The World Trade Center Miami welcomes you to SeaCargo Americas Newsletter, offering you updates from the industry and useful information on the fourth year of the SeaCargo Americas Conference and Exhibition.

SAVE THE DATE
NEWS IN THE AMERICAS

• Revealed: The Ghost Fleet of the Recession
• First-Half Liner Losses Pass $6 Billion
• APL Upgrades Miami-Central America Service
• Seaboard Marine Initiates Ecuador Service
• Textile Groups Urge U.S. to Act on Honduras
• Maersk Line Announces New Central America Service
• New Cuba Rules Expand Exports
• Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), “Get Set For The Upturn”
• Horizon Lines to open Tampa to Puerto Rico Cargo Services
• Union Port Workers Reject High-tech Help
• Maersk Joins CMA CGM in Caribbean Rate Hike

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SAVE THE DATE……November 4-6, 2009

NEWS IN THE AMERICAS

Revealed: The Ghost Fleet of the Recession

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html#ixzz0R0pUaqUy

First-Half Liner Losses Pass $6 Billion
All 17 Major Public Shipping Companies Lost Money So Far This Year

Losses sustained by liner companies hit more than $6 billion in the first six months of the year, according to AXS-Alphaliner.

All 17 major shipping companies with published financial results reported losses during the period. The bulk of the losses came from the liner shipping operations, the Paris-based research firm said. Current freight rates are cash negative and all major carriers are making losses at the EBITDA level (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization).

Cash reserves have eroded as the carriers’ battered balance sheets have come under considerable strain. The situation has led almost all the major carriers to seek additional capital using whatever means are available including share placements, rights issues, debt-to-equity conversion and asset sales.

Even the largest, A.P. Møller-Mærsk, was forced to succumb to the pressure with the announcement last week that it has sought new capital through a share placement that raised $1.58 billion for the company. This followed the successful rights issue by NOL that raised $985 million in July. http://www.joc.com/node/413276

APL Upgrades Miami-Central America Service
With the continued Honduran presidential crisis and ongoing border dispute limiting overland access to Puerto Cortes in Honduras, APL is upgrading its twice-a-week Miami service connecting the United States with alternative Central American ports.

The Singapore-based container line added a port call at Santo Tomas, Guatemala, to its CAX service (Central America Express).

In addition, APL moved the cutoff time to Friday at the Port of Miami for one of the two weekly sailings, which will provide shippers an end-of-week cutoff in addition to the traditional Wednesdays departure.

APL said the changes would provide shippers with more on-time, reliable service. It also said the changes will meet customer demand for improved access to the Central American market. The service connects to vessels on APL’s trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trades.

The port rotation for the midweek sailing is: Miami; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; Santo Tomas, Guatemala and back to Miami.

The rotation for the weekend sailing is: Miami; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; Puerto Barrios, Guatemala and back to Miami. http://www.joc.com/node/413338

Seaboard Marine Initiates Ecuador Service
Seaboard Marine recently announced an enhancement to existing West Coast South America service to include service every ten (10) days to Guayaquil, Ecuador. The service will be accepting dry and refrigerated containers, LCL and breakbulk cargoes. Commencing with the M/V Thor Neptune, Voyage 23, departing Houston, Texas on September 11th, then Miami, Florida on September 14th, the transit times will be eight (8) and eleven (11) days from Miami and Houston, respectively.

Robert Schicchi, VP - South America, noted, "Seaboard Marine has been a leader in the Peru and Chilean trades for over fifteen years. With larger and faster ships entering our fleet, we feel that this is an excellent time to enter the Ecuador market. Our reliable sailings and short transit times meet the needs of our existing South American customers, as well as new customers that will appreciate Seaboard's efficiency and service." http://seaboardmarine.com/sml/

Textile Groups Urge U.S. to Act on Honduras
U.S. trade associations representing the fiber, textile, apparel, import, and retail industries wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to take immediate steps to restore stability in Honduras, a country that does billions of dollars of business with the United States in those sectors.

In the letter, the groups said that the current political crisis in Honduras "has caused commercial traffic to falter dramatically, and textile and apparel plants in United States and Honduras are already being idled and workers told to go home."

"We urge the U.S. government to work with the Honduran government in order to ensure that commerce is fully restored in the region before the textile and apparel sectors of the U.S. and CAFTA region are further harmed,” the letter said.

By some estimates, Honduras' $14.1 billion economy has lost as much as $200 million in foreign investment since the Honduran military ousted elected President Manuel Zelaya from office on June 28.

The letter was signed by the following trade associations: American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA); American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC); National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO); National Textile Association (NTA); National Cotton Council (NCC); and the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA). http://www.joc.com/node/413634

Maersk Line Announces New Central America Service
Maersk Line has announced the addition of a new service — the Central America Express (CAX) — to serve the Central America–Florida short sea market.

