  Thursday, July 22, 2010 |
Dalian boxes move again after explosion, fire, oil spill
THE Port of Dalian is said to have resumed normal container operations after a fire, explosion and a major oil spill when two pipelines exploded at the tanker terminal, reported Xinhua.
An official in the State Oceanic Administration has told Chinese official media that heavy winds on Monday broke up the spill and dispersed over at least 430 square kilometres, reported the BBC.
"Container operations restarted on Monday evening, and in the 12 hours to 8am on Tuesday the port handled 11,000 TEU," said a Xinhua report transmitted by Reuters.
Oil and bulk berths were shut following the fire, sources have told Reuters, but later reports said the dry bulk terminals were again functioning.
Shipments of oil from the north to the industrial belt in the south have been disrupted, reported the BBC. Reserves in the south are reported to be ample at present - enough to guarantee 10 days' supply - and the oil price in that part of the country is stable.
An investigation team has been established to examine the pipeline explosions with authorities saying the results will not come for at least 10 days, reported the state-run Beijing Review.
The incident happened after a 300,000-ton tanker discharged its oil at harbour, which caused an explosion at two pipelines owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation, said the Beijing Review.
All major fires at the site have now been extinguished. One member of the Dalian fire department was said to have drown in the thick oil covering the parts of the harbour.
Bloomberg reported that the operator of an oil terminal where an explosion took place is seeking the cause and accessing its impact the company's operations, according to a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The company has started the process of claiming on its insurance policies for the accident, it said. Dalian Port said all terminals in the Xingang and Dayaowan areas of its port where the incident occurred have resumed operations apart from the crude oil terminal.
Shanghai up 19pc to 13.86 million TEU in first half
SHANGHAI port reported a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in container throughput in the first half of the year to 13.86 million TEU, hitting a record high, reports Xinhua.
The port's container throughput would likely beat the earlier projection of 25.5 million TEU for full-year 2010.
The Waigaoqiao port area saw container throughput up 13.5 per cent to 7.23 million TEU in the first half. The Yangshan port area recorded an increase of 30.6 per cent to 4.7 million TEU.
Charred Charlotte Maersk unloads boxes in Tanjung Palepas
THE 4,500-TEU Maersk Brooklyn, the last of the Danish shipping giant's laid-up vessels, is leaving the west coast of Scotland for Malaysia to pick up surviving containers from a blaze aboard the 8,200-TEU Charlotte Maersk where 150 boxes caught fire two weeks ago off Port Klang.
"Containers unaffected by the fire are proceeding to our customers as quickly as possible," said a Maersk spokesman.
Maersk said the discharge of debris and damaged containers at the ship's berth in Tanjung Palepas, Malaysia, has begun and will be completed by week's end, reported London's International Freighting Weekly.
An initial investigation indicated damage done to hatch covers, lashing bridges and cabling. Repairs would begin immediately with a view to having the ship in service next month.
At the height of the blaze, containers were burning at 1,000 degrees Celsius. But there were no reported injuries among the 21 crew. Other reports suggest fire started when a container exploded, said the IFW report.
The ship was assigned to Maersk's AE11 (MEX2) service between Asia and Europe, and had left Port Klang and was heading to Salalah, Oman, when fire broke out on containers stored on the foredeck.
In the Malacca Straits, Maersk Line has confirmed that General Average (GA) has been declared on the ship. Maersk said that the "extraordinary expenditures" were incurred fighting the fire, along with costs still to come, led to the declaration of GA and the appointment of Hamburg-based General Average Adjuster, Stichling Hahn Hilbrich.
"The dramatic pictures of the fire-stricken Charlotte Maersk in the Malacca Straits are another reminder of the inherent flaw of containerisation; subjected as it is to the risk of mis-declared cargo," said a commentary from London's Containerisation International's Mike Wackett.
"It is of course far too early to expect Maersk Line to be able to confirm the cause of the blaze - which has affected at least 150 boxes of the vessel's deck cargo - but if previous incidents of this nature are anything to go by, any such report may not see the light of day once digested in the boardroom," he said.
