International News : Europe

Bourne The European Liner Affairs Association board, which met in Taipei this week, approved the closure of the Brussels-based organization by July 1. Container carriers established the ELAA in 2003 to persuade the European Commission of the value for maintaining the ocean carrier conference system. While the ELAA failed in this effort, the association helped smooth the transition of the i...

Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., (OOIL) the Hong Kong-based parent company of container carrier OOCL, said it had a net loss of $401 million in 2009 compared to a profit of $276 million in 2008. The company, which reported earnings in U.S. dollars, said revenues for the year was $4.3 billion, 33 percent less than the $6.5 billion in 2008. Container liftings were 4.16 million TEUs...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Wednesday it has launched a fact-finding investigation into ocean vessel capacity and shipping equipment availability for U.S. exports and imports. The announcement came as FMC Chairman Richard Lidinsky and several shipper and carrier representatives testified to members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation about th...

Delegates from the International Transport Workers Federation meeting in Berlin on Wednesday launched a campaign to persuade all governments to commit resources to end the increasing problem of Somalia-based piracy. The group also voted "to support the inclusion, where appropriate, of armed military personnel on ships in addition to the commitment by flag states of naval vessels," but sai...

DHL Supply Chain said Wednesday it has opened a logistics facility for Sony Australia and Sony Computer Entertainment Australia in Sydney. The 20,000-square-meter facility will house the manufacturer’s consumer electronics, broadcast and professional and PlayStation products in the one location. “The new DHL facility will provide Sony Australia with greater flexibility in managing flu...

The Port of Baltimore received 320 BMW cars Sunday, marking the first shipment under a five-year agreement with the auto manufacturer. The automaker in December chose the port as an import hub for vehicles made in Germany and the United Kingdom. BMW intends to bring about 50,000 vehicles through the port each year for processing and distribution to dealers. Port officials expect the i...

A new distribution center for imported beer in Savannah will handle about 3,000 TEUs of cargo annually, the Georgia Ports Authority said. The distribution center for Diageo will be operated by Matson Global Distribution Services, a third-party logistics provider. The first shipment to the new distribution center arrived in January. This distribution center will primarily handle be...

Shipping line OOCL said in a customer advisory it would no longer provide chassis for container yard or store door shipments of import and exports originating or destined to facilities in or around Boston and Miami. "All motor carriers, either working as suppliers for OOCL or OOCL customers, must provide chassis for these shipments," the Hong Kong-based carrier said in an advisory to cust...

Maersk Line Ltd. said it will add a third U.S.-flag tanker to its fleet. The U.S.-flag arm of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group said it will reflag the 2009-built Samho Moonstone, which will be renamed Bro Hawaii when reflagging process is completed in mid-April. The 5,664-deadweight-ton ship will operate in Asia spot markets targeting U.S. preference cargoes. Tuesday, Maersk Line Ltd. w...

The International Air Transport Association this week cut in half its forecast for losses in 2010 but said the airline industry’s recovery is still mostly benefiting Asian and South American carriers. “Helped by the strong year end we have cut our estimate of 2009 net losses from $11 billion to $9.4 billion,” IATA said in its monthly economic update. “More significantly we now forecast sm...

The Iraq government will seek bids to build a $6 billion port in the southern city of Basra, Reuters reported this week. The port would be linked to a proposed $3 billion rail line to Baghdad and then to Europe. Iraqi transport officials envision the port, which would have a dredged depth of 55 feet (thus able to accommodate the world’s largest cargo ships) as competing with the Suez ...

A large dredger to help build DP World's new London Gateway terminal arrived in England over the weekend and the Times of London said it was expected to begin operation Wednesday. The terminal in Thurrock will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEUs and will be one of the most automated in the world, according to DP. DP World said most of the dredge spoils will be used to reclaim land to ...

Container traffic at the Port of Marseilles-Fos rose 24 percent in February to 159,202 TEUs. Growth in traffic from Far East services prompted a 30 percent jump at the Fos deepsea terminal, which handled 121,218 TEUs during the month. The Marseilles terminal, which handles regional feeder traffic, saw 10 percent growth to 37,985 TEUs, due to recovering markets in North Africa and the East...

The Asia/Europe trade could see an influx of capacity over the next few weeks, according to the maritime news service Alphaliner. “These moves will ease the capacity crunch on the Far East-to-Europe market, which the trade has been facing since late December, following a strong recovery of demand figures,” Alphaliner said in its Monday newsletter. “The additional capacity could reverse th...

