TRANSPORT & LOGISTIC NEWS * China: Proposes Colombia Rail Link to Rival Panama Canal

Land route could carry exports, imports for all of Latin America

Beijing,China -The Journal of Commerce Online (USA), by Bruce Barnard -Feb 14, 2011: -- China is in negotiations over the construction of a rail link across Colombia to rival the Panama Canal... The 137 mile "dry canal,” linking Colombia's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, would make it easier for China to export goods across Latin America and import raw materials such as coal... The plan is for imported Chinese goods to be re-assembled at a new city near Cartagena, on Colombia's northern Atlantic coast, for export across the Americas... Raw materials would be exported from Colombia and other South American countries from the Pacific end of the railway... Colombia, the world's fifth largest coal producer, currently ships most of its exports through the Atlantic ports despite faster growing demand across the Pacific... China and Colombia are negotiating over other transport projects, including the construction of a 495 mile railway and expansion of the Pacific port of Buenaventura at a cost of $7.6 billion... (Photo: City of Bogota, Colombia´s federal capital)

* China - CSAV, China Shipping Add All-Water Route. Linking Asia and the U.S. East Coast via the Panama Canal

Shanghai,China -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Joseph Bonney -Feb 22, 2011:  ... The all-water Amex Sling 2 will begin service March 21, using nine ships with capacities of 4,200 20-foot equivalent units. The service rotation will be Shanghai, Xiamen, Yantian, Hong Kong, Lazaro Cardenas, New York-New Jersey, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, Lazaro Cardenas, Shanghai... The service will be in addition to CSAV’s existing Amex Sling 1, which has 12 ships with capacities of about 3,500 TEUs and operates on a longer service that also calls in South Korea, the Caribbean transshipment ports of Kingston and Cartagena, and Charleston and Port Everglades... (Photo: A ship owned by Chilean container line CSAV)