Hutchison Whampoa - Hong Kong's International Port Operator

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Ensenada port administrator invests US$17mn in dredging works
27 August 2009
Business News Americas

API de Ensenada, the state administrator of Mexican Baja California's Ensenada port, invested 220mn pesos (US$16.6mn) to dredge the bay area in 2008 and 2009, the entity's commercial manager, César Rivera, told BNamericas.

The investment was covered with federal funds and works were recently completed.

The administrator decided to take advantage of the reduced movement in the port, caused by the global financial crisis, to carry out the improvement works, said Rivera.

"We were able to invest and prepare the port for when the market recovers," said Rivera, adding: "By then, we will be even more competitive than before."

Previously, Ensenada port was able to handle ships with a maximum capacity of 5,500 TEUs, but it can now handle ships with capacity up to 7,500 TEUs, Rivera said.

Due to the financial crisis, TEUs handled at the port declined 75.4% from 127,271 in 2007 to 31,329 in 2008.

The amount of TEUs handled in 2009 so far shows a drop of about 30% compared to 2008.

According to market players, port activity should begin to pick up in 2010.

Ensenada's container terminal is operated by Ensenada International Terminal, controlled by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH).

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Top Chinese legislator visits Bahamas to sign economic agreements and promote cooperation
3 September 2009

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - China's top legislator is promoting several economic agreements during a visit to the Bahamas, including construction of a national sports stadium.

Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People's Congress, arrived Thursday with a trade delegation and is scheduled to meet with Bahamian leaders over four days. He is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit the Bahamas, according to a statement from the Chinese Embassy.

Wu expects to sign an agreement on protecting Chinese and Bahamian investors and another that would provide a $200 million loan to build a highway to Nassau's international airport.

A third deal would guarantee Chinese economic support for an $18 million stadium that is under construction in this Caribbean nation and already has benefited from a $7.3 million grant from Beijing.

China has been developing economic interests since the Bahamas opened diplomatic relations in 1997. Hutchison Whampoa (China) Ltd. is a majority shareholder in the Freeport container port and a top investor in the Our Lucaya Beach & Golf Resort in Grand Bahama.

China has funded several projects in the region, including a multimillion-dollar cricket stadium in Grenada. It has offered Dominica a $40 million loan for projects including renovation of major roads, and it made a similar offer to the South American country of Guyana for updating its electrical system.

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Hutchison to expand at Shenzhen
11 September 2009
Lloyd's List

HUTCHISON Port Holdings will expand its cargo handling capabilities in Shenzhen in southern China with the development of two export-orientated warehouses each covering more than two hectares, writes Keith Wallis in Hong Kong.

The facilities will be built and operated by Shenzhen Hutchison Inland Container Depots. Construction of the first warehouse will start this month for opening in 2010, while the second is scheduled to be completed by 2011.

Company spokesman David Fang said a second phase covering 25 ha is being planned and would be developed according to demand.

He declined to say how much was being spent on the two phases, which are located at Guanlan in Shenzhen’s Baoan district, about 40 minutes from Yantian International Container Terminal.

However, Mr Fang said that when completed the depot would have a total area of 60 ha and would be the largest warehousing facility in south China.

He added that export cargo entering the warehouses would be immediately eligible for tax rebates and would be cleared by customs. This meant containers could be transported by truck to Yantian for immediate loading on board container ships.

Mr Fang said the facility would offer container storage, inspection, labelling, barcoding, wrapping, sorting and associated logistics-type services, although he pointed out there would be no storage facilities for refrigerated cargo.

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YICT Launches Cost-effective Direct Feeder Service and Inland Depot Solution for Customers
Press Release

[24 September 2009 – Shenzhen] Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT) is pleased to announce the launch of its first direct feeder service for Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited. The new service will run directly from YICT to the factory of Nine Dragons Paper in Xibeisha, Dongguan.

The Yantian-Xibeisha Feeder Service will enable Nine Dragons Paper to directly receive import containers at its factory by barge, which is a more cost-effective and less carbon intensive mode of container transport. YICT has allotted a container storage area within the terminal for this feeder service and made special arrangements with China Customs and the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to allow for on-site cargo inspection and disinfection. Additionally, YICT has provided the inspection facilities and manpower needed to ensure the quick transfer of cargo onto barges.

To complement the new feeder service, YICT has opened a five-hectare inland container depot in Shunde, Foshan City. The new depot offers a convenient area for storage of the containers unloaded by Nine Dragons Paper.

After the containers are returned to the neighbouring depot, cargo owners in Shunde can then load and ship them to Yantian Port for export. This new solution will help increase the empty container turnaround rate and ultimately reduce storage costs for shipping lines. It will also help barge companies slash costs incurred by empty container returns.

Mao Jiayin, Export Department Manager of Nine Dragons Paper, supports this view: “The new Yantian-Xibeisha Feeder Service is a new breakthrough in logistics services in South China. The new solution will substantially improve logistics efficiency and provide a safer, more cost-effective and less polluting logistics alternative for cargo owners.”

