Weekly Edition 27th of August 2009

Arctic Sea crew and suspected hijackers returned to Moscow

ELEVEN seafarers and the eight men suspected of hijacking Arctic Sea – the missing Russian general cargoship that sparked a frantic search of the Atlantic earlier this month – arrived in Moscow last week onboard three Russian air force planes. According to reports, the alleged hijackers were handcuffed to members of Russia’s security forces when they disembarked and have now been taken to a high-security prison.

Divers locate Tongan ferry wreck

FOUND: The New Zealand defence force has released images of the Princess Ashika inter-island ferry after it sank off Tonga.

Somalia attacks pick up as monsoon ends

THE FIRST signs of resurgence in pirate activity off the east coast of Somalia are being seen as the monsoon season draws to a close, warns the International Maritime Bureau.

Naphtha tanker blaze put out but nine still missing

A fire rages on the Formasaproduct Brick, which was carrying 58,000 tonnes of naptha at the time of the collision.

Casualty Briefs - 27th August 2009

 

Use ISM Code to target pirate motherships

NAVAL forces operating in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Africa should target suspected pirate mother vessels, arresting them for non-compliance with the International Safety Management code if necessary, BIMCO’s security chief has urged.

Boxing above weight

AUSTRALIA’S three east-coast capital cities have cracked a list of the world’s 100 biggest box ports.

Woodside offers to assist race to staunch West Atlas leak

AUSTRALIAN energy firm Woodside Petroleum would make Songa Offshore’s drilling rig, Songa Mercur, available to tackle the West Atlas spill if PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) needed it, a Woodside spokesman said.

Reef Pilots reports late upswing in ship numbers

AUSTRALIAN Reef Pilots (ARP) guided 1,757 ships in the year ended June 30 and although numbers are down, the company believed the trend may be reversing.

More box bad news from Europe trade

AUSTRALIA’S container trade with Europe continued to hemorrhage in June with the European Liner Affairs Association (ELAA) concluding that there remains no obvious sign of a recovery.

Breakbulk paper has many Australian ports offside

PORTS Australia members have reacted with a mixture of anger and bemusement to Shipping Australia’s (SAL) critical breakbulk servicing report released last week.

Troubled port’s boss in resignation

ESPERANCE Port Authority has begun a recruitment process to find a replacement for former port chief executive Captain Dennis Parsons who resigned suddenly last week.

Credit due for taking on port in a storm

IF EVER there were a poisoned chalice for a budding leader looking to take the helm of an Australian port, it would be Esperance.

Asian lines seek better format

Box schedule shuffle continues as lines try to second guess ever-changing economic realities. Analysis by DALE CRISP

Tasmania unfazed by Bell Bay, Burnie blow

THE TASMANIAN Government backed its ports strategy last week after it sustained collateral damage from the ANL-Toll joint venture’s move away from Bell Bay to Burnie.

Mixed bag for Mainfreight’s Australian arm

MAINFREIGHT’S Australian operations saw improvements in operating costs but still struggled financially in the second quarter, New Zealand’s major international transport and logistics firm said last week.

Navy contract for Tasmania

 

Container carrier on backburner

ONE OF few substantial instances of Australian port ingenuity – the automated container terminal – was put on the backburner last week.

Eyebrows raised over DP World’s heavy hike on box storage charges

DP WORLD has defended the need to increase its Port Botany container storage fees by up to 150%, but the competition watchdog has confirmed it has no intention of investigating the price hike.

Townsville tar for roads roll out

BP AUSTRALIA could send up to 12 shipments of bitumen a year to Townsville to service its new bitumen import, manufacturing and distribution facility there, a spokesman said this week.

Queensland non-coal rail network escapes sell-off

THE QUEENSLAND Government’s resolve to press ahead with its asset sale proved less than steely last week, with the non-coal below-rail network slipping the noose.

Melbourne dredging complete

MAJOR channel-deepening work in Port Phillip Bay officially ended last week, and the Royal Boskalis Westminster dredger, Queen of the Netherlands, was to depart on Saturday.

Qantas Freight in the red as turnover dives

QANTAS Freight Enterprises took a heavy hit last financial year, contributing to the disappointing overall performance by the group which was announced last week.

Terminal closures see LNG carriers surging

THE NUMBER of liquefied natural gas carriers operating on the spot market doubled this month to 15 vessels due to the closure of two export terminals in Norway and Indonesia.

$50bn China deal puts energy into Gorgon

CHINA has given Western Australia’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas project its biggest boost yet, with last week’s signing of a $50bn agreement to buy 2.3m tonnes of the product each year for the next 20 years.

Santos and GDF Suez link up for Timor Sea gas project

SANTOS and Gas de France Suez have joined forces to develop a floating liquefied natural gas project off north-west Australia, the Adelaide energy producer said last week.

Bass Strait good for ‘extra 30 years’

EXXONMOBIL Australia chairman John Dashwood has projected another three decades of gas exploration and production in Bass Strait.

A survival of the fittest as carriers face huge losses

With deficits of US$20bn forecast this year, lines are struggling merely to survive, writes JANET PORTER

Top lines opting for diverse strategies to tackle challenge

SURVIVAL is the name of the game for the world’s big container lines as losses mushroom to almost unimaginable proportions.

Overcapacity fuels further rate fears

NEVER before have liner shipping companies earned so little from transporting containers around the world.

Finding the optimum speed for box ships

 

New generation needs to be more flexible

Industry looking for solutions that will better ‘future-proof’ the fleet in years to come, writes DAVID TINSLEY

Box trade slump is laid bare

NEW analysis has quantified the decline in monthly container capacity on the Asia- Europe and Transpacific trade lanes since 2007, with the number of monthly vessel strings in August down 22% and 26% respectively, year on year.

