Hutchison News

Dutch manufacturer Huisman has entered the port and logistics market with the order for series of automated stacking cranes (ACSs) from Hutchison Ports ECT Rotterdam (ECT).The ACSs will serve for the efficient handling and buffering of containers. The cranes feature a fully automated process for handling and buffering containers, providing a solution for enhanced operational efficiency, required for 24/7 operational time.The diversification in port automation underscores Huisman's…

China has called for an end to attacks on civilian vessels in the Red Sea that have dramatically widened the Hamas-Israel conflict and placed Beijing's commercial interests along the Suez Canal at risk.The Iran-backed Houthi militia from Yemen that seeks "Death to Israel" is challenging the ability of the world's biggest trading nation to defend billions in strategic investments in Egypt.Since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi came to power in 2014, China has stepped up its investment and commercial activities along Egypt's Suez Canal…

CK Hutchison Holdings port unit said on Thursday it would invest about $700 million in two major Egyptian ports, bringing its total investment in the country to more than $1.5 billion.Hutchison Ports said it would invest in the development of a new container terminal in the Red Sea port of Ain Sokhna, and in B100, a new container terminal in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria.In a separate statement, Cosco Shipping Ports Limited said it would invest 25% in the Sokhna New Container Terminal - a new terminal built by the Egyptian government.The operating period for the project is 30 years…

Montrose Port Authority says the port is set to become the first Scottish port to provide shore power infrastructure to the energy sector.To enable shore power to offshore energy industry vessels, the port has partnered with with Plug Shore Power Ltd in a 50/50 joint venture. The partnership will see an initial investment of £1 million into the joint venture which will be named Plug Montrose Ltd."Global shipping accounted for 833 million tonnes of CO2 in 2021. Currently only two British ports are equipped with shore power.

More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port, Felixstowe, have begun eight days of strike action that will cause disruption to trade and supply chains.The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis. read moreBelow is a look at Felixstowe's operations and the possible impact from the strike:How big is the port?About 48% of all containers brought into the UK are transported through the Felixstowe port…

More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis."Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK's supply chain…

The company that operates Britain's biggest container port, Felixstowe, said on Friday it believed its pay offer to workers was fair and it was disappointed strike action due to begin on Sunday had not been called off.More than 1,900 workers at Felixstowe represented by the Unite union plan eight days of strikes from Aug. 21 in a dispute over pay."The company is disappointed that Unite has not taken up our offer to call off the strike and come to the table for constructive discussions to find a resolution…

Staff at Britain's largest container port, Felixstowe, have voted in favor of strike action in a dispute over pay, the Unite union said on Thursday, warning of huge disruption across the supply chain.The dockworkers join a growing wave of employees, in a range of sectors from rail to telecoms, resorting to industrial action as pay rises fail to keep pace with inflation which is expected to hit double digits in Britain by the end of the year."Strike action would bring Felixstowe to a standstill and would cause major logistical problems for maritime and road haulage transport entering the port,"

Aberdeen-based Balmoral Comtec, part of Balmoral, has agreed to invest a seven-figure sum to create an advanced composites manufacturing facility on the quayside at Scotland's Montrose Port where large-scale components for the offshore energy sector will be built. The investment is initially expected to create 30-40 new jobs.To house the new facility, Balmoral has leased almost 1700sqm of warehouse space from Montrose Port Authority and will install machinery and equipment required to build and maneuver the massive parts destined for the North Sea and other energy markets.Tom Hutchison…

Oman's state-owned Asyad is considering buying ports and terminals abroad and could divest assets outside its core logistics business, such as a college and project management operation, its chief executive said on Thursday.The plans by the company, which is owned by the Oman Investment Authority, align with the small oil producing Gulf state's broader strategy to reduce reliance on crude revenues and expand its non-oil industries.Chief Executive Abdulrahman Salim Al Hatmi told…

Three Cuban-flagged tankers that are under U.S. sanctions for transporting Venezuelan oil to the Communist-run island have been serviced in the port of Veracruz on Mexico's Gulf coast, according to vessel tracking data and industry sources.The maintenance work on the vessels—one of which was serviced as recently as this month—is a potential breach of sanctions on Venezuela, two lawyers who specialize in U.S. sanctions said.However, the United States has in the past not brought enforcement actions against shipyards for doing work on blacklisted vessels from those countries, according to U.S. Treasury Department data.Under U.S. law, companies and individuals are prohibited from materially assisting sanctioned entities.

