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Morotai, a container ship owned by CMA CGM Group Agencies (Australia) Pty Ltd., docked at the SP-ITC International Container Terminal in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, on March 15, following the route from the city to Australia and vice versa.
Weighing 40,000 tonnes and measuring 222 metres long, Morotai is the vessel with the largest deadweight tonnage having anchored at the SP-ITC port thus far.
Addressing the welcoming ceremony, Nguyen Xuan Sang, Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration (under the Ministry of Transport), said that the handling of the largest-ever container ship was a big success for the SP-ITC terminal, helping to reduce transportation and loading/unloading costs for businesses and increase Vietnam’s competitiveness.
SP-ITC, the first privately invested container port in HCM City, has safely received more than 1,000 cargo vessels since it was put into operation in September 2016, contributing to the development of Vietnam’s maritime industry as a whole and HCM City in particular, he stated.
Explaining the reason for their selection of the SP-ITC port as a docking place for cargo transportation, the CMA CGM Group representative said that SP-ITC is a deep-water port located along the Hanoi Highway, the HCM City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway and National Highway 51, thus making it easy to connect to industrial parks in the provinces of Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in transporting cargo from HCM City to the provinces. Furthermore, SP-ITC has been installed with a modern equipment system, meeting high technology standards in Vietnam.
According to Nguyen Van Chuyen, chairman of the directorate of the SP-ITC international transportation & trading services company, SP-ITC is the first port to be allowed by the Ministry of Finance to pilot and successfully apply an e-customs system and automatic customs clearance for imports and exports at the port. In the near future, the terminal will put an e-port system (automatic search) and e-billing (electronic payment) into use, aiming to help customers look up information on the status of goods and the legal status of goods, and make remote payments for services.
Golden opportunity for Vietnam logistics industry: EVFTA
According to World Bank’s 2018 Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Vietnam ranked 39/160 countries participating in the survey. This result had increased 25 positions compared to the ranking of 64 in 2016.
Significantly, Vietnam ranked first among emerging markets. Generally, almost LPI 2018 evaluation indices increased outstandingly, the highest one was service quality (ranked 33, up 29 grades), and goods tracking abilities (ranked 34, up 41 grades). The results showed that improving the capacity of enterprises has been taking remarkable steps through the applications of information technology to logistics services.
In the near future, when Vietnam successfully signs EVFTA, many benefits will spread to the development of Vietnam’s logistics industry. Center for WTO and Economic Integration: The impact of EVFTA on logistics development prospects would be presented in two angles: The first would be from Vietnam and EU’s commitment to open markets in the field of transport services. The second would be those commitments in areas that affect logistics services market.
When the commitments take effect, EVFTA can bring a great opportunity for Vietnam logistics industry. First of all, a significant reduction of tariff barriers could increase the volume of imports and exports between Vietnam and the European Union, thereby, increasing the demand for logistics activities and also being an opportunity to increase the scale of Vietnam’s logistics industry. The second would be an opportunity to attract investment from Europe, utilize the experience, management skills, capital, and available network of partners when entering into joint ventures with EU partners.
Hapag-Lloyd targeting quality, profitability and selected growth
When Hapag-Lloyd unveiled its ‘Strategy 2023’ towards the end of last year, it was based on the premise that the container shipping market’s rush of consolidation is over.
As the company pointed out, the liner shipping industry has changed significantly. It is at a turning point. Hapag-Lloyd, which merged with UASC in 2017, and prior to that with CSAV, is itself more than twice as large as it was five years ago, in terms of capacity.
The company’s five-year plan comes with three key targets – quality, profitability and selective global growth.
“First, we want to be number one for quality in the industry,” Nils Haupt, senior director, corporate communications, tells Seatrade Maritime News. “As we believe that size is no longer the name of the game – we don’t expect to see any big mergers in the future – so we believe we have to differentiate ourselves on quality, and so set ourselves this target.”
Hapag-Lloyd is developing 12 criteria “where customers will be able to clearly see and measure our quality and how it is developing”, he says. “We are currently working on the clearly defined 12 quality criteria – we will make the first of them public very soon and are confident we will have all 12 in place by mid or end 2020.”
Anyone will be able to access the website and to see the weekly performance within each of these criteria – “and we can see where we need to improve and what we have achieved”, he says.
“A lot of IT planning and resources are involved in this – we are putting a lot of staff and investment in to really prepare. We will be leading in the industry in this area.”
Second, profitability. Hapag-Lloyd’s 2018 operating profit before interest and tax (EBIT) increased to €443m in 2018, from €411m in 2017.
“In our industry, not everyone can take profitability for granted,” says Haupt. “We want to be profitable throughout the cycle. In 2018 we were the most profitable line in the industry.”
Thirdly, Hapag-Lloyd is looking at markets where it can expand. “We want to have global reach but we want to focus on growth markets – for example, Africa, where there are still some areas where we can still grow. We have started new business in east and West Africa and that is very promising. We will be looking at markets where we are strong or where there is potential.”
Hapag-Lloyd is also preparing for January 2020, when the IMO’s low-sulphur rules kick in. The majority of its fleet will take the option of using compliant fuel; ten 13,000 teu Hamburg Express class are being retrofitted with scrubbers.
And then there is the third option – using LNG. Hapag-Lloyd is to spend $25m retrofitting the 15,000 teu Sajir to operate with LNG; the conversion, to be carried out at the Huarun Dadong Dockyard in Shanghai, will enable the engine system to function with either LNG or low-sulphur fuel oil. The vessel is expected to enter service in 2020 or 2021.
“We are the first container shipping line worldwide to be doing this [LNG conversion] and we are doing it as a pilot project to assess whether LNG is feasible to use on more ships,” says Haupt. “We need to look at price, the availability of LNG all over the world and the fuelling process at the port, and we need to train staff. This is a lot of cost and we need to see how it works.”
Cosco Shipping Bulk orders up to ten 210,000 dwt bulk carriers
Cosco Shipping Bulk has inked a contract for eight 210,000 dwt bulk carriers newbuildings, plus options for two more with Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province.
In February this year Cosco Shipping Bulk signed ship design contract with Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI) for the development of 210,000 dwt bulk carriers. The vessels will meet the latest requirements on emission control and energy saving with fuel consumption of 45.3 tonnes per day.
The bulk carriers will be deployed for bauxite transportation for Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco). Chalco launched its first overseas bauxite project in Boffa, Guinea last year. The project will see an annual bauxite output of 12m tonnes in the first phase.
Cosco Shipping Bulk, headquartered in Guangzhou, was established in 2016 and operates a fleet of over 400 bulk carriers.
