#PortsGoGreen - In a joint environmental initiative ‘Go Green’ is the first ever between DP World, Hutchison Port Holdings Limited, APM Terminals, PSA International, Shanghai International Port Group and Port of Rotterdam Authority.

Global marine terminal operators DP World, Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (HPH), APM Terminals, PSA International and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) – five of the world’s largest port operators, and joined by the Port of Rotterdam Authority (PRA), have launched the first ever joint industry initiative of this magnitude to promote environmental awareness and make a sustainable difference in the communities in which they operate.

The campaign which begins today will run for a fortnight (14 - 21 September) is to focus on three main themes: re-use and recycling, climate change and the communities in which the industry giants operate.

A range of activities covering all three themes will be organised by the participating port operators’ local business units to tackle and raise awareness globally.

The campaign will also identify local partners in the effort to improve the environment. Creating and upgrading local green spaces, launching educational programmes, adopting waste recycling measures and community engagement are some of the activities that will take place.

DP World Chairman HE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said: “Safeguarding the environment is the responsibility of all of us and by joining forces across the industry this initiative will make greater impact worldwide. International efforts require partnerships to make them a success and by coming together we can all make a sustainable difference in the communities in which we operate. By continuing to focus on our ecosystem using innovation, new technologies and seeking behavioural change, the industry can make a major contribution to the wellbeing of our planet. This campaign is a watershed for marine terminal operators – it marks the beginning of a joint effort to bring about positive change to the lives of our people.”

Hutchison Port Holdings Limited Group Managing Director Eric Ip said: “Sustaining the environment we live is one of the major concerns of the modern world and something no corporation can ignore. Environmental concerns pervade the entire HPH organisation, from the paper in our printers to the cranes in our yards. Riding on the success of last year’s campaign, it is heartening to see the initiative has gone from strength to strength. By putting our efforts together with other major port and maritime industry players for this worthy cause, we hope to lead by example and, in the process, do our bit to create a cleaner, greener world for everyone.”

APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer said: "This is the right thing to do for the environment, for the communities we operate in, and our employees. Working together, we can address the critical issues facing the environment and act as a catalyst for global change.”

Group CEO of PSA International Tan Chong Meng said: “In the big scheme of moving goods from door to door‎, the container terminal operations component is a relatively small contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Notwithstanding, PSA continues to devote attention and resources to economising on the use of fuel and promoting recycling across our network of terminals. We are very positive that this joint effort with APM Terminals, DP World, HPH, SIPG and Port of Rotterdam Authority will act as catalyst to ‘greenify’ our industry, the communities in which we are located, and ultimately the world at large.”

Shanghai International Port Group Chairman Chen Xuyuan said: “With Green Port Plan 2020, SIPG are bound to further consolidate what we have achieved as a green innovator all the way along. Joining forces with DP world, PSA international, HPH and APM terminals, environmental sustainability will be jointly safeguarded as an initiative where Port and Maritime industry can mobilize all their resources to pursue the ideal of green port. Hand in hand, such environmental activities as go green is a substantive step that is to expand the influence we can make on our planet.”

Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Allard Castelein said: “It is good to see that the terminal operators are working together internationally to improve the environment. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is pleased to support this initiative. It is in line with our ambition to make Rotterdam the cleanest port of its type in the world. I hope that the example set by the terminal operators will not only be followed by port authorities.”

#BigBoxBoat – Worldwide shipping operator, CMA CGM has been delivered the largest containership under the French flag, the 18,000 TEU (twenty equivalent unit) capacity CMA CGM Bougainville.

At 400m in length the newbuild dimensions are impressive, her hull is almost four football fields when measured from end to end and with a beam of 54m.

She is the fourth in a series bearing the names of great explorers. CMA CGM Bougainville is a tribute to the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who led, as Captain, the first French official world tour in the 18th Century.

One of her sisters is CMA CGM Kerguelen, which appears in the video above.

In a globalized economy, this gigantic vessels has the capacity to transport almost 200,000 tons of goods between European, Middle East and Asian markets and becomes a key element in such trades.

This giant of the seas was delivered late last month from Korean shipyard Samsung and CMA CGM Bourgainville begun its first rotation by calling at Asian ports.

She is deployed on one of the most emblematic lines of the CMA CGM Group, the FAL service linking to Europe to Asia. Sailing schedules involve calling at Le Havre every 77 days.

