Conti withdraws from Anaklia development

Conti International has withdrawn from the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), leaving Georgia’s proposed deep sea port in limbo.

Media in Georgia have been able to confirm reports that the US-Based Conti Group has now withdrawn from the troubled Anaklia Development Corporation (ADC). Rumours around the ADC have been circulating for weeks, but now multiple reports have cited ADC CEO Levan Akhvlediani confirming that Conti has withdrawn from the board of ADC.

A report on the Georgian website civil.ge quotes a statement from the Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure where it calls on Conti International to submit a plan for attracting another western investor to the project. It was never clear, however, where the private funds for the first phase of the development, which were a requirement to trigger other financing, were actually coming from.

ADC is a joint venture of Conti International and Georgian company TBC Holding. According to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure TBC can not proceed with the project without finding another partner and securing funding.

As reported last month Anaklia appeared to be moving forward after the ADC announced it had selected France-based Effiage as the civil contractor. STS cranes have also been ordered from Hyundai-Samho in Korea, and eRTGs from ZPMC in China.

As that report noted TBC’s founders and owners Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze were at the same time formally charged with money laundering by the Georgian Prosecutor-General’s office.

The US based Conti Group has not commented on its move, but the Anaklia project and all previous announcements relating to it appear to have been removed from its website.

Source: WorldCargo News

MSC GÜLSÜN docks at Bremerhaven – and sails into a storm

The world’s first 24-across container vessel, the 23,800 TEU, currently the world’s largest container ship, docked for the first time on 19th August at MSC Gate terminal in Bremerhaven, but questions are being raised in the German ports community

Following a construction period of around three years, the ship was taken into operation by the MSC on 4 July 2019 and put into 2M’s Silk/AE10 service between Asia and Europe, starting in Xingang in early July.

With a length of 399.9m, a width of 61.5m, a draught of up to 16.5m and a transport capacity of around 23,800 TEU, MSC GÜLSÜN surpasses the current record holder, from Orient Overseas Container Line’s (OOCL) G-class.

Friedrich Stuhrmann, Managing Director of MSC Gate (Eurogate and MSC) said on the occasion of the first port call: “The dimensions of this new ship class are imposing and represent the next step in ever larger ship sizes. The privilege to be a fixed port of call on the maiden voyage of such a mega vessel is really exciting for all concerned.

"Obviously, we are well-prepared for the arrival of the “MSC GÜLSUN” and will handle the ship with our usual quality. MSC Gate already handles several ships a week in MSC’s Pegasus class and Maersk’s Triple-E class, and therefore demonstrates its performance capacity on a weekly basis. We also have the capability to handle this new ship class.”

MSC GÜLSÜN on the approach to MSC Gate Terminal, Bremerhaven on 19th august

Robert Howe, Managing Director of the port management company, Bremenports, said: “The first port call at the MSC Gate Terminal demonstrates that Container Terminal Bremerhaven is capable of offering the next generation of container ships a custom-fit infrastructure. We will continue to be a reliable and competent partner in the competition between locations. To do so, we will need to carry out further adjustment measures on the quaysides. Together with the terminal operators, we are gearing ourselves up for this.”

MSC GÜLSÜN is the first of 11 ships in total in the so-called MSC Megamax-24 class, which MSC has commissioned from two Korean shipyards, Samsung and Hyundai. The first sister ship, MSC MINA, is now also on its maiden voyage from Eastern Asia to Europe. It is scheduled to call at Bremerhaven, probably on 9 September 2019.

Gunther Bonz, President of UVHH

Not everyone in the German ports community welcomes these developments. In comments to the DPA (German Press Agency) earlier this month, Gunther Bonz, of Eurogate group and President of the Port of Hamburg Employers’ Assoication (UVHH), made the point that large vessels require huge additional investments in port infrastructure - bigger turning circles, deeper quay walls and deeper and wider fairways, and so on and "these investments have to be paid for by taxpayers."

Bonz has the support of many politicians in the Hamburg Parliament. They are openly questioning the rationality of the container shipping industry, as it generates low profits while imposing huge extra costs on society.

Bonz, who is also current President of Feport, told the DPA that he knows of a plan to build a 460m long and 68m wide container vessel with an intake of 30,000 TEU, and "this cannot be allowed to stand."

He has called on the European Commission to take action. In future, he said, the EU should link carrier block exemptions to a stipulation that vessels beyond a certain size will be prohibited from calling at any EU port. The current EU block exemption from anti-trust laws expires in March 2020.

Source: WorldCargo News

Nairobi backs down on SGR decree

The government of Kenya has backtracked on a recent decree that all cargo imports transported from Mombasa to Nairobi and beyond should be carried on the Standard Gauge Railway

The government of Kenya has backtracked on a recent decree that all cargo imports transported from Mombasa to Nairobi and beyond should be carried on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to be cleared at Embakasi – the inland container depot in Nairobi.

The policy had been mooted since soon after the SGR was completed in 2017 in order to make the project commercially viable and to enable loan repayments to the Chinese, while reducing congestion at Mombasa. The Transport Committee had directed the Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia to explain the directive, but the government seems to have backed down before he could do so.

There was widespread opposition to the plan, not least because it has huge political connotations, as many Kenyans on the coast believe that the government favours economic development in Nairobi over Mombasa. Clearing all cargo in Nairobi would see the transfer of hundreds of jobs from the port city to the capital.

In the first six months of this year, the SGR handled 197,000 TEU in comparison compared to 77,020 TEU in the same period last year, which was the start-up period.

Freight charges have been cut to improve competitiveness with trucking. (Photo: capitalfm.co.ke)

Although freight volumes are increasing, it seems likely that revenues are lower than anticipated, and meanwhile growth in passenger traffic over the past year has been slow.

Freight charges on the line were reduced last year in order to encourage uptake: the original average charge of US$33.3/tonne was cut to US$20.5/tonne.

It has been reported in Kenya that the cost of transporting cargo by the SGR is now similar to road freight costs.

The government says that it will be able to start repayments on its KSh324B (US$3.10B) loan by January 2020. In May, the Treasury approved a KSh35B (US$334M) payment to China’s Exim Bank in the current financial year. An average of eight freight trains operate on the line each day, but the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) aims to increase this to 10 as soon as possible. Services are being jointly marketed by the KRC, the Kenya Ports Authority and the SGR contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation.

The SGR project was designed to encourage customers in Uganda, Rwanda, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan to use Mombasa. Some of the cargo carried on the line is bound for those markets, but an agreement on extending the line into Uganda has been repeatedly delayed, although the first section - from Nairobi to Naivasha - is now 98% complete.

Source: WorldCargo News