Original news was published on 17 September, 2014

RAS Infraport, the first private terminal at Kandla Port in Gujarat, India, has handled its first shipment of steel slabs.

The cargo arrived on the Star Masaya, carrying 1,642 steel slabs with a total weight of 40,723 tonnes. The discharge was completed in three days with the average handling rate at 13,575 tonnes per day, an Exim News Service report said.

RAS Infraport opened its doors in 2013 as the first multipurpose cargo berth developed under a public private partnership basis at Kandla port. The terminal handles dry cargo and breakbulk undefined no liquids or containers. During its first year, the terminal handled 1.5 million tons of cargoes, including timber and project cargo. The terminal has two mobile harbor cranes, each with a lifting capacity of 140 tonnes, and nearly 22 hectares for storage.

A two-lane road inside the terminal property connects with a four-lane national highway to Kandla Port and inland destinations.

*NEWS SOURCE

Dear Project Cargo Specialists,
 
Very Professional agents are going on to join Overseas Project Cargo Association all around the world. Today we are very happy to announce you that EMERALD FREIGHT EXPRESS recently joined among us from IRELAND.

Let's welcome our new agent on board of OPCA together !

We are also pleased to announce that Project Cargo Manager, Ms. Audrey Hughes will be attending our coming Annual Summit in Turkey at 20,21,22 November 2014. The gathering will be a great opportunity to meet all OPCA partners. Please click here for full information on the event.        

By their registration to the November meeting, now EMERALD FREIGHT EXPRESS has the privilege of becoming OPCA member till September 2015. It would be our pleasure to serve our new agent for a long term cooperation in our group. 

EMERALD FREIGHT EXPRESS _ IRELAND

ADDRESS:Santryhall Industrial Estate, Santry, Dublin 9, IRELAND
CONTACT:Audrey Hughes / Project Cargo Manager
TEL:+ 353 1 816  5198
FAX:+ 353 1 842  8349
WEB: www.emeraldfreight.com

Elecnor, a Spanish engineering and construction firm, will build a US$123 million solar plant in southern Australia.

The 72-megawatt Moree facility will be constructed in New South Wales and will be one of the largest solar projects in Australia, Elecnor said in a statement. has signed a €95m ($123m) contract to build the 72MW Moree PV plant in southern Australia.

Moree will consist of a 233,000-panel array on 191 hectares. The plant will begin producing power in the second quarter of 2015.

*NEWS SOURCE

Original news was published on 11 September, 2014

Balfour Beatty has been awarded a US$113.6 million contract to complete and outfit the new Crossrail station at Woolwich.

The four-year project will provide faster and more convenient travel for commuters from Woolwich to a range of destinations across London and the South East, supporting regeneration in the Thames Gateway area and significantly reducing journey times for commuters to locations such as Bond Street, Heathrow and Canary Wharf, the UK-based construction company said in a statement.

Balfour Beatty will design, outfit and hand over the works for the new station and install plant and finishing works at two portals where the Crossrail trains will surface from either end of the Thames Tunnel.

Work will start this month and complete in 2018 when Crossrail is due to fully open for service.

*NEWS SOURCE

It is our pleasure to inform you that MAX-Line International Projects and Logistics GmbH recently joined among us from GERMANY.

Hereby let us share with you that Managing Directors Sina Klatte and Hajo Klatte will be with us in our coming Annual Summit in Turkey at 20,21,22 November 2014. We are looking forward to meet you all soon.

By their registration to the November meeting, now MAX-Line International Projects and Logistics GmbH has the privilege of becoming OPCA member till September 2015. It would be our pleasure to serve our new agent for a long term cooperation in our group.  

MAX-Line International Projects and Logistics GmbH          
ADDRESS:    Wendenstrasse 309, D-20537 Hamburg, GERMANY
CONTACTS:  Sina Klatte  /  Hajo Klatte  / Managing Director
FAX    :    +49 40229494810
WEB    :    www.max-line.de

Damen Marine Components will supply eight 5,050-millimeter propeller nozzles for four ultra-long distance towing and anchor handling vessel newbuilds. They are the largest nozzles that DMC will have manufactured with its spinning machine technique to date. The order was placed by Caterpillar Propulsion of Gothenburg.

Caterpillar will provide the complete main propulsion units and has commissioned Damen Marine Components, a member of the Damen Shipyards Group, to design, engineer and produce the nozzle and head box sets.

The four sister vessels are under construction in Japan for ALP Maritimes Services, a recently acquired Teekay Offshore Partners subsidiary. The 300+ tonne bollard pull, 24,400 BHP ocean towing and anchor handling vessels will have two propulsion units each in a CPP stern-drive and rudder configuration.

