Signs of activity amongst the shipping lines on the Far East run are also somewhat careful at the moment as regards development into China.
Almost everybody is offering seafreight opportunities to the Mainland on through bills of lading, and some are even promoting transhipment into Chinese main ports on own vessels. But Cosco (China Ocean Shipping Company) is the only line with a direct SA-China sailing.
Safmarine has recently opened a representative office on the Mainland, but is currently concentrating on the industrial powerhouse region around Shanghai and inland along the Yangtze River delta. While they recognise the market demand for direct calls, this is still not on Safmarine's short-term planning schedule.
Maersk has its own big, line-haul ships calling at major Chinese ports - and tranships from its SA vessels at the main hub ports in the region. But g.m line management Jorn Nielsen has no plans for direct sailings.
MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) talks about focusing on services to the Mainland, but, does not express any short-term intention to open a direct run.
Kien Hung, meantime, has been affected by the politics surrounding the SA government moving its diplomatic support from Taiwan to Mainland China. This disadvantaged the Taiwanese carrier as it had to close its direct service to China in the middle of last year. For almost a year, we were the only other line with this service, said Debbie Wicks, marketing director of SA agents, Status Maritime. But the political situation forced us to pull out, and I don't know when we'll get it going again. Peter Nash of ALS (Ahrenkiel Liner Services) - which is a main player in multi-purpose services to Mainland China - suggests that it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. He doesn't see lines sailing directly into China in any numbers until the volumes are there. And volumes are not going to grow that fast until ships start to arrive, he said.
Nantai Line and Mitsui OSK (another of the transhipment, own vessels brigade) are both believed to be sitting waiting-in-the-wings until demand justifies direct sailings. But, said Nantai's David Yang, head office has said nothing about plans to go there directly.
