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South Korea charges US Commerce Department with unfair trade practices
来源： 编辑：编辑部 发布：2018/02/26 08:54:35
IN the Year of the Dog, spot rates for shipping containers from Asia to northern Europe in the week ending Friday ticked up 1.2 per cent to US$916 per TEU, according to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI). Asia-Mediterranean trade edged up 0.8 per cent to $797 per TEU, London's Loadstar reported. Asia to the US west coast rate fell 4.9 per cent week-over-week to $1,412 per FEU while those to the east coast off 2.1 per cent to $2,708 per FEU. |
BRITISH waste exporters in are crisis mode because of China's ban on imports of recyclables that are backing up and sending shippers scrambling to find new ways to dispose of 80,000 TEU a year. China completely banned post consumer plastics, about 400,000 tons per year. There was also a complete ban on mixed paper exports to China that are as much as 1.1 million tons a year. "This has cut the numbers of containers our members export by 40 to 50 per cent," said UK Recycling AssociationCEO Simon Ellin. China is granting limited import licences for cardboard in 2018, and Mr Ellin said because they need the long fibre the US market supplies, China was prioritising US tonnage. "It will be very difficult for our UK members. We are trying to find alternative markets but they are rapidly getting full," he said. Other markets are India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, but London's Drewry Maritime Research analysts said they lack capacity comparable to China's. China imports about 30 million tonnes (33 million tons) of wastepaper each year, along with eight million tonnes of waste plastics, roughly the same as the rest of the world put together. The ban had made the business very challenging, especially with the United States expected to win a greater percentage of the fewer import licences being issued. "China's mills prefer US material because of the longer fibres. The number of import licences has been reduced, but the percentage make-up of the quotas in place means there has to be more from the US and less from Europe," said Cycle Link International logistics chief Gary Waters. "China is now running out of cardboard. Alibaba has no cardboard boxes and Chinese mills operating in Vietnam are shipping over cardboard because they don't have enough," said Mr Ellin. The suppliers of recycled material have to comply with China's regulations, not the exporters, and meeting the high quality threshold comes at a cost, with new machinery and additional pickers needed to ensure the waste is at the required standard. Mr Waters said he buys from commercial sources or recycling facilities and from retailers and sends vehicles in to pick up material that has to be in bales to get the full weight inside containers. The carrier then collects the cargo from a supplier's premises and transports it all the way to mills in China where it is processed to make the finished paper used in cardboard boxes that are transported around the world with new products inside. "But the market is not buying the amount it was, and that is affecting the whole chain," said Mr Waters. "Carriers rely on the waste paper to get their empties back to China but volume is down everywhere. It is not just the recycling market that suffers but all the markets that rely on that volume." Mr Ellin said the recycling of cardboard was a great example of circularity. The goods from China arrive in the United Kingdom and are delivered and unpacked. The boxes arrive at recycling points and are sent back to China in what would otherwise be empties. Carriers use recyclable waste bales to build up load factors on lower demand backhaul routes. |
THE Port of Colombo has posted a 20.4 per cent in January transshipment increase year on year at its three main terminals, reports London's Container Management. Collectively, Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT) and Jaya Container Terminal (JCT) handled 436,303 TEU in transshipments over the 362,451 TEU in the first month last year. Overall container throughput at the port grew by 16.4 per cent to 564,155 TEU, with the increase mainly attributable to the strong rise in transshipment. In January, 332 container vessels called at the Port of Colombo compared to 304 in the same period of last year, an increase of 9.2 per cent. Last year, Colombo handled 6.2 million TEU, up from the 5.7 million TEU in 2016. |
THE Port of Rotterdam is swiftly making progress with its LNG bunkering initiative, after attracting Shell's newbuild bunker vessel Cardissa and seeing the volume of LNG bunkered in 2017 rise to 1,500 tonnes, up from 100 tonnes in 2016. Port authorities attribute its success to the 1,000 TEU Wes Amelie, the first container ship to be converted to LNG propulsion. The ship bunkers at the City Terminal in the port's Prins Willem Alexanderhaven, reported LNG World Shipping. Rotterdam also pointed out that the 2017 LNG bunker volume marks the start of its commitment to the small-scale LNG sector. Another exponential jump in the figure is expected in 2018. The port has been a first-mover in LNG bunkering initiatives and many small-scale LNG developments are underway that will build upon the infrastructure already in place. LNG bunkering is expected to be a routine operation at the port by 2020. To support the push towards LNG, Rotterdam is offering vessels that bunker LNG in the port a 10 per cent discount on gross seaport dues up until then. The Cardissa arrived at the port in July 2017 to commence duties using the Gate breakbulk jetty as its home berth. The bunker vessel regularly loads LNG at this berth and delivers the fuel to gas-powered ships in northwest Europe. Shell has followed up the Cardissa with an LNG bunker barge charter deal and an agreement with shipowner Anthony Veder to convert the Coral Methane into a dedicated LNG bunker vessel. The energy major will take the 3,000 cubic metre LNG bunker berth, which is being built for a joint venture between Victrol and CFT, on a long-term charter upon delivery. Based in Rotterdam, it will be used to bunker gas-powered inland waterway vessels visiting the port. The Coral Methane will support Shell's blossoming portfolio of LNG bunkering clients in northern Europe. The company's customers include Sovcomflot, which ordered a series of what will be the world's first LNG-fuelled Aframax crude oil tankers. |
