Drewry: Expensive Hong Kong loses more boxes to cheaper Shenzhen

PostTime:2014-06-17 08:47:37 View:475

 HONG KONG stands out among the top 10 Asian container ports for losing box volume to rivals, says Drewry's Maritime Research, reports Lloyd's List.  "Hong Kong faces strong competition from Shenzhen, which is lower cost," said Drewry senior analyst Neil Davidson. "Hong Kong has always been a port with extremely expensive land and an extremely high quality, high-cost port to use. Shenzhen has lower land and labour costs, therefore lower tariffs," he said. "But it is also the migration of manufacturing from south China to north China - because labour in the south is becoming expensive compared to the north, so manufacturing is moving north and Bohai ports are benefiting. Half the world's container traffic goes through Asian ports and Mr Davidson expects that will grow to two-thirds by 2020. "Increasingly Asia is becoming the centre of the critical mass of container trade. Already 30 per cent of world container trade is handled in Chinese ports and that is going up," he said. "Shanghai will maintain its dominant position. It is going to add capacity in large lumps. The sheer scale of ports like Shanghai and Singapore make you stop and think," Mr Davidson said. "Hong Kong faces similar challenges to ports in other regions of the world - bigger ships, bigger alliances. How do you accommodate the needs of the alliances when you have fragmented capacity?  "A huge amount of boxes have to be trucked between terminals - the port would benefit from consolidation of terminal ownership, more contiguous quay lines and not having alliances to call at more than one terminal, or having inter-terminal transfers," he said.    

Shenzhen to showcase CIMC Intelligent Technology Company radio tracking

PostTime:2014-04-21 08:24:16 View:1924

ALL marine containers, trucks, truck trailers, on railway cars in terminals at the Port of Shenzhen will hold Globe Tracker's landmark tracking and communications device following installation by CIMC Intelligent Technology Company. The China International Marine Container Company (CIMC) subsidiary will integrate devices into equipment over a month period to completion date end of May.  "We are pleased to be working with Globe Tracker to demonstrate this exciting technology for the Asian marketplace," said CIMC Intelligent Technology spokesman Shouqin Zhou in a statement on the latest product CIMC Asian Tracking, Monitoring, Remote Management and Trade Data sharing.  Globe Tracker chief executive officer Jim Davis said its demonstration at Asian Showcase will present the tracking technology's efficiency and asset management for intermodal spaces.

Shenzhen sneaking lines away from Hong Kong

PostTime:2013-11-26 08:07:39 View:500

Shenzhen port authorities are pulling no punches in the competition to draw volumes and get lines to bypass Hong Kong and go straight through to them, according to local media reports. They are eyeing Hong Kong's lucrative transhipment volumes, much of it part of the China cabotage market, which Hong Kong has special dispensation to circumvent. A report by the South China Morning Post said that it had seen a document showing how a Shenzhen customs office has been advising an international shipping line how to use a paperwork loophole to skip Hong Kong and go directly to Shenzhen. This involved the foreign shippers naming Hong Kong as the port of origin in the manifest they submit to Shenzhen customs without actually loading any goods there. The report added that it had found that at least two Shenzhen ports and two major international carriers have diverted hundreds of thousands of boxes a month away from Hong Kong's main Kwai Chung Container Terminals. It cited one port operator in Shenzhen saying that other ports and shipping lines feared they might lose out if they did not adopt the same practice.

Lines may switch to Shenzhen after HK clean fuel law kicks in

PostTime:2013-11-21 08:01:55 View:544

Additional fuel bill costs of $600,000 to $1m a year for switching to cleaner fuel for vessels when legislation to make it mandatory kicks in next year may force lines to switch from Hong Kong to neighbouring Shenzhen, according to local media reports. The government should consider extending a scheme that subsidises them for the extra cost of the clean fuel, the South China Morning Post quoted shipowners as saying. Under a three-year incentive scheme that ends in September 2015, shipping lines willing to switch to low sulphur fuel at berth have half of their port dues waived. However, an official from the Environmental Protection Department said an extension is unlikely after the law is put into place at the beginning of 2015.