It is understood that on her first rotation she had already docked at Shanghai on September 5th. The next port of call is scheduled for Port Klang this coming September 13th. Following this, she heads to the Suez two days later and reach Algeciras on October 1st to finally arrive at Le Havre on October 5th.

CMA CGM Bougainville is equipped with all the latest environmental technologies, allowing her to become one of the world’s greenest transportation solutions. Thanks to the latest environmental technologies on board and the optimization of her hydrodynamics, her CO2 emissions/km are historically low.

In fact, the vessel’s CO2 emissions average at only 37g of CO2/km for each container, energy efficiency almost three times higher than recorded by the group’s fleet 10 years ago.

#ESPOaward2015 - The following ports of Antwerp, Bremen, Dublin, Guadeloupe and Valencia have been shortlisted for the seventh European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) Award on Societal Integration of Ports.

The jury selected these five applications from a total of 22 submissions. The theme of this year’s competition is ‘engagement with local schools and universities’.

The Award will be presented to the port that demonstrates the best strategies in making schools and universities aware of their local port and its activities. The winning project will be one that succeeds in creating the interest of the local schools and universities in the work of the port and stimulate these institutions to work and/ or do research on subjects of interest to ports. In doing so, make young people knowledgeable of the port industry and excites them about entering into a career in the port at all levels, which will, lead to a better understanding of the port within its community.

“It has been very difficult to select five shortlisted projects. While assessing the projects we particularly looked at their scope, scale, magnitude of impact and innovative character. The five shortlisted ports prove to constructively engage with local schools and universities in raising awareness of the port, its activities and operations. These ports demonstrate clear strategies for bringing young people closer to the port industry and this leads to a better understanding of the port within its community”, said jury chairman Dirk Sterckx.

The winner of the seventh ESPO Award will be announced during the Award Ceremony and Port Night taking place on 10 November in Brussels. The shortlisted projects will be presented on the ESPO website in the running up to this event.

The ESPO Award was established in 2009 to promote innovative projects of port authorities that improve societal integration of ports, especially with the city or wider community in which they are located. In this way, the Award wants to stimulate the sustainable development of European ports and their cities.

#CLdNexpansion - According to CLdN RoRo SA, the European short sea ro-ro operator have announced an ambitious expansion programme to add 12 new vessels to its fleet which is currently at 24 vessels and running more than 100 sailings weekly.

The operator headquartered in Luxemburg originally began on the core Continent / UK services in 1974. Since then they have steadily expanded their geographical presence into new markets in recent years, including Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal.

Afloat, adds the two Irish routes are Zeebrugge-Dublin-Esbjerg –Göteborg. The other is Rotterdam –Dublin-Killingholme-Purfleet-Leixoes.

CLdN have placed firm orders for two 8000 lane meter RoRo vessels, with a length of 235m, double the capacity of the majority of today’s larger short sea RoRo vessels and are also poised to place orders for further vessels of classes ranging between 4700 and 8000 lane meters. The orders will be spread across various yards, in Europe and in the Far East.

The first orders are described as ‘Game Changers’ by a Company Spokesperson, as they are of a innovative design, offering changeability and flexibility in their deck configuration, catering for the cargo blends of Trailers, Containers, High and Heavy cargoes, Cars, Vans and Trucks.

The design allows for the vessel to interchange between Short Sea RoRo services, where high manoeuvrability and economy is paramount and Deep Sea Trades, where endurance and a flexible and high stowage factor is required. The ships will have the “LNG ready” class notation, providing the option for a straightforward conversion to LNG propulsion.

CLdN currently handle on an annual basis, 1 million cargo units and 1 million new cars and vans and the new vessels will generate an additional 70% capacity over the next four years, allowing current trades to expand and new routes to be developed.

The expansion programme will allow CLdN to broaden the range of their services whilst also offering a very significant increase of capacity on their existing routes.

The new vessels will follow CLdN’s proven methodology of combining high utilisation container and trailer decks with additional car decks to service their automotive clients.

As CLdN offers in the main, integrated solutions, the Ports division C.Ro, will simultaneously invest Circa Euro 100 million on expanding its Terminals for the arrival of the next generation vessels.

Part of this investment will be aimed towards ‘value added’ services, tailored to customers needs, specifically the car manufacturing industry, whose requirements are clearly evolving at a very fast pace.

The first of these new vessels are due to enter service in Quarter 3 2017.

