Ocean Transport: Among the anoraks

I’ve been told train spotters and ship enthusiasts are sometimes called “anoraks” in the United Kingdom, after the coats they wear while waiting to snap photos. I could have used a warmer jacket myself on Dec. 31, the day I went over to the Port of Oakland to see the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin dock at the Ports America terminal.

There was a mix of port workers and the just plain curious, including several families with little children in tow, who lined up to see the big ship. Even Mike Zampa, the port’s communications director, admitted to being a little awed. “I don’t think I’m alone—there were three helicopters chasing the ship in from the Golden Gate Bridge, there were news photographers on the Marin Headlands and Treasure Island at the entrance to the Port of Oakland.”

The port has spent many millions of dollars, readying for big ships, he noted, deepening berths, raising cranes and making other infrastructure improvement.

One of those who braved the cold was Jock O’Connell, an international trade advisor at Beacon Economics. He noted the Port of Los Angeles prepared for the arrival of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin like it was the Super Bowl. In Los Angeles, 11,200 containers of all sizes were discharged and loaded at APM Terminal’s Pier 400 facility and in Oakland about 2,550 were handled. “For several weeks, railcars have been pre-staged to the Port of Los Angeles to ensure fastest turnarounds. Truckers were also notified of this highest level of activity,” CMA CGM said.

Of course, if such ships call regularly, railroads and terminals will have to be ready for a Super Bowl every week.

Already 18,000-TEU ships are deployed in the trade between Europe and Asia, but “if the volumes on those routes start falling off or don’t increase at a desirable rate, the carriers have all this surplus capacity that they’re going to have to deploy elsewhere,” O’Connell noted.

Alphaliner estimates 105 ships with plus-13,300 TEUs of capacity and 58 ships with capacities of 10,000 to 13,299 TEUs will be delivered in the next three years.

By virtue of their sheer size they can displace the use of a larger number of smaller vessels, and help California and its powerful California Air Resources Board reach its ambitious environmental goals, O’Connell said.

And, if West Coast ports prove they can handle them efficiently, “it’s really going to take the wind out of the Panama Canal,” he added.

Niche trade’s big deal

There was a big deal in December between two companies revolving around a commodity whose transport I’ve never given much thought about: asphalt.

Vitol Group, with operations in Geneva, Houston, London and Singapore, acquired a 50 percent interest in Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sargeant Marine.

(Sargeant notes that while the terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably, bitumen is the liquid product that is used as a binder—it becomes asphalt when mixed with sand and aggregate stone. “Liquid asphalt” is another synonym for bitumen.)

Sargeant distributes asphalt to customers worldwide and has terminals in Rotterdam and Costanza, Romania, as well as a fleet of a dozen specialized tankers with capacities ranging from 5,000 to more than 40,000 metric tons. In late December, Sargeant took delivery of a 37,000-deadweight-ton tanker, Asphalt Splendor.

Sargeant also said it has the world’s second largest fleet of ISO asphalt containers. The company explained that those 20-foot containers are “often a more cost effective alternative to delivery in 55 gallon drums” and used “to service customers who require bulk deliveries where bulk terminals do not exist or where customers wish to avoid the logistical problems of handling and disposing of large quantities of drums.”

A byproduct of oil refining, asphalt is stored and transported at high temperatures—300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The combined asphalt businesses is expected to trade 1 million metric tons of asphalt annually. Daniel Sargeant, chief executive officer of Sargeant, said the partnership with Vitol “will enable our customers to continue to benefit from our specialist expertise, with the additional backing of the world’s leading energy trader.”

Attorney Lawrence Rutkowski of Seward and Kissel said the deal is “a fairly unusual marriage between an asset-owning company with a much larger trading company and does present some unique opportunities to the asset owner.”

We asked Rutkowski if we should expect a flurry of mergers given the depressed freight rates for both container and bulk shipping.

While consolidation can benefit certain types of shipping companies, such as container carriers, he said in the bulk trades, dry bulk in particular, there is less to be gained from consolidation.

Most bulk shipping companies have lean staffs and outsource a lot of work. General and administrative costs are “not a huge component of their expenses, so consolidation is not going to save you a lot in my view. I think that’s one of the reasons we haven’t seen more mergers,” he said.

The Sargeant-Vitol deal is different. “This is not a transaction that is driven by anybody’s effort to reduce cost, rather it’s an attempt to truly exploit synergies,” Rutkowski said.

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