Deurganck Dock News

Port of Antwerp reached a new milestone with the introduction of a fully automatic sounding boat that employs unique technology. The vessel, named the Echodrone, is a prototype that is currently being developed to supplement the other operational sounding boat, the Echo.Both of these carry out measurements of the water depth everywhere in the port so as to guarantee safe passage for shipping. The cloud-based technology – a first – has been developed in partnership between the Port Authority and dotOcean and is only one of the many initiatives being taken by the Port Authority in the field of digital innovation.A press release said that innovation is a powerful response to today's fast-changing world and so is a main component of the future vision of Antwerp Port Authority.

Port of Antwerp has reached a new milestone with the introduction of a fully automatic sounding boat that employs unique technology. The vessel, named the Echodrone, is a prototype that is currently being developed to supplement the other operational sounding boat, the Echo.Both of these carry out measurements of the water depth everywhere in the port so as to guarantee safe passage for shipping. The cloud-based technology – a first – has been developed in partnership between the Port Authority and dotOcean and is only one of the many initiatives being taken by the Port Authority in the field of digital innovation.Innovation is a powerful response to today's fast-changing world and so is a main component of the future vision of Antwerp Port Authority.

With an annual freight volume of nearly 9 million TEU the Deurganck dock is by far the main centre of container handling in the port of Antwerp. But this tidal dock on the left bank of the Scheldt is also well on the way to becoming a hotspot for innovation. Thanks to a “smart quay” and an automatic sounding boat, shipping operations and berth maintenance in Antwerp’s largest dock will become a good deal more efficient. “The smart quay will enable us to make more efficient use of the berths available in the dock. And the automatic sounding boat will also make berth management more effective and pro-active, with the emphasis on prevention rather than cure,” explains Piet Opstaele, Innovation Enablement Manager for the Port Authority.

One year after the introduction of the rail shuttle between Antwerp and Metz, the intermodal logistics operator Multi-Modal Rail (MMR) has doubled the frequency. As of the middle of January the Dutch-French company provides a second weekly container shuttle. This increased frequency offers shippers the ideal connection to deepsea services in the port of Antwerp, for their import and export consignments in the Alsace-Lorraine region. The shuttle leaves on Monday and Wednesday from Antwerp Main Hub and arrives the following day at the MMS terminal in Metz. "If there is sufficient market demand we will raise the frequency still further, to three times per week," declared MMR general manager Benjamin Hotter.

The Madrid Maersk, the largest container carrier ever to call at the port of Antwerp, moored in the Deurganck dock on 9 June. This record-breaking ship with a capacity of 20,568 TEU unloaded 3,000 containers and loaded another 4,000 in the port of Antwerp in just 48 hours, thus setting a new milestone in the history of the port. Check out the video clip here to experience the atmosphere of the event and how we all welcomed this giant of the seas. The Madrid Maersk is the first in a series of 11 new ships in the second generation of Triple E vessels being built for the Danish shipping company Maersk Line. Triple E stands for Efficiency, Economy of scale and Environmentally improved, with the second generation scoring even better than the first in all three aspects.

A new record was set in the Deurganck dock in the port of Antwerp Friday morning, June 9, when the Madrid Maersk moored there for the first time. With a length of 399 metres and a capacity of 20,568 TEU it is the largest container ship ever to call at the port. The Madrid Maersk will remain in Antwerp until Sunday, June 11, 2017. During its stay 300 dockers will work non-stop to load and unload 7,000 containers. After the call in Antwerp the ship, which forms part of the Maersk Line’s AE2 service, will set sail for Rotterdam. The Madrid Maersk belongs to the second generation of Triple-E ships operated by the Danish shipping company Maersk Line. In comparison with the first generation of Triple-E ships, these giant container carriers can take up to 2,000 more containers.

The rail operator H&S Container Line is introducing an additional round trip between Andernach in Germany and the two container terminals in the Deurganck dock in the port of Antwerp. H&S already operates on this route, but is raising the frequency to twice per week thanks to financial support from Antwerp Port Authority. The support offered to H&S Container Line is the result of a Call for Proposals (CfP) launched in October last year by the Port Authority to attract projects for improving the rail connectivity between Antwerp on the one hand and the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions on the other. In addition to H&S Container Line several other operators also submitted projects, but not all of them met the conditions for financial support.

