COS Weekly News - 29 January 2010

Monday, 01 February 2010 16:19

COS News – Week ending 29 January 2010

Issue No. 91

 

 

PRINCE RUPERT RECORDS 12-YEAR HIGH CARGO VOLUMES IN 2009

The Port of Prince Rupert reported a 15% increase over 2008 volumes with over 12M tonnes of cargo throughput for 2009.  This increase is largely attributed to increased export of wheat, coking coal, petroleum coke, wood pellets and logs in 2009.  Fairview Container Terminal handled 265,259 TEUs, a 45.9% increase over last year.  Full News Release.

 

 

NEXT COS BUSINESS OF SHIPPING COURSE – APRIL 21 IN PRINCE RUPERT

After the third in a series of one-day events held on January 21 in Vancouver, the COS “Business of Shipping” team will head to Prince Rupert on April 21. The venue will be the North Coast Meeting & Convention Centre at Chances Casino and registration forms will be distributed shortly. This will be followed by a presentation to a Canadian Wheat Board audience in Winnipeg on May 20.

 

With the invaluable endorsement of the Chartered Institute of Shipbrokers in London, the course has been developed by active members of industry to meet the needs of those working in all fields related to the ongoing development of business in the Asia Pacific Gateway. The course has also received the financial and marketing support of the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table.

 

COAST GUARD - NOTICES TO SHIPPING

Canadian Naval vessels will conduct surface gunnery exercises in the Juan de Fuca Strait military exercise area from 0800 until 1600 PST on January 29, 2010.

 

The Second Narrows Railway Bridge will be closed to marine traffic from 1830 PST until 2330 PST on January 29, 2010.

 

An Olympic Marine Security Zone has been established northwest of Canada Place.

 

The perimeter is marked by four white can buoys with standard flashing yellow lights that have been temporarily placed in the following positions:

 

49 17.552 N  123 07.152 W (NAD unknown)

49 17.586 N  123 07.071 W

49 17.596 N  123 06.991 W

49 17.612 N  123 06.877 W

 

Mariners are required to remain northwest of this area.

 

 

MESSAGE FROM TRANSLINK – OLYMPIC PLANNING

On a typical day at present, there are about 300,000 people coming into Vancouver’s downtown core each day.  About 164,000 vehicles come with them.  During the month of February 2010, there will be two conflicting influences:

 

a)       About 20% of the on-street capacity for vehicle traffic and parking will be closed (by designating Olympic lanes which won’t be available to the general public, except on transit, and for security reasons)

b)       About 100,000 additional people per day will be attracted into the downtown core to almost 200 Olympic related sites (including competition venues, Live Sites, Cultural Venues, and National Olympic Committee Hospitality Sites)

 

This will create increased congestion unless we take some measures to mitigate it.  The transportation planners tell us that the most significant congestion will be outbound from the downtown core in all directions between 2 and 7PM weekdays.  All employees ending a regular work shift around 5PM will experience delays whether they are leaving the downtown core via private vehicle or public transportation.  The next most congested time will be inbound into the downtown core from 7 to 9AM.

 

In order to free up on street capacity for the additional people, coming in 20% less on-road capacity, two things will have to happen:

 

a)       Firstly, TransLink is investing massively in new public transit capacity (new third sea bus, new Canada Line, more SkyTrain cars added to existing trains, more frequent West Coast Express trains, more buses and more park-and- ride spaces)

b)       Secondly, we need to reduce “background traffic” (i.e. the 164,000 regular vehicles) by at least 30%

 

To do the latter, three behaviours are suggested where employers might take a leadership role in their Olympic readiness planning:

 

a)       asking employees that are able to telework or schedule vacation time during the Games

b)       asking employees that must come into work to time shift – come early (before 6am) and leave early (before 2pm), come late (by noon) and leave late (after 7pm), or trade a less congested weekend day for a week day,

c)       asking employees that must come into work to shift from single occupancy vehicles to a more sustainable form of transportation (car pool, cycle, walk, or take public transit)

 

For more information, visit travelsmart2010.ca.

