February 2018

Port health could be major threat to post-Brexit supply chain

The British Ports Association (BPA) has warned that without agreements on cross-border environmental health standards there could be major disruption at UK and EU ports. It follows publication of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report on ‘Brexit: Trade in Food’ on 18 February (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvfru/348/348.pdf) The report suggested that changes in UK-EU trade arrangements could lead to serious disruption for food supply chains. BPA chief executive Richard Ballantyne, Chief Executive of ... [+]

Belfast reaches record despite economic storms

Trade through Belfast increased to a record 23.7m tonnes in 2017, up by 600,000 tonnes or 3% on the previous year, the port said in an announcement on 19 February. It said that the increase came despite the low level of growth in the local economy, significant and strategic investments by ... [+]

Stena upgrades Holyhead as freight booms

Stena Line Ports says it is investing more than £4m in upgrades to improve infrastructure at Holyhead to cope with record volumes of freight. The upgrades will include the creation of additional freight space and refurbishment to the Terminal 3 ramp. Work starts today and will last for about five days. Ports ... [+]

BIFA boss hits out at third runway inaction

BIFA director Robert Keen said he shared the frustration of National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) chairman Sir John Armitt at the lack of progress on a third runway at Heathrow and agreed that the government needs to deliver on its promise of making a decision runway by the summer. His comments came ... [+]

Schiphol is Seko’s second-largest site

Seko Logistics has opened its second largest operation in Europe at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Logistics Park. The new 80,000 facility doubles the size of SEKO’s previous locations in Amsterdam and brings its entire service offering under one roof. It provides a further distribution channel into Europe for US retailers and will ... [+]

Truck platoons go live

DB Schenker, MAN Truck & Bus and Hochschule Fresenius said they were deploying networked (platooned) trucks for the first time in a practical application after the truck maker handed over the test vehicles for the joint platooning project to DB Schenker at its headquarters in Munich on 13 February. MAN board ... [+]

THE Alliance to serve Southampton and London Gateway

Members of THE Alliance - Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, and Yang Ming – have announced further details of the planned new schedules for April. Some details of the new service were announced in December. Two services from the Far East to Europe will call in Southampton (FE 2 and FE4), ... [+]

Kick the winter blues into touch at the Multimodal Awards

This year’s FTA Multimodal Awards on the first evening of the show on 1 May will be hosted by Welsh international rugby union referee, Nigel Owens MBE and will take place at the VOX, the deluxe venue overlooking the lake at the NEC. FTA is meanwhile inviting votes for service provider. ... [+]

Antwerp seeks UK representative

The port of Antwerp is to appoint a full-time representative in London, in order to keep in closer touch with the economic situation in the UK now that Brexit is looming. With an annual freight volume of nearly 14 million tonnes (2017), commercial relations between the port and the UK are ... [+]

Out of the blue –Setubal’s new port could be gateway to the Med

Developers of the Blue Atlantic industrial and logistics park at Setubal, 40km south of Lisbon in Portugal have unveiled plans for an 800metre quay capable of berthing two Panamax container ships. The 96-hectare site is aimed at maritime, ports and logistics investors and, says project lead Fernando Fernandes, could offer one ... [+]

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