Thames Port News

Hutchison Ports London Thamesport’s growing reputation as a short-sea container hub has been further enhanced by Helsinki-based Containerships plc’s introduction of a second weekly service from Gdynia, Poland.Containerships has chosen the Kent based port for its second direct service to and from the southern part of the UK. The service offers regular and fast connections with Poland, with improved service and transit times from Gdynia of 3-4 days and 4-6 days for the return journey.Mark Taylor, on behalf of London Thamesport, said:  “We are delighted to welcome Containerships’ second weekly service to London Thamesport. Containerships’ port of choice reflects the growing interest we are seeing for short sea container services into London Thamesport.

Tilbury Port and the people that work there will play a major role in helping the UK to increase international trade after we leave the European Union.International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox visited Tilbury Port  to meet with port workers and management, as well as members of the Tilbury on the Thames Trust.Tilbury is the fastest growing port in the UK and a £1 billion investment programme will see the port employing 9,000 people by 2020, 3 times more than it did in 2012. One in 5 of the employed people in the local area of Thurrock will work at the port.This investment will see the amount of trade passing through the port reach 32 million tonnes each year…

Dutch-based transport company A2B-online Container B.V. has added a fourth weekly sailing on its service between Hutchison Ports London Thamesport and Moerdijk in The Netherlands. The new sailing is inaugurated today (18 April 2018) by the first call of the m.s. A2B Spirit (ex-Norfeeder), a Sietas 151 type 508 TEU container ship, the fourth of this class owned and operated by A2B. Commenting on the new sailing, Clemence Cheng, Executive Director Hutchison Ports, said:“London Thamesport offers its customers a service tailored to their specific demands. We are seeing a growing demand in the short-sea container market as a response to increasing labour shortages in the driver-accompanied market and uncertainty around Brexit.

London Thamesport has signed an agreement with UK shipping agent and logistics company The Armitt Group for a purpose-built, 120,000 square feet specialist steel handling facility at the Kent port. Construction of the first phase of 60,000 square feet is well underway. Once completed, the specialist facility will offer unparalleled multimodal connections for breakbulk cargo handled in the South East of England. The facility will allow the Armitt Group and its customers to take advantage of London Thamesport's deep-water berths and excellent rail and road links to London, the South East and beyond to the Midlands and North West. "We welcome this partnership with The Armitt Group at our London Thamesport facility.

Contrary to the views of some in the industry, Ultra Large Container Vessels are continuing to call at multiple North European ports per loop and are not concentrating on a mega-hub, according to Drewry’s latest Container Insight Weekly, excerpted here. Despite containerships doubling in size in the past 10 years on the Far East-North Europe route, there has not been a reduction in the number of North European ports called by each service. The average number of North European port calls per loop has remained broadly unchanged, at four per service string. As in the past, container services follow a traditional multi-port itinerary and call at about four separate North European ports.

Following Evergreen’s recent consolidation of its U.K. cargo handling needs at Felixstowe, the news that Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and NYK intend to switch their transatlantic services to Southampton will leave Thamesport with no deep sea services. Whilst a return of some deep sea traffic might occur, Thamesport appears to be the first casualty of the impending shake up in U.K. deep sea container ports brought about by the combination of bigger ships, larger alliances – and the new London Gateway terminal. U.K.

The World’s Longest established Fuel Injection equipment specialist’s ‘PB Asher’ joins forces with ‘Burgess Marine’ The UK’s largest independent Ship Repair Company to offer a complete solution for marine engine overhaul, repair & replacement. Ben Cross – MD at PB Asher says “We couldn’t be happier joining forces with Burgess Marine; It’s a logical move and will enable both companies to offer an improved service solution to existing and prospective customers. Burgess Marine is at the forefront of the specialised marine engineering industry…

Connection in US Port of Oakland, California / Initially a total of 15 Hapag-Lloyd ships receive environmentally-friendly technology / Intelligent, flexible solutions retrofitting existing fleet. With the arrival of the “Dallas Express” in the Port of Oakland in California, last weekend, Hapag-Lloyd has for the first time connected one of its ships to shore-based power. Shore Power (also known as “cold-ironing”) is a ship-to-shore connection that provides electrical power to the ship. By using this connection the auxiliary engines normally used to provide power on board can be switched off, reducing diesel and other air pollutant emissions from ships while they are at berth. Other ports around the world are also working on shore-based power systems.

Members of the G6 Alliance announced today that their groundbreaking cooperation in Asia-Europe container shipping will begin operation in the first week of March – one month ahead of schedule. “We are eager to roll out our competitive products to benefit customers by offering a comprehensive and increased coverage of 40 ports in the Asia-Europe market with more sailing frequency,” the members said in a statement. The G6 Alliance, serving the Asia-to-Europe-and-Mediterranean market was announced last December. The G6 Alliance members are the carriers in the Grand Alliance and New World Alliance: APL, Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Orient Overseas Container Line.

ROTTERDAM, 18 March 2011 – MOL is upgrading its current ARN product to a fixed day weekly service between Europe and West Africa, with excellent connections via Antwerp for Asian and North American cargo. The new service will launch from Hamburg on 6 April, calling Thamesport, Antwerp, Dakar (Senegal), Tin Can (Nigeria), Tema (Ghana), Antwerp, Hamburg. Abidjan will also be included in the schedule when the political situation in the Ivory Coast allows. “This reliable weekly service…

Evergreen Line will restructure its services on the U.S., Asia, Indian Sub continent and Europe routes to stabilize the ship schedules to ensure on-time performance and banker savings to meet the needs of the market and its own operations. The new routing will also extend the U.S. service scope to include Southeast Asia and the ISC. The AUS (Asia-United States) and service of CES (China-Europe Shuttle) will become the new pendulum service UAE (U.S. West Coast - Asia - Europe) and the existing CPS (China - South U.S. West Coast). The UAE service will employ 10 S-series and 3 E-series ships. The new CPS service will utilize two E-series and three UX-series vessels.

