HARBIN, Jun 20 (FAM) – A Harbin-Europe freight train sets off from the Xiangfang Railway Station in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, June 18, 2016.
Cargo trains between Europe and Harbin have transported 2,526 containers, 210 million U.S. dollars worth of goods in the first year since the service was launched.
The first service set off on June 13, 2015 from Harbin, reaching the German city of Hamburg via Russia and Poland.
By WONG JOON SAN
Editor of FocusAsia Media Ltd
BEIJING, Jun 8 (FAM) – The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw, according to Prussian author Friedrich Nietzsche, a writer who was noted for his contribution to existentialism and the idea that man is part of a material world, regardless of what else might exist.
Whether man believes in Nietzsche’s theory, the fact is that mankind has traversed the world with all kinds of quests and victories particularly in modern transportation, and conquests of the sea, air, road and railway. It is noteworthy to note that men talk about theories, they always look at history.
Talking of man’s successes, the first railways in China were built during the Qind Dynasty in the late 19th Century, after extensive railway networks were already in place in Europe, North America, India and Japan. The late arrival of railways in China was due both to the lack of industrialization and skeptical attitude of the Qing government.
Although diverse and prominent personages such as Lin Zexu and Taipind rebell Wang Hongren called for the building of railways in China in the mid-19th century, the conservative Qing court considered steam engines to be “clever but useless” contraptions, and resisted railways. The Qing court believed that the railways would “deprive us of defensive barriers, harm our fields and interfere with our fend shui”, but time has proven wrong.
Railways in China
The railway story began in 1895, when the government began to grant rail concessions to foreigners, and permitted direct connection to the capital Beijing. The Beijing-Shangjiakou Railway was built from 1905 to 1909, and it was constructed through mountainous terrain. The chief engineer of this railway was Zhan Tianyou, known as the Father of China’s Railway.
After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the new government under Mao Zedong invested heavily in the railway network. From the 1950s to the 70s, lines, especially those in western China, were expanded. One example is the 1900 km railway from Lanzhou to Urumqi,whi ch was built between 1952 and 1962.
In Southwestern China, where difficult terrain prevails, several mountain railways were constructed, such as the Baoji-Chengdu Railway. built in the 1950s, and the Chengkun Railway, built in the 1970s. The railway to Tibet, one of the highest in the world, was finally completed and opened to the public in 2006.
Today, every province-level entity of the People’s Republic, with the exception of Macau, is connected to the railway network.
Like the Renaissance period of the European history between the 14th and 17th centuries when tre was a new interest in science and in ancient art and literature especially in Italy, China advanced forward infrastructure and railway services in the last decade. China has continued to exporting its technology, equipment and accessories, making not only a regional player but also an international player as well.
High-speed rail (HSR)
As of 2014, the country has 120,000 km (74,565 mi) of railways, the second longest network in the world, including 16,000 kilometres (9,942 miles) of high speed rail (HSR) – the longest HSR network in the world.
Almost all rail operations are handled by the China Railway Corporation, a state-owned company created in March 2013 from dissolution of the Ministry of Railways. Beijing’s government restructuring kicked off, after the consolidation plan to cut bureaucratic red tape was approved by the legislature.
However, analysts cast doubts on the plan as to whether the restructuring will make a substantial difference, as the number of cabinet-level ministries was reduced by 27 to 25.
Most acknowledge the fact that China’s railways are already among the busiest in the world. In 2014, railways in China delivered 2.357 billion passenger trips, generating 1,160.48 billion passenger-kilometers and carried 3.813 billion tons of freight, generating 2.753 billion cargo ton-kilometers.
Freight capacity
Driven by need to increase freight capacity, the railway network has expanded with the country budgeting $130.4 billion for railway investment in 2014, and has a long term plan to expand the network to 270,000 km (170,000 mi) by 2050.
Countries like the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have already seen what China is doing, and the benefits of its railways will bring the people, particularly cargo railway. So much so, more freight cargo railways are already having ordered or are in the process in the near future.
The 12th China-ASEAN Expo, which was held in October this year in Nanning city in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, featured cities at the expo situated in the 21st century Maritime Silk Road.
You may say that the country’s feng shui has recently changed, with 12 cargo railway routes across the country, linking the European continent to Europe and Russia in the west and north respectively, and also to Turkey in the south western hemisphere. Talks are also entering on more railway routes in the near future.
From 2013 to 2020, there will be 15 new projects launched in eastern, western and northern Guangdong, totalling 2,053 kilometres and costing CNY207.1 billion. Twelve projects totalling 1,443 kilometres in distance and CNY146.1 billion in investment will be launched in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Among the new projects, six will be inter-provincial routes, from Meizhou to Jiangxi province’s Yingtan, from Meizhou to Fujian province’s Pucheng, from Zhanjiang to Guangxi Autonomous Region’s Hepu, from Zhaoqing to Guangxi’s Liuzhou, from Shenzhen to Jiangxi’s Ganzhou, and from Shaoguan to Lliuzhou.
