International News : Europe

The European Union and Singapore have begun talks toward establishing a free trade agreement. Officials are meeting in Singapore this week. “The proposed free trade agreement will strengthen economic ties between Singapore and the EU, provide new opportunities for traders and consumers alike and contribute to generating growth in our economies," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch sa...

India, Brazil and Indonesia have topped the table of Transport Intelligence’s new Emerging Market Logistics Index, which the U.K.-based consultant released this week. The index ranks 38 countries from the developing world in terms of the attractiveness of their logistics markets to foreign investors. It measures the scale of opportunities through three indices: market size and growth attr...

Swiss forwarder and logistics provider Panalpina had consolidated profit of 10 million Swiss francs ($9.3 million) in 2009 compared to 114 million francs in 2008. Revenue fell to 7.3 billion francs ($6.8 billion) in 2009 compared to 10.6 billion francs in 2008. Overall, Panalpina transported 731,000 tons of air freight, 19 percent less than in 2008, and 1.1 million TEUs of ocean freig...

OOCL said this week in a customer advisory that it will limit acceptance of online booking requests to a maximum of eight weeks out "due to the continued tight space availability in the North American export market." Under the new rule, which came into effect March 8, OOCL said it is limiting acceptance of online booking requests via oocl.com or cargosmart.com to eight weeks. Shippers...

Air France Cargo-KLM Cargo now publishes all its air cargo rates on OAG Cargo’s Air Freight Rates (AFRA) application, OAG said Tuesday. AFRA provides direct access to real-time air freight rates and information and is designed to help freight forwarders make buying decisions in 144 global markets. Air France-KLM Cargo has established a global interface to OAG Cargo, which will see the...

Logistics network Descartes Systems Group, said it had net profit of $14.3 million in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, compared to $20.2 the prior fiscal year. Revenue in the most recent fiscal year was $73.8 million versus $66 million in the prior year. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company reported its results in U.S. dollars. Geographically 59 percent of revenues were generate...

Kenco Logistics Services, through its subsidiary Kal-Serv, has formed a joint venture with Schnellecke of America, called Team 3 Logistics, to provide logistics services to support automotive production in the U.S. Southeast. Schnellecke, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, is an established logistics services provider to automakers in Europe, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. The ...

Geodis, the logistics subsidiary of SNCF Group, has appointed Bruno Mandrin to director of its groupage and express division. Mandrin, who entered the transport and logistics industry in 1977, joined Geodis Calberson in 1994. He became deputy director of the groupage division in May 2009. The division comprises about 11,000 employees across 160 sites in five European countries. Gilles...

Kolding While the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group was detailing a historic operating loss, headlined by a $2.1 billion loss for its container division, a noticeable development was emerging. Maersk is increasingly focusing on its business in and out of Asia -- and not just exports to the traditional consumption regions in Europe and North America. Maersk is quite aware of the potential of A...

The Chilean ocean carrier CSAV said it had operating losses of $599.7 million in 2009, compared to a loss of $133.5 million in 2008. It’s the second staggering loss to be announced by a major container line in recent days, after Maersk Line last week said it lost $2.1 billion in 2009. CSAV’s revenue declined nearly 39 percent to $3 billion, while container volume fell nearly 18 percen...

For a company that likes to keep a low profile, the past week has been a rather public one for Geneva-based liner carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. On Sunday, London’s Financial Times reported that MSC Chief Executive Gianluigi Aponte was pinning rate volatility in ocean freight rates on shippers. He also refuted claims that MSC had cut rates at the beginning of 2009 to chase market shar...

Logistics company CEVA said last week that 2009 revenue fell 13 percent to 5.5 billion euros ($7.4 billion) from 6.3 billion euros in 2008. "Following a challenging first quarter, we delivered solid and progressive results across the remainder of 2009 and, overall, we believe that CEVA responded well to a different and demanding trading environment, and is well positioned for the future,"...

Maersk Line Ltd. said it is "revitalizing" the Farrell Lines brand and has reflagged two roll-on/roll-off ships as U.S.-flag vessels to operate as Farrell Lines ships. The Alliance Beaumont and Alliance Charleston, were reflagged in February. The Alliance Beaumont will participate in the U.S. Maritime Administration’s Maritime Security Program. They will join the Alliance St. Louis and ...

CMA CGM said Friday it is raising rates from northern Europe to the Far East beginning April 1. The rate increases are $150 per 20-foot container and $300 per 40-foot container. CMA CGM said it will also quote the port of origin terminal handling charges (OTHC) separately from North Europe to the Far East sea freight for all cargos, including waste commodities, from April 1. ...

