Disruption to French rail freight services goes on as strike is extended

According to starkly contrasting estimates, between 1.2 million (police figures) and 3.5 million (union figures) took part in demonstrations across France yesterday.

Despite French Prime Minister François Fillon re-iterating his government's resolve to put the reforms on the statute book, union leaders claimed there was growing support for the protest and pledged to fight on "to win the battle".

The strike is now largely focused on state French railway SNCF, whose freight division, Fret SNCF, is bracing itself for more major service disruption over the next few days.

It told customers: "Industrial action, which drew strong support on Tuesday, reducing our transport capacity significantly, will continue today in practically all regions of France.

"As a result, Fret SNCF's traffic will be seriously disrupted and will probably remain so until the end of the week."

Each day of strike action costs Fret SNCF an estimated €20million in lost revenue.

Meanwhile, at the ports, where the protest has focused on furthering demands to have the physical nature of the work of dockers and crane drivers taken into account in the pensions reform bill, a call by the CGT union's Federation Nationale des Ports et des Docks (FNPD) to stage rolling strikes, has, for the time being at least, not being activated.

Talks are scheduled to begin later today between the FNPD, the UNIM - the national trade body representing stevedoring companies - and French ports association the UPF to discuss early retirement provision, within the framework of an-going programme to transfer port workers to private sector stevedoring firms.

The UNIM's General Secretary, Xavier Galbrun, told IFW: "Here's an opportunity for each of the parties to sit down and discuss what is the final element in a process of port reform which began in 2008.

"Let's see what the next few days bring, but we are confident that progress can be made,"

His viewpoint was echoed by a FNPD official who said port employers appeared to be "ready to put proposals on the table which provided scope for an agreement to be reached".

Nevertheless, local branches of FNPD are planning strike action at Nantes tomorrow and Le Havre on Friday as well as this weekend at national level.

"Maybe these strike calls could be lifted, if today's negotiations produce a breakthrough. We'll just have to wait and see".

An escalation in strike action at SNCF and by oil refinery workers could see the FNPD come out in support, he warned.

The most optimistic outcome of this clash is an agreed realignment of currency values, with the Yuan increasing in value against the Dollar.

This would be followed by a decline in the size of the Chinese trade imbalance. The more pessimistic possibility would be an open trade-war between China and the US, probably extending to the rest of the world.

Under any circumstances the situation has enormous implications for the logistics sector. One of the primary engines of growth for the sector over the past decade or more has been the expansion of trade with China. Shipping and air freight are dominated by this trade and any disruption or change in its nature will gravely affect these sectors.

A trade-war is likely to have devastating effects on container shipping, which is still in a fragile state after its narrow escape from catastrophe last year. Freight forwarders would also be savagely hit. Contract logistics would be vulnerable as shippers struggled to restructure their supply chains.

Even more balanced trade between Asia-Pacific and the West would affect the sector as logistics service providers would have to adapt their business models to reflect more even utilisation of capacity.

Workers at the southern Chittagong sea port have been on strike since Monday.

After an emergency visit by the shipping minister Tuesday failed to end the standoff, the army was called in to keep cargo at the port moving.

"Negotiations have failed and we have sent in soldiers to run the port and maintain law and order," the port's security director Lieutenant Colonel Kamrul Islam told AFP, adding that all protests at the port have been banned.

Chittagong port handles more than 90 percent of Bangladesh's imports and exports and the walkout has caused huge delays, angering the country's powerful garment sector, which accounts for more than 80 percent of total shipments.

"This summer, garment exporters had to spend nine billion taka (130 million dollars) on air freight because of delays or mismanagement at the port," the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said in a statement.

"The government must act to end this strike immediately," said the statement on Tuesday.

Chittagong port has already been hit by severe congestion due to worker unrest and overcrowding in recent months, with the average turnaround time for a container rising from three days to 11.

The situation is likely to worsen, analysts say, as exports continue to soar -- garment shipments rose an average 30 percent year-on-year in July and August, according to government statistics.