"But after the smoke has cleared, ocean carriers may still harbour the view that, like the mandatory weighing of containers, the cost and commercial negativity of a big stick clamping down on shippers far exceeds the potential risk of a rogue box among the millions transported daily without incident across global trade lanes," he said.
Greeks buy German box ships as Germany bails out Greece
GREEK shipowners are said to be using the financial crisis facing German shipowners to boost their presence in the container shipping industry.
They have recently been buying containerships either directly from struggling owners or from shipyards, and most of the deals are said to involve German owners, reports Ebeling Heffernan's Live Trading News, Hong Kong.
The Greeks own about 17 per cent of the world's ships, but only about five per cent of the containerships.
"Shipowners in Germany, the key country behind the European Union's bail-out of Greece, are suffering from exposure to the crisis-hit container shipping sector. Germany's public has also become reluctant to invest in KG funds, the traditional means of raising funds for ship purchases, after many have run into financial trouble," the report said.
Michael Bodouroglou, Paragon Shipping's chairman, was quoted as saying: "Financially healthy companies would rather hold on to the assets than sell at historically low values. It is well known that especially the German market has financial problems because they bought at historically high values."
CMA CGM boosts ties with Shenzhen's Da Chan Bay Terminal One
FRENCH shipping giant CMA CGM has strengthened its partnership with Da Chan Bay Terminal One (DCB), the newest container terminal located in the western Shenzhen port area, by joining Maersk's Far East-India-Pakistan service, in addition to its current strings that call at the terminal.
CMA CGM has in the past been using DCB through slot chartering.
CMA CGM's deployment of a 5,500-TEU vessel for the Far East-India-Pakistan service marks an extension of the port's connections to these regions from Da Chan Bay.
The service now calls at the terminal on Mondays instead of Tuesdays to "maintain schedule integrity," a statement from Da Chan Bay One said.
A total of six containerships with an average capacity of 5,500 TEU are being used to operate the service, on the following port rotation: Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Da Chan Bay, Tanjung Pelepas, Colombo, Pipavav, Nhava Sheva, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, Port Kelang, Tanjung Pelepas, Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Kwangyang.
Fujian's Houzhu port launches direct service to Taiwan
SOUTHEAST China's Houzhu port in Fujian province has launched a direct service to Taiwan on a fixed twice-weekly schedule of Mondays and Thursdays, reports Xinhua.
Houzhu port, Shijing port and Shihu port in Quanzhou city of Fujian have offered cross-strait cargo services one after another since 2008. The new service is the first one on a fixed schedule from Quanzhou to Taiwan.
Analysis: Is container shipping really out of the woods?
THIS year head haul routes in the container shipping market have increased by 18 per cent and intra-Asia by 70 per cent with average freight rates in the first quarter rising 18 per cent to US$2,863 per FEU, according to a report from New York-based Gerson Lehman Group.
Maersk banked $639 million in the first quarter, overturning last year's $372 million loss, Gerson Lehman analysts also noted.
Citigroup analyst Ally Ma believes that the return to profitability for many carriers may mark the beginning of renewed capacity woes as they begin taking delivery of deferred new building orders placed prior to the global financial crisis, against a backdrop of weakening demand.
Ms Ma expects third quarter rate hikes may indicate that container earnings are peaking, given slowing US consumption, high retail inventory and Europe's financial troubles.
Non-operating owners continue to face tight bank credit. Danaos Shipping cancelled orders for three newbuildings of 6,500 TEU, which were to be built by Hanjin Heavy Industries and initially expected to be delivered in the first half of 2012.
"The temptation to buy speculatively container tonnage today has led to a rise in asset prices as each new deal brings new highs. Indicatively, Metrostar is said to have spent $180 million to buy five 10-year-old 3,500-TEU ships from German owner Claus-Peter Offen. This is double what the vessels might have fetched at the start of the year," it said.
"This is driven by the expectation that container rates will soon regain historic norms and present rates are closer to 50 per cent of this level leaving room for improvement. Yet this counter-cyclical investment could prove self defeating in dealing with the overcapacity should the recovery stall and we face a longer period of sluggish growth as opposed to the forecasts of politicians and pundits," it concluded.
