BATTERIES TO BOOST ENERGY STORAGE ON FERRIES

by & filed under Sustainability.

Corvus Energy will supply lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems (ESS) to power five new green all-electric ferries being built for Norwegian ferry operator Fjord1.

Corvus Energy will supply lithium ion battery-based ESS for five new all-electric ferries being built for Fjord1

This follows a previous order in November 2017 to supply the ESSs for three similar newbuilt Fjord1 ferries, both orders having come through Norwegian Electric System (NES), a Norwegian system integrator of electric systems for the global marine market.

“Corvus Energy is honoured to once again be selected to provide Orca Energy Storage Systems for Fjord1 ferries,” said Roger Rosvold, director of sales & key account at Corvus Energy.

“NES are skilled and experienced electrical system integrators, and our close partnership with them in designing and delivering these innovative solutions is key to accelerating the adoption of energy storage systems.”

Battery equipped

Each of the five all-electric ferries, which are 111 metres in length and hold 120 cars, will be equipped with a 2.9 MWh Corvus Orca Energy ESS that will supply electrical power to the ferry’s NES all-electric power and propulsion systems.

They are expected to be delivered in 2019 and will operate on the Magerholm-Sykkylven route.

“Fjord1 continues to forge a very progressive path towards environmentally sustainable operations with these additional all-electric ferries,” said Stein Ruben Larsen, Vice President Sales at NES.

“The proven reliability, safety and performance of the air-cooled Orca ESS was important in awarding this contract to Corvus Energy.”

Corvus’s innovative Orca ESS solution has now been used for over 140 projects, totalling over 100 MWh and 1.5 million operating hours.

 

Source: GREENPORT

ELECTRIC TRUCK TAKES ON DIESEL

by & filed under Environment.

Hyster Europe will be revealing new efficient developments to the energy recovery system of its 48t zero-emissions electric container handler at TOC Europe.

Hyster electric container handler

The systems are expected to extend the drive cycle of the truck using recovered energy, providing a longer operating time before the recharge is necessary and enabling it to achieve the same performance as a diesel-fueled truck.

“Recovering energy in a smart way provides maximum energy efficiency,” said Jan-Willem van den Brand, director big truck product strategy & solutions for Hyster Europe. “Our new systems that recover, and store, energy from lowering loads and braking are expected to support an extended drive cycle, increasing uptime and profitability while also helping to reduce the energy costs of charging.”

Lithium-ion battery

During a TECH TOC seminar, Mr van den Brand and Willem Nieuwland, project manager at the Hyster-Yale Group, will also discuss the progress of the container handling truck, which will be powered by electric motors receiving energy from a lithium-ion battery and is currently in testing.

Included in the discussion will be a different power and charging options that the truck is expected to offer, including lithium-ion batteries of varying sizes and possible future options where batteries will be combined with fuel cell technology.

“The Big Truck charging challenge won’t go away because it requires a high level of energy to be drawn in a short space of time, but operations will be able to manage to charge through the right infrastructure,” said Mr van den Brand.

h the right infrastructure,” said Mr van den Brand.

 

Source:GREENPORT

Using tariff for port economic impact of cargo movement

by & filed under Governance.

Using tariff for port economic impact of cargo movementA sustainable method to capture expenditure structures of cargo movement activities on nearby port regions has been developed by PortEconomics member Grace Wang along with Wen-Huei Chang (US Army Corp of Engineers) and Yue Cui (Michigan State University) updated the REgional ECONomic System (RECONS) under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to measure economic impacts.

Through the defined categories of port industry services and related revenues, direct support of the movement of goods through the ports can be quantified. The expenditure data based on the defined categories through the public rates published in the ports’ tariff documents were collected and used as inputs in the system. Conversion factors were developed to standardize port tariffs and expenditure profiles based on the common knowledge of the literature and expert’s justification.

