The Weekly Containershipping-Newsletter by Jan Svendsen and Jan Tiedemann. August 2006, 31 th week

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1 August 2006, 31 th week Xin Los Angeles German Premiere +++ Volkswerft Delivers Second B-Class +++ PIL Introduces new L-Class +++ Antwerp Performance +++ Hamburg Performance +++ CSAV-Norasia Service Revamp +++ Ocean s Eleven +++ (Yet Another) Hyundai Update ++ OOIL Might Dispose of Terminal Branch +++ Romanian Yard Premiers with MSC Geneva +++ Editors Note: Problems with Website Access +++ ZIM APL Charter Update +++ Toronto Express Xin Los Angeles German Premiere She is the first 18 row wide containership to ever call at Hamburg: Xin Los Angeles. With a maximum capacity of 9,580 TEU, this lead ship of a new series for China Shipping is among the largest in the world, if not the largest. Xin Los Angeles had been delivered by Samsung HI little over one month ago. The 337m-vessel was phased into one of CSCL s existing Asia- Europe loops, but is eventually destined for employment in the new FAL-2 service, jointly operated by China Shipping and the French Line CMA CGM. With a beam of 45,60m, the ship can carry 18 rows of containers across her deck two more than

2 most standard postpanamax ships and one more than most large +8,000 TEU designs. She is the fist-ever 18-wide carrier to call at Hamburg, since most other container shipping lines with equally sized ships opted for 42,80m wide units that are 350m long. At Hamburg, the ship called at the Eurogate terminal. Since Eurogate s new berth No 1 with its ultra-large gantries is used exclusively by Hanjin and its allies, Xin Los Angeles had to dock at berth at No 7 a facility not ideally suited for ships of her width: Not every gantry crane at this berth is designed to straddle 18 rows of boxes and the sevenhigh stacks on deck my cause problems too, when tidal conditions are unfavourable. Since Eurogate s second ultralarge berth will not be finished until mid-2007, Xin Los Angeles call was also some kind of a test how the terminal will be able to handle ships of her size until then. (At the time we went to press with this report, no information regarding the terminal s performance made its way to us.) Xin Los Angeles passes Cuxhaven s Alte Liebe and enters the River Elbe, bound for the port of Hamburg. Photo: Jan Svendsen Volkswerft Delivers Second B-Class Ship builders at Stralsund s Volkswerft in Germany will very soon finish another 4,300 TEU panamax ship of their container-

3 frigate design. Following Maersk Boston, this is second ship of what will eventually become a series of seven. Surely, the workers will double-check every detail of the ship, after the delivery of vessel number on (Boston) had been accompanied by rather a lot of teething troubles. The entire batch of ships will be delivered to Maersk Line as their B-class. The new ship carries the name Maersk Baltimore. It will be managed by Maersk UK and fly the Union Jack. Your editors believe the entire series of ships will carry the names of American east coast cities. Maersk Brunswick, Beauford, Bristol or Bayonne might be an educated guess. Maersk Baltimore s first trip will take her from Europe to the Far East where she will enter Maersk s Transpacific service number 12, a service linking Asia and the US east coast via the Panama Canal. Containership- Info expect the ship to load at Bremerhaven and Rotterdam on her positioning voyage to Asia. All B-Class ships will be especially designed for the new service. Their high service speed (of possibly 27 knots) makes for attractive transit times. The disadvantages of a relatively low TEU intake for a panamax ship, are balanced by a shallow draught of only 12,20m. This will allow the ships to call fully loaded at Savannah (12,8m) and Charleston (13,7m) irrespective of tidal conditions. Ships of the B-calls can also navigate the Panama Canal at full displacement, even throughout dry spells with unfavourable water levels. PIL Introduces new L-Class Singapore s Pacific International Line (PIL) is not exactly wellknown in Europe and in the US. Presently, PIL only operates a single loop between Asia and Europe. This service is jointly operated by PIL and Taiwanese Wan Hai Lines. Each of the parties originally supplied four ships of around 2,500 TEU, but PIL has meanwhile upgraded its fleet to 3,100 TEU units. These ships are part of PIL s K-class and represent the biggest vessels the line has to offer. In terms of TEU capacity, the sling still is by far the smallest Northern Europe Far East service. Nevertheless, PIL s role must not be underestimated: The company is a big player in Asia and the Middle East, servicing nearly every country of these regions. Today, PIL runs a fleet of 73 owned and chartered ships. Soon the company will take a