French container line CMA CGM is weighing offers from private investors to bolster its coffers after a turbulent 2009. The line confirmed Monday to American Shipper it has received offers from various interested parties. A report in Monday’s Financial Times said the carrier is considering offers from Louis Dreyfus Group (France's only other large ship owner), Goldman Sachs and Butler Capi...

The growing practice of slow steaming container shipping services has coincided with an unexpected deterioration in the on-time arrivals of vessels, Drewry Shipping Consultants said Tuesday. According to Drewry's latest Container Shipper Insight report, out of 1,600 ships tracked in the three months through Dec. 31, only 53 percent arrived either on the scheduled day of arrival or a day p...

Chilean carrier CSAV, one of the few carriers to report container liftings on a monthly basis, said it moved 184,000 TEUs in February, up from 124,800 TEUs in February 2009. Liftings were down for the second month in a row from 189,100 TEUs in January and 191,000 TEUs in December. Rates are slightly lower than they were a year ago, but have risen since last summer. CSAV said an index ...

Zim said it will introduce a service between Asia, India, Mediterranean and Europe. The Asia-Med-Europe (AME) service will employ a dozen 3,800-TEU ships and begin with the April 7 sailing from Shanghai. It will incorporate Zim's NEC line between the East Mediterranean and Europe. Port rotation is Shanghai-Da Chan Bay, Port Kelang, Nhava Sheva, Haifa, Ashdod, Felixtowe, Antwerp, Hambu...

Citigroup Inc. has hired a director from a London shipbroker to develop its physical shipping operations as the bank seeks to expand its commodities business, Bloomberg reported Monday. The bank has lured Alistair McLuskie, a director with Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the world's second-largest shipbroker, to join as director of physical freight on April 1, Citigroup said in an e-mailed ...

Virginia Gov. Bob McConnell’s administration could shelve a plan to privatize three container terminals at the Port of Virginia, according to a story last week in the Newport News-based Daily Press. CenterPoint Properties, a real estate industrial trust that specializes in logistics facilities, last year made an unsolicited offer to enter into a long-term agreement with the Virginia Port ...

Norwegian company Wilh. Wilhelmsen said it plans to restructure so that its shipping and logistics activities will be carried forward under a separately listed entity that is able to raise capital. The Oslo-based company said the change will "position the group for future growth." It said it hopes to raise $200 million to $400 million in an initial public offering for the shipping and...

The first service for the startup liner carrier The Containership Company will call at the Port of Los Angeles, the port said Friday. The service will link Taicang, in China’s Jiangsu Province, with Southern California on a five-ship port-to-port loop, using vessels OF 2,500 TO 3,000 TEUs. The new container line confirmed the new service to American Shipper in late February, but said at t...

Japanese ocean carrier “K” Line on Friday announced changes to its executive team, effective April 1: • Hiroyuki Maekawa, president and chief executive officer, will become chairman executive officer. • Kenichi Kuroya will be promoted from vice president to president and CEO. • Keisuke Yoshida will move from managing executive officer to senior executive officer. • Shigeo Itay...

Jean Louis Cambon, head of the ocean management committee for tire manufacturer Michelin, has been elected chairman of the European Shippers’ Council’s influential Maritime Transport Council this week. Cambon, who is also a prominent member of the French Shippers’ Council (AUTF) is well known in liner shipping circles. “The ESC should seek a constructive relationship with the carrier ...

NYK Logistics Rus, a Russian-based subsidiary of the Tokyo-based NYK Group, has opened a representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. It’s the first office in Kazakhstan for NYK, which in October 2009 took a 25 percent stake in Tranco Terminal, an Almaty-based car-terminal-operating company. NYK said it aims to develop its logistics business for the automotive sector as wel...

Classification society the American Bureau of Shipping and A.P. Moller - Maersk have agreed to extend the time period between which some ships must undergo out-of-water dry dockings from five to seven-and-a-half years. ABS said an agreement signed this week covers an initial fleet of 14 Maersk Line containerships. It has been initiated under a pilot program approved by the Danish Maritime...

APM Terminals said the government of Liberia has named APM Terminals as the preferred bidder to operate the 25-year concession at the Port of Monrovia. APM said it will invest about $120 million over the 25-year concession agreement. The firm responded to a public tender issued in December. Bidders were asked to rehabilitate the existing Marginal Wharf, develop container and general ca...

Maersk Distribution Services has leased 195,000 square feet of industrial space in Savannah from Duke Realty Corp. Duke said the property is at 318 Grange Road, about one mile from the main entrance of the Port of Savannah. ...

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...