Viewpoint – Page 9
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News
Star performer
No one wants to contribute to talking ourselves into a recession, least of all this column, but given that we are now genuinely experiencing a rough ride in financial and economic terms it does seem appropriate to highlight the importance of achieving a consistently good performance in the port industry, ...
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Viewpoint
There has been a flurry of activity recently on the part of shipping lines either individually or collectively rationalising service networks or announcing their withdrawal from them. Underpinning this is the slump in world trade, a steadily increasing gap between available liner capacity and demand, and freight rates which on ...
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Crossing the lines
The message coming out of the liner shipping markets is one we have heard before - "it is time to tighten your belts in anticipation of lean times ahead". This action involves cutting back on available capacity in key services, implementing slow steaming where possible and cutting back on expansion ...
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Africa is coming
There is always a new frontier in the international port business. And as at the time of writing the G8 group is convened, it is most relevant to focus on Africa, an area where there is major scope to refine port systems and particularly along the east and west coasts ...
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VIEWPOINT
It is interesting to hear that the major container terminal operators in the Port of Genoa, Italy - the PSA operated Voltri Terminal Europe and Southern European Container Hub Terminal (SECH) - are moving towards an exchange of shares in each others facilities. Clearly, this represents an interesting rationalisation of ...
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Viewpoint
Nothing has changed, however, with respect to our other criticisms of the process which cover other aspects of the bid submission arrangements, the qualifying criteria and the proposed structure of the concession agreements. In our opinion, there is significant room for improvement in all these areas and we fail to ...
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Full house
After much deliberation and no doubt plenty of sleepless nights, PD Ports has joined the chosen few in the circle of UK deepsea containerport development granted planning permission.
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Whiplash, what next? (Viewpoint)
With "Wall Street whiplash" another phrase is coined to sum up the recent snakes and ladders effect taking place on Wall Street and mirrored on other stock exchanges around the world, not least the FTSE.
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Back and forward
Another year draws to a close leaving in its wake some memorable positives and negatives. The big positive has to be the business climate - we may currently be beginning to feel a slightly tougher environment but for the most part, this year has been another one of significant growth ...
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PS Viewpoint
Drewry Shipping Consultants has revised its estimate of world container traffic in 2006 to 128.3m teu and expects the figure for 2007 to be 142.9m teu, a significant increase driven by rapidly expanding westbound traffic from Asia. The 2008 figure is tentatively put at 158.3m teu. So, the growth goes ...
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Viewpoint - Parallel World Rises
Congestion is raising its head again in Europe, partly as a result of the sheer volume of traffic, partly due to local factors and also due to the reality that the expansion plans of various ports have been slowed by meeting new environmental requirements.
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Less is more
Europe still has its fair share of less than hospitable airports and as this writer navigated one of them recently he opened the door to a rather "intimate" departure lounge only to push the door into the rather large backside of an east European gentlemen bending down looking for his ...
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Burst that bubble
Give or take a few US politicians, no-one thinks its workable, no-one wants it, it will be expensive but it is in the pipeline. “ It” is, of course, new legislation in the US compelling the screening of all US bound containers at foreign ports.
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NewsHand that feeds
Back to normal in Tuticorin after PSA International made a point to the Indian Government about the weird workings of the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP), the body which, in September 2006, effectively halved PSA’ s revenue at its Tuticorin Container Terminal (TCT) as a result of enforced tariff ...
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Capacity crunch
That word is back again: “ congestion” , and along with it some interesting projections. Two new reports have recently been issued both of which foresee capacity crunches in the port sector.
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Taking stock
Other than for a select number of Chinese ports, stock exchange flotation has so far not proved a hugely popular method of raising cash in the international ports industry. Indeed, recent times have seen a number of significant players exit from public listings as they have been acquired by private ...
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Time for Clarity
Port tariff reform is not a subject that “ rings everyone’ s bell” , but it is an important one worth paying some attention to. Larger ports will tend to have the subject fairly high on their agenda; others in the middle range and lower are not always so diligent.
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Reality check
In the UK,if you turn on the radio,look at the television or read the newspaper it is virtually guaranteed that you will be exposed to an array of facts, discussions or opinions about the environment. And we are not alone; our colleagues around the world are no doubt being subjected ...
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Money vs expertise
This issue''s article, Easy Money, highlights the increasing attractiveness of the ports sector to investment banks, infrastructure and pension funds. They are now figuring to an increasing extent in the growing port facility resale market - a deal just announced providing further evidence of this,namely the sale of Maher Terminals, ...
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Taking Stock
Time was when shipping lines used to divest terminal assets on the downside of the container boom and bust cycle.Nowadays,however,they have learnt a trick or two and as the recent OOIL disposal highlights they are not disposing of these assets on the downside, but on the upside and reaping the ...