Broward County’s Port Everglades has appointed Ricardo D. Charlton, BSME, FSO, as its new Director of Operations.Port Everglades is a self-supporting enterprise fund of Broward County, Fla., generating more than $170 million in revenues in fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018 – September 1, 2019) and is ranked among the nation’s leading container ports and a world leader in the cruise industry.As Director of Operations, Charlton will oversee a workforce of 95 encompassing the Division’s Harbormaster Office…

This week, various parties in Rotterdam will be launching a new pilot project, in which containers are handled and released without a PIN code: a widely used verification method in this transport segment. The project revolves around a new application, Secure Container Release, which replaces the PIN code with a digital signal: a solution that is significantly less susceptible to fraud. It is not only intended to make container handling more efficient, but also safer. Participants in the three-month trial include CMA CGM…

The unloading of the final containership at the Frihamnen port in Stockholm marks the end of an era.The 1,349 TEU Dutch-flagged containership Essence unloaded the final cargo at Frihamnen on June 1, but the CTF container terminal will remain open until June 23 to allow customers to collect the last of their containers.Going forward, Stockholm's container cargoes will be redirected to the city's new freight port, Stockholm Norvik Port, which recently opened and is better equipped…

Unifeeder containership SCA Tunadal on Wednesday claimed the maiden call at Sweden’s newest freight port, Stockholm Norvik Port, following the completion of a long port construction project.The container terminal is now open, both for vessel calls and for shore-based business operations at the port. The 32 hectare container terminal is run by Hutchison Ports, one of the world’s largest container terminal operators, with 52 ports in 27 countries.Nine goods in 10 arrive in Sweden by sea, and the Stockholm region accounts for half of Sweden’s entire consumption.

Mammoet, a Dutch company specialized in engineered heavy lifting and transport of over-sized and heavy objects, said that its  team has successfully completed the second phase of the relocation of several shipping container cranes for Hutchison Ports ICAVE as part of a planned port expansion in Veracruz, Mexico.Mammoet used 56 axle lines of SPMT to transport two ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and ten rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGs). The completion of the crane relocations has increased the port’s capacity to more than 95 million tons. According to the company, the biggest challenge faced by the team was the execution of the moves during the ‘North Winds’, which are seasonal winds that hit the region regularly from November to February.

The Netherlands-based terminal operator APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Maersk Group, has signed a letter of intent for the sale of APM Terminals Rotterdam to Hutchison Ports, owner of the adjacent ECT Delta terminal.The complete transfer of shares is based on the agreement that, in the short term, APM Terminals Rotterdam will continue to exist as an independent organisation with a 5-year volume guarantee from parent company, A.P. Moller-Maersk and no forced redundancies within 4 years of signing the agreement.Under the ownership of Hutchison Ports, APM Terminals Rotterdam will have the opportunity to grow into a leading, modern, future…

Dublin-based SSE Renewables, a renewable energy subsidiary of Airtricity, has selected the port of Montrose on the east coast of Scotland to serve as the operations and maintenance (O&M) base for its 1100MW Seagreen offshore wind farm.Situated over 27km off the Angus coastline, Seagreen is the furthest from shore of any Scottish offshore wind farm and is expected to produce enough renewable energy to power over 40% of all households in Scotland. When completed, it will become Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm.John Hill, Seagreen Project Director, said: “The Operations and Maintenance base will play an important role in the day-to…

Ports are essential for the global supply chain - but do they need more international regulation?High-level speakers engaged in a lively debate at a joint Hutchison Ports, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) seminar (9 September), to address the question: "Do ports need international regulation?"IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim reminded the audience that the IMO Convention does give the Organization a mandate to regulate in ports and some current IMO regulations do indeed extend to port operations - for example those surrounding security, reception facilities and the Facilitation (FAL) Convention."However…

United Kingdom-based Montrose Port Authority has announced Captain Tom Hutchison as its new chief executive.Hutchison has held the position on an interim basis since his predecessor, Nik Scott-Gray stepped down in June.Capt Hutchison has been acting in an interim capacity running the Port. He has been Harbourmaster for the last four years but has a long association with the Port having started as a Pilot in 2000, and in addition, has been Operations Manager of the Montrose RNLI since 2014.Prior to that he served as Captain on various vessels operating around the UK and near continental market.As well as being appointed Chief Executive Officer, Capt Hutchison retains his role as Harbour Master.

The outlook for global container port demand is modest growth and numerous uncertainties, but in the face of this, capacity expansion plans are also muted, said the global shipping consultancy Drewry."This means that most world regions will see an increase in average terminal utilisation," said Drewry in its Global Container Terminal Operators Annual Review and Forecast 2019.Drewry’s container port demand forecast for the next five years is for global growth of 4.4% per annum on average, lifting world container port throughput from 784 million teu in 2018 to 973 million teu by 2023, an absolute increase of almost 190 million teu.The…

The provider of software-as-a-service based shipping and logistics solutions, CargoSmart has announced the official execution of the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) Services Agreement with shipping majors.According to a statement from the shipment management software company, CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping, COSCO Shipping Ports (CSP), Hapag-Lloyd, Hutchison Ports, OOCL, Port of Qingdao, PSA International and Shanghai International Port Group have signed up with it.As per the agreement, each signatory commits to provide resources to support preparatory work required to establish the GSBN, a not-for-profit joint venture to accelerate the digital transformation of the shipping industry.The preparatory work includes obtaining all necessary regulatory…

Canadian Québec Port Authority (QPA) has signed a long-term commercial agreement with Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports and Canadian National Railway (CN) to build and operate a new container terminal, known as project Laurentia.The agreement increases Hutchison Ports' global network to 52 ports spanning 27 countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Argentina, Mexico and Panama, said a press release.Hutchison Ports plays a strong role in the maritime industry worldwide and handles close to 85 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) per year, representing…