Felixstowe Docks in trouble?

pickles110564

Chinese ports brace for bleak year ahead
Janet Porter, Los Angeles - Friday 6 March 2009
CHINESE ports are preparing for a bleak year as the full impact of collapsing US and European consumer spending hits Asian export markets.

Cargo figures already show a very sharp contraction in port throughput in the final weeks of 2008, with the grim performance figures continuing into the first two months of 2009. Some ports in southern China saw volumes plunge by a third, with no relief in sight.

“The worst is yet to come,” China Merchants chairman and managing director Fu Yuning warned last week.

After years of sensational growth figures, Chinese ports will be lucky to see any net increase at all in 2009. China Merchants is provisionally forecasting nationwide throughput of 129m teu, unchanged from 2008.

But the figure could well be negative, Dr Fu said in a speech to the Trans-Pacific Maritime conference.

That would be the first time that container volumes have remained the same, or even fallen, year-on year, he said.

Hope is now being pinned on China’s massive stimulus package, which is being put in place at high speed as the government responds to the crisis of 20m unemployed migrant workers.

The one slightly encouraging development was an improvement in the number of loaded containers moved in the latter half of February, Dr Fu told delegates. And by 2010, he thinks the worst may be over.

But Cosco Research executive deputy director Simon Young told the same conference that there was no sign any recovery in the container trades. Furthermore, the slump that has already spread to the the car and bulk trades is likely to hit tankers as well, he said.

As trade conditions worsened, ports were also having to contend with the problem of empty containers piling up, said Modern Terminals general manager Vincent Li.

“They are stuck in our yards, not moving and creating a challenge to operational efficiency.”

With ports struggling with the added headache of laid-up ships and omitted calls, Mr Li called for greater co-operation between terminal operators, shipping lines, railroad operators and truckers to ensure cargo continued to flow efficiently.

pickles110564

Chinese box port volumes collapse
Sandra Tsui, Hong Kong - Friday 6 March 2009
MAJOR Chinese ports, including Shenzhen and Shanghai, saw box volumes continue to deteriorate in February as the country sees no sign of export recovery.
Shanghai recorded a double-digit volume shrinkage in February. The world’s second busiest container port handled 1.5m teu last month and 1.9m teu in January, representing year-on-year declines of 19% and 17%, compared with the same two months last year, according to Shanghai International Port Group.
Neighbouring Ningbo port saw throughput dive even deeper in February.
Ningbo Port said it handled 1.4m teu in the first two months, down 14% from the same period in 2008. Decline in monthly container volumes has widened from 5% in January to 23% in February.
Even the normally downturn-resistant northern Chinese port of Dalian felt the chill. Dalian, the nation’s eighth busiest box port, recorded its biggest drop in container throughput of 10% in February, according to the city’s mayor, Xia Deren.
China’s second largest container port, Shenzhen, also saw box volumes fall by 21% in the first two months.
On Thursday, Shenzhen-listed Shenzhen Chiwan Wharf Holdings, which operates nine berths in west Shenzhen, with an annual capacity of about 6m teu, said volume shrinkage had worsened in February.
The company saw a 24% decline in throughput in January and a 40% fall in February, handling a total of 682,000 teu in the two months.
SCWH operates nine of the 34 container berths in Shenzhen city. They include nine berths in Chiwan and Mawan, eight berths in Shekou, 14 in Yantian and three in the relatively new port area of Dachan Bay. February port data from other operators are not yet available. There were 56 international liner services calling at SCWH as at the end of February.
What should worry port operators is that, as pointed out by industry analyst Ally Ma from Citigroup, the proportion of empty containers in the total throughput is on the rise, which means ports are earning less by processing the same amount of boxes as they charge less for empties.
Ms Ma said she felt the magnitude of deterioration was understated by flooding empty containers and that the volume of heavy boxes at Shenzhen dropped more sharply by 33% in January and February.
She maintained her negative view on the port sector.
Meanwhile, China’s Minister of Commerce, Chen Deming, was quoted by local media as saying that he had seen no improvement in the February import and export figures of China, and that the import and export volumes of February were lower than in January.

mewbie_2

Have you not worked out yet how to post a link to an article? Normally someone says a couple of lines on what they think, and then attaches a link for people to read if they want. Takes up less space, rather than turning the thread into a broadsheet.

Eventually you might be able to post a link to that press release.

pickles110564

mewbie wrote: »

Have you not worked out yet how to post a link to an article? Normally someone says a couple of lines on what they think, and then attaches a link for people to read if they want. Takes up less space, rather than turning the thread into a broadsheet.

Eventually you might be able to post a link to that press release.

Sorry Mewbie not quite clever enough yet but am working on it.

mewbie_2

pickles110564 wrote: »

Sorry Mewbie not quite clever enough yet but am working on it.

You right click on the http: line at the top of your browser and choose copy. Then in your message in MSE you right click and paste. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

pickles110564

Dervish run away elsewhere you are not wanted on this thread.

pickles110564

Vinegartits wrote: »

No ships in today I hear, agency staff being told not to come in - can you confirm Pickles or Jetski?

Also Tschibo and Comptons to close along with all the others, not looking good for the High Street if they are folding as rents become due.

Vinegartits, you were right, all is forgiven Tschibo has shut.

JonnyBravo

pickles110564 wrote: »

Vinegartits, you were right, all is forgiven Tschibo has shut.

No offence pickles mate but it became obvious on his thread a while back that other people knew more than you.... or perhaps you'd just been blinded by company rhetoric.
I'm sure vinegartits is grateful though.

:T

FungusFighter

JonnyBravo wrote: »

No offence pickles mate but it became obvious on his thread a while back that other people knew more than you.... or perhaps you'd just been blinded by company rhetoric.
I'm sure vinegartits is grateful though.

:T

Don't be to hard on Onion boy mate all hes got is his denial :rotfl::rotfl:

Also don't think the Titster will give a stuff cos he siad he put Pickles on ignore for the sake of his health :rotfl::rotfl:

pickles110564

FungusFighter wrote: »

Also don't think the Titster will give a stuff cos he siad he put Pickles on ignore for the sake of his health :rotfl::rotfl:

Hi mushroom, have you not noticed that Mr tits has not posted since he got a tap on his shoulder