SINGAPORE-based group Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary, Sembawang Shipyard, has secured three contracts worth SGD130 million (US$101.5 million) to repair and upgrade floating storage and offloading (FSO) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels.
The first contract was awarded by Angola-based oil company, Sonangol Pesquisa e Producao SA, to manage major repair and upgrading work of its 20-year old FSO Palanca which is expected at the shipyard by August. The work will include the renewal of the ship's cargo piping system and pumps, tank blasting and coating, and cables renewal for the electrical system, according to ProcurementAsia.
Sembawang Shipyard has also been awarded the Favoured Customer Contract for two LNG carriers' life extension projects by Australia-based shipping service provider North West Shelf Shipping Service Company. The two vessels are expected to enter the shipyard in June and September this year.
"These sophisticated projects demand strong engineering and project management skills to be executed in a safe environment and we are confident that through close collaboration with our partners, we will deliver the projects on time and to owners' high QHSE standards," Ong Poh Kwee, managing director of Sembawang Shipyard said.
Earlier this month, Sembcorp subsidiaries Sembcorp Marine, Sembcorp Development and Sembcorp Utilities expanded their businesses outside of Singapore to Malaysia and China.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
DAMCO, the global logistics business unit of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, has announced that first quarter 2012 profit was US$7 million, the same amount recorded in the corresponding prior year period.
EBIT fell by 19 per cent year on year to US$13 million. The EBIT margin decreased to 1.8 per cent, down from 2.3 per cent in 2011.
The company said in a statement that trading was in line with last year, but results were negatively affected by the costs associated with the recent restructuring of Damco's European activities into mature and developing markets.
"We will absorb additional cost in the first two quarters because of the restructuring of our European region into East and West. This is the right thing to do to position us for the years to come. When the changes are all implemented at the end of Q2, Damco will be in a stronger position to address the very different needs of these diverse markets," said Damco CEO, Rolf Habben-Jansen.
First quarter gross profit rose by 8 per cent to US$190 million compared to the same period a year earlier, on a net revenue increase of 8 per cent to US$738 million.
The company said the results show its commercial strategy of increased focus on large and medium sized customers in selected industry verticals and enhanced local field sales is delivering the performance expected.
In the first three months of the year, total ocean freight volumes increased by 6 per cent to 187,000 TEU slightly ahead of the market, while air freight tonnage grew by 135 per cent to 40,000 tonnes. This reflects the acquisition of Chinese air freight forwarder NTS in August 2011, as well as a number of large customer wins. Excluding NTS, the company registered a volume growth of 37 per cent, in spite of an overall declining airfreight market.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE freight management subsidiary of SNCF Geodis, Geodis Wilson, says it is expanding its trucking operations to include China, an extension of its existing routes through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Indochina region.
The full cross-border route between Singapore and China covers a total distance of 5,950 km and has a lead-time of 6-7 days. Customers can choose between full container load (FCL) services, or less than container load (LCL) services. FCL containers are sealed from door-to-door and opened only if required by border customs, while LCL containers are consolidated at the company's facilities along the route, and fed into the main road network by regional trucks.
"One distinctive element of our cross border trucking product is the range of security measures. They enable us to monitor and protect cargoes and help to ensure that our clients' goods can be delivered on time. This includes solid contingency mechanisms, for instance in case of severe weather, complex customs clearing or for accident prevention," said Chris Lee, regional director cross border trucking, in a report by Transport Intelligence.
Geodis Wilson began cross-border trucking services in Southeast Asia in 1995 with services between Malaysia and Thailand and this was extended to Singapore in 1996. The company has been operating daily scheduled LCL services since 1999, providing full customs clearance support to shipments.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
NUREMBERG, Germany-headquartered Continental Temic, a supplier of electronic chassis components for the automotive industry, and DB Schenker have signed a three-year contract for the warehousing of raw materials for storage and delivery to the production line for its Taguig plant, Philippines of electronic brake systems and security systems.
