Houston Port Speeds Up Channel Widening

The Houston Port Commission has moved to accelerate Houston Channel widening, the busiest waterway in the country.
This project will be the eleventh great channel widening and deepening since its creation.

The Houston Port authority is working with the U.S. Engineers Army Corps and other federal government representatives, as well as stakeholders in order to obtain authorization and accelerated funding and completion federal waterway dredging process.

The commission was instructed on measures to make sure widening of the entire Galveston Bay reach of the ship channel is part of the next Houston Channel dredging project. The commission also instructed staff to bring suggestions for port authority and industry funding to support the accelerated effort.
The commission also budgeted USD 500,000 to support a traffic efficiency group for the channel.

Launch of The Gothenburg Gateway

Terminal operator APM Terminals Gothenburg has launched The Gothenburg Gateway.

This new concept will see a container placed on a freight train anywhere in Sweden loaded onto a large ocean-going vessel within 48 hours, thereby reducing the transit time to Shanghai by at least a week.

The Gothenburg Gateway connects fast freight trains across all of Sweden to Gothenburg, a versatile container port. APM Terminals plans to service Sweden with three ocean-going vessels per week. Henrik Kristensen, CEO APM Terminals Gothenburg, said: “We analyzed how long it takes for a container to reach Shanghai – an important Asian market for Sweden. The Gothenburg Gateway will help reduce this time by at least one week, as well as offering an efficient and climate-smart solution. The Gothenburg Gateway is a concept to ensure future growth for Swedish industry and trade.”

Montreal's Container Terminal Continues Expansion

A new construction phase will start in September 2019 after the first phase was finished in 2016. A reconstruction will increase port's current capacity to 600,000 TEUs and this is by 250,000 TEUs more for Viau Terminal as of now. The project was set by Montreal Port Authority (MPA) and LOGISTEC Corporation. Works are planned to finish in December 2020, however final expansion phase was not set to start yet as it requires large investments from multiple partners. 

On April 4th the Customs division of Ghana started working on reducing import duties at Tema Port, as per the government's directive which was announced earlier by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia during the Economic management summit.

According to the directive, import duty for cars is to go 30 % down.

MOL Nordic Testing BunkerPlanner Tool
Danish chemical tanker company MOL Nordic Tankers will hold live trials of the BunkerPlanner marine fuel analysis tool on its whole fleet.

The company conducted a successful pilot test on five vessels at the end of 2018.

Proprietary simulation and optimization algorithms allow ship owners to reduce fuel bills by 2% to 4%. Factors such as fuel price forecasts, trade routes, vessel speed, fuel consumption, time spent in Emission Control Areas and tank sizes are taken into account.

According to Andreas Sund Poulsen, VP Global Operations, MOL Nordic Tankers A/S: “Access to data that can provide real insights into our fuel procurement strategy, and help us to make informed decisions on how, when and where we buy our fuel in a way that reduces our overall fuel spend is invaluable; particularly as we move into 2020 where the price of fuel will inevitably rise, in conjunction with the added pressures of consistency in product availability and quality.”

Formerly known as Nordic Tankers, the shipper was acquired by MOL Chemical Tankers in January 2019.