BOC International will be closed Monday, September 4, 2017
In honor of the US National Holiday, Labor Day, BOC International will be closed Monday, September 4, 2017. We will be open normal hours on Tuesday, September 5.
We hope everyone has a safe, happy and healthy Labor Day!

Important information about Houston flooding
All Port Houston facilities will remain closed on Wednesday August 30th due to the weather impact across Houston.
We will be continuing to monitor weather conditions to determine when operations can safely resume. At this point no indications from the U.S. Coast Guard on when the Houston Ship Channel will reopen for vessel transits. Updates will be provided as more information is available.
With Houston Airports Closed, Airlines Cancel Thousands of Flights
Houston’s major airports — George Bush Intercontinental, the city’s largest, and William P. Hobby Airport — are expected to remain closed until  Wednesday.

Hong Kong and South China affected by typhoon
The Hong Kong Observatory has issued Storm Signal Number 10 today – due to Typhoon Hatom, which is expected to remain for at least the rest of the day.
Due to the adverse weather conditions, many flights to and from Hong Kong have been cancelled and the local port operations have been suspended. In Shenzhen, the red typhoon warning has been issued, and the Yantian terminal suspended its operations as well. Disruptions in the next few days are expected as well. Many local businesses will be closed.
Should you have urgent enquiry related to Hong or Shenzhen shipments, please contact your BOC International representative.

 
Traffic controls in Xiamen, Aug 31 – Sep 6
Please note that the city of Xiamen is hosting the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), at a Multilateral Summit during the first week of September 2017. The Xiamen Transportation Bureau therefore has announced the implementation of traffic controls in the lead up to this international meeting:

Note: “X” in the table above denotes dates when the restrictions are in force. With these restrictions in place, we expect operations between 31 August and 06 September to be impacted as follows:

• Air Freight shipments are likely to come to a standstill as the cut-off time for cargo receipt at the airport terminal is 1730h (application for overtime duty until 20h00 may be possible), while trucks are only permitted to run between 22h00 – 05h00. Also, freighter planes calling at Xiamen airport from 30 August to 06 September will be cancelled.
• Ocean Freight shipments (both FCL and LCL) will be restricted due to the prohibition of container trucks.
• Besides traffic restrictions, cargo transported into the city will be subject to higher level of security checks regardless of transport mode, which will contribute to longer transit time.

 
It is not known yet if ocean carriers and airlines will skip calls to and from Xiamen during this period. Our team will monitor the situation and update you on the developments.
 
In the meantime, please reach out to your BOC Representative with any questions. Thank you
 

Customer Advisory: Chittagong Port Situation Update
Current Chittagong Port operation & berthing situation:

• Present berthing congestion/waiting time at anchorage is around 8-9 days.
• 22 container vessels are waiting in the queue and 09 vessels at berth (GCB-4, CCT-1, NCT-4) instead 12 Container berth.
• CPA (Chittagong Port Authority) has cut down container berthing to accommodate Break-Bulk/Car Carrier vessels and also for dredging purpose.
• Yard occupancy already crossed the capacity and heavily congested with import laden boxes.
• Both discharging/loading operation are severely hampered due yard congestion.
• CPA not allowing Vessels to stay at Port after completion of discharging operation within 48 hours.
• CPA have restricted empty shipment from Depots and continuing force shipment of MT containers from Port Yard
• CPA has started repair of affected Gantry Cranes at CCT (Berth # 03) from 8th of Aug through Mitsubishi Corporation expected to fully repaired within 3-5 months.
• CPA is only allowing 7 gearless vessels inside port berthing facility to avoid more congestions.

 
Berthing delays  at different terminals :

• NCT – 8/9 days
• CCT – 11/12 days
• GCB – 5/6 days
• 09 Vessel at Berth; 22 container vessels at outer anchorage; 20 vessels declared to get berth within 2 days.

Yard congestion:
Port yards are  103% occupied with both laden and empty containers.
Yard capacity 36357 Teus, present occupancy 36740 Teus.
5721 Tues MT lying against capacity of 5500 Tues.
Other issues :
a)CPA official stop allowing for GATE ENTRY for export container against any individual sailing vessel 3 to 6Hrs prior vessel sailing/outward pilot time.
b)CPA strictly following for GEARLESS vessels port stay 48Hrs and for the GEARED vessel highest 72Hrs port/berth stay.
c)All vessels must have to sail within this given period of time with whatever is loaded on to the Fvsls. As a result, max Fvsls departing with 50% load ability.
Future Expansion Plan of GOVT of Bangladesh
1.Bangladesh GOVT is planning to build a floating Terminal near to port outer anchorage to provide smooth service to Pangaon Inland River Terminal.
2.GOVT is pushing private ICD owners to build more ICDs near to this floating terminal, so that Fvsls can get berth for quick loading & discharge to free Chittagong Port congestions.
3.GOVT also expanding the capacity of 2nd port of Bangladesh located in Mongla at the south western side of Bangladesh to cope up with recent growth and substitute Chittagong Port which is having regular congestions now a days.
4.CPA already brought 5 RTGs (Rubber Tired Gantry) to speed up the port container stacking to free up yard congestions.
5.CPA has plan to bring another 4 RTGs in coming October to speed up port productivity.
 

Air cargo markets continue to surprise
By: AJOT | Aug 01 2017 at 07:36 AM | Air Cargo  
For well over half a year now, we have seen air cargo volumes growing strongly year-over-year (YoY) and USD-yields stopping their 2015-2016 free fall. This trend did not show the slightest tendency of tapering off in June, on the contrary. The volume increase year-over-year (YoY) for the month was 10.5%, accompanied by an increase in Direct Ton Kilometers of 12%, showing that the average distance between origin and destination of shipments continues to increase. And yield worldwide, measured in USD, was 7% higher, a big bonus for airlines and a development we have not been able to report since the recovery of 2010-2011.
In terms of volume growth, the second quarter of 2017 was the best quarter for the industry in almost seven years. The origins Germany and Hong Kong grew most in absolute kilograms. The markets from Turkey to the Middle East & South Asia, from Belgium to Asia Pacific and from Belgium to North America showed the highest volume increase in percentages: 54%, 50% and 46% respectively. In general, load factors increased, as capacity growth was clearly lower than the increase in volumes in all regions.
Whereas the first quarter showed stable YoY yields, Q2 surprised with a remarkable yield improvement YoY of 5.4% in USD, and of 8.1% in Euros. Yield improvements in Q2 were particularly visible in markets with an origin in Asia Pacific. Yields ex China grew even harder than those from other countries in the region. Interestingly, positive yield and volume developments seemed to go hand in hand: from Asia Pacific to North America, growth of each was around 20%, and from Asia Pacific to Europe around 15%. A prominent element in the growth of both volumes and yields between Asia and North America was the modest capacity increase.
The YoY yield performance in Q2 may be explained partly by movements in fuel prices & surcharges: fuel prices were about 10% higher YoY. Past experience has taught the air cargo world that yields usually react to fuel price developments with a time delay. Since the 2016 fuel prices increased strongly between Q1 and Q2, Q2-yields in 2016 could be said to have been relatively low as the rising fuel prices had not yet been fully factored in. Given the increasing practice of net pricing, more research needs to be done on this subject, however.
The month of June also showed how air cargo and geopolitics can be intertwined as the transport of perishables to Qatar increased well beyond the overall growth pattern of this sector of the business. As a matter of fact, June confirmed the trend we reported earlier, which shows general cargo growing faster than most specific product categories; only pharma grows faster than general cargo. It also confirmed that the average shipment size is growing YoY: by more than 8% in June and by almost 7% for the first half of the year.