Weekly Edition 21st of May 2009

Navy in piracy drama

AUSTRALIA was not immune from the threat of piracy and ought to continue to work at an international level to find more effective ways to combat it, European commissioner for maritime affairs Joe Borg said last week.

Tasmanian rail line out for a month

THE TASMANIAN Government is under pressure from quarters as diverse as business and the Greens after another derailment.

New vessel to deliver information

THE LIFT-OUT List section of Australia’s leading source of maritime market information will shift fully online from today.

Forwarders now looking to relief from taxing burden

TWO YEARS of industry struggle over Goods and Services Tax (GST) on delivery duty paid (DDP) and delivery duty unpaid (DDU) shipments and exports could be resolved through last week’s Budget – but not until mid-2010.

Customs hope for more from less with inspections cut back

THE SYSTEMATIC screening to which inbound Australian cargo is subjected has had its successes and inevitably some failures.

ROADS: Trucking says thank you

THE TRUCKING industry has praised the Federal Government’s $3.4bn budget commitment for Australian roads and bonus tax deduction offering.

PORTS: Light but very vital cargo

WESTERN Australia’s Oakajee port project and the port of Darwin have gained a secondary green light from Infrastructure Australia (IA).

CSIRO: wins new research vessel

THE COMMONWEALTH Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has won Budget funding for its new ship.

RAIL: the new government line

AUSTRALASIAN Railway Association chief executive Bryan Nye was “ecstatic” about the change of emphasis in the Federal Government’s rail investment strategy, as revealed in last week’s Budget.

Back on track: the Budget detail

THE MAJOR rail plans for priority spending are:

ALC sees 28 women move forward to logistics graduation

THE AUSTRALIAN Logistics Council (ALC) has celebrated 28 Queensland women graduating in Toowoomba from its second national Women Moving Forward mentoring program.

Australian airfreight imports climb to defy world trends

AUSTRALIA’S airfreight sector defied global trends in March, recording another import surge in a sign that the country is weathering the global economic conditions better than most.

Wage talks set to continue

WAGE talks between Patrick Stevedores parent Asciano and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) on behalf of Webb Dock workers were continuing this week after industrial action was called off last Thursday night.

QTA in Queensland fuel subsidy backlash

THE QUEENSLAND Trucking Association (QTA) has likened the mooted removal of the state’s 8.354 cents-a-litre fuel subsidy to the imposition of a tax.

Fertile solution to market in process of rapid change

SHIPS can still be expected to call in at Incitec Pivot’s wharf in Geelong following the closure of its single superphosphate (SSP) plant there, a company spokesman said.

Keel clearance advance for Melbourne

THE PORT of Melbourne Corporation was the latest ports body to take up OMC International’s Dynamic Under Keel Clearance (DUKC) technology, the Melbourne maritime engineering firm said on Monday.

Software takes on hard tasks for truckers

A BUSINESS management and accreditation software product is now available for the trucking industry, business and safety management scheme provider TruckSafe said last week.

Green game for gains

THE development of technical solutions to the shipping industry’s environmental challenges has been gathering pace as a number of important regulatory deadlines loom.

Wave of interest in blue sky thinking

ALTHOUGH no one expects the diesel engine to be replaced just yet, there are some useful proposals that have gone beyond the design stage, with experiments having proved that shipping can reduce its dependence on oil.

MISC to quit Asia-Europe trade route

MALAYSIAN line MISC caught its partners by surprise on Friday with a decision to quit the Asia-Europe trades and resign from the Grand Alliance.

Still box gloom for HK

BOX volumes through Hong Kong showed a slight month-on-month recovery in April, but throughput was still down more than 20% compared with a year earlier, according to latest official figures.

Volume down at Los Angeles, Long Beach

LOS Angeles and Long Beach continue to demonstrate that the recovery in world trade is still to begin, with both ports posting steep declines in containerised imports for April.

Brokers face litigation over falling ship prices

SHIPBROKERS have been warned of increased litigation over how they value ships in a falling market.

Australia urges caution as IMO approves new recycling rules

THE International Maritime Organization’s ship recycling convention was adopted by 63 member delegates to the IMO’s diplomatic conference in Hong Kong on Friday, despite last-minute concerns over the entry-into-force criteria.

Convention slammed for legitimising beaching of ships

HUMAN rights, labour and environmental organisations strongly criticised the Hong Kong ship recycling convention immediately after it was approved on Friday.

Last stage of MSC Napoli clean-up gets under way

AN OPERATION to finally rid the UK coastline in Lyme Bay of the remaining stern section of the container ship MSC Napoli has begun.

