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Viewpoint

  • Curtain call for Hong Kong drama

    There is a coups de théâtre being played out in Hong Kong. Hutchison’s Hongkong International Terminal has been an unwilling extra in a performance put on by its contracted dockers, who are now in their fifth week of strikes. 02 May 2013 - Port Strategy

  • Shrinking pool of port talent

    Successive years of hammering home the crewing ‘crisis’ message have firmly ingrained the matter on our minds: red alert, a dearth of qualified seafarers is about to bring the industry to its knees. However, that record has been re-played for at least the last two decades and the anticipated crisis has yet to materialise. 05 Apr 2013 - Port Strategy

  • Survival of the fittest

    It’s started. It was inevitable that the longer this financial blip continued the more chance there was of seeing business buyouts in the ports sector. And we can thank equipment companies for the start of what may well be a domino effect for the rest of the industry. 07 Mar 2013 - Port Strategy

  • Tunnel vision for another year

    We’ve welcomed in a new year, but as an industry we are facing the same set of problems; even a seasoned optimist like me is struggling to see any positives any time soon. 04 Feb 2013 - Port Strategy

  • Best laid plans

    Have long-winded and overly bureaucratic planning processes taken another victim in the maturing UK port industry? Fears are that a setback in Hutchison Port Holdings’ already lengthy Bathside Bay plans might send the international operator packing. 29 Nov 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Pressing the button on remote control

    As Navis’ Bill Walsh proudly proclaimed at Navis World last month, we are at automation two point zero. Announcements for Europe's first automated STS crane orders certainly back him up, but how long has it taken us to get here? 01 Nov 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Tracking trials

    There is much fodder for this month’s viewpoint, with strikes hanging over the usually labour-stable US East coast and DP World’s departure from its Aden ambitions. 11 Oct 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Getting hit from both sides

    US east coast ports faced two very different threats this month: one the fault of Mother Nature and the other entirely manmade as Hurricane Isaac and longshoremen unions both knocked on port doors. 31 Aug 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Moving target

    The tales of two recent labour struggles underline continuing fraught relations between port operators and workers in all parts of the world. 26 Jul 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Change of tack

    APM Terminals has boldly put its money where its mouth is in its commitment to North America and put in an unsolicited bid to take over operations at Virginia Port Authority’s terminals. 31 May 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Shaking up the status quo down-under

    Melbourne finally has its sights set on the prize with Port minister Denis Napthine giving the port's long-awaited third container terminal the official go-ahead. 26 Apr 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Go fish and keep good staff on the hook

    We are bombarded on a daily basis with spiralling unemployment figures. So dire is the job market in many countries that you would be forgiven for thinking that employees would put up with anything just to keep what they have. 29 Mar 2012 - Port Strategy

  • No easy win for Tauranga

    The labour situation in New Zealand has gone from bad to worse: discontented port workers were about to enter their fourth month of strikes at Ports of Auckland as this issue went to press. 23 Feb 2012 - Port Strategy

  • At your inconvenience

    The International Transport Workers’ Federation’s threat to unceremoniously brand the Ports of Auckland as its first Port of Convenience sets a worrying precedent. 26 Jan 2012 - Port Strategy

  • Low blows for US ports

    Falling volumes, bun fights for dredging works, misguided protestors disrupting operations – US ports are certainly having a tough time of it. 07 Dec 2011 - Port Strategy