4 big step forward and receive their first L-class ship from Dalian New Shipbuilding & HI in China. The ships of this class will carry 4,250 TEU and be of the same design, the yard successfully sold to CSCL over the last few years. The first ship which is due for delivery this week will be called Kota Logu. The following units are scheduled for delivery in October this year, then January and April Another ship will follow late in Kota Logu has already started her first trip at Shanghai and will sail in a service connecting Asia and India. However, since the Asia- Europe service merely runs to capacity, Logu and her sisters might well be phased into this sling, eventually. A pointer towards such a development is Wan Hai s announcement to employ their 4,250 TEU ships on the European loop from mid-2007 as soon as the delivery of new 6,200 TEU ships for the Pacific makes these ships available. The European Loop might then be run with a homogeneous fleet of vessels. Furthermore, PIL has recently announced plans to engage in the transpacific trade, but it is still unclear if the company plans an stand-alone loop or looks for a joint operation, possibly again in cooperation with Wan Hai Lines. K-class ships like Kota Kamil presently form the backbone of PIL s and Wan Hai s joint European loop. Photo: Jan Tiedemann

5 Antwerp Performance The Weekly Containershipping-Newsletter The port of Antwerp recently released turnover figures for the fist half of this year. Much to everyone s surprise (or: maybe disappointment) Asia-Europe volumes only rose by 2%, despite this year s opening of the massive Deurganckdok, hefty barge and feeder delays at Rotterdam and new services calling at Antwerp. However, these figures have to be compared to a healthy 10.7% year-on-year rise of the port s total turnover to 3.51 million TEU. By its own judgement, the Belgian Port still is not as strong on first-call positions as it could be (compared for instance to Hamburg and Rotterdam). Furthermore, despite Rotterdam s problems earlier this year, there is almost no reaction at all from carriers except for some temporary vessel diversions, for example during ECT s ill-fated trial-and-error software implementation. On a happier note for Antwerp, the port s intra-european trade grew by over 15% in so far. Do you like this newsletter? Don t forget to check out our website! please note: this banner is not a commercial advertisement Hamburg Performance The German main port of Hamburg saw container volumes in the first half of the year rise by 10.7%, to a record total of 4.2m. Once again, growth was driven by the Asian trade particularly China. Baltic transhipments also contributed strongly. Hamburg s largest terminal operator, state-owned HHLA, accounted for a 17.3% rise year-on-year, partly due to a shift of the new World Alliance from rivalling Eurogate to HHLA s Altenwerder terminal. Eurogate simultaneously gained P&O s cargo, after that company had been taken over by Maersk Line. These volumes however will not fully compensate

