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HK box volume up 3.3pc in July, the highest monthly total this year
THE Port of Hong Kong saw container throughput increase by 3.3 per cent in July to 1.60 million TEU compared to the same month last year when the port handled a total of 1.55 million TEU.
The box volume was the highest monthly total so far this year and was 2.0 per cent up on June when throughput totalled 1.57 million TEU.
Kwai Tsing terminals handled a total of 1.27 million TEU in July, 7.2 per cent up from the corresponding period in 2019 when box throughput totalled 1.18 million TEU.
However, the container throughput at non-Kwai Tsing terminals where the volume totalled 335,000 TEU, was down 9.2 per cent down from 369,000 TEU in July 2019.
For the year-to-date, throughput amounted to 10.25 million TEU, 3.7 per cent down from the corresponding seven-month period last year.
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HK's Kwai Tsing Container Terminals remains open despite virus outbreak
NORMAL operations continue at Hong Kong's Kwai Tsing Container Port despite the outbreak of the coronavirus which has infected 63 port workers
The Hong Kong Container Terminal Operators Association (HKCTOA) said in a statement that the port remains open while members "are working closely with the government to take all necessary actions to contain the virus spread within the port area.
"It is important to keep the port operational as it is crucial for the daily life of all Hong Kong people as it brings in essential goods such as food products, medical supplies and other daily necessities."
Thirty-three of the 63 workers infected by the virus worked for Wang Kee operations company and they shared a common rest area.
A spokesperson of HKCTOA said: "We understand that the concerned contractor has been withdrawn from the facility and the Centre for Health Protection has arranged all of its staff to be isolated for quarantine. The concerned rest area has also been disinfected and is no longer in use."
The association noted that there are a number of contractors at the Kwai Tsing container port covering a total land area of 279 hectares.
"Workers mainly work separately and staff of the concerned contractor had little interaction with workers of other companies," the association stressed.
Moreover, terminal operators have put in additional resting areas and separated workers by groups to substantially reduce risks of cross-contamination, the spokesperson added.
"All members of the Association have taken stringent measures to ensure the health and safety of workers in the terminals and are making concerted efforts to minimise any impact to port users.
"We have also worked with the Centre for Health Protection to make available COVID-19 test kits for all staff members and contractor's workers in the port," the spokesperson added.
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DaChan Bay Terminals welcomes Gold Star Line's new service linking Vietnam
THE berthing of 'Vinalines Diamond' last Sunday marked the commencement of the Intra Asia Service Chu Lai Express Service (CLX) of Gold Star Line Ltd (GSL) calling at DaChan Bay Terminals.
DaChan Bay Terminals is the first port of call in China for import cargoes from Vietnam to reach Shenzhen directly. "CLX will allow carriers to use DaChan Bay as a hub for connecting Vietnam to other tradelanes. CLX also offers more choices and fast transit times for shippers," the carrier said in a statement.
Managing director of DaChan Bay Terminals, Brian Yeung said: "We are glad to welcome the CLX service which not only provides a fast connection between Vietnam and China but also an important linkage for transshipment cargoes between Vietnam and North America."
The CLX service calls DaChan Bay Terminals every week with a port rotation of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chu Lai, Da Nang, Haiphong, DaChan Bay and returning to Shanghai.
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SITC targets Intra-Asia growth with fleet expansion
HONG Kong-based intra-Asia carrier SITC Container Lines has expanded its fleet as it targets the lucrative intra-Asia market which it says will grow.
While long-haul container shipping has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, intra-Asia volumes have been holding up, said the carrier, as reported by UK's Container News.
An SITC official said the company is optimistic about the intra-Asia market with growing volumes out of Vietnam and the Belt and Road initiative resulting in increasing cargo flows. "We therefore want to have more owned ships to reduce charter costs," said the official.
During this year SITC has taken delivery of four vessels, the 1,032 TEU HF Spirit (ex-Hyundai Harmony), 2,702 TEU SITC Ulsan (ex-Munk Strait) and 1,043 TEU HF Wealth (ex-AS-Leona). The ships are said to have been bought for around US$12 million in total.
