Ship traffic to resume in Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait after suspension
23.08.2023
Ship traffic in Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait is set to resume for northbound vessels as of 0820 GMT on Wednesday, after a suspension due to an engine failure on one ship, the Tribeca shipping agency said.
According to a report shared by the agency, Liberia-flagged tanker Guanyin carrying diesel fuel and vacuum gasoil had an engine failure at the strait’s northern entrance and two tugs were dispatched for assistance.
The bakeries unions in Lebanon warned yesterday, “of a catastrophe that may occur in the bakeries in the event that the import movement in the Black Sea is subjected to security and military chaos due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, because Lebanon does not have enough stocks of wheat and grains. It has no more than two and a half months, due to the loss of main silos in August 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion
New container shipping line established in Dubai
14.08.2023
A new shipping company is starting operations and is going to enter Russia trade, according to DynaLiners report. CStar Line has been established in Dubai by undisclosed owners and will be headed by Zsolt Katona, who previously worked for Danish shipping giant Maersk.
The new firm seems to have chartered 18 container ships with an overall box capacity of 23,000 TEUs. CStar Line seems to expect two additional vessels of 2,000 TEUs and a box fleet of 27,000 TEU dry boxes and 1,500 refrigerated containers.
According to DynaLiners, all capacity will be allocated to the Russia trade, for which it has set up the following network of services provided by a combination of its own (chartered) vessels, vessel sharing agreements (VSA) and slot charters.
Shortsea/Feeder services:
EMBA1 - Istanbul (Ambarli), Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg and back to Istanbul
EMBS1 - Haifa, Alexandria, Novorossiysk and back to Haifa
EMBS2 - Izmit (Safiport), Istanbul (Ambarli), Novorossiysk and back to Izmit
FEFE2 - Rizhao, Ningbo, Vostochny, and back to Rizhao
FEFE3 - Busan, Vostochny and back to Busan
FEFE4 - Dalian, Busan, Vostochny and back to Dalian
Long-haul VSAs and slots, including:
ISEM1 - slots from Global Feeder Shipping and Mountain Air Shipping (MAS) -
Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Jeddah, Istanbul (Ambarli), Jeddah and back to Nhava
Sheva
FEBA1 - VSA with OVP Shipping and MAS with Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo,
Guangzhou (Nansha), Port Kelang, Istanbul (Ambarli) and back to Qingdao
FEFE1 - slots from Inteco Lines and OVP Shipping - Guangzhou (Nansha),
Shenzhen (Yantian), Xiamen, Shanghai, Vostochny and back to Guangzhou
Incessant rain halves box delivery at Chittagong port and depots
08.08.2023
An incessant rain caused waist-deep water logging in the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh halving box and cargo supply from the port yard and inland container depots (ICDs) during the last couple of days.
The rain put almost all main and sub roads under water halting the movement of small and medium vehicles, while water also entered into the offices and residential buildings disrupting day-to-day activities.
Shipping officials say that due to water in the roads, shipping agents are failing to reach customs offices, banks, and other facilities associated with the release of containers from the port area.
Usually, over 4,000 TEUs of containers are delivered from the port yards per day while during the last couple of days, only around 2,000 TEUs were delivered. Data available from the website of the Chittagong Port Authority shows that on Monday only 2,204 TEUs of containers were delivered from the port yard while on Sunday 2,565 TEUs and on Saturday 2,309 TEUs.
Mohammed Abdullah Jahir, chief operating officer of Saif Maritime, said many of the low-lying areas of Chittagong were underwater during the last couple of days. Water entered most of the homes and offices there.
“Homes of many people involved in the container and cargo-related activities were also underwater thus they could not attend in works leading to lower delivery of boxes,” he noted.
Jahir further said in Chittagong rain is continuing also on Tuesday (8 August).
Chittagong Port Authority spokesperson Omar Faruk said businesses are not interested to take delivery of boxes due to waterlog created by heavy rainfall.
He pointed out that in the outer anchorage of the port, the number of ships is increasing as delivery of bulk cargoes remained suspended there for a couple of days due to incessant rain.
The Meteorological Office warned that rain may further increase from next Saturday and may continue throughout the month of August due to the axis of monsoon trough runs through Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal to Assam across Northern part of Bangladesh. One of its associated troughs extends up to North Bay. Monsoon is active over Bangladesh and moderate to strong over North Bay.
