NORTH China's Ningxia recorded a 12.9 per cent growth in rail freight volume to 12.56 million tonnes in the first quarter, hitting a new high since last two years, reports Xinhua.
The cargo includes 9.7 million tonnes of coal, 726,000 tonnes of oil, 316,000 tonnes of steel, 40,000 tonnes of non-metal ore, 156,000 tonnes of grain, 485,000 tonnes of chemical fertiliser, 196,000 tonnes of chemical products and 433,000 tonnes of container cargo which was up 46.7 per cent.
The region's 40 key enterprises anticipating rail transport carried 11.81 million tonnes of cargo, growing 56.2 per cent year on year.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
SOUTHWEST China city Chongqing handled 5.46 million tonnes of outbound rail freight in the first three months of this year, an fractional increase of 0.55 per cent over the same period a year ago, Xinhua reports.
Outbound containerised cargo dropped 10.8 per cent to 191,000 tonnes. Coal increased 13.9 per cent to 2.69 million tonnes. Metallic ore dropped 27.7 per cent to 811,000 tonnes. Steel fell one per cent to 283,000 tonnes.
In the same period, inbound railway cargo volume grew 1.1 per cent to 9.89 million tonnes. Container cargo increased 11 per cent to 828,000 tonnes. Coal dropped 8.8 per cent to 2.86 million tonnes. Petroleum jumped 34.7 per cent up to 470,000 tonnes. Metallic ore plunged 25.8 per cent to 307,000 tonnes. Steel grew 11.6 per cent to 2.29 million tonnes. Grain increased 31.2 per cent to 653,000 tonnes.
In March, Chongqing loaded 1.98 million tonnes of cargo onto 33,599 outbound rail cars. The cargo volume was 11.5 per cent more than in February and 4.6 per cent more than in the same month in 2011.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
DESPITE a weak economy, the Port of Miami, already a powerful economic engine in South Florida, will spend US$2 billion to fund projects, including channel dredging, reports the UK's Port Strategy.
The projects are expected to be completed in late 2014. Port director Bill Johnson outlined the centrepiece of a three-pronged investment initiative, with funding coupled with financing from local, state and federal sources, is a tunnel that will link the port (on Dodge Island, in the middle of Biscayne Bay) with Route I-395, a branch of the US Interstate highway system. The result will be a smooth flow of truck traffic, no longer forced to use Biscayne Boulevard. Tunnel boring began in late 2011.
A dredging programme, estimated to cost $150 million, will deepen the channel into the port from the Atlantic, from its present 42 feet (13.7 metres) to 50 feet. The channel will also be widened and this will enable calls by postpanamax vessels of sizes up to 8,500 TEU.
The third part of the plan is a $50 million renewal of a rail link that would link the docks to the Florida East Coast Railway (which has a yard 12 miles west of the port, in Hialeah). This regional railway is a link to the big national "Class 1" railroads. "We intend to penetrate deep into the southeast," Mr Johnson said.
On the cargo front, the port's 2011 container flows registered in excess of 900,000 TEU ranking 11th in the US ports' league and first in Florida. The port's nine gantry cranes (two of which are able to work post-panamax ships) are being converted to electric power, from diesel. Four additional cranes, also able to work the new generation of vessels, have been ordered from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, following approval in mid-January by the Miami-Dade County Commission.
The trade mix, which now shows a surplus of exports (mainly to Latin America), is expected to shift in the coming decades, with imports playing a more important role. The port's Master Plan 2035 looks to an annual throughput of 1.5 million TEU in 2020, assuming that Miami's streamlined rail and road linkages enable it to push into the southeastern United States.
By 2035, the midpoint forecasts exceed 2.5 million TEU, assuming additional penetration beyond the present hinterland, mainly in Florida. The game changer would be an increase in the import business as additional Asian goods are delivered to the US east coast by all water route via the Panama Canal.
Consultant Martin Associates, in a report presented to Miami's planners, said: "Two million TEU is the identified potential of Asian cargo moving into Florida from other ports."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
DP WORLD's London Gateway has appointed Jones Lang LaSalle as sole property agent for the coming largest logistics park development in Europe that will be connected to a 3.5 million TEU annual capacity terminal at Thurrock, Essex, on the north bank of the Thames.
