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A surge in demand for consumer goods during the pandemic has created major supply bottlenecks around the world, which has impacted the supply of container ships and boxes to transport cargo.

Shipping and port officials expect global supply chain disruptions to extend into 2022.

“The current surge in freight rates will have a profound impact on trade and undermine socioeconomic recovery, especially in developing countries, until maritime shipping operations return to normal,” said UNCTAD Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan.

In its Review of Maritime Transport for 2021, UNCTAD said that the current surge in container freight rates, if sustained, could increase global import price levels by 11% and consumer price levels by 1.5% between now and 2023.

“The impact is expected to be more significant for smaller economies that depend heavily on imported goods for much of their consumption needs,” it said.

UNCTAD said maritime supply chain stakeholders including container lines, ports, inland transport providers, customs and shippers “should work together to share information and make maritime transport more efficient”.

“In the face of these cost pressures and lasting market disruption, it is increasingly important to monitor market behavior and ensure transparency when it comes to setting rates, fees and surcharges,” it said.

Source: www.marinelink.com

Image: www.pexel.com

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The new technology combines Nagasaki University’s tidal current power generation technology with Kyocera’s IoT technology to collect reliable ocean data.

Prototype buoys can collect a wide range of data on the marine environment using self-generated energy. A pilot program gathered information from 21 sensors, monitoring everything from water temperature and humidity to current direction. Future development may include sensors for temperature-related salinity variation, chlorophyll turbidity, and temperature related variations in dissolved oxygen concentrations, to name a few.

Marine pollution and climate change have become serious societal issues. To solve these issues and help create a more sustainable world, scientists need more reliable ways to monitor and visualize various sea conditions. However, maintaining a stable power supply is a big challenge for continuous data collection at sea. Therefore, Nagasaki University and Kyocera developed the “Energy Harvesting Smart Buoy,” which generates its own electric power for continuous ocean data collection using a tidal-current power generation system in the buoy.

The new Smart Buoy combines tidal-current power generation technology from Nagasaki University and IoT-related technology from Kyocera. In addition, Kyocera has future plans to monitor fisheries and aquaculture, conduct ocean surveys, and more.

Each prototype is equipped with two different tidal-current power generation systems:

SLTT (Small Lens-type Tidal Turbines) – The buoy and power generation are separate, and a diffuser is installed around the turbine. In addition to protecting the turbine, the diffuser has the effect of increasing the flow of water for better power generation.

VTT (Vertical-axis Tidal Turbines) – The power generation element is directly connected to the buoy. Its AI-guided design incorporates a tilted axis to optimize turbine rotation amid heavy ocean swells and waves.

Source: www.maritimejournal.com

Image: www.maritimejournal.com

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Dynamic Load Monitoring (DLM) is continuing to invest in its hire equipment, such as its running line monitors (RLMs), to meet technical and specialist requirements and service multiple projects with identical requirements at the same time.

“The customer can have up to date, certified and reliable equipment every time they need it without having the maintenance costs,” said Jamie Woodcock, business development manager at DLM. “As a lot of offshore projects last from 30 to 90 days, the benefits of not owning the equipment can help to reduce CapEx spend and overall project cost. Short-term hire will be cheaper than purchase.”

Multiples are important

Woodcock explained that most hires are for multiple items of equipment, which might be several tensile links, shackles, or compressive load cells for the lifting and rigging sector, or multiple RLMs & displays for an offshore project. This requires DLM to have multiple units of the same equipment and working ranges available. The marine industry also regularly hires multiple items, to be used in conjunction with each other, such as RLMs with a saddleback and a grapnel train.

With rentals for the marine/offshore industry often lasting up to 120 days at a time, there is a clear need for a large rental inventory. In contrast, hires for lifting, rigging, test and inspection applications can be as short as a single day. However, with only 12 hrs notice for mobilisation, sometimes the equipment needs to be ready for immediate despatch.

Connect with DLM at Seawork Connect from 5th to 7th October.

Source: www.maritimejournal.com

Image: www.pexels.com

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In some cases, the financially unpalatable proposition of placing equipment with helicopters is the most cost-effective solution.

At a much smaller scale installing beacons at the end of inaccessible moles or piers poses the same challenge. The equipment may cost a few thousand euros and the logistics tens of thousands per hour.

To address this issue, Spanish navaids specialist company Almarin has developed modular steel towers. Each component is light enough to be transported and assembled by two people however is strong enough to resist the harsh marine environment.

The assembly team can safely carry the different modules over breakwaters without requiring the use of a crane or other means. Besides facilitating transport and installation, this type of marine aids to navigation can be customised to fit the different requirements of the customer.

Almarin has extensive experience in the manufacture of towers and beacons for port and coastal marking. Almarin engineers develop the most suitable solution: from 40-meter towers with sector lights to 3-meter beacons marking the entrance of a small harbour.

The company provides marine aids to navigation made of stainless or galvanized steel, fiberglass (GRP) or rotomolded materials. These beacons can be equipped with standalone energy systems to cope with most AtoN energy requirements. The solutions provided by Almarin are designed and painted in accordance with IALA recommendations.

Source: www.maritimejournal.com

Image: www.pexels.com

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Berth 7 – one of the Port of Felixstowe’s nine container berths – has been dredged from 15.0m to 16.5 metres below Chart Datum and the berth box widened from 55m to 70m.

Chris Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, Hutchison Ports Port of Felixstowe, said,”The Port of Felixstowe is ever progressive and continuously invests in its infrastructure, equipment and people, with the view to enhancing its customer offering. As the number of ultra-large container ships continues to grow we will continue to improve and upgrade our facilities to meet the needs of our customers.

