Weekly Edition 5th November 2009

West Atlas woes ignite

THE OPERATOR of the West Atlas drilling oil rig in the Timor Sea stepped up efforts this week to plug the oil leak that caused a huge fire to engulf the site on Sunday.

Finalists named for the Australian Shipping and Transport Awards

FINALISTS have been named from a strong field of nominations for the Lloyd’s List DCN Australian Shipping and Transport Awards, to be held in Sydney on November 26.

Truck body refers Port Botany Sundays to ACCC

THE AUSTRALIAN Trucking Association (ATA) New South Wales has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate a move by the stevedores at Port Botany to stop offering Sunday as a bonus free storage day.

Sydney project enters new phase

Sydney Ports Corporation is installing 216 concrete slabs for the new wharf at Port Botany as part of its $1bn expansion project.

Toll sets sights on Asia in pursuit of strong growth

TOLL Holdings has no choice but to shift its focus from Australia to Asia if it wants to hold a dominant place in the transport and logistics industry.

Adelaide ready for trade resurgence

PORT Adelaide is well positioned to handle a return to more buoyant trade conditions, with the global financial crisis not appearing to have caused any long-term damage to the port’s performance.

New York’s Rule B attachment carnival is not quite over yet

ON OCTOBER 16, the US Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled, in Shipping Corporation of India v Jaldhi, that electronic fund transfers (EFTs) being processed by an intermediary bank in New York were no longer subject to Rule B attachments.

Government tightens air cargo security measures

THE FEDERAL Government plans to amend Australia’s aviation security laws in an effort to bolster earlier detection of potential terrorism and criminal activities.

Impact of the US decision to reach Australia too

A SUCCESSFUL appeal in the US that surfaced two weeks ago promises a “back to the future” change in the way creditors’ rights are enforced in maritime cases worldwide.

Esperance port accepts pollution fine

A WESTERN Australian court has fined Esperance Ports $525,000 for its role in the lead and nickel contamination incident which hit the port in early 2007.

Teekay enters offshore supply market in NZ

TEEKAY Shipping Australia, whose business mainly centres on tankers, has made its first venture into the offshore support and supply market.

Newcastle pilots to vote on strike

THE MARINE pilots of Newcastle are a step closer to taking industrial action against the port corporation over a salary dispute that has stretched over 12 months, the union representing them said.

Newcastle capacity plan has early ACCC support for next year

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it intended to approve the long-term arrangements to ease capacity constraints on the Hunter Valley coal chain.

Truckers get jitters as new realities are driven home

An administrator’s prophetic words have come back to haunt a fearful transport industry, reports Rob McKay

Tax costs drag TT-Line into the red but debt reined in

TASMANIAN-owned ferry firm TT-Line has seen operational profit of $6.7m dragged down to a loss of $2.4m due to taxes on ship revaluation and fuel hedge derivatives, but the company should be debt-free in the next financial year.

Fremantle washdown

AWH Logistics hopes its new Fremantle water recycling plant will save the company more than 4.7m litres of water used to wash containers each year.

Freightways cautious despite bullish result

NEW ZEALAND express logistics firm Freightways has ridden out the Australasian economic downturn in some style, chairman Wayne Boyd told the company’s annual meeting last week.

ACCC now has Thai Airways in its sights

THE INTERNATIONAL aircargo price-fixing scandal has led the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to the door of Thai Airways International, with court proceedings against the airline being launched last week.

Dalrymple Bay stake purchase approved

THE AUSTRALIAN Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has approved Brookfield Asset Management’s proposal to acquire half of the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) from debt-laden Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI).

FUEL OF THE FUTURE

As they strive to meet the IMO’s impending emission reduction targets, shipowners in Scandinavia are increasingly looking at using liquefied natural gas as a future source of fuel for their vessels, writes CRAIG EASON

Intertanko mulls pilot plan for Malacca

INTERTANKO is mulling recommending pilotage for tankers transiting the Malacca and Singapore straits. Pilotage in the busy waterways was discussed by Intertanko and its Singapore membership on Monday.

Defence of beaching deepens concern

QUESTIONS have been raised over Bangladesh’s ship recycling practices after a governmental official attempted to deny that vessels dismantled using the beaching method were directly harmful to the marine environment.

CMA CGM chief’s fury over bank ousting claim

CMA CGM chairman and founder Jacques Saadé has reacted indignantly to a report that the group’s banks are seeking to oust him as the price of their participation in the restructuring of its US$5.6bn debt.

Taiwan’s Evergreen slides further into the red

EVERGREEN Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipping line, plunged deeper into the red after posting a net loss of almost T$7.3bn (US$224m) for the first nine months of this year following the ongoing slump in the box trades.

Changing times on uneasy street

The North & East Asia-Australia trade has tasted the extremes over the past 18 months – from high-margin glam to bargain-bin scramble and now somewhere in between. Lines are trying to find the new reality which is still to be defined, reports Dale Crisp

Hapag-Lloyd slashes pay

HAPAG-LLOYD has announced internally an across-the-board pay cut of at least 5% for all staff worldwide, including seafarers, with senior employees facing a 20% reduction in salary, the company has confirmed.

Support vessel slump to continue

A SURGE in newbuilding deliveries will keep charter rates and utilisation levels for offshore support vessels (PSVs) depressed for the next two years, DVB Group said.

Cancellations ease as owners alter delivery dates

THE PACE of newbuilding cancellations has slowed over the last four months, with only a 6% rise in terminated contracts, as owners prefer to delay vessel delivery dates instead.