Jones Lang LaSalle will provide specialist advice in the property sector to support the delivery of the London Gateway logistics park, which is located east of London on the north bank of the Thames, a statement from DP World said.
"London Gateway has the potential to transform logistics operations in the UK by offering a port-centric logistics solution at the heart of the UK's largest consumer market," said Tim Johnson, Jones Lang LaSalle's director of national industrial and logistics.
"The logistics park is a unique proposition offering the potential to provide some of the largest and tallest buildings in Europe. There are 15 million consumers located within 80 kilometres of the site and this underpins our view that London Gateway is simply the best location for UK supply chain solutions," he said.
The project has planning consent for a 9.25-million square foot, rail connected logistics park, adjacent to the new deep-water port, which is on schedule to open in the first quarter of 2013, reported Trade Arabia News Service. Most deep-sea imports enter the UK through south eastern ports yet only 10 per cent of warehousing is in the south east.
London Gateway offers significant supply chain savings for global businesses through reduced transport costs created by having warehousing at the port of entry, closer to key UK consumer markets.
Analysts estimate that 65 million road freight miles every year will be saved, as many goods will no longer need to be transported from deepsea ports to inland distribution centres.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Research Council of Norway (RCN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to renew their existing agreement on maritime research and development, education and training for another three years.
This marks the fifth MPA-RCN MoU signed to this effect.
"There is growing collaboration between Singapore and Norway in maritime research and development and this has benefited both countries. Building on the success of past projects under the MoU, we look forward to setting up further maritime research and development programmes with Norwegian institutions in the years to come," said MPA chief executive Lam Yi Young.
Said RCN director general Arvid Hallen: "An increasing number of Norwegian maritime companies have established their presence with headquarters for operation and strategic coordination in Singapore in the last few years. Norwegian R&D institutes and universities see Singapore as a strong collaboration knowledge hub for the future development into the Asian market."
Since 2000, MPA and RCN have cooperated in research in areas such as maritime environment, sustainable energy technology, offshore and marine engineering, and maritime operations and info-communications technology.
One of these research programmes is the collaboration between MPA and Det Norske Veritas' Clean Technology Centre (DNV CTC) on R&D in maritime environment and clean technologies. Through this programme, DNV CTC has embarked on joint industry projects to study the potential of the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in South East Asia as well as a feasibility assessment on LNG bunkering.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
BRAZIL's third largest container terminal, Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua (TCP), has opted for APS Technology Group's optical character recognition (OCR) and automation technology solutions at its facility.
APS Technology said this is the first on-dock rail OCR solution to be installed in South America and TCP is implementing the APS Automated Gate System optical character recognition (OCR) solution that will automate box identification at the gate and rail entry and exit points with the collection of high-resolution images.
Brazilian ports aim to expand capacity. Terminal capacity increased 50 per cent this year to 1.2 million TEU. Terminal productivity increased from 30 moves per hour in 2010 to 56 moves per hour last month. The APS solutions will further help TCP handle larger gate volumes and streamline the current rail discharge process.
Currently, the rail process is cumbersome and time-consuming - trains come in three times a day, a reach stacker picks the container off the train and puts it on a truck. The truck drives to the main gate for weighing and then is taken to be stored in the stacks. The APS OCR container identification solution will work in tandem with a new weight-capture system with in-ground weight sensors under the track. The weight and identification will be captured while the train is in motion, eliminating multiple steps from the process, thus boosting efficiency.
"When the private equity fund Advent International acquired 50 per cent of TCP last year, we launched several initiatives to increase productivity," said Luiz Antonio Alves, TCP's CFO.
"The Brazil container shipping market has been growing every year for over a decade and is expected to continue to grow," said Allen Thomas, APS chief operations officer. "Implementing automation and technology to improve efficiency will give terminals a competitive edge. We're glad to be a part of this important project installing the first on-dock rail OCR in South America."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
A FIVE-week old orphaned sea otter from Alaska has been flown to a zoo in Pittsburg by FedEx on an MD-11 aircraft, according to Atlanta-area Air Cargo World.