MOL said Friday it will start a new service linking Southeast Asia to the Indian port of Chennai beginning March 23. The new SMX service will have a rotation of Laem Chabang, Singapore, Port Klang, Chennai, Penang, Port Klang, Singapore and Laem Chabang. Information on the number and size of ships to be used on the service wasn’t immediately available. ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday announced it has reached an agreement with the Russian government to reopen the Russian market to U.S. pork and pork products. “Reopening the market with Russia -- our fifth-largest market last year -- is excellent news for American hog producers,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. According to the USDA, the U.S. e...

NYK Holding (Europe) B.V., a wholly owed subsidiary of NYK, has acquired a 26 percent stake in TM International Logistics Ltd., a logistics and port operating subsidiary of Indian steel giant Tata. TMILL was founded in 2002 as a joint venture between Tata Steel Limited and IQ Martrade Holding and Management GmbH, a German company that offers logistics services to steel and related industr...

FreightScan, an automated dimensioning systems provider, and Swissport International Ltd., a provider of aviation ground services, said they have formed a strategic partnership that will enable Swissport to install automated dimensioning systems across its global network. FreightScan installed a dimensioning system at Swissport's Amsterdam (AMS) air cargo station last September and André ...

Swiss WorldCargo has appointed Omar Bragatto, head of flight optimization, to director of contribution management. Bragatto will report to Ashwin Bhat, managing director of transportation management. In this new position, Bragatto replaces Christian Wyss, who will serve as head of cargo procurement and will report to Oliver Evans, chief cargo officer for SWISS. On the product manageme...

A congressional watchdog agency has found numerous instances in U.S. trade statistics during the past several years reporting exports being made to Iran when in fact they were destined to other countries. The Government Accountability Office said the statistics captured in the Census Bureau’s Automated Export System indicated that U.S. exporters shipped 278 different types of goods to Ira...

The United States will continue its support for a proposed ban on all international commercial trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Doha on March 13-25. “In light of the serious compliance problems that have plagued the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fishery and the fact that...

The A.P. Moller - Maersk Group said it lost $1 billion in 2009 compared to a profit $3.5 billion in 2008 as it was negatively affected by the global economic crisis. Revenue was $48.5 billion in 2009 compared to $61.2 billion in 2008. “It’s a lot of money to lose,” said Nils S. Andersen, group chief executive officer, attributing the loss to an “extraordinary year with historically low...

Eight companies have submitted bids to build a new 800,000-TEU container terminal at India’s largest port, the Jawaharlal Nehru-Nhava Sheva (JNPT) port complex near Mumbai. According to the Indian business newspaper Mint, the bidders include DP World, which already manages one of three existing terminals at the port, and Mundra Port and SEZ, which runs the country’s busiest private contai...

The Port of Trieste is set Thursday to start enforcing fines for ship owners who don’t use low sulfur bunker fuel when they call at the Italian port. Intertanko, an association that represents independent tanker owners, said in a note Wednesday that the port could assess fines from 15,000 euros to 150,000 euros for owners that fail to comply. Trieste is mandating the use of bunker that co...

Global Ship Lease Inc., a company spun off from CMA CGM that leases vessels back to the French carrier, reported fourth quarter net profit of $12.3 million in, compared to a $43.7 million loss in the same 2008 period. Revenue was $39.9 million in the quarter compared to $26.3 million in the same 2008 period, due to the purchase of four additional ships in December 2008 and the addition of...

In the wake of Horizon Lines announcement last week that it would stop wholesaling space on its eastbound transpacific ships to Maersk Line in December, the Danish carrier said it is working on a plan to replace that lost capacity. "Maersk Line is carefully watching market developments and reviewing customer requirements. Once these are made clear we will release a plan designed to replac...

Evergreen Marine Corp. (Taiwan) Ltd. has announced the promotion of several senior executives: • President Jack Yen will become vice chairman. • Capt. C.J. Wang, chief executive vice president, has been appointed president. • Anchor Chang, executive vice president of the international business division, to chief executive vice president. Yen joined Evergreen in 1978, serving in...

DHL said Wednesday it will invest HK$360 million ($46 million) in a multiuser facility for DHL Supply Chain Hong Kong. DHL Supply Chain will occupy at least 25 percent of the "Interlink" facility being developed by the Goodman Group. The facility, to be completed in January 2012, is located in Tsing Yi, situated between the container ports and Hong Kong International Airport. DHL said...

DB Schenker Rail Automotive said it has created a new box for the transportation of automobile parts from Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany, to a new plant in Kaluga, Russia. Beginning in April, the company will test the box -- designed specially for the automobile industry by the experts at Schenker Automotive Railnet in cooperation with Volkswagen Logistics -- before it decides in summer...

Intermarine has begun offering a heavy lift service between Europe and the East Coast of South America. The service will use 10,000-deadweight-ton vessels with gear capacity of up to 500 metric tons. The New Orleans-headquartered carrier said the service will be "perfectly suited to meet the needs of South America’s oil and gas, power generation, mining and infrastructure development ...