THE aggregate loss clocked up by Malaysian shipping line MISC since 2007 has ballooned to MYR3,305 million (US$1,6 billion), making it the biggest loser among its rivals. For the whole of 2011, MISC Berhad suffered an operating loss of MYR661 million (US$215 million) in liner shipping and logistics. To make amends, the company has taken a MYR1.4 billion (US$460 million) provision for its plan to exit from the container shipping…

LOS ANGELES International Airport, the world’s sixth busiest, recorded a five per cent decline in total air cargo tonnage to 135,383 tons in January, due to a six per cent drop in air cargo to 128,037 tons though having an 8.6 per cent growth in airmail to 7,347 tons. The total number of landings and takeoffs, including passenger and cargo aircraft, increased four per cent to 49,455, reported the Los…

NORTHWEST China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region will launch one more international flight service this year, which is the Kashgar-Islamabad passenger and cargo chartered service, to raise the total of international flights to 37 reaching 32 foreign destinations, Xinhua reports. This year, Xinjiang Airport Group, the operator of Xinjiang’s airports, will set up one new air carrier to operate routes from other Chinese cities to Xinjiang capital Urumqi and from Urumqi to…

HONG KONG Airlines has been blasted by two environmental groups in the state-owned China Daily for shipping live dolphins to from Osaka to Hanoi. The San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute and the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society were quoted in a substantial China Daily article, which told of five dolphins flown in tanks with fins protruding as if it were blameworthy. It accused Hong Kong Airlines of “torturing the dolphins”…

THE US Grains Council’s latest report that looks at “A Changing Vision of World Food Demands in 2040,” has concluded that “sophisticated food demands of newly affluent consumers in China and other developing nations are likely to cause major change in US farming and food production”. It said that this will likely change Asian food policy and world trade, said USGC president and CEO Thomas Dorr. “Growing affluence in China…

INCHCAPE Shipping Services (ISS) is commencing operations in Saudi Arabia, to build a presence in one of the largest industrial and project-orientated economies in the Middle East. In creating the new entity, the company has signed a joint venture agreement with Al Bakri Group in the kingdom. Named ISS Saudi Arabia, the JV will provide customers with marine, cargo and government services as well as survey and liner agency. The…

SOUTH CAROLINA has assigned US$180 million from US funding to pay for harbour dredging, mostly for the Charleston Harbour Deepening Project, a total of 60 per cent of the total project cost of $300 million. The state funding from the SC House committee, to be taken up in early March, will cover construction costs following the completion of the project’s feasibility study and adds to an earmarked $3.5 million in…

MALAYSIA’s MISC Bhd has scrapped its Straits-Middle East Halal service and the Malaysia East Asia (MES) service, the last of its intra-Asia services in late February. Alphaliner reports that the moves come as MISC prepares to make a final exit from its entire container shipping operations by June. It said the carrier has been operating the Halal service with three 4,500-TEU vessels since last September when its port rotation was…

NEW ZEALAND’s Port of Napier – benefiting from Auckland’s dock strike – has reported a nine per cent year-on-year increase in fourth quarter container volume as full-year volume went up to six per cent to 191,000 TEU. Strike-bound Auckland continues to divert traffic to its rivals Tauranga and Napier with the giant diary cooperative Fonterra’s diverting its 500-700 TEU weekly exports away from Auckland, splitting it between its two rivals…

THE Port of Long Beach says it has reached a tentative agreement on a 40-year US$4.6 billion lease with Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) for use of the Middle Harbour property, “in what would be the largest deal of its kind for any US seaport”, a statement from port authorities said. This comes as work on Phase 1 of the Middle Harbour Redevelopment Project reaches that part of…

FRENCH shipping line CMA CGM says it is revising its services on the Asia-US east coast trade. “The strengthening of our Asia/USEC loops means three departures a week and a wider geographical coverage. These are two major steps to better serve our customers and improve their logistic supply chain,” said a company statement. It said in a statement that with effect from March 28 the network will be covered by…

SOUTH Korea’s Hanjin Shipping is to take delivery of the first of nine 13,092 TEU, the Hanjin Sooho, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which will phase into CKHY Alliance NE6 service with a maiden voyage on April 1. The second and third vessels, Hanjin Asia and Hanjin Europe will be delivered on the April 15 and May 6 respectively. All three vessels will replace vessels averaging 9,000 TEU with…

TROUBLED by an export slowdown, the Port of Shenzhen’s container volume fell 7.8 per cent to 1.93 million TEU in January, reports Xinhua, with throughput of laden boxes sliding 7.6 per cent to 958,322 TEU. An unidentified official at Shenzhen’s Shekou Container Terminal pointed out that there had been a shrinkage of consumer demand overseas, resulting in a weak Chinese export performance. In addition, moving of more and more processing…

LUFTHANSA Cargo company, time:matters GmbH, a German provider of express logistics services, is continuing to expand its “same day” air network by adding Scotland’s Aberdeen airport as a new station for transporting urgent and complex shipments. The development brings the number of same-day air network stations to 104, a company statement said. “With Aberdeen, we are incorporating the focus area for the oil industry in the North Sea region into…

THE European recession is expected to depress air freight volumes of the members of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), which fell 13.7 per cent in January year on year. International cargo load factors fell to an average of 59.6 per cent, a drop of 5.7 percentage points despite a 5.3 per cent reduction in capacity, according to the AAPA. “With Europe sliding into recession, we expect this to…