AHMEDABAD JAN 28: A  dedicated jetty for salt exports, proprosed jetty will help the Indian salt exporters in providing quicker shipments to countries like Japan, Indonesia and south Korea, which are part of the lucrative 18-20 million tonne salt market in the Asia Pacific region.  

            The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) has surveyed the region around the Navlakhi port in the Gulf of Kutch.

           “We curently produce about 20 mlt of salt annually. Of this, about 2 mlt is being exported. However, in the next five years, the exports are expected to grow  to about 5.6 million tonne annually.

            In order to cater to the increasing need of exporters, a dedicated jetty will be developed in Gujarat,” said MA Ansari, deputy salt commissioner. India is the third largest salt producing country in the world (After the US and  china). Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan Produces salt, surplus to their requirement. While Gujarat leads by constituting 70 pc of the country’s total prodution, the share of Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan is 15 pc and 12 Pc respectively. Private sector plays a dominant role in salt production, contributing over 95 pc, while the public sector contributes about 2-3 pc.

                “In the last few years, a lot of chlor-alkali, PVC, soda ash and caustic soda manufacturing industries have sprung up in the Asia-Pacific region.

          NEW  DELHI, JAN.28: Average  global container freight rates rose in late 2009 compared to the previous year and for the first time since mid-2008, notes a report by London based Drewry Shipping Consultants.

         drewry predicts that average container freight rates, including fuel surcharges, will be about  15 per cent higher in 2010 than in 2009.

         This comes amid allegations from shippers  in the US from shippers in the US that their containers have in recent weeks been getting” rolled in China, as Carriers are said to be removing boxes to make way for those  paying more or those owned by larger shippers. “We’re also seeing  a lot of rollovers,” sources said. “We’ve given them the US$400 but at least they should try to get some more ships out there because things are picking up and I’m getting rolled a lot right now.”The Drewry Golbal Freight Rate Index recovered by three pc in the year to November  2009, after collapsing  in the first half of 2009. From September and November, the global “all -in” container freight rate index increased from US $2,160. On  the other hand, Drewry said average global freight rates in late 2009 were about 20 pc less than the peak experienced in 2007.

            “On routes such Asia to Europe, the year on year increase in spot rates amounts to at least 40 pc, and we know from shippers that they are asked to agree to much higher rates under annual contracts renewed in early 2010,” said Philip Damas, director of Drewry supply Chain advisors.

           “January and February are a critical period for many shippers  because a high proportion of annual contracts are renewed then, “he said as Drewry published its December 2009  Container Freight Rate Insight report.

           Drewry maintains that the potential for further increases in spot freight rates is generally limited barring  the  transpacific trade after container shipping lines in troduced an emergency rate charge of $400 per FEU, starting from January 15, to offset losses suffered on this trade lane.

           Its consultants are hence forecasting a sharp rise in spot transpacific rates from mid-January, ” as new capacity reductions can still stimulate some significant rate recovery in that trade, “reported American Shipper, adding that a “tighter supply-demand balance should push up transpacific spot rates in early 2010 despite the growing percentage of the fleet being laid up,”

         As for contract freight rates  Drewry anticipates they will rise significantly compared to the low levels of previous contract deals.

        “With spot freight rates now consistently higher than a year ago on most trade routes, contract negotiations taking place in early 2010 will be influenced by a different market environment and upwards pricing pressure,” said. The report also noted that emergency rate increases implemented by container in the TSA are taking hold across the board, according to US importers. 

                NEW DELHI, JAN 28: OVERCOMING  various constraints, Basmati exports this year are expected to touch a record 3 million tonnes.

                Exports had to face setbacks in Saudi Arabia, Iran and the effects of Dubai financial crisis.

               Exports up to December 2009 stood  at 2.3 million tonnes and may easily go up even more, industry sources said.

              In 2008-09, around 2.31 million tonnes were exported but a good portion of them was high-value non -Basmati variety.

        NEW DELHI,  JAN 27: CHINA Ship Fund, the first investment fund for the chinese shipping industry, began operations in Tianjin yesterday, mainly to support an industry  caught in the middle of the economic slowdown. It was one of the ten approved industry funds by the National Development and Reform Committee.

        The fund is expected to be valued at 20 billion yuan and will be used to purchase ships and rent them to domestic carriers. With demand for domestic and international transport of oil and gas in China expected to continue to rise, the fund  targets investment in large-scale, special ized ships used to transport liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and also semi-submersible vessels.

       The fund also plans to purchase similar ships from other countries to alleviate the deficiency .

       Investment in these specialized shipsis highly profitable, according to Li Kejun, chairman and president of China classification Society-a leading domestic ship classification and inspection services porvider. “I”m sure the fund will extend its business to wider fields in the future, but for now it will be easier to persuade investors, given these ships sell well in the market and are more profitable.” he said.

      Li added the timing is very good to kick off this type  of fund , considering ship prices are at a very low level, despite low investor confidence in the industry compared with one or two years ago.

      Zhang Guangqin, head of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, said the sector has hit bottom and it is time to invest, but that 20 billion yuan is far too little to spur growth and integration across the industry.

      “Even 200 billion yuan is not enough to boost shipping, ” he said.

       In the first nine months of this year, new orders  received by China’s shipbuilding yards were 16.9 million deadweight tons. a massive 70 percent drop from 57.2 million tons in the same period last year, data from the association showed.

        From October 2008 to October 2009. orders for 185 ships, 6.77 million deadweight tons in china, were canceled. Experts predict over 40 million tons of freight container and bulk cargo capacity will enter the global market market in 2010.