SITC now owns 69 ships of 100,219 TEU and with chartered capacity of 27,874 TEU.
In June, SITC launched a Vietnam service connecting Tianjin with Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh and Quy Nhon ports and Malaysia's Bintulu port. The following month, SITC began an Indonesia service linking China's Wenzhou port with major Indonesian ports. Earlier this month, SITC and Xiamen port started the "Silk Road Shipping" express service to expedite imports from Cambodia to China.
Besides the second-hand ship acquisitions, SITC has taken delivery of five of nine newbuildings (ranging between 2,400 TEU and 2,700 TEU) from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, with the latest vessel, SITC Nansha, christened on August 12.
In 2019, SITC purchased five pre-owned vessels, the 1,032 TEU SITC Danang, 1,049 TEU HF Fortune, 1,049 TEU HF Lucky, 1,700 TEU Sunshine Bandama and 1,700 TEU Stellar Windsor. Sunshine Bandama is understood to be currently chartered to Samudera Shipping Line.
The prefix "HF" in the ship names is understood to denote "Haifeng", SITC's Chinese name.
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US-China chicken trade has been a many problemed thing - and still is
THE chicken trade between the US and China has been put on hold because of the trade war, but there is cause for optimism that the appetite for chicken will paint a bright future for chicken farmers and consumers in both countries, reports the Bangkok Post.
"Years of hard work by both sides to get things back on track were further supported by the phase one US-China trade deal, which was finalised in January this year," said Bangkok Bank vice president Suwatchai Songwanich.
"When it became clear that the deal would be approved, the ban on US chicken exports to China was lifted, with officials predicting the trade would soon grow to more than US$1 billion a year," Mr Songwanich said.
But shortly after the deal was signed, the Covid-19 pandemic came along and everything ground to a halt. China immediately clamped down on chicken imports from the US, among others, over concerns that the meat trade could provide a conduit for the spread of the virus.
The situation was exacerbated by severe restrictions on dining, travel, business and social events, which resulted in a backlog of chicken taking up storage space while officials scrambled to divert containers of frozen chicken feet elsewhere, said Mr Songwanich.
The chicken trade between the United States and China has always been a complicated one. Chinese consumers prefer dark meat and chicken feet (or paws, in industry parlance) with US consumers opting for white meat.
From 2004 to 2008, the value of chicken imported to China from the US grew from US$10 million to nearly $700 million, more than half of which came from chicken feet.
Despite this, the lucrative and mutually beneficial relationship has often fallen victim to forces far beyond the control of an average Chinese or American chicken farmer.
In 2009, the chicken trade was caught in a tit-for-tat battle when the US levied punitive tariffs on Chinese tyre imports, which were having a detrimental effect on US tyre producers. Soon after, China increased tariffs on US chicken imports, an action Beijing said was unrelated to the levy on tyres, causing the trade to drop precipitously.
Then, in 2014, when the trade in chicken was doing well again, an avian flu outbreak in several US states forced China to ban US chicken imports altogether, he said.
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Yangluo container river-rail project in to phase II in Wuhan
THE Yangluo international container river-rail project began the second phase construction of the project at Wuhan, reports Bulgaria's Maritime News.
The project has expanded from the current terminal owned by Cosco Shipping Group, with plans to construct a combined state-of-the-art logistics hub with terminals, a warehouse, and river-rail transportation facilities, with a designed annual handling capacity of one million TEU.
"With the support of Cosco Shipping's network and partners' support, the second phase Yangluo international container water-rail project will attract more logistics service providers to come to Wuhan and establish an integrated multi-model transportation service platform," said deputy general manager of Cosco Shipping Group Fu Gangfeng.
Meanwhile, the Rail freight volumes at Ningbo-Zhoushan port are up 15 per cent in H1.
The current project is scheduled to begin in August 2021, with a completion date set for 2022. The project initially began at the end of 2017, which connected the container port area with the rail freight yard directly.
