Media
Media
SHIPPING AUSTRALIA and Westgate Ports differ on how the Port of Melbourne will handle the expected doubling of containers to 4.4 million by 2020.
In submissions to Port of Melbourne Corporation, Shipping Australia called for the development of Webb Dock East as a container terminal by 2014.
But Westgate wants Swanson, Victoria and Appleton Docks (SAVD) restructured, using Victoria Dock's rail links to the rail network, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. It said Westgate's plan would lead to the development of a "substantial amount" of warehousing at Lyndhurst and Altona.
The report pointed out that Shipping Australia's members carry more than 80 per cent of international containers to and from Melbourne. Westgate Ports, which is owned by Salta Properties, owns Victoria Dock.
Shipping Australia CEO Llew Russell said there would be sufficient demand for a third stevedore based at Webb Dock East by 2014.
"With Australia-wide stevedoring contracts, it is essential that Melbourne joins Sydney and Brisbane in providing for a third container stevedore by that time," he was quoted as saying. According to Mr Russell within three or four years big vessels of just under 320 metres would find it difficult to use the existing turning basin to gain access to Swanson Dock.
Mr Russell said the Victoria and Appleton Docks were more suited to the break bulk trade and did not have a back-up area to handle containers. Furthermore, he said trucks would be able to handle the initial one million containers into Webb Dock, meaning a more expensive and complex rail option was not needed in the short term.
Westgate Ports said in it submission that the restructure of the SAVD precinct would provide the extra capacity the port needed by 2020. The land in the SAVD precinct would be progressively freed up for container stevedoring and handling, creating a new overflow shipping berth at Victoria Dock.
Westgate said about two million square metres of usable land was available in the SAVD precinct, with less than one-third used as "back-of-house" support.
"Westgate Ports sees itself and the new berth as operating in a support capacity to DP World and Asciano," said Westgate executive chairman Sam Tarascio.
Salta has bought 180 hectares of land at Lyndhurst, where it intends to develop an inland port to shuttle containers to and from the port by train. It also owns land at Altona.
The Lyndhurst plot has direct access to the Cranbourne rail line and the Western Port Highway. It has the capacity for a 1.3 kilometre rail siding, 350,000 square metres of industrial space and 600,000 square metres of warehouse space, the report said.
The Lyndhurst freight terminal, which would be integrated into Salta's warehouse and logistics operations at Victoria Dock, would be connected to the Cranbourne railway track with a spur line to the port.
Cleveland to be sole US Great Lakes box feeder port
CLEVELAND, Ohio, expects to be become the first and only international container service operating on the American side of the Great Lakes next spring, giving the city's economy a boost, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
A deal between Port of Cleveland and the Canadian owners of two feeder vessels is currently "in progress", said Will Friedman, CEO of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, and both sides are anxious to sign an agreement.
Stan Shumway, managing partner of the Great Lakes Feeder Lines based in Montreal, came to Cleveland on Lake Erie to demonstrate how easily containers can be loaded and discharged from ships.
"They'll be bringing their container service from Montreal to Cleveland and back, something no port on the Great Lakes has at this time," Mr Friedman said. "It will be a new service, one of importance to companies wishing to move their good in containers."
Mr Friedman said the containers will be moved on a regular schedule weekly. He said it will be a more economical way to get goods to Montreal, where they can be moved to bigger ships and sent anywhere around the world.
Source: SchedNet
qq.com