Charles Gee in administration 8 has gone


Forwarding and logistics group Charles Gee


into


administration – barely a year aſter celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2012. The company cited cash flow problems for the decision to call in administrators from FRP Advisory, which will continue to manage the company’s day to day operations while a buyer is sought. However, there could be


redundancies among the 250 staff, who work at locations including Felixstowe, Tilbury, Hull, Heathrow and London. The company’s roots are in


shipbroking, an activity it still offers as well as mulitmodal forwarding and specialist services for the heavyliſt sector and the newsprint industry. Among its customers were Airbus and the nuclear power


generators. The company had hoped to secure a major contract to move material for the new Hinkley Point power station, the go- ahead for which was announced, ironically, on the day that Charles Gee called in the administrators. The company became a


member of the World Project Group in October 2012. Subsidiaries include Heathrow-


based airfreight specialist CT


Freight, haulier, London and South- east forest products haulier C&H – which has already been sold to logistics operator CM Downton - Charles Gee Shipbroking, project specialist Charles Gee Bridgwater and Bristol-based heavy logistics specialist PDF services. Buyers are still being sought for the remaining parts of the business.


Alliance buys in America


Essex-based Alliance Group’s US arm, Alliance Pacific Corporation (APC) is to take over Houston- based Embassy Freight (There is no connection with the UK company of the same name). Embassy’s clients and services will be fully integrated into APC from 1 January 2014 and former chief executive


officer, Steve Winters will head up the group’s sales and marketing activities at APC’s headquarters in Atlanta from the same date. Alliance Group finder, Gary


Waller, said: the two companies “share the same ethos, a multiplicity of trade lanes and in some areas even the same


reciprocal agents.” Shared buying power would also benefit clients, he added. Mr Winters, like APC’s US head


Simon Button, is a UK expatriate. Mr Waller is forecasting growth


of over $4 million in Atlanta next year and a tripling in business over the next five years to 2018.


Steve Winters EU falls into line on container weighing


The Freight Transport Association says it has headed off a European Commission proposal that could potentially have created conflicting container weighing requirements for shippers. Under the EU weights and


dimensions directive currently under review, the Commission had been proposing new shipper liability provisions for overweight/ misdeclared containers which could have led to duplication of the International Maritime


Organisation’s recently reached compromise deal on new guidelines for container weighing. (FBJ 7 2013, page 1) However, the European


Parliament’s Rapporteur Jörg Leichtfried has now accepted FTA proposals to amend the proposal to effectively implement the recent IMO decision. Recently


FTA, and the


international organisation the Global


Rethink ports plan, MEPs told


The UK Major Ports Group has called on MEPs to withdraw or suspend the proposed regulation on liberalisation of port services to allow time to assess the question


thoroughly. The


mainly private sector UK ports, supported by others, including Rotterdam, are unhappy at the European Commission’s plans to impose detailed transparency obligations on pricing and obligations to consult with supervisory authorities or a users’ committees on rates every year. The Commission’s proposal


intends to allow freedom to provide services as a general principle for a range of services, such as pilotage, towing and bunkering, but not cargo handling, in the face of opposition from the dock workers’ unions. UK Major Ports executive


director, Richard Bird said that the regulation would interfere in areas where the market works very well and called for more flexibility. He said: “The proposed regulation shows too little regard for the diversity of port infrastructure throughout Europe. A blanket regulation approach as advocated by the Commission does not sufficiently take variations in port structure into account, nor is there credible flexibility for member states to choose the system best suited to local needs. It is a straightjacket rather than a toolbox and that will put investment at risk. “We strongly support


unsubsidised competition and free market access but this regulation is not the right way to go about it as it clearly jeopardizes progress already made in several countries.”


Shippers’ Forum (GSF), worked with the IMO and other


industry stakeholders to agree new verification provisions for container weighing which will substantially address the problem of misdeclaration of containers and enhance safety standards on EU roads. FTA added that it fully


supported the proposed amendment by the rapporteur outlined in his recent draſt report, which would advise against the EU adopting different provisions to achieve exactly the same objective as the IMO’s safety of Live at Sea (SOLAS) changes. Chris Welsh, FTA director


of global and European policy said: “FTA strongly believes that Rapporteur Leichtfried’s amendment will establish a uniform


approach across all


modes of transport and will achieve the same objectives as the IMO SOLAS changes.


