Daily Maersk satisfies customers.

Maersk Line says its Daily Maersk Asia-North Europe service that has been running for six months has achieved 97% reliability over that period and, more recently, has exceeded 99%.

Ole Pradsgaard, Daily Maersk Project Lead, said: “We are extremely pleased to see the on-time delivery rate for Daily Maersk improving month by month.”

The Danish shipping giant says the service has attracted customers because it offers daily cut-off times for cargo loading, rather than weekly, providing more flexibility for customers.

It also measures reliability based on container availability for gate-out at the destination port and not the transit time for service.

The line said the Daily Maersk had served more than 900 customers and shipped more than 93,500 containers, and had steadily gained popularity on trade lanes.

Andrew Herdman, Director General of AAPA

Asia Pacific airlines received higher revenue, but lower profits last year.

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said the total net profit of $4.8 billion in 2011 was down 47% on the previous year, due to higher oil prices and a weaker cargo market.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, AAPA said total revenue among its 17 carrier members was up 10% on a year ago at $162 million. However, it added that this represented only a 3% profit margin and “a poor return on invested capital”.

Overall, cargo revenue fell 1.4%, to $22 billion last year, and operating expenses rose 15% to $155 billion. This was largely due to a 28% surge in fuel costs, said AAPA.

“Profit margins were squeezed by high oil prices, as well as the impact of a weak air cargo market,” said Director General Andrew Herdman.

He warned that persistently high oil prices and slower economic growth in the major developed markets would continue to cloud prospects.

“So far this year, Asian airlines have continued to benefit from stronger economic growth within the region, but air cargo markets remain weak,” he said, adding that airlines were responding with stricter cost controls and cutting services to match the softer demand.

Crowley and Evergreen to share two container ships

Evergreen Line and Crowley Latin America Services have filed a slot-charter agreement that will allow Evergreen to provide weekly northbound and southbound service between Florida, Panama and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

The new service for Evergreen will include sailings between Miami via Colon Container Terminal, an Evergreen-owned and operated facility in Panama, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

The service for Crowley customers is unchanged, with weekly sailings to and from Port Everglades, Fla., Manzanillo, Panama, Puerto Limon and Santo Tomas, Guatemala.

The new CAM service will commence on May 30 northbound and June 14 southbound, using two Crowley container ships.

Billionaire Clive Palmer is determined to rebuild the Titanic.

Australian mining magnate, Clive Palmer, has announced plans to enter the cruise ship business by building a modern version of Titanic, local media has reported.

Palmer said in Brisbane, Australia, that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build Titanic II.

Titanic II’s maiden voyage from England to North America will take place in late 2016, according to Palmer.

Palmer’s new shipping company Blue Star Line Pty Ltd, has commissioned CSC Jinling Shipyard to build and co-ordinate the construction of Titanic II in China.

Asked if the ship could sink, Palmer told reporters: “Of course it will sink if you put a hole in it, but it’s not going to be designed with a hole.

“It will be designed as a modern ship with all the technology to ensure that doesn’t happen,” he said.

“But of course if you are superstitious like you are, you never know what could happen.”

The original Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912.

Brasil ocupó el primer lugar, seguido por Panamá y México.

Containerized port movement of Latin America and the Caribbean reached 41.3 million TEUs in 2011, an increase of 11.1% compared with 2010, according to the latest CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) Maritime Bulletin.

The report summarized information of 143 ports scattered around the region, including international traffic, empty containers, transshipment and cabotage.

According to the ranking of containerized port traffic “Latin America and the Caribbean 2011” in the CEPAL report, the top twenty container ports in the region grew by 12.3%, with only two of the top twenty regional ports registering a slight decrease in their activity compared to 2010.

Regional Ranking

The report highlights that 19.1% of total regional port movements is driven by Brazil, followed by Panama, with 16% and Mexico at 10.23%.

Chile is the fourth busiest port operator, registering 8.21% of the regional total, followed by Colombia with 5.16% and the ports of Argentina 5.21%.

In the Caribbean, Jamaica is the top country at subregional and regional level with 4.58%, according to CEPAL.

World Ranking

Despite the increase in cargo movement in 2011, the report notes that the ports of Latin America and the Caribbean are taking a world share of 7.3%, a slight increase compared with the participation of 7.2% recorded the previous year.