Another four will connect ports, including the Zhanjiang Donghai Island railway, Shantou’s Jieyang Port Railway, Maoming’s Bohe Port Railway and Chaozhou’s Port Railway.
The remaining five will be national major railways, the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, the Meizhou-Chaoshan Railway, the Guangzhou-Shanwei Railway, the Longchuan-Shanwei Railway and the second track to the Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway’s Longhu South-to-Shantou section.
Whatever the figure it is, China, undoubtedly .is going ahead with rapid railway development in the mainland as well as its neighbouring countries. We are talking about the ifs and other factors, but whatever it is happening, it is definitely happening in China, Europe and beyond.
TBILISI, Jun 6 (FAM) – China and Georgia have completed a second round of talks for an FTA on May 13 in Beijing, according to China’s MOC..
The two sides discussed issues including goods and service trade, intellectual property rights and trade facilitation, reaching consensus on parts of the agenda, the MOC said. The third round is scheduled to be held in July in Tbilisi.
On the cultural and people-to-people cooperation, Zhang encouraged both sides to fully explore potentials on tourism, culture, education and science and technology in order to cement the foundation of public support.
The vice premier also called for close communication and cooperation on international and regional issues.
Margvelashvili said Georgia will adhere to the one-China policy.
Zhang arrived in Tbilisi on Thursday from Azerbaijan. He is scheduled to stay here for three days and leave for Armenia on Sunday.
COPENHAGEN, Jun 3 (FAM) – Maersk Line has announced improvements to its network between Asia and North Europe within the framework of the 2M alliance which it operates with MSC across five weekly service loops.
“Maersk Line will eliminate overlapping port pairs in order to reduce the number of direct port calls in the network. This enables increased reliability through slower network speeds while the reduction in port calls make it possible for Maersk Line to maintain competitive transit times,” the Danish shipping line said in a statement.
“Most significantly Maersk Line strengthens its products into Germany and the Netherlands. They will feature market leading transit times from main Asian markets to Bremerhaven and Rotterdam, where westbound transit times are improved by as much as four days. Eastbound transit time between Rotterdam and Shanghai is reduced by five days, providing a unique product in the market,” the statement continued.
“We have 93 calls on the network for Asia-North Europe and in the new setup we have 84 port calls – a net reduction of nine calls,” Maersk Line confirmed to LLL.
The network is now made up of 45 Asian calls, 4 Middle East calls and 35 European calls.
Maersk Line said “a key enabler” for the improvements was a more effective deployment of large container vessels across its five Asia-North Europe services in the network.
“We are utilizing our scale to deliver a better product. With the largest network and the deployment of an increasingly uniform fleet of ultra large container vessels, we maintain our extensive direct coverage while focusing each service towards best in class transit times to specific markets on the trade,” said Vincent Clerc, Chief Commercial Officer AT Maersk Line.
The company underlined that it had drawn on the experience from the first year of operations of the 2M alliance – the 10-year agreement with MSC – when adjusting the network.
“Our improved network is the result of a stable, maturing alliance seeking to address current customer-felt pain points. It strengthens our commercial offering and offers shippers a stable choice in times where other alliance networks await reshuffling,” Clerc added.
The improvements to the network are anticipated to be fully phased in during the third quarter of 2016
LONDON, Apr 25 (GCTL18) – Some terminals and shippers are unprepared for the SOLAS amendment enforcement on July 1 and without steps to address the requirements, chaos and commercial disputes may ensue and it could result in fines, delays and potential loss of business for carriers.
The SOLAS amendment coming into force on July 1, 2016 requires, as a condition for loading a packed container onto a ship for export, that the container has a verified gross mass (‘VGM’). It would be a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a ship if the ship operator and marine terminal operator do not have the VGM of the container. All 163 Signatory States to SOLAS will need to implement this amendment through their respective national legislation.
With the entry into force date just over two months away, some terminals and shippers still seem unprepared or even unaware of this SOLAS amendment. This SOLAS amendment is intended to address the problem of variability in cargo weight declarations and its potential impact on the safe stowage, securing and carriage of these containers.
In practice, a failure to comply will likely result in fines and penalties but it may also result in delays, disruptions to loading procedures and potential loss of business for carriers. The responsibility for obtaining and communicating the VGM of a packed container lies with the shipper.
The VGM declared has to be signed off by a person duly authorised by the shipper. No separate obligation is imposed on the carrier or the terminal operator to check the VGM declared. However, as a condition for loading, the carrier and the terminal must ensure that every container on the ship’s stowage plan has a properly declared VGM.
