The Belgian Association of Tank Storage Operators (BATO), a group of independent tank storage companies, said its members now have a total volume of 3.6 million m3 spread over 1,153 storage tanks: carbon steel tanks for chemical products and petroleum derivatives, stainless steel tanks for the most exacting products, refrigerated and heated tanks, spheres or spherical tanks for pressurized gasses, fully automatic storage areas for drums and IBCs, etc.

In an effort to keep pace with market developments, the independent tank storage companies have decided to invest 5 billion BEF ($250 million ) in Antwerp in the next 5 years. Antwerp is also an important junction in the European pipeline network.

Most of the BATO members are directly linked to the pipeline infrastructure which totals some 352 km in the port zone itself. In 1997 they handled a total of 14.6 million tonnes, thereby taking Antwerp’s market share in the Hamburg-Le Havre range up to 11.5%.


LOWER TARIFFS ON THE ATLANTIC

The members of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement (TACA) are lowering the rates coming February 1, with a minimum of $ 500 - $ 600 per 40-feet container.

The tariffs per February 1 range from $ 825 to $ 1,275 per 40-feet container. On January 1, TACA already lowered rates due to the lowering of the Currency Adjustment Factor (caf), in fact a decrease of rates by $ 60 to $ 100 dollars. Now again it is a unofficial decrease. Taca will not confirm this but has sent a memo to its members.

It concerns non-contract loading. For loads shipped under service contracts, in general the freight prices are considerably lower.

SpecTec, Inc., a subsidiary of Visma has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Marine Management Systems, Inc.(MMS). Visma/SpecTec significantly strengthens its position in the maritime market by increasing its customer base by 25%, from an installed base of about 4.000 ships to nearly 5.000 ships. Through this acquisition, Visma/SpecTec now is the undisputed leading supplier of software, especially for planned maintenance, to the maritime industry.

SpecTec will hire the employees of MMS. The agreement is subject to various approvals expected to be completed in the next couple months.

Current customer projects and support will continue uninterrupted, as a seamless transition is extremely important to both customers and SpecTec. The main software products of MMS, will continue to be fully supported with major systems such as Fleetworks carried forward and supported for at least 5 years. MMS’s Fleet Manager is a very well seasoned product, with a large number of satisfied users. SpecTec Connecticut, through its former MMS employees, will continue to provide support and consulting. The new organization will integrate product sets from both companies to insure the very best ideas and solutions are made available to the entire customer base.

Both methods will reduce the vessels’ cargo intake.

Mosking (built 1975) and Mosqueen (1974) have already since 1 ½ year ago complied with the rules at 25 years on the basis of alternative A. This was done by converting cargo tanks to permanent ballast tanks.

After the conversions the vessels load approx. 275,000 tons (2 million barrels). These two vessels are currently the only ones in the world fleet of 70s-built VLCCs that have complied with the international regulations using alternative A.

Mosvold Shipping has in connection with the forthcoming dry-docking of Mosocean (1974) decided to use alternative A also for this vessel, but then by fitting longitudinal bulkheads in two of the wing tanks. A similar solution is being planned for the Moscliff (1974) later this year. The vessels’ classification societies have given their approval.

The service is still subject to normal regulatory approval but is expected to commence in February.

The port rotation is: New Orleans, Houston, USA; Altamira and Veracruz, Mexico; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Colon, Panama; Cartagena, Colombia; Puerto Cabello and La Guaira, Venezuela; Cartagena; Colon; Puerto Limon and back to New Orleans.

The direct calls at Puerto Limon, Puerto Cabello and La Guaira are new markets for TMG and TMM.

The new service will be operated by three 1050-TEU geared container ships that will provide a weekly, fixed-day service on a 21-day rotation.

A second joint service will also be launched between Mexico, the U.S. Gulf and the East Coast of South America, where APL, Crowley, Ivaran Lines, Libra Navegacao and TMM will cooperate. This service is subject to regulatory approval but is expected to commence in February.

