TAIWAN' s Evergreen Line is preparing to add an additional Far East-North Europe service through container slots purchased on the CKYH Asia-North Europe Loop 6 (NE 6) from the end of March, signalling the start of a broad Evergreen-CKYH alliance on the Asia-Europe.
The arrangement, announced in December, is expected to be extended to all of the Evergreen and CKYH strings, comprising Cosco, "K" Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping, on the route involving eight weekly Asia-North Europe loops and four weekly Asia-Mediterranean loops, to be implemented over April and May, reports Alphaliner.
It said a total of seven shipping lines will participate in the Asia-Europe loops, as part of a wider pact involving the four CKYH carriers with Evergreen, CSCL and UASC through various individual slot exchange arrangements with the latter three carriers.
The first Evergreen sailing on the NE 6 is scheduled to depart from Xingang on March 23 with the Hanjin Greece coinciding with the launch of a revised port rotation calling at Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Algeciras (HT), Singapore, Hong Kong, Xingang, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Shenzhen-Yantian, Singapore, Algeciras (HT) and back to Hamburg.
The NE 6 will deploy 11 ships in the 10,000 to 13,000-TEU range under the revised rotation, compared with 10 ships of 8,200 to 10,000 TEU now deployed.
The average weekly capacity will increase 16 per cent from 9,350 TEU to 10,850 TEU by April. This service is also used by slot takers UASC (branding it AEC 9) and CSCL (branding it AEX 5). NYK, which currently takes slots on the NE 6, is expected to terminate the slot arrangement from April as it refocuses on its own participation on the rival G6 Alliance.
A wider revamp of the CKYH Asia-Europe services is expected to be announced within the next few weeks, with capacity upgrades expected, the report added.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE latest report issued by Shanghai International Shipping Institute said that the world economic recovery is facing challenge brought by Euro-debt crisis. The world's port throughput growth this year is estimated to slow down to seven per cent.
But Asian ports will grow faster than those in the rest in the world with an increase at nine to 10 per cent. Shanghai and Ningbo are expected to have a steady growth at about 10 per cent.
The report points out that the emerging markets will account for an increasing percentage in the world trade. The gap of throughput growth between developed countries and developing countries will continue to widen this year. Rotterdam and Antwerp's growth is expected to be about five per cent.
In the meantime, growth gap between container and other kinds of cargo will narrow. Increase of containerised cargo will be about five per cent in the world and six per cent in Asia.
Last year, the world's throughput had an increase of 7.3 per cent, substantially down from 2010's 14 per cent. Chinese ports had brilliant results by taking up seven positions in the list of the world's top 10. Shanghai continues to stay as No 1 with a throughput of 720 million tonnes, up 10.3 per cent year on year. Ningbo-Zhoushan ranks second, Guangzhou is the fourth, followed by Tianjin. Singapore ranks at the third.
Boosted by fast-growing trade in emerging markets, the world's container shipping volume managed to maintain a rapid increase of 9.4 per cent last year. Far Eastern ports throughput kept a healthy increase while those in crisis-troubled western Europe were slowing down.
As for container throughput, Chinese port accounted for six in the world's top 10. Shanghai stays at the No 1 for the second consecutive year with 31.7 million TEU. Singapore ranked at the second with 29.9 million TEU. Hong Kong is the third with 24.2 million TEU. Shenzhen, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Qingdao are the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
KOREA's Port of Busan may still be the fifth busiest container port in the world, but it beat all in growth of 2011 at 14 per cent, Shanghai's 9.2 per cent, Singapore's five per cent, Hong Kong's three per cent and Shenzhen's near zero growth.
Last year, Busan lifted a record 16.2 million TEU; next year the port expects to handle 17.5 million TEU by continuing to expand its role in global and regional transshipments, reports UK's Port Strategy.
"Busan's regional location is desirable in that it is sandwiched directly between China, the world's largest manufacturing base, and Japan," said Ho Chul Park, Busan Port Authority's marketing director.
"Its comparable low costs combined with this locality means Busan is the convenient and favourable choice for many Japanese shippers," he said, adding that success depends on location, connectivity and stability.