Antwerp intends to develop two new harbour facilities in Verrebroek and Saeftinghe. The latter will be developed into a new multi-dock container facility capable of taking post-panamax vessels whilst Verrebroek will also be expanded into a post-panamax dock. The volumes that these harbours will be able to handle is unknown, however they will offer multiple quays, some in excess of 3000m, so it should be assumed that they will handle considerable volumes of containers.

These new terminals will be complemented by the building of new lock facilities on the Scheldt River necessary to give the estuarine port a 24 hour unloading capability. Antwerp will also extend its road network to support the new harbours.

The size of the vessels entering the Scheldt also requires the extension of dredging operations and therefore the port will purchase a new dredging vessel.

The port of Antwerp is a close competitor of Rotterdam and Hamburg for the position of leading European port. It has benefitted over the past few years from the expansion of its facilities on the left bank of the Scheldt River. Prior to the recession, Antwerp was able to grab significant volumes from its close rival Rotterdam whilst the Dutch port was struggling to open its Maasvlakte 2 expansion. The announcement of the new investment is a clear sign that Antwerp intends to match Rotterdam's growth and retain the advantage it has gained over recent years.

The aim of the new manifest regulations is to ensure an equal level of protection through customs controls for all goods shipped into, out of or through the EU.

The amendment to the Customs Code covers four major changes:

• It requires traders to provide customs authorities with information on goods prior to import into, export from or transhipment via the EU
• It provides reliable traders (Authorised Economic Operators) with trade facilitation measures
• It introduces uniform community risk-selection criteria for controls, supported by computerised systems for goods entering, leaving or transiting EU customs territory
• It introduces an EU database enabling the consultation of all national registration numbers (EORI)

The time limits for lodging the Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) vary according to the mode of transport and length of journey:

• Containerised maritime cargo (except short sea containerised shipping): At least 24 hours prior to loading in each foreign port
• Bulk/ break bulk maritime cargo (except short sea bulk/ break bulk shipping): At least four hours prior to arrival at the first port in the EU
• Short sea shipping: Movements between Greenland, Faroe Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, Norway, Iceland, Baltic Sea ports, North Sea ports, Black Sea ports, Mediterranean ports, and the EU except French overseas departments, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands: At least two hours before arrival at the first port in the EU
• Short sea shipping: Movements with a duration of less than 24 hours between a territory outside the customs territory of the EU, and the French overseas departments, the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands: At least two hours before arrival at the first port in the EU
• Short haul flights (less than four hours duration): At least by the time of the aircraft's actual take-off
• Long haul flights (more than four hours duration): At least four hours prior to arrival at the first airport in the EU
• Rail and inland waterways: At least two hours prior to arrival at the customs office of entry in the EU
• Road traffic: At least one hour prior to arrival at the customs office of entry in the EU

Where the regulations require carriers to declare containerised maritime cargo information to European Customs 24 hours prior to EU-bound goods being loaded onto a vessel in a non-EU port, most carriers will require all shipping instructions within 48 hours of the operational cut at the port of loading.

Around 20 of the biggest container shipping carriers using Hong Kong port are expected to confirm by Friday that they will make the switch from January 1.

One member of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association, Danish shipping giant Maersk, has already stolen a march on its rivals by not only agreeing but actually making the change from early September.

The move miffed some of its fellow association members, not least the Tung family-controlled shipping line, Orient Overseas Container Lines, because it appeared to break a gentlemen's agreement that January 1, 2011, would be the implementation date for the switch.

Insiders said other container lines, including OOCL, were eager to follow suit and prove their green credentials.

A 2005 study by think tank Civic Exchange and two universities showed vessels around the Kwai Chung container port were responsible for more than a third of the sulphur dioxide emissions measured at the Environmental Protection Department's air quality stations. EPD figures also show that sulphur dioxide emissions from ships rose 16 per cent between 2001 and 2005.

The shift to low-sulphur fuel while dockside is a small step but is also part of a wider shipping industry focus to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide. It's a direction that could lead ultimately to significant changes in ship design and a broader range of fuels used at sea and in port.

Research is under way on several technologies such as wind and solar systems to augment the diesel main engines of vessels already in commercial service. Moves are also taking place to replace diesel with liquefied natural gas or nuclear power.