AFRICA PORTS, LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN CONFERENCE IN ACCRA, GHANA

3RD MARITIME SECURITY CONFERENCE IN ATHENS, GREECE

MARITIME SECURITY BOATS ON SALE

We wish to advise that we have couple of Maritime security Patrol boats/vessels for sale, which could be used for offshore Maritime Security along the Kenya-Somalia Basin and other areas.

These Vessels are offered, “subject continued availability”, basis: “as is where is”, {Norwegian Sale Form Agreement}. - NSF Terms. Vessels are currently available prompt inspection/delivery – Europe, to named and qualified buyers only.

Please advise if of serious interest by mail to: africanshippingdubai@gmail.com

AFRICA - SOUTH EAST ASIA CONTAINER LINES GROWING STRONGER

African Shipping Line Covered Ports in Middle East, Indian SubContinent and Far East Including China

AFRICA-ASIA CONTAINER LINES are reported to be doing brisk business even as Africa is opening up to India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China Markets. This has been attributed by the recent boom in developing countries in Africa accelerating business leads. The commerce between Africa and Asia epitomizes the explosion of South-South trade. These trade flows are driven by the burgeoning middle classes in Asia's emerging economic giants—China and India—whose appetite for Africa's commodities is growing, and by rising economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which is increasing the demand for Asian manufactured goods.

For example, The Africa-China trade represents more than 10 percent of the continent's trade. In value terms, it represents $114 billion--$52 billion in exports and $62 billion in imports. Africa has a trade deficit with China of about $10 billion, according to AfDB's report, Chinese Trade and Investment Activities in Africa.

For China Shipping, Please email: info@ashline.net or China.shipping@africanshippingline.com

LIVESTOCK EXPORTS TO MAURITIUS, ARABIAN COUNTRIES FROM KENYA RISES

UAE Dubai and Mauritius are now some of the biggest Livestock Markets of Kenya after Cattle Bulls numbers increase due to favourable African tropical climate, Kenya Government Reports say,

Kenya already exporting Beef and Livestock products to many countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Pakistan, Malaysia and Mauritius and much of the Livestock Shipping is being done from the Port of Mombasa Port.

African Shipping Line can arrange with Vessel Owners to provide Livestock services from Kenya's Mombasa port or Mogadishu, Somali to Saudi Arabia, UAE Abudhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman at the cheapest rates and faster voyages. email: info@ashline.net

Kenya has secured other new beef and livestock markets in Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malaysia, opening a new income stream for pastoralists hard hit by recurrent drought and livestock diseases. The Government said the new markets present a major opportunity for both pastoralists and ranchers. Exporters are buying from pastoralists to meet rising demand which ranchers are unable to meet.

“We have new markets in Libya, DRC and Malaysia and are waiting to confirm orders from those countries,” said Kenya Government official chairman Abbas Mohammed

Kenya is the only country in the region which can supply Mauritius with its requirements, says a private company awarded a contract to export 7000 animals worth KSh30 million last year. Between 2004 and 2006, according to Ministry of Livestock figures, Kenyan ranchers earned Sh430 millions from meat product exports.

Kenya  and Shipping Line Companies now say that Egypt has also expressed interest in Kenyan Livestock sector imports.

“We are negotiating with the Egyptian Delegation for Livestock export,” Ibrahim Ahmed, CEO, African Shipping Line, Kenya and Somalia said recently, adding Egypt will however require live animals but not meat exports.

Kenya has a quota of 142,000 metric tonnes of meat which is provided under the African Caribbean Pacific preferential beef export agreement which cannot be accessed due to prevalence of trade sensitive diseases in the country. According to the statistics released by the Livestock Ministry last year, the Middle East alone has a net demand of 122,000 Metric tonnes.

The region was one of the traditional markets in the 1980s when the country could meet international standards. The animals the country is exporting to Mauritius are sourced from ranches and according to authorities, the export permit does not allow the exporter to source animals elsewhere in the country despite the fact that there may be plenty of animals meeting the required fat content. Kenya's Livestock Ministry earlier announced Iran’s intention to venture into local livestock products processing for purpose of serving the export market.

Kenya recently also secured an export deal to Egypt, where 10 tonnes of beef are exported every week. The country is also exporting up to eight tonnes of mutton to Qatar and Dubai weekly. Between March and July, Kenya exported 4,950 cattle to Mauritius, according to statics provided by the Kenya Government. The growing market has already raised the price of livestock for export. Kenya is angling for a slice of the fast growing demand for animal protein in Arab countries as livestock traders seek an alternative market amid drought and squeezed domestic market.