Asian ports, including China, account for more than 60% of containerized cargo movement worldwide, according to the report.

Again, the Pacific coast of Panama grew by 45.7% and to a lesser extent Mexico by around 17%, at a time when the east coast of the United States did 4%.

The Balboa Drydock is the only one that can handle Panamax ships.

The government has reopened the tender for the operation of the Balboa Drydock, the largest on the Pacific coast of Central and South America.

The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), declared void the first call because none of the first four bidders met the requirements of the tender.

The AMP has now announced that on Thursday, June 8 it will receive the new offers from interested consortia.

Whoever gets the business will have on their hands, for 20 years, an important link in the Panama maritime chain.

The Balboa Drydock is the only one in Panama that can accommodate panamax vessels which transit the Canal.

The AMP fixed in the statement of requirements a minimum fee of $ 50,000 per month payable to the State as a leasing fee for use of the yard, with an increase of 5% each year.

Of the four bidders who participated in the first tender Mec Pacific Dry Docks, with participation of the Spanish company IBT, was the one that submitted the best proposal, offering $150,000 for the lease.

It is assumed that now the cards have been shown in the first solicitation, competition among the participating companies, competition will increase, but if each hold to their original offerings, Mec Pacific Dry Docks would be the virtual winner.

An artist’s impression of the design of the future terminal on Isla Margarita

The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) has granted permits to a private development group for the construction and operation of a new container terminal to be built at the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. Jones Lang LaSalle is acting as development advisor to the project consortium.

The information is contained in a press release sent to The Bulletin with the dateline of Miami, May. 9, 2012.

With an estimated construction value exceeding $600 million, the Panama Colón Container Port (PCCP) is expected to become one of the largest private maritime infrastructure projects in Panama, and the first terminal to be built on freehold land. The location is at Margarita Island, near Colon Container Terminal (CCT) operated by Evergreen Line.

The Panama Canal is undergoing a $5.2 billion expansion to allow greater traffic flow and to accommodate the next generation of “Super Post-Panamax” vessels, named because they exceed the size limitations of the existing canal system. However, numerous ports along the US Eastern and Gulf coasts, South America and the Caribbean do not have the capacity to receive the larger ships. PCCP is designed to address this, so that Super Post-Panamax and other vessels can transit via the new locks, and transfer their cargo at the new PCCP terminal to and from smaller container ships capable of serving the existing ports of call.

“Transshipment terminals will have a significant impact on the new Panama Canal era,” said John Carver, Head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Ports Airports and Global Infrastructure (PAGI) group. “Too many seaports do not currently, and may never, have the harbor depth required to take advantage of the trend towards Post and Super-Post Panamax vessels. PCCP is the first terminal to be engineered specifically for the expanded Panama Canal and will provide a critical new link in the global supply chain, further enhancing Panama’s already strategic designation as one of the world’s primary global transshipment hubs.”

Set to break ground in summer 2012, the 4-berth terminal will be capable of handling container vessels up to 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and is designed to handle 2 million TEUs in initial throughput with future expansion capability thereafter and offers unique complementary warehousing and logistics facilities. PCCP will complete in conjunction with the opening of the Panama Canal’s “Third Set of Locks” expansion project in late 2014.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Project Development Services group will soon begin to administer the bid tender process for the initial dredging and related marine construction elements.

“We expect transshipment terminals such as PCCP to play an integral role in the long-term success of the Panama Canal,” said Ricardo Quijano, Panama`s Minister of Commerce and Industry. “For such a large infrastructure project to be achievable by the private sector is a testament to Panama’s concerted efforts over many years to create a stable and transparent operating environment.”

“As a global maritime hub, Panama will continue to make every effort to ensure that industry participants who locate here can enhance their strategic advantages and continue to prosper despite highly competitive global markets. We applaud the efforts of Jones Lang LaSalle and the private sector in working to bring this project to fruition,” he added.

As development advisor to the project consortium, Jones Lang LaSalle has gained significant interest from terminal operators and expects PCCP to announce its selected operator later this year.

Carver added, “Clearly, transshipment traffic in Panama, and particularly on the Atlantic side of the Canal, is facing long term capacity constraints. Despite global economic uncertainties, container volumes in Panama have continued to grow at impressive rates and, after 2014, we expect this growth to accelerate further.”