THE end of 2017 and the first couple of weeks this year saw a string of new and enhanced container shipping service offerings on intra-Asia and China-Southeast and South Asia routes. The move comes amid the recognition that these China-India routes provide an opportunity to deploy vessels of up to 8,000-9,000 TEU. "Overall, the intra-Asia market is expected to grow five per cent in 2018. Southeast Asian countries are likely to see strong trade growth while trade between China and India is expected to rise in line with India's economic development," said APL. Partners in the Ocean Alliance, OOCL and APL, were among the first to launch. The former's Far East-Chennai service boosts service to the southeast of India from China while APL also announced revamps to its China-India Subcontinent network. "2017 saw APL offering 38 services as part of the Ocean Alliance, as well as introducing 14 new APL services and enhancing 14 existing loops," said a spokeswoman. She added that the services were introduced to strengthen the line global network, especially key transpacific and intra-Asia trade lanes, as well as enhance its presence in the Middle East and Indian subcontinents, as well as seek growth opportunities in Oceania and transatlantic. Recognising challenges APL said: "It is noteworthy that the Southeast Asia shipping network is constantly changing. In particular, the intra-Asia short sea market is fast moving with comparatively lower barriers to entry or exit compared to long haul trades." In response, APL kicked off the year with the announcement of a new China Southeast Asia (CSE) service that has been introduced to meet this demand. "In 2018, more APL services will be introduced to serve market needs and further develop our service network," she said. |
SHIPPERS want more services from the US Gulf to accommodate rising exports of resin to Asia, particularly now US synthetic resins shipments are expected to increase and ships are running near capacity. Carriers are willing but cautious. They note that resins are a backhaul commodity that provides container lines with lower rates than most import containers. Export commodities such as resins also tend to be heavier than imports, which means fewer containers can be stowed aboard an outbound vessel, reported IHS Media. Shippers also have questioned the availability of empty containers for resin exports. Operators of the Gulf's existing Asian container services note that they also have multiple Gulf services. Carriers say these services can be used to reposition empty boxes to the Gulf - if they can generate enough revenue for a profitable round trip. "We have to do the math, and the math has to make sense," Cosco Container Lines America COO Howard Finkel said at the Port of Houston symposium on resin exports. Shippers and ports say rising import volumes from Asia support demand for more or higher capacity Gulf services. The Gulf coast's share of containerised imports from Asia rose to 6.6 per cent last year from 5.87 per cent in 2016. Houston, which handles two-thirds of the Gulf's container volume, had a 53-to-47 ratio of loaded import TEU to loaded exports last year. This ratio reflected a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in Houston's total imports in 2017. Imports were up 17.4 per cent last year at the Port of Mobile, mainly due to two new Asian calls that began in mid-2016. Mobile's Asian imports are expected to rise further with Wal-Mart's opening of a 2.6 million square foot distribution centre near the port this year. Except for c's PEX-3 eastbound round-the-world service, and for trans-Atlantic services that use 6,500-TEU ships that regularly call at Gulf ports tend to be smaller, although Houston last year handled nearly 20 "extra loaders" with capacities of up to 8,500 TEU. Imports to Gulf ports from North Asia in 2017 rose 27.5 per cent year over year, to 499,631 TEU, according to PIERS data. Imports from north Europe to the Gulf rose 14.3 per cent to 263,744 TEU, and increased by 24.4 per cent from the Indian subcontinent to 74,666 TEU. The biggest percentage increases were recorded in Southeast Asia, up 49 per cent to 79,826 TEU; and the Middle East, up 43.8 percent to 31,637 TEU. Gulf exports to northeast Asia rose 20.5 per cent year on year in the first 11 months of the year to 201,458 TEU, an increase of 34,225 TEU, making the trade the largest in terms of export volumes. Exports to Southeast Asia surged 33.9 per cent to 61,314 TEU. Import-export volume in most other trades, including South and Central America, was relatively flat. |
SOUTH KOREA has launched a World Trade Organisation dispute that argues a key provision of America's anti-dumping and countervailing investigations violates WTO rules. South Korea claims the US Commerce Department improperly applied "adverse facts available" from Korean producers and exporters in six anti-dumping and countervailing cases involving various Korean products, reports Bloomberg. Though WTO rules permit countries to levy tariffs based on facts that are available at the time if a targeted firm fails to cooperate in trade remedy investigations, Korea said the US did not assess the facts "properly and objectively." A request for consultations marks the first step in WTO dispute proceedings. The US and South Korea now have 60 days to engage in discussions aimed at settling the disagreement before the latter may pursue a WTO investigation into the matter. |