- Departing from: CHANGSHU, PEOPLES REP. of CHINA
- Arriving at: MANZANILLO, MEXICO
- Departure Dates: Between 3/3/2009 and 4/2/2009
- Carriers: All
- Number of voyages found: 0
-
- http://www.jocsailings.com/point-to-point/results/?dregion=4&deppoints=1324&
- aregion=6&arrpoints=918&carriers=0&depdate=3/3/2009&lookahead=30&x=47&y=11
-
- Departing from: BEIJING, PEOPLES REP. of CHINA
- Arriving at: MAZATLAN, MEXICO
- Departure Dates: Between 3/3/2009 and 4/2/2009
- Carriers: All
- Number of voyages found: 0
-
- http://www.jocsailings.com/point-to-point/results/?dregion=4&deppoints=42&ar
- egion=6&arrpoints=966&carriers=0&depdate=3/3/2009&lookahead=30&x=53&y=10
-
- Departing from: MANILA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
- Arriving at: VERACRUZ, MEXICO
- Departure Dates: Between 3/3/2009 and 4/2/2009
- Carriers: All
- Number of voyages found: 0
-
- http://www.jocsailings.com/point-to-point/results/?dregion=4&deppoints=234&ar
- egion=6&arrpoints=632&carriers=0&depdate=3/3/2009&lookahead=30&x=46&y=15
-
- Departing from: BEIJING, PEOPLES REP. of CHINA
- Arriving at: LAZARO CARDENAS, MEXICO (NOTE: This is the
main NAFTA port)
- Departure Dates: Between 3/4/2009 and 4/3/2009
- Carriers: All
- Number of voyages found: 0
-
- http://www.jocsailings.com/point-to-point/results/?dregion=4&deppoints=42&ar
- egion=6&arrpoints=1310&carriers=0&depdate=3%2F4%2F2009&lookahead=30&x=52&y=11
-
-
-
- China Box Throughput Stalled For 2009
-
-
- By Peter T. Leach
-
- The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story
-
- 3-3-9
-
- Terminal official forecasts low growth if not small decline
-
- Container volumes at most Chinese ports will grow at
single digits rates this year, and may actually decline at some.
-
- "2009 will be the most difficult year in a generation,"
said Dr. Fu Yuning, chairman and managing director of China Merchant Holdings
(International), whose terminals handle 34 percent of China's total container
volumes.
-
- In his keynote address at Tuesday's opening session of
the 9th Annual Journal of Commerce Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in
Los Angeles, Dr. Fu said there is some reason for optimism.
-
- He said that after several months of no growth in the
throughput at China's terminals there was an increase in exports of loaded
containers at the end of February as manufacturing started to pick up.
-
- Dr. Fu attributed the increase in exports to the drawing
down of inventories in China's main export markets in Europe and the U.S.
-
- On the other hand, Chinese container manufacturers have
not received any new orders since last year. "All our ports are jammed
with empty export containers," he said.
-
- He said total Chinese throughput in 2009 would amount
to 129 million TEUs, which would represent no growth over the total throughput
in 2007.
-
- Dr. Fu said the worst of the global recession would be
over by 2010, but only if the U.S. government is able to solve its banking
crisis and get the major banks to start lending again.
-
- Ports on China's Bohai Rim will enjoy the greatest growth
in throughput this year. Dr. Fu said they would grow at 5 to10 percent.
-
- Shanghai's throughput will grow by zero to 5 percent,
he said. But volumes at ports in South China could drop by 5 percent, or
show no growth at best.
-
- <http://www.joc.com/node/409882>http://www.joc.com/node/409882
-
-
-
- Debated Baja California, Mexico Port Project Put On Hold
-
- Frontera NorteSur
-
- -- Like Punta Colonet, the Manzanillo expansion
to the south has also drawn fire from environmentalists
-
- A massive port planned for Mexico's Baja California peninsula
could be among the latest casualties of the world financial crisis. Luis
Tellez, Mexico's head of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation
(SCT), announced last week that authorities decided to postpone contract
bidding for the construction of the Punta Colonet terminal slated for a
remote section of the Baja California peninsula about 150 miles south of
San Diego, California. Tellez said the global economic outlook didn't favor
Punta Colonet at the moment.
-
- "There is clearly competition for extensive resources,"
Tellez said, "and given the magnitude of Colonet we are seeing if
there is the capacity to finance it."