The contract is the first with Continental Temic in contract logistics for DB Schenker which holds responsibility for its customs clearance and the management of an external overflow warehouse.
"This contract could be the kick-off for further warehouse activities for Continental in Asia," said Marcus Balzereit, Schenker Philippines logistics director in a statement. "The agreement is an important step towards the development of our business relationships."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
2012-05-29
SWISSPORT International has been awarded a contract to handle all of Air Berlin's flights at Zurich Airport, along with those of subisidiary airline NIKI, amounting to more than 8,000 flights per year to and from Zurich.
In a long-term contract, Swissport will begin ground-handling operations for Austrian airline NIKI from September 2012 and will handle Air Berlin flights from January 2013. Services for Air Berlin and NIKI will include check-in, loading and unloading of aircrafts.
"Air Berlin has established itself with a business model that combines high-quality products and services with reasonable prices, said Swissport International executive VP Philipp Joeinig.
"This combination places considerable demands on suppliers, but also reflects the values of Swissport, and the decision to choose Swissport to handle Air Berlin and NIKI flights in Zurich is a tribute to the quality and efficiency of Swissport Zurich and Swissport stations around the world," he added in a statement.
Swissport International Ltd provides ground services for around 108 million passengers and 3.2 million tonnes of cargo a year (the latter using 98 warehouses with a total floor area of over 350,000 square metres) on behalf of some 650 client-companies in the aviation sector.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
WORLDWIDE Flight Services (WFS) has announced that it is opening a new independent air cargo handling operation at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on June 1, to increase its presence in Scandinavia.
This follows the signing of a long-term agreement between the air cargo handling organisation and airport operator Swedavia.
The operation is located in a 3,000-square metre airside warehouse "fully equipped with all the features required to deliver a modern, fast and professional handling product," a company statement said.
The company's newest station will be connected to, and fully integrated with, its road feeder network that links all of its European stations, using dedicated truck services.
Martijn de Regt, who has over 20 years experience of working with the freight organisations Panalpina and ASP Logistics, will head up the new Stockholm operation. He will work closely with general manager for Scandinavia, Thomas Petersen.
"Copenhagen has been a great success story for WFS," said Marc Claesen, vice president for Northern Europe. "Opening a WFS operation at Stockholm Arlanda is a logical next step in our northern Europe development plans."
The company entered the Nordic air cargo market in 2006 with the opening of a newly-built cargo centre in Copenhagen. Since then, it has expanded its handling facility with 5,000 square metres of additional warehouse and office space and now handles 70,000 tons of flown, and trucked, cargo a year in Denmark for over 50 airlines.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom has certified Morpho Detection's (MDI) Itemiser DX desktop explosives trace detection system for airfreight screening.
The certification allows deployment of the device throughout the country at air cargo facilities. A company statement said it will help air cargo operators and facilities improve the return on investments made in security infrastructure. The deployment of the device will also help improve efficiency.
The device is a portable, desktop instrument that is based on ITMS trace technology that allows it to analyse ions, both positive and negative, simultaneously from the sample. It can perform this analysis on a single sample.
Morpho Detection is the narcotics, explosives, biological, radiological, chemical and nuclear detection business of Morpho, which is a security unit of the Safran group.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
The respected German transport trade magazines Verkehrsrundschau and Trucker have given Scania the "Green Truck 2012” award. In a compilation of the extensive tests they carried out, Scania's R 480 Euro 6 tractor model came out on top in terms of environmental performance.
Scania's top ranking is a result of the truck's low fuel consumption and good load capacity, combined with the fact that Scania was alone in being able to deliver trucks with Euro 6 engines when the tests were conducted during 2011.
"The good results achieved by the Scania R 480 Euro 6 in these press tests confirm that Scania's engineers have done an excellent job in developing the Euro 6 engines by focusing on customer needs for efficient transport solutions," says Scania Deutschland's Sales Director Christian Teichmann.
