunnel project, has admitted that
technical, administrative and financial
problems will delay it from 2012 to
2020 at the earliest. The ambitious
scheme was agreed at the Franco-Italian
summit of 2001.
On the French side there are problems
on the approaches to the proposed
new 53 km base tunnel between St Jean
de Maurienne and Susa, where geological
conditions have proved to be
more difficult (crumbly sub-soils) than
originally thought.
WorldCargo
news
Lyon-Turin problems
In addition, LTF has cancelled its
contract with the group of companies
running one of the construction yards,
at Modane. Meanwhile, financing for
the fourth preparatory structure, the
gallery at la Praz in France, has still not
been finalised.
A number of problems have also
cropped up on the Italian side, not least
on the 12 km tunnel stretch at
Bussolano. It transpires that the original
plan for the Vanaus gallery did not
conform to the specification and consequently
a new tender has had to be
organised.
1-STOP to
add DGs
Patrick/P&O Ports IT joint venture 1-
STOP Connections is planning to build
a dangerous goods reporting system
(DGRS) to service exporters and the
transport industry around Australia.
In an initiative to improve the management
and handling of hazardous materials,
1-STOP is developing an online
portal for data entry and an electronic data
interchange (EDI) message hub for the
transfer of information. The portal will
electronically transfer information regarding
dangerous goods via the EDI hub to
the terminal operator.
1-STOP chief executive Peter
Kosmina said the new capability is another
step in improving the existing system
for electronic lodgement of export
pre-receival advice. “1-STOP’s DGRS
will offer a single point of entry for dangerous
goods information for all Patrick
and P&O facilities, which we can then
transmit to other parties in the supply
chain that need the data to meet operational
or regulatory requirements,” he said.
September 2004 19

WorldCargo
news
Singamas profit surges ahead
Strong demand for containers to cope
with rising world trade helped Singamas
Container Holdings, the world’s second
largest box builder, to post a 49.2 per
cent increase in profit for the first half of
this year to US$10.48 mill.
Container manufacturing accounted
for 93 per cent of the turnover, which
rose by 15.8 per cent to US$235.86 mill.
President Teo Siong Seng said the
bottom line was boosted by the 14 per
cent increase in container prices the
company was able to achieve on the sale
of 267,428 TEU in the period, up 18
per cent over the corresponding period
of last year. He said full-year output will
be well above 500,000 TEU, up from the
466,000 TEU achieved last year.
Teo said the company’s nine plants -
eight in China and one in Indonesia -
have forward orders ranging from two
to four months’ production. Orders from
shipping lines and leasing companies are
now expected to increase in the second
half as hopes that steel prices in China
would fall have faded.
Teo said orders slowed in June and
July because buyers thought container
prices would drop following a fall in steel
prices. “That did not happen because the
price of Corten steel used in containers
has not fallen much and we are now
receiving more inquiries,” Teo said.
Because of supply shortages, the price
of a standard 20ft container, which stood
at around US$1,350 at the beginning of
the year, rose to US$2,000-2,100 at one
point, but has now slipped back to around
the US$1,900 mark.
Singamas’ financial figures did not reflect
the full impact of the increased output
because the contribution from
“jointly controlled” companies in China,
was not included. Taking that into account,
turnover would have risen 36 per
cent to US$417.02 mill, up from
US$306.98 mill a year earlier. Pre-tax
profits of these companies rose 228 per
CONTAINER INDUSTRY/HAZCHEM NEWS
cent to US$4.94 mill, although their
operating profits fell 5.3 per cent to
US$10.36 mill.
Teo said although Singamas has majority
stakes in some of these companies,
such as Xiamen Pacific Container Manufacturing,
Tianjin Pacific Container and
Shanghai Jifa Logistics, they are not
treated as subsidiaries because Singamas
does not have management control. Plans
are in hand to make one or two of these
subsidiaries via management control or
through 100 per cent ownership.
Teo added that with Qingdao Pacific
Container Co, which is 55 per cent
owned by Singamas, commencing full
scale operations in January 2004, the
group’s maximum annual production capacity
has risen from 540,000 TEU to
640,000 TEU.
CIMC share
for Cosco
Pacific
Hong Kong-listed container lessor and
port operator Cosco Pacific has agreed
to pay Yuan1.06 bill (US$128 mill) for a
16 per cent stake in China International
Marine Containers (CIMC), the world’s
largest container manufacturer.
Through a wholly-owned subsidiary,
Cosco Container Industries Co, Cosco
Pacific will pay cash to acquire 163.7 mill
non-tradable CIMC shares from its parent
China Ocean Shipping Co. The price
is 23 per cent higher than CIMC’s net
asset value per share.
The acquisition, which is subject to
approval by independent shareholders and
regulators, is seen as a move by Cosco
Pacific to consolidate its presence in China’s
container business. It already has stakes
in three CIMC container manufacturing
companies in China - Shanghai CIMC
Reefer Container Co, Shanghai CIMC
Far East Container Co and Tianjin CIMC
North Ocean Container Co.
“The management considers the proposed
investment in CIMC as a good
opportunity to strengthen the company’s
foothold in the growing container manufacturing
industry,” a spokesman said.
Analysts said CIMC’s strong performance
this year ensured the deal was good
for Cosco Pacific. CIMC, which accounts
for more than 50 per cent of the world’s
output, reported a 172 per cent increase
in first half profit to Yuan927 mill (US$112
mill). In the first-half it sold 724,516
TEUs, up 29 per cent over the corresponding
period of 2003 and indicating
that full-year production will top 1.4 mill
TEU. This will push profit to more than
Yuan1.5 bill (US$181.2 mill, of which
Yuan243 mill (US$29.4 mill) will go to
Cosco Pacific, boosting its bottom-line
by about 10 per cent.
● Cosco Pacific has reported a 26.3 per
cent increase in interim profit to US$93
mill as its container leasing and terminal
operations have benefited from China’s
booming foreign trade.
The container leasing business grew
14.1 per cent to US$48.52 mill as the box
fleet was increased by 14.5 per cent to
864,568 TEU. The company spent
US$148 mill buying 90,372 TEU in the
period, and sold 28,247 TEU returned by
affiliate Cosco Container Lines (Coscon)
upon expiry of leases. As of the end of
June, Cosco Pacific had 304,088 TEU on
lease to Coscon. Overall fleet utilisation
stood at 96 per cent
Hoyer links
with Elemica
The Hamburg-based Hoyer Group has
agreed a partnership with Elemica, the
Internet-based e-commerce platform set
up in 2002 by 22 chemical industry companies,
to facilitate electronic data interchange
between Hoyer and the Elemica
network.
Connection to the Elemica network
will be via a single connection with Hoyer’s
own e-commerce solution, Hoyer-Net,
using established CIDX industry standards.
The single “connect once-connect to all”
connection will allow Hoyer and the 22
Elemica members to share and exchange
information in real time.
Hoyer will pilot the Elemica connection
with Shell Chemicals Europe in order
to explore and implement the significant
mutual benefits offered by business
process integration and digitisation,
the company said.
According to Fred van der Spill, director
of information services for Hoyer,
the new partnership with Elemica is seen
as a major step towards allowing cost reductions
and service performance improvements
in transport order entry and
execution processes and, ultimately,
chemical customers’ order fulfilment
processes.
20
September 2004

NORTH AMERICAN WEST COAST: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
NAWC looking for a decongestant
Congestion has been increasing at
Pacific Coast ports for most of the
year and shippers are still waiting to
see if port authorities, labour unions
and transportation providers can
come up with a solution. Because of
an early onslaught of seasonal backto-school
and holiday cargoes, container
throughput has been pushed
to the maximum at southern California
ports, with record numbers
being posted by both Los Angeles
and Long Beach.
To keep up with the volume, 3000
new “casual” workers are being hired under
an existing agreement between the
Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and
the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU). However, because
the jobs pay exceedingly well, the union
has been flooded with applicants and must
now select and train new workers at a
rate of about 100 per week.
In the meantime, 1000 existing casual
workers at the two San Pedro Bay ports
are being promoted into the registered
ranks of the union, allowing the newcomers
to take over their old positions. The
casuals, who are not guaranteed full-time
work but are eligible to work whenever
the need is sufficient, are not considered
registered members of the union but are
covered nevertheless by the existing
PMA/ILWU Labor Contract.
Mitigation fee
Many of the new workers will be used
to help extend terminal and truck gate
hours as Southern California’s new
“PierPass” programme is instituted over
the next few weeks. Reacting to a
threat by California State Assemblyman
Four ZPMC superpost-Panamax cranes for Evergreen at the Port of Tacoma’s new Pierce
County Terminal (PCT) have arrived fully-erect from Shanghai on ZPMC’s ZHEN HUA 4
transport ship. A fifth crane will follow in October. Evergreen is due to move into the US$210
mill, 171-acre PCT facility next January. PCT will provide 2260ft (690m) of lineal berth
and 764 reefer plugs. It can be enlarged to 237 acres to provide an annual throughput
capacity of 1.2 mill TEU. The cranes have an outreach of 63.7m (209ft), which at PCT is
sufficient for a 23-wide deck stow. They are fitted with 2 x 1340 hp (972 kW) main hoist
motors to deliver a rated load (60 tonnes SWL under twinlift) lifting speed of 90 m/min.
The next largest container cranes in Tacoma have 880 hp (639 kW) hoist motors
Alan Lowenthal to impose a mandated
government fee for moving cargo into
or out of the two ports on weekdays
between 08:00 and 17.00 hours, the
ports themselves will begin charging a
traffic mitigation fee (TMF) of US$20/
TEU on every loaded international container,
starting November 1.
Containers moved during off-peak
hours, or using the Alameda Corridor rail
service, will be entitled to a refund of the
TMF. According to the ports, the US$20
charge will be used to offset the additional
costs of staffing for weekend and
night-time operations, estimated at
around US$150 mill annually.
“Cold iron”
The Port of Los Angeles is also promoting
more use of intermodal rail while
mapping out a plan to provide additional
rail capacity. Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn
is behind the move, which has also seen
the port institute the West Coast’s first
“cold iron” berthing operation at China
Shipping’s new facility.
According to Hahn, the goal of both
programmes is to reduce air pollution
and street congestion. “I said when I
took office that I wanted there to be
no net increase in air emissions at the
port, and this policy will help continue
to meet that pledge,” Hahn said. “The
infrastructure for rail already exists, and
replacing trucks with trains will not
only bring cleaner air to the harbour,
but clearer streets as well.”
The push by Hahn for more rail usage
may require a financial incentive
as usage of the multi-billion dollar
Alameda Corridor has not been up to
expectations. Any rush to rail may further
antagonise already bitter truck
drivers, who staged nationwide protests
this past summer against slow gate
movements and high fuel costs. A possible
job threat posed by a shift to rail
would only worsen their position.
On the other hand, as previously reported
(WorldCargo News, March 2004,
p17), there is pressure to introduce “shuttle
trains” between the marine terminals and
the new distribution centres which have
sprung up in the “Inland Empire” located
some 50-75 miles from the ports.
Scarce land
Both Los Angeles and Long Beach have
been building mega-terminals but it is
clear that after two strong decades of continuous
construction, spare land is now
at a premium. The long battle to get China
Shipping’s new facility up and running
in Los Angeles (New Century Terminal)
has served to illustrate the dangers of
pushing port operations too close to urban
boundaries.
Although neighbouring Long Beach
still has some room for manoeuvre, it is
expected to seek future expansion
through terminal consolidation or reconstruction.
The port has budgeted US$35
mill to complete Pier T for Total Terminals
International (TTI), serving Hanjin
and China Shipping, but the site is to be
expanded from its original 375 acres to
383 acres through the incorporation of a
former US Navy dry dock site.
CUT above the rest
The Port of Long Beach has also approved
a series of improvements for the
California United Terminals (CUT)
facility on Pier E where a new truck
gate will be added and 300 additional
reefer slots installed. The new gate will
be equipped with optical character recognition
technology and radiation portal
monitors to speed traffic flow and
enhance security.
A large breakbulk banana shed will
also be demolished at the terminal to provide
more container space but this will
send the port’s last banana carrier,
CSCL ASIA, the world’s largest container ship and the first to be delivered with an 18-wide deck
stow, on her maiden call in Long Beach, at Total Terminals International (TTI), the MTC/
Hanjin Shipping terminal operator. Nominal capacity of the 336m long by 45.8m wide vessel,
built by Samsung for Seaspan and chartered to China Shipping, is 8500 TEU at 24.5 knots
but is thought to be ≥ 9000 TEU. The TTI Long Beach facility was recently expanded and two
22-wide cranes from ZPMC are due to arrive next month, taking its crane complement to 14
September 2004 21

WorldCargo
news
NORTH AMERICAN WEST COAST: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Right: “Cold iron” berthing, with ships using
shore power, is expected to become a fact of life
at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
as part of the latest measures to protect the
environment
The lights have gone on at Los Angeles/Long Beach where both ports have extended truck gate
times into the evening hours
Chiquita Brands, north to the Port of
Hueneme. Already moved to Hueneme
is Auto Warehousing, which shifted its
auto importing operations from Los Angeles
in March. The moves are expected
to push banana throughput at Hueneme
to over 625,000 tonnes annually, while
adding another 63,000 vehicle units to
the fast-growing port’s yearly traffic in
new automobiles.
Oakland modernising
In Northern California the Port of
Oakland has continued to capture most
containerised traffic entering San Francisco
Bay. Last year the port set a new
record, handling 1.92 mill TEU, an increase
of 12.6 per cent over the previous
year. The port’s executive director, Tay
Yoshitani, expects more growth to take
place this year, although container traffic
was off 1.3 per cent at mid-year.
“We anticipate handling substantially
more containers given the forecast for
Premier
does its stuff
Premier Appointment System (PAS), the
real-time appointments system for motor
carriers released last year on the US
west coast, appears to be a big success.
PAS is a fully-integrated software enhancement
to VoyagerTrack, the webbased
“asset visibility” tool developed by
Embarcadero Systems Corporation, the
IT affiliate of Marine Terminals Corporation
(MTC). It is claimed to be the currently
the most utilised appointment system
in North America.
In July, says MTC, 98 per cent of nonrail
import containers at Hanjin Shipping’s
Pier T Long Beach Container Terminal,
which is operated by Total Terminals International
(TTI), MTC’s joint venture
with Hanjin Shipping, were picked up by
truckers using PAS.
The VoyagerTrack web site now averages
more than one hit a second, when
equated to business hours, and recently
reached new highs of more than 80,000
per week for an individual terminal.
Steve Longbotham, MTC’s vice president,
customer technology, attributes part
of the tremendous response to the value
which users get from the system’s ease of
use. He adds that there is an enormous
amount of increased information available
to all parties as the PAS is monitored
round-the-clock. Trucking companies can
see the number of available appointments
corresponding to their containers’ position
in the yard and can sequence their
total container pick-ups accordingly.
Longbotham also believes that PAS is
the only appointment system on the
USWC that allows appointments to be
made either by web site or a touch-tone
telephone voice response unit.
At the TTI terminal in Long Beach,
on average two thirds of appointments
are made the previous day. Terminal
manager Mark Milburn explains that
the appointments allow TTI to premount
containers for truckers using the
PAS enhancement. “This combination
of services has resulted in a 40 per cent
drop in overall turn time on decked
import loads from April, when the appointment
system was not being utilised
as it was designed,” he said.
PAS is deployed by MTC in conjunction
with its joint venture partners Hanjin
in Long Beach and Oakland (TTI), Yang
Ming and China Shipping in Los Angeles
(West Basin Container Terminal) and
Evergreen in Los Angeles and Oakland
(Seaside Transportation Services), as well
as at MTC’s Ben E Nutter container terminal
in Oakland.
PAS “went live” in compliance with
the Lowenthal Law, although MTC says
that avoidance of possible truck-idle fines
played only a minor role in its creation.
TTI Long Beach, for example, elected to
implement PAS even though the terminal
did not need relief from the possible
fines as it qualifies for the extended hours
exemption (70 hours/week in southern
California ports). ❏
22
September 2004

NORTH AMERICAN WEST COAST: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
After completing two new container terminals
and an intermodal yard, the Port of Oakland
will concentrate on modernising its existing
facilities this year
container lines this year, as a result of
changing Pacific rotation patterns. South
Korea’s Hyundai will cease calling at the
port this month while Japan’s K-Line will
end service in December. Their departure
will leave only South Korea’s Hanjin
Shipping as a regular caller.
Ironically, the departures follow a
record year at Portland for container traffic,
while overall cargo volume through
the port posted a 12 per cent gain. Shippers
of hay cubes, alfalfa pellets and frozen
vegetables in Eastern Washington and
Idaho are now expected to switch their
container moves to Tacoma and Seattle.
This will generate more business for truck
and rail operators at the expense of river
barges on the Columbia/Snake system.
British Columbia’s Fraser Surrey Docks has
acquired Canada’s first Gottwald HMK 300E
to handle containers and heavy lift items
Tacoma expanding
The decisions by Hyundai and K-Line
to abandon Portland come as both carriers
continue to develop their facilities at
Tacoma, less than three hours drive to the
north. Hyundai now has a 60-acre, twoberth
facility at Tacoma, served by four
cranes and a recently expanded
intermodal yard. K-Line, currently with
a 33-acre site, will shift to Terminal 3-4
on the Blair Waterway once Evergreen
moves into its new facility next year.
At 171 acres, Evergreen’s new terminal
is more than double the size of its
existing 74-acre terminal. As previously
reported (WorldCargo News, March 2003,
p26), Evergreen owns all five of the new
cranes (four just arrived - see p21) and
will have its own straddle carrier fleet. As
continued global economic improvement,”
said Yoshitani. He added that the
port is still in the process of modernising
several of its existing facilities after creating
two new marine terminals and a new
intermodal rail yard in the past three years.
Oakland is gaining additional traffic
this year from a transloading facility
opened in April by Unicold Corporation
for refrigerated commodities moving
to Hawaii and Guam. The modern,
20,000 ft 2 warehouse has 30 truck bays
and a rail spur capable of holding 12 refrigerated
railway wagons.
Portland losing
Contrasting Oakland’s good fortune is the
Port of Portland, Oregon, on the Columbia
river, which is losing two of its three
APS nets
security deals
US-based APS Technology Group (APS)
has been awarded a contract by APM Terminals
(APMT) to provide a CCTV security
system for its Tacoma facility. The
system, utilising monies from the TSA/
Homeland Security Port Security grant
programme, will include 19 pan/tilt/
zoom (PTZ) cameras installed on light
poles and buildings throughout the terminal.
Each camera will leverage an existing
fibre optic network and will be
controlled by a custom-designed software
application to monitor and record activity
within perimeter and high risk areas
of the terminal automatically.
The system will integrate a point-andclick,
map-driven software interface to
increase the capabilities of APMT personnel.
It will incorporate automated and
schedule based recording, software-based
motion detection and e-mail alarm/alert
capabilities.
ACTA contract
APS has also been awarded a contract by
the Alameda Corridor Transportation
Authority (ACTA) to provide its rail portal
system for automatic identification of
laden cargo containers carried by rail. The
solution, spanning the three mainline
tracks of the Alameda Corridor, will involve
imaging and OCR of the ISO container
information and will be an integral
part of ACTA’s new high-risk cargo
container tracking system (HR-CCTS)
slated for installation this year.
By pairing off-the-shelf CCTV cameras
and energy-efficient LED illumination,
the system will capture images of
containers passing through the portal
structures erected near the railroad tracks.
The dual OCR and AEI tag reading
functionality will provide identification
not only of containers but also the rail
cars transporting them. The improved
“visibility” of the container traffic passing
through the corridor will serve as a
foundation of the HR-CCTS. It will also
provide an early warning capability should
specific containers need to be located in
case of emergency.
APS’s COO Allen Thomas noted that
“improving the security and safety of the
traffic through the Alameda Corridor is
an urgent issue to say the least. The HR-
CCTS is an enormous step in that direction
and APS is thrilled to be an integral
part of the solution.” ❏
September 2004 23

WorldCargo
news
NORTH AMERICAN WEST COAST: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Computer enhancement showing how a new 350-acre terminal may be built to the north of the
existing Hyundai terminal at the Port of Tacoma, Wa...
also previously noted, Marine Terminal
Corporation is contracted to provide the
terminal operation and the labour.
The port has also renewed for 20 years
(with 2 x 5-year options) the lease of K-
Line’s International Transportation Service,
Inc (ITS). Under the agreement, Terminal
3-4 will be expanded from 74 to
93 acres (38-ha) and will be able to provide
preferential berthing sufficient for
two post-Panamax vessels.
The new agreement includes minimum
intermodal volume guarantees (over
the port’s North Intermodal Yard), regular
rentalg escalations with volume
throughput incentives and crane and
equipment rental agreements with a volume
discount structure.
While Evergreen is continuing with
a straddle carrier-direct operation which
...meanwhile, Japan’s K-Line will move from
Terminal 7-D (upper left) to Terminal 3/4
(lower right) early next year, giving it a twoberth
facility and substantially more acreage
has been the norm up to now at Tacoma
(with the exception of the Maersk Sealand
terminal), it is significant that the enlarged
ITS facility, to be managed by Husky Ter-
Portland in
deep trouble
The Port of Portland, Oregon remains
committed to the Columbia River Channel
Improvement Project (CRC) despite
losing two thirds of its container business
estimated at 120,000 moves/year to
Tacoma in recent months.
Executive director Bill Wyatt is confident
that other carriers will step in and
fill the “hole” in the market, but local
commentators have suggested that Portland
should pull out of the container business
altogether. Port officials, however, are
determined to rebuild volumes. Investment
in the T-6 container terminal, with
the port recently exercising an option for
four more Kalmar reach stackers.
Part of the problem for Portland is the
40ft depth restriction in the Columbia
River channel. Along with five other
ports, Portland has been pushing for years
the CRC to dredge the river to 43ft. The
loss of business, says Portland’s media relations
manager Eric Hedaa, “points to
the need for us to continue pushing forward.
Hyundai’s ships were draft constricted
here and they left. K-line is replacing
its ships with larger ships that most
likely would be restricted as well. We’re
pretty confident that the channel depth
factored into their decisions.”
As to whether 43ft will be adequate
for the future Hedaa says it will allow
about half of the current and ordered
trans-Pacific fleet to access Portland costeffectively
compared to about 25 per cent
now. Furthermore, adds Hedaa, the West
Coast needs Portland as a gateway.
“Look at what’s happening around the
West Coast: 72 vessels, including 46 container
ships, were in LA/LB following
Labor Day, and 30 of those were at anchor
because they could not be accommodated
at berth. Those ships are seeing
7-8 day turn times and things are going
Portland’s loss of business will also mean lower
throughput for the Columbia/Snake container
barge operators
24
September 2004

NORTH AMERICAN WEST COAST: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
Vancouver Port authority’s CEO Capt
Gordon Houston has warned that without
major new investments the port’s gateway status
may be compromised
minal & Stevedoring, will be converted
from straddle carriers to RTGs.
Other changes include 100 more
reefer plugs, bringing the terminal total
to 580 reefer plugs, a new exit gate building
and marine management building and
a new maintenance facility.
In recent months the port has been
working with the local Puyallup Indian
Tribe Council to prepare the ground for
yet more container capacity. Being proposed
is a 350-acre facility to be sited on
tribal property and land acquired by the
port from Kaiser Aluminum last year. The
new terminal would be built on the north
side of the Blair Waterway directly across
from the existing Hyundai facility. After
handling 1.74 mill TEU last year, Tacoma
has moved ahead of Seattle to become
the largest container port in the PNW
and the fifth largest in North America.
Seattle holds steady
Relatively land-poor, Seattle has largely
completed its terminal expansion projects,
although it is still wrapping up the consolidation
of several smaller facilities into
one large 88-acre terminal for Hanjin.
Although Hanjin has stated it has no
intention of dropping calls at Portland,
the enlarged Seattle terminal, with six
container cranes and a 16-lane truck gate,
gives it substantially more capacity to handle
cargo on Puget Sound.
Looking ahead, the port is budgeting
design work on a projected US$50 mill
expansion of T5, used by APL and other
carriers, which would lengthen the terminal’s
dock face by 700ft and allow the
simultaneous berthing of three large postpanamax
ships. The 182-acre facility was
last expanded in 1998, at a cost of US$270
mill. A US$300 mill reconstruction of T18
was completed last year, resulting in a 196-
acre multi-user complex.
BC ports want boxes
Still competing strongly with Seattle and
Tacoma for cargo is British Columbia’s
Port of Vancouver, which has already
reached the limits of its container capacity
and has been experiencing delays of
10 days or longer because of congestion.
Total cargo handled during the first half
of the year climbed 16 per cent, to 36.5
mt, while container traffic climbed seven
per cent, to 809,500 TEU.
Port chief executive Gordon Houston
has warned that, without major investments
in infrastructure, Vancouver’s competitive
position as a Pacific Northwest
gateway may be compromised. Two
smaller BC ports are already challenging
Vancouver. Fraser Port, which saw its container
count increase by a remarkable 24
per cent in the first half of this year, is
preparing to double its capacity.
The port’s terminal operator, Fraser
Surrey Docks (FSD), has leased a
Gottwald mobile harbour crane to work
alongside its two existing container cranes
while it prepares to buy a further two
container cranes, for operation next year.
Last year, Fraser Surrey handled a
record 250,000 TEU and found that it
needed to increase capacity quickly to
meet customers’ immediate demands
and future growth. The first phase of
the upgrade project aims at boosting
capacity to 415,000 TEU/year.
The Gottwald HMK 300E, the first
of its kind in Canada and the third on
the NAWC range, was certified for operation
this past summer and has been
handling heavy lift cargoes as well as containers.
Fraser Port is now considered
Canada’s second largest port by volume,
handing over 17.5 mt annually.
Rupert at the gate
To the north, the Port of Prince Rupert
is pressing forward with its plan to build
a 55-acre container terminal by 2006,
with expansion to 150 acres by 2009 and
has made an agreement with Maher Terminals
to operate what is planned as a
new intermodal gateway to the mid-west
(WorldCargo News, July 2004, p1).
Vancouver’s Houston said that he
welcomes the new developments but
noted that Vancouver is already moving
forward with its own plan to build a third
berth at Deltaport, which will expand
annual throughput capacity there from
900,000 TEU to 1.3 mill TEU by 2008.
Houston added that the port plans to
build a second major terminal near
Deltaport by 2012. In the shorter term,
P&O Ports Canada is investing C$150
mill to boost throughput at Vancouver’s
Centerm terminal from 220,000 TEU to
435,000 TEU by next year. ❏
Below: the Port of Prince Rupert’s Fairview
breakbulk terminal today and, right, a computer
enhancement showing how the terminal will
be rebuilt to handle containers
September 2004 25