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Port expansions seek to break duopoly
27 October 2009
Australian Financial Review

It is anticipated that the Port of Melbourne Corporation will approach the Victorian government in the coming months with a $1 billion expansion scheme that would include a third operator. The move along with the call from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for new faces on Australian ports would place Asciano’s Patrick and DR Worlds P&O duopoly under substantial pressure. The proposal has already met with criticism with the Maritime Union of Australia wanting any outcome delayed saying that disreputable’ overseas stevedores would weaken work practices. Recently the Port of Brisbane appointed Hutchison Ports to operate berths coming on line in 2012 and 2014 and the Sydney Ports Corporation is on the verge of announcing its choice to assist in its $1 billion growth at Port Botany.

The addition of new operators in Brisbane and Sydney according to Asciano managing director Mark Rowsthorn will see our port facilities become some of the least efficient in the world.’ Analyst Ian Myles of Macquarie Research said that additional quayline is going to increase competition.’

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Stevedores braced for market share challenge
20 November 2009
Lloyd's List

AFTER dominating the market in the past decade, major Australian container stevedores Patrick and DP World are both preparing for a struggle for market share as the battleground opens up.

What is not clear is how that will happen. The smart money is on Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), which holds a 42-year lease on Brisbane’s Berths 11 and 12 and which should have them operational by 2012 and 2014 respectively after spending more than $200m on the initiative. This will make Brisbane the first port in Australia to introduce a third container stevedore.

HPH, which refused to comment on its Australian plans, is to extend its range in the country. The common perception is that, to offer a competitive rate and keep the lines happy, HPH, if it does become the third stevedoring force, will need to have presence in all the major box ports, like the duopoly does.

To do so effectively, the company will have to invest a least as much again in at least two ports, the port of Melbourne and Sydney’s Port Botany. The state government owners of each, Victoria and New South Wales respectively, are making progress with their infrastructure: Victoria advancing plans to convert part of Webb Dock and NSW having its new quay space under way.

Mystery surrounds what is generally regarded as the last piece in the jigsaw that would allow basic coverage for international container lines: Fremantle.

Western Australian infrastructure minister Simon O’Brien has sought a review of the port’s planning needs and to force co-operation between the state-owned Fremantle Ports and private local consortium James Point on a greenfield development to take over from space-constrained Fremantle.

When serious development on the new site will begin remains unclear.

Meanwhile, the latest latest Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics report on container handling performance came out this month.

The so-called Waterline report, which measured the last half of last year, showed a five-port average crane rate steady at 27.5 containers per hour.

However, there were some improvements in other areas. The port interface cost index for exporting a container fell from A$619 per teu in real terms based on 2001 prices in the first half of the calendar year, to A$609 per teu, while importing costs fell from A$662 to A$652.

Total ship visits increased 2.9%, while the average vessel working rate increased over the period from 38.6 containers per hour in the September quarter to 40.7 an hour in the December quarter.

The average container turnaround time improved from 26 minutes in the September quarter to 24.6 minutes in the December quarter.

The average truck turnaround time also improved from 40.6 minutes in the September quarter 2008 to 38.1 minutes in the December quarter 2008.

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Thamesport Samsung facility keeps growing
24 November 2009
Lloyd's List

A PORTCENTRIC facility set up for Samsung at London Thamesport has grown so much that it now occupies four warehouses totalling more than 250,000 sq ft.

The system, run by NYK Logistics, was set up in June 2008 and is continuing to grow rapidly, said NYK Logistics’ Samsung account director Colin Hill.

“We provide Samsung with a significant cost reduction in its supply chain and the ability to manipulate and control stock differently and get stock to the point of delivery quickly,” he said.

NYK Logistics is responsible for most of the delivery to major retail names of a wide range of white goods imported by Samsung through Thamesport, and the system also allows for collections from the port facility by some customers.

Thamesport, which is owned by Hutchison Ports (UK), has also developed a portcentric facility for imported resin, which arrives in lined containers and is stored in silos.

Callers at the port include Evergreen, Hyundai and Hapag-Lloyd. It is to lose Maersk’s River Plate service, but has gained a new one in the past month with Team Lines’ decision to include Thamesport in its network. The new service was marked by the arrival of the 1,118 teu El Temerari, which operates on the North Europe-Iberian service with its sistership El Bravo. The rotation is Thamesport, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Vigo, Leixoes, Antwerp, Thamesport. Team Lines will also, via its brand Delphis Logistics, be offering door-to-door services to and from the UK.

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Operators show signs of getting back on course
27 November 2009
Financial Times

One sign that the big container terminal operators are getting a grip on costs to offset the sharp downturn in volumes is contained in the scant financial data available for the year so far, which shows that the sector remains profitable.

Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports reported a 53 per cent fall in operating profit to HK$4.49bn (US$579m), on revenue down 20 per cent to HK$15.6bn. The falling profitability mainly reflects the operator's heavy exposure to the gradually declining port of Hong Kong, where there is little opportunity to boost profitability by slowing down capital expenditure.

