Weekly Edition 15th of October 2009

Government flounders in Flinders Is ferry ferment

THE TASMANIAN Government appears ready to play a waiting game rather than risk breaching a Bass Strait islands contract with ferry firm Southern Shipping.

Port reshuffle for Hobart is age-old problem

TASMANIAN Ports Corporation (Tasports) has flagged moves to reshuffle its Hobart port area tenants to gain flexibility in the face of crumbling infrastructure.

Nominations are closing for transport industry awards

THERE are just two days left to nominate the industry’s best for the 2009 Lloyd’s List DCN Australian Shipping and Transport Awards.

AusPac’s saga of swapped vessels and new port rules

MEMBERS of the AusPac consortium will be hoping no more troubles come their way too soon after a fraught six weeks.

Toll increases Asian footprint with Footwork purchase

TOLL Group intends to buy out Japanese express freight operator and logistics ally Footwork Express, the Australian company said this week.

Bad weather brings return of extended Botany queues

RECENT bad weather contributed to lengthy delays at the Port Botany container terminals this week.

Shipments unaffected by slurry leak

OPERATIONS at the Queensland mine were shut down last week after about 300 tonnes of zinc slurry, including 160 tonnes of zinc, leaked between the group’s Century Mine and the port. The pipeline is more than 300 km long and reportedly holds about 7,500 tonnes of zinc slurry when at full capacity.

Dalrymple Bay stake in BBI deal

CANADIAN infrastructure investor Brookfield Asset Management would take a 49.9% stake in the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal as one part of a complex $1.1bn recapitalisation package being offered to Australia’s debt-laden Babcock & Brown Infrastructure.

Key decisions for new owner

PD PORTS’ new owners, should the Brookfield deal go through, will have to consider key investment decisions for a ports and logistics business centred at the north-east UK hub of Teesport.

AMSA highlights yachts warning

WITH solo yachtswoman Jessica Watson preparing to go ahead with her world circumnavigation, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has reminded the industry of the navigational challenge yachts present to commercial shipping.

State’s green light for Abbot Point

QUEENSLAND may be struggling with the impact of the global financial crisis but that has not been allowed to halt planning for one of the state’s biggest port developments.

Corrigan’s link to Toll in consortium

KAPLAN Diversified Infrastructure and Logistics Fund has increased its involvement in the logistics sector in a move that sees its investment advisory committee chairman, former Patrick chief Chris Corrigan, linked with Toll for the first time since 2006.

Perkins veteran loses explosives and chickens in PNG storm

FORMER Perkins Shipping stalwart Lihir Express (ex Frances Bay) entered Papua New Guinea’s port of Lae last week having lost many of her containers in a storm.

Second attempt to hit Montara gas leak shaft misses its target

MONTARA oil field operator PTTEP Australasia failed this week in its second pass at the Timor Sea’s leaking oil well.

Security set in FPSO case

FEDERAL Court judge Donnell Ryan has ordered BW Offshore to provide a security of $550,000 by November 13 in its case against four energy firms over a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel deal.

Agents had options on financial submissions: IATA replies to critics

THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association (IATA) has denied telling its Australian agents that they had to submit audited financial statements as part of membership requirements issued four months ago.

Europe trade falling, Asia is improving

THE RATE of decline in Australia and Oceania’s exports to Europe has halved, but there are mixed signs for a possible recovery in the troubled trade.

Sydney Ports woos Riverina

SENIOR Sydney Ports Corporation executives visited the Riverina region of south-western New South Wales this week in an effort to woo local exporters.

K&S targets WA, NT resources growth

K&S Corporation will focus its growth strategy on Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the road haulage and logistics firm said in its annual report released last week.

Banks look away from finance

European banks focus on restructuring and keeping their shipping portfolios afloat, reports ANDREW SPURRIER

Can this crisis void a contract?

International lawyers assess when unforeseen forces can release owners and charterers from their liabilities, reports JERRY FRANK

Anger as Full City crew face detention

DEFENCE lawyers representing the two seafarers detained by the Norwegian police after their dry bulk vessel drifted on to rocks are to ask the Chinese embassy to add international pressure to get the pair released.

Steel tipped for pick-up

GLOBAL steel production could recover as early as 2010, driven by growth in gross domestic product and improved financial conditions, according to Société Générale.

Oakland port to ban all dirty trucks

THE PORT of Oakland has banned “dirty trucks” from January 1 next year, a measure said to exceed state requirements.

K+N to relocate Hong Kong office to Singapore

INTERNATIONAL logistics group Kuehne+Nagel is following China Navigation and shipbroking outfit Clarkson in moving its Asia-Pacific management headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Strike action sees Piraeus shut down

THE PORT of Piraeus in Greece was effectively closed on Monday as unions extended strike action. The unions were calling for prime minister George Papandreou’s new government to cancel the sale of two container terminals at Piraeus to China’s Cosco Pacific. Workers were to vote on whether to continue with further 48-hour strikes.

In tough times,  bring in the heavy lifters

Global financial woes and drought in parts of Australia have emaciated the project shipping sector, but. . . hopes are high that massive resource sector developments will turn the business around – sooner, rather than later. SINEVA TOEVAI talks to industry leaders.

Joint approach to cargo transport is paying off

ASIAWORLD Shipping Services has managed to keep busy in what managing director Ken Fitzpatrick described as a “challenging” year.

Newbuilding: ready for resources re-boom

WORKING against the tide of global financial turmoil, German-owned SAL is undergoing a healthy expansion which includes a new office in Australia.

Holistic approach to really big moves

DEUGRO was recently awarded the freight forwarding contract for the Koniambo Nickel Mining project in New Caledonia.

