Metsä Fibre and Euroports Finland Conclude Agreement on Port Operations for Rauma Sawmill’s Sawn Timber

May 3, 2021 - Metsä Fibre’s Rauma sawmill has concluded a service agreement with Euroports Finland on port operations for sawn timber in Rauma, Finland. The agreement is for four years and will take effect in the summer of 2022.

Automated conveyors will transfer the timber produced at the sawmill from packaging directly to the transport equipment for delivery to the port warehouse. The sawmill does not have warehouses for finished sawn timber, nor does it handle shipping operations.

“When running at full capacity, the sawmill will produce an annual 750,000 cubic metres of sawn timber. Depending on the market situation, a considerable share will be shipped to other countries,” said Harri Haapaniemi, Project Director at Rauma sawmill. “Our service agreement with Euroports offers a good logistical solution for the export of sawn timber. The company will handle the reception, storage and shipping of our products.

“Euroports has comprehensive expertise and modern equipment that satisfies current requirements. In addition, the company is committed to the environmental values and sustainability principles important to us,” Haapaniemi added.

In the handling of sawn timber, Euroports Rauma is Finland’s third largest port operator and the market leader on the west coast. It currently handles more than 600,000 cubic metres of sawn timber annually.

Sari De Meulder, Managing Director of Euroports, commented, “This means a considerable increase in the volume of mechanical forest industry products that we handle and will further boost Euroports Finland’s position as the leading sawn timber operator on the west coast. Rauma will become an important national hub for the mechanical forest industry.

“We also expect this to provide growth opportunities for other transports — for example, through new maritime transport routes. The new transports will naturally require large investments in equipment to increase the capacity of our hoisting devices, among other things. In line with sustainability principles, our new equipment will mainly be powered by electricity,” Meulder concluded.

The value of Metsä Fibre’s Rauma sawmill investment is approximately EUR 200 million, and the new unit will produce around 750,000 cubic metres of pine sawn timber annually. The new sawmill will be a worldwide forerunner in technology and efficiency. For example, the use of machine vision and artificial intelligence in different stages of the sawing process is a significant new development. Similar technology is not yet in use anywhere in the sawmill industry.

The construction of the sawmill is progressing as planned, and production will begin in the third quarter of 2022.

SOURCE: Metsä Fibre

Georgia Ports Authority Details Capacity, Operations Expansion

April 26, 2021 - At the Georgia Foreign Trade Conference (GFTC), the Georgia Ports Authority released fiscal year to date numbers (July -March) showing record volumes of 3.9 million twenty-foot equivalent container units, an increase of 15 percent, and detailed a plan that expedites completion of more than 1.4 million additional TEUs of annual capacity.

“As one of our most important assets for economic development, our ports play an important role in driving employment and opportunity for communities in every corner of the Peach State,” said Gov. Brian Kemp, who addressed the opening session of the GFTC. “Expansion of both capacity and capability at the Port of Savannah will help fuel our continued economic recovery, which is excellent news for hardworking Georgians employed across a wide range of industries.”

Expansion efforts include the Peak Capacity project, which will add 650,000 TEUs of annual container yard capacity in two phases at Garden City Terminal, with the first phase opening in five months.

Another main component of the expansion plan is the development of 92 acres GPA purchased last year adjacent to the Mason Mega Rail Terminal. Housing approximately 40 rubber-tired gantry cranes and adding 750,000 TEUs of annual capacity, the development will be commissioned within two years.

“I am proud of how our team has not only handled unprecedented cargo volume, but simultaneously advanced long-term capacity enhancements that existed only on paper into fully-funded projects that will begin coming online this September,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch.

In addition to these projects, Lynch detailed a plan to add a transloading facility on a 90-acre parcel just upriver from Garden City Terminal. He said a cross-docking warehouse will be completed in 15 months, served by a yard with nine RTG cranes and an annual capacity of 400,000 TEUs. The new expansion will also improve availability of chassis and empty containers at Garden City Terminal.

“The long-term success of the port is tied to staying ahead of the growth curve,” said GPA Board Chairman Will McKnight. “Once again, the team has risen to the occasion and developed an excellent plan to keep pace with customers who have determined that Georgia is the best state in the country to do business.”

Since November, the Georgia Ports Authority Board has approved $305 million in projects to increase Savannah’s annual TEU capacity from 5.4 million to 6.8 million.

GPA has also started construction to straighten a bend at Berth 1 of Garden City Terminal, to allow the Port of Savannah to simultaneously serve four 16,000-TEU vessels, as well as three additional ships. Berth 1 renovations will add an estimated 1 million TEUs per year of berth capacity by June 2023.