Busan is attracting more transhipments because it is has been proven to be more reliable, he said.
"Unlike many larger ports in other countries, Busan is very rarely affected by adverse weather conditions or fog. A port closed due to bad weather means extremely high excess fees for the shipper forced to wait until the port is re-opened, as well as disruption to global shipping schedules and routes," Mr Park said.
He expects Busan's three-pronged strategy will see its transhipment traffic as a proportion of total throughput rise from 45 to 60 per cent by 2020, a target that is being backed up by an extensive marketing campaign aimed at shippers.
Mr Park attributed the 17 per cent year on year volume increase for Far East destined cargo to the port's outreach to shippers as well as rising trade between Asian countries.
Cargo destined for Far East Asia constitutes some 32 per cent of container volume last year, while North American demand was responsible for 16 per cent, followed by Japan with 15 per cent, representing only a one per cent decline owing to earthquake and tsunami a year ago which devastated Japanese output.
Breaking down trade barriers also helped. A Free Trade Agreement was agreed with the EU in 2007 and with the US last year and liberalising trade talks could be finalised this year.
Four new berths at Busan North Port have been built bringing the total to 42. Original plans to build 30 berths at Busan New Port - 22 of which are already open - have been increased to 45 to be built in Busan New Port over the next six years. New rail connections and a huge new distribution park are also being built, while Busan North Port is being redeveloped.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
GLOBAL Swiss forwarder Kuehne + Nagel posted a 0.16 per cent increase in profit to CHF606 million (US$665 million) drawn on revenues of CHF19.6 billion, a decline of 3.5 per cent year on year.
"Considering the market and currency turbulence, the diverging economic developments and the devastating natural disasters, which influenced the business environment in 2011, we achieved very satisfactory annual results," said K + N chairman Karl Gernandt.
The second half slow down for the company was attributed to cautious consumer and investment behaviour in the US and Europe, the interruption of supply chains following the disasters in Japan and the significant rise in commodity prices affecting logistics.
During the year, Kuehne + Nagel handled a record number of containers at more than three million TEU, a volume increase of 11 per cent which saw it grow twice as fast as the global container market.
The company experienced double-digit growth rates in Asian and non-European trades and even transpacific lanes volumes were up by more than 15 per cent despite market a contraction.
In air freight, tonnage increased of 13 per cent, exceeding expectations due to acquisitions in the perishables logistics sector, and greater sales of industry-specific air freight solutions. Particularly high growth rates were met in the export business from North America and on the routes from Europe to North America and Asia.
Expansion of groupage, full and part loads and industry-specific distribution led to an 18.8 per cent increase of net invoiced turnover in local currencies, said the company statement.
Groupage activities were boosted by the acquisition of British RH Freight Group in 2011, resulting in an above-market volume growth of 10 per cent. The takeover of the German Drude Logistik, Bad Hersfeld, was of high strategic importance and will ensure productivity improvements in the European groupage network.
By region, the Asia-Pacific recorded a gross profit increase of 8.5 per cent, and Middle East, Central Asia and Africa scored a 3.5 per cent improvement. In the Americas, gross profit improved by 2.2 per cent while in Europe, negative currency effects of 11.9 per cent resulted in a gross profit decrease of 2.9 per cent.
The company said it made "good progress" in expanding contract logistics activities in Asia and South America, while in North America it "achieved a significantly improved result through restructuring measures, the closure of unprofitable sites and newly gained business."
Said CEO Reinhard Lange: "We are confident to reach our targets in the current business year again with profitable growth above-market average in all business units. We are facing up to the uncertain economic development by consistent cost management, process optimisation and increased productivity."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
AGGREGATE capacity of ports along the Xijiang River, which runs through southeast China's Guangxi Autonomous Region and connects the Pearl River mainstream in Guangdong province, will exceed 100 million tonnes this year, Xinhua reports.
By 2020, major navigational channels of the Xijiang River will be upgraded to 1,000 tonnes or over.
Guangxi has started more than 100 projects costing CNY72 billion (US$11.41 billion) and will attract more investors to invests on terminals and logistics parks along the river.
