Illustration: Tove Svensson

Intercultural communication improves safety
Seafarers have a long tradition of working in a global environment. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the world‘s merchant ships have a multilingual and multiethnic crew composition that interacts on an international scene with other parts of the shipping community. Onboard as well as onshore, they meet with pilots, agents and surveyors, to mention but a few.

Captain Niels Nielsen. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

The captain of the Danica White tells the story: A very special voyage
Captain Niels Peter Nielsen was captain of the Danica White during the 82-day capture off the coast of the more or less lawless country Somalia in East Africa. SSG paid a visit to Captain Nielsen’s home in Denmark to hear his own words on the very special voyage.
“The Danica White was held mainly by gentlemen soldiers off the coast of Somalia. Shortly after coming onboard they behaved nicely apart from some nasty hints of execution. They had their own cook, their own provisions and when we ran out of cigarettes, they even provided us with cigarettes from the stocks ashore”, the captain says.

The Color Magic: A cruise vessel on a ferry route
In mid-September Color Line’s successful cruise ferry Color Fantasy got an equal partner on the Oslo-Kiel service. The Color Magic is almost identical with her elder sister, but the design includes some modifications and improvements. The naming ceremony of Color Line’s latest newbuilding the Color Magic took place in Kiel on September 15. It was a spectacular event with the famous German actress Veronica Ferres as the godmother. Tens of thousands of people attended the “Mega-Party” on the quay; the party included a concert with the Norwegian pop group A-ha. According to Color Line, this NOK 15 million party was the largest single Norwegian marketing effort in Germany in 2007.

Aframax market steeped
in over-supply
If and when VLCC tonnage begins liftings from Primorsk, a new era will dawn on the eastern half of the North European tanker market and it will affect the trading pattern in the whole area. Meanwhile, no doubt, aframax tonnage will continue to dominate the North European market for crude liftings.

Illustration: Håkan Sjöström

The precursors
of the modern bulk carrier
Having a deadweight in excess of 20,000 tons, the cargo vessels Amerikaland and Svealand were the largest cargo vessels afloat when they were in 1925 handed over to the Swedish ship owner Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget Tirfing. The design featured many new innovations, and in combination with their enormous size the vessels were in many respects forerunners, paving the way for the pure bulk carrier.

SPECIAL FEATURE
Ports and Maritime Logistics

Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

In this issue we focus on ports and the equipment they use as important hubs in domestic and international trade. The ports are vital and stable elements in the economic relationship between Northern European countries.

Vuosaari: Efficient harbour
for unitised cargo
Purpose-built for the handling of unitised goods such as trailers and containers, the new Vuosaari harbour of Helsinki will be fully operational at the end of 2008.
The Vuosaari project is the largest investment ever in the port sector in Finland. Today the cost of the framework with fairway and hinterland connections totals nearly EUR 700 million.

Project Norvikudden: Ports
of Stockholm do it by themselves
The first call at the new container and ro-ro port Norvikudden in Nynäshamn (south of Stockholm) is scheduled for 2011. The owner, Ports of Stockholm, projects a capacity of ten million tons of goods annually. The financing is arranged without government subsidies.

The new Cargo Service container terminal in Århus has 1.3 km of quay served by five SSG’s (Ship-to-Shore Gantries). Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

Århus: The new public terminal
Imagine this scenario: You have 37 years of experience running a major container terminal and access to the latest modern technology and are about to design a completely new terminal within the same harbour. It has to be the perfect match, somebody will say.

Photo: Kalmar Industries

An automated container port: Immense operational complexities
Twenty years ago, it was widely assumed that the fully automated container port was only a matter of a few years away. Hutchinson Port’s Thamesport in the UK and European Container Terminal (ECT) in Rotterdam were in the 1990s the main pioneers of automation. Ten years on, the case for automating terminal stacking seems to have been made. Equipment makers are fighting fiercely over a small but growing order book. However, the jury is still out on horizontal automation using Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs), because they still have not attained the productivity levels of manual handling. SSG investigates.

