NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that in a fast ramp up of India’s export performance, outbound shipments will improve in May and June.

“While April was a washout with a 60% decline, the fall in exports in May will be 30-35%,” Goyal said at the Digital Summit on Exports organised by CII via video conferencing.

He said in June, exports can improve further and at par with June 2019 or a tad lower.

“In June, we can improve, (be) at par with June 2019 or 8-10% less. This is a pretty fast ramp-up,” he added.

Cancellation of orders had resulted in India’s merchandise exports contracting a sharp 60% from a year earlier to $10.36 billion in April.

Highlighting that domestic market is the pedestal on which exports are made, he said: “We have to build up on domestic demand at competitive prices with surplus going to exports” and added that manufacturing revival, diversification of export basket and focus on new markets will help expand India’s presence horizontally across the world.

Furniture, auto components, air conditioners including compressors and other components, and set top boxes are the sectors where domestic demand is huge and where exports should be more than imports, he added.

Goyal added that PCBs, textiles and lithium ion batteries are the other sectors with huge opportunity for export.

Source: dst.news

HAIFA: The container shipping industry is dynamic and volatile and has been marked in recent years by instability of market environment, characterized by volatility in freight rates and bunker prices, including significant uncertainties in the global trade, mainly due to USA-China related trade restrictions. Moreover, the recent escalation of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has significantly impacted global economies, resulting in reduced demand and spending across many sectors, adversely affected the volume of trades, while also decreasing bunker prices and charter rates.

Confronted with this challenging and unprecedented business environment, ZIM continued to improve its commercial and financial performance and to expand its global network to its customers.

Eli Glickman, ZIM President & CEO, said: “I’m pleased to report a significant improvement in ZIM’s performance, compared to the same period in 2019. Despite the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the global economy in general and on the shipping industry in particular, ZIM was able to mitigate the adverse impact of the crisis, and Q1 2020 results show improvements in all parameters, compared to the same period in 2019, including strong cash generation and a continued deleveraging of our balance sheet.”

Financial and Operating Highlights for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2020

•             Total revenues were $823.2 million compared to $796.2 million in Q1 2019, a 3.4% increase

•             ZIM carried 638 thousand TEUs compared to 668 thousand TEUs in Q1 2019, a 4.5% decrease

•             The average freight rate per TEU was $1,091 compared to $1,019 in Q1 2019, a 7.1% increase

•             Adjusted EBITDA was $97.2 million compared to $69.3 million in Q1 2019

•             EBITDA was $97.0 million compared to $68.0 million in Q1 2019

•             Adjusted EBIT was $27.2 million compared to $22.0 million in Q1 2019

•             EBIT was $24.9 million compared to $18.6 million in Q1 2019

•             Adjusted net loss was $6.0 million compared to $17.5 million in Q1 2019

•             Net loss was $11.9 million compared to $24.3 million in Q1 2019

•             Operating cash flow was $101.6 million compared to $59.7 million in Q1 2019.

Source: dst.news

OSLO: Cold water is being poured on any optimistic outlook by some ocean carriers for a speedy recovery of the container industry from the impact of Covid-19.

In his latest assessment of the market, Bimco’s chief analyst, Peter Sand, said the current economic situation “provides no hope for a short-term recovery”.

“The coronavirus pandemic looks set to continue to hammer container shipping demand,” he added.

He said the lower demand that came when China shut down in February had passed, but had been replaced by a global demand shock as countries around the world entered lockdown as the epidemic spread.

Mr Sand believes “no sudden bounce back in demand”  is expected, and noted that, even under the WTO’s most optimistic forecast, “container shipping demand will fall by 10%” this year.

“Sales of containerised consumer goods have been some of the hardest-hit by lockdown measures, and lower consumer spending power is likely to persist for a prolonged period,” he said.

Recently, SeaIntelligence founder Lars Jensen agreed in a webinar. He said he could not see a rebound taking pace this year, especially given that retail inventory levels were now higher than they were at the beginning of the global financial crisis.

“Rebound in 2020 will depend on three factors: firstly, the virus needs to be gone; secondly, if the virus is gone consumers will need to start spending as they did before, and given how many people have lost their jobs this is extremely unlikely; and thirdly, we are shortly entering the peak season, which is when retailers stock up for Christmas – but is any retailer seriously predicting strong Christmas sales this year?

“My most optimistic prediction of a rebound is 2021,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Sand noted that the idle container ship fleet had reached a new record of 2.65 m TEU, due to the aggressive blanking of sailings by carriers, which has so far protected freight rates from collapsing.

But, he said, this strategy would be “tested in the coming months” and was only “temporarily hiding the losses”.

He explained: “While savings are made by not sailing, the empty ships are still generating loss on a daily basis – some operating costs are still present and financing unchanged, while not providing any income.”

Source: dst.news

TUTICORIN: V.O. Chidambaranar Port handled windblade of length 72.40 metres, the longest of its kind Made in India on 26th May 2020.

The German flagged heavy lift vessel ‘M.V Maria’ with LOA of 151.67 metres & draft of 8.50 metres was berthed at VOC-II berth at 1324 Hrs on 26.05.2020 for loading the wind blade.

The loading of the windblade of length 72.40 metres was executed diligently using 3 Ship’s Hydraulic cranes. The Shipper of the above windblade is Nordex India Private Limited, Thiruvallur, and the cargo is consigned by. Nordex Energy GMBH, Germany, to Port of Antwerp, Belguim.  The Stevedore and Ship Agents for the above vessel is Aspinwall & Co. Ltd., Tuticorin. The Windblade was transited by Namakkal Transport Carriers Logistics Private Limited using specialized windblade transportation truck all the way from Mappedu near Chennai to Tuticorin.

In a message conveyed by Shri T.K. Ramachandran, IAS, Chairman, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, he stated that V.O. Chidambaranar Port has all infrastructure in place to handle windmill blades and towers. He also stated that Port’s ‘Tuticorin SPEEDZ’ (Smart Port Employment & Economic Development Zone), a Sagarmala initiative for providing an integrated industrial park possesses around 1000 acres of land. The Manufacturing companies starting industries at ‘Tuticorin SPEEDZ’ can benefit from mature industrial climate and culture, lower transportation cost for manufactured products and global reach provided through VOC Port.

Source: dst.news

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