October 04, 2010
China Saves Greece
Chinese PM Wen Jiabao is touring the EU on feel good missions to assure China's support for the region's economies and currency. Wen will attend an East-West Summit in Brussels and meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Over the weekend in Greece Wen announced that Beijing would buy Greece's debt in a confidence bid on Greek turnaround. One commentator sees opportunity with recent Greek programs to push solar power. As regular readers know China is developing container terminals and greatly expanding the port at Piraeus in a larger shipping and logistics strategy. You can read my 2008 report on it here....
Labels: euro, foreign investment, foreign relations, shipping
September 24, 2010
Will China Takeover Gwadar Port?
According to Reuters Pakistan admiral Noman Bashir, head of Pakistan's Navy, told reporters at a televised news briefing that Pakistan should review the multi-decade contract for Gwadar Port's operations awarded to state-owned PSA International of Singapore. The report says Pakistan is frustrated that the port is largely unused but makes no mention of Gwadar's security problem. Between nativist demands that the port be handed over to Baluchistan tribal leaders, attacks from insurgents perhaps backed by India or even the USA, and the withdrawal of Chinese investment cash it is not a surprise that Gwadar has failed to take off as a new Karachi. If China is put in direct control of the port expect plenty of opposition from Indian and American interests....
Labels: foreign investment, foreign relations, pakistan, shipping
September 09, 2010
ReUnification Watch: First Mainland Firm Lists on Taiwan Exchange
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (registered in Singapore but with all operations on China mainland) surged 7% today when it opened on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The interest in shares shows that the long list of mainland firms eyeing a Taiwan listing may reap rich awards when listing becomes easier and directly possible as China and Taiwan merge their already closely related economies...
Labels: chinese stocks, reunification, shipping, taiwan
1st Shipment Leaves ChonqQing Cuntan Bonded Port
The new Cuntan Bonded Port in Chongqing - China's only inland special port custom district - cleared its first shipment in a matter of days signalling the start of an increase in direct trade from the city. The Cuntan Bonded Port is an important development for Chongqing's economy. You can read my earlier posts on it here at the Sinomania! blog. Click here for some information about bonded ports in China....
Labels: chinese trade, foreign trade, free trade, shipping
March 15, 2010
China to Develop Deep Water Chittagong Port
Newspapers in India are reporting that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will seek Beijing's support for a massive $8.7 billion (US dollars) development of Chittagong Port. Hasina will begin a 5 day visit to China on Wednesday at the invitation of Chinese PM Wen Jiabao. Word is Hasina will visit the new highway in Yunnan Province that may someday connect via Myanmar all the way to Chittagong in Bangladesh. There is also a railroad planned.
China is already working on port projects in Chittagong. The China Harbour Engineering Group or CHEC builds container terminals there. CHEC is the world's largest maker of quayside cranes and other port heavy machinery. CHEC remains state-owned but is slowly corporatizing. In 2004 its dredging businesses were spun off as public companies.
Connecting Yunnan and southwest China to a major deep water port at Chittagong will give China access to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean avoiding the Straits of Malacca....
Connecting Yunnan and southwest China to a major deep water port at Chittagong will give China access to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean avoiding the Straits of Malacca....
Labels: foreign relations, foreign trade, shipping, strategic
March 08, 2010
China Gets North Korean Port on Sea of Japan
The provincial government of Jilin Province in Manchuria told the National People's Congress today that the North Korean government agreed to lease the port of Rajin on the northeastern coast of the Sea of Japan to China for 10 years. Use of the port will give sea access to the landlocked hinterlands of Manchuria for the first time since the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Rajin is included in economic and trade zones originally created as part of the UN sponsored Tumen River Area Development Programme between Russia, China, and North Korea. Russia is upgrading a railway from the border to Rajin in what may be competing investment. Chinese development of Rajin port could jump start the Tumen River region. This development has important implications for the economy and navy balance in the region....
