Rail Services News

Over 500 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain's largest container ports, have launched a two-week strike over pay, the Unite trade union said on Tuesday, adding to a wave of industrial unrest caused by soaring inflation.The Liverpool strike from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3, which was announced earlier this month, will overlap a second walkout by workers at Felixstowe, Britain's top container port, which starts on Sept. 27.More than 560 port operatives and maintenance engineers…

Samskip has responded to growing demand for its recently launched weekly container service between Dublin and Amsterdam by introducing a larger, faster ship and adding a call at Port of Waterford. The expansion comes less than five months after the debut of Amsterdam as a service separate from Samskip’s Rotterdam-Ireland links. “We have experienced strong uptake for the direct route into Amsterdam’s network of rail, road and barge connections to major EU markets,” said Thijs Goumans, Head of Ireland Trade, Samskip.

DP World announce Tuesday it has finished integrating its recent acquisitions Unifeeder and Feedertech, creating a feedering and shortsea network serving hundreds of ports across the globe.Unifeeder, which recently acquired Feedertech, operates feeder and shortsea services around northern Europe and throughout the Mediterranean and Northern Africa regions. Feedertech provides similar services connecting ports in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. The…

Brazil's Itaqui port, from where more than 10% of the country's soybeans were exported in 2019, has not been affected by lockdown measures imposed this week in Maranhão state, said Ted Lago, the port's president, on Thursday.Port activity is considered exempt from the order and personnel, rail services and trucks continue to have normal access, Lago said, adding that grain export volume is set to rise thanks to the resilience of the domestic farm sector. (Reporting by Ana Mano Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

A U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner said he sees some normalcy returning to trans-Pacific shipping amid widespread upheaval brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.Many Chinese manufacturing and logistics services have been severely hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in some cases forcing ocean carriers to cancel services to and from China and the U.S.The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) said it has been monitoring levels of blanked sailings and conferring with ocean carrier representatives about levels of service and the potential resumption of normal trade…

DHL Global Forwarding, the ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, is introducing the fastest rail freight connection between China and Germany in response to growing demand for rail freight services between Europe and Asia.The new rail service, operating between Xi’an in China and Hamburg and Neuss in Germany, has been set up in cooperation with Xi’an International Inland Port Investment & Development Group Co. Ltd. and is cutting transit time from 17 days to between 10 and 12 days.“We’ve seen a substantial increase in rail freight volumes along the ‘New Silk Road’ from China to Europe and vice versa,” states Thomas Kowitzki…

Europe's largest multimodal transport group by freight volume Samskip said it is fully prepared for a North Sea container traffic surge, as attitudes harden in the run up to October's revised Brexit deadline.The global logistics company offering transport and related services by land, sea, rail and air said in a release that UK exporters and importers to start switching away from trailers and towards containerisation very soon, repeating a trend established in the run-up to the original deadline for Brexit.“We saw a significant push in container volumes up to March 2019, especially into Hull, as decision-makers facing uncertainity opted for the reliability and proven procedures of container shipping,” says David Besseling, Samskip UK Trade Manager.

The rail freight company in the United Kingdom, GB Railfreight has launched a new intermodal rail freight service connecting the Port of Felixstowe with the Birch Coppice terminal in the Midlands.The first locomotive on the service left Birch Coppice at 14:14 on 23 January 2019 and arrived at Felixstowe at 20:14, having passed through Hams Hall, Leicester, Peterborough and Ipswich along the way. Made up of 33 platforms, the service transports a mixture of intermodal containers, and will initially run 5 days a week.Commenting on the new service, Clemence Cheng, Chief Executive Officer at the Port of Felixstowe and Executive Director of Hutchison Ports, said: "We are delighted to welcome this latest service offering from GB Railfreight.

