COSCO Container Lines has announced a peak season surcharge for shipments from Asia (excluding Japan) to Mediterranean and north Europe and the Baltic.

The surcharge, US$200 per TEU and $400 per FEU, takes effect August 1 and will continue until September 30, said the company statement.

JAPANESE shipping line "K" line has quit the European Liner Affairs Association, becoming the second major ocean liner to leave the group in the last year after MOL.

The departure follows a ban on shipping conferences operating within the European Union that was implemented last October. Since the ban, the ELAA is said to have become primarily an information gathering and disseminating body without lobbying intentions.



Nowadays, the ELAA releases monthly volume information on trades to and from Europe.



"We have made the corporate decision to withdraw from ELAA as we consider the original purpose/role of this group, which was discussing maintaining block exemption to liner services, has concluded," said "K" Line's container marketing chief Shuichi Kimura, reported American Shipper. "As such, it is "K" Line's intention to withdraw."



On the other hand, "K" Line will continue to be a member of the Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement, which Japanese shipping line MOL left last year.

SHIPPERS face a future of crippling costs from "piracy taxes" which are inevitable should attacks continue after the recent bout of bad weather clears, say a leading panel of insurers.

"The cost of keeping global trade routes open could result in a growing 'piracy tax' that will be felt by a wider range of businesses and consumers, already battered by the effects of recession," said a recent report from Lloyd's of London.



The maritime insurer also said ocean carriers will be taking longer sea voyages to avoid the international lane which sees 20,000 vessels of the global fleet cross each year with piracy fees an end result, reported American Shipper.



In a Reuters report, international attempts to curtail piracy is often slowed by this immense body of water off the east coast of Somalia.



AP Moller-Maersk tanker CEO Soren Skou welcomed the stationing of warships on trade lanes, but added in a Journal of Commerce report that "the problem has not gone away and a long-term solution is needed."



Paul Newton, head of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty insurers, said that "rates and charges may well escalate if the number of successful pirate attacks increases". This will lead to an increase in longer routes and fuel costs, insurance costs and eventually impact prices for the end consumer.

CONTAINER shipping lines participating in the Canada Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement are introducing a two per cent currency adjustment factor on all shipments, including those from Japan and China from August 1.

"The members will continue to monitor exchange rates and will notify customers of further adjustments," a statement issued on behalf of CTSA carriers said.



Members of the CTSA are APL, Cosco Container Lines, Evergreen, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, "K" Line, NYK Line, OOCL, Yang Ming and Zim.

SHENZHEN'S Yantian International Container Terminal received the maiden call of the JKHN service, which is its first service offering direct calling at New Zealand ports.

Jointly operated by Cosco, Hamburg Sud, MOL and NYK, the service uses six ships in 3,500-TEU range, calling at Tokyo, Kobe, Busan, Shanghai, Yantian, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Auckland, New Plymouth, Nelson, Wellington, Lyttelton, Napier and Tauranga.



The service covers seven New Zealand ports, removing shippers' need to detour to Hong Kong, helping to save both cost and time while facilitating the trade between south China and New Zealand.

CC TUNG, chairman and CEO of Hong Kong's Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) has been presented the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Seatrade Asia Awards, for his "significant and lasting contribution to the region's shipping and maritime industry."

The honour acknowledges that Mr Tung's contributions to the shipping industry in Hong Kong and around the world have been substantial. Mr Tung was chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners' Association from 1993-1995 and chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce from 1999-2001.



Mr Tung is currently a member of the Hong Kong Port Development Council and Hong Kong Logistics Development Council.

CHINA Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) has entered a cooperation agreement with Hainan Harbour & Shipping Holding Co Ltd, operator of southern China's Haikou and Yingkou ports.

The agreement will further enhance CSCL's core competitive edge besides boosting the reefer container shipping service between Haikou and Yingkou and giving impetus to the development of internal trade in agricultural produce between the two markets, hence leading to the economic development of the two regions.



Senior executives from the three parties, including CSCL's Capt Li Shaode and company managing director Huang Xiaowen, and officials from government of the two cities attended the agreement signing ceremony.

IN the first six months of the year, the capacity of scrapped container ships has risen to 184,700 TEU, with 94 fully cellular container ships assigned for scrapping, according to AXS-Alphaliner News.

The shipping lines are said to be using the demolition of vessels as a method to reduce the surplus amount of capacity available in the global fleet, which has reached an all-time high as demand has fallen to unprecedented low levels.



The data shows that carrier-owned capacity scrapped in the first half of the year totalled 107,200 TEU, while non-operating owners scrapped 77,500 TEU.