More information about the tests and detailed results may be found on the magazine Verkehrsrundschau's home page: www.verkehrsrundschau.de/umweltranking
The new Euro 6 emission standard for heavy vehicles enters into force in the EU and in certain neighbouring countries starting on 31 December 2012 for new vehicle models and one year later for all vehicles. As early as March 2011, Scania unveiled trucks that comply with emission standards under the new regulations.
Source Cision
The sides need to achieve compromise concerning the gauge width of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Transport and Communications Kalykbek Sultanov told Tazabek after the meeting of the special working group held in China in early May discussing this railway construction project.
The outcomes of the 3 previous meetings of the special working group and previously carried out work were summed up at the last meeting and the sides reached the consensus concerning several important issues, the Transport Minister said.
“As you know China proposes 1,435 mm gauge for construction of the Chinese and Kyrgyz sections of the railway. This proposal takes into account the prospective plans of construction of the trans-Asian railway from China to Iran through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan with 1,435 mm gauge width. We insist on use of our technical standards – 1,520 mm. Kyrgyzstan is in the 1,520 space comprising CIS countries and Baltic states, Mongolia and is bound with several international agreements,” the Minister explained.
Central Asian News Service, en.ca-news.org
Port operator remains focused on creating a regional port hub through investments to boost logistics chain efficiency, reduce costs and attract bigger vessels to its 12 ports
Jakarta, May 28, 2012 – IPC (Indonesia Port Corporation II) recorded approximately US$138.3 million (IDR1,269 billion) revenue in the first quarter of 2012, a 42% increase from US$97.4 (IDR894 billion) in the same period last year. Net profit rose by a significant 45.9% to US$54.3 million (IDR513 billion) the first quarter of 2011, reflecting continued growth for the port operator in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region due to an increase in traffic at the 12 ports it manages across Indonesia.
Revenue was derived from shipping services, goods services, tools provision, terminal services, container terminal services, land-building-water-electricity provision, miscellaneous facilities and partnerships with business associates.
IPC continues to focus on long-term sustainable growth by investing US$38.9 million (IDR357 billion) in the first quarter of 2012, accounting for 8.32% of the company’s total investment budget of US$468.7 million (IDR4.3 trillion) for the year.
“IPC is and will continue to invest significantly to improve port facilities and services, attracting bigger vessels to our ports and reducing Indonesia’s logistics costs. In doing so, we will create a regional port hub to serve a growing economy in Indonesia, Asia and the world,” said RJ. Lino, President Director of IPC.
Enhanced Port Services and Capacity
Investments include the installation of more gantry luffing cranes and development of a container terminal area in Tanjung Priok Port (Tanjung Priok), North Jakarta which is now able to harbour ships with throughput capacity of up to 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) of containers. Tanjung Priok is currently handling 1.4 million TEUs, a 13.6% increase from last year.
IPC is also kick-starting the development of Kalibaru Port (New Priok), an extension of the Tanjung Priok after receiving the presidential decree in April 2012. New Priok will be the largest port development in Indonesia, tripling the capacity of Tanjung Priok to over 18 million TEUs when fully completed in 2023. The first phase of development, which will provide an additional capacity of approximately 4.5 million TEUs, will begin operations of its first terminal by 2014.
Investments in other ports include large-scale improvements of Pontianak Port in West Kalimantan and Banten Port in West Java, as well as the construction of stock pile coal in Jambi Port and channel dredging of Bengkulu Port in Sumatra.
Increased Efficiency
IPC is extending the application of its comprehensive Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which centralizes and streamlines processes at its ports. The car terminal in Tanjung Priok and Teluk Bayur Container Terminal in Padang, West Sumatra are the fifth and sixth IPC subsidiary and port branch to incorporate these systems.
27 cranes have also been added across five ports to shorten the loading and unloaded process, along with eight additional boats to support operations in IPC’s two port branches of Tanjung Priok as well as Port of Panjang in Lampung, Sumatra.
Human Capital Development
As part of its ongoing human capital development programme, IPC has also allocated US$62.79 million (IDR576.05 billion) in 2012 for employees to pursue master’s degrees and training programmes in relevant disciplines worldwide including Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and China. This accounts for 13.4% of its total investment budget for the year.
