Association UVHH of Amburgo proposes that the EU places limits to dimensions and ability to the portacontainer



A part exhortation will be sure, with the scope to allow with the port of Amburgo to remain competitive in the segment of the containerized trade in spite of the hoary problems of navigability of the matting of the Elba through which it is approached the German harbour port of call, to which independently gives the level of the tide currently can arrive ships with the maximum draught of 12,8 meters, however the proposal turned to the European Union from the Unternehmensverband Hafen Hamburg e.V. (UVHH), the association of the operators of Amburgo who operate in the segment of the traffic of the container, could be received with favor also from other European ports, they also to the taken ones with the problem of the finding of deep the necessary ones in order to adapt own infrastructures to receive portacontenitori ships of dimensions and always greater abilities.

The proposal is, at least in the formulation, simple: according to the UVHH, the EU it would have to introduce in the regulations antitrust measures in order to prevent to the main companies of navigation of the containerized transport to equip of ships of advanced dimensions and abilities to an established threshold.

"Larger ships - the president of the association of the operators of Amburgo Gunther Bonz has explained - demand ulterior huge investments in infrastructures of the ports". These investments - it has specified - are mainly at the expense of the contributors and, to such purpose, it has remembered that it previews that the work for the adaptation of the navigation channel of Elba will cost about 780 million euros. For it must of report is necessary to clarify that Bonz is representative of the terminalista group German Eurogate, than in the port of Amburgo manages the Eurogate Container Hamburg Terminal and therefore it must necessarily program the adaptation of the equipments of the terminal to the ships of greater ability and dimension, and is also president of Feport, the federation of the European private terminals operator.

The proposal of the UVHH, as it was said, is simple: currently the portacontainer larger they are long about 400 meters and wide beyond 60 meters, meters have a draught until -16,50 and can transport until 23.000 teu and - it has specified the association - these dimensional limits would not have to be more exceeded. Limits - it has evidenced Bonz - than instead are previewed soon to exceed since 460 meters, wide are under consideration long ships 68 meters and in a position to transporting 30,000 teu very.

The UVHH has explained because these limits to the dimensions of the ships could be tax through modifications to the norms antitrust. The association has remembered that currently the first world-wide companies of navigation of the field of the container are organized in three great alliances: the 2M, constituted from the two carriers world leaders Maersk Line and MSC, the Ocean Alliance, formed from CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping and Evergreen, and the THE Alliance, that it groups Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, ONE and Yang Ming. The three alliances - the association has remembered - in order to operate on all the markets must obtain the authorization of the main authorities antitrust, in particular of those of the United States, European Union and China, and the authorization which released from the EU that currently is in vigor will expire next March. The European Union - second the UVHH - would have to come to an agreement of renews only if the companies of the alliances will be engaged to respect determined limits to the dimensions and ability to the fixed portacontenitori from the EU.

Bonz has emphasized that such limits are already tax from the United States with the agreements subordinates to the sieve of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) that they prescribe that the ships of the fleets cannot exceed a determined cargo ability.