Tuesday 31 January 2017

DAILY SHIPPING NEWS - TUESDAY JANUARY 31, 2017

FLASH NEWS :

On account of Union Budget 2017-18, due to be presented on February 01, 2017, filing of Bill of Entry’s would not be available from 5 PM onwards on 01-Feb-2017, till completion of updation of all changes in ICES 1.5.   This may take 3 to 4 days which please note.

So, please take all necessary steps to clear the goods from Custom latest by today evening to avoid delays.

Air Freight News :
Hactl scoops Vietjet deal for new Hong Kong service.
·         
VietJet has appointed Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) to provide cargo terminal services for new flights being launched between Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong.
The daily services will be operated using Airbus A320 aircraft and come on the back of growing demand between Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Hactl said that in the first nine months of 2016, Vietnam was Hong Kong’s fifth largest export market, and major export commodities included telecom equipment, meat products and electronic components.
Imports from Vietnam grew 9% in the same period; major import items included electronic components, telecom equipment and footwear.
VietJet launched services in 2011 and today offers 37 domestic and 23 international routes with its fleet of 42 A320 and A321 aircrafts.
Year end cargo boost for airports in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Air cargo hubs in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East delivered strong results in November 2016, growing at 9.5% and 9.9% respectively, and recovering from a "stagnant market that persisted from the end of 2015 to early 2016".

In its latest monthly regional report, airport association ACI said that the November growth in Asia-Pacific was largely driven by "increased demand for the year-end rush", plus new cargo flows likely generated from e-commerce.

The top three freight hubs in the region all delivered robust increase: Hong Kong at 7.1%, Shanghai Pudong at 11.6% and Seoul Incheon at 9.5%.
Ethiopian to add seven new destinations by June.
·        
Rapidly expanding Ethiopian Airlines is set to add even more cargo capacity to African trade lanes with the launch of services to seven new destinations in the first five months of the year.
The Addis Ababa hub based airline announced this morning that between January and June it will launch new services to Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Conakry (Guinea), Oslo (Norway), Chengdu (China), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Singapore.
The airline, which will open a new cargo hub in April,  aims to offer services to 120 international destinations by 2025. With these new additions it will offer flights to 98 cities with its fleet of Boeing 777, Airbus A350, B787 and Bombardier Q-400 aircraft.

Sea Freight News :
Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: 1px

Inland Waterways Authority of India starts work on converting 106 rivers into national waterways

Economic Times
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has begun the preparatory works on converting 106 rivers into National Waterways (NWs) by making them navigable. 106 rivers across the country were declared national waterways by the government in April 2016. These rivers would be used to move freight cargo. In phase I, 8 waterways are being considered for development. Some of the states that the eight NWs would cover, include Bihar (NW-37, Gandak & NW-58 , Kosi), Uttar Pradesh (NW-40 Ghaghra), Goa (NW-68, Mandovi, NW-111, Zuari and NW-27, Cumberjua Canal), West Bengal (NW-97, Sunderban), and Assam (NW-16, Barak). "While the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for these waterways are ready, the tender process for fairway development of two NWs namely river Barak in Assam and Ghaghra in Uttar Pradesh respectively have been initiated.

India to levy service tax on freight for imports on delivered basis

Economic Times
Overseas exporters chartering foreign vessels to supply goods to India will have to pay a service tax on freight from Sunday, a government notification said. It will be the same as the 4.5 percent service tax that India currently levies on free-on-board (FOB) cargoes, where the ship is chartered by a local buyer. Prior to the change, imports in foreign ships hired by the overseas seller - known as on a cost and freight (CFR) basis - have been exempt from this charge. The difference in tax rates has affected the business of Indian shipping lines such as Shipping Corp of India, Great Eastern Shipping Co Ltd and Mercator Ltd. "This will provide a level playing field to Indian shipping companies ... there will be no major impact on importers as most of the service tax is refunded as credit under a (government) scheme," said L.K. Gupta, chief executive at Essar Oil.