It will avoid


possible conflicting provisions, especially as the new Article 14 is primarily concerned with the land


transport leg of an international maritime multimodal transport movement. “The carefully craſted amendment to the


Convention provides for two methods of verification: weighing the


fully packed SOLAS container


via a weigh bridge/station at the container terminal, or via a calculated weight method whereby the shipper must weigh the constituent parts of the consignment to arrive at the gross mass weight of the container, subject to verification schemes to be adopted by national maritime safety administrations.” Mr Welsh added: “FTA, in


conjunction with GSF, has worked


closely with the


IMO in order to address the misdeclaration of container weighing and is therefore calling on the Commission to ensure the new Article 14 of Directive 96/53 fully respects these new global rules.”


Panalpina agrees terms in US lawsuit


Panalpina said on 23 October that it had entered into a preliminary agreement to settle a US class lawsuit filed in 2008 over anticompetitive practices on freight surcharges. The forwarder has agreed to pay US$35 million, which includes previously received proceeds of USD 5.8 million, in an unrelated class action against various airlines.


The settlement is subject to US court approval and will impact the fourth quarter 2013 results. The civil class action lawsuit


was filed against a number of air freight forwarders, including Panalpina,following investigations by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The case was settled with the DOJ in 2010 through a plea agreement.


Issue 8 2013 Freight Business Journal


///NEWS


NEWS ROUNDUP SHIPPING


John Good Shipping has been appointed agent for short-sea container operator Team Lines Germany GmbH and its subsidiary, Delphis Logistics. Team Lines connects over 30 ports from the Iberian Peninsular to the Baltics with fixed-day weekly sailings and has just returned to the UK market with a new weekly service from Bilbao to Felixstowe and Rotterdam from mid-October. John Good’s managing director Alan Platt, said: “This signals an exciting return to the UK market of a well-established and highly-regarded short sea operator, which will further enhance their existing activities between the European North West Continent, Iberia, Scandinavia and the Baltics.”


The Port of London Authority has appointed Robin Mortimer as chief executive, succeeding Richard Everitt, who has held the position since December 2004. Robin Mortimer, who will join the PLA in March 2014, is currently a director in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where he led the transformation of British Waterways into the new Canal & River Trust, directed the Major Infrastructure and Environment Unit and set up the UK’s Adapting to Climate Change Programme. Previously he was private secretary to the deputy prime minister and to the three Transport and Environment secretaries, where he advised on ports, aviation and London transport issues.


The first group of young people graduated from the High Tide Foundation’s Summer Scheme on Teesside at a ceremony at Ryehills School in Redcar on 14 October. The scheme was launched to help young people leaving school gain an understanding of life in the work place, as well as the variety of career choices available in port related businesses on Teesside. The two-week long scheme saw each young person spend time with two different companies including Agility Logistics, Bond Dickinson, Casper Shipping, Cory Shipping, David Fox Transport, Denholm Wilhelmsen, PD Ports, Sabic and Tata Steel. A particular highlight was the opportunity to experience life on a working container ship with local shipping line, Containerships, on an 11-day round trip to St Petersburg via Rotterdam, Riga and Helsinki.


Maersk Line global head of cargo management, Uffe Ernst- Frederiksen has been appointed chairman of the container shipping industry-led Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) organisation. He takes over the post of chairman from Reinhard Schwede of the cargo services/dangerous cargo department of Hapag-Lloyd. CINS, set up in 2011 by CMA CGM, Evergreen Line, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Line and MSC and managed by the Container Owners Association, operates a database that captures key data on incidents that regularly disrupt operations and endanger lives, environment and property.


Finnlines says that it played no part in an attempt to smuggle banned material from Russia to Syria last January. The case concerns a containerload of tank spares that was unloaded from the M/S Finnsun at Vuosaari Harbour in Helsinki on 8 January. A Finnish Customs investigation revealed that the container was in transit from Russia to Latakia, Syria via Finland and had in fact been returned to Finland from Antwerp due to irregularities. The line added that it had “supported and assisted Customs in all possible ways in this matter and continues to give all assistance” and: “the suspicions are denied in their entirety. Finnlines wants to emphasize that it was Finnlines’ own checking procedures during the transit of the container on board that revealed the content of the container in question aſter which Finnlines immediately informed the Customs by its own initiative.”


Portland Port has taken delivery of a new mobile harbour crane. The 150 tonne crane extends the port’s cargo handling capabilities and comes with a range of grab buckets, which will improve discharge and loading rates. The port can handle all types of cargo including containers, general cargo, bulk and project cargos, as well as most categories of hazardous goods.


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