[240518.EN.BIZ] Maersk Cuts Back as Bunker Soars and US Bans Iran Trade

MAERSK will cut capacity and service coverage in an attempt to improve profitability in the face of a rising bunker bill, says CEO Soren Skou, reported Fort Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.

"In the short term, we will be closing down some services," Mr Skou told the Wall Street Journal. "Overcapacity is the biggest defect."

To cut back, Maersk will be returning some of its chartered-in fleet to shipowners, reducing its feeder services and channelling volume to direct ports.

"Ocean" business, ocean freight, plus APM Terminals' transshipment [profit] were about US$500 million, dragged down by rising bunker prices and unfavourable exchange rates," Mr Skou said in an investors' call.

Group-wide revenue rose 30 per cent in the first quarter, including the addition of Hamburg Sud, but its underlying loss nearly doubled to $240 million, he said.

Bunker price increases have raised the cost of shipping a single box on an Asia-EU route by $70, he said, yet freight rates on these core lanes remain below breakeven.

Said Maersk Line CCO Vincent Clerc: "It has been difficult to pass on fuel cost increases to customers in contracts, especially also in a short-term market in some areas where we have faced strong capacity injection.

The firm also confirmed that it has no plans to place new shipbuilding orders for at least the next year - unlike MSC, CMA CGM and HMM, which have all been purchasing 22,000-plus TEU mega ships for their fleets.

Mr Skou also warned the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, or the prospect of a trade war between the US and China, could make the situation worse.

"We have to admit that the Americans have taken a number of initiatives recently that have caught us by surprise," he told Reuters. "With the sanctions the Americans are to impose, you can't do business in Iran if you also have business in the US, and we have that on a large scale."

Maersk is already pulling back from Iran, as is Maersk Tankers, which is no longer part of Maersk Group. The risk posed by new sanctions on Iran extends beyond its direct impact on trade: it is also pushing up oil futures, Mr Skou said, driving the cost of bunkers higher.

Source : HKSG.

[240518.ID.BIZ] China Memangkas Tarif Impor Mobil

KONTAN.CO.ID - BEIJING. China makin membuka pasar otomotifnya bagi produsen kendaraan global. Terbaru, Pemerintah China akan memangkas tarif impor kendaraan dan suku cadang mobil mulai 1 Juli nanti.

Lebih rinci kebijakan pemangkasan tarif impor itu terdiri dari tarif impor mobil akan dipotong menjadi 15% dari sebesar 25% yang sudah berlaku selama lebih dari satu dekade. Tarif impor itu berlaku untuk mobil penumpang dan truk tertentu.

Sedangkan, tarif untuk suku cadang mobil akan dikurangi menjadi 6% dari saat ini yang berkisar 6% hingga 25% tergantung jenisnya. Langkah ini sejalan dengan realitas industri otomotif saat ini.

Seperti dikutip New York Times, meski sudah dipangkas, tarif impor mobil di China tersebut masih terbilang tinggi dan tidak akan memotivasi produsen mobil untuk mengalihkan produksi dari Cina. Sebagai perbandingan, Amerika Serikat (AS) mengenakan tarif impor sebesar 2,5% untuk mobil, minivan, dan kendaraan sport.

Kementerian Keuangan China menyebut, penurunan tarif impor tersebut merupakan cara melindungi sistem perdagangan multilateral. "Menurunkan tarif impor otomotif merupakan langkah besar untuk memperluas reformasi ekonomi," sebut Kementerian Keuangan seperti dikutip Xinhua, Rabu (23/5).

Pemotongan tarif impor kendaraan ini bertujuan meningkatkan investasi di industri otomotif China. Saat ini, Tiongkok memiliki 178 item tarif impor yang berhubungan dengan industri otomotif, dengan rata-rata tingkat tarif sebesar 21,5%. Selain itu, ada 97 item tarif impor onderdil mobil, dengan rata-rata tarif sebesar 10,2%.

Pemerintah China masih akan mengkaji apakah akan terus memangkas tarif impor kendaraan ini. Pasalnya, pemotongan tarif tergantung dari daya saing dan perkembangan industri otomotif.

Langkah yang diambil China ini akan membantu reformasi struktural dari sisi penawaran dan peningkatan industri otomotif, serta membawa kualitas dan efisiensi yang lebih baik.