 

 

 

Government News

 

 

RAIL FREIGHT SERVICES REVIEW

The Rail Freight Service Review Panel is extending the deadline for stakeholder submissions beyond the February 26, 2010 established on the assumption that all of the Phase I research reports would be released by Transport Canada by January 29, 2010. To date four of the six reports have been released and are available on the Rail Freight Service Review website.  The Panel has decided to extend the submissions’ due date because release of the last two reports has been delayed.

 

Stakeholders will be advised of the revised due date once the last Phase I report has been released. It is the intention of the Panel to provide stakeholders with approximately four weeks to forward submissions following release of the last Phase I report.  For updates on the Review visit http://www.tc.gc.ca/policy/acg/rfs-review-examen-sfm/rvw-eng.htm.

 

 

CANADA SUPPORTS EMPLOYERS AND WORKERS OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC GATEWAY

The Government of Canada is providing the Asia-Pacific Gateway Skills Table over $388,000 to administer its Asia-Pacific Gateway Labour Market Information and Clearinghouse project, which aims to strengthen the quality and availability of key labour market information within the Gateway. It will also create an online tool that will make it easier for people and organizations to share and find information on training and skills development.

 

Recognizing the importance of working with industry and other stakeholders, the Government of Canada established the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table to develop projects that address the recruitment, retention and skills development needs of the many interests involved in the Gateway.

 

The funding for this project is provided through the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative. The federal government has committed up to $3 million under this initiative to fund projects identified by the Skills Table.

 

 

CONSULTATIONS ON THE COASTING TRADE GUIDELINES

The Canadian Transportation Agency is extending its consultations and deadline for written submissions to February 26, 2010.  For more information on the consultations, visit the Agency’s web page at http://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/consultations-marine.

 

 

 

Other News

 

SHANGHAI REMAINS TOP WORLD PORT

Shanghai remained the world’s top cargo handling port last year, a position it has now held for three consecutive years, after handling 590m tons of cargo, a slight increase on the 582m tons handled in 2008. Shanghai’s container throughput slid 10% to 25m TEU last year, however it remained the world’s second largest container port after Singapore.

 

 

EU DIVERGENCE ON EMISSIONS POLICY

Plans by the European Union to present a united front at the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC60) gathering on marine GHG emissions in March have been torpedoed by dissent from a powerful group of countries lead by the UK, Denmark and Greece. The important IMO meeting was expected to help set a timetable for reducing shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions and to examine options for achieving cuts but it appears the rebellion came as a complete surprise to the European Commission as its draft position paper had not been seen as overly controversial.

 

 

CHINA STEP UP TO PIRACY CHALLENGE

Following heavy criticism to date of efforts by the world’s navies to implement coordinated anti-piracy tactics, China will, during this year, assume leadership for a period of all international naval efforts off Somalia, a move warmly welcomed by the International Chamber of Shipping. A breakthrough agreement will see the naval leadership role rotated among participating countries. Previously China, India, Russia, Malaysia and Iran have each been working independently any of any coordinated command structure. China’s willingness to assume greater responsibility follows the hijack of a COSCO bulk carrier in October 2009.

 

 

AUSTRIALIA TO FOCUS INSPECTIONS ON CONTAINER SECURING EQUIPMENT

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has announced its intentions to conduct a Focused Inspection Campaign (FIC) of container securing equipment on vessels calling Australian ports.  Owners and operators of container vessels calling at Australian ports between February 1 and April 30, 2010 should take immediate steps to check all fixed and portable container securing equipment to ensure that they are in good order and condition and Class approved.  Failure to do so may result in unwanted delays prior to departure.

 

 

BALLAST WATER TREATMENT PROGRESS?

