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Force shipping lines to re-export if transporting scrap to Vietnam
Director General of Vietnam Customs Nguyen Van Can has highlighted forcing to re-export imported scrap at the monthly meeting of evaluating work in May and implementing tasks in June of 2019 of General Department of Vietnam Customs on June 4.
The Director General requested that if suspecting scrap, customs authority will conduct inspections and coercion for shipping lines then forcing to re-export.
At the same time, they will continue to manage goods strictly that are scrap, used goods that have characteristic of backlogged scrap in the customs management area and handle seriously cases of violation; to strictly control this items before importing to Vietnam; chairing, urging and coordinating with specialized ministries to implement solutions in order to enhance the effectiveness of specialized inspection for import – export goods.
The Customs sector would continue to expand to the whole country with the VASSCM system, focusing on managing bonded warehouses and inland warehouses. Currently, 29/35 Customs Departments have deployed the VASSCM system, of which 17 Customs Departments implement the system in bonded warehouses with a total of 477 enterprises, including 238 enterprises operating in airport warehouses and yards, ports and 139 enterprises operating bonded warehouse.
Specifically, Mr. Can requested the units to continue to improve the management and operation of IT systems, and should complete the submission to the General Department for promulgating regulations on supervision, management and operation of the IT system of the Customs sector which would replace the regulation on management and operation of IT systems of the Customs sector issued in 2009.
Along with that is completing diagrams and professional problems of customs procedures for different types of import and export goods; deploy the implementation of the specialized inspection scheme and the customs supervision project in accordance with the approved plan; coordinate with units to implement customs management system at ports, warehouses and yards.
In term of revenue collection tasks, the General Director asked units to accurately assess the revenue collected in five months, turnover of goods and corresponding to the collected tax and refunded tax to balance the state revenues in the last months of the year.
The Director General asked to closely implement the solutions of revenue collection in the Directive of the Director General in the spirit of trade facilitation, control of factors related to state revenue in order to implement tasks effectively. In particular, it is necessary to focus on the tax calculation value for export goods, review the list of risk management on price to identify suspicious signs, conduct consultations and post-clearance audit effectively; implementing post-clearance audit for some exported commodities and control for exported consignments.
Applying risk management in customs supervision; improve the efficiency and effectiveness of using the scanning system of the Customs sector; risk management of import and export goods, people and vehicles on exit and entry. Completing and implementing risk management for the risk of taking advantage of green channel declaration for committing acts of smuggling and trade frauds.
In the work of anti-smuggling and trade fraud, the Director General requested to quickly develop regulations, processes and professional regulations on criminal investigation: processes and regulations on investigation activities accordance with the order of criminal procedure of Customs authority as guidance process; decision on regulating on titles and standards of investigators of customs authorities; develop training and fostering programs for customs officials in the field of criminal investigation.
For the internal management, the Director General requested to continue to strictly implement the working regulations of the General Department of Vietnam Customs; internal inspection and control regulations for the implementation of customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision; regulation on public service activities of Vietnam Customs; maintaining discipline of customs officials in the sector while performing public duties, strictly handling officials who violate regulations.
Logistics enterprises expect a 'push' on infrastructure in Vietnam market
Although there has been progress in the development of transport infrastructure, the lack of synchronization between the ports and road and railway networks and the support system of seaports is one of the main reasons for limiting the development of logistics services.
Lack of connection
According to the Ministry of Transport, the most prominent issue in logistics is that logistics costs in Vietnam are still high. According to a study by the World Bank (WB), Vietnam's logistics costs are equivalent to 20.9% of GDP, of which transport costs account for about 59%.
In response to why it is difficult to reduce logistics costs and compete with foreign enterprises, Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai, Deputy Director of Truong Long Transportation Services Company, said the lack of inland container depots and logistics centers with large scale and convenient locations in each key economic area to act as a focal point for transshipment and distribution of goods was the reason why transportation and logistics costs were still high.
Accordingly, lack of synchronization between ports, railway stations, airports, inland container depots and connected infrastructure made establishment of a logistics service chain linking transport modest in delivery and withdrawing goods through the ports incomplete.
Mr. Phan Manh Hung, Head of Import and Export Department, Thien Ha Trading and Services Co., Ltd. said that although the Mekong Delta was an area with advantages to develop logistics services, especially inland waterway transport, this area lacked the direct connection infrastructure to take goods from the Mekong Delta to international routes. Accordingly, goods of enterprises are mostly transferred to Cai Mep port or Cat Lai port to travel to international routes. Limiting logistics infrastructure in the Mekong Delta region had created a burden on increasing costs for agricultural and fishery exporters in this area.
