KOCHI, DEC 30: THE Kerala government is keen on completing the rail and road connectivity to Vallarpadam international container transhipment terminal (ICTT) by March 2010. which is the deadline for commissioning of the first phase of the terminal.

         The state Chief Secretary, Ms Neela Gangadharan, held a meeting here to review the progress of the connectivity projects.

          She reviewed the deepening of the shipping channel: building of the rail link by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and the construction of the road connectivity by the National Highways authority of India.

         Any delay, even minor, in completing the work will mean enormous liability for the state government.

         Work on the rail link, which had made rapid progress, was disrupted following a controversy over the builiding of a subway, en route. However, this glitch has been sorted out.

          A major problem that delayed road work recently was the scarcity of materials like sand and granite stones.

         The Cochin Port Trust (CoPT) Chariman, Mr N.Ramachandran, told the meeting that dredging of the channel for the project was in progress and would be completed on schedule.

           MUMBAI, DEC.30: THE Marine Union of India (MUI) and the Indian National Shipowners’ As-sociation (INSA) have signed an agreement recently for an upward revision of wages of officers working on Indian-registered ships.

          Under the settlement covering the period April1, 2008 to March 2010, the basic wage will be hiked by 10 per cent, while from April 2010 to March 2012 it will go up by another nine per cent, An official of MUI said that all the arrears would be disbursed by the shipping companies individually.

          There are about 2,700 officers with Indian-flagged ships, most of whom have been taken on contract basis.

            NEW DELHI, DEC.30: THE impostion of an additional 5 per cent export duty on iron ore will make exports uncompetitive, it is feared.

            The government had recently raised the export tax on iron ore lumps to 10 per cent from 5 per cent, levied  a 5 per cent tax on the fines.

           Mr Siddhartha Rungta, President of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, calculated that these would increase the cost of exports by $3.50 a tonne.

           Currently, the average price of ore, with 63.5 per cent iron content, is around $80 a tonne. Its exports more than doubled in October to 9,325 million tonnes from 4.26 million tonnes a year ago, largely due to increased Chinese demand.

            Faced with input shortages in coking coal and natural gas, ore producers had sought higher export duties to ensure ample supply as almost half of the country’s output had been exported.

                 KOCHI, DEC. 30:THE US  Department of Commerce (USDC) and the US International Trade Commission (ITC) have decided to undertake two reviews-the Fifth Administrative Review and the Sunset Review-next year of the anti-dumping duty imposed on Indian shrimps.

                The Sunse Review will be anounced by next month, followed by the Fifth Administrative Review in February.

                 The Sunset Review, supposed to be the last of the anti-dumping duty reviews, will examine details of the export of marine products to the US since the last five years, starting 2004, It will examine the export performance of various Indian companies, especially the mandatory respondents  selected by USDC.

               Exporters expect the final verdict of the reviews to be favourable to them and the anti-dumping duty withdrawan fully or reduced to a nominal level.

              Exporters also expect the preliminary results of the ongoing fourth administrative review to be released by this month-end.

             It may be recalled that the average  duty on Indian shrimps had been reduced to 0.79 per cent in the third administrative review in July 2009.

           KOCHI, DEC.30: AQUACULTURE shrimp exports to the European Union (EU) may come to halt following a recent audit visit of Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) of the EU which expressed dissatisfaction with the residue monitoring system in the country, it is learnt. Over 50 per cent of aquaculture shrimp are exported to the EU countries and a ban will seriously disrupt aquaculture farms of the nation, Mr Anwar Hashim, national President of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), said.

           The Brussels-based FVO is responsible for ensuring safety of food imported into EU and has the mandate to ban imports which do not match the standards prescribed by it.

           In a communique to the Union government after its biennial audit visit of seafood testing laboratories here, the FVO said the Indian system of residue monitoring was structurally flawed and ineffective.

          It also found that official controls were not proper and the concerns raised by previous audit teams (2003 and 2006) were not addressed by the authorities.

          The organisation has, thus, threatened to ban Indian shrimp unless the authorities provided adequate guarantees on the issues raised by it, sources said.

           Any laxity on the part of the authorities may jeopardise exports of more than RS 1,500 crore. The authorities must guarantee that laboratory facilities are set up in all states and that all raw materials are tested before processing, Mr Hashim stressed.

         Farms would have to register with the coastal aquaculture authority to be eligible for exports, he added.

         Most countries are now insisting  that the Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) provide antibi0tic with every shrimp shipment, it is learnt.

            MUMBAI DEC. 30: HOEGH Autoliners has announced the commencement of the Far East Africa (FEAF) service.

           Starting from the Far East, this service will cover South-East Asia, the Africa and US East Coast destinations. The service will begin next month on a monthly basis.

           The vessel rotation is as follows: Kawasaki, Nagoya, Kobe, Masan, Tianjin, Shanghai. Laem Chabang, Singapore, Maputo, Durban, Luanda, Lagos, Tema, Abidjan*, Dakar*, Us East Coast.

           (* Abidjan & Dakar will be on inducement basis for the time being. They will be regularised very soon.)

