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PostTime:2010-01-12 07:58:13 View:496
SHANGHAI'S final container figures showed today a fall in traffic last year – for the first time in more than three decades. Shanghai International Ports said the final throughput of 25M teu was 11% down from the previous year. The reason was slumping international demand for China's exports, said Bloomberg, which said Beijing's ship exports fell 16% last year. But Shanghai's box volume rose 7.1% to 2.4M teu in December, the first increase in a year, Bloomberg added. The figures were issued as Chinese shipping passed significant milestones last week. It superseded Germany as the leading global exporter, with $957Bn in goods shipped out in the first 10 months of 2009, Global Trade Information Services said. Also, China overtook the US as the world's largest vehicle market, with direct implications on the car carrier sector. More than 13.5M vehicles were sold last year in China, the official Xinhua news agency said, while the US had the lowest total in 27 years (10.4M units). Finally, China's exports climbed to $130.7Bn in December, a record monthly high since October 2008, marking an increase of 17.7% year on year (y/y) and ending 13 straight months of decline, IHS Global Insight reported today. Its imports recorded a stunning 55.9% y/y growth in December last year, after a 26.7% y/y increase in the previous month, the first rise since November 2008, the report added.
Shanghai ups underwater protection
PostTime:2010-01-08 07:39:31 View:352
Shanghai is not going to let anything disrupt its landmark World Expo event in May - be it on land, in the air, at sea or even underwater.The city recently launched the Shanghai Marine Surveillance Team to patrol and protect submarine fibre cables around its coastline.The potential problem highlighted by the city, which is aiming to become the world's top maritime centre by 2020, is those pesky ships. Or to be more precise - their anchors.Team official Bai Tao says construction, exploration, scientific experiments, marine research and careless captains dropping anchors might damage the underwater cables - so his team will patrol the area to prevent accidents.Ensuring that China's largest network of underwater cables is not damaged is important work, adds Bai."Shanghai's submarine fibre-cable network connects the Taiwan region, Japan and the US," he said."If there is any [damage] to the cables, the whole city's internet service might be paralysed." The team will also guard the city's territorial waters and uninhabited islands to help prevent marine pollution.Shanghai has a coastline of 763 kilometres (474 miles) including 16 islands.
PostTime:2009-12-23 08:13:02 View:719
Shipowners searching for investment cash this winter could do worse than study HSBC's plans to raise $8bn from a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.The expected move would be hugely symbolic for both the global bank, which has strong roots in the region, and for China's own ambitions as a financial centre.While HSBC does not need the cash urgently, unlike some of its rivals, it is keen to raise its profile with Chinese retail investors, who have a voracious appetite for attractive stocks.And Shanghai is showing interest in further opening up as a business location to rival not just Hong Kong and Singapore but also New York and London.If HSBC's listing is a success, it will help open the doors for all. The billions of dollars of savings in China could be a tempting target for those with ships to finance.
PostTime:2009-12-18 07:39:23 View:453
SHANGHAI is planning a change in status to free port to help boost its fortunes as a shipping centre. Yangshan Bonded Zone will have its functions expanded, following instructions from China's supreme executive body, the State Council. The panel wants Shanghai to have "two centres" of economic activity: financial and shipping. Although Yangshan Port will be at the core of the free zone, during the 12th five-year plan, the free zone policy will apply to other areas in Shanghai where shipping business is carried on, for instance, in the ports along the mouth of the Changjiang River and the Lingang New City.
PostTime:2009-11-02 07:59:25 View:718
China on Saturday opened a new bridge over the Yangtze River that will pave the way for the rapid development of the country's "last virgin island," Chongming Island - now just an hour's drive from booming Shanghai.With an area 50 percent bigger than Singapore, the island has captured the imagination of developers, who have considered building everything from a Disney theme park to a replica of Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch.Two more bridges are planned that will connect Chongming to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport and to eastern Jiangsu province as part of a national highway to central Xi'an, city construction commissioner Huang Rong said.