“Berths 8&9 are designed for a maximum depth of 18 metres and  the next phase of development will see further increases to the depths at Berths 6, 8 and 9. The deeper berths are being complemented by dredging planned by Harwich Haven Authority to increase the depth of the approach channel to up to 16 metres, further reinforcing Felixstowe’s position as the country’s No.1 deep-sea container port. “

The berth upgrade, together with a program to extend the outreach of 10  ZPMC quay cranes to 23 boxes wide on Berths 6 & 7, are in direct response to the increasing size and depth of the world’s largest container vessels, keeping Felixstowe at the forefront of the UK logistics and supply chain.

The 19,630 TEU Manila Maersk, operated on the 2M AE6/NEU3 service to Asia, was the first vessel to use the deeper berth. With a departure draft of 15.6 metres, the vessel was the deepest ever to be berthed on Trinity Terminal.

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Krishnapatnam Port is located on the east coast of India in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh (180 km from Chennai Ports) close to the border between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Krishnapatnam Port is an all-weather, deep water port has multi-cargo facility with a waterfront of 20 km and 6,800 acres of land.

Karan Adani, chief executive officer and whole time director of APSEZ said: “The consolidation of our ownership in Krishnapatnam Portreinforces APSEZ’s stride towards 500 MMT by 2025 and achieving our broader strategy of cargo parity between west and east coasts of India. Krishnapatnam Port is on track to handle double the traffic by 2025 and will deliver high growth through a multi-product and cargo enhancement strategy while enhancing return on capital employed. We are confident that we will be able to double throughput and triple EBITDA at Krishnapatnam Port by 2025. We are committed to making Krishnapatnam Port the gateway port for South Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. With its large industrial land backed with the port we will transform Krishnapatnam into a manufacturing and industrial hub.”

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The new infrastructure investment is designed to provide customers with speed, security, reliability and flexibility and will include:

• The dredging and widening of the berths to ensure that DP World Southampton will be able to continue to accommodate the world’s biggest ships (pictured below). This project, which was conducted in partnership with Associated British Ports, was completed before Easter and will improve flexibility for customers with immediate effect.

• A £10m investment in a new class of eleven hybrid straddle carriers. These vehicles, which lift containers moved by the quay cranes and then service onward forms of transport via road and rail, consume up to 40 per cent less fuel than diesel-electric powered machines and will be among the most sustainable in the world.

• A planned £3m investment in the redevelopment of the yard for the storage and delivery of customers’ empty containers. Once completed this will increase capacity by 25 per cent and create more flexibility for port users.

• A new Border Control Post (BCP), including UK Border Force and port health inspection facilities, to enable multiple government agencies to expedite checks on cargo entering the country.

• A £1.5m extension of a quay crane rail by 120 metres to ensure that the world’s biggest cranes can service all berths at the terminal. Additionally, other quay cranes will be relocated or decommissioned in order to maximise utilisation, speed up quayside loading and unloading, and save customers’ time.

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On Monday morning, 24 container ships—with a combined maximum carrying capacity nearly 10 times that of the newly freed ship—were anchored off the coast waiting for space at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which keeps tabs on vessels and directs ship traffic.

The ships are carrying tens of thousands of boxes holding millions of dollars’ worth of washing machines, medical equipment, consumer electronics and other of the goods that make up global ocean trade, all of it idling in the waters in sight of docks that are jammed with still more containers.

One was on its 12th day of waiting in the seemingly unending queue. And the vessels keep coming.

Backups started building late last year as retailers and manufacturers tried to rebuild inventories that were depleted in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

A stark difference can be seen comparing the movements of container ships around the ports in February of 2020 with February 2021, according to location data from shipping tracker Marine Traffic.

The two ports together handle more than a third of U.S. container imports, and delays there are part of a global supply-chain mess that continues even after the ships are unloaded. In January, more than a quarter of imported containers at those gateways had to wait more than five days for handling once they reached the dock, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association. In June 2020, before the logjam, about 2% had to wait that long.

U.S. imports from international trading partners picked up as coronavirus restrictions eased and demand rebounded in the summer of 2020. The U.S. imported a record $219.86 billion in goods in January of this year on a seasonally adjusted basis, about 9% higher than a year earlier.

“Under normal conditions, container ships rarely anchor,” said Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California. On Feb. 1 at noon, 40 were anchored offshore. The number has dipped since.

The number of container ships at a berth loading or discharging containers fluctuated between roughly 10 and 20 throughout 2019 and into 2020, which is normal, according to Capt. Louttit. It fluctuated between roughly 20 and 30 from late 2020 into March of this year. “The ports are setting records moving cargo,” he said.

The sudden uptick in shipments last year after a lull in the spring and summer “shocked and choked the goods movement system,” Capt. Louttit said. The extra ships arrived when the system was operating at reduced capacity and efficiency, a bottleneck partly due to transportation and logistics personnel being off the job because of Covid-19 infections and exposure, he said.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to work through the backlog as the number of ships arriving continues to rise. In February of this year, 177 container ships and more than 800,000 containers (in 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs) arrived at the ports. That’s 31% more ships and 49% more containers than the same month last year.

Seaborne imports into the U.S. have been building for months, starting with a surge in shipments of consumer goods as far back as August, according to Chris Rogers, supply-chain analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence Panjiva.

“The goods where we have seen the fastest growth in shipments are those that take up a lot of space on container ships relative to their value, with the result that the growth in volume of trade has been faster than the growth in value of trade,” Mr. Rogers said.

The supply-chain analyst cited marked increases in containers of furniture, home appliances, large consumer electronics, medical supplies and home and personal-care products.

The disruptions show how vulnerable supply chains are, and why it has been so challenging for many U.S. businesses to rebound a year after the pandemic’s onset even as the economy begins to recover.
Source: Wall Street Journal

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