I N D U S T R Y N E W S
Port, dockers may launch nationwide action if Mumbai Port is closed
Jul 27Mr. S.R. Kulkarni, President of the All India Port & Dock Workers' Federation, has urged G.K. Vasan, Minister for Shipping, not to approve shifting of operations of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) outside city limits.
If such a proposal is accepted by the Govt, we will have to close down almost all the major ports of the country as they are historically constructed within the city limits.
Mumbai Harbour is a natural harbour with hinterlands and, therefore, was selected for developing as a major port of the country by Britishers. The metropolitan city of Mumbai owes its growth and prominence as the commercial capital of India to the Mumbai Port.
The traffic handled at the major ports during 2009-10 was about 561 million tonnes.
Can the Ministry of Shipping afford to close Mumbai and other major ports, as suggested by Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Minister for Transport & Ports, Govt of Maharashtra?
Consequent upon the gas leakage at Haji Bunder Hazardous Cargo Dump, where gas cylinders were not cleared since 1997 and more than 103 persons had to be hospitalized on July14 &15 instant, in a letter, addressed to G.K. Vasan, has made certain suggestions.
In one of the suggestions, Mr. Vikhe-Patil has stated, "as a long term measure, I feel that time has come to have a critical review of the operations of the port within the city limits. world over, as the ports like Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp etc., plans of shifting the activities of the Ports outside the city limits to intra tidal lands are being executed to eliminate accidental risks faced by the general public.
Mr Patil has further stated that the fundings for expansion of the port activities in the intra tidal areas is being done through the sale of properties of the old port within the city limits". It is, therefore, obvious that the State Government wants the land of MbPT to be handed over to the builders and make huge money out of it.
By this logic are the airports, rail terminals, which contribute to congestion are to be moved out of the port limits and the vacated lands gifted to the builders' lobby and the entrepreneurs to construct shopping malls. This will not be tolerated by the working class of Mumbai, Mr. Kulkarni said.
Cities at the most can move to mainland but not the ports away from the waterfront.
We trust, Mr. Sharad Pawar, NCP Chief a friend of port & dock workers, will extend his support to the workers Mr. Kulkarni said.
Maritime India - Mumbai
NMPT handles highest boxes in a day
Jul 27New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) handled 642 TEUs of containers from the vessel m.v. Tiger Power on July 23. An NMPT release said that this is the highest number of TEUs handled in a day of three shifts from a vessel at the port so far.
The vessel handled 394 TEUs of import containers and 248 TEUs of export containers. The release said that so far the port handled 14,276 TEUs of containers during the current financial year. This is 40 pc more than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Maritime India - Mangalore
NOL's volumes, rates surge in June
Jul 27Container volumes and rates continued to soar for Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) in June this year. NOL reported a 29 pc surge in volumes for the period from 29 May to 25 June handling 221,900 feu compared to 172,200 feu in the same period a year earlier. The company said volumes were up on all trades and in particular the transpacific and intra-Asian routes. Average revenues across all trades for the four-week period were up 32 pc year-on-year at $2,892 per feu. NOL said rates had improved on all major trades including the transpacific.
Maritime India - New Delhi
MSC is numeruno in exports, Maersk in imports
Jul 27The world's top 40 container lines transport 98.8 pc of global box volumes, with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) seeing a 26.3 pc increase in throughput from the first quarter of 2009 and taking the No 1 export spot from previous leader Maersk Line.
But Maersk held its first place in US imports in Top 40 Container Lines. It said that Maersk led in overall US import volume with 11.4 pc market share for the first quarter of 2010. MSC ranked second with 8.5 pc market share. Twelve carriers posted year-on-year increases of more than 25 pc in imports during the first quarter; nine had increases of more than 25 pc in exports, according to data provided by PIERS Global Intelligence Solutions. APL climbed from sixth place to third position in import volumes and from No 5 to fourth spot in exports with solid year on year gains in market share.
Also in the top five were Evergreen Line, Hapag-Lloyd in third place in exports and Hanjin Shipping in fifth place for imports.
Maritime India - New Delhi
Deliveries of newbuildings add 2 lakh TEU in July
Jul 27A record 200,000 TEU in new containership capacity will arrive in July, after a total of 747,000 TEU was delivered to the world fleet in the first half of the year.
Total new ship deliveries for the first seven months of the year will hit 950,000 TEU, or 7.3 per cent of the global fleet and according to which estimates that 1.45 million TEU will be delivered during the whole of 2010.