The sea otter was transported from the carrier's Anchorage hub to Pittsburgh, via Memphis and the shipment required the coordination of Pittsburgh Zoo personnel and FedEx Ground transportation staff.
According to a FedEx statement, the pup was discovered next to his deceased mother on a Port Heiden, Alaska, beach in March. Before the Pittsburgh Zoo could provide him with a permanent home, residents of Port Heiden and the Alaska SeaLife Centre (ASLC) watched him round the clock.
"Once the ASLC and the Pittsburgh Zoo staff agreed to transport the little otter to Pittsburgh, FedEx was asked to help," said Pittsburgh Zoo CEO Barbara Baker. "We are so very grateful that we were able to utilise our relationship with Pittsburgh-based FedEx Ground to secure the support of FedEx Express and their utmost attention to detail when transporting our precious cargo."
The sea otter also travelled with an entourage, according to the statement. An ASLC veterinarian and members of Pittsburgh Zoo marine mammal staff accompanied the otter during transit to ensure he was well monitored and was in a controlled environment. The otter was also contained in a specially built transportation unit to guarantee that he remained comfortable during the entire flight.
Bruce Clemmons, manager of the FedEx live animal desk, said this shipment speaks to the integrator's proficiency in shipping live animals. "We're proud to have put our years of experience and delivery resources to work ensuring a safe and secure arrival for this tough young pup," he added.
This special shipment comes only three months after FedEx hauled two giant 3-year-old pandas from Chengdu to Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport on a specially chartered Boeing 777-F aircraft. The integrator also has experience transporting sea creators, having safely carried more than 25,000 endangered sea turtle eggs from the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern coast of Florida in 2010.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
RUSLAN International, the Russian heavy air cargo charter specialist, is to launch a series of cargo flights using its giant An-124-100 freighter aircraft to Uganda on behalf of a United Nations Mission in Sudan.
Japanese peacekeeping troops will access power generators, non-combat vehicles, communication equipment and other supplies by using smaller aircraft and trucks into southern Sudan.
Ruslan, which markets and manages the combined Antonov An-124 fleets of its shareholders Volga Dnepr and Antonov Airlines' said the series of 15 cargo flights were able to successfully complete the large-scale mission without a hitch, reported Roswell, Georgia's Air Cargo World.
"The An-124 once again came into its own because of the variety and bulk of many of the items being moved," said its business development manager Michael Goodisman.
Washington, DC-based AERObridge, which coordinates emergency aviation response during disasters through experienced aviation specialists, will also act in support of the movement of supplies to eastern and western Africa in the coming few months.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE International Air Transport Association's (IATA) 2012 Operations Committee (OPC) has agreed to four priorities, including pilot and engineering training.
IATA said in a statement that accommodating the growth in demand for air connectivity with trained pilots and engineers is a priority. It will facilitate this with the IATA Training and Qualification Initiative (ITQI), which moves into its implementation stage.
The focus will be on working with the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) and regulators to shift to a competency-based approach to training for pilots and engineers.
"Safety remains the top priority. We have a full agenda to make an already safe industry even safer. Industry and governments have always cooperated to achieve our common goals based on global standards and harmonisation. The need to take those even further in the areas of training, ground safety, and auditing will be our priority over the coming year," said Guenther Matschnigg, IATA's senior vice president for safety, operations and infrastructure.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
The state airline "Tajik air" starts to perform regular flights Khujand-Kulob-Kurgan-Tube-Khujand, which will connect the north and south of the Republic, on Tuesday, reported the press service of the company.
"The flights will be operated once a week, on Tuesdays, on a plane MA-60," said a statement.
The cost of a ticket from Khujand to the two southern cities (Kulob and Kurgan-Tube) is the same - $ 60.
The share of "Tajik air" in a total volume of air traffic in 2011 amounted to 29.6%. 470 thousand 600 people, which is 5.3% lower than in 2010, used the services of the company.
