This compares to economists’ forecasts of a monthly fall of 0.4%.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that retail sales in the month rose at their fastest rate since April 2011,  to give an annual rise of 2%.

This is the second month in a row that sales rose unexpectedly. There was also a surprise lift in December of 0.6% driven by shoppers taking advantage of hefty pre-Christmas discounts.

Source:www.theretailbulletin.com

While Cathay’s move marks a tactical shift to match anticipated demand development, EVA’s decision carries more ominous undertones. The airline has historically generated about 40 percent of its revenue from cargo, and the decision to part with some freighters was accompanied by media reports of EVA Air president Chang Kuo Wei voicing pessimism about the outlook for 2012 after a miserable 2011.

Industry analysts and carrier executives alike expect further casualties among freighter operators. “There will be some exits. Operators will decide no longer to invest in cargo aircraft,” predicted Robert Song, vice president, Asia Pacific, at AirBridgeCargo Airlines.

Dirk Steiger, managing director of air cargo research and consulting firm Aviainform, echoed Song’s sentiments. “Is an all-cargo airline with five, six or 10 planes still able to survive in the international market without a parent company that can leverage fuel costs and other elements? I doubt it,” he said.

Nick Rhodes, director and general manager of Cathay Pacific Cargo, said it’s tough to be a freight operator in today’s market. If the carrier focused exclusively on cargo aircraft, he admitted, “we would be struggling to produce black figures at the moment.”

For Cathay, located in close proximity to the world’s largest manufacturing center, it makes sense to be a player with a global network, which requires a freighter fleet of a certain size — about 24-30 all-cargo aircraft, he said. But he added that for carriers located further away from large sources of product, the equation looks different. “If I were Air New Zealand or a European carrier,” he said, “I would have to ask myself if I need a big freighter fleet.”

Source:www.aircargoworld.com

The Asia poll followed the recent launch of CI’s Europe poll, and next month will see the inaugural North America survey. Each panel is asked to score main ocean carriers who work for them in the region, on a quarterly basis, on the services they receive, from 1 (deeply unsatisfactory) to 100 (completely satisfied).

The Asia panel, like its European counterpart, registered a deep dissatisfaction with claims processing – however its members were extremely happy with container equipment and vessel space availability.

Comprising 35 shippers and freight forwarders, the panel judged their ocean carriers on their services over the past three months.

CSAV topped the ranks for overall performance, with an average of 73 points. Yang Ming came second with 71, then MISC with 70, Hamburg Sud and Maersk both gained 69 and PIL came in at number 10, with 64.

CSAV’s top score might seem surprising for two main reasons: first it is well known that the ocean carrier has been loss-making, has had to pull out of running many direct services and use slot arrangements instead; and is seeking a partner (See today’s top story).

The Chile-based operator topped the rate flexibility category, where it gained an average score of 79 points.

Worryingly, the Asia panel scored the claims category as extremely low, with the overall average score reaching only 35 points.

Some of the panel highlighted why they felt service standards were slipping.

A director of an India-based freight forwarder said: “Overall, service levels are going down because of the drastic reduction in headcounts. Being a service industry, all the carriers, without exception, are doing themselves a great disservice by this action. They should be looking at cutting the operational costs instead of personnel costs.”

But on the other side of the coin, some panellists highlighted how happy they were with their services.

Two shippers, for instance,  praised APL’s customer service as “excellent”, while an MD of a freight forwarder based in Sri Lanka singled out Maersk as providing excellent customer service, in contrast to “most of the carriers” that provide “average to satisfactory” customer service.

The other interesting point was that when it came to the availability of equipment and vessel space, the panel was very pleased with their carriers, with the average score for space availability hitting 72, and that for container availability reaching a respectable 71.

Source:www.ifw-net.com

“The opportunities for development throughout one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies are exciting and energising, and APM Terminals is committed to being a part of that growth,” Fejfer told local business leaders and customers during his keynote address at the India Ports Conference in Mumbai.