"This represents 11.1 per cent of the world fleet at January 2010, with slippage and cancellations limited to only a small part of the containership order book. The July record will be achieved due to the deliveries of at least eight units of over 10,000 TEU. Only seven units of this size were delivered in the first six months of the year," said.
"Deliveries of these large containerships are expected to continue, with 12 more units of over 10,000 TEU planned for August and September. These units are to be handed over to only four major operators, CMA CGM, Maersk, MSC and Zim, (with Evergreen taking one of the Zim ships on charter).
"These VLCS/ULCS deliveries bring the average size of the new ships delivered in July to more than 6,000 TEU. The previous monthly record was registered in April 2008 when 156,000 TEU of capacity were delivered. At that time however, the average size of the new vessels was only 3,700 TEU. "Together with the lower scrapping levels expected this year, the full-year overall capacity increase is expected to reach 9.6 pc," it said. Total demolitions year-to-date come to 120,000 TEU.
With containership demolitions dwindling, it predicts the full-year scrapping level to clock in at under 200,000 TEU for 2010, compared to 377,000 TEU scrapped in 2009.
"The re-activation of the idle fleet has already brought back 1.24 million TEU of capacity since the beginning of January. In combination with the net increase brought about by vessel deliveries, this brings the total additions to the active fleet this year to over two million TEU. The figure corresponds to a net fleet increase of over 16 pc for this year," said.
Maritime India - New Delhi
Plan to promote silk, handicrafts exports during Commonwealth games
Jul 27The textile ministry will launch an aggressive campaign to promote Indian silk among sports persons, spectators and officials at the Commonwealth Games beginning Oct 3, 2010 in Delhi.
Besides promotion of silk, the focus would be on handloom and handicrafts items.During the campaign, a number of road shows and exhibitions would take place. Also, stalls would be set up showcasing dress materials, garments, scarves both in silk and handlooms, in malls, five-star hotels and near the airports, the official from textile ministry said.
Also, handicraft items, including art metalware, woodware and home decors, would be showcased.
The Textiles Ministry would allocate about Rs 2 crore from its budget for the campaign, he said. The games, which is expected to attract one lakh visitors, could be an ideal platform to launch the campaign to popularise Indian silk, the official said. During 2009-10, silk exports slumped 9 per cent to Rs 2871.79 crore over the year-ago period.
Maritime India - New Delhi
Logistics institute initiates training for professional approach
Jul 27By 2020, according to one estimate, India will need three million truck drivers, another 1.5 million fork-lift operators and a huge number of trained people to run warehouses. To meet the projected requirement of trained people in logistic and supply chain management industry, CII's Chennai-based Institute of Logistics has embarked on a skill development programme at the entry level. The training through simulators will be for six months and the first rollout is expected towards the end of this year, though the location of the training is yet to be decided. It may be noted that just as 70 per cent of our truck drivers are individual operators owning one or two vehicles, the majority of warehouses too will be owned by people even as the concept of warehousing undergoes a total change from the traditional storage point to a multifaceted activity centre. Hence, there is an urgent need for a professional approach to warehousing in India.
Another area that is receiving a good deal of attention is decarbonising supply chain management by transporting through railways and water-borne transport as a means to reduce carbon footprint.
Maritime India - New Delhi
Chitagong, Mongla to become transit ports for seven sisters
Jul 27The country's seaports will be developed as transit ports to facilitate shipment of Indian cargo from Chittagong and Mongla to 'seven sisters' of India. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh during their meeting in New Delhi last January declared that the ports would be used for transit.
Chittagong and Mongla were never used as transit ports, and the government needs to develop their infrastructure and revise tariff rates for the cargo destined for the north-eastern states of the neighbouring country, said an official of the shipping ministry.
The minimum distance from Kokata to the north-eastern states is about 2,000 kilometres, but the distance from Chittagong to Agartala is about 200 km.
"It will be immensely beneficial for the Indians to send their cargo to 'seven sisters' through Chittagong and Mongla," he said. The govt after considering the opportunity cost of the Indian traders will revise the tariff rates at the ports. Chittagong port has 60 tariff rates and most of the rates are flexible to cater the domestic needs, he said.
