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MALTA Supported by
Malta – much more than just a little Britain
With its red phone boxes and widely spoken English, Malta may seem like a warmer and slightly old-fashioned version of Britain. But below the surface, the island is more Mediterranean than it is European. It’s as close to North Africa as it is to mainland Europe; shoppers and football fans alike show as much allegiance to Italy as they do to Britain. The country has for many years
been seen as a stepping-stone to the Middle East, in particular Libya. But it is also one of the nearest points in the EU to the shipping lanes through the Suez Canal and some Maltese logistics companies are beginning to take advantage of that fact. Electronics and pharmaceuticals
have been the mainstay of the local economy for many years, but now Malta is developing an aerospace cluster. Lufthansa Technik, which started
operations at a new base at Malta International Airport last year, has been joined by SR Technik and, soon, the island will become the servicing base for the new A380 Airbus, while other companies are doing work for Easyjet. Local technical colleges are also responding with aircraft engineering courses. It’s all good business for the
freight industry, though with most shipments in these high tech high-value-added industries well towards the lighter end of the spectrum, it’s mostly the airfreight segment that stands to gain. The all-important tourist trade
has been suffering, though. The weak Pound relative to the Euro has cut numbers from the major traditional market, the UK and the cruise trade is also down. Local consumption has though remained fairly stable,
at least according to local freight operators. Local forwarder Stephen Parnis England says that Government support for local companies has helped keep the economy on track though Gordon Caruana at Concorde, another local international haulier, says that 2010 has however started slowly, with business not really getting into its stride until February. He adds that the Hal Far bonded facility, which handles a good part of Malta’s international trade, is noticeably less busy. Even the weather seems to be
against the Maltese trader at the moment, says Caruana. “Because it’s been so strange
lately, fashion retailers aren’t risking running up large stocks which they might not be able to sell because it’s unexpectedly warm or cold. We used to bring in a lot of boxed garments – it
was a good way of filling up the trailers – but now the retailers are bringing in much smaller amounts, usually by air.” Tourism may have taken
a knock, he continues, but this year has shown signs of a recovery. There has also been some construction activity, including a start on the Smart City business park, planned for several years but which is only now starting to rise from the rubble of an old industrial area not far from Malta Shipyards, which itself could take on a new lease of life following its sale to Italian company Palumbo.
ISSUE 1 2010
Freeport unfazed by containership giant
It wasn’t actually planned as such, but the visit of the CMA CGM Christophe Colombe, the French-owned line’s largest containership on 20 December was a perfect demonstration of the Freeport’s capabilities. Nothing quite so large as this 13,800teu monster has been seen before at the Maltese transhipment hub, but as far as ship and container-handling was concerned, it was just like any other vessel – just rather bigger, says CMA CGM’s acting general manager, Derek Ali. The ship carried a full complement of boxes, so it was a true test of the port’s cranes and handling equipment – she berthed on the North Quay Terminal 2, which has one of the largest sets of quay cranes in the Med. While CMA CGM’s FAL7 service does not normally
However, the mainstay of
the Freeport will continue to be the FAL1 and FAL3 services which use vessels of only 11,500teu and FAL3 8,500teu respectively. (It’s a measure of how far containership design has come that 11,500teu can be prefaced by the word ‘only’.) Tonnage on other CMA
CGM services at the Freeport may be less spectacular but the network has made steady progress overall. The line added the twice-weekly FEMEX service that operates between Turkey, Greece, north west Europe and Scandinavia in mid- 2009. Feeder services to North Africa have also increased from around ten to 13 services a week. At the same time, a dedicated direct Far East to North Africa service that used to use Malta as a hub port has
Christophe Colombe at Malta Freeport
call in Malta on its way from Europe to the Far East, there was a need to shift a large number of empty boxes back to Asia – one of a series of such ad hoc calls, explains Derek Ali.
“She was as big as they
get – there aren’t many containerships that are larger anywhere in the world and she’s the flagship of the CMA CGM fleet,” he says. “We had very good cooperation from everyone so it shows that Malta can provide a service to suit any ship and any client.” Could Malta handle ships of this size every week? “Certainly, yes, if we
have the berthing windows available.”
been replaced by capacity on the Far East to Europe services. Malta has though been
dropped from the schedule of the joint service to South America operated with Hamburg Sud and CSAV’s Libra, but if any Maltese-based traders fear being inconvenienced, it will still be possible to reach the region via other ports. Derek Ali believes that the
global freight market may have finally turned the corner. “Quite large increases are
forecast, and volumes are up by around 10%. It remains to be seen if the recession is really over, but with every shipping line seeing higher than expected volumes, the signs are there for a recovery.”
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