Although the Indian economy expanded by an estimated 7.8% in 2011 to US$1.8 trillion, India ranked 13th in imports and 21st in exports, globally, last year.

South Asia, which includes Pakistan and Bangladesh, represented only 3% of global container throughout in 2011, according to estimates by Alphaliner, with combined container volumes of 18 million teu, four million less than China’s port of Shenzhen on its own.

Throughput at India’s ports accounted for 9.7 million teu in 2011 – one-twelfth of what global container traffic averages based on economic output would suggest as necessary to meet the economy’s needs.

Fejfer estimated that $20 billion would need to be spent on the infrastructure necessary to make the country’s projected growth a reality.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), serving Mumbai, is India’s busiest container port, accounting for nearly 45% of all Indian containerised cargo – the 25th-busiest in the world, with throughput of 4.3 million teu in 2011.

Congestion and capacity issues at India’s ports have begun to affect trade growth, as existing container terminals are at 84% capacity and above, and access to inland points remains inadequate.

The Indian government is determined to promote infrastructure growth and JNP container throughput is projected to increase to 11 million teu by 2016, and 23 million teu by 2020 in the latest 10-year plan by the Indian Ministry of Shipping.

Fejfer pointed out that private sector involvement would be a crucial component of this growth, if the investment and regulatory environment in India did not act as constraints.

“Port tariff regulations which penalise increased throughput and productivity will not assist in developing the needed infrastructure,” he said.

In addition to Mumbai, where it handled almost two million teu last year, APM Terminals also operates at Pipavav, also on the Indian west coast in the state of Gujarat.

Pipavav is acknowledged as India’s fastest-growing port, with a throughput of an estimated 620,000teu in 2011, and is the country’s first private sector port operation.
APMT also operates inland operations at seven locations, including Chennai, and global service centres at Mumbai, Chennai and Pune.

“We are pleased with the progress we have made since entering this market in 2006, and we will continue to look for the right opportunities to expand our presence here to serve our customers, and India’s great economic potential” said Fejfer.

Source: www.ifw-net.com

The consumer price index fell to its lowest level since November 2010, as the 2011 VAT increase fell out of the annual comparison. However, the rate remains well above the Bank of England’s 2% target.

While there were small declines in the cost of clothing and footwear, furniture and household goods, the cost of alcohol, household services and health all rose slightly in the month.

In statement the UK treasury said: “Inflation fell significantly in January for the second month in a row, which is good news for family budgets. The Bank of England and other forecasters expect inflation to keep falling through this year, providing additional relief.”

Reacting to the news, the British Retail Consortium said that the slowdown would help ease the squeeze on household budgets but still left overall costs rising faster than wages. It also pointed out that this made the 5.6% Business Rates rise, planned for April, even harder to justify.

British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson said: “On its own this isn’t going to produce the substantial revival in consumer confidence which retailers and the economy desperately need. But the fall is good news for hard-pressed families who’ve faced uncomfortably high levels of inflation over the past couple of years.

“Last year’s VAT increase has now fallen out of annual comparisons. That’s a major reason for the drop but retailers’ discounts and promotions and falls in a number of world commodity prices are also helping. The official rate is now at its lowest for over a year and moving in the right direction.

“This fall is even clearer evidence of the injustice of basing April’s Business Rates rises in England and Scotland on last September’s 5.6 per cent Retail Price Index which was a 20 year high. With the Bank of England predicting inflation to fall further, both Governments should sharply reduce that figure to avoid the damage that will be done to jobs and investment.”

Source:www.theretailbulletin.com

Citing “supportive” economic conditions, the G6 Alliance of Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL, NYK, APL, HMM and MOL will now launch the service in the first week of March – a month ahead of schedule and in time to take advantage of recently announced rate increases.

Analysts and trade bodies have warned, however, that the controversial freight rate increases cannot be sustained without increased demand or reduced capacity, neither of which appear imminent.