“Our discussions with market participants clearly point to the need for a new terminal such as PCCP which is uniquely capable of providing significant blocks of new capacity to the Atlantic transshipment market, together with a variety of integrated logistics, warehousing, and value-added processing facilities,” he concluded.

Week in Review

MANUFACTURING NEED

Panama is recognized internationally as a transshipment center. It is probably the most developed in this sense in Latin America. Just in 2011, 6.6 million containers moved through the Panamanian ports. However, for the country to make better use of its geographical position and to generate more jobs in this sector, industry experts point to the need to attract companies not only to use Panama as a transshipment port, but that the merchandise is transformed and even produced in the country.

RETALIATION

The Government decided to create a list of countries to apply retaliatory measures as leverage on those nations that apply discriminatory acts against Panama. Ecuador was the first country on the list. The Cabinet approved retaliating against institutions, companies or citizens of Ecuador, as a mechanism to deal with restrictions and discriminatory actions taken by that country against Panama, keeping it on its list of tax havens. On April 2 the Panamanian government threatened Ecuador that it would apply that measure. The Foreign Minister, Roberto Henriquez, said the government, from the highest level, made a communication with Ecuador to clarify the situation, but its efforts were in vain.

CLOSER TO PERU

Panama and Peru have embarked on a new path in their trade relations to implement a Free Trade Agreement signed in May last year. Trade between the two countries totaled $546.8 million in 2010, according to official figures. Motivated by the entry into force of the FTA, representatives from 30 companies of the Colon Free Zone will be in Peru from May 6 through May 10 to find new customers. Guillermo Russo, Ambassador of Peru in Panama, said Peru wants to learn the experience to implement the FTA in Peru.

RADAR PAYMENT

This month the Government will make the first payment for the purchase of 19 radars to the company Selex Sistemi Integrati, a subsidiary of the Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica, sources in the Ministry of Security said. However, they did not reveal the amount. Sources confirmed that the radars entered the country in late January and since then they were transferred to the National Air Service, which distributed them to strategic points in the country. The Minister of Security, Jose Raul Mulino, recanted on the Government’s decision to review and possibly cancel contracts with Finmeccanica, in the event that the Italian authorities do not declare, as Panama demanded, that in this negotiation there was not any corruption.

SLOWING ECONOMY

National and international forecasts point to a slowing down of the economy this year. After growth of 10.6% in 2011, it is expected that gross domestic product (GDP) will increase by 7.5% this year. However, official data indicates that it will be short of projections. The local economy will slow in the coming years at a rate of between 5% and 6% from the 10.6% in 2011, but it will remain one of the most dynamic economies in the region, predicted analyst Ruben Lachman, for whom a more moderate growth rate will be positive to dampen inflation. Growth will be double or triple that of developed economies.

ECONOMY DISORDERLY

Although in 2011 the Panamanian economy managed to climb 10.6%, unlike other countries in the region, the isthmus has a disordered growth, mainly due to the lack of an education system that promotes a sustainable economy, said Ernesto Bazán, executive director of the company Homónima. For the entrepreneur, a reality is that the country has education, but it lacks quality, which is a right.

PANAMA COMPETES

Panama ranks second in the competitiveness ranking of countries in Latin America, according to the Institute for Competitiveness of the ADEN Business School. In the May 2012 ranking, led by Chile, Panama is consolidated in second place and separated from the rest of the countries that follow, such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Uruguay, says a press release from the institution.

PROMOTING LAND SALE

The Colon Free Zone (CFZ), under the management of Leopoldo Benedetti, spent $68,000 on the advertising campaign to promote the sale of land in this zone. Genesis Communications Inc., was the company benefiting from a direct contract to develop the media plan, according to official documents. The technical report supporting the hiring of the company says that Genesis was chosen because “there is no adequate substitute” for providing the service.

FAMILIES GET SEEDS

More than two million families who are producers of basic grains in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize require quality seeds to improve food security and nutrition in Central America, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

PRIVATIZATION NOT NEW

In the mid 1980’s, a process of economic liberalization was applied in Latin American known as the Washington Consensus, which stated, among its main duties, privatization of State enterprises.

ENVIRONMENT FORGOTTEN

The recently passed Law 13 which restores the validity of sections of the Mineral Resources Code did not include a fee for inspection of mining projects. The rule also tightened environmental protection in mining.