E Import Export
Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) handled 3.9 million tonnes cargo in 2011, down 4.6 per cent year on year, said a Hong Kong Government statement.
In December, air cargo throughput fell 4.3 per cent to 346,000 tonnes year on year, while passenger traffic rose 7.5 per cent to 4.8 million. The airport recorded 29,275 aircraft movements, exceeding the previous record of 28,951 in August 2011 and representing 5.5 per cent year-on-year growth.
Said the Hong Kong Airport Authority, the cargo decline in December was mainly due to the seven per cent year-on-year drop in exports and five per cent contraction in imports. But transshipments posted three per cent year on year growth.
Europe and North America saw double-digit year-on-year declines in cargo traffic owing to the fragile economy in these two regions.
But passenger trips and aircraft movements set new records. Last year, 53.9 million passengers arrived in Hong Kong, up 5.9 per cent year on year. Also, the airport handled 333,760 aircraft movements, up 8.9 per cent compared to the previous year.
Thirteen new airlines started operations in Hong Kong in the course of the year, bringing the total number of carriers to more than 100.
Volume growth at the Sea Port of Cork has been attributed to the bouncing back of the Irish economy through a healthy export sector up nine per cent in 2011 year on year, and 19 per cent compared to 2009, said its chairman Dermot O’Mahoney. Import levels dropped to below 2007 levels down 12.9 per cent.
The container figures growth were led by oil traffic particularly exports of the refined product with a slight decrease in the trades of animal feeds stuff, fertiliser and other trades.
Over 98 per cent of all goods imported are moved by cargo ships proving the importance of ports to the Irish economy and for the Munster region relying on the Port of Cork’s fortunes, Mr O’Mahoney said, cited a report from Dublin’s Afloat, Ireland’s sailing and boating magazine.
“While the next four to five years will be challenging for us all, we need to continue to promote the fact that Ireland is an excellent investment location and is well placed to capitalise on growing global markets as is evident by our export sector,” he added.
Tourism at the port contributed a significant revenue to Ireland with each of the 100,000 passengers and crew visiting during 2011 spending between EUR73 (US$93.66) and EUR100.
Cargo threats, Cargo News
Global air, sea and road transports sectors have been faced with major expenses to meet rising regulatory compliance costs, some of which are set in ways to drive smaller operators out of business.
Reuters has reported the existence of a report which takes global warming seriously while the South China Morning Post did an exhaustive interview Liu Yu, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Science’s Institute of Earth Environment, whose research of Tibetan tree rings, led him to say:
“We are not experiencing the most dramatic climate change in recent history. In northern China, the warmest period occurred from 401-413 AD, which had an annual mean temperature 0.16 degrees Celsius higher than today’s.”
Against him is Lin Erda, a researcher with the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who said:
“China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China’s regional environment,” says the 710-page report, which he co-authored.
His Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change predicts that global warming will cause China’s grain output to fall by between five to 20 per cent, shrinking rivers, droughts and floods unless drastic action is taken against carbon emissions.
But the Chinese Academy of Science’s expert, Prof Liu said: “Popular belief is that industrialization has led to the fastest rate of warming witnessed by humans, that we are at the warmest time of the modern era and that we are causing global warming by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. None of that fits the records in tree rings.
“The climate change debate has more political significance than scientific. Diplomats can sit at negotiating tables talking about carbon caps while scientists have not reached an agreement on the role of carbon dioxide in global warming,” he said at the time of the Durban climate change conference.
“Political decisions must be based on sound scientific foundation, or they will be useless, if not dangerous,” he told the SCMP in an extended interview.
Royal Jordanian handles 60 per cent of air freight exports from Jordan and 40 per cent of its imports,” according to Muath Majali, the airline’s vice president/cargo sales and services.
According to Mr Majali, the carrier is developing its presence in the air cargo industry through the implementation of several strategies by increasing sales and improving services in terms of speed, reported MENAFN in the Jordan Times.
Mr Majali said he was optimistic about the future, expecting growth of the airline and “significant improvement despite the challenges imposed by the political turmoil in the region and the global financial crisis that are still affecting the air cargo industry, as well as the constant rise in fuel prices and the intense competition between airlines,” the report said.
He highlighted that the carrier commenced a new air cargo route to Vienna, at the end of last year, operating one flight per week, to promote the products of Jordan in Austria and Eastern Europe.
He said the airline aims to raise the frequency to two flights per week in May and to three weekly flights in November.
The airline is also reported to be conducting feasibility studies to start cargo operations to Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata in Libya and to Nairobi in Kenya, according to Mr Majali. He said the services would provide the capacity on its aircraft to serve Jordan’s exports of fruit vegetables, medicine and other products.
The carrier also aims to open a special warehouse in mid-February for courier companies operating at Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) airport.
The new warehouse will be located inside the main warehouse, serving as a centre point for exchanging courier between these companies and their customers through the airline.
The airline will provide handling services for the new warehouse, said Mr Majali. In return, courier companies will take care of customs procedures and deliver to their customers.
The company also said it has concluded commercial agreements with “many regional and international parties to carry mail, including Syrian mail to and from stations that are not served by the Syrian airline, Iraqi mail from Baghdad and Erbil to other countries, and an agreement with the Palestinian postal corporation, as well as other agreements to transport mail from Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Thailand and India.”
SEATTLE-TACOMA International Airport, built by the city’s seaport in 1944 to serve civilians during the Second World War, plans to triple air cargo volume to more than 750,000 tonnes over the next 25 years, according to the port’s latest agenda.
The port’s 25-year Creation Agenda aims to double the number of international flights and destinations at the airport despite a competitive air market, and troubling fuel highs denting its operating costs.
