Weekly Edition 22nd October 2009

Kota Wajar boxship is hijacked in Gulf of Aden

SINGAPORE-flagged containership Kota Wajar has been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, about 550 miles off Somalia and 150 miles north of the Seychelles, EU Navfor sources have officially confirmed.

Singapore Shipping Association condemns hijacking

THE crew of Pacific International Lines vessel Kota Wajar are said to be unharmed by Somali pirates who hijacked the ship on Thursday.

Jettisoning a coastal burden

SEACORP has put its Western Australian coastal shipping operation out to tender after this week confirming its intention to withdraw from the trade.

Weekend blues for Patrick at Botany

Significant delays at the Port Botany container terminals this past week forced Patrick to allocate additional resources to help decrease landside congestion.

CBFCA urges caution over Port Botany logistics deals

THE CUSTOMS Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia (CBFCA) has warned its members to be cautious about logistics service operators offering “solutions such as rail and road in the context of the emerging Port Botany reforms”.

ATSB finds steering failure in grounding of Iron King

PORT Hedland Port Authority is expected to be advised to source tugs more suitable for the open ocean in the wake of an investigation into a grounding at the port in July last year.

Receiver confident of prospects for fallen truck enterprise sale

FERRIER Hodgson has had a fast start in its buyer search for troubled second-tier haulage and logistics firm Mannway.

Watchdog sets terms for AAT

THE AUSTRALIAN Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is proposing to grant Australian Amalgamated Terminals (AAT) conditional permission to operate motor vehicle and general cargo handling facilities at five ports.

Toll joins chorus of praise as airfreight shows signs of life

THE RESTOCKING of inventory was supporting growth at Toll and Asciano, senior officers for the firms said this week

Solo sailor took a catnap before collision – report

JESSICA Watson, who had been preparing for an around-the-world solo sailing attempt, was catnapping when her yacht collided with a Hong-Kong registered bulk carrier in Queensland last month, according to a preliminary report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

Cairns sets sights on direct shipping service to PNG

THE CAIRNS business sector is to explore the viability of a dedicated shipping service to Papua New Guinea as it seeks to take advantage of the country’s resources and construction development.

Crackdown on crews in holds during coal loading

PORT Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) will further tighten procedures at both its Newcastle terminals after a series of incidents involving crews working in the holds of ships during coal loading.

SA body welcomes road plan

FREE-FLOW traffic for the freight industry took a “large” step forward after the South Australian and Federal Governments released design plans for the redevelopment of Adelaide’s north to south transport corridor, the SA Freight Council said.

Boskalis wins US$744m Gorgon contract

THE AUSTRALIAN subsidiary of Dutch dredging firm Boskalis has won a US$744m contract to build a terminal connected with Chevron’s Gorgon gas project off Western Australia.

Atle Jebsen dies in Norway car accident

A LEADING Norwegian shipowner and familiar figure in Australia and New Zealand shipping circles, Atle Jebsen, has died in a car accident in Norway.

Third Montara attempt fails

PTTEP is preparing for its fourth attempt to plug the Montara oil and gas leak after its third effort failed at the weekend. The energy explorer aims to make its latest pass at the leaking well today.

Sounds of sabres rattling in island service squabble

SOUTHERN Shipping got back to the job of fulfilling its Flinders Island freight contract this week to the sound of sustained Tasmanian Government sabre-rattling about the service echoing around the island state.

Plenty of positive buyer interest in seized reefer

THE REEFERSHIP arrested in New Zealand two months ago has received a “good” level of interest from potential buyers around the world, the company handling the sale said.

WA harvest is tipped to dip

UNFAVOURABLE weather in parts of Western Australia could see the state fall short of the 2008/09 grain harvest of more than 12m tonnes, according to CBH Group. The 2009/10 grain harvest kicked off in WA last week, Australia’s biggest grain handler said.

The flag fleet imperative

The majority of OECD/EU countries do it: why can’t we? Past governments have sat on their hands and watched Australia’s fleet wither. The time has come to stop the rot, writes BARRY LEWARN

Australia joins IOPC but Rotterdam Rules to wait

Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC), federal transport minister Anthony Albanese said last week.

New liability regime may prove hard to avoid – lawyer

AUSTRALIA and New Zealand’s acceptance of the Rotterdam Rules can be expected to depend on how trading partners treat the new sea carrier cargo liability regime, according to DLA Phillips Fox lawyer Andrew Tulloch.

Jumbo Shipping completes first round of Pluto lift to Dampier

JUMBO Shipping has completed its first phase of shipments for the Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Dampier, Western Australia.

What the world needs is a big carrot

IN 2009, it’s all sticks and no carrots. If you study history (although I understand it is disapproved of these days) you will be aware of the sheer frightfulness of the criminal sanctions that were in place in the civilised country of Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century.

Have traditional reefers been permanently frozen out?

Boxships may be taking reefers’ trade, but academics are still arguing over which is greener. Roger Hailey reports

Economists deal second blow to seafreight hopes

 

Money, time saver coming soon

THE LAUNCH in Australia of liner e-commerce platform Inttra’s eInvoice solution will depend on when its country-by-country rollout is determined, Inttra has told Lloyd’s List DCN.

Hong Kong implementation for ambitious Australian transport automation system

 

Shipping shock from satellite jamming

Cheap GPS jammers bought off the internet could seriously disrupt busy shipping lanes, reports CRAIG EASON

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.

Sakhalin firms finance for oil and gas projects

SAKHALIN Energy Investment, the operator of the Sakhalin liquefied natural gas plant, has secured US$1.4bn of project finance to complete its offshore oil and gas development work.

Hi-tech cold store boosts Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s Transnet Port Terminals has opened a Rand45m (US$6.22m) cold storage facility at the Cape Town Multipurpose Terminal.

China imports’ September surge

 

World Courier seeks extra drug storage depots in Asia

WORLD Courier, the US-headquartered specialist express company, is eyeing the development of further drug storage depots in Asia, following the opening of facilities in Melbourne and Johannesburg.

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

 

Global crisis will speed shipping power shift to Asia says author

‘Misapplied’ capital should have gone to Asian growth markets according to marine economist. TOM LEANDER reports

Drewry points to box uplift, but warns of overcapacity

THE CONTAINER market has bottomed out and global traffic is expected to recover a little in the second half of 2009, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.

New orders are down 70% at Chinese yards

 

Argentine line in bailout talks

 

Book tugs at marine heart strings

THE CONTEMPORARY Melbourne tug world hailed its past this month to help launch Williamstown historian Geoff Dougall’s book on the city’s marine towing traditions, Of full steam and taut hawsers.

Shipping charts urgency of training on electronic navigation systems

Instruction in use of Ecdis is tipped to be on IMO agenda despite adding to owners’ costs, writes Craig Eason