COMPANY NEWS & EVENTS

 Sino-Global is proudly attending the ASBA Cargo Conference 2006. Our Senior Consultant, Mr. Dai Qiu Shan, will be presenting his paper on opportunities in the Chinese shipping market on October 5th.

The paper is focused on current movements and future prospects on imported iron ore, the ability to compete for a share of this market, feasibility of the Cao Fei Dian project, coastal activities, and collaborating agencies.

We hope to see you all there and for those who are not attending this year’s conference, Mr. Dai’s paper is available to read on our website.

Other Sino-Global attendees:
Lusia Liu, Operations Manager, Beijing.
Patrick Kenny, Operations Manager, New York.

Opportunities in the Chinese shipping market


  A friendly reminder

When signing up a charter party, please do not easily give up your agency appointment option because:

      -- The other party’s agency does not have motivation to bring high quality services to you.

      -- When there is a business conflict, if an agent is not directly representing on your behave,
           then the statement of fact which is provided by this agent will not be in favor of you in law sues.


   Iron Ore Price Hike Nears Agreement

It appears as though the highly anticipated agreement over the increase in the price of iron ore will be settled in the near future between the Chinese and the Brazilians. After the steel producers in Germany, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to a raise of 19 percent it has emerged that the Chinese will most likely do the same.

The Chinese steel mills have led the discussion over the price rise for 2006 with the Brazilian miners. The Australian miners are in accord with the standard price increase that the Brazilians are attempting to set.

After last year’s record setting price increase of 71 percent set by the Japanese, the Chinese mills wanted to control the price increase for 2006. The Brazilians had aimed for an increase of 24.6 percent, while the Chinese held fast to a raise of 12.5 percent. The miners foresaw limited supply and high demand for 2006, while the mills have argued that spot prices have eased and that steel prices will diminish.


   Sino-Global and Shou-Rong JV

In July 2005, Sino-Global signed a joint venture with Beijing Shou-Rong Forwarding Service Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Shou Gang Group (Capital Steel) one of the largest steel producers in China. Sino-Global is now entrusted with the exclusive responsibility of the discharging matters of the group’s yearly iron ore imported volume of approximately 16,000,000 metric tons at all 74 Chinese ports.


   Shougang and Tangshan Steel launch JV today

The joint venture between Shougang and Tangshan Steel in Hebei province will be officially launched today (21 October).  As the controlling party of the JV, Shougang will own 51% of the shares, while Tangshan Steel takes the rest, it has learnt from a Shougang official.

The JV's new plant is set to reach a capacity of 9.6m t/y by 2010, and could expand to 20m t/y or even 30m t/y in the future if the market allows, it understands from an official working with the new company. However, the JV approval that Shougang received from the NDRC in February is only for 8m t/y for 2010, as previously reported.

The official also tells that the company will install four blast furnaces of 5,500 cubic meters in two phases.  This investment will make these the largest individual blast furnaces in China.  Most are 3,000 cubic meters or less.

The new JV company will also install three 330t BOFs.  However, the details of its finished product structure are not known, with the official saying only that it will focus on high-value flat products.


   China inshore ports are encountering the benefits and the challenges brought by the globalization of the      Chinese economy

In China many of the inshore ports are encountering the benefits and the challenges brought by the globalization of the Chinese economy. At the 24th World Port Conference held in Shanghai, Zhang Chunxian, minister of The Ministry of Communications, predicted that the port output is going to reach 6.1 billion mts and the container output is going to reach 1.4 hundred million mts by the end of year 2010.

Currently the general scale and output of China’s ports are ranked first in the world.  Among all the ports, 8 are in the hundred-million-mts-throughput mega port class.  The output of Shanghai port has past Rotterdam to be the second biggest freight port after Singapore.


   Freight output of Ningbo port passed 2 hundred million mts

By Sep 26th, 2005, freight output of Ningbo port passed the 2 hundred million mts milestone, increasing by 22% of the same period in 2004. Of all these, port output is 1.35 hundred million mts, increasing by over 16.5% of the same time last year; container output is 3.678 million TEU, increasing by 30% of the same time last year.  The output in Ningbo port for the past 2 thousand million mts was reached 57 days faster than last year.

