ISSUE 3 2010


Retailer sees red over rates


Container shipping line AP Moller-Maersk is being sued by UK high street retailer Argos for allegedly reneging on a shipping contract to ship 5,000 40ft containers from the Far East to the UK. The retailer, part of the Home Retail Group, said that Maersk had failed to honour a contract to ship the boxes from the Far East to the UK for 2010 and 2011 and had unilaterally imposed a three-fold price increase. The retailer claimed that it had sustained losses of almost $13.9m. According to documents filed by Argos with the High Court the agreed rate went up from $930 to $2,730 per container. Neither AP Moller-Maersk nor


the Home Retail Group would comment further on the case. The Freight Transport Association’s general manager of global and European affairs, Chris Welsh, said that


the retailer’s move could be evidence of growing confidence by shippers, following the repeal of conference laws in Europe. “In the past, while it was always theoretically possible to sue for breach of contract, shippers may have been concerned that they might suffer retribution at the hands of the shipping line cartels. I couldn’t envisage a case like this one happening until now.” He said that while there is case


law going back to 1947 which says that verbal and written contracts could over-ride the general provisions of a bill of lading, shippers may not always have been aware of it. He added: “I think carriers


now need to be very careful, as this case could demonstrate that protections for shippers rest not only in competition law but also in the laws governing breach of contract.”


Manchester is first UK target for Chinese


also plans to set up a Manchester City sales office, probably in the heart of the Chinatown area. Other possibilities are seafreight offices at Felixstowe and Southampton to devan consolidations arriving from the Far East on arrival. Globelink CEO, Soloman Cai


CBI managing director Nigel Sleigh with Angie Robinson of the MIDAS development agency


A Chinese Manchester freight forwarder has chosen the North ahead of London as the springboard for its expansion in the UK and Europe. Globelink China Logistics has purchased Manchester-based CBI Global Freight Management and has decided to set up its head office there because of the city and airport’s unrivalled logistical opportunities, said CBI managing director, Nigel Sleigh. “We have a freighter every day


from Hong Kong and Taipei, the Singapore Airlines passenger 777 and Emirates’ A380 from Dubai – but without the operational problems of London.” A London branch will however


open soon, probably in the Heathrow area, and there are


has meanwhile signed a three year lease on a double office suite at the World Freight Terminal at Manchester Airport. Globelink is one of the top


ten privately-owned Chinese forwarders and is present in around 30 cities in the country. Although Manchester is the company’s first expansion in Europe, it has also opened an office in Miami to serve the US and Latin American markets. Five months ago, Manchester’s


MIDAS investment and development agency published a China Working Links paper and the organisation used this experience to provide consultation for both companies during negotiations. MIDAS chief executive Angie


Robinson said: “China is a huge and growing world economic force and to have Globelink China Logistics choose Manchester as its UK base is a vote of confidence in our region’s business and unrivalled transport links.”


NEWS


A recent random inspection of containers at the port of Felixstowe found that three quarters of them were badly loaded, a senior Health & Safety Executive official told an FTA conference. Clive Dennis, from HSE’s hazardous installation directorate, told a panel session at the FTA’s dangerous goods seminar in Coventry on 9 September: “We opened the doors of 12 containers that had declared dangerous goods inside, and the load inside nine of them was a mess.” In fact, he said, port inspectors routinely secure locking bars with chains before opening containers because the likelihood of something tumbling out is so high. Clive Dennis added that Police and VOSA roadside inspections


3 Mind the doors, warns HSE


also routinely found that container packing certificates (CPCs) had been left blank, which is in itself a breach of the ADR regulations. However, HSE’s concern was not so much with a piece of paper but the fact that it pointed to a breakdown in the safety process. The freight industry could usefully copy the pharmaceutical and


aircraft manufacturing industries, where different stages of the process were always signed off by the individual responsible and if problems did they arise they could be traced back to source. “I’m not suggesting that the freight industry goes quite so far,


but the CPC is that sort of document,” said Clive Dennis. “It’s about how we get people to take their responsibilities more seriously.”


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