Shanghai eyes free exchange of yuan, New Taiwan dollar
PostTime:2009-10-27 10:01:14 View:732
Shanghai has applied to regulators to launch a free exchange between the yuan and the New Taiwan dollar to enhance financial cooperation, the head of the Shanghai Financial Service Office said Sunday."With growing trade between Shanghai and Taiwan in recent years, we hope that a free exchange between the yuan and the New Taiwan dollar can be conducted in Shanghai as a trial," said Fang Xinghai at the 6th China International Finance Forum."We have applied to the regulators and expect it will be approved soon," Fang said at the two-day forum which ended Sunday.Shanghai has recently launched a cross-border currency clearing system and Fang expects that it will be extended to Taiwan soon.By the end of April, Taiwan had invested $5 billion in more than 6,000 projects in Shanghai, and trade between the two sides totaled $13.68 billion in the first eight months of this year.Although the two sides must overcome some barriers in financial cooperation, Fang said they can explore possibilities in innovative products, such as exchange-traded funds that enable investors to buy or sell shares in an entire benchmark portfolio."The Shanghai Stock Exchange is making efforts to introduce ETFs based on overseas equity indices (and) we can also expect Taiwan and the mainland to introduce ETFs based on each other's index," Fang said.The two sides can also cooperate in sectors that are not directly supervised by the central government, such as venture capital."Taiwan is very successful in the venture capital sector, while the Chinese mainland is still in the first stage. Policies have now been eased so that Taiwan VC firms can set up branches on the mainland," Fang noted.The Chinese mainland and Taiwan in April sealed a cooperative financial regulatory mechanism.
DHL opens US$25 million domestic transport hub in Pudong at Shanghai
PostTime:2009-07-15 08:50:14 View:671
DHL has opened its new DHL Eastern China Domestic Transportation Hub in Shanghai, as part of a US$25 million investment which strengthens DHL's expertise in road transport and distribution in China, and taps into the country's domestic growth, Xinhua reported.Situated at the Kangqiao Industrial Park, near Pudong airport, the hub is one of the five regional hubs (Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan) owned and operated by DHL Supply Chain in mainland China. Together with another 15 sub-regional hubs across the country, the DHL Supply Chain domestic transportation network now covers more than 400 cities.The 25,000-square metre hub houses 53 loading and cross docks and operates around the clock to provide cross dock operations, storage, multi-modal transfer and data management systems. The facility also houses a fleet control and call centre. The hub is located within the DHL Supply Chain Kangqiao Logistics and Transportation Centre which provides value-added warehousing and distribution services.Capable of handling 262,000 tons a year, the DHL hub features advanced cross dock operations and IT systems to enhance service and expand offerings.The Chinese domestic market has been growing strong due to increased consumer purchasing power. China road transport revenue increased 66 per cent from 1998 and 2007, from $15 billion to $25 billion, and it is projected to reach $36 billion by 2013 at a 7.1 per cent annual growth, according to a DHL press release.The Chinese government has also recently released a plan for developing Shanghai into an international shipping centre. This is expected to boost demand for domestic transport services to deliver goods from inland production bases to the ports and airports, as well as distributing imported goods to end consumers in the cities.
Germanischer Lloyd Enlarges Ship Plan Approval in Shanghai
PostTime:2008-05-20 11:18:16 View:1145
Shanghai, 19 May 2008 – The plan approval office of classification society Germanischer Lloyd in Shanghai has moved to new, larger offices. With an open office afternoon, a series of technical presentations held in the newly established seminar room and an official opening ceremony in the evening Germanischer Lloyd has inaugurated the new facilities on the 11th floor of Shanghai Central Plaza at Huaihai Middle Road in Shanghai. More than 80 representatives of shipyards, ship design offices and ship owners attended. With the enlargement of the premises, Germanischer Lloyd caters to the rising demand for plan approval of the Chinese shipyards in China. The new site is for up to 50 naval architects and marine engineers. In view of the enormous worldwide demand for shipping tonnage, the fabrication of ships is becoming ever faster. A pure construction period of about eight months still requires half a year of lead time. The shorter the lead time, the sooner the actual production can begin. The contribution a classification society can make to accelerate the workflow is demonstrated by speedy drawing review, customer closeness and electronic tools for the transmission and administration of project documents. The shipbuilding and machinery engineers carefully examine every detail of a given ship design – whether tanker, bulk carrier, container vessel or passenger ship. The number of individual drawings to review, check, copy and dispatch can easily top 1,600 for a single ship. The plan approval team in Shanghai is part of the Department Seagoing Ships Asia of Germanischer Lloyd's head office in Hamburg. Together with colleagues in Busan, Korea, they form a multinational competence centre for the review of ship designs. Because of the close interaction, Germanischer Lloyd ensures a worldwide uniform standard while offering customer closeness at the same time. Computer Aided ApprovalSince October 2007 Germanischer Lloyd offers the entire design review process based on digital documents that can be examined on a computer screen. Shipyards receive PDF files with standardized electronic comments inserted in a list format. The list can be processed one item at a time, and annotations can be commented by the customer before the revised files are transmitted back to GL. This only requires Acrobat Reader software. The file size of vectorized drawings remains the same. A 30-inch screen can display up to 45 percent of a vessel 300 metres in length. This is also available for ship designs approved in Shanghai.