Case studies provided were to re-examine and verify as the sensitivity analysis to simulate economic impacts based on changes to cargo flows using tariff data in the spending profiles. Compared to the traditional survey approach, we found that using tariff data in place of traditional surveys provides a time-effective way to capture and update port characteristics, business structure and flows, as well as to extract detail information that is otherwise neglected for economic impact analysis.

 

Source: PortEconomics

Port cooperation in the North Adriatic ports

by & filed under Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries.

Recent trends in port development show that ports are making increasing efforts to forge mutually beneficial cooperation strategies, particularly ports sharing a common hinterland. PortEconomics co-director Peter de Langen co-authored with Kristijan Stamatović and Aleš Groznik (University of Ljubljana) an analysis of the North Adriatic ports (Koper, Rijeka, Trieste and Venice) with a focus on two related themes. First, the complementarity of the North Adriatic (NA) ports in the container market is analysed based on port vessel service patterns and shipping line interviews. The authors operationalize the analysis of complementarity with an analysis of the effects of multiple port-calls on the revenue required to make a call in a specific NA port economically feasible. The port study concludes that the inclusion of another NA port reduces the minimum required revenue for a call in an additional NA port.

Port cooperation in the North Adriatic ports

Second, the port study assesses the scope and depth of cooperation between ports: map current and potential future cooperation using a ‘cooperation matrix’ with two dimensions: the involvement of stakeholders (limited vs. broad), and the depth of cooperation (pre-competitive vs. commercial). Peter, Kristijian and Aleš use in-depth interviews with port authorities, terminal operators, rail operators, major shipping lines and forwarders in the NA region to position the NA ports in the matrix and conclude by discussing prospects of future NAPA ports cooperation.

 

Source: PortEconomics

Portgraphic: top-20 EU container ports, q1 2018

by & filed under Relation with Med & Neighbouring Countries.
Portgraphic: top-20 EU container ports, q1 2018

The PortGraphic shows the container throughput growth for Q1 2018 in the top 20 EU container ports. Not all ports have published figures for Q1 2018 yet. Most ports show healthy growth with many ports reaching double-digit growth. Top performers include Gdansk (+47%!), Piraeus, Barcelona & Zeebrugge. Valencia, Algeciras & Piraeus are contending for the number one spot in the (European) Med. Europe’s largest container ports, Rotterdam and Antwerp, remain on the strong growth paths of the past few years, while Hamburg and Bremerhaven continue to lose ground. Wilhelmshaven (opened in 2012) is the only German port recording a healthy growth: +99.7% in Q1 2018 with 554,000 TEU handled in 2017. Volumes in Italian gateway ports Genoa and La Spezia are up, while transhipment hub Gioia Tauro faced another traffic decline after a throughput drop of 12.46% in 2017. The growth differences among individual ports are caused by differences in the economic situation of the hinterland regions served, the dynamics in the routing decisions of the large shipping alliances and the volatility in the sea-sea transhipment market.

 

Source: PortEconomics

“HIGHEST GAINS” PREDICTED FOR PORT INFRASTRUCTURE

by & filed under Port infrastructure.

The port infrastructure market is projected to see the highest gains through 2017 to 2025. According to Coherent Market Insights’ Port Infrastructure Market – Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2016–2024, this growth is mainly due to the proliferation of sea trade and major infrastructural development investments in the emerging economies of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Globalisation has led to more emphasis on international trade activities — which has, in turn, led to a significant rise in spending for the development of transport facilities including waterways, the analysis claimed.

 

Energy and container ports construction are anticipated to witness big demand during the 2017–2025 forecast period, the analysis claimed Photo: Pixabay/Pexels/CC0 License

Challenges and chances

The study said that energy and container ports construction are anticipated to witness big demand during the 2017–2025 forecast period.

“Unprecedented investment” in container hub building and containerised cargo upgrading have occurred, while large-scale ventures for fuel handling are expected to see significant demand, with a focus on fuel handling including coal, oil or gas.

An increasing fuels requirement — prominently in emerging economies like China and India — will deliver a solid growth platform through the forecast timeframe.