Labels: exports, japan, russia, shipping, strategic
December 03, 2009
China Plans Nuclear Container Ships
At a confab around the Marintec China 2009 convention, currently underway in Shanghai, Wei Jiafu - head of Chinese shipping giant COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Group Comany, Ltd.) - revealed to reporters that the company was working with Chinese nuclear authorities to explore developing nuclear powered container ships. Captain Wei Jianfu gave a grim outlook for traditional ship orders saying he believed 40% of backorders will be cancelled or postponed. In other news, Chinese, Taiwan, and Korean shipping companies will respond to the slowdown in global trade by literally slowing down and employ "super slow steaming" a method begun by the Maersk Line for greater fuel efficiency and reduce emissions....
Labels: chinese trade, nuclear, shipping, technology
November 12, 2009
US West Coast Ports Band Together for China Trade
The World Shipping Summit 2009 is underway in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and the big 5 port districts of the west coast of USA (LA-Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, Seattle, Portland - in that order) announced a US West Coast Collaboration Panel. The panel is joined by Warren Buffet's Burlington Northern & Sante Fe Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad. Analysts see this as an effort to maintain market share in Chinese trade.The ports are under pressure from the following forces - high costs associated with union labor wages, anti-pollution fees, and new ports closer to population centers in middle and eastern America that will be serviced by the widening of the Panama Canal. In the aftermath of the Panic of '08, port traffic has plummeted - LA-Long Beach for example is back to 2001 levels. But cooperation with competitors and better integration with railroads can help the ports maintain their lead in bringing containers from China and distributing them to logistics centers and factories across the USA.
Absent from the summit is representation from Mexico where the federal government continues to back a new container port at Punta Colonet in Baja peninsula. That development has been scaled back, however, to 1 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) containers capacity per year. Proposals for development are in but the Mexican government has not released any details yet....
Labels: chinese trade, foreign trade, panic of 2008, shipping
November 06, 2009
China Tops Korea in Shipbuilding
For the first time China's shipbuilding production will soon outpace (South) Korea to be the world's number 1 producer of ships. Chinese shipbuilders have just under 55 million gross tons on backorder and will soon account for nearly 35% of global market share for shipbuilding. In 2008 Chinese output totaled 28.81 deadweight tons. Leading shipbuilders include China State Shipbuilding Corporation and Dalian New Shipbuilding Heavy Industry (DNS) operators of two of the world's biggest shipyards. Centers of shipbuilding in China are Shanghai, Tianjin, Dalian (Liaoning Province), Guangzhou, and Wuhan - all areas with long histories of making vessels of all shapes and sizes. Beijing announced this spring a program to encourage consolidation in the industry that may result in mergers and acquisitions in the medium future....
Labels: investment, shipping
October 08, 2009
China Built Tank Farm On Track in Sri Lanka
The Hambantota Port development project on the southern coast of Sri Lanka is well underway. The project is being built by a consortium of Chinese companies largely funded by the Export-Import Bank of China. The multi-stage development is building a port capable of handling the largest container and bulk vessels. The President of Sri Lanka broke ground on an oil storage facility today. Three of the 14 storage tanks under construction will be for aircraft use. The port is on track for a 2011 initial completion. Situated midway between the main East-West shipping routes Hambantota is equidistant from the Straits of Malacca and Sunda....
Labels: foreign investment, foreign relations, free trade, shipping
August 20, 2009
Mexico to Resume Baja Mega Port for China Trade
The Mexican government announced this week that the mega container port envisioned for Punta Colonet on the Baja Norte coastline about 150 miles south of San Diego will begin development this year, possibly within a month. The port aims to rival LA/Long Beach as a hub for Asian imports.
Hong Kong ports conglomerate Hutchison-Whampoa (0013.HK) (majority share owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing) and Union Pacific Railroad planned to jointly develop the port with Mexico but that deal fell apart in 2007. The Panic of '08 threatened to kill the port plan altogether.
Details on what private-public partnerships may arise at this date are unknown but the Mexican government says it is committed to build extensive infrastructure. The operator of the port will be revealed in December 2009. Will it be Hutchison-Whampoa? The company already operates at 4 Mexican ports and is famous for its concession to operate the Panama Canal.....