European multimodal company Samskip Multimodal has launched Netherlands-Italy rail service that would bring multimodal benefits to Amsterdam.Officially launched on October 17, the connection sees trains depart from Melzo east of Milan three times a week, to be ready for unloading along 750m intermodal rail tracks inside TMA Logistics' Holland Cargo Terminal (HCT), Amsterdam 24 hours later.As well as avoiding the driver delays increasingly affecting European road transport, arrivals in Amsterdam coincide with Samskip shortsea departures to Hull, creating a seamless multimodal option to minimise post-Brexit border control issues.The new rail link is in addition to six times weekly train services connecting Melzo and Rotterdam…

Traffic flows between the Belgian port of Antwerp and the hinterland market in Hungary and Austria are increasing continuously. In order to meet the growing demand, the Antwerp Port Authority is promoting the expansion of hinterland connections, especially by rail.Two regular rail connections to Hungary have been established since 2015 and rail services to Austria have been expanded from one to currently three.At a port event held near Vienna on 27 September, leading representatives of the Antwerp port industry provided information on the further development of these transports with Austria and Hungary. 200 guests from both countries followed the invitation of the Antwerp Port Authority.Hungary and Austria are an attractive but highly competitive market for the northern…

This year has seen record-breaking performance at APM Terminals Gothenburg and the return of major shippers and consignees to the terminal. Progress is set to continue as efficiency increases through automation, including self-service gates and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for rail and truck gates due later this year.Over the last year, APM Terminals Gothenburg has implemented a number of concrete initiatives to improve the customer experience. These include maintaining satisfactory and stable production, increasing manpower flexibility to meet customer requests, improved digital customer platforms, and upgraded landside services such as new empty container inspections, improved rail services and self-service at gates.

A delegation from Hamburg was in China from 14 to 18 May, visiting companies in Zhengzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Organized by Port of Hamburg Marketing (HHM) in cooperation with the Hamburg Representative Office in Shanghai, the delegation’s tour was led by Axel Mattern, HHM’s Joint CEO, and Mathias Schulz, its Head of Market Development Asia. The delegation included representatives of TCO Transcargo, Rostock Port, Trelleborgs Hamn, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) and Hamburg Invest. The focus was on discussions with leading import and export companies, along with Chinese logistics providers for sea and rail services. In addition, the delegation was extremely impressed by developments on the expansion of Chinese infrastructure.

The largest ever containership to call at the port on the Elbe berthed in Hamburg early on Thursday morning, March 15. The oceangoing giant CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery made its maiden call at the Port of Hamburg's HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB) where it will discharge approximately 7,000 TEU and load 4,000. The 400-meter-long CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery, delivered to French owner CMA CGM earlier this year, has a capacity of 20,776 TEU. End-to-end, those containers would cover a distance of over 125 kilometers. The mega ship sails on the FAL 1 service (French Asia Line 1), which connects Asia to Northern Europe. With one heave, gantry cranes at Burchardkai can lift two 40-foot or four 20-foot containers, with a total weight of 110 tons.

In Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOCL)’s series of six ‘G Class’ containerships on order at the Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI) shipyard, we are pleased to introduce the newest and fifth 21,413 TEU containership, named the OOCL Scandinavia, into our fleet of world trade ambassadors. The OOCL Scandinavia will be joining her sister vessels on our LL1 service, linking major markets in China and Northern Europe together. In commemoration of this milestone at OOCL, we are very honored that Mr. Yue Yi, Vice Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd, was able to join us as our Guest of Honor and witness the christening of the vessel.

The Port of Corpus Christi lives up to its moniker ‘Energy Port of the Americas,’ as the movement of energy in and out dominates the port’s history and future. John P. LaRue, Executive Director, Port Corpus Christi recently visited Maritime Reporter’s headquarters in New York to discuss the nearly $50 billion in investment projects driving the port forward. “Let’s just start with what we are and what we are not,” said LaRue. “We are not a container port. Up until a few years ago we were an oil import port (serving) three refineries: Citgo, Valero and Flint Hills Resources.