WorldCargo
news
A bridge over troubled waters
as the Port of Wallhman finally
found a sustainable market
H niche, or will it continue to be
buffeted around in the game of port politics
The port, north of Gothenburg, was
originally developed as a ro-ro terminal
by Wallenius Lines as an alternative to the
latter port in the early 1970s.
Subsequently, Wallenius decided that
Gothenburg provided a better logistical
base and sold out to a local company.
When that business went into liquidation,
the port was acquired by the local community,
Tjorns Kommun.
The port is situated on an island, accessible
only by bridges and single lane
roads, in a rural location with no rail link.
There is not even a village of Wallhamn,
as the port’s name is derived from the
original developer (“Wallenius Hamn”).
Its biggest coup was in 1984 when
Sea-Land Service played the Wallhamn
card because of the alleged poor quality
of the service it was getting in
Gothenburg. However, Maersk’s subsequent
acquisition of Sea-Land ended this
arrangement and cargo was thereafter directed
through Gothenburg again.
At the time, this was widely seen as
the beginning of the end for Wallhamn.
SCANDINAVIA: PORT DEVELOPMENT
It attracted some cargo, mainly new car
imports, but it was not until 1997, when
Grimaldi decided to use it as the
Scandinavian base for its Euro-Med service,
that a viable, long term future seemed
possible.
Despite the port’s hinterland disadvantages,
it can provide a flexible working
environment at relatively low labour costs
and also has the advantage over
Gothenburg of relatively inexpensive land
on which to expand.
The port acknowledges that it is not
in the same league as Gothenburg, and
indeed had to put off a major container
operator, as it could not adequately service
its volumes without a major increase
in lo-lo handling equipment. However, a
significant percentage of this operator’s
Swedish containers are discharged in
Gothenburg, moved to Wallhamn for
stripping and then returned empty.
Wallhamn has always struggled, either
through too little traffic or too much, but
has shown great resilience, although at
what financial cost is not known. Dayto-day
management is carried out on
behalf of Tjorns Kommun by Wallhamnbolagen
AB .
Welcome guest
Grimaldi has now decided that it wants
to develop a significant base in Wallhamn,
which will be its sole Scandinavian logistics
centre, and will effectively take control
of the port. For its part, Tjorns
Kommun may be pleased to offload the
responsibility without losing the jobs,
while retaining land ownership and generating
income from lease revenues.
As previously reported in WorldCargo
News (July 2004, p9), Grimaldi and Eukor
Car Carriers have signed a letter of intent
with Tjorns Kommun to lease the
car and ro-ro terminal. The deal includes
250,000 m 2 of paved areas, two warehouses,
two elderly ship-to-shore gantries
and a PDI facility. Apart from the weekly
Grimaldi call and monthly Eukor ship,
Samskip calls weekly to cater for local
industry based at Skärhamn.
Should the Grimaldi/Eukor joint venture
become a reality, the port will see a
significant growth in ro-ro traffic. Olle
Pernberger, terminal manager of
Wallhamnbolagen, considers that as the
port was constructed as a ro-ro facility,
this is the sector where sustained growth
is most likely to be achieved.
The agreement should not affect
Grimaldi’s ACL operation, which is likely
to remain in Gothenburg. Wallhamn’s
gantry cranes would in any case have trouble
handling the deck-stowed containers
of ACL’s ro-los. However, it could be that
containers carried by ACL could be consolidated
at Grimaldi’s Wallhamn distribution
centre.
The deal could, moreover, result in a
loss of some Eukor traffic at Gothenburg.
This operator, which controls over 80 car
carriers, is jointly owned by Wilh
Wilhelmsen, Wallenius Lines, Hyundai
Motor Co and the Kia Motors Corp and
last year carried over 2.7 mill cars.
Currently Eukor delivers only
Hyundai cars to Gothenburg although it
is, according to company spokesman
Martin Malmors, “in discussions with
other customers to switch their discharging
operations of import cars to Wallhamn
and thereby create further synergies and
economies of scale.”
Lo-lo to slow
Most containers handled over the quay
are carried by Grimaldi. They are stowed
inside the Euro-Med ro-ro vessels and
loaded onto rolltrailers by the ship’s low
height FLTs for discharge/loading. For the
first eight months of this year, the port
handled some 9000 containers over the
quay, although the total for the year is
forecast to be 20,000 TEU.
Yokohama Tyres has a large depot in
the port, with the tyres arriving from Japan
via Gothenburg. Similarly MSC sends
a large number of containers to the port
from Gothenburg for distribution to local
plastics industries. Grimaldi currently
operates a 5000 m 2 warehouse to consolidate
paper products and containerise
them for export.
The new lease agreement gives
Grimaldi more control over its logistic
chain. However, it needs the partnership
of Eukor to generate more traffic. ❏
26
September 2004

SCANDINAVIA: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
Aarhus gets
the green light
The Port of Århus (Aarhus) finally
received permission to start Phase
II of its container terminal development
in mid-August. The port
is an autonomous body which is
able to attract inward investment
and has no access to taxpayers’
money. However, it is governed by
the elected officials of the City of
Aarhus, which has a controlling
interest in the port’s Board.
Development of the west outer
port area was agreed in 1997, with
APM Terminals taking the first
concession. This was planned to
be followed by a second phase, to
provide Aarhus Stevedoring Company
(ASK) with a new terminal
adjacent to the APMT facility.
Based on traffic projections at that
time, it was assumed that this
would be around 2012.
However, the city council tied
the Phase II development to construction
of a road tunnel to link
the new port area with the motorway
and thus bypass residential
areas. Construction was originally
targeted for around 2008 and the
council asked central government
to share the €100 mill cost. The
government agreed in principle
but made no commitment.
Half-way in
As a result, the project stalled. The
breakthrough came when the
port, whose throughput was
growing faster than the national
forecast, was able to persuade the
city to accelerate the timetable.
The city allowed the port to start
its expansion while it undertook
the first half of the tunnel construction,
for which it already had
the funding.
It is hoped that this will encourage
government to come up
with funding for the second half,
and allow work to progress immediately
the first half is finished.
The “city half” is slated for completion
by 2008 and the second
half by 2012, assuming there is no
delay in government support.
The port’s timetable is, however,
more pressing. It hopes to
start construction early next year
and work is already being carried
out to investigate soil conditions
under the new quay wall.
Which end to start
It is not yet decided, however, how
the new development will
progress. The new terminal area
will be operated by ASK. From an
initial cost perspective, it would be
better to site it adjacent to APMT’s
facility, but this could complicate
future expansion by the latter.
Århus Havn’s planned new terminals
are shown in green (containers) and
yellow (multi-purpose). The blue area
is for distribution/ancilary services
A neater solution, reckoned to
be cheaper long term even if costlier
“up front,” would be to construct
a 900m quay wall extension
of the current 500m APMT facility
and then start backfilling.
The full quay wall would be in
place and reclamation could be
carried out on “as needed.”
The new ASK terminal could
then be sited at the other end of
the reclamation and eventually
meet APMT. Total reclaimed area
will be around 300,000 m 2 and it
could be that ASK will take at least
two thirds of this.
Put in the hours
One reason for putting a quay wall
in place at the start of the Phase II
expansion is that it would be possible
to run APMT’s three, relatively
new Noell gantry cranes
into the ASK facility. As the port
owns the cranes and effectively
rents them on an “on demand”
basis, it is keen to secure a greater
return on its investment.
It seems likely that one or two
of the cranes operating at the existing
ASK terminal will be moved
to the new site. No final decision
has been taken regarding landside
handling, although it is known
that ASK will not retain the reach
stacker operation it uses at the
existing facility. Both straddle carriers
and RTGs are being considered
and in any event ASK will
want a high level of automation.
Deep end
By pumping in the biggest investment
commitment, construction
of the quay wall, at this stage, the
port should free itself from future
political restraint, since in-filling
later will be relatively cheap.
The new areas adjacent to the
planned container terminal have
been progressively filled following
the construction of a bund wall,
using building rubble from all over
Jutland, for which the port has
received a landfill income.
However, it is acknowledged
that this type of infill is not suitable
for heavy duty container operations,
and this area (blue on adjacent
map) will accordingly be employed
for support services, distribution
centres, container truck
waiting areas and possibly a new
rail terminal.
A new rail terminal could also
be sited in this area, as part of a
project to improve rail access to
the port. The port authority is cofunding
an €15 mill investment to
improve rail access. This would
allow longer trains to enter the
port without going via the main
formation yard in the city.
Trade off
The port’s autonomous status cuts
off access to city funding, but also
means that the city cannot plunder
its reserves and allows it to go to
the open market for finance. To help
finance the €65 mill west container
terminal project, the port is looking
to sell its existing container terminal
to property developers.
The move would be a gradual
one, with ASK phasing its relocation
in stages to 2012. However,
given the reluctance for new residents
to co-share with a container
terminal, this timetable may have
to be accelerated.
This year, ASK is on track to
handle 270,000 TEU over the
quay, along with 320,000 TEU
handled by its Cargo Service
logistical division from rail and
road in Aarhus and other Jutland
centres. Total port throughput this
year is forecast at 450,000 TEU.
Around 63 per cent of Danish
o/d containerised cargoes pass
through Aarhus and the port’s assistant
director Henrik Munch
Jensen believes this figure will be
difficult to increase dramatically,
unless transhipment business can
be attracted, which in turn would
require more deepsea calls.
The port has been holding
talks with the Port of Gothenburg,
with which it shares calls by
Maersk and MSC, on possible
ways to promote deep sea traffic
for transhipment to the Baltic.
Munch Jensen believes that growing
terminal, road and river congestion
in the Hamburg region,
coupled with increasing demand
from the Baltic countries, provide
Aarhus with new opportunities. ❏
Oslo looks forward
Norway’s Port of Oslo is engaged
in an expensive redevelopment
scheme. This will see a significant
part of the port turned over for
residential and commercial use,
with 225-ha of land being made
available to form “Fjord City.”
The biggest casualty of the redevelopment
is the Filipstad container
terminal, close to the city
on the western side of the harbour.
It will be shut down and its
rail connection will be lost.
The funds generated from the
redevelopment will be used to
develop a new container terminal
at Sjursøya on the eastern side. The
Filipstad operation will be trans-
ferred to this peninsular site from
2005 and extended in 2008 when
traffic from the container terminal
at Ormsund, adjacent to
Sjursøya, is also shut down.
Ormsund is a relatively modern
terminal but, as it is surrounded
by an expensive residential
neighbourhood, also has to go.
On the other hand, Sjursøya has
no short term potential for urban
development, due to long-term
contracts with oil companies. Part
of the facility operates as an oil
terminal and underground oil
storage tanks are located nearby.
Even so, Sjursøya, despite the
investment required to make it
Oslo’s central container terminal,
is also regarded as “temporary,” as
it is too close to Fjord City and
the truck traffic it generates will
not be welcome. The port still
wants to find a “permanent” container
terminal in the inner Oslo
fjord after 2011, but the “location
has yet to be determined.”
Responsibility for finding a
viable site for a completely new
container terminal outside the city,
designed to serve all the towns and
cities on the main Oslo fjord, has
been consigned to a speciallyformed
company, Viken Port.
There are plenty of alternative
sites along the 100 km long fjord
to consider. However, the rivalries
of the various local communes
will complicate matters. ❏
September 2004 27

WorldCargo
news
Swedish shipping line RWS Lines
AB has developed a new ro-ro
ferry able to carry trailers between
the country’s biggest lake, Lake
Vänern, and the middle Rhine, as
an alternative to road transport
over ports such as Rotterdam or
Hamburg, or “all-road” via the
Swedish-Danish fixed links.
Sweden tends to set a high
store on environmental values, and
the new concept fits the bill accordingly.
The operation would
take around 30,000 trailers/year
off the central Sweden/central
Germany route. Given the modal
shift aims of the EU, it is an interesting
solution.
The Swedish port would probably
be Kristinehamn, near
Karlstad at the north end of the
lake. Duisport’s Logport terminal
in Duisburg Rheinhausen has
been identified as an ideal inland
distribution and consolidation
centre, although other options are
available as the Rhine terminal.
RWS’s managing director
Stein Runsbech admits that it is
an ambitious project, particularly
to convince forwarders and hauliers
that a ro-ro ferry operation for
unaccompanied trailers can be a
cost-effect alternative to trucking
between a central Swedish location
and a central German distribution
site.
Plus factors
Nevertheless, he is confident that
the river-sea route can provide a
practical, fixed cost and reliable
alternative. Transport operators are
confronted by growing environmental
opposition to truck movements,
particularly at weekends.
They also face an unpredictable
cost scenario on the road, arising
from the future German LKW
Maut charging scheme, worsening
congestion and so on.
Another plus point is that forwarders
and hauliers active in
Swedish import/export markets
are used to unaccompanied ro-ro
services and have the scale and organisation
to manage unaccompanied
trailer flows.
The cost of the planned ferry
service is claimed to be competitive,
taking into consideration all
factors. While transit time is longer,
arrival time is virtually guaranteed.
A recent report even suggests that
with increasing road congestion,
the actual transit times of 62 hours
southbound and 56 hours northbound
will be the same for a truck
as for the RWS ferry by 2010.
Vänern precedent
The project manager is Stig-Åke
Svensson, who was also responsible
for the Stora shuttle carrier
concept in 1989. These vessels carried
paper products on cassettes
on Lake Vänern from Karlstad to
Gothenburg and returned with oil
products. The craft were in operation
for 12 years, until Stora converted
all Swedish export traffic
to its rail-carried SECU concept.
Svensson was also responsible
for the unique COB (cargo-oilbulk)
7000 dwt ship design. Six
SWEDEN: ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
Lake Vänern-Duisburg: a quart in a pint pot
An innovative, river-sea ro-ro
vessel design will provide trailer
operators with an alternative to
road transport between Sweden
and the Continent
By using IPSI lashing kerbs and auto-trestles from TTS, RWS will be able to
fit four lanes of trailers within a beam of just 13.35m
of these were built in 1987 and
three are still trading in the Baltic.
These multi-purpose ships were
designed to carry paper products
southbound and return with oil
or dry bulk cargoes.
Big entry
On an upbeat note, RWS is not
proposing the usual (and understandable)
conservative “two ship
start-up” approach which is aimed
at attracting a market and then
expanding the operation with
more ships for added frequency in
line with demand.
Rather, a six ship fleet will provide
a daily, fixed departure time
liner service from Day 1. The target
service levels could possibly be
achieved with five ships, but six
will provide greater flexibility and
schedule reliability.
Runsbech acknowledges
that to attract transport operators
and get them to reconsider
their core way of operating and
opt for a water link solution
when an all-road solution is in
place (fixed links), requires a
strong commitment on the part
of the service suppliers and a
regular schedule. Truck operators
may be able to provide a
cheaper alternative, but it is possible
that road’s days as the mode
of choice are numbered.
To overcome the commercial
problems of attracting traffic from
hauliers who work on very low
margins, sometimes covering just
the cost of the fuel, RWS is plugging
the reliability factor.
Not only, it claims, will the
ship be there when required, but
it can guarantee future booking
costs at least a year ahead and
thus provide cargo movers with
a definable cost forecasting
structure.
With increasing fuel costs, introduction
of toll charges coupled
with indefinable congestion costs,
it is difficult for a road haulage
operator to predict cost structure
a year ahead. Runsbech argues that
an operator could hedge its normal
patterns with a percentage
carried by sea and know the rate
structure a year in advance.
10 per cent share
RWS has a modest target to capture
market share, saying that its
six ship fleet would only take some
10 per cent of the apparent Germany-Sweden
market, but this
would still take some 30,000 trailers
loads/year off the roads.
The company considers that it
has identified a need, can supply
a cost- and time-effective
solution, but still requires its targeted
clients, the transport operators,
to agree. In putting together
its business plan, the
company soon realised that it
could not service both shippers
and carriers, as it would be competing
with its own customers.
Faced with an “either or”
situation, RWS has focused on
trailer traffic. Catering for 45ft
swap bodies on rolltrailers
would simplify the ship design
and allow for lower deck
heights, but this transport alternative
is not as widely available
in Scandinavia as it is in North
Continent trade and it was
therefore decided to focus on
the core trailer market.
Balancing act
The technical problems were
difficult to overcome, but the
solution, while unique, relies on
conventional and tested technology.
The design overcomes
the conflicting requirements of
lock dimensions on the
Trollhatte Canal, air draft and
water draught restrictions for
the Rhine and is able to operate
in sheltered waters and in
the North Sea. Within this envelope,
cargo capacity has been
maximised to make the venture
commercially viable.
EU funding of €2 mill has
been made available for the design
concept under the Intermode
Ship consortium whose membership
overlaps to some extent with
that of Integration (for last reports
see WorldCargo News, April 2004
and May 2004, p26 and p55).
This funding has been
matched by RWS’s parent company
Rederi AB Dalen. There will
be no operational subsidies from
the EU and the service will have
to pay for itself from day one.
Almost there
The design of the ship is virtually
finalised and tested to cope with
the highly conflicting requirements
of the service. The German
and Swedish ports have been identified
and shipyard quotes and delivery
dates have been obtained.
28
September 2004

SWEDEN: ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
WorldCargo
news
All RWS needs now is a commitment
from the market.
Runsbech hopes that this will be
achieved later this year, allowing
the first ship to enter service by
the second quarter of 2006.
Shipyards have been sounded
out and it could be that the bare
hulls will be constructed at a Baltic,
Romanian or Bulgarian shipyard
and then outfitted with the
cargo handling gear, propulsion,
etc in a north European yard.
A new ro-ro service has been
started between northern
Sweden and UK/Continent,
initially with one ship,
BALTICBORG, which will be
joined by a second vessel,
BOTHNIABORG, in November.
The operational model is similar
to the StoraEnso concept
whereby the shipper places a long
term contract which allows the
ship operator to finance and operate
the ships and franchise the
return leg to a third party to provide
backhaul cargo.
The Dutch ship operator
Wagenborg successfully achieved
this when it built three dedicated
newbuildings for the StoraEnso
SECU service between Gothenburg
and Zeebrugge, with
Cobelfret being responsible for
filling the ships on the return leg
to Sweden.
The latest venture is similar,
with Wagenborg providing two
ro-ro vessels to Kappa Kraftliner
which will load at Piteå, located
in the north of the Gulf of
Bothnia, and discharge at Bremen,
Sheerness and Terneuzen.
A relatively slow (by current
standards) service speed of 16.5
knots has been selected to provide
a two week round trip schedule,
which suits both the mill’s 700,000
mtpa production cycle and customer
demand rhythms.
It has also been possible to slot
Rough crossing
The vessel design is a three deck
ro-ro of around 600 lane-m with
a full width stern ramp, forward
wheelhouse and accommodation
and diesel-electric propulsion. The
hull form design has been fully
tested by tank tests and computer
modelling.
A British university specialising
in marine design inputted all
weather, prevailing wind speed
and direction and sea state data in
the North Sea collected over a
year and matched it with hull design,
load conditions and speed.
The subsequent, computer
generated forecast indicates that
the ship design can maintain its
full loaded speed of 15.5 knots for
93 per cent of all voyages.
To cope with rougher conditions,
it is possible to reduce speed
or even transit the Kiel Canal instead
of sailing the exposed waters
off the west coast of Jutland.
If the vessel does have to sail via
the Kiel Canal due to adverse
weather, the extra cost would not
be passed onto the customer.
Summer draught
Draught also presents a problem
as in open water, greater draught
is preferable while a low draught
is required for canal and river
transport, particularly the Rhine
where low water in summer can
cause problems. Accordingly canal
and river draught will be
around 3m, while it will be possible
to ballast down to 4m for the
sea crossing.
Even so, 3m draught may still
be too much to access Duisburg
in very low water conditions on
the Rhine. Accordingly RWS has
identified another terminal as an
alternative, located between Rotterdam
and Duisburg. Its position
would still enable hauliers collecting
or delivering trailers at the terminal
to avoid road congestion
around Rotterdam, but it might
not offer the level of trimodal connectivity
available in Duisburg.
To pack 48 40-45ft trailers
into an loa of 88m and within
the confines of a limited beam
of 13.35m, with further complications
of air and water
draught restrictions for a vessel
able to sail in the North Sea all
year, requires a degree of ingenuity
and “lateral thinking.”
Flexible design
RWS employed TTS Ships
Equipment as consultants to design
a ro-ro handling system to
meet the conflicting cargo handling
demands. Working together
with RWS engineers,
TTS has come up with a unique
and highly flexible design.
The key to overcoming the
stowage problems over three
decks is a “hinged box,” as RWS
describes it, which provides the
lower deck or tank top garage.
This is essentially a ramp,
hinged at the forward end of the
box-shaped hull section, which
is provided with a “roof” structure,
thereby forming a rectangular
box to configure the lower
garage deck. In its lowered position,
the roof then forms the
tweendeck.
A conventional ramp, hinged
at the tweendeck would have
reduced tank top stowage, as it
would not have been possible to
stow trailers under it in the lowered
position.
If the ramp were hinged at
the tank top level, the tractor
and trailer unit would have to
make a tight turn to move off
the ramp and the gradient imposed
by the short vessel length
would make discharge difficult.
If the ramp were to be full
width and full length and trailers
were loaded on it and then
lowered, a hinged cover would
have to be incorporated. However,
as there is insufficient deck
height clearance for a full width
cover, it would probably require
a complicated, three-piece folding
design.
Time share options
in a discharge port on the return
voyage. The normally empty return
leg has been space-chartered
to a new operator, RoRo2 Stockholm,
which will market the ship
for trailer traffic from Terneuzen
to Södertälje. The vessels will provide
a 14.00h Friday departure
from the Dutch port, giving
07.00h arrival Monday for unaccompanied
trailers.
While it is possible to load a
trailer for northern Sweden in
Terneuzen or Södertälje, the
southbound route is dedicated
to Kappa, so any trailers landed
at Piteå will have to “find their
own way home.” Arguably there
is an anomaly here. The ships’
weatherdecks carry no kraftliner
products on the continental/
UK leg, as this is a 100 per cent
sto-ro operation.
Cobelfret faced a similar problem
on the northbound Zeebrugge-Gothenburg
leg, but the
distance is shorter and trailer operators
can always get their trailers
back with DFDS Tor Line’s
service to Ghent.
It may be that Kappa will release
the upper deck capacity on
the southbound route to make it
more attractive for third party
trailer traffic. Meanwhile, RoRo2
Stockholm has also secured a contract
with K-Line to deliver
20,000 cars to Södertälje from
Cuxhaven (see page 30).
Duisport offers trailer operators the
possibility of onward carriage by rail
to many destinations
An elevator connecting all
three deck levels could have
been a practical solution, but
was not selected as it would have
slowed handling rates and would
also have been too heavy. Furthermore,
any elevator “downtime”
could severely disrupt
cargo handling operations.
Multi level
RWS required the design to be
able to operate independently of
shore facilities, despite the fact
that initially the ships will be
committed to a dedicated service.
The 11m long stern ramp,
therefore, has to be doublehinged,
in a similar manner to
deep sea ro-ro vessel. Due to the
low freeboard imposed by air
draft limitations, a one-piece
ramp would have been unacceptably
high when stowed.
The ramp, which also forms a
watertight stern door, is hinged at
the tweendeck level but can be
moved vertically as well to load
the upper deck. Loading is started
to the tank top deck first, with the
lower deck box hinged upwards
to connect with the tweendeck.
When this compartment is full,
the “box” is lowered to the tank
top and its roof forms most of the
tweendeck. A ramp is then lowered
from the upper deck to connect
directly with the stern ramp,
which is raised some 2.5m to form
one continuous ramp between the
quay and the upper deck. When
the upper deck is full, the inner
ramp is raised and the ramp lowered
to allow the tweendeck to
be loaded.
Lashed to the bar
A beam restricted to 13.35m
would normally impose a three
trailer-wide stowage pattern,
which RWS considered would be
commercially unacceptable. It has
squeezed in a fourth trailer lane
by incorporating TTS’s IPSI lashing
bar system.
As previously reported in
WorldCargo News, this simple concept
employs fixed, longitudinal
guides welded to the deck and
internal ramps to secure trailers.
The terminal tractor, prior to
picking up a trailer, first places a
trailer trestle (which would likely
be TTS’ IPSI trestle design) on its
fifth wheel and the trailer is then
connected to the king pin of the
trestle which remains in place
when the trailer is loaded.
The height of the fixed guides,
coupled with the trailer trestle,
ensures that the trailer is effectively
stowed and does not require chain
or web lashing. This is not just a
question of saving time and
money. The trailers are so tightly
stowed, there is no room for a lashing
gang anyway.
Electrical solution
In addition to the innovative cargo
handling design, imposed by the
size restrictions, RWS has opted
for an expensive, but practical, diesel-electric
propulsion system.
A conventional shaft-driven
configuration would require an aft
engine room and exhaust gas and
ventilation casings, which would
have intruded into the cargo space
and reduced capacity.
By incorporating diesel-electric
propulsion, the gen sets can
be fitted forward and the electric
drive motors right aft. Two separate
engine rooms have been incorporated
for total redundancy,
while catalytic converters and exhaust
gas cleaning systems will be
fitted to maximise the design’s
“green credentials.”
RWS has been in discussions
with Ecoship Engineering of
Malmö, a member of the Intermode
Ship group, regarding the
propulsion system. ❏
September 204 29

