Evergreen continues China/Adriatic service upgrade Evergreen is pushing ahead with the introduction of new and larger tonnage onto its China/Adriatic (ADR) service with the phasing in of the 3,450 TEU sister vessels, Ital Fortuna and Ital Fugida in July and September respectively. Ital Fortuna phases on July 2nd replacing the 2,826 TEU Irenes Remedy, and Ital Fulgida phases in on Septemebr 3rd replacing the 2,824 TEU Ital Ordine With the deployment of Ital Fulgida which completes the “F” class newbuilding programme, the service will operate with six vessels of 3,450 TEU capacity, and the chartered 2,586 TEU Thomas Mann. Three of the 3,450 TEU vessels are Evergreen-owned, and three long term-chartered from Bertram Rickmers. By September, the average ship capacity on this service will be 3,327 TEU amounting to 172,982 TEU annualised – up some 15% on Q3 2006, making it one of the biggest climbers on this particular route. Port coverage: Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Alexandria, Taranto, Rijeka, Trieste, Koper, Taranto, Port Said, Tanjung Pelepas, Shanghai. (PR News 21/05/2007)
Trio team up in Indian subcontinent/Middle East/Africa trades Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines will partner with Singapore-based Pacific International Line and Zim subsidiary, Mauritius-based Laurel Navigation, on the trade between the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa. From July, each company will provide three ships on two services. One of the loops, MRX, at present operated solely by MOL, will discontinue calls at South Africa and become dedicated to the East Africa market. "The move allows MOL to stabilize ship schedules with less exposure to serious congestion at ports in South Africa and East Africa," the Tokyo-based carrier said in a statement. The revised MRX service will operate on a weekly basis using four 1,200-TEU ships with a port rotation of Karachi, Nhava Sheva, Jebel Ali, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and back to Karachi. At the same time, the carriers will combine on a 12-day service for South and West Africa. Using five 1,200-TEU ships, the service will have a rotation of Jebel Ali, Nhava Sheva, Durban, Lagos, Cotonou, Tema, Cape Town, Durban and Jebel Ali. "The addition of regular calls at Cape Town on return voyages will allow MOL to offer competitive service, especially for reefer cargo, which is a dominant commodity in that market. And by using its established service network centered on South Africa, MOL will offer a variety of services including reefer service from the East Coast of South America to the UAE," MOL said. (American Shipper 22/05/2007)
Hanjin joins INTTRA South Korean shipping company Hanjin Shipping has joined ocean freight Web portal INTTRA, bringing the Parsippany, N.J.-based company's number of member carriers to 24. "We chose to join INTTRA because of the value their proven e-commerce solutions can provide to our customers and their excellent global customer service," said S.K. Choi, Hanjin's vice president of customer service. "Also, INTTRA is supported by a cross section of the industry and has a long-term vision to support industry standards through a common platform." (American Shipper 22/05/2007)
Yang Ming, Burger establish Belgium agency JV Taiwanese shipping line Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. and Royal Burger Group have formed a joint venture agency company in Belgium called Yang Ming (Belgium) NV, which will start operations on June 1. Royal Burger Group has represented Yang Ming Line in Belgium for more than 25 years through its subsidiary Müller Thomsen Antwerp NV. (American Shipper 22/05/2007)
Hong Kong slips a place After the first four months of trading of 2007, Hong Kong has slipped to third place in the league of world container ports. In the January/April period, 2006’s second largest boxport posted only a marginal rise (0.4%) in its container throughput volumes to 7.4 million TEU. In contrast, the southern Chinese port complex of Shenzhen, which encompasses terminals at Yantian, Chiwan and Shekou saw growth in excess of 11% for the same period of time. With a combined throughput of 5.8 million TEU, compared with 5.2 million TEU in 2006, Shenzhen continued to narrow the gap on its neighbour. Meanwhile, Shanghai's traffic volumes continued to power ahead with its throughput up almost 27% to 8.1 million TEU for the first four months of 2007. Singapore remained in pole position in the first four months of the year, its box volumes rising 14% to 8.8 million TEU. Should the first four months of growth for the four ports being repeated for the full year, then Shanghai will overtake Hong Kong and be within one million TEU of the top spot. Meanwhile, Shenzhen will have narrowed the gap on Hong Kong to less than three million TEU. In 2006, the gap between Hong Kong and Shenzhen was over five million TEU. (CI Online 21/05/2007)
