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NEW DELHI MAR 01:Shipping companies especially the smaller ones are finding it more difficult to get the market for such fund.

The global shipping industry is struggling with plunging freight rates amid a glut of ships ordered during good times>the prospect of slower trade adds to the gloomy outlook.

Shin Yang Shipping Corp Bhd had recently added more than 20vessels chemical tankers acquired from the now-bankrupt Swee Joo bhd

NEW DELHI MAR 01: Exports grew 10.1per cent year-on-year in January to $25.34 billion despite weak demand in the Western markets reversing a declining trend shown since the peak of July 2011.However the growth rate was a marginal increase over December 2011.The shipments had grown 6.7 per cent year-on-year in December 2011.Imports grew at a faster rate of 20.25 per cent to $40.1 billion leaving a trade deficit of $14.76billion according to the Commerce Ministry data released.From a peak of 82 per cent in July 2011,export growth ha slipped to 44.25 per cent in August 2011,36.36per cent in September 2011 and 10.8 per cent in October last year.For April January period exports aggregated $242.79 billion showing a growth of 23.47 per cent,thanks to sterling trend witnessed in the previous months of the current fiscal Imports during the 10-months period stood at $391.45 billion an increase of 29.4 per cent.The trade gap aggregated $148.66 billion.The Commerce Secretary,Dr Rahul Khullar has said that exports and imports may touch about $300 billion and $460 billion respectively.The balance of trade would be that the exports community would face demand in January were valued at $12.32 billion which was 26.78 per cent higher than in January 2011.Non-oil imports increased 17.56 per cent to $27.78 billion .During April-January 20111012 oil imports went up by 38.83 per cent to $117.91 billion from $84.93 billion in the imports was up by 25.71 per cent to $273.54 billion.

NEW DELHI FEB 28:The Central has asked fertilizer nutrients,especially potash and DAP,scheduled to reach ports in February and March due to poor demand a move that could save up to Rs 1000crore in the subsidy bill of this fiscal.In a recent order the fertilizer ministry said that it has been decided that diammonium phosphate (MoP) and complex fertilizers except urea arriving during the months of February and March will not be dispatched from ports to any state till further orders.

As the government has decided to cut subsidy on these fertilizers for the next fiscal the decision could help the department in saving up to Rs 1000crore in the subsidy y bill of this fiscal source said adding that tonnes of nutrients are expected to months.The ministry disburses subsidy to fertilizer companies on the actual sale receipt basis.Major Chambal Fertilizer and India Potash.With government deciding to lower subsidy

ACCORDING to a new advisory the implementation by the US Customs Border Protection(CBP) of the new stander relating to the testing of a mechanical dence of container tampering will be delayed until further notice.

The advisory a concems the new ISO standard was original to come into effect on March 1 which demand that the bolt seals have a minimum diameter of 18 minimum diameter o

CONTAINER volume at Colombo pot has increased three per cent to 4,262,887 TEUs in 2011 year-on-year.Transhipment was up one per cent to 3,123,823 TEUs.
Imports were up 17.5 per cent to 487,901 TEUs and exports increased 6.5 per cent to 260,047 TEUs year-on-year.Container ship calls rose 3.6per cent year-on-year to 3,187 ships.

NEW DELHI FEB 26:Research firm Frost and Sullivan has forecast 7.6per cent annual growth for 12 Asia-Pacific transportation and logistics (T&L) markets reaching $4.09 trillion in 2016.

Gopal R,vice-precedent of T&L practice Asia-Pacific said logistics end-users are demanding more visibility and monitoring in the various stages of the logistics supply chain so as to react more quickly to demand fluctuations or unexpected production problems.

He added that in light of natural disasters in the past year clients of logistics providers are paying more attention to risk management expecting enhanced forecasting and risk providers to guard against vulnerabilities in the supply chain.

