Category / International Shipping

by Mike Poverello

World’s largest boxship delivered to MSC

Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding has delivered the 24,116 TEU MSC Tessa, the world’s largest containership.

The delivery takes place as part of a four-vessel deal with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), worth around $600 million.

MSC Tessa is one of only a handful of ships to surpass the 24,000 TEU mark and is classed by DNV classification society.

According to the shipyard, vessels in the same class measure 1,312 feet in length, making them almost 200 feet longer than a typical aircraft carrier, with a beam of nearly 202 feet.

While the loading configuration varies slightly between different shipyards, all the vessels can stack containers up to 25 layers high.

The MSC Tessa uses air lubrication, reducing its energy consumption and carbon emissions by between 3 per cent and 4 per cent. It is also fitted with a hybrid scrubber, a small bulbous bow, large diameter propellers and energy-saving ducts.

The giant vessel will be calling at Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Felixstowe in Northern Europe, with a call at Tanger during the return trip, before proceeding to Singapore.

Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group reported that the second ship on order from the series has completed sea trials and that the third and fourth containerships are also under construction.

The Swiss-based container shipping giant has the largest order book in the industry with around 131 containerships on order, according to Alphaliner.

The ships are scheduled for delivery in 2023, with orders spread between Chinese and South Korean shipbuilding majors.

Upon completion, the 14 new Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) ordered by MSC will constitute one-third of the company’s current fleet, with a combined capacity of 1.7 million TEU.

Although the current ships run on conventional fuel, MSC is venturing into the use of more sustainable options, such as biofuels and LNG dual-fuel vessels. The company has already conducted tests with biofuels and plans to increase its usage in the near future.

Additionally, MSC has recently ordered its first ammonia-ready designs, which are being built in China.

Source: PortTechnology, article by Marghertia Bruno, dated 10 March 2023

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by Mike Poverello

Digital FIATA Bill of Lading, to be launched for SAAFF members and exporters in South Africa

The introduction of the new generation digital FIATA Bill of Lading (FBL) has been confirmed and will be launched by the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) as a new standard to members and exporters for use across the Supply Chain in South Africa.
 
This development will positively impact supply chain efficiencies and South Africa’s competitive position as a provider of world class logistics services, says Dr Juanita Maree, Chief Executive Officer of SAAFF.
 
South Africa hosted the Annual Rotational Presidency meeting of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders (FIATA) in Cape Town earlier this month. The FIATA delegation, led by President Ivan Petrov had the opportunity to delve deeper into the South African supply chain logistics sector during their visit, in consultation with industry leaders. Terry Gale, representing Exporters Western Cape and the Fresh Produce Exporters Forum (FPEF) welcomed the imminent introduction of the digital FBL.
 
Industry recognises the digital FBL and its proven tracking service as a strong solution that will add capacity and increase security of cargo movement through the entire logistics process – a valuable development in a challenging trading environment.
 
In global terms, the Bill of Lading is recognised as the most important document used in the transportation of goods, FIATA’s Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading is seen as the benchmark; long-standing but in constant evolution and acknowledged by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as a document fully aligned to the UNCTAD/ICC Rules for Multimodal Transport.
 
This new generation secured digital FBL and tracking solution allows FIATA to protect against fraudulent manipulation and to promote a digital ecosystem of trust for transport and trade documents. It supports transparency and security across the supply chain and will help member companies accelerate their digitalisation efforts. The digital FBL data model is fully aligned with the UN/CEFACT MMT Reference data model to ensure its interoperability with other standards and all trade parties.
 
Verifiable at any time by legitimate stakeholders interacting with the document, which dramatically reduces fraud risk, the digital FBL can be issued in digital and paper format and cannot be tampered with, with each document also being recorded on an immutable ledger. Stakeholders will be able to access the document audit trail through a unique QR code or on FIATA’s verification portal to certify the validity of the document, the integrity of its issuer and the integrity of its content.

The tracking solution used by FIATA for the digital FBL is already implemented and used by banks, corporates, warehouses, and inspection companies to protect other documents. Software providers worldwide make the secured digital FBL accessible in 17 territories so far through FIATA Association members. Forwarders can implement the digital FBL solution on their own in-house system or use a free digital FBL generator tool.

by Mike Poverello

MSC takes delivery of first Cargo Aircraft

MSC has taken the next step in developing its Air Cargo solution with the delivery of the first MSC-branded aircraft, built by Boeing and operated by Atlas Air. The B777-200 Freighter will fly on routes between China, the US, Mexico and Europe.

