Key deals

Marine civil engineering consultants Peter Fraenkel & Partners Ltd has joined forces with international, multidisciplinary civil engineering consultants NIRAS A/S to form a strong European marine engineering company.

Total throughput in the Port of Hamburg in the first six months of 2013 reached 68.1m tonnes, an improvement of 3.5% on 2012.

Turkmenistan has launched a $2bn project to build a new port on the Caspian Sea, designed to boost exports.

Alphatron Marine of Rotterdam’s Alphatron Training Centre has received the official Letter of Recognition from the Minister of infrastructure and Environment (also called the Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate.)

The UK’s Meercat Workboats has raised the bar in workboat design again with its latest dual lift design.

Predictions on the future of the seas off the UK south coast are outlined in a report published last month by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

The MacArtney Group has signed a representative agreement with Escort Sp. z.o.o. to function as official MacArtney agent in Poland.

Described as the largest and most expensive salvage operation ever undertaken, the Costa Concordia has been righted in an operation that took 19 hours and cost upwards of £500m (€600m).

IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu welcomed the entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006) last month, adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), a sister UN agency to IMO.

Maritime security solutions provider AdvanFort has opened an office in Hamburg, Germany, as part of its growing and far reaching customer service network, particularly for clients in Europe.

Kewatec AluBoat Oy, based at Kokkola in Finland, has signed an agreement with Chinese Conglin Group establishing a JV, Shandong ConglinKEWA Aluminum Boat Co, Ltd.

A bilateral agreement formalising trade links has been signed by the respective chambers of commerce in Hampshire UK and the southern Spanish port city of Almería.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published BS 6349-1-1: Code of practice for planning and design for operations.

A ferry operator’s experience of ‘the fastest ship in the world’ will feature among the cutting edge initiatives being aired at Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta from 5-9 October.

Global Ports Investments, of which APM Terminals is a co-controlling shareholder, has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the Moscow based NCC Group Limited, a Russian terminal operator.