Ensuring Sustainable Growth
IPC continues building its refreshed vision with the development of a strategic roadmap and implementation of corporate restructuring to boost overall operations and services.
The port operator also initiated a study to establish nine subsidiaries which will be incorporated systematically based on IPC’s five priorities namely; PT Car Terminal Indonesia, PT Terminal Peti Kemas Indonesia, PT Terminal Tanjung Priok, PT Marine Services Indonesia and PT Indonesia Logistic Community Service.
*US$1 = IDR9,174
Source Ogilvy Public Relations
Condite Spółka z o.o. has been chosen as the General Contractor to build a Hampton by Hilton hotel in the vicinity of Warsaw Chopin Airport, following over a year of formal preparations. The hotel will open its doors to the first guests in mid-2013.
Condite Spółka z o.o. met all requirements set out in the tender documents and offered the lowest price, beating nine other bidders for the work. “We are very happy with the outcome of the tender. This is a huge challenge for us, but we will ensure the highest quality of work and excellent attention to detail,” said Wiesław Milcarz, chairman of the board at Condite Sp. z o.o.
The economy Hampton by Hilton Warsaw Airport hotel will be erected approx. 800m from Chopin Airport’s Terminal A, at the junction of 17 Stycznia St and Żwirki i Wigury St. It will offer 116 comfortable double rooms on four floors and will be targeted at tourists and business travellers. The ground floor will contain the main hall, a 24-hour snack bar, breakfast room, comfortable working and meeting area with Internet access, as well as a conference room and fitness club. Breakfast will be included in the price.
The hotel will be funded and operated by PPL’s subsidiary, Port-Hotel. “I am sure the Hampton by Hilton brand will live up to the expectations of customers travelling both on business and for pleasure. It will do well in the Polish market,” said Mirosław Moczarski, President of Port-Hotel sp. z o.o.
The construction comes at the same time as work on another hotel under the brand, Hampton by Hilton Gdańsk Airport, which will be located in front of the new terminal of Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Lech Wałęsa Airport.
Warsaw Chopin Airport
KUEHNE + Nagel's (KN) information management system, KN Login, is now available in simplified Chinese, in addition to English, German, French, Italian and Spanish to meet the increasing demand of its Chinese customers for supply chain visibility and monitoring.
Through a single web-based interface, KN Login enables customers to know where all their shipments are. It links all the company's business units across the globe, offering trades and industries the detailed information they need, in the way they want to see it. The access to near real-time data drives improvements in productivity and efficiency by offering enhanced monitoring and accurate shipment progress.
Key features of KN Login include: dashboard, direct access, EDI, global standards, images, interactive delivery planner, monitoring and alert tools, statistics, booking as well as order management solutions.
In Asia Pacific, Kuehne + Nagel operates at 165 locations and employs around 7,300 people.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
A WHOLLY-owned subsidiary of SinOceanic Shipping ASA, SinOceanic III AS (Sino III), has taken delivery of the MSC Regulus with a capacity of 13,100 TEU and placed her on a 15-year bareboat charter party with Mediterranean Shipping Company, Geneva, at a daily rate of US$46,650.
The vessel was purchased for $156 million and the initial working capital requirements of Sino III have been financed by a $100 million secured first priority loan which carries an interest of 12 per cent per annum the first year, and 11 per cent in the second optional year.
In addition, the company has arranged for a $20 million secured second priority mezzanine loan which also carries an interest of 12 per cent a year, and a $44 million secured third priority loan which carries an interest of 19 per cent p.a and a back-end fee in the amount of $1 million, payable at maturity. Also these loans have a tenor of one option one year.
The latter loan has been provided by Oceanus International Investment, the largest shareholder in the company, and is without recourse to the company. The loan is re-financeable, and it is the company's intention to seek to refinance this loan once the equity markets normalise.
It is also the objective of Sino III to refinance the senior and mezzanine loans with bank financing in China, or elsewhere, as soon as possible and in accordance with the terms of the loans. The work to refinance these loans is already in progress.
