DP World announces strong results for first 6 months of fiscal year

DUBAI: Global trade enabler DP World PLC on 22 August 2019 announced strong financial results for the six months ending 30 June 2019 with reported adjusted EBITDA and attributable earnings growth of 21.9% and 26.8% respectively.
DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem credited the company’s strategy of developing innovative new products and services and prudent management for DP World’s impressive half-year results.
Bin Sulayem added that DP World’s excellent performance against the backdrop of challenging global economic conditions is a testament to the company’s resilience, sound growth strategy and the diversification of its global investment portfolio across energy, maritime and sustainable mobility amongst others.
Bin Sulayem stated: “Our half-year financial results have been in line with our expectations, Mr Bin Sulayem said. He highlighted that DP World continues to be guided by deep market understanding, innovation and operational excellence across 45 Countries Worldwide. Despite uncertainty from the trade war and challenging regional geopolitical realities, DP World has been able to deliver and excel a broadly impressive performance in the first half of 2019.”
“DP World is pleased to report like-for-like earnings growth of 22% in the first half of 2019 and attributable earnings of $753 million. This strong financial performance has been delivered in an uncertain trade environment, once again highlighting the strength of our portfolio. We have continued to make progress on our strategy to become a trade enabler and solutions provider as we look to participate across a wider part of the supply chain. We have invested significantly across our Ports, Logistics & Maritime Services businesses.
The aim is to connect directly with customers to offer logistics solutions and remove inefficiencies in the supply chain to accelerate trade. We are seeing positive signs of progress in our new businesses that give us encouragement for the future,” he added.
“Our balance sheet remains strong, and we continue to generate high levels of cash flow, which gives us the ability to invest in the future growth of our current portfolio. Going forward, we aim to integrate our new acquisitions and deliver synergies with the objective of providing smart end-to-end solutions, which will improve the quality of our earnings and drive returns. While the near-term trade outlook remains uncertain with global trade disputes and regional geopolitics causing uncertainty to the container market, the strong financial performance of the first six months also leaves us well placed to deliver full-year results slightly ahead of market expectations,” he further added.

Reduction in Logistics cost by 10% can increase exports by 5-8% : FIEO

NEW DELHI: The critical role played by India's logistics sector in the country's economic growth story could not be understated. Instrumental in moving goods across its huge length and breadth (about 3.287 million square km), Indian roads are the lifeline of the logistics sector. However, the logistics sector itself is highly unorganised, fragmented and currently mired in multiple challenges leading to operational inefficiency on several fronts.
In India, the logistics cost as a percentage of its GDP stands at 14%. This cost is pretty high compared to the similar cost in the US (9.5%), Germany (8%) and Japan (11%). Nevertheless, the Country aims to bring down this cost to less than 10% by 2022.
Considering the critical role of logistics in propelling India's exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) believes a reduction in logistics cost by 10% could increase the Country's exports by about 5-8%.
The all-important last mile
Stemming from the same concept is another of its byproduct -called the 'last mile' - a term used in supply chain management to refer to the last leg of the supply chain, denoting the transportation of goods from a transportation hub to its final destination. This final destination could be the location of an end customer or inland container depots (ICDs), container freight stations (CFSs), ports or airports where goods are to be delivered for their eventual exports.
Given the vast expanse of the country's sheer size, a varied and uneven topography, coupled with the fact that a large number of the Country's Industrial Clusters (dominated mainly by MSMEs) are based out of its tier 2 cities, and not in its large metros, the last mile connect has historically been said to be throttling the growth of Indian MSMEs.
While in recent times the Government has taken many steps to minimise last mile woes, a lot is left to be desired. Various studies have shown that Indian logistics landscape, typically comprises of isolated entities, with a skewed modal mix that depends heavily (about 60%) on the already congested Indian roads.
The Indian coastline and river network have historically remained underused, even though such models
are more energy-efficient, eco-friendly and comes with reduced logistics costs, highlights a recent Deloitte-Assocham study. The same study notes that the cost for Coastal Shipping is Rs 0.15-0.2 per tonne-km compared to Rs 1.5 for railways and Rs 2.5 for the road. Addressing these anomalies could alone provide a huge potential to lower logistics cost in the economy by Rs 21,000-27,000 crore by 2025, the report adds. So, what do industry leaders feel about this critical bottleneck?
Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), believes, "Availability and efficiency of logistics have a direct bearing on firms' competitiveness."
Highlighting how disparities in locational advantage results in a downside to North India based industries, he says, "Industries in North Indian States have a natural disadvantage against Coastal States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat as those can import raw materials at better international prices and export to." According to the industry expert, being handicapped by location weighs down smaller firms more, because compared to their larger counterparts, they cannot relocate to States which have a more efficient infrastructure network.
Putting the last mile in the fast lane Experts assert that to have an integrated end-to-end logistics network, the need of the hour is that all relevant policymakers, logistics service providers (LSPs), transport and terminal infrastructure service providers come together to formulate a cohesive and integrated logistics policy.
The Indian Government, to this effect, has recently reviewed the draft National Logistics Policy (NLP).
The mega policy blueprint, with inputs taken from four relevant Ministries, i.e, the Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Civil Aviation and 46 Partnering Government Agencies (PGAs), hints at the broad scope of the soon-to-be-introduced policy framework.
With a view to develop a Multi-Modal infrastructure, the policy envisages optimising the current modal mix (road-60%, rail-31%, waterways-9%) to bring them at par with international benchmarks (road--25-30%, railways--50-55%, waterways--20-25%).
To bring down the Country's logistics cost from the present 14% of GDP to less than 10% by 2022 that the Government envisions, industry leaders underline that India needs to play to its strength, which is put to use its proven prowess in domains such as IT capabilities and digital technologies. As per them, any logistics-centric roadmap, aimed at tackling last-mile woes, must thus focus on leveraging on India's capabilities in technologies such as cloud computing, blockchain technology, internet of things, among others.

