APL to raise Asia-Europe rates Peter T. Leach/The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
02/2009
Newspaper Article
Freight rates in this trade have been falling drastically for more than a year, said Detlev Kerber, APL vice president for the Asia-Europe trade. We are meanwhile facing a situation where in many ...cases not even variable transportation costs are covered by current freight rates. Our intention is to restore freight rates in the Asia-Europe trade to a sustainable level.
2006," Rodolfo Sabonge, the canal authority's director of corporate CGM deploys on its PEX2 service. On its last transit through the canal, the CMA May," Sabonge said. "What CMA CGM is doing now is ...something all lines
Long way around Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
02/2009
Newspaper Article
Morten Englestoft said Maersk Line, which is a member of the International Chamber of Shipping, supports the letter. "I definitely think the Panama Canal should suspend its increases this year," he ...said. "Actually, I think it's reasonable to ask for the tolls to decrease. The tolls have doubled from 2004 to 2008, so we have seen a very significant increase." The canal authority is already looking at raising its tolls again in 2010, but Alberto Aleman Zubieta said it is being "very careful to take the world environment into consideration." He said the authority has discussed the idea of phasing the increases in over the next three years. He said the canal authority could have raised the tolls even higher last summer when the price of oil was at $140 a barrel and "the value of the canal's shortcut was high, but we don't work like that. We will look at a three-year increase and see what is best for everyone." In a letter to Aleman last October, the group urged the canal authority to accelerate the expansion. The shipowners noted that canal users had already made substantial "up front" contributions to the expansion in the form of "front loading" of the toll increases in 2007 to 2009. "The industry would most definitely not be expected to be called upon to contribute further to any costs associated with advancing completion," the October letter said.
APL Q4 profits dive Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
02/2009
Newspaper Article
Container shipping unit APL recorded a pre-tax loss of $84 million for the fourth quarter and profit of $73 million for the year, compared to earnings of $428 million in 2007. For all of 2008, APL ...recorded a 5-percent increase in volumes to 2.47 million FEUs, with strong growth in volumes in the Intra-Asia trade. This, combined with enhanced bunker recoveries, pushed revenues to $7.95 billion, 19 percent higher than in 2007. There was a rapid deterioration, however, in demand across all trades in the fourth quarter. This, coupled with capacity management by APL to reduce costs, led to a decline in fourth-quarter volumes, leading revenues 2-percent lower to $1.96 billion.
New ship orders may be cancelled, existing orders may not be delivered and older vessels may be scrapped to reduce the overall fleet, but the scale of the officer shortfall will still be ...considerable, says the report, Manning 2009," which Drewry compiled in conjunction with Precious Associates.
"The U.S. government is not doing a good job of promoting U.S. exports," Frank Vargo said, adding that even though the U.S. is still the world's largest manufacturer, its share of the global market ...for manufactured goods has fallen to 10 percent from 14 percent a few years ago. "The U.S. government is spending far more to promote agricultural exports than it does to promote manufacturing exports, he said. "Congress appropriates twice as much for agricultural exports as it does for manufactured exports. For example, the U.S. will pay for half or more of all travel costs overseas by U.S. agriculture exporters but it doesnt pay anything for travel by exporters of manufactured goods.
Loss for K Line in Q3 Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
01/2009
Newspaper Article
The company said container volumes on the eastbound trans-Pacific dropped by 15 percent on-year, due to the sluggish U.S. economy. Westbound trans-Pacific container traffic declined by 11 percent. ...Despite the slowdown in Europe, container volumes from Asia to Europe increased by 23 percent as "K" Line deployed several large new container ships on the route.
Horizon Lines posts Q4 loss Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
01/2009
Newspaper Article
Volumes during the quarter were negatively impacted by the continued sharp downturn of our Hawaii market, and ongoing weakness in Puerto Rico, which is in its third year of recession, said Chuck ...Raymond, chairman, president and chief executive of Charlotte-based Horizon.
As reported Wednesday, Maersk will combine its WestMed service with CMA CGMs Amerigo Express Service in a new VSA that will eliminate the call in Charleston that is currently made by the weekly ...WestMed loop. The decision to eliminate Charleston from the new WestMed rotation was part of the redeployment of ships under the new WestMed schedule, and not related to the carrier's decision to pull all of its services out of the port, according to Mary Ann Kotlarich, a Maersk spokesperson. Maersk pulled its South Atlantic Express out of Charleston earlier this month. The SAE service, which operates to and from the Caribbean and Central America, accounted for two of Maersk's seven weekly calls at Charleston.
Taipei plans port expansion Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Journal of commerce (Newark, N.J.),
01/2009
Newspaper Article
The expansion's first phase, a 119-acre container terminal worth about NT$2 billion ($60 million), will be put up for a build-operate-transfer bid at the end of the year, Keelung Harbor Bureau ...Director-General Hsiao Ding-hsun told Reuters. Keelung's harbor authorities oversee the Port of Taipei's operations.
