ISPM15 Taiwan

Please be advised that Taiwan Authorities will adopt strictly the ISPM15 regulations,
since 01-Jan-2009 (Cargo Arrival Date). In case the relevant certificates are not obtained
prior to Customs declaration, it is possible for the goods not to be cleared, to be rejected
for entry by Customs or to result in extra charges. Attached announcement is for your
reference.

Importance of Bell Bay Infrastructure

The proposed expansion of the Bell Bay Port was a vital step in ensuring Tasmania’s transport system met the challenges of the future
The project to increase the size of the working port through a 8.38 hectare deepwater reclamation, will remove an infrastructure bottleneck for Tasmania’s import and export dependent industries.
The Minister for Infrastructure, Graeme Sturges, said that the project was critical in ensuring that the State was able to deal with a forecast substantial increase in container transport, maximising the use of rail and easing pressure on other parts of the transport system.
The expanded area will be used as a as a staging and operational area for container traffic which is presently experiencing a 5.5 percent market increase each year. While growth is expected to slow, increases will continue with container traffic through the port forecast to double by 2023.
“This is well beyond the existing capacity of Tasmania’s Ports,” Mr Sturges said.
“The long term strategy is to consolidate container traffic at Devonport and Bell with the highest growth at Bell Bay. This in turn will free up space at Burnie Port for bulk exports particularly mining exports from the West Coast.”
Mr Sturges said the nomination of the project as one which was deserving of greater investigation reinforced the importance of taking a strategic approach to infrastructure development in the State.
“The focus of the State’s submission to Infrastructure Australia was on critical projects which would unlock constraints in its transport system to deliver real benefits in terms of national productivity,” Mr Sturges said
“That means addressing export limitations and improving freight efficiency along the key national supply chains of the North, South and West Coast of Tasmania
“The State Government understands the importance of infrastructure investment in the State and will continue to support its commitments, election promises and large-scale infrastructure projects.
“This reflects our commitment to doing what we have promised to do – and our desire to keep stimulating the local economy.
“We will continue to work closely with the Australian Government to provide further detailed analysis to allow this and the other priorities to be further assessed.
The Tasmanian Government’s submission to Infrastructure Australia is available at www.dier.tas.gov.au.

China issues new standards for freight forwarders

CHINA has issued five sets of standards for the domestics freight forwarding industry governing service procedures, quality, terms and conditions, statistical survey conduction, freight forwarder qualifications and assessment criteria.
The standards were drafted by China International Freight Forwarders Association and approved by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Sinotrans, China Shipping and Sinosteel Corporation participated in the drafting.
The standards are said to secure fast and healthy development of the domestic freight forwarding industry by providing guidelines for government's policy making and regulation.
Another five sets of standards are also on the way to be issued on manifest and documentation, documentation coding approach, information and data exchange and risk assessment. The drafting of these standards is expected to be done in next year and will facilitate the establishment of a public freight forwarding information portal.
The Ministry of Commerce has also given green light to the foundation of a committee that monitors implementation of these technical standards.

With Yangshan purchase, Shanghai poised to beat Singapore

SHANGHAI International Port Group is buying part of the new Yangshan container dock and thus threatens Singapore's No 1 spot as the busiest container port in the world.
News of the acquisition from Tongsheng Investment Group, a one-third owner, pending approval from shareholders, came in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and will add 1.15 million TEU capacity in 2009 and 1.3 million TEU in 2010.
The port operator is to sell CNY3.7 billion (US$540 million) in one-year bonds to fund the acquisition from Shanghai Tongsheng Investment, but the overall sale price is as yet undisclosed, reports Bloomberg News.
Such an acquisition is predicted to have Shanghai container volumes surpass Singapore's, with the addition of Phase 3 section likely to produce net income of CNY43 million over two years, said Shanghai Port in the report.
Shanghai growth, according to the municipal statistics bureau over the last 10 months, has dropped to 8.7 per cent, likely a 12 per cent growth overall, down from 20.5 per cent growth in the full year 2007 when throughput hit 23.9 million TEU.

Judge delays declaratory judgment on legality of clean trucks scheme

A US JUDGE has declined to provide a declaratory judgment on the legality of the California ports' clean truck programme until hearing more arguments, thus leaving its provisions in place, reports Newark-based Traffic World.
"It's not an easy issue," said US District Judge Richard Leon. "There is a lot of complexity to it."
Judge Leon dashed hopes of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) that believes that the demands of the clean truck programme through Los Angeles and Long Beach unlawfully interfere with legal trade and, therefore are ultra vires.
The two ports affected have delayed collection of a US$35 per TEU tax from trucks built before 2007, but FMC attorney Benjamin Trogdon said truckers already are seeing the impact on competition and costs to shippers will rise.
"The shippers have begun to shift, to look for operators that have compliant trucks," he said. "There has been evidence of irreparable harm to the country" as shippers act to avoid coming fees.
Judge Leon has set December 17 as the date for lawyers to file responses to legal arguments made by FMC, rather than issuing or denying an immediate injunction.
The programme also denies access to owner-operators of trucks to the ports in favour of employee-drivers of certified motor carriers as the Teamsters union has demanded. The FMC case wants to scrap those provisions and stop subsidies for truck purchases as well as exemptions for some truckers at the ports.
But Port and City of Los Angeles lawyer Steven Rosenthal said there was no evidence of a change in the marketplace or in competition. "It's been two months and there have been no problems, no evidence of people going out of business, no parade of horribles. Life is proceeding normally." "And the environment is getting cleaner," the judge added in the report.

300,000 TEU laid up, more to follow in the New Year

SOME 135 purpose-built containerships, totalling 300,000 TEU, are believed to be laid up, according to the latest Alphaliner count on December 8, up from around 270,000 TEU two weeks ago and 150,000 TEU six weeks ago.
This is 2.5 per cent of the world cellular fleet. Ninety of them are charter market vessels awaiting service with 16 in the 5,000-7,500 TEU class, 11 in the 3,000-4,000 TEU class, 20 in the 2,000-3,000 TEU class, 60 in the 1,000-2,000 TEU class and 30 ships in the 500-1,000 TEU class.
Laid up ship numbers will increase in coming weeks, as vessels are put at anchor or in semi-lay up as they terminate rotations, said Paris-based Alphaliner News.
With the closure of further services this month and next, the latest round of lay-ups to come has become known when Maersk announced the laying up of eight ships in the 6,500 TEU class.
Alphaliner also said most of the ships had been recently removed from the Far East-Mexico-Centram AC-2 service and replaced by 8,200-9,600 TEU ships, further to the merger of this service with the AC-1. The ships involved are in the enhanced 6,500 TEU class with a nominal intake of 7,250 TEU, four of which are idle in Hong Kong and Korea while two others are ending their rotations and likely head for lay up.

Los Angeles cargo volume to drop 20-30pc in first quarter: report

THE US Port of Los Angeles cargo is expected to fall 20 to 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 based on feedback from customers, said the Cunningham Report which specialises in transport and maritime affairs.
It noted that business at one Los Angeles container terminal had fallen by 50 per cent compared to last year.
The bleak forecast follows recent announcements by Maersk Line, the port's greatest revenue earner, that it will scrap one of its services to Los Angeles due to a new vessel-sharing agreement with CMA-CGM that comes into effect in May. This is a blow for the port given that nearly its seven container terminals reportedly generate 80 per cent of its income.
As a result of the weak US economy, the report said the port will reduce spending in the current fiscal year by more than US$20.5 million.