Sanjay Sethi led JNPT delegation visits Antwerp Port to further enhance co-operation between APEC & JNPT

ANTWERP: The Antwerp / Flanders Port Training Center (APEC) and Port of Antwerp welcomed a delegation from its partner JNPT led by Chairman Mr. Sanjay Sethi, IAS, recently to discuss its joint training centre in Mumbai, India. Senior officials from Port of Antwerp, APEC and JNPT discussed about the mutual co-operation in making JNPT - Antwerp Port Training Centre a world class Maritime Training Institute.

 

 “We look forward to further develop the training institution as a world class centre of excellence,” said a communiqué from APEC.  

 

The JNPT – Antwerp Port Training and Consultancy Foundation is a cooperation between JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), APEC the Antwerp/Flanders Port Training Centre and the Port of Antwerp. Registrations are open to participants from Major Port Trusts, Private Ports and Terminals in India and from ports and terminals abroad. Apart from the key aspects of port operations, the underlying focus is to enhance and develop skills for Business development Strategies and Marketing and also instilling behavioural changes to lead effectively in the fast-changing business environment.

 

Visakhapatnam Port aims to lower cargo clearance time August 20 , 2019

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a bid to facilitate the movement of imports and exports at Visakhapatnam Port and reduce the clearance time for commodities from an average of seven to three days, Visakhapatnam customs is set to initiate a mechanism under which document checks and physical inspections will be carried out only for goods of exporters and importers with a ‘dubious’ background.
All other goods and commodities will be cleared through an online submission process.
“Although World Customs Organisation recommends that the average clearance time for a port should be below three days, last year we maintained an average clearance time of seven days. This year we had improved our performance and maintained an average clearance time of four days. Hopefully, with this mechanism in place we would improve our average clearance timing to three days by the end of the fiscal year,” said DK Srinivas, Principal Commissioner, Visakhapatnam Customs.
Customs officials said that this mechanism will be introduced under the Turant Customs scheme introduced by the Union Government for speedy clearance of goods at air and sea ports.
“A critical component of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index rankings is the ‘trading across borders’ category in which India is ranked 80 (in 2019), compared with 146 in 2018. India is keen on entering the top 50 rankings and to realise the goal, the Turant Customs scheme has been introduced,” a Customs Official added. Officials are hopeful that if manual checks of documents and physical inspections of every imported or exported consignment is stopped, the clearance time can be significantly reduced. In fact, they claimed that Visakhapatnam customs might reach the WTO recommendation of below three days for average clearance timings by the end of the financial year.
“We would undertake the risk management solution on the basis of our trust and faith in the exporters and importers. However, agencies with a dubious background won’t be spared. Their consignments would undergo a rigid inspection and verification,” added Srinivas.
Visakhapatnam customs has earlier initiated reforms such as single window interface for facilitating trade, e-Sanchit and direct port delivery.

