In the middle of August, I flew to Singapore after an interval of one and a half years. The airplane was considerably crowded, and I could find the seat with Singapore Airlines somehow. But I had to wait for 2 days finally to confirm by myself an aisle seat by Internet as the travel agent could hardly secure an aisle seat for me. I felt 6 hour flight to Singapore rather shorter this time because I enjoyed watching 3 flight movies on end, which was different to usual.
Singapore changes whenever I come. Singapore (Changi) international airport will complete Terminal 4 this year. Then, the capacity of handling the number of the passengers seems to become 82 million people a year. In addition, there will be the plan of the construction of terminal 5 in the future. It will be planned the opening of business in 2025. After completion, Singapore Airport could handle 150 million a year.
On the other hand, Singapore is the 2nd largest container port in the world in the volume of handling containers (30.9 million TEU in 2016), of which 80% containers are transshipment. PSA of the Singaporean government manages the container terminal collectively. They manage 2 terminals but the terminal one remote from another.
One is located at the main city near Marina Bay Suns. Another is the Pasir Panjang terminal that is 10 km away to the west from city area. The PSA makes a plan to transfer the container terminal near the city area by 2040-2050 into the Pasir Panjang terminal district to raise the efficiency. The Pasir Panjang terminal finishes the current extension works this year. Singapore port could handle 50 million TEU per year after the completion. In addition, the ability of container handling after two terminal unification becomes 65 million TEU.
In addition, Singapore government plans to redevelop the site of the container terminal in the city area as a sightseeing spot, a place of residence as southern waterfront city. When I came back to Singapore airport for return home, a taxi driver spoke to me that construction of rapid transit railway serving between Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Singapore will begin soon. It links Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in 99 minutes at speed of 250 kilos per an hour. Comparing with taking 5 hours by car, 7 hours by a convention railway and 3 hours by air (including transit and waiting time) it is quite convenient so that more tourists coming, he said proudly. It is the international city that changes whenever I come. I think that there is a hint which way Japan should go in the future.
As per favorableness of the current container demand the balance sheets of 2 major container makers in the world have improved to great extent. Their consolidated results of the first half from January to June this year were recently announced.
Sales Amount | Year-on-Year Rate | Turnover | Year-on-Year Rate | Profit |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CIMC | 571,100 TEU | + 219% | $1454 M | +205% | + $160 M |
Singamas | 317,000 TEU | + 29% | $ 595 M | + 45% | + $ 17 M |
Note 1. The volume of CIMC includes Reefer of 35,000 TEU.
Note 2. The sales are US Million Dollar indication.
Note 3. Shipping Guide article reference.
The number of the new containers in China factory is beyond 410,000 TEU now. In addition, the present new container price is $2,400 per 20f. Container price rises under the influence of the sudden rise of the panel coil price
Container makers are always exposed to competition. They tend to get the full order to match their production capacity as much as possible and try to minimize their non-operation facilities as much as possible. Therefore, they will have to compete with other makers in prices. There are various size of containers such as 20f, 40f and 40f HC.
Difference in size, the color of the container. This is very important in a meaning to let the container owner recognize (for impact of advertising) to others.
On the other hand, the container owners have the own specification from their past experience and make a request to a maker as per their preferences. It is important for a maker to cope with their requests to secure the customers as many as possible. In addition, the delivery date of containers is another important issue. The container owners hope to receive many containers for the container demand period. The container makers in China have been highly mechanized these days and they have been managing these demand in their production lines without any problem. For a busy season they take double shift and adjust the production speed and handle a large of container orders by all means. I admire their high productive capacity of the Chinese makers.
Here is the problem. It is the quality of the container. The water-based paint has been adopted from an oil-based paint in the whole land of China from April of this year. Therefore it actually took 1-2 months for the shift of the production line in the factory. All factories have been in the full operation of the water-based paint without any problem now. However, it is necessary for us to keep watching the factory for a while because they cannot but use seasonal workers and it is an important how soon they could accustom themselves to using the water-based paint. It would take some time for water-based paint to prove what is different from oil-based paint in the process of the production line about water-based paint quality, dry facilities, drying time and so on.
However, as for the quality problem it is inevitable for the factory workers to make them feel self-confidence, pride and responsibility about their products as a professional. How are their products used? What kind of problem happens in using them? We are confident that if they can understand consciousness of the user side more and if they could suggest some solution to the problem about their products. Chinese products would be raised higher in quality and would gain the solid reliability on their products from users.
We are convinced that Chinese container makers have been improving quality
of container every day as one of their customers who support them to enhance their quality of container.