On a brighter note, scrapping activity is expected to slow in the third quarter in the peak shipping season, before picking up again in the latter part of the year owing to the large number of idle ships as newbuilding deliveries continue.



Alphaliner forecasts that the scrapping rate will surpass 300,000 TEU by the end of the year, hitting a level that would be ten times greater than the historical average.



It added that six of the ships earmarked for scrapping are in the 4,000-4,500 TEU class, making them the largest box ships ever to be scrapped.



It also said that among the major industry players, MOL has scrapped the most vessels, with eight this year so far with a total capacity of 24,000 TEU, which includes three ships that were less than 20 years old. MSC has also consigned 10 ships to the breakers yard for a capacity of 16,000 TEU in a bid to dispose of older tonnage.

INDIA's Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) in Maharashtra, which handles 60 per cent of India's container traffic, has been suffering from severe congestion since March because of a growing shortage of railcars.

The three container terminals at JNP, namely NSICT, GTI and JNPT, have seen a pile-up of 18,000 TEU of imports against 7,000- to 8,000 TEU in normal times, an unidentified official told The Economic Times of India.



The situation is aggravated because inland container depots have stopped receiving containers, a situation worsened by a national shift from foreign to domestic cargo movement in the current global downturn.



Congestion is also said to be costing shipping lines an extra INR30-40 lakh (US$62.2 million - $83.1 million) per day in rent alone, and is not only affecting carriers, but end-use industries too.



A senior official of the Indian maritime industry, who declined to be named, said: "The pile-up of import cargo at the country's largest port is creating operational difficulties for our clients in industries like consumer electronics, as they depend on imports for meeting certain input requirements."



Deepak Tiwari, chairman of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), said the shortage of container rail freight capacity has hindered cargo movement from JNP for three months.



On average, the three container terminals can together handle 1,800 TEU a day, or 20 trains, each carrying 90 TEU. Container train operators can run 25 trains daily, but only 18 trains are being operated to and from the port because operators prefer to service domestic lines. This has resulted in the daily container evacuation rate declining 15-20 per cent in the last two months.



Other issues exacerbating the problem are the lack of separate berthing facilities at major ports and inadequate connectivity with road and rail networks.



In FY09, JNPT's three terminals handled a total of 3.95 million TEU compared to 4.06 million TEU the previous year.

THE AP Moller-Maersk Group has been honoured with "The Corporate Social Responsibility" Award at the 2009 Seatrade Asia Awards in Shanghai.

The award recognises the leadership demonstrated by the AP Moller-Maersk Group in the shipping and transportation sector in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. Judging criteria for the award are the enhancement of safety and environmental protection, the company's commitment to employee/community welfare and the breadth of the company's involvement in CSR, a Maersk statement said.



"Being a good corporate citizen has always been an integral part of the way we do business in the AP Moller-Maersk Group," said Maersk China director Jens Eskelund. "As a Group, we constantly strive to limit the impact of our activities on the environment through sustainable and innovative solutions in everything we do."



The AP Moller-Maersk Group is recognised for its constant effort in having the lowest accident rates across its different business units. In the area of environmental protection, the group is reducing its impact on the climate with a reduction of 9 per cent in CO2 emissions in 2008 the equivalent of five million tonnes CO2 when compared to 2007, through lower fuel consumption on ships and reduced flaring from platforms.



In China, each year, the group's staff engages in over 100 activities related to corporate citizenship. The most important focus area is education. In the area of education, the group has so far donated 28 Hope Schools. In 2008, the AP Moller-Maersk Friendship School, a middle school made out of 52 containers was established in Mianyang, after the severe earthquake hit Sichuan province. Benefiting from this innovative set-up, now around 1,000 local students have resumed their education.

SHIPPERS are being urged to exercise caution when developing a dedicated software solution with their logistics provider, according to "Keeping your options open through a collaborative IT approach", in a Shippers' Voice editorial.

The UK-based Shippers Voice editorial warned "bespoke solutions can tie a shipper so closely into one logistics company that the cost of changing to another provider becomes prohibitive." Thus companies should "think twice before going down an independent development path."



One of the paper's two authors, Andrew Traill, managing partner of Shippers' Voice, said: "We know that many processes have been made simpler, cheaper, more efficient through the use of new technology and sophisticated IT programmes. And the movement of goods around the world is no exception. From booking to route planning to proof of delivery, the developments have been amazing.



"But how does a company select the best IT solution? What questions should be asked? How do shippers make sure they retain control of their supply chains and the associated costs? How do they ensure they maintain the option to change their service providers?"



