BTJ 3/2008 - Baltic Transport Journal

What’s new?
Maritime
Danish container shipping company
Maersk Line is gradually recapturing its
market share, shown in a new report by
French AXS-Alphaliner. The company
boosted its global market share in terms of
TEU capacity from 16.0% at the beginning
of 2008 to 16.4% in April 2008. Maersk Line
had an 18.2% market share in 2005 which
fell to 16.8% in January 2007, reflecting the
difficulties the company experienced after
acquiring P&O Nedlloyd.
The new generation high speed vessel M/S
Superstar was delivered to the Estonian AS
Tallink Group’s subsidiary Tallink Superfast
Ltd. The new 1A ice class vessel has a speed
of 27 knots, which enables it to sail between
Helsinki and Tallinn in less than two hours.
M/S Superstar is 175.1 m long and 27.6 m
wide and is a bit bigger than her sister vessel
M/S Star. It accommodates up to 2,080 passengers
and 1,930 lane meters of vehicles.
The ship has 186 cabins and 736 berths.
The Germany-based container terminal and
logistics group Eurogate will invest EUR 1.1
billion to expand its facilities in Europe over
the next four years. The investment will include
50 new super-post-Panamax gantry
cranes between 2008-2012. In 2007, the EU-
ROGATE Group handled 13.9m TEU Europewide,
10.6% more than in the previous year.
Since 2003 Swan Container Line GmbH
& Co. KG has offered a regular service between
Hamburg and St. Petersburg (First
Container Terminal). The service from
Hamburg and Rotterdam was operated
by M/V Baltic Swan (720 TEU) and M/V
Berit (612 TEU) on a weekly basis. A third
vessel, the M/V Mistral (612 TEU), was put
into service from April 2008. With this the
frequency increases to 2 times per week.
The rotation of the ship is: Rotterdam-St.
Petersburg-Hamburg-Rotterdam. The
transit time between Rotterdam and St.
Petersburg is 3-4 days. The ship leaves
Rotterdam every Monday and Saturday.
In January-March 2008, the total throughput
of Russian National Container Company
(NCC) amounted to 423,103 TEU
which is an increase of 21.1% compared
to January-March 2007. The throughput of
the largest NCC’s container terminal – FCT,
at the sea port of Saint-Petersburg came to
256,399 TEU which exceeds the results of
January-March 2007 by 17%.
10 | Baltic Transport Journal | 3/2008
IMO’s new fuel regulations can increase
shipping rates
The Marine Environment Protection
Committee (MEPC) of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO) approved
major changes to the MARPOL Annex VI
regulations to reduce harmful emissions from
ships. Sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions will be
reduced by lowering the global cap on sulphur
in fuel from 4.50% to 3.50% on 1 January
2012 and then progressively to 0.50% on
1 January 2020. In Sulphur Emission Control
Areas (SECAs), limits would be reduced from
1.50% to 1.00% on 1 March 2010 and then to
0.10% on 1 January 2015. The Baltic Sea and
North Sea are the only marine areas defined
as SECAs. “This is a real ocean-sized change
for the IMO. After a decade and a half of discussion
and pressure from environmentalists
around the world, the IMO has recognized
the need for clean shipping fuels,” said Eelco
Leemans of the North Sea Foundation, representing
Friends of the Earth International.
The new regulations come at a time when
environmental organisations published the
results of research indicating that more than
80,000 premature deaths annually worldwide
New CEO in DCT Gdańsk
Boris Wenzel was appointed CEO of the
container terminal operator DCT Gdańsk
SA. He succeeds Colin Chanter, who continues
as Chairman of the Management Board.
Wenzel brings to DCT Gdańsk a wealth of port
industry experience with a strong financial
and business development bias. Educated in
France, Mr Wenzel spent his very early career in
Barcelona, New York and London before joining
a leading Thai investment bank in 1995.
His introduction to the port industry came in
1999 when he joined as General Manager of
the Eastern Sea Laem Chabang Container Terminal,
one of several terminal operators in the
due to shipping pollution could be reduced
with caps on sulphur. It should be noted that
new sulphur limits present a considerable
challenge for the oil and shipping industry
which will probably result in significant additional
fuel costs. Bunker fuel already costs
around USD 500/ton and low-sulphur marine
diesel fuel costs $790-860/ton. A 10,000 deadweight
tonnage ship uses about 20 tons/day
of bunker fuel. “There is a potential danger
that the additional costs for short sea shipping
will result in a shift from the sea to the
less environmentally credible land-based
transport. This environmentally counterproductive
consequence will need to be
addressed in the context of the application
of the IMO Agreement in the EU,” said the
European Community Shipowners’ Associations
in a statement.
Annex VI Regulations for the Prevention
of Air Pollution from Ships entered into
force in May 2005 and has been ratified by
49 countries, representing approximately
74.77% of the gross tonnage of the world’s
merchant shipping fleet.
new Thai port of Laem Chabang as General
Manager. Successive promotions saw him appointed
President and CEO in 2002. From Laem
Chabang he moved to PSA International in
2003 where he played key roles in the international
expansion programme of PSA, including
projects in Turkey, India, Belgium and Portugal.
At the same time Danuta Biłat, formerly commercial
manager, takes on the wider role as sales
and marketing manager. Board Director Derek
Peters will remain as senior marketing adviser to
the new CEO and the responsibility for all day to
day management of the company remains with
General Manager Fred Kamperman.