Industrial minerals ports face congestion

• Autores: Bruce McMichael
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 563, 2014 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Agosto)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The current congestion difficulties of these two major mineral importing hubs are partly because terminal capacity is being affected by work to upgrade existing facilities (such as installing new cranes at the ECT Delta terminal) and also because, in general, terminal capacity continues to be strained by much greater peaks in volumes created by larger container ships, say analysts at Drewry Maritime Research. However, another big factor causing problems for terminal operators is a deteriorating schedule reliability for container and box vessels.

    In Hamburg, the increased volume peaks caused by larger vessels, coupled with schedule reliability issues, have reportedly caused a doubling of average dwell times for export containers. There have also been delays in truck and rail handling. Trucking companies have imposed a Traffic Congestion Surcharge, set at U40 ($53.9*) per transport within Hamburg city limits and U80 per transport outside of Hamburg city limits. There is an intention to implement a truck booking appointment system in order to control and smooth out demand - not for the first time.

    There are a number of reasons for the carriers' recent schedule reliability issues, including bad weather. However, dysfunctional networks due to the implementation of new or extended alliance arrangements are also a key factor. The process of altering services, ships and partners appears to have had a significant adverse effect as carriers shuffle vessels in anticipation of new alliance and service structures. The geographical expansion of the G6 Alliance into the Transatlantic, and the addition of Evergreen to the CKYH Alliance between Asia and Europe are two cases in point.