The Sea-Tac airport increased its cargo volume 1.9 per cent to 21,770 tons in 2011 with freight representing the largest share at 17,907 tons, an increase of 0.7 per cent.
The Court of International Trade has ruled that the presence of cases/containers used to store/hold articles that are claimed to be a set does not preclude the articles from being treated as sets for tariff purposes.
Historically, US Customs is said to have taken a “very narrow view of the classification rules for sets when there is a container among the articles claimed to be a set,” said a statement sent to clients via worldtradelawyers dot com.
It said the decision has “major ramifications” for retailers importing gift and other types of sets for retail sale.
It said that in the recent case of Estee Lauder versus the United States that was handled by Pisani & Roll LLP, the court considered whether Estee Lauder’s annual Blockbuster cosmetic sets, comprised of various makeup components, brushes, a cosmetic case and a brush case, were classifiable as a makeup set.
Previously, customs had ruled that the items were not classifiable as a set because, in customs’ opinion, the cosmetic case was “unique. It serves to transport and store the cosmetic components with which it is entered. The vanity case and cosmetic components are not put up to meet a particular need or carry out a specific activity. Therefore, for tariff classification purposes, it is not a set and each item will be classified separately.”
The report claimed that the impact of customs’ decision was that “extremely high” duties had to be paid on the cosmetic and brush cases. In the decision issued, the court thoroughly rejected customs’ position. It reasoned that customs “flawed analysis has been bootstrapped into a line of rulings that rely largely on customs’ own reasoning, but little on the statute or Explanatory Notes.”
The statement urged importers who have been denied set treatment by customs due to the presence of a container or bag should act to protect their rights.
The US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) has launched a campaign to develop supply chain visibility best practices for the industry, following the publication of its supply chain integrity recommendations.
Wikipedia says USP publishes the official pharmacopeia of the United States, and prescription and over-the-counter drugs and other health care products sold in the US are required to meet USP standards.
The move has been prompted by USP’s key goals of ensuring medicines can be traced back to their original manufacturer and arrive at their intended destination without tampering or damage, and to verify that they are counterfeit and have not been adulterated.
USP is believed to be seeking comments from pharmaceutical companies, transportation services providers, carriers, and other supply chain management providers, the American Shipper said.
“The proposed standard will not be mandatory and is intended to serve merely as a core guidance outlining the requirements for an effective supply chain management solution,” it said, adding that there is no existing broad consensus around track-and-trace technologies, which denies the industry an established method to verify products and shipments, according to USP.
“There is incentive for all players in the pharmaceutical industry-large and small companies, regulators and standards-setting bodies-to come to some agreement on hot-button issues such as track-and-trace technology and, at the larger level, to codify what constitutes a solid, universal approach to global supply chain integrity,” said USP science officer Praveen Tyle.
“While some pockets of information are available via FDA guidance, trade organizations and other sources, an overall approach is lacking. USP can move forward something more concrete than a technical report, as part of a mechanism that can be regularly updated to best meet the needs of all.”
The USP will unveil its standards draft at a workshop to be held from May 22 to 23, where additional industry input will be sought.
THE European Cargo Services (ECS) group has been awarded a global cargo GSA contract from Senegal Airlines.
The global agreement sees ECS responsible for marketing the cargo capacity of some 180 Senegal Airlines’ flights per week across an extensive international network in Africa that includes Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
To and from the country’s capital Dakar, the airline operates Airbus A320 and ATR passenger and cargo aircraft. ECS expects to move cargo such as industrial spare parts, electronic equipment and pharmaceuticals across the Senegal Airlines network.
In the first half of 2012, the airline plans to launch a new wide-body flight from Paris, said ECS group vice-president Adrien Thominet: “This will not only provide a direct feed from Europe into markets across Africa, it will also support the requirements of the Senegalese business community and industry.”
The agreement is one of a number of global GSSA agreements gained which shows that carriers are looking closely the value of adopting such a business model to boost their margins, Mr Thominet said.
DENMARK’s Maersk Group, the world’s biggest container ship operator, has selected Ericsson to build mobile and satellite infrastructure to link its 500 plus vessels, reports London’s Information Age.
Currently, the company only uses satellite communications technology to connect its ships. Ericsson will fit the fleet with antennas and GSM base stations, supporting a combination of mobile and satellite communications, said the report.
“For the shipping industry, mobile communication provides the opportunity to employ new and efficient ways of addressing fleet management, managing delivery times, improving interaction with vessels, enabling proactive issue resolution and prompt information sharing with customers and even improving energy efficiency,” Ericsson said in statement.
Said Maersk vice president Soren Toft: “We’re quite pleased to be the first fleet to be connected with mobile communication technology. We believe it would provide us good opportunities to run our fleet more efficiently.”
NEW JERSEY-based e-commerce systems provider for ocean shipping, INTTRA, has announced that it has joined with Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, a provider of consulting, technology and business process outsourcing services, to assist in delivering ocean freight management services to the industry.
“By working with a single development partner, INTTRA will be able to more quickly develop critical e-commerce solutions for the global ocean shipping industry and enhance its quality assurance testing process for better results,” said the INTTRA statement.
“The global ocean shipping industry is going through significant structural changes. Our goal is to provide the best and most useful products to our customers to help them streamline the processing of ocean freight and optimize global ocean supply chains,” said INTTRA vice president Ivan Latanision.
“In Cognizant, we found a partner with the breadth of expertise and global footprint that would help us create products that will make a difference to our customers’ process efficiencies and positively impact their bottom lines. Specifically, we were impressed with their domain knowledge, process methodologies, the managed services model, and their road map to help us in our transformational journey to becoming a global information provider,” he said.