Xijiang river covers a distances of 1,480 kilometres and runs through eight cities in Guangxi. Last year, there were 431 terminals along the river with an aggregate capacity of 70 million tonnes. These ports handled more than 80 million tonnes of cargo.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
OWING a misinterpretation of an Alphaliner report on Monday, we wrongly reported that even larger ships were being assigned to Asia Europe by MSC to replace megaships being re-assigned to the transpacific route.
While Alphaliner stated larger ships such as the 12,560-TEU MSC Fabiola, delivered in 2010, had been cascaded from the Asia-Europe route to the transpacific, it did not say even larger ships would replace them. We apologise for the error.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
PLANS for a new GBP300 million (US$475.82 million) container terminal at the Port of Liverpool have been announced by Peel Ports, saying it will create 5,000 jobs and bring the world's largest container ships to Merseyside.
Called Liverpool 2, the Seaforth terminal is due to open in 2015 and will accommodate two large vessels at a time, reports BBC News. Peel Ports said the terminal, which is part of a 20-year plan to transform the Port of Liverpool, would be more efficient and better for the environment as it would take large amounts of freight off UK road and rail networks.
Said Peel Ports managing director Gary Hodgson: "What we'll have ultimately from jobs, not just working at the terminal but all the associated jobs around warehousing and haulage. The container terminal we are building is the catalyst for real change in logistics and distribution and a lot of the jobs will be in that sector."
The project is dependent on a GBP35 million government grant to dredge the River Mersey to accommodate the larger ships.
"We've taken advice during the process of applying for our grant funding and we're confident the grant funding will be rubber stamped and that we will get the money," he said.
The group is also behind plans for the GBP5.5 billion Liverpool Waters scheme which is due to be considered by Liverpool City Council early this month. The group is also involved in the GBP4.5 billion approved Wirral Waters scheme and both projects will see the former dockland transformed into office and recreational space.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
CONTAINER volumes handled between Hamburg and Poland recovered last year with feeder container traffic increasing 33.3 per cent to 238,000 TEU.
Trade between Hamburg and eastern Europe increased 38.7 per cent year on year to 1.07 million TEU.
Altogether five feeder services started in 2011 between Hamburg and the Baltic ports. The Polish ports of Gdansk, Gdynia, Swinoujscie and Szczecin are served from Hamburg by 11 feeder services offering 20 sailings a week.
Hamburg, with its rail connections and autobahn network, also acts as a hub for cargo originating in the eastern European hinterland. Estimates by Port of Hamburg Marketing show that road and rail freight volume between Hamburg and Poland amounted to 240,000 TEU.
Claudia Roller, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, will be at the Intermodal Conference held as part of Transport Week in Gdansk from March 6 - 8 to deliver a presentation on the topic: "The European market seen from the North Sea hub port Hamburg."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Port of Houston, on the Gulf of Mexico, which already enjoys direct access to the burgeoning Latin America market, is also becoming an increasingly attractive option for shipping lines operating on the Asia-US east coast all-water route.
Speaking recently to the Hong Kong Shipping Gazette, Port of Houston Authority vice president of origination, Ricky Kunz explained that a number of shipping lines running services to the US from Asia were in discussions with the port to commence direct calls to Houston in the coming year.
"We are hopefully going to be ready to announce major changes soon. While we cannot give any specific details, I can say that we are talking to several carriers, and some of them are now ready to make the move," Mr Kunz said.
At present Asian cargo represents Houston's fastest growth market, and with the current expansion of the Panama Canal expected to be completed by 2014, the origination vice president believes the port will be in an advantageous position to pick up more cargo from the region going forward.
The expansion of the canal will also enable larger vessels to call at Houston, which will not only be attractive for shipping lines hoping to achieve an economies of scale, but also will garner cost savings for shippers as well.
Houston presents shippers with more than just flow-on benefits from the shipping lines. The port's proximity to a large portion of the US population is also making it an attractive option for retailers looking to establish distribution centres in the region to serve not only the state of Texas, but the wider US Midwest as well, of which there is a population of roughly 100 million people - a third of the US population.
