Tianjin port

CMA CGM Group has signed a 50-year concession agreement to build and operate a 1.7m teu (twenty foot equivalent unit which is a single container) terminal in the Port of Tianjin. The new terminal is expected to become operational in 2011 and will feature a 1,100-meter quay.

It will be operated by a joint venture consisting of CMA CGM (20%); Tianjin Port Holding, a Tianjin Port Group subsidiary listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (60%), and Hong Kong-based Asia International Shipping (20%).

The group, which is already present in the Chinese port of Xiamen and operates a network of 64 offices across the country, currently offers 30 weekly services from China, with a departure every six hours.
Source: SeaTrade Asia Online

Xi'an and Lianyungang

China Industrial Daily News reports container trains are now running on the Xi’an to Lianyungang line with a round trip every week.

The train has 50 container flat wagons and starts from Xi’an East and West Railway Stations and terminates at Lianyungang on thee coast.

The container train is set to play an important role in the development of Xi’an’s foreign trade market which mainly operates through Lianyungang Port.
Source: CargoNews Asia

SYMS, the cash-strapped Chinese container line
which is formally Shandong Yantai International Marine Shipping was in negotiations between the intra-Asia operator and potential buyer Grand China Logistics.

These talks have now ground to a halt partly because of the money involved and partly because of  regulatory issues.

Grand China Logistics, also known as Da Xin Hua Logistics, which is part-owned by the Hainan Airlines Group, had been the frontrunner to acquire SYMS. Talks have been going on for at least 10 months without result.

SYMS has been losing money for a long time, hit by the notoriously low freight rates in the China-Japan trades on which the line has concentrated.

SYMS has fallen badly behind on ship charter payments, and several owners have now taken legal action in an attempt to recover the money owed and their ships back.

The company’s outstanding debt stood at RMB500 million ($71m) in March this year when it invited investors to take a 90% stake in the business.

SYMS operates a fleet of 50 vessels totalling 440,000 dwt and 28,000 containers, and has been looking for a buyer since 2005. Prospects do not look pleasing.

Much more here ci-online and HERE.
Source: Lloyd’s List

China’s Shanghai International Port Group plans to invest in Taicang Port, Jiangsu Province. To place it to see its attractions:

Taicang Port Development Zone is located at the intersection of China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt and Coastal Opening-up Belt, with the Yangtze ]River to the east, Shanghai to the south. A strategic position.

Taicang Port’s 2007 throughput was 1.02 million TEUs (same as a standard  container but stands for Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit), although the port is capable of handling 2.35 million TEUs yearly.

In the first half of 2008, the port’s container throughput jumped 60 % over the corresponding period in 2007 to 661,900 TEUs.
Source: CargoNews Asia

MOL (which strangely stands for Mitsui O.S.K Lines) has begun its Africa service at Shenzhen’s Da Chan Bay Terminal One with seven vessels.

Each vessel has an average capacity of 1,600 TEUs and will be at the terminal as they sail between Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tamatave, Durban and Maputo.

Five of the seven vessels have so far called in at the port. It is a quick call because of Da Chan Bay Terminal One’s close ties with Da Chan Bay Customs, frontier inspection, quarantine inspection and maritime safety.
Source: CargoNews Asia

South Korea and China have opened a new sea route for container ships as part of their port alliance.

This follows the signing on a memorandum of understanding in January regarding cooperation to boost bilateral trade and the regional logistic network.

The route links South Korea’s Gwangyang port to China’s Taicang, an emerging logistical hub in JIangsu on China’s east coast. (The map gives an idea of position.)

Meanwhile, Mainland China and Taiwan are to discuss sea links in talks to be held in the autumn.

According to the China Times this statement was made by Chen Yunlin, China’s top negotiator with Taiwan, at a maritime seminar in Taicang, in China’s Jiangsu Province.

The seminar was attended by Chinese and Taiwanese shipping industry executives and port officials.

Chen Yulin said, ‘Sea links will be top issue for the autumn talks because China and Taiwan have reached consensus on it, so we should make it happen as soon as possible.’
Source: CargoNews Asia and M and C

China Shipping Container Lines is likely to buy a port developer from its state-owned parent for RMB2.6 billion ($379 million), according to the China Securities Journal.