Maersk joins others in congestion surcharges at Nhava Sheva
DENMARK's shipping giant Maersk Line has joined other major carriers in applying congestion surcharges, its being US$60 per TEU and $120 per FEU and 40-foot high-cube for cargo discharged at Nhava Sheva and bound for inland container depots from there.
APL, NYK Line, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Wan Hai Lines recently levied a US$150 per TEU and $300 per FEU for all inbound containers shipped through the port near Mumbai as a backlog builds in the face of the port's inability to cope with rising volume.
The Maersk surcharge is effective for all, but US trades from July 20. Surcharges on trades covered by the Federal Maritime Commission are effective August 16.
The port "is facing severe congestion; which unfortunately causes inconveniences and delays," Maersk Line said.
The other shipping lines, in notices to the trade, have said they have imposed surcharges to recover the incremental costs incurred as a result of the congestion at the port, reported Livemint the Wall Street Journal.
India's cabotage rule eases to boost Vallarpadam CT
COASTAL shipping regulations governing the Vallarpadam Container Terminal in Kerala state are expected to be relaxed to lure transshipment cargo from Colombo in Sri Lanka.
India's Shipping Ministry is believed to be finalising details for the plan, and a cabinet note on the proposal will be prepared soon, according to a government official cited in a report by The Hindu Business Line.
The relaxation will allow foreign shipping lines to carry cargo between Vallarpadam and other Indian ports, it said, despite opposition from domestic carriers as it would lead to the opening up of India's coastal waters to foreign flagged vessels.
The cabotage provision under the Merchant Shipping Act restricts foreign flag ships from operating between two Indian ports with a view to protecting the interests of national flag carriers and developing coastal shipping.
According to sources, Vallarpadam may initially be given the relaxation for one or two years as was the case with Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai in the past.
In a related development, the US$500 million international container transhipment terminal at Vallarpadam, off Kochi Port, that is being developed by a joint venture, the India Gateway Company, is expected to be commissioned by next month or early September.
The terminal will have an annual container handling capacity of 1.2 million TEU annually in the first phase and three million TEU when fully completed.
The joint venture is 76 per cent owned by DP World, Dubai. Other equity holders are Container Corporation of India with 15 per cent, the Kochi-based Chakiat group with five per cent, and the Mumbai-based Transworld group with four per cent.
It will be DP World's fifth terminal in India, after Nhava Sheva, (JN Port), Chennai, Mundra and Vizag, the report said.
Locked-out Montreal dockers say diverted cargo faces union boycott
LOCKED-OUT Montreal dockers are telling the shippers and carriers that diverted Montreal-bound cargo will be boycotted by union labour in other North American ports.
An early test will be the 2,400-TEU Maersk Patras that is diverting itself from Montreal with its transatlantic cargo to Halifax, reported London's Containerisation International.
"They won't touch ships that come from Montreal," insisted Daniel Tremblay, president of Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who said dockers in Halifax, New York/New Jersey and Norfolk have been alerted.
But no commitment on this arrangement has been confirmed, said CI. Moreover, dockers in Montreal, Halifax and New York do not belong to the same union.
More than half a dozen vessels are moored on the St Lawrence River upstream from Quebec City and in the Montreal port zone. And an unspecified number on the transatlantic route could be re-routed to other east coast ports should the conflict not end.
"If this lock-out lasts any significant time, it will have a negative impact on many companies, both importers and exporters," said Canadian Industrial Transportation Association president Bob Ballantyne, Canada's big shipper association.
At issue is the Maritime Employers' Association decision to end pay guarantees that were accepted in the 1970s as a trade-off for the massive influx of containerisation at the port.
"But market conditions are different now," says the MEA "We can no longer afford to pay people to stay at home."
Agility moves Indochina HQ to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City
AGILITY has relocated to a new modern facility in Ho Chi Minh City close to the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
The new office is 550 square metres and will act as the headquarters for Agility Vietnam and Indochina.
