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Bringing You The Latest In The Industry

Dear friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to a new edition of the WFA Benchmark, which brings you the latest in the industry.Click Sea for sea news, Air for air news, and Road for road news.Your comments, suggestions, and ideas are always welcome.

Enjoy reading...

Mira HmoudWFA Administration Team

Sea BenchmarkSea Benchmark

DP World expands into EgyptDP World has entered the Egyptian market with the US$670 million purchase of a 90% stake in ECHCO, the controlling shareholder of Sokhna Port Development Co (SPDC).

In this section:

--> DP World expands into Egypt

--> Recent key appointments

--> ICTSI’s Syrian terminal goes into commercial operation

--> APL to take delivery of the world’s first ‘ocean-capable’ 53-ft containers

--> CMA CGM upgrades South America-Persian Gulf service

--> Samskip and Team Lines extend co-operation into Iberia

--> TS Lines launches second China-Middle East service

--> CMA CGM introduces new Dakar-Ziguinchor line in Sen-egal

--> APM Terminals acquires majority share in Ecuador port

Recent key appointmentsRedPrairie has a new CEO; MFH Logistical Solutions has a new president & CEO; Ship-ping Australia re-elects its chairman, and CEVA’s vice chairman joins the Jacksonville Port Authority’s board of directors.After leading the company for six years, RedPrairie’s CEO John Jazwiec has resigned in order to relocate his family back to Chicago. R Michael Mayoras has been appointed CEO. Mayoras joined RedPrairie in 2004, and was most recently president of SCE Americas. He has also been appointed to the board of directors. Martin Hiscox, president & managing director of International, has been appointed vice chairman of the board. MHF Logistical Solutions (MHF-LS) has appointed Tom Piatak as president & chief execu-tive officer. Prior to joining MHF-LS, Piatak was president & chief operations officer for VEXURE. Shipping Australia has elected Michael Phillips as chairman of the board for a third term in 2008. Phillips is currently managing director of Hetherington Kingsbury Shipping Agency.David Kulik has been appointed to serve on the board of directors of the Jacksonville Port Authority. Kulik currently serves as vice chairman of CEVA Group.

ICTSI’s Syrian terminal goes into commercial operationInternational Container Terminal Services Inc subsidiary, Tartous International Container Terminal (TICT), has started commercial operations at the first specialised container terminal in the Port of Tartous in Syria.

APL to take delivery of the world’s first ‘ocean-capable’ 53-ft contain-ersFollowing successful pilot tests with key US retailers, APL will take delivery of the world’s first ‘ocean-capable’ 53-foot boxes on November 7th. The first units will be deployed on APL’s South China-Los Angeles service.

CMA CGM upgrades South America-Persian Gulf serviceCMA CGM will increase the frequency of its Vasco Express service linking South America’s east coast and the Persian Gulf to a weekly service, effective November 6th.

Samskip and Team Lines extend co-operation into IberiaSamskip Multimodal Container Logistics and Delphis-owned Team Lines have decided to co-ordinate their sailings to and from Bilbao.

TS Lines launches second China-Middle East serviceTS Lines will launch a second China-Middle East (CME) service in mid-November.

CMA CGM introduces new Dakar-Ziguinchor line in SenegalCMA CGM has announced the launch of a new line providing regular container shipping service between Dakar and Ziguinchor.

APM Terminals acquires majority share in Ecuador portAPM Terminals has acquired a 51% shareholding in Alinport SA from the Spanish Alba-cora Group. The purchase price has not been disclosed.Alinport is a greenfield container terminal project. Groundwork has been ongoing and construction will start in early-2008. The terminal is scheduled to start operations in late-2009. The first phase of the terminal will consist of a 450 metre berth, a water depth of 12.5 metres, yard space with RTG operations and STS cranes. The facility will have an annual capacity of 700,000 TEU. APM Terminals has assumed management responsibility for the terminal and the company’s executive Carl Ejler Jensen has been appointed managing director, effective October 25, 2007.