How dreams of logistics startups turned to dust

Economic Times
Ankit Singh, ex co-founder of Truckmandi, a startup connecting logistics providers with customers for inter-city trucking services now works with Ola. Aravind Sanka of TheKarrier has moved on to start a two-wheeler ride hailing App Rapido. They are part of a bunch of entrepreneurs who had big dreams to revolutionise the Indian logistics sector but have retired hurt. The buzz which consumed techies, industry heirs and college friends to unite over a logistics startup in India is fading. 2016 marked a dry spell for startups, especially those related to offering tech solutions in logistics. Atleast six startups, namely, TheKarrier, Truckmandi, Trucksumo, Loadkhoj, Zaicus and Sastabhada, all dealing with truck aggregating for intra as well as inter-city transport have pulled the plug on their operations.

India’s poor export showing is of its own making; here’s a solution to embrace

Financial Express
Though there are concerns that new US president Donald Trump will further slow the march of globalisation—the World Trade Organization had, in any case, warned of slower trade growth last year—India’s poor exports showing seems more of its own making. Perhaps why, while India’s share of global trade fell from 1.68% in 2014 to 1.62% in 2015, China saw its exports’ share rise from 12.42% to 13.96%. Even Bangladesh’s share rose from 0.18% to 0.22% and Vietnam’s from 0.8 to 1.15% during this period. Although rising wages and lower productivity are traditionally seen as the culprit, a new report by CII-Maersk says India is losing out due to high indirect costs, which accrue from delays and unreliable transportation—these costs could be as high as 38-47% of the total transportation and logistics cost. Moreover, it points that India’s logistic costs are 14.4% of GDP, as compared with China’s 8%.

RBI, Customs dept move to plug gaps in exim trade

Business Line
The Customs Department and the RBI are sharing data to plug gaps in the export-import trade that leads to situations where remittances are made from importers’ accounts even if goods are not been shipped from the selling country. Banks usually ask for export and import documents — which include bill of lading and customs clearance — before they release funds. While India was generating a unique number for exports, it was not generating a unique number based on the shipping bill for imports. Following the Bank of Baroda scam in 2015, when foreign exchange was remitted from importers’ accounts despite there being no import of cargo, the RBI brought in advisory to generate a unique number for each import as well. This was done about a year and half ago. “After there were problems, we started generating a unique number for imports as well.

Payra Port Development Will Enhance India-Bangladesh Ties

Eurasia Views
In its efforts to further strengthen India-Bangladesh friendship, New Delhi is eager to develop the neighbouring country’s proposed Payra sea\port. Recent reports suggest that the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh is also likely to award some segments of the Payra Port Project in south-western Patuakhali district to India. India Ports Global, a joint venture between state-run Mumbai-based Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Gujarat-based Kandla Port Trust for overseas ports, is the frontrunner for the contract. It has agreed to design, fund and build Bangladesh’s first deep-sea port at Payra on its own. The initiative by India, if it materialises, will take bilateral ties between the two neighbours to a new high.

India denies talks are on to take over development of Sri Lanka's Trincomalee port

New Indian Express
Indian official sources on Friday denied Sri Lankan Regional Development Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka’s contention that Sri Lanka and India are in talks for developing the Trincomalee harbor in the Eastern coast of the island nation.Fonseka had made the claim on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi earlier this week, touching off adverse comments in Sri Lanka on the dangers of trying to balance China and India and making Sri Lanka an arena of big power politics. Opposition propaganda here is that the present Sri Lankan government is eager to give Trincomalee harbor to India to balance the grant of 80 per cent stake in Hambantota harbor to a Chinese state-owned company for 99 years. In fact, India had earlier rejected an invitation to build the Hambantota port for the same reason.