Agility has three offices in Vietnam - Danang, Hanoi and Vung Tau - and more than 120 employees. The new Ho Chi Minh office is part of Agility's ongoing investment in rapidly growing emerging markets in south east Asia, the company said in a statement.
Agility's own refrigerated trucks offer delivery across Vietnam and investment is under way for cross border transportation options and a multi-user facility in the Ho Chi Minh area.
In addition to traditional freight forwarding, Agility's Vietnam offices offer a range of logistics services, including warehousing and distribution, Fairs and Events and Project Logistics.
Hong Kong air cargo up 35pc to 2 million tons in first half
HONG KONG International Airport (HKIA) hit a record high, moving two million tonnes of cargo in the first six months of the year, representing a 35.1 per cent year-on-year increase.
In June, cargo throughput grew, but at a slower 28.6 per cent rate to 347,000 tonnes year on year. Yet it was the "the first time since July 2005 that the airport saw double-digit growth in all three traffic categories, partly due to the low base for comparison in 2009", said an HKIA statement.
"Cargo growth remains healthy despite having slowed down to a more normal pace in June after months of extraordinary growth," said HKIA chief executive Stanley Hui.
For cargo, almost all of HKIA's key markets recorded double-digit growth last month, driven mainly by strong exports, which registered overall growth of over 40 per cent. Exports to Europe increased 44 per cent and were up 81 per cent to North America as the global economy rebounded. During the month, imports grew 26 per cent while transshipments were up four per cent.
The strong first-half performance was supported by robust traffic in June passenger traffic, which recorded a yearly increase of 26.2 per cent, reaching 4.2 million.
In June, Hong Kong resident travel grew 28 per cent while visitors surged close to 40 per cent year on year. The number of transfer-transit passengers also saw healthy growth of 13 per cent.
Passenger traffic to and from south east Asia, the mainland, Japan and Taiwan showed more than 20 per cent growth compared to June 2009 figures.
Air France-KLM faces lawsuits from European shippers
AIR FRANCE-KLM faces a fresh EUR335 million (US$420 million) lawsuit, after litigation firm Claims Funding International (CFI) announced plans to file a claim against the carrier on behalf of its European shipper customers.
The claim comes after Air France-KLM admitted its involvement in an air freight price-fixing cartel that has netted major airlines in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia.
The airline group agreed to pay $87 million to purchasers of air freight services in exchange for a release of claims in the settlement it recently reached with regulatory authorities in the US, reports London's International Freighting Weekly.
According to comments cited by CFI, the carriers did not offer to compensate indirect purchasers, such as European shippers, that suffered losses as a result of the price-fixing cartel's action between 2000 and 2006.
CFI said: "The airlines have agreed to pay an $87 million settlement in respect of liability under US law for their acknowledged part in an air cargo cartel that breached competition laws around the world, but have refused to offer their European indirect purchaser victims any compensation."
CFI is acting on behalf of a large group of European claimants who say they spent more than EUR3.35 billion on international air freight services during the period the cartel was in operation.
CFI's managing director Peter Koutsoukis said: "It is regrettable that one of Europe's great airlines would decide to pay damages to its US clients, but offer nothing to European-based customers.
"European cartel victims have remained silent for too long, but now they are standing up in large numbers and demanding their right to redress"
Another law firm, Hausfeld & Co, is also filing a claim against Air France-KLM on behalf of other customers.
As a result, Hausfeld & CFI have signed a formal cooperation agreement to coordinate the pursuit of claims within the EU.
The report added that Hausfeld and CFI represent $5-6 billion of air cargo services purchased by shippers while the cartel was in operation.
After US$10 million spent, AA is ready for 100pc cargo screening
AMERICAN AIRLINES says it is ready to begin screening all cargo on passenger flights from August 1, after investing US$10 million to make the necessary changes, including the installation of seven x-ray machines.
American handles about 750,000 pounds of cargo a day at its cargo facility at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
"I don't expect much to be different come August 1," said AA cargo chief David Brooks reports the Dallas Morning News. "The only difference will be that if we have cargo that has not been screened for whatever reason, it won't fly until it is screened."