        MUMBAI JAN 28: The workers of the cargo handling  division in the visakhapatnam port called off their two month-old strike late on Monday evening, following an agreement with the port management. The workers have been on strike since November 19 in protest over the implementation of maning scales in the port. The agreement was signed in the presence of the Labour Department officials. The unions said that the management had agreed to deploy 33 more workers a shift, to engage 347 casual workers  after consultations with the Government and to treat the strike period as leave for all eligible employees, The suspension of workers would also be revoked.

               MUMBAI JAN 27: MUMBAI  port Trust (MbPT) will develop a second chemical jetty and related infrastructure at an estimated cost of Rs 3,652 crore, The port will further develop two commodity berths, a cruise ship terminal and an offshore container terminal. The second chemical jetty alone is estimated do cost Rs 116 crore, and will be a self-financed venture at the port’s existing offshore Pir Pau oil terminal

            The propose ultra-modern commodity berths, one for dry bulk and the other for conventional cargo including break-bulk, costing a total Rs 90 crore, will replace four century old berths at Indira Dock, p Mohanchandran, secretary of the port said.

           The berths have received interest from ABG Ports, mundra Ports & SEZ, SNB Infrastructure, parekh Marine , and US -based Master Marine Services.

        LONDON JAN.27: THE  start of a cooperation scheme, involving 350 European Union (EU) containerships, will be delayed by an EU competition investigation, which initiated by Germany,

        The EU Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said that it had opened an investigation into anti-competitive business practices by Baltic Max Feeder, in which shipowners were  expected to share the cost of laying up idle vessels.

         The scheme, that was planned to start early this year, involved small-size ships  carrying up to 1,400 -TEU in shipping , or feedering, between large deepsea  ports and smaller harbours.

     Under the scheme, there were supposed to be 120 million euros of bank loans and 60 million euros in contributions from shipping companies.

     This was to have been used to pay 1,500 euros a day plus bank interest  to owners for laying up ships.

      The EU commission feared that this scheme may be have been aimed at reducing shipping market capacity and pushing  up charter prices.

          NEW YORK, JAN 27: THE WORLD Bank’s 2010 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) has placed india on the 47th slot with a score of 3.12 out of a possible five in the efficient logistics parameters.

           for efficiency, Germany topped the list as the most efficient  in the world with a score of 4.11, marginally ahead of Singapore (4.09), Sweden (4.08), the Nether lands (04.7) and Luxembourg (3.98) .

           Completing the Top 10 list of most efficient logistics nations were switzerland  (3.97), japan (3.97), the UK (3.95), Belgium (3.94) and Norway (3.93).

            Hong Kong was placed 13th with a score of 3.88, beating the US in 15th position with rating of 3.86 china took in 27th place with 3.49 points and the Russian Fed eration 94th with 2.61 points.

          At the bottom with 1.34 was Somalia.

            LPI uses more than 5,000 individual country assessments made by nearly 1,000 international freight forwarders to compare the trade logistics profiles of 155 countries.

           The 2010 LPI provides a glimpse into the selected performance indicators in nearly 130 countries, including expanded information on the time, cost and reliability of import  and export supply chains, infrastructure quality, performance of core services and the friendliness of trade clearance procedures.

         ISMAILIA (Egypt), Jan 27:THE Suez Canal Authority is confident that transit tolls would remain steady in 2010 for the second straight year and expects 2.4 per cent growth in revenues this year.

        The Authority’s Chairman, Mr Ahmed Fadel, said that although canal revenues had decreased by 20 per cent in 2009 due to battered trade volumes during the global economic slowdown, piracy off the Gulf of Aden had little impact on the waterway.

       “To support global trade movement and (help) shipping companies overcome the financial crisis, we have decided to keep the tolls steady,” Mr Fadel said.

         He explained that the Authority could not consider reviewing tolls depending on fuel prices alone, but also on the basis of recovery of the global economy and how shipping fared.

         He revealed that Canal revenues in 2009 were $ 4.291 billion, some 20 per cent lower than the $ 5.381 billion in 2008, some 17,228 vessels passed through the Canal in 2009, as against 21,415 vessels in 2008, a fall of 20 per cent.

            NEW DELHI, JAN 27: DATA  provided by the Indian Ports Association (IPA) revealed that, for the third quarter of the current fiscal (October-December), Major ports have registered  cargo growth of 10.7 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 2008-09, although sequentially the growth was pegged at 9.7 per cent.

           Containerised cargo too has registered an impressive growth of 42 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) and 12.2 per cent month -on-month (m-o-m) mainly on the back of revival of overseas demand.

           This increase in cargo handling at ports, a key indicator of economic activity, is certainly an encouraging sign for shipping in general. The volume of cargo handled in December 2009 stood at 49.1 million tonnes compared with 45.3 million tonnes in December 2008-a growth of 8.3 per cent.

           On a sequential basis, cargo volumes increased by 1.9 per cent over the previous month.

            Iron ore volumes, though, declined by 10.5 per cent y-o-y and by 8.6 per cent m-o-m. While coal volumes went up by 3.2 per cent y-o-y, sequentially the cargo volumes dipped by 4.6 per cen.

          Crude volumes registered a fall of 2 per cent y-o-y. During the third quarter, container and iron ore volume grew by 16.6 per cent y-o-y, whereas fertilisers and crude declined by 7.8 per cent y-o-y and 1.1 per cent y-o-y.

         Mr Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce, recently expressed  confidence that, “exports have found their positive growth trajectory again, Exports will reach $ 200 billion by the next fiscal-end.

         “By 2014, we will double our exports from last year’s $ 287 billion, including $ 186 billion in goods exports and $ 101 billion in service exports.”