March was a big month for South African ports which handled a total of 16.368 million tonnes of cargo during the month of March 2007 (Feb 13.915Mt), thanks mainly to an increase in bulk cargo handled at the ports of Richards Bay and Durban. This figure excludes tonnage for containers which the National Ports Authority records in TEUs but no longer by weight. Container volumes showed a general decrease in March compared to February. 

Steel shipments helped the Ports of Indiana set a new record of $1.89 billion of cargo handled in 2006. This was a 23-percent increase from 2005, which had been the previous 36-year high. Steel accounted for $955 million of the 2006 shipments, a 45 percent increase from the previous year. The Ports of Indiana surpassed $1 billion in cargo shipments for the third consecutive year - the only three years this has been accomplished since Indiana's first port opened in 1970.  

Dubai: DP World is projecting a 75 per cent increase in container handling capacity at its terminals worldwide as it pursues new projects worth billions of dollars. The company said it achieved a throughput of 42 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent container units) in 2006, an increase of 16 per cent on DP World and P&O;'s combined volume of 2005. British port group P&O;'s $6.8-billion acquisition in early 2006 made DP World the world's third biggest terminal operator by container volume. 

The Quebec Port Authority (QPA) has recently announced its traffic results for 2006. This was a fourth successive record year for commercial activities with more than 23 million tonnes of cargo handled in the various terminals of the Port of Quebec. Almost 14 million tonnes of liquid bulk and 9 million tonnes of dry bulk moved through the Port. These figures clearly show that the QPA is the gateway par excellence for supplying the Great Lakes market with goods coming from or traveling to some sixty countries. 

The Virginia Port Authority has said that the Port of Virginia in 2006 posted the most productive year in its history as it handled more than 2 million TEUs. In 2006, Virginia International Terminals Inc., the Virginia Port Authority’s (VPA) private terminal operator, signed long-term contracts with some of its biggest customers. Now, more than 85 percent of the port’s business is sewn-up in 10-year contracts. And as a result of the port’s continued growth, there were millions of dollars invested in port-related industry throughout the Commonwealth 

Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) said that the port experienced its best year since 2000, handling 7.7 million metric tonnes of commodities in 2006 compared to 4.4 million metric tonnes in 2005, despite the closure of its Fairview break-bulk terminal for conversion to a container port. 

Associated British Ports (ABP) has said that its South Wales Ports of Cardiff, Barry, Newport, Swansea and Port Talbot handled 15.9 million tonnes in 2006, compared to 15.2 million tonnes the year before – an increase of 4.6 per cent. The rise in total cargo volumes was driven by a substantial increase in steel imports at the Ports of Newport and Cardiff and forest-product shipments at the Port of Swansea, as well as by new business wins across the five ports. 

Port Authority Announces $2 Billion Investment In Port Infrastructure
International cargo volumes in the Port of New York and New Jersey hit record levels in 2006, and robust growth projections have prompted the Port Authority to plan $2 billion in seaport investments in the next 10 years, Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia and Port Authority announced recently.

 

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf formally opened on March 20, 2007 Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan province, the South Asian country's third port. The port will be completed at a cost of US$264 million, with financial and technical assistance of China, which has so far provided 80% of the development costs. The operation and management of the port was handed over to the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) under an agreement signed between the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) and PSA. The PSA is committed to invest $550 million over the next five years.  

Qatar is planning to build a new port to accommodate big containers ships, a recent report said. The report said Qatar is attaching great hopes to the new port project, which is expected to handle the increasing trade traffic resulting from the implementation of the GCC custom union, as the GCC states have become as one custom post in regard to custom tariff. The project will activate transit from Doha to neighboring countries. 

The Jordanian Al-Aqba Port has recorded good results in 2006 compared to previous years. The number of ships that arrived at the port reached 2884. Goods been handled amounted to 17, 164,000 tons not including the results of the containers terminal. Exports constitute 10,144,000 tons while imports amounted to 7,020,000 tons of the total goods been handled. The volume of exported and imported goods to and from Arab countries has the lion's share as it reached 7,8 million while the volume of goods exported from and imported to the Far East amounted to 6 ,million tons. On the third position comes the volume of goods to and from Europe 2, 4 million tons, to the Americas 775,000 and other countries 189,000. 

Transshipment cargo volume increased by 13.5% last February, the record in 18 months, Busan Port Authority said. In August 2005 the port has recorded 13.6% increase in transshipment cargo volume. BPA estimated that container volume dealt at Busan Port for the last two months is 2,006,015 TEU (1 TEU is a 20 feet container), 8.2 % increase from previous year’s 1,871,734 TEU. Among the volume, import and export cargo accounted for 1,143,608 TEU, 10.2% increase and transshipment cargo 881,471 TEU, 7.5% increase. 

The Yemen Ports Authority (YPA) has recorded tangible performance progress at the ports under its control in Aden, Hadramout and Al-Makala. The Authority is expecting further performance progress to be achieved in 2007. It is looking forward to upgrade the level of its services, develop its human cadres and purchase new equipment and devices to facilitate services at its ports.  

The Suez Canal revenues climbed to $326.4 million in February from $267 million in February last year. The number of vessels passing through the waterway fell to 1,511 in February from 1,629 in January, but rose from 1,407 in February 2006. Canal revenues were $349.6 million in January. 

DP World has completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary P&O; Ports North America (Popna) to US-based AIG Global Investment Group. "The sale fulfils the commitment made by DP World last year to sell its US assets to an American buyer," DP World said. Under AIG's ownership, the business will be re-named 'Ports America' 

167,372,296 tons of cargo were loaded and unloaded in the port of Antwerp in 2006, an increase of 4.6% compared with the 160 million tons in 2005. Imports amounted to nearly 92 million tons (up 5.6%), while exports came to more than 75 million tons (up 3.3%). 

Singapore Port celebrates another year of port and maritime achievements in 2006. Minister for Transport, Mr Raymond Lim said that Growth figures for vessel arrivals and bunker sales surpassed 2005’s full-year figures even before December 2006. Singapore is set to retain its seat as the world’s busiest port, as vessels arrivals in terms of shipping tonnage reached an unprecedented 1.3 billion gross tons (GT) in 2006. This supersedes the record set in 2005 by some 14.2 per cent. 

An official at the Egyptian maritime sector in Alexandria disclosed that the volume of handled containers at the port recorded an increase of 16 percent in December 2006. He added that the number of containers handled during that month reached 388,000 of which 256,000 containers were transit and 132,000 were inland. The volume during the same period of the previous year was 333,000 containers. 

Recently the Halifax Port Authority reviewed the capacity of the two container terminals to project over the next 10 years the maximum available capacity for cargo growth. 'It is important that we understand the full potential of both current terminals as we plan our container growth strategy and capital infrastructure plan over the long-term," the Port Said in a statement. 

John Owens, the leader of the visiting UK Ports Mission has said that UK has the experience and knowledge to be able to offer a wide range of services to the Indian ports sector and this has encouraged the UK Government to identify India as one of its priority markets. Addressing a meeting on `UK-India Partners in Port & Maritime Development' here on March 12, 2007, Mr. Owens said Ports & Terminals Group, part of the Society of Maritime Industries, the main trade association for the maritime sector in the UK, which was organizing the present mission in close co-operation with UK Trade & Investment, a Government department, had organized its first mission to India in 1997, followed by several missions in 1998, 2001 and 2004.