"But there is no point in giving any benefit to those cargo which will not be consumed in Bangladesh." "A committee has been formed to revise the tariff rates at the ports, and it will consider the charges of other transit ports," the official added. The govt has already issued a statutory regulatory order slapping trans-shipment/transit fees of Tk 10,000 for each TEU container, while Tk 1,000 per tonne for bulk products without container, said an official of the BIWTA.
The government has already signed an agreement, under which Ashuganj has become the second trans-shipment point and fifth port of call in Bangladesh. New Delhi in turn has declared Shilghat as port of call in Indian side.
Sherpur in Sylhet was the first trans-shipment point under the Protocol on Internal Water Transit and Trade (IWTT) signed in 1972, but India never availed it, he said.
The IWTT agreement stipulates that Narayanganj, Mongla, Khulna and Sirajganj are the port of calls in Bangla-desh, and Kolkata, Haldia, Pandu and Karimganj in India. Tripura border is only 49 km from Ashuganj and the river port is navigable throughout the year.
"The shipping ministry has formulated a Tk 2.5 billion project to develop Ashuganj with modern equipment to handle the Indian cargo.
The project is expected to be completed in 2013, but trade can continue before that, as Ashuganj has good infrastructure," the official added. The authorities since 1980s demanded Ashuganj as the second point, and it was materialised during Sheikh Hasina's visit to India last January, said another official. Trans-shipment through Ashuganj will generate a huge amount of revenue for Bangladesh and also create lots of job opportunities here, he added.
Maritime India - New Delhi
Vietnam, Japan seek cooperation in shipbuilding
Jul 27Vietnam and Japan hold a big opportunity for cooperation in shipbuilding as the world's second largest economy is recovering and the Southeast Asian country's shipbuilding industry boasts various potentials Vietnam 's Investment Counsellor to Japan Le Huu Quang Huy delivered the message at a seminar on shipbuilding in the capital city of Tokyo recently. Huy said Vietnam has a wide range of potentials to develop the shipbuilding industry, citing its coastline of 3,200 km, 120 seaports, abundant and skilled workforce and low labour costs. Meanwhile, the counsellor said, Japan possesses a large source of capital and a developed shipbuilding industry, with around 1,200 shipbuilding yards and 1,200 seaports. In particular, Japan 's economy is bouncing back and likely to achieve a growth rate of 1.9 percent this year, he added.
Huy pointed out three major challenges the shipbuilding industry will face after 2011 such as capital shortages due to tightened regulations on credits, changes in the demand for marine shipping and fluctuations of oil prices.
He called on shipbuilding companies from the two countries to increase the exchange of visits and meetings to discuss cooperation opportunities and ways to cope with these challenges. According to the official, Vietnamese and Japanese businesses can cooperate in training personnel, treating environmental pollution at shipbuilding yards and developing supporting industries to serve shipbuilding. At the seminar, Japan 's maritime expert Nagats-uka Seiji proposed a number of solutions, including the enhancement of cooperation with India , Vietnam and the Philippines , to help Japanese shipbuilding firms cope with fierce competition from regional rivals such as the Republic of Korea and China.
Maritime India - New Delhi
More ships stay idle at ports of Novorossiysk, Kavkaz
Jul 27Marine agents are going to appeal to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to solve the problems with idle vessels at the ports of Novorossiysk (the terminal of KTK-R) and at the port of Kavkaz, Alexander Esipenko, Director of the South Regional Association of Marine Agents and Freight Forwarders (URAMA).
The problem is, Mr. Esipenko says, that during the storm, with wave height at over 2m the authorities refuse to conduct inspections of tankers, which leads to unnecessary downtime.
The Association proposes to resolve the problem by transferring to the system of electronic submissions of documents and a simplified procedure of processing of ships (EDP).
According to the Association's data, in 2009 nearly 55 pc of the total time spent by tankers at KTK-R terminal was spent due to customs and border formalities, mostly because of rough weather conditions not allowing the PSC officers, in accordance with their instructions, to conduct inspections on ships at roadstead. Even during fair weather the ships have to spend at the terminal on average about 8 hours due to formalities or their expectations. Meanwhile, the port's pier is equipped with a modern offshore loading technology for charging vessels 5 km offshore.
It's true, according to URAMA, for other terminals at the port of Novorossiysk. As for the port of Kavkaz the ships stay idle at the roadstead for days waiting for opening or closing of the border. The Ukrainian port of Kerch has abandoned the practice of opening the border for vessels at anchor.
Maritime India - New Delhi
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