Weekly Edition 8th of October 2009

Full City pair stuck in Norway while judge takes holiday

THE TWO crew members of the Full City charged with gross negligence face at least two more weeks in Norway without knowing their fate because a local judge had gone on holiday.

EU urged to pay for failure to prevent hijack

THE EUROPEAN Union has been asked if it is willing to pay compensation following the revelation that the dredger Pompei was refused Atalanta protection prior to its hijacking by pirates earlier this year.

District judge orders return of passports to Full City accused

THE DISTRICT judge assessing the Full City case has demanded that the two Chinese crew members detained by police are given their passports back.

Cosco Busan report slams officers and shipmanagers

THE PILOT, the master, the shipmanager and the port ship traffic service system all came in for wide-ranging criticism in the report into the 2007 Cosco Busan collision with the San Francisco Oakland Bay bridge The Cosco Busan, while navigating from berth to sea with a pilot on board during restricted visibility, collided with one of the base towers of the Bay bridge and breached its fuel oil tanks.

Crew face criminal case after Full City grounding

TWO seafarers detained by Norwegian police after the grounding of the bulk carrier Full City are were waiting to hear whether they will be forced to stay in the country until a court trial next year.

AET’s Eagle Tucson grounding completes tanker hat-trick

THE GROUNDED crude oil tanker Eagle Tucson, which held up deep-draught traffic at the mouth of the Mississippi River, was understood to have been refloated.

Casualty Briefs - 8th October 2009

 

Pipeline precedent

INJURED parties have only a few weeks to add to the APL Sydney pipeline damage case that has so far produced what was described last week as a “landmark judgement of international significance”.

IATA error could cost members

SOME Australian freight forwarders could have unnecessarily spent thousands of dollars having their finances audited after an apparent bungle by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Tasports lifts ferry docking ban

TASMANIAN Ports Corporation (Tasports) has lifted last week’s ban on Bass Strait islands ferry service operator Southern Shipping, saying it had received payment of outstanding port fees.

BBI in suspense as news awaited on debt reduction

PORTS investment group Babcock & Brown Infrastructure was yet to confirm details of its revised recapitalisation proposal on Tuesday.

Entries still open for Shipping Industry Golf Challenge

ENTRIES are still being taken for the annual Shipping Industry Golf Challenge to be played next Tuesday, October 20 at Mona Vale Golf Club in Sydney.

SA clears miner to export iron ore from Port Lincoln

IT WAS third time lucky for the port plans of Centrex Metals this week.

Firm expands freight facilities to access changing markets

MELBOURNE port logistics firm L.Arthur is planning to have a “freight of all kinds” (FAK) storage facility available opposite the docks in West Melbourne by next month.

WA fast-tracks James Price Point project

THE WESTERN Australian Government has moved to accelerate the approval processes for Woodside Energy’s James Price Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing and export facility in the state’s north.

Call for grain transport plan for eastern states but trend disputed

IN THE face of changing demand, a new debate was needed on Australia’s grain transport system, according to supply chain consultant Neil Matthews.

Harvest concerns spotlight NSW line closure decision

CONCERN in the eastern states over a projected better harvest has been growing as the rural sector prepares for harvest.

Mining slump continues to drag down imports of heavy equipment

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.

Watchdog clears grain port access deal

THE AUSTRALIAN Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has approved the proposed port access arrangements of grain handlers CBH, GrainCorp and ABB Grain subsidiary, AusBulk.

GrainCorp trains set for bumper east coast harvest

GRAINCORP’S 11 mainline and six branchline trains would be enough to handle its part of this year’s eastern-state harvest, a spokesman told Lloyd’s List DCN last week.

Victoria tilt for airfreight crown

VICTORIA’S tilt at Sydney Airport as Australia’s premier airfreight hub got underway last week with the formal launch of the Victorian Airfreight Working Group (VAWG) by state industry and trade minister Martin Pakula.

International airfreight decline rate is slowing

DEMAND for airfreight globally declined again in August although not quite to the same extent as the slump recorded in July.

Banks miss Fortescue deadline

FORTESCUE Metals Group (FMG) has so far failed to raise the US$6bn it had hoped Chinese banks would contribute to its planned infrastructure expansion.

Why women should be the future of shipping

THE WISTA Show – the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association – hit London last month, ejecting the chaps from the International Maritime Organization’s headquarters, where they proceeded to hold a full-scale conference.

Women on the line for rail connections

RECRUITMENT agency OnlineRail has been inspired to launch a rail networking group in Victoria to provide support to women in the male-dominated rail industry.

