President Nazarbaev offered foreign investors the project called "New Silk Road", Tengrinews.kz reported.
"Today, I want to invite you all to start the project "New Silk Road". Kazakhstan has to revive its historic role and become the largest business hub transit of Central Asian region, a bridge between Europe and Asia. As a result of this mega-project in 2020, the volume of transit traffic through Kazakhstan should increase by half with further increasing its at least 50 million tons. My vision is the creation of the key transport corridors of Kazakhstan a single set of hubs of international level, trade and logistics, financial, business, innovation and technology and tourism," Nazarbaev said finishing 25th plenary meeting of the Foreign Investors Council under the President of Kazakhstan.
The competitive advantage of the proposed project "New Silk Road" will be based on implementing the principle of the four "S", which are: speed, service, safety and stability, according to the President of Kazakhstan.
Central Asian News Service, en.ca-news.org
Seawork International, 22nd – 24th May 2012, SSA Stand SR1
The SSA Stand SR1 at this year’s Seawork International features the SafeSea® V100 GMDSS hand-held radio. Following Marine Equipment Directive (MED) certification from the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT), Ocean Signal has announced full availability of the V100 which has enabled shipment of the product to commence worldwide.
“Having received full certification of our V100 hand-held radio, we have now commenced shipment of the products to our global distribution and customer base. The V100 completes our existing SafeSea portfolio which offers a range of highly reliable and easy-to-use safety products, each with unique industry leading features,” comments Alan Wrigley, Managing Director, Ocean Signal.
The new Ocean Signal, SafeSea V100 is a rugged, fully featured hand-portable GMDSS radiotelephone which exceeds GMDSS environmental requirements. With ergonomic design, durable laser etched keypad, high contrast backlit LCD and backlit keys the radio is supplied with all the 21 international simplex channels required.
As with all Ocean Signal products, improving battery life has been a primary consideration in the development of the SafeSea V100. A unique feature of the emergency Lithium primary battery is the battery protection tab which avoids inadvertent use. Only when the tab is broken off will the battery operate the radio, ensuring the pack is at full capacity when needed. The tab is not replaceable and the battery is clearly marked ‘Used’ underneath the tab. The battery is classified as non-hazardous for shipment and can be user replaced.
In addition, a highly efficient transmitter helps to maximise the battery life giving significant improvement over other products on the market, providing typically 16 hours operation even at -20C. In addition, a Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery pack is available with rapid charger that can be desk or wall mounted, for day to day on-board use. An accessory socket option is also available for users requiring helmets or headsets.
Ocean Signal’s full range of SafeSea products includes the E100 and E100G EPIRBS, S100 SART and the V100 GMDSS hand-held radio. For further information, please visit the Ocean Signal team at stand SR1 or visit www.oceansignal.com.
Source SALTWATERPR
Riga. The Latvian national airline airBaltic has been selected amongst the world’s Top 10 most innovative airlines by Airlinetrends.com - an independent industry and consumer trends research agency.
Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “We are very delighted to achieve the high ranking in the Top 10 of innovators out of hundreds of airlines around the world. With the passionate and energetic team we have, airBaltic will continue to set the trends for future innovation for the benefit of our passengers, travelling to and from our 60 destinations in Europe, Middle East, Russia and the CIS.”
airBaltic was ranked by Airlinetrends among the Top 10 airlines globally for a wide array of innovations, including world’s first inflight car dealership for custom-designed Mini Cooper, roses on board, iPad as inflight entertainment, world’s first bicycle rental scheme by an airline BalticBike, BalticTaxi cab service, organic meals for business class, and many more. Airlinetrends ranked airBaltic as No 8, ahead of AirAsia (No 9), and All Nippon Airways (No 10). The remaining airlines in the Top 10 of innovators will be released one by one until early June.
airBaltic serves 60 destinations with direct flights from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.
Source A/S Air Baltic Corporation
Companies have signed MoU transferring 12 Finnair Embraer aircraft to Flybe
Finnair and the largest European regional airline Flybe of UK today announced that the companies plan to extend their cooperation to offer cost efficient European connections for Finnair’s passengers.
Last year Finnair and Flybe formed Flybe Nordic AB, of which Flybe owns 60 % and Finnair 40 %. The companies have now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) according to which Finnair will transfer twelve 100 seat Embraer aircraft, to Flybe. Starting October 2012 Flybe will operate these aircraft on Finnair routes for Finnair. The move is a part of Finnair’s efforts to improve the profitability of its European network, and it offers a platform for growth for Flybe Nordic.