Shenzhen's Da Chan Bay aims to triple volumes in 3 years

PostTime:2013-11-12 08:18:42 View:544

Da Chan Bay Terminal One, Shenzhen's fastest-growing port last year, aims to triple its throughput over the next three years. The port, controlled by Hong Kong's Modern Terminals, expects to see its annual throughput reach 1m teus this year. According to the South China Morning Post, the company says it has already started talk with the Shenzhen government and Yantian Port on a phase-two terminal that would add four berths of at least 3.5m teu capacity to the Shenzhen west port cluster before 2020. Terminal One has a capacity of 5.5m teu and so far has been operating at just one-fifth of capacity. However throughput has more than doubled to 742,000 teus during the first three quarters while its rival Shenzhen ports of Yantian, Chiwan and Shekou saw flat or negative growth over the same period. The growth is mainly attributed to the acquisition of several transpacific and intra-Asia routes by the Grand Alliance and Orient Overseas Container Line. One route could easily bring you several tens of thousands of teu," Terminal One chief executive Benjamin Lai was quoted as saying, adding that some of the routes now calling Hong Kong may also have the potential to shift to Da Chan Bay.

Shenzhen logistics average added value up 17pc from 2009 to 2012

PostTime:2013-10-22 08:16:36 View:565

SHENZHEN's logistics added value totalled to CNY53.6 billion (US$8.78 billion) in the first half of the year, taking up 8.9 per cent of the city's GDP and ranking second nationwide after Shanghai, reports Xinhua. There have been more than 14,800 logistics companies in Shenzhen as of now with over 300 supply chain management service providers.  The city's logistics added value reached CNY127.9 billion in 2012, representing an average annual increase of 17.46 per cent from CNY78.9 billion in 2009.  Shenzhen's total logistics cost, namely the cost of all logistics operation in the city, went up to CNY185.3 billion in 2012 from CNY123.8 billion in 2009.  Meanwhile, the proportion of its total logistics cost and GDP fell to 14.3 per cent from 15.1 per cent. Which both mark the quality of Shenzhen's logistics service is coming close to those in moderately developed countries.     

Hong Kong airport plans may limit Shenzhen port expansion

PostTime:2013-10-16 08:19:02 View:607

Hong Kong is butting up against its neighbouring Shenzhen with increasing frequency and seriousness, the latest issue being friction over how the city's plans for a third runway for its busy airport will impinge on Shenzhen's desire to boost traffic at its western port terminals. According to local media reports, the issue revolves around a height restriction on shipping in the approach channels to ports such Chiwan and Shekou in the western part of the Pearl River Delta. The South China Morning Post reported that it had seen documents in which Hong Kong's airport authorities propose to extend marine restrictions in place around the existing runways into Shenzhen waters to accommodate the third runway. This would prevent vessels with an air draft of more than 53m from using the Lunggu West Fairway, the most direct of the three routes into the western Shenzhen port terminals, included in the list of barred vessels would be the new mega-container ships, which would not be able to access western Shenzhen ports without a big detour through the less direct Tunggu Channel, or use Hong Kong's busy Ma Wan Channel. China Merchant Holdings (International), the largest shareholder of Chiwan and Shekou ports, was quoted as saying that such a restriction would have a "serious impact" on Lunggu West Channel's use. The report added that the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments are understood to be in talks over a solution, but cited sources as saying the initial proposals from Hong Kong do not address long-term sea traffic demands and may compromise the competitiveness of port facilities in western Shenzhen. 

