China’s maritime sector

China’s maritime sector is growing from strength to strength. From securing a 5.5% share of world fleet (in DWT terms) in early 2004, it increased its share to 6.77% in early 2005 and has continued its surge subsequently. Maritime infrastructure in China continues to be developed at a breakneck pace in step with ever-increasing trade. Its ports are continuously expanding and engaging in strategic alliances to widen their connectivity. Underlining this tremendous growth, seven Chinese ports are in the list of the world’s top 20 container terminals. Mainland China-based COSCO and China Shipping are two of the world’s top ten container service operators in terms of fleet size and total shipboard capacity (TEUs). The growth of Chinese ports has displaced established ports like Kobe and Yokohama from the list of the world’s top twenty. Moreover, even Hong Kong, the world’s busiest port since 1992 and a beneficiary of the China boom, has been growing at a lower rate than Shanghai and Shenzhen, which experienced increased throughput more than threefold from 1999 to 2004.

NZ port plans

Ports of Auckland is gearing up to take advantage of larger vessels arriving in New Zealand in the future.

The port has applied to deepen a ship berth at its Fergusson container terminal. The move follows the 2007 completion of a major project to deepen the Rangitoto shipping channel, enabling it to cater for larger container ships carrying up to 6,000 TEU.

Ports of Auckland managing director Jens Madsen says: “One effect of the global recession may be that, as shipping lines consolidate their operations, larger vessels arrive in New Zealand sooner than anticipated.”

He says a resource consent application is being prepared now so the port can move quickly to construct the berth when required.

Schenker Opens New Logistics Centre in Vietnam

Schenker Vietnam has opened its USD5.5 million joint investment with Vietnamese partner Gemadept Corporation in Song Than Industrial Park I of Binh Duong Province. Schenker first entered the Vietnam market in 1990, and has since grown into a 200 strong country organisation across 6 locations throughout Vietnam, offering a full range of Air and Ocean freight, Contract Logistics and Supply Chain Management, as well as Project Logistics and Relocation services. 

Global Survey on Outplacement Services

In these uncertain economic times with lower orders and reduced shipping volumes, some companies need to reduce staff to improve their cost levels. It is important for companies to recognize their own employer branding value in dealing with staff downsizing. Therefore, affected employees should be well supported in their transition out of the organization. What are the current outplacement policies? Which are the most important benefits of the outplacement services? Europhia Consulting is launching a Global Outplacement survey to understand how companies in the sector are managing downsizing of employees and what type of support matters most to affected employees. The survey is accessible online at http://europhia.com/outplacement_survey.html.

Tesco takes part of its logistics in-house

Tesco has decided to take some of its distribution operations in-house, resulting in the closure of the Fastway distribution centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire, central England, at the end of March. The move follows a review of the company’s supply chain strategy which concluded that the refrigerated and rail-connected warehouse at that facility was not able to deal with the increasingly diverse range of goods sold in Tesco outlets or its expected volumes. The centre was run by DHL Exel Supply Chain which, as a result of Tesco’s decision, has been forced to make 150 jobs redundant, with a further 150 staff being redeployed to other parts of the company. Tesco stated that the economic downturn had meant that fewer jobs could be relocated than previously anticipated.

 

China wants globally competitive logistics companies

China will foster a number of globally competitive logistics companies by 2011, said a stimulus plan of the country’s logistics industry released on the government website. All departments and local governments are urged to make efforts to achieve the goal, according to the plan, issued by the State Council, or the cabinet. It said local authorities should help logistics companies solve problems in their development, realize a 10% annual growth in their output and lower the proportion of logistics expenses in the country’s GDP.  The cabinet said in a notice that the country’s logistics industry was affected by the unfolding global financial crisis.

IBM Vision for the Supply Chain of the Future

IBM is the latest to present a vision for the future of supply chain, in a new report based on a survey of some 400 supply chain executives from across the globe. In the report, IBM says there will be three main strategies that companies will use to build the future state supply chain: better “instrumentation,” improving integration or “interconnectedness,” and increased supply chain “intelligence.” IBM says, for example, that when it comes to supply chain visibility, increasingly the “issues will not be about having too little information, but rather too much. Smarter supply chains, however, will use intelligent modeling, analytic and simulation capabilities to make sense of it all.”

Down But Not Out

In a study of 245 supply chain executives across the globe, the consulting company Accenture found that only one company in ten actively models their supply chain carbon footprint and has implemented some sustainability initiative. In addition to this surprising news, the study also found that 37 percent of respondents had no awareness of the level of emissions in their supply chain. Approximately the same number said they have started at least one green initiative in their transport fleet, such as streamlined vehicle design, green fuels and vehicles with hybrid engines. There are a couple of worrying conclusions that can be made from this study. Firstly the fact that if this 37 percent does not understand the emissions in their supply chain, it could be construed that small and medium sized businesses, that are struggling in this economic climate, are even less likely to be focused on emissions. Secondly the study shows that 14% of companies in the survey have not made one green initiative, no matter how small or how cheap.

China government states that its logistics industry still growing

According to official figures released by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s logistics market grew by 15.4% in 2008 to reach CNY2 trillion (US$290bn). Although dwarfing growth in many other countries, the rate slowed by 4.5 percentage points from the previous year. The NRDC stated that the lower growth in 2008 was due to severe weather conditions at the beginning of the year, the huge earthquake which occurred in part of the country in May and, of course, the fallout from the global economic slowdown. The economic downturn, with a consequent weakening of international demand for Chinese exports, has had a major impact on many of that country’s logistics companies, the majority of which are micro ‘mom-and-pop’ type enterprises. However, larger international logistics companies mainly based at the major ports and airports have also been heavily affected by year-to-year volume falls of 20% or more.

Tianjin Port continues investment

China Tianjin Port Group is going to invest about US$1.9 billion in port development, giving a confidence vote in China’s port business, NewsTrak Daily reports. Tianjin Port Group expects container throughput of 360 million tonnes and container throughput of nine million TEUs in 2009. In January, Tianjin Port Group’s container throughput dropped slightly and in February, container throughput started coming back and the decrease began to minimize.