Hello, I’m Editor of PTI Richard Joy, welcome to the inaugural PTI Newscast, a fortnightly
programme that brings to you a roundup of the biggest stories of the week, insight from
industry experts, and features into ports around the world.
And I’m Fergus March, in this newscast we’ll be speaking to key industry figures
on the biggest sector trends and aiming to provide you with the insight you require in
a quick and handy format. This week: After calling at the Port of Los Angeles in
late December, 2015, the 18,000 TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin became the largest ship
to call in the US in history. The call is being heralded as the introduction of the
US into the mega-ship era. I recently spoke to Executive Director of the Port of LA Gene
Seroka on handling big ships. Due to the lack of information surrounding
the imminent global container weighing rule which will come into effect on July 1st, 2016,
European shippers are urging governments to clarify how shippers can meet the requirements
of the IMO’s new rule. In order to clarify the situation, we’ve been speaking to Simon
Everett, Managing Director of load measurement specialist Strainstall.
A full version of the interview will be published on the PTI website shortly.
MSC has resumed vessel operations in Iran after services were suspended in 2012 in response
to international trade sanctions. A 9,400 TEU MSC vessel called at the southern Iranian
port of Shahid Rajei, marking the beginning of regular calls for MSC, and paving the way
for continuing business with Iran. Weak demand caused by a lack of a peak season
in the shipping market has caused the world’s busiest ports to see the slowest rate of growth
since the 2009 global recession. The Port of Jakarta and the Port of Hamburg were among
the ports to see the biggest drops in traffic, with volumes falling 16.6% and 9.2%, respectively.
Our insight for this episode focuses on port automation. Automation is often used as a
blanket term in the port industry, making it increasingly tricky to define what it is
we mean when we are talking about it in a broad context. With this in mind, I recently
spoke to TBA Founder and Director Dr Yvo Saanen, and asked him how we can break automation
down as a concept into more distinct areas. Thank
you
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and video content.