Jannie Davel, Senior Vice President Air Cargo at MSC, said: “Our customers need the option of air solutions, which is why we’re integrating this transportation mode to complement our extensive maritime and land cargo operations. The delivery of this first aircraft marks the start of our long-term investment in air cargo.”

Jannie Davel brings extensive air cargo experience, having worked in the sector for many years, most recently heading Delta’s commercial cargo operations, before joining MSC in 2022.

He said: “Since I started at MSC, I have spoken to numerous partners and customers right across the market and it is very clear that air cargo can enable a range of companies to meet their logistics needs. Flying adds options, speed, flexibility and reliability to supply chain management, and there are particular benefits for moving perishables, such as fruit and vegetables, pharmaceutical and other healthcare products and high-value goods. 

We are delighted to see the first of our MSC-branded aircraft take to the skies and we believe that MSC Air Cargo is developing from a solid foundation thanks to the reliable, ongoing support from our operating partner Atlas Air.”

Atlas Air, Inc., a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAWW), is supporting MSC on an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) basis. This aircraft is the first of four B777-200Fs in the pipeline, which are being placed on a long-term basis with MSC, providing dedicated capacity to support the ongoing development of the business.

The B777-200F twin-engine aircraft has been commended for its advanced fuel efficiency measures. It also has low maintenance and operating costs, and, with a range of 4,880 nautical miles (9,038 kilometres), it can fly further than any other aircraft in its class. It also meets quota count standards for maximum accessibility to noise sensitive airports around the globe.

by Mike Poverello

The World’s Largest Container Shipping Companies

Did you know that 80% of the global goods trade is transported over sea? Given the scale of human consumption, this requires an enormous number of shipping containers, as well as ships to carry them. 

At an industry level, container shipping is dominated by several very large firms. This includes Maersk, COSCO Shipping, and Evergreen. If you live along the coast, you’ve probably seen ships or containers with these names painted on them. 

Generally speaking, however, consumers know very little about these businesses. This graphic aims to change that by ranking the 10 largest container shipping companies in the world.

Read the Full Article here!

by Mike Poverello

Maritime Traffic Around the World

Visual Capitalist.com

Each year, thousands of ships travel across the globe, transporting everything from passengers to consumer goods like wheat and oil. 

But just how busy are global maritime routes, and where are the world’s major shipping lanes? This map by Adam Syminton paints a macro picture of the world’s maritime traffic by highlighting marine traffic density around the world.

It uses data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in partnership with The World Bank, as part of IMF’s World Seaborne Trade Monitoring System. 

Data spans from Jan 2015 to Feb 2021 and includes five different types of ships: commercial ships, fishing ships, oil & gas, passenger ships, and leisure vessels.

Read the Full Article

by Mike Poverello

FIATA – Launches Paperless FBL Solution

Picture: Glenn Carsten-Pieters

FIATA is proud to bring its members a pragmatic solution to move from paper documents to paperless FIATA BLs, which can be issued directly through their everyday tools. The FIATA solution improves the level of security of the FIATA BL in comparison to the paper version, making use of blockchain technology to authenticate the documents and provide an audit trail. Conscious of the various challenges which remain to be overcome to achieve worldwide adoption and legal recognition of electronic exchange of data, the paperless FBL is an answer to the needs of the industry for improved access and exchange of trade documents. The document issuer can decide in which format (s)he wishes to share the original unaltered document with its stakeholders: in paper form or as a PDF. Based on its eFBL data standard, FIATA has developed an API service, available free of charge to all software providers, allowing them to connect with FIATA to create secured paperless FBLs.

As of today, seven software providers have already signed an agreement with the Federation to implement the solution: AKANEA, Cargowise, CargoX, edoxOnline (Global Share), InfoSysTech-IST, Nabu and Usyncro. We are very pleased to announce that the paperless FBLs can start to be issued as of today with edoxOnline, InfoSysTech-IST and Usyncro who have already finalised the implementation.

FIATA encourages all TMS’s, eBL providers and other software providers to join them and implement their solution to offer this new service to their customers. All technical specifications are available on FIATA’s GitHub repository.