-
- The postponement was the second time in recent months
that the SCT has put off issuing contracts to build and maintain a commercial
trade and shipping complex that is envisioned to be larger than the ports
of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined. Originally slated for completion
on the Pacific side of Baja California in 2020, Punta Colonet was planned
as the northern Mexican shipping hub of the China trade capable of handling
6 million containers every year.
-
- Tellez did give an exact date for the opening of bids,
but he insisted the project would move forward at a later date. Mexican
officials, Tellez added, were working with Citibank and a second US bank
to study financing options for a construction project that could cost more
than $1.5 billion.
-
- But earlier developments like the announced expansion
of the Panama Canal is leading to speculation that Punta Colonet is dead
even before it hits the water. Fernando Ramos Casas, president of the Latin
American Confederation of Customs Brokers judged Punta Colonet as an unviable
proposition under present circumstances. "(Punta Colonet) would have
been better three or four years ago, Ramos said.
-
- An unscientific, online poll conducted by the Tijuana
news daily Frontera reported January 19 that 60.5 percent of 967 respondents
believed a port at Punta Colonet would happen, while 39.5 percent did not
think it would see the light of day.
-
- It's not yet clear how the Punta Colonet postponement
will affect the Santa Teresa train and transportation terminal planned
for the New Mexico-Chihuahua border. Last year, the SCT declared that Santa
Teresa would constitute an important hub for cargo headed to consumers
in the US heartland from Punta Colonet.
-
- Not everyone is disappointed that Punta Colonet is off
the map at least for now. Green activists have long criticized a
mega-project they contend would attract thousands of new residents and
generate an intense demand for services in a place Mexican environmentalist
and columnist Ivan Restrepo once called a "national treasure"
and a "flower of the earth." Restrepo and other environmentalists
fear a mammoth port at Punta Colonet would seriously disrupt migratory
bird habitats, disturb grey whale migrations and damage vegetation and
landscapes unique to the fragile Baja California ecosystem.
-
- "This is very good news for those who care about
conservation in Baja California," said a message posted on the website
of the binational green group Wild Coast in response to Tellez's announcement.
-
- Despite a predicted 20-30 percent drop in the volume
of cargo traffic through Mexican ports this year, the SCT is moving ahead
with contract bidding for improvements and expansions in other ports that
could reach close to US$2 billion. Nationwide, investment in Mexico's port
infrastructure increased 15.8 percent during the first two years of the
administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
-
- Meanwhile, with the fate of Punta Colonet up in the air,
SCT Secretary Tellez's role in pushing the ongoing expansion of the large
port of Manzanillo on the Pacific Coast is receiving renewed press scrutiny.
The Mexican cabinet minister served as an advisor to the private SSA Mexico
cargo company, one of the firms interested in expanding Manzanillo, from
2002-2006, just prior to joining the Calderon administration.
-
- Tellez, who resigned from SSA Mexico before beginning
federal service, has defended himself from conflict-of-interest charges.
"The participation of SSA in the bidding does not depend on the SCT,"
Tellez was previously quoted as saying. "The authorization depends
on the Federal Competition Commission."
-
- Like Punta Colonet, the Manzanillo expansion to the south
has drawn fire from environmentalists. Construction activities in Manzanillo
have caused major damages to a 260-acre mangrove swamp, prompting some
environmentalists to charge that Mexico is in violation of the 1971 International
Convention on Wetlands and the Inter-American Convention on the Protection
and Conservation of Sea Turtles, an agreement Mexico formally accepted
in 2000.
-
- Environmentalists are likewise concerned that two bills
currently in the Mexican Senate and Chamber of Deputies would make the
destruction witnessed at the Manzanillo mangrove swamp, which Secretary
Tellez pledges to repair, the norm rather than the exception.
-
- Sponsored by representatives of the Institutional Revolutionary
Party, the legislative initiatives propose weakening environmental impact
study requirements meant to protect mangroves if social and economic benefits
from a particular development could be demonstrated.
-
- Besides serving as bird habitat and breeding grounds
for aquatic life, mangroves are important barriers against hurricanes,
which many climate change researchers warn could grow worsen in coming
years.
-
- ----------
- Additional sources: Frontera, January 19, 2009. Proceso,
January 18, 2009. Article by Jenaro Vilamil. Milenio, January 16, 2009.
Articles by Marisela Lopez and Luis Carriles. Agencia Reforma, January
14, 2009. Articles by Lilian Cruz. La Jornada, March 4 and 31, 2008; January
19, 2009. Articles by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Ivan Restrepo and
editorial staff. Wildcoast.net
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