Tak hanya itu, kebijakan ini juga akan memperkaya pasar domestik, memenuhi permintaan untuk kendaraan lebih banyak lagi, serta pengalaman konsumen membeli kendaraan dengan harga terjangkau.

Kepala Akademi Ilmu Fiskal China Liu Shangxi menilai, pemotongan tarif ini akan memberikan efek positif bagi ekonomi global.

Setelah China mengeluarkan kebijakan terbaru untuk mengurangi tarif impor otomotif, beberapa pembuat mobil telah mengumumkan pemotongan harga. BMW China, Volvo Cars, FAW-Volkswagen, Porsche, dan Toyota menyatakan akan melakukan revisi pada harga mobil. Tesla malah telah menyesuaikan harga jual di China, dengan potongan harga mulai 48.000 yuan hingga 90.000 yuan.

Sumber : Kontan, 24.05.18.

[230518.EN.SEA] Indonesian President Hails CMA CGM's Direct Calls to USWC

INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo highlighted the importance of the transpacific trade while visiting a CMA CGM vessel in Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) recently.

He was accompanied by the Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukitan, Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and State-Owned Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno.

They met local staff from CMA CGM and crew of 9,365-TEU CMA CGM Tage which was berthed at the terminal, reported Colchester's Seatrade Maritime News.

The vessel is deployed on the company's JAX service between Southeast Asia and the US west coast, with CMA CGM being the only shipping line to offer a direct service from Indonesia to the US west coast. Most cargo to and from Indonesia is transhipped via Singapore or Malaysia.

The CMA CGM services carries export cargoes such as footwear, garment, tyres, electronic goods and frozen seafood to the US, reducing the transit times for exporters.

Source : HKSG / Foto : Marine Traffic.

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[210518.EN.BIZ] Hyundai Merchant Marine widens loss to US$162 million, sales fall 14.6pc

KOREA's Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) posted a first quarter net loss of KRW175.8 billion (US$162.3 million), increasing the deficit from the KRW735.2 billion loss in the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly revenue also fell 14.6 per cent year on year to KRW1.11 trillion, which was blamed on excess supply, low freight rates and high fuel costs, reported Yonhap new agency.

Despite widening losses Korea's biggest carrier confirmed an order for 20 new containerships, 12 of more than 20,000 TEU and eight 14,000-TEUers, as part of the company's plan to grow the fleet to one million TEU.

HMM said that its massive ship building programme will allow it to take advantage of increased economies of scale, as well as to meet looming environmental regulations set to come into effect in 2020.

According to a separate regulatory filing, HMM also plans to purchase the remaining stake it does not already own in a container terminal at the Port of Busan along with Singapore-based terminal operator PSA International.

Source : HKSG.

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[200518.EN.BIZ] Trieste to open rail freight village by end of 2018

THE development of rail traffic has enabled Italy's Port of Trieste to outperform its long-standing rival of Venice, after handling 616,000 TEU in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 26.7 per cent.

In the first quarter of 2018, containers, ro-ro, bulk and rail freight have all continued to grow.

Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea president Zeno D'Agostino has unveiled plans to develop a free port that is linked to the regeneration of the former Wartsila area. There is already work in progress, operated by the Fernetti freight village, the first phase of which is scheduled for completion in the autumn, reported Genoa's Medi Telegraph.

Operations will begin at the end of 2018. Many cargo areas will have to be created to handle the cargo. Buildings are being renovated. There is a proposal to build a temperature-controlled warehouse in the free port for perishable and temperature-controlled goods.

"We are beginning to organise not only the port but also the Cervignano freight village. We are considering with our customers about the fact that trains should not come directly to the port but to Cervignano on one side and to Villa Opicina on the other and then from there via Adriafer shuttles to the port of Trieste," said Mr D'Agostino.

"They are embracing this logic. On the one hand, there are areas with strong connections to infrastructure, which have large spaces, with many tracks, outside the port. On the other hand, there are the port terminals where ships call. The logic is to use external spaces that have excellent accessibility by rail and road as buffers to supplement the activities at the port terminals.

"Already today in Fernetti, we are operating a check-in for Turkish trucks that are boarding ships. The trucks stop at Fernetti until they get the green light from the port. The same logic was transferred from a railway point of view using the shuttles of Adriafer, our railway company. The port authority, which also manages these platforms, integrates all of these activities."

Source : HKSG.