 The solution, developed by FIATA partner Komgo, will help to reduce fraud risks, as each document is recorded on an immutable ledger and will be verifiable at any time by all stakeholders interacting with the document. Stakeholders will be able to either scan the QR code at the top right of the document, or directly upload the PDF on FIATA’s verification page to access the document audit trail which will

  • certify the validity of the document,
  • the identity of its issuer, and
  • the integrity of its content.

Souleïma Baddi, CEO of Komgo, when asked to comment on the paperless FBL launch said: ‘Documents are the bedrock of international trade, but they don’t operate like we need them to and they’re susceptible to fraud and forgery, that happens quite often.

Trakk is the digital ecosystem of trust for trade documents. I am thrilled to see FIATA joining all companies, financial institutions, warehouses and others who are using Trakk to protect their documents against fraud.’

‘WiseTech Global congratulates FIATA on the launch of their electronic bill of lading.’ The company continued: ‘This initiative will support transparency and security across the supply chain and will help companies to accelerate their digitalisation efforts. It was a pleasure to work with FIATA on this initiative. CargoWise customers will be able to request a connection to FIATA’s eFBL from June 2022.’ 

‘FIATA is very excited to embark on this important milestone of its digital journey which paved the way for great opportunities for the future of freight forwarders’, said FIATA Director General Stéphane Graber.

For more information, visit FIATA’s dedicated webpage. 

by Mike Poverello

SAFE Working Group urges greater harmonization of AEO programmes

Picture – Nazarizal Mohammed

The 26th/27th Meetings of the SAFE Working Group (SWG) were held successfully from 11 to 14 April 2022. The virtual meetings brought together more than 260 delegates representing Customs administrations, the Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG), other international organizations and academia.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, WCO Director of Compliance and Facilitation, highlighted that the SWG had reached an important juncture as the new three-year SAFE review cycle 2021-2024 was about to enter into discussions. It was pointed out that 17 years after it was first published, the SAFE Framework of Standards (FoS) had garnered substantial interest from WCO Members. During the meetings, Guyana became the 172nd WCO Member to express its interest in implementing the SAFE FoS. 

With a view to continued enhancement of the AEO criteria and provisions to strengthen the SAFE FoS, WCO Members made several new proposals to revise the Framework. The SWG also received feedback from the private sector on the urgent need to enhance the harmonization of SAFE and AEO implementation. In this context, the SWG heard a presentation by the WCO Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme on maintaining the integrity and transparency of AEO implementation.

On this occasion, the SWG reviewed and adopted the new Work Plan for 2022-2024, which reflected the critical activities the SWG will carry out over the next two years until 2024, in parallel with the SAFE review cycle. The SWG also received an update on the development of new features for the Online AEO Compendium (OAC) and the other extensive work underway in collaboration with other international organizations in the areas of security and facilitation.

Against the backdrop of the WCO’s theme for 2022, the panel discussion on “Scaling up Customs Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem” attracted significant interest from Members and the private sector. The experienced speakers from Member Customs administrations, the private sector and the Secretariat enriched the discussions by sharing their best practices on using data for enhancing risk management and monitoring AEO programmes.

As a way forward, the SWG agreed that efforts will be reserved for a comprehensive review to assess and monitor SAFE implementation for greater harmonization of AEO programmes globally.

Source: World Customs Organisation, 25 April 2022

by Mike Poverello

Satellite Maps – Shanghai’s Supply Chain Standstill

China has mandated a strict “zero COVID” policy since the onset of the global pandemic, which has led to tight lockdowns across the country whenever cases have started to spike. 

Recently, lockdown restrictions have been enacted in major cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, as China deals with one of its worst outbreaks since Wuhan in December 2019.

These cautionary measures have had far-reaching impacts on China’s economy, especially on its supply chain and logistics operations. Shanghai’s port system, which handles about one-fifth of China’s export containers, is currently experiencing significant delays as a result of the recent government lockdown.

Shipping volume has dipped drastically since early March this year, right after partial lockdowns began in Shanghai. By the end of March, as restrictions continued to tighten up, shipping activity dipped nearly 30% compared to pre-lockdown levels. And while activity has recently picked up, it’s still far below average shipment volumes prior to the recent lockdown.

While the port is still technically operating, shipping delays will likely cause hiccups in the global supply chain. That’s because the Shanghai port is a major hub for international trade, and one of the largest and busiest container ports in the world.

How Bad is the Back-Up?

Here’s a closer look at satellite imagery that was captured by the Sentinel-1 satellite, which shows the current congestion at Shanghai’s port as of April 14, 2022. In the image, a majority of the white dots are cargo ships, many of which have been stuck in limbo for days.

