People on the move

Bremen's senator for economy and justice - the ministerial post that includes the Bremen ports' portfolio - Ralf Nagel (SPD), has resigned with immediate effect.

Nagel started his career in the German Navy and was then a state secretary for transport and traffic for the German state of Saxon-Anhalt. He filled the same position in the federal government followed by a partnership in a private commercial consultancy firm, before being appointed a senator in Bremen in 2007.

Disagreements with his political party are cited as reasons for his resignation. He was accused of showing "insufficient engagement in his official political position."

He is taken up the post of managing director of VDR – Verband Deutscher Reeder – the German Shipowners' Association in Hamburg, as a direct replacement for Dr Hans-Heinrich Nöll, who has been sacked.

Members of the VDR were of the view that Dr. Nöll had not acted strongly enough to defend and promote their interests in this time of the crisis. It is claimed that he failed to get any substantial financial support from the Berlin government for the troubled German shipping industry.

VDR's chairman Michael Behrendt said that Nagel has excellent connections in political circles and in the business world. The Bremen senate has appointed Martin Günthner as the new senator for economic and port affairs. He has been the SPD's spokesman in Bremen on port policy since 2002.

GPM de Marseille-Fos has appointed a Belgian, Dirk Becquart, currently dirctor of the Port of Gent, as director of development, a new post. This is the first time that such a high level position in any leading French port authority has gone to a non-French national. The post includes marketing responsibilities. The name of Becquart's replacement in Gent is not known at the time of writing.

Fred Kamperman, who in the past has served as terminal manager of both BCT Riga and general manager of the DCT Gdansk, has joined the Belgian Delphis Group as general manager of its Sjursøya Container Terminal affiliate in Oslo.

Charles Jonet was recently appointed president of the Port of Brussels, replacing Laurence Bovey.

Source : World Cargo News

China’s container rail network on fast track

Air China Chairman Kong Dong and Cathay Pacific Chairman Christoper Pratt seal the deal.

     Air China Limited and Cathay Pacific Airways Limited signed a Framework Agreement today (25 February) in Beijing to establish a jointly owned cargo airline.
     The two companies will use an existing cargo airline, Air China Cargo Co Ltd (ACC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Air China, as the platform for the joint venture.
     Upon completion of the transaction, ACC will continue to be a subsidiary of Air China. Air China will hold 51% equity in ACC while the Cathay Pacific Group will acquire a 25% equity interest directly in ACC and fund an offshore trust, in the form of a loan, to hold another 24% economic interest in ACC. The total value of the Cathay Pacific Group’s investment in the joint venture will be RMB 1,669 million.
     Cathay Pacific will also sell four freighters and two spare engines to ACC.
     The joint venture partners established their strategic cross-shareholding relationship on 8 June 2006, under which Air China made a direct strategic investment in Cathay Pacific, and Cathay Pacific increased its strategic investment in Air China and assumed 100 per cent ownership of Dragonair. At the same time, both parties signed an operating agreement that also announced their intention to form the cargo joint venture.
     Subject to the approval of the relevant authorities and the respective shareholders of Air China and Cathay Pacific, ACC plans to commence operations as a joint venture airline in the summer of 2010, with Beijing and Shanghai remaining as its principal operating bases.
     The new board of directors at ACC will have seven directors, four (including the chairman) appointed by Air China and three (including the vice-chairman) by the Cathay Pacific Group. The make-up of the board and the management team is designed to take full advantage of the complementary strengths of the two companies in terms of experience and expertise that would prepare ACC for broader international growth.
     ACC began domestic and international operations in 2003 and is now China’s largest all-cargo airline. The joint venture partners will continue to develop its business on this solid foundation. ACC's current cargo business strength is focused on the northern China and Yangtze River Delta (YRD) while Cathay Pacific's core cargo business is the Pearl River Delta (PRD). The PRD and YRD regions are already two of the world’s largest export-generating manufacturing centres and the airfreight trade lanes to Europe and the USA reflect this fact in their size and historic growth rates.
     The establishment of a cargo airline joint venture based in Shanghai by Air China and Cathay Pacific will enable ACC to capture the air cargo business opportunities from the important and competitive YRD region. The complementary strengths of Air China and Cathay Pacific in products, services and expertise will bring to customers more competitive services and greater choice, therefore further strengthening ACC’s competitive position.
     Air China Chairman Mr Kong Dong said: “The restructuring of ACC’s shareholding comprises two major aspects. First, through fleet expansion, we efficiently set the platform for future growth. Secondly, two strong partners team up with complementary strengths to enhance our competitiveness. Given the solid cooperation foundation between Air China and Cathay Pacific, ACC will fully capitalize on both companies’ existing brand strengths and shareholders’ support, to capture business opportunities, maintain leadership position in the market, and contribute to the development of the Beijing and Shanghai aviation hubs.”
     Cathay Pacific Chairman Mr Christopher Pratt said: “We are very excited about this joint venture which further enhances our strong and deepening strategic partnership with Air China. The joint venture airline will provide the two most important cargo-generating regions in the Mainland with two highly competitive and efficient home-based carriers – Cathay Pacific in the Pearl River Delta and ACC in the Yangtze River Delta.
     “Both regions will remain competitive relative to other export zones elsewhere in the world. As a strong home-based cargo airline with a firm foothold in the Yangtze River Delta, ACC will ensure an efficient capture of cargo movements that may otherwise divert to rival hubs in the region. It makes good sense for Cathay Pacific and Air China to team up for this joint venture.”
ACC currently operates seven Boeing 747 freighters. It also procures and sells the cargo “belly space” provided by Air China’s extensive domestic and international passenger network. The airline operates all-cargo services to 14 destinations worldwide.