With the delivery of the MSC Regulus, the company has completed its present vessel acquisition programme.
The company now operates four container vessels with a total container carrying capacity of 44,000 TEU consisting of YM Portland (4,440 TEU), MSC Vega, MSC Altair and MSC Regulus, which are three Very Large Container Ships (VLCS) each of 13,100 TEU carrying capacity. The fleet makes the company a top tier container ship provider in Europe.
Total aggregated fixed freight income from the vessels in the fleet is projected to be $1 billion over the charter party periods, and the annual EBITDA is estimated to be $60 million.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
SINGAPORE tops latest edition of the World Bank's Logistic Performance Index (LPI) from 155 countries, followed by Hong Kong, Finland, Germany dropping from top spot, the Netherlands with the US making the biggest leap from ninth rank from 15th two years ago, and UK slipping to tenth.
The logistics gap is widening between those in the bottom 10, all low-income countries with eight in Africa, and the top 10 high-income countries since 2010 following three years of improvement by lower performing countries to improve LP scores. This trend was attributed to logistics reform being assigned less importance in favour of global events like the recession, and the European debt crisis.
For these bottom 10 ranked African countries, all are hindered by conflict and natural disasters affecting access to markets outside of those of independent republic Djibouti and Burundi in central Africa, said the World Bank report.
The impact of this on developing countries, and particularly those that are land-locked and poor, means that the cost of transport and logistics bumps up food prices between 20 and 60 per cent. US imported corn to Nicaragua is marked up by as much as 48 per cent, said the World Bank's logistics survey 'Connecting to Compete 2012'.
"Transport and logistics directly affect the price and local availability of food through the performance and resilience of food chains, especially in African and Middle Eastern countries that depend heavily on food imports," the bank said, cited American Shipper.
But Morocco, which was able to implement a comprehensive strategy to its logistics and connectivity to nearby Europe, has since jumped from 113 in 2007 to 50 in 2012. Other countries improving performance included BRIC nations of China and India with Chile, South Africa, Turkey and the US succeeding ahead of others.
Infrastructure is key to progress for those top performers with logistics services, and customs and border management coming close second and third, said World Bank's International Trade manager Mona Haddad: "All top performers show strong cooperation between the public and private sectors, and a comprehensive approach in the development of services, infrastructure and efficient logistics."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
VIETNAM National Shipping Lines, Vinalines, has wasted billions of dollars with foreign partners on running three ineffective ports, namely the Cai Mep Port (CMIT), SP-SSA Port (SSIT) and the Saigon Container International Port (SP-PSA), in the Cai Mep - Thi Vai area.
SP-PSA is the joint venture among Vinalines, the Saigon Port Company and Singaporean PSA International, while CMIT is the joint venture between Vinalines and Danish APM Terminals.
In the period 2007-2010, the three ports suffered a huge total loss of VND252 billion (US$0.01 billion) from an initial investment of VND1,807.82 billion. In 2011, SP-PSA and CMIT reported a loss as high as VND460 billion.
Despite the ports' ability to receive ships of tonnage up to 100,000 DWT and the slashing of fees, the volumes have not materialised. Ships over 50,000 DWT at international transit ports in Vietnam enjoy a maritime security charge discount of 40 per cent and a pilotage fee slashed by half. Container handling fee is at an all-time low of $49 per TEU lower than the regional average of $40 per TEU.
Regardless of the size of vessels docking, the ship owners can only get some hundreds of TEUs rather than full capacity of a 51,000 DWT at 4,500 TEU due to the low volumes in both exports and imports, said Hanjin Shipping Vietnam general director Park Hoon.
CMIT deputy general director Nguyen Xuan Ky said the unexpected drop in volume against the money invested into the ports has investors "worried stiff". The ports will be in the red for at least 12-13 years, according to analysts, cited a report from VietnamNetBridge.
The projects were made under the leadership of former chairman Duong Chi Dung, now under arrest warrant for his mismanagement of Vinalines.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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