MSC and Hamburg Sud merge Mediterranean-east coast South American strings

GERMANY's Hamburg Sud and Geneva's Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) will merge their Med-east coast South America services into one from mid-January.

The revised rotation will be Valencia, Gioia Tauro, Livorno, Genoa, Marseilles-Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Suape, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Navegantes, Itapoa, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Suape, Tangiers and back to Valencia.

The eight-ship will have seven vessels from MSC and one from Hamburg Sud, averaging 5,900 TEU.

Hamburg Sud now operates a service with CMA CGM, CSAV, and Zim with a rotation of Valencia, Tarragona, Livorno, Genoa, Vado Ligure, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Itajai, Paranagua, Santos, Pecem, Tangiers and back to Valencia.

The MSC loop rotates through Valencia, Sines, Las Palmas, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Navegantes, Paranagua, Rio Grande, Santos and back to Valencia, deploying six MSC vessels averaging 5,341 TEU.

picture: google.com / source: shippinggazette

In 2012, Merpati Nusantara Airlines will add to the fleet

PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines will add to its fleet beginning 2012. This company will allocate at least IDR 224.4 billion to bring the aircraft in the period 2012 to 2014.
According to Director of Operations Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Asep Eka Nugraha, funds used for the addition of the fleet reaches 40% of the total State Capital funds (PMN) to IDR 561 billion disbursed by the government to the state-owned company.

For the initial stage, it will bring 14 units of Boeing B737 series aircraft through a lease in 2012. The plane will come gradually from February to December 2012. With the addition of 14 aircraft, the total aircraft of Merpati Nusantara Airlines at the end of 2012 a total of 44 units. "We will bring dozens of aircraft, for the early stages of 2012 we bring 14 Boeing B737 series," Asep said when re-opening the Merpati Airlines flight route Jakarta - Pangkalpinang in Pangkalpinang.

Asep reveal, the revitalization of the fleet is needed in line with the Merpati Airlines plans to re-route flights serve in Indonesia's western region. "The plane was scheduled to reinforce additional routes in the western parts of Indonesia such as Medan, Kalimantan and other west regions of Indonesia," said Asep.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday (21/12), Merpati Nusantara Airlines re-serving the route flight from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang after being abandoned since 1998.  The inaugural flight carried out by Boeing B737-300 aircraft. Flights on the route was done once a day, ie from Jakarta at 15:50 pm and from Pangkalpinang 17.30 pm.

"In return flight for the first time with Boeing B737-300 aircraft with a capacity of 132 seats, the passenger load factor more than 90%. Going forward, we targeted load factor could be stabilized at 80%," he explained.

Reopening of this route is expected to support the Bangka Belitung community for ease of air transportation. "According to our mission to continue to connect the archipelago," said Asep.

Governor of the province of the Bangka Belitung, Eko Maulana Ali said the move of Merpati Airlines are interconnected economy helped open Bangka Belitung. "With the airlines that fly to Pangkalpinang, can support the flow of both passenger transport and goods, especially to Jakarta," he said after the ceremony welcoming the first flight of Merpati Airlines to Pangkalpinang.

According to Eko until now, there are three airlines that fly to the Bangka Belitung, such as Garuda Indonesia, Batavia Airlines, and Sriwijaya Airlines. With the incoming of Merpati Nusantara Airlines, then total are four airlines that will serve the airport Depati Amir, Pangkalpinang. On average there are about 3,800 daily passengers.

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Maersk Line adds Le Havre, Hamburg, Zeebrugge to Daily Maersk from February

DANISH shipping giant Maersk Line has announced it will add port calls at Le Havre, Hamburg and Zeebrugge in February in its Daily Maersk service to enhance its "conveyor belt" concept on its main Asia-Europe route.

The service requires a 26-day transit from Shanghai to Zeebrugge and Le Havre and 28 days to Hamburg, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce, adding that Maersk has ended its vessel sharing agreement with CMA CGM after the newly announced CMA CGM-MSC alliance.

Said Maersk's vice president of Europe service Vincent Clerc: "The cancellation of the vessel sharing agreement ... offered us another opportunity to look at how we serve customers moving cargo between Asia and north Europe.

"We found that without CMA we could actually offer an enhanced service to more customers in more corridors and maintain our promise on the Daily Maersk corridors. So that is what we did."

CMA CGM chief financial officer Michel Sirat said the key aim of forming an alliance with MSC is to upgrade services so that the two carriers can compete with Maersk.

The 13,092-TEU Maersk Edison will be responsible for the last sailing in the vessel sharing agreement with CMA CGM, with a cut-off in Ningbo, China on February 16.

The world's largest carriers said it will offer a new Asia-Mediterranean service to replace the one partnering with CMA CGM now.

The report said shippers will benefit from shorter transit times and higher reliability. But they cannot receive cash compensation for late guaranteed deliveries available on the Daily Maersk service connecting four Asian ports with Bremerhaven, Rotterdam and Felixstowe.