Shanghai to set up new financial investment company
PostTime:2007-12-07 09:10:28 View:1358
The Shanghai government is setting up a new $1US billion financial investment company, in order to facilitate domestic and overseas investments.The new investment institution will be named Shanghai Financial Holding Group and will be taking over the financial assets of Shanghai International Group. The assets include Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Shenyin Wanguo Securities Company and other banks.Officials in Shanghai said that the group has the responsibility to support local enterprises investing in the overseas market. The Shanghai government is establishing this group as part of its strategy to promote Shanghai as an international financial center. However, the goal is likely to be unachievable, if the Chinese central government does not abolish capital controls and free convertibility of the RMB.Other local governments are also seeking to establish investment funds. For example, Shanxi and Guangdong are setting up energy funds, while Sichuan hopes to establish a science and technology fund.
New DNV software production centre in Shanghai
PostTime:2007-11-30 14:09:38 View:1793
Shanghai: DNV has decided to establish a new software production centre in Shanghai, China. The centre will be opened on 1 January 2008 and will allow DNV to meet China’s ambitious plans for technology development and innovation and rising demand for integrated software solutions in the shipping and energy industries. The intention is to be even closer to the Chinese market by providing tailor-made software solutions to the shipping, offshore and process industries. Tor Svensen, the COO of DNV Maritime and chairman of DNV Software, says: “DNV is and has been at the forefront when it comes to new software solutions. DNV Nauticus, the production system which ensures knowledge sharing throughout a ship’s lifetime, has been a trend setter for software systems within this industry. By establishing the Shanghai production centre, we will strengthen our opportunities to further develop this tool. We will also ensure closer cooperation with the Chinese maritime cluster and together strive to achieve more innovations.”At present, DNV has two software production centres – one at the head office in Oslo, Norway, and one in London, UK. Shanghai was the obvious choice for the third centre.Elling Rishoff, the managing director of DNV Software, says: “China is currently number four globally as regards software development. By combining the maritime know-how of DNV’s maritime service centre in Shanghai with the software and IT competence of the new software production centre we will be able to address key challenges facing the Chinese maritime industry in its way towards technology leadership.”This new software production centre’s main focus in relation to the shipping and offshore industries will be on ship and offshore design institutes, shipyards, ship owners and offshore operators. In addition to Nauticus, other solutions and products will be developed and expanded.“As the global attention paid to environmental problems has increased over the past year, I expect that our Environmental Reporting System for triple bottom line reporting on environmental issues – like emissions to air – is one of the products this new production centre will be able to develop in parallel with the industries’ expectations,” adds Tor Svensen.