Lack of "soft" infrastructure
According to Mr. Clement Blanc, Director of DHL Global Forwarding in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam's logistics infrastructure had not developed yet. Accordingly, for hard infrastructure, the Southern region was following the Northern region. Hanoi and Hai Phong were developing very fast in highways and ports, while in Ho Chi Minh City, airports were overloaded. In addition, the situation of unloading vehicles in return also made logistics enterprises waste costs.
With the influence of Industry 4.0, enterprises cannot carry out business activities without planning to capture global technology innovations and initiatives. The role and way of operating the supply chain will be different after 20 years and will be very different from now. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s logistics enterprises face a shortage of "soft infrastructure" with restrictions on using Big Data technology in warehouse management, to calculate the flow in rush hour.
Talking to reporters from Customs News, Mr. Nguyen Tuong, Deputy General Secretary of Vietnam Logistics Association (VLA), said that according to calculations, if the output limit of Ho Chi Minh City area was implemented, the incremental output of Ho Chi Minh City area moving to Cai Mep – Thi Vai in 2025 would be about 5 million teus. The output through Vung Tau seaport by 2025 was forecasted to reach 5.2 - 6.2 million teus. In the long term, the arrival of the ships in Cai Mep – Thi Vai would promote the development of service lines to consolidate or distribute to surrounding domestic markets such as Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, Quy Nhon, Hai Phong and even international markets such as Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, which are the prerequisites for the formation of a transshipment center.
Alphaliner: 2019 Box Throughput Growth Projections Slashed
Alphaliner has reduced its global container throughput growth estimate for 2019 from 3.6% to 2.5% due to weakening volumes in the year’s first quarter.The full-year projections for container volume growth were also affected by the expected decline in transpacific volumes as a result of an escalating US-China trade war.
“Despite the uncertainties over the global trade environment, container volumes are still expected to achieve positive growth in 2019 – albeit at a much lower rate than in the previous two years when overall throughput increased by 6.7% in 2017 and 5.2% in 2018,” Alphaliner said.
According to a sample of more than 250 ports, compiled by Alphaliner, first quarter volume growth only reached 2.8% globally. It has slowed down from 6.6% in the same quarter of last year and from 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018.
In addition, the rate of growth is unevenly spread between regions. Several emerging markets have posted negative cargo volume growth and thus pulled down the global growth rate.
Three regions recorded volume declines, with Middle East port volumes falling by 10.1%, while Africa and Oceania volumes fell by 4.4% and 1.1% respectively.
Among the gainers, both Chinese and American ports reported healthy cargo increases in the first quarter of the year and volumes increased despite the ongoing trade tensions between the two countries. Chinese ports (including Hong Kong) posted a 4.2% gain in the first quarter, with Shanghai growing 7%, while Guangzhou, Qingdao and Xiamen reported gains of over 8%.
“The escalation of the trade war between China and the US is expected to bring down container volume growth rates in both countries over the coming quarters. The OCEAN Alliance carriers have already announced two void transpacific sailings in June in anticipation of the drop in volumes, with more carriers expected to follow suit as transpacific spot rates on the US West Coast route have already fallen by 15% in the last two weeks,” according to Alphaliner.
APL adding Japan-Malaysia-Vietnam service
Container carrier APL announced Thursday a new Japan-Malaysia-Vietnam (JMV) service that will provide weekly connectivity between North Asia and Southeast Asia. The service will commence sailing June 17 from Osaka and provide weekly connectivity between North Asia and Southeast Asia with a rotation:
Osaka — Kobe — Nagoya — Yokohama — Tokyo — Hong Kong — Singapore — Port Klang (N) — Port Klang (W) — Singapore — Ho Chi Minh — Shekou — Kaohsiung — Osaka.
“The JMV service will offer one of the most comprehensive North Asian market coverage comprising five Japanese main ports as well as Hong Kong, Shekou and Taiwan,” the carrier said in a statement. “Shippers from Kanto and Kansai regions will also find an alternative access to Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam via the JMV service and vice versa.”
CMA CGM rationalizes global brand structure in $1.5bn cost saving bid
The world's third largest container line CMA CGM is rationalizing its brand structure with APL and ANL as part of a $1.5bn cost control program.
CMA CGM said the cost control savings would come mainly by streamlining its organization and its maritime routes.
From the beginning of October CMA CGM as the global brand of the group and be its carrier operating in the transatlantic, Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean, Asia-Caribbean and Europe-India/Middle East markets.
Singapore-headquartered APL will be the only brand in the transpacific trade, where it has traditional been strongest, as well as Asia-Indian Subcontinent, intra-Asia, with CNC, Asia-Oceania, and the US Flag services.
ANL will remain as the group's lead brand in Oceania.
CMA CGM acquired APL in 2016 when it bought Neptune Orient Lines (NOL).
