It’s been a big year for news at PTI, from big terminal projects, to major shipping mergers which have been the talk of top industry executives.
Below are the top 10 news articles of 2015 that featured on the PTI website:
A video by Maersk which articulates the amazing story of containerisation. The story saw astonishing growth since being published in mid-November.
This first piece gave an insight into the 30 largest ports globally in 2014, measured by TEU volumes. China’s ports maintained the top five positions in the charts, with the world’s largest port, the Port of Shanghai, handling 1.5 million more containers in 2015 compared with 2014. In terms of percentage growth, Ningbo saw the biggest increase in growth of more than 14% compared to 2014.
As the third largest shipping line globally, CMA CGM is a giant in the rankings of the world’s largest shipping companies. This article confirmed the acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines for price of around US$2.4 billion in a bid to remain competitive in a market which has been strained by low freight rates and overcapacity.
This article presented a ranking of 10 ports in terms of berth productivity, measured by crane moves per hour. Shanghai is shown as the leader with more than 160 crane moves per hour. The article revealed that the workload for terminals servicing mega-ships has risen by more than 700% since 1975, with terminals around the world still feeling the pressures of mega-ship size increases.
A popular story with PTI readers, this story reported on DP World’s five point plan for improving Africa’s infrastructure. The report, entitled ‘Africa At The Crossroads: Bridging The Infrastructure Gap’ discusses public-private partnerships and bond financing as some of the methods involved for developing ‘soft infrastructure’. Around US$93 billion is required annually to address infrastructure issues on the continent.
This article was a massive story upon release due to the ship order being the biggest ever placed by a global shipping company. Hong Kong based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) ordered six containerships up to 21,100 TEU in a bid to compete with various shipping lines, who are opting into alliances and ordering larger vessels in a bid to gain economies of scale in the industry.
In January, 2015, PTI reported on a futuristic shipping concept, which has been released by Norwegian company Lade AS entitled the ‘Vindskip’ cargo ship. The ship’s design aims to significantly cut pollution levels by using its sides to push itself through the water and thereby cut emissions by around 80%. Software also plays a big part in reducing fuel-usage by helping the ship find the best possible route.
8. APMT Set Mega-Ship Loading Record
APM Terminals, one of the largest terminal operators globally, recently set a loading record at its Maasvlakte II container terminal in Rotterdam after loading more than 17,150 TEU on the Madison Maersk containership. The terminal operator was able to achieve 1,000 container moves in a 15-hour period.
9. Long Beach Unveil Huge New Terminal
PTI covered a story in September, 2015 which reported on the Port of Long Beach’s new ‘Middle Harbor Terminal’, which is a new container handling facility that will be able to handle 18,000 TEU ships and will also be emissions free. This will be achieved by using battery-powered equipment, with the terminal having additional capabilities in the future to handle ships even larger than 18,000 TEU.
As one of the biggest stories of the year, the proposed shipping merger between CSCL and Cosco has been given clearance, which paves the way for the alliance to go ahead as planned in the coming months. This is a huge story because of the potential ramifications of the prospective alliances that each company currently belongs to, as well as the pressures that this will put on ports globally.
