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MAF Biosecurity Changes
11 February 2010
MAF has made a number of changes to the Sea Container Import Health Standard.
These changes will become law on 1 March 2010.
It is critical that the changes are fully understood and adhered to. The changes are listed below.
For more detailed information please go to: www.biosecurity.govt.nz/imports/non-organic/standards/seaco.htm
What has changed? The main changes involve the introduction of a new 12 hour rule. That means we are required to make an electronic submission in the form of the import entry no later than 12 hours before the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the vessel. If Quarantine Declaration requirements for sea containers have not been met MAF will classify them as High Regulatory Interest (HRI) and require a six-sided inspection on arrival. Currently a four-sided inspection is required for containers that do not comply. It will be essential that paperwork is supplied well in advance to enable us to pre clear the goods.
It is also important you relay the importance of this to your overseas vendors.
Should you have any further queries please speak to your Customs Broker.
German Tourist Jailed for Attempting to Smuggle Lizards in Underpants
27 January 2010
A German tourist who tried to smuggle 44 skinks and geckos out of New Zealand in his underpants was jailed this week.
Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, was sentenced to 14 weeks jail and fined $5,000 when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to five charges of trading in exploited species and two of hunting protected wildlife.
Kubus arrived in Christchurch last November from Germany and spent three weeks travelling around the South Island in a campervan, collecting 44 species of skinks and geckos to smuggle out of the country.
Customs staff stopped Kubus last month at Christchurch International Airport with a package containing the reptiles in his underwear. There was also a gecko in a sock in his luggage.
The reptiles, two of which were on a threatened list, could fetch up to $2,000 each on the black market.
Kubus will be deported as soon as he is released.
Mondiale announces USA Southbound General Rate Increase
Tuesday, 26 January 2010, 10:21:30 a.m.
Further to our recent advise a decision has now been made to increase LCL rates from the USA to NZ by US$ 10 per w/m to cover the below Shipping Line Increases. The FCL increase date is the 15th of February. In order to ensure we give you 30 days notice the LCL increase will take effect 25th of February (US time). FCL As previously advised the shipping lines from both coasts of the USA are increasing full container rates by US$ 250 per TEU effective all cntrs sailings on/after the 15th of Feb 2010.SEIZED IL-76 TRACKED BACK TO KAZAKHSTAN
26-Jan-2010
AN extensive investigation into the tangled web of shell companies that were behind the Il-76 seized in Bangkok (Thailand) for arms running, has tracked its owner back to Almaty (Kazakhstan).The cargo aircraft and crew were detained last year by the Thai authorities after a tip-off from US intelligence agencies. On board were 35 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other weaponry picked up from North Korea and destined for ... which is where the trail grows murky. The crew and manifest claimed the cargo to be "oil industry spare parts".
Research uncovered layer upon layer of suspiciously new and previously unknown companies and an extremely elaborate flight path. Starting in Baku (Azerbaijan) it first flew to Al-Fujairah (UAE) and Bangkok before taking on its cargo in Pyongyang (North Korea). It then returned to Bangkok where it was then held. If it had been allowed to continue on its journey it would have continued to Colombo (Sri Lanka), then Al-Fujairah again, on to Kiev, where it would double back to Tehran (Iran) to offload and then ending up in Podgorica (Montenegro): in total, a distance of over 24,500km.
The web of companies is just as tortuous. Overseas Trading FZE, a leasing company based in Sharjah (UAE) and owned by Svetlana Zykova, leased the Il-76 to a Georgian firm, Air West, owned by Levan Kakabadze. Air West in turn leased the aircraft to SP Trading, a company that was created by Yury Lunyov only weeks before the deal was set in motion. SP Trading charted the aircraft to the Hong Kong-registered Union Top Management (UTM). UTM was also only created a month previously. The founder of UTM Dario Cabreros Garmendia of Spain cannot be found nor can the North Korean company that sourced the weapons.
Lunyov claims that another company the Ukrainian Aerotrack had responsibility for chaperoning the shipment from North Korea to Iran and that it was Aerotrack that originally falsified the charter agreement and packing list to suggest the freight was the spare parts.