#GuinnessTanks – The first anniversary of the closure of the Stena HSS Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route is tomorrow, however, the harbour witnessed a cargoship dock in recent days to unload brewing fermentation tanks for Guinness, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Asides the occasional cruiseship caller this season that docked inside the harbour, the call of a cargoship is rare, given the last shipment of brewing tanks was more than a year ago as previously reported on Afloat.ie. That batch of fermentation tanks was carried on board the cargoship Wilson Goole, operated by Norwegian owners Wilson Ship Management of Bergen.

On this occasion a fleetmate, Wilson Blyth (1995/3,713dwt) docked in Dun Laoghaire over the weekend rather than Dublin Port. This was due again to bridge-height restrictions in transporting brewing vessels by trucks along the city quays to St. James Gate Brewery.

On board Wilson Blyth there were six stainless-steel brewing vessel tanks manufactured by Dutch firm, Holvrieka that were loaded at Rotterdam from where the cargsoship arrived to Dun Laoghaire on Sunday.

Each of the 4.24 khL brewing vessels weigh 27.5m tonnes and has space to store 750,000 pints of beer. They will provide Diageo with extra fermentation and maturation capacity.

Colin O’Brien, Operations Director for Diageo’s supply business in Ireland, said: “These vessels, representing an investment by Diageo of nearly €10m, will enable us to meet the growing demand for our beers and to bring new products into the market. The investment underscores our continued investment in brewing in Ireland and the role that Diageo is proud to play in the Irish economy, supporting employment, exports, agriculture and tourism.”

The new brewing vessels measure 6m in diameter and 26m will be able to ferment or store up to 424,000 litres of beer and provide an extra 300,000 hectolitres of extra fermentation capacity annually.

Currently, the gleaming brewing tanks remain on the Carlisle Pier having been unloaded yesterday by a mobile mounted road-crane. This involved hoisting four of the brewing vessels from the hatch cover while the remaining pair where removed from the hold. Having discharged her cargo, Wilson Blyth took a pilot from the Dublin Port cutter Camac and set sail last evening.

The brewing vessels are to be transported in convoy to St. James’s Gate in the early hours of tonight (Wednesday morning, 9 September), when traffic is at its lightest.

Diageo are working with Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and An Garda Síochána to minimise disruption to traffic and to residents living along the route.

#LaunchCountdown – Arklow Shipping will look forward to the first of 10 Dutch built newbuild cargoships which will be named and launched next week, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The joint ceremony is to take place at the Royal Bodewes ‘‘Jachtwijk’ yard in Hoogezand, from where Afloat has reported on the completion of both the fore and aft sections that where joined together last month.

The Bodewes yard located in the Groningen region, is less than 2kms to the east of Westerbroek, from where on the same waterway Arklow Shipping had ordered six 8,660dwt ‘S’ series from Ferus Smit’s Dutch based yard. The final newbuild, Arklow Breeze was launched in March.

As for Arklow Vale she represents the first completed hull of Bodewes 5,100dwt Trader series.

This new series for Arklow Shipping will feature an energy-saving bow form with its distinctive straight-stem and slanted upper structure to deflect waves.

Each of the newbuilds will have a hold capacity of 221,000 cbft and a gross tonnage of below 3,000.

When the outfitting of the newbuild is completed she will be added to the ASL fleet. The company also has a Dutch division based in Rotterdam.

#BoxUpgrade - Irish Continental Group division EUCON has completed an upgrade programme by renewal of its container fleet with the introduction of 200 new 45ft units.

Added to this EUCON had introduced 30 new 45ft reefers branded under the "The Cool Experience" name. These container reefers as previously reported in June extended the capacity to a total of 150 units.

The container division operates ‘feeder’ shipping services between Belfast, Dublin, Cork with Antwerp and Rotterdam.

On these routes are 10 chartered Lo/Lo vessels, ranging in capacity from 400-1,000TEU.

#Ports&ShippingReview – Over the last fortnight, Jehan Ashmore has reported on the shipping scene and among the stories covered are featured below.

EU funding of more than €12.3m secured by the Port of Cork for Ringaskiddy Redevelopment Project.

ICG container division EUCON have extended their container range capability with 30 new 45ft refrigerated containers.

Ardmore Shipping Corporation add another 49,999dwt tanker newbuild, the Ardmore Seafox which was delivered from a South Korean yard.

EU Funding for three Irish port projects will bring significant infrastructural benefits as recommended in co-funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

Dublin Port welcome planning permission granted for Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) Project which will transform the port's infrastructure.