Yangshan ready to cash in as Shanghai skyrockets
PostTime:2007-11-16 08:51:24 View:1990
WITH Shanghai set to overtake Hong Kong this year as the world's second busiest container port, city administrators could be forgiven if they rested on their laurels before battling with Singapore for the top spot. But that is not the way things work in China, especially Shanghai.Instead, Shanghai will open four more berths by the end of this year at Yangshan, its deepwater container port located offshore and linked to the mainland by a 32.5km long bridge.The new berths, which are scheduled to open on December 10, form the first stage of the third phase and will be inaugurated exactly two years after the opening of the five-berth first phase.Yangshan was designed to supplement the Waigaoqiao container terminal area, which is limited by its relatively shallow channel of 11 m, and to cater for ever growing demand in the Yangtze River delta.This strong growth is partly reflected in surging container volumes at Yangshan, which handled 4.42m teu in the first nine months this year, up 199% from the same period 12 months earlier. The extraordinarily strong growth is partly due to the opening of its four-berth second phase on December 10 last year.But the growth in container traffic was also undoubtedly helped by the forced move of box lines, operating mainly European and intra-Asian services, from Waigaoqiao to Yangshan as port officials were determined to make its showpiece port complex a success."With the present progress we estimate Yangshan will achieve throughput of 5.9m teu to 6m teu for the whole of 2007," said Shi Siming, deputy general manager of Shanghai Shengdong International Container Terminal, a subsidiary of Shanghai International Port (Group) which runs the existing two phases of Yangshan. He said the forecast would "exceed our target of 5.4m teu".Yangshan now handles all vessels serving the Asia-Europe trade that berth at Shanghai as well as some intra-Asian, transpacific and Mediterranean services, with the rest, mainly transpacific services, handled at Waigaoqiao.Shanghai International Port (Group) has remained tight-lipped on the list of partners that will help to operate the first stage of Yangshan phase three.SIPG president Chen Xuyuan said the final list of shareholders would only be released in the first half of next year after the new facilities pass a six-month trial period.But a five-company consortium comprising PSA International of Singapore, French shipping line CMA CGM, China Shipping Group, China Cosco Group and, of course, SIPG is believed to have won the concession.Attention is also beginning to turn to the second part of phase three which will have a quay length of 1,250 m. Tenders for the operating rights have yet to be invited, although all of phase three is expected to become operational by 2010.While Yangshan is growing stronger as a box port, Waigaoqiao has chosen to diversify into the ro-ro business.Mr Chen said SIPG had abandoned its previous plan to develop the sixth phase of Waigaoqiao into an ocean-going box terminal, but instead had decided to build a ro-ro terminal on the site.He said SIPG had teamed up with Chinese car maker SAIC Motor Corp, Nippon Yusen Kaisha of Japan and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics to develop a 550 m long ro-ro terminal at a cost of Yuan1.5bn ($200m).The terminal will have an annual capacity of 600,000 cars when it becomes operational next year. Waigaoqiao Port, which handled 15m teu of containerised cargo, 70% of Shanghai's total volume, last year is expected to see its throughput rise to 16m teu this year.
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT INT'L MARITIME FORUM FOCUSES ON SAFETY, ENVIRONMENT
PostTime:2007-11-08 08:48:11 View:1844
SHANGHAI: The Shanghai International Maritime Forum 2007 opened yesterday, focusing on the global concern regarding oil transportation and maritime environment protection.Nearly 250 delegates from home and abroad are attending the two-day forum, the third edition of the biennial event since 2003.Ministry of Communications Engineer-general Jiang Qian, Chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Andreas I. Chrysostomou, and Shanghai Vice-Mayor Yang Xiong addressed the opening ceremony yesterday morning.It was followed by a keynote speech by Liu Gongchen, deputy executive director general of China Maritime Safety Administration (MSA). "The Shanghai International Maritime Forum is designed to become a platform open to the international maritime circle for information exchange," Liu said.The event focuses on topics concerning sustainable development, such as shipping safety and environmental protection, he added."Through this platform, we hope to promote information exchange, expand the scale of international cooperation, and boost China's development in the maritime sector." The forum is also expected to promote the global influence of Shanghai, which is positioned as a shipping center not only for China but hopefully the entire world as well, Liu further said.With a phenomenal rise in global petroleum consumption, the petro-shipping business is experiencing a boom that has, in turn, increased pressure on the marine environment, said Liu.Challenge The deputy director elaborated on the challenges the world faces and proposed five points on conducting global maritime environmental protection.According to the International Energy Agency, global petroleum consumption is estimated to increase by 50 percent by 2030.Hence, the maritime environmental hazard posed by the increasing numbers of oceangoing ships is drawing increasing global attention, Liu said.Due to the sustained and