Monday 4 April 2016

UPDATED DAILY SHIPPING NEWS FOR MONDAY APRIL 04, 2016

Imported chocolates, medicines, textiles to see 'swift' custom clearance at Indian ports

Economic Times
Imported chocolates, medicines, textiles and plant products will now see 'swift' passage to India, with the country joining the league of select nations to launch 24x7 Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade at customs ports. Importers and exporters will now have to file just one form at customs ports for clearance from all agencies including the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Drug Controller General of India, Plant Quarantine and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. Imports will be subject only to risk-based checks by all these agencies instead of compulsory 100% testing. This will bring down paper work at customs to one form from nine earlier and clearance time of cargo to two-three days, significantly reducing transaction costs for traders. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced single-window customs clearance in his budget speech.

Ro-Ro Service Removes 2.2 L Trailers from Kochi Roads

New Indian Express
The Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off) barge service between Willingdon and Bolgatty islands has successfully reduced 2.2 lakh container trailers from the Kochi roads, ever since it was launched around five years ago. The Ro-Ro service was introduced in February 2011 with the goal of reducing movement of trucks to the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICCT). Each barge has the capacity to carry 20 container trucks, which prevents movement of trucks from South Kerala during day-time. The Ro-Ro service has significantly reduced movement of container trucks to Vallarpadam through the Kundannoor junction, along the busy roads of Vyttila, Palarivattom and Edappally. Since container trucks are not permitted on the city roads during day time, truckers need to take the alternate route to Vallarpadam, which is 45 km long.

GST to roll out soon; retrospective taxation thing of past: PM Modi

Zee News
Promising easier business environment for global investors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said retrospective taxation has been relegated to history, but he is "not able to do anything" on two pending cases from the previous government as "they are sub-judice". Inviting Saudi businesses to come and invest in India in sectors like railways, defence and energy, Modi also said a common indirect taxation regime in form of GST (Goods and Services Tax) was "about to happen". He, however, refrained from giving any specific timeframe. Addressing Saudi CEOs and Indian business leaders here, Modi said his government has opened up various sectors to foreign investment and India stands out as a "beacon of hope" amidst global economic slowdown.
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Rail, road connectivity to top Board of Trade agenda

The Hindu
The issue of better rail and road connectivity from export clusters to ports and airports at the state-level is expected to top the agenda during the April 6 meeting of the Board of Trade (BoT), headed by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, officials said. The board is meeting to evolve steps to boost India’s exports and will discuss the recent cutback in government aid for export marketing under the Market Access Initiative Scheme and problems faced by exporters in getting refund of duty and taxes from the government. “Earlier the commerce department was looking at bridging the gaps in export-related infrastructure through the Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development of Exports (ASIDE) Scheme. Now the allocation for the ASIDE Scheme is practically nil and subsequent to higher allocation to the States in the Central taxes...

Paradip port plans to raise cargo handling capacity

Business Standard
Buoyed by an all-time record cargo handling of 76.38 million tonnes in 2015-16, Paradip Port Trust (PPT) plans to raise capacity from 118.50 mpta to 325 mpta by 2025 to become the country's biggest port. "The port achieved an all-time cargo record throughput of 76.38 million tonnes during 2015-16 as against the previous year traffic of 71.01 MT, exhibiting a growth of 7.57 per cent," PPT Chairman Rinkesh Roy told reporters here. With this, PPT retains second position in cargo throughout among all major ports consecutively for past three years, he said, adding major cargo handled were thermal coals, crude oils, coking coal, lime stones, rock phsophates, iron ore pellets and oil products. During the year, the berth day output has achieved 21,139 million tonnes as against 17,736 MT which translates to 19.18 per cent.

Adani Ports gets TN nod to buy Kattupalli port from L&T

Live Mint
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), India’s biggest port developer and operator, has won approval from the Tamil Nadu government to acquire Kattupalli port located at Ennore near Chennai from L&T Shipbuilding Ltd, crossing a hurdle in the plan that was announced in November, at least two people briefed on the development said. “The state government issued an order in early March approving the deal before the model code of conduct for poll-bound Tamil Nadu came into effect,” a government spokesman said. APSEZ has not announced the state government approval for the deal nor has it been communicated to the stock exchanges yet. Clearance from the state is critical because the port is part of a shipyard-cum-port complex that L&T Shipbuilding has constructed at Kattupalli with an investment of Rs.3,989 crore.
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JNPT handles largest ship to ever call in India

JOC
DP World-operated Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on Friday hosted the MSC Cristina, reportedly the largest container ship ever to call Indian shores. The 2011-built Cristina is about 366 meters (approximately 1,201 feet) long and has a capacity to carry up to 13,102 twenty-foot-equivalent units, the Dubai-based company said in a press statement. That makes the Cristina larger than the 11,000-TEU MSC Francesca serviced by NSIGT on March 18. “Our latest terminal to start operations in India, NSIGT is the only futuristic terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port with essential state-of-the-art facilities to handle vessels of this caliber. This reinforces our position as the leading container terminal operator in India,” DP World Subcontinent Senior Vice President and Managing Director Anil Singh said, speaking at a port event to celebrate the Cristina call.