Since 2000, Ningbo’s output has been second among all the mainland ports.The rate of output for this year is optimistic, and is continuing to increase.  It is estimated to reach 2.7 hundred million mts and port output increase can reach 1.8 hundred million mts.  The monthly container output has broke former records.  The output for the whole year should past 50 million TEU, and has the possibility to achieve the goal of getting the increasing rate at 30%.   Increasing tendency of iron, core oil, liquid chemical and other basic goods are strong; loading/discharging of iron is estimated to pass 300 million mts again and has the possibility to reach 330 million mts, loading/discharging of core oil has the possibility to break throuth 300 million mts for the first time, loading/discharging of coal is estimated to reach 140 million mts and liquid chemical is estimated to reach 300 million mts.


  Mainland box growth soars

After a year of strong growth, container businesses on the mainland are looking forward to another profitable year.

Exports are shooting up after years of stagnation;  ports are putting in more deep-water berths and railways are building container terminals.  The Internet is simplifying formalities and cutting waiting times at docks and terminals. However, competition is still intense, despite there being revived sources of cargo.

Official statistics put the volume of international container transport along the coastal ports at 15 million TEUs in 1999, an increase of 39 per cent from the year before.

Although Shanghai's growth in container volume fell slightly short of the national average, the mainland's largest port still made history last year by handling 4.2 million TEUs.  The annual increase of 1.14 million TEUs is a record for China.

Container volume and cargo turnover in Shanghai are likely to grow this year, as the city's state enterprises regain their momentum in terms of foreign trade, and as foreign-funded enterprises increase their imports of materials and sales of finished products overseas.

Road-sea and rail-sea transport in the Yangtze River delta will also grow.  Shanghai Shipping Centre is planning to invest billions of yuan over the next few years in deep-water berths and channels navigable by fifth-generation container vessels.

The highest growth rate of 70.6 per cent was registered at Ningbo in Zhejiang Province.  Although annual volume of 601,000 TEUs ranked it only eighth among coastal container ports, the total cargo turnover handled at the port climbed to third largest in the nation, hitting 96.6 million tonnes.

At Shenzhen in South China, nearly three million TEUs were handled in 1999, up 52.6 per cent from the year before, making it the second port in terms of volume. Last year, 20 per cent more vessels on 23 international sea routes visited the Yantian Port - as overseas investors and carriers built offices there.


  Average Discharging Efficiency of Iron Ore of Ningbo Port Reaching 0.1 Million Tons/day

          

Beginning from April, in light of busy operation of iron ore, Beilun Limited-liability Company of Ningbo Port used 5 ship-unloaders for operation simultaneously.  From April 1 to 24, a total of 2.41 million tons of iron ore were discharged at the company, allowing the average iron ore discharging efficiency to reach 100,000 tons per day, taking the leading position among the ports of mainland China. The picture shows 5 ship-unloaders were discharging simultaneously from CAPE HERON carrying 175,000 tons of iron ore and JOHNNYK carrying 154,000 tons of iron ore.


  New Packing Equipment In Operation at Beilun Second Stevedoring Company

          

On April 23, the first mobile auto packer for bulk goods was put into trial operation at Beilun Second Stevedoring Company of Ningbo Port Group.  After 2 days operation, the packing output by a single machine in 24 hours increased 120 to 180 tons more than manual packing. The auto packer was made by Changzhou Weike Auto Weighing Apparatus Company. It was advanced in design, capable of packing without waiting. The designed packing capacity is 1200 package per hour.  It adopted PLC controlling system with highly accurate pneumatic components, so it will be long lasting in use.  Compared with the original manual packing, the auto packer is characterized by high efficiency, less labor intensity, less manpower put-in, high metering accuracy, convenience and cleanness. The company invested more than 4.6 million yuan in reforming the bulk goods packing equipments.  Under the fine operation of the first auto packer, the company will carry on reforms to the packing facilities on the general berth and storage yards.  The project is estimated to be completed by the end of June.


         


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