At the invitation of the IMO, technicians from around the world have met in Malmo, Sweden to review how ballast water treatment systems are tested. The meeting was in response to criticism that there is no standard process for testing equipment used to remove potentially invasive species from ships’ ballast water, and thus prove that an owner is compliant when a system is installed. Owners have up to 2018 at the latest, depending on vessel build date and class survey renewals, to install a treatment system to IMO standards, regretfully complicated by individual and inconsistent state standards in the United States.

 

 

EL NINO WEATHER PATTERN

By, now everyone is aware that this is far from a normal winter weather pattern in Vancouver with temperatures in January at twice the expected average. Normally the trade winds blow in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific Ocean, and push warm surface water westward, where it piles up in a deep warm layer called the "warm pool." Since the warm surface water is pushed to the west, the ocean to the east is relatively cool. The phenomenon known as El Nino occurs when the trade winds die down, and the warm water in the west slowly works its way back eastward, causing a warming of the waters off of Peru and South America. Eventually the trade winds begin pushing the warm water back to the west again and the El Nino pattern will subside.

 

With the absence of the nutrient-rich water, plankton, a major source of food for fish, dies off, resulting in a major disruption of the ecosystem. El Nino causes several other disturbances, among which is an altering of the path of the jet stream in the Northern Hemisphere, causing an unusual increase in precipitation over wide areas. El Nino occurs on average about 14 times in a century but at irregular intervals, the consequence being ecological and climatic disturbances for about a year. The name El Nino means in Spanish “The Child”, referring to the infant Jesus, because it usually begins around Christmas

 

 

Market Update

The Baltic Dry Index closed 5% down for the day on Thursday at 2963 points, the largest single one day plunge since mid 2009.This was compared to 3170 points last week and 3235 points the week before.

 

                                      Cape Size        Panamax             Supramax          

Index                                3706                 3523                    2313

Last week                         4095                 3607                    2462

Spot time charter          $34,800/day      $28,300/day        $24,200/day

Last week                    $38,800/day      $28,800/day        $26,000/day

 

The drop in the BDI was across the board but primarily driven by Capesize rates which are down 10% on the week due to less enquiries to move iron ore. This commodity alone drives 30% of ton/mile demand for shipping capacity and the total quantity of iron ore to be shipped this year is expected to exceed 1 billion tons for the first time.

 

Tankers: Although down about 5% from last week, VLCC owners continue to enjoy healthy earnings for the time being at least. Rates from the Arabian Gulf to Far East are in the range of $80-90000 per day assisted by congestion delays at Chinese ports. Rates for Arabian Gulf to Europe are still about 40% below these levels.

 

 

Upcoming Events

 

BIMCO GENERAL MEETING, VANCOUVER 6-8 JUNE 2011

SAVE THE DATE - The 2011 BIMCO General Meeting will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia from 6 to 8 June 2011 followed by a series of Seatrade events. Central to the occasion will be a high profile speaker’s conference focusing on matters central to shipping industry concerns. BIMCO and Seatrade are now firming up the arrangements.

 

 

Feb 3                COS Board of Directors Meeting @ 11:30

Feb 9                COS Ship & Port Operations Committee Meeting @ 12:00

Feb 10              COS Liner Committee Meeting @ 10:00

Feb 18              COS Navigation Services Committee Meeting @ 10:30

Feb 18              COS Owners Committee Meeting @ 12:00

 

 

Ship of the Week

     

High Speed Catamaran (HSC) Tarifa Jet

 

Building Yard: Incat Tasmania                                                                                         

Building Year: 1997                                                                                                        

LOA: 86.6m                                                                                                                   

Beam 26m.                                                                                                                    

Draft 3.6m                                                                                                                      

Speed 42 knots                                                                                                              

Horse Power 38,500                                                                                                       

GT 5007                                                                                                                        

Number of Passengers 800                                                                                             

Number of Cars 175                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                              

Spanish owned FRS Ferries operates a year network round from the Spanish Ports of Algeciras, Tarifa and Gibraltar to the Moroccan port of Tangiers. Gibraltar has been a British garrison and Crown Colony since 1830.

 

 

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