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The first four Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes have been successfully unloaded at the main berth of the T3 terminal in the Port of Gdansk. They are currently being tested and the equipment is being adjusted, and will be fully operational by March 2025. Three more STS cranes are expected to arrive from China in March next year. In addition, eight out of twenty rail-mounted cranes (RMG) have already been installed, and four of them have been connected to the power supply and put into operation.

From January 2025, Hapag-Lloyd will launch a new East Med Express (EME) service, which will provide direct connections between London Gateway (UK), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Bremerhaven (Germany) and Antwerp (Belgium) with Egypt. The German carrier said the new route will be integrated with the Gemini Shuttle network, providing convenient connections to other regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe.

The construction of the state-of-the-art Antwerp Coordination Centre (ACC), which will be the key point for managing port operations, has officially started in the Zandvliet-Berendrecht lock area. The facility is scheduled to open by the end of 2026. The eight-storey, 8,000 m², 46-metre-high building will replace the outdated centre from the 1970s. It will house teams of pilots, lock operators and other specialists, ensuring the coordination of the 274,000 shipping operations registered at the port in 2023.

Cargo handling volumes at Latvia’s three largest ports decreased by 7.2% in January-November 2024 compared to the same period last year, amounting to 32.79 million tonnes. This is evidenced by data from the Latvian Ministry of Transport. In the overall transshipment structure, bulk cargo amounted to 15.63 million tonnes (-17.7%), general cargo – 12.59 million tonnes (+5.4%), and liquid cargo – 4.56 million tonnes (+5.3%).

OOCL has announced the launch of a new route, China Laem Chabang Service (CHL2), which will commence operations from 10 January 2025. The new service will provide a more efficient connection between Eastern and Southern China and Thailand, offering competitive transit times and service reliability. This addition to the existing CHL services aims to meet the growing trade needs between these regions.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) has announced an upgrade to its BBX (Baltic Bridge Express) service, which will now cover more ports and provide customers with even more reliable logistics solutions. The new route includes: Rotterdam ➔ Klaipeda ➔ Riga ➔ Tallinn ➔ Kotka ➔ Rotterdam.

French shipping company CMA CGM will become the third carrier to serve Ukraine with its own tonnage. The new Odessa Express (ODX) service will connect the port of Odessa with key ports in Greece and Turkey. CMA CGM will deploy two vessels with a capacity of 1,100-1,500 TEU for the route.

On 10 December, an agreement was signed to establish a national cybersecurity platform for Dutch seaports, based on the Cyber ​​Strategy for Dutch Seaports. FERM, previously active in the ports of Rotterdam and Moerdijk, will now become a national platform for all ports in the BOZ association (Groningen, North Sea, Rotterdam, Moerdijk and Amsterdam). The move was initiated by the Ministry of Infrastructure, BOZ and the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and Security (NCTV).

In Germany, the district courts of Flensburg and Neumünster have opened bankruptcy proceedings against the shipbuilding holding FSG-Nobiskrug Holding and its subsidiaries – two shipyards and a design bureau. The procedure was initiated by an insurance company that filed a corresponding application. The court temporarily declared the holding insolvent, and the hearings on the case are scheduled for February 2025.

As of December 10, 2024, the seaports of Ukraine handled 91.1 million tons of cargo, according to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA). In January-November, the actual volume of cargo handling reached 89.9 million tons, which is 70% higher than the same period in 2023, when 52.8 million tons were handled.