Traffic has been building up at the Shanghai terminal. As of April 19, 2022, over 470 ships are still waiting to deliver goods to China. If you’d like to check out the Shanghai ports most up-to-date traffic, this live map by MarineTraffice provides real-time updates.

Much of these delays are due to transport issues—an estimated 90% of trucks that support import and export activities are currently offline, which is causing dwell time for containers at Shanghai marine terminals to increase drastically. 

Wait times for at Shanghai marine terminals has increased nearly 75% since the lockdowns began. Delays at the Shanghai terminal have sent ships to neighboring ports in Ningbo and Yangshan, but those ports are beginning to get congested as well.

The global impacts of this current bottleneck are still pending, and depend greatly on the length of Shanghai’s lockdown. According to an article in Freight Waves, this could turn into the biggest supply chain issue since the start of the pandemic if China’s marine shipping congestion isn’t cleared up soon.

Read Full Article Here!

Source: Visual Capitalist, article by Carmen Ang and Graphics by Nick Routley, dated 21 April 2022

by Mike Poverello

USA – White House Announces New Initiative to Improve Supply Chain Data Flow

Last year, the ports and the private sector moved a historic amount of goods with record holiday sales and delivery times below pre-pandemic levels. Currently, real retail inventories excluding autos are six percent higher than at the end of 2019 and products at grocery and drug stores are 90 percent in stock, just 1 percentage point below pre-pandemic levels.

The US government is also focused on addressing the longer-term weaknesses in our nation’s supply chains, the result of decades of underinvestment, outsourcing, and offshoring instead of investment in long-term security, sustainability, and resilience. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is now making a generational investment in our ports, highways, and other parts of our physical infrastructure, which will help speed up the movement of goods and lower costs. But we can further strengthen our goods movement supply chains by making a similarly bold improvement in a digital infrastructure to connect the supply chain.

To take the first step toward addressing this challenge, the US government is announcing the launch of Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW), an information sharing initiative to pilot key freight information exchange between parts of the goods movement supply chain. FLOW includes eighteen initial participants that represent diverse perspectives across the supply chain, including private businesses, warehousing, and logistics companies, ports, and more.  These key stakeholders will work together with the Administration to develop a proof-of-concept information exchange to ease supply chain congestion, speed up the movement of goods, and ultimately cut costs for American consumers. DOT will lead this effort, playing the role of an honest broker and convener to bring supply chain stakeholders together to problem solve and overcome coordination challenges. This initial phase aims to produce a proof-of-concept freight information exchange by the end of the summer.

Recent supply chain disruptions have raised national awareness of the need for improved information exchange. Supply chain stakeholders deserve reliable, predictable, and accurate information about goods movement and FLOW will test the idea that cooperation on foundational freight digital infrastructure is in the interest of both public and private parties. FLOW is designed to support businesses throughout the supply chain and improve accuracy of information from end-to-end for a more resilient supply chain.

Resiliency—the ability to recover from an unexpected shock—requires visibility, agility, and redundancy. The lack of digital infrastructure and transparency makes our supply chains brittle and unable to adapt when faced with a shock. The goods movement chain is almost entirely privately operated and spans shipping lines, ports, terminal operators, truckers, railroads, warehouses, and cargo owners such as retailers. These different actors have made great strides in digitizing their own internal operations, but they do not always exchange information with each other. This lack of information exchange can cause delays as cargo moves from one part of the supply chain to another, driving up costs and increasing goods movement fragility.

View the entire Fact Sheet here!

Source: White House, 15 March 2022

by Mike Poverello

Global Supply Chains Making a Huge Bet on Blockchain

System Shock: The $50 Trillion Industry Making a Huge Bet on Blockchain

Blockchain may one day eliminate inefficiencies and lack of transparency in supply chains. While slow in coming, this revolution would benefit not only customers and brands, but the “invisible” workers who power global trade.

In this episode of Bloomberg’s System Shock, we explore how cumbersome, paperwork-bound supply chains—like one stretching from kitchen refrigerators in Europe and the U.S. all the way back to a small farmer in Ecuador—are being transformed by that most modern of technologies.

Source: Bloomberg, System Shock, Gloria Kurnik, 26 January 2022

by Mike Poverello

Nigeria – Lekki Seaport now 80% complete, to be commissioned 2022

The Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has urged contractors of the Lekki Deep Seaport Project to speed up work to enable the government approve all the necessary processes before the next election.

