Quick News 17 Oct 05
In last Monday’s Quick News post, I referred to an article about 6 government owned postal services banding together to offer global courier services to compete against the major courier companies in the world. Well, today I read an article regarding a brand new 13,000 square meter logistics warehouse in Shanghai – that is going to be jointly run by the China Post and Australia Post under the company name Sai Cheng:
The plan is that Sai Cheng will build a series of transport and logistics hubs across China to service trade between China’s burgeoning manufacturing base and customers around the world.
At least initially, the Sai Cheng transport hub in Shanghai is concentrating on getting the logistics link between China and Australia operating smoothly. That means offering Australian companies importing goods from China a service to allow them to be delivered straight to Australian customers or retail outlets from Shanghai without having to go through the normal supply chains of companies importing the goods and distributing themselves.
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Eventually the vision is that Sai Cheng will seamlessly integrate with the recently announced Asia-Pacific alliance of seven postal organisations — Australia Post, China Post, Hong Kong Post, Japan Post, Korea Post and the United States Postal Service. In July, the alliance jointly announced the launch of the largest express courier network in the Asia-Pacific, which in Australia is being marketed under Express Courier International. The postal alliance is a first of its kind among postal service providers and came together largely at the instigation of Australia Post. The move to create an alliance is aimed directly at their private-sector competitors such as FedEx and DHL.It is expected that these alliance countries — and eventually others in Europe — could plug into the distribution infrastructure being created by Sai Cheng in China.
In other China news, China Shipping Container Lines Co Ltd has just signed a 10 year deal with the Virginia Port Authority:
The carriers agreement with the Virginia Port Authority has the longest terms of any other it has on the East Coast, said Peter Talbot, vice president of operations for China Shipping. Most of the industrys steamship line contracts extend two to three or possibly five years.
But the port authority has encouraged the 10-year terms with its carriers because they promise steady business into the future and allow terminal officials to better plan for growth. With a longer contract, port officials dont have to return to the negotiating table with the line as often.
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Two other shipping groups, Turkon Line and the consortium known as CKY, also have inked decade-long deals with the local port, Dorto said. Were pushing long-term contracts with all of our customers.In turn, the ship line gets berthing priority at the port, which means the terminal operator is better prepared for the vessels scheduled arrivals, Talbot said. Down the road, that ensures the carrier of room at the port, even as capacity tightens. Immediately, it eases the terminals preparation of equipment and labor to load or unload the ship, helping it stay on schedule.
We return to familiar ground in this no-surprise-here news article : post-Katrina spending lacked controls. You mean the federal government may have overpaid for some Hurricane relief ?!? Oh, the shock, the surprise…..
The government spent nearly $300 million for a private contractor to hire buses, trucks and planes for hurricane relief efforts — apparently with little control or oversight, according to a Transportation Department memo released Monday.
In Australia, the switch to the new Integrated Cargo System (ICS) has caused cargo backlogs at Australian airports and forwarders are warning the problem could get much worse:
Qantas yesterday warned its brokers that its Sydney and Melbourne terminals were “nearing capacity” due to customs brokers having problems processing bonded cargo through the ICS.
“Qantas Freight has experienced some increase in dwell time between cargo arriving at the terminal and freight forwarders coming to collect it,” a spokeswoman said.
“Qantas Freight is monitoring the situation and is in close consultation with Customs.”
The pile-up at the airports has been caused by some brokers being unable to file requests to move bonded cargo.
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Senior industry representatives will meet with Customs officials and ministerial advisers today after some brokers warned they needed until early 2006 to set up their software to interact with the system.“Cargo is banking up with Qantas and in three or four days it will start banking up at the wharfs,” said Powerhouse Consultancy Services managing director Garry Allen.
“The effect won’t be felt on the waterfront until the middle to end of the week.”
The last minute extension Customs granted last week to brokers with problems using the new system was not long enough, Mr Allen said.
And Forward Air has been chosen in Forbes magazine as one of the “200 Best Small Companies” for the seventh year in a row.
