Viewpoint – Page 6
-
NewsManila shows how not to do it
COMMENT: It’s a mess in Manila: empty boxes have been left to languish on the docks, trucks have been blocking up the highways and extreme, disconnected measures have caused a catalogue of knock on effects, writes Carly Fields.
-
NewsPorts must be prepared for every eventuality
COMMENT: It seems like it was only yesterday that we were discussing the heavy burden of overcapacity in Northern European ports, but today those same hubs now face the other extreme of too much traffic and what to do with it all, writes Carly Fields.
-
NewsTaking a unexpected dip
COMMENT: The temptation for this week’s comment is to write about the unfolding dramas on the US West Coast as the collective bargaining agreement circus rolls into town, writes Carly Fields.
-
NewsInner city development threatens ports
COMMENT: It’s not enough that developers snap up waterfront land at any opportunity and throw up condominiums at a jaw-dropping speed to take advantage of the premium buyers will pay for a watery view, regardless of the impact on the port, writes Carly Fields.
-
NewsNew kid on the block
Australia is about to welcome a new global terminal operator into its mix. An ICTSI-led consortium was the surprise winner for the concession of the new third container terminal in the Port of Melbourne.
-
NewsTales of two ports
Two tales from UK ports make interesting reading this month. In the West, Bristol Port Company (BPC) offered £10m to the local council to buy the freehold to the docks at Avonmouth and Portbury. The company bought the leasehold in 1991 under a 150-year lease.
-
News
Firm commitment
The highs and lows of port planning have been acutely felt on the US east coast this month.
-
NewsBlanket bans
Getting greens onside is one of life’s great battles for ports looking to expand. Some tackle environmentalists head on, preferring a fight to flight. Others bring them into every conversation to prove there’s nothing to hide.
-
NewsPatched into cyber risks
Since the rushed introduction of the International Ship and Port Facility Code back in 2004, ports have had a dogged focus on security of their facilities. Miles of perimeter fencing has been erected, tens of thousands of security plans have been put in place and countless port security officers have ...
-
NewsNo guarantees on post-expansion traffic
The sense of excitement on the US East Coast around the seemingly limitless benefits of the expansion of the Panama Canal is palpable. Ports from Miami to Boston are riding the post-expansion train, and dishing out a great deal of hyperbole as to why they will get the diverted West ...
-
NewsThe print run on port demand
At various points this year you may have glimpsed a headline, or overhead a conversation in a bar about 3d printing that momentarily piqued your interest, but by the time you got home you’d forgotten all about following up to find out more.
-
NewsChange afoot
The ‘big four’ still dominate the annual container terminal operator rankings, but could they be living on borrowed time?
-
NewsVisual stimulation
On a bleary and dank June morning in Rotterdam, taking a coach trip to the game-changing Maasvlakte II development seemed to be a good use of time.
-
NewsDog with a port autonomy bone
Never let it be said that the European Commission gives up on a fight: liberalisation proposals for ports in the trading bloc have resurfaced once again, undaunted by the backlashes to the previous incarnations in 2003 and 2006.
-
NewsCurtain 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.
-
NewsShrinking 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 ...
-
NewsSurvival 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.
-
NewsTunnel 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.
-
NewsBest 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.
-
NewsPressing 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?