Trucks coming to load or unload containers in the Deurganck dock in the port of Antwerp will also be able to call at night as of 20 March. The container terminals MSC PSA European Terminal (MPET) and DP World Antwerp Gateway, both located in the Deurganck dock, are due to extend their opening hours so that fetching or delivering containers by truck can carry on around the clock on weekdays. With this measure the operators seek to spread the flow of trucks on their terminals more efficiently. Thanks to the extended working hours, quays 1700 (Antwerp Gateway) and 1742 (MPET) – the largest container terminals in the port of Antwerp – will be open non-stop from 0500 hours (Antwerp Gateway) and 0530 (MPET) on Monday morning to 0530 on Saturday morning.

The Belgian dredging, environmental and engineering group DEME relies on the accuracy and reliability of the AsteRx family of precise GNSS positioning solutions from Septentrio. DEME is using Septentrio’s AsteRx GNSS receivers to obtain centimetre-level accuracy for all their dredging and marine construction operations worldwide. These receivers are specifically designed to operate in difficult conditions: from ice-covered Arctic ports to the tropical climates of Southeast Asia; whether dredging a few metres from the coast line to constructing wind turbines kilometres out at sea. DEME began using Septentrio’s solutions over 10 years ago.

An Iranian oil tanker has called at a European port for the first time since the lifting of sanctions last January, IRNA news agency reported quoting Sirous Kianersi,  managing director of the National Iranian Tankers Company (NITC). Sirous said that the first NITC tanker leased to a major Spanish oil company docked at the Port of Algeciras just recently. More NITC tankers are heading to other European ports, he said, adding two vessels are currently en route to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the Financial Tribune Daily said that The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) is launching a new service that will connect Iran to the French port of Le Havre.

Massive investments in the port of Antwerp are coming in the next few years. The SEA-Invest group is planning construction of a new tanker terminal in the Delwaide dock representing an investment of 250 million euros. In the same dock the group will also operate an independent container terminal that it has acquired from Independent Maritime Terminal (IMT). This facility is currently located in the Hansa dock but will be moved to the Delwaide dock where there is space for further development with an additional investment of 50 million euros. Other new activities not directly related to the waterfront will help to reutilise the space released in the Delwaide dock. In the meantime a location has been found for the Houston-based international terminal operator Zenith Energy.

The Iranian shipping company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) called at the port of Antwerp with one of its ships this week, for the first time since economic sanctions were lifted. The honour of being the “first” Iranian ship in Antwerp’s waters fell to the container carrier Azargoun which moored at the Antwerp Gateway terminal in the Deurganck dock. A deputation of representatives from the Port Authority, the ship’s agent PWL and the terminal operator went on board to welcome the ship’s master and crew. Up until 2010 Antwerp was the main European port destination for Iranian cargo. Now that sanctions against Iran have been lifted, the Port Authority is eager to restore economic relations with that country.

The Eleonora Maersk container carrier (15,500 TEU) entered the port of Antwerp on Thursday morning with a record draught of 15.65 metres, thus breaking the previous record of 15.50 m. With this new milestone the port of Antwerp once again demonstrates that it is perfectly accessible even for the very largest container carriers in the world. In the Deurganck dock, where the ship is moored, more than 5,000 container movements have been carried out, including 4,300 unloading operations. The vessel is due to leave the port around 1400 hours and then head to Bremerhaven. The Eleonora Maersk forms part of the AE2 Service operated by the 2M Vessel Sharing Agreement between Maersk Line and MSC linking the Far East and Europe.

The European Commission said on Friday it had opened an in-depth investigation into alleged state aid to two container terminal operators in Europe's second busiest port, Antwerp in Belgium. The Commission said concession agreements for PSA Antwerp NV and Antwerp Gateway NV contained a requirement for the handling of a minimum tonnage. The two did not reach this between 2009 and 2012, meaning they would have to pay compensation to the publicly-owned port authority. However, the Antwerp Port Authority decided in 2013 to reduce the minimum tonnage retroactively, reducing the compensation to be paid by some 80 percent. The Commission said…

The port of Antwerp is set to achieve a freight volume of more than 200 million tonnes for the first time ever in 2015. When it comes to containers Antwerp is performing extremely well this year: with expected growth of almost 8% it will easily pass the milestone of 9 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units, i.e. standard containers) for the first time in its history. About half of the container volume is currently handled in the port area on the Right bank of the Scheldt, but once the Swiss shipping company MSC transfers its operations to the Deurganck dock then the Left bank will inevitably become the main focus of container handling in Antwerp.