Shipping sector officials said the rain has also disrupted container deliveries from the inland container depots (ICDs) located across Chittagong. Rainwater also entered into the premises of some of the ICDs where outbound cargoes are stuffed into the containers and 38 types of goods-laden import boxes are delivered from there.
Ruhul Amin Sikder (Biplob), Secretary General of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA), said container delivery from the depots has lessened to almost half during the rainy days compared to the regular volume.
Usually, some 850 TEUs of containers are delivered from the depots, while now, due to heavy rain, it came down to around 400 or less, according to Biplob.
AD Ports and Shandong Ports Group enhance collaboration
31.07.2023
AD Ports Group has signed multiple collaboration agreements with Shandong Port Group (SPG), a conglomerate based in Shandong Province, China, which provides port operations, port infrastructure construction, cargo transportation and warehousing among other services.
The deal leverages the ‘Sister Ports’ agreement between Shandong Port and Khalifa Port to forge a partnership and strengthen cooperation, announced in December 2021.
Under the agreement, SPG will transport passenger vehicles from its ports in China to Autoterminal Khalifa Port, to be stored and displayed within facilities in KEZAD.
The agreements covering all aspects of the operations, display and services, were signed at an event at Autoterminal Khalifa Port, which has already received the first batch of vehicles.
"Our agreements with Shandong Ports Group underscore our commitment to fostering global connections and serving as a catalyst for economic growth. As we embark on this journey together, we are poised to redefine logistics and port operations, setting new benchmarks for the industry at large, whilst driving prosperity and further strengthening our position globally," commented Saif Al Mazrouei, CEO of Ports Cluster at AD Ports Group.
SPG plans to establish MENA regional center in the UAE, and in Abu Dhabi more specifically, in 2023, according to Jai Funing, the deputy general manager of Shandong Port Group.
He noted that "by continuously improving the overseas supply chain of product exports, SPG will rapidly improve the overseas market competitiveness of China's tire and commercial vehicle industries."
Nhava Sheva Port builds integrated rail-side capacity for double-stacked box trains
25.07.2023
Nhava Sheva Port (JNPT), India’s busiest public container gateway, has announced it is in a position to handle double-stacked container freight trains out of its new integrated rail yard for all terminals in the harbour.
The port has five container terminals and mixed or combined train operations have been its mainstay for inland container depot (ICD) volumes.
The port authority noted that “the state-of-the-art integrated rail yard, designed to handle double-stacked container trains, is set to commence on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) rail lines for all the five terminals.”
The authority went on to say, “This advanced common rail yard will streamline operations and enhance efficiency at the port.”
The sophisticated integrated common rail yard has been developed in an effort to upgrade the port's infrastructure for seamless freight movement as demand builds, propelled by the DFC connectivity.
According to a previous port statement, the long-haul common yard has three lines of 1,500 metres for double-stack container trains, out of which two are top-wired ballastless lines meant for loading and unloading of containers, and one is for engine turnaround of electric locomotives.
The Western DFC project, a high-stakes investment for India’s containerised trade, is a 1,504-kilometre broad-gauge freight only connector between Dadri, the busiest ICD in North India, and Nhava Sheva.
Along the DFC route, it is estimated that advanced wagons can carry freight up to 81 tons per wagon at a speed of 100 kilometres per hour, including for double-stacked container trains, compared with 60 kmph on the normal network.
Nhava Sheva Port has been working hard to convert more truckloads to the rail mode to alleviate road congestion and improve container dwell times.
The port saw 1.52 million TEUs during April-June, the first quarter of fiscal year 2023-24, up 3% year-over-year. Rail volumes accounted for 16.6% of total traffic, according to data obtained by Container News.
Container Corporation of India (Concor) and other private rail companies, including Gateway Distriparks (GDL), have already opened a flurry of new upgraded services on the DFC route.
Last month, GDL launched a double-stacked rail connection between ICD Viramgam and Mundra Port.
“This will help us with faster evacuation of containers and reduce dwell time at the port for our customers,” the company said.
GDL further explained, “In particular, as ICD Viramgam is a hub that we use for consolidating containers for double stack operations, we will greatly benefit from this development not only for the ICD Viramgam market but also our Northern India ICDs.”
The Viramgam-Mundra service followed GDL opening a train route between Faridabad ICD and Mundra.