No Aerotrack has ever been at its listed address and its main contact's Victoria Doneckaya telephone number is a private residence that has never heard of her or Aerotrack.
In fact, all the companies' owners (at least, those that could be found) Zykova, Kakabadze and Lunyov deny ever knowing what the shipment was. However, they all share one connection: Alexander Zykov, husband to Zykova and known associate of Lunyov.
Zykov owns East Wing a Kazakhstani airfreight company. It was his crew that were detained. Companies and aircraft belonging to Zykov are known to have been involved in arms trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa. However, Zykov claims that the crew were on temporary leave when they were caught.
Friends and family of the crew say that working for Zykov is well paid but in return the crew must ask no questions of the shipments and be prepared to fly dangerously ill-maintained aircraft into conflict zones, such as the Sudan and Somalia.
A friend and once fellow pilot of one of the crewmembers Mikhail Petukhov said: "It's not easy working for [East Wings]. For one thing, their planes are old, so the flights are dangerous. And it also means being ready to break pretty much every aviation law on the books. But it's work, and they pay well," he said.
An engineer who regularly works on Zykov's aircraft said: "You get paid to do the flight, and you don't ask any questions about what's inside the boxes."
Published: 10:14AM Saturday January 02, 2010
Source: Newstalk ZB
The collapse of a nationwide freight transport firm has left 250 people looking for new jobs in 2010.
Rapid Roadfreighters went into liquidation just before Christmas but truck driver Amanda Bright says news of the firm's collapse came out of the blue.
The company had more than 200 vehicles and 250 workers throughout the country.
Bright says she had no idea it was in liquidation until a union representative told her on New Year's Eve. She says there have been no meetings or phone calls from management about the job losses, and the staff have all been left in the dark.
Bright says nothing was said at the firm's Christmas Eve drinks, and she only found out when another driver rang her. She says not even her branch manager knew the closure was on the cards.
Bright says she is looking for other driving work but the job market is very quiet.
ASB economist Chris Tennent-Brown says the transport sector is a good indicator of what's going on in the economy and losing a freight company shows the country is not completely out of the woods.
But he believes other indications such as more stable house prices and retail sales show things are settling down.
And the Road Transport Forum says further casualties can be expected in the trucking industry unless the economy starts to rebound strongly this year.
Spokesman Tony Friedlander says it's no surprise to see a firm fall victim to the tough economic times. He says a drop in the volume of goods being trucked has made the industry even more cut-throat than usual.
Friedlander says the recession has also seen client industries shopping around for lower rates, putting the freight companies under enormous pressure. He says they need to realise they could find themselves without a trucking company if they cut too sharp a deal.15 Dec 09
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp and one of the world's largest express transportation companies, takes the lead again among international express companies operating in Asia.
FedEx ranks 23rd among multinationals in The Wall Street Journal Asia 200 survey of Asia's most admired companies, 20 spots ahead of the closest industry player on the list. The survey lists the top 200 multinationals operating in Asia and Asia-headquartered corporations, based on the five attributes of company reputation, quality of products and services, management's long-term vision, innovativeness in responding to customer needs, and financial soundness. Participating in the survey were 2,622 executives in 12 Asian countries.
The annual survey of Asia's 200 most admired companies has been conducted since 1993, and FedEx has consistently been recognised among the leading multinationals operating in Asia.
"We are honoured to be recognized by executives for quality performance in the Asia Pacific region," says David Cunningham, Jr, president of FedEx Express Asia Pacific.
"Service is the core component of our business and it is good to have a barometer like The Wall Street Journal Asia 200 to gauge where we stand in the region."
Eddy Chan, senior vice president, FedEx Express China and Yue Jing Jing, a FedEx Express courier, represented FedEx at The Wall Street Journal Asia award ceremony in Beijing.
"Our success as a company is due to our People-Service-Profit philosophy," Chan says. "Our customer-facing employees like Yue Jing Jing are the reason we are able to provide quality service. If we treat our employees well, they in turn will take care of our customers, and this ultimately means good business for the company."