Performance of "Tajik air", which is 100% state-owned, was falling due to lack of service, cancellation of scheduled flights and delayed flights. As a result, passengers began to trust less, and even a statement on the acquisition of new aircraft does not help the company.
Central Asian News Service, en.ca-news.org
2012-05-02
May 1, 2012 (Seattle, WA) — The Mexico Baja California pole and line yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) and skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) tuna fishery has been awarded MSC certification. The fishery, which operates in the Mexican Exclusive Economic Zone off the west coast of Baja California, was certified following independent assessment to the MSC standard for sustainable, well-managed fisheries. Products from the fishery will now be eligible to bear the blue MSC ecolabel. This is the first MSC certified yellowfin tuna fishery in the world.
About the fishery
The client for this fishery is Productos Pesqueros de Matancitas S.A. de C.V. (PPM). The certificate covers two vessels (Molly N and Westerly) currently owned by PPM, with the possibility of extension to other pole and line vessels licensed to fish yellowfin and skipjack tuna in the area. The fishery is managed by the Secretariat of Agriculture, Ranching, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) under the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) of the government of Mexico and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).
The fishery operates year round with most fishing taking place between late April and late December. Landings by the two client vessels have fluctuated over the years and in 2009 were 379 metric tonnes. The catch of yellowfin and skipjack tuna is canned at the client’s processing facility in Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, also known as Matancitas, and currently marketed in Mexico.
What the fishery says
Salvador Montes, director of Productos Pesqueros de Matancitas, said: “We hope to take full advantage of the benefits resulting from this certification, which will allow us to enter into selected markets that demand products originating from sustainable sources and fishing practices. Through the client action plan certain improvement actions were specified and we are committed to following through on these. We hope to prove that it is possible to conduct business within a framework that respects the environment and its natural resources while allowing for rational and equitable utilization, so that these resources will endure for future generations.”
What CONAPESCA says
"With great joy, I am pleased to announce that now, due to the rewarding of the MSC certification, the Mexico Baja California pole and line yellowfin and skipjack tuna fishery meets the highest international standards. The importance that the MSC certification has in the market will give consumers the confidence that these species have been caught through the optimum sustainable management for the fishery," said Ramón Corral Ávila, National Commissioner for Aquaculture and Fisheries in Mexico.
What MSC says
“The Mexico Baja California pole and line yellowfin and skipjack tuna fishery is the third Mexican fishery to become MSC certified and I congratulate the fishery on this accomplishment,” said Kerry Coughlin, regional director for MSC Americas. “The commitment of this and other fisheries in Mexico to environmental sustainability is important. This newly certified tuna fishery will no doubt be rewarded for its efforts given the high demand in world markets today for tuna that has met the MSC standard.”
About the certifier
Intertek Moody Marine, an independently accredited certifier, was the certifier for this assessment. During the assessment, the three principles of the MSC standard were evaluated in detail: the status of the fish stock, the impact of the fishery on the marine ecosystem and the management system overseeing the fishery. More information about the Mexico Baja California pole and line yellowfin and skipjack tuna fishery and the complete Public Certification Report detailing the fishery’s passing scores against the MSC standard can be found on MSC’s web site at www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/certified.
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Guidelines for the Eco-labeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and ecolabeling schemes include:
· Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
· Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
· Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Glasgow, Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Madrid and Stockholm.
In total, over 270 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 154 certified and 122 under full assessment. Another 40 to 50 fisheries are in confidential pre-assessment. Together, fisheries already certified or in full assessment record annual catches of close to nine million metric tonnes of seafood. This represents over 10 percent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over six million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to seven percent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 14,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
Source MSC
Saudi Arabia and Iraq are emerging as major new markets for Jordan’s Red Sea port, which saw overall volume growth of 16.5% and transit cargo growth of 63% in 2011.
Aqaba, Jordan- A delegation from the Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT) in conjunction with the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC), representing Jordan’s Port of Aqaba, the second-largest container port on the Red Sea, is actively seeking to build ties with the Iraqi business community in order to promote Aqaba as the preferred gateway for goods on their way to Jordan’s eastern neighbor.
