The Strategist – Page 4
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No to organised crime
COMMENT: Make no mistake, organised crime has a strong interest in gaining influence in port gateways and ports have to be vigilant in order to ensure that this does not happen, writes Mike Mundy.
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Spain’s second stab at reforms
COMMENT: Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved the content of what is intended to become the new national stowage law and is readying to pass it into law via a Royal Decree. It has not, however, arrived at this juncture without controversy, writes Mike Mundy.
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Corruption health check essential
COMMENT: Corruption in ports and at borders generally manifests itself in terms of collusive forms of corruption to evade tariffs and taxes and coercive bribery where port or customs officials extract bribes from companies or individuals for performing routine processes, writes Mike Mundy.
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Collaboration not confrontation?
COMMENT: Around the world port labour reforms are in train. There are not many locations where such reforms are undertaken on a proactive basis; it usually involves legislative change and grinding out a solution between employers and unions often with some sort of mediation in-between. As is now the case ...
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Second can be better than first
COMMENT: The poor state of health of the container shipping sector has prompted a lot of speculation about the implications for the container terminal operating sector, writes Mike Mundy.
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South Korea’s turn
COMMENT: Now its South Korea’s turn for some political turbulence, writes Mike Mundy.
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The case of Bangladesh
COMMENT: Bangladesh is an interesting case study; it is a country where international trade is on the march but it is still a country without a deep-sea port, writes Mike Mundy.
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Will common sense prevail?
COMMENT: The port of Melbourne sale to the private sector has realised a whacking A$9.7bn (US$7.2bn), much more than anticipated, writes Mike Mundy.
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Politics or practicalities?
COMMENT: The current chief executive of the port of Melbourne, Nick Easy, was appointed to his post in February 2014 moving into this role from his former position as chief executive of the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Service Board (MF&ESB) where, his CV states, “he was responsible for leading an ...
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Winners and losers scenario looms
Make no mistake the desperate state of the container shipping industry in terms of its ability to consistently make a profit is forcing fundamental changes, writes Mike Mundy.
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At the mercy of carriers
COMMENT: Ports and terminals are being forced into major infrastructure investments at the behest of carriers. The reason being that carriers are obsessed in achieving the maximum economies of scale possible, often without fully considering the consequences on themselves or the industry that services them, writes Ben Hackett.
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Consolidation the order of the day
COMMENT: They used to say when ‘America sneezes the world catches a cold’ but maybe nowadays this is a maxim that applies to China not the US, writes Mike Mundy.
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Big is not always beautiful
COMMENT: It is the understandable desire of many ports to transition from feeder port to main port status, writes Mike Mundy.
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Piraeus saga: to be continued?
COMMENT: The point was made in Port Strategy last month that the price paid by COSCO for the port of Piraeus, taking into account investment commitments as well, was a rich one – one that perhaps only a sovereign state-owned company would make, writes Mike Mundy.
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Cosco's Piraeus bid defies market realities
It is no surprise to Port Strategy that there was only one bidder for the Port of Piraeus concession and that in the end, after a request to up its bid, the sole bidder, COSCO, was awarded the whole port concession. However, the price that COSCO was prepared to pay ...
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Don’t go it alone
It is easy to forget that for non-port people understanding a port business can seem to be somewhat of a jigsaw puzzle.
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What price Piraeus port sale?
COMMENT: Husnu Ozyegin, president of Fiba Holding, has done it again. Fiba is the owner of a 65% stake in Turkish container terminal Kumport and Ozyegin and has confirmed the sale of the Fiba group’s shareholding for a reported $940m, writes Mike Mundy.
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Cracking down on Canal concerns
COMMENT: The appearance of cracks in one of the sills in the Cocoli Locks at the Pacific end of the new Panama Canal may not be the only factor to slow down the system’s full exploitation, writes Mike Mundy.
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Don’t go it alone
Consider this scenario: we have a nation that has somewhat belatedly offered its main container handling facilities for concession.
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Under the microscope
COMMENT: Just how much ports are under the microscope nowadays when they are located close to a city or populated areas is highlighted by the recent experience of Associated British Ports’ (ABP) port of Southampton, writes Mike Mundy.