The dock workers in Piraeus have suspended industrial action at the port until November 2, after the Government stated that it would re-negotiate the deal with China’s Cosco Pacific in respect of the running of two container terminals.

It is expected that the Greek government will ask Cosco to sign an new labor contract which will guarantee job security for the dock workers who had previously maintained that 2 out of every 3 three jobs would be lost.

It is expected that it will take up to a week to clear the backlog of containers that built up during the strike action and which also forced ship owners to divert to other ports in the Mediterranean.

With Brazil hosting both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, many manufacturers are now viewing Brazil as a future area of development for the export of both their products and technical knowledge.

 The expertise of UK construction companies and manufacturers of associated products is well known and respected in Brazil and a UKTI report says there are many opportunities for British businesses, including construction companies, engineering firms and project managers many of whom are already involved in preparing London for the 2012 Olympics. 

Brazil’s stadiums, airports,  hotels and the public transport system needs to be revamped prior to the arrival of  an estimated 700,000 visitors expected for the World Cup and even more for the Olympics in 2016. Reports indicate that over £30m will be needed to be spent on the required infrastructure prior to being in a position to host the two events. .

UKTI says that UK-Brazil bilateral trade has increased 17 per cent to £4.25 billion in the past year, with British exports up 35 per cent.

For details on our servces to Brazil and to all other S American countries visit our ocean freight forwarding pages or for immediate costings quotations visit our quotation request page.

Congestion at the port of Calcutta has brought about the port authorities suspending all planned container ship calls. There are reportedly over 5700 containers stacked within the port. The main problem would appear to have been caused by the large number of shunter units and  reach stackers being out of commission with no sign of replacements being brought in.

Whilst the government minister for shipping maintained that the congestion was a sign that “Calcutta is getting good business”, a spokesperson for the Indian Exports Organisations maintain that the authorities should have started the clear up process long ago.

Vessels are at anchor waiting to berth and some will undoubtedly be seeking alternative ports of call in order to maintain schedule integrity. Indian export cargo is being held back from entering the terminals and the bulk warehouses within the port are also being reported as full due to an unrelated dispute over demurrage charges.

Dock workers in the Greek port of Piraeus voted on Sunday to continue their strike for another 48 hours in an attempt to pressure the government to cancel an agreement with China’s Cosco Pacific to operate two container terminals. Over 12000 containers are lying in the port because of the strike and vessels due to berth are either now at anchor or heading for alternative ports.

The newly elected socialist government had previously voted against the deal which gave Cosco Pacific a 35 year operating concession. However having formed a government they have now said they will abide by international agreements. The initial agreement was signed last November and was ratified by a Council of State judge who rejected a petition by the unions. The port workers representatives claim that two thirds of the work force stand to loose their jobs.

According to the latest AXS – Alphaliner fleet survey “the idle container fleet worldwide has climbed to 548 ships, totalling 1.29 million TEU capacity at the end of September. This represents 10 per cent of the total fleet capacity, or 11.6 per cent of the total number of containerships.”

Alphaliner said the outlook for the next few months remains negative as ‘the end of the peak season will likely see a further surge in the idle fleet numbers. Several service withdrawals and rationalisations will fully take effect from October/November and this will likely push idle capacity figures to a new record high by the end of the year.’”

China’s COSCO Pacific have signed a deal with the Piraeus Port Authority  which transfers the operation of the container terminal at the port to them. As from Thursday the terminals will be under COSCO management for 35 years. Chief represnetatives of Cosco said that the agreement would allow the two side to work together to build new terminals and provide high efficiency services to shipping companies.

Piraeus is the biggest port in Greece and undoubtedly will become an import hub for Chinese goods destined for SE Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The move however has caused industrial action from the Port workers who want the terminals to remain under public control and who have grievances about the manner in which the transaction has been handled. At midnight the port came to a standstill due to the previously announced 48 hour strike by the port employees. Despite the attempts of the transport companies to prevent the situation, 6000 containers remained blocked and the shipping companies were forced to cancel the departure of 15 ships until October 6.

The road freight statistics for 2008 issued by the Department of Transport shows a continued decrease in the number of UK registered vehicles travelling to mainland Europe. 

The total number of vehicles travelling to Europe in 2008 was 2768 thousand. This is 5% less than 2007 but 38% more than in 1998.

The number of  movements carried on driver accompanied vehicles was 2060 thousand, a decrease of 3% over 2007 figures but an increase over the 1998 statistics of 62%. 

However the  percentage of these movements undertaken by UK registered vehicles was 4%  less than 2007 and  43% less than in 1998.

The number of unaccompanied trailer movements has dropped by 8% since 2007 , highlighting the trend toward driver accompanied operations.

A further spate of rate increases have been announced as the major shipping lines seek to maintain viable service levels. OOCL, MOL, Evergreen, CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd and Maersk have all issued rate restoration programmes, or have extended their PPS surcharges on certain routes. Since all lines have posted massive losses for the first six months there is no doubt that the current situation is the most severe shipping crisis in memory. 

Hapag-Lloyd have been given 1.86 Billion euros of aid by its owners as part of a rescue plan and intend to cut 10 per cent of its 1100 strong workforce in Germany. Zim have had approval from their board for a recovery plan, CMA CGM are currently involved in talks with a number of financial institutions and Maersk sought new capital $1.58bn through a share placement.

The EC is to allow groups of shipping companies to schedule joint cargo services until at least 2015 even though this may break the rules on fair competition. A EC spokesperson said that ‘this ensures the regularity of service between ports and ensures that more ports are served than would otherwise be the case.” 

Line shipping consortia are arrangements by which groups of shipping companies share out cargo space on scheduled runs between specific ports. This allows each company to offer services to more destinations that it would be able to handle alone. Although this supposedly means benefits for clients of shipping companies, it does make it harder for new companies to offer services on a route.

Under EC rules this  would normally be illegal, since it is clearly stated that companies are not allowed to share out markets or make it harder for rivals to offer competing services.

However the rules allow for ‘block exemption’ which frees companies in a specified sectors of some of the competition requirements. This is allowed when the commission believes that by cooperation the consumers benefits more than they would have done had the cooperation been stopped.  

Although price fixing is not allowed under the current exemption, certain sectors of the industry may well feel that these ‘cooperations’  often preclude new entrants into a market and thus indirectly affect pricing.