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CTSA NOTICE CURRENCY ADJUSTMENT FACTOR NOVEMBER
Major transpacific shipping lines of the Canada Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (CTSA), wish to advise their customers that effective November 1st, 2010, the Currency Adjustment Factor will be at the following level:
6% - Applicable from all origins including Japan and the PRC
The members will continue to monitor exchange rates and will notify their customers of any further adjustments.
VANCOUVER PORT VOLUME UP AS ECONOMY REBOUNDS
Shipments through Port Metro Vancouver are up substantially this year, Chris Badger, the port's chief operating officer, said last week. Badger said there were some concerns about coal shipping, but there was no overall shipping crunch. He said 2008 was the port's record year "and I think [2010] will fall short of 2008, but we'll be close."
Port Metro Vancouver handled a total of 58.4 million tonnes to the end of July, an increase of 20% over the same period in 2009. Bulk shipments were up 22%, resulting from growth in Asian economies and strong demand for Canadian commodities such as coal and potash. Container traffic was up 12% as a result of consumer spending, with demand for consumer goods increasing as the recovery takes hold.
ILA ENDS WORK STOPPAGE IN NEW YORK/NEW JERESY
The two-day work stoppage at the six container terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey ended Wednesday afternoon when the Philadelphia ILA local whose picket lines had caused the shutdown of the terminals called off the picketing.
The Philadelphia longshoreman had started picketing the terminals in New York Harbor at 8 a.m. Tuesday to protest the pending move by Del Monte Fresh Produce of 75 ship calls a year from an ILA terminal in Camden, N.J. to a non-ILA facility in Gloucester, N.J. The ILA said in a statement mid-afternoon Wednesday that it asked pickets from the Philadelphia local to leave the terminals.
PORT NEHRU TRUCKERS CALL OFF STRIKE
Unionized truckers late Friday called off a four-day strike at the Port of Jawaharlal Nehru, allowing ocean containers to move through Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal reports the Journal of Commerce. The settlement followed several rounds of tense negotiations between senior officials of the terminal authority, a DP World company, and representatives of the Nhava Sheva Container Operators’ Association. The intervention of user bodies such as the Container Shipping Lines’ Association and the Mumbai-Nhava Sheva Ship Agents’ Associations also helped resolve the impasse.
The truck owner-operator group, which represents the local trucking community, said terminal management agreed to address the truckers’ concerns over increased turnaround times for vehicles handling local movements. Officials said striking drivers, who walked off the job Sept. 28 protesting delays at the private terminal, resumed trucking operations. Officials also said all efforts were being made to accelerate clearance of accumulated containers after the abrupt stoppage disrupted export arrivals into the terminal and import deliveries to customers as well as storage facilities outside the port area.
FRANCE BRACES ITSELF FOR MORE STRIKES
A general strike call in France for 12 October in protest at pensions reform – the third in just over a month – looks set to develop into an indefinite period of industrial action reports IFW. The action will have a massive impact the country’s railways and other transport sectors if the government does not back down from its bid to raise the statutory retirement age. All the unions at state-owned rail operator SNCF have given notice that they are ready to stage a rolling strike, renewable from day to day, after the general strike ends. CGT branches, representing seafarers, truck drivers and air traffic controllers, have also called for action beyond next Tuesday and other unions in the transport sector are poised to do likewise. However, the French government continues to maintain a determined stance, saying reform cannot be abandoned if France’s state pension’s scheme is not to collapse.
Meanwhile, the CGT’s Ports and Docks Federation, which ended a national 72-hour stoppage on 4 October, is planning a national 48-hour stoppage on 9 and 10 October, as well as supporting the 12 October day of action, but has stopped short of calling for an open-ended strike. Earlier this week, dockers and ports workers at the Marseille-Fos container terminal staged a one-day stoppage in a show of solidarity with workers at the port’s oil terminals who have been on strike for 11 days, preventing the entry of all oil tanker traffic and raising fears of fuel shortages on Corsica and in parts of France.
CN REACHES TENTATIVE LABOUR CONTRACT SETTLEMENTS WITH TCRC - AVERTS WORK STOPPAGE
CN announced Friday that it has reached tentative collective agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference – Conductors, Trainmen and Yardmen (TCRC—CTY).
Upon ratification, CN will have labour stability with this group for the next three years. The TCRC-CTY represents approximately 2,700 CN conductors, yard-persons and traffic coordinators on CN’s network in Canada. Details of the three-year labour contracts are being withheld pending ratification.
CHINA OVERLOADED AIRPORTS HAVE NO ROOM FOR NEW FLIGHTS
Due to limited landing slots and worsening flight delays, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has decided to suspend approvals for new flights and overlapping routes to airports in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou reports Shanghai Daily.
Approvals of new flights to Shenzhen International Airport will also be suspended, except for China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines, which have bases in the airport. "The administration encouraged carriers to use larger aircraft to serve routes to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou instead of increasing frequencies."
CATHAY PACIFIC AND WESTJET EXPAND SERVICES THROUGH NEW CODE-SHARE AGREEMENT
Cathay Pacific Airways and WestJet announced they will begin a new code-share arrangement with immediate effect, providing passengers with a wider choice and greater connectivity when travelling between Hong Kong and Canada.
Bookings for the code-share are now open for travel from 20 October 2010. Under the new arrangement, Cathay Pacific's "CX" code will be placed on WestJet flights between Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg and the Hong Kong carrier's two Canadian gateways, Toronto and Vancouver.
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