WorldCargo
news
SCANDINAVIA: PORT DEVELOPMENT
Copenhagen-Malmö Port sets out stall for cars
Copenhagen-Malmö Port
(CMP) is looking to become
the main Nordic/Baltic car
hub. The port aims to attract
more deep sea car carriers to
use, mainly, Malmö to tranship
cars for the region, including
Russian Baltic intake and,
when demand warrants, the
Baltic Republics.
There would be no point in
CMP trying to compete with
Gothenburg or Århus as a leading
container port. They already
have the lo-lo infrastructure in
place and in any case are competing
in a “crowded market.” Cars,
on the other hand, offer new possibilities.
Gothenburg has traditionally
been Sweden’s car import and
export centre. Export traffic is assured
from the adjacent Volvo
plant, while Saab also relies on the
port for its export traffic.
However, Gothenburg’s main
focus is directed to container and
freight ro-ro traffic. Cars represent
an important element but, with almost
half of the 331,000 cars it
handled last year moving in short
sea trades, mainly between Volvo’s
Swedish and Belgian plants via the
ro-ro terminal, deep sea car traffic
has to sit uneasily alongside container
traffic.
Arguably, it is an expensive
option to park cars on paving
strengthened for container storage
and heavy wheel loadings, particularly
as the port is becoming short
of land and cars occupy an inherently
large amount of room for
their stevedoring costs. Export
Volvos to the Far East, for instance,
are charged at less than US$20/
car to store and load.
CMP, on the other hand, has
around 3 mill m 2 of undeveloped
port area, which could easily be
paved for car storage and distribution
centres.
Toyota breakthrough
CMP’s breakthrough came when
Toyota signed a 25-year agreement
to use Malmö as its
Scandinavian hub to serve Sweden,
Denmark, Finland and Russia.
Last year, the presence of
Toyota saw CMP’s car throughput
increase 250 per cent to
140,000 units.
So far this year, CMP has handled
over 200,000 units, with a
peak of 27,000 cars handled in
August alone, although, as with
transhipment containers, a car is
counted as two moves when it is
landed then reloaded on a ship.
Arnt Møller Pedersen, general
manager business development at
CMP, considers that the unified
ports could reach 500,000 cars in
five years time, with the additional
growth not coming so much from
the Nordic bloc but from Russia
and the Baltic Republics.
Sit and wait
Unlike containers for transhipment,
where minimum turnaround
is required, CMP is marketing
its facilities as a buffer
store where cars manufactured
in the Far East can be held until
required. This has the added
advantage in that a PDI service
will be required, not least to
meet local regulations and market
requirements.
Currently Norway and north
Sweden are served by rail from
CMP and southern Sweden and
Denmark by trucks, while cars for
Finland are handled by Finnlines’
ro-ros. These are discharged at
Hanko, as are 30,000-40,000 cars
destined for the Russian market,
due to pre-payment requirements.
The cars, although ordered by
Russian distributors, are stored at
Hanko until full payment is received
and then released.
Cars manufactured in Japan are
carried by large PCTCs and cars
manufactured in Toyota’s regional
plants in England, France and Turkey
arrive on smaller feeder vessels.
Toyota’s aim in establishing its
car logistic centre to reduce costs
and delivery times appears to have
paid off, with CMP claiming that
the car manufacturer has halved
its Nordic distribution costs and
reduced delivery times by six days.
The new 220,000 m 2 centre
represents an investment of
SEK115 mill, while CMP has invested
another SEK105 mill in
new quays and dredging the fairway.
The development was carried
out in two phases.
Buildings and infrastructure
were completed in 2002 with
start-up in January 2003, followed
by the building of quays and
dredging of the fairway. These
were scheduled to be completed
by January 2005, but in fact will
come into operation in October.
The development will provide
two dedicated car carrier berths
for deep sea vessels fully integrated
into the car terminal. Previously
cars were handled in the Free Port.
Copenhagen bound
Following the Toyota deal, CMP
last month signed another long
term lease, this time for 15 years,
with Skandia Transport (ST), part
of the NSG Logistics group. The
company is one of Sweden’s leading
car distribution groups, with
depots in Gothenburg, Södertälje
and Halmstad and it also operates
a PDI centre in Malmö.
However, its new terminal will
be sited in Copenhagen in the redeveloped
Nordhaven area where
it will lease 30,000 m 2 of paved
standing and a covered 1800 m 2
PDI centre. This will be the first
time in its 50 year car handling
history that ST has developed a
base outside Sweden and it sees
an opportunity as currently there
is only one car logistics company
in Denmark. ST, which also operates
car transporters, notes that
some 20,000 Danish cars are delivered
from Malmö and the transporters
return empty. Hence it will
have a way of capitalising on the
return leg by supplying cars landed
in Copenhagen to the southern
Swedish market.
Side by side
CMP will invest some SEK35 mill
in the new dedicated terminal
which is adjacent to its existing
70,000 m 2 car terminal located at
Orientbassinet at the Free Port.
This secure terminal can store up
to 7000 new cars tax-free until
import to Denmark or export,
which the new ST terminal will
also undertake when completed
in May next year.
Both facilities will use the current
32m wide ro-ro berth with a
depth alongside of 10m adjacent
to the existing terminal. Currently
Nissan, Daewoo, Suzuki, Volvo,
Renault, Peugeot and Fiat as well
as American cars are handled at
the car terminal, which also includes
a 16,000 m 2 PDI centre and
is served by rail.
It is also believed that CMP
is in negotiations with another
vehicle importer and distributor
based in nearby Trelleborg.
If the talks are successful, a dedicated
terminal could be constructed
adjacent to the Toyota
facility in Malmö.
Traffic going
Gothenburg, meanwhile, reportedly
risks losing the contract to
handle Asian exports of Volvo passenger
cars. Some 8000 cars
manufactured in Torslanda are
shipped every year to Asia by
Wallenius Wilhelmsen and the
traffic may switch to nearby
Wallhamn (see page 26).
Eukor discharges Hyundai cars
from South Korea at Wallhamn,
but if the LoI goes through would
probably set up its own distribution
centre there for other manufacturers.
Volvo’s Torslanda plant is
adjacent to the Port of Gothenburg,
but on average only four
daily truck loads are needed.
Eric Nilson, Gothenburg’s
CEO, has said that Volvo’s Eukor
contract is worth SEK1 mill
(US$133,800) of the port’s total
SEK1.2 bill annual turnover.
Gothenburg may also lose
some other car traffic. A new roro
operator, RoRo2 Stockholm,
has signed a one year contract
with K Line European Sea
Highway (KESS) to carry
20,000 new cars to Södertalje
from Cuxhaven. Up to now the
traffic has been shipped over
Gothenburg and delivered by
rail to the Södertalje distribution
centre.
Kraft skills
RoRo2 Stockholm is a new
daughter company of Swedish
KLB shipper Kappa Packaging,
which has concluded new agreements
with KESS. As reported on
page 29, RoRo2 Stockholm provides
a weekly service between
Terneuzen and Södertälje, 35 km
South of Stockholm.
In practice the contract gives
KESS the possibility to fill up the
existing cargo from Terneuzen
with its own new car traffic.
RoRo2 Stockholm initially controls
more than half of the weather
deck. When the need of trailer
space increases, the number of cars
that KESS is allowed to ship will
be reduced. KESS is guaranteed a
minimum number of cars during
the contract period, initially valid
from 12 November this year to the
end of 2005.
RoRo2 Stockholm will add
Cuxhaven as a new port of call in
its sailing schedule. The departure
time from Terneuzen and the arrival
time to Södertälje will not
be affected as the time needed for
the extra port of call will be earned
back by using the Kiel Canal. ❏
30
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING
Lift trucks on the up and up
This year is widely expected to be a
record for big trucks, particularly as
many customers who were watching
the market last year are now purchasing.
There also seems to be a trend towards
larger single contracts, often with
staggered delivery dates. Earlier in the
year, for example, the Ganzhou-
Lyonyang Railway in China tendered
for two contracts for 20 and 16 machines
respectively. Another very large
order for Iraq, for 31 machines, is believed
to be in the pipeline.
Demand is growing for reach stackers
in south east Asia and Japan but
many of these markets present a challenge
as local manufacturers step in
with their own machines. In India, established
local supplier Indital Construction
Machinery in Bangalore recently
delivered a 42 tonne reach
stacker to the Rajiv Gandhi Container
Terminal at the Port of Kochi.
In Japan a spokesman for Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries (MHI) confirmed that
the company is developing a reach stacker
for the domestic market. It is thought that
a prototype is already in trial service. The
spokesman said that MHI is not looking
to export for another 2-3 years, but domestic
development is expected to be
complete within 12 months. TCM has already
produced a handful of machines in
Japan for the domestic market and is now
marketing in Korea.
Komatsu reaches out
Japan has proved difficult for foreign
manufacturers but Linde Heavy Lift Truck
Division (Linde HTD) in Wales appears
to be having some success through the
international division of Komatsu Forklift
Co. Komatsu’s Toji Kudo says that since
2002 Komatsu has sold into the Japanese
market more than 10 Linde HTD reach
stackers, mostly to port users.
Komatsu represents Linde HTD in
Japan and CVS Ferrari in several Asian
countries including Malaysia and Thailand.
CVS Ferrari machines are badgeengineered
as Komatsu trucks, whereas
Linde brands its machines (and some from
SMV) only with its own name.
Commenting on Japanese demand for
reach stackers, Toji notes, as previously
reported, that there was little interest while
reach stackers were classified as a “crane”
for safety and licensing regulations. Now
that they have been reclassified and can
be operated by a driver with an FLT permit,
reach stackers are competing on a
level playing field.
Komatsu makes its own heavy mast
trucks up to 42 tonnes but Toji says labour
costs in Japan make Komatsu uncompetitive,
which throws the spotlight
on how TCM and MHI can produce a
competitively-priced reach stacker.
As for the Japanese customers’ traditional
reticence towards a foreign
machine, Toji says most of their concerns
are based around servicing and
support issues, but Komatsu is able to
deliver both through its existing network.
This also enables Komatsu to
market CVS Ferrari machines in countries
such as Malaysia where Komatsu
already has a service network.
Indian deals
Linde HTD is having a good year for
reach stackers outside Japan as well, vindicating
its investment in the new mark
3 series launched earlier this year. An order
for three mark 3 C4531s, with an
option for three more, has been received
from Cardinal Logistics Pte Ltd, part of
ABG group, for operation at its new concession
in the Port of Kolkata. This is the
first deal for Linde reach stackers in India
in a number of years.
Before the mark 3 was introduced
Linde HTD could only offer its heavier
and more expensive C4535 “spec” for customers
who wanted a 45 tonne SWL in
the first row. In some cases there was even
a mistaken perception that a 4527 spec
on a 6m wheelbase from other suppliers
was bigger than the Linde C4230 spec.
In any event the C4531 makes Linde
more competitive in this band. It seems
Lift truck manufacturers are having a
good year as demand for masted
machines and reach stackers rises in line
with solid growth in port throughput
that most of the mark 3s delivered or on
order so far are C4531 machines.
Other significant orders for Linde
HTD this year have come from China
with, for example, eight machines for the
Port of Tianjin. Significantly, orders for
four machines have come from Brazil.
Up to now the Americas have not
been tapped by Linde HTD. However,
Linde group is giving more focus to big
trucks and they are being actively promoted
through daughter companies in
Brazil and Chile. A push into North
America may also be on the cards.
Kone umbrella
This in turn begs the question whether
SMV Lifttrucks (SMV) might be able to
push into North America under the umbrella
of KCI Konecranes, which is very
strong in US east and Gulf coast ports
(see page 1 story).
For certain SMV will have a big organisation
behind it and financing deals
might become easier as a result, while
SMV’s lift trucks expertise could be added
WorldCargo
news
to the services provided by Koneports
America. On the other hand, there are
markets where SMV is already well-established
and where its existing network
seems to be working well.
In the 2-year period 2001-3, SMV’s
most successful worldwide distributor has
been SMV UK, whose sales for the last
financial year exceeded £5.5 mill with
forecast sales of £7 mill this financial year.
Notable deliveries in 2001-3 included 10
Spectra FLTs to glass maker Pilkington
plc and an order for 18 FLTs with hydraulically
vertically rising cabs from fertiliser
shipper Kemira GrowHow near
Chester.
Deliveries this year include two 15t
and three 28t FLTs and two 42 tonne
masted container handlers to Mersey
Docks and Harbour Company, supplied
September 2004 31

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CARGO HANDLING
SC 4531 TB reach stacker from SMV in operation in Helsingborg. The first
‘B’ series or mark 2 reach stacker, also an SC4531 TB, went to vodka shipper
V & S in Ahus. Series production starts in October
through Finning Materials Handling.
Additionally, Pal Line in
Goole is now operating a fleet
of five new machines that including
45t reach stackers and
25t and 32t FLTs.
Outside Europe, certain Asian
markets have also been good for
SMV. Recent new business includes
three more reach stackers
for Indonesian shipping line and
terminal operator Temas Line
(Tempuran Emas). Temas acquired
its first SMV lift trucks in 1999
and has since built up its fleet
steadily as throughout has increased.
Today it operates 18 SMV
FLTs and reach stackers throughout
its terminals and depots in
Indonesia. Throughput hit
100,000 TEU last year and is expected
to reach 130,000 TEU this
year, with up to 200,000 TEU/
year envisaged in the near future.
The machines are owned by
Temas, whose director Ganny
Zheng is quoted by SMV as saying
that the high uptimes and reliability
of the plant and good after-sales
service provided by SMV
means that buying is more economical
than leasing, which is the
normal practice in Indonesia.
SMV adds that is delivering
two reach stackers and two dedicated
ECH mast trucks to APM
Terminals’ new SCCT operation
in East Port Said, which is due to
open this October. A team from
SMV is giving SCCT personnel
extensive training on how to run
and service the new machines.
Russian jobs
Other recent business for SMV includes
10 reach stackers to P&O
Ports in Antwerp and several machines
for Russian ports and terminals.
At the Black Sea Port of
Novorossiysk, NLE Novoroslexport
has ordered eight machines
(five 12t FLTs, two reach stackers
and an ECH mast truck on a 25t
chassis), while Novorossiysk Commercial
Sea Port has ordered two
42t mast trucks
SMV’s Russian distributor,
BT St Petersburg, has also secured
an order for an ECH mast truck
modified for extreme weather
service on the western Siberian
rail network.
As previously reported
(WorldCargo News, May 2004, p1)
SMV’s most recent development
is its mark 2 or ‘B’ series of reach
stackers. Sales manager Björn
Fritzell explains that all new reach
stackers orders from June are Bs
and a couple of units have already
been delivered, but the first series
production models will not come
off the line until this October.
Confirming the earlier report
in WorldCargo News, Fritzell says
that the lifting height increase
(from 13.9m to 15.3m) is indeed
sufficient to increase capacity in
the second row to 5 x 8ft 6in high
containers. But the main reason
for the increase is that customer
feedback identified that more first
row clearance would improve visibility
and help compensate for
uneven ground conditions.
Price rise
The rising price of steel has hit all
manufacturers and, while final
prices have increased, many say
The mark 3 reach stacker from Linde HTD is selling well
they have been forced to absorb
much of the cost themselves.
Kalmar’s product manager for
reach stackers, Per Rosengren, says
steel is a large part of the actual
cost and, while Kalmar tries “not
to push prices up and down as on
a stock exchange,” it cannot hold
prices indefinitely and price increases
are inevitable unless steel
costs actually start to fall.
Fritzell from SMV notes that
uncertainty over steel prices makes
it difficult to offer options too far
forward without exposing the
supplier to unacceptable risk.
Actual contract prices are, of
course, normally confidential but
some information is always available.
Earlier this year Ghana Ports
and Harbours Authority reported
a purchase of three 45t reach
stackers from SMV for
US$1,302,944 (including spares)
In the US the Port of Portland,
(Or) has exercised an option
for a further four Kalmar DRS
4531s reach stackers at a cost of
US$359,687 per unit. When delivered
in December, the port will
have 12 Kalmar reach stackers at
its T-6 container terminal.
In Vietnam, Saigon Newport
Co (SNP) has purchased two
Kalmar DRF reach stackers for
US$365,000 each through Unico
Co, a German-based distributor
for Kalmar in Vietnam. The machines
will be used at SNP’s new
terminal at Cat Lai where six other
machines are operating. The company
intends to purchase a further
two machines this year.
Fantuzzi down under
Fantuzzi Reggiane has recently
expanded its Australian operation,
Fantuzzi Reggiane Australasia.
When Terry Mulqueen opened
Fantuzzi Australasia in 1998 it had
a staff of two and a small premises
adjacent to Fantuzzi’s main Australian
dealer, MLA Holdings.
Mulqueen now has a staff of seven
including four engineers - two in
Sydney and one each in Melbourne
and Brisbane.
The company recently moved
into larger premises with space for
stocking spare parts and now carries
an inventory worth A$1 mill,
which Mulqueen aims to extend
to $A1.6 mill by year end. A permanent
office in New Zealand is
also likely, particularly if Fantuzzi
wins the Port of Suva’s order for a
mobile harbour crane (see pXX).
Fantuzzi is currently delivering
five CS45KL reach stackers to
P&O Ports’ Fisherman’s Island terminal
in Brisbane. The machines
have Volvo engines, Clark P27
transmissions and the latest
Fantuzzi “digi control” electrical
system. As none of the Fisherman’s
Island terminals have a rail interface
(boxes are drayed to the
nearby rail terminal by road trucks
which are permitted loads up to
86 tonnes all-up), the reach stackers
will see no rail duty.
They will manage the road
truck interface, yard system, and
handle containers from tractors
serving the quay cranes. The new
units will bring the total fleet at
the terminal to 14 – 12 Fantuzzis
and two older Hyco models.
Fantuzzi has also taken a repeat
order for an ECH mast truck
from Specialised Container Services
in New Zealand. An FDC
20K6 is due for delivery into
Auckland soon, the sixth the company
has purchased in five years.
Evolving
The Australian market, traditionally
dominated by the FLT, is starting
to show a greater acceptance
of the reach stacker concept.
Mulqueen says reach stackers
made up around 30-35 per cent
of orders for new container handlers
a year ago, but that has now
risen to 50 per cent. A reluctance
from some operators is not so
much due to an unwillingness to
accept the advantages of the reach
stacker, but a perception that they
Ro-ro gets a new lift
Kalmar officially launched its revamped
ro-ro FLT series in 28t
and 33t capacities at RoRo 2004
in Gothenburg in May. Overall
height with closed duplex mast
(with full free lift capacity) is just
2.83m and outer turning radii are
just 5.9m (4.25m wheelbase DCE
280 RoRo) and 4.75m (DCE 330
Ro Ro - as shown below).
Maximum lift height (with duplex
mast) is 3.2m. The machines are
fitted with CANbus controls and
the driver environment has been
improved with better cab sound
and vibration characteristics and
the latest ergonomic controls.
Standard options include a rotating
seat for safer driving in and
out of narrow ship spaces. To ensure
good cab ventilation in enclosed
ship spaces, the air filter
captures 98 per cent of particles
down to 10µ, or optionally 98 per
cent down to 2.5µ.
However, because diesel
fumes contain even smaller PM
Kalmar recommends that the
HVAC system is used in
recirculation mode when driving
inside ships. As an additional
protection, Kalmar can fit a
scrubber-type particle trap.
Only a handful of heavy low
height ro-ro FLTs are sold every
year, so Kalmar is demonstrating
its commitment to the market.
Customers include Wallenius
Wilhelmsen Lines, whose worldwide
ro-ro service network provides
a ready outlet for Swedishbuilt
heavy FLTs and reach stackers
(SMV, Svetruck and Kalmar)
shipped from Gothenburg. ❏
32
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
are more expensive to own and maintain.
The price differential, says Mulqueen,
was an issue but is now minimal with a
45t mast machine and basic reach stacker
costing between A$550,000 and
A$580,000 landed in Australia. Whether
a reach stacker costs more to maintain is
debatable. MulQueen says the extra cost
of a reach stacker is minimal.
Weighing it up
Kalmar Australia’s managing director
Bengt Larsson also notes that although
Australia is still a mast truck market, “attitudes
are changing fast.” The issues were
partly related to price and partly due to
the higher service weight of earlier reach
stackers and their heavier wheel loads.
However, service weights are much closer
today and cost of ownership of reach
stackers has come down to the point
where they are “easier and probably
cheaper to own than a mast machine.”
Larsson notes, however, that many
drivers still drive reach stackers as if they
were FLTs - “square on” to the stack -
and this is heavy on the steer axle and
steer tyres. As experience increases, stack
aisles can be made narrower to take advantage
of the reach stacker’s angled approach
capability. This also helps explain
the advantage of a 45t SWL in the first
row as it means there is plenty of reserve
when a 30t 40ft is picked up at an angle
and the load centre is moved outwards.
Some Australian operators have also
been concerned about owning a machine
they cannot get serviced through a local
FLT agent but manufacturers are responding
by offering training as well as extending
service networks. Others, particularly
smaller transport companies, purchase
mostly second-hand machines and, therefore,
only use mast trucks because that is
all that is available, says Larsson.
Mulqueen adds that some consulting
engineers engaged by customers often do
not aid appropriate equipment selection.
Fantuzzi has been approached for technical
detail on machines where information
on the operation and end user is not
divulged. This means the wrong questions
are asked and new users take decisions
before even talking to a supplier.
Something Extra
One business that is convinced of the
merits of the reach stacker is Melbourne
based Extra Transport Group. In Melbourne
Extra runs a 28-acre CFS, just
400m from the Swanson container terminals.
Extra operates two older Sisu reach
stackers and recently acquired a third
Kalmar, a DRS 4527 ContMaster. It also
has five mast trucks with a capacity of
over 30 tonnes and several smaller FLTs.
The company’s managing director
Peter Ferrari explains that the reach stackers
are used in the main FCL container
yards where they are able to achieve better
road truck turnaround times than mast
machines. Extra has around 80 trucks
dedicated to local distribution, each making
on average four trips/day.
Planning of import stacks to an exact
delivery schedule, says Ferrari, is not possible
as there can be no certainty over the
order in which trucks will return to the
depot. Furthermore, the fleet contains a
mix of light and heavy capacity trucks
and includes 14 Steelbro “sidelifters.”
All trucks are fitted with a GPS system
that is monitored by a central controller,
who gives work orders to reach
stacker drivers by radio. The greater selectivity
of the reach stacker reduces
digging to get the required container
and trucks complete a full cycle (unloading
an export and leaving with an
import box) in an average of 13 mins.
Whichever way round
An equally important advantage is the
ability to rotate a container under the
spreader (the 42-45t SWL factor again).
Customers specify which way they want
the door of an import container facing
and this must be taken into account when
loading the truck.
Extra makes heavy use of the reach
stackers’ rotating ability and Ferrari says
it is a big advantage over a mast lift truck.
Reversing container direction with a mast
machine requires lowering it to the
ground, driving around to the opposite
side and lifting it again.
As to whether a reach stacker requires
more maintenance than an FLT, Ferrari
is in no doubt that the extra components
at the tip of the boom (rotators, pile &
slope cylinders, etc) require considerably
more attention and replacement parts than
the mast mechanism on an FLT. The extra
expense, however, is outweighed by
the machine’s selectivity and flexibility.
When selecting a new machine, Extra
considered other options and had a
competing make on site for two weeks.
The drivers, however, preferred the speed,
visibility and ergonomics of the Kalmar.
Fantuzzi CS45KL reach stacker under
assembly for P&O Ports’ Brisbane terminal
Sticking with the mast
Although equipment suppliers are pushing
the merits of the reach stacker, not all
terminals can be persuaded to give up
heavy mast trucks. The Port of Napier in
New Zealand has considered reach stackers
for its main container yard, but has
decided to stick with mast machines for
the time being. The port’s business has
grown sharply to around 125,000 TEU/
year and capacity is becoming an issue
but, as cargo services manager Grant
Whitfield explains, changing to reach
stackers presents other difficulties.
Napier currently uses mast trucks on
the apron where they take up less space
and are more manoeuvrable than a reach
stacker. Furthermore, the quay has
wooden piles and the heavier wheel loads
of most reach stackers would be too great
for the quay. In fact wheel loads were part
of the reason Napier recently purchased
new Kalmar mast trucks.
September 2004 33

WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
For several years now Napier
has purchased Omega lift trucks
from Clark Equipment Australia
but the wheel loads of its 40t container
handler, the 54D, were an
issue on Napier’s wharf. The
Kalmar DCD450-12CSG offered
a 45t capacity with lower wheel
loads and one machine was ordered
through NZ agent AB
Equipment in December last year.
That has since been followed by
orders for another DCD450-
12CSG and a DCE90-45E6 heavy
duty ECH machine with 9t capacity
stacking 6-high.
Napier has purchased two used
Hyster reach stackers for its rail
exchange and some container
stacking. Whitfield says that the
drivers were initially unenthusiastic
but the machines have been
in use for nearly 12 months and
the terminal is now starting to see
the benefits. Whitfield still considers,
however, that a mast truck is
better-suited to quayside duty.
Long interval
Liebherr is seeking to set new
standards for life cycle costs with
its new reach stacker (WorldCargo
News, April 2004, p22-23) by offering
a 1000 hour service interval.
Most manufacturers can offer
up to 500 hours, but beyond that
engine manufacturers’ warranty is
an issue as they require an oil
change at no more than 500h.
Kalmar’s Rosengren says that
service intervals depend on the
conditions in which a particular
machine operates and that variations
can be high. In some markets
Kalmar is using “much longer
than 500 hour intervals” with selected
customers but “our recommendation
to our field people is
to use 500 hours when uncertain.”
Most mobile machines within
the Liebherr group are actually
running on 500h service intervals.
However, it was decided when
designing the reach stacker to target
a 1000h interval and simplifying
service through direct access
to all the relevant service points.
Liebherr says the 1000h interval
is achieved “through the application
of a combination of a
sophisticated filtering system and
the use of high-tech synthetic
engine oil.” The filters themselves
container a pressure sensor.
Particle contamination increases
pressure and, when it
reaches a critical level, an error
message is generated by an onboard
control system and indicates
that a filter change is required. For
safety reasons a bypass mode is
generally also used with the filter.
As for the hydraulic system, it
is equipped with a constant bypass
flow filtration arrangement.
Bypass filters work on an independent
loop operating at lower
pressure and lower flow rates than
the main hydraulic circuits. This
means the elements can be more
tightly packaged to trap very fine
particles and water contamination.
Bypass benefits
The benefits of bypass filtration
have been discussed previously in
WorldCargo News (April 2001,
p28). To recap, using filters supplied
by Washington-based
CCECO backed up by regular oil
analysis, Washington United Terminals
(WUT) was able to extend
the engine oil change interval on
a Kalmar reach stacker to 1200h,
transmission oil to 2000h and was
targeting 5000h for hydraulic oil.
The Liebherr LRS 645 is fitted
with a 270 kW diesel developed
by Liebherr Machines Bulls
in Switzerland. Fitting an engine
from within the Liebherr group
avoids the warranty issue that can
arise when using an engine built
by another OEM. Liebherr is confident
in the 1000h interval and
plans to use the engine developed
for the reach stacker as the basic
engine for its earthmoving range.
At this stage, Liebherr has not
planned to fit other engines, but
if the customer requires it will
consider the options.
With regard to the hydraulic
system, engineers at WUT performed
their own oil tests and
used laboratory analysis if indicative
results required closer analysis.
With Liebherr’s constant bypass
filtration system the first oil
test is not required until 2000h and
then at 1000h intervals thereafter.
Going 9-high
Finally, Kalmar says it has taken orders
for “around 25” of its new
DCE100 ECH mast truck, capable
of stacking up to 9-high. The
9th container is engaged with
hooks clamping it to the 8th tier
and out-of-alignment tolerances
are 25mm depthwise and ± 30mm
sideways. To bring containers back
to level a mechanical system is fitted
but hydraulic levelling is available
as an option.
It is not always possible to engage
the clamping hooks in the
corner castings of the top container.
If this is the case the driver
must select the top container only.
However, if the 9th container is
out of position “extraordinary
measures” would need to be taken
to move it, says Dan Pettersson,
product manager, heavy lift trucks.
While such misalignment may be
possible, Pettersson says it is very
unlikely and it has not been an issue
during testing or normal operation
to date. ❏
New machines from Terex
PPM/Terex has gone from
strength to strength in terms
of its Superstacker reach
stacker sales. Output is expected
to top 200 this year,
compared to 133 last year and
89 in 2002. In all, 1500 stackers
have been built since PPM
first introduced its GMI range
almost 30 years ago.
Sales of mobile cranes this year
are estimated at 150 machines, so
the factory in Montceau-les-
Mines is working at full capacity.
Lead times for stackers today average
2-3 months. Output of reach
stackers includes “wholesale” deliveries
to Hyster, which brands
them as “Yardmaster.” These are
currently running at about 30 machines/year.
The scope of the agreement
with Hyster now includes parts of
Europe although its main focus is
still the US. Hyster has exclusivity
here, with the important exception
of public bodies including
federal or state organisations.
New machines
Two new machines with a ‘TR’
prefix have now been launched.
The TR45-32 and TR45-32 have
30 per cent faster luffing, telescoping
and spreader speeds and an
improved load curve. SWL is 45t
in the 5th tier in the first row and
28t or 32t in the 4th tier in the
second row.
The boom is made up of caissons
in half-folded profiles to
eliminate sensitive welds and improve
fatigue life as well as
optimise the guiding when telescoping.
To improve rear visibility,
the counterweight has been
lowered and the boom pivot point
has been raised.
The spread of the luffing cylinders
has been increased, which
means that a wide cab can be provided
if the operator opts for a
forward-sliding cab (standard option).
Previously only a fixed, wide
cab could be offered.
The cab is fitted with new
steering and controls and in-cab
noise at high revs is less than 70
dB compared to around 76 dB on
the current TFC models.
The machines are fitted with
the latest IQAN Parker hydraulics
with electronic management
and CANbus controls. Service
access has been further improved.
The drive line is the stage 2
Cummins QSM11 rated at 330 hp
(247 kW) @ 2100 rpm with the
Clark 15.7-TE 27-418 powershift,
driving through a Kessler wet disc
brakes axle, for which Rockwell
is a standard option.
Other TR models are understood
to be in the pipeline including
long boom/long wheelbase
designs. Sales of the first TRs are
expected to be up to 20/year initially
and Lyon Terminal (LT) on
the River Rhône in France is
among the first customers, having
taken delivery of a TR45-28 for
yard and railcar/truck duties.
Barge doubts
Container barge traffic is still increasing
in France and Europe
generally (and is beginning to
make an impact in the US), but
PPM is getting a “mixed message”
about barge handling reach stackers,
at least from some of its customers
in France, where it is estimated
to have a 40 per cent market
share. LT, for example, is
known to be highly sceptical.
Partly this is a price issue -
around €600,000, or roughly
twice the price of a “standard”
machine. However, this is still considerably
less than a gantry crane.
The real issue is safety.
River ports in France known
to deploy container barge reach
stackers are Paris (at Bonneuil-sur-
Marne) and Lille (PFL) - all
Kalmar machines. WorldCargo
News is not aware of any incidents,
but understands that PFL has had
to build a 1m high low wall along
the quay at Hallouines, to prevent
any possibility of a stacker being
driven into the water.
R & D effort
Terex aims to provide value for
money by offering good quality
machines as competitively as possible.
Since it acquired PPM from
Legris in 1995 the work force at
Montceau has come down from
around 600 to less than 200 but
the commitment to R & D has, if
anything, strengthened and the
department accounts for 10 per
cent of the work force.
The research is driven by customer
feedback obtained in the
field by marketing and sales staff.
Special attention is also paid to the
needs of particular clients, such as
the military.
Terex is also paying considerable
attention to the “soft”
side - data management and
communications in and around
its machines. A “black box” is
being developed which can be
linked with the operator’s yard
management system. ❏
Terex has a put a strong emphasis on production line efficiencies
34
September 2004

WorldCargo
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CARGO HANDLING
Catch the spreader bus - but which one
The need to minimise crane
downtime makes spreader management
a key issue for container
terminals. There are many ways of
communicating with spreaders
but a popular way is to use a
databus. The so-called “two wire”
system avoids the need for extra
conductors, so the spreader cable
remains the same size even though
the spreaders have become more
complex. Databuses are reliable,
have a high transfer rate and can
recognise data error. They also
work well in “noisy” electrical
environments such as a crane.
In essence, two approaches
have been taken with regard to the
databus. Suppliers such as RAM
Spreaders (Ram) and Stinis have
adopted an ASi (Actuator Sensor
interface) bus. This was originally
developed by Siemens for factory
process machine control purposes,
to reduce the amount of wiring
at the sensor/actuator level.
In simple terms and as the
name indicates, ASi is a low level,
2-wire system used for commu-
How should the different databuses used in crane
spreader management systems be assessed
nications between actuators (typically
electro valves) and sensors
(typically switches). It is essentially
an advanced PLC with remote
input/output (I/O) units in a
modular system. It is an “open” or
“transparent” bus which uses readily
available standard components
ZPMC twin headblock crane for Felixstowe under test in Shanghai. Some
ZPMC twin headblock cranes for Dubai (with 80 tonnes SWL) are known to
have been delivered with ASi control Long-Twin spreaders from Stinis
and can be programmed by the
end user. A complete product
range of spares, replacements and
accessories is widely available on
the open market.
Bromma, on the other hand,
developed its own “bespoke” system
based on CANbus technology.
Bromma delivers spreaders
with ASi if the customer specifies
it, although it considers ASi an inferior
technical solution to its purpose-designed,
“smart spreader”
communications system based on
CANbus, SCS2.
Special protocol
SCS2 uses a special protocol
which, up to now, is available only
from Bromma and not from major
electrical suppliers, unlike the
ASi bus components. However,
says Bromma, SCS2 offers far
more functionality and better diagnostics
capability and yet is simple,
versatile and user-friendly.
CANbus was originally developed
by Bosch for the automotive
industry where there was a
need for a robust solution to transfer
securely large volumes of data.
Unlike ASi, no separate controller
or PLC is required.
Among Elme’s most recent deliveries is this model 8200 20-40ft on the new
Kalmar crane at Interforest in Rotterdam. For crane spreader applications, Elme
has used ASi and other industrial buses, as well as an open CANbus protocol
One CANbus specialist,
Mårten Møller from Sensor
Technik UK Ltd, explains that
because each node is a real-time
computer with many I/Os, there
is no “master” computer and each
node is set up to react to specific
messages and they communicate
on the bus equally.
Andreas Lewis, who heads up
Bromma’s R & D efforts in this
area, describes CANbus as “a step
up the food chain from the ASi
bus.” CANbus, adds Lewis, provides
the capability and flexibility
required to build versatile general
system solutions, applicable to all
kinds of spreaders without having
to trade off run-time data or information
exchange between the
crane and the spreader.
CANbus is “open” in the sense
The announcement that
NatSteel Ltd has reached a
provisional agreement to sell
its steel and related businesses
to India’s Tata Steel has been
welcomed by Richard Sia,
CEO of Ram Spreaders
(NatSteel Engineering). The
proposed S$466 mill (US$273
mill) sale is slated for completion
next February.
“Ram Spreaders and other
non-steel businesses will not be
affected by the sale and will remain
with the holding company,”
said Sia. He added that demand
for Ram spreaders was at record
levels in the first half of this year
and a number of new products are
to be launched shortly.
Sia said that Ram has an ambitious
expansion programme
under way to take full advantage
of the continued growth in demand.
It is expected that part of
the sale proceeds of the steel businesses
will be used to help develop
the remaining companies in the
group, including NatSteel Engineering,
although no figures have
yet been determined.
Last year NatSteel Ltd generated
pre-tax profits of S$96.7 mill
on sales of S$1.717 bill. The nonsteel
businesses constituted 47.7
per cent of the asset value and
contributed 53.2 per cent of the
overall profit.
“Ram Spreaders” is the brand
name for the spreader side of
NatSteel Engineering. It may become
something more in future
as part of the deal for the sale of
the steel businesses to Tata includes
that a number of advanced
protocols can be used as the medium.
Examples include
DeviceNet, Honeywell SDS and
CANopen, but they are “highly
layered” and generally carry too
much background information to
work in a spreader environment.
For this reason Bromma selected
the SAE J1939 protocol
software, which it streamlined and
configured to its requirements.
This forms the basis of the protocol
used in SCS2.
What it does
A key issue comparing SCS2
based on CANbus with an ASi bus
plus PLC and datalogger is functionality.
For Bromma, the greater
potency of a CANbus allows for
the richer performance of SCS2.
Steel out of NatSteel
the name “NatSteel.” So if the sale
goes through, a new name will be
needed in any case.
Meanwhile, Ram claims
growing success for its all-electric
yard crane spreaders launched last
year. Among the OEM customers
of note is Kaliningrad-based Baltkran,
which has supplied World-
Cargo News with a list of 26 RMGs
it is supplying to intermodal rail
terminals throughout Russia in
the period May 2004-May 2005.
Of these, 13 are being supplied
with Baltkran’s own spreader design
and the other 13 are all being
fitted with Ram all-electric 20-
40ft spreaders, certified for operation
at temperatures down to -
40deg C. In the cases where Ram
spreaders have been/are being fitted,
the drives (all ac) are also of
non-Russian supply, from Siemens
or SEW Eurodrive.
Other orders for the all-electric
design have come from the
UK’s O’Connor Group, to fit on
the two new RMGs ordered from
Liebherr for its intermodal terminal
in Widnes. Ram also reports
another order from APM Terminals
in Rotterdam for two more
2910 CenterSpread spreaders fitted
with its ShockAbsorb system.
An order for two 35t, 2410 shipto-shore
crane spreaders has come
in from Intersafe Marine AB for
use in the Port of Vostochniy.
Ram is also introducing a new
telescoping spreader for harbour
mobile ctranes, following successful
operation of the first unit on a
Gottwald crane operating on the
Manchester Ship Canal . ❏
New orders for Ram Spreaders include repeat business for its 2900 CenterSpread
twin 20 design from APM Terminals in Rotterdam
36
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
However, while the CANbus has
greater I/O capability than an ASi bus,
Ram counters that this has not been
found to be a problem. Ram also questions
whether the higher communication
speed of the CANbus is relevant in a crane
spreader application, as the difference is
not detectable by the operator.
New models
Ram has every confidence in ASi and is
offering it as a standard option on its new
2950/2960 models, which extend its
CenterSpread system to spreaders for
RTGs and RMGs. According to Ram,
more than 60 orders for these new spreaders
were received within the first few
months of launching to “selected clients.”
However, the notion that somehow
ASi and CANbus are “equivalent” is rejected
by Bromma. To simply run a simple
spreader, says the company, the amount
of I/O available over ASi is adequate, but
once a customer wants to start transferring
data, values or monitoring information,
he will discover ASi’s inadequacy.
Besides, adds Bromma, in terms of future
trends, customers are looking for
more and more functionality, intelligence
and integration and thus more data, and
ASi cannot keep up with those higher
data requirements.
On the other hand, recent developments
within ASi allow the PLC to control
up to 62 nodes, which translates into
a maximum of 465 I/Os. According to
Ram, even with the original system of
31 nodes most ASi systems on spreaders
have used only 55 per cent of the I/Os,
leaving 45 per cent spare for the future,
which seems more than adequate.
Another view
The Bromma view on CANbus versus ASi
is indirectly endorsed to an extent by another
spreader maker, Elme. ASi has
proved reliable, has the advantage that it
can be run over unscreened copper wires
and is resilient to EMI, says company
spokesman Bertrand Marion in Âlmhult,
Sweden, but it is somewhat limited in
terms of data transfer capability.
In any case, adds Marion, crane makers
and users in Europe tend to be more
familiar with another industrial bus,
Profibus, which generally has to be run
with twisted pair shielded cables, unless
bus signal amplifiers are fitted at the crane
and the spreader end. The amplifiers
themselves are connected to the crane
CPU and the spreader CPU with shielded
cables or by fibre optics.
As an alternative to ASi and Profibus,
Elme has also used CANbus as the data
transfer medium in crane applications.
Where it uses CANbus in its lift truck/
reach stacker spreader applications, it
makes use of a closed protocol (eg SAE
J1939, CAN 2.0 A/B) in connection with
Eagle taking
wing soon
Bubenzer reports that three units of its
all-electric, 20-40ft yard crane spreader
are being supplied to a customer in Korea.
As previously reported, Bubenzer’s socalled
“Falcon” RTG/RMG spreader
design has been extensively tested with
Contship Italia’s LSCT La Spezia operation.
The Falcon units for Korea, meanwhile,
are being fitted with electricallyactuated
flippers rather than fixed guides.
The all-electric “Hawk” 20-40-45ft
spreader for ship-to-shore cranes is continuing
to work successfully in Genoa, says
Bubenzer’s vice president, sales Christof
Lautwein, adding that the company is now
proceeding with development of all-electric
twin 20 spreaders. The ship-to-shore
crane spreader, with 20-40-45ft single
stops, is known as the “Eagle” and the yard
crane version is the “Red Kite.”
The designs are expected to be finalised
by the end of this year and Bubenzer
has not yet finally decided where it would
like to have them tested. Its business plan
through to 2007-8 covers a wide range
of spreaders, including an intermodal
yard crane version with bottom lift,
spreaders for straddle carriers and accessories
such as automated stacking
guides for yard crane spreaders. ❏
the system used by the truck builder.
However, in crane spreader CANbus
applications, Elme uses the CANopen
protocol. In essence, says Elme, this means
that a spreader from any other manufacturer
with CANopen capability can be
connected to the crane without having
to do much work on the protocol.
On the other hand, as noted,
Bromma’s SCS2 uses a special protocol
which, up to now, is available only from
Bromma and not from major electrical
suppliers, unlike the ASi bus components.
In this sense, SCS2 is “closed” in that it
will work only with a Bromma spreader,
so the customer is “captive” to that extent.
He can always fit a competitor’s
spreader as a replacement, but will not be
able to use it with SCS2.
However, Bromma makes the point
With SCS2, says Bromma, its spreaders can
be easily swapped between cranes without the
need for reconfiguration, while new models
such as Bromma Tandem can be introduced
without having to consider the interface with
the crane. Bromma adds, meanwhile, that field
trials on the 40/45ft Tandem at APM
Terminals in Algeciras (right) are going well
that SCS2 is “open” in the sense in that it
can be configured any way the customer
wants. In Bromma’s view, this type of
“open” is more relevant to the end user
than “open” in the ASi sense of components
that can be purchased off the shelf.
Clear responsibilities
From Bromma’s viewpoint, the customer
is benefiting from an all-in-one package
with clear interfaces and he can use any
part of it every time. There are no extra
September 2004 37

WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Crane spreader demand has been running at high levels for all leading
suppliers. This picture shows the innovative twin 20 spreader with transversal
adjustment for jib cranes from Smits Spreader Systems bv, as supplied on a
harbour mobile crane in the Port of Rauma. Smits is known to have built
up a healthy market share in the harbour mobile crane sector, among others
boxes, CPUs etc and lines of responsibility
back to Bromma are
clear, with a single warranty for
the port environment, customised
engineering and software and the
entire system covered from the
service standpoint.
Lewis observes that if the Terminal
2000 project in Antwerp
(the automated bridge crane concept
for Deurganckdok) had gone
ahead, ASi spreader communications
would have been a reasonable
solution because the operator
(HNN-MSC) specified the
exact numbers of I/Os it required
on each spreader.
But generally, he says, much more
flexibility is required.” The point
is that a crane has to be configured
to a specific ASi spreader. This
means it has to be reprogrammed
if the operator wants to replace
one ASi spreader with a competitor’s
ASi spreader which uses a different
mechanical solution.
On the other hand, however,
at least it is possible for the end
user to make the change. A common
approach is to fit a PLC at
the top of the crane, which is a
slave to the crane’s master PLC but
controls the ASi network down on
the spreader. The configuration (ie
the number of I/Os on the network)
depends on the number of
sensors and valves on the spreader.
Retrofit
Some time ago in Singapore
Ram retrofitted ASi to six older
cranes for PSA at Tanjong
Pagar/Keppel (TPK) to convert
them to twinlift operation (for
handling empties). PSA specified
the system with a GE 9030
PLC which is linked to the ASi
master controlling the bus and
the ASi power supply.
PSA subsequently decided to
convert other older cranes at TPK,
but it did not need Ram’s help.
Ram does not know how many
more cranes were involved, or
whether PSA carried out the
work itself or employed an outside
contractor, but the point is
that it did not need to know and
PSA did not need to tell it.
If PSA opted to fit spreaders
other than Ram with a different
number of I/Os, the system would
have had to be reconfigured, but
the point here is not that
reconfiguration is required, but
that it is possible.
Robert Mills, executive director
of Ram in the UK, raises the
question why Bromma cannot
relocate its spreader node (or
“lower gateway”) from the
spreader to the headblock.
This would allow other
spreader manufacturers to introduce
a line gateway with normal
multi-pin connections without
breaking into Bromma’s communications
system.
Has been done
Bromma itself says there are cases
where this has been done - on
customer request. The customer
then gets a system that enables use
of ASi spreaders, parallel spreaders
and SCS2 spreaders with one interface
in the crane and the ability
to swap them around.
Mills also makes the point that
The long and short of it
Dear Sir
We act on behalf of Stinis
Beheer bv, the proprietors of
Community Trade Mark Registration
No. 00631580 “Long-
Twin.” When reading the July
2003 edition of WorldCargo News
(p18), our clients came across the
crane table in which a crane
from Japanese company JFE Engineering
for Yokohama port
authority is indicated as being
supplied with a “Mitsubishi long
twin” spreader. There are a
number of other references to
“long twin” in this table.
We appreciate that these
remarks may not be directly
there is evidence of customer “resistance”
to the Bromma system,
particularly in North America, not
because of its capabilities but because
only Bromma can supply it
and it cannot be fitted to other
makes of spreader.
However, as noted above,
Bromma says it will deliver ASi if
the customer specifies it. “If we
lose an order, says Bromma, “it
won’t be because we refuse to
comply with the customer specification
of ASi....it isn’t [our] approach
to lose an order because
we don’t feel like supplying a certain
option on the electrical system
of the spreader.”
Running the Marathon
Bromma is claiming growing success
for its purpose-built “Marathon”
yard crane spreaders and has
announced an order for 36 allelectric
45ft versions (YSX45E)
from ZPMC in connection with
RTGs it is building for Dubai
Ports Authority’s Jebel Ali terminal.
The order follows an earlier
one for 16 YTS45 separating centre
yard crane spreaders, again in
connection with DPA.
Altogether, says Bromma, more
than 100 Marathons were ordered
in the second quarter of this year,
of which over 50 were all-electric
units. The Marathon dedicated
yard crane line is considerably
lighter than previous Bromma
RTG spreaders which were derived
from quay crane spreaders,
yet it can still handle all the stresses.
attributable to you but we are
sure you will appreciate that
this type of use can damage
our clients’ rights under their
trade mark.
Therefore, please note that
Long-Twin is a registered trade
mark of Stinis Beheer bv and ensure
that no further references
of this type are included in your
publication in the future.
Yours faithfully
A L MacQuarrie
Gill Jennings & Every
European Patent and Trade Mark
Attorneys
London, England
Editor’s note: We are aware of Stinis’ trade mark and will comply with this
demand in future. The expression “long twin” (without capital letters or
hyphen) is increasingly used generically in the port industry to denote the
separating centre twin 20 spreader concept. This is not uncommon (eg “mafi,”
“portainer,” “transtainer.”) However, WorldCargo News never uses those
particular terms unless they relate to Mafi and Paceco respectively and we
accept that the expression Long-Twin should be treated the same way.
Unfortunately, Mr MacQuarrie’s letter arrived after publication of the July
2004 edition. The crane table on p20 also refers to “long twins” under
Kocks Krane cranes for CTB and TCT Hamburg. At the time of writing,
we do not know whether these are Stinis Long-Twins or another design
Bromma cites a number of examples
in the US where customers
have specified SCS2. If there
are customers resisting SCS2, there
are more embracing it.
In any case, what is clear is that
Bromma always regards SCS2 as a
superior solution and it feels that
the whole argument about
spreader communications is being
conducted on false grounds.
The comparison should not be
between ASi and SCS2 but between
ASi and CANbus, as data
transfer media. Once this is realised,
it can be understood, argues
Bromma, that the greater potency
of a CANbus allows for the far
The range includes single 20-
40 or 20-40-45 spreaders, fixed as
well as separating twin 20s with a
40ft or 45ft stop in single mode
and a new combi-spreader with
fully-retractable blocking arms for
block stacking containers
(YSC40). Both hydraulic and
electric versions are available.
All-electric units run cleaner,
eliminate the problem of oil leaks
and spills. They can be as much as
4 tonnes lighter than spreaders
they replace, through design improvements
and the fact that there
is no hydraulic power pack.
Most yard crane spreaders have
fixed gather guides. If the customer
wants flippers, however,
Bromma is currently providing
hydraulic actuation on an otherwise
electric spreader. ❏
Bromma is claiming growing success for its Marathon dedicated yard crane spreaders
38
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
richer performance of SCS2, with a total
system architecture specifically designed
for container handling.
Lots of factors
There is evidence of suppliers such as
Ram and Earl’s gaining business in the
US (eg both companies have made a potentially
significant “breakthrough” at
PHA Houston), but there could be several
explanations for this. Bromma has
gradually “unamericanised” its spreaders
and there is relatively little “home build”
content in them as “global standard”
spreaders are supplied from Ipoh. In addition,
there is plenty of business to go
round at present and other suppliers are
bound to win deals if they are active and
competitive on price and service.
According to Bromma, as of June this
year there were more than 2000 SCS2
spreader nodes in service on Bromma
crane spreaders all over the world (ie 1000
spreaders - a node on the crane and a
node on the spreader). As Bromma says,
this is hardly indicative of major customer
concern. In fact, it argues that SCS2 is a
major contributory factor to its continuing
success in the crane spreader market.
It would interesting to know how
many of the nodes in service are
newbuilds and how many are retrofits. If
the customer specifies a new crane with
a Bromma spreader and a “spreader communication
system,” does he necessarily
know that the OEM will fit the Bromma
system which can only work with
Bromma spreaders Still, it is always possible
to fit more than one system to a
crane, especially as a retrofit.
Major contracts
Earlier this year Bromma reported its largest
single order ever in relation to South
Korea - a contract from ZPMC for 24
STS45 separating twin 20 spreaders for
the cranes ordered by Pusan Newport
Company. The technical specification for
these spreaders reportedly included SCS2.
Since then, Bromma has won orders
in Antwerp from MSC Home Terminal
(HNN/MSC) and HNN for STS45s, for
all the cranes on order from Kalmar - respectively
10 for Delwaidedok and (at
least) six for Deurganckdok. All the
spreaders are known to have been specified
by the customers with SCS2.
As Bromma is part of Kalmar
Industries,there may have been special incentives
to buy a “package.” But even if
there were, of course HNN would not
have gone for it unless it thought it was
getting value for money.
HNN has, all the same, specified Stinis
Long Twins with ASi bus for the two
cranes it ordered from Kalmar for its
Noordzee Terminal on the right bank.
Over the years a number of Stinis spreaders
deployed by HNN here have been
converted to ASi from multiple wiring
and this has proved very successful.
Stinis tends to keep a “low profile”
when it comes to orders and deliveries,
but it is known to have major ongoing
business for Long-Twin spreaders with
ASi communications from Dubai Ports
Authority (DPA) in connection with the
quay cranes ordered from ZPMC.
In the past two years, for example,
DPA is known to have ordered at least 10
80 tonne SWL cranes with twin
headblocks, for each of which Stinis is
believed to have supplied/be supplying
Long-Twin spreaders with ASi controls.
The power supply to the headblocks is
provided off the spreaders.
Stinis has also supplied/is supplying
Long-Twins for the 60 tonne SWL cranes
which ZPMC has delivered to or has on
order from DPA (at least eight and possibly
16 cranes). In this case, however, the
spreaders have to be interchangeable with
the Long-Twins supplied with DPA’s four
Mitsui-Paceco Portainers supplied in
2000 and are not fitted with ASi.
A case can be made
Notwithstanding all the claims and counterclaims,
Bromma accepts that there may
be some merit to allowing other spreader
manufacturers to communicate through
its dedicated system, to create a more open
market. “Although up to now we have
not actively promoted this aspect,” says
Lewis, “the protocol will be available to
other spreader manufacturers” and the
company is working closely with a major
PLC manufacturer to bring this about.
SCS2 itself is of course a prized Bromma
possession, so although competitors could
buy that PLC they would still have to
carry out all their own data work.
In addition, Bromma is looking into
the possibility of letting a third party
organisation manage the protocol on
a general basis. The company also believes
that if a new PLC controller can
be found there is unlikely to be any
need for an ASi converter, even though
some of its competitors say they have
been pushing for this.
A converter between CAN and ASi,
says Bromma, is “like taking a bus load of
people and trying to fit them into a taxi.”
The converter would require more intelligence
than just converting protocols.
At the moment Bromma has no intention
of making such a converter, although
it knows that it can be done.
Inverted
Meanwhile, Lewis turns the argument
about “locking the customer in” on its
head. In Bromma’s SCS2 system, the key
point is that the crane end is general and
everything that is unique and specific is
located on the spreader. The slave I/O
blocks are on the crane and the master is
on the spreader. The information stays
with the spreader and never gets “lost” in
the crane management system. CANbus
and ASi are two ways of many to transfer
the data, says Lewis, but more important
is how the solutions are systematised for
the versatility and robustness required.
This is where SCS2 scores, he says.
In the final analysis, Bromma considers
that its SCS2 system delivers unmatched
benefits to the customer. These
are delivered through what it considers a
superior transfer medium, its special
CANbus protocol, but the real focus
should be on what SCS2 delivers and not
how it does it. As noted, in Bromma’s view,
a polarised debate on “ASi versus
CANbus” is a distraction.
As regards diagnostics capabilities, for
example, more than 400 major event,
spreader-related messages are incorporated
in SCS2, together with sub-codes.
Because of the way the system is set up
(master on the spreader), all messages are
stored in the spreader, so all its history
stays with it wherever it is moved to.
The diagnostics are easily accessed by
service technicians, on the display and
over the crane fieldbus to the PLC and,
optionally now as well, remotely using
Bluetooth and a hand-held transceiver.
Using this, technicians can diagnose a
problem, program a spreader or troubleshoot
a fault by cell phone from up to
100m away (or 300m if unobstructed).
The fact that the spreader “sets the crane
up” and not the other way around is very
user-friendly, as the spreader can be fitted
to any crane in the port simply by “plugging
it in.” Numerous cases can be cited
where the SCS2 solutions fits old/new
cranes with old or new spreaders.
Spreaders can be easily be swapped
between different cranes without the need
for reconfiguration, while new spreader
models such as Bromma Tandem can be
introduced without any need to consider
the interface with the crane, since everything
is solved on the spreader itself. ❏
September 2004 39

WorldCargo
news
CARGO HANDLING
Comparing automated RMG solutions
RMG operations can achieve a
stack density of more than 1200
TEU/ha compared to 900-1100
TEU/ha for a typical RTG operation
and 500-600 TEU/ha for
a (1 over 2) straddle carrier operation.
RMGs also lend themselves
more easily to automation.
Successful examples of automated
RMG stacks in Europe include
ECT Rotterdam, CTA
Hamburg, Thamesport (and its
“clone” in Kawasaki, Japan). More
installations are expected to follow,
including possibly the
Euromax terminal in Rotterdam.
Thamesport cannot easily be
compared with the other examples
because the tractor/trailer interface
at the waterside is controlled
by the tractor driver and,
moreover, the stacks are aligned
horizontal to the quay. Of the two
existing systems compared by the
TBA team, ECT’s is the older. Its
RMGs are 6-wide (23.7m), although
the stacking height has
progressed over the years to 1 over
4 (from 1 over 1 at the original
How do the ECT Rotterdam and CTA Hamburg
automated RMG solutions compare with each other
and with a suggested “twin crane” solution for the
Euromax terminal in Rotterdam*
*This article summarises part of a
paper prepared by Yvo Saanen (TBA
Nederland and Delft Technical
University) and Margaret van
Valkangoed (TBA Nederland and
Amsterdam Free University). It was
delivered at the TOC Europe
conference in Barcelona this June
DST). The stack modules vary in
length between 28 TEU and 42
TEU. As there is just one RMG -
“automated stacking crane” (ASC)
in ECT parlance - per module,
there is no redundancy but a separate
“rescue crane” was originally
developed to provide back-up.
The Thamesport (and
Kawasaki) stacks have two RMGs
each but redundancy is partial
since they share the same rails,
which of course also means they
interchange in the stack. As At
ECT, redundancy is provided by
a rubber-tyred “rescue” crane.
HHLA’s CTA Altenwerder
terminal, where the modules are
44m long, also has two RMGs per
stack module, but HHLA broke
new ground by installing separate
rails for a larger RMG and a
smaller RMG which in theory
can pass over/under each other
“on the fly” (ie at full speed).
The rail spans are 40m and
31m and the lifting heights are
21.5m and 15.5m respectively.
In theory there is complete redundancy
but not if the “down”
crane is the bigger one and the
stack profile it had built is too
high for the smaller one. Hence
the stack height is governed by
the smaller RMG.
Max factor
One of the designs being considered
for Euromax is a 10-wide
(36m) stack with two RMGs on
the same rails. Long travel speed
is 4 m/sec, the same as ECT’s
ASCs and the smaller RMGs at
CTA (the bigger ones have a top
gantry speed of 3.5 m/sec). To assess
the relative merits, TBA developed
a simulation model (for
background on TBA’s work on
container terminal simulation see
WorldCargo News, March 2004,
pp23-4), building it up on three
levels - isolated stack module, entire
terminal operation and core
“values” such as throughput capacity,
costs and flexibility.
The terminal operation level
was tested under two scenarios:
peak waterside and peak
landside demand simultaneously;
and peak waterside but
quiet landside demand.
The former scenario is estimated
to occupy 400 hours per
year or five per cent of total annual
hours. Both scenarios comprise
4 x 40 moves/h quay cranes
but the former comprises 80
moves/h to the landside and the
latter only 20 moves/h to the
landside. Stack occupancy rates are
assumed to be initially 80 per cent
and 70 per cent respectively.
Single RMG (ECT ASCs) - 12
x (40 TEU long x 6-wide) modules
with 30m deep landside and
waterside interchange ends for
road trucks and AGVs respectively.
Simultaneous gantry and
trolley travel are carried out at
240 m/min and 60 m/min top
speeds. Hoist speed is 30-60 m/
min according to load. Dead
times between moves are given
as 2secs and load positioning
times are given as 10secs (AGVs)
and 30secs (road chassis).
The RMG control divides priority
between waterside and
landside based on their due time
(eg 10mins after arrival at interchange
zone in case of road truck).
Due time of an export move is
80secs from stack to AGV and
80secs from AGV to quay crane.
The control system tries to equalise
workload over time.
Cross-over RMGs (CTA
Hamburg) - 7 x (40 TEU long
x 10-wide) modules with 30m
deep interchange zones at each
end, as above but with one more
transfer slot (five instead of four)
and, of course, both RMGs can
serve either end.
Again, gantry and trolley travel
are simultaneous, at similar speed
to above but hoist speed is 60-90
m/min according to load. The
deadtimes and load positioning
times are given as 2secs, 10secs and
30secs, as above. Other conditions/values
are also as above.
Twin RMG (Possible Euromax,
Rotterdam) - 8 x (40 TEU
long x 10-wide) modules, with
other numerical values, conditions
and assumptions as above.
Table 1: Productivity of different modules (isolated stack)
Standard Nearest neighbour Nearest neighbour
order heuristic and RMGs serving
(bx/h) (bx/h) both transfer points
Single RMG 21 27 N/A
Twin RMGs 49 53 N/A
X-over RMGs 49 53 45
Source: Saanen & Valkengoed
Table 2: Investment cost of alternatives
Number Tracks Price Cranes Total
(k euro) cranes (k euro) invest.
(k euro) (k euro)
Single RMG 12 4800 1350 16,200 21,000
Twin RMG 16 6912 1600 25,600 32,512
X-over RMG 14 10,080 1900 26,600 36,680
Source: ibid
Table 3: Investment costs of alternatives (in Euros)
Throughput Assumed M&R/ Capital cost Total cost
capacity operating costs per productive per RMG
(TEU/year) per productive RMG move move
RMG move
Single RMG 458,233 10.00 4.68 14.68
X-over RMG 579,133 10.00 6.47 16.47
Twin RMG 661,867 10.00 5.02 15.02
Source: ibid
Common threads
In each case, it is assumed that each
container retrieved from the stack
is immediately accessible (no shuffling),
there is no delay at the interchange
zone (no waiting for
AGV, for example) and there is
always a new order to process immediately
one is completed.
However, possible systemic
delays have to be taken into account
- for the twin RMG variant,
this means slowing down to
avoid collision; for the cross-over
variant, this means moving the
trolley and spreader to the side in
order to pass.
The level one (isolated stack
module) results are shown in
Table 1. The single RMG variant
has the lowest productivity,
which is not surprising since it
has to work both ends. However,
a productivity increase of
almost 30 per cent (from 21 to
27 containers/h) is noted when
heuristic analysis is used (proceeding
one after the other),
compared to only 10 per cent for
the cross-over and twin solutions.
The most striking observation
is that cross-over is no more productive
than the twin, even
though the cross-over RMGs are
The single RMG stack comes out worst in TBA’s analysis
supposed to be subject to less delays
caused by interference with
each other. This may be because
in practice they cannot often pass
at full speed.
Delayed reactions
Further analysis indicates that the
twin RMGs are subject to more
long delays than the cross-over
RMGs, while the cross-over
RMGs are subject to more short
delays than the twins. In practice,
one twin cannot move into an area
until the other one has moved out,
while the short delays of the crossover
RMGs occur in the act of
passing (eg getting the trolley out
of the way).
There is no space available in
this short article to explain the
results arrived at on the basis of
the two higher levels involving the
40
September 2004

CARGO HANDLING
WorldCargo
news
entire terminal operation. But before reporting
on the authors’ conclusions, reference
should be made to the main parameters
or values involved and the costs.
The values include the waterside productivity
level in moves/h, the time to serve
trucks at the landside interchange points,
the productivity of the equipment, etc.
Moves ship/hour
In any event, what ship operators want to
know is how the different configurations
affect quay crane productivity. In the low
landside moves scenario (20 moves/h), the
single RMG system (12 stacks) enables
27.4 moves/crane hour (ie 99.6 moves/
ship hour) if the stack is served by four
AGVs. The figure rises to 29 moves/crane
hour and 32.8 moves/crane hour if five
and six AGVs respectively are deployed.
In the same scenario, the twin
RMG system (eight stacks) enables
29.4, 33.4 and 35.6 moves/crane hour.
The cross-over RMG system (seven
stacks) enables 33.3, 34.8 and 34.9
moves/crane hour.
In the “double peak” scenario (80
landside moves/h), the single RMG
system enables 19.9, 21.3 and 21.8
moves/crane hour according to
whether four, five or six AGVs are deployed.
The twin RMG system enables
27.8, 32.3 and 32.9 moves/crane hour.
The cross-over RMG system achieves
28.6, 31.9 and 33.8 moves/crane hour.
Productivity of the single RMG system
is clearly lower in all situations, even
in the low landside load scenario. The
travel distance affects productivity and
cannot be made up by the greater number
of stack modules.
Too close to call
Productivity of the cross-over system is
equal to or better than the twin RMG
system although there is one stack module
less (ie two less RMGs), even in the
case of the double peak when the landside
load is 80 moves/h. However, the twin
system can outperform the cross-over system
when more AGVs are deployed as
they act as a driving buffer. In any event
the results are very close.
The investment and operating costs
of the three alternatives are shown in Tables
2 and 3. In Table 2, the price of the
cross-over RMGs is based on the average
price for the smaller and lager one. Clearly,
and as one would expect the single RMG
variant is the least expensive in terms of
capital investment.
In operating cost terms (Table 3) the
results are much closer, because the higher
throughput capacity of the two-crane
variants sharply reduces the capital costs
per move. The operating costs are assumed
to be power consumption, maintenance
and service, interest (@ six per cent) and
amortisation.
The cross-over RMGs provide flexibility,
but are more expensive and offer
lower density than the twin RMGs. The
twin RMGs have very few disadvantages,
apart from the higher investment cost than
the single RMG. However the single
RMG system can achieve a throughput
of 1500 TEU m/quay per year, while the
twin RMG can achieve a throughput of
more than 2000 m/quay per year.
Static capacity
As noted, the cross-over RMG system
appears to be best-performing one, although
it is not much more so than
the twin RMG system, particularly
with a balanced workload. In any case,
the difference is not enough to outweigh
its lower throughput capacity
which, assuming the same dwell times,
results from the fact that it takes away
space (579,133 TEU/year compared to
661,867 TEU/year). Maximum density
is achieved with the twin RMG system,
and this could be a telling factor
where space is a key issue.
Overall, then, in TBA’s analysis the
twin RMG system would appear to be
the best option for Euromax. However,
TBA cautions that further analysis
might be needed if, instead of AGVs,
shuttle carriers are used. In the latter
case, the interchange area can be used
as a temporary buffer because the
RMGs can ground the container if the
waterside transport is late.
It is highly unlikely that TBA would
have released this paper unless it was con-
fident that its results were close to what is
actually being achieved by ECT and CTA.
As the methodology is consistent, its forecasts
for the twin RMG system will have
to be given serious consideration.
Where to now
Still, there is no real precedent for the twin
RMG system that TBA is recommending,
given that Thamepsort/Kawasaki have
different properties. Is it really safe to assume
that the three alternatives have the
same unproductive shuffling risk Is the
densest system (ie twin RMGs) not more
vulnerable on this count
In addition, would the track vibrations
caused by one twin affect the performance
of the other one These are not
intended to be semi-automated or remote
control cranes but to perform a fully
HHLA’s Altenwerder cross-over RMG
solution is also favoured for its CTB operation
as the automation “fall back position,” although
at this juncture a 1 over 3 straddle carrier
operation is planned
robotised operation with fine tolerances.
At this juncture nobody knows what
Euromax (P&O Ports/P&O Nedlloyd
and ECT) will decide and the project has
been put back in any case. One interesting
observation, however, is that HHLA
has decided to stay with cross-over RMGs
if Burchardkai (CTB) ever becomes an
automated terminal.
As reported in last month’s WorldCargo
News (p15) HHLA’s preference for CTB
is 1 over 3 straddle carriers but the CTA
solution is its “fall back” position. A case
of the “devil you know,” perhaps ❏
September 2004 41

WorldCargo
news
Ro-ro in the South Pacific
While new and used vehicles are the main
international cargo, general cargo ro-ro occupies an
important niche in coastal shipping in Australasia
Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines
(WWL) serves the Australasian
market with weekly ro-ro services
linking Australia and New
Zealand with Europe, South Africa
and the Americas.
Regional director Peter Dexter
says that vehicle and heavy machinery
imports have increased
but there has also been strong
growth in project cargo, such as
rail cars, wind turbines and other
outsized loads. The core market,
however, remains vehicles and
WWL has expanded into 3PL to
extend its influence. Oceania Vehicle
Processors operates from
seven sites across Australia and has
taken its market share from one
to 11 per cent since it was established
three years ago. Another
subsidiary, AgReady, was set up
for heavy machinery.
Inadequate
While recognising that urban
ports the world over are under
pressure from competing land uses
and that vehicle terminals are particularly
land-hungry, Dexter is
concerned that existing ro-ro facilities
at Sydney, Auckland and
Fremantle in particular are inadequate.
He adds that ro-ro is not
getting “the attention it requires”
as ports plan future developments.
Auckland and Sydney are under
pressure to release their inner
harbours for urban and recreational
space. WWL currently uses
Patrick’s Darling harbour terminal
in Sydney (not the new Australian
Automotive Terminal JV
with P&O Ports) and is mulling
options for when the lease expires
in 2006.
Port Kembla is frequently
mooted as an alternative to Sydney
but Dexter says customers
want their vehicles unloaded in
Sydney and “from a shipping
company perspective, we have to
do what they want.” Hubbing at
Brisbane or Melbourne and using
rail to access the Sydney market
is not really viable at this juncture,
says Dexter, as “intermodal
service still has a long way to go.”
In any case rail is not suitable for
outsize machinery shipments.
Kiwi Car Carriers (now part
of Hual group through its owner
Leif Høegh & Co ASA) hubs
through Brisbane, but at 3500 vehicles/year
it is a small player in
the Australian market. General
manager Terry Riches says the
decision to limit service to one call
at Brisbane was made to minimise
deviation from the Japan-NZ
route and not as part of a wider
intermodal strategy.
Kiwi boom continues
A predicted slowdown in used
vehicle imports from Japan into
NZ does not look like eventuating.
In 2002 demand for vessel
space surged as importers rushed
to build inventories before new
regulations effectively prohibiting
cars over five years old from being
imported came into force.
Kiwi Car Carriers is the main
player on the Japan/NZ route
with around one third market
share. Riches says volume was up
around three per cent last year to
65,000 vehicles and he expects
another 5-7 per cent growth this
year. The service has been extended
to cover Nelson and
Picton in South Island through an
arrangement with domestic
coastal line Strait Shipping. Vehicles
are transhipped in Wellington
onto Strait’s inter-island service.
Kiwi has won market share by
Toll now uses the Swedish-designed
SRC AutoTrestle system on three
ships. (Note: This WCN photo was
taken in Gothenburg four years ago)
setting up a terminal logistics and
services company, Kiwi Terminal
Services, that provides storage,
cleaning and certification services
in both Japan and NZ. This has
become more expensive recently
after the Ministry of Agriculture
and Forestry increased the “efficacy
rate” of vehicle inspections
to try and reduce quarantine risks.
Inspections now take more
time and 60-70 per cent of vehicles
now require a full clean before
shipping. From 2006, vehicles
must be emissions-tested and
Riches sees no reason why this
cannot be done in Japan as well.
One way ticket
When Hual purchased Kiwi in
2001 its aim was to generate revenue
from the long journey back
to Japan. However, the pressure for
import service frequency is such
that vessel operators are not currently
driving efforts to find return
cargo. Part of the problem for
Kiwi is that its current fleet is not
well suited to carrying forest products,
although MDF board is carried
from Lyttelton to Japan for
Carter Holt Harvey,
There is an opportunity for
Hual to redeploy vessels more suitable
for general cargo on the route,
as it takes delivery of seven new
vessels currently on order for other
trade lanes. But, says Riches, the
service will still have to run a very
high frequency, so extra port time
would not be welcome.
The same high demand is
keeping WWL from seeking more
cargo for the trans-Tasman leg of
its Europe/Oceania service. This
service calls at Manzanillo, Papeete
and Auckland on its way to Brisbane.
Some sawn timber destined
for the Australian market is loaded
at Auckland but most of the available
cargo is at Tauranga. Dexter
says pressure on service frequency
is such that “way port” deviations
ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
to collect additional cargo are not
being considered at this time.
Toll over Bass
Since it purchased Bass Strait operator
Brambles in November
2002, Toll has invested in vessel
upgrades and equipment to improve
the capacity of the ro-ro
operation. Its vessels TASMANIAN
ACHIEVER and VICTORIAN RELIANCE,
have been extended by 32m, increasing
their capacity from 7600
to 11,200 swt, sufficient for an
extra 44 rolltrailers per trip.
Toll Shipping’s sales manager
Simon Hine says that, although
Bass Straight volumes are not
growing strongly, the extra capacity
allows the vessels to carry all
its business during peak periods.
AutoTrestles fitted
As part of the refit process, Toll has
adapted the vessels for use with
the SAT AutoTrestle system designed
by SRC Scandinavian Ro
Ro Consultants (and now built by
Novatech in Poland). As previously
reported, the AutoTrestle is
a platform that is coupled directly
to the trailer kingpin and moved
with the trailer by the terminal
tractor. The trestle can be automatically
clamped to the deck of
the vessel by four twistlocks (larger
than conventional container
twistlocks) that are actuated from
the terminal tractor.
Toll staff saw the system when
in Europe last year looking for a
charter to fill the gap while
ACHIEVER and RELIANCE were extended.
During their refit the vessels
were fitted with the deck pots
for the trestle pins and 50 trestles
were also delivered on TOR
FUTURA, the vessel chartered for
temporary Bass Strait service. Toll
also bought six used Terberg RT22
tractors in Europe, which were
refurbished prior to shipment.
Cutting costs
Consolidating all its business with
Toll Shipping has affected Patrick’s
Bass Strait volumes. In its report
on performance for the half year
ended 31 March, Patrick Corporation
noted: “Flowing from significant
market overcapacity, the
performance of the shipping operation
continued to show an unacceptable
level of return on funds
employed in the period.”
Over the last two years Patrick
has completed upgrade projects its
Devonport (Tasmania) and Webb
Dock (Melbourne) terminals. At
Devonport Patrick relocated the
facilities of Patrick Tasmania (formerly
Holyman Transport) to a
new site next to the Patrick Shipping
terminal. This effectively increased
the storage area and elimi-
8000-car PCTCs
Wallenius Lines AB has placed an
order for three new PCTCs that
will be the biggest in the world:
228m long and capable of carrying
8000 cars. Earlier this year,
Wallenius ordered three ships with
a capacity of 6500 cars from
Daewoo and announced that it
was to extend five of the fleet’s
BOHEME class vessels by 28m to
228m, increasing their capacity by
20 per cent to 7100 cars (World-
Cargo News, April 2004, p16).
The investment in the new and
lengthened vessels is US$450 mill.
“We are adapting to market requirements
and once again leading
the technical development of
car carriers,” said Wallenius’ president
Christer Olsson.
“The ability to load more
cargo on to each vessel means
an increase in efficiency, not
least from an environmental
perspective.”
Five of the ships will be built
by Daewoo. As previously disclosed,
the first two new ones will
have a capacity of 6700 cars and
will be delivered at the end of
2006. The other three, each with
a cargo capacity of 8000 cars, will
be delivered in late 2007 and early
2008. The ships will be operated
by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines.
The sixth ship, with a capacity
of 6400 vehicles, is being built at
Hyundai in Korea and will be
operated by Wallenius’ Korean
joint venture, Eukor.
The lengthening of five ships
will be carried out by Hyundai
Mipo Dockyards, at its yard in Vietnam
- Hyundai Vinashin Shipyard.
MIGNON, ELEKTRA, BOHEME,
MANON and UNDINE will be extended
during 2005.
Once all six vessels have been
delivered, Wallenius will have at its
disposal a fleet of approximately
50 PCTCs that will be operated
by various affiliates. ❏
42
September 2004

ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
WorldCargo
news
nated a truck journey through Devonport
to the wharf.
Patrick is also looking for cost savings
through the installation of the automated
vacuum mooring system built in NZ by
Mooring Systems Limited. As previously
reported in WorldCargo News, the
Quaysailor, now marketed as the Moor-
Master through Cavotec Group, uses
vacuum pads that attach to the ships and
are hydraulically adjustable for positioning,
adjusting and dampening.
The advantages are labour and time
savings. Shore and ship gangs are not required
as mooring can be controlled remotely
from vessel or shore. Berthing engagement
takes ≈ 10 secs; departure < 2.
Patrick purchased eight units for installation
at Melbourne and Devonport.
The units have been operating since January
and Patrick is in the process of reorganising
work patterns to realise cost savings.
Also under consideration are ro-ro
tractors to replace some of the existing
fleet of Terberg RT28 4x4 tractors.
Cook Strait debate
In New Zealand Toll Group acquired an
inter-island ferry business between Wellington
and Picton when it purchased the
assets of Tranz Rail last year. Toll’s NZ
strategy is still very much in its infancy
but there is mounting speculation it will
move the South Island terminal from
Picton to Clifford Bay, near Blenheim.
Picton is in the scenic Queen Charlotte/
Marlborough Sounds region and closer
to the holiday town of Nelson, but relocating
to Clifford Bay would cut around
1.5 hours off the main freight corridor
between north island and Christchurch.
Toll is playing down the potential of
Clifford Bay as, together with rival vessel
operator Strait Shipping, it fights
Marlborough District Council’s proposal
to reduce maximum speed in the Tory
Channel through the sounds from 21 to
15 knots to protect the marine ecosystem
from wash. This would cost Toll a
third of its current sailings and up to
NZ$30 mill in lost revenue. Both operators
are fighting the change hard.
While the Wellington/Picton market
is buoyant, Pacifica Shipping is finding
other coastal services increasingly difficult
to sustain. Last year Pacifica withdrew
two ships from coastal service, citing
an inability to compete with international
liner services that have progressively
increased their share of the coastal trade
since cabotage was dropped in 1995. This
does not affect the main inter-island link
as Picton is not a major urban centre.
Pacifica now operates two vessels, one
a pure ro-ro and the other a mixed vessel,
between Lyttelton, Auckland and Wellington.
CEO Rod Grout explains that, while
Pacifica has some rolltrailers, most cargo
is handled on standard road trailers so
there is no need to transfer goods at port.
Terbergs’ 90
As previously reported (WorldCargo News,
April 2002 p36), before it was acquired
by Toll, Brambles Shipping had ordered
eight Terberg RT 382 4x4 ro-ro tractors
with a fifth wheel capacity of 45 tonnes
and a gcw capability of 230,000 kg.
Such high capacity units are not common
in port applications, but Brambles’
clients had increased container loads to
the point where the average 4 TEU
rolltrailer load reached 70 tonnes and
loads of 90 tonnes were not uncommon.
The increase put pressure on the existing
fleet of 35t fifth wheel tractors that
were increasingly pushed to the absolute
limit in bottom gear to scale 7deg ramps.
Drive train wear became a problem with
differentials lasting just two years.
The RT382s are fitted with a Cummins
11-litre engine with ZF Ergopower transmission
and double planetary Kessler axles.
As well as LSD, a third differential unit
is fitted to cater for any difference in front
and rear drive shaft speed.
Toll Shipping’s equipment manager
Graham Griffiths reports that the tractors
have now been operating for two
years and their performance has
reached all expectations with no drive
failures to date. Griffiths is confident
that Toll has a tractor which meets its
requirements. ❏
Taking the Wellington/Lyttelton service
as an example, most Lyttelton cargo comes
from a 14 km radius around the port and
Wellington business just 10 km. It makes
sense,” says Grout, to use ordinary road
trailers simply to avoid double handling.
Proposal rejected
Last year the Maritime Union of New
Zealand launched a campaign to have
cabotage reinstated but has been unable
to garner much political support.
Grout is not asking for a return to a
protected market, but remains frustrated
by a series of government transport reviews
that, he says, “pay lip service to
coastal shipping and talk about it as a
mode but fail to deal with it.”
Grout says the removal of cabotage has
caused viability problems for the whole
Patrick Shipping’s SEAROAD TAMAR in
Melbourne, moored with Mooring Systems
Ltd’s vacuum system which is now marketed
globally as MoorMaster by Cavotec Group
of NZ’s transport infrastructure, with foreign
lines taking business from road, rail
and coastal operators.
With all government talk about the
environment, it makes little sense, he says,
to undermine coastal shipping by allowing
foreign-flagged vessels to carry containers
between NZ ports without paying
the same taxes and levies a domestic
operator carrying the same cargo has to
bear. International lines are not interested
in serving the smaller ports, but
without fair access to the market for services
between the main centres a comprehensive
costal service is just not viable. ❏
September 2004 43

WorldCargo
news
New Zealand hits forestry slump
The NZ forestry industry is currently
in slump as producers struggle
with freight rates that have
more than doubled in the last 12
months and a steep rise in the
value of the NZ dollar. The total
value of exports for the financial
year ended 30 June 2004 fell eight
per cent to NZ$3226 mill. Hardest
hit were log and pole exports,
Czech cassettes
German ro-ro equipment designer
CONTEC has won a
new order for 200 ro-ro cassettes
from Finnish operator Finnlines.
The 40ft, 80 tonne capacity
units, which will be fitted with
WCI 1073 twistlocks with a
modified handle from William
Cook Intermodal (seven
twistlocks per cassette), will be
built in the Czech Republic by
Sokolovske Strojirny AS, which
entered into a licence and marketing
agreement with Contec
at the end of last year. The first
of the Finnlines units, which fea-
ture a number of new features,
are due to come off the production
line in the middle of next
month.
The Contec/Sokolovske
Strojirny combination has already
delivered 57 40ft, 60 tonne
ro-ro cassettes to Finnish paper
supplier M-real. These units
were built to the same Contec
design as 1250 units delivered to
Swedish paper supplier MoDo
between 1994 and 1996, but feature
improvements in the tunnel
and short end designs. M-
real acquired MoDo in 2000. ❏
The first CONTEC-designed cassettes to be built by Sokolovske Strojirny
were delivered to M-real earlier this year
NZ’s forestry industry is feeling the
pinch as exports tumble, but China
may offer a ray of hope
falling 25.2 per cent to 6.9 mill
m3, and exports to the US which
dropped 27 per cent in total, including
a 31.2 per cent fall in with
lucrative sawn timber volumes.
While the log market is currently
in the doldrums, the New
Zealand Forest Industries Council
is optimistic that NZ radiata
pine will be approved for building
uses in China by June next
year. Normally amending Chinese
building codes would be expected
to take years but the Chinese and
NZ governments are in negotiations
over a free trade agreement
(China’s first with an OECD
country) and China has agreed to
fast-track the necessary changes.
Exactly how NZ producers
will tackle the Chinese market has
yet to be determined. Although
exports of sawn lumber, other finished
wood products and even kit
set houses are possible, it may be
the case that Chinese customers
want to import only logs and keep
processing in China.
The Council has called an industry
meeting in November to
try and work out a strategy for the
Chinese market. Its first hurdle,
however, will be overcoming
radiata pine’s poor image as a
structural timber in China.
While the potential of the
Chinese market is huge, forest
owners have addressed the immediate
problem by reducing cuttings
considerably and many have written
down the value of forestry assets.
Carter Holt, NZ’s largest forest
owner, recently reduced the
book value of its forests from
NZ$2.9 to $2 bill and there is
growing speculation it will sell a
major part of its forestry holdings
in the next month.
Consolidation
Whatever form it takes, further
consolidation of forests and sawmills
is likely. Norske Skog has al-
A typical ISO operation - laminated
veneer lumber being loaded with slings
suspended from spreader bar
ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF/FOREST PRODUCTS
ready announced it will close one
of three paper machines at the
Tasman Mill in NZ by 2006 and
upgrade the paper machine and
install a calendaring machine at its
Albury facility in Australia. Norske
Skog currently ships 180,000
tonnes of paper annually from NZ
to Australia and moving more production
to Albury will cut this figure
by 50,000 tonnes.
The weak market for logs is
also putting pressure on ports as
forest owners look for extended
storage periods as they try to find
both markets and charter vessels.
At Port Chalmers, local bye-laws
prohibiting a third shift at the forest
product berth have made it
difficult for local producer Wenita
Forest Products to attract a regular
service to the Korean market.
A third shift was operated earlier
in the year as a test while noise
levels were monitored, but the issue
has still not been resolved.
In north island, high inventories
at ports are causing friction
between exporters and some port
companies as storage charges become
and issue. Wrightson Forestry
Services’ export manager
Phil Melhopt recently accused the
ports of Tauranga and Northport
failing to recognise the plight of
exporters with “kick you when
you’re down” penalty storage fees.
Port executives were quick to
respond that they are not in the
business of providing long-term
storage on expensive reclaimed
land and penalty charges have always
applied after six weeks.
Marshalls, stevedores
In NZ the activities of log marshalling
and stevedoring are distinct
operations performed by
separate companies. Cut logs are
taken from the forestry site to one
or several inland sites or directly
to one of 10 ports where they are
“marshalled” – sorted into piles
according to size grade, destination
and vessel stowage plan, etc.
Importantly, it is at this stage that
most logs are bar-coded and entered
into IT systems. Vessel loading
is carried out by stevedoring
companies and is a much less capital-intensive
operation as logs are
loaded using ships cranes.
The largest log marshalling
company is Owens Cargo, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the
Port of Tauranga, operating from
five inland sites and 10 ports. Marshalling
is where most of the heavy
handling equipment is required
and Owens runs a mix of Wagner
log handlers and Caterpillar,
Komatsu, Volvo and Liebherr pivot
steer loaders. The Wagner machines
are built in the US in Portland,
Oregon by Allied Systems
Company and Owens is the Australasian
sales and service agent.
CRP Azipod
“cuts costs”
ABB Marine Oy in Finland
reports that the first ships in
the world fitted with its CRP
Azipod propulsion are using 20
per cent less fuel despite being
faster and having 15 per cent
more transport capacity than
the vessels they replaced.
In June, Japan’s Shin
Nihonkai Ferry Co Ltd (SNF)
took delivery of the two CRP
Azipod fast ferries, AKASHIA and
HAMANASU, from Mitsu-bishi’s
Nagasaki yard, for the 1061 km
(573 n/m) Maiduru-Otaru
route between Honshu and
Hokkaido islands.
The 224.5m long, 17,000
grt passenger/ro-ro ferries
have a service speed of 30.5
knots. The trip to Otaru takes
20 hours and the trip back 21
hours, while (un)loading time
is four hours in Maiduru and
three hours in Otaru.
Two older fast ferries operated
by SNF on this route,
SUZURAN and SUISEN, are fitted
with conventional, dieselpowered
twin shafts. Their
service speed is 29.4 knots and
the schedules were about the
same (24 hours).
This means that direct
comparisons can be made and
the early results for the CRP
Azipod drive seem to vindicate
SNF’s decision. Operating
costs of the new ships are
expected to reduce further in
the near future. ❏
44
September 2004

ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF/FOREST PRODUCTS
WorldCargo
news
Wagner machines have lift capacities
from 30 to 60 tonnes and
are used for unloading road trucks
and trains as they can lift a full
truck or wagon load of full length
trees. The machines are highly
customised for each operator with
2x4 and 4x4 options available. The
standard engine is a 15-litre
Cummins QSXM-15 with a Cat
C15 available as an option.
Although Owens has placed
around 14 Wagner log handlers in
Australia, they have proven more
popular in NZ where there are 40
machines in service. Owens itself
is the main user, with 12 units at
Tauranga, NZ’s busiest log port.
Paving standards
As mentioned 4x4 machines are
available for forest work where
ground conditions are poor, but
at ports and processing plants most
machines are operated on a finished
surface. Surface wear is a
particular concern with machines
that have a self-weight of up to
95t and at Carter Holt Harvey’s
new laminated veneer lumber
plant in Whangarei a paving surface
is designed to meet an expected
wear of 3mm/year.
Construction engineers
Meritec specified that the yard
must be laid with unit pavers with
a maximum abrasion index at 60
days of 3.2 cm 3 with no value
above 4.0 cm 3 and a characteristic
compression strength of 55 Mpa.
These requirements exceed normal
Australian and NZ standards
for interlocking block paving and
a local company, W Stevenson and
Sons, developed a special 120mm
deep paver for the application.
spreaders and automated release
systems that it designs itself and
has manufactured by local engineering
companies. More recently,
however, ISO has looked to IT for
efficiencies. Through a subsidiary
company, Seaport Systems Ltd, it
has developed a suite of applications
called Seaport Master.
Loading a bulk vessel with logs
requires best matching the different
length and weight logs with
the particular configuration of the
hull. A loading program makes use
of slide rules and 2-D and 3-D
vessel pictures to develop a load
plan. Another application uses proprietary
RF barcode scanners to
track logs as they are loaded. It is
planned to market the system to
other stevedores at some stage.
Enter Toll
The line between marshalling and
stevedoring could be blurred if the
Commerce Commission approves
a new 50:50 joint venture between
the Port of Tauranga and
Toll Ltd. Both companies have
applied to have the assets of
Owens Cargo and Toll’s stevedoring
subsidiaries (Toll Logistics
and Leonard and Dingley) transferred
into the as yet unnamed
joint venture company.
In papers lodged with the
Commerce Commission both
companies said that although the
commission has regarded marshalling
and steve-doring as separate
activities, customers “are demanding
a single operation of marshalling
and stevedoring services.” Allowing
the merger would, they
said, realise “cost savings inherent
in supply chain integration.”
DAAK Engineering has been formed to provide spares and support for the
Tiger range, such as the Timberking LH90 developed in 2002
the entire flatrack) and then vertically
again. The end result is a
rigid, waterproof load.
The rolls are loaded onto rail
cars at the mill and taken to Toll’s
Burnie terminal where they are
transferred to rolltrailers and
loaded into Toll’s ro-ro vessels. Toll
Shipping’s equipment services
manager Graham Griffiths says
minimising reel damage is paramount
as the paper is used in high
speed presses with almost no tolerance
for out of balance reels.
Although the flatracks are doublestacked,
damage is “almost zero”
and, says Griffiths, the handling
system compares favourably with
anything he has seen in Europe
using clamps or vacuum systems.
Barging funded
In a minor victory for sustainable
transport, NZ’s road funding
agency has approved a
NZ$392,000 grant to
Marlborough District Council to
assist establishing a barge service
from Port Underwood to Port
Marlborough. A local barge operator,
Nautilus Pacific, is loading
up to 430 tonnes of logs onto a
barge with a Caterpillar wheel
loader that travels with the cargo
and unloads it at Marlborough.
The barge service is estimated
to remove an average of 26 truck
trips each day from the Port
Underwood road. Forest owner
Rayonier has built a barge facility
and is barging half its local export
volume, but other companies are
still using the road and local residents
are calling for the scheme
to be extended further.
Extinct Tiger
Australia-based Tiger Engineering,
manufacturer of the
Timberking brand of log stackers,
went into liquidation in October
last year. As previously reported
(WorldCargo News, November
2002, p1), Tiger employed engineers
from Tønsberg Engineering
in Norway who had come from
Kaldnes (Scandlog range) before
it was purchased and shutdown by
Svetruck. Tiger designed a range
of log handlers including the
Timberking LH90 HighLift and
the LH32/24.
The Timberking brand is,
however, owned by Caterpillar
and is marketed and warranted
through its dealers. Commenting
on the liquidation, former managing
director Andrew Abbot said
it was “a direct result of several
design contracts being cancelled
by Caterpillar mid- term,” after it
old its cut-to-length forestry business
to Logmax of Sweden.
Tiger had been extending the
Timberking range and added the
LH85, an 8.5t machine with a lift
height of 6.085m based on a Caterpillar
972G unit. It was intended
that the LH85 would become the
mid-range machine in Timberking’s
HighLift range, with the
LH90 being upgraded to 10.5t lift
and a new 6.5t unit being built.
The liquidator has put several
designs and partially-built units up
for tender and Abbot and another
former Tiger employee are bidding.
Together with another excolleague,
Abbot has formed
DAAK Engineering, which currently
provides spares, consumables
and support for the range. ❏
Mostly breakbulk
International Stevedoring Operations
(ISO) handles cargo in 10
NZ ports and is the sole
stevedoring provider to Carter
Holt Harvey. Stevedoring manager
David Proudfoot says while
some forest products are shipped
in ro-ro vessels or in containers,
the vast bulk is loaded as breakbulk
with cranes on geared vessels.
The loading method depends
largely on what the stevedore at
the port of discharge has to unload
the cargo. Reels for the US
market, for example, may be
loaded with core probes whereas
these are not commonly available
in Asian destinations.
ISO has developed considerable
expertise in automated sling
Damage-free
Toll Shipping handles Norske
Skog’s business shipping paper
reels from the Boyer Mill in Tasmania
across Bass Strait to the
Australian mainland. The reels are
wrapped to flatrack at the Boyer
Mill with a unitised paper module
wrapping system built by Australia’s
Integrated Machinery.
Between eight and 10 rolls are
placed on the flatrack (each of
which has collapsible corner posts
folding outwards from the sides)
and the rolls are then wrapped to
it at four stations. At each station
the flatrack is lifted from the bottom
on hydraulic jacks and then
wrapped vertically, horizontally
around the rolls, horizontally over
the whole load (ie end to end over
Nu-Star pushes on
Following earlier trials, two pedestrian-operated
paper reel pushers
made by Nu-Star Materials Handling
in England have been acquired
by M-real, Europe’s largest
producer of fine paper, for its paper
mill in Sittingbourne, Kent.
The pushers are used to move
the 1.3m dia/≤ 3 tonne reels from
the winder to an automated floor
track or a temporary holding area.
Previously staff had to push the
reels by hand and the work often
required use of a long lever to gain
momentum. M-real’s other UK
site, New Thames Mill, has been
using a Nu-Star power pusher
since July 2002 so Sittingbourne
knew it is a reliable product.
The pusher is self-contained
and has no trailing air or power
lines as power is provided by
sealed, maintenance-free traction
batteries with a matching charger
that can be plugged into any suitable
110V/220V power source.
Unlike clamp trucks, there are
no licensing requirements and
anyone over 18 years old may use
it after the necessary training. As
well as its UK sales, Nu-Star has
exported the pushers to paper
mills in other EU countries, South
Korea and Saudi Arabia. ❏
Nu-Star reel pushers in action for M-real in Sittingbourne, Kent
September 2004 45

WorldCargo
news
T
he global production of
marine container refrigeration
machinery and associated
technology is today as
tightly controlled a business as that
associated with reefer container
construction itself.
As in the latter sector, only a
small handful of companies are involved
in the volume production
of reefer machinery or add-on features,
one of the most important
of which are controlled atmosphere
(CA) systems. Just four companies
are currently producing
reefer machinery, with a similar
number offering CA systems.
These, in turn, supply a reefer
container manufacturing sector
dominated by China International
Marine Containers
(CIMC) and Maersk Container
Industri (MCI). CIMC has just
extended its influence in the
reefer market by taking over the
management of Yangzhou
Tonglee Reefer Container Co.
The only other significant player
is Shanghai Reeferco, part of the
Singamas Group.
This relatively small mix of
companies was responsible for fabricating
over 70,000 refrigerated
containers in 2003, equivalent to
46
REEFER INDUSTRY
Reefer technology stays ahead
The manufacture of reefer container machinery
and associated technology, including controlled
atmosphere systems, is as intensely competitive
as ever. Innovation remains the key to success
The Carrier 69NT ThinLINE reefer
unit has become a de facto standard in
the reefer leasing industry
almost 135,000 TEU and valued
at more than US$125 bill. A
slightly greater output is being
forecast for this year.
Despite its small number of
participants, however, the entire
reefer manufacturing sector is as
competitive as ever, with producers
of machinery and ancillary
technology continuing to refine
the design/operation of their existing
models in order to retain a
small edge.
They are being encouraged in
this by ocean carriers and shippers/importers
keen to transport
an ever-growing range of chilled
and deep-frozen commodities,
while achieving an increasingly
improved product out-turn and
quality. The minimising of product
deterioration and spoilage
during transport, and particularly
on deepsea shipments, has long
been recognised as crucial in securing
a premium retail selling
price and remains central in driving
technological advances within
the maritime reefer sector.
Leading the way
The leading producer of reefer
container machinery is, and has for
many years been, Carrier
Transicold, a division of US-based
Carrier Corp, which is in turn
owned by United Technologies
Corp. Carrier supplies over 55 per
cent of all reefer container machines
used globally, a share that
amounted to more than 40,000
units in 2003.
The company anticipates a
similar output for the current year,
when demand is again expected
to hold strong. However, Carrier
notes that fewer orders have been
placed by leasing companies in
2004, compared to last year, whilst
shipping lines are once again purchasing
more aggressively. Leasing
companies are expected to take
only 30 per cent of all reefer output
in 2004 compared with over
40 per cent in 2003.
Carrier is the main supplier of
reefer machinery to the container
leasing sector, which has long
viewed the company’s 69NT40
ThinLINE specification to be a de
facto industry standard. As such,
much of the equipment bought
annually by the six or so mainstream
lessors of reefer containers
for their operating fleets tends to
be fitted with Carrier machinery.
A major customer is Carlisle
Leasing, which has acquired more
than 50,000 reefers fitted with
Carrier machinery during its 10
years of operation. Carlisle is now
close to becoming the world’s top
reefer lessor and remains the only
company to concentrate exclusively
on the leasing of refrigerated
container equipment.
On the move
As reported in the June 2004 issue
of WorldCargo News (p27) Carrier
recently completed the consolidation
of its reefer container
machinery production in Singapore,
where its purpose-built plant
has been expanded to meet demand.
Production at its original
facility in Syracuse, New York, has
now ceased.
This relocation has helped keep
production costs down, although
machinery prices have been affected
in recent months by rises in
raw materials costs, including aluminium,
steel and copper.
According to Scott Pallotta, director
of marketing for Carrier
Transicold’s Container Products
Group, the vast majority of recent
output has been of 40ft high cube
specification, as the requirement for
20ft reefers (mainly to replace older
porthole boxes) has again gone into
decline. He further added that all
Carrier machines are built to run
with R134a, and that a growing,
albeit still minor, proportion feature
a single scroll compressor.
Carrier launched its single
scroll/R134a design at the end of
2001 and two versions are available
- EliteLINE for 40ft (and
20ft) containers and StreamLINE
aimed specifically at the 20ft market.
The latter uses the same high
capacity scroll compressor as the
EliteLINE, but features a modified
evaporator system design,
which allows the installed depth
of the machinery package to be
reduced in such a way that a full
30m 3 of usable volume can be
achieved in a 20ft container.
Scrolling up
Despite the growing popularity of
scroll/R134a designs, however,
Klinge ploughs a
special furrow
US-based Klinge Corporation
has long been involved in the
manufacture of specialised reefer
equipment, and reports that demand
is continuing strong. Although
output volumes are
small, the business represents an
important niche and annual
turnover has increased steadily
in recent years.
One important activity for
Klinge is the manufacture of
reefers designed specifically for
the carriage of certain hazardous
chemicals, such as organic
peroxides, which require an “explosion
proof” interior.
All the electric components
contained within such units have
to be insulated or otherwise protected,
to eliminate all risk of
sparking when in use, while fireproofing
is applied to other sections
of the container body and
machinery. Regulations, particularly
in the US, have been tightened
recently in this area, which
has further boosted the demand
for such equipment.
These stricter rules governing
the movement/storage of
containers and other transport
units within the confines of
chemical plants, has led to the
more recent development by
Klinge of a reefer offering an
explosion proof exterior as well.
Meanwhile, Klinge remains
active in the reefer tank market
and earlier this year launched a
new diesel generator set which
fits beneath front-mounted
reefer machinery within the ISO
tank frame to provide power
when needed to the reefer unit.
Klinge also reports that the
company’s bespoke container
tracking facility, developed in
recent years to operate with
GPS/satellite technology, is now
gaining in popularity as production/running
costs have fallen
and an increasing number of
end-users are becoming more
security conscious.
The tracking system enables
the specialised and high value
(and often dangerous) reefer cargoes
typically carried in Klingebuilt
equipment to be properly
monitored during their transit.
It can report on location, as well
as check temperature readings.
Most of the company’s production
is carried out at its main
US plant, as well as in Denmark,
although average production
runs number only a few units.
The manufacture of up to 20 in
a single batch is viewed to be
large. Klinge’s Danish factory is
also carrying out refurbishment
work on some earlier production,
which is now 5-7 years old
and in need of upgrading.
One other feature of Klinge’s
service is its provision of duplicate
spare part kits with each
newbuild delivery, while many
of its reefer units incorporate a
facility that allows them to take
over the running of another unit
from the same batch in situ, in
the event of a breakdown.
Elsewhere, Klinge’s separate
service subsidiary, Dan Reefer,
is also growing in Egypt, where
its operation is centred. It now
employs 30 technicians at the
country’s four main Mediterranean
port locations, including
some managers from Denmark.
By training local personnel
and establishing one of the first
reefer repair centres in Egypt,
Dan Reefer has reduced the need
for damaged boxes to be exported
empty, and often at great cost, to
depots elsewhere in the Eastern
Mediterranean. Instead, they can
be put back into service in Egypt
to carry the growing reefer export
traffic being generated in the
country. ❏
September 2004