“The new organizational setup will allow the group to simplify its offer, making it more legible to its customers, and benefit from the expertise of specialist companies from coherent regional groups, while reducing its costs,” CMA CGM said its first quarter earnings statement.
In the first quarter of the year $43m loss on revenues of $7.409bn, but is confident on its transformation with its latest takeover of CEVA Logistics.
“With the strong measures adopted and the strategic investments made, the CMA CGM Group is set to proceed with its transformation, strengthen its performance, accelerate its profitable development for the years to come, keep adjusting its offering and propose to its customers a tailored end-to-end service that meets their expectations,” the company said.
Yantian Express Unloads All Containers, Leaves Halifax.
The fire-damaged Yantian Express has finalized cargo operations in Halifax and departed the port on June 2, 2019. According to a notice from German shipping major Hapag-Lloyd, the vessel discharged all containers ashore as planned prior to departing the port. Data provided by MarineTraffic shows that Yantian Express is currently sailing to Morocco’s Tangier Med, where it is scheduled to arrive on June 12.
The company added that for all secured cargo, oncarriage/transshipment arrangements are well in progress to expedite the forwarding of containers to their contractual place of delivery, while there are still over 200 containers in Halifax for which GA and salvage security has not been provided.
Hapag-Lloyd earlier informed that the 2002-built containership would sail for Asia for repairs after it completed discharge operations in Halifax, where it moored on May 21. The vessel had to load back empty containers to achieve the necessary stability criteria for a subsequent safe passage to Asia where it would undergo permanent repairs, the company explained.
The containership suffered a fire while sailing some 650 nautical miles off the Canadian coast in January 2019. A month later, the Yantian Express berthed in Freeport, Bahamas, for an evaluation process and cargo discharge preparation.
TradeLens to launch in Russia with pilot in St. Petersburg
The digital platform, enabled by Blockchain and jointly developed by Maersk GTD and IBM, becomes available in Russia. As part of the agreement with Russian authorities, St. Petersburg area becomes the pilot for the launch and its port joins TradeLens’ ecosystem of companies and organizations pioneering digitized container documentation flows in the global supply chain.
St. Petersburg, Russia --- A.P. Moller - Maersk and Russian Ministry of Transport signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 5th June, enabling the launch of TradeLens in Russia. The blockchain enabled platform, jointly developed by Maersk (through its subsidiary Maersk GTD Inc.) and IBM, is expected to significantly facilitate international trade, not least by the inclusion of the Port of St. Petersburg, Russia’s main container gateway, as part of the pilot launch.
The agreement, signed by Maersk CEO Søren Skou and Mr. Yuriy Tsvetkov, Deputy Transport Minister and Head of Federal Maritime and River transport Agency, enables the implementation of TradeLens on the Russian market with the aim of introducing digital documentation flow in what is currently mostly paper-based transportation processes. With this, the benefits of the platform will soon be extended to many businesses.
“The main result of the implementation of TradeLens, according to our expectations, should be an increase in the transparency of the Contracting procedure by distributing information about supply and demand, conditions and operations between many participants of the transport and logistics processes” said Mr. Yuriy Tsvetkov at the signing ceremony.
“TradeLens offers unprecedented benefits to all parties involved in the transportation process by bringing full transparency of cargo moves, while enabling seamless, secure sharing of real-time actionable supply chain information to all involved participants. The TradeLens platform fosters collaboration and trust while improving user experience and lowering costs through digitization. We are pleased to now start this journey in Russia, to expand the reach and value of our platform and its data to all participants, comments Mike White, CEO and Head of TradeLens for Maersk GTD Inc.
Last week it was announced that more carriers will be joining the blockchain-enabled digital shipping platform, which will result in data for nearly half of the world’s ocean container cargo shortly available on TradeLens.
With the St. Petersburg launch, TradeLens gains significant presence in Russia. The platform aims to significantly facilitate the interaction between shippers and various regulatory and administrative bodies in the country, ultimately increasing the speed of cargo clearance and movement of goods across borders. TradeLens enables participants to connect, share information and collaborate across the container logistics supply chain ecosystem. Members gain a comprehensive view of their data and can digitally collaborate as cargo moves around the world, helping create a transparent, secured, immutable record of transactions.
With more than 100 participants on the platform today, TradeLens is already processing over ten million discrete shipping events and thousands of documents each week, providing shippers, carriers, freight forwarders, customs officials, port authorities, inland transportation providers, and others a common view of transactions, which can build trust. A commitment to data ownership rights and permissioned access to data helps ensure privacy and confidentiality, while enabling users to collaborate more efficiently with real-time access to shipping data.
Source: World Maritime News, Seatrade Maritime, American Shipper, VN Customsnews