6 the loss of the NWA for Eurogate. Trade between Hamburg and Asia increased by 14.2% year-on-year, while the China trade rose by 16.1%. Baltic transhipment boxes moving through the port of Hamburg recorded a stunning 32.3% gain. Apart from Asia, the South America trade remained one of Hamburg s strongholds: Cargo volumes in the trade to the East Coast recorded a 16.6% growth, the West coast loops even carried 30.9% more boxes. CSAV-Norasia Service Revamp Late in July, CSAV-Norasia implemented quite a handful of changes to their services. The company aimed at improving scheduling and transit times. In the long-running RTM Round The World loop, changes were made to the Chinese port rotation: Xiamen and Ningbo were dropped in favour of Busan (South Korea), Xingang and Qingdao (both in northern China). Starting from November, the loop will also see bigger ships of +,4000 TEU phased in an upgrade of about 1,000 TEU compared to the present flotilla. The first ship to be switched from the AME will be Limari. CSAV Norasia also made improvements to the Asia Black Sea (ABS) service, where Odessa (Ukraine) has been added. This loop has now been upgraded, too, with the introduction of ships of +4,000 TEU. The latest addition being Hapag-Lloyd s Saigon Express. Last, not least CSAV-Norasia launched a new service called SuperGalex. It will link central and southern China to the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. The service is jointly run with Hanjin and Laurel Navigation. CSAV-Norasia and Hanjin each bring in two ships, Laurel Navigation provides one. The ships employed in this new service are: Amasis, Westermoor, Wadi Alrayan, China Star and Norasia Alps. Their capacities range from 2,825 TEU to 3,013 TEU. All have a service speed of about 21 knots. Ocean s Eleven Together with sister company Safmarine, Maersk Line currently provides eleven weekly services to Western Africa. However, this impressive portfolio will soon be broadened even further with the introduction of another loop. This twelfths sling will

7 start off at Maerk s Algeciras hub port and deploy three ships with an average capacity of 1,650 TEU. The new loop s port rotation is Algeciras, Dakar, Abidjan. (Yet Another) Hyundai Update In the past few months, South Korean Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) was frequently mentioned our newsletter, partly because the company presently is in the middle of an upgrade scheme, renewing the fleet of its Asia-Europe mainline service: The entire fleet of 5,500 TEU ships is currently being replaced by new 6,800 TEU units. However, this was not the only thing to make headlines: Recently, the company experienced a bit of a rough time when some of its major stakeholders were competing for leadership in HMM. John Frederiksen of Norway, the Hyundai Group and Hyundai Heavy Industries were all involved. Maybe it was under the impression of these rather unfortunate conditions, that many did not really take HHM serious when, early this year, the company announced its plan to become South Korea s biggest container transport company. As the same time, HMM expressed their desire to position amongst the top eight container lines in the world. Not long ago, HMM placed an order for four 8,600 TEU ships, which have not been designated for any specific service so far. Furthermore, a new Asia - India - Middle East service will be established soon. This new sling will employ a fleet of seven new 4,700 TEU ships, all of which are to be delivered during This new service will eventually fill a (huge) gap in HMM s present service network. The next step in the Company s development plan is yet another upgrade of its mainline slings. Both the Asia - Europe and Asia - North America (West Coast) loops will receive new ships by In 2008 alone, HMM will take delivery of ten vessels of 8,600 TEU. These will be followed by two more units in The first four ships of this order will strengthen the European loop. They will be followed by two units designated for the transpacific trade. This pattern will repeat itself with four more ships for Europe and two more for the US-west coast service. Until then, HMM will have added some TEU of vessel capacity to their fleet. This will actually more than double the carriers present TEU places. (including chartered ships, HMM presently controls a fleet of

8 circa TEU). As to this point in time, it is still not clear if HMM will own all the new ships or if a part of the fleet will be chartered, as most of the existing Hyundai ships. All new vessels will be constructed by Ulsan s Hyundai HI and Hyundai Samho, These shipyards presently manage to build an 8,000 TEU container ship in less than three months (counting from keel laying to delivery). Since Hanjin shipping have not yet decided to join the league of +8,000 TEU ship operators, HMM might well succeed in overtaking their domestic rival at some point in the near future. OOIL Might Dispose of Terminal Branch Last Tuesday, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. announced that, following a strategic review of its terminal assets, it has engaged UBS Investment Bank to advise it in relation to the potential disposal of its Terminals Division. OOIL's terminals division comprises TSI Terminal Systems Inc., (operator of two container terminals in the Port of Vancouver), New York Container Terminal (on New York s Staten Island) and Global Terminal (in New Jersey). In 2005, OOIL's Terminals Division recorded a total throughput of 2,379,006 TEU. Large-Scale Expansion schemes are planned for both Deltaport in Vancouver and New York Container Terminal. The Terminals Division operates as a stand alone profit centre within the OOIL group. Romanian Yard Premiers with MSC Geneva Finally it has happened: We are pleased to announce the first ever panamax container ship delivered by Daewoo. And just in case you might think we ve totally lost it by now, we are talking about Daewoo's yard in Romania. The Mangalia shipyard recently launched its first large containership into the waters of the Black Sea. Two units of this 4,860 TEU design had already been constructed at Deawoo s South Korean facilities for test purposes. These ships today serve at MSC Lorena and MSC Lausanne. For Dewoo-Mangalia HI, this class of ships is a whole new deal: The Mangalia yard had gained experience with building a number of smaller container ships as well as steel hulls. A large number of mid-sized plain hulls has been (and