North America market
Grand Alliance update on Asia/USEC all water services The Grand Alliance lines, OOCL, NYK and Hapag-Lloyd have confirmed today intentions for the reconfiguring of port rotation on their jointly-operated East Coast South (ECS) and East Coast North (ECN) services starting in mid-June. Under the new marketing names of South China East Coast Express (SCE) and North and Central China East Coast Express (NCE), the lines will offer a more pinpointed service structure they say will provide improved transit times between key markets. Whilst the port rotations and transit times will change, the capacity offered on the old-style ECS and ECN will be almost identical with each service deploying eight vessels of between 3,500 and 4,400 TEU capacity. The new SCE will offer direct port calls at: Kaohsiung, Shekou, Hong Kong, New York, Norfolk, Savannah and Kaohsiung. This compares with the old ECS service that covered Shanghai, Chiwan, Shekou, Hong Kong, Manzanillo (Pan), Savannah, Norfolk, Shanghai On the new NCE service, port coverage will be Pusan, Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Pusan Under the old ECN service structure ports covered were : Pusan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shekou, Hong Kong, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Pusan. The prime idea behind these changes appear to be offering improved eastbound transit times into New York from the main Far East markets, and the changes will allow the Grand Alliance lines to offer an eastbound rotation with the SCE covering Hong Kong to New York in 23 days, and the NCE providing a 21 day transit from Shanghai to New York. On the old ECS service, New York was not covered, and on the ECN the Shanghai/New York transit was via Shekou and Hong Kong adding at least four days to the schedule. Importantly, Savannah also figures under the new schedules as the last port outbound from the USEC to the Far East on both new services. The new Grand Alliance all water setup comes as the New World Alliance and CMA CGM get ready to launch their new ESX service (see earlier reports), which puts more importance on placing Savannah as first USEC port inbound from the Far East. Port rotation will be Ningbo, Shanghai, Chiwan, Hong Kong, Manzanillo (Pan), Savannah, New York, Norfolk, Ningbo. (PR News 21/05/2007)
Seaspan receives last of 4,250-TEU box ships for Hapag-Lloyd Seaspan Corp. today received the 4,250-TEU vessel Manila Express from Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., about three weeks ahead of its contractual delivery date. The ship is the last in a series of nine vessels to be chartered to Hapag-Lloyd USA, a subsidiary of Germany's Hapag Lloyd. New York Stock Exchange-listed Seaspan now has an active fleet of 27 containerships with another 28 to be delivered over the next three-and-a-half years or so. (American Shipper 24/05/2007)
Pacer reports disappointing first quarter Due to weak domestic truck and rail demand in the US, the Concord (CA)-headquartered 3PL and transport provider Pacer International reported lower revenues and profits for Q1 2007, compared with the corresponding period of 2006. Pacer’s total revenues dropped 0.9% to USD465.1 million. While intermodal revenues were identical for the two periods (USD373.5 million), sales in the company’s logistics division decreased 4.5% to USD91.7 million. Pacer’s consolidated operating profit (EBIT) totalled USD14.4 million in Q1 2007, a drop of 41%, thus its return on sales fell from 5.2% to 3.1%. The operating profit for the company’s intermodal business decreased by 34.5%, down to USD19.2 million, with this division’s return on sales dropping from 7.8% to 5.1%. Pacer’s logistics division reported an improvement in its operating loss, from -0.6 million to -0.1 million. Meanwhile, the company’s consolidated net profit decreased by 43.9%, down to USD7.8 million. These results included USD1.8 million in severance costs and restructuring charges, and USD1.8 million write-off and loan fees associated with refinancing issues. (CI Online 18/05/2007)
Europe market
