Archive for the 'Containers' Category

Construction on the Chengdu railway container center station is expected to start soon, said Jin Dazhong, director of logistics for the Chengdu Municipal Committee of Communication.

With an investment of RMB2 billion ($286.39 million) from China United International Rail Container, the station will have a total cargo throughput of 2.2 or 2.5 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) — that which we think of as containers — upon completion.

Jin Dazhong said, ‘It will be the largest railway container center station in Asia.’

The station will open direct lines from Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Lianyungang and Tianjin ports, and the transportation time will be shortened from 5 or 6 days to only 48 hours.

Covering an area of 2.140 mu (142.67 ha), the station is the largest of 18 container logistics projects planned by China United International Rail Container Co Ltd.

Chengdu aims to build itself into a logistics hub in western China by 2010, and 2,700 mu more land has been planned for the container logistics zone, with a designed annual handing capability of two million TEUs.
Source: China Daily

Shipping giant China Cosco Holdings will add 64 vessels to its fleet of 144 container ships this year.

China’s top ship line will raise its 2008 capital expenditure by 37% to $3.32 billion to expand its fleet and port investments.

China Cosco’s net profits more than doubled last year, going up 134% (these three digit increases have astoundingly become commonplace) to $2.78 billion, compared with $1.14 billion in 2006.

Much of the increase in profits was attributable to China Cosco’s acquisition of a subsidiary owned by its parent company, Cosco Group, which owns the world’s largest dry-bulk shipping fleet.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Port operator China Merchants Holdings (International) saw 2007 net profit surge 40% on increased capacity and strong container volumes.

The Hong Kong-listed company’s net profit rose to US$455 million from $325.6 million in 2006. Revenue was up 58% to $802.56 million from $507.69 million.

China Merchants has container port investments in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Qingdao, Ningbo and Zhangzhou.

China Merchants 2007 throughput rose 17% to 47.12 million TEUs with mainland China ports handling 40.11 million TEUs, up 20% from 2006.

Earlier, Chairman Fu Yuning, seen here, said the company is planning to invest in more container terminals both in China and overseas.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Shanghai port has implemented new strategies focusing on the Yangtze River, Northeast Asia and global operations to reinforce its position as an international shipping center and ease it ahead of the others. It wants to move this forward and develop into a major maritime hub in Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong which is ould like very much, please, to surpass.

Lu Haihu, chairman of Shanghai International Port Group, said, ‘The Yangtze River strategy involves cooperation and strategic alliances along the Yangtze River, improvement of container handling service levels at Shanghai port as well as at inland ports.’

The strategy involves using management skills, capital and technology to strengthen the cargo consolidation network and develop hinterland cargo sources to serve the Yangtze River Delta.

The idea seems to be that getting the feeder ports — Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing — up to speed and the rest of the Yangtze Delta upgraded then, it follows, Shanghai will automatically benefit.

As part of what is called the Golden Waterway Strategy — oh! Splendid name — Shanghai port will also promote upgrading of vessels and standards and the improvement of navigational and shipping capacity. The end game being a regional feeder cargo network with Shanghai as its nucleus.

Shanghai port will focus on the area’s container and cargo flow, particularly transhipment containers that go through Yangshan deep-water port.

Shanghai port expects to maintain a sustained, healthy and fairly rapid growth of its container-related businesses.

Analyst C K Wong said Shanghai port’s combined container throughput at Waigaoqiao and Yangshan terminals, is expected to exceed Singapore port’s container throughput this year and make it the busiest container port in the world.

Last year, Shanghai ports handled 26.2 million TEUs, representing a 20% growth over 2006, making it the world’s second busiest container port after Singapore. Hong Kong was pushed into third position. Singapore port registered a throughput of 27.94 million TEUs in 2007.
Source: CargoNews Asia

APL Logistics is introducing guaranteed delivery of full-container loads from Asia to nearly any destination in the United States.

The new service, called APL Guaranteed Continental, connects Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, and Yantian with virtually any ZIP code in the continental United States.

The service guarantees delivery of full-containerload cargo on a specified date or the shipper receives a 20% refund. The service is speedy. Full load shipments from Hong Kong to a consignee’s door in Boston will take only 15 days.

