News Flash (Week 6)
Investment in LNG fueled ships on the rise
Investment in new LNG-fuelled ships has continued at pace, with class society DNV last month recording a further 40 gas-powered vessels on its AFI database, to bring the total to just shy of 700.
DNV’s principal consultant, Martin Christian Wold, said the “strong start” to the year for LNG-powered vessels had been driven by containership orders by MSC.
According to the DNV database there are 261 LNG-fuelled ships in operation with 433 on order.
The carrier is also a big advocate of scrubber technology, in contrast to 2M partner Maersk, with MSC’s CEO believing the cost savings are “a no brainer”.
French carrier CMA CGM, which has pioneered the container carrier rush to LNG-fuelled ships, said it expects to have 32 LNG dual-fuel ships in its fleet by the end of this year.
Industrial, warehousing leasing demand at 22 million sqft in 2021
The year 2021 saw leasing demand of about 22 million sq feet for warehousing and industrial facilities across India’s top five cities, led by robust demand from e-commerce players and strong production growth, according to Colliers.
Demand for high-quality warehousing space was steered by third party logistics (3PL) players with a 33% share, followed by e-commerce companies with a share of 29% in total leasing, the report by Colliers said.
During the year, Delhi-NCR led industrial and warehousing demand with a share of 29%, followed by Pune and Mumbai at 21% and 20%, respectively. The majority of the offtake was for warehouses, followed by industrial sheds.
Container logistics takes a hit
Amendment to the Nepal-India Railway Service Agreement ended the monopoly of Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) in transporting goods to and from Nepal but it hardly profited Nepal’s foreign trade. Instead, Nepali importers have been further burdened after the amendment.
Following the amendment to the railway service agreement, two private railway service providers of India emerged as the main competitors of CONCOR. However, the strategies adopted by CONCOR to keep its competitors at bay has badly affected Nepali importers.
Initially, CONCOR had slashed its freight charges significantly to stem out its competitors. Now, it has cut down the size of regular supply of containers all of a sudden throwing the import business out of gear.
CONCOR has been causing problems in supply of containers alternatively at Kolkata Port and Visakhapatnam Port.
Private rail coach factory in Telangana
A private rail coach factory of Medha Servo Drives is ready for inauguration soon at Kondakal near Shankerpallyon Hyderabad outskirts, tweeted Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Sunday.
He described the factory as one of India’s largest private rail coach factories to manufacture and ship out rail coaches.
Mr. Rao had laid the foundationstone for the ? 1,000 crore factory in August 2020.
It will have an annual capacity to manufacture 500 coaches of various types and 50 locomotives.
Cochin Port Trust goes solar
Cochin Port Trust has unveiled a slew of green initiatives under the Maritime India Vision 2030, aimed at shifting its operations completely to solar power by 2030.
The projects — which mirrors the green initiatives of nearby Cochin International Airport Ltd — include 100 per cent solar-powered cranes and shore-based solar power supply to all ships and vessels docking at berths in the Willingdon Island, Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal, Cochin Oil Terminal, north and south tanker berths as well as the LNG terminal.?
M Beena, chairperson, Cochin Port Trust said that the port administration has finalised its plans to utilise vacant land or waterfront areas for solar power generation either under public-private-partnership (PPP) mode or other suitable methods.?