Buoyed by moving the world’s biggest

BELUGA Shipping recently carried out the challenging task of transporting the world’s largest buoy for Altus Oil and Gas Services.

Slowdown gives time for IEG to plan

INTERNATIONAL Export Group (IEG) has seen a slow down in heavy machinery imports in the past 10 months but business has remained steady this year thanks to the timely appearance of a number of crawler cranes.

BBC now going full steam ahead, growth on the agenda

BBC Chartering is in an expansionary mode despite the global economic turmoil.

Mining, construction set for slow recovery

IMPORTS of heavy equipment are likely to weaken further in coming months amid expectations that activity in the mining industry will not pick up any time soon.

Wise to global warming, Beluga uses Northeast Passage but researches solutions to emissions

BELUGA Shipping was recently tasked with transporting two reactors from Italy to Qatar despite restricted depth of less than six metres in port.

Jacking-up for the big challenges

MOVING a jack-up barge might sound like a simple enough exercise but as Skelton Sherborne discovered, it was anything but.

Surprise cargo is gold mine in troubled times

GEOFF Beesley has seen a lot of odds and ends move over the wharf in more than a half a century in shipping. But sometimes even he is surprised at the cargo opportunities that emerge, even in an economic lull.

Heavy-lift ship group Dockwise sees rise in discounted buy-backs

DOCKWISE says more companies will attempt to buy-back their debt at a discount, even though there was a low take-up of the heavylift shipping group’s own offer to acquire its syndicated borrowings.

Steel mills abandoning spot market iron ore

RESURGENT iron ore demand from European and Japanese steel mills has underscored falls in the number of capesize bulk carriers hired on the spot market, as industrial giants emerge from the freight market collapse a year ago determined to take greater control of commodity and transportation costs.

Trans-Pacific carriers set to hike rates at renewal

CONTAINER lines on the trans-Pacific trade have set out an ambitious plan to increase freight rates for 2010, saying low rates have to be reversed.

World’s biggest ship for WA gas project

SHELL will use the world’s first offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) production vessel to develop the Prelude and Concerto gas fields off Western Australia.

Iron ore swaps to boost liquidity

INCREASED trading in iron ore swaps can be used to help boost liquidity in the dry bulk freight derivatives market, a major London-based freight derivative broker said last week.

Russian drive on Arctic oil

RUSSIA will require more than US$300bn in capital investment to develop all of its huge offshore oil and gas resources over the next 50 years, according to the nation’s deputy energy minister.

Final year for annual pricing

Freight Investor Services (FIS) believes the annual iron ore price negotiations will not survive beyond 2010, as steel producers shift from long-term contracts with miners to buying the commodity on the spot market.

Cooperation urged to cut logistics costs

A TOP supply chain executive with DHL has challenged the logistics industry to “think the unthinkable” in working together to cut costs.

Funds for Somalia fall short

LESS than one third of the aid pledged by international donors six months ago to help Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government boost security and fight piracy has been received.

Capesize spot rate optimism doubted

CAPESIZE spot rates could surge further this week amid hopes positive market sentiment will fuel higher charter prices.

Singapore fees hike sparks uproar

CRUISESHIP agents are in uproar over a decision by the Singapore Cruise Centre to charge ships an additional docking fee of 10 times the usual amount if they are forced to berth at container terminals due to congestion.

Vale caves into VLOC pressure

MINING giant Vale plans to order an unspecified number of very large ore carriers (VLOCs) in Brazil, in an apparent concession to government demands that it favour domestic shipyards

Nato joins Lloyd’s to target piracy

Lloyd’s of London high-level session assesses security risks, reports JERRY FRANK

Auditors’ concerns over CMA CGM

 

Customers told of restructuring plans

CMA CGM, has written to its customers advising that it has created a committee of its main lending banks to “consolidate the group’s financial position and ensure the financing for its growth strategy”.

First woman shipping minister in new Greek super portfolio

LOUKA Katseli, a 57-year-old professor of economics, has been sworn in as minister of economics, competitiveness and shipping in the new Greek centre-left government of prime minister George Papandreou as shipping circles voiced uncertainty about the radical transfer of the shipping portfolio to one of the most powerful ministries in the government.

Fredriksen eyes budget box line start

JOHN Fredriksen has confirmed that he is considering entering the box sector and has held initial talks with the owners of new ‘budget’ container line The Container Co (TCC).

Conference told, newbuilding pressure pits owners against yards

TENSIONS between shipowners and shipbuilders are likely to mount in the months ahead as the shipping industry becomes ever more desperate to wipe as many unwanted newbuildings as possible off the orderbook.

Shipping art shows how to pack them out

WHEN an art competition garners 179 paintings, it becomes, like the ships so often portrayed, too big to ignore.

NAVAL FORCES IN ACTION: A pirate vessel is sunk in the Gulf of Aden this summer.

Rise in naval cooperation cuts attacks

Warnings of new pirate attacks as winds drop

STILL CAPTIVE: The Alakrana, a tuna fishing boat, seen from a Spanish Navy aircraft while sailing off Somalia’s coast over the weekend. A Spanish Supreme Court judge has ruled that two Somali men arrested in connection with the vessel’s hijacking can be tried in Spain

Pirates turn on pirates in ransom bid

SOMALI pirates who extracted US$1.7m from a Turkish shipowner for the release of bulk carrier Horizon 1 last week have apparently been attacked by another gang of pirates who attempted to rob them of the ransom.

Nigerian ceasefire raises cautious hopes for peace

PIRACY specialists have expressed “cautious optimism” that a ceasefire deal between the Nigerian government and separatist militants will see a reduction in attacks on merchant shipping and oil installations in Nigerian waters.

Casualty Briefs - 15th October 2009