Hapag-Lloyd, the shipping giant based in Germany, has received shareholder approval to create share capital which will facilitate the merger with the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).

The Supervisory Board will expand from 12 members to 16 upon completion of the merger.

The Hapag-Lloyd CEO, Rolf Habben Jansen, stated: “The pending merger with UASC is another strategic milestone for Hapag-Lloyd. [It] gives us the large vessels we need in order to achieve low transport costs per container. Hapag-Lloyd will not need to make any more investments in large vessels in the next few years.”

The new Hapag-Lloyd will own and operate 237 vessels with a total capacity of around 1.6 million TEU. The company is expected to have an annual income of about USD 12 billion. The merger is subject to antitrust and contractual approvals.

Abu Dhabi Ports Authorities have presented the plan for an expansion of Khalifa port, semi-automated container port. The aim is to improve its operational readiness to handle larger cargo ships.

According to the plan there will be added 1000 m of quay wall and deepen its basin to 18 m. Also there will be added 600,000 m² for quay of cargo handling space.

Ports Authorities signed the agreement with the National Marine Dredging Company which will start preparation for deepening the channel.

As per Abu Dhabi ports the expansion of Khalifa port is scheduled to be finished in 2018 and this new project will ensure handling the world's largest ships.

New Jersey Port Gate Reconstruction​

​The one of the busiest ports in USA - New Jersey port decided to make some improvements for bigger ships to call. Bayonne bridge is one of the Port's authorities project. It is the fifth-longest steel arch bridge in the world​ ​connecting New Jersey with Staten Island, New York​. $1.3 billion 5-year project is to raise it and allow new-Panamax vessels to come into  ​Newark Bay​. ​At the moment the highest point of the bridge is 156 feet, but shortly it will reach 175 feet.  The impetus for local port authorities was the expansion of Panama Canal and the shipbuilding tendency of giant ships​.

Container shipping company APL announced that they will be expanding their operations by launching a new India-Pakistan-Europe service. The IPE service will connect the following major ports: Le Havre, Felixstowe and Southampton, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hazira, Mundra, Jeddah, Djibouti, Qasim, Nhava Sheva.    

First sailing of the IPE Eastbound service will start on October, 1 from Southampton. First sailing of the Westbound service - on October, 4 from Port Qasim.

The new IPE service builds on APL’s strong market presence and local competence in India and Pakistan to increase its Asia-Europe service offerings.

Three 100 - gauge electric container cranes arrived to JAXPORT  on August 19 aboard the special vessel Zhen Hua 14 from Shanghai, China.

In 2014 Jacksonville port signed the contract with Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, Co. Ltd. for the manufacturing and delivery of the cranes.

New cranes will be unloaded at reconstructed Berth 35 and became fully operated by the end of this year with the ability to reach across 22 containers (it is 6 containers more comparing with currents cranes).

The port authorities plan  to purchase ten 100-gauge cranes for Blount Island in the next 10 years.  These new electric cranes are part of the big project of building the port of the future.