A Look Round at the Transport Sector in a Busy Week for Smaller Items

SWEDEN – Yara Marine Technologies is now accepting applications for the second edition of its 3-month tailored start up accelerator program, Yara Marine X. The program offers selected companies a unique opportunity to develop and pilot their innovative solutions while supported by direct access to Yara Marine’s industry competence, network distribution and knowledge scale. The accelerator program aims to make it easier for early phase start-ups with relevant clean technologies or work that addresses sustainability to access the resources they need to make their solutions widely available across the maritime industry.

The winner(s) will receive the opportunity to participate a 2-week boot camp in Oslo and/ or Gothenburg and a 3-month tailored accelerator program. Applications can be made HERE. NORWAY – Online valuation and data provider, VesselsValue has acquired Norwegian shipping research and advisory company, ViaMar, based in Oslo, thus becoming part of VesselsValue which has over 200 employees across eight offices worldwide in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Manila.

The Norwegian company provides market research and advisory services in shipping, energy and financial markets. They have particularly strong relationships with major banks, investment funds, operators and traders, predominantly focused in Northern Europe and the Nordics. Using their forecasting model, ViaMar produce fundamental quarterly forecasts to highlight key turning points for the bulker, tanker, container and LPG sectors, as well as incorporating freight earnings and vessel valuations into their reports.

The ViaMar team have over 100 years of shipping experience, bringing valuable insight and expertise to VesselsValue having lived through multiple market highs and lows. SINGAPORE – Wilhelmsen Ship Management (WSM) has strengthened its position in the tanker market with a newly signed agreement to acquire a majority stake in Hamburg-based Ahrenkiel Tankers. The transaction will result in WSM taking over the management of five tankers.

Wilhelmsen Ship Management will gain 80% ownership of Ahrenkiel Tankers under the deal, with the remaining 20% to be held by existing owners MPC Capital Group. Ahrenkiel Tankers will be rebranded as Barber Ship Management and marks the first step by WSM after its earlier decision to re-enter the tanker segment following a decade-long absence, while also reviving the Barber name that originally formed the basis for the company’s present ship management business. Wilhelmsen Ship Management was originally named Barber Ship Management Ltd when it was first incorporated in Hong Kong in 1975.

IRELAND – US – Liebherr Container Cranes has handed over three fully automated rail mounted gantry cranes to the CSX Carolina Connector Intermodal Terminal (CCX) in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The cabinless RMGs have been supplied with Liebherr Remote operator Stations (ROS) and each have a span of over 50 metres, a lift height over rail of 15 metres and cantilevered outreaches both sides with a safe working load of 40.6 tonnes. Within the span, the machines will work five rail lines and a four-high, five-wide container stack, with a further two rail lines under one of the cantilevers.

Truck handling will take place under the other cantilever in a dedicated truck transfer area. Container handling on the stack is fully automated and in line with terminal safety procedures, picking and placing from the rail cars is carried out remotely using supervised moves. Truck handling employs a combination of manual and supervised moves.

The RMGs will operate on both domestic 53′ wide top pick containers and ISO containers, handling single and double stacked rail cars. CHINA – Europa Air & Sea, which has maintained a presence in Hong King since 2011, is expanding further into mainland China with the opening of a new office in Shanghai. Launched as a separate division within the Europa Worldwide Group in 2015 Europa Air & Sea also has teams located across the UK.

The company says the latest move will facilitate the significant growth plans that the business has and allows for local in-house coverage from both Shanghai and Ningbo airports / ports and the surrounding regions providing both domestic and international freight forwarding and logistics services. CHINA – Ship management outfit V.Group has been awarded an International Manning License allowing it to operate a fully owned crewing agency in China. The license, awarded to very few foreign entities, comes after a strict selection and assessment process and means that V.Group can now directly source and manage crew in China, ensuring that all seafarers are fully trained and aligned to V.Group values.

The license will enable V.Group to provide qualified Chinese seafarers for vessels managed by V.Group in China, and across the world. The license was awarded by the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) of the People’s Republic of China, a government agency which administers all matters related to maritime and shipping safety. The Maritime Safety Administration, headquartered in Beijing, will now carry out annual audits on V.Group China, covering crew manning operations, recruitment, training, crew certificates, management and office administration.

