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CONFERENCE REPORT • @TCO’S LATEST GENERAL MEETING CONTINUED TO PROMOTE TANK CONTAINER USE IN THE DEVELOPING MARKETS IN ASIA
THE ASIAN TANK Container Organisation (@tco) held its 11th general meeting in Singapore on 5 July, featuring another compact conference session to update members and other interested parties on current developments of relevance to the tank container sector in Asia. One of @tco’s main missions is to improve
standards of tank cleaning and depot services across the region. That mission is now getting help from the authorities – word came through not long after the Singapore meeting that the general
SAIGON NEWPORT IS THE LATEST DEPOT OPERATOR TO BE RECOGNISED AFTER UNDERGOING A SUCCESSFUL @TCO AUDIT
manager and two other employees of the Everlast Tianjin depot had been arrested after photographs had been taken showing waste being dumped in a river. Local sources point to this as an example of the recent clampdown by authorities on waste disposal practices. If arrests are a stick with which to beat
substandard depot operators, the carrot is @tco’s depot audit programme. During the meeting @tco depot plaques were awarded to Saigon Newport Depots in Vietnam, which had, according to president Reg Lee, “worked extremely hard” to achieve successful audits at its two facilities.
MARKET MOVES Providing some background to the current trading environment, Ee-Foong Ewe, vice- president of ICIS Consulting’s local office in
Singapore, spoke about the impact of the low oil price on the global petrochemical industry and what this means for tank containers. Ewe listed the many factors that have had an influence on falling oil prices over the past two years and opined that crude supply is expected to remain long in the near term. While the states of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are trying to tread a fine line between defending their market share and capping output to support prices, the return of Iranian crudes to the world market will undoubtedly add to supply, albeit the volume available in the short term is uncertain. Ewe also said that the lifting of the US ban on crude oil exports should not have a significant impact, as price differentials are narrowing. But the oil market is influenced by factors
other than price. For instance, hydrocarbon supply from tight oil and gas formations is “uncontrollable at best”, he said. China in particular is expected to work towards greater shale oil and gas production as part of its target of becoming self-sufficient in energy supplies. Ewe described three major “pivots” in the
current petrochemical picture. A “resurgent” US is benefitting from the availability of »
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