Two methods are prescribed for the shipper to obtain the VGM of a packed container: Method 1: weighing the packed container, and Method 2: weighing all cargo items, including pallets, dunnage and other securing and packing material in the container and then adding to these the tare mass of the container. The VGM under both Methods 1 and 2, must be obtained using calibrated and certified weighing equipment that complies with the accuracy standards of the jurisdiction in which the equipment is used.
HONG KONG, Apr 22 (GCTL18) – OOCL said it will call at Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) terminal on its Loop 5 and Loop 7 services.
It first sailings will be:
• Loop 7: Essen Express (ESS) 014W/E, ETA Rotterdam on May 23, 2016
SHANGHAI, Apr 12 (GCTL18) – Congestion at Shanghai’s Yangshan Terminal has caused a 72-hour delay to a ship operating on Hapag-Lloyd’s Asia-Mexico service, causing the line to omit its scheduled call in Buenaventura, Colombia to bring the vessel back to schedule.
In a note to customers, Hapag-Lloyd said: “We would like to inform you that E.R. Canada (voyage 001E) of our Asia / Mexico Express Loop 2 Service (AME2) was delayed in Shanghai (Yangshan Terminal) due to congestion at this port. In order to bring the vessel back to schedule, vessel will omit the Buenaventura, Colombia call.”
Lloyd’s Loading List was quoted the carrier as saying cargo from Asia to Buenaventura would be transshipped in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico to the CMA CGM Tigris (voyage 069AEE), with an ETA Buenaventura of April 26.
Cargo from Mexico to Buenaventura will be rolled over to the CMA CGM Ohio (voyage 059AFE) with an ETA in Buenaventura of 20 April.
It was unclear at the time of writing what had caused the congestion at Shanghai’s Yangshan Terminal or whether the congestion had now been cleared.
LONDON, Apr 6 (GCTL18) – Attempts by carriers to implement April 1 general rate increases (GRIs) have met with only limited success, with average spot prices between China and northern Europe rising just $92 to $339 per teu last week, according to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.
Despite carriers’ hopes for GRIs ranging from $400 to $800 per teu, they did not have much success seeing a $42 per teu increase in the previous week in the lead-up to the GRIs.
For Asia-Mediterranean carriers, the news was slightly better, as freight rates on the SCFI climbed 104.4%, or $259 to $507 per teu, but way short of their expectations for increases of between $500 and $800 per teu.
The partial success of GRIs on the Asia-Europe trade was repeated on the transpacific, where freight rates to the US west coast from Asia climbed by just $174 to $922 per feu, while those to the US east coast could only muster a $136 increase over last week to $1,787 per feu.
HOHHOT, Mar 24 (GCTL18) – Manzhouli, China’s largest land port, is expected to see its annual highway cargo handling capacity climb to 10 million tonnes within the year from the current 3 million tonnes.
The improvement will be the result of the first-stage of a project aimed at upgrading road services of the port, which borders Russia to the north and also sits close to Mongolia, according to the government of Manzhouli City, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua reports.
The first-phase construction will be finished by the end of October. With an estimated investment of 1.03 billion yuan (about US$159 million), the construction of the overall project started in 2015 and is scheduled to end in 2017.
More than 65 percent of overland trade between China and Russia passes through Manzhouli.
SHANGHAI, Feb 29 (GCTL18) – This year’s Intermodal Asia exhibition and conference to be held in Shanghai from March 22-24 to focus on the different issues and discussion topics at the forefront of the container transport and logistics industry.
The Container Owners Association will hold an “Industry Meeting” at the Marriott Luwan Hotel in Shanghai on March 21 to present the COA’s current projects and activities.
The China Container Industry Association (CCIA) will host the official signing for the new government regulations on the environment on March 22, confirming the formation of the “Chinese container manufacturing industry green action plan.”
In view of growing environmental pressures in China, the CCIA set up a container manufacturing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) work group that led to the creation of the “green” action plan. The CCIA will present their programme to interested parties at a forum that will be held on the same day as the signing ceremony.
The Asian Tank Container Organisation (ATCO) will also host a forum at the event, where several expert speakers will discuss the “Safe Transportation of Chemicals Using Tank Containers” on March 23.
An “Intermodal in China Summit” will be hosted on March 23 by the Integrated Transport Federation (ITF), and supported by the CCIA, for speakers to discuss key areas of intermodal development.
Topics will include China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, an overview of port developments and the experience of a leading European sea-rail multimodal company.
Industry associations present at Intermodal Asia will include Bureau International des Containers (BIC), International Road Transport Union (IRU), Hong Kong Shippers Council (HKSC), and the Russian Intermodal Logistics Association.
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