The analysis also claimed that effective waste management is “a major challenge” for port infrastructure market players and that rising worries about cargo operations’ environmental effects and the need to establish efficient waste management are anticipated to present a major growth issue.

These facilities need a lot of space and a big workforce to build and manage smooth operations, with this leading to socioeconomic consequences including village relocation and slum formation nearby that can negatively affect growth prospects. Yet, because of these factors, greenfield project development will “draw considerable attraction” for the port infrastructure market due to a lack of imposed constraints ahead of ventures.

 

Geopolitical factors

Geopolitical issues in South Asia are predicted to “drive the port infrastructure market”, the study also said.

Major South Asian economies are increasingly investing in facilities to boost their Indian Ocean influence and to access resources and possible high-growth markets in the Middle East and Central Asia. However, the often congested and outdated docks in certain nations have led to heightened trade in Japan and China’s advanced shipping facilities.

Growing competition among countries with big coastlines, especially in the Asia Pacific, to establish regional superiority is anticipated to cause a “highly lucrative” growth environment for the world port infrastructure market.

Additionally, according to the study, rising Latin America investments to strengthen commodity exports, improve transport and meet local consumer demands will offer “significant growth opportunity” over the forecast timeframe.

A substantial amount of the region’s anchorages and terminals need upgrading, creating a high-growth prospect for the area’s port infrastructure market.

The analysis also said that most of the big-budget building ventures are lined up by the Gulf Cooperation Council for the annexation of shipping activities in the region.

 

Source: Port Strategy

GOTHENBURG DISPUTE HAS COST SWEDISH ECONOMY US$510M

by & filed under Governance.

The Swedish economy will lose out on SEK4.5bn (US$510m) as a result of a long-term conflict between dockworkers and APM Terminals at the Port of Gothenburg, a new report has found.

Port of Gothenburg

Consultancy firm Damvad Analytics said that the conflict has caused major changes in freight flows to and from Sweden, with about 240,000 TEU redirected to other Swedish or European ports last year and increased logistics costs for Swedish companies It said this corresponds to imports and exports to a value of a total of 64 billion kronor.

The report stated the “business costs of the harbour conflict amounted to 4.5 billion kronor” in 2017. It added thaOne-third of these costs, corresponding to SEK 1.5 billion, consists of increased Logistics costs due to redirected goods flows.”

Increased transport costly

The biggest cost of redirects has occurred due to increased transport to and from European ports, Damvad said.

The other two-thirds of business costs, equivalent to SEK3bn, include costs incurred due to delayed goods transport. Additionally, increased transport distances and times entailed costs for the business equivalent to SEK60m.

In addition to increased costs for the business community, the conflict over pay and conditions has given rise to socio-economic costs that affected other parts of society.

For containers re-routed in 2017, these costs amount to a total of SEK190m. The largest amount of costs arises resulting from increased domestic transport, corresponding to SEK70m. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased 70,000t, which, according to the report, corresponds to socio-economic costs of SEK80m.

 

Source: Port Strategy

Carrier Transicold releases service app

by & filed under Digitalization.

American reefer manufacturer Carrier Transicold has released a free mobile app to aid technicians when servicing containers.

Carrier Transicold releases service app

The app is available on iOS and Android

 

The app, available on iOS and Android, contains resources including service manuals with instructional videos, an alarm code lookup function, conversion tools and warranty information, as well as a search tool for navigation.

David Whyte, project manager of container service engineering at Carrier Transicold, said: “By providing technicians with faster, more convenient access to information they typically need every day, we are helping to streamline service on refrigeration units and generator sets.”

“The app is very easy to use and keeps current with model and equipment changes via application updates.”

Mobile-optimised manuals for NaturalLINE, PrimeLINE and ThinLINE units are all included as well manuals for the XtendFRESH atmosphere control system and PowerLINE generator sets.

Temperature and pressure conversion calculators are included, as are refrigerant calculators.

The manuals require internet to access but can be downloaded in PDF format.