“We’ll manufacture the nozzles with the spinning machine in our plant in Jiang Yin, China”, DMC director Steef Staal said about the novel manufacturing technique that includes one single weld only. DMC’s Optima nozzles have a 5,050 millimeter inside diameter to accommodate a 5,000-millimeter CP propeller. They will outsize any nozzle manufactured with DMC’s first spinning machine in the plant in Gdansk, Poland.

“The nozzles are designed with a relatively narrow head box and strut connection, but stiff enough to secure the frequency profile,” Staal said. “We do not just blindly copy the propeller manufacturers’ specs. This is why the prominent OEM’s are our main clients.”

*NEWS SOURCE

US$5 billion project to contribute US$1.9 billion to state

Tesla Motors has selected Nevada as the site for its mammoth lithium-ion battery plant undefined known as the Gigafactory undefined quashing the hopes of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

The stakes were high. The US$5 billion project is expected to employ up to 6,500 workers when complete and have a $1.9-billion “total fiscal impact” over 20 years, lawmakers said at a press conference in Carson City, Nev.

“Tesla will build the world’s largest and most advanced battery factory in Nevada which means nearly one hundred billion dollars in economic impact to the Silver State over the next twenty years,” Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval said in a statement.

While California scrambled to pass legislation that would make the state a more attractive option to the carmaker, Tesla broke ground on a site outside of Reno, Nev. called Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

Unlike with Texas and Arizona, Nevada allows direct sales of automobiles from a manufacturer, eliminating the middleman or car dealerships. Further, Nevada has the country’s only active lithium mine and the best prospective reserves of new supply, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. And without the environmental restrictions of neighboring state California, Nevada came up as the winner.

Tesla will produce batteries in conjunction with Japan’s Panasonic. The first batteries are expected to be ready in three years, coinciding with the launch of Tesla’s Model 3, a $40,000 electric car. Tesla’s main assembly plant is located in Fremont, Calif., about 235 miles from the planned Gigafactory.

Nevada will provide about US$400 million in tax incentives, including up to a 100 percent tax abatement for the next 20 years for all sales tax, and up to a 100 percent tax abatement for the next 10 years for all real property tax, personal property tax and modified business tax.

*NEWS SOURCE

A Ruslan International An-124 freighter has delivered a large replacement ball mill head from Australia to a mining company in Antofagasta, Chile. The existing mill head had become badly eroded and cracked, causing mining operations to slow dramatically. “Over many years we have demonstrated our expertise in providing fast transportation solutions for customers facing a loss of production when key pieces of equipment become damaged or fail altogether,” Paul Bingley, Commercial Executive at Ruslan International, said in a statement.

In this case, it took just 11 days to deliver the replacement piece once the contract was signed. Ten of those days were required to obtain the necessary flight applications and prepare the shipment.

Transport and logistics firm DSV Australia, the Air Charter team at DSV Projects in Denmark and the outsize cargo specialists at Ruslan International coordinated to expedite the shipment. The new mill head was manufactured in Perth. It measured 4.6 meters in diameter and weighed 19 tons. Due to its size, an An-124-100 was chartered for the flight.

*NEW SOURCE

Original news was published on 3 September, 2014

Van der Vlist coordinated the shipment of a large piece for a drilling rig from the Netherlands to China.

The access bridge weighed about 90 tons and measured 35.5 meters long, 7 meters wide and 9 meters high. Transport by road was ruled out undefined the cargo was simply too big. Instead, Van der Vlist arranged for a barge to carry the cargo to the Port of Antwerp for transhipment to the far east, the Dutch logistics firm said in a statement.

However, a direct route along the waterway from Rotterdam was still not possible because the load was too wide. Instead, an alternate route was chosen along wider waterways. Van der Vlist hired two mobile cranes to load the barge.

Upon its arrival at Antwerp, the access bridge was lifted from the barge by the ship’s two cranes for the voyage to Shanghai. Extra smaller pieces from the bridge were shipped in containers from Rotterdam to join the bridge.

*NEW SOURCE

Original news was publsihed on 3 September, 2014

Tuscor Lloyds has handled the shipment of a 137-ton recovery boiler from Spain to Mexico.

The cargo consisted of five breakbulk pieces and two 40-foot open top containers. The pieces were collected in Madrid and Toledo, GPLN said in a statement on behalf of its Barcelona-based member. The cargo was transported by road to the Port of Bilbao, a distance of about 414 kilometers.

Upon arrival at the Port of Bilbao, the cargo was taken to the quay for loading onto a multipurpose vessel. The heaviest pieces, weighing over 46 tons, were lifted onto the ship using a heavy-lift crane and secured with heavy-duty ratchet straps, steel chains and wooden-steel wedges.

The voyage to the Port of Altamira took 30 days. The cargo was unloaded onto low-loader trailers for the final leg of the transport to Monterrey, covering some 1,194 kilometers.

*NEWS SOURCE