Daily Maersk currently deploys 70 ships, offering daily Asia-Europe service seven days a week between Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen-Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas and northern Europe.

source: shippinggazette / picture: google.com

Strengthen the domestic market, AirAsia open a new route from Surabaya

The airlines company, Indonesia AirAsia continues to strengthen domestic routes. On February 14, 2012, Indonesia AirAsia will open a new domestic route flights, Surabaya – Bandung and Surabaya – Denpasar.

"In addition to our commitment to develop the domestic routes, the second launch of this route is also our responsibility to encourage tourism and the economy of the archipelago," said Dharmadi, the President Director of AirAsia Indonesia on Monday (12/12).

Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia. Capital city of East Java's economy is based on the industrial sector and services trade, as well as the home of creative industries in the number of sectors, including advertising, architecture, crafts, interactive entertainment, publishing and printing.

Meanwhile, Bandung, according Dharmadi, known as the "Emerging Creative City" that offers a diverse product distributions, soap opera production houses, and culinary. The young generation of Bandung which will be full of innovative ideas has pushed the creative industries in the city is growing very rapidly.

Similar to Bandung, Bali also has the attraction of creative industries is unusually large, but rather based on local culture. Besides being a favorite tourist destination in the world, the island is also famous for its performances of traditional performing arts and antiques.

"With the new route Surabaya - Bandung and Surabaya - Denpasar, then Bandung, Bali and Surabaya are connected directly. Domestic connectivity is expected to facilitate and enhance the creative market exchanges among the three cities, "said Dharmadi. Previously, AirAsia already opened Surabaya – Medan route in 2010 and Jakarta to Semarang route.

For information, in the year 2012, AirAsia plans to increase market share in Indonesia from 3% to 10% and the target number of passengers to 6.2 million people. To achieve that, AirAsia has ordered 21 Airbus A-320 until later in 2016. In addition, AirAsia also began aggressively to open domestic routes in Indonesia.

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Hard-hit by the global crisis, the INDONESIA value of EXPORT in 2012 could be down 20%

Weakening global economic conditions worsened in Europe and the United States (U.S.), making the Ministry of Commerce (Ministry of Trade) must prepare a worst case scenario that the exports of 2012 will go down.

Director General of Foreign Trade Ministry of Trade, Deddy Saleh, said that, if the debt crisis in Europe continues to drag on and the budget deficit in the U.S. is still a constraint weakening demand from Indonesia, the performance of the export value in 2012 could drop up to 20%.

Ministry of Trade predict the realization of the value of exports in 2011 could reach U.S. $ 200 billion. That means, the value of exports in the next year could be only about U.S. $ 160 billion. "But the optimistic predictions of our exports in 2012 will only drop 10% or at least stagnate it is good," said Deddy.

The manufacturing sector is predicted to be the sectors hardest hit by the global crisis in the next year. Meanwhile, exports of primary commodities such as crude palm oil (CPO) can still continue. Because Europe must inevitably take the CPO so that they must continue to import.

Impact of world economic slowdown on the Indonesia export performance is starting to look real. For instance, the total export value in October 2011 decreased 4.2% to U.S. $ 16.8 billion than the previous month. However,realization of export from January to October 2011 is still up 34.9% over the same period in 2010.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's exports to the EU in October 2011 rose 6.2% compared to September 2011. And Indonesia's exports for the same period to the United States is still growing 17.2%.

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MSC announces first batch of revamped services with CMA CGM

THE Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world's second largest carrier, has announced its first batch of revised Asia-Europe services jointly run with CMA CGM under its new partnership with the world's third largest container carrier.

MSC hopes to reduce capacity under the new arrangement. The three new joint Asia-Europe services will be launched at the outset of March next year, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce, adding that MSC will also revamp its port rotations of its current Silk and Lion services.

The first new service is the Swan string, which will be run by CMA CGM with eleven 11,400-TEU vessels. Its port rotation is Xingang, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Xiamen, Singapore, Port Kelang, Tangiers, Le Havre, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Beirut, Jeddah, Port Kelang, Singapore and back to Xingang.

Next is the Condor service, which will be operated by MSC with eleven 4,000-TEU ships and call at Ningbo, Shanghai, Gaungzhou-Nansha, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Shenzhen-Yantian, Vung Tau, Southampton, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Korfakkan, Port Kelang, Singapore, Shenzhen-Yantian and back to Ningbo.

The third one is the Jade loop, which will be jointly operated by the two carriers with nine 9,500-TEU vessels. Its calls include: Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Shenzhen-Yantian, Singapore, Port Kelang, Gioia Tauro, Malta, Tangiers, Port Kelang, Singapore, Vung Tau and back to Shanghai.

For MSC's existing Silk and Lion services, MSC will also undergo rotation changes.

The Silk Service will be run by eleven 14,000-TEU ships with the following rotation: Dalian, Xingang, Kwang Yang, Busan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Singapore, Port Kelang, Felixstowe, Zeebrugge, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Southampton, Valencia, Jebel Ali, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to Dalian;

For the Lion Service, MSC will deploy eleven 14,000-TEU ships, with the following rotation: Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Shenzhen-Yantian, Sines, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Gioia Tauro, Singapore, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Xiamen and back to Ningbo.

picture: google.com / source: shippinggazette