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

Yantian Port in the Guangdong province of China, recorded container throughput of over ten million TEUs in 2007, a new high for the port.

According to Shenzhen Customs, the port has the highest container throughput among all coastal ports of China.

Shenzhen Customs carries out regional clearance to speed up sea-rail transportation and marine transfers. The policy of declaration at local Customs and inspection at port Customs has been in effect in several inland provinces and the Shenzhen Customs believes the policy has enhanced regional economic development.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Radio frequency identification first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. They are wonderful. They tell without physical counting or opening of cargo what is in there and where it is going.

They can cut crime, minimize handling and handling errors. They are a very good thing.

For China they are damn near essential and there is no surprise in the fact that the RFID market reached more than $500 million in 2007. This is 50% up on the previous year and looking at trends the next three years look pretty healthy.

According to IDTechEx, China has become the world’s largest market for RFID by value, in part due to investments for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The release of regulations for UHF 800/900 RFID; the first RFID company to go public; the planning and establishment of RFID industrial parks in Dongguang, Fushan, Shenyang, Shandong and other cities, all these signs forecast a brilliant future for the RFID industry in China.

RFIDWorld China and RFID China Alliance have launched a big, non-profit RFID event — 2007 China RFID Industry Annual Awards — where they can all pat each other on the back and say what a great job they are doing. And, indeed, it is a great job. Without RFID China’s current boom would probably not happened on the same scale.

Weiqi Yang, RFIDWorld China’s president said about the awards, ‘It’s the biggest and most authoritative voting, it will have a positive impact on RFID industry and consumer RFID education through encouraging RFID companies to participate, sharing their information and experiences. No other RFID industry event offers more learning, and makes available more resources for people who want to get an insight into RFID market in China’.

The products submitted cover a wide range of frequencies (125KHz, 13.56MHz, 433 MHz, 915MHz, 2.45GHz), and include all kind of RFID products, such as RFID chip, label, reader, middleware, software, label converter, RFID tag testing device and RFID system.

The Internet portal allows visitors to find detailed information about the candidates.
Source: NetworkWorld

Dalian Port was, at one time, the number one port in China. Not any longer but it is making a strong comeback and hopes to become a shipping hub for Northeast Asia.

This come-back process started last May when China’s largest mineral ore berth started trial operations.
A month later it announced it had opened more ocean routes and lifted its container volume.
In July, Dalian Port began trial operations of China’s largest crude oil berth and started construction of giant auto berths.

Dalian is not the only port expanding and modernizing in the north east. There is, as it were, a three-port battle for Northeast Asia hub status.

The other two vying for the status are Tianjin and Qingdao.

Tianjin leads the northern trio in general cargo volume and is expected to further increase the gap this year by boosting general cargo capacity by 42 million tons and container capacity by 1.5 million TEUs.

Qingdao is China’s third largest container port after Shanghai and Shenzhen and its general cargo volume is also more than that of Dalian.

Dalian Port also faces fresh competition from the neighboring ports of Yingkou and Jinzhou.

Hui Kai, director of the Dalian Port Authority, is aware of the port’s deficiencies being outnumbered in container terminals and general cargo berths. But he said, ‘By 2010, Dalian will be able to handle 250 million tons of general cargo and 10 million TEUs of containers. And by 2020, the port will lift its capacity to 350 million tons of general cargo and 15 million TEUs of containers.’

Crude oil, roll on-roll off cargo, grain and containers will be the main targets of the port. For a very full report click on Source.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Tong Mengda, chief economist of Ningbo Port Group says the Port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province in the eastern China expects to handle container throughput of over ten million TEUs — where a TEU is a standard container — in 2008.

The railway, highway, and shipping and aviation infrastructure have improved so that Tong Mengda thinks the the container throughput will reach 10.6 million TEUs and the cargo throughput will be about 360 million tonnes in 2008.

This past year — 2207 — the port recorded a container throughput of over nine million TEUs. The figure is 31% higher than the container throughput in 2006. For seven consecutive years the port has had the largest growth among all major coastal ports in China. The new container throughput may help the port obtain the 11th position, up from the 13th, in global ranking.
Source: CargoNews Asia