Maersk plans to ease Chittagong clogging with inland container depot

DANISH shipping giant Maersk plans to construct an inland container depot (ICD) near Chittagong port, in a bid to ease congestion at Bangladesh 's leading harbour, reports Thomson Financial. Chittagong port handles 90 per cent of Bangladesh 's foreign trade, which is said to be worth more than $29 billion annually, with Maersk handling around 30 per cent of Bangladesh 's foreign trade, making it the country's top shipping operator. Chittagong port has seen its container volumes double in the past five years, adding to its congestion woes.

CNC Line expands intra-Asia services

TAIWAN 's CNC Line, now owned by CMA CGM, has embarked on a major service expansion programme covering the intra-Asia trade, by launching four new services in the last month. These services will be operated in addition to the NIX, NCC and TMJ services covering the China/India trade, and the Thailand/Malaysia/Java trade. The first of the four new routes comprises a new Straits/Pakistan Express service. Effective October 7, the new Straits/Pakistan Express service is deploying three vessels averaging 1,600 TEU each.

The port rotation is: Singapore , Port Kelang, Colombo , Karachi , Mundra, Pipavav, returning to Singapore .The second of the four new services, the Thailand/Malaysia Express, was launched on October 10. This new weekly service uses one vessel, the 1,100-TEU Kuo Chang, which calls at the port of Laem Chabang and Port Klang. Following the Thailand/Malaysia Express, CNC is in partnership with SITC Container Lines, completely restructuring the China 2 service and rebranding it China 3, from October 19, to cover China , Thailand and Vietnam .Rotation for the weekly China 3 is: Qingdao , Shanghai , Ningbo , Laem Chabang, Bangkok , Laem Chabang, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Shanghai and back to Qingdao .

Three 1,000-TEU ships are being used on the China 3 route with two provided by CNC Line, the CNC Bangkok and the CNC Hong Kong. Effective from October 21, CNC Line has started offering the North Vietnam Express (NVX), which the line is running independently with a single charter vessel, the 440-TEU Ryoga. The port rotation for the NVX is: Haiphong , Qui Nhon, Hong Kong and Haiphong again.

Transpacific trade demand lower than expected

TRANSPACIFIC trade demand has dropped in the recent months under the influence of fluctuations of the US ' economy, Xinhua reported.The volume of container cargo imported from Asia via all US ports was far lower than the estimation of the industry analysts. A leading international trade data provider, the US-based PIERS, has adjusted this year's trade growth from 9.2 per cent to 7.2 per cent. But it still remains confident about 2008's market and expects growth can recover to 9.2 per cent in 2009.

The depreciation of US dollar and the strong growth in the Asian economy slightly stimulated the US export growth. PIERS has predicted this year's growth of US container exports to Asia to be 6.7 per cent, slightly higher than the earlier forecast of 6.2 per cent. PIERS expects that China will continue to be the largest exporter to the US with a growth of 13.4 per cent in 2008, while a drop of 2.5 per cent will be seen in Japanese exports to the US.