This weekly, fixed-day service will be operated with seven 1200-TEU geared container ships.

The port rotation is:

Week one: Veracruz, Altamira, Mexico; New Orleans, Houston, USA; Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Francisco do Sul, Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Brazil; Puerto Cabello, Venezuela; and back to Veracruz.

Week two: Veracruz, Altamira, Mexico; New Orleans, Houston, USA; Vitoria, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Itajai and Paranagua, Brazil; Santos, Vitoria, Puerto Cabello, Venezuela; and back to Veracruz.

In addition to the above, TMG and TMM will continue to service the ports of Buenaventura, Colombia; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Callao, Peru; and San Antonio, Chile, on a weekly basis, as well as the ports of Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, San Vicente and Paita on alternating weeks, via Crowley’s Cartagena service.

Also, Ivaran Lines will continue to offer weekly direct calls at San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Rio Haina, Dominican Republic, via a slot-charter on Crowley’s Venezuela-Florida service.


MAERSK LINE LAUNCHES EUROPE-CARIBBEAN SERVICE

Danish shipowner Maersk Line launched a new weekly service between Northern Europe and the French Antilles.

The ports of call on the new service are:

Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France, Port of Spain, Basse-Terre and again Fort-de-France.

Antwerp, where Maersk has his own office, has been chosen as the port of call for the Benelux. The service is provided with five chartered ships each with a capacity of around 800 TEU. These ships are in Antwerp handled by Noord Natie at the Delwaide Dock (berth 702), where the ships of the joint Maersk/Sea-Land service to the east coast of South America are already received. Source: Cargoweb (http://www.cargoweb.nl)

Stevedores at Bangkok’s Klong Toey Port staged a go-slow when harbour officials attempted to crackdown on the practice of paying "tea money" in return for quicker handling of containers.

For more than five decades the 6,000 workers at Bangkok’s main port have been among the highest wage earners in Thailand. Forklift operators have been known to earn up to 200,000 baht a month (A$ 8,600) from under-the-table payments.

With a minimum daily wage of around 150 baht for factory workers, jobs as dockers are highly prized. Jobs are often kept in the family and premiums paid when a docker retires.

Port shipping agents’ budget around 600,000 baht a month to persuade dockers to give priority to handling their containers. "Tea money" per container ranged from around 120 to 350 baht.

Corruption at the port is so endemic that there are special "tea money" boxes fixed to cranes where shipping companies deposit the money.

Shipping companies know that failure to provide "tea money" will mean containers lounging on the port unattended for months. Corruption has led to many shipping companies using other Asian ports such as Singapore and Malaysia to handle their cargo.

The Port Authority of Thailand, in an attempt to make the port more attractive to shippers, outlawed under-the-counter payments in October. It has also introduced and electronic data interchange system (EDI) to spee up handling.

But shipping agents were far from co-operative, as they knew they would never get their cargo handled. The Bangkok Shipowners’ and Agents’ Association went as far as saying that "tea money" should be retained.

"The practice has been in operation for 50 years," said Sutham Chitranukroh, the chairman. "Shipping companies want to keep ‘tea money’ as they can still make money. At least this way the cargo gets handled."

A temporary truce was declared this week when the port authority agreed to restructure overtime. But there are fears of further slowdowns and even violence. "We expect a repeat of what happened on the Australian waterfront," said one port official.

The number of containers handled at the port has fallen from one million to 1.7 million largely through corruption. However, the economic slowdown has also been a factor.

Comparative studies of their Asian ports have shown that even with "tea money" Bangkok’s dockers are twice as slow as their counterparts in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Thailand’s downturn has forced the spotlight on the massive kickbacks that have been factored into doing business in Thailand for years, particularly in pharmaceuticals and construction.

Some construction companies are shell companies that win a bid for a tender through huge kickbacks and then find another contractor to carry out.

Bidding for Bangkok’s new international bidding had to be put out to tender again because of a huge corruption scam. Mae Hong Song’s new airport was so badly built because of the need to cream off the budget to corrupt contractors that Thai Airways has had to freeze plans to use Boeing 737s on the route.