DP World, the most bullish of the big operators in its expansion plans, reported 18 per cent drop in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) to $535m on revenues down 13 per cent to $1.38bn in the first six months. Ebitda margins fell 2 percentage points to 39 per cent.

Remarkably, in the first nine months of 2009, APM Terminals reported a 15 per cent increase in profit before amortisation, depreciation and impairment losses to $534m, helped by a 4 point jump in its margins to 24 per cent. Revenues, helped by a jump in capacity due to terminal expansion, fell from $2.34bn to $2.22bn.

Singapore's PSA releases only annual figures.

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Amsterdam terminal faces mothballing after state veto
3 December 2009
Lloyd's List

AMSTERDAM’s municipal authority has ruled out state funding for the city’s container terminal, operated by Hutchison, which will lose its last remaining major shipping line call in January.

Bartho Boer, a spokesman for the city authority with responsibility for the box hub, said that temporary suspension or mothballing of Amsterdam Container Terminal was an “option” although the final decision rests with the operators.

“I do not think it is a realistic scenario that the city will fund ACT,” Mr Boer said. “We have said to ACT that whenever they want to discuss alternatives they can turn to us for consultation.”

ACT local management declined to comment on the situation and the Hong Kong-based parent, Hutchison Port Holdings, stated: “It is company policy that we do not comment on commercial or development issues.”

Mr Boer added: “It is not known yet whether the terminal will be mothballed. It is up to the operator as to whether it is a wise economic decision to mothball the terminal for a couple of months or for a year, for example.

“The operator has to determine whether it has alternative plans for the terminal after January. But mothballing is certainly one of the realistic options.”

ACT, then known as Ceres Paragon, officially opened in the summer of 2001 but has always struggled to attract operators. HPH took its majority ownership in December 2008.

Although a number of European terminal operators are known to have pressed the European Commission to approve possible state bailouts, ACT management has not approached the city for funding, Mr Boer confirmed.

“ACT is completely independent of the municipality but we have said to the operator that if we can help you, then the door is always open for consultation. There are a number of ways that we as the city can help and advise them to get through this period.”

The city is not a shareholder in ACT, which employs 140 staff, but was heavily involved in establishing the original Ceres terminal.

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Hutch to gain berths at Port Botany
16 December 2009
The Australian

NSW Ports Minister Paul McLeay, a veteran of more than a month's standing since then-premier Nathan Rees tipped his predecessor Joe Tripodi out early last month, is reportedly about to announce that the biggest stevedoring group in the world, Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, will be allocated up to five berths at Port Botany.

That will make Li Ka-Shing's operation one of three stevedores at the port alongside Asciano's Patrick operation and DP World, the Dubai-owned outfit that has just flown through a nasty financial air pocket.

We gather Hutch will have about the same space as each of the other two, except that its berths haven't been built yet. Air travellers landing at nearby Mascot are still watching $1 billion worth of new wharves taking shape and to our unpractised eye they may not be ready for at least a year, although Hutch will apparently get one operating berth pretty soon.

Port Botany is the second-biggest container port in Australia after Melbourne, which does just over two million TEUs (Twenty foot equivalent units) a year against about 1.7 million at Port Botany. Those two plus Brisbane collectively handle about 75 per cent of Australian container traffic.

Llew Russell of shipowning body Shipping Australia welcomed the report, saying ``if it's correct it will bring a warm glow to the heart of Graeme Samuel'' at competition watchdog the ACCC by adding an alternative to a duopoly.

He said Hutch was recently granted two berths at Brisbane's Fishermans Island port and that Melbourne's Webb Dock was being upgraded with a view to allowing in a third stevedore in 2013.

``Stevedoring contracts are awarded on a national basis so it makes a fair bit of sense to have the same three operating at the three biggest ports,'' he said.

Port Botany's upgrade courtesy of NSW taxpayers is coming not a moment too soon, with truck drivers getting cranky about having to queue for four hours.

Consultant charged

SYDNEY management consultant Andrew Dalzell, 48, was yesterday charged in the Downing Centre local court with insider trading in November 2006. Corporate regulator ASIC, which investigated, alleged that while he was working as a senior manager at KPMG he bought 40,000 shares in printing group Promentum at a time when he had inside information about a proposal by Promentum to acquire another printer, the MacMillan group. Dalzell, from Randwick, was given bail and will appear again before the court on February 2.

And in unrelated proceedings, ASIC revealed yesterday that Noel James Stephenson of Pymble in Sydney, who had been charged in October with insider trading, pleaded guilty in the same court on December 1 to one charge. ASIC had alleged that he breached the Corporations Act on April 26, 2005, by selling 4514 shares in Sam's Seafood when he knew that financier Rabobank was considering calling in several loans it had made to the company.

At that time the stock was worth about $1 a share, but it later went into administration. The company has since been reconstructed and is now exploring for coal in Indonesia.

Stephenson will appear in the NSW Supreme Court for sentencing on February 5.

