The year 2014 was exceptional in many ways for Dutch dredging contractor Van Oord. From a financial perspective, Van Oord achieved a record turnover of EUR 2.104 billion (2013: EUR 1.641 billion) - the first time in the company's history that its turnover has exceeded EUR 2 billion.

Germany-based Cuxport has signed an agreement with Siemens covering logistics operations for services for their offshore converter platforms.

Last Friday, Maersk Line announced that on 7 April 2015, Pierre Danet, current Vice President and regional CFO of Hewlett Packard, Printing and Personal Systems in EMEA, will join Maersk Line as Chief
Financial Officer (CFO) and join the management board of Maersk Line.

The Normandy region will include three of six scheduled wind farms and holds the largest potential in tidal energy in Europe within the Race of Alderney. Hence both Basse-Normandie and the Normandie Regions are the key territories for the future development of Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) and the port of Cherbourg announced expansion work to accommodate this.

The Port of Virginia continues to take immediate action to help mitigate the congestion that has beset Virginia International Gateway during the last week. Yesterday, the port announced the following measures will be taken at VIG:

On December 16, 2014, Judge Michael Simon ruled that the ILWU International (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) in San Francisco and ILWU Local 8 in Portland willfully and intentionally violated the court's previous injunction against work stoppages and slowdowns at Terminal 6 of the ICTSI Oregon.

In view of this week's Transport Council, the debate on the 2015 Annual Growth Survey, and transport policy's contribution to EU Competitiveness, growth and jobs, a group of EU transport associations, including the European Sea Ports Organisation, the European Federation of Inland Ports and the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies have written an open letter to transport ministers to voice their concerns on the way the European Union is tackling transport infrastructure financing and development.

Using handheld devices at the quay side, stevedores at a number of ports in East and West Africa handling port calls with vessels' own gear, log the discharged and loaded containers with the Sea Side Crane Executor app from arl-shipping.com, passing handlings confirmations to the shipping line during the calls.

The Georgia Ports Authority has instituted a new tracking system to process breakbulk cargo more quickly, and provide real-time freight tracking for GPA and its customers.