Its parent, China Shipping (Group) Company, was auctioning all of its stake in the port developer on the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange, and the newspaper quoted analysts as saying China Shipping Container Lines was likely to win the bid.

The Shanghai-based port developer, China Shipping Terminal Development Co — the one that is being bought — is engaged in port investment and development, logistics, warehouse stocking and transportation.

China Shipping Container Lines had said it planned to use funds raised from its initial public offering to buy the port developer from its parent.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Shipping lines running the Taiwan — Hong Kong/South China trade announced that from July 1 they would levy a new surcharge of RMB400 per TEU to be collected from consignees in South China, regardless of whether the freight had already been prepaid in Taiwan.

Shipper organizations in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau have called on their members to reject this.

Toland Lam, executive chairman of the Shenzhen Shippers’ Association, said, ‘South China shippers are very angry with shipping lines’ action, which is totally unjust. Shippers will reject the charge.’

Hong Kong Shippers’ Council chairman Willy Lin said the emergency bunker surcharge ‘violated international shipping practices’ and would not be accepted.

The shipping lines involved comprise most of the carriers on the trade, leaving shippers with no choice of taking their business elsewhere.

The annual volume on the trade is estimated to be around one million TEUs, and the shipper’s organization estimate that the lines will pocket $56 million from shippers in Hong Kong and South China.
Source: CargoNews Asia

At the Port of Savannah, shipping containers from China arrive attached with small plastic boxes that track the cargo inside — and send a radio-signaled alarm to remote computers if someone tries to break in.

This is not RFID tagging although based on the same technology. This is something else in that it is a security device. Port officials say these electronic tags, a little larger than a pack of cigarettes, could prove a tremendous boon to the shipping industry.

The Savannah port has teamed up with the world’s second-largest seaport in Shanghai to test the tagging technology on all cargo shipped between them.

Curtis Foltz, chief operating officer of the Georgia Ports Authority said, ‘It’s a huge benefit. From the beginning of shipping to the end, if a container is compromised at any point there will be an immediate alert.’

Savannah and Shanghai started shipping tagged cargo in March and have since used them on 2,375 containers spread over 18 trips. They hope to reach 10,000 tagged containers shipped over the next six to 12 months getting the system beeded in and the bugs out.

The tags are programmed with the type of cargo being shipped, its weight, the name of the ship transporting it and the destination.

That information gets picked up via radio by monitors at the port gates when the cargo arrives by truck or train, and again at the crane loading the container onto a ship a process that’s repeated, in reverse, when the shipment reaches its destination. The monitors send the information to computers that can track the cargo’s whereabouts in real time.

The tags will also sense if a container is opened or if its seal is broken in transit, and will broadcast an alert marking the time of the intrusion. Its location is plotted by Global Positioning System.

Wally Barelka, the Georgia ports’ general manager for strategic systems development, said, ‘It’s like a cell phone. The first cell phones were clunky and didn’t have many functions. Now your cell phone checks your e-mail and is your address book.’
Source: Forbes

Against the story that precedes this from Maersk comes news that strong US export growth is not enough to offset the trade imbalance on the transpacific route with shipping lines still struggling to cope with crippling operational costs.

Container shipping lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement said in a statement that while eastbound traffic grew by less than one percent in 2007, the volume of loaded containers shipped from Asia was still more than twice that of loaded container volume for return US exports.

In other words Asia, specifically China, is shipping more than it takes back. A fairly obvious conclusion.

A sharp increase in Asia demand for US products, driven primarily by the weak US dollar, along with a significant falloff in eastbound volumes as the US economy has slowed, has resulted in little to no new capacity entering the trade.

WTSA chairman Ron Widdows, who is also CEO of Singapore-based container line APL, said, ‘No one sets out to turn away business, but at this point carriers face hard choices with each sailing about how best to balance competing customer demands for limited vessel space and equipment.

‘Carriers are doing the best they can to work with their customers to satisfy their need for space under very difficult circumstances.’

Westbound cargo grew nearly 17% in 2007, with a further 12-13% growth forecast over 2008-09.

Widdows acknowledged that, for the first time in over a decade, some US exporters to Asia have experienced difficulty getting container equipment delivered to their premises for loading after having made a booking.
Source: CargoNews