Details on what private-public partnerships may arise at this date are unknown but the Mexican government says it is committed to build extensive infrastructure. The operator of the port will be revealed in December 2009. Will it be Hutchison-Whampoa? The company already operates at 4 Mexican ports and is famous for its concession to operate the Panama Canal.....
Labels: free trade, shipping
July 24, 2009
Reunification Watch: Quemoy Demilitarized as Sea, Air Links Begin
Airlines in China and Taiwan are awaiting approvals for regular passenger services to replace the current charter flights. When the green light is given, 270 passenger flights a week will link Taiwan with most major cities in China. Cross straits flights are expected to begin at the end of August. By sea, passenger-cargo service has begun from Fuzhou, Fujian, to Keelung, Taiwan, with Xiamen, Fujian, to Kaohsiung, Taiwan on the way.
Meanwhile the island of Quemoy or Kinmen is removing its old beach barricades, a legacy of the many battles in the 1950s between "Communist" China and "Nationalist" China and its backer the USA. The demilitarization of Quemoy/Kinmen comes in time for a mass swim planned for August 15 between Xiamen and the island!
Labels: reunification, shipping, taiwan
April 15, 2009
Gwadar Port's Troubled Waters
Beijing's seven year effort to develop a deep water port and eventually connect land, rail, and pipeline routes back to China through landlocked central Asia appears in jeopardy. Recent events including the murder of three Balochistan political figures -- completely ignored by mainstream media more interested in the Obama family's dog and hero worship of a bumbling American merchant ship captain -- reveal a tug of war of 'great game' proportions between Karachi, the USA, China, India, and probably Iran over the future of Gwadar Port.
At present violence and strikes have shut work at Gwadar and the future of 9 additional deep water berths is in question.
Prior to Richard Holbrooke's unsuccessful visit to Pakistan last week, talk in the region was of an "Obama Plan" that might allow the competing interests to divvy up the potential of Balochistan as follows:
"Let Pakistan declare the Gwadar Sea Port as an international open port; Let
both the USA and China jointly invest into developing the Gwadar Port as a Deep
Sea Port of international standards; Let the USA build a land route and oil/gas
pipelines from the Gwadar Deep Sea Port to the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) of Central Asia through Afghanistan; Let China construct a land
route and railways (if feasible) from the Gwadar Deep Sea Port to its Khunjerab
Pass and onward through Balochistan, NWFP and Northern Areas; Let India
construct a motorway from New Delhi to Lahore and then Pakistan constructs a
motorway and railways (if feasible) from Peshawar to Jalalabad, city of
Afghanistan, and at the same time, Afghanistan constructs a motorway and
railways (if feasible) from Jalalabad to the American-sponsored land route
extending to the CIS thereby providing India and Pakistan a joint access to
Afghanistan and to the Central Asian States; Let Iran construct a motorway and
railways (if feasible) to the American-sponsored land route in Afghanistan
extending to the central Asian CIS member states thereby providing Iran a land
access to Afghanistan and the Central Asian States, and also to China through
Pakistan or through the CIS; and Let India, Pakistan and Iran jointly build a
gas pipeline from Paras Gas Field of Iran to India through Pakistan for meeting
the growing energy needs of both India and Pakistan"....
both the USA and China jointly invest into developing the Gwadar Port as a Deep
Sea Port of international standards; Let the USA build a land route and oil/gas
pipelines from the Gwadar Deep Sea Port to the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) of Central Asia through Afghanistan; Let China construct a land
route and railways (if feasible) from the Gwadar Deep Sea Port to its Khunjerab
Pass and onward through Balochistan, NWFP and Northern Areas; Let India
construct a motorway from New Delhi to Lahore and then Pakistan constructs a
motorway and railways (if feasible) from Peshawar to Jalalabad, city of
Afghanistan, and at the same time, Afghanistan constructs a motorway and
railways (if feasible) from Jalalabad to the American-sponsored land route
extending to the CIS thereby providing India and Pakistan a joint access to
Afghanistan and to the Central Asian States; Let Iran construct a motorway and
railways (if feasible) to the American-sponsored land route in Afghanistan
extending to the central Asian CIS member states thereby providing Iran a land
access to Afghanistan and the Central Asian States, and also to China through
Pakistan or through the CIS; and Let India, Pakistan and Iran jointly build a
gas pipeline from Paras Gas Field of Iran to India through Pakistan for meeting
the growing energy needs of both India and Pakistan"....