Currently, the Yangluo port has three-terminal operation areas with a cargo handling capacity of 2.2 million TEU.
After the second phase project reaches completion, the whole cargo handling capacity of Yangluo will exceed three million TEU, and the water-rail transportation capacity of Wuhan will go up from 100,000 TEU to 500,000 TEU.
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Air Canada cargo revenues stronger than passenger for the first time
CARGO revenues at Air Canada have exceeded passenger revenues for the first time in the second quarter, reports London's Air Cargo News.
Total operating revenue in the second quarter fell 89 per cent to CAD527 million (US$398 million). Of that, CAD269 million came from cargo - a 52 per cent increase from the same period last year - and CAD207 million came from passenger transport.
Since March, Air Canada Cargo has operated more than 2,000 cargo-only flights across its network, which includes cities in Europe, Asia, South America and the US, as well as New Zealand and Australia. These flights were both scheduled and on-demand flights.
The carrier also plans to operate up to 100 all-cargo flights per week in the third quarter using a combination of Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 aircraft, as well as four recently converted Boeing 777 and three converted Airbus A330 aircraft that have had their passenger seats removed.
"These aircraft currently operate on international routes, carrying personal protective equipment (PPE), mail and perishables loaded in the cabin," the company said.
Said Air Canada Cargo vice president Tim Strauss: "All of us are incredibly grateful to our cargo customers for allowing to grow a North America best 52 per cent year over year."
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AirBridgeCargo flew record number of RKN boxes from Amsterdam to Shanghai
AIRBRIDGE Airlines moved a record 41 RKN temperature controlled containers for Danish forwarding giant DSV on a scheduled flight from the Amsterdam to Shanghai, reports London's Air Cargo News.
The containers being shipped were manufactured by CSafe Global, which contained more than 30 tonnes of temperature-sensitive pharma.
AirBridgeCargo Airlines reported from January to June this year, they've achieved a 60 per cent increase in temperature-sensitive pharma cargo, amounting to a total of 11,000 tonnes.
"It's dedicated team of specialists across the entire network has been on the frontline in the battle against Covid-19 to spin much-needed healthcare shipments and provide white-glove services to its customers worldwide," said the carrier.
"This transportation, to some extent, is the rehearsal to check that we are prepared for the Covid-19 vaccine, once its testing is finalised," said AirBridgeCargo pharma chief Yulia Celetaria.
"For the last five years, we have deepened our cooperation with providers of temperature-sensitive containers and now, in the middle of the pandemic, we are in constant contact with our trusted partners, Envirotainer, SkyCell, va-Q-tec, DoKaSch, CSafe, Sonoco and others regarding strategic container reserve," said Mrs Celetaria.
"Last year we successfully gained our IATA CEIV Pharma re-certification, which stands as an industry commitment to be a reliable partner of cold chain and keep 100 per cent vaccine integrity," she said.
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Aerotranscargo Moldova names Air One Aviation its general sales agent
ALL-CARGO carrier Aerotranscargo (ATC) Moldova has named Air One Aviation (AOA) as its general sales agent (GSA), reports London's Air Cargo News.
The partnership became effective on August 1 and will provide AOA with exclusive sales and marketing rights for ATC across all regions.
AOA was previously recognised as aircraft charter specialist Chartersphere. However, the company will now focus solely on sales activities for ATC and won't be active in the charter brokering market.
Meanwhile, Guneet Mirchandani and Peter Scholten will join AOA to enhance its team of aviation experts. ATC is expected to increase its current fleet of four Boeing 747-400 aircraft to seven by August 2020.
"It is a privilege to be appointed global sales agent for ATC. Air One is now the go-to contact for any charter broker, freight forwarder or consolidator for short- and long-term charter solutions, as well as ACMI programmes on ATC's growing fleet. I am particularly delighted to welcome Mirchandani and Scholten on board as we prepare for an exciting new chapter in the history of our company." said AOA.
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