REEFER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
Demand for the EliteLINE single scroll/R134a
unit is growing, but most customers still prefer a
reciprocating compressor, Carrier says
etc - as well as relative humidity, to be
strictly controlled to provide optimum
transport conditions for a variety of fresh
produce. The system has proven particularly
popular with growers exporting
stone fruits (especially avocados) from the
southern to northern hemisphere.
According to Carrier, EverFresh can
improve utilisation for reefer operators,
by extending the harvest season. This is
achieved because fruit can be shipped long
distance at a more advanced stage of ripeness
using CA, with a much lower risk of
deterioration.
Nevertheless, the overall requirement
for CA is still relatively small. Carrier says
that just 1-2 per cent of its reefer machinery
output includes the EverFresh
system, equating to less than 1000 units
per year. One of the biggest users of CA
is Maersk Sealand, which is reported to
have around 3 per cent of its entire reefer
fleet fitted with CA systems.
Getting fresh
Though it has not developed a full-blown
CA system of its own, Thermo King offers
a low cost option in the form of its
Advanced Fresh Air Management
(AFAM) system, which automatically
regulates the rate at which fresh air is exchanged
within the container by way of
its standard MP-3000 controller.
Also available is AFAM+, which provides
a “ventilation on demand” feature
and a gas analyser, which constantly monitors
oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. If
levels go outside a preset range, the controller
opens or closes the fresh air vent
to restore optimum levels. Individual settings
have been derived for more than 40
different fruits, vegetables and other commodities,
such as cut flowers, to provide
optimum transport conditions.
According to Thermo King, at around
15 per cent of the cost of a full CA system,
AFAM+ is ideal for lower value
commodities such as asparagus or broccoli,
which can benefit from improved atmosphere
management but for which the
cost of CA cannot be justified.Amongst
commodities that have been shipped successfully
using AFAM and AFAM+ are
lettuce, sweetcorn, bananas, avocados, apples
and pears. A number of leading shipping
lines have adopted AFAM+, most
notably OOCL.
Thermo King, which is part of the
US-headquartered Ingersoll-Rand conglomerate,
currently meets 15-20 per
Carrier says that the majority of its customers
still prefer reefer machines fitted
with a conventional reciprocating compressor
because of lower costs and simpler servicing.
In this respect Carrier differs from
its main competitors. Both Daikin Industries
and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
(MHI) of Japan now offer machinery fitted
exclusively with scroll compressors as
standard, while a growing share of sales
made by Thermo King Corp concern its
Magnum unit, which comes fitted with a
Copeland digital scroll compressor.
The latter model was launched in late
2002 and operates with R404A rather
than R134a. Almost 10 per cent of current
reefer production now comes fitted
with R404A machinery and it is favoured
by a growing number of shipping lines
transporting hard frozen commodities
throughout tropical/equatorial regions,
where ambient temperatures are high and
extra refrigerating capacity is needed.
The 90 per cent-plus balance of all
reefer output now features R134a as
standard. Despite its rugged specification
and economic power consumption,
R404A machinery is more expensive to
buy and maintain when compared with
its R134a counterpart and this still discourages
its mainstream use. For these reasons,
Carrier has avoided producing
R404A container machinery and is content
to leave this sector of the market to
the competition.
Technical innovation
The past year has seen Carrier introduce
a number of technical innovations, including
the launch of the ML3 microprocessor
controller in late 2003. This superseded
the Micro-Link 2i controller
and includes an industry-standard
PCMCIA card to allow rapid uploading
of software. It also eliminates the need
for a remote module for additional input/output
(I/O) devices as it has more
I/Os of its own, allowing additional features
to be added as they are developed
in the future
The ML3 has been fitted as standard
to all new EliteLINE machines since January
2004. ThinLINE customers have the
option of upgrading from the ML2i to
the ML3 controller, which is also available
for retrofit.
Another recent development, which
came in response to customer requests,
has concerned the incorporation of a sensor
that logs the position of the reefer machinery’s
fresh air vents. The new device,
which is shock and moisture proof, allows
the Carrier DataCorder to record
vent positions, and thus fresh air settings,
throughout the duration of a voyage and
includes alarms, in the event of malfunction.
It can be fitted to both upper and
lower fresh air vents, in the EliteLINE and
ThinLINE models.
A further innovation was Carrier’s inclusion
of an auto-defrost facility, which
removes the need for this process to be activated
manually and so further simplifies
overall operation for reefer end-users.
CA on the up
Carrier has offered its own controlled atmosphere
(CA) system since 1997 and reports
a steady growth in demand. Several
thousand reefer units are now operating
with the EverFresh system, which allows
the concentration of gases inside a container
- oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide
September 2004 47

WorldCargo
news
REEFER INDUSTRY
cent of global reefer machinery
demand, with production split
between its dedicated plant in
Suzhou, China and the former
Sabroe Reefer Cool plant in
Langeskov, Denmark, which
Thermo King took over in 1996.
The Suzhou facility opened in
late 2002 and has absorbed all container
machinery production that
previously took place at the company’s
main US plant in Louisville,
Georgia. The opening coincided
with the official launch of Thermo
King’s Magnum scroll/R404A,
design and has helped the company
retain its competitive edge.
Thermo King received orders
valued at more than US$64 mill
during the opening months of
2004, with deliveries of reefer machinery,
gensets and associated
technology going to seven leading
containership operators, again
headed by OOCL.
Thermo King estimates that
over half of this year’s reefer machinery
output will be of the Magnum
specification. The company
says that over 10,000 of the latter
machines have been sold since
2002. A key attraction of the design
is its ability to maintain deep
frozen temperatures, as low as -
Thermo King offers both scroll and reciprocating compressor-equipped reefer
machinery. Over half of this year’s sales are expected to be of the scroll type
35degC, which makes it suitable for
the deepsea carriage of ice cream,
frozen meat and vegetables, seafood
and certain pharmaceuticals.
The company cites the example
of fish, whose shelf life can be
doubled when it is carried long
distance at temperatures of
-35degC or below. Crucially the
use of an adapted scroll compressor,
in combination with R404A
refrigerant, is able to maintain this
low temperature in an ambient of
50degC, such as is encountered on
equatorial routes.
Thermo King claims that the
Magnum can also draw down temperatures
at a faster rate than comparable
models using R134a, while
consuming up to 30 per cent less
power overall. Independent tests
have further shown that even when
the higher heat leakage rates associated
with older reefer containers
(up to 15 years of age), are factored
in, Magnum machinery can still
maintain hard frozen temperatures
in high ambients. The machinery
is thus expected to extend the reefer’s
usable service life, which will
go a long way towards counterbalancing
the slightly higher initial cost
of the unit.
The Magnum’s Copeland unloading
digital scroll compressor
is itself protected with a thermal
aluminium coating, to help it
withstand tough environmental
conditions.
Reciprocating option
Thermo King’s alternative to the
Magnum is the CRR-40 reefer
machine, which runs on R134a
and comes fitted with a standard
(3D semi-hermetic) reciprocating
compressor. This offers an advanced
temperature control and
economic power consumption,
and in common with most other
R134a machinery can maintain
cargo temperatures as low as
-29degC in high ambients.
Two further “add-on” innovations,
which are applicable to its
entire reefer range, have been introduced
by the company this year.
One is an electronic chart recorder,
which uses in-built sensors
to track temperature changes on
the familiar circular style of chart.
It works like a mobile printer, producing
live data in the form of a
graph from either the reefer’s temperature
sensors or datalogger. The
optional device can be bolted on
to any new or recent Thermo
King model and it is being targeted
specifically at the leasing
sector, which particularly values
the presence of a visible paper
chart recorder.
Like Carrier,Thermo King has
also added an option for end-users
to record fresh air exchange
rates in the datalogger. The system,
known as Auto Vent Logging
(AVL) has been kept simple and is
available on all new CRR and
Magnum models. The company
points to past instances of these
settings being recorded incorrectly,
which has the potential to result
in cargo loss. By capturing such
data, shipping lines can pinpoint
when changes to the rate of air
exchange were made and thus
fend off erroneous claims, while
also improving service at depots.
Back with a bang
The established positions occupied
by Carrier and Thermo King
are once again being challenged
increasingly by Daikin Industries,
of Japan, which has experienced a
strong revival in its sale of reefer
machines during the past three
years.
Daikin became an important
supplier of reefer container machinery
in the 1980s, when it almost
rivalled Carrier during some
years, but the company remained
focused on serving the Asian sector
and Japan in particular. This led
to a perception that the company
could not really service the global
market, and that spare parts and
after-sales support were lacking
outside its local region.
Daikin was also affected negatively
by the industry-wide move
to adopt alternative refrigerants, in
place of CFC12 in the early 1990s.
In common with its Japanese
competitor MHI, Daikin initially
opted for HCFC22 ahead of the
more universal acceptance of
HFC134a and was subsequently
“wrong-footed” for several years.
However, the Japanese company
has since recovered its position,
following a complete redevelopment
of its former machinery
range. This was accomplished
over a period of several years, with
considerable input coming from
shipping lines the world over, as
well as from Daikin’s parent com-
Power Pool Plus
adds PortaPack
Annandale, New Jersey-based
Power Pool Plus Inc has developed
a new line of mobile
power units for use by shippers,
terminal operators and others
who need to provide low cost,
versatile power for reefer containers.
Known as the PortaPack, the
unit is designed to be put on site
in any terminal or field location
without having to specially design
and construct areas for
reefer storage and operation.
The machine’s design resulted
from requests by numerous
Power Pool customers that required
dependable, self contained,
and dedicated power
units for multi-reefer operation
without the cost or complexity
of the usual Power Pack that is
built primarily for use on board
a vessel.
The PortaPack is available in
various configurations to power
5-25 reefer units at the same
time. All machines are rated at
prime power, and are trailermounted
and completely self
contained. The trailers meet
current road and off-road requirements,
and are of heavy
duty design for longevity and reliability.
Power generation units
are housed in low-sound enclosures
and a variety of exhaust and
environmental systems are available
to meet individual operator
requirements.
PortaPacks are powered by
either Cummins or John Deere
diesels and are equipped with a
Marathon generator and ESL
reefer receptacles as standard. All
The trailer-mounted PortaPack from
Power Pool Plus provides reliable,
low cost power for reefer containers
units are available with either a
standard engine or with a computerised
and environmentallyfriendly
Tier II configuration. In
addition, each unit includes a
suitable size fuel tank and
NEMA-type, stainless steel, receptacle
panel.
The complete PortaPack
unit can be moved around by
way of a tow hook-equipped
yard truck or personnel truck
and can be put into operation
without the need for any further
electrical or power supply
personnel.
While the unit’s design function
is centred around power for
refrigerated machinery, the unit
has the ability to support other
power needs around the terminal.
As an option, the machine
can be configured with dual
voltage output so that buildings,
security systems and other such
items can be powered up from
the unit should power failure
occur at the customer’s yard.
Power Pool reports that its
line of power packs is still in demand
from vessel operators and
terminals that require high
power and receptacle needs and
the orderbook for this type of
equipment remains strong.
However, the PortaPack is
quickly gaining favour among
shore-side terminal and container
and reefer repair yard operators
due to its high level of
reliability and affordability. ❏
48
September 2004

REEFER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
pany. A central aim was to simplify the
basic machinery design, while improving
its durability and reliability. Production
costs were also cut and proper steps taken
to establish a comprehensive global aftersales
support network. The finished product
was ready for launch by mid-2001.
The latest Daikin LXE10E design utilises
a scroll compressor, which runs exclusively
with R134a and was developed
specifically for reefer transport applications.
Daikin is already one of the largest producers
of compressors in the world, manufacturing
over 900,000 per year in total for
its various air conditioning and refrigeration
businesses. Of its competitors, only
Carrier, through Carlyle Compressor, also
manufactures its own compressors.
Strong sales
Upwards of 40,000 of the new generation
machines have since been sold, according
to David Marjoram, general manager, refrigeration
business unit for Itochu Europe,
which represents Daikin in Europe. A total
of 30,000 had already been delivered by
April 2004, and annual production is already
approaching 15,000 units.
Daikin can now claim nine of the top
20 global shipping lines as customers, including
P&O Nedlloyd, Maersk Sealand,
CMA-CGM and CP Ships, while a further
nine are considering the company
as a future potential supplier. P&O
Nedlloyd has already received around
7000 LXE10E units to date, while Maersk
Sealand has more recently agreed a “rolling”
production contract with the Japanese
supplier.
Daikin has also supplied numerous
smaller companies, based in Iceland, Greenland
and Bermuda (to mention but three)
and is selling to various Asian carriers, such
as Yang Ming Line, OOCL, MISC and Wan
Hai Shipping, as well as longer standing
customers (MOL, NYK and K Line) in
Japan. A number of others, including
Hanjin Shipping, Cosco Containerlines and
Evergreen Marine Corp are reported to
have trialled the Daikin LXE10E machine
in recent months.
All of which has helped boost Daikin’s
overall share of sales during the past few
years. In the late 1990s, the company barely
achieved five per cent of world reefer machinery
sales, when its production still went
exclusively to Japanese lines. This figure, according
to Marjoram, had risen to almost
20 per cent by 2003 and is certain to go
even higher in 2004. Marjoram attributes
its growing success to the much improved
availability of spare parts, even though the
current young age of the Daikin machinery
fleet has yet to put its after-sales network
fully to the test. He further highlights
the rugged design, which comes with
a standard 10-year warranty.
Competitive price
The LXE10E itself is also very competitively
priced, typically at well below
US$9,000 for a unit of standard specification.
Its headline finished price is known
to have caused concern amongst US competitors
and more generally initiated a
cost-cutting drive across the reefer machinery
industry as a whole. The need to
keep machinery prices down has been
further heightened in 2004 by the ongoing
rise in the cost of finished reefer bodies,
which are up 15 per cent or more on
their level one year ago due to the higher
price of stainless steel.
Daikin has actually been disadvantaged
in recent months, in terms of its pricing,
because of the low (and falling) US dollar
exchange against the Japanese Yen. Furthermore,
the company continues to
manufacture at its established site in Japan,
which is more expensive than building
in either China or Singapore. However,
such are the cost savings being made
that Daikin has been able to stay very
competitive. Marjoram explained that it
gained from the decision to create a machine
virtually “from scratch” by avoiding
some of the more costly features built
into older generation designs.
Daikin claims that its temperature
controller is among the most advanced,
featuring many common extras as standard.
The Daikin machine can, for example,
easily incorporate CA as an add-on
feature, should the customer request it.
However, one of the company’s biggest
savings is made through its ability to
source all scroll compressors and most
other components in-house and so benefit
from the economies of scale already
achieved by its parent organisation.
Daikin is already carrying out some
refinement to the basic LXE10E model,
following initial feedback from users. One
criticism concerned the machine’s relatively
high power usage when in chilled
mode, which is now being addressed and
should be rectified within a few months.
Daikin is also making a more concerted
effort to attract increased business from
the leasing sector, following its initial success
in securing an order from Interpool
for 2,000 machines in late 2002. These
were fitted to 20ft reefers for lease to P&O
Nedlloyd, which had dictated the original
specification. The Japanese company
is now keen to secure more direct business
from leasing firms and thereby break
the dominant position held by Carrier as
the premier supplier to this sector. In
Daikin’s estimation, leasing company orders
make up at least 40 per cent of the
global market when finance lease business
is included as well.
On the comeback trail
Daikin’s longstanding rival, MHI, is also
hungry for more business and clearly
views the route taken by Daikin as the
way forward. It too has been steadily “internationalising”
its reefer business in recent
years, after similarly suffering a slump
in sales during the 1990s.
The company’s production of reefer
machines, although still modest, is now
growing again and exceeded 4,000 units
in 2003. Output is expected to be even
higher this year. MHI’s main market is
still centred in Asia, and in Japan in particular,
with recent sales going to
longstanding customers, including NYK,
OOCL, Cosco and Evergreen.
Nevertheless, as explained by Alan
Balkam, technical services manager of
MHI’s European Division, the company
currently has over 330 service agencies
and 13 spare parts depots located worldwide,
and over US$1 mill worth of spare
parts at its main European centre in Rotterdam.
The current Mitsubishi reefer
machine was redeveloped during the
1990s, following the company’s move
away from using R12 and R22, and utilises
a scroll compressor as standard. It can
run with either R134a or R404A.
MHI’s profile is set to be raised further,
following the company’s decision to
merge its entire refrigeration and air conditioning
business with Hitachi Air Conditioning
Systems Co. Although Hitachi
has had no involvement in the marine refrigeration
sector to date, it is a leading
manufacturer of air conditioning plant
and controls one of the strongest global
networks covering this industry.
MHI will accordingly gain additional
sales/marketing and servicing outlets, as
well as benefit from Hitachi’s ongoing research
programme, particularly in the area
of compressor development. The merged
businesses are to be controlled by a joint
company, owned 50:50 by the two partners,
which is to commence trading from
April 2005. No changes are to be made
to the existing MHI reefer division, with
manufacturing continuing at its existing
site in Japan and the same technical and
commercial staff being retained. ❏
September 2004 49

WorldCargo
news
CA gaining ground
In addition to the in-house controlled atmosphere
(CA) systems offered by the likes of
Carrier, there are at least two independent
producers specialising in this technology. The
best known is US-based TransFRESH Corp,
which is recognised by many as the original
pioneer of CA in reefer container transport
applications and amongst the first to offer a
realistically priced system. TransFRESH remains
the market leader, having been active
in the transport CA business since the 1960s
and addressing the needs of container users
since the late 1980s.
The original TransFRESH process - Tectrol -
was, in fact, a modified atmosphere (MA) system
as it modified the atmosphere around the cargo
rather than controlled it. In this process, atmospheric
air is initially displaced within the container
by an inert blanket of nitrogen, which is
pumped in at the time of loading/cooling, and
the container is then sealed with a plastic curtain
at the door end for the duration of the voyage.
This limits the starting level of oxygen, which is
respired by fruit/vegetable produce and the principal
agent causing ripening and spoilage. The nitrogen
is introduced by way of a special delivery
port, which is a central feature of the Tectrol system
and is incorporated into the container machinery.
A substantial number of the world’s reefer
containers are today fitted with the basic Tectrol
port and its application is growing year by year.
Taking control
Within a few years of launching its container MA
process, TransFRESH developed its own version
of reefer CA, whereby an electronic controller
Kuehne + Nagel
bags Grifcold
Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world’s largest
international freight forwarding
groups, has acquired the Canadian company
Grifcold Inc, marking a further step
in the group’s strategy to extend its expertise
and capacities in the reefer/perishables
sector worldwide. Terms of the
deal were not disclosed.
Grifcold Inc, which has specialised in
the transport of temperature-sensitive
cargo since 1984, ranks among the leading
service providers in this sector in
Eastern Canada. With branch offices in
Toronto and Montreal, the company handles
around 4,000 TEU by sea every year
- mainly shipments of fresh fish and
meat, vegetables and fruits to and from
Europe and Asia. Grifcold’s activities
complement the service offering of the
Canadian Kuehne + Nagel organisation
in reefer cargo and allow the expansion
of its customer base.
“It is our objective to achieve a leadership
position in the field of global
reefer transportation,” said Reinhard
Lange, COO Sea & Air Logistics, Kuehne
+ Nagel International AG. “In addition
to being present in key markets, this
business demands a high degree of specialised
knowhow. We have been accelerating
our already strong organic
growth in this segment through acquisitions
in Norway, more recently in the
Netherlands and now in Canada. In the
medium term, we plan to extend our
expertise and capacities in China and
Japan as well as the US, and invest in
new technologies.”
This latest move follows Kuehne +
Nagel’s takeover in June this year of
Dutch freight forwarder Nether Cargo
Services BV, which has allowed it to extend
its services in the perishables business
in the benelux area as well as
strengthened its position in the local
airfreight market.
Established in 1990, Nether Cargo
Services achieved a turnover in excess
of E30 mill last year, and handled around
37,500 tonnes of airfreight, its core business.
The company, headquartered at
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and with
branch offices in Rotterdam and
Aalsmeer, is specialised in the shipment
of perishables, especially flowers and
vegetables. In the Netherlands, it counts
among the market leaders in this business
segment. ❏
50
was also incorporated to check atmospheric composition
and make fine adjustments to the concentration
of different gases during the shipment.
This refinement is used primarily to control oxygen
and carbon dioxide levels throughout the
voyage by removing any such gas that is respired
or which leaks into the container as incoming
air gradually displaces the nitrogen blanket. The
removal of oxygen is achieved on a molecular
level because it can flow out through the controller,
but is unable to pass back into the container.
Nitrogen, conversely, can flow freely to/
from the container. The microprocessor-driven
The Cargofresh CA system, which can be adapted to fit
most reefer machinery types, is available for sale or lease
REEFER INDUSTRY
September 2004