Wind of change blowing
over Danish ports
Nearly everybody in the Danish port environment is holding their breath at the moment, awaiting the report from Strukturkommisionen, a government advisory board, giving its opinion about the Danish port structure in the coming 10–15 years. The report is expected to give a new view on the port structure in Denmark, leaving the philosophy that the country should be served by only six major ports (Copenhagen, Kalundborg, Århus, Fredericia, Aabenraa and Esbjerg) and the rest could be sold as resort areas or used for pleasure craft.

Estonian ports show flexibility
The pressure coming from outside Estonia has forced the ports to be flexible. The loss of the flow of some article may force a single terminal to its knees, but a certain loss of cargo turnover has forced terminals and ports alike to reorganise their operations.

Sawn wood being loaded on the ro-ro vessel Estraden in the port of Turku. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Increasing cargo volumes
in Finnish ports
An all-time-high was recorded in the international cargo traffic in Finnish ports last year. The positive development has also continued during 2007. Last year the international cargo shipments to and from the Finnish ports totalled almost 100 million tons of cargo, according to statistics from the Finnish Maritime Administration. Of that volume 6.6 million tons were related to transit shipments, mainly to and from Russia.

Germany: More records ahead
as main projects seek green lights
Threats to the timetables of two major port projects this autumn are disturbing generally good progress in Germany’s main ports, as many head again for new records. Last-minute developments could, however, help defuse the threats which affect both the construction of the planned JadeWeser deepwater port (JWP) in Wilhelmshaven – the key to future German mega ship business – and also the timing of Elbe deepening in Hamburg – which officials say is urgent if big ships are to reach new and expanded terminals.

The building of the Baltic Juice Terminal in Ventspils was finished in 2006. The terminal is constructed for unloading and storage of juice concentrate. Photo: Madli Vitismann

Passenger terminals
being built in Latvia
Last year, Latvian ports loaded 59.5 million tons of goods. At the same time as the cargo turnover rose in Ventspils and Riga, Liepaja lost half a million tons due to the loss of ro-ro cargo.
On September 19, when it rained cats and dogs, passengers arriving in Riga could walk towards the terminal through a beautiful new glass corridor. The skyway was finally ready for use, “only” four and a half years after opening the Riga–Stockholm passenger route.

Transit on the rise in Lithuania
The cargo turnover of Klaipeda State Seaport is rising, because the port handles primarily Lithuanian goods. The latter accounted for 15.8 million tons out of the 23.6 million tons handled last year. The port will be able to cope with an annual turnover growth of eight per cent over the next ten years. This means that the port’s capacity could rise up to 45 million tons, but that would be the maximum that the port can handle.

Norway: Too many ports
– too little cargo
Around 300 local Norwegian communities borders on coastal waters and about 80 per cent of the population of 4.5 million lives less than ten kilometres from the sea, making the country ideal for sea transport. Despite these favourable geographical conditions for domestic sea transport, it is gradually losing out to road transport, from a 70 per cent share in 1960 to 45 per cent today.

Picture taken from the lighthouse in the port of Kolobrzeg. Photo: Leszek Szymanski

Poland: Boom in economy and in container turnover
The growth of the economy (6,7 per cent) that Poland experienced during the first half of 2007 was considerably higher than expected. Some people maintain that it was driven by the construction sector. This can however not be the only reason. There has also been a rise in cargo turnover and changes in the cargo structure of the Polish ports.

The bulk terminal in Ust-Luga. Ust-Luga doubled handling throughput, reaching 4.4 million tons in January–August 2007. Photo: Alexander Kalinin

Big plans in Big Port
of St Petersburg
The stevedores operating in the Big port of St Petersburg handled 39.43 million tons during the first eight months of 2007. This is a 12.7 per cent plus year on year. Containerised cargoes were up by 13.5 per cent to 11 million tons, refrigerated cargoes up by 13.8 per cent to 2.6 million tons, mineral fertilizers up by 40.7 per cent to 4.3 million tons.

The Emma Mærsk calls at the Skandia terminal in the largest port of Scandinavia, Göteborg. Photo: Leif Hansson

Sweden: Major shake-up
at the horizon
The centre-right government in Sweden has initiated what could become a major shake-up of the ports and maritime infrastructure sector. A recently published report has identified ten of Sweden’s over 50 public ports as being of strategic importance for the nation. The selection was based on the following criteria: cargo turnover, existing infrastructure, environment promotion, safety and security, development potential and cooperation with other port operators.