High berth productivity - what’s the point?

The question was asked by UK-based port consultant Budha Majumdar, speaking at this week’s Portcentric Logistics conference in Manchester, organised by Navigate Events.

Majumdar takes the view that the most wasteful activities in container terminals are truck waiting times (queues, unproductive box shuffling, “lost” boxes) and - signalling a sea change in conventional thinking about terminal efficiency - “overproductive” berths.

“I am not saying it is wrong to have an average of five cranes each averaging 30 moves an hour over an 8000 TEU ship," said Majumdar, "but we need to be sure it is really needed when the ship is operating on a super slow speed schedule.

“A shipping line might say that it needs fast turnaround in order to maintain the integrity of the slow speed schedule, but let’s at least discuss it with them.”

Apart from the energy cost on the quay, the quicker the ship’s moves are exchanged the more likely are errors in the buffer stocks and that aggravates the problems of unproductive shuffling and “lost” boxes in the yard, leading to excess use of handling equipment, wasteful truck queues, etc.

Majumdar suggested that it may be appropriate for a terminal to have, say, a three crane availability standard guaranteed at 25 moves/crane hour.

If the customer wants more, he pays for it. If, on the other hand, the terminal operator needs to hurry the ship through, he pays for it.

Analysts estimate that slow speed scheduling, aimed at fuel savings and reducing overcapacity, has added 5-7 days to east-west supply chains.

The fuel savings are huge. Lloyd’s Register (LR) has estimated that for a large container ship at 70,000 kW main engine power, reducing speed from 25 to 20 knots (20% slower) would require just 50% power. Allowing for the longer voyage time, the fuel saving would be around 40%.

From a technical standpoint, LR also warned that operating ships for long periods outside their “design envelope” could be piling up problems for the machinery.

All the same, slow steaming looks set to stay for some time, even though container trades are recovering. Speaking last December Jesper Kjaedegaard, a former Maersk CEO and the current president of the International Chamber of Shipping, forecast that overcapacity would last until 2013, despite all the vessel lay-ups and slow speed regimes.

In this context, Majumdar’s case could be very important, particularly in the overall supply chain context: what counts is the speed the box moves through the terminal, not how fast it comes off the ship.

Source :World Cargo News

TIGER stimulates mobile crane business

On the west coast the Port of Portland will use funds from the US$14M it received to purchase one crane while three others will be funded under one US$30M grant to establish a container barge service between the ports of Oakland, Stockton and West Sacramento.

Stockton will get US$18.6M towards purchasing two cranes, expanding its container yard and adding 3200 ft of rail line. West Sacramento will get US$9.5M towards one crane, a barge and a covered facility for container loading.

Also successful in the TIGER process was the Quonset Development Corporation (QDC) in the state of Rhode Island which received US$22M to improve and develop facilities for handling wind turbines and containers at the Port of Davisville.

Funding will go towards strengthening the pier and purchasing one mobile harbour crane. The QDC’s application indicated it needed up to 200t lifting capacity.