9 still is) delivered to Western European ship yards. Most of these hulls were destined to become feeder ships. The new type s particulars are a length of 275,00m, a beam of 32,20m and a draught of 13,50m. Fully laden, the ships displace some 55,000t. A MAN B&W 7K98MC engine produces 39,952KW and drives the ship forward at up to 24,2 knots. MSC named the new ship after their company s hometown. Presently, MSC Geneva is on the way to Western Europe where she will be phased into MSC s Europe to South Africa service. Her first round trip is planned to commence at Hamburg on August 6 th. A day later, the ship will then call at Bremerhaven and eventually sail to Antwerp, where she is bound to arrive on August 9th. Please note that MSC Geneva does not yet appear in last week s ships of interest list, since MSC notoriously provides poor and sometimes contradicting scheduling information. So she s another ship to watch out for. MSC Lausanne, pictured here passing Terneuzen for Antwerp, is one of Geneva s two Korean-built sisters. Photo: Jan Svendsen Editors Note: Problems with Website Access Very recently we received feedback from readers of our newsletter in Asia, who obviously seem to have trouble with access to this website. The comments were made by people from China, who received this newsletter by and unsuccessfully tried to access the URL stated in the page footer. According to the mails we receive, the URL displays random advertisements, but no maritime content. Please be assured that none of these ad-pages is

10 affiliated with or endorsed by us. The site you are supposed to be directed to by our URL looks like in this screenshot: An investigation of the matter resulted in the information that our web hosting company has blocked requests from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam for the time being. We sincerely hope that this is only temporary. According to our host, 95% of hacker attacks and inappropriate uses of web accounts (like spamming, DDoS server attacks, distributing warez, etc.) originated from these countries. We apologise to all our Asian readers and we hope that many of you will receive this newsletter via . Should the IP blockage turn out to be permanent, we will try to find a solution for the problem. We explicitly encourage readers who can access our website without problems to download the newsletter and forward it to friends by especially to those who reside in countries affected by the IP-block. We will keep you updated on this. ZIM APL Charter Update In our last newsletter, we quoted sources who believed the daily rate for the four postpanamax container ships ZIM would be in the region of 29,500 USD / day. This relatively low charter seems not very like in a bumper market environment. More recent information, published by Dynamar BV suggests a

11 daily charter rate of around 37,000 USD per vessel and day. We believe this might be closer to the truth. Toronto Express Since there was some blank space left at the end of this newsletter, we decided to squeeze in a very recent shot of Toronto Express. The former CP Venture left Blohm+Voss Hamburg dock on Monday evening, carrying a new name and sporting Hapag-Lloyd s and black and orange colour scheme. *** This Newsletter is edited and compiled by Jan Svendsen and Jan Tiedemann. This pdf-file is available for download at and Feel free to contact the editors by at jantiedemann@hotmail.com and jan.svendsen@gmx.net. We greatly appreciate your feedback and your input. More contact details can be obtained from the above websites. Please note the disclaimers displayed on the download pages. All information given in this newsletter is believed correct, but not guaranteed. For assistance with the present issue, the editors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Helge Barth and Klaus Masuch.