Simon Heaney, a maritime consultant at Drewry, told IFW: “Matching the Daily Maersk proposition is beyond the scope of any one carrier, so these partnerships will be looking to achieve economies of scale. It’s likely to be revenue-neutral but it will enable the alliance members to offer broader service to shippers

In a collective press statement, the G6 said the accelerated roll-out was in response to demand from shippers.

“Customer response to the G6 Alliance is strong, the latest economic condition in the trade supports the timing of the launch, and we are ready to meet the market’s expectations.”

There are concerns, however, that customers may not remain supportive for long.

“The problem is that when you find that six carriers are on the same service you’re likely to get a levelling-out of freight rates among the carriers,” said Heaney.

“Shippers will know that and may react badly to the fact that their options are perceived to have been squeezed into big blocks.”

Heaney added: “We’ve yet to see whether the recent rate increases will be successful. The GRI is a wish list and history dictates that the carriers never get all of what they’re after.

“They may get a portion, but an increase of around $800 per teu is a lot to ask for in one go. Whether or not they will be successful is very debateable.”

source: www.ifw-net.com

The figure, published in today’s BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for January 2012, comes after a strong December in which internet sales grew by 18.5% over Christmas. In January, however, consumers tightened their belts, both online and offline. Overall retail sales grew by 2.1%, compared to last January, but the telling like-for-like sales figure was down by 0.3% compared to last year. But on both measures, said the report, this was the “the second-worst January, after January 2010, since the survey began in 1995.”

Stephen Robertson, director-general of the BRC, said: “January has marked a return to reality for shoppers and for retailing in all its forms. Non-food, non-store retailing strengthened in the run-up to Christmas but these figures show consumers have reined in their spending since and business has returned to much closer to the 12 month average.

“The underlying factors which are affecting overall retail spending are also taking their toll online. Sales are being driven by high levels of discounting as cautious customers try to balance their budgets.

“Massive growth in online retail searches is not translating into the same rate of sales growth, showing people are shopping around and making careful decisions about what to buy.”

Across UK retail, food sales slowed after Christmas, while non-food sales were driven by heavy discounting in clearance sales.

Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG, said: “After a strong than expected December these latest figures are rather sobering. The return to negative like-for-like sales reflects the trend seen throughout most of 2011 and is a stark reminder of the challenges facing retailers.”

Joanne Denney-Finch, of grocery analysts the IGD, said: “Consumes are adapting to the era of austerity by being more proactive about securing the best deals. Our research shows that seven in 10 shoppers now rate promotions as very important when choosing what stores to shop in.”

Source: www.internetretailling.net

The popular phrase of reference seems to be ‘the death of the high street’ when discussing this and the internet is receiving a lot of the blame for taking away customers and business. But the rhetoric of death and blame is misleading; really the focus should be on how the high street can be repurposed to match the social requirements of the 21st Century.

Consumers are increasingly using the internet for tasks that used to be carried out in-store. Our figures reveal that online now accounts for 17% of the retail market. But moving away from straight-up sales percentages, it is clear to see the extent to which consumer behaviour is changing: our recent research revealed that a staggering 53% of consumers avoid in-store travel agents altogether during their holiday-booking process. Only a short period ago, that figure would have been unthinkable.

So is it the end for the high street or is this trend reversible?
While it is undeniable that technology and the internet have brought about a major change in culture and shopping behaviour, the challenge is not perhaps looking for ways to prevent a perceived inevitable death of the high street, but instead considering what repurposing might mean to make it appropriate for our times.

Historically the high street was successful as each one evolved to serve the needs of the local community. Many commuters both worked and lived in the same area so the choice and availability of products and services were appropriate for that specific community and geographic region.

Over time commuter patterns have changed, with people able to undertake longer journeys to work due to the expanded and improved transport infrastructure. This means that in many cases a consumer will use one high street for their social requirements and another during their working week. Any high street then has a far wider demographic to serve than it traditionally did.
As the ‘through-traffic’ changed over time, stores on the high street necessarily had to adapt to cater for the different demographics. While huge department stores offering a wide range of products could be accommodated on well-established shopping streets in large cities, smaller ones could not support them. This led to huge shopping centres being set up on the periphery of towns to act as a catch-all for a specific region, conveniently located near to major road routes.

