Friday, August 14, 2009

Industry Updates

Dear Valued Customers,

We LYMAN CONTAINER LINE take pleasure in informing current events in the Freight & Logistics Industry in CANADA/US & around the world which we believe of interest to our customers.

Week No: 33


Maersk to Stop Making Ships, Sell Shipyards

Excerpted from JOC Online - A.P. Moller-Maersk said Monday it will stop making ships in its money-losing Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark, which it said has played a “special role” in the company’s history. The company, which owns Maersk Line and extensive oil and gas production facilities in the North Sea and elsewhere, said it will also put up for sale the Lithuanian Baltija Shipyard, which it will no longer need after the closure of the Odense yard. The Danish group plans to sell the industrial, design and engineering facilities associated with both shipyards. Moller-Maersk said it would close the Odense Steel Shipyard because “the competitive situation for the shipbuilding industry has become increasingly difficult in recent years.” It said the increased competition has come from “the expansion of shipyard capacity in low cost countries in the Far East and most recently with China’s determined endeavors of becoming the world’s largest shipbuilding nation.” The company will stop making ships when the currently contracted orders have been fulfilled and it will continuously downsize the present workforce to accommodate production. The contracted orders, which include five bulk carriers, seven roll-on, roll-off ships and three frigates, extend to August 2010, November 2011, and February 2012, respectively.



Ocean Traffic Dampens North American Intermodal

JOC Online - Shipments of rail-truck intermodal cargoes across the United States and Canada are showing more signs of life, but are swamped by continued sharp declines for international shipments that are mainly ocean-borne imports. The Intermodal Association of North America said domestic cargo originations, combining truck trailers and the large-cube containers built solely for that domestic market, fell 9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. However, domestic container moves actually increased as more big shippers move out of chassis-equipped trailer equipment. Those containers, mostly 53-footers, made up nearly two thirds of all domestic loads at 969,231 units, compared with 386,586 trailers in the April-June period. Yet the driving force for the rail-truck box shipment industry across this continent remains the international containers that are dominated by imports coming into U.S. ocean ports.

IANA said the international loadings fell 26 percent from a year earlier to 1.47 million containers. Of nine geographic regions IANA lists in Canada and the U.S., it said domestic loading improved year-over-year in five but that international container moves declined at double-digit rates in all nine. That is all in line with numerous signs that this continent’s economies may be pulling out of the recession, but that trade with other parts of the world is slower to recover. Part of that reflects continued weak U.S. consumer demand for imported goods. Meanwhile, some of the growth that is taking hold in recent weeks comes from government efforts to stimulate companies at home.


OOCL - Thailand Import License & Release Permission Requirement on 4 Products
The Thailand Customs Department has announced that they will temporarily detain 4 products for inspection with effective from 1st Aug 2009 until Thai Industrial Standards Institute declare permission to release the cargo. In addition to the import license, the importer should obtain the TISI's Release Permission and must present this to Thai Customs for cargo release. The 4 Product Items are as follows:

Group 1: Engineering and Construction products,
Steel wire for pre-stressed concrete industrial
Steel Carbon sheet & roll
For the bodies of machinery industrial
For the bodies of automobile industrial
For automobile car part & accessories industrial
For all solder purpose industrial
For pipe & tube industrial
For gas cylinder industrial
Group 2: Electric and Electronic products (safety parts)
Electric Fan
Electric Rice Cooker
Electric Pan
Group 3: Food, Chemical commodities
Plastic toys
Group 4: Machinery and Automobile products
Motorcycle inner tube

Please be guided accordingly. Should you have any questions or require assistance with regards to this advisory contact OOCL Customer Service in USA or Canada at 1-888-388-6625.


