International News : Asia

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky has forwarded a wide-ranging set of recommendations for revising the Shipping Act of 1984 to the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. Lidinsky Included in the recommendations to committee Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, R-Md., are six proposals: • Bring container and chassis lessors within the ambit of...

Two separate analyst reports issued in the last week suggest the financial sector is conflicted on what it expects from the top Asian container shipping lines in the coming months. On Friday Citi’s Asia Pacific shipping analyst group advised investors to sell shares of every line it analyzes, including Evergreen Line, OOIL (parent of OOCL), Yang Ming, Wan Hai, NOL (parent of APL), China C...

Member lines of the Canada Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said last week they will raise their currency adjustment surcharge to 6 percent beginning Oct. 1. The surcharge will drop to 5 percent in September, after being at 6 percent since May. CTSA member lines are APL, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, NYK Line, OOCL, Yang Ming and...

Ocean carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. said last week it will raise rates from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to all Australian ports beginning Sept. 15. The rate increase is $250 per TEU. ...

Chief Customer Officer Vincent Gulisano officially left Greatwide Logistics Services on Aug. 21 to become chief executive officer of ParcelPort, a small non-asset-based warehousing, distribution and fulfillment outfit based in Arizona. Gulisano told AmericanShipper.com he wasn’t actively looking for a new job, but that the opportunity to have an ownership stake and lead a company was too ...

China Merchant Holdings will partner with Sri Lanka conglomerate Aitken Spence to develop and operate a new terminal in the Port of Colombo, Reuters reported Tuesday. The deal, worth $450 million, will see China Merchants and Aitken Spence form a joint venture to build the first of three planned 2.5 million-TEU terminals in the key South Asian transshipment port. The terminal is planned t...

NYK and OOCL said Monday they would increased container freight rates in the transatlantic. NYK Line said effective Oct. 1 it would implement a general rate increase on cargo moving under NYK independent tariffs to and from North Europe and the United States or Canada by $150 per 20-foot container and $300 per 40-foot container. OOCL also said its rates will increase Oct. 1. The gener...

OOCL said it will increase rates on cargo moving from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East to Australia by $300 per TEU on Oct. 1. ...

Emirates Shipping Line said Tuesday it will become a participant in the ASEAN–Gulf-Indian Subcontinent (AGI) service launched earlier this month by a consortium of Evergreen, Simatech and OOCL. The port rotation of the service is Laem Chabang, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Klang, Colombo, Jebel Ali, Karachi, Mundra, Colombo, Port Klang, Singapore and Laem Chabang. Emirates' partici...

Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday Jesper Praestensgaard, 46, will become a member of its executive board on Jan. 1. As chief commercial officer, he will be responsible for the marketing and sales areas. Praestensgaard has more than 20 years of liner shipping experience, holding senior positions for Maersk Line, most recently as Singapore-based chief executive Asia Pacific Region with responsib...

Allen DHL intends to expand its presence in China with the assistance of Ken Allen, global chief executive officer of DHL Express, who has joined the board of its DHL-Sinotrans joint venture in that country. DHL and Sinotrans, the largest logistics firm in China, have partnered for 24 years, Allen will work closely with Jerry Hsu, president of DHL Express Greater China, to take advanta...

DHL Global Forwarding said it has launched a weekly less-than-containerload service from Auckland, New Zealand, to Singapore, where shipments can be transshipped around the world. The direct service will provide customers with faster transit times, the company said. The service will be operated by Danmar Lines, DHL’s in-house non-vessel operating common carrier. DHL, which handles...

Global container terminal operators had their "toughest year ever" in 2009, said Drewry Shipping Consultants. But in a few years terminals may once again face a capacity crunch, the London-based consultants said in a summary of its Annual Review of Global Container Terminal Operators 2010. "Global economic trends meant that container throughput at the world’s ports fell for the first ...

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has awarded a $864,000 grant to Pakistan International Airlines to help it enter the growing aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul market. The grant will support a feasibility study designed to assist the airline developing a facility to service engines, landing gear, airframes and aircraft components for domestic and foreign carriers. USTDA said ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow, under certain conditions, the commercial import of fresh mango fruit from Pakistan into the United States. Based on the findings of a pest risk analysis, APHIS has determined the application of one or more phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risk of introducing certain plant p...