Shopping centres such as Lakeside in Essex may be thought of as providing ‘destination shopping’, with a wide selection of shops set up in proximity and facing each other, in imitation of the traditional high street. Situated away from the community, they yet provide a focal point dealing with the social needs of several communities.

The internet makes possible, and could even be seen to encourage, store-less shopping. However, the provision of options such as reserving a product for collection from a physical store increases convenience for the consumer, who can be sure the journey will not be wasted, and also presents an opportunity for the retailer; while they are in the store, further opportunities exist for selling extra products to that consumer, either by that retailer or other traders in the area.

A well-structured marketing strategy incorporating multiple channels can help to drive footfall into retailer stores. Geo-aware mobile campaigns can be set up to alert opted-in consumers to offers in stores near to their physical location, and social media networks can be very effective through the provision of time-sensitive offers and vouchers only redeemable in-store.

The consumer has increasingly taken charge in terms of how retail develops, empowered by technology and the choice of channels now available to them. In order to prosper, retailers have to carefully monitor how people want to shop, how they want to be engaged, and structure their offering accordingly.

Most high streets have gradually lost their sense of independent identity, becoming copies of each other to cater for a more diverse audience. Whereas before the high street was primarily regarded as a shopping environment, the most pressing question now would appear to be what role it plays in contemporary society; what should the definition now be of a high street?
It could be argued that the problem of the high street is actually a planning issue – should it continue to be regarded as a shopping hub or does it need to be completely rethought and repurposed to meet the requirements of communities?

In any high street there exists a community in the blocks of flats above the shops, so each one is already a residential area. The solution could be that they become far more social in their design, incorporating more ‘meeting’ spaces such as cafes and public areas such as libraries, creating a focal point for the community to come together. Although there would still be a retailer presence, there is a question over whether the focus has to be upon product-retailers.

A multichannel marketing strategy that makes good use of all available channels can greatly benefit a retailer, but the online market cannot be used to save the high street. The problems are more deep-rooted than that.

Source:www.theretailbulletin.com

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said their monthly index of permanent staff placements rose to 51.2 from 48.5, the first reading above the 50 line separating growth from contraction since September.

“There are glimmers of hope for the UK jobs market,” said REC chief executive Kevin Green. “The Report on Jobs also follows better than expected services data from the Purchasing Managers’ Index last Friday, which suggests that confidence is growing amongst consumers as well as businesses.”

Britain’s dominant services sector grew at the fastest pace in 10 months in January and employment in the sector rose at the sharpest rate in almost four years, the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index showed last week.

High unemployment, government austerity measures and below-inflation wage growth have been weighing on consumer morale, forcing them to cut spending – a vital component of the British economy.

Despite signs that the economy may be turning the corner after contracting in the last quarter of 2011, the Bank of England looks set to plough on with one more round of quantitative easing this week to support the economy.

But in further positive news for hard-pressed Britons, the British Retail Consortium said on Wednesday that shop prices rose at their slowest pace in almost two years in January.

The REC report, which is also sponsored by accountants KPMG, showed that overall demand for staff rose, albeit at the weakest pace in more than two years, with engineering and construction workers the most sought after.

Companies’ spending on temporary staff fell modestly in January after contracting in December for the first time in more than two years.

According to the latest official data, unemployment in Britain – which rose relatively little during the 2008-09 recession – climbed to its highest level in more than 17 years in the three months to November.

However, a much smaller than expected number of new benefit claims in December provided some hope that the labour market downturn may be levelling out.

Source: www.uk.reuters.com

A quarter of Portugal’s power grid operator, REN, will be sold to China’s State Grid Corp for 387 million euros ($507.82 million), part of a wave of privatizations Lisbon has to carry out under the terms of its 78-billion-euro European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout loan.