Q Copper extension

CAPE Lambert Resources has lost about $32 million from the delay of its Q Copper float -- the biggest resources offering this year -- but will hold the same amount of equity in its spin-off as originally proposed.

Tony Sage's Cape Lambert yesterday formally extended the closing date of the Q Copper IPO to February 3 after the float hit the skids last week when 25 per cent of investors brought in by Sage failed to settle their obligations.

Q Copper was believed to have had commitments for the full $203m priced at $1 before the investors, understood to be British institutions brought in by British broker Mirabaud Securities, came temporarily undone. They're understood to have been very keen on the float but got blindsided by problems in Dubai, hopefully now fixed.

Lead manager of the float, Patersons Securities, confirmed the delay last Friday as it moved quickly to assure it had oversubscriptions for its 75 per cent of the float.

Cape Lambert, which is divesting its Lady Annie mine into Q Copper, said the IPO was now seeking a minimum of $164.5m, with Cape Lambert to receive $137.5m -- down from $169m -- but it would hold its 15 per cent stake post IPO. A new prospectus has been lodged with ASIC and the issue price remains unchanged at $1.

Sage said he was disappointed about the delay but Cape Lambert shareholders, who will vote on the changes at a meeting ``on or about'' January 4, would still receive a 10 cent special dividend from the sale.

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Hutchison grp seeks more time to pay for Turk port

ANKARA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Hutchison and its Turkish partners have asked for more time to pay for the rights they won to operate a major port on Turkey's Aegean coast, one of the companies told Reuters on Thursday.

It is the third time the consortium, which also includes Global Investment Holding and EIB-Limas, has sought more time from the state's Privatisation Administration to secure financing for the rights to run the port at Izmir, a major export hub.

The group made the winning bid of $1.275 billion for the 49-year contract in 2007.

"We have asked for an additional four months, or until April 30, 2010, to find a new partner and financing," EIB-Limas chief executive Sabri Unluturk told Reuters.

Deutsche Bank , which had a 24 percent stake in the venture, quit the consortium earlier this year.

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Government to promote Manta port among Spanish investors
23 December 2009
Business News Americas

Ecuador's ambassador to Spain, Galo Chiriboga, will promote investment opportunities in Manta port among Spanish companies, local paper La Hora reported.

The ambassador met with Manta port authority APM on December 21 to learn about the facility's projects that could be of interest to Spanish firms.

"As representatives of the Ecuadorian government in Spain, we [at the embassy] want to promote a number of projects," Chiriboga said.

The government is looking to promote strategic development initiatives among Spanish investors, and Manta port is one of them, said the ambassador, adding that other countries have already expressed interest in the terminal.

The government is also looking to promote Manabí province, where Manta port is located, as a development hub for the country, the report said.

In February this year, Manta port's concessionaire TIDE, controlled by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), announced it was leaving the port and withdrawing from the concession.

HPH was the only company to submit an offer for the port's concession in January 2006. The firm offered to invest US$523mn during the 30-year concession to build a deepwater port capable of handling 2.2mn containers a year.

According to reports, authorities wanted TIDE to invest an additional US$55mn in the construction of a fishing port located next to Manta's cargo terminal, while the company refused to do so.

APM and HPH are reportedly still in negotiations over the termination of the contract.

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Dock plan to pave way for competition
18 January 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald

THE east coast port duopoly is expected to be broken this month when a third stevedore company is approved in Melbourne.

Business sources expect an announcement by the Victorian Government this month of the redevelopment of Webb Dock for a new terminal. Strong support within the Government for the project follows market testing by the port manager, the Port of Melbourne Corporation, which found solid interest from potential operators.

While competition to Asciano/Patrick and DP World's P&O will be widely welcomed, the plan faces some hostility and Asciano is preparing for a legal stoush over its eviction from Webb Dock East.

The company has a lease until 2017 for its vehicle and bulk storage operation at Webb East. That lease will have to broken if, as expected, the Government wants a new container port running in 2013.

"Any decision to evict Patrick from this site prior to the end of our leases will significantly impact on both our operations and on our automotive, steel and break bulk customers," said the managing director of Asciano, Mark Rowsthorn. "If this were to happen, Patrick will fight hard to protect its rights and will seek significant compensation."

BusinessDay understands the port corporation would pay for the upgrade - expected to be as much as $1 billion - with initial borrowings from the Treasury Corp of Victoria.

State governments and port authorities have been under pressure from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and freight users for increased competition.

Queensland and NSW have chosen Hutchison Ports, owned by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, as their additional operator. Hutchison is understood also to be interested in Melbourne.

Previous attempts in the late 1990s and early 2000s to attract a third operator to Melbourne were unsuccessful. The breakthrough in Brisbane and Sydney, combined with big growth in trade, is likely to make the prospect more attractive now.

On Friday, the Victorian Government was noncommittal about a third operator and redevelopment of Webb Dock. "The Government is considering the business case ... with a decision to be made in due course," said Bill Kyriakopoulos, a spokesman for the Ports Minister, Tim Pallas.

