BREMEN. In February, Martin Schwemmer took over from Christian Grotemeier as the managing director of Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL), where, alongside Christoph Meyer and Mike Holtkamp, he is one of the three management members and responsible for innovation, sales and IT.

BREMERHAVEN. Five months following the ramming of the initial pile for the new Columbuskaje in Bremerhaven, the first section of a new sheet pile wall measuring roughly 400 metres was completed in April. The gap between the new sheet pile wall and the old quay will be filled with sand in June, before concrete construction starts. After a break required for conservation reasons, the second phase of the piling works will resume in October. The 620 m quay is due to open in twelve months along with the cruise terminal.

STADE. The full application submitted by NPorts to the Lower Saxony State Department for Waterway, Coastal and Nature Conservation (NLWKN) in April comprised several thousand – digital – pages, meaning that the process has now begun for the approval to extend the existing port and the construction of at least one landing pier for liquefied gas.

NORDEN. The Nordeney south mole has recently undergone construction works. During repair works to the ferry dock 1 on the East Frisian island, the ferry bed is to be adapted for future developments.

BREMEN. Participation at the “FRUIT LOGISTICA” and “Breakbulk Europe” were the starting point for a whole host of marketing activities planned for this year by bremenports. This will followed by stands at the “Breakbulk Americas” fair in Houston and “transport logistics” in Miami in the autumn. The latter is planned along with marketing colleagues from Hamburg and Lower Saxony. The “Short Sea Shipping Days” in Lübeck, the “International Coral Reef Symposium ” in Bremen and the “German Hydrograph Day” in Bremerhaven are also envisaged. At the same time, bremenports is planning a series of new activities that will take place throughout this year. All customers and prospective clients are in for a surprise from Bremen’s ports in early summer. The www.bremenports.de website, which contains full information on the Bremen ports is to be completely overhauled and will then present a new brand image. Ronald Schwarze, bremenports Head of Marketing: “We are pleased to bring the Bremen ports and bremenports website up to date with the relaunch. This will be the first step in providing a significantly improved Bremen ports online presence.”

BREMERHAVEN. Following a six-month construction period the restoration works to the Loschenturm were completed in March.

OLDENBURG. In April, Dr Norbert Salomon, Head of Department within Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) presented 2.5 million euros to the network partners NPorts und Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven JadeWeserPort-Marketing from the “Digital Test Fields in Ports” funding programme (DigiTest) for the “RaDaR4.0” research project. The digitalisation project sets up digital test fields where standard camera systems in ports are linked to the special technology OCR/Deep Learning. Subtest fields are due to be built in the ports of Brake, Cuxhaven, Emden and JadeWeserPort as well as the Rüstersieler Groden, a suburb of Wilhelmshaven.

WILHELMSHAVEN/HAMBURG. Due to temporary problems encountered at the Port of Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd moved various services from Hamburg to Wilhelmshaven in early April.

WILHELMSHAVEN. Alternative transport concepts were required when the Rahmedetalbrücke (A45) bridge was closed.

EMDEN/OLDENBURG/STADE. In late April the Lower Saxony Seaports working group published a position paper for the election in Autumn 2022 (see https://www.seaports.de/en/) and named key areas of action at a federal state level concerning the seaports for the coming legislative term.

BREMERHAVEN. In March the management of the Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven withdrew its application for bankruptcy.

BREMERHAVEN. bremenports has been using the Seabin, a floating rubbish bin, to skim the water surface in the Kaiserhafen for over a year.

BREMEN. The BLG LOGISTICS GROUP published their results for the 2021 financial year at their press conference on financial statements in late April.

BERNE. Just before Easter, Fassmer delivered an all-electric boat made of aluminium to the “Systems Engineering for Future Mobility” institute, which is part of the Germany Aerospace Centre (DLR).

BREMERHAVEN. In early April the planning authority of the Waterways and Shipping Directorate-General (GDWS) reversed the old planning decision for adjusting the fairways of the Outer and Lower Weser, thus clearing the way for the procedure to recommence by virtue of the Measures Act.

HAMBURG. In March, Johannes Stelten was appointed as managing director of EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg (CTH).

DUISBURG. Besides Markus Bangen (left) and Thomas Schlipköther, Dr Carsten Hinne (right) also joined the board of Duisport in 2022.

SCHINDELLEGI. On 1 February, Kühne + Nagel (K+N) announced that Thomas Krøyer is the new country manager in the Netherlands. Krøyer took over from Diederick de Vroet, who left the company on 31 January by mutual agreement.

BREMEN. In early March, a long expected generation change took place in marine hull insurance at Lampe & Schwartze Marine Underwriting, an insurance intermediary. Michael Lott, who retired after more than 46 years of service, was succeeded by Louis Ravens as Head of Marine Hull.

BREMEN. Frank Dreeke was reappointed chairman of the board of the “Bremer Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft” by the supervisory board in late February.

BREMEN. Combi Lift, an expert in project logistics and in transporting heavy goods, strengthened its management team early in 2022 by appointing Klaus Hilpert as managing director and company spokesman.

BERLIN. Claudia Müller (The Greens) was appointed as the federal government’s coordinator for the maritime industry early in the year.

BREMERHAVEN. In March, three pupils at the Geschwister-Scholl school in Bremerhaven – Danny Dolinski, Mohannad Sarha and Rebal Issa – picked up first prize at “Jugend forscht” (youth researches), a regional competition for geo and space sciences.

BREMERHAVEN. Unusual help took place in Bremerhaven in late February/early March: During a cruise to Oslo, the TUI Cruises’ “Mein Schiff 1” had to be towed into dock at the Kaiserhafen III, as it was no longer possible to retract a stabiliser on the cruise ship’s starboard side.