Under the Guaranteed Continental service, cargo receives priority stowage on APL container carrier vessels in Asia. That cargo is then among the first discharged after the vessels arrive at APL’s marine terminals in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Ocean containers destined for 13 metropolitan areas are loaded onto specially designed longhaul chassis. Cargo bound for any other U.S. destination is trans-loaded (or transferred) into domestic highway trailers at a Los Angeles-based APL Logistics facility.
Source: DC Velocity

There is a slump in transpacific shipping and it is hurting the West Coast ports in the US. The ports and intermodal operators are being hit hard and it seems to be worsening. There has been a sharp drop in Asia-US imports in the past two months.

The San Pedro port complex of Los Angeles-Long Beach is the gateway for 70% West Coast traffic. It reports import volume fell 8.8% in both January and February on a year by year comparison basis. The US demand is being eroded by high fuel costs and a weakening economy which still has not got to grips with the sub-prime problem.

To give an idea of the size of the problem three of the largest global carriers — Danish shipping-giant Maersk Line, French carrier CMA CGM Group and Swiss company Mediterranean Shipping — are sharing space on the same ships instead of operating their own weekly transpacific shipping services. This way they may be able to cut transportation costs by as much as 30%.

What is not often realized is how large are the stakes.

Our illustration the full size of some of these ships. Click on  GCaptain  and see the comparative size of the vessels and the cargo they carry (nearly a quarter of a mile long and some dwarf the Titanic) and you can see filling those for every voyage is no easy task.
Source: CargoNews Asia

APL has new service where if a container does not reach its destination in the United States by the specified date there is a 20% refund.

This is probably the first day-definite, full-container-load service from Asia to virtually any US destination.

APL Logistics calls it APL Guaranteed Continental service and it connects the ports of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, and Yantian with virtually any ZIP code in the continental US.
If it is a full-container load then it gets there on the specified date or the shippers get a 20% refund.

APL Logistics started something like this in August 2006 with OceanGuaranteed – the idea being a guaranteed service which was cost-effective, expedited surface alternative to airfreight.

APL Logistics said its new service will provide the industry’s fastest transit times between key ports in China and customers’ US locations. In some cases this will be as little as 15 days.
Source: Eye for Transport

China’s seas contributed RMB2.49 trillion ($347 billion), or 10%, of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year.

A report, issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), said the value of marine industries, including fishing, transport, oil and gas, tourism and shipbuilding, grew 15% year on year, more than the economy as a whole.

The marine industry employed 31.5 million people last year, 1.9 million more than in 2006.

SOA spokesman Li Haiqing said the main pillars of the rapid growth were the traditional industries of transport, tourism and fishing, which accounted for more than 80% of total output value.

Emerging industries also grew quickly. For example, the oceanic biological pharmaceutical industry, which generated more than RMB4 billion last year, was up more than 37%.

With the launch in November of the first offshore wind power station, funded and run by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the sector generated RMB500 million, up 17% year on year.

The gross production value in the Bohai Bay Rim Area was more than RMB954 billion, accounting for 38% of total output of the marine sector. Similarly, the gross production of the Yangtze River Delta region amounted to about RMB775 billion, or about 31% of the total output.
Source: English East Day

Chongqing Gangjiu, an inland river shipping company, will inject $12.2 million into its subsidiary which is Chongqing International Container. This additional investment will boost the registered capital of the container terminal company to $52.1 million.

The container terminal company, which is on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Chongqing, was constructed in two phases:

The first phase covering 57 hectares was put into operation at the end of 2005. It covered 950 m of riverbank, had two 3,000-tonnage container berths and one roll-on/roll-off berth. Its annual capacity is 280,000 containers (TEU) and 150,000 cars.

The second phase, with a total investment of $163 million, started in September.

This will have three 3,000-tonnage container berths and one roll-on/roll-off berth. When it is finished in 2011 it will boost the company’s total capacity to 700,000 TEUs and 300,000 cars.
Source: CargoNews Asia

A goods train from Beijing has arrived in Hamburg. The ‘Beijing-Hamburg Container Express’ left the Chinese capital on January 9 with its cargo of shoes, toys and electronic goods and covered the distance of 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) in 15 days.

Germany’s state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn logistics chief, Norbert Bensel, said the inaugural journey on the new rail route had delivered its cargo in roughly half the time it would have taken to arrive in the northern German port city by sea. The sea journey takes about 30 days.

Norbert Bensel said, ‘The test train was a success. We have demonstrated that we can transport goods by rail between China and Germany safely, reliably and yet twice as fast as compared with ships. At the same time, we are considerably cheaper than air freight for many types of cargo.”

The train made its way from China to Germany through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Poland.
Source: AFP