As of September 9, 2009, Maersk Line has a bi-weekly service to/from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, Puerto Cortes, Honduras, and Miami, Florida. The new CAX service includes increased space for time sensitive import refrigerated commodities and expanded coverage for the dry cargo market in South Florida. The carrier offers an end-of-week cutoff for Sunday sailing from Miami for U.S. exports. http://blogs.officialexportguide.com/news/?p=3294

New Cuba Rules Expand Exports
Crowley Liner Services trades extensively with Cuba from its terminal at Port Everglades. The federal Bureau of Industry and Security (”BIS”) BIS and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (”OFAC”) have issued regulations to implement the White House’s relaxation of parts of the Cuban embargo as announced in April of this year. Both agencies needed to issue regulations because OFAC regulates payments and provision of services to Cuba while BIS regulates exports of goods to Cuba.

The new BIS regulations amend existing License Exception GFT which covers gift parcels and create a new license exception CCD which covers exports of certain consumer communications devices to Cuba. Although both license exceptions expand unlicensed exports to Cuba, they differ in significant ways.

Prior to the amendments, license exception GFT permitted individuals to send gift packages to members of their immediate family (excluding designated officials of the Cuban government and the Communist Party) of food, medicine, medical devices, and certain mobile phones. Packages were limited in value to $400 for all items other than food. As amended, license exception GFT now covers gift parcels with a value up to $800 for all items other than food. The recipients of these packages no longer need to be immediate family members of the sender but can be anyone in Cuba (other than Cuban government and party officials). And the items in the package can now include clothing, personal hygiene items, veterinary items, fishing equipment and soap-making equipment. Significantly the packages can now also include items normally sent as gifts between individuals.

The new license exception CCD covers consumer communication devices and specifically lists, among other things, computers and peripherals, mobile phones, storage media, audio and video players and recorders, digital cameras and batteries and chargers for these devices. Although there are some overlaps between license exceptions GFT and CCD, there are some significant differences. For example, in terms of overlap, many of the items listed as eligible for exception CCD might also qualify under GFT as items normally sent as gifts between individuals. http://www.exportlawblog.com/archives/555

Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), “Get Set For The Upturn”
The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) is encouraging tourism industry stakeholders to view the current economic crisis as an opportunity to be at the forefront of the recovery when it comes.

Speaking ahead of the FCCA's annual cruise convention and trade show to be held in St. Lucia next month, Michele Paige, president of the trade association, said that "in times of an economic downturn, those that remain aggressively in the forefront of the marketplace are those who are best positioned to prosper as our economy recovers." Admitting that the cruise sector had not been as badly affected as other sectors in the industry, Paige said "the future is our friend" and that the upcoming St. Lucia cruise conference - from October 26 to 30 - was a critical opportunity for players in the Caribbean and global tourism industry "to step up their game." http://sflcn.com/story.php?id=7054

Horizon Lines to open Tampa to Puerto Rico Cargo Services
Horizon Lines, Inc., will add regularly scheduled vessel container service between Tampa, Florida and Puerto Rico. A vessel call at the Port of Tampa will be added to the carrier's Gulf Express Service (GAX), currently operating a fixed-day, bi-weekly schedule between Houston, Texas and San Juan. The Tampa service is scheduled to commence with the arrival of the HORIZON DISCOVERY on October 4th. http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-03-2009/0005088050&EDATE=

Union Port Workers Reject High-tech Help
Leaders of the International Longshore Union have rejected a contract extension covering Atlantic and Gulf dockworkers probably insuring that a new contract won’t resume until next year. And when they do, management’s position on technology that reduces cost by increasing efficiency will be unchanged, the employers’ chief negotiator said. http://www.joc.com/node/413236

Maersk Joins CMA CGM in Caribbean Rate Hike
Following last week’s announcement by CMA/CGM that it will increase rates, Maersk Line increased its rates effective immediately between 2.5 per cent to nine per cent to destinations in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, whilst rates to Asia were raised between 11 per cent to 14 per cent from September 15.

In response, the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (T&TMA) expressed its disappointment over the decision by Maersk line to implement the general rate increase—particularly since the T&T’s economy is experiencing a slowdown. Regarding the higher cost of shipments between Asia and T&T, the TTMA said the increase would impact negatively on the global competitiveness of the local manufacturing sector and the hardship facing local consumers. “These increases will have an impact on the cost of goods manufactured in T&T, at a time when manufacturers are struggling to keep the prices of their goods competitive. “The rate hike will have a negative impact on imported goods, and will add to the rising cost of doing business in this country,” T&TMA said in a statement. T&TMA also said consumers may soon feel the brunt of the increase that must be handed down to retailers and buyers. http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2009/09/02/another-shipping-line-increases-rates

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