Shipping Minister Mansukh L. Mandaviya visits New Mangalore Port August 20 , 2019

MANGALORE: Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Shipping & Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers visited New Mangalore Port (NMPT) on 16 August 2019. The Minister was accompanied by Shri Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP.
The Minister reviewed the performance of the Port and was briefed by Shri A.V Ramana, Chairman, NMPT on the infrastructure projects and other proposals for enhancing the productivity of the Port and sustaining the status as Numero Uno in being the cleanest Port in the Country.
The Minster interacted with the key members of the major captive users of the Port, namely the MRPL, KIOCL, MCF, IOCl, UPCL and Chettinad Mangalore Coal Private Ltd.
While addressing the members of the Stevedoring agents, freight forwarders as well as the key associated Government bodies such as Customs, Immigration Departments, the Minster urged for smooth transactions to promote Ease of Doing Business by further streamlining procedures.  He also assured them all assistants to boost growth of business through the Port.
The Minister was particularly appreciative of the CSR activities of the Port towards uplifting the standards of hygiene in schools and also towards water table rejuvenation schemes, especially since they benefit the society directly and are also the key project of the Union Government.

OOCL’s total volume increased by 3.2% in first six months of 2019

HONG KONG: For the second quarter of 2019 (ended 30th June 2019), total volumes were 4.6% up from the same period last year. 

Total revenues increased by 7.1% to US Dollars 1,566.4 million. Loadable capacity increased by 6.4%. 

 

The overall load factor was 1.4% lower than the same period in 2018. Overall average revenue per TEU increased by 2.4% compared to the second quarter of last year.

 

For the first six months of 2019 (ended 30th June 2019), total volumes increased by 3.2% over the same period last year and total revenues recorded a 6.5% growth. Loadable capacity increased by 4.3%. The overall load factor was 0.9% lower than the same period in 2018. Overall average revenue per TEU increased by 3.3% compared to the same period last year.

Cosco plans New Pier to expand Piraeus capacity to over 10 mn TEU

BEIJING: Cosco, the operator of Greece’s Piraeus Port Authority (PPA), plans to build a fourth container pier, expanding the port’s capacity to over 10 mn TEU and making it comparable to the biggest Northern European ports.
The port’s management has already communicated its plan to Greece’s recently elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and is a key component of a new master plan.
Mistotakis has made the more private investment in the country’s ports, a Government policy priority.
In the PPA’s new master plan, construction of a fourth pier will increase the port’s capacity by 2.8 mn TEU and expand total investment in the port by $224m to just short of $900 mn.
Piraeus is already the largest container handler in the Mediterranean and is the sixth largest in Europe, while the recently released UNCTAD ranking of the world’s best-connected ports reveals investments by Cosco has benefited Piraeus to make the best-connected port in the Mediterranean in 2019.
“A container port’s performance is a critical factor that can determine transport costs and, by extension, trade competitiveness,” said UNCTAD’s Director of Technology and Logistics, Shamika N. Sirimanne.
Container traffic at Piraeus port reached 4.9 mn TEU in 2018, 18.4% higher than the previous year, and over 700% higher than when the Chinese company was first awarded the operation of Pier II. Since then, it has built Pier III. In 2019, traffic is estimated to rise to 5.5-5.6 mn TEU. With the planned completion of the western part of Pier III, capacity will reach 7.5 mn TEU and the new pier IV will add another 2.8 mn TEU.