extensive damage caused by an oil spill, and the difficulty of controlling such pollution, it leads to the incurrence of irretrievable losses, which calls for joint action from the global community to reduce risk.Thanks to the continuing international efforts toward technical cooperation, control over maritime pollution and emergency response systems related to oil spills, maritime preservation has improved substantially, said Liu."However, we are still faced with a challenging situation in view of severe pollution resulting from maritime accidents such as tank collision, grounding and stranding," he emphasized.China, the world's fifth biggest petroleum producer and second in terms of petroleum consumption, has developed into a thriving economy and thus grown increasingly dependent on petroleum.As China's demand for petroleum continues to grow, the already busy shipping environment along the coastal areas is expected to become more complicated, Liu said.The Chinese government has long accorded priority to maritime protection and ensuring the sustainability of marine resources, he added.The country currently has in place comprehensive systems for maritime pollution control and emergency response."To protect the maritime environment is to save ourselves. Sustainable development of sea resources is a part of building a harmonious society," Liu said.Shanghai Chen Aiping, head of Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, said that the port city has made huge progress on its way toward becoming an international shipping center.The volume of containers handled in Shanghai is expected to reach 25 million twenty equivalent units (TEU) this year, he said."The container throughput in Shanghai's Yangshan Port is growing by several million TEUs of containers each year." "Shanghai is ranked third in the world in terms of container throughput, and there is a possibility that the city can move a step forward this year," Chen noted.Shanghai has also ranked first globally in terms of the total volume of cargo transport for a few consecutive years, he added."Sponsoring such an international forum is expected to promote Shanghai's status and influence." Discussion This year's theme is a hot issue that many countries find a challenge.At the forum, domestic and overseas delegates exchanged ideas on the current situation and on increased convention implementation related to international anti-pollution measures.MEPC Chairman Andreas I. Chrysostomou led the discussion on the first subject, by reporting on the latest actions taken by the committee.He said that the committee has endorsed a proposal to commission a comprehensive study - applying proposed fuel options to reduce sulfur oxide generated by shipping - by an informal cross government/industry scientific group of experts to review the impact on the environment, human health and the shipping and petroleum industries.The scientific group will also review the consequent impact such fuel options could have on other emissions, including carbon-dioxide emissions from ships and refineries.He also reported that the results of the naval fuel sulfur monitoring program for 2006 showed that the average sulfur content last year was 2.59 percent, a reduction from 2.70 percent in 2005. As the three-year (2004-06) rolling average was 2.66 percent, a slight reduction from the previous years' 2.70 percent, he concluded that the fuel sulfur content of ships is continuing a downward trend.He was followed by representatives from the United States Coast Guard, the Britain Maritime & Coastguard Agency, and Coast Guard of the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and Canada, who introduced their respective situations and experiences.China's efforts On behalf of China, senior Shanghai MSA official Chen Bowei analyzed the pros and cons of China entering the Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Cooperation to Pollution Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substance (OPRC-HNS) 2000.Chen said it is both necessary and feasible for China to ratify the HNS Protocol.Citing statistics, he said that waterways have already become a major mode of transport for hazardous and noxious substances in China.Between 2002 and 2006, a total of 442.6 million tons of hazardous and noxious substances were transported by water. The volume of the substance thus transported has grown at an annual rate of 12.5 percent.The growth has been accompanied by incidents of marine pollution from time to time, he noted.For example, there were 57 incidents of liquid noxious substance spills between 1991 and 2004. Though the number of pollution incidents is witnessing a downward trend since 2001, the volume of actual spilled substances is increasing.Despite the four-level emergency response system that China has established to handle oil spills, its capacity for emergency response to hazardous and noxious substance spills is still weak. Chen said China lacks equipment, personnel training and exercise in the sector.He believes China should ratify the HNS Protocol, because it can improve the domestic legislation and emergency response mechanism.As the protocol requires each contracting party to have a minimum level of response equipment, it can also help enhance the country's emergency response capability.The government should invest heavily to purchase emergency response equipment, and strengthen personnel training and exercise, he advised.He also suggested that the government should make use of opportunities like the Shanghai International Maritime Forum, Northwest Pacific Oil Spills Pollution Action Plan, and the channels of IMO, to learn about other countries' advanced experiences.