On Wednesday, the State Grid News, the Chinese company’s official publication, said the need by struggling economies to sell off state-owned assets “created entry opportunities” for China, and the deal would provide a springboard into other markets.

The State Grid isn’t the first to take advantage of Europe’s troubles, and is not expected to be the last.

The China Three Gorges Project Corp, operator of the world’s largest hydropower project, also agreed last December to pay 2.7 billion euros ($3.54 billion) for a 21 percent stake in the Energias de Portugal (EDP) utility.

“This is in line with the government’s ‘internationalization strategy’ for state-owned enterprises to ‘venture out’,” a senior power industry executive told Reuters, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions.

“In the past, there were no such opportunities. Chinese power companies used to merely build power plants abroad. Now, we are investing, supplying equipment and helping to operate them. The timing is good,” the executive said.

An official with State Grid said it was still too early to say whether Europe’s debt crisis could lead to more deals.

“The economic situation differs from month to month and it depends if there are good opportunities,” the official told Reuters.

However, Ken Su, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Beijing, said the crisis could help Chinese power companies in their attempts to acquire foreign assets, and more were likely in the next two years.

“In 2006-07, we started to see more activity in the power sector. Many of the deals haven’t been completed and in general they take a long time to negotiate — a few of them have come through and it may be due to the prevailing economic conditions, which may be helping deals get done,” he said.

China’s foray into the overseas power sector began in 2009 when the Philippines sold a 25-year license to a consortium led by China State Grid to run its power network. At $3.95 billion, it was the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest privatization deal.

The State Grid, China’s biggest electrical utility, has already bought seven grid operators in Brazil for $1.7 billion.

Three Gorges chairman Cao Guangjing has said his company hopes to cooperate with EDP in eastern Europe and South America. Three Gorges has a dozen subsidiaries, including listed unit China Yangtze Power Co Ltd (600900.SS).

‘PROFIT-ORIENTED’ DEALS

The promise of financing has helped smooth the path for cash-rich Chinese firms. China Three Gorges pledged to bring up to 8 billion euros for banks and other firms in Portugal.

“They have the financial ability and they tend to have strong balance sheets themselves or have access to Chinese lenders, and this could help the projects expand and develop. Many transactions could feature a financing element,” said PwC’s Su.

Resource-hungry China has invested heavily in mining and oil assets from Latin America to Australia in recent years, but it was not always smooth sailing.

A high-profile bid by offshore oil firm CNOOC for California rival Unocal was withdrawn in 2005 in the face of political opposition, and metals giant Chinalco was also spurned by Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) in 2009.

But there has been little opposition to Chinese power companies taking over foreign counterparts.

“When it is managed well, the local governments and local people can be very welcoming to a Chinese investor,” said Su.

“I don’t think there is one single overarching global sentiment despite the constant media attention about how active China is and how China is buying everything up.”

The power industry executive shrugged off speculation of any ulterior motive, saying the takeovers were “purely profit-oriented.”

“Our domestic market is limited,” he said. “The (foreign) companies are profitable. There is no need to raise electricity prices. We cannot monopolise power generation and transmission because local regulators have the final say over price rises.”

For China, snapping up physical assets outweighs buying European or U.S. debt.

“We are better off buying (physical) assets instead of European of U.S. bonds,” a source with ties to China’s leadership said, also requesting anonymity.

The State Grid’s forays abroad could also provide respite from controversies at home. The sprawling state-owned firm has been fiercely criticized for running roughshod over regulators and earning huge profits at the expense of China’s utilities. It has even been blamed for last year’s power shortages.

The State Grid, which runs power transmission and distribution networks in 26 of China’s 31 provinces, aims to achieve 62 billion yuan ($9.84 billion) in gross profit in 2012, up 16 percent, according to the China Securities Journal.

It plans to boost investments in China’s power grids to 2.55 trillion yuan ($390.63 billion) in the coming five-year plan, up 68 percent from the preceding period, according to the China Securities Journal.