Port of Montreal Increased Grain Traffic Lessen Effects of Economic Crisis

For the first six months of the year, the volume of containerized cargo handled at the Port of Montreal posted an18.4% decline compared to the same period last year, to total slightly more than 5.4 million tonnes. The drop in full and empty TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) from January to June 2009 fell to 14.6% compared to the same period in 2008, to total 619,721 TEUs.
Full details at: http://www.port-montreal.com/news/en_127_2.pdf


More Container Orders Go Online

JOC Online - While the global recession was driving container shipping into a deep contraction in the first half of 2009, the way shippers placed their remaining orders underwent a major shift from paper to electronic processes. INTTRA, an e-commerce platform for the ocean freight industry, said the volume of container orders grew by 22 percent in the first half of 2009 to reach an average of nearly 300,000 per week. The total number of new users joining the INTTRA network jumped 20 percent. Existing users increased their volume, too, the company said.

"The global recession that has gripped the industry has caused carriers and shippers to re-evaluate their business processes with an immediate goal of removing costs to protect margins and to create better performance," said one source. INTTRA estimates that replacing manual processes for managing ocean shipment initiation with electronic processes could save the industry at least $5 billion a year by 2013…


CP: U.S. CBP Modification of Ruling for Containers Containing Residual Chemicals

This is further to CP’s Customer Bulletin of July 24, 2009. On July 17, 2009 U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security issued a Federal Register Notice advising that they are "modifying one ruling letter allowing containers containing residual chemicals to be entered (into the United States) as empty containers." The effective date of this change was published as August 16, 2009. Since that time U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) have verbally advised that that date was published in error. September 16, 2009 is the correct implementation date; therefore no change from existing procedures is expected to occur until that time. Please be governed accordingly.


CMA CGM Hikes U.S. Export Rates

CMA CGM Group will increase freight rates in the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trades, effective Sept. 1, the company announced Monday. The French line will apply the increases to all U.S. export cargo moving to Asia and to Europe. For trans-Pacific cargo out of Houston and Mobile, the increase will be $150 per 20-foot equivalent unit and $300 per 40-foot equivalent unit. For trans-Pacific cargo out of U.S. East Coast and West Coast ports, the increase will be $25 per TEU and $50 per FEU. For trans-Pacific cargo from inland origins, the increase will be $50 per TEU and $100 per FEU. Trans-Atlantic increases for cargo to North Europe and Western Mediterranean will be $240 per TEU and $300 per FEU.

[Extracted from CIFFA ebulletins]

Ocean Updates

Maersk General Rate Increases in the Transatlantic Trade

Maersk Line announced a general rate increase effective 1 September 2009. The filed increase is as follows:

- USD 400 per 20' container
- USD 500 per 40'/high cube/45' container

The increases apply equally to all Eastbound and Westbound cargo moving between the US & Canada and Northern Europe.

June 25, 2009

January, MAERSK GARONNE left an Australian port loaded with tidy rows of 20’ containers and – three damaged racing yachts. The French sailboats had been taking part in the Vendee Globe race when they ran into trouble and had to be transported home. Racing yachts are just one example of Out of Gauge (OOG) or Break Bulk (BB) cargo. Other examples include huge generators, tanks, pipes and all sorts of objects that, for whatever reason, just don’t fit in. Dealing with OOG and BB cargo is never a problem for Maersk Line, as all our vessels can accommodate non-containerised cargo.


China Eastern Airlines has proposed to take over Shanghai Airlines through a share swap, according to a source familiar with the deal. If successful, the move would conclude prolonged negotiations on merging them as part of Beijing's plan to consolidate Chinese aviation, particularly these two that suffer from inefficiencies and price wars. China Eastern will raise US$1.02 billion through a private placement to finance the merger, according to the source, and then swap 1.3 of its Shanghai-listed A shares for every one of Shanghai Airlines A shares.


Train M34371-23 derailed along the Fulton subdivision of the CN main line, near Covington, TN. The incident, which occurred at approximately 1455hrs CDT on Tuesday, June 23rd, is currently affecting the southern portion of CN’s Chicago-Memphis corridor, between Fulton, KY and Memphis, TN. According to preliminary reports, the site would be cleared within approximately 24 hours. All efforts were being made in order to minimize disruption to customer shipping schedules. Further updates will be provided as they become available. Contact your Customer Support Representative or use your regular channels to obtain more detailed information on specific shipments.

News

June 25, 2009