Shipping
Branding Sri Lanka a Regional Hub:
Asian Shippers' Council 2009 in Colombo
The Sri Lanka Shippers' Council is the apex body that represents the
export/logistics- industry. The Council after lobbying for 15 years to
host the Asian Shipper's Council - AGM, which is the biggest shippers'
event in Asia, has been successful in getting this event to Colombo in
August 2009 for the first time. The ASC is the largest component of the
Global Shippers' Forum-(GSF) which constitutes the single largest body
that represents the exporters, importers and service providers in the
logistics and trade business around the world. The GSF event will be
held in September in London after the Colombo meeting.
This achievement is a great success for Sri Lanka at this moment as
Colombo was always rejected as a venue due to security considerations.
However, the Chairman of the Singapore Shippers' Council who is the
current Chairman of the ASC has now intimated to all 18 member countries
that Sri Lanka is now ready and secure to have a conference of this
nature and given us the opportunity to organise the event in Colombo.
The Sri Lanka Shippers' Council has taken an initiative to organize
the Annual General Meeting in Colombo and one of our main objectives is
to boost Sri Lanka's image and to brand the country as a Regional Hub
using this event. This would be a great opportunity for the country to
get international media attention for positive publicity for Sri Lanka.
In this context, we seek the support of all media institutions in Sri
Lanka to make this event successful.
Worldwide container traffic drops 10 percent
Trade at international ports is on track to drop more than 10 percent
this year, one of the steepest declines ever, according to a new
maritime industry report.
Cargo ships will carry 27 million fewer containers by year's end than
they did in 2008 - a reduction roughly equivalent to all of the cargo
containers handled by the five busiest U.S. seaports in a typical year,
according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants' Container
Forecaster Report.
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A vessel
carrying containers |
Because the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are so busy - they
handle more than 40 percent of U.S.-bound cargo container trade - the
wharves here are disproportionately affected by the drop-off in imports
and exports, Dekker said.
The ramifications for the Los Angeles and the Long Beach ports will
be felt in some of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation, as
longshore workers lose hours at the docks, truckers have fewer
containers to carry and railroad traffic ebbs. The Inland Empire, which
has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate among urban areas
because of the collapse of its warehouse and distribution system, will
continue to suffer, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles
County Economic Development Corp.
"The forecasts for 2010 call only for a very moderate recovery in
trade volume. This is a long-term problem. It will take several years
for us to get back to the trade levels we saw in 2006 and 2007," Kyser
said.
At the Port of Long Beach, the nation's second-busiest container port
behind Los Angeles', trade volumes have been knocked back all the way to
2003 levels, according to spokesman Art Wong, wiping out all of the
trade gains recorded during the boom years of 2004 through 2007. Similar
results can be found at many of the major U.S. ports. "It's
unprecedented for us to see this kind of slide. Is it going to flatten
out? Are we at the bottom? We don't know yet," Wong said.
The continuing global recession has run so deep that it has caused
Moody's Investors Service to downgrade its outlook to negative overall
for the 53 U.S. ports whose credit ratings it tracks.
But there is a bright spot for Los Angeles and Long Beach, according
to a new report by Moody's. Even though the two ports are spending
millions on expensive environmental improvements and legal battles over
their plans to clean up the air, the ports remain attractive to
shippers, the report said.
"Los Angeles-Long Beach are the two most highly rated ports in the
U.S. Two of the primary drivers are their strong financial situations
and their competitive market positions," said Baye Larsen, an analyst
and assistant vice president at Moody's.
"Both are a key advantage for those ports. They will be among the
first to benefit when the recovery does come." Lori Kelman, spokeswoman
for the Port of Los Angeles, said officials expect business to pick up
toward the end of the year. "Our port is positioned well to embrace that
recovery," Kelman said.
There are few indications that the turnaround will begin any time
soon. The trade route that had been the most resilient in the face of
the global recession - between Asia and Europe - has now succumbed to
the downturn as well. So far this year, the last three years of growth
in trade between Asia and Europe have been erased, Dekker said.
The result, he said, would be consolidation throughout the shipping
business. "We believe that, consequently, the basic makeup of the
industry will change as companies either go bust, amalgamate or shrink,
shedding assets and personnel in the process," Dekker said. Many
shipping lines are consolidating and sharing cargo routes with
competitors to reduce costs.
The world's biggest shipping line, A.P. Moller-Maersk of Denmark, has
a worldwide fleet that is bigger than the U.S. Navy. Maersk has been the
Port of Los Angeles' biggest tenant in terms of cargo volumes. But this
year it has sharply cut back its service in Los Angeles and to other
ports to cut costs. Maersk Line, which operates 470 vessels and owns 1.9
million containers, says it lost $559 million in the first quarter of
2009.
Freight rates for transpacific trade, the amount that shipping lines
can charge for a typical 40-foot container for cargo moving between Asia
and the West Coast of the U.S., have plummeted to $920 from $1,400 at
the beginning of the year, according to the Drewry report.- LATIMES.com
Korean owners plan fleet sale
The Korea Asset Management Company has devised a sale and lease-back
scheme for Korean shipping companies facing a financial crunch.
The government linked financial institution has plans to purchase 62
ships through a specially created fund amounting to W4.3Trn ($3.3Bn).
Shipping sources have confirmed to Fairplay that applications for
sale and leaseback of vessels have been received from 15 Korean shipping
companies that include majors Hanjin Shipping, Hyundai Merchant Marine,
STX Pan Ocean and Korea Line.
The sale price is still being negotiated though the first round of
purchases is slated to be completed by end-July. Sources close to Hanjin
Shipping told Fairplay that the company is planning to sell 16 ships.
According to market talk Hyundai Merchant Marine will sell eight
vessels while STX Pan Ocean and Korea Line will sell six and three
vessels respectively.
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The AGM of Sri Lanka Freight
Forwarders’ Association was held recently. Here the new
office-bearers elected at the AGM. Seated from left: S.
Mohanadas, Vice Chairman (Dart Global Logistics (Pvt) Ltd,.
Ruwan Waidyaratne, Immediate Past Chairman (MIT Cargo (Pvt)
Ltd) Dr. Priyath Wickrama, Chief Guest (Chairman, Sri Lanka
Ports Authority) Tony de Livera, Chairman (Wings Logistics (Pvt)
Ltd), Dushmantha Karannagoda, Treasurer (Marine Transport
Services (Pvt) Ltd). And Irangika Siriwardena (SLFFA
Secretariat) Standing from left: Tania Polonnowita (Hellmann
Worldwide Logistics (Pvt) Ltd), Roshan Silva (CL Synergy (Pvt)
Ltd), Shanaka Kumarathunga (John Keels Logistics Lanka (Pvt)
Ltd), Prasansa Rodrigo (Speedmark Transportation Services (Pvt)
Ltd),. Pandula Kuruppu (Freight Systems Logistics Lanka (Pvt)
Ltd), Athula de Silva (Phoenix International Logistics Lanka
(Pvt) Ltd) and Jagath Pathirane (Expolanka Freight (Pvt) Ltd
and Romesh Wijenaike (Dart Express Lanka (Pvt) Ltd). |
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