“This move is a part of our strategy to restore Finnair’s profitability”, says Mika Vehviläinen, Finnair CEO. “The MoU covers approximately one third of our European flights. Flybe offers a cost efficient platform for operating this traffic, and enables us to continue to offer a wide network and multiple frequencies to both our Finnish customers and our customers flying between Europe and Finnair’s Asian destinations.”
“Today’s announcement marks another step in our journey of growth, as we extend further our contract flying operations for Finnair. The extension of the contract flying business is a key part of Flybe Finland’s strategy, providing the business with a good balance of risk”, Mike Rutter, Managing Director of Flybe Europe,
From the customer point view, the change will be virtually unnoticed. Finnair continues to be responsible for sales, marketing and customer support, but the flights are operated by Flybe.
Once the agreement is completed, 12 Embraer aircraft and the traffic operated with them transfers from Finnair to Flybe. In connection with this business transfer, cabin attendants and pilots for this traffic will transfer with the business, unless otherwise agreed in negotiations with personnel. Negotiations on cost savings between Finnair and the Finnish Airline Pilots' Association have proceeded in a constructive manner during the spring. If the savings agreement under preparation is completed, pilots transferring to operate Flybe flights would return to Finnair in stages to be trained as Airbus pilots for Finnair’s growing Asian traffic.
Finnair is proceeding on track with its transformation program that targets 140 million euro annual savings to restore profitability and improve competitiveness. Finnair continues to seek to improve the profitability of the rest of its European traffic. Alternatives include, as has been previously communicated, decreasing the costs together with own personnel or forming additional partnerships.
Finnair announced on August 5, 2011 that it targeted decreases in its annual costs of 140 million euros by 2014. Finnair has already announced that it:
• has chosen Swissport as its partner for baggage and apron services
• is optimizing the size of its fleet in European air traffic, has discontinued the leases of four Airbus 320 series aircraft, and subleased five Embraer 170 aircraft
• has signed an Memorandum of Understanding on the sales of its catering business to LSG Services
• has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SR Technics on engine and component services
• seeks solutions to improve the profitability of its European traffic
• has improved its route planning and aircraft utilisation
• is streamlining its support functions as well as marketing and distribution activities
• has initiated numerous other savings measures throughout the company.
Source Finnair Plc
Spirit Pub Company has awarded global logistics provider, Kuehne + Nagel, a long-term contract to handle the food service supply chain for its estate of more than 800 managed pubs across the United Kingdom.
Spirit owns and operates some of the United Kingdom’s fastest growing pub brands, such as Chef & Brewer, Fayre & Square, Taylor Walker and Flaming Grill. Since the company’s launch eight months ago, together with its commitment to providing exceptional guest experiences, Spirit required a logistics partner with proven experience in the sector and a deep understanding of the specific needs of pub operators.
Under the new agreement, Kuehne + Nagel has implemented a solution that will provide a platform for sustainable growth, improved communication and further collaboration between suppliers. A key enabler is a new IT system, which will provide visibility of menu sales and stocks to suppliers upstream, allowing for more accurate planning and forecasting.
Kuehne + Nagel will manage two regional distribution centres (RDC’s) at Trafford Park, Manchester and Greenford, Greater London, on behalf of Spirit. Offering a combined total warehousing space of over 18,000m2, these RDC’s will handle 1200 fresh, frozen and ambient product lines, with stocked lines being picked and merged with just-intime lines for onward delivery to the pubs. The operation will run six days per week, typically making three deliveries each week to each pub via a national trunking and radial distribution fleet of 60 vehicles.
Spirit’s Head of Logistics, Vance Fairman-Smith, said: “At the heart of the decision to appoint Kuehne + Nagel was the need to support our pubs with a robust supply chain operation that would ultimately make it easier for pub employees to deliver great service to guests.”
The Food Service sector is a strategic growth area for Kuehne + Nagel. The logistics provider has invested in developing solutions which offer significant advantages over the more traditional wholesale routes to market. These advantages include increased control and visibility of costs, improved service levels, and the inclusion of recycling and reverse logistics. In the United Kingdom, Kuehne + Nagel now runs three multi-temperature distribution centres, and carries out 105 food service deliveries per hour on a 24/7 basis.
John Hartley, Kuehne + Nagel’s Senior Vice-President, Sales & Marketing for North-West Europe said, “With an increasing trend towards eating out, the third-party logistics model has become attractive to multiple restaurant operators. Not only does it support their growth, it also offers greater reliability and product availability, and therefore an improved guest experience. Kuehne + Nagel is now positioned as the market leading third-party logistics provider for food service in the United Kingdom, and we are looking forward to embarking on our new long-term partnership with Spirit Pub Company.”