CMA CGM, a leading worldwide shipping group, launches Saturday April 1st the 40 new maritime services of its new operational alliance OCEAN Alliance. Combining this new offer of maritime services with a global intermodal and logistics offer, CMA CGM Group and its subsidiaries supply its customers with tailored solutions, even more competitive on the routes Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Asia-Red Sea, Asia–Middle East, Trans-Pacific, Asia-East Coast of North America trades and Transatlantic. CMA CGM Group is the major player in this operational alliance, as it brings 119 of the 323 ships to OCEAN Alliance. With its 650 offices in more than 160 countries…

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.

APM Terminals Gothenburg has signed an addendum to the original concession agreement with the Port of Gothenburg to invest an additional SEK 250 million (€25 million) through 2024 in Sweden’s largest port. The new investment will focus upon increasing operational productivity for vessels, improving gate access for trucks and enhanced rail services. The addendum also includes an ambitious volume growth target. “APM Terminals  is proud to partner with the Port of Gothenburg to stimulate Sweden's economic growth and increase the country’s global trade access” said Henrik Kristensen, APM Terminals Gothenburg’s Managing Director. In October of 2011…

Following the previous announcement that Jim Umpleby will become Caterpillar’s Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2017, Caterpillar Inc. announced today additional changes in its executive ranks. The company’s Board of Directors has appointed current Construction Industries Group President Tom Pellette, 53, group president of Energy & Transportation, the position previously held by Umpleby. Replacing Pellette, the Board has appointed Bob De Lange, 47, group president of Construction Industries. De Lange is currently vice president of the Excavation Division. Additionally, the Board has appointed Billy Ainsworth, 60, senior vice president and strategic advisor to the Caterpillar Executive Office.

Italy's state railways <IPO-FERRO.MI> is considering bidding for Greece's rail network TRAINOSE, a spokesman for Ferrovie dello Stato said on Wednesday. "We are studying the dossier but it's still in a preliminary phase," the spokesman told Reuters. Italy plans to privatise its national rail services to help reduce public debt though it is not clear yet if the sale will happen this year or next. Greece's leftist government halted the sale of TRAINOSE along with other privatizations when it came in power early last year but relaunched it again in January as part of an international bailout agreed last summer. The deadline for the expression of initial bids ends on March 21. Qualified investors can then submit their binding bids on April 26.

In their “Best route market study for containerised imports to South Germany”, published at the beginning of March, the Drewry Group’s supply-chain consultants investigated via which ports containers imported from Shanghai can be transported fastest and cheapest to southern Germany, i.e. Munich, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Ulm and Nuremberg. In almost all markets under consideration, Hamburg comes out better than Rotterdam, Antwerp and the southern ports in the Mediterranean. Contributing to this are numerous direct services, a high departure frequency for container block trains and the fast transit times to/from the Hamburg quay wall. Across the North Range a total of 16 Far East liner services are currently on offer from the major container shipping lines.

Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (HPH) subsidiary Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) achieved a new record when it moved 7,760 TEU on the call of MSC Beatrice. A total of eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes were deployed simultaneously for the operation, achieving a peak Vessel Operating Rate of 221.3 moves per hour. Guillermo Belcastro, General Manager of BEST, said: “BEST is the only terminal in the Mediterranean capable of reaching this level of productivity thanks to its semi-automated operations, which are supported by HPH’s proprietary terminal operating system nGen and the efforts of our team. This high level of productivity…

First-half seaborne cargo throughput of 70.2 million tons reflected stabilization of the trend for the Port of Hamburg. At the same time, a steep increase occurred in freight transport by rail to/from the Port of Hamburg. At 70.2 million tons, in the first half total seaborne cargo throughput, which includes the general and bulk cargo segments, was slightly – 0.9 percent – down on the previous year. In the first six months of 2016 containerized cargo handling totalled 4.5 million TEU – 20-ft standard containers – corresponding to a downturn of 1.2 percent.