Shanghai port firm diverts European shipping to Yangshan
Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) has told shipping lines in China's commercial heartland to move all their European services to the new US$12 billion Yangshan deepwater port development by November.
SIPG, majority owner of the Yangshan Phase I development company, this week instructed the container shipping lines to move their European services now calling at Shanghai's Waigaoqiao port complex to Yangshan for the launch.
'We've been told to prepare for a November transfer and that they will meet with us in September to iron out the details,' said the regional manager of one of Asia's biggest carriers.
The notice was given to all of the world's biggest shipping lines, including Maersk Sealand, Mediterranean Shipping Corp, France's CMA-CGM and the Global and New World alliances, of which Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Lines is a member.
The shift will affect 16 Asia-Europe services and is expected to divert almost three million boxes to the 14.3 billion yuan five-berth Phase I project in the first year of operations, using 70 per cent of its capacity from the start.
SIPG told carriers the remaining 30 per cent would allow for growth. The four-berth Phase II, which will see the first foreign participation in Yangshan, is expected to be operational by the end of next year.
The services will be transferred from Phases I, II, IV and V of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao port complex, facilities managed and minority-owned by Hutchison Port Holdings, Cosco Pacific, APM Terminals and Shanghai Industrial.
While conceding the full-blooded nature of the directive, the Asian shipping executive said the transfer appeared to have been handled in an equitable manner.
'Being herded all together as the guinea pigs for the launch of operations will make it a lot easier for us to deal with our customers,' he said.
'There will be no alternative Europe services at Waigaoqiao, so we're all in the same boat.'
A spokesman for a foreign port operator at Waigaoqiao, which stands to lose most of its European cargo in the short term, said the demand did not come as a shock.
'Shanghai is growing at such a pace that the volumes will be quickly recovered,' he said. 'It is terminal capacity that is needed.'
Throughput at Shanghai has been growing at a 30 per cent clip for the past five years and it is the world's No3 port by volume at present.
Phases II and IV at Waigaoqiao have been nominated as the transfer hubs for Yangtze River Delta cargo moving to Yangshan from inland commercial centres such as Wuhan, Nanjing and Chongqing.
SIPG's subsidiary, A-share Shanghai Port Containers, will have a monopoly on the barge services shuttling cargoes between the two ports.
