BOW WAVE 231

Fairly Short Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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(c)2004 WavyLine.com	Issue No 231 26 Apr 04
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Interlino?
3. Can UK Coastal Shipping Walk the Walk?
4. City and Suburban
isk 2004
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

New Readers this week include:

Geoff Boardman of Chartered Accountants Boardman & Co Stefan Seliger, GPF Ocean Marine of GenRe in Cologne James Sleightholme of Solicitors Taylor Wessing
Roger Wilson of Smit Transport & Heavy Lift in Bristol Andy Read and Derek Wood of Tradewinds

Readers Write:

From Barry Evetts:

Subject: A Geographically Challenged Major Movie Studio?

New Zealanders still living in Godzone Country - as well as those who have moved abroad - still find that, despite the publicity generated by events like the Americas Cup and movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the existence of this group of islands in the nether reaches of the South Pacific is still beyond the comprehension of some who should know better - in this instance Universal Studios of Los Angeles. Bow Wave readers - being all well versed in geography - might therefore like to visit this site

http://www.putnewzealandonthemap.com

and if they feel strongly that their Kiwi brethren are getting a raw deal, they can even add their protest by e-mailing the Director of Public Relations at Universal who has also become the COO.

Contact Barry at:

Barry.Evetts@virgin.net

A fairly short edition this week.

Enjoy.

2. Interlino?

According to American Shipper:

There is an "increasing tendency" to regulate the liner shipping industry with news rules and codes concerning security, safety and the environment, said Knud Stubkjaer, Maersk Sealand's chief executive officer.

The senior carrier executive told the Containerization International Conference in London that "many stakeholders" are involved in discussing or making regulations. He cited the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the International Maritime Organization, the World Customs Organization and the International Labor Organization, and new include regulations like those restricting truck waiting times in port. "Too many stakeholders with good intentions could result in too many laws, codes, programs, regimes and conventions not complementing each other," Stubkjaer warned. Given this risk, he urged government and industry to work together on these issues.

Security must be "coordinated, internationally aligned, workable, timely and practical," he told the conference. Stubkjaer said the shipping industry will accept their security responsibilities, but stressed the question of the associated costs. "It's a challenge to the industry to predict these costs and an even greater challenge to recover these costs," he said. "The (carrier) industry cannot absorb costs associated with security, safety and environment initiatives on its own," Stubkjaer said, Stubkjaer would not say whether port security costs should be passed on to shippers or to ocean carriers. However, he praised the recent Maritime Security Discussion Agreement of 41 ocean carriers and terminal operators in the United States, which was established partly to discuss security charges. Maersk Sealand and APM Terminals North America are members of the U.S. port security agreement. "We haven't seen the same initiative in Europe," Stubkjaer said.

One wonders whether there isn't an opening here for a liner version of Intertanko/Intercargo to liaise with these bodies to produce a more manageable regime--ed

3. Can UK Coastal Shipping Walk the Walk?

Perhaps it's because politicians and bureaucrats throughout Europe have neither the funds or the will to invest in new road and rail infrastructure but there is a real focus today on trying to transfer freight onto water. Time will tell whether the new services that are being launched will survive longterm; for the time being, many are highly dependent on subsidies. Everyone is talking the talk but it remains to be seen if anyone can walk the walk.

In the UK, not a great deal has happened apart from the UK Government funding of Sea and Water, a shortsea and inland waterway promotion bureau headed with vigour by Mike Elsom. In an effort to kickstart some action, a one-day seminar, Coastlink UK 2004, is being staged on 19 May in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Co-organisers David Cheslin and Gavin Roser say their aim is to bring together pretty well all of the potential players - ports, deepsea and feeder carriers, logistics specialists and shippers - to examine the potential for coastal shipping services around the UK.

Cheslin believes that by bringing together at one event the deepsea carriers and the specialist feeder operators, there is an enormous opportunity to develop a more coordinated approach to providing an efficient and flexible feeder network that will result in more deepsea containers moving between the main UK deepsea ports and regional ports by sea. If such services can also attract some domestic coastal shipping traffic, that would be a bonus.

The organisers do admit that with the current low cost and high efficiency of road transport, it's hard to see a great future for UK shortsea shipping - other than for the transport of bulk cargoes and deepsea feeder containers - but they believe that if this is one of the conclusions reached on 19 May, then the key players in the shipping industry would be delivering an
important message to Government: that coastal shipping needs subsidies if there is to be a significant modal shift from road to sea.

For more information on Coastlink UK 2004:

davidcheslin@dunelmpr.co.uk.

4. City and Suburban

In his regular column in the Spectator, Christopher Fildes writes very perceptively about China:

China is the last great stronghold of steam traction, so it is suitably cast as the world's locomotive. We certainly need one. The Eurozone is stuck in a siding, while Japan still labours on the gradient and the Anglo Saxon economies go coasting downhill without brakes. Borrowing and spending can take them only so far. The Chinese locomotive has been propelled by investment and exports, but it has been showing signs of overheating--Chinea even has its own property bubble--and the controllers in Beijing are now signalling for a slowdown. Like the Chinese themselves, Sir John Bond, HSBC's Chairman, takes the long view. China, so he was saying this week may be only twenty years into what could be forty or fifty years of extraordinary growth. For most of recorded history, this was the biggest eoconomy of all, and he can see it reclaiming its position. The flows of money which are now channelled through New York and London may begin to bypass them, finding their way through financial centres in Asia. As John did not say, there must be scope here for a business which is still, at heart, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. He was giving the K.C.Wu Lecture,established by the Guild of International Bankers in honour of the Bank of China's man in London who served for half a century and was a regular fixture on every City occasion. If the City could get to know China half as well as K.C. knew the City, it might learn something to its advantage.

http://www.spectator.co.uk

2004

Cindi.Dolby@iua.co.uk

6. And Finally...

Thanks to Frazer Hunt in Sydney for this one:

Three guys are convicted of a very serious crime, and they're all sentenced to twenty years in solitary confinement. They're each allowed one thing to bring into the cell with them. The first guy asks for a big stack of books. The second guy asks for his wife. And the third guy asks for two hundred cartons of cigarettes. At the end of the twenty years, they open up the first guy's cell . He comes out and says, "I studied so hard. I'm so bright now, I could be a lawyer. It was terrific." They open up the second guy's door. He comes out with his wife , and they've got five new kids. He says. "It was the greatest thing of my life. My wife and I have never been so close. I have a beautiful new family. I love it." They open up the third guy's door, and he's slapping at his pockets, going "Anybody got a match?"

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 9700 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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