NYK, Hyundai team up to offer Asia - South Africa – South America service

NYK and Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) have agreed to jointly operate a new container shipping service between Asia, South Africa and the east coast of South America , called New Horizon Express (NHX) to focus on fast growing markets.

The weekly fixed-day NHX service is scheduled to begin operations from the second half of April The New Horizon Express will deploy 10 vessels, comprising of eight NYK ships and two from HMM, to provide a weekly capacity of about 2,500 TEU.

The port rotation for the NHX will be: Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Durban, Santos, Buenos Aires, Itajai, Paranagua, Santos, Itaguai (Sepetiba), Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Shanghai. Other main ports in Asia will be covered by feeder connections.

Maersk brings in ' fair, simple, transparent ' way to gauge BAF

Maersk Line, the world ' s largest container carrier, is introducing a new way to calculate a floating Bunker Adjustment Factor (BAF) - and you can do it yourself on the internet.

Maersk announced that the BAF formula will be "simple, fair and transparent" .

"With this web tool," said a Maersk statement, "our customers can calculate their BAF based on trade and make simulations based on fluctuations in bunker prices. In addition, the BAF Calculator has information on the variables behind our BAF formula, an extensive Q&A, and news on upcoming BAF changes."

US economic slump brings west coast shipping declines

CONTAINER volume through US west coast ports of Tacoma , Los Angeles and Long Beach has either dropped or remained flat in 2007 attributed by shrinking US economy, weak housing market and higher overland transport costs.

After five years of growth, Tacoma suffered a seven per cent decline in container throughput, with the total volume in 2007 amounting to 1.9 million TEU versus 2.1 million TEU in 2006.

Looking ahead, Tacoma is forecasting six per cent growth in container volumes for this year to handle a total of 2.05 million TEU.

At Los Angeles , the port posted a 1.4 per cent decline in container throughput to handle a total of 8.4 million TEU in 2007.

Long Beach saw container volume at 7.3 million TEU, the same as 2006. Export containers went up 22 per cent, hitting a record 1.5 million TEU, while imported box volume dropped 0.4 per cent year on year to 3.7 million TEU.