  Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
Ningbo starts first sea-rail container intermodal to Jiangxi
AFTER launch of a number of sea-rail container intermodal services from hinterland province Jiangxi to the Port of Ningbo, the first Jiangxi-bound service has been inaugurated.
The first run carried 88 TEU, mostly from MSC, OOCL, Yang Ming and KMTC on 44 rail cars. Ningbo Port Southeast Logistics Co Ltd is the operator of the service.
The return journey is expected to start February 10. The Ningbo-Jiangxi sea-rail container intermodal service is expected to have carried about 8,000 TEU by the end of this year.
Ningbo will develop more non-scheduled sea-rail container service bound for Jiangxi in the future and turn them into scheduled services according to market conditions.
Ningbo Port Southeast Logistics promises to devote more efforts on expanding the hinterland markets in Jiangxi and Hunan province.
CSAV launches weekly feeder to Black Sea ports
CHILEAN shipping carrier CSAV is to launch a weekly feeder to connect Istanbul to the Black Sea ports of Novorossiysk, Russia and Poti, Georgia from mid-February, reports American Shipper.
The rotation of its Black Sea Link (BSL) will be Istanbul, Novorossiysk, Poti and Istanbul with as yet unspecified vessel size.
Its aim is to complement the ABS service with slots bought up by Evergreen. This service links Istanbul with Far East, Middle East and Mediterranean ports operated by nine 4,969-TEU ships, according to Compair Data.
Eurogate suffers 12.3pc decline in box volumes in 2009
CONTAINER terminal and logistics group, Eurogate, which together with Contship Italia operates 10 container terminals from the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean area, handled a total of 12,454,006 TEU in 2009, a decrease of 12.3 per cent compared to the previous year when a record 14,195,172 TEU was handled.
"The economic crisis has left its mark. Nevertheless, we will post a positive result for 2009. However, it will be some years before we can again reach the record level of 2008," said Eurogate Group chairman Thomas Eckelmann.
Eurogate's box terminals in Germany posted the sharpest declines, with throughput down 18.5 per cent year on year at 6,673,945 TEU, while in Italy the drop was less sharp at 9.9 per cent, handling 5,139,891 TEU.
At Eurogate's three Bremerhaven terminals traffic fell by 17.5 per cent compared to 2008 to 4,535,842 TEU, while Hamburg's box volume was down 20.5 per cent at 2,138,103 TEU.
In Italy, Eurogate's 33.4 per cent-owned Contship Italia unit suffered a 9.9 per cent decrease in container throughput at 5,139,891 TEU, down from 5,704,404 TEU in 2008, which the group attributed to the "positive development in container handling shown by Cagliari International Container Terminal in Sardinia.
Its terminal in Lisbon saw container volumes drop 13.1 per cent to 204,595, while throughput volumes soared 578.7 per cent at its Tangier terminal compared to 2008 to 435,575 TEU.
"As a pan-European terminal network, we need to remain competitive. I therefore urge the political parties to forge ahead with the necessary infrastructure measures to assure this, such as the deepening of the Elbe and Weser rivers, and to implement these as soon as possible," said Mr Eckelmann.
"Unless our terminals are unrestrictedly accessible around the clock, our shipping lines will be forced - however high our handling quality - to dock their giant containerships at other ports."
Eurogate is currently constructing a new deepwater container terminal in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany that will be able to handle three million TEU annually.
Fighting back: Seattle leads west coast plea for infrastructure investment
PORT of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani led the plea for more infrastructure investment at a San Deigo port conference as the US west coast fights off challenges from Canada, east and gulf ports for Asian cargo.
Mr Yoshitani joined a panel discussing port and transport infrastructure investment, noting that ports must be able to operate safely and efficiently to compete for cargo and the jobs that cargo creates.
"Ports are the country's solid economic engines, creating jobs and prosperity for communities they serve," Mr Yoshitani said. "For us to keep our ports competitive and exports moving to markets across the globe, we must invest our resources in the harbours, roads, and rails that move goods efficiently."
Mr Yoshitani was addressing a "ports summit" called by US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, marking the first time someone in that post has met jointly with the leaders of the country's seaports.
Joining Mr Yoshitani were his colleagues from the other major west coast ports. The six port directors are working together to market the west coast as the best gateway for trade.
Mr Yoshitani went on to note that moving goods efficiently is also good for the environment. "Sustainable business practices are good business practices, and vice versa. We're investing in the facilities that will serve ports for decades to come; let's invest in sustainable solutions that protect our air and harbours," he said.
US truckers join oil company suit to fight low-carbon demands
CALIFORNIA's state driven low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) has been legally challenged in the US District Court by the American Trucking Associations and three other organisations including the Centre for North American Energy Security (CEA) as an impediment to interstate commerce.
The regulations set out by the California Air Resources Board stipulate that fuel providers reduce carbon emissions over the next decade, which include domestic fuel derived from oil sands from Canada, oil shale from mid-western US and even domestic coal.
"Discouraging these fuels will simply increase costs while failing to prevent their export to and consumption by other nations," said ATA vice president Rich Moskowitz, who filed the complaint at the US District Court in California.
Additionally the ATA says the regulation would impact end-users and fuel price in what it considers is a "shuffling" of LCF away from other states burdening end-consumers with little reduction and a possible increase of greenhouse gas emissions, reported American Shipper.
