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Yilport in Portugal has described the so-called national ports strike organised by the Sindicato dos Estivadores e da Actividade Logística trade union as, in reality, just a local strike. It has only impacted Yilport Liscont, Yilport Sotagus and Yilport Setúbal (Sadoport). To date, Yilport said, each shift has been hit by limited available resources and it has been impossible to find workers to undertake extra work, with capacity and productivity at terminals seriously compromised. Because of a lack of workers, box traffic is down by around 40%. Yilport said this is “a huge loss of volume” and forces customers to switch business to other terminals. Long-term sustainability is at risk, said the company. According to the director of domestic shipping operator PSL Navegação, Francisco Marinho Leite, a call that might last two days at a Lisbon terminal is now taking an average of six days or more because of the strikes. In spite of the strikes, Yilport said that it will continue to work with Lisbon Port Authority in developing the port, although without sufficient traffic volume it is difficult to justify investing in the future of ports. Source: Port Strategy

The marine fuel and lubricant trading firm Glander International Bunkering has opened its seventh office globally and third service point in Europe in Valencia, Spain, to service clients in the Mediterranean and Spanish-speaking regions.

The initial schedule offers a twice weekly short sea container service, with its first departure from Antwerp on the 12th October. The service will be operated by a 508TEU capacity vessel, sailing from ATO's multimodal terminal on Tuesday and Saturday and ABP Port of Hull on Thursday and Monday, the company said in its press release. This new connection is in addition to Samskip's existing shortsea services connecting Rotterdam with Tilbury, Hull and Grangemouth (eight per week) and the recent three times weekly Amsterdam-Hull service. This new Antwerp to Hull routing offers shippers a distinct local alternative.

Los Angeles soon will be home to one of the world's biggest cruise ships. Norwegian Cruise Line's 5-month-old Norwegian Bliss on Friday will begin sailing out of the city after an initial summer based in Seattle. The 4,004-passenger vessel will operate a series of seven- and eight-night voyages from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera through early November. The trips will feature stops at such ports as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Bliss then will operate a single, two-week voyage from Los Angeles through the Panama Canal to Miami that will include stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia. At 168,028 tons, Bliss is Norwegian's largest ship ever, and it ranks among the 10 largest cruise vessels of all time. It'll be the largest cruise ship ever based in Los Angeles.

Argentina’s government wants construction of the country’s first LNG liquefaction terminal to start in the second half of 2019, making it possible to export an increasing surplus of production from the giant Vaca Muerta shale play, an official said. “We are confident that the decision to push the button on this project will come after the next presidential election in October 2019,” Daniel Dreizzen, the country’s secretary of energy planning, said at a Moody’s finance seminar in Buenos Aires. He said companies have brought forward proposals for building the terminal, which will be evaluated. Earlier this month, the country’s biggest gas transporter, Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), and Texas-based Excelerate Energy, which operates two floating LNG import terminals in Argentina, agreed to study the possibility of a liquefaction project in Buenos Aires province. They said they would present the proposal to the government by the end of this year for evaluation. But if no company is ready to advance by next year, Dreizzen said the government will hold an auction to find a builder and operator of the project. The terminal will have six trains for exporting supplies and should start operations by 2023, with the capacity to ship an initial 40 million cu m/d from Vaca Muerta, Dreizzen told S&P Global Platts on the sidelines of the event.

Poland is to build a short canal so that ships leaving from one of its ports will no longer need to transit Russian waters. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice, said this week the 1 km long canal cutting through the Vistula lagoon in the northeast of the country to the Baltic Sea will show Poland’s neighbours, the Russians, that “the days they dictated to us are over”. Currently ships leaving the lagoon from the port of Elblag must pass through Russian waters to get to the open sea. Russia has already complained to the European Commission about the canal, saying its construction threatens the ecology of the lagoon.