Labels: free trade, great power, shipping
March 17, 2009
Tianjin Port Consolidates
The listed companies that operate the cargo handling at the port of Tianjin, 3rd largest in China, will consolidate in mergers that involve the Hong Kong and Shanghai listed shares. The Tianjin Port Group (ultimately controlled by the Tianjin municipal government) will emerge as the main operator in the multi billion (Hong Kong) dollar deal...
Labels: foreign trade, shipping
February 26, 2009
400,000 Empty Containers Sit at ShenZhen Port
A dramatic illustration of the collapse occurring in the great rebalance of global trade can be found at Yantai port, ShenZhen, China, one of the top 5 container ports in the world: 400,000 empty container boxes.
A similar story is heard from Hong Kong and Shanghai where the drop in activity is the worst on record...
Labels: foreign trade, panic of 2008, shipping
February 16, 2009
Shipping Woes
The great global correction in trade continues to hit shipping companies hard. Barely a year old, Great Ocean Container Lines of Hong Kong will file for bankruptcy. And New Econ Line of Singapore is suspending operations. Also ceasing operation is Shandong Yantai International Marine Services. The China-Japan route has rates as low at $30 per TEU according to the SeaTrade Asia website...
Labels: foreign trade, panic of 2008, shipping
February 09, 2009
China Shipbuilders Want Bailout
The National Development and Reform Commission has readied a bailout for Chinese shipbuilders that is before the State Council in Beijing. According to varying reports from the China Association of National Shipbuilding Industry shipbuilding orders have plummeted since the second half of 2008 by some metrics down almost 100%. The industry saw tremendous expansion over the last few years and now - according to the bailout plan - plans consolidation. The bailouts of Chinese industrial sectors seem to have as their focus the creation of two to three solid 'brand' companies, part of Beijing's desire to have an American style economic oligarchy with Chinese characteristics...
Labels: panic of 2008, shipping
February 02, 2009
Bangka: A New Pearl On the String
An obscure developer called the "Fujian Mining Company" will develop a waterfront city in Ketapang on the island of Bangka off the coast of Sumatra (Indonesia) strategically located south of Singapore. The development will allow the company to extract tin ores (the area is very rich in tin and has been mined by Chinese for centuries) in exchange for hotels and quays and other tourism related facilities. The quays will most likely be large enough for bulk carriers and other big ships. Tin prices are up regionally but could the real motive behind this development be to create a "pearl" in the so-called "String of Pearls" China is establishing to protect its sea route through the Strait of Malacca? The location could also protect the Strait of Sunda to the south.
As recently as 1975, Chinese made up close to 5% of the population of Bangka Island and as far back as 1867 Chinese were so numerous the Dutch allowed them to conduct their own affairs there...
March 28, 2008
Deep Thought
The mouth of the Yangtze (Changjiang) river will be dredged to increase its depth to 12 and a half meters, that's about 41 feet deep and increase the shipping channel's span to 350-400 meters or no more than 1,312 feet. This narrow channel will allow the biggest bulk and container vessels.
What this tells us is just how vulnerable China really is. One channel barely the length of an American aircraft carrier must funnel all the ship traffic from the East China Sea and beyond to Shanghai up the Yangtze to Wuhan - the heart of industrial China.
And yet the Pentagon expects us to view China as a threat.
What this tells us is just how vulnerable China really is. One channel barely the length of an American aircraft carrier must funnel all the ship traffic from the East China Sea and beyond to Shanghai up the Yangtze to Wuhan - the heart of industrial China.
And yet the Pentagon expects us to view China as a threat.
Labels: china, shipping, strategic, threat, yangtze
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