Hebei Spirit pollution claims to top 100,000

THE number of claims resulting from the Hebei Spirit oil spill in December 2007 is expected to top 100,000, the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Fund has estimated.

Box lines wear big rate cuts

US IMPORTERS squeezed double-digit rate cuts out of container lines during this year’s round of transpacific negotiations, a top industry executive confirmed last week.

Hapag-Lloyd’s UK staff pay out on redundancy

HAPAG-Lloyd landside staff in the UK are accusing the company of reneging on a generous redundancy clause in their employment contracts, as bosses seek to push through an unspecified number of job losses in Britain.

Tui spill play fails

OHN Fredriksen’s attempt to increase his influence in Europe’s largest tourism company, Tui, has failed.

Where next for breakers?

Ship scrapping may be big business now, but with a newer fleet and stricter controls on the cards, where will the recyclers’ market lie?

IMO rejects campaigners’ call for ban on beaching

GREENPEACE, Friends of the Earth, human rights and labour groups have failed in their attempt to get the beaching of ships outlawed in the International Maritime Organization’s ship recycling convention.

Ore giants tighten grip on the capesize spot market

THE world’s three major iron ore producers have gained what one broker calls an “unprecedented dominance” in the capesize market, responsible for nearly half of all ships booked on key iron ore shipping routes.

Plan to pipe WA gas to Darwin

JAPANESE energy group Inpex and French oil major Total are considering using two floating production systems for the large Ichthys gas-condensates project off Western Australia.

Price motivates China to turn to India

AT THE height of the freight market boom in early June 2008, Chinese steel mills paid a staggering US$227 per tonne for iron ore from Brazil – US$116 for the iron ore, and nearly US$109 per tonne for the freight.

Coal comfort quarter

HUGE increases in Chinese imports of Australia’s raw minerals in the last month have buoyed hopes that bulk shipping between the two nations could bounce back sooner than expected.

Dry bulk ships for a snip

LONDON broker Braemar Seascope has reported strong interest in the dry bulk sale and purchase market, as buyers with ready cash look to capitalise on falling ship values.

Owners urged on Malacca funds

SHIPOWNERS need to contribute more to the voluntary fund for navigational safety in the Malacca Strait, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa, who has hinted at a mandatory system in future, said.

US ships required to have guards

OPERATORS of US-flag ships sailing off the Horn of Africa will be required to post security guards on board under a beefed up maritime security regime introduced by the US Coast Guard (USCG).

Motherships ‘behind attacks’

PIRATE motherships have begun coordinating their attacks on merchant shipping off Somalia, according to the European Union’s naval force.

Maersk, NOL profits gone

HUGE losses were reported by two of the world’s top container lines last week following the catastrophic collapse of freight rates in the early weeks of the year.

K Line delays 10% of newbuildings

K LINE has delayed the delivery of about 10% of its 155 newbuilding orders as it seeks to reduce supply in the container and car carrier businesses.

Andersen warns of box line failures

CONTAINER shipping faces a long recession that will force some lines out of business, AP Moller-Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen has predicted.

Braemar brokers beat heat with top results

BRAEMAR Shipping Services has reported record annual results, with pre-tax profit increasing 10% to £16.2m (US$24.7m).

Russian reefer – on the rocks

THE MASTER and mate of a Russian reefer have both been charged with breaking the Maritime Code.

Guilty plea in Cosco Busan casualty

THE COMPANY that operated the Cosco Busan has offered to plead guilty on two criminal misdemeanour charges.

Wages ship leaves Geraldton

LIBERIAN-flagged Grand Esmeralda has left the port of Geraldton after outstanding wage payments were made to her crew.

Casualty Briefs 21-May 2009

 

Kidnap and ransom insures 51% boost

AN UPSURGE in demand for kidnap and ransom (K&R) cover has helped global insurer Hiscox notch a first quarter 51% increase in sterling-measured gross written business.

Levene calls for business solution to Somali piracy

LLOYD’S chairman Lord Levene has urged global business to lend its clout to a pan-East African response to quell piracy off Somalia.

Concept for future

JAPANESE shipowner NYK has revealed its exploratory design NYK Super Eco Ship 2030, the company’s concept for a sustainable boxship

Solving the Customs Duty and GST dilemma

It is time that the Australian import industry seriously discussed a voluntary system for Customs charges.

Chinese puzzle: ore is it?

The riddle of the recent spike in iron ore shipments is largely solved by understanding the strange relationship between economic stress, price and mineral quality.