In response, the Shippers' Voice paper points out: "Technology is an enabler, and not an objective in itself. Technology should run in the background, supporting and accelerating your processes... A collaboration platform has to be designed to allow information gathered directly for any IT system. The solutions need to be hardware and software independent, meaning that any existing hardware or software configuration should be able to share data--whether a simple web browser, a telephone or a sophisticated ERP generated XML message."



The paper's co-author Harold Bosse, international marketing manager of Transwide, advocates "seeking common standards" so that everyone involved in the supply chain has easy access to the collaborative platform and that the system be secure so that only authorised people have access to the information.



"With a collaboration platform, transport buyers have two-way electronic communication with all their contractual carriers through one single connection."

GERMAN Express delivery giant DHL has announced the launch of the DHL Life Science and Healthcare Competence Centre in Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Xinhua reported.

The DHL Life Science and Competence Centre will comprise of a core team of industry experts and be responsible for developing bespoke products and solutions and provide consultancy services to customers in China and North Asia Pacific.



The centre is located within DHL's new 180-square-metre temperature controlled warehouse (15c-25c) at Pudong.



According to industry information analyser and provider Datamonitor, the life science and healthcare industry has been developing rapidly in recent years with China emerging as a market with the greatest growth potential.



The Asia Pacific pharmaceutical market generated total revenues of US$118.3 billion in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 per cent for the period 2004-2008, from $91.6 billion to $118.3 billion. China's pharmaceutical market grew the fastest with CAGR of 21.1 per cent for the period 2004-2008 and is projected to grow further.



Statistics from ResearchInChina show that China ranks the ninth place in the world's pharmaceutical market in terms of size. It is forecast that China's pharmaceutical market will continue to maintain a double-digit growth in the next few years and will jump to the sixth place by 2011.



DHL Global Forwarding's life science and healthcare team has a network of more than 100 industry experts and 16 "competence centres" worldwide.

CONTINENTAL Airlines is taking delivery this week of another new Boeing 737-900ER, which is painted with a retro livery to commemorate the airline's 75th anniversary on July 15.

The new aircraft's retro livery was originally used on aircraft in the carrier's fleet in 1947 and is called The Blue Skyway. Continental flew the new aircraft to its three hubs at Houston Bush Intercontinental, New York/Newark Liberty and Cleveland Hopkins airports for anniversary celebration events for employees and retirees.



"I am proud to celebrate this exciting occasion with the Continental team, including both our current 43,000 workers, as well as the many retired workers who paved Continental's history and made the airline what it is today," said company chairman and CEO Larry Kellner.



Continental traces its history to Varney Speed Lines, started in 1934 by Walter Varney primarily to carry US mail. On July 15, 1934, the airline launched its first flight, carrying 100 letters and no passengers between Pueblo, Colorado and El Paso, Texas.



Varney went on to start a different airline, which became United Airlines. Later that year, the two carriers founded by Walter Varney plan to make an historic reunion by joining together as alliance partners in Star Alliance. Varney Speed Lines became Continental Airlines in 1937 under the leadership of Robert Six.



The new retro-painted Boeing 737-900ER will be delivered equipped with an advanced technology GPS Landing System (GLS) that will take advantage of a new NextGen satellite-based landing system being installed later this year at Newark Liberty. Continental is partnering with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the FAA, Rockwell Collins and Gables to make this technology a reality.

POLAR Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc has appointed a new chief operating officer, the former DHL Express executive Thomas Murphy, who succeeds Randy Clark.

"We are very pleased to have Tom join our team, to lead and support the Polar business. His broad airline and air freight experience, knowledge of the Asian markets where Polar concentrates and familiarity with DHL's express network operations are a great benefit to us," said Polar president and CEO William Flynn.



"We would also like to thank Randy Clark for his leadership, and significant contributions to Polar, including a highly successful start-up of the Express Network. Randy led months of detailed planning and implementation that initially led to the two aircraft launched before the expansion to current levels. He was integrally involved in all operational management, IT solutions, sales, as well as the start-up of new hubs. The resulting Express Network programme has been a success for Polar and its partner DHL."



In his new post as COO, Mr Murphy will be responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of Polar, after serving as vice president, Aviation Asia Pacific for DHL Express' Singapore-based business. His responsibilities with the company have included all aspects of aviation operations, strategy, and service performance in the Asia Pacific region. He will be based in New York and report to CEO Flynn.



DHL is a 49 per cent stakeholder in Polar with Polar's parent company, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings having the remaining 51 per cent.