INTERNATIONAL NEWS

CMA CGM slashes costs as it targets comeback

FRENCH container shipping group CMA CGM has reaffirmed its confidence in returning rapidly to profit, despite highly-publicised difficulties with banks over its US$5.6bn debt.

Bangladesh deaths spark renewed calls to end beached shipbreaking

EUROPEAN lobby groups have renewed calls for shipbreaking to be moved off the beaches of the Indian subcontinent, after seven fatal accidents were reported in Bangladesh in four weeks.

China yards face 50% cancellations

 

Evergreen confirms plan to expand box fleet

 

Bulker owners now return to Asia yards

 

IMO wins US support for emissions role

 

BHP keeps capesizes right way up

BHP Billiton has chartered 32 capesizes to ship just over 5.3m tonnes of iron ore to China in the last month, helping keep capesize rates buoyant.

Lenders could push shipping to the brink

A WAVE of bankruptcies, company failures and possible mergers in the shipping industry will soon hit the industry, according to leading New York advisor Mark Friedman.

Rotterdam optimism despite 12% slump

ROTTERDAM, Europe’s largest port by volume, saw total throughput fall 11.9% in the first nine months of 2009 to 283m tonnes but advised that the cargo downturn has stabilised.

Fredriksen to take stake in budget line

JOHN Fredriksen will invest in the new budget container line, The Container Co (TCC), but has not yet decided how much money he is prepared to offer.

Tough times ahead as freight stops rolling

Layoffs and lay-ups loom as volumes slump, writes Clive Woodbridge

Danish owners oppose state aid for sick lines

HAPAG-LLOYD and CMA CGM should be forced to cut their fleet capacity in return for government financial support, Danish shipowners have told the European Commission.

Hong Kong fails to back maritime in hour of need

MARITIME and logistics leaders in Hong Kong have criticised the lack of support given to the two sectors by the territory’s government at a time when companies in both areas are moving from Hong Kong to Singapore.

US flotation for Baltic Trading dry bulk tilt

BALTIC Trading, a dry bulk start-up launched by Peter Georgiopoulos, is poised to become the first mainstream shipping initial public offering (IPO) in the US since financial markets collapsed last year, with the ability to spend a potential US$300m on its first ships.

ConocoPhillips now under fire over ship safety standards

US OIL major ConocoPhillips has been slammed by the Norwegian authorities for not managing the ships that operate around the giant Ekofisk oil production complex in the North Sea.

Zim bondholders set to receive

AN AGREEMENT between bondholders of Zim Integrated Shipping Services and the embattled Israeli box line is imminent as details of the agreement were leaked to Israeli newspaper The Marker.

Thinking outside the box

Low-cost airlines have revolutionised passenger aviation in recent years. Marcus Hand examines whether the same concept could be exported to container shipping

Private equity eyes banks’ role in shipping

PRIVATE equity funds have yet to make an impact on shipping, but their time could be quickly coming, a partner at prominent law firm Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) said.

Singapore box volumes down

BOX volumes at Singapore, the world’s largest container port, fell 16% in September.

Falling container rates reduce box charters to 4.5 months