"Major retailers are already setting up distribution centres in Houston to take advantage of the dense population in the region, as well as supplying to Middle America," Mr Kunz said.
Houston is also supported by an "excellent system" of interstate highways connecting the port to inland markets and extending to the population-rich US Midwest, the vice president said. Key rail operators, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP) are also serving the city with 94 trains a week to destination across the United States, including cities as far north as Chicago.
The State of Texas also provides the port with a sizeable population base, which includes the cities of Houston, Dallas, Forth Worth, Austin and San Antonio. The city of Houston itself is America's fourth largest city with a population of six million, a number expected to double between 2035 and 2040.
In recent years the Port of Houston has fared comparatively well, in contrast to some of the east and west coasts ports that have recorded double-digit contractions during the worst years of 2009 and 2011.
Mr Kunz attributes Houston's solid performance to a combination of a steady local economy and growing business from the emerging markets.
"The state of Texas has enjoyed a robust economy. We were the last one into the recession and the first one out. Last year, we had more growth than expected. One factor was the growth in Indian, Middle Eastern and South American trade," he said.
As an ongoing initiative to improve the port's facilities to meet market demand, the newest Bayport Container Terminal which opened in February 2007 has installed the latest cranes that can handle the larger post-panamax ships. The entire project will be completed in 2020 and the terminal will be able to handle 2.5 to three million TEU a year. A process is also underway to revamp the Barbours Cut Terminal to cater bigger ships and to increase its capacity to two million TEU. Total capacity will double to five million TEU, he said.
In 2005, the Port of Houston completed a five-and-a half year plan to deepen the channel from 40 to 45 feet and to widen it from 400 to 530 feet. The port can now accommodate vessels up to 8,500 TEU.
The Port of Houston has launched a "Gulf Coast Advantage" programme which is aimed at offering shipping lines operating on the Asia route a full shipload to the Gulf, while enabling them to leave with a full load and not having to venture further up to the east coast.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THAILAND's Regional Container Lines (RCL) posted net loss of THB780 million (US$25.8 million) for 2011 following a THB465 million profit in 2010.
The Thai-listed company attributed poor performance in 2011 to over-capacity and rising fuel costs in a "weak shipping environment and stiff competition", particularly in the fourth quarter, when it posted a THB392 million net loss.
RCL also suffered a throughput decline of seven per cent last year to 2.3 million TEU. RCL operates thirty-eight 500- to 2,700-TEU ships.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Kuehne + Nagel group will begin deploying newly developed active wireless sensors that are designed to record and transmit the temperature of pharmaceutical airfreight shipments along the entire supply chain.
The use of active wireless sensors is mainly intended for pharmaceutical products. Generally, security rules prohibit the active use of mobile sensors during the air transport. However, together with a number of airline partners, the Swiss logistics group thoroughly tested low-emission devices which stay active during the flight to constantly measure and report the temperature, practically, in real-time.
To guarantee temperature visibility from pick-up to delivery, warehouses and logistics facilities both belonging to the company and its airline partners will be equipped with transmitting technology. The same applies to pre-and-on-carriage vehicles. These temperature measurements will be accessible to shippers when they login to the company website.
"By introducing this service we are setting new, quite revolutionary standards in the cold chain air freight market and we will extend the offering step by step to other industry groups," said Tim Scharwath, executive vice president, group air logistics.The opening of the Cork facility creates five positions adding to its 45-strong staff at Dublin and Shannon airports.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
ZURICH-based Swissport International is offering cargo handling services at Japan's Kansai International Airport, in cooperation with Finnair Cargo, since the beginning of the month.
The company said it has been operating passenger ground-handling and ramp services at Kansai International, near Osaka, for several years, and the addition of a cargo handling service completes its portfolio at this key airport.
The handling warehouse in Kansai has ramp access and is capable of handling all kinds of products, including bonded cargo, valuables, temperature-sensitive and dangerous goods, with ample space for growth in both its office and handling areas.