The Livestock ministry said a team of veterinary and other animal specialists from Arabia have been invited into the country to assess livestock quality control system in a move aimed at unlocking the sector’s export potential. That team is poised to endorse Kenya’s production standards and certify that the country’s animal products meet Islamic (halal) conditions. 

This could raise exports to Mauritius, United Arabs Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia which have traditionally bought meat and live animals from Kenya. World meat prices have maintained upward trend from 2008, hitting 20-year highs by end of 2010 in some Arab countries as global demand continue to outstrip supply, Food and Agricultural Organisation records show.

“We have not been in a position to take full advantage of this rising demand which at the moment is being stretched by cultural and religious practices because of standards limitations,” said Mr Mohamed Abbas, Kenyan Government.

SRILANKA BUNKER TERMINAL READY

Sri Lanka plans to open a $ 130 million fuel bunkering terminal with a capacity of 82,000 metric tonnes at its new Hambantota port in May, the island nation’s Ports Authority said on Friday. Hambantota, which opened in November, is set to be Sri Lanka’s biggest port once completed and give the Indian Ocean country access to traffic on one of the world’s biggest East-West shipping lanes, located a few kilometres off its southern coast.

“We will start bunkering in May,” Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Chairman Priyath Wickrama, told Reuters.
“Our target is to reach 4 million tonnes storage, with bulk transhipments.” China Exim Bank has loaned $ 77 million toward the cost of the terminal, which the Ports Authority will operate. China has loaned Sri Lanka the bulk of the money to build the $ 1.5 billion port.
The Ports Authority has said China would have no operational role in the bunker terminal, the only part of the port not open to external investment. Sri Lankan bunker firms want the government to open up to the private sector ship fuel supplies at a new port on the south coast close to the main shipping route, officials said.  

The market for ship fuel can be expanded as hundreds of vessels daily sail past the new Hambantota port which was opened last November, they said.

The Hemas group has announced it plans to start bunkering operations at Hambantota in May and is buying four bunker barges. The SLPA has said bunkering will not be opened to private suppliers in Hambantota as it wants to keep the business for itself to earn revenue on ship fuel sales to help repay loans from China taken to build the port. But Sri Lankan bunker firms are lobbying for the bunker business to be opened to the private sector, saying increased competition and efficiency will expand the market.

Sri Lanka Shipping, one of the eight licensed bunker suppliers in Colombo port, has already submitted a proposal to the SLPA to sell ship fuel in Hambantota when it invited investments for industries in the new port.
"We submitted a proposal to supply bunkers under port services," said managing director Mohamed Reza. "We're waiting for a response."

Port operators usually do not get involved in supplying ship fuel which is left to the private sector in other ports, he said.

"People have to go in there and invest and start marketing and offer efficient services at competitive prices to build a market."

Bunker sales at Colombo port increased after a private sector monopoly was broken and more suppliers allowed with prices also falling. Another supplier, Lanka IOC, the local unit of Indian Oil Corp., is also eyeing bunkering at Hambantota.
"We're extremely keen to do bunkering at Hambantota," LIOC managing director K R Suresh Kumar said.
"We see a lot of potential as it is a strategic location which can attract ocean going vessels on the East-West shipping route. We've conveyed our interest to the authorities and hope everyone will get an opportunity along with the SLPA."

Suresh Kumar said the SLPA can earn revenue by hiring bunker fuel storage tanks now under construction to the private sector which can do the marketing and selling.
"It is not necessary for the entire marketing of bunkers to be handled by the SLPA. By allowing more players the business can expand."

Irshad Mushin, director of maritime transportation of Hemas group which is expanding investments in shipping, said private bunker firms could use their global networks to attract ships to take bunkers at Hambantota.
"A proper strategic approach to bunkering needs suppliers who have global networks like bunkering in hubs like Singapore, Fujairah and Rotterdam," he said.
"They have long-term contracts with shipping lines with fleets of big vessels like bulk carriers and oil tankers which take on very large volumes of fuel."

Such an approach would help the port to capture a bigger market for ship fuel than attracting casual callers looking to top up on fuel at the closest port while passing the island.
"While the tank farm is being built the possibility or feasibility of using floating storage should be looked at until the farm is completed," Mushin said.