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MALTA\\\


Libyan ‘traffic jam’ fills up Valletta port


The past 12 months have been eventful for Malta generally, and Valletta Gateway Terminal (VGT) in particular. In February 2011, at the start of the Libyan Crisis, the Maltese transhipment trade for the Valletta terminal operator dried up entirely as the rebels battled forces loyal to Colonel Gadaffi. But then, with the revolution


over, “the trade returned with a vengeance,” says VGT managing director Peter Darley. “We’ve been absolutely inundated with transhipment vehicles, and we’ve been having to store them in all sorts of places – at Laboratory Wharf and in the local shipyard and we even now have a football pitch designated as a customs zone so we could cram more in.” VGT is the main terminal operator


at what could be described as Malta’s ‘local’ port. The Grand Harbour in the island’s capital Valletta


(and


which despite its impressive title is now by far the smaller of Malta’s two commercial ports) handles mainly ro ro traffic, along with break bulk or general cargo vessels and two calls a week by small lo lo container vessels. It now handles the lion’s share of all domestic non bulk traffic destined to or from Malta itself, rather more than the Freeport a few miles up the road, which concentrates mainly on transhipment containers. Libyan dealers have been


importing all sorts of vehicles ranging from secondhand family cars to new construction equipment. At one stage, the port was holding several thousand vehicles awaiting


onward transfer to Libya, but the absolute peak seems to have passed and volumes have returned to a manageable – though still very high – level. As if that wasn’t excitement


enough, VGT has new owners, or rather its parent company Portek has. VGT is actually a joint venture between the Singapore- headquartered Portek Group and the Tumas Group, a diversified Maltese business group that is also active in property ownership and hotels. In August 2011, Japan’s Mitsui


acquired Portek Group to increase its position in the ports business worldwide, Portek being a provider of


equipment, services and


solutions for the global port industry with interests in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa and the Americas. So far, the new ownership has


not had much effect on day to day operations at VGT, apart from a change to the financial year-end. However, Peter Darley points out that, given the Portek brand’s standing in the global port industry, Mitsui stands to grow significantly by adding its operations to its portfolio and the deal also brings Mitsui’s formidable financial resources, networks, synergies and logistics operations worldwide. “VGT in Malta will be in a stronger position to accelerate its growth through its strategic importance as a hub within the Mediterranean and North African region,” he argues. Mitsui will also increase its presence


in the global terminal market; until now the group’s main activity in this area has been as operator of the container terminal in LaemLaem Chebang, Thailand. Malta may not be one of the


biggest countries in Europe, but there is more of an affinity between Japan and Malta than might be imagined, Peter Darley continues. As well as the shipping industry, “don’t forget there’s also a big tuna business here, which tends to put Malta on the map in Japan.” Overall, despite the ups and


downs and excitements elsewhere, VGT had a reasonable year in cargo throughput terms.


Allowing for


the fact that its financial year was artificially curtailed to fit in with that of its new owner, trade was, pro rata, a little better than last year. It was a difficult year for VGT’s staff though, who had to put in long hours to handle the sudden surge in transhipment ro ro traffic. There is one fewer regular


service at the Grand Harbour, the GNV ro ro service that served Genoa, Palermo and Malta having pulled out. “The net effect on our trade has though been negligible,” says Peter Darley. GNV’s trade has been diverted to the remaining ro


ro service, operated by Grimaldi. “In some ways, it makes things easier for us, because the same amount of cargo is coming on fewer ships,” Darley adds. On the plus side, Valletta has


now had a full year of hosting Virtu Ferries’ new larger catamaran to Sicily, which has brought an appreciable amount of extra freight traffic. Competition in the market has


been toughening, though. While the


Freeport’s business model


has naturally been to cater for the transhipment traffic, so difficult have conditions been in the latter that Peter Darley has noticed that his larger neighbour has been trying to wrest some of the Grand Harbour’s business. “But, I don’t think they will find it very easy to do that – it can take a long time to get a container out of the Freeport – even as much as a day or more – whereas the equivalent operation in the Grand Harbour takes a matter of a few minutes.” Suffice to say, when VGT first took over the Grand Harbour operation, the Freeport had 60% of the island market and the Grand Harbour only 40% whereas today the proportions are reversed.


Very little about transport in Malta is routine. Mario Ciantar,


general


manager of White Brothers, which has grown to become one of the largest haulage companies in Malta, knows that better than most. “There is never an off-the-shelf solution,” he says. “We pride ourselves in providing a professional and reliable service. We built our reputation as a premium professional carrier by servicing a diverse base of clientèle and providing tailored solutions that exceed expectations.” A case in point is the abnormal


load movement White Brothers - a leading specialist in this particular field in Malta - successfully carried out from Valletta Harbour to the Kappara Distribution Centre on 26 March. The consignment consisted of two 110-ton transformers, plus two others of 25 tons each. The route from the port to site is one of the busiest in Malta, and the authorities insisted on a night- time move to minimise traffic disruption. “In some ways, night time operations can be more difficult for us - if something were to go wrong, you’d have to fix it under floodlighting - but we quite understand why the authorities insisted on a night move. If you close that


particular stretch of


road, you shut down half of Malta,” explains Mario Ciantar. A 150-tonne crane joined White


Brothers’ fleet about two years ago and is the second-biggest on the island. It handles heavy-liſts and also lighter ones where a long reach


Issue 3 2012


It was all White on the night


27


is needed - for example installing air-conditioning units on top of high rise buildings. “It’s the most modern on the island and, even though it’s one of the biggest, it can get into restricted places, where older cranes cannot, because it is more manoeuvrable,” says Mario Ciantar. It even has its own soſtware indicating how much ground pressure it exerts. The abnormal load movements


are the most visible part of White Brothers’ operations, but no Maltese haulier could survive on that type of business alone. There cannot be many road freight operators whose fleet list includes, not only a 150-tonne mobile crane, but also vans, hiab trucks, light trucks, dockside trailer tugs, fork liſters, container skeletal trailers, curtain sider trailers and side loaders. “We can never specialise in just


one area on an island the size of Malta,” Mario Ciantar concludes. “Here, we practically need to be masters of all trades and very flexible. Through our subsidiary, White Freight Services, we also offer our expertise to customers in moving freight on time and cost- effectively and with the highest level of customer service.”


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