           Inducement calls to other Asian and/or African ports will be evaluated upon request.

            The Laem Chabang and Singapore call on this service has created a gateway for the South-east Asia market to various regions  like West and South Africa, US East Coast and also to East Africa, Middle East and India on connection with the MIAF service in Maputo.

            Hoegh Autoliners has expressed confidence that this new service will provide its customers with more opportunities to use the company with the same high quality service that they have come to expect over the years.

            NEW DELHI, DEC 30: By changing a few words in the charter  behind the two family funds, that are having a controlling interest in A.P.Moller Maersk, the old shipping typhoon Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller ensures, that a family member will always sit on the board and chair it. “The charter has been amended to reflect what has always  been the case in practice. The Management Board  thus ensures that it the way it continues in the future” Lars-Erik Brenoe, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller’s personal assistant, said. The changes ensure, that the Funds Board must always have one member who is descended from Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, against previously ‘whenever possible one member of the family. Moreover, a new section is entered into the statute, saying that the two funds Board of Directors should preferably be Chaired by a member of the family. This was not mentioned before. The changes applies for both the General Fund. as well as the smaller Family Fund. The two funds together own more than 50 Percent of the Maersk Group’s shares and over 64 per cent of the voting rights.

          NEW DELHI, DEC 30: Exports have come out of the red in November after 13 straight months of decline, but exporters from key sectors would like to watch for a couple of months more as they feel the recent improvement could be due to festive buying.

           Vasant Mehta of the gems & jewellery export promomtion council opined. The gems & jewellery sector, which employs close to 1.5 million people and was severely affected by the global slowdown, attributes the 40 pc increase in exports in November 2009 to an improvement in buyers’ sentiments. Engineering goods, one of India’s highest growing export sector, witnessed orders plummeting in the fiscal 2009-10 due to orders shrinking in the EU and the US markets.

         Since there is a three-six months lag between placement of orders and delivery, the sector managed to post a growth of 25 pc in fiscal 2008-09.

        “The enquiries are definitley growing.” said Aman Chadha, an engineering goods exporter and national chairman of the engineering goods export promotion council. One has to see if it translates into greater orders in the last quarter of the fiscal, he added.

         The textile sector, where thou sands of workers were laid off over the past one year due to a sharp fall in orders from the Western market, too, has started seeing a turnaround.

       There has been recovery in countries like Germany, Italy and France and buyers there had started placing orders, he added. But Indian exporters were finding it difficult to meet the low prices they were demanding.

       “Competing countries including Bangladesh, Vietnam and China are offering big incentives to their textile industry which is helping them to keep their prices low,” Mr D.K.Nair of Confederation of Indian textile industries said. He  said that the next couple of months would be crucial as it would reveal how Indian textile exporters have been able to cope with the situation of depressed prices.

        India’s exports posted a 18.2% growth in November 2009 to $13.2 billion. In the April-November 2009 period, export growth is a negative 22.3 pc a $134.2 billion.

        Encouraged by the positive growth in November, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma had said that exports would get back on the growth track in the next fiscal and post a 15 pc increase over exports in the current fiscal.

           NEW DELHI, DEC. 30: The country’ export scenario presents an incipient sign of improvement , following successive months of accelerated decline, with the November exports registering a relatively robust 18.2pc growth at $13.2 billion ($11.2 billion) compared with the corresponding month of 2008. But the mandrins in the Commerce Ministry and exporters are still reticent in not getting excited by a single month’s show. Exporters still moan about the manifestly slow pace of moves by the authorities in their interface with them to ensure transparency, accountability, procedural simplification and reduction in transaction costs which continue to cost them time and money.

           NEW DELHI, DEC 30: Out of the total inter-regional traffic movement in the country, the Indian Railways accounted for 30pc of the total volumes of traffic, while the highways accounted for 61 pc of the traffic. This is according to the RITES draft final report 2009. commissioned by the planning Commission.

          According to the report, in 2007-08, out of total originating traffic of 2555.35 million tonnes (mt), the Railways 30.08 pc (768.7 mt) share of the cargo, highways, -61 pc (1558.9mt),  coastal shipping mode -2.31 pc (59.1mt), pipelines-4.44 pc (113.5mt), inland water transport-2.15pc (54.9mt) and airlines-0.01 pc (0.28 mt) share of the cargo.

          “Even though the traffic volumes has gone up over the years the rail share-particularly in freight transport-has gone down steadily in the past few decades,” the Indian Railways’ Whitepaper has stated.

             In 1986-87, out of the total interregional cargo of 484.9 mt, the Railways-53 pc share, highways -46 pc (224 mt), and coastal shipping accounted for-1 pc (5.5mt share of the total cargo.

            But, in case the parameter  for comparison is changed to net tonne kilometres (NTKM), the Railways (36.06pc) highways (50.12 pc), coastal shipping (7.48pc) and inland water transport (0.24 pc) share of the cargo.

             NTKM  reflects both the tonnage and distance covered by the cargo, So, the share of Railways in NTKM  terms is relatively higher because Railways has an advantage in long distance leads against the highways.