Shenzhen reaches deep into China to funnel cargo from its distant dry ports

PostTime:2013-09-11 08:39:05 View:528

THE world's fourth largest container port of Shenzhen plans to expand its already considerable dry port network to funnel cargo from afar, said a source in Shenzhen Transport Commission's Port and Shipping Department. Yantian International Container Terminal and China Merchants, operating western Shenzhen terminals, plan to launch more sea-rail intermodal services to hinterland points, already operating 15 such services to faraway Chongqing, Shaoguan, Changping, Changsha, Chengdu, Kunming, Wuhan, Zhuzhou, Liling, Hengyang, Nanchang, Ganzhou, Dalang, Shilong and Guiyang. A dry port is a facility that a sea port builds in remote regions it regards as its catchment area to collect shipments and offers one-stop customs clearance and intermodal service between the location and the port itself. In recent years, Shenzhen has set up more dry ports at distant points which are connected to the harbour by rail services. Shenzhen's sea-rail intermodal shipments have increased rapidly. Last year, volumes grew nearly 20 per cent. The unnamed official from Shenzhen's shipping authority said the city handled 139,000 TEU of sea-rail intermodal shipments last year, which accounted for only 0.6 per cent of its throughput. In comparison, the proportion in developed countries in Europe and America is as high as about 20 per cent. This means that Shenzhen still has a lot to do to exploit the potential of sea-rail intermodal service. The official divulged that Shenzhen is going to build a dry port in southwestern city Kunming this year. However, some industry insiders pointed out that China's sea-rail intermodal service is hindered by the country's under-developed railway network. 

Shenzhen 'to top Hong Kong as world's third largest port this year'

PostTime:2013-06-28 08:21:01 View:554

SHENZHEN's 2013 cargo volume is expected to surpass Hong Kong's making the mainland port the third largest port in the world, according to a Ministry of Commerce official, says Xinhua. A recent report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences also makes the same prediction. Not mentioned in the Xinhua report was the probable statistical impact of Hong Kong's 40-day dockers strike last May, which diverted ships to Shenzhen. The report estimates that Shenzhen's full-year throughput will be somewhere from 23.3 million to 23.5 million TEU this year, 1.6 - 2.5 per cent higher year on year. Judging from the statistics of the first five months of this year, Shenzhen has already surpassed Hong Kong. From January to May, Shenzhen handled 9.09 million TEU, up 2.05 per cent year on year, while Hong Kong volume dropped 9.1 per cent to 8.84 million TEU. Last year, there were six months when Shenzhen's throughput surpassed Hong Kong's, five of them are in the later half. But Hong Kong managed to maintain world's No 3 status in the end with a weak advantage of 150,000 TEU in the end.

Shenzhen launches carbon trading taxation pilot scheme this week

PostTime:2013-06-18 08:32:28 View:723

SHENZHEN will become the first to launch a carbon trading taxation scheme this week, part of a pilot programme as Beijing weighs the possibility of launching a nationwide scheme by 2015, report London's Financial Times.  The programme will cover 635 companies, although the government has not specified which companies, according to the Hongliang Chai consultancy of Thomson Reuters Point Carbon.  The companies' total emissions equate to just more than one-third of Shenzhen's total emissions as of 2010. Six other pilot schemes will be launched in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing as well as Guangdong and Hubei provinces, said the report.

Port of Shenzhen to extend greening of supply chain to reduce carbon

PostTime:2013-05-24 08:35:11 View:522

SHENZHEN's western port area, including Shekou and Chiwan container terminals, is soon to start carrying out the second phase projects to reduce carbon emissions, Xinhua reports. The port area's green strategy is planned to be implemented in three phases. In the first phase, which has been completed, the terminals converted their diesel-powered facilities to electricity-powered.  In the second phase, the port will focus on application of more advanced technologies to reduce carbon emissions. In the third phase, the port will take part in the promotion greening the supply chain in the Pearl River Delta. In 2011, Shenzhen's western port area is designated by the Chinese government as the first "green transport model" in China.

Shenzhen box volumes rise

PostTime:2013-05-15 08:28:49 View:568

The port area of Shenzhen handled higher box throughput in the first four months of this year, according to figures from transport commission of Shenzhen municipality. From January to April, China's southeastern Shenzhen port moved 7.34m teu of boxes, an increase of 2.5% compared to the same period a year ago. Yantian, the largest container port in Shenzhen and the world's fourth busiest container terminal, recorded throughput of 3.22m teu, up 4.3% year-on-year. Shenzhen's two other leading ports Shekou and Chiwan registered throughput of 1.9m teu and 1.7m teu, down 1.9% and 2.5% respectively.