The new service, operated by CMA-CGM and Marfret — French container transportation and shipping companies —, now allows Maltese importers and exporters to connect to Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Fort-de-France (Martinique), Houston (US), Veracruz (Mexico) and Puerto Moin (Costa Rica). These five ports come addition to the freeport’s present network to South America, which covers five countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay.

“We are delighted to add this new service to our portfolio, which is a reflection of the confidence of transhipment industry in our port which is ideally positioned in the heart of the Mediterranean”, said Alex Montebello, Chief Executive Officer of Malta Freeport Terminals.

“We are also pleased to note that they will be making use of our upgraded reefer facilities in which we have invested considerably over the past year,” adds Mr Montebello. The Malta Freeport offers 1,582 reefer points at its terminals and will be installing a further 180 reefer plugs across three new platforms, in order to handle more perishable cargo.

In addition, the freeport made a €31m investment in 2018 in 15 Kone Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) as well as in other yard equipment, including 67 new tractors and trailers.

The Malta Freeport currently provides network links to 115 ports around the world, 59 of which are in the Mediterranean.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The cover picture of the story has been changed to an aerial shot of the Malta Freeport, originally posted on Wikimedia Commons by Alecastorina93.

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The decrease in the value of imports was primarily due to machinery and transport equipment (€65.2m), mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€32.1m), and food (€19.5m). 

On the exports side mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€11.2m) and food (€3.9m) accounted to the main decrease, partly outweighed by an increase of €11.2m in chemicals. 

During the first five months of 2019, the trade deficit widened by €505.4m, compared to the corresponding period of 2018, reaching €1.7436b, as the provisional NSO figures show. 

Thus, from January to May, imports and exports increased by €522.8m and €17.4m respectively. Higher imports were mainly in machinery and transport equipment (€697.3m), partly outweighed by a decrease of €177.5m in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials. The main increase in exports was registered in miscellaneous manufactured articles (€44m), partly outweighed by a decrease of €22.3m in machinery and transport equipment.

Furthermore, for the same reference period, imports from the European Union reached €2.0001b (65.8%) of total imports. Imports from euro area countries dropped by €345m when compared to the same period in 2018. 

Main increases and decreases in imports were registered from the United Kingdom (€586.2m) and Italy (€202.2m), respectively. With respect to exports, the main increase was directed to the United States of America (€17.5m), whereas Germany (€23m) registered the highest decrease. 

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO. 

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Under the agreement, the two parties will work on several joint projects including country-specific seminars, training and education programmes, and international trade missions. The two sides consider the current partnership to be the development of their growing relationship, after having recently renewed a strategic support agreement for another three years.

“We recognise the role collaboration plays in bringing new ideas in a changing global trade scenario. HSBC is committed to supporting business and export innovation and we are looking forward to continuing our strong and established relationship with TradeMalta,” said Michel Cordina, Executive Director and Head of Business Development of HSBC Malta.

Malta International Business Awards deadline nearing

HSBC is also the strategic sponsor of TradeMalta’s signature ‘Malta International Business Awards’ (MIBA) offered for the second time in 2019. Applications for the awards will be closed at 17:00 on Friday 28 June 2019, while finalists will be announced on 31 July. Winners will be announced during a ceremony on 22 November.

The awards are open to all enterprises with a good internationalisation story to tell, be they exporters of products, providers of services, franchisors or international businesses with head office functions in Malta. Participants can make submissions for one or more award categories.

A brainchild of TradeMalta with the strategic support of HSBC Malta, the initiative enjoys the endorsement of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, the sponsorship of audit firm Grant Thornton, the partnership of marketing communications firm BPC International Ltd, and the architectural signing company Big Exhibits.

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The provisional data published by the NSO come as of 5 February. NSO figures reveal that both imports and exports decreased by €113.6m and €110.6m, respectively.

The statistics office finds that the imports decrease was chiefly driven by machinery and transport equipment (€63.9m) and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€46.4m), while the exports figures dropped due to mineral fuels, lubricants and associated materials (€121.4m) and machinery and transport equipment (€42.6m).

As far as the whole year is considered, NSO figures reveal that the trade deficit widened by €403.4m in 2018, as compared to the preceding year, totalling €2.858bn. For the whole year of 2018, both imports and exports dropped by €5.4m and €408.7m, respectively.

Imports were chiefly affected by a drop in machinery and transport equipment by €280.5m, which was partly outweighed by increases of €126.6m in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, €67.2m in chemicals, €41.7m in semi-manufactured goods and €32.1 million in miscellaneous manufactured articles, according to the NSO report. Exports decreased mainly due to dropping mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials by €427.2m.

Trade imports arriving from the European Union constituted 65.8% of the total, €4.0257bn, in 2018, increasing by €642m as compared to the preceding year.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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The YANT trading platform comprises of a custom-built blockchain and the electric wallet. The blockchain promises to offer high processing speed and stability along the lines of strong security, with a particular focus on P2P transactions. The wallet is said to store many types of cryptocurrencies — including but not limited to bitcoin and ether — and to allow transfers in real time.

The platform boasts of uncomplicated transaction registration procedures and restriction-free transaction area, according to the press release. YANT promises to transact cryptocurrencies on the platform without required escrow conditions.

“The YANT P2P transaction system, which stores the transaction ledger in the blockchain, faithfully reflects the meaning and philosophy of the blockchain and the cryptocurrency that was created with the goal of decentralization, and they expect this to be the next generation platform to lead the field of cryptocurrency distribution, GBIH says in the press statement.

The commercial version of the YANT transaction system is expected to be released in the first quarter of the year.

The post GBIH develops blockchain platform YANT for P2P trading first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.