Mr Amaechi made this known in a statement on Saturday while inspecting the ongoing construction of the Lekki Deep Seaport Project in Lagos.

He, however, commended the contractors for the progress of work done so far stating that in less than five months, a lot of civil work had been done.

“I want to congratulate you for the very huge progress. By the time we came here, there were no civil works; it was just pure sand. You have tried.

“I am suggesting that if you work day and night you will go far and complete the work before commissioning. If the President sees it, approval will be easier.

“You need to speed up the work so we can get approval from the government side before election, process of election will be completed in July.

“This is because by law, six months to election people start politics and if you wait till that time, you won’t meet anyone in the office,” he said.

Mr Amaechi, however, said that the port should be automated to avoid all forms of physical contact.

Speaking during the tour, the Chief Technical Officer, Lekki Port, Steven Heukelom, explained that construction work on the project was on course and as scheduled.

He noted that dredging and reclamation works had reached 89.93 per cent completion, Quay Wall 85.65 per cent completion, Breakwater 79.66 per cent completion, and the landside infrastructure development 67.82 per cent completion.

He added that this brings total works carried out on the project to approximately 80 per cent completion stage.

Mr Heukelom also informed the minister that work had commenced on the marine services jetty, which the NPA would use to carry out their marine services obligation.

He commended the Acting Managing Director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, for the support and partnership in preparing the port to start operations.

Mr Bello-Koko reaffirmed the agency’s readiness to provide marine services for the port’s operations.

To this end, he disclosed that NPA was procuring tug boats and other necessary infrastructure for the smooth take-off of the Port.

In his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer of Lekki Port, Laurence Smith, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to delivering the project by the fourth quarter of 2022.

He noted that the EPC Contractor, China Habour Engineering LFTZ Enterprise, was working day and night to make this commitment a reality.

Mr Smith expressed confidence that the Port, upon completion, would be a world-class port and would become a regional distribution and transhipment hub for the African region.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Lekki Port is being developed by Tolaram and China Harbour Engineering Company.

The Lagos State Government and NPA are also shareholders in the project company.

The port is scheduled to start port operations by the end of 2022.

Source: PremiumTimesng, 23 January 2022

by Mike Poverello

Former SpaceX Engineers making Electric & Autonomous Railway Vehicles

Former SpaceX engineers banded together to create a new startup looking to make electric and autonomous railway vehicles to revolutionize rail-based freight transport. They have a big task ahead of them.

The railway business is a tough one to break into. It’s a static oligopoly dominated by a few giants sitting on their railroad rights and making minimal investments to maximize profits.

Over the years, railroads were privatized in North America, and the businesses have no issues closing smaller railroads. They often close smaller railroads when they can’t find a way to make money off of them and focus on the most profitable routes with longer trains – often as long as 3 miles.

Despite those issues, freight trains have remained a good solution since they are about four times as efficient as trucks. But, with trucks expected to become electric and autonomous in the coming years, they are going to close the efficiency gap with trains.

Now Matt Soule, a former long-time SpaceX engineer, has partnered with former colleagues at Elon Musk’s space company to launch a new startup, Parallel Systems, developing new electric and autonomous vehicles.

The company just raised $50 million in a Series A funding round and came out of stealth mode with an article in Fortune. The idea is to create small autonomous electric-powered rail vehicles that can enable a different way to use railroads.

You can drop the cargo on individual Parallel Systems vehicles and have them move without waiting for the whole train to be unloaded.

As for the vehicle itself, Parallel Systems vehicles can carry 128,000 pounds, which is more than twice the capacity of a semi-truck. The vehicles have a range of 500 miles on tracks and can charge in about an hour.

Visit Elecktrek’s webpage for the full article and related media.

by Mike Poverello

WCO Data Model 3.11.0 – Online

Unlike the previous versions where the WCO DM was made available on the WCO Members’ website in a downloadable format, version 3.11.0 of the WCO DM is being released on a new publication platform: the WCO DM app. This app interactively displays WCO DM components and aims to enhance the user experience of working with the WCO DM. In so doing, it helps users navigate through different WCO DM data objects, such as classes, data elements and information models, more easily.

The publication of version 3.11.0 in December 2021 marks the culmination of the maintenance process undertaken by the DMPT in its meetings held from September 2020 to April 2021.