Kuehne + Nagel
2012-05-22
Ships Electronic Services (SES), a leading supplier of marine electronics equipment, has announced that the company has been awarded a £375,000 contract to supply all the navigation and communications equipment for two new Hybrid Ferries building at Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow for Caledonian Marine Assets.
These will be the world’s first hybrid diesel electric Ro Ro vehicle and passenger ferries to enter service and will be operating the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service from spring 2013. The green technology will be incorporated throughout the ships, supplying a minimum of 20% of the energy consumed on board.
SES has a long standing relationship with Fergusons, supplying and installing electronic and communication equipment for a number of the yards projects. Richard Dean, Managing Director of Ferguson Shipbuilders commented, “These are important vessels for the yard and show Scottish ship building at the forefront of green technology, substantially reducing fuel usage and emissions. We are delighted to be working once again with SES who have provided exceptional service to the yard over the years.”
Director of SES, Colin Anderson based at the company’s Grangemouth offices, said “We are proud to be associated with Fergusons and this world first. This is the latest in a line of contracts won by us for major commercial projects. We represent some of the industry’s largest electronic manufacturers, providing us with the ability to specify exactly what our customers require to create a reliable and cost effective electronics and communications solution. We also have service centres around the UK coastline, a 24 hour helpline and engineers capable of travelling globally to provide our customers with the best service wherever they operate.”
SES will be fitting a full specification of electronics on the hybrid ferries including Furuno Radars and Transas ECDIS. A complex double ended heading system from Raytheon Anschuetz will be installed enabling all the headings to the AIS, ECDIS and Autopilot to be changed 180 degrees, along with all the navigation lights, at the touch of a single switch. They will also be supplying the Autopilot system which utilises their extensive interfacing knowledge with the Voith Schneider drive units.
Saltwater Communications
3 x P 220B access platforms supplied to Oslo Liftutleie
Whether hire or municipal use - platforms by PALFINGER PLATFORMS meet the highest demands for profitability and work safety required in the “pick up & go” business. PALFINGER PLATFORMS dominates the 3.5 t class. The most recent example of this is the handover of three P 220B access platforms to the prestigious Norwegian hire company Oslo Liftutleie.
Oslo Liftutleie manages a vehicle pool of approx. 30 truck-mounted access platforms with working heights between 14 and 62 m. Seventeen of these access platforms come from the PALFINGER PLATFORMS stable. Things will continue in the same vein following handover of the three new P 220B models. PALFINGER Norge will shortly supply this customer with another two PD 140 V and a P 300KS.
PALFINGER AG
Communications and safety at sea specialist, Ocean Signal has further strengthened its worldwide presence by appointing Australia’s leading marine electronics distributor and service company, Taylor Marine as the dedicated Australian distributor. Based in both Henderson, Western Australia and Brisbane, Queensland, Taylor Marine will be responsible for distributing Ocean Signal’s SafeSea range of GMDSS products, which are fully approved for use by Australian registered vessels.
“We are excited to have been appointed by Ocean Signal as its dedicated distributor for the Australian market. The SafeSea portfolio offers easy battery replacement and superior battery performance, so we are confident about being able to grow sales of the product range and look forward to working with the team at Ocean Signal moving forward,” comments David Maitland, Managing Director, Taylor Marine.
Ocean Signal’s SafeSea portfolio offers highly reliable and easy-to-use GMDSS products, which includes the V100 GMDSS hand-held radio, as well as the E100 and E100G EPIRBS and S100 SART.
Saltwater Communications
THE Asian Shipowners' Forum (ASF), supported by the Japanese Shipowners' Association (JSA), are protesting proposed Panama Canal toll increases, saying that they were made without consultation and at a time when the industry can least afford them.
"Under the current economic situation, the newly proposed toll increase would be detrimental to the shipping industry," said the ASF, which was separately issued by the JSA.
"The ASF urges the ACP [Panama Canal Authority] to withdraw its current proposal for toll adjustments in 2012 and 2013 and to maintain a close and interactive dialogue with the shipping industry to ensure that toll adjustments would be reasonable, transparent and gradually implemented," said the statement.
This comes in response to the ACP announcement of its intention to raise tolls in July and again next year 2013 and to modify the toll structure. The ACP has invited comments.
Said the ASF statement: "Given the importance of the Panama Canal as an international public infrastructure vital for efficient operation of the global supply chain, the notice period for the proposed toll increase given by the ACP was too short.
"The proposed toll increase was unilaterally formulated without any form of consultation or dialogue with the shipping industry and the ASF is of the view that this may inhibit business planning which could possibly lead to reduction in the total revenue received by the ACP," the statement said.