“Our port facility in Aqaba is the smartest, safest way to get goods in and out of Iraq” stated ACT’s Vice President of Operations Amin Kawar.
While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast a 4.2% economic growth rate for the Middle East and North Africa in 2012 overall, the Iraqi economy has been projected to expand by 11.1% this year and by 13.5% in 2013 with a commensurately increasing need for access to cargo transportation services and infrastructure.
At a Mideast trade conference, ACT’s Chief Executive Officer Soren Hansen also emphasized the advantages provided to shippers by Aqaba, describing Jordan’s only port as “an efficient, cost-effective option for businesses moving cargo throughout the Levant”. The Kingdom of Jordan, bordered by Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, has 26 km (16 miles) of coastline at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba. Slightly smaller than Portugal in area, Jordan has a population of 6.5 million, and a 2011 GDP of $28.4 billion USD. ACT’s container volume surged by 16.2% in 2011 to 705,000 TEUs.
“Our growth at ACT is heavily driven by the trade to and from neighboring counties, including Iraq” said Hansen.
In 2011, transit cargo handled at ACT increased by 63% to over 100,000 TEUs as a $235 million USD major terminal expansion project nears completion. Improvements include a 14.5 meter depth alongside, and a 460 meter doubling of the quay, which will increase annual container throughout capacity to a projected 2 million TEUs when fully completed and equipped next year. A 550 km (340 mile) rail link from Aqaba to the Iraqi border town of Traibil, which would provide connections to the planned domestic Iraqi rail network, was approved by the Jordanian government in August 2011.
“We are seeing more and more businesses in Iraq and Saudi Arabia now viewing Aqaba as a long-term, sustainable element in their supply chain”, noted Hansen.
ACT is a joint venture between the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) and APM Terminals, operating under a 25-year build-operate-transfer agreement signed in 2006.
Source APM Terminals
2012-05-02
BP today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2012. Underlying replacement cost profit, adjusted for non-operating items and fair value accounting effects, was $4.8 billion for the quarter, compared to $5.0 billion in the previous quarter.
The quarter result was impacted adversely by a $541 million consolidation adjustment in respect of unrealised profits in inventory held within the downstream business (see notes).
The company also said that it is making good progress towards the operational milestones that it expects to meet in 2012 advancing the development of major new projects, continuing to gain promising new exploration access, and continuing its $38 billion divestment programme.
Group chief executive Bob Dudley said: We have made a good start against our strategic priorities for 2012. During the quarter we gained access to significant new deepwater and US shale exploration acreage, our ongoing divestment programme has reached $23 billion, and we have five deepwater rigs at work in the Gulf of Mexico. This operational progress will underpin the financial momentum we expect to come through as we move into 2013 and 2014.
Operating cash flow for the quarter was $3.4 billion, compared to $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2011. The net cash outflow relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was $1.2 billion for the quarter compared to $2.8 billion a year earlier. The quarter cash flow was adversely affected by an increase of around $3 billion in net working capital as inventory levels and prices increased. At the end of the quarter, gearing was 20.7 per cent and BP held just over $14 billion in cash. The company today announced a dividend of 8c per share for the first quarter of 2012.
Underlying replacement cost profit in the upstream improved compared to the previous quarter, due to the better environment, a higher contribution from gas marketing and trading and lower costs.
BP reported oil and gas production, excluding TNK-BP, in the first quarter of 2.45 million barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d). Reported production in the second quarter is expected to be lower, affected by the normal seasonal increase in turnaround activity. TNK-BP production was 1.02 million boe/d net to BP and in the quarter BP received a cash dividend from TNK-BP of $690 million.
Despite a challenging external environment, all three downstream businesses ā€“ fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals delivered higher underlying replacement cost profits than in the previous quarter.
Strategic progress
BP continues to make progress against its strategic 10-point plan to grow value for shareholders over the next three years
It has now announced divestments totalling approximately $23 billion since the beginning of 2010. BP completed the $1.2 billion sale of gas assets in Kansas in March, the $1.7 billion sale of its Canadian natural gas liquids business in April and agreed in March to sell its Southern North Sea gas assets to Perenco for $400 million. It continues to make progress with the divestments of two of its US refineries and associated marketing assets.