Freight forwarder Greencarrier has opened an office in Shenzhen, China. Carman Yeung will serve as Greencarrier’s general manager in Shenzhen as well as in Hong Kong. The company also operates offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, with about 30 staff in Greater China. From Asia, Greencarrier has developed services focused on shippers operating between China and the Nordic and Baltic coun...

The Georgia Ports Authority said the largest vessel ever to call on the Port of Savannah arrived Friday when the 8,500-TEU CMA CGM Figaro docked at Garden City Terminal. The port authority’s Executive Director Curtis J. Foltz said the ship's arrival was "a view into the future of shipping between Asia and the U.S. East Coast," once the new locks on the Panama Canal become operational in 2...

Container carrier Zim said it had second quarter net income of $3 million compared to a $186 million loss in the second quarter of 2009. The Israeli carrier said revenue for the quarter ending June 30 was $933 million, 72 percent higher than the $543 million in the comparable quarter of 2009. Average freight rates in the second quarter was $1,328 per TEU, 26 percent higher than the $1...

The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners said its council will be invited at its October meeting to appoint Joseph “Joe” Angelo as managing director, to succeed Peter Swift as managing director when he retires Dec. 31. In addition, Katharina “Kathi” Stanzel has been named deputy managing director. Intertanko membership is open to non-oil companies and non-state-contr...

Australia-based global logistics company Toll Group said its operating profits rose 7 percent to $413 million in the financial year ending June 30. Revenue for the company, parent of Toll Global Logistics (TGL), also rose 7 percent to $5.7 billion. The TGL business saw operating profit increase 10.9 percent to $89 million, despite revenue decreasing 6.3 percent to $1.1 billion. Its forwar...

Savi Technology, a Lockheed Martin company and provider of wireless supply chain technologies, appointed William Clark to senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Clark has more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the technology market. He was executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Deltek. He has also held senior management positions at Novell...

Vestas-American Wind Technology Inc. has placed Torben Andersen in charge of its supply chain management. The company is the North American subsidiary of global wind turbine maker Vestas, based in Denmark. Andersen was chief operating officer for Vestas in Beijing. He has held other senior management positions at Vestas in China and Indonesia in recent years, according to North Americ...

A federal judge ruled Thursday that contentious components of the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program -- including an employee-driver mandate for drayage companies -- were legal. It is a huge victory for the port and a major defeat for the American Trucking Association, which had filed suit against the port in 2008, alleging the clean truck plan violated the interstate commerce clause...

The Port of Jacksonville said Thursday that Rick Ferrin has stepped down as executive director. Ferrin The agency's board of directors named Chris Kauffmann, chief operating officer, as interim executive director, and asked port management to initiate the search for a permanent successor to Ferrin. Ferrin, who has led the port for 13 years, will "serve in a new position where he will e...

Ocean carrier NYK Line said last week is has withdrawn from all trades involving Iran. The decision was made in consideration of “the current political and business difficulties related to Iran,” the line said in a customer notice. “All services to Iran have been suspended and cargo in-transit to Iran by NYK equipment is also not allowed.” On Thursday, the line also said it has formal...

Two Scandinavian carriers said Thursday they are jointly transporting a shipment of iron ore from northern Norway to China via Russian and Arctic waters, the so-called Northern Sea Route. Tschudi Shipping Co. and Danish Nordic Bulk Carriers are working in partnership with Russian Rosatomflot (the Russian national ice-breaking fleet), to provide two icebreaking vessels to escort the bulk c...

The U.S. Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration on Wednesday Rear Adm. Philip H. Greene Jr. has been appointed to superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. Greene comes to the academy from the U.S. Navy, where he was director of the Navy Irregular Warfare Office. There he developed and employed a global maritime preventive security strategy. ...