Maersk threatens rivals with price war

AP MOLLER-Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen says that Maersk Line is ready to lower prices to retain market share in its container business.

September deadline for Hapag-Lloyd rescue

THE BERLIN government will decide on Hapag-Lloyd’s application for state guarantees by mid-September, the country’s maritime coordinator Dagmar Wöhrl told journalists last week.

Back in the doldrums

The greatest fear of the clipper ships that plied the Australia to Europe trade in days of yore was to be stuck in the doldrums, the ‘belt of calm’ that lies inside the tradewinds close to the equator. Conditions right now might not be calm but carriers are sure taking a belting, reports Dale Crisp

Service with Three still standing

FIVE HAS become three since our last report but the basic service pattern remains: two services use the Suez Canal and one the Panama Canal, and all three are ‘direct’ in the broadest sense only as they incorporate multi-sector activity en-route to and from Europe.

Maersk slips into the red for first time with huge losses

SHOWING the full effect of the global shipping crisis on its bottom line for the first time, AP Moller-Maersk lost US$540m in the first half of 2009, down 122% from the same period a year ago.

War of words over Dublin strike action

IRELAND’S biggest trade union has insisted that the seven-week dispute at Dublin’s Marine Terminals has cut traffic in and out of the facility by a third, flatly contradicting the company’s earlier insistence that it has been business as usual since pickets were mounted at the start of July.

Ray of light for US box volumes

US IMPORT container volumes destined for North American retailers in 2009 are forecast to hit their lowest level since 2002 to be down 18.8% on last year. But major retailers report “light at the end of the tunnel”.

LA-Long Beach ports face loss of market share

A VERY different competitive landscape at the end of the recession might make it impossible for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to retain their imposing market share, a new report has suggested.

Owners warned on do-it-yourself repair

SHIPOWNERS are risking machinery failure and damage as they attempt to cut costs by having crew carry out repairs on shipboard machinery.

Boskalis to cut ahead of dredging downturn

ROYAL Boskalis Westminster is looking to scrap its oldest vessels in preparation for a downturn in dredging projects.

MISC boxship ‘Achilles heel’ is bottom line

MISC, the world’s largest owner and operator of liquefied natural gas carriers, reported a RM315m (US$89.3m) loss for its liner business in the first quarter.

Irish ports continue to experience slump

THROUGHPUT at Irish ports continued to fall in the first half of 2009, according to figures produced by the Irish Maritime Development Office (IDMO).

Russia’s Pacific ports cash in on China’s coal boom

CHINA’s surging demand for imported coal has created a boom in shorthaul dry bulk trade from ports on Russia’s Pacific coast. Russian coal exports to China reached 4.4m tonnes in the first six months of this year, growing from just a handful of shipments in 2008.

Rio wary of recovery despite record sales

THE WORLD’S second-largest iron ore producer posted record shipment levels during the second-quarter but remained uncertain about the underlying strength and durability of any global economic recovery.

Analysts doubt Fortescue’s Chinese ore deal

CHINA has touted its iron ore pricing deal with Australia’s third-largest miner, Fortescue Metals Group, as a “win-win” deal.

Surge in lay-ups causes a shift in risk landscape

Owners are faced with numerous decisions when deciding to lay up their vessels, writes SANDRA SPEARES

Correct anti-fouling paint is essential to preserve idle ships

SHIPOWNERS preparing for short-term lay-up should make sure they have the right anti-fouling paint or face substantial drydocking and hull cleaning costs when they reactivate their vessels.

Arctic Sea – search for truth

While few observers seriously believe the missing vessel was a victim of piracy, its disappearance raises wider security issues for all shipowners, writes DAVID OSLER

Scrapping spree leaves MSC with no idle ships

AN AGGRESSIVE scrapping campaign by Mediterranean Shipping Co, the world’s second-largest container line, has left none of its fleet of over 400 vessels idle.

Hong Kong container traffic moves up

HONG Kong container port posted a modest recovery in box throughput last month to 1.9m teu, the highest this year, buoyed by an increase in traffic at the nine box terminals.

Greek shipping slump

GREECE’s economic earnings from the shipping industry continued to shrink in June and slumped by more than 28% in the first half of the year.

Golden Ocean in legal disputes

GOLDEN Ocean Group has described progress in a US$20m legal dispute over a contract of affreightment with Hong Kong bulk carrier operator Transfield Shipping as “promising”. Managing director Herman Billung disclosed the Oslo-listed company had yet to resolve two legal disputes.

Golfers generous in best tradition of freight forwarding

GOLFERS and those doing their best to impersonate one exercised both their bodies and their wallets at the Australian Federation of International Forwarders (AFIF) annual charity golf day this month.

Leonhardt defends handling of hijack crisis

FRANK Leonhardt, chief executive of Hamburg-based owner Leonhardt & Blumberg, has rejected accusations that he did not take enough security measures to protect his 1,550 teu containership Hansa Stavanger from pirates.

BIMCO advocates arrest of pirate motherships

Security chief says naval forces have right to board suspicious vessels

Initial search fails to clarify the mystery of Arctic Sea

NOTHING suspicious has initially been found on board Arctic Sea , the general cargoship that hit world headlines after apparently disappearing at the end of last month before being hunted down by the Russian navy, according to the Russian authorities, writes David Osler.

Pirates demand $2.8m for Irene and its 22 crew

THE Philippines government has confirmed that a group of Somali pirates is asking for $2.8m to secure the release of the Greek-owned bulk carrier Irene EM and its 22 all-Filipino crew, according to local media reports, writes David Osler.

Photo winner: grain of youth

The winning entry: By Verdell O’Brien of Geraldton in the CBH Group’s ninth annual photographic competition