NINGBO Port Group CEO Li Linghong has told Xinhua that his port's container throughput has rocketed 780 per cent in the past 10 years - making it the greatest annual growth rate of the world's top 30 ports.

Mr Li said Ningbo went from 1.86 million TEU in 2002 to 14.51 million TEU in 2011, 7.8 times of that in 2002, becoming the sixth largest in the world. Overall tonnage grew from 154 million tonnes in 2002 to 433 million tonnes in 2011, 2.8 times of that in 2002, making it the fifth largest port in the world.



The Port of Ningbo has an asset value of CNY50 billion (US$7.92 billion). With CNY42.2 billion invested over the past 10 years, the port has built a number of new facilities, including a container terminal that can accommodate 18,000-TEU ships and a 450,000-tonne crude oil terminal. The port now has a capacity of 9.17 million TEU in terms of container, 9.7 times of that in 2002, and 384 million tonnes in terms of tonnage, 3.3 times of that in 2002.

CHILEAN carrier Compania Suramericana de Vapores (CSAV), has revealed that its employees have received subpoenas from US and Canadian competition authorities in connection with a suspected car carrier cartel.

"The investigation seeks to inquire into the existence of antitrust law violations related to cooperation agreements on prices and allocation of clients between car carriers," CSAV said.



Although the shipping line did not identify the car carriers that are being probed, they said some 10 Japanese, South Korean and Norwegian carriers are being investigated by the Japan Fair Trade Commission.



CSAV said it is co-operating with the investigation and has notified the Chilean Securities and Insurance Supervisor of the investigation and is pursuing its own internal inquiry.

CALIFORNIA will extend the partial state sales tax exemption on marine fuel for 10 years.

But the exemption only covers fuel consumed beyond state territorial waters retains the sales tax on costly low-sulphur fuel must be used within 200 miles of shore.



Said Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) vice president John Berge: "This legislation is needed to keep the marine fuel industry alive."



Supporting the exemption are the California Labour Federation, the Inlandboatmen's Union, Sailors Union of the Pacific, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union as well as cities, port authorities and businesses.



California fears the continuing drainage of Asian cargo on all-water routes to the US east coast, where most American consumers live, a loss expected to grow once the Panama Canal expansion doubles its capacity in 2014.

A LACK of interest and funding has induced the US Maritime Administration to withdraw an invitation to bid on a study on the "safety, economic and environmental issues of vessels with double hulls", reports American Shipper.

The study was to do a cost/benefit analysis into costly double hulling. "Though double hulls reduce the threat of oil pollution as a result of grounding, they significantly increase the amount of energy needed to propel a vessel and increase the amount of air pollution into the atmosphere," said the invitation.



"As a result, the maritime industry's carbon footprint and criteria pollutant emissions are increased," it said.



The 1990 Oil Pollution Act, prompted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, made double hulls mandatory for petroleum tankers in US waters, later re-enforced by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention.



Bill Box, a spokesman for the major company group, Intertanko, said: "From our members' experience, double-hull designs have evolved into safe and reliable ships with an excellent safety and pollution prevention record."

INDIA's exports declined by 9.7 per cent in August to a total value of US$22.3 billion, representing the fourth consecutive month of falling figures, according to preliminary figures from the Commerce Ministry.

Exports fell by 4.16 per cent in May, 5.4 per cent in June and 14.8 per cent in July over the corresponding months in 2011. Total exports from April through August, the first five months of fiscal 2012-13, decreased six per cent to $120 billion, down from $127.6 billion the previous fiscal year.



"Compared to our export performance in July, there is a slight ray of hope. There is a slight improvement in August. I hope this will give us some confidence that we can make up," said a government spokesman.



The value of imports in August fell five per cent year-on-year to $38 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $15.7 billion.



Total imports from April to August decreased 6.2 per cent to $191.1 billion, and the trade gap for the first five months was estimated at $71.1 billion, down from $76.2 billion a year earlier.



"Although the European market is not recovering, there is a hope that the US market will stabilise. We are doing good in Africa and we need to do much more," the spokesman said.



In fiscal 2011-12 ended March 31, India's exports rose 21 per cent against the previous year to total $303.7 billion.

INCHCAPE Shipping Services (ISS), a maritime services provider, has opened 10 new inland offices in India because of a significant increase in business with Hapag-Lloyd India.

The new offices are located in Ludhiana, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Nagpur, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Indore, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.