BP today also announced that, as it continues to focus its businesses worldwide around major assets and future growth opportunities, it is marketing for sale its interests in certain non-strategic assets in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Marlin, Horn Mountain, Holstein, Ram Powell and Diana Hoover fields.
Reflecting its increased focus on exploration, BP has added significantly to its interests in promising South Atlantic equatorial margin plays during the quarter, farming-in to four exploration concessions with Petrobras in Brazil, deepening its interests offshore Namibia, and being awarded three new blocks offshore Uruguay. BP also gained access to the promising potentially liquids-rich Utica shale formations in Ohio.
BP remains on track to start up six new major upstream projects in 2012 with Clochas-Mavacola in Angola and Galapagos in the Gulf of Mexico expected to start in the second quarter. BP continues to progress plans for the Mad Dog Phase II project in the Gulf of Mexico; the final investment decision for the project is expected in 2013. Five deepwater rigs are operational on BP-operated fields in the Gulf of Mexico; two undertaking appraisal, two undertaking production activity and one plugging and abandoning a well. BP expects to have eight rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico before the end of the year.
In the downstream, construction of the Whiting refinery project is over 60 per cent complete and remains on track for start-up in the second half of 2013.
US progress
During the quarter, BP made payments of $1.5 billion to the $20 billion Trust, including $250 million following settlement with Cameron. At the end of the quarter, BP had made payments into the Trust totalling $16.6 billion and expects its payments to end in the fourth quarter of this year, a year earlier than initially anticipated.
At the end of the first quarter, BP had paid a total of $8.3 billion in individual, business and government entity claims, advances and other payments. On 18 April, BP announced it had, subject to court approval, reached definitive and fully-documented agreements with the Plaintiffs Steering Committee to resolve the substantial majority of eligible private economic loss and medical claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill.
The cost of the proposed settlement is expected to be around $7.8 billion, to be paid from the Trust. While BP has sought to reliably estimate the cost of the settlement agreements, it is possible that the actual cost could be higher or lower than this estimate, depending on the outcomes of the court-supervised processes. The estimated cost of the settlement is not expected to result in any increase to the total charge taken in respect of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which remains at $37.2 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Source BP p.l.c.
The Shanghai Railway Bureau and China Eastern Airlines have launched an “air-railway traffic” joint ticket. According to the partners, the price of a combined ticket will be lower than the total price of the railway and air tickets.
china-eastern-airlinesCompanies signed an agreement on 12 April 2012 to provide intermodal travel offer among four cities – Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Ningbo, and two airports - Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport. In the second stage of the partnership there are plans to introduce intermodal travel on high speed railways and China Eastern Airlines' flights in Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces and Shanghai.
Passengers can purchase the combined ticket via airline’s hotline or via global ticket selling network. Passengers can also book their air-rail ticket at the Suzhou Railway Station, Wuxi Railway Station, Changzhou Railway Station, Ningbo East Railway Station and Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, as well as Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports.
Air Rail News Ltd
DANISH shipping giant Maersk Line has announced a series of general rate increases (GRI) on a number of trade lanes from May as a means to restore profitability.
From May 1, the world's largest carrier said it will increase the rates of its southeast Asia-Australia service by US$500 per TEU and $1,000 per FEU.
Starting May 15, Maersk will impose GRIs on the following trade lanes. Rates for service from the Far East to India and Pakistan will increase by $150 per TEU and $300 per FEU and 45-foot high cube box.
Also effective May 15, rates for services from the US to Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), the Middle East and Red Sea region will increase $100 per all types of containers.
On the same date, rates for dry cargo shipments from Far East to central America and the Caribbean will increase by $560 per TEU and $800 per FEU and high cube container.
Effective May 16, rates for dry cargo shipment from Far East to east Africa will raise $200 per TEU.
Also, with effect from May 17, rates for cargo from the US to Sri Lanka will increase by $100 per all types of container.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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