Bulk Distributor Jan/Feb 19 | Page 6

6 B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR Americas January/February 2019 The Ocean Alliance has agreed to consider extending its geographic scope beyond the east-west trades, and especially in the north-south trades as these are increasingly becoming a focus for Cosco Container alliances could ramp up Americas services M ajor deepsea container alliances could begin to extend the scope of their joint service network to secondary north-south trades, such as those serving Latin America, as they look to squeeze more efficiency from their co-operation agreements. Michael Kristiansen, owner of consultancy CK Americas, told delegates at the TOC Americas Container Supply Chain event held in Panama: “I think the global alliances are coming here – whether it is little by little or very fast, I think it is inevitable.” Howard Finkel, executive vice president of Cosco Container Lines, confirmed that the Ocean Alliance – in which its partners Evergreen, CMA CGM and recently acquired OOCL – had agreed to consider “extending the geographic scope of the Ocean Alliance beyond the east-west trades, and especially in the north- south trades as these are increasingly becoming a focus of Cosco’s”. However, much of the Latin America trades is served by a complex series of vessel sharing agreements which currently cross the boundaries of the deepsea alliance memberships. For example, according to Brazilian liner consultancy Datamar, the four services between Asia and the east coast of South America see Maersk co-operating with THE Alliance and Ocean Alliances along with PIL, HMM and ZIM on the ESA service; while on the ASAS service the same carriers share slots, but without Yang Ming. Meanwhile, on the IPANEMA service Maersk and MSC co-operate TA NK L EA S IN G ANTWERP Inge Karlberg STOCKHOLM Steve Govers [phone] [email protected] [phone] [email protected] MUMBAI NV Rao [phone] [email protected] For all your specialty tank container needs www.mimu-tankleasing.com with Hapag-Lloyd and MSC; and on the SINO service Cosco co- loads with PIL. However, Datamar managing director Andrew Lorimer questioned whether the 2M, Ocean and THE alliances would actually be permitted to enter formally the Latin American trades. “On the east coast of South America there is no real alliance alignment and there seems to be antitrust concerns which may prevent that alignment from happening,” he said. Dinesh Sharma, director of Drewry, argued that further consolidation in the Latin America trades would more likely come about through merger and acquisition activity rather than through alliances. “Antitrust is prohibiting further consolidation of alliances so there is more meaningful consolidation taking place through larger carriers acquiring niche and regional players,” he said. However, Finkel said Cosco was planning to launch a South America-North America service even if it could not be done in association with its Ocean Alliance partners. “We have lagged in this part of the world because it is a difficult market and not particularly profitable, but with the purchase of OOCL we have become a truly global carrier. “So we will launch a new north-south service here and we will try to do it responsibly – we do not want to go into the Latin America market and cause havoc; we are too big to do that but you will see a tremendous increase in our presence here,” he said. He also explained how the Ocean Alliance members are seeking to allay previous antitrust fears raised by the US’s Federal Maritime Commission. “The formation of the Ocean Alliance was purely done on operational grounds – we do not discuss commercial at all,” he added. “However, one of the potential advantages of the alliance was to explore cost savings through instigating joint-procurement of services such as towage and terminal, which was something that the FMC did not like the look of.” “But we still hope to be able to explore this if we can demonstrate the advantages of alliances to customers and win their support for joint procurement,” he said. Panama builds Meanwhile, following a strong year in terms of growth in vessel transits, the Panama Canal Authority is once more turning its attention to building up port capacity as well as building new zones for increased logistics activity. In the keynote speech delivered at TOC Americas, Panama Canal Authority administrator and chief executive Jorge Quijano, told delegates that while vessel transits were its primary business barometer, ports activity had become increasingly important to the country as a whole. “Panama doesn’t just rely on transits, but also on transhipment and there is an increasing synergy between transits and Leschaco celebrates 40 years in Brazil L eschaco Group’s Brazilian arm, Leschaco Ltda recently celebrated 40 years of company history in Sao Paulo with around 230 invited guests. Constantin Conrad, son of Jörg Conrad, the owner of the Leschaco Group who unfortunately could not attend the event himself, opened the anniversary event with his official speech. He was pleased about the numerous guests, who have accompanied Leschaco Ltda in Brazil in different ways over the past 40 years. The guest speaker was Axel Zeidler, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sao Paulo. In his speech he pointed out that Leschaco Ltda has been a reliable logistics partner in Brazil since establishing a presence in the country. This was remarkable because Brazil is no easy place to run a company successfully over such a long period of time, he said. Finally, Alex Geng, managing director of Leschaco Ltda, addressed guests and thanked them for coming. The anniversary party took place in the Trio Pergola, with a fantastic view of Sao Paulo. In his speech Constantin Conrad took a look at the 40-year history of Leschaco Ltda and what has been achieved so far. With door-to- door transport, sea and air freight solutions, customs clearance, outsourcing, project logistics and tank container activities, the company offers the full range of services of the parent group and L-r: Oliver Oestreich (COO of the Leschaco Group), Constantin Conrad (branch manager Leschaco Iberia, Spain), Alex Geng (managing director Leschaco Ltda, Brazil) has made a name for itself in Brazil as a recognised, reliable and competent partner for logistics. This is also reflected in the fact that Alex Geng was offered an honorary position on the advisory board of directors of the ACTC, the National Association of Freight Forwarders, Air Freight Agents, Customs Agents and Multimodal Operators. With 120 employees and locations in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro as well as operational offices in Guarulhos, Santos and at Viracopos Airport in Sao Paulo, Leschaco Ltda is well positioned for the dynamic world of transport. In the first quarter of this year, a further sales office was opened in Salvador, Bahia. A further milestone for the company was the ISO 9001/14001 certification, which was