The Government was unlikely to release the business case made by the Port of Melbourne Corporation because it contained "commercially sensitive information".

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Further 10 percent cut in port charges under review
24 January 2010
Business Recorder

Port authorities here are considering to reduce port charges by at least 10 percent. This was stated by Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Chairperson Nasreen Haque in a welcoming ceremony marking maiden call of mv ''OOCL Charleston'' at Karachi Port.

She said that port charges had been rationalised by 30 percent during last seven years and further rationalisation by at least 10 percent was under review with the approval of Ministry of Ports and Shipping. Speaking as chief guest, she said: "We are honoured that one of the biggest shipping lines has chosen (the) Karachi Port".

She called it a proof and confirmation of the enlightened policy of partnership between the private and public enterprises. The KPT chief said that privatisation at Karachi Port had started with the Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) which since its establishment in 1998 had fulfilled all of its targets and developmental phases in an impressive fashion. She said the latest facilities and equipment had increased handling capacity of the terminal by 750,000 TEUs.

Summing up the excellent performance of 20 percent growth made by the Karachi Port, she said that half of it (ie 10.6 percent) was alone made by the KICT. According to her, the KPT was deepening its navigational channel from 12 to 18 metres to accommodate mother ships. She said that a few days back a new rail track was opened for carrying coal from the port to interior.

Nasreen said that with the completion of Deep Draft Container Terminal, another venture of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), the Karachi Port would transform into a regional maritime icon. Earlier, in his address of welcome KICT Chief Executive Anjum Sajjad termed the KICT as pioneer of providing modern technology for container handling. He said the KICT being member of the HPH Group was benefiting from the cutting edge technologies and financial assistance that was strengthening the terminal''s foundation.

Later, Managing Director of OOCL S.L. John said that his company''s association with Karachi Port was 20-year old and his agents had been dealing in the country since 2007, when the OOCL had opened its operational office in the city. The distribution of mementoes by the KPT chairperson to the OOCL team concluded the ceremony.

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Connellan prepares to set sail after 16 years of making waves
28 January 2010
Irish Independent

Technically, Enda Connellan has already retired. He's simply guiding the state-owned Dublin Port Company along by way of a contract, most likely until June, when a successor takes up the helm.

After 16 years as chief executive of the semi-state body that manages the country's largest port -- it's responsible for two-thirds of all container traffic moving in and out of Ireland -- Mr Connellan has presided over an era where the economy boomed first on the back of exports and then property: both surges helped boost the Dublin Port Company's bottom line.

Profits rose nearly 25pc in 2008 to €27m, while turnover was flat at over €70m. In 2009, net profits were €14.5m. This year, the figure will be down, but probably not significantly despite the state of the wider economy.

The seemingly insatiable appetite for consumer goods and new cars during the last decade fuelled significant growth at the port, while the sale of the controversial Irish Glass Bottle site netted the company €109m from the mind-boggling €412m purchase price near the peak of the market, in 2006.

Yesterday, Mr Connellan gave his final presentation on the annual traffic performance at the port, which even in the current climate still dealt with as much tonnage last year as it did in 2005 or 2006.

The 62-year-old Clare native, and fervent Munster rugby supporter, is a genuine sea dog, having bought his first sailing dinghy at the age of 16 and gone on to captain ships traversing various parts of the world before joining the port firm 32 years ago.

Perhaps that's why during the boom, and even later, the thought of the massive 250-hectare port landbank being largely vacated and developed into a major new office and residential hub -- or "yuppieville", as Mr Connellan disparagingly labelled it during an Oireachtas Committee hearing last October -- rankled with the chief executive.

Such plans had been proposed by the now defunct Progressive Democrats in 2002 -- they wanted to privatise the port and decamp its activities to outside the capital.

"People completely lost the plot," says Mr Connellan regarding such plans and the focus on property plays. At one stage, there was an estimate in the middle of the last decade that the port's land could fetch as much as €2m an acre, although the glass bottle site sold for the equivalent of over €17m an acre.

Distraction

"No senior politician or senior civil servant has discussed moving Dublin Port with me," he points out. "It was a valuation distraction," he adds, having previously described the property market as a "dangerous obsession".

He also shudders at the thoughts of what might have happened had outright privatisation of the port been pursued, or simply sold off.

"If the land had been sold off for property development, we wouldn't even be talking about Nama (the National Asset Management Agency)

now. We'd have nothing."

But when then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appointed controversial businessman Joe Burke as chairman of Dublin Port in 2002, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the company, at least according to commentators.

Privatisation, perhaps worse, seemed inevitable. Not so, maintains Mr Connellan.

"I never felt that pressure from Joe," he explains. "Joe was chairman and a board director before that and he behaved as a chairman at board level."

Mr Burke was among the former Taoiseach's close friends who gave Mr Ahern money in 1994 as his marriage broke up.

He resigned from the port board almost this time last year after a High Court ruling the previous November restricted his role as a company director following the collapse of his building firm in 2007.