Govt calls for bids to review relevance of trade regulator DGFT

Live Mint
Twenty-five years after then commerce minister P. Chidambaram did away with quantitative restrictions on limits and replaced the office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports (CCI&E) with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) as part of the economic liberalization process, the National Democratic Alliance government is now set to review the relevance of the DGFT. The government believes that most of the DGFT’s functions could be automated or delegated to the customs department. The commerce ministry has invited bids from global consulting firms for a “white paper on functions of DGFT” to study global best practices and assess how the structure and scope of DGFT could be made more relevant. Attached to the commerce ministry, the DGFT’s role has evolved into promotion and facilitation of exports and imports from regulation of foreign trade under the erstwhile CCI&E.

Ballast water bringing invasive species to coasts

The Hindu
The expansion of seaports and minor ports could pave the way for the arrival of invasive species in coastal areas. Scientists fear that ballast water carried by ships is providing a vehicle to bring in exotic species. A recent survey by the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, had recorded the presence of as many as 10 invasive species in the biodiversity-rich intertidal habitats of the Kerala coast. They include one seaweed, one species of bryozoan, one species of mollusc and seven species of ascidian. According to a paper presented by R. Ravinesh and A. Biju Kumar of the department at an international conference on aquatic exotics, the distribution of invasive species reported from the Kerala coast is likely to have been assisted by shipping. The paper says that the expansion of ports in Kerala has opened ways for the introduction of alien species in marine and coastal areas.
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CBEC launches ‘SWIFT’ for quick, single-window import clearances

Business Line
To make life easier for millions of importers, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has launched ‘SWIFT’, an initiative to speed up clearances for consignments and improve ‘ease of doing business.’ Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) provides a single-point interface for clearance and is expected to reduce documentation and costs. It is expected to cover and benefit over 97 per cent of India’s imports. Importers will not need to run around to get approvals from multiple government agencies for their consignments. The single window will connect over 50 offices of six government agencies with the Indian customs department. These are the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI); Department of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage; Drug Controller; Animal Quarantine; Wild Life Crime Control Bureau and Textile Committee.

New organisation for trade and industry launched in Salem

The Hindu
Trade and industry in Salem now have a new platform through which they can highlight issues of concern. The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Salem), registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Act, was launched on Saturday. The new body has been promoted by a group of industrialists, traders, service providers, educational institutions, professionals and intellectuals of the district. Explaining the objectives and action plan of the organisation, the office-bearers said that the Chamber will be a recognised and authorised forum to issue “Certificate of Origin” to the exporters for their various products produced in Salem. So far, exporters were struggling hard to get this certificate and these were obtained through their C and F Agents in the ports of Chennai, Thoothukudi and Kochi and they spent huge amount for it.

Oman Container Lines launches Jebel Ali feeder service

Arabian Supply Chain
Oman Shipping Company’s subsidiary Oman Container Lines has signed an agreement with the Port of Salalah to operate a feeder service to Jebel Ali in the UAE. The agreement will connect the ports of Salalah, Duqm, Sohar and Jebel Ali and will be launched in mid-April. It will be fortnightly to begin with, although Oman Container Lines has indicated it hopes to develop a weekly rotation in time. Tariq bin Mohammad Al Junaidi, chief executive officer of Oman Shipping Company and David Gledhill, chief executive officer of the Port of Salalah signed the agreement. David Gledhill welcomed the new service saying it will provide an additional gateway for Omani imports and exports by linking the northern ports of the Sultanate with a network of international shipping lines operating from the Port of Salalah.


Twin Ingredients Not Good Mixers For Box Freight

Hellenic Shipping News
Amid fairly significant turmoil today in many of the key shipping sectors, there’s one area where extreme conditions have almost become the norm. Container freight rates across a range of trades are currently at rock bottom levels, making liner operations more challenging than ever. What have been the ingredients of this hazardous environment, and is there anything out there that could change the mix? Following the onset of the global economic downturn, many observers noted that container freight rates (the amount paid to move a box from A to B) appeared to have entered an era of increased volatility. As the graph shows, on the mainlane trades box freight rates started to fluctuate more dramatically as liner companies were forced into more active supply management to absorb huge deliveries of ‘mega’-boxship capacity.

Shipping lines keep to slow steaming despite rock bottom oil prices

Sea News
Ocean liners are continuing to slow steam despite bunker fuel prices having fallen below the US$200 per tonne (PMT) mark, according to Alphaliner. Data from the Paris-based analysts released earlier this month, however, showed the opposite that low bunker prices are encouraging shipping lines to "increase average sailing speeds again, further worsening the vessel over-supply situation." The study focused on the China to US west coast trade and found that most containerships still sails at speeds of 19-20 knots eastbound and 14-15 knots westbound. "Service speeds could thus be increased by two to three knots on the headhaul leg and four to five knots on the backhaul, allowing overall transit times to be cut by two to five days in each direction," said Alphaliner. A faster speed and a shorter port rotation on a China to USWC loop from six to five weeks would result in additional daily bunker costs of $18,000-$30,000.
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