Liebherr, a lifting solutions provider, has delivered seven new reachstackers to Durban Port in South Africa, where they have already been put into operation as of March 2018. The assembly of the machines took place at the port after they arrived from a manufacturing site in Sunderland, UK. Liebherr have designed the machines to withstand harsh conditions. Nene Thubelihle, Regional Supply Chain Manager for terminal operator Transnet SOC Ltd, said: “The decisive factor for the purchase of a Liebherr machine was to find a reachstacker that could withstand the difficult maritime environmental conditions such as dust and salt that prevail in the Port of Durban and defy them permanently.

(Reuters) – Repairs to a dock at Venezuela’s main oil export port will take at least another month to complete following a tanker collision more than a month ago, further restraining the OPEC member nation’s crude exports, according to sources and shipping data. A minor incident in late August forced state-run oil company PDVSA to shut the Jose port’s South dock, one of three used to ship heavy and upgraded oil to customers including Russia’s Rosneft and U.S.-based Chevron Corp, and to receive diluents needed for the exports. Jose port typically handles about 70 percent of Venezuela’s total crude exports, which in September declined 14 percent compared with the previous month to 1.105 million barrels per day (bpd), according to Refinitiv Eikon data. Oil exports are the financial backbone of Venezuela’s economy, which is struggling to overcome hyperinflation, a long-standing recession and scarcity of basic goods.

An agreement on cruise service between Sochi and Istanbul is to be signed in the beginning of 2019, Sochi Administration cites Anatoly Pakhomov, the city mayor, as saying following the meeting with the Turkish delegation which was dedicated to discussion of cruise prospects. Anatoly Pakhomov commented: “We have established two working groups. The first one – tour operators of Sochi and Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria. Tour operators of Georgia will most likely join the group. The second working group to consist of heads of seaports, first of all, Istanbul and Sochi. Of course, other cities of Turkey and Bulgaria will join them. The agreement will be signed but it needs specifications”. Representatives of Sochi will visit Istanbul in the beginning of the next year to sign the agreement on international cruise links, says Anatoly Pakhomov.

BC Ferries reported yesterday on the second phase of public engagement recently completed to help shape future plans for Swartz Bay terminal. Phase 3 of the engagement program, revealing the proposed concept and gathering feedback, will begin in the coming months. More than 500 people participated in Phase 2 of the engagement, which included pop-up events at the terminal, an online engagement, and stakeholder and employee workshops. BC Ferries presented draft concepts for the future of the terminal based on the key themes raised in Phase 1. Participants were asked about several ‘Big Moves’, or potential options for the terminal, including an expanded foot passenger building and waiting area, improved vehicle passenger amenities, improved pick-up and drop-off areas, and options for the waterfront area at the terminal.

The Port of St. Helens adopted a new name “Port of Columbia County” on July. At its Sept. 12 meeting, the commissioners adopted a new logo reflecting the name change. Last April, the Port of St. Helens set out to rebrand itself to reflect its mission and operations across all of Columbia County. In July, the commissioners of the port district formally adopted a new name, “Port of Columbia County.” The name, currently “Port of St. Helens,” is not indicative of the port operations that stretch from Clatskanie and Port Westward to Scappoose along the Columbia River. At its Sept. 12 meeting, the commissioners adopted a new logo reflecting the name change. It is the next step in a process that will culminate with a total rebranding of the port by year’s end.

Warehouse workers and truck drivers at Los Angeles ports are planning to launch a three-day strike Monday, aiming to put pressure on logistics companies they claim owe them back wages. The action targets XPO Logistics Inc. and NFI Industries and marks the 16th strike mounted by the Teamsters union in recent years among nonunion workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the labor group. Rather than focus on slowing work at the ports, the strikers plan to concentrate picketing and leafleting Monday and Tuesday on warehouses, headquarters and retail outlets of clients of XPO and NFI, as well as demonstrating at the port itself.

Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine seal partnership to create a mega yacht maintenance and refit centre in Marseille On Thursday 20 September 2018, the Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine Marseille officially signed their partnership to create a mega yacht maintenance and refit centre in the Mirabeau harbour sector of the Port of Marseille Fos, the company said in its press release. For a period of 50 years the Port has granted an area of 55,000 m2 dedicated to marine pleasure craft repair to the company Monaco Marine, which specializes in yacht maintenance and refit between Monaco and Marseille. The Port of Marseille Fos launched a call for projects at the beginning of 2018 with the aim of attracting proposals and initiating a general industrial project in the area of the Port known as the Mirabeau harbour. At the end of the process, having presented an ambitious project for a maintenance and renovation centre dedicated to very large 90 to 133 meter yachts, the company Monaco Marine was selected.

Cargo handling specialist Kalmar has agreed to supply 12 hybrid straddle carriers to DP World Southampton in the UK.​ Southampton is often the first or last call for container ships serving trade routes between Northern Europe and the Far East, and will implement the new equipment at its container terminal. With an expected delivery date of Q2 of 2019, the order, which includes operator training and six months of on-site maintenance support, fulfils the aims of DP World’s sustainability programme by using natural resources responsibly.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Mundra LNG terminal that has been developed in keeping with his emphasis on clean energy. He said that the inauguration of the LNG terminal is the highlight of today's programme. I am fortunate to have inaugurated three LNG terminals, he added. Apart from the Mundra LNG terminal he inaugurated Anjar-Mundra Pipeline Project and the Palanpur-Pali-Barmer pipeline project, at Anjar.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez recently inaugurated the new Pier 6 facility of Puerto Cortes operated by Operadora Portuaria Centroamericana S.A. de C.V. (OPC), a subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), expected to further strengthen the country’s position as Central America’s premiere logistics hub, ICTSI said in its press release. The US$145 million greenfield development, which represents the first phase of OPC’s expansion work in Puertos Cortes, adds another 350 meters of quay to the existing 800 meters and depth of 14 meters.

A consortium of Dredging International and Van Oord received a contract for the modernisation of the Świnoujście – Szczecin fairway in Poland. Under the deal, the parties will undertake deepening and widening of the fairway along a section of approximately 62 km from -10.5 to -12.5 m. The investment by the Maritime Office in Szczecin will improve access to the Szczecin seaport and increase the port capacity to handle a growing volume of cargo. The works further include enforcements of slopes and quay walls along the channel, relocation of cables and navigational aids. Works will start end of 2018 and are expected to be completed in 42 months. The contract has a value of approximately EUR 313 million and is co-financed by the European Union.

Justice for Port Drivers, a Teamsters-sponsored group that has promoted picketing and other job actions over the past five years, will participate in job actions at the ports, two motor carrier facilities, warehouses and rail yards beginning Monday morning.

IEnova and Trafigura have signed a long-term agreement to develop a refined products marine terminal in the Port of Manzanillo in the Mexican Pacific state of Colima, the companies said Friday. The new terminal is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2020 with a total storage capacity of 1.48 million barrels of fuel in its first phase. As part of the agreement, IEnova bought 51% stake of a subsidiary of Trafigura, which is developing the terminal. Trafigura is going to contract 740,000 barrels of storage capacity at the project’s first phase. The Manzanillo terminal is well located to supply the greater Guadalajara region, Mexico’s second- largest demand center.

ZIM and MSC announce a new cooperation, offering a fast and reliable connection between the sub-continent and the Mediterranean, as follows: ZII – ZIM India Israel Service with the following rotation: Nhava Sheva - Mundra - Haifa (west bound only) ZIE – ZIM India East Med Express with the following rotation: Mundra - Nhava Sheva – Colombo - Port Said West – Mersin – Piraeus- Istanbul – Mersin – Iskenderun– Mundra This new alignment is a major enhancement for ZIM customers on the trade, benefiting from a wide range of direct calls and improved transit time along with ZIMs renowned personal dedicated customer service.