Port of Oakland’s online shipping platform goes live

by & filed under Digitalization.

The Port of Oakland’s new tech platform, called the Oakland Portal, has gone live, as part of efforts by the West Coast hub to provide a single point to seaport operations.

The portal was created by New Jersey-based logistics software provider Advent Intermodal Solutions as an extension of its customer-based eModal system, which the port’s four marine terminals all use for customer interface.

John Driscoll, the port authority’s maritime director, said: “This is what our industry is asking for. We’re providing a comprehensive digital view of ships, cargo and terminal informational in one place on the computer … no more clicking through multiple websites.”

The Oakland Portal is thought to be the first digital collaboration platform that aggregates shipping information from every marine terminal in a harbour.

The online gateway consolidates information from Oakland’s four active marine terminals, with data including vessel schedules, cargo status and live camera views of port thoroughfares.

According to the port, the features are available to all users although additional specialised functions such as paying terminal fees, cargo status updates and trucker appointments are available with registration and login.

The platform gives users access to the port’s marine terminals all in a single location.

A future iteration, expected to be provided in early 2019, would incorporate real-time performance metrics and dashboards customised for the various portal users such as motor carriers and cargo owners.

The port said that supply chain operators would better manage trade flow with the portal in place.

In its view, cargo owners can know with greater precision when to expect merchandise while trucking companies can know exactly when and where to dispatch drivers for container pick-up.

Container volumes at the West Coast hub increased by 2.9% during the first fourth months of 2018, with 791,371 teu handled.

April 2018 was the port’s best month ever for imports in its 90-year history.

The volume for loaded imports was 75,369 TEU beating the previous record of 75,243 loaded imports in April 2006.

Driscoll stated: “We’re on track for steady growth in our cargo volumes for the rest of the year.”

Loaded imports and exports were up by 1.2% and 0.5% respectively in the first four months of the year.

Growth in exports was hampered by the negative effects of China’s stringent rules on recycled materials.

However, the port’s meat, fruits and vegetable exports helped offset the loss in recycled commodities.

 

Source: Container Mag

DHL Launches IoT-Enabled Truck Transportation Solution

by & filed under Integration in the supply chain and synchromodality.

DHL, the world’s leading mail and logistics company, have announced the launch of DHL SmarTrucking — an innovative trucking solution leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

 

The new solution, which is currently being rolled out across road networks in India, equips trucks with IoT sensors to provide real-time data analysis for route optimization, reducing transit times by up to 50% and providing over 95% reliability for real-time tracking.

DHL SmarTrucking aims to build a fleet of 10,000 IOT-enabled trucks by 2028.

The IOT sensors are monitored through the company’s centralized control tower, providing real-time temperature and consignment tracking for perishable goods.

Information and alerts are sent to customers and DHL SmarTruckings operations teams through the customer portal and the mobile app.

The solution was officially launched on May 23, 2018, after a successful three-month pilot covering a road network of over 2.7 million kilometres.

Board Member for Corporate Incubations, Deutsche Post DHL Group, Juergen Gerdes, said: “India is an incredibly important market for Deutsche Post DHL Group.

 

“Presently, road freight comprises the majority of the total freight movement and is the largest transportation segment in India.

“With greater efficiency from DHL SmarTrucking, we expect to transport 100,000 tonnes of cargo and cover a distance of approximately 4 million kilometres across India daily.”

The system utilizes an agile model which rotates drivers predetermined stops located across the country, with the original driver returning to their point of origin with another truckload.

CEO of DHL eCommerce India, Malcolm Monteiro, said: “This transportation model not only helps optimize efficiency but also reduces fatigue among drivers who spend less time on the road, enabling them to go home to their families every two to three days.

“Additionally, with the demand for temperature-controlled transportation in India estimated to grow at 15% per annum from 2016 to 2020, DHL SmarTrucking allows our customers in India to scale up and streamline their business operations to meet consumers’ needs.”

 

Source: Port Technology