Rudolf Steiner, senior vice president cargo Middle East and Asia, said: "We are very pleased to have been chosen by Finnair as cargo handling partner for Japan and to provide cargo handling services at both Narita and Kansai airports on its behalf. Swissport began cargo handling services at Narita late last year, and the partnership with Finnair has enabled us to extend our services at Kansai to include cargo handling there, which fits perfectly with our expansion plans for Japan."
Jussi Mattila, director quality and security at Finnair Cargo, added, "We are continuously looking for innovative solutions with our handlers, and we are convinced that we have made a good decision in appointing Swissport."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
AIRPORT of Beihai, a city in southwest China's Guangxi Autonomous Region, registered a sharp year-on-year increase of 56.6 per cent in its cargo throughput to 291.9 tonnes in February.
In the same month, the airport also recorded a passenger volume of 54,331 persons, up one per cent, and an aircraft movement of 758 flights, up 51 per cent, Xinhua reports.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
New Ku-Band PLL LNB Module Enables One LNB to be Used in All Regions Across All Satellite Frequencies
Intellian has made a significant advance in technology for Ku-band VSAT antennas, allowing operators to be prepared for any changes in the future operational regions of their vessels or changes in service providers. The introduction of the ground-breaking and patent-pending Intellian Global PLL LNB, presents the world’s first Ku-band LNB module capable of receiving a full range of operating frequencies from any VSAT satellite around the globe. This means that operators will no longer need to change the LNB in the antenna.
The new Intellian Global PLL LNB is a dedicated solution designed for global operation. Users can define the required LO (Local Oscillator) frequency or select from a pre-programmed LO library in the Intellian antenna control unit. The PLL LNB incorporates user programmable support of an unlimited number of LO frequencies and is capable of substituting any type of LNB products on the market. The set up procedure can even be handled from a remote IP access at any time and any location. The Global PLL LNB is also compliant with OpenAMIP, providing for seamless control from the iDirect Hub infrastructure.
Designed and manufactured by Intellian engineers specifically for marine VSAT, the Global PLL LNB is fine tuned for the Intellian VSAT product line to enhance overall system performance. With the highest frequency stability of + 10KHz as standard, the units have been tested by Intellian’s rigorous and extensive in-house testing programme to guarantee exceptional accuracy and ensure that the Global PLL LNB offers superb performance and long term reliability. The PLL LNB will operate over the following standard LO Frequencies 9.75, 10.0, 10.25, 10.5, 10.6, 10.678, 10.7, 10.75, 10.8, 11.0, 11.05, 11.2, 11.25 and 11.3 GHz, as well as any special dedicated frequencies, ensuring future proof operation, and allowing the operator to fine-tune LOs to maximize performance for their specific environment.
The Global PLL LNB is now available as standard for all Intellian Ku-band VSAT series antennas, providing a one-time investment, which can adapt to the operator’s changes in provider requirements or operating regions without the need for hardware changes, or service visit to the vessel.
Once again Intellian has developed technology to assist global operators to provide seamless satellite communications that can be relied upon well into the future.
Source Intellian Technologies
2012-03-07
In the past few years airBaltic achieved unprecedented growth that turned Riga into the only functioning transit hub in the Baltic region. However, it came at a cost to the airline. airBaltic has now been stabilised. Currently, we are focusing on reshaping our business, to achieve improvements of LVL 330 million in the next five years, and return to profitability in 2014.
Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic
The new business plan, airBaltic ReShape, outlines the future development of the carrier, including the fleet modernisation, cost optimisation, operational efficiency, revenue enhancement and network improvements. By implementing airBaltic ReShape, the carrier plans improvements of LVL 330 million in the five years 2012-2016. airBalticReShape aims to return the carrier to profitability in 2014.
airBaltic will modernise its fleet to operate two types of aircraft in the future – Bombardier Q400 Next Gen turboprop for regional flights, and either Airbus 319 or Boeing 737 New Generation. The modernised fleet will allow airBaltic to operate more efficiently and retain focus on affordable tickets to Europe, Middle East, Russia/CIS, and increase flight frequencies to the highly demanded destinations.
airBaltic serves 60 destinations 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 airBaltic
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