Federal Marine Terminals Celebrates 50 years
Federal Marine Terminals, Inc. (FMT), a subsidiary of Montreal-based Fednav Limited, Canada’s largest ocean-going, dry-bulk shipping company, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. With its 12 operations, FMT is active along the U.S. East Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Great Lakes. Leveraging its experience in stevedoring, terminal handling and logistics services for all types of dry cargo, FMT offers a seamless supply chain in the markets served.

“Through the hard work of our experienced, determined employees to the loyalty of our customers and business partners, and through the solid long-range planning of our management team, we are pleased to be celebrating this milestone anniversary,” says Michel Tosini, executive vice president of FMT.

Wind Logistics Assets Acquired by BNSF Logistics
BNSF Logistics, LLC, a global multi-modal transportation and logistics service provider, announced in April the acquisition of the wind energy-related assets and contracts of Vectora Transportation, a Chicago based third-party logistics provider specializing in bulk commodities and dimensional cargo transport solutions.

“Vectora’s tower fixture technology and market position in the wind energy arena are the perfect complement to BNSF Logistics’ existing service portfolio supporting wind energy logistics activity,” says Ray Greer, BNSFL’s president. “Combining these capabilities with our new Blade Runner ocean and rail transport solutions will enable BNSF Logistics to provide turnkey solutions virtually anywhere in the world, with the goal of driving down the onerous logistics expenses that challenge the wind energy industry.”

Blade Runner, which had a formal launch in May at the 2015 AWEA WindPower show, is a new technology and service offering from BNSF Logistics. Blade Runner offers fixture-less blade transportation via rail and ocean, thus reducing wind logistics costs, accommodating the new generation of longer blades via cost effective rail and ocean transport and making the moves easier to manage.

MOL Signs Deal to Build 4 Next-generation “FLEXIE” Car Carriers
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. announced in April that it signed a contract with Minaminippon Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. to construct four next-generation car carriers. The vessels will be delivered in 2017 and 2018 and serve on MOL’s worldwide car carrier services.

Deck construction of the newly ordered car carriers will be substantially altered to change the number of decks from the current 12 to 14. Furthermore, the number of liftable decks will be increased from two to six. The newly designed liftable decks will offer greater flexibility when accommodating vehicles of different heights, improving loading efficiency and meeting demand for more diversified vehicle transport.

The newly ordered car carriers will be installed with electronically controlled diesel engines with Low Load Optimization tuning by Exhaust Gas Bypass technology. MOL named the car carriers featuring the new deck construction the “FLEXIE.”

DB Schenker Rail UK Launches Eco Neutral for Zero Carbon Rail Freight
DB Schenker has achieved an industry first with the launch of a pioneering product that allows customers to offset 100 percent of their CO2 emissions.

Eco Neutral from DB Schenker enables customers to compensate in full for the CO2 emissions generated through their rail-freight services by backing climate-change projects that transfer technology and combat poverty across the globe. DB Schenker Rail UK is the first rail-freight company in the country to offer a fully carbon neutral product to the market.

Partnering with the climate-protection organization Atmosfair, the logistics company can calculate a customer’s CO2 emissions from their rail services to determine how much it will cost to compensate the greenhouse gases through the use of renewable energies.

“We are continuously striving to minimize the impact of our operations on the environment and are proud to launch Eco Neutral as the first truly zero-carbon rail-freight product in the UK,” says Steve Pryce, head of Marketing at DB Schenker Rail UK.