A year prior to that, he had become embroiled in unseemly events in Dublin after a complaint of sexual assault was made against him.

The port is now on an even keel again, however, with the recent appointment of Lucy McCaffrey to the post. She owns a management consultancy business.

Still, years after it was first mooted, the notion of Dublin Port's place in the city is still being pondered -- at least by those who don't work there.

The findings of a report published late last year, which had been commissioned by the Department of Transport on the facility's future, effectively said the best option for it was that it should remain in situ. A report prepared for Dublin City Council suggested the contrary -- that the port, at least in part, should be relocated to free up the area.

Bremore, on the Meath-Dublin border north of the capital, is where it's been suggested Dublin Port could move to. Plans have been afoot by Drogheda Port Company to develop a site there, while it selected a consortium that includes a subsidiary of property group Treasury Holdings and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings to develop the facility. But that was then.

"I don't think it will go ahead," says Mr Connellan of Bremore's development, "but if they still think it's worth proceeding with, then I suppose it will."

The reality is, however, that the business case for Bremore has almost certainly evaporated -- at least in the medium-term, until sustained economic growth returns.

Meanwhile, a nearly decade-old plan to reclaim 20 hectares of land at the port has caused local controversy, but Mr Connellan maintains the development is essential if the facility is to be able to manage increasingly bigger vessels with deeper draughts.

The outcome of a lengthy hearing by An Bord Pleanala before Christmas should be made known by March or April. Locals fear the plans will result in additional flooding of their homes, while environmentalists say the impact of the reclamation would be detrimental to marine life, birds and other wildlife.

"We went through a very vigorous hearing with An Bord Pleanala. Anyone who's going to be affected by any development has a right to have a say in it.

"We need deeper water near land so we can efficiently move goods from ships to land," he says. "We have bigger ships needing bigger berths."

Mr Connellan says he won't pre-empt the findings of An Bord Pleanala, and adds that there is no back-up plan if the decision doesn't go Dublin Port's way. "You'll just end up doing things less economically. That's the only way that I see it."

Mr Connellan says that, during his tenure, Dublin Port has become more efficient and cost-effective, but it's plans for his retirement that are probably largely swimming around his mind at this stage.

"I'm going to go sailing," he says. "It may sound like a busman's holiday, but I started my career at sea and I intend to do a lot of sailing."

A round-the-world trip isn't on the agenda, he says, but an adventure across the Atlantic is.

Throwing off the bowlines will no doubt never have felt so good.

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Activists target Li's Myanmar investments
6 February 2010
SCMP

Myanmese activist Khin Omar said yesterday businessman Li Ka-shing should either put pressure on the Myanmar junta to democratise or get out of her country.

She said the head of Cheung Kong (Holdings) had a responsibility as an investor in the Southeast Asian regime's logistics industry to influence the government and not permit it to perpetrate war crimes against its own people.

Khin Omar, the co-ordinator of the non-governmental organisation Burma Partnership in Mae Sot, Thailand, was invited here by the Hong Kong Coalition for a Free Burma.

She led a group of demonstrators from the Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai yesterday in a bid to protest outside the Myanmar Consulate.

They were stopped by police officers and the building's security men.

"They told us the Myanmar Consulate is shut - for a holiday," said one of the demonstrators.

Some wore masks depicting democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and waved placards for democracy in Myanmar. The small group then moved on to Cheung Kong Center in Central, where they passed a petition to a company representative inside, while shouting "Free Burma" and "Election not selection" outside.

"I would like Cheung Kong to be ethically and socially responsible for their business in Burma (Myanmar)," said Khin Omar. "They should not allow the Burmese government to use their money to commit war crimes against their own people."

Khin Omar said Li's money indirectly paid for weapons used on Myanmar's people. She also said his port operations could allow ships in that had weapons on board.

"Recently a North Korean ship headed for Myanmar was turned back by the Americans, but it would have come through his port," she said.

Hutchison Whampoa invests in Myanmar through subsidiary Hutchison Port Holdings which operates the Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa in Yangon.

A spokesman said Hutchison Port Holdings made a port investment in 1996 when Myanmar was in the process of being accepted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, expecting the country to be opened up.

"We are still hopeful our investments can help to spur economic improvement and that economic progress of the country will bring about overall benefits to the community in the longer term," the spokesman said, adding Hutchison Port had offered scholarships to Myanmar Maritime University since 2004.

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Harwich: bathside Bay plans for 2021
9 March 2010
Harwich and Manningtree Standard

A FRESH bid has been made to stall a major development at Harwich by five years.

Permission to develop Bathside Bay was granted following a public inquiry in 2006.

The plans, which were backed by residents, included an operational container port and would create a total of 700 jobs.

Conditions on the port were for applicant Hutchison Ports to fund improvements to the Harwich to Hare Green section of the A120 before any building work could get under way.

The time limit for those plans is due to run out in 2016 - but now fresh plans have been submitted to Tendring Council to replace them.