ISS India has now established handle counter function and ICD back office activities for Hapag-Lloyd at 10 new inland locations, in addition to its existing port operations and counter function work at five main line and six feeder ports.



"Opening 10 new offices at once is not only a great operational achievement for ISS India, but also a significant development for our company," said Inchcape Mideast, India and Africa vice president Flemming Jensen.



Said ISS India general manager Pradeep Mishra: "Winning this additional business is a new chapter in our relationship with Hapag-Lloyd and demonstrates the strength of our commitment and customer service."

US RAILWAY container movement increased 4.3 per cent in August year on year producing the second biggest volume month on record, reports the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Canadian intermodal volume in the week ending September 1 rose 0.1 per cent year on year, and carloads increased in the same period. Year to date, Canadian volumes increased 6.9 per cent year on year and carload movement increased 2.8 per cent.



Mexican intermodal volume increased 12.6 per cent year on year in the same period and carload traffic rose 2.3 per cent in the same period.



"Weakness in coal car loadings was largely but not entirely offset by increases in carloads of petroleum and petroleum products, autos, lumber, and several other commodities, with intermodal showing continued strength," said AAR vice president John Gray."

TRANSCORE DAT North American Freight Index shows that August spot market truckload volumes increased 8.4 per cent year on year and rising 1.1 per cent from July, showing a slowdown in growth.

The 1.1 per cent increase followed a 20 per cent month-to-month decline in July, a time of traditional seasonal shrinkage. Index levels exceeded year-on-year monthly comparisons six times in 2012, indicating expansion.



The US Commerce Department said wholesale inventories increased 0.7 per cent in July from June and were up 5.3 per cent year on year, driving more freight to the spot market in August.

TIANJIN, gateway to Beijing, plans to build 250 kilometres of expressways by the end of 2015 and to complete an expressway network of 1,550 kilometre by 2020, reports Xinhua.

The projects include 11 new expressways. When completed, it will take one hour to get to suburban towns and to downtown Beijing via expressway, and three hours to northeast China's hinterland and Bohai Rim Region.

EAST China's Qingdao plans to build eight new logistics parks in next five years to accelerate the pace of building the city into a complex shipping hub for northeast Asia, and a international air logistics centre, reports Xinhua.

The city will spend CNY45 billion (US$7.1 billion) on building 63 key logistics projects covering cold chain logistics and transport, e-commerce logistics and transport, international logistics and transport, bonded logistics and transport, and logistics information platform. The city's logistics industry turnover is expected to account for 11 per cent of its GDP by 2015.

EASTERN China's Jiangsu province posted a 12 per cent growth in total value of social logistics goods to CNY9.9 trillion (US$1.56 trillion) in the first half of this year, falling 13 percentage point against a year ago, reports Xinhua.

The growth was boosted by the building of new logistics facilities including nine CNY45.8 billion projects of which seven have commenced construction with a investment of CNY10.5 billion, as well as 75 other projects costing CNY52.3 billion.



On the other hand, the provincial growth rate of the logistics industry continues at a slow space because of slowing economic activity at home and abroad. The provincial logistics value of import goods dropped 4.7 per cent year on year to CNY676.8 billion in the first six months. The business income of 109 key logistics enterprises grew 5.4 per cent to CNY28.1 billion during the same period, 1.4 percentage point down from that of the first quarter.

POLAND' Baltic Container Terminal (BCT), a unit of Manila's International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI), has handled its first vessel carrying components for the construction of wind farms.

With the increasing need for renewable energy and its growing popularity in Poland, wind farms have grown in number. Polish ports have seen greater movement of wind farm components, as a result.



BCT, in Gdynia, has the equipment to perform complex transshipment of wind farm components. Utilising two Liebherr mobile harbour cranes with a lifting capacity of 100 tons each, the terminal is capable of handling oversize cargo.



According to the Energy Regulatory Office, there are now 619 wind power installations in operation in Poland with total capacity of 2,188.941 MW, and the government plans to have the wind power raised until 2020 to a level as high as 6,650 MW, said the ICTSI release.

AIR cargo rates are expected to rise more than 20 per cent as new smartphones and tablets from Apple, Google Inc (GOOG), Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com (AMZN) Inc flood the market, benefiting the likes of FedEx and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings.

A Bloomberg reported that air freight rates rose by 20 per cent after Apple's new iPad was launched in March, according to Kevin Sterling, a transport analyst at BB&T Capital Markets.