Air BenchmarkAir BenchmarkLufthansa resumes flights over RussiaOn Friday, Russian authorities agreed to allow Lufthansa to temporarily resume flights over Russia till November 15th.In this section:

--> Lufthansa resumes flights over Russia--> ABX Air to acquire Cargo Holdings Int’l for $350m--> New air- and ocean freight services--> Politics puts a spanner in the works for Lufthansa Cargo--> NMB called in to mediate ABX Air and flight crew con-tract negotiations

Road BenchmarkRoad Benchmark

In this section:

--> New contracts

--> Recent key appointments

--> ATC-Onlane acquires Car-sArrive

--> ATC-Onlane acquires Car-sArrive

--> FTA tells govt to “deliver the goods – so that we can”

--> DHL clinches 3-year Chev-ron contract

--> UPS expands “green fleet”

New contracts Solvay awards Panalpina additional airfreight business; E Sutton extends its partnership with APL Logistics; and GreenCarrier signs exclusive transport agreement with NVO Transport.Panalpina has been awarded significant further business from Solvay Chemicals, with new airfreight services in addition to the 13,000 TEU of ocean freight per year that Panalpina already transports for Solvay.The newly signed contract will cover around 2,000 tons of airfreight shipments from Europe to various destinations including the US, Asia and CIS countries. APL Logistics and UK shoe company, E Sutton, have agreed to extend their partnership. APL Logistics now manages all of E Sutton’s UK inbound shipments from China and Southeast Asia. E Sutton’s business growth and moves to source 100% of its production internationally has resulted in changes in the company’s supply chain structure. For the past year, APL Logistics has been working with E Sutton in support of these changes, with particular focus on improv-ing vendor management and co-ordinating inbound flows to the UK DC to meet increasingly demanding performance levels. GreenCarrier, the logistics arm of the Swedish Björk.Eklund Group, has signed an exclusive transport agreement with Netherlands-based haulage company, NVO Transport. NOV has forty years’ experience in transporting goods to and from Scandinavia, and the partnership is expected to help GreenCarrier to significantly improve its services.

Recent key appointmentsMaersk appoints new CFO for Southeast Asia; Agility names new country manager for Kuwait; Transplace appoints five new sales directors; Averitt names new VP of international development; ICTSI appoints terminal manager for MICT; YRC Worldwide names two new presidents and two new board members.

ABX Air to acquire Cargo Holdings Int’l for $350mABX Air has agreed to acquire Cargo Holdings International (CHI), an Orlando-based privately held provider of outsourced air cargo services, in a transaction valued at approxi-mately $350 million.

New air- and ocean freight servicesSIA Cargo launches services to Hanoi, Vietnam, SAS Cargo introduces new capacity from Scandinavia to Bangkok and Dubai, and CMA CGM adds two weekly services between Morocco and Europe.

Politics puts a spanner in the works for Lufthansa CargoRussia has banned Lufthansa Cargo from Russian air space, fuelling speculation that this is Russia’s way of twisting the airline’s arm to shift its hub from Astana in Kazakhstan to Kras-noyarsk in Siberia.

NMB called in to mediate ABX Air and flight crew contract negotiationsABX Air flight crewmembers have rejected the company's most recent contract proposal in a landslide vote of 98.9% to 1.2%.

ATC-Onlane acquires CarsArriveOnline auction company, ATC-Onlane, has acquired CarsArrive Network an outsource provider of automated vehicle shipping services.FTA tells govt to “deliver the goods – so that we can”The UK government is expected to make major announcements on transport this week as the Dept for Transport details its spending plans and responds to last year’s Eddington Report.

UPS expands “green fleet”UPS is adding 306 alternative fuel vehicles to its "green fleet" by taking delivery of 139 new propane delivery trucks and placing an order for 167 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) delivery trucks in North America.

DHL clinches 3-year Chevron contractDHL Exel Supply Chain has secured a contract with Chevron to deliver fuel to hospitals, airports and Texaco-branded forecourts throughout the Republic of Ireland for the next three years.