They ask for planning permission for the site to be extended until 2021.

The extended time frame opens potential for a wind farm at Bathside Bay and to upgrade the A120.

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A tricky balancing act for planners
By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent
26 March 2010
Financial Times

Even from miles away, the huge cranes of the Port of Felixstowe dominate the flat, East Anglian landscape around the River Orwell. Beneath them, the silhouettes of huge ships are a reminder of the significant advantages the port - and others in eastern England - enjoy from their proximity to the shipping lanes through the English channel.

The demands of such international gateways loom over the East of England's transport plans as much as the cranes dominate the Suffolk horizon. The region is home not only to leading ports at Felixstowe, the UK's busiest container port, and Tilbury but also Stansted Airport, the UK's third-busiest.

It has to balance the demands of traffic to and from these vital facilities with catering to growing population and employment, particularly around fast-expanding Cambridge.

Transport bodies in eastern England are undertaking some of the UK's most active programmes to tackle the challenges, both through building new infrastructure and from trying to manage better what is already there.

Mike Salter, head of transport planning for the East of England Development Agency, points out that 500,000 jobs and 500,000 dwellings are expected to be created in the region over the next 10 to 15 years.

"That does, of course, bring some transport challenges that need to be addressed," he says.

At Felixstowe, the confidence in the future of the port's owner, Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports, is evident in the rapid work under way to convert the southern part of the port into new container-handling space. The development, begun in September 2008, is due to come into service this year.

Although UK container traffic fell 9 per cent last year over 2008, Paul Davey, Hutchison Ports' head of corporate affairs for the UK, says Felixstowe needs to be able to handle giant container ships better than at present.

One such ship, China Shipping's Xin Da Yang Zhou, towers over the quay loading and unloading some of its thousands of containers as Mr Davey speaks. Bigger ships - capable of carrying up to 13,000 20ft equivalent units (TEUs) of containers - are becoming increasingly common, as container lines try to achieve economies of scale.

"A lot of UK trade that came on what are now seen as medium-sized vessels of 7,000 or 8,000 TEUs is now going to come on 12,000 to 13,000 TEU vessels," Mr Davey says. "It's important that the UK can accommodate those vessels."

The pressure on surrounding areas of servicing such ships' needs is clear. Scores of trucks rumble into and out of the port via the A14 trunk road. On the railway, single-carriage passenger trains share the mostly single-track branch line from Ipswich with regular trains of containers heading for the Midlands, north-west England and other parts of the UK.

Work is under way to raise bridges and lower tunnel floors to let trains carrying the latest, biggest containers use a route via Peterborough and Nuneaton to the main London-Glasgow west coast main line.

At present, such trains have to head south towards London on the Great Eastern main line, before running through north London to the west coast route.

The development agency regards the Felixstowe to Nuneaton project as "really, really important", according to Mr Salter. "It frees rail paths on the Great Eastern main line for passenger movements," he says. "Also, it takes lorries off the A14."

The A14's fate is also crucial for the area around Cambridge, according to Brian Smith, executive director of Cambridgeshire Council's environment services. The road handles heavy traffic heading to and from Felixstowe alongside heavy commuter traffic on the Cambridge to Huntingdon stretch.

"There's enormous pressure to deal with that artery because there are significant delays there," Mr Smith says. "From a business perspective, the A14 is absolutely critical to the continued economic prosperity of this region."

A public inquiry this year will consider £1.4bn plans to reroute much of the road between Cambridge and Huntingdon, provide it with three lanes in each direction and, crucially, reroute short-distance traffic to a new, neighbouring road.

However, Cambridgeshire has also adopted less conventional tactics. Cambridge's outskirts include some of the UK's most heavily-used park and ride sites with frequent services into the city centre.

The UK's longest guided busway, due to have opened in February last year, will eventually bring buses faster towards the city from the direction of St Ives along a disused railway line. Completion of the busway has been held up by a contractual dispute.

Most boldly, Cambridgeshire successfully applied for funding under the Department for Transport's now-defunct Transport Innovation Fund (Tif) that could eventually have seen the city adopt charging for road use . That idea has been shelved since the DfT scrapped the Tif programme.

Any future programme is unlikely to prove as bold as the Tif bid, according to Mr Smith. But he does expect the county to continue to seek novel solutions to the challenges posed by eastern England's success.

"Cambridge has, like many other ancient towns, a tight historic core," Mr Smith says. "It has almost forced us to be innovative and creative."

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Asset disposals lift Hutchison Whampoa
31 March 2010
Financial Times

Hutchison Whampoa, the retail-to-telecoms conglomerate controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, managed to offset falling revenues with a series of one-off asset disposals.

The company said yesterday that full-year revenues declined 14 per cent to HK$300.5bn ($38.5bn) from a year earlier, hit mainly by poor performance at its ports and energy operations. But net profit still rose 12 per cent to HK$14.2bn.

