South Harbour News

Port of Aberdeen has stepped closer to becoming a strategic hub for floating offshore wind, with its proposed South Harbour upgrade project progressing to Stage 2 ‘priority’ status in the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) strategic investment model.The significant upgrade involves a capital dredge project to deepen 750 meters of quayside to  -14.5 meters chart datum, providing suitable depth for the majority of ScotWind and INTOG project turbine designs.Combined with South Harbour’s expansive laydown area and ultra heavy-lift capacity…

Britain's Princess Anne will on Friday officially open Port of Aberdeen’s £420 million South Harbor expansion project on Friday. The project is expected to catalyze a multi-billion-pound economic and job boost for Scotland.According to a press release issued by the port, independent analysis forecast that when the expanded Port of Aberdeen reaches its full potential the port’s Gross Value Added contribution will jump 60% to £2.4 billion and increase the number of jobs supported by 45% to 17…

Port of Aberdeen said Tuesday it had welcomed the first cruise ship into the "transformational" £400 million Aberdeen South Harbour expansion. The 203-meter-long AIDAaura, with a capacity for more than 1,200 guests, is the longest vessel to visit the Port of Aberdeen to date. The vessel arrived from Hamburg, Germany, for a full day visit as part of a Scottish cruise. The AIDAaura berthed on Castlegate Quay, and the guests were greeted by a 50-strong pipe band and Highland dancers from Robert Gordon’s College and ‘Welcome to Aberdeenshire’ volunteers.

Scotland's new First Minister Humza Yousaf and Just Transition Secretary Màiri McAllan this week visited Port of Aberdeen's £400 million South Harbour expansion.According to Port of Aberdeen, the duo heard firsthand how the port "supports Scotland's Just Transition and creates new opportunities in energy, trade, decarbonization, and tourism."Senior leaders from the port, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Energy Transition Zone and Opportunity North East met with Yousaf and McAllan to discuss the economic opportunities and challenges facing the region's key industries…

Port of Aberdeen has welcomed more than 100 vessels working on offshore wind projects to the port so far this year, including the latest arrival of the Blue Tern jack-up installation vessel.Owned by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier, the Blue Tern jack-up is a 151-meter-long, 50-meter-wide vessel equipped with an 800-ton crane, and has recently sailed into the new Aberdeen South Harbour.Roddy James, Chief Commercial Officer, Port of Aberdeen, said: “Offshore wind is our most significant opportunity for growth over the next decade.

The UK Government has granted Port of Aberdeen more than £200,000 in funding to accelerate the port’s drive to Net Zero by 2040.The ‘Port Zero’ feasibility study, which is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 2 (CMDC2), will analyse future port power demands, assess low carbon energy sources for equipment (e.g., cranes, tugs, pilot boats) and quayside infrastructure, and develop a roadmap to decarbonise port operations.The study – which is being delivered in partnership with Energy Systems Catapult…

More than 60% of the Port of Aberdeen's £400 million South Harbour development is now operational, marking the project's penultimate construction milestone, the port said in a statement on Thursday.The handover from construction to operations for Dunnottar, Crathes, and Castlegate (East) Quays was completed this week. Castlegate (West) is scheduled to open in December 2022, and the remaining Balmoral Quay will be brought into service in Q2 2023, making Aberdeen the largest berthage port in Scotland…

CessCon Decom,  a Scotland-based firm specializing in decommissioning of oil and gas structures, plans to launch a decommissioning hub at the Port of Aberdeen’s £400 million South Harbour expansion in Q3 2022, creating up to 50 new jobs.The new hub will be located within Crathes Quay at South Harbour and deliver dismantling, recycling, and reuse services with a key focus on subsea infrastructure. The jobs boost is expected over the next 12 months, and CessCon said it would be…

Aberdeen Harbour Board has awarded two new contracts for the construction of the South Breakwater and Crown Wall, with a total value of £60 million (USD 83,5 million)Dutch marine and offshore contractor Van Oord will act as the principal contractor for the 550-meter-long South Breakwater, and Scottish-based construction firm Beattie FRC will build the concrete Crown Wall along the length of the North Breakwater.Both structures will provide critical protection for vessels and operations within the Harbour expansion, ultimately protecting the port from a one-in-300-year storm.

