HANSA 01-2020

Schifffahrt | Shipping
PIL managing director Teo Siong
Seng said at a recent conference that
South East Asia is set for strong economic
growth over the long term
and container shipping can expect
to gain from increased volume demand.
He said: »Intra-Asia is definitely
growing, and I always tell my
colleagues that it’s the biggest and
most promising market that is right
at our doorstep. Asean is set to be
the fourth largest market in the
world by 2035, and not to forget that
Asean has a population of 650 million
and half of them are less than
20 years old,« he said. Teo added
that shipments of consumer goods
into Asia will continue to rise in the
years to come.
Starting point in the 1950s
Intra-Asia container shipping has
come a long way since its early days,
which began in the 1950s with twoway
or three-way services between
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, as
these were the first Asian countries
to industrialize. This changed when
China joined the WTO in 2003. As
China became the world’s factory,
shipments of semi-finished products
within Asia grew, fueling double-digit
growth in intra-Asia container
volumes.
European mainline operators
decided that they too, had to get a
slice of the intra-Asia pie. In 1993,
AP Moller Maersk acquired East
Asiatic Company, which was active
in regional liner trades. The latter
entity later became known as MCC
Transport, which was recently rebranded
as Sealand.
In 2007, CMA CGM acquired
Taiwanese intra-Asia carrier CNC
Line. In August 2019, three years
after acquiring Neptune Orient
Lines’ liner unit APL, CMA CGM
integrated the latter’s intra-Asia
operations into CNC Line.
CMA CGM explained: »As
CNC will be the sole brand of the
CMA CGM Group in Intra-Asia,
we are now entering the next
phase of merging our agency network
which will be completed by
the end of Q3 2019. The transition
process includes alignment
of all existing Intra-Asia Short
Sea contracts with APL under the
CNC platform and transferring
of bookings solely under the CNC
system as we move forward with
one brand identity.«
With more carriers fighting for
market share in the intra-Asia
space, smaller carriers are consolidating
or cooperating for survival.
Especially in South Korea, where
there are more than 10 companies
doing intra-Asia shipping, the government
has said that the market is
oversaturated. This led to the formation
of the Korea Shipping Partnership
in 2017. In October 2019,
the struggling Heung-A Shipping
merged its container liner business
with that of Sinokor Merchant Marine,
forming a new entity, Heung-A
Shipping Container.
Consolidation or not, intra-Asia
carriers continue to add calls to Vietnam.
In October 2019, Heung-A
Shipping Container, began working
with compatriot rival Dongjin
Shipping to start a South Korea-Vietnam-Thailand
service. Dongjin
told HANSA: »We’re targeting
major shippers in Pyeongtaek
port. We’re seeing more demand
to ship semi-finished goods to Vietnam,
and consumer goods from
Vietnam. That’s why so many carriers
want to enter Vietnam – that’s
where the cargo is now.« n
Expansion in Asia –
Unifeeder acquires Feedertech
The feeder and short-sea carrier
Unifeeder is expanding in Asia. The
European DP World subsidiary takes
over the Feedertech Group in Singapore.
Unifeeder has acquired a 77%
stake in Feedertech, the company
announced. The remaining 23% will
stay with the head of the group, Ali
Maghami. Feedertech has an annual
turnover of nearly 200 mill.$, employs
290 people in 23 countries,
serves 50 ports and transports more
than 600,000 TEU annually.
Founded in 2003, the group operates
two companies: the feeder service
Feedertech and Perma, a regional
short-sea network. »We believe that
DP World’s support will enable us to
take the company into the next phase
of its growth,« Maghami said.
Through Feedertech and Perma,
Unifeeder is now able to offer feeder
services in Europe, the Mediterranean,
North Africa, Asia, the Middle
East and the Indian subcontinent. It
provides opportunities in the rapidly
growing market on the Indian subcontinent
and complements DP
World’s existing logistics strategy.
»This is another strategic step in our
vision to build a global presence,«
said Jesper Kristensen, CEO of Unifeeder.
Most recently, Unifeeder took over a
liner service from X-Press and started
new liner services itself. Unifeeder
has been part of DP World since the
end of 2018 and transports around
2.1 mill.TEU annually. Its own fleet
currently comprises 36 ships. MM
© DP World
HANSA International Maritime Journal 01 | 2020
31