Losses before interest and tax at Hutchison's third-generation mobile telecommunications unit, which for years has been a big drag on earnings, narrowed 67 per cent to HK$5.3bn last year. Excluding the effects of one-time gains, operating losses were pared 32 per cent. The company, which in August delayed a 2009 target date for achieving positive earnings before interest and tax for its 3 Group, promised the unit would turn profitable at an operating level this year.

"Barring significant adverse market or regulatory developments, the 3 Group's results are expected to continue to improve and make a positive contribution to [Hutchison's] ebit results," Mr Li, chairman, said. "I am more impatient [about 3G] than anyone else."

Canning Fok, managing director, said: "The worst time is over [for 3G]," adding that he spent as much as 60 per cent of his time on improving performance at 3 UK and 3 Italia.

Hutchison's ports division, which accounts for about one quarter of earnings, saw a 16 per cent drop in revenues last year due to weak global trade and lower tariffs. Operating profit fell 21 per cent to HK$10.4bn.

"[Last year] was a very tough year for ports," said Mr Li. "A lot of shipping companies made losses or saw their profits falling 80, 90 per cent. Yield dropped and prices were low."

He added that the company was keen to acquire ports this year as the downturn has made prices more reasonable: "In the past when business was good, people didn't want to sell and prices were very high . . . it's easier now."

Hutchison's energy operations, meanwhile, suffered from a 38 per cent decline in oil prices and a 56 per cent drop in gas prices. Revenues fell 43 per cent to HK$435.8bn last year, while earnings before interest and tax dropped 70 per cent. The arm's contributions to group operating profit fell from 24 per cent in 2008 to 11 per cent in 2009.

Hutchison turned to one-off asset disposals to lift net profit, earning HK$12.5bn from the sale of its telecoms businesses in Israel and Indonesia last year.

Additional reporting by Tom Mitchell in Hong Kong

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Trend reverses as container traffic returns to bigger ports
5 April 2010
Financial Times

Regional ports appear to be losing ground to bigger rivals as container traffic that moved to smaller ports during the boom shifts back to the main gateways.

Felixstowe and Southampton, the busiest container ports, appear to have withstood last year's slump in container volumes relatively well, according to port traffic statistics from the Department for Transport .

Last year Felixstowe suffered only a 5 per cent decline in imported units - a category that includes cars and unaccompanied truck trailers, alongside containers - while Southampton saw a 9 per cent fall in line with the market average.

"There's some evidence of traffic concentrating at the major ports," said Paul Davey, head of corporate affairs at Hutchison Ports, Felixstowe's owner.

But smaller ports that witnessed big increases in traffic during container shipping's 2001 to 2008 boom recorded aboveaverage falls.

Grimsby and Immingham were down 12 per cent and Hull 13 per cent in 2008-09. Forth Portssaw volumes at Grangemouth 11 per cent lower in 2009 than in 2008 .

The trend has continued this year, according to Patrick Walters, commercial director of Associated British Ports, which owns Southampton and many of the regional ports. Southampton saw growth resume at the end of last year and continue this year, he said.

"It is fair to say that we have not seen the same level of recovery in our regional ports, particularly on the Humber, as far as containers are concerned."

However, the trend has been far from universal, with some small ports continuing to do well. Simon Bird, chief executive of the Bristol Port Company, said his port's container volumes for 2009 had been "remarkably similar" to the year before, although the port had seen a large fall in car traffic.

Bristol's container traffic continued to benefit from its proximity to the "golden triangle" area of the Midlands, where many retailers and distributors tend to base logistics operations.

David Robinson, chief executive of PD Ports, which operates the ports of Hartlepool and Teesport near Middlesbrough, said his company, which hosts a big import centre for supermarket chain Asda, had seen container volumes 19 per cent higher in 2009 - although its overall import units were well down.

"We're not seeing volumes migrating to the deep-sea ports," he said.

The main picture nevertheless appears to be a reversal of a trend that started in 2004 , when growing congestion at Felixstowe and Southampton prompted some customers to stop using the large ports served directly by big, long-distance ships. Instead, customers began to send containers to Britain by taking them off longdistance ships at continental ports such as Rotterdam, sending them onwards on smaller vessels . The shift produced growth rates of 15 per cent or more for some regional ports.

Customers were now seeking to cut costs by re-verting to the bigger ports, Mr Walters said. Because of the shift, ABP had decided to turn a planned container terminal at Hull into a facility to serve the offshore wind turbine industry. "Feedering or transshipment involves a second move, which adds to cost," Mr Walters said.

But Charles Hammond, chief executive of Forth Ports, insisted customers continued to prefer ports such as Grangemouth to moving containers through a south-east England port and then by road and rail. Figures for Felixstowe and Southampton, he said, were being boosted by a shift in trans-shipment towards the large English ports encouraged by the weak pound.

They were increasingly handling movements of containers on to small feeder ships heading for regional ports, rather than Rotterdam or Antwerp.

"I don't think what is happening is at our expense," he said. "The deep-sea ports in the UK are getting more transshipment business at the expense of the continent."