Long-term plans call for a new GPA terminal on Hutchinson Island. At full build-out, Savannah Container Terminal will provide 2.7 million TEUs of capacity.

SOURCE: Georgia Ports Authority

Port of Antwerp Expands Its Fleet with Energy-efficient Tugs

April 19, 2021 - Port of Antwerp inaugurated three new RSD tugs on 19 April 2021. This expansion forms part of the renewal and greening of the fleet, in which Port of Antwerp is focusing on the introduction of sustainable and energy-efficient vessels.

In 2020, 14,000 seagoing vessels and 57,000 inland navigation craft called at the port of Antwerp. To guide all those vessels safely and smoothly from the locks to their moorings and vice versa, Port of Antwerp carries out 19,000 towing operations behind the locks every year, both on the right and the left bank. In order to bring all those towage tasks to a successful conclusion, Port of Antwerp has 18 operational tugs and 250 colleagues on standby 24/7, 365 days of the year.

In September 2020, Port of Antwerp purchased its first RSD tug from Multraship NV and this was followed by the purchase of two additional vessels. RSD stands for Reversed Stern Drive and means that the tug was designed according to the double-bow principle. This allows it to be used dynamically as a front and rear tug. What is more, the tug is more energy-efficient thanks to its specific design and is equipped with a nitrogen oxide filter to comply with IMO Tier III regulations. The new tugs were designed by the shipbuilder Damen.

Intensive training

In order to prepare the crew and technical staff for the arrival of these new vessels, they received intensive training lasting several months. That training consisted of a nautical part concerning learning to sail with rudder propellers and a technical part concerning knowledge of ship systems on board, maintenance and troubleshooting. This intensive and sustainable training was internally driven and externally facilitated by Multraship NV and Damen.

Greening the fleet and making it more sustainable

Port of Antwerp manages a fleet of 32 vessels, consisting of tugs, dredgers and support vessels. This fleet is responsible for almost 85% of Port of Antwerp's total CO2 emissions. In order to minimise that impact, a multi-year project to renew, green and optimise the fleet was set in motion. In addition to purchasing new tugs, the company is also looking at data in order to improve its processes. One of the ways it is doing this is by collaborating with partners such as Optiport, which developed a tool to optimise the planning of towage tasks, and Cognauship, which will work on the consumption of Port of Antwerp's own tugs.

SOURCE: Port of Antwerp

Port of Gothenburg Says Swedish Forest Products Producer Chooses New Eco-Friendly Rail Shuttle

April 1, 2021 - The Port of Gothenburg announced that a new rail shuttle service to and from the Port offers environmental benefits and reduced transport time, and another forest products producer in the north of Sweden has decided to transport its products through the Port of Gothenburg and its rail network.

“There are considerable environmental benefits to be gained with this shuttle. It also offers access to the port’s extensive service network with frequent departures. Good availability of empty containers at the Port of Gothenburg enhances reliability even further. Other shuttle movements to and from the Port of Gothenburg are seen to be working very well, which is reassuring,” said Nikolas Rowland, Managing Director of the forwarding company behind the new shuttle, First Row Shipping and Logistics.

The new rail shuttle came into operation this past weekend, with a round trip to the Port of Gothenburg scheduled each week. 500 metres long, the train will carry 72 containers (TEU*) of Swedish forest products, destined primarily for Asian markets.

These additional volumes at the Port of Gothenburg were previously shipped from Piteå via the Baltic Sea using smaller feeder vessels. Transloading then took place at ports in central Europe.

The new rail solution to Gothenburg will result in considerable time savings and reductions in carbon emissions. In combination with frequent feeder services from the Port of Gothenburg and direct services to Asia, the transport time will be cut by 5-7 days, and the carbon footprint will be reduced by 87 per cent** compared with the previous arrangement.

The new shuttle service is operated by CFL Cargo Sweden, which is responsible for several of the 25 rail shuttles linking the Port of Gothenburg with the rest of Scandinavia.

“The Port of Gothenburg has been a major destination for us for many years and we are extremely pleased to be able to add yet another new, long distance route,” said Mikael Nyman, Senior Sales Manager at CFL Cargo Sweden.

After making the 1400-kilometre journey from the town of Piteå just south of the Arctic Circle, the trains roll directly into the Port of Gothenburg container terminal, which is operated by APM Terminals. From there, the cargo can be loaded directly on ships for further transport out into the world.

*Twenty-foot equivalent unit.

**Source: IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

SOURCE: Port of Gothenburg