The emergence of more environmentally sustainable logistics practices was also highlighted including lowering consumption of raw materials and more efficient fuel usage.Turning to Singapore T&L market,Frost & Sullivan expects it to grow at an annual 6.2 per cent to reach US$40.79 billion in 2016 supported by growth in external trade.Mr Gopal forecasts that external trade would hit $870.72 billion this year up from &777.19 billion last year.’Indra-Asia trade dominates external trade for Singapore according for approximately 70 per cent of total trade.’On fright movement Mr Gopal expects volume by different transport modes to rise 5.6 per cent to 561.91 million tonnes this year compared to growth of 3.4 per cent for 2006-2011.In terms of competition Singapore’s status as a preferred regional logistics and supply chain management hub always been problematic

LONDON FEB 26:CONTAINER line service reliability reached a new high in the final quarter of 2011 with an on-time average of 69 per latest Drewry Schedule Reliability Insight report.

Maersk line retained its position as the most reliable of the “Top 20″carriers across all the trades covered by Drewry, followed by CKHY Alliance member Hanjin Shipping and COSCO in second and third place respectively.

The fourth quarter showed six percentage points over the previous quarter,revealing schedule reliability improvement over three consecutive quarters a feat only squalled once before between fourth quarter 2008 and second quarter 2009 when it reached a record of 68 per cent after which it declined significantly.

The latest statistics show that the best on-time results were set during period of low
freight rates which reinforce the belief that reliability and rise are not directly reliability and price are not directly related to one another said researcher Mr Simon Heaney.

NEW DELHI FEB 23: With the government hard present to reduce fiscal deficit exporters are unlikely to get tax incentives in the Budget for FY 13 to be presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukharjee next month.Finance Ministry’s fiscal room for manoeure has gone.They are in a tight fiscal situation who is going to give you sops a senior Commerce Ministry official said Exporters are also demanding exemption of minimum alternative tax on special economic zones, key exporting hubs From a peak of 82 pc in July 2011,export growth has slipped to 44.25pc in August 2011,33.36 pc in September 36.36pc in October lat year and 10.1 pc in January Mukharjee according to the official may not provide tax incentives as his foremost priority would be to bridge the fiscal deficit which is the gap between revenue and expenditure.During the current year the fiscal deficit is expected to exceed the budget target of 4.6 of the Gross Domestic account of rising subsidy and poor realization from sale of equity instate-owner companies.In the last budget the government had allowed exporters to a self-as customs authorization a moved aimed at fasten it the clearance of the cargo be customs authorities.

MUMBAI FEB 22:EVEN though the resilient rupee has slowed down maize exports lately exporters and companies are hopeful of orders falling up in the coming days due to global stocks falling to record lows.

Admitting that exports had slowed down and that they were still getting queries a Mumbai-based trader and exporter said he expects order to climb with the arrival of the new crop in March-April from Bihar and Andhara Pradesh.He maintained that Indian prices were competitive compared to that of other global players.

While traders in Nizamabad said that exporters had purchased a large quantity of major forward contracts a broke in the Hubli mandi of Karnataka disclosed that the poultry industry had slowed down maize procurement over the last few months when prices touched Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 a quintal.They began substituting maize with bajra,which was 15 per cent cheaper he pointed out.

He added that unlike the previous year,when maize prices surged in January-February prices had remained s table this time around.

NEW DELHI FEB 21: In a first the forthcoming annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy(FTP) could cover the growing exports through e-commerce and provided some incentives to the micro small and medium enterprises engaged in the business.The new FTP supplement is expected to be announced in the first week of April.

Exporters executing orders that they have got through their Web portals is still at a nascent stage,but the new model is creating a paradigm shift in the way that India deals with foreign trade.

According to the initial estimates of FIEO in the last three years exports through the e-commerce route have grown b y over 400 per cent to $1.4 billion.

The business model of these enterprises is different from that of the traditional exporters in the sense that they rely on orders received through their Web portals.Even the payments are not via the traditional banking system,but through the online companies such as PayPal.

But what is interesting is that e-commerce exporters are now able to price their products morfe competitively and pocket better profit margins,because by offering their merchandise directly to consume by offering their merchandise directtly