A total of 40 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships (comprising 29 actual incidents and 11 attempted incidents) were reported in Asia during January-June 2018 compared to 47 incidents (comprising 40 actual incidents and seven attempted incidents) during January-June 2017.ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) in its Half-Yearly (January to June 2018) Report said that it was the lowest number of incidents reported among the 10-year reporting period of January-June of 2009-2018.This accounts for a 15% decrease in the number of incidents reported during January-June 2018 compared to January-June 2017. Of the 40 incidents reported during January-June 2018…

Container Corporation of India (Concor) has  formed a consortium with APM Terminals B.V., John Keells Holdings and Maersk Line in order to bid for the development of East Container Terminal in Colombo, reports Hindu Business Line. The total project value is likely to be about $550-600 million. The Colombo Port currently has four container terminals. In 2008, a new harbour basin, the Colombo South Harbour was developed to accommodate deep draft vessels and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) decided to develop four new terminals, each with a capacity of 2.4 million TEU’s (twenty-foot container equivalent unit - a measure used in container shipping) to cater to increasing demand.

Dubai-based DP World Group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem has held discussions with senior Philippines officials on trade and business opportunities. DP World is present in the Philippines through its stake in Asian Terminals Inc., which operates the modern South Harbour in Manila. ATI is the sole container terminal and multi-cargo port operator of South Harbour, the Philippines' key terminal in the country's biggest market providing services for containerised and non-containerised cargoes and passengers. The discussions revolved around the government's plans for development of the maritime sector, privatisation and efforts to develop infrastructure.

Terex Port Solutions (TPS) delivered a Terex Liftace 5-31 reach stacker to the north-east England based terminal, Port of Blyth, UK. The machine became operational at the south harbour of the North Sea port in December 2015. The cost effective, service friendly and ergonomic reach stacker will operate the twice weekly container service and stack yard. The machine will also be used for client port training purposes. With a wheelbase of 6,200 mm, the Terex Liftace 5-31 reach stacker offers a maximum load capacity of 45 t in the first container row and 31 t in the second container row. It features travel speeds up to 25 km/h and a maximum lifting speed of 0.45 m/s. The engine of the Liftace 5-31 reach stacker conforms to the EU Stage IV (EPA Tier 4 final) emission standard.

Hapag-Lloyd informs that the ongoing congestion in Manila has not improved. Consequently, the situation resulted in cumulative delays and build up of containers at the transshipment ports in Hong Kong, Kaohsiung and Singapore. In view of this, Hapag-Lloyd will temporarily halt booking acceptance for shipments destined to Manila North and South Harbour transshipped via Hong Kong, Kaohsiung or Singapore with immediate effect. Hapag-Lloyd will continue to closely monitor the situation and advise as the situation improves.

Lerwick Harbour is ready for an exciting week of sailing with the 2014 Fireball European Championships taking place at the port next week. As a warm-up to the main event, the Shetland Fireball Championships will be held this afternoon and tomorrow. 27 boats are expected to enter the European Championships with international crews arriving from the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Ireland as well as the UK mainland. A number of the entrants are local boats looking forward to racing in their home waters. The travelling boats have arrived on trailers via NorthLink Ferries together with two crewmembers for each boat, accompanied by friends and family. Keen competition is expected as well as renewal of friendships made in previous championships, including when last at Lerwick in 2003.

Cavotec wins major cable reel order for Sri Lanka container port. Cavotec has won a substantial order for power and spreader cable reels for ship-to shore (STS) container cranes from the world’s largest port equipment manufacturer ZPMC. This project will see Cavotec electrical power and spreader cable reels fitted to 12 STS cranes for the China Merchant container terminal in the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The cranes form an important element of the Colombo South Harbour Development Project, a $500-million initiative that is set to considerably enhance the capacity of Sri Lanka's main port. According to a report by the Xinhua news agency, the programme is the largest foreign direct investment project in Sri Lanka to date.