NORTHWEST China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region will launch one more international flight service this year, which is the Kashgar-Islamabad passenger and cargo chartered service, to raise the total of international flights to 37 reaching 32 foreign destinations, Xinhua reports.
This year, Xinjiang Airport Group, the operator of Xinjiang's airports, will set up one new air carrier to operate routes from other Chinese cities to Xinjiang capital Urumqi and from Urumqi to its feeder cities.
By the end of this year, the Xinjiang Airport Group expects to handle 119,000 tonnes of freight, up 2.8 per cent year on year, and 16.1 million passengers, up 13.3 per cent.
The group is also expected to register an aircraft movement of 166,000 flights, up 11.4 per cent. Urumqi airport is estimated to have a throughput of 12.5 million passengers this year. Flights from other Chinese cities to Urumqi are expected to increase 11 per cent.
This year, Xinjiang will also build or upgrade a number of airports, including those at Kashgar, Yining, Hami, Qiemo, Hetian and Korla.
Last year, Xinjiang's airports handled 116,000 tonnes of cargo altogether, up 14 per cent year on year. Their throughput increased 21 per cent to 14.2 million passengers. A total of 149,000 flights took off and landed at the airport, up 21 per cent.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
2012-02-28
MUMBAI's Gateway Terminals, controlled by Maersk's APMT, has said it will cut throughput the Mumbai area terminal after the Indian High Court upheld the 44 per cent reduction in terminal handling charges (THC) ordered by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP).
Gateway Terminals confirmed the company was looking to restrict the capacity of its Jawaharlal Nehru (JN port) facility to 1.4 million TEU. After the rate cut was ordered, Gateway told JN port it will load only 1.4 million containers a year - the number it can handle based on the optimum quay capacity of the terminal for the next three years, ending December 31, 2014.
"Handling higher volumes will depend on how the tariff case is settled; we cannot be perpetually running in losses," said Gateway chief executive P Agrawal, reported Livemint Wall Street Journal.
But Jawaharlal Nehru port operations chief SN Maharana said: "This is not acceptable to us. Gateway has declared a capacity of 1.8 million standard containers a year. If the capacity is reduced, exporters and importers will suffer."
Gateway Terminals is 74 per cent owned by APM Terminals Management BV, the world's third-biggest container port operator with state-run Container Corp of India (Concor) holding the balance.
Gateway Terminals loaded 1.85 TEU in 2010-2011, accounting for 20 per cent of India's national throughput.
Gateway had asked TAMP for an increase of 8.72 per cent on the existing rates arguing it could handle more than 2.1 million TEU.
Said a Mumbai and Nhava Sheva Ship Agents Association spokesman: "There is lack of capacity in JN port. If private terminals deliberately reduce volumes, it will seriously affect the trade."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
NEW YORK's strict ballast water rules imposed by its Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that threatened ocean-going ships this summer have been dropped because technology does not exist to meet regulatory demands, reports American Shipper.
In comments filed this week with the US Environmental Protection Agency, New York's DEC commissioner Joseph Martens, New York state will instead uphold EPA standards in through December 2013.
Said American Great Lakes Ports Association director Steve Fisher: "This eliminates the unworkable ballast water rules. It protects jobs and supports the thousands of Americans who make their living in the maritime industry."
Mr Fisher said under the New York rule demanded standards 100 times stronger than those established by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO). No such technology exists, he said, adding that next year's rule would be 1,000 times more demanding than the IMO standard.
A coalition of environmental groups including the National Resources Defence (NRDC), Great Lakes United, Alliance for the Great Lakes, National Wildlife Federation and Northwest Environmental Advocates said: "The EPA's new proposed permit isn't tough enough to protect the Great Lakes and other vulnerable watersheds throughout the country."
Said Ed Kelly, president of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey: "This removes the potential for serious economic damage to the New York-New Jersey port and to commerce on the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway."
Said Raymond Johnston, president of Canada's Chamber of Marine Commerce, applauded the decision. (Canada shares the seaway with the US.) The governors of three Great Lakes states said in September that New York's regulation could close the waterway and "imperil thousands of maritime-related jobs in the Great Lakes states and Canada" if not changed.
The US Chamber of Shipping said they were unable to "purchase systems deemed compliant. The US should either recognise other national type certifications or delay implementation of the requirements until systems are available for purchase".
Ballast water treatment kills marine life in ballast tanks with chemicals or ultraviolet light to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species migrating to new waters.
"New York remains concerned. We hope that a strong national solution can be achieved," said Mr Martens. "At the same time, shipping and maritime activity is critical to New York state and international commerce. A technically feasible national standard which recognises the critical economic role played by our waterways is the only viable way to address the spread of destructive aquatic invaders through ballast water."
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will auction 200 containers that have stayed for more than 100 days at the Port of Mombasa after a partial waiver on storage charges failed to induce owners to remove them, reports Nairobi's Business Daily.
To clear congestion, the KPA announced in December that it would partially waive storage charges on overstayed containers if owners removed them by March.
"There has been no major impact," said KPA supply chief Yobesh Oyaro. "KPA will now hire auctioneers to dispose of these containers when the need arises."
The KPA placed bids for auctioneers to help dispose of the overstayed cargo both within the port and the inland container depots (ICDs).
KPA managing director Gichiri Ndua said KPA had identified 466 export containers, 737 domestic import and 294 transit export containers that have been lying at the port of Mombasa for between 100 and more than 1,000 days.
Importers say the KPA's offer was meaningless because the reduction in warehouse charges - 30 US cents per cubic metre per day - was only partial while they wanted a waiver on the full Customs Warehouse Rent, which was refused.
Said KRA commissioner general Michael Waweru: "Customs Warehouse Rent is part of government revenue and unless the law is changed, we cannot give a general waiver.
Mombasa is suffering congestion which KPA attributes to lack of space following delays by importers and clearing agents to collect containers from the port and container freight stations.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
AFTER five years of trading into the northwest of Australia under the name Mocean Shipping Pte Ltd, the company is being renamed MM Line Pte Ltd, effective from March 1.
The move is said to be "in keeping with our continued commitment to support our long-term customers with break-bulk shipping services into Western Australia", said the company.
MM Line Pte Ltd is an independently managed company and also an affiliate of the Pt Meratus Group of companies (www.meratusline.com), which owns and operates 49 vessels on liner trades within the Indonesian archipelago.
"This change heralds our re-instated focus on delivering a regular and reliable service. All previous staff of Mocean will be retained and the new team will comprise of some additional experienced personnel from the southeast Asia-northwest Australia trade lane.
"MM Line also has the pleasure to announce the opening of their office in Fremantle (MM Line Pty Ltd) managed by Paul Zaccaria. This combination of focus on reliability added with the enhanced knowledge whilst working hard to better understand our customers will allow real-time effective decision making, improved service and above all maintain the competitive edge for our customers," it said.
MM Line will in no way be commercially represented by any of the affiliated companies within the Meratus group, such as its forwarding subsidiaries, MIF Services, MB Line NVOCC or Meratus Line.
All commercial matters will be handled entirely by MM Line staff in Singapore and Australia.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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