Hanjin to take over APM Kaohsiung facility

Hanjin to take over APM Kaohsiung facility    Hanjin Shipping said Thursday its terminal operating subsidiary Hanjin Pacific will take over operations at APM Terminals' container facility in the Port of Kaohsiung in May.
   Under the arrangement, Hanjin and APM will jointly operate the terminal from February through May 7, after which Hanjin will be the sole operator. The Korean company operates a neighboring terminal in the port, Taiwan's biggest and one of the world's 15-busiest ports. The two terminals will be linked, doubling capacity of Hanjin's current terminal.
   The companies said the deal fits with Kaohsiung officials' drive to combine smaller terminals into larger, more efficient ones.
   Once one of the three busiest ports in the world, Kaohsiung's profile has slipped in recent years as cargo has migrated to China, where manufacturers have cost advantages over Taiwan. A recent loosening of restrictions on trade and travel between Taiwan and mainland China is expected to have a positive impact on Taiwan's trade volumes long term, but the recession has hit Kaohsiung as hard as most major ports in eastern Asia.
   Its 2009 volume dipped 11.3 percent, to 8.6 million TEUs, as it fell to 13th on the list of the world's busiest container ports. Significantly, it has fallen behind a host of Chinese ports in recent years, including Tianjin in 2009.
   As for APM Terminals, the subsidiary of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, it has been gradually reducing its presence at Kaohsiung the last two years. In 2009, it left one of the two terminals it operated as the lease on that facility expired. Maersk's volume into Kaohsiung has been affected by increasing use of the Port of Xiamen, which lies across the Taiwan Strait on the Chinese mainland.
   Xiamen, though its volume fell 7 percent in 2009 to 4.7 million TEUs, nevertheless managed to climb into the top 20 ports in the world, at No. 18.

Christiansen

   'For APM Terminals this move is a clear result of the more proactive way we currently are looking at optimizing our global terminal network,' said Martin Gaard Christiansen, chief executive for APM Terminals' Asia Pacific region. 'The facility in Kaohsiung has served us well and we have been pleased with the support of the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau throughout our association. Market conditions have changed and we have decided business-wise it makes sense to transfer our Kaohsiung location to Hanjin. This will complement their existing facility well and also satisfy the port master plan to better integrate Kaohsiung terminal facilities.'
   But Hanjin, which is developing a major terminal in southern Vietnam, as well as facilities in Algeciras, Spain, and Jacksonville, Fla., is bullish on Kaohsiung's future. Hanjin Pacific runs 12 dedicated terminals globally.
   'Over the next few months, the newly expanded Hanjin Pacific terminal will be gearing up to serve some of the most important shipping lines in the world, including Maersk Line,' said G.S. Choi, CEO of Hanjin Pacific. 'The new operations at Kaohsiung will be fully operational by the second quarter of 2010 and will double the handling capacity of existing (Hanjin Pacific) services.'
   Financial details of the transaction were not made available immediately, but the agreement has been approved by the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, Hanjin said.