According to the Guardian Unlimited, the coastguard was sent to the aid of a large container ship that ran aground in the Dover Strait. The crew of the 90,465-ton German container vessel LT Cortesia contacted the Dover coastguard at 5am after running aground on the Varne Bank. The coastguard has sent the emergency tug Anglian Monarch to help the stranded ship and assess the options for salvaging it. The vessel was traveling through the strait from Thames port on its way to the Suez when it ran aground nine miles south of Dover harbor, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. None of the 27 people on board the stranded ship was injured, and its 42,785 tons of cargo is reported to be undamaged. The vessel is believed to be watertight. Source: Guardian Unlimited

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert C. Bonner and Italian Customs Director General Mario Andrea Guaiana announced the Port of Livorno as the 33rd operational Container Security Initiative (CSI) port. The stand-up of Livorno completes the expansion of the Container Security Initiative in Italy. CSI developed along the guidelines set forth in the declaration of principles signed in November 2002 between Commissioner Bonner and Italian Customs Director General Mario Andrea Guaiana. CSI has been operational at the ports of Genoa and LaSpezia since June 2003. Most recently, the port of Naples became operational on September 30, 2004, and the port of Gioia Tauro on October 29, 2004.

Altenwerder in Hamburg. Europe Express Service). Busan, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore and Rotterdam. takes 28 days. the Director of Hyundai Merchant Marine Deutschland GmbH, Jun Y. Hyundai Merchant Marine, welcomed the Hyundai Bangkok on February 27.

Hapag-Lloyd, which has so far focused mainly on East-West services, is expanding its African network by starting a service to South Africa in mid-October. “The southern and west regions of Africa represent an attractive market for container transport with considerable development potential. We will thus be serving all five continents for the first time in our company’s history,” commented Adolf Adrion, executive board member of Hapag-Lloyd AG, with reference to the start of a liner service linking Northern Europe with ports in South and West Africa. A total of four ships capable of carrying approx. 1,200 standard containers (TEU) and equipped with 200 reefer plugs will be deployed in the new fortnightly service.

Three million teus in 18 years. Maritime's Northern Service since it started operations in 1984. President, CP Ships with overall responsibility for Canada Maritime. "Just thinking about the variety of goods that will have been carried and the number of customers for which we have moved cargoes is quite remarkable. "Laid end-to-end, three million teus stretches nearly 11,250 miles, which is not far short of being half way round the world!" he added. Today, Canada Maritime's Northern Service offers three routings which all operate weekly through the Montreal Gateway. Thamesport, Antwerp and Le Havre; Route 2 links Montreal with Antwerp and Hamburg and Route 3 links Montreal with Liverpool.

making progress. The names for the vessels have also been released. 14th. Canmar Spirit. Spirit in late July 2003. wide and have a draught of 10.78 metres. with a service speed of 22 knots. in Canada Maritime's Northern Service. operate weekly through the Montreal Gateway. Hamburg and Route 3 links Montreal with Liverpool. in the St. Lawrence Co-ordinated Service (SLCS). age and celebrates 21 years of operation this year. will continue to market their services independently as competitors. been introduced into Canada Maritime's Northern Service. teu capacity entered service in 1996, followed by 2800 teu ships in 1998. responsibility for Canada Maritime. been used in the Canada Maritime fleet. retired last year after many years of reliable service.

Italia Marittima SpA (ITS) and Zim will launch a new weekly transatlantic service early August 2006. Designated the North Europe – US East Coast (NEC) service, it will link the North European ports of Antwerp, Hamburg and Liverpool with New York, Norfolk and Savannah. The new service will deploy four ships, each with a loading capacity of approximately 1,800 TEU. ITS will provide two ships, while Zim will contribute the other two ships. Antwerp – Hamburg – Liverpool – New York – Norfolk – Savannah. According to ITS, the NEC service will complement its slot allocation on the NUE service, an Evergreen-operated pendulum service linking North Europe, North America and Asia via the Panama Canal.

CP Ships Limited's division Canada Maritime, along with OOCL, its partner in the St Lawrence Coordinated Service (SLCS), has agreed to charter a fixed number of container slots to members of the CANEX consortium, Maersk Sealand, Mediterranean Shipping Company and P&O Nedlloyd, in the North America-Europe trade via Montreal. The two year agreement takes effect from January 2003. In addition, to improve operational efficiency, CANEX expects to move its existing service from its current Montreal marine terminal to CP Ships' Montreal Gateway Terminals. The move is expected during the first quarter 2003. Initially, slots will be taken on three SLCS 2800 teu ice-strengthened ships, Canmar Pride, Canmar Honour and OOCL Belgium which operate on Route 1 Montreal-Thamesport-Antwerp-Le Havre.

catalyst for a significant redeployment of tonnage in Canada Maritime's three different weekly services in the North America-Europe trade lane via the Montreal Gateway. Le Havre. Canada Maritime operates these vessels in the St. partnerships. route. September. transAtlantic. Route 2, displacing those vessels to Route 3. (ex-OOCL Canada), Cast Prominence (ex-Canmar Courage). and Cast Power will be deployed elsewhere within CP Ships services. Ships with overall responsibility for Canada Maritime. the industry as a whole. and make them available for Route 2 and Route 3. through Montreal. industrial heart of Canada and USA. the Northern Service," continued Mr Burrows.