A Belgian-US coalition has won the tender to dredge a new 9.5 km access channel in East Port Said, enabling vessels to visit the area around the clock. The winners comprise Belgium’s Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV (DEME) and US Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, overcoming a rival four-company coalition comprising Emirati National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC), Dutch ... Read More »
Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) has signed a new agreement with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) to extend until November negotiations over the redundancies of 97 port workers made in August this year. According to the parties’ new agreement, negotiations will be extended until November 16 under the auspices of Anna Booth, deputy president of the Fair Work commission (FWC), ... Read More »
Brazilian port operator Santos Brasil has announced that the country’s special port department SEP approved an early 25-year extension of its concession to operate Tecon Santos terminal, thus extending the company’s lease to 2047. The extension of the current 25-year concession, which started in 1997 and was supposed to end in 2022, comes with the government’s approval for a BRL1.2bn ... Read More »
Legal wrangles have postponed the upcoming privatisation of the Port of Piraeus in Greece by several weeks. Port unions filed a case in a specialised court this week, arguing that the sell-off of the port is unconstitutional, thus pushing the privatisation back. According to an industry source, the case is expected to last 20 days, delaying the deadline for bids ... Read More »
Philippines-based port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has revealed that it expects to spend only half of its US$530m established budget for this year and limit expansion plans as global growth is slowing down. The company’s chairman and president, Enrique Razon, told Bloomberg that “the growth picture of the global economy is not looking too great,” adding that ... Read More »
German port logistics group Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has announced a change in its earning target after its Hamburg terminals were hurt by Russia and China’s economic problems. As the container segment of the company has been experiencing persistently weak and continually decreasing volume development this year, it announced that its container business will not meet the previously ... Read More »
Finnish manufacturer Kalmar has announced that it will upgrade eight ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at MSC Terminal VLC at the Port of Valencia, Spain, as the port gears up to accommodate larger vessels in anticipation of growth in container traffic. The company, part of Cargotec, will extend the boom on all the cranes by 6 m and heighten six of the ... Read More »
Chinese billionaire Wang Jing, whose company, HKND Group, holds a 50-year concession to build the US$50bn Nicaragua Canal, has lost 84% of his net worth this year, raising yet more doubts about the project’s viability. According to Bloomberg, Wang was worth as much as US$10.2bn in June 2015, placing himself amongst the world’s 200 richest people, but his wealth has ... Read More »
Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation has reportedly signed a US$650,000 grant agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance feasibility studies on a shipping route linking Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea through Nile River. The plan for the shipping route, the aim of which is to convert the world’s biggest river into a sustainable waterway for transport, is ... Read More »
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