DUBAI – The latest push by DP World to emphasise that the P&O brand now comes under its corporate heading is a short film launched this week at Expo 2020 in Dubai. The film, produced by Cat and Weasel Films working with director Joshan Esfandiari Martin,is intended to show how the group now encapsulates a range of multimodal services. DP World is the official Premier Global Trade Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai and its pavilion, where the P&O Ferrymasters film is screened for the first time, is centred around the concept of ‘Making Trade Flow’.

The largest such event ever staged in an Arab country, Expo’s focus is on building partnerships and inspiring ideas that will forge the world of tomorrow. The video is viewable HERE. FRANCE – UK – This week saw the recent partnership between the two French groups of Brittany Ferries and CMA CGM reach a new phase with the first cross-Channel shipment of CMA CGM containers.

The boxes shipped from Le Havre to Portsmouth aboard the RoRo ferry Cotentin. In September last year CGM pumped EUR25 million into a company plainly struggling during the height of the Covid crisis, enabling the shipping company to add yet another string to its transport bow. UK – WORLDWIDE – The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise their long-standing working relationship which has existed for several years.

The MoU underwrites their collective desire to cooperate, communicate and collaborate in the area of the ship-shore interface while recognising and respecting their individual identities, membership expectations and traditions. Their primary focus will be on supporting the work of each other through participation in relevant committees, workshops, conferences, and seminars as well as dissemination of technical information, joint activities on international issues and reciprocal representation in key groups. UK – GREECE – Simpson Spence Young (SSY), which claims to be the largest independent shipbroker in the world, has today announced the acquisition of Anchor Shipbroking Inc.

Based in Piraeus, Greece, Anchor Shipbroking are specialists in Sale & Purchase(S&P), offering a full range of services to their global network of clients. SSY says that this acquisition further strengthens its S&P offering and is part of a long-term investment strategy to build out its forward order book, combining new buildings and S&P with long-term period and projects. UK – The 38th daily rail service has been introduced at Hutchison Ports Port of Felixstowe.

The new service is operated by GB Railfreight for Maritime Transport and connects the port with Birch Coppice in the Midlands. The new service is the 15th operated by GB Railfreight and the 12th daily rail connection from the port to destinations in the Midlands. The destinations currently served by rail from the Port of Felixstowe are: Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Teesport, Birmingham, Birch Coppice, Doncaster, East Midlands Gateway, Hams Hall, Wakefield, Ditton (Widnes), Rotherham, iPort Rossington and Cardiff.

UK – Many in the logistics community have posed questions as to how the import/export trade is managing after new regulations came into force on New Year’s Day. One of the larger players, Davies Turner, tells us things are a lot less chaotic than was feared by many. The company runs numerous pan European services and reports, whilst it is early days in terms of truck movements, freight is flowing and it has already handled hundreds of trucks under the new Goods Vehicle Movement System (GVMS).

Whilst there have been some teething problems the bulk of declarations have been made by the company without issue, and several of its hubs have been refurbished to provide dedicated customs processing suites. The company has however decided not to accept any new business of foodstuffs, or products of animal origin, until such time as it feels comfortable with the new rules in place, though existing clients are unaffecred. UK – Whitworths has replaced the gas-powered counterbalance trucks in operation at its Northamptonshire production and storage facility with lithium-ion machines from the Toyota range.

In all Toyota has supplied the dried fruit, home baking and snack products company with 27 new three- and four-wheel counterbalance forklifts, together with a number of powered pallet trucks, reach trucks and stackers. Every machine in the new fleet, not just the counterbalance models, is powered by the latest lithium-ion battery technology which Whitworths says is delivering significant productivity gains in terms of time saved changing gas bottles etc. In addition all of the trucks in Whitworth’s new fleet also feature Toyota’s I Site integrated telematics system.

THAILAND – A mystery ship, half sunken, found abandoned in the Gulf of Siam by the country’s Royal Navy las week was put under tow with the intention to salvage the ship by the naval vessel which discovered her. The Fin Shul Yuen 2, a derelict cargo hulk, foiled attempts to pump her out and sank last Saturday around thirty miles off the island of Koh Samui. Photo: The hulk of a cargo ship found drifting in Thai waters.

Image courtesy of the Royal Thai navy.