The administration of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, known as Thailand’s Mr Clean, has been the first to attempt to tackle corruption in the police, military and business. Traffic police have been more reluctant to take bribes in return for tearing up tickets since several officers were shown on television pocketing kickbacks.

A bombing campaign of key Government buildings has been blamed on senior officers upset at the Government’s attempts to end their illegal logging and arms procurement scams. Several senior generals run dubious entertainment establishments.

There have even been attempts to probe funding to Buddhist temples following allegations of a scam at Wat Dhammakayk, one of Bangkok’s most popular temples.

The government’s efforts have met with little success other than the resignation of three Cabinet members to take responsibility for scams in their departments.

The world-wide expansion of the transhipment and container-handling organization of Hutchison, currently especially noticeable in north-west Europe, is causing shipowners great concern.

Following the take-over of the Rotterdam container-handling company ECT by Hutchison (50 percent) together with a group of Dutch investors and the Rotterdam Municipal Port Management, P&O Nedlloyd has once again expressed its apprehension.

With Hutchison now accounting for 40 percent of the 22 million containers being handled in north-west Europe every year, P&O Nedlloyd is worried that the company is in a position to unilaterally set prices.

P&O has written to the European Commission to outline its concerns. Last week, P&O Nedlloyd management discussed the company’s views with top officials of Euro Commissioner Van Miert’s office (competition affairs).

Smaller stevedoring companies are also against the sale of ECT, but then mostly because of the participation of the Rotterdam Municipal Port Management in the deal. This would put it in danger of losing its impartiality, the stevedoring companies believe.

A reduction of the number of pilots on large vessels in the Panama Canal will endanger the safety.

This was stated by the Panama Canal Pilot’s Association, after the Panama Canal Commission launched a plan to reduce the number of pilots required from 2 to 1 per ship.

The authorities also propose to make shipping companies responsible for the first million dollar

cost of damage from incidents. This measure will increase the insurance costs, the pilots said.

These measures are part of the proposals for the hand-over of the Panama Canal by the US to Panama on December 31, 1999.


850 TO BE LAID OFF OVER VANCOUVER PORT STRIKE

VANCOUVER Jan 28 - As many as 850 grain workers at the Port of Vancouver will be laid off by this weekend.

The grain companies say their terminals are running at only about 10 per cent capacity because of a strike by federal government workers who weigh the grain.

The companies are calling on Ottawa to step in and end the dispute.

Continuing the trend towards consolidation Newport News Shipbuilding and Avondale Industries have approved a merger of the two companies.

The transaction creates a leading, broad-based shipbuilding company with estimated 1999 revenues of $2.6 billion and nearly 24,000 employees. The combined company will be known as Newport News Avondale Industries.

TNGC NEWBUILDING DELIVERED IN WUHAN, CHINA

The special design LPG vessel TNGC En 1001 (2,057 cbm with Chinese flag) has been delivered from the Wuchang Shipyard in Wuhan, China. Following successful trial trips, the vessel will be subject to Chinese authorities’ inspection and permits.

TNGC, I.M. Skaugen’s joint venture with Hubei Tianfa of Wuhan, pioneers the transport of LPG on the Yangtze river - bringing LPG to the inland regions of China for the first time. The demand for LPG to the areas inhabited along the Yangtze river is both for residential and industrial energy purposes, and the prevailing transportation infra-structure leads to a concentration of the possible transportation for such products by means of water transportation. The LPG for the area close to Hubei Tianfa’s terminal in Zhijiang, constructed in connection with the development of the Three Gorges Dam project, will be used primarily for household energy purposes instead of the present use of wood and coal.

TNGC’s push boats, barges and vessels will all sail under Chinese flag and crew and are managed from an operations centre in Wuhan. The TNGC 1,600 cbm LPG barge Tian En 101 successfully completed its maiden voyages on the Yangtze river late December 1998.

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