Last week the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade (Fort Hood, Texas) arrived in the Port of Zeebrugge with ARC’s ro-ro vessel ENDURANCE containing 77 helicopters. The Chinooks, Blackhawks and Apaches were made flight-ready on the quays of one the ICO terminals (International Car Operators) in the inner harbour. In small groups they flew away to a base in Chièvres, before they’ll move to locations across the Continent as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
Just like last year, port of Ghent is at its highest level ever for its overall cargo traffic in the first nine months of this year. At the end of this year, the Belgian port will register a record for the second time in a row.
Ro-ro cargo saw an increase of +13,56% in Q3. One of the reasons is the introduction of a fourth ship by DFDS, the ARK GERMANIA.
DFDS has now 8 calls a week between Ghent and Gothenburg.
Photo: ARK GERMANIA © DFDS
Last week Shell officially presented its new LNG bunker tanker CARDISSA in the Port of Rotterdam. She was built at STX in Korea, and one other is under construction. Shell has three more ships in option.
Earlier, in September, Shell announced an agreement with the cruise ship group Carnival Corporation &PLC to be the supplier for the new LNG cruise ships under construction.
In June, bunkering vessel ENGIE ZEEBRUGGE performed in the nearby port of Zeebrugge its first deliveries of LNG to UECC’s ro-ro’s AUTO ECO and AUTO ENERGY. The LNG bunkering operations were conducted at the same time that the cargo operations were taking place.
CORALIUS is another LNG bunker vessel, built in Europe by Royal Bodewes, The Netherlands. She was developed by the shipowners Anthony Veder and Sirius Shipping in Sweden in close co-operation with Skangas.
Photo CARDISSA © Shell
The Yalova Ro-Ro Terminal has seen the start of its operations on October 3.
This Turkish port, located on the Asian side of Turkey, some 100km southeast of Istanbul, is the first port investment made by logistics company Ekol.
The 500-trailer-capacity terminal has a surface of 70,000m2.
All freight operations at the Port of Haydarpaşa will be transferred to the Yalova Ro-Ro Terminal. The Haydarpaşa terminal is located just opposite Istanbul and has been suffering from severe congestion.
Ekol operates nine weekly shuttle services between Turkey (Haydarpaşa, Yalova, Alsancak) and Greece (Lavrio), Italy (Trieste) and France (Sète) with ro-ro vessels HATCHE, PAQIZE, QEZBAN, FADIQ, AYSHE, QUBRA and MELEQ.
President Erdogan and his Prime Minister will open the terminal in the coming days.
Photo © Yalova RoRo Terminal
DFDS’s newest ro-ro ship TULIPA SEAWAYS has been delivered by Flensburg’s FSG yard and arrived in Vlaardingen, Rotterdam on Saturday September 30. She entered service on Monday, October 2.
Sister to the earlier delivered GARDENIA SEAWAYS, she too serves the Vlaardingen – Immingham route.
With more than 4,000 lane meters garage deck she can offer space to 262 trailers.
DFDS has an agreement with the owner –Siem Group– to bareboat-charter the two vessels for a five-year period, with a purchase option.
Photo © Karsten Seven, DFDS
Emanuele Grimaldi is going to practice what he has been preaching, by ordering ten environmental-friendly ro-ro ships. An order for six will have an option for four, and several Chinese yards are in the running. That is what he announced at the 21st EuroMed conference.
The ships will have underwater air lubrication technology, scrubbers and will be hybrid. Indeed, they will be equipped with lithium batteries, which will allow switching off the engines when in port.
In the last four years, the group already invested two billion euros in 25 new ships, and 300 million euros to make the existing fleet and operations greener. CO2 was reduced by 9% in six years, and sulfur emissions were reduced by 24%, said Grimaldi at the opening of the conference.
Additionally it was announced that capacity of CRUISE ROMA and CRUISE BARCELONA is going to be enhanced by lengthening. This will probably be done by Fincantieri in Palermo, a yard with a large experience in this field after the lengthening of four MSC cruise ships. The final details of the contract still need fine-tuning. The vessels will also receive a “lithium-upgrade”.
Passenger capacity will rise from 3,000 to 3,500.
Photo: CRUISE ROMA © Mike Louagie
The German Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) has awarded LHG (Ports of Lübeck and Travemünde) funding from the Innovative Port Technologies (IHATEC) program.
Together with the University of Lübeck, LHG is working as a consortium leader on a concept for an integrated booking and disposition platform “RoRo-Hafen-4.0”.
The aim of the project is to control the flow of information along entire transport chains and make it available to all parties involved. A feasibility study can now be started.
Photo © Mike Louagie
Port of Bilbao, Spain, has started to build an additional ro-ro ramp. It will be the eighth ramp in the Basque port and will be completed by the beginning of next year.
Source: Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International
Map: ro-ro and ro-pax connections
French company CMA CGM has the intention to start a Marseille-Tanger ro-ro freight service, as from November.
Two –still unknown– ro-ro ships are going to be chartered. The service would be weekly, with a Saturday departure on each side.
Goal is to take some of the freight away from the Tanger to Algeciras and Barcelona routes, in what is known as the ‘citrus’ season.
Although being a container company, CMA CGM already has a ro-ro service to Tunisia, with a vessel chartered from Stena RoRo, the MONT VENTOUX (see photo).
Two small ro-ro sister ships are laid up in the port of Marseille, MAESTRO SEA and MAESTRO UNIVERSE. Could these be the ships? To be confirmed.
Source: Actu Transport Logistique Photo: Mike Louagie
Mariehamn-based ro-ro company Godby Shipping has announced that an agreement to sell one of their eight vessels, the MIRANDA, has been signed.
Delivery will take place in January 2018. MIRANDA and MISANA Miranda (1999) are currently time chartered to Stena RoRo but relet to Transfennica and used in their liner service on the Baltic Sea and North Sea.
Eva Mikkola Karlström told the magazine Sjöfartstidningen that Godby Shipping’s goal is to build two new vessels, probably in China, and tailor-made for a specific customer.
Photo: Godby Shipping / Pär-Henrik-Sjöström