REEFER INDUSTRY
WorldCargo
news
controller can also be used to manage the levels
of other gases, such as ethylene (produced when
certain fruits respire, especially bananas), and further
to maintain humidity levels.
Suitable for use in conjunction with any machinery
unit from Carrier, Thermo King, Daikin
or MHI, more than 40,000 reefer containers are
currently equipped to accommodate the Tectrol
CA system, and it is being used to protect a rising
500,000 tonnes of chilled and frozen produce
every year. Equipment sales are up in 2004
on previous years and expected to be ever higher
in 2005, when further new products are due to
be made available.
Amongst the numerous commodities to have
benefited from Tectrol MA/CA are lettuces, asparagus,
sweetcorn, limes, peaches, mangoes, avocados,
papaya, kiwifruit, melons, cherries and
strawberries. The company is planning soon to
add raspberries, blackberries and blueberries to
this list, following the completion of trials. Field
research is also being carried out on other potential
commodities.
As explained by Teresa Scattini, director of marine
services, for TransFRESH considerable expertise
has already been gained in the post-harvest handling
and shipping of the above range of products,
with TransFRESH working closely with retailers, importers,
shippers and container lines, and much useful
operating data is now available on the company’s
recently revamped website (www. transfresh.com).
Scattini adds that an upgrade of its marketing and
information services has already brought additional
enquiries from countries as varied as Russia, Egypt,
Ecuador, Argentina, Thailand and China, as well as
from Europe.
TransFRESH supports its Tectrol operation by
providing services at a total of 14 ports, covering
the initial “gassing” of containers and their sealing
prior to shipment and the recovery of the
microprocessor controllers after shipment for the
downloading of atmosphere performance data and
for use in future Tectrol CA shipments. Plans are
in hand to add two further locations next year.
Interestingly, there has been some revival in
the demand for MA, according to Scattini, because
of the increasing numbers of reefers being
transported overland and on shortsea routes
within Europe and Asia. MA remains a far cheaper
option than CA and can be highly effective in
protecting produce when the transit is just a few
days. Nevertheless, this runs counter to the general
trend of the past 10 years, when the use of
MA has slowly lost ground to the CA side of the
business. Emphasis is thus still being placed on
reducing production and operating costs, in order
to suit the more sophisticated CA process to
a wider range of applications.
Holding on
Cargofresh Technologies, of Germany, is also involved
in the development and marketing of
reefer CA technology. The company was launched
in 1998, when it acquired an existing project (formerly
known as the Rolf System) and has been
further strengthened in 2004 through the formation
of a new holding company, Cargofresh
AG, which aims to raise further funding to develop
CA technology. Cargofresh has already created
a highly sophisticated CA system for reefer
containers,utilising advanced gas separating membrane
technology.
The system has the ability to split incoming compressed
air into its nitrogen, oxygen and other gas
components, and prevent oxygen and other destructive
gases (such as carbon dioxide) from entering
the sealed container. Oxygen levels can be lowered
to an optimum 2-4 per cent within 10 hours, replacing
the atmospheric norm of 21 per cent.
Moreover, the incorporation of a special humidifying
membrane can raise and accurately control relative
humidity, up to levels as high as 99 per cent, by
extracting moisture from the incoming air stream.
This further prevents chilled or frozen produce from
being damaged by dehydration.
In the Cargofresh system, incoming air is
pumped into the membrane section by way of a
compressor, while the exhausted air (containing
the gas impurities) is bled off. In this way, as explained
by Peter Wich, managing director, all respiration
and the further ripening of produce is
arrested and it enters into a sort of “deep sleep”
until the voyage is concluded. This greatly extends
its shelf life.
He added that computer-controlled CA systems
of the Cargofresh type have already been used for
some time to protect produce in cold stores and are
now becoming increasingly applicable for reefer
container and truck/trailer operation.
Cutting costs
Cargofresh is looking to further reduce the costs
associated with its technology, and currently offers
its CA system for lease or outright purchase.
The design is compact and can be adapted to fit
most types of reefer container machinery, while
a network of servicing and after-sales support is
also being developed. It is being targeted particularly
at shipments currently being made by
air freight, as reefer CA enables them to be carried
safely for longer periods by ship.
One crucial selling point is that the use of CA
eliminates the need for fruit/vegetables to be picked
prematurely and in an unripe state prior to transport.
Wich commented that, although such produce
will ripen while being transported (without CA), it
invariably contains fewer vitamins and often has an
inferior taste when compared to fruit/vegetables
that are properly ripened before harvest.
CA also helps to cut wastage, which can be as
high as 20 per cent when shipments are made by
air or even by sea using reefers without any CA
protection. A large range of stone fruits is particularly
suited for ocean shipment using the
Cargofresh CA system, as well as apples, pears,
bananas, pineapples, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes,
cabbage and grapes. ❏
LauritzenCool
in Chile move
With effect from the coming fruit season,
the transportation of seasonal fruits out
of South America will be managed from
the newly established LauritzenCool
South America regional office in Santiago,
Chile.
LauritzenCool is one of the major carriers
of seasonal fruit out of South
America, with almost 1 mill pallets of
fresh fruit carried out of Argentina, Brazil,
Chile and Uruguay every year.
All the activities in South America will
now be controlled through Lauritzen
Cool’s office in Santiago, which is headed
by Kent Bach-Laursen. This includes marketing,
operations and trade accounting
of all contracts. The control and scheduling
of the fleet will continue to be managed
by the head office in Stockholm,
Sweden.
According to Lauritzen Cool, this strategic
move will bring the company much
closer to its customers and their marketplaces,
and will contribute to a better
coordination of all activities. The reorganisation
will make it easier to follow
market developments, recognise the future
needs of clients and thereby make it
easier to improve existing services and
develop new services.
The network of local agency functions
and terminals in the respective countries
will be maintained and their responsibilities
will remain unchanged. ❏
September 2004 51

WorldCargo
news
TANK CONTAINERS
Time for innovation in tank components
he number of challenges
facing tank equipment
T suppliers has continued to
grow in recent years. The list now
includes the push for component
standardisation, tank top working
hazards, transport security, increasingly
strict environmental controls
and the ongoing drive to reduce
unit costs.
Against such a demanding
working environment, the component
maker fraternity could do
with some positive developments,
not least strengthening market
demand. For a while in 2003, it
appeared as if this was about to
happen, as the number of orders
for new tank containers began to
pick up, after five years of depressed
market conditions, on the
back of a strengthening global
economy and improving chemical
industry performance in the
major industrialised nations.
Market blues
In more recent months, however,
the recovery in the demand for
tank containers has petered out.
The biggest culprit has been the
dramatic rise in the cost of stainless
steel. With the price of a new
tank jumping by as much as 35
per cent in the space of six months
in early 2004, tank container buyers
have now shied away from
newbuildings and are concentrating
on maximising returns from
their existing assets.
The longer term prognosis for
tank containers is good. The growing
use of intermodal tanks in Asia,
and the rising cost of disposing of
alternative types of dangerous
goods packaging, will encourage
more chemical shippers to opt for
tanks as they realise that investment
in a robust transport unit
With the recent pick-up in the demand for intermodal
tanks now fizzling out, tank component manufacturers
are using the extra time to extend their product
portfolios into areas not previously covered
The PEC50 valve from Truchot
Laurens enables samples of cryogenic
liquids to be drawn off from the tank
in safety
with a guaranteed long service life
makes economic sense.
However, the current slack demand
for newbuildings has slowed
component sales to the intermodal
tank sector and most of the equipment
manufacturers report that
road tankers now represent the
most dynamic sector of their business
portfolios. The lull in the
intermodal tank market is enabling
manufacturers of valves,
manways, couplings, seals, bursting
discs and other ancillary
equipment to round out their
range of products provided for
road tankers. Examples of this are
Perolo’s use of special metal alloys
and fluoropolymer coatings in a
new range of components for
tankers dedicated to the carriage
of corrosive products and Fort
Vale’s new range of equipment for
dry bulk tankers and tippers.
The current trend is but one
more example of how tank equipment
manufacturers continue to
innovate and bring improved
efficiencies and levels of safety to
the handling of bulk liquids, solids
and gases.
The global drive for the standardisation
of components continues,
but there are limits to what
can be achieved due to the proliferation
of products to be carried,
the varying needs of the different
market sectors and, for road tankers
particularly, the large number
of national design codes and sets
of regulations that are applicable
worldwide.
Furthermore, it is important
that the standards governing the
“acceptable condition” of tank
containers for use in the global
market allow scope for technological
advances and changes to
the design of the transport unit
itself. It is accepted that the variable
needs of the many different
market sectors can be catered for
with minor changes to standard
equipment.
Mobile Truchot
Established in 1956, Truchot
Laurens has been engaged in the
supply of specialist valves in stainless
steel and noble metals for the
chemical industry for most of its
existence. The supply of valves for
use in tough and precision applications
has led, in more recent
years, to the development of specially
adapted control valves for
the cryogenics industry.
About 18 months ago, the
French company completed a full
review of its range of cryogenic
products, an exercise which resulted
not only in a revamped
portfolio of standardised equipment,
but also the realisation that
part of its product range, after appropriate
development work, was
competitive with and often technically
superior to existing equipment
used in other sectors.
“One result of the review has
been the entry of Truchot Laurens
into the transport sector, thanks to
the development of the PEC50
sampling ball valve series for road
tankers,” said Fabien Le Goascoz,
the company’s export area man-
ager. “Development of the PEC50
system stemmed originally from
the enquiry of a major international
chemical company. However,
we quickly realised the advantages
of our concept in a wide
range of applications and decided
to standardise the equipment to
enable an industry-wide launch.”
The new design enables representative
samples of liquid to be
taken directly from the tank at
ground level without the cargo
coming into contact with the atmosphere
because a 100 per cent
degree of tightness is maintained.
The valve does not, therefore, jeopardise
the safety of the operator,
people in the vicinity, the environment
or the tank itself. The valves
can be adapted to any end fitting
utilised on tankers.
Truchot Laurens has also developed
valves for use with tanks used
to transport liquefied gases such as
hydrogen and nitrogen. With growing
emphasis on the development
of fuel cells and the need for hydrogen
for such cells, the company
is confident of a strong growth in
this market in the years ahead. Furthermore,
growing use of the industrial
air gases - nitrogen, oxygen
and argon - in countries like
China and India bodes well for the
cryogenic valve market.
Progressive brackets
For UK-based Progressive Engineering,
and its involvement in the
tank container sector, the most
important current development is
the implementation on October
1, 2004 of Title 49 of the US Code
of Federal Regulations (CFR 49)
Section 178.345-11. This provision
addresses the automatic closing
of tank container discharge
valves in the event of fire.
Early in 2004, Progressive was
granted US Patent No 6769448
for its thermally activated cartridge,
which enables compliance
with this US regulation at the
point of discharge.
During 2003 design staff at
Progressive Engineering examined
many different tank container
discharge control systems. The initial
study indicated that a wide
variety of mounting bracket designs
would be required to accommodate
the range of discharge
control systems. Since then, however,
as a result of technical assistance
provided by United Transport
Tankcontainers and Suttons
International, it has been concluded
that only three basic
bracket types are now required, all
of which can be fitted without
compromising seal integrity. The
three designs have been developed
by Progressive to accommodate its
valve-closing cartridge.
“Bracket A can be installed by
simply removing the operating
handle and sliding onto the valve
shaft,” explained John Williams of
Progressive Engineering. “The
handle can then be replaced and
the thermal cartridge set so that
the valve over-travel beyond centre
is limited. This is an important
factor for valves that have been in
service for many years and are
worn. This bracket is suitable for
all Marsden and Highlift-type
valve systems.
“Bracket B is designated for use
with the early Fort Vale Clean Flow
valves on which the operating handle
fulcrum is welded to the vertical
flange. All that is required for
installation is the removal of the two
countersunk screws that retain the
Z bracket, which is then replaced
with the cartridge bracket.
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September 2004

TANK CONTAINERS
WorldCargo
news
The new Pennine manway from Fort Vale is
aimed primarily at road tankers rated at lower
working pressures
“Bracket C provides protection for the
current Clean Flow valves in either the 30
or 45 degree configurations and is as simple
to fit as the type B unit,” Williams said.
Progressive Engineering has designed
all three brackets in such a way that they
can be installed in the field even if the
tank is loaded, as no welding is required
nor is there a need to remove any flange
bolts. The company reports that it has
the capability to supply the retrofit requirements
of the entire fleet of tanks
that will be impacted by this new regulation.
It also believes that it has come
up with a simple, effective solution to
the challenge posed by the new US requirement
and will be on the lookout
for copycat designs.
“We will be monitoring the marketplace
carefully and if any other manufacturer’s
thermal device is deemed to contravene
Progressive’s patent on entry into
or sale within the USA, we are prepared
to take appropriate and immediate action,”
Williams said.
There has been increasing pressure
within the road tanker sector to reduce
the presence of personnel on the top of
tanks to a minimum. Progressive Engineering
has responded by developing two
remote control pneumatic primary internal
plug valves. One of the valves is designed
for use with corrosive chemicals,
while the second is a stainless steel, general-purpose
actuator to replace older,
screw-down type valves.
“We have seen a gradual increase in
demand for our pneumatic plug valve
actuators, especially the stainless steel version,”
Williams. said “In addition, we are
currently developing and testing a new
type of sampling valve fitted direct to the
tank barrel for ground operation. This device
is being designed to comply with the
applicable ADR / RID requirements governing
the transport of dangerous goods.”
Fort Vale on the road
Fort Vale Engineering Ltd is a name synonymous
with tank components. Approximately
55 per cent of its business activities
derives from the tank container sector and
30 per cent from road tankers. The company
reports that revenues for the year to
date are marginally ahead of those generated
over the same period in 2003, the rise
being due to an increase in market share
and moderate market growth.
“Of the two sectors, our road tanker
business is currently showing the stronger
growth,” said Liz Shapland of Fort Vale’s
marketing department. “We have invested
heavily in developing new products for
road tankers and refining our existing
product range for several industry sectors.
Also, sales activities in Europe have been
restructured to strengthen the company’s
market penetration and its after-sales support
network.”
Amongst the new equipment developed
by Fort Vale for the road tanker market
is the 500mm diameter Pennine
manway. Specifically designed for road
tankers with a mean average working pressure
(MAWP) of 2.67 bar, the unit features
double-skin construction and no internal
welds, thus ensuring optimum cleanliness,
inherent strength and good heat insulation
properties. It is lighter in weight and lower
in cost than existing 3 and 4 bar manways,
yet retains the technical advantages of
higher pressure versions.
Stainless on stainless galling has been
a traditional problem in relation to the
fixing nuts for manways. Fort Vale has
tackled the problem with the introduction
of a new anti-galling handnut. It is
of cast stainless steel construction and features
not only an integral brass threaded
boss but also a stainless steel “thrust
washer.” The anti-wear properties of such
a washer have already been proven on Fort
Vale’s existing handnuts.
Fort Vale reports that field trials with
the anti-galling handnut indicate a high
level of satisfaction. Development work
with the aim of producing a low-profile
version is getting underway.
The Nelson, Lancashire-based company
is also ready to launch its new range
of screwdown discharge valves. Compared
to existing screwdown valves, the new
devices have the advantages of being lower
in price and lighter in weight as well as
offering better sealing characteristics.
Dry bulk play
Following two years of research and development,
Fort Vale has also launched a
new range of equipment for dry bulk
tankers and tippers. The company has
been supplying its 901 series of blower
relief valve to the dry bulk market for over
20 years and has built upon this experience
in developing its third generation,
1in BSP blower relief valve.
The new valve is of a more compact
design than its predecessor, yet boasts a
higher flow rate. Compared with Fort Vale’s
existing 901 series valve, the new unit has
The Fort Vale 902 series blower relief valve
for dry bulk tanks
September 2004 53

WorldCargo
news
TANK CONTAINERS
a profile which is 72 mm lower and
a weight 1.5 kg lighter. The latest
valve is fully compliant with Modules
B and D of the European
Union’s Pressure Equipment Directive
and may be supplied with
the CE mark as well as being accredited
with BSI approval.
Supplied with a pre-set spring
pod, the valve incorporates an
anti-tamper feature, which allows
the visual inspection and cleaning
of the seal area without the need
for complete disassembly of the
valve. All contact parts are manufactured
in brass with a silicone
seal fitted as standard. An optional
stainless steel cowl is available.
The new blower relief valve
fits onto the company’s 220 series
manifold and filter assembly,
which can be made available in
various configurations with
standard connections to accept
relief valves, gauges, control valves
and hose connections, whilst incorporating
the industry-standard
filter system.
Fort Vale has also designed a
special manifold/filter assembly
which, uniquely, allows filtration
of the incoming air supply from
the plant or terminal. The extended
filter may be accessed and
removed from the 100mm DIN
11851 connection without the
need to dismantle the manifold
assembly.
Another new piece of equipment
from Fort Vale for dry bulk
tankers and tippers is a rear
manway door/fluidising cone fitted
with its 676 series, 2in, BSPM
non-return valve. The rigid door
is manufactured in 316 stainless
steel which, says Fort Valve, offers
a more robust construction and a
higher degree of abrasion resistance
than doors manufactured in
aluminium. The design is approved
by Lloyd’s Register and can be
supplied with all the relevant
documentation required for inclusion
in the CE approval package
for the tanker.
Fort Vale has also added to its
wide range of equipment for tank
containers, with non-refrigerated
gas tanks being the focus of particular
attention over the past year.
Refinements to the Fort Vale series
of gas footvalves have resulted
in improved CV values, whilst
maintaining the inherent excess
flow characteristics of the series.
In addition, the company’s gas
tank relief valves have undergone
a programme of full flow testing
to ensure that safety requirements
are being met.
Perolo business “as is”
The acquisition of parent company
Syltone plc by Gardner Denver Inc
of Quincy, Illinois, earlier this year
has not had much impact on Perolo
SA and its tank component manufacturing
activities. Although the
Syltone sales offices have all been
reconstituted as Gardner Denver
offices, the group brand names like
Perolo and Emco Wheaton have
all been retained, and business has
continued uninterrupted.
Tank containers have accounted
for a steady 35 per cent of
Perolo turnover for several years,
while road tankers, which represent
some 10 per cent of business
activity, has been the most dynamic
sector over the past year.
“The supply of equipment for
road tankers is increasing due to
the expansion of our product
range, not least with the addition
of equipment designed for work
in corrosive environments,” said
Jean-Louis Otto, sales manager at
Perolo. “For example, we have utilised
special metal alloys and
Chemflow pneumatic footvalve from
Perolo for installation on 3 bar working
pressure swap tanks
fluoropolymer coatings in the
manufacture of components for a
number of new tanks dedicated to
the carriage of corrosive Class 8
dangerous cargoes.
“Overall, our commercial results
so far in 2004 have been better
than those for the equivalent
period in 2003. We attribute this
to a steady increase in business from
the petroleum road tanker market,
and from diversification,” Otto said.
New Perolo equipment for the
tank container sector includes a
range of dedicated equipment for
3 bar working pressure swap tanks.
This includes a 3in GDI high-flow
performance safety relief valve, a 2in
vacuum valve, a 12in low-profile
manlid and 3in and 4in Chemflow
pneumatic footvalves with cylinders
on the side and bottom.
Reefer moves
Klinge Corporation continues to
develop its range of specialist machinery
for tank containers engaged
in the carriage of products requiring
close temperature control.
The company recently introduced
its new model NMG-112
front-mounted, tank refrigeration
genset. On tank containers, the
genset is positioned under and
powers Klinge’s TCR-104 type refrigeration
unit. “The TCR-104
has now been in production for
nine years,” said Klinge president
Henrik Klinge, “and the industry
acknowledges the unit for its design
which, while being compact,
still provides plenty of capacity.”
The new genset complements
the company’s existing NMG-115
self-contained genset which is used
to power the TCR 262 nosemounted,
dual refrigeration system.
The backup capability of this refrigeration
unit provides a 100 per
cent level of redundancy which is
deemed to be of critical importance
for some hazardous cargoes. The
two independent, microprocessorbased
thermostats that control and
monitor the cargo temperature also
raise visual, audible and remote
alarms if the required cargo parameters
are not being met.
Klinge’s range also includes
side-mounted reefer units. All are
designed to both heat and cool the
tank’s cargo by circulating either
brine or synthetic oil around the
tank’s external cooling coils. ❏
GCS cleans up
with Cleanpack
The Cleanpack installation at Vos
Logistics’ Nuth depot was prefabricated
in two modified 20ft containers
Netherlands-based Gröninger
Cleaning Systems BV (GCS) has
launched Cleanpack, a new highpressure
cleaning unit designed for
use in stationary high-pressure
cleaning systems and particularly
suitable as a feeding unit for tank
container and road tanker cleaning
installations.
The Cleanpack consists of a
robust box frame made of stainless
or specially coated steel. Depending
on required water capacity,
the lower part of the frame
holds up to four high-pressure
(piston or centrifugal) pumps,
which are fed with cold, preheated
or hot (demineralised) water.
Stainless steel high-pressure heat
exchangers on top of the frame
can increase the feeding water
temperature up to 90degC in order
to meet customers’ cleaning
requirements.
Cleaning agents are fed into either
the low or, via injectors,
high-pressure end of the system
through very precise stainless steel
dosing pumps. The side of the
frame holds three control panels
for power distribution, PLC control
and instrumentation.
The whole cleaning system,
including the management of
(customer specific) washing programmes,
the surrounding infrastructure
and the supply of detergents
or other cleaning agents, is
controlled by the PLC. Special
tank cleaning registration software
(TRS) is an optional extra.
According to GCS, this PLC/
PC combination offers a management
tool that enforces tank cleaning
according to predetermined
standards. Washing programmes can
be selected based on the previous
cargo carried by the tank or on
end-user requirements. The system
also provides tracking and tracing
and cleaning certificates.
A number of Cleanpack systems
have already been successfully installed
in GCS’s north west European
home market. Key benefits are
claimed to be quality, robustness,
ease of maintenance and operational
reliability. Other important
advantages are the limited space requirements
and the fact that the system
can be prefabricated, thereby
saving on-site installation costs and
creating opportunities to ship and
quickly install complete systems in
overseas markets.
A complete tank truck cleaning
unit was recently installed
within several weeks at Vos Logistics’
Nuth depot in the Netherlands.
The installation was prefabricated
in two modified 20ft containers,
one holding the Cleanpack
and the other the steam boiler.
On-site, two container-sized
buffer tanks for cold and preheated
water were placed on top
of the other two containers.
The Cleanpack unit also included
a special feeding pump for
a spray-gun system and a jockey
pump, securing constant pressure in
the systems at all times, which improves
the working life of both the
pumps and heat exchangers. ❏
54
September 2004

HAZCHEM
Chemion opens Leverkusen
chemical logistics centre
Bayer subsidiary Chemion Logistik
GmbH has commissioned a new
intermodal container terminal in
Leverkusen’s Chemical Park. The facility,
which has an annual capacity
of 10,000 TEU on the basis of oneshift
operation, has doubled the logistics
service provider’s storage capabilities
and positioned the company
as one of the key suppliers of storage
space for hazardous goods tank and
freight containers in Germany.
Strategically located in close proximity
not only to chemical production and
processing facilities, but also tank wash and
repair stations, the new complex is open
for third party business, thus enabling
overseas and inland shipping companies
to deliver containers directly to their destination
at the Leverkusen Chemical Park.
The additional costs and time penalties
associated with having to search out and
utilise intermediate storage and handling
facilities away from the Leverkusen
chemical industry zone are thus avoided.
The site has good connections to the
major road and rail networks in the vicinity,
while the infrastructure within the
chemical park also enables Chemion to
provide customers with a waterway transport
option.
Safety first
“Because there are relatively few facilities
along the Rhine approved for the storage
of hazardous goods, we decided to
invest in the highest standards of safety at
our new terminal in order to provide this
capability,” said Jürgen Sommer, CEO of
Chemion Logistik GmbH. “Amongst
other capabilities, the new terminal is fully
compliant with the requirements of the
German Emission Protection Law.”
The new installation occupies an area
of 6300 m 2 . Two specialised storage areas
have have been provided at the northern
and southern ends of the premises and
the zones are separated into sections for
flammable and non-flammable materials,
equipped as appropriate.
The use of an innovative “lined tub”
design approach at the new container terminal,
as an alternative to traditional concrete
flooring, ensures that waste and rainwater
run-off is directed to special catchment
basins and cannot escape. Any leakages
of harmful products can be neutralised
and collected in the basins.
Containers can be stacked four high
in the five rows in each of the storage
areas. by a remote-controlled, 40 tonne
gantry crane, while a container mover is
used to shift units around the yard. Control
of these operations is exercised from
Chemion’s central container control station,
where, storage space is assigned and
every entry and exit is registered.
The facility is able to store a total of
340 standard 20ft tank or freight containers
and virtually all hazardous materials can
be accommodated. If required, containers
can be reloaded as well as stored at the site.
The terminal is highly automated,
with all transactions, equipment location
and status monitoring, wastewater analysis
and data storage and retrieval being
handled electronically.
Safety back-up at the facility includes
an early warning fire protection system,
complete with links to the site fire brigade’s
control centre, and regular, personalised
inspections of the storage areas,
during which each container is tested.
Independent operation
Bayer AG established Chemion as a fully
independent subsidiary in July 2001 to
provide third party logistics services and
today it is part of Bayer Industry Services
GmbH. The company provides chemical
logistics services to a wide range of customers
from Bayer’s manufacturing facilities
in Leverkusen, Dormagen and
Krefeld-Uerdingen.
The logistics services on offer include
storage, transport, disposal, training and
equipment procurement. One specific
area of expertise is the management of
shorthaul rail traffic, not only on a regional
basis but also within industrial sites.
Chemion’s rail expertise is available to
both companies inside the Bayer chemical
parks and external customers. It covers
shunting, loading, discharge, expedited
handling and full management of industrial
site railway operations. Also, route
options can be arranged at short notice
and the necessary transport equipment
and services provided.
Since early 2004 the company has
operated a weekday rail shuttle service,
connecting the chemical parks of
Leverkusen, Dormagen, and Uerdingen.
The shuttle enables the companies in the
parks to use the rail option instead of road
when moving large volumes of cargo on
a regular basis. ❏
Chemion’s new hazardous cargo terminal in
Leverkusen is up and running
WorldCargo
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September 2004 55