In a report from Oil & Gas Journal, CEA vice-president Michael Whatley, a former chief counsel for the US Senate Clean Air and Climate Change Subcommittee, said the standard will not benefit California consumers. "Perhaps it wasn't the state's intent, but as written, the California LCFS is an example of parochial protectionism run amok," Mr Whatley said.
Zhejiang's Jiaxing river port to have a capacity of 100,000 TEU
Jiaxing city river port phase 1 multi-purpose terminal, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, is scheduled to commence operation in March, with an annual capacity of 100,000 TEU, Xinhua reported.
The terminal is located on the south bank of the Hangzhou-Shanghai sailing channel. After having been fully completed, the terminal will have a maximum capacity of 700,000 TEU per year. The first phase will equip the dock with one container crane and a container yard.
The terminal is expected to lower Jianxing shipper costs by 20 per cent.
CAAS green flight cuts fuel consumption by 10,686 kilogrammes
THE employment of air traffic management best practices and initiatives by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has significantly reduced transit time of a demonstration green flight from Los Angeles to Singapore via Tokyo by 30 minutes, saving 10,686 kilograms of fuel and cut carbon emissions by 33,769 kilograms.
The Singapore Airlines demonstration green flight, which arrived in Singapore at 0132 hrs local time today, is another initiative under the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE).
ASPIRE aims to accelerate the development and implementation of air traffic management procedures, capitalise on innovations, technologies and best practices, and facilitate harmonisation of air traffic management on key Asia and Pacific routes towards reducing aviation emissions globally.
CAAS director-general Yap Ong Heng, Director-General said "The significant reductions in flight time, fuel consumption and carbon emissions provide benchmarks which Air Navigation Service Providers and airlines can work towards in the air transport industry's collaborative commitment and efforts to cut down carbon emissions."
Fellow Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) in the US and Japan collaborated with CAAS to allow the Singapore Airlines aircraft to operate in optimum traffic conditions in all phases of the flight, ie from departure to cruising to arrival. At the departure phase, the aircraft was accorded priority clearance from air traffic control for taxiing and departure.
The time taken for the aircraft to get from the parking bay to the runway was minimised by assigning it the shortest possible route, and the aircraft was given an unimpeded take-off without restrictions on speed or aircraft level. This lessened the aircraft's power consumption and thereby fuel burn.
At the cruising phase, the user preferred route and dynamic airborne reroute procedures were employed allowing the pilot to capitalise on prevailing wind patterns to alter the aircraft's flight path to shorten its flight time and achieve greater flight efficiency. In addition, performance based navigation (PBN) procedures such as a reduction in the lateral and longitudinal separation among flights were employed, allowing the aircraft to use preferred flight paths and levels, enhanced flight efficiency with no reduction in safety.
At the arrival phase, the optimised profile descent technique was used to allow the aircraft to fly with engines set at idle in continuous descent from a high altitude to land at Changi Airport, significantly reducing fuel burn. Upon landing, the aircraft was also assigned the shortest possible route from the runway to the parking bay to minimise fuel consumption.
Mr Yap added in a company statement that by following air traffic management best practices the flight from end to end has shown encouraging results to use in the future. "CAAS, in its role as an air navigation service provider, will work closely with the airlines on how the procedures and techniques used for this ASPIRE flight can be applied to more flights. CAAS will also continue with its efforts and contributions to further improve air navigation to increase flight efficiency and reduce aircraft carbon emissions."
Air carriers turn to cold chain solutions for pharma sector
IN recent months, Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways World Cargo, Nippon Cargo Airlines and United Airlines have started offering cold chain solutions to manufacturers and shippers of pharmaceuticals, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
This trend is said to be driven by the cold chain pharmaceutical sector being the fastest-growing market segment of air cargo and the highest margin area, apart from the transport of live animals, according to the report which was cited by Washington-based FiercePharma Marketing.
It noted that Continental Airlines is one of a handful of carriers that has "longstanding drug handing capabilities" and is said to be "watching the influx of competitors." Continental provides the ClimateSecure temperature-controlled service, and is aligned with container manufacturer Envirotainer for passive unit load devices and with CSafe AcuTemp for active unit load devices.
"The compressor-driven AcuTemp RKN container is approved by both the European Aviation Safety Agency and the FAA. It also incorporates the new International Air Transport Association label for time- and temperature-sensitive healthcare products, which is set to become a requirement in July," FiercePharma Marketing added.
Korean Air expands codeshare with Garuda Indonesia Airlines
KOREAN Air has expanded codeshare relationship with Garuda Indonesia Airlines on three more flights on the Incheon-Jakarta route.
This adds to the existing code sharing on Korean Air's daily flights on the same route, increasing the codeshare frequency to 10 weekly flights.
With the added schedule, Korean Air passengers will be able to enjoy a wider range of options when planning travel to the Southeast Asian country.
Korean Air uses Boeing 777-200 aircraft on its daily flights. Garuda operated codeshare flights will use the Airbus 330-200.
Korean Air has codeshare partnerships with 22 airlines worldwide, including SkyTeam partner airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Japan Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Emirates and more.
Korean Air, with a fleet of 130 aircraft, is one of the world's top 20 airlines, and operates almost 400 passenger flights per day to 117 cities in 39 countries. It is a founding member of SkyTeam, the global airlines alliance - partnering Aeroflot, AeroMexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern Airlines, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM and two associates to provide worldwide destinations, flights and services.
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