Taking a shine to class

Classification societies will face some difficult decisions when, in three or four years’ time, the huge amount of ship construction work they supervise tails off. In his first interview since being appointed marine director of Lloyd’s Register, Tom Boardley tells JANET PORTER about the challenges ahead

Cargo underwriters bear brunt of trade depression

CARGO insurers have been hit hard by the world recession and expect 2009 data, when it makes the light of day, to show further profit deterioration.

Wages bill hikes raise vessel operating costs

SOARING wage costs were responsible for vessel-operating costs jumping by a record close to 16% in 2008, according to the latest OpCost 2009 report by shipping accountants Moore Stephens. The figures cover the 2008 calendar year.

Airfreight set to outpace container shipping growth

AIRfreight will outpace maritime containers in cargo volume growth as Asia leads the slow recovery out of recession.

Typhoon Parma leaves 11missing

ELEVEN seafarers were reported missing this week from a boxship off Taiwan after the vessel was hit by Typhoon Parma. The Panama-registered Silver Sea sailed from Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan to the Philippines on October 3. The vessel encountered Typhoon Parma around 80 miles south east of Taiwan. The ship issued a distress call to China and Taiwan maritime departments in the evening of October 4. A Burmese crew member was rescued by China’s maritime department and two further members were rescued by Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau. Penghu coast guard administration tried to send a rescue team for the crew but gave up their attempt because of the bad weather.

Tacoma terminal plan scrapped

THE RECESSION has claimed an important casualty in the ports infrastructure sector, with NYK and the Port of Tacoma cancelling plans for a new US$300m container terminal on the Blair Waterway that would have been leased to the Japanese firm from 2012. NYK said it would continue to honour its commitment to bring all independently-operated containerships bound for the US Pacific north west to Tacoma. However, its ships will now call at an existing APM Terminals site on the Sitcum Waterway.

Insulated from global angst

Counter-intuitively, perhaps, the North American trade has enjoyed a fairly strong year, albeit with the usual provisos about lumpy cycles and unsustainable rates, reports DALE CRISP

Oakland’s west coast opening

Container lines and shippers accustomed to Los Angeles-Long Beach as the west coast’s only global gateway may have a competitive choice further north, writes RAJESH JOSHI

Berlin agrees to bail-out Hapag-Lloyd

THE GERMAN Government has approved aid for struggling container line Hapag-Lloyd. The steering group in charge of distributing money from the national bail-out fund voted in favour of Hapag-Lloyd’s application for government guarantees last Friday.

South Africa bans Russian P&I pool

SOUTH AFRICA’s maritime authorities have warned that any vessel insured by the Russian P&I pool will effectively be barred from entering the country’s ports following a dispute that could see the government paying for a US$15m salvage operation.

Bulk carrier glut means gloom set to get worse

THE TRUE recession in dry bulk shipping was just beginning, London shipbroker Howe Robinson warned last week.

US bans Greek line in invasive species first

POLEMBROS Shipping’s fleet of 20 ships has been barred from trading in US waters for three years, after the Greek company pleaded guilty on an unusual charge related to invasive species and agreed a US$2.7m fine.

Reefers facing market share challenge from container owners

REEFER vessel operators face a “precarious” future as containers continue to eat into their market share, with unitised reefer traffic accounting for 56% of seaborne perishables last year and set to reach 71% within six years.

Seafarer wage freeze agreed

SEAFARER wages have been frozen until some time next year, following an agreement between representatives of many leading shipowners and the main maritime trade unions at a meeting of the International Bargaining Forum (IBF) in Manila last week.

Vietnam port plan partnership gets government approval

JAPAN’s Mitsui OSK Lines and three partners have cleared the final regulatory hurdle for the US$200m development of the Tan Cang Cai Mep international container terminal, 50 km south east of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.

Demand for vessels to rise as crude export volumes go up

DEMAND for very large crude carriers and suezmax tankers will rise this quarter because Middle East and West African crude producers will increase export volumes.

Appetite loss to hit cocoa bean exports

FALLING demand for chocolate has hit cocoa bean exports, meaning less of the minor bulk commodity was being shipped.

Russian oil production hits record daily high

RUSSIA’s oil production exceeded 10m barrels per day for the first time ever in September, increasing the number of cargoes exported from the Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic terminals.

India looks to Brazil after poor sugar crop

INDIA is expected to import an even greater amount of sugar this year than previously thought, because the late monsoon season has cut the country’s sugar cane production.

Lack of