Indian Railways to set up $5 billion development fund

Economic Times
Indian Railways has circulated a draft cabinet note for setting up a dedicated $5 billion Railways of India Development Fund (RIDF). The fund will to be anchored by the World Bank and will serve as an institutional mechanism for the national transporter to arrange fund from the market for its investments. According to a top railway official, the fund will be managed independently by a non-government entity. "It will support commercially viable investment in railway sector in India over the period of next seven years," the official said, requesting anonymity. Railways expects to construct high traction projects such as various freight corridors, warehouses, last mile connectivity for ports and electrification of various routes using this fund. "Market sounding exercise has been carried out and has received positive response from both domestic and international investors," the official added.

OOIL denies Cosco bid for container line OOCL

Seatrade Maritime
Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) has denied knowledge of any potential bid for its container shipping business Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL). Responding to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Chinese media that Cosco Shipping was readying a bid in excess of $4bn for OOCL, the parent company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange: “The company wishes to clarify that the company and OOCL is not aware of, nor is it involved in any bid relating to the company or OOCL.” Meanwhile Reuters quoted a Cosco Shipping spokeswoman as saying the rumours were "incorrect". OOIL’s share price has surged more than 30% since the start of the year on market talk that it is up for sale. Along with Cosco reported to be readying a firm bid CMA CGM and Evergreen have also been linked as interested parties in the Hong Kong-based line.

April launch of new alliances could create uncertainty in the market

Sea News
As carriers consolidate their vessel calls into fewer port pairs, there will be winners and losers. For BCOs, there will be fewer choices of routes, and there will be no guarantee that the shipments they book with certain carriers will travel on those vessels because of the numerous slot-sharing arrangements that will be in place when the new alliances begin operating on April 1. Rate volatility is possible as the alliances compete for business, according to IHS Media. Marine terminal operators, however, could feel the biggest residual impact of the alliance reshuffling. The alliances, and the bigger ships they will deploy, will require taller cranes, more yard space, expanded gate capacity, and probably longer hours of operations. Terminal operators and operating ports will have to pick up the bill for these additional costs.

Seaport alliance marks highest container volumes since 2007

The News Tribune
The Northwest Seaport Alliance finished strong in 2016 for shipping through the ports of Tacoma and Seattle. Last year’s container traffic through both ports was the highest since 2007, according to a news release from the Northwest Seaport Alliance. The seaport alliance formed a little more than a year ago as a partnership between the Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle. The alliance manages cargo business for both ports. The data compare traffic through both ports, both before and after they formed the alliance. In 2016, the alliance managed more than 3.6 million TEUs, or 20-foot-equivalent container units, an increase of more than 2 percent from 2015 container volumes. Full containers of imported goods were also up 6 percent to almost 1.4 million TEUs, and full exports increased 13 percent to 984,274 TEUs, the news release said.

Kalmar to supply new generation empty container handlers to DP World Jebel Ali Port

Port News
Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has been awarded an order to supply DP World's flagship terminal, Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, with the new generation empty container handlers. The order for 13 units has been booked into Cargotec's 2016 fourth quarter order intake. The deliveries will begin in the second quarter of 2017 and they are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017, the company said in its press release. Kalmar's new range of empty container handlers was launched in November 2016. The DCG80-45ES8 machines sold have the capacity of eight tonnes and they can stack eight containers high. Every empty container handler in this range comes fitted with the latest EGO cabin as well as with Kalmar SmartFleet remote monitoring and reporting system that improves operational transparency and reduces downtime.


Suezmax Crude Carrier Arrested in Singapore

World Maritime News
Ambassador, a Suezmax crude oil tanker, has been arrested in Singapore waters, according to Supreme Court of Singapore’s data. The 153,000 dwt ship, owned by Cyprus-based shipping company Transland Bulk Carriers, was detained for undisclosed reasons in the morning of January 19, 2017. Focal Investigation & Security Agency has been appointed for security and investigation purposes related to the arrest of Ambassador, which flies the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Built by South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries in 1997, Ambassador features a length of 269 meters and a width of 49 meters. Market value of the vessel currently stands at USD 8.6 million, VesselsValue’s data shows. As of January 20, 2017, the tanker’s AIS data shows it is anchored in Singapore Area.

No comments:

Post a Comment