At the second 'Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth' Conference, Simon Coveney TD, Minister for the Marine outlined a Government blueprint for the marine which could deliver 29,000 additional jobs.

#Ports&Shipping – The latest Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) Weekly Market Review includes the following stories outlined below.

Irish Maritime News: Marine Sector to Double Contribution to GDP by 2030 - Irish marine industries can exceed €6.4bn a year in turnover by 2020 and increase their contribution to GDP to 2.4% by 2030, states a new national roadmap for the sector.

The 'Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth' report analyses market and non-market opportunities. The report's authors state Ireland has vast potential to tap into a €1,200bn global marine market for seafood, tourism, oil, gas, marine renewable energy, and new applications for health, medicine and technology.

Global Maritime News: 13% of Global - Shipping Traffic Moved by Mediterranean Ships. According to a study published by the economic research group Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno (SRM), the Mediterranean currently hosts 13% of global shipping traffic, a gain of four percentage points over 2005.

Emissions: Visedo Wins Contract for World's - Largest Battery Ferry Finnish company Visedo is providing the propulsion system for the world's largest all-electric ferry, under construction at Søby Shipyard in Denmark. The company's system was chosen over a similar offering by Siemens, the previous candidate for the delivery.

For more of the above stories and much more click the IMDO Market Review (Week 24) here.

In addition to further dedicated coverage visit Afloat.ie's Ports & Shipping news.

#StrongGrowth - Against the backdrop of 500,000 visitors to Belfast's Tall Ships Festival in the port area, Belfast Harbour has reported record profits and turnover, and committed to invest £120 million in new infrastructure projects over the next three years.

Figures detailed in the Harbour's 2014 annual report revealed that turnover increased 4% to £52.6 million whilst Profits before Tax climbed 8% to a record £29.4 million. The Harbour also paid a record £10 million in tax during the year.

The performance was supported by growth in the volume of trade through the Harbour, with particularly strong performances in the freight traffic sector, up 2.2% to 476,000 vehicles and bulk cargoes such as coal and animal feed which brought dry bulk trade to over seven million tonnes for the first time.

In the past five years the Harbour has invested £100 million in new projects to enhance its infrastructure and services to Port customers and to maintain competitiveness with other ports across the island of Ireland. Projects in the pipeline include an upgrade of the Harbour's Roll-On/Roll-Off facilities, enhanced container handling capability and Cruise ship facilities.

Commenting on the results David Dobbin, Belfast Harbour's Chairman, said: "Belfast Harbour has successfully come through the global recession by investing heavily to diversify its business activities and to improve the competitiveness of its operations.

"Although growth in trade has slowed over the past year, the total throughput through the Port at 23 million tonnes is now 47% above low point of the recession in 2009. There is, however, little room for complacency given the fragile nature of the recovery and the negative impact which a stronger sterling is having upon local exporters.

"The Harbour's strategy of long-term investment for long-term growth has served us well. This will continue through a pipeline of capital expenditure projects totaling £120 million. Projects include a bespoke cruise facility and addressing the continuing shortage of Grade A office accommodation in Belfast by further developing the City Quays scheme. Last week the Board approved a £20 million spend on the City Quays 2 building."

During 2014 the Harbour commenced work on City Quays 1, the first office building in its City Quays development. With that building now complete and legal firm Baker & McKenzie secured as the anchor tenant, work will begin soon on the next stage of the development, City Quays 2, providing a further 124,000 sq ft of office accommodation.

Upon final completion the £250 million, 20-acre City Quays scheme is expected to support 10,000 jobs and generate £11 million in rates income for local and central Government.
Dr. Dobbin added: "As an entirely self-funded business with no recourse to the public purse or private finance, there is a clear linkage between the Harbour's ability to invest and grow, and its financial performance.

"Every penny of the Harbour's earnings are retained within the business and reinvested to develop Port facilities and real estate, creating much needed jobs and driving regional development. This year's record financial performance gives the Harbour a strong basis from which to support future growth.

"Belfast Harbour is an integral part of the life and economy of Northern Ireland, as demonstrated by the 500,000 visitors anticipated at this weekend's Tall Ships Festival. The public has a keen interest in Belfast's maritime heritage and with £120 million earmarked for new projects the Harbour has demonstrated its commitment to the Harbour's future."

Other developments during 2014 included the enhancement of quay facilities at Pollock Dock to support increased waste and recycling related tonnages, and the award of planning approval to develop up to 200,000 sq ft of business space within Sydenham Business Park.