The German container line Hapag-Lloyd and its compatriot terminal operator Eurogate Group reportedly plan to expand their cooperation and develop a new joint-venture container terminal on the Suez Canal.

A number of German media outlets claimed that the partners intended to formally launch the project in the first half of this year. So far however, neither of the two firms publicly commented on the rumors.

Hapag-Lloyd and Eurogate already cooperate in Morocco and in the their German home market. Alongside Marsa Maroc, the two partners are major stakeholders in the Tanger Alliance Terminal at the port of Tanger Med, which opened in late 2020.

Last year, Hapag-Lloyd furthermore bought Maersk Group out of a 30% stake in the ‘JWP’ container terminal at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, where Eurogate holds the 70% majority. The two partners agreed to upgrade the underused terminal with additional ship-to-shore cranes and other cargo handling equipment.

Some three years ago, Eurogate Group through its affiliate Contship Italia already expressed interest in developing a terminal in Egypt and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Port of Damietta. These plans were never followed through and the project is believed to be off the table.

Port Said currently has two container terminals. The larger one at East Port Said (SCCT) is jointly owned by APMT (55%), COSCO (20%), the Suez Canal Authority (ca. 10%) and others. The smaller PSCCHC at West Port Said is operated by Port Said Cargo Handling, a subsidiary of Egypt’s state-owned Holding Company for Land & Maritime Transport.

Houston moves container cranes to Barbour’s Cut

One month after receiving three new ultra-large ship-to-shore container gantries from ZPMC at Houston-Bayport, the port of Houston has begun a project to re-locate three older and somewhat smaller gantries from the Bayport container terminal to the container facility at Barbour’s Cut.

Out of the two Houston-area container terminals, Bayport typically handles the larger vessels with regular calls from ships of 8,000 to 9,000 teu. At Barbour’s Cut meanwhile, the majority of vessel calls is in the size range from 4,000 t 6,500 teu.

Over the next few weeks, the three cranes will be barged to their new home one by one and they are expected to gradually become operational through the second quarter of the year.