The report said that American presently requires freight to arrive at its cargo facilities four hours before a flight. As of August 1, that will go up to six hours, with higher fees to pay for the additional screening.
The exception is for shippers in the TSA's certified cargo screening programme. They have to follow the same rules that airlines must use to inspect and protect cargo.
That includes putting employees through background checks and TSA training, using the x-ray and explosives detection technology now available, making containers tamperproof after they've been screened and adopting other processes to make sure the cargo is safe.
In a June 28 report, the US Government Accountability Office raised concerns about whether airlines would be able to meet the 100 per cent screening requirement.
The GAO said TSA, "Faces technology challenges that could affect its ability to meet the screening mandate. Among these, there is no technology approved by TSA to screen large pallets or containers of cargo, which suggests the need for alternative approaches to screening such cargo."
It also said "TSA also does not verify the self-reported data submitted by screening participants."
The GAO also warned that "several of these challenges suggest the need for a contingency plan, in case the agency's current initiatives are not successful in meeting the mandate without impeding the flow of commerce." But TSA has not developed one.
Lion City opens skies to Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica, Rwanda
SINGAPORE has concluded Open Skies Agreements (OSA) with Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Rwanda at the International Civil Aviation Organisation Air Services Negotiation Conference 2010 (ICAN 2010) held in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
ICAN 2010 offers a meeting place for air services officials from various countries to meet and conduct air services negotiations.
The OSA with Barbados and Jamaica are the first between Singapore and the Caribbean community. The Singapore-Brazil OSA comes on the back of the Singapore-Peru OSA, which was concluded in 2009 together with the establishment of Air Services Agreements with Colombia and Ecuador.
The OSA with Rwanda is Singapore's second with an African country, after the Singapore-Zambia OSA that was concluded in 2008.
Without restrictions on capacity, frequency or routing, the OSA allows carriers the full flexibility to introduce services when market opportunities arise. Carriers are also able to tap into traffic to and from third countries to improve the commercial viability of their operations.
There are currently no direct flight connections between Singapore and Latin America or the Caribbean. In Africa, Singapore Airlines operates passenger services to Egypt and South Africa, while Singapore Airlines Cargo operates cargo services to Kenya and South Africa, a government statement said.
Apart from sealing the open skies accords with the four countries at ICAN 2010, Singapore and Fiji also concluded an open skies framework for cargo services and expanded traffic rights entitlements for passenger operations between and beyond both countries.
Hainan Airlines started air truck intermodal at Beijing
MAINLAND China's largest private air carrier Hainan Airlines has started a door-to-door air truck intermodal service from Beijing to north eastern city Changchun and Shenyang, Xinhua reported.
The first batch of cargo, weighing 2,500 kilogrammes, was transported to Changchun via the new service after flying from Hangzhou to Beijing.
As the domestic air transportation network does not evenly cover every city, shippers in some small cities with less air services available have to seek freight forwarders to carry their cargo to larger air hubs. Hainan Airlines is setting its foot in this market to vie with the domestic freight forwarders.
SDRs reappear with new IATA air cargo liability standards
THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the standardisation of cargo liability limits, with the Air Waybill (AWB) Conditions of Contract (IATA Resolution 600b) which came into effect on July 1, after it was amended to harmonise the application of the Montreal Convention liability limit for all air cargo across all routes.
This simplified approach is expected to improve efficiency for shippers and forwarders. It is also consistent with industry efforts to improve competitiveness by simplifying global processes with projects including IATA's e-freight, reports Canada's Aviation.ca.
The amendment to Resolution 600b standardises the application of the 19 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per kilogramme Montreal Convention liability limit to all routes worldwide.
The report said the following advantages derive from the change: increased certainty for claims handling and service determination; increased accuracy for claims procedures by standardising the various regimes; and the single global standard eliminates the uncertainty that existed when there was no applicable convention, or when existing conventions were out-of-date or required conversions from non-existing currencies, such as French gold francs.
|
ABOUT
HECNY
HOME
RESOURCES
CORNER