Top three Japanese owners slip into red

ALL of Japan’s top three shipowners – Mitsui OSK Lines, K Line and NYK – sank into the red for the first half of the year, with only MOL still forecasting full-year profit.

EU conference ban has put shipping lines in legal limbo

EUROPEAN Commission efforts to persuade other jurisdictions to ban conferences are making little headway, leaving shipping lines that operate in a global market to contend with a glut of regulations.

Cash crunch takes toll on owners as options dry up

CONDITIONS in the container shipping industry are going from bad to worse as cash flow starts to dry up.

DP World sees container trades stabilising

DUBAI-headquartered ports operator DP World said signs of stability were starting to return to the container trades, but it nevertheless expects the final months of the year to remain challenging.

Maersk to launch Iraq feeder

MAERSK Line is to start operating a feeder service to Iraq next month. The service would run between Jebel Ali in Dubai and Umm Qasr in Iraq, the Danish line said. A Maersk-owned, US-flag vessel will be deployed on the rotation.

Steel revival poised to boost shipping volumes – producer

SHIPMENTS of steel products were expected to increase in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the world’s largest producer ArcelorMittal.

Consolidation in thermal coal trade slows growth

FOLLOWING a period of sustained expansion, global trade in thermal coal is expected to see slower growth. The trade “has entered a phase of consolidation”, said Wolfgang Ritschel, managing director of Verein der Kohlenimporteure, Germany’s coal importers’ association.

Poll finds 45% of crew want to carry a gun

NEARLY half of UK and Dutch seafarers believe they should be allowed in principle to carry guns in the face of the pirate threat, according to an online poll conducted by the officer-dominated Anglo-Dutch maritime union Nautilus International.

Singapore Strait could take more traffic, study says

THE SINGAPORE Strait could handle a 75% increase in shipping traffic safely, according to Singaporean authorities, although industry organisations are concerned about the potential impact on navigation.

NOL posts heavy third-quarter loss

NEPTUNE Orient Lines expects to remain deep in the red well into next year, with depressed conditions in the container trades showing no sign of easing.

Job cuts kept in the shadows

Despite the steady stream of shipping redundancies, very few companies are prepared to come clean about the true extent of their rationalisation activities. RICHARD MEADE reports

Brokers enjoy benefit of ships oversupply

BRAEMAR Shipping Services has found a silver lining in the industry’s swollen orderbook: the huge oversupply of ships threatening freight rates over the next five years will create more business for the broking group.

Maersk Line’s quiet enjoyment clause sparks lender discontent

CLAUSES inserted into charter contracts by shipping giant Maersk Line and some other carriers are starting to cause major problems for ship lenders as the risk of defaults by owners increases.

GOLF DAY IN SA

ADELAIDE’S shipping industry has been playing golf for so long that special conditions have been placed on South Australia’s most sought-after trophy.

Paradigm shift in logistics chain transparency

AT THE end of October there were a number of media articles about business warning of the need to tackle bottlenecks stifling exports.

Schenker helps out with Hopper

Schenker Australia and The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) have renewed their logistics partnership for 2009/10, writes Rob McKay. This includes major exhibitions such as the Dennis Hopper (pictured) and the New Hollywood being displayed in Melbourne from November 12 to April 25. As ACMI’s logistics provider, customs clearance and freight forwarding agent DB Schenker has moved more than 60 cubic metres of exhibition material from various locations such as the Cinemateque Francaise in Paris, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and the various US locations including even Dennis Hopper’s home to Melbourne.

Cooking up a storm

Staff from freight forwarders BCR Australia have cooked up a storm recently with company-supported cooking classes (pictured, above). In recent months, the company has been running Victors Food “Cook smart to eat well “ classes and staff are taken through a 45-minute cooking class in the boardroom at their office. Dishes have included sushi and Vietnamese rolls. BCR National Customs Manager Andrew Crawford said: “We decided upon this program as a positive teambuilding initiative for our company. Everyone has been working really hard for the past couple of years and we wanted to give something back. We have 55 staff in the Sydney office and we have definitely noticed that the tempo has become a bit more upbeat amongst the group since we started this program. In addition to cooking classes, we have also joined our company to a gym, so we are all feeling great.”

Total chairman defends action over Erika oil spill

TOTAL chairman Thierry Desmarest has defended the oil group’s role in the Erika disaster, insisting that its personnel were not guilty of any failures.

Malta to test Arctic Sea for chemicals and radioactivity

ARCTIC Sea, the Russian-owned general cargoship that attracted world headlines after apparently being hijacked in European waters in July, was to be screened for radioactive and chemical materials before being allowed to proceed into her home port of Valletta last week, according to the local Lloyd’s agent.

Determined effort Resolve starts recovery of Black Rose bunkers

SALVAGE specialists from US-owned Resolve Marine Group have begun work on recovering bunkers from Black Rose (pictured), the Mongolia-flag bulk carrier that sank with the loss of one life off the coast of India’s Orissa state in September.

Destroyer and boxship collide

JAPAN has confirmed that one of its navy destroyers has collided with a South Korean containership off southern Japan, starting fires on both ships.

Arctic Sea to be returned to mystery owners

ARCTIC Sea, the Russian-owned general cargoship that attracted world headlines after apparently being hijacked in European waters in July, was to be delivered back to unspecified owners last week, according to a statement from flag state Malta.

Casualty Briefs - 5th November 2009