The port of Antwerp handled 104,529,242 tonnes of freight in the first six months of this year, up 6.4% on the same period last year. The strong performance during the half year was mainly due to the impressive growth in container freight (up 9.5% in TEU and 7.4% in tonnage) and in liquid bulk (also up 7.4%). However, the conventional breakbulk volume lagged behind the overall growth. The container volume expressed as the number of standard boxes handled (twenty-foot equivalent units) rose by 9.5% during the first six months, to 4,836,243 TEU. Expressed in tonnes it amounted to 57,501,825 tonnes (up 7.4%). The formation of an alliance between several container shipping companies has clearly acted in favour of Antwerp.

The Port of Antwerp and duisport are intensifying their cooperation as the Port of Antwerp will participate in the existing rail shuttle service connecting the two ports. The direct rail connection from Duisburg to Antwerp was set up by the duisport Group in 2006 under difficult competitive conditions with regard to road and inland waterway transport. The decision by the Port of Antwerp to participate in the rail link underlines the commitment of both ports to further develop this important European logistic corridor. Since the beginning of this year duisport agency GmbH (dpa), a subsidiary of Duisburger Hafen AG, has offered a direct daily departure by rail to Duisburg from a deepsea quay (Q1700) in the Port of Antwerp.

With growth of 5.9% the port of Antwerp has got off to a strong start in 2015. In terms of container handling (in TEU) Antwerp even achieved growth of 9.5% in the first three months of this year. The 2M alliance of MSC and Maersk which last year opted resolutely for Antwerp is of course not unconnected with these growth figures. During the next few months preparations will be finalised for transfering the activities of the MSC shipping company – currently operating in the Delwaide dock on the right bank area of the port – to the Deurganck dock on the left bank of the Scheldt. This dock with its annual capacity of 11 million TEU will enable MSC to further develop its activities.

The giant mural on one of the walls of the Deurganck dock lock has been completed. Graffiti artist Cazn took a total of 10 weeks to complete the 300 meter long and 9 metre high mural which starts with a desert landscape then merges into birds in a nature reserve followed by colourful fish, sharks, a mermaid, Neptune and ships in the port, all along the inside wall of the lock. The mural will remain visible from the control tower, although some of it will disappear under water from time to time depending on the state of the tide. In the meantime preparations are being made on the construction site to start filling the lock with water on 27 April.

Antwerp Gateway, managed by DP World (one of the largest container terminal operators in the world) is a significant contributor to the success of the Port of Antwerp. Eddy Bruyninckx, CEO of the Antwerp Port Authority, met with Mr. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and Mr. Mohammed Sharaf, respectively chairman and CEO of DP World, on Thursday during the Belgian mission to Dubai headed by HRH Princess Astrid. After the meeting both CEO’s took part in a lunch, in presence of HRH Princess Astrid. Already in 2014 the worldwide growth figures for DP World were extremely positive, with the total volume up 8.9% to 60 million TEU. The fact that a significant part of this growth was generated in the port of Antwerp…

The four gates for the Deurganck dock lock in the port of Antwerp will begin their journey from China at the beginning of April. The gigantic gates are being built by the Chinese steel constructor ZPMC, together with the trolleys on which the gates will ride, two combined road/rail bridges, the caisson and other items. A ceremony was held on Wednesday 18 March in the Chinese city of Changxing to mark the official completion of the construction work. The ceremony was attended by Freddy Aerts, head of the Maritime Access department (Flemish government), Luc Arnouts, director of the Deurganck Dock Lock Company and also Chief Commercial Office of the Port Authority, and Eric Beyts from the Waasland Lock construction consortium. Mr.

The MSC shipping company is to consolidate all its activities in the port of Antwerp in the Deurganck dock, on the left bank of the Scheldt. The Port Authority board of directors gave the go-ahead for the move on Monday evening. The transfer is necessary in order to permit further expansion by MSC in Antwerp. The shipping company announced at the end of last year that it wished to have a new location below the locks, not only because its present site in the Delwaide dock had reached saturation point but also because of the increasing size of the ships being introduced. The Deurganck dock was the obvious choice, as it is already used by the other members of the P3 alliance of which MSC forms part, and furthermore the alliance plans to make even greater use of it in future.

The construction of a sea lock in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium will be partly funded via the TEN-T Program. The project will receive €5 million in contribution to ensure that one of the bottlenecks currently restricting capacity at the port is removed. The aim of the project, which was selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call, is to build a sea lock in the Port of Antwerp, one of northern Europe’s busiest ports. The new lock will create a new connection between the tidal Deurganckdock and the non-tidal docks of Waaslandhaven. The dimensions of the new lock will be the same as those of the Berendrecht lock, located on the right bank of the Scheldt river, which is currently the biggest sea lock in the world.