The ASF would also request the ACP to review its pricing policy to increase tolls at an annual 3.5 per cent average rate for 20 years, which was referred to in the "Proposals for the Expansion of the Panama Canal" in April 2006.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Canadian Pacific Railway faces an imminent strike by 4,800 employees over pension reform brought in by the company's new interim CEO whose appointment has resulted from a fierce proxy battle, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The strike is over the appointment of new management following weeks of board-level battling between the old board and a major shareholder Bill Ackman, of New York's Pershing Square Capital Management, who successfully removed the old CEO Fred Green, replacing him with railway industry veteran Stephen Tobias as caretaker CEO.
The Teamsters Canada union ended its five-year contract on December 30, and now worried that Calgary-based CP will place new employees on less generous pensions in an effort to turn around underperforming freight operations.
Said CP chief operations officer Mike Franczak: "The offer on pension aligns with the industry and allows the railway to remain competitive as we invest in strategic infrastructure upgrades along our network."
Mr Franczak said the offer is fair. "We are willing to enter into binding arbitration or negotiation period extensions should an agreement not be reached at this stage," he said.
"This would ensure the continued operations of freight and commuter trains on CP's Canadian network for the benefit of our customers. Any extension to the bargaining process requires consent of the union or action of the federal government," he said.
Mr Ackman, 46, is CP's largest shareholder with a 14.2-per-cent stake. He and six other Pershing Square nominees now serve on CP's new board. Pershing Square is touting its recovery plan to chop CP's annualised operating ratio to 65 per cent within four years of replacing Mr Green.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
LONDON's Drewry Maritime's Carrier Performance Insight team reports that service standards in the container shipping are as low as 40 per cent when weighed against key performance indicators.
For "on-time shipment of cargo", whether a container leaves port as scheduled had a success rate of 66-70 per cent, showing delays were common before loading.
"An average score of 70 per cent is far too low for a key service industry," said Drewry research chief Simon Heaney. "Carriers will have to aim higher."
The most reliable carriers, said the report were Maersk Line and sister company Safmarine followed by Hanjin.
Four in 10 shippers obtained a bill of lading within three days of submitting shipping instructions, said the report. Performances ranged between zero per cent and 93 per cent over the October 2011 to February 2012 survey period, reported London's International Freighting Weekly. Transit times noted were better, but 25 per cent of containers spent longer at sea than planned.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
CHINA Merchants Logistics is to build a distribution centre in eastern China's inland City of Hefei, which will be the state-run group's first project in Hefei, Xinhua reports.
The facility will cost CNY1.1 billion (US$174.1 million) and take up an area of 17.53 hectares. It will offer supply chain service for local manufacturers of home appliances, automobile, machines, pharmaceutical and other consumer products.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
SOUTHERN China's island province of Hainan has built an agricultural product trading and logistics centre in the northern city of Tianjin.
This is Hainan's first such facility outside the province, and is invested by the Hainan provincial government to secure steady sales volume of Hainan's farm products in northern China, Xinhua reports.
The facility cost CNY286 million (US$45.2 million) to build, occupying 15.14 hectares, comprising of three trading halls, one exhibition hall. It will offer cold chain logistics services such refrigerated transportation and storage for the perishables.
The facility will develop into a distribution hub for agricultural products from Hainan, northern and eastern China, and even those from Japan, Korea and Russia.
Hainan's agricultural product sales volume in the Bohai Rim region accounts for more than a quarter of provincial produce sales.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
GUANGZHOU is to widen the range of its existing logistics indexes to better reflect the development of the industry, Xinhua reports.
Guangzhou will add logistics industry added value, social logistics cost (the cost of all logistics operations), social logistics industry output and social logistics value to the existing cargo transportation volume and turnover volume. (Social logistics in a mainland term encompassing all logistics business from micro to macro.)
An Guangzhou Transportation Commission official pointed out that more detailed indexes can help government devise better policies for the future development of the logistics industry and can be a better indicator for the enterprises to refer to and adjust their strategy and allocate their resources.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
CARGOTEC has established Rainbow-Cargotec Industries Co Ltd (RCI) in a joint venture with Jiangsu Rainbow Heavy Industries north of Shanghai.
Cargotec's ownership in the joint venture is 49 per cent and its equity investment in the joint venture is EUR30 million (US$38.35 million).
The joint venture RCI will build a new facility to Taicang in China to increase Cargotec's delivery capacity, a company statement said. The foundation stone of the facility will be laid in June.
RCI is tasked with providing heavy crane solutions globally and seizing growth opportunities in the Chinese and global markets. The joint venture will focus on ship-to-shore cranes, rubber-tyre gantries (RTG), rail mounted gantry cranes and marine specialty cranes.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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