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Issue4 2013 All change - but no change
Malta has a new, Labour, government – the first time the party has been in power for 25 years, barring a short 18-month interlude in the mid-1990s. Those with long enough memories will recall the Dom Mintoff era of the 1970s and 80s with its sweeping nationalisations of virtually all major industries including ports and the creation, in Sea Malta, of one of Western Europe’s few state shipping lines. But the new Labour Government seems to be taking a much more pragmatic view; indeed one of its first acts has been to reduce the cost of building permits in an attempt to spark life into the island’s struggling construction industry. The new administration hasn’t said much in detail about its transport policy, beyond the fairly predictable statement that it intends to further develop the maritime industry. It also recently passed the previous administration’s budget and has appointed Karmenu Vella as minister for sea and air transport – he held a similar post in the last short-lived Labour administration. So far, he has shown little sign of wanting to radically alter the direction of Malta’s policy in this area. Presumably, the restructuring of Air Malta that is taking place under Brussels rules will also be continued. The carrier recently announced reduced losses of around €15 million a year, which is in line with projections and well down of the €50m-plus figures that were being rung up only recently.
Freeport weathers stormy seas with all flags flying
It’s been a turbulent year, but the Freeport has come up trumps, says director of sales and marketing, Alex Montebello. The port registered an overall increase of 7.5% over 2011 to 2.54 million teu in 2012, despite the loss of CSAV when the South American line effectively withdrew from the Mediterranean, along with Iran’s HDS, an operation that finally succumbed to international sanctions against that country. “We had to find other customers
to fill the space,” Montebello recalls. Maersk Line did more than
that, moving its main central Mediterranean base out of Gioia Tauro in Italy in favour of Malta. “Now we are seeing a continuous and sustained volume increase from Maersk,” Montebello explains. Maersk has a number of major
joint services with CMA CGM, still by far the Freeport’s largest customer. These include two Far
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90mm.ai 1 19/05/2011 14:41
East services and the Amerigo service from the US East Coast. But Maersk now also operates another
three main line services purely in its own right through its Seago subsidiary as well as two dedicated
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Femex flies from UK to Malta
A reorganisation has also brought major improvements to CMA CGM’s service from the UK to Malta. A new Femex I1 route operates from Hamburg, Antwerp and Southampton direct to Malta Freeport, offering a transit time of no more than six days. “We feel it is quite an attractive option for importers from the UK,” says CMA CGM’s Malta general manager, Derek Ali. (the previous service from the UK operated via Scandinavia and had a much longer transit time.) It is in fact operated by five
ships of no less than 2,800teu – ships that would have been a very respectable size on the
Transatlantic or Europe/Far East routes until a few years ago. With its schedule of under a
week, the Femex service could give road trailer operators a run for their money. The latter are effectively limited to a weekly frequency by the ro ro schedules from Italy to Malta and their transit time is not so very much quicker. Aſter
Malta, the Femex I
ships continue on to Turkey and Greece before returning to Morocco, Hamburg and North Europe. A Femex 2 service has also
recently started, using one 1,000teu vessel between Malta and Izmir and Aliaga in Turkey.
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