Maersk Asia/North Europe capacity continues to creep up Capacity on the Maersk Line Asia/Europe 7 (AE7) service continues to creep up with confirmation today that the latest of eight new 11,000 TEU vessels was named at the weekend at the Odense Steel Shipyard. Ebba Maersk, the fifth of the eight that will be deployed on the AE7 by January 2008, phases in at Bremerhaven on June 27th. The latest newbuilding replaces the 8,450 TEU Maersk Seoul, and from late June, the AE7 will operate with five 11,000 TEU vessels backed up by three of 8,450 TEU capacity. Based on Maersk’s figues, average ship capacity will then be 10,044 TEU equating to 522,275 TEU annualised capacity, placing it 27,750 TEU or 5.6% of annualised capacity ahead of the number two on the Asia/Europe trade, the joint CMA-CGM/China Shipping FAL2/AEX7 service. Port coverage for the Maersk AE7 service: Ningbo, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Algeciras, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Algeciras, Tanjung Pelepas, Yantian, Hong Kong, Ningbo. (PR News 22/05/2007)
St Petersburg still submerged According to various sources, St Petersburg’s container terminals remains hopelessly congested, as succinctly summarised in a recent notice from Unifeeder to its customers saying: ‘Today, we unfortunately have to conclude that the actions taken in Russia [to unblock the terminals] have not given the expected results in terms of obtaining agreements with liner agents and forwarders that our long standing storage fees [imposed March 1, 2007] would be covered. Further, the speed at which cargo is being removed from the terminals has not improved – actually it has further deteriorated.’ Unifeeder has advised its customers that B/Ls received after April 24, 2007 must constitute acceptance that cargo may be held back in the terminals until all long-standing storage fees have been settled by the forwarder, or that they will be covered by the line. At the port’s largest gateway, First Container Terminal, the quota system that specified how many full and empty containers each carrier could maintain in the terminal up to the end of March has been prolonged to the end of August, when planned reconstruction work should be completed. Customers can increase the quotas on full imports by bringing their average dwell time down to below 8 days, but the overall average still remains between 9-10 days. The inference is that too many goods are still being imported by middlemen rather than end-users. St Petersburg has also had to continue coping with unprecedented demand, despite the penalising level of transhipment and storage charges imposed so far. During the first quarter of this year, the Russian gateway’s total container traffic increased by another 22%, up to 3,919,200 tonnes. FCT’s traffic increased by 20.7%, up to 219,578TEU (CI Online 22/05/2007)
FEFC says westbound Asia/Europe volume up 18% in April The Far Eastern Freight Conference said today that westbound Asia/Europe volume transported by its member lines increased 17.6 percent in April to reach 763,634 TEUs. The 16 shipping line members of the FEFC are estimated to control about two-thirds of the available Asia/Europe vessel capacity. The FEFC said that Far East to North Europe volume rose 18.2 percent year-on-year to 490,128 TEUs, while Asia to Mediterranean growth in the month was 16.3 percent with volume of 273,506 TEUs. After four months of 2007, total westbound volume of the conference lines improved 19.9 percent to 2.88 million TEUs. (PR News 22/05/2007)
Med. market
New Maersk Asia/Med service to start next week The new Maersk Line AE11 service between China and the Mediterranean is set to start next Monday (May 28th) with the first westbound sailing from Tianjin by the 5,000 TEU Maersk Bentonville (See Copy 5010, May 9th). Port rotation will be : Tianjin (Mon/Mon), Dalian (Tues/Tues), Qingdao (Wed/Thurs), Shanghai (Fri/Fri), Hong Kong (Sun/Mon), Malaga (Thurs/Fri), Algeciras (Fri/Sun)’ Xiamen (Fri/Fri), Tianjin (Mon/Mon) Transit times will include Tianjin to Malaga in 24 days, and Algeciras to Xiamen in 19 days. Vessel deployment Maersk Bentonville – 5,000 TEU Maersk Brooklyn – 5,000 TEU Maersk Baltimore – 5,000 TEU Maersk Boston – 5,000 TEU Maersk Montreal – 4,206 TEU Jervis Bay – 4,224 TEU Sea-Land Eagle – 4,062 TEU Average ship capacity – 4,642 TEU Annualised capacity – 241,369 TEU (PR News 21/05/2007)
S. Africa & S. America market
MOL/Laurel/PIL drop South Africa on Indian Ocean Relay service MOL, Laurel Navigation and Pacific International Lines (PIL) are dropping calls at Durban on their joint Indian Ocean Relay service which has run between Jebel Ali, Dar-es-Salaam, Durban, Dar-es-Salaam, Mombasa, Karachi, Nhava Sheva and Jebel Ali. The move is being made because of increasing port congestion problems that have affected schedule integrity. By dropping Durban, the lines are reducing the service from six to four ships of around 1,200 TEU capacity, and the idea is to run a fixed-day weekly service New port rotation will be: Jebel Ali, Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam, Karachi, Nhava Sheva, Jebel Ali. (PR News 22/05/2007)