"This is a new dynamic for the air-freight industry," Mr Sterling said. "There's been tech launches periodically, but there's so much hype around so many products at one time."



The gadget convergence is said to be a bright spot for air freight companies in the run-up to the traditionally strong holiday shipping season, which this year has been overshadowed by weak US job growth and slowing demand out of Europe and China.



It is anticipated that shipments of iPhones and tablet computers may reach 9.1 million kilogrammes, according to Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.



Mr Jindel believes the competition for air freight space amid the massive gadget launch may push up average air freight rates to US$5 per kilogramme in September. Back in March when the iPad was released the average rate was $4.44 per kilogramme, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. July's rate, the latest available, was $3.82.



"We have kind of a perfect storm of new product launches," said Jim Corridore, a Standard & Poor's equity analyst in New York who covers transport companies and estimates that a rate increase may last through October. "They're all going to want to be expedited."



Analysts say DHL may be a primary carrier for Apple, which said the iPhone5 would be available on September 21. Apple is also expected to debut a smaller, cheaper iPad tablet by the end of the year.



Google started shipping its Nexus 7 tablet in July, and Microsoft's (MSFT) tablet computer, the Surface, goes on sale on October 26.



Amazon.com has four different sets of Kindle reader and tablet devices on sale this year. Larger models of the Fire are available starting November 20, while the Kindle Paperwhite e-book reader goes on sale on October 1.



EVA Airways and Cathay Pacific Airways are expected to be among the biggest beneficiaries in Asia because of the size of their cargo fleets, ZheWei Sim and Mark Webb of HSBC Holdings Plc said in a note to clients.



The advantage for air cargo shippers may be heightened by capacity cuts made as global demand weakened this year. Atlanta-based UPS reduced its Asian air network by 10 per cent, and would face a lag bringing capacity back online. FedEx said in June that it retired 24 freighters to reduce capacity in its US domestic express segment and cope with sagging volumes.



"With capacity down and demand appearing like it's going to be fairly strong, rates will be very strong," said Helane Becker, a transport analyst with Dahlman Rose & Co, New York.



On a less optimistic note, many air freight companies have secured contracts with high-profile shippers, preventing them from taking full advantage of any rate increases, Mr Jindel added.



However, Atlas (AAWW) Air has more flexibility to raise prices than either UPS or FedEx because it offers services on a charter basis as well as long-term contracts.

FRANKFURT airport, Europe's second largest air cargo hub, has posted a 4.1 per cent drop in August freight shipments to 164,406 tonnes year on year, blaming the year-long night flight ban and the continuing euro crisis.

Yet year-to-date totals marked an improvement on the nine per cent year-on-year decline over in the first six months of 2011. Nonetheless, airport owner Fraport has decided to delay investment because of the night flight ban that hits freighters hardest.



Fraport-controlled airports, Antalya, Turkey; Lima, Peru; and Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria, also posted a combined decline of 2.3 per cent in August which together with the Frankfurt result came to 195,776 tonnes in August.



Only Lima continued to buck the downward trend, with cargo traffic increasing 11.5 per cent to 27,106 tonnes in August.



But Frankfurt's passenger numbers were up in August at 5.6 million travellers despite the eight-hour strike by Lufthansa cabin crew that cut traffic by 28,000 seats.

SAUDI Airlines Cargo (SAC) is now offering onward connections - up to five a week - from its Lagos hub to Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Douala, Libreville, Lome, Malabo, Niamey and Ouagadougou.

"By entering into cooperation with our interline partners, we will be able to offer greater connections to our customers as well as further expand our activities in this region, which has seen steady economic expansion over the last decade," said SAC vice president Peter Scholten.

ATLANTA's United Parcel Service (UPS) has launched daily direct flights between its Cologne/Bonn hub and Moscow's Vnukovo airport deploying a Boeing 737-400.

This expands service options to importers and exporters in Russia and extends collection times, allowing a direct flight next-day deliveries to all major cities in the EU from Moscow, cutting transits 24 hours to destinations worldwide, said UPS.



"Russia is an opportunity market, especially with its recent accession to the WTO, and we're optimistic about the future of UPS and the express delivery sector there," said UPS northeast European chief Nando Cesarone.



"This new direct flight will enable us to connect this burgeoning market with the heart of our European network and the rest of the world," he said.