All articles by Barry Cross – Page 9
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Vehicles clog San Antonio port as a result of strikes in Chile
On March 12, importers of finished vehicles at the Chilean Port of San Antonio's Puerto Central used police protection to begin retrieving more than 8,000 vehicles that have been stuck at the facility since strikes closed the port on February 21.The first batch of 135 vehicles were moved at night, ...
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Chennai receives first vehicles delivered on modified trains
In India, the port of Chennai has become the first in the south of the country to receive automotive traffic moved by a rake of New Modified Goods (NMG) car transporters operated by Indian Railways. NMGs are single-decker auto carriers that have been built from old ICF and BEML passenger ...
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Kamigumi looking to build car terminal in Manzanillo
The Japanese stevedoring company Kamigumi is seeking permission to build a new vehicles terminal at the Mexican port of Manzanillo. Should it go ahead, the port authority, API Manzanillo, calculates it will henceforth account for 20% of all national production. At present, Manzanillo handles just 1% of new car output.The ...
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Political unrest hits car movements in Bangladesh
Political turmoil in Bangladesh, which has gripped the country since 6 January, has left more than 6,000 imported vehicles stranded at the ports of Mongla and Chittagong. Importers, faced with a tide of vandalism in the streets, are reluctant to move imported cars out of secure compounds, given that there ...
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South African vehicle exports soar in January
Sales of cars exported by South Africa are currently booming. In January 2015, for example, units sold abroad rose by 84.4% compared to January 2014. A weak rand and recovering markets in the northern hemisphere helped boost car shipments, which rose from 6,021 units to 11,104 units.However, these figures also ...
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Vigo announces €9m investment to enhance ro-ro services
Following healthy annual figures for vehicle handling at the north-western Spanish port of Vigo, as reported last month, and the introduction of the Vigo-Nantes sea motorway service, the management authority at the port has been re-evaluating the existing layout, with a view to making operations more efficient.In total, €9m ($10.1m) ...
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Shipping line cartel exposed in Chile says FNE
In Chile, the national agency responsible for ensuring free competition, the Fiscalía Nacional Económica (FNE), has referred six shipping lines to a competition tribunal to face allegations of price fixing on the transport of imported finished vehicles. The FNE claims the practice has been going on since 2000.According to a ...
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Vigo port records healthy vehicle handling for 2014
In 2014, the north-western Spanish port of Vigo handled more than 423,000 finished vehicles, the vast majority of which were exported.PSA-Citroen accounted for 80% of all automotive traffic in the port, followed by Ford, Renault, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen.Countries where imports from Vigo rose notably were Egypt, Germany, Greece, ...
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Dream Angel makes first call at Khalifa
On January 5th, Abu Dhabi's port of Khalifa welcomed the vessel MV Dream Angel, which is operated by Nissan Motor Car Carrier, in what was the first call at the relatively new port for a car-carrying vessel.The Dream Angel had arrived from the Japanese ports of Yokohama and Kanda with ...
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Barcelona's Autoterminal road access being improved
Barcelona port authority has signed a €450,000 ($531,000) contract with the Pasquina construction company to improve road access to terminals operated by Estibarna and Autoterminal. The work will involve upgrades to the main roundabout on the port's arterial road. Work will take two months to complete and is viewed as ...
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China fines eight car carrier shipping lines
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has fined eight international shipping lines for anticompetitive practices in the transport of finished vehicles.This news follows similar fines levied in Europe following a 2013 investigation by the European Union, Japan – courtesy of the country's Fair Trade Commission – and Chile, where ...
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K-Line chooses Hambantota port for vehicle hub as volumes soar
Japanese ocean forwarder K-Line is planning to use Sri Lanka’s Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port (MRMRP) – more popularly known as known as Hambantota – as its future regional distribution hub for finished vehicles bound for Africa and the Persian Gulf.Recently, K-Line established a new transshipment record at Hambantota, involving the ...
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Ford switch helps Sagunto realise hub ambitions
The Mediterranean port of Sagunto, which is managed by the Valencia port authority, finally appears to have realised its potential as a Spanish hub port for finished vehicle volumes. Ford, which previously moved much of the output from the nearby Almusafes production plant through the port of Valencia, has announced ...
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Ports benefit from increase in Spanish exports
According to statistics released by the National Association of Automotive and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC), Spanish vehicle exports were up in October, reaching more than 201,400 vehicles and equivalent to growth of almost 11%.The picture overall – from January to October – shows that more than 1.7m units were exported, up ...
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Vehicle exports on the increase in Spain
According to the Spanish government the country's ports will handle a total of 2.5m finished vehicles in 2014, up 7% over 2013. The minister for public works, Ana Pastor Julián (left), said that next year ports would handle 2.7m units, equivalent to an increase of 8%.In the first seven months ...
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Santander upgrades to cope with increased vehicle traffic
Finished vehicle traffic continues to rise at the northern Spanish port of Santander. In the first three quarters, it handled 264,852 units, equivalent to growth of just more than 20%, meaning it is on course to beat its 2005 record of 320,000 vehicles for the year as a whole.Indeed, for ...
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Spain’s Renfe facing disciplinary action
Spain’s National Commission on Financial Markets and Competition (CNMC) has begun disciplinary proceedings against the national railway company, Renfe, and six of its subsidiaries.The group is facing action following an alleged abuse of dominance in the transport of goods by rail, and an alleged pact with other companies to divide ...
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Brazil eyes trade agreement with Colombia
Brazil is currently experiencing falling auto exports to neighbouring Argentina, while its own domestic market is sluggish. Therefore, the automotive industry is putting together a proposal for a new trade agreement to be signed with Colombia in the coming weeks, according to major trade body.Luiz Moan, the president of ...
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Dublin port opens car terminal as economy recovers
Dublin Port Company, which provides ro-ro services at the Irish port, has opened a new €3.4m ($4.3m) car terminal, which will have capacity for 2,500 units and includes an 80-metre flyover bridge across the East Wall Road running alongside the port. The terminal took 13 months to complete and was ...
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Investment needed for Rosario to grow as FV port says Murchison
Since it began handling finished vehicle volumes last year, the Argentine port of Rosario has been looking to capture more business from the sector. With GM set up in the region at Cordoba and optimistic about the investments being made at the port, an alternative for automotive shipments to the ...