Matsuda The American Society of Transportation and Logistics said Maritime Administrator David T. Matsuda will deliver the opening keynote address at the Yangtze Mississippi Strategic Cooperation Forum in Chongqing, China on Oct. 18. The forum will include discussions about inland waterways transportation and economic development. The forum is jointly organized by the American Society ...

The U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday that Maj. Gen. Kevin A. Leonard has been appointed to commanding general of the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC). Leonard replaces Maj. Gen. James L. Hodge, who will command the Sustainment Center of Excellence at Fort Lee, Va. Hodge took command of SDDC June 30, 2008. Leonard has served in a variety of joint and oper...

Containerships will continue to operate at slower speeds even as the economy improves, Maersk Line said in an article for its weekly newsletter. “Maersk Line will continue slow steaming even as market conditions turn to the better –-- slow steaming is here to stay,” says Morten Engelstoft, chief operational officer. Maersk said in 2007 it began slow steaming, a practice that "involves...

Chilean carrier CSAV said Tuesday it will commence a new service in mid-September connecting the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and key ports in China with Long Beach. The standalone service, offered by the line’s CSAV Norasia subsidiary, will operate with 11 3,500-TEUs vessels provided by CSAV. It is a unique service in that it will provide direct connection from four ports in the I...

Intermarine said it had taken delivery of the first in a series of multipurpose, heavy-lift ships. Industrial Freedom is the first of four “F Class” ships the company is having built in China. The 14,1000-deadweight-ton ships each have two 400-metric-ton cranes, combinable for 800-ton lifts, and one 80-ton standard crane. The have a "house forward" design to give greater flexibili...

A senior executive at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. told Bloomberg news service Monday the company plans to achieve 30 percent of its sales, or about $7.5 billion, from wind turbine manufacturing and sales by 2020. Currently, the South Korean industrial giant generates 99 percent of its revenue from ship and offshore equipment construction. Koh Young Youl, Daewoo’s chie...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said it has instituted an investigation of Sinicway International Logistics Ltd., a China-based firm that provides non-vessel-operating common carrier service. "It appears that after registering with the FMC in April 2009 Sinicway originated and substantially participated in an ongoing practice of misdescribing cargo to the transporting ocean common ca...

China Merchants Group Ltd. said Li Jianhong has been named a director and president of the company. Li Jianhong is a former executive vice president of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co. China Merchants is an investor and operator of transportation infrastructure, including container terminals, on the mainland and in Hong Kong. In addition, Fu Yuning, current president, was made cha...

Talks between Evergreen and Korea's STX shipyard for 12 vessels have reportedly fallen through, but the company is continuing with plans to order 20 ships from Korea's Samsung and Taiwan's CSBC. An article in the Japanese shipping newspaper Kaiji Press on Monday featured an exclusive interview with Evergreen Group Chairman Y.F. Chang, who said the company would soon sign an order for 10 8...

Container line Hapag-Lloyd has joined a Far East/Australia service operated by ANL, China Shipping and OOCL, according to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data. Hapag-Lloyd has become a slot buyer on the AANA service, which has a rotation of Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Yokohama. The service is operated with five ves...

Danaos Corp. said Monday it took delivery of two ships earlier this month, boosting its fleet to 49 ships. The ships will be chartered to France's CMA CGM and Taiwan's Yang Ming, both existing Danaos customers. The CMA CGM Racine, built at Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and the YM Maturity, built at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., have carrying capacities of 6...

Mediterranean Shipping Co. said Monday it is raising rates on all shipments from Southeast Asia to Australia beginning Oct. 1. The increase, $300 per container, applies to container moving from ports in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to all Australian ports. ...

Xe Services, the private security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, has agreed to pay $42 million to settle charges of violating arms export control laws, the State Department said Monday. The department said Xe committed 288 violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations involving the unauthorized export of defense items and provision of defense services to foreign-en...

COSCO Pacific, which has interests in some 21 terminals in China and around the world, said it had revenue of $222.7 million in the first half of 2010, 40 percent more than in the same 2009 period. Throughput at those terminals was 22.4 million TEUs, 18.7 percent more than in the same 2009 period. The company pointed to a forecast by China's Ministry of Transport that China’s containe...