In addition to incorporating changes requested by Members through the regular maintenance procedure, version 3.11.0 introduces two new Message Implementation Guides (MIGs) – for implementing the IMO Compendium and WCO-UPU Joint Message Standards.

The MIGs offer practical guidance and additional technical information useful for implementation of the DM, in addition to the semantic definitions available in the Base Information Packages (BIPs) and/or Derived Information Packages (DIPs).

The IMO MIG includes technical information for implementing ship reporting formalities outlined in the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Convention). This MIG is the result of the joint efforts of the WCO and the IMO in updating the IMO Compendium on Facilitation and Electronic Business.

The UPU MIG contains technical information relating to primary electronic message formats, namely CUSITM, a message for a postal operator to transmit mail item information to its local Customs authority, and CUSRES, a message to respond to a CUSITM message.

In accordance with the Council Decision of December 2020, the WCO DM package published in the DM app is available free of charge to all interested parties, including Members, partner international organizations and private-sector stakeholders. All those interested in accessing the WCO DM will be able to take advantage of the app after accepting the WCO DM use terms and conditions. The app is accessible at http://datamodel.wcoomd.org.

by Mike Poverello

Chemical Fire on ‘X-Press Pearl’ Under Control Off Colombo, Sri Lanka

Photo: Sri Lanka Port Authority

The fire on board the X-Press Pearl is reported under control at an anchorage off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, but fire-fighting efforts are continuing, according to the vessel’s operator.

The Sri Lankan Navy continued its response to the incident over the weekend with three tugs from the Sri Lankan Ports Authority on site conducting cooling operations on containers near the fire. At times, the fire flared up with visible flames (see photo below) coming from containers above deck, the Navy said over the weekend.

The fire on board the X-Press Pearl was first reported Thursday as the ship was awaiting entry to Colombo harbor at an offshore anchorage.

The Navy said the ship is carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 tons of Nitric Acid and other chemicals which it had loaded at the port of Hazira, India on May 15. Preliminary investigations indicate the fire started due to a chemical reaction of the hazardous cargo.

All 25 crew members are reported safe, the ship’s operator reported Monday. Meanwhile a salvage team from SMIT has boarded the vessel for an assessment. 

“Fire/smoke still remain on board the vessel but is currently under control. More firefighting tugs have been deployed and they will continue to fight the fire. The salvage team with fire experts and firefighters are already on board the vessel and are carrying out the risk assessment. They have already taken steps to stop the spreading of fire into other areas,” X-Press Feeders said in its update.

“We have been advised that special firefighting equipment will arrive tomorrow. We therefore remain hopeful that the fire will be put out by the salvage team at the soonest time possible,” it added.

Source: G Captain, 24 May 2021

by Mike Poverello

DP World Komatipoort – Handles First Import

Trade solutions multinational DP World has completed the first transit import through the DP World Maputo port, in Mozambique, to DP World Komatipoort, in South Africa.

This is a significant milestone as it demonstrates that the Maputo port can be seamlessly used as a gateway to South Africa, the company says.

International container imports landed in the Maputo port and destined for the South African hinterland can be moved under bond to Komatipoort where full customs clearance can be provided and made ready for delivery across South Africa.

“The Komatipoort facility as a bonded container depot is a game changer for the Maputo Corridor. The success of the trial brings DP World a step closer to enabling a more cost effective, seamless and efficient user experience for our local customers and enhances trade linkages for countries in the Southern African region,” DP World Maputo CEO Christian Roeder says.

Currently, in South Africa, 69% of maritime imports are transported through the Port of Durban. Local customers now have the option to consider using the Maputo port as a gateway to transport their international freight to Komatipoort where it can be cleared more easily and efficiently for customers based in and around Gauteng.

DP World Komatipoort has a full-service offering and links via the Maputo Corridor to DP World Maputo’s modern and efficient container terminal where there is no vessel and port congestion, as well as fixed berthing windows available to major shipping lines, which provides customers with transport savings and avoids delays for consignees in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng.

Once a shipment is retrieved at the DP World Maputo port, the organisation handles the entire supply chain process from there to Komatipoort without delay and beyond to various areas in the hinterland. While the cost of this service varies per user, the service is estimated to be equivalent in costs or cheaper compared to traditional routing through Durban.

However, it is more efficient, especially for the northern areas of the country, DP World note.

Source: Engineering News, Schalk Burger, 3 May 2021