Side-loader fees are here to stay. Who will pay?
Last year Patrick indicated that they will introduce a $100 side-loader fee at Port Botany. At the time FTA lobbied against these arrangements highlighting the following key factors:
- Direct deliveries from wharf to importer would further decrease.
- Significant impact on short term business viability on smaller transport operators.
To their credit, Patrick postponed implementation but gave a clear signal of their intention. In parallel to this, DP World introduced a side-loader fee in Fremantle on 1 January 2013 and during the festive season, announced that they will follow up with a similar arrangement in Port Botany commencing 1 February 2013.
In early January FTA made contact with DP World management and received extensive correspondence highlighting the rationale for the fee – for further detail, please refer to the “Feature Article†posted on the FTA web site at www.FTAlliance.com.au
In response to concerns raised by FTA, Sydney Ports Corporation (SPC) subsequently released a notice to transport operators in relation to the side-loader fees being introduced by DP World and Patrick. In essence, the notification supported the FTA position that such levies should form part of the terminal handling charge paid by shipping lines and not be imparted to transport operators. Unfortunately, SPC can only rule if a charge is being introduced to offset financial penalties under the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS). In this instance, SPC considered that the fees are not to offset PBLIS penalties and therefore cannot block their introduction.
From February 1, DP World will charge $54 plus GST on side-loader trucks entering the port to collect import containers.
Patrick will also introduce a side-loader fee as of February 8. It will charge $35 plus GST on all import and export containers coming in or out of the wharf on side-loaders. This is a $65 reduction on its originally-proposed fee.
So there we have it. It looks as though side-loader fees are here to stay.
So what will be the outcome? Will transport operators be able to absorb this fee or will they pass it on? Will customs brokers, freight forwarders and importers accept this fee or will they move their business to other transport operators who stage movements?
Source: Paul Zalai Lloyds List Jan 2013
Port protests over high-rise proposal
Port access could be impeded if a large tower development is approved near Station Pier in Melbourne, Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) management believes.
A development company called Action Group Australia and which is linked with Kuwaiti Royalty, wants to build a large residential and shopping complex including buildings of up to 19 storeys.
The port has written to the City of Port Phillip council opposing the project. “PoMC considers that the proposal is an encroachment of a sensitive and potentially incompatible use of the port,†the objection stated.
“It has the potential, demonstrated by our current experience of receiving amenity and traffic-related complaints, to prejudice the efficient and curfew-free operations of the port.â€Â PoMC noted in its objection that there were already congestion issues when cruise ships were berthed.
City of Port Phillip acting mayor Serge Thomann told The Melbourne Age, council wanted to hear community views before making a decision in March.
Residential and urban encroachment is an issue that has been widely noted by Australian port operators and has been regularly raised by the Ports Australia industry group.
Source: Lloyds List
Effect of dollar on exporters
Studies are underway to assess the impact on Victorian agricultural exports of the highly-valued Australian dollar.
The United States Dollar (USD) is the key currency for international trade and the Australian dollar has soared in comparison during the past five years.
The study is being prepared by Brian Kearns and Nicki Marks of Farm Services Victoria, part of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.
To gauge the effects and ascertain what companies and exporters are doing DPI has spoken with company representatives from the horticulture, meat, dairy, grains industries among others.
“Often export sales were greatly impacted,†a DPI statement noted.
“However, some industries could maintain sales and pass through the lower price to the grower, while others were impacted just as much by other factors like weather and competitor production.
“For example, the high AUD has coincided with record high lamb prices and record high exports, a reflection of strong demand and increasing production over recent years.
“Therefore the impact of the AUD has to date been very minimal in the lamb industry.â€
Exporters said they generally felt they were in “uncharted territoryâ€.
“The lessons learnt from the dramatic fluctuations in the AUD prior to the Global Financial Crisis were however serving them well in the current climate,†it was stated.
Source: Lloyds List
Global idled capacity now just under 600,000 teu
Hundreds of vessels, representing hundreds of thousands of teu, are now idled around the world owing to the great shipping recession.
A total of 333 boxships, representing 585,987 teu, are now laid up.
North east Asia accounts for 273,698 of idled teu, 46.7% of the total idled capacity. The region also has just over 125 vessels idled.
South-east Asia is the region that has the second highest amount of idled capacity at 127,782 teu, which is approximately 28% of the total. The region has approximately 93 out of the 333 idled vessels.
Meanwhile, a long way behind is the European region which accounts for 99,506 teu idled, which represents just under 17% of the total and 55 of the idled ships.
Finally, the other regions – Middle East and India, Central America, South America, North America and Africa account for approximately 84,000 teu and approximately 48 ships.
Feeder vessels and vessels in the handy and sub-panamax ranges appear to have borne the brunt of the box shipping crisis.
At approximately 265 ships, these size vessels overwhelmingly account for the greatest number of ships rendered inactive for a long period.
Just a handful of three or four of the mega-vessels i.e. 10,000 teu and up, have been rendered inactive on a long-term basis.
However, ship owners continue to invest in boxships despite the large volume of long-term inactive capacity.
For instance, Seaspan has now signed a deal for four vessels of 10,000 teu just days after previously finalising a US$600m deal.
Source: Lloyds List
Feasibility study into Victoria western freight terminal
A proposed Western Interstate Freight Terminal (WIFT) would ease congestion around the port of Melbourne, the Federal and Victorian governments believe.
A joint statement from Federal infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian transport minister Terry Mulder announced a pre-feasibility study into the WIFT, bankrolled by the Federal ($3.5m) and Victorian ($1.5m) governments.
The WIFT would be built at Truganina in Melbourne’s west, linking with the Interstate Rail Freight Network.
Currently interstate containers bound for distribution in Melbourne are railed to terminals adjacent to the port and then trucked to the outer suburbs.
The statement referred to the WIFT as being able to remove 700,000 trucks a year from Melbourne's roads.
Mr Albanese said the new development would complement the extensive capital-works program aimed at rebuilding the 10,000km Interstate Rail Freight Network.
“New sleepers, track, passing loops and signalling technology will not be enough to fully restore rail’s competitiveness and reliability,†he said.
“It also needs to be better integrated with other modes of transport, including our ports and roads.â€
Victorian public transport and roads minister Terry Mulder said the WIFT would reduce freight traffic through Melbourne's inner west potentially removing up to 2000 daily truck movements from the precinct.
“The WIFT would reduce truck movements in Melbourne’s inner west, open up landside capacity for the port of Melbourne ... and enhance Victoria’s reputation as the nation’s freight and logistics hub,†Mr Mulder said.
“With forecasts showing interstate rail freight through Melbourne will triple by 2030, it is important to plan now.â€
Egypt unrest threatens canal transits and shipping operations
Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi, has announced a 30-day state of emergency and declared a night-time curfew in key cities Port Said, Suez and Ismailia (effective 30th January, 2013)
President Morsi’s decree was issued after more than 50 people died and hundreds were injured in violent clashes.
In Port Said, demonstrators took to the streets to protest after a court recommended the death sentence for 21 people convicted of involvement in last year’s football match riots in which 74 people died.
Some protesters stormed the Port Said tourism gate and threatened to disrupt canal operations.
In 2012 the waterway handled 17,225 transits, including 6332 containerships. The canal operates two southbound convoys and one northbound, daily.
However, despite the emergency, port operations are continuing, international shipping agent Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) has reported.
ISS, which has operations in Egypt, reports that the army has been deployed to ensure all vessels can safely navigate the canal and that it has taken control of the Suez Canal building.
ISS Egypt has however suspended all husbandry services at all Egyptian ports including crew changes and transfers, cash to master and shipments delivery because road transport is currently unsafe.
Next global trade hub: Jamaica?
Newly-revealed plans by the Jamaican government aim to develop the Caribbean island into a global logistics hub for trade to and from the Americas.
Jamaica’s government is looking to capitalise on the planned expansion of the Panama Canal. Kingston, Jamaica, is approximately 540 nautical miles from Colon, Panama, which is the site of the Caribbean entrance/exit to the canal.
Lying within 1500nm of Kingston lies nearly the entire eastern seaboard of the US, as far north as Boston, Massachusetts, the whole of the US gulf coast, all of the central American states, all of the Caribbean island states such as the Dominican Republic, and much of the northern coast of the continent of South America, as far south east as Paramaribo, the capital city of Suriname.
Dr Eric Deans, chairman of Jamaica Logistics the initiative’s task force, said the island nation was strategically positioned to readily access a market of 800m people, including those in the US and Brazil.
He said trade opportunities are due to “burst wide open with the expansion of the Panama Canal scheduled to be completed in 2015; the multi-billion [dollar] stimulus package by Brazil for the [football] World Cup 2014 and Olympics 2016; and the growing middle class in Latin America.â€
“Projects under discussion include growth of container throughput at the port of Kingston ahead of the expansion of the Panama Canal, as well as the development of commodity ports to handle petroleum products, coal, minerals and grain,†Jamaica Logistics said overnight.
The Jamaican government says high-level discussions are underway with a number of overseas investors to develop “vast areas of prime real estate to handle increased volumes of air and sea cargo.â€
Jamaica’s Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce hopes that once completed, the initiative “will transform Jamaica into the fourth node or pillar in the global supply and logistics chain alongside Singapore, Dubai and Rotterdam.â€
Kingston Container Terminal, which currently has a capacity of 2.8m teu per annum, would be expanded to remain as the country’s main container port.
Source: Lloyds List
Interest confirmed in Tassie-China link
A shipping company has confirmed interest in a liner service between China and the northern Tasmanian port of Bell Bay.