Personally I just wish there was a more viable alternative to Forward Air. They continue to dominate the airfreight airport-to-airport trucking market with scant competition. I know there are companies like Towne Airfreight and American Linehaul Corporation out there, but they don’t have the marketshare or systems in place to really compete against Forward Air, except for in the mid-west, where Towne Airfreight is king. Everytime a decent competitor arises, Forward Air shuts them down, they either buy them up or obliterate them through tough competition.
In Hong Kong, Air Cargo figures have reached record highs :
According to news.gov.hk: Air cargo throughput at the Hong Kong International Airport reached a record high of 304,000 tonnes in September, up 9.2% over the same month last year, the Airport Authority says. Passenger traffic and aircraft movements also achieved impressive growth, up 8.5% and 12.3%. In September, the airport accommodated3.3 million passengers and 22,530 aircraft movements, with the single-day record of 812 aircraft movements on September 30, the day before the Mainland’s ‘Golden Week’ holiday
More foreign aid is finally arriving in Pakistan for the relief efforts there:
Cargo planes carrying relief goods from various countries for earthquake victims landed at Chaklala Airbase on Monday. A cargo plane from Russia carrying 31 tonnes of medicine and 40 tonnes of dry fruit landed at the airbase. Sweden also sent a plane carrying food, medicine, blankets and tents. A C-130 from United Kingdom brought nine tonnes of food for the victims of the earthquake.
Another C-130 arrived from the USA carrying machinery, relief goods and food. France sent 33 tonnes of food, while a chartered plane brought 528 tents from the UAE. A C-17 from the USA brought heavy machinery for relief work in affected areas.
A Boeing 707 from Karachi carrying 1,250 kilogrammes of rations and miscellaneous goods also arrived on Monday.
Two US Navy ships, ferrying several tonnes of heavy machinery and other relief goods, arrived at Karachi port on Monday.
The US Navy ships USS Northern Lights and the USS Pearl Harbour were diverted from routine operations to bring more than 25 dump trucks, front-end loaders, backhoes, cargo trucks, a road grader, a forklift, a generator and other equipment and supplies.
A business leader in Malaysia says his country can become a trans-shipment hub for bulk carriers:
He said Malaysia could pursue the aim of becoming a transhipment hub for break bulk cargo by taking the cue from the country’s success in having become a successful transhipment hub for containerised cargo.
“We can do the same thing for the break bulk cargo, mainly because we have our own cargo base, which is an advantage for Malaysia when compared with Singapore and Hong Kong,” he told Bernama in an interview.
Break bulk carriers transport miscellaneous goods and commodities in non containerised form and usually load and unload in loose form.
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Currently, Loo said most of the break-bulk carriers go from port to port to load and unload goods and their frequencies or schedules depend very much on the cargo volume.“If there are only 300 tonnes of goods, it doesn’t justify (in terms of a vessel’s costs and port charges) to bring in a carrier. You must have a minimum of between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of goods (to bring in a vessel),” he said.
But with a transhipment hub in the country, exporters can have more regular services, he argued.
“If we could do that successfully in Malaysia, then we can move up and get other regional break bulk cargoes, such as those from the various Indonesian islands to be transhipped from here,” said Loo.
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“The government could come in and help us ”grow” such ideas. When you start something new, you need to be aggressive. We have to show carriers that we are ready for this and give them incentives and let them try things out,” he added.Among the factors that prompted Barwil to propose a transhipment hub for break bulk carriers are the cost and operational efficiency in Malaysian ports and the need for taking steps to minimise potential damage and losses as trans-shipment involves double handling — bringing in the goods and transport them out again.
And finally, here are more details about arrests being made in the major theft of LCD panels from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport:
With two men in custody, Selangor police have launched a manhunt for three others believed to be involved in the RM4 million heist at the KLIA Cargo Village on Tuesday.
A source told The Malay Mail that police have the identities of the three suspects who are not employed at the Cargo Village.
“Police are hot on the heels of the three and it is only a matter of time before they are brought in,†the source said.
He said the investigating team, comprising personnel from Sepang district and Selangor police headquarters, have made significant progress in the investigations.
The two suspects in custody are believed to be employees of a freight forwarding company based at the Cargo Village.
One is said to be a manager while the other is his subordinate.
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