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Workhorses
of the Baltic
by Marek Błuś
BTJ’s 2006 report lists 12 ships feedering in the Baltic with a total nominal capacity of 8 ,500 TEU. Now, five years
on, the census shows 160 feeders and 157,000 TEU – almost twice the amount in the main term of productivity.
Five years ago, in our first report on container shipping in the
Baltic Sea, we compared this business to “a bunch of parsley
tied to the Kiel Canal”. Its roots are ingrained in a few hubs on
the North Sea, while stems and leaves reach the northernmost
ports of the Gulf of Bothnia. Although some ocean and transatlantic
container services have started to call in Gdańsk and St. Petersburg since
the beginning of 2010, this general picture has not changed. Against all
odds, feeder shipping now has stronger roots and richer greens.
[read more]
Fierce competition
by Steve Wray
Shipping lines are investing in larger ships to take advantage of the economies of scale, but they are also
forming unusual alliances to ensure that they are able to fully utilise their ships. They need deepwater
ports that can handle the bigger ships, which is likely to mean fewer port calls and the elimination of
secondary calls from rotations on the main arterial routes.
In 2009 most countries, with the exception
of Poland, experienced a decrease in
GDP. Initially, there was a huge surplus
of tonnage, which caused problems. It was
reduced during 2010, so that only 2% of the
fleet was actually in lay-up, compared to 9% in
2009. There was a greater use of slow or even
super slow steaming, which again ate up the
surplus of tonnage, and is now becoming the
standard. Major shipping lines, such as Maersk
and CMA, announced huge profits in 2010 to
counter effect the huge losses in 2009. However,
in the first half of 2011 we can again see
a decline in profit and the cancellation of some
main arterial services. This is the first sign of the
renewed negative pressures on the market and
that’s largely because of the severity of the underlying
supply/demand position.
[read more]
Strategic shortcut or bottleneck?
by Prof. Dr. Thomas Pawlik, Prof. Dr. Alfred Baird
“Ticking Bomb?” “Disaster?” If these and similar expressions are used in the public discussion on transport
infrastructure – in this case in an official statement of the Kiel Nautical Association in regard to the situation of
the Kiel Canal – then it should be taken as a warning signal that something seems to be extremely wrong.
This impression is enforced by the fact that in late August the
German Shipowners’ Association (VDR), the German Shipbrokers’
Association (ZVDS) and the Association of German
Seaport Operators (ZDS) all signed a joint open letter to Dr.
Peter Ramsauer, the German Federal Minister of Transport, Building
and Urban Development (BMVBS) – urging the Federal Government
to strengthen public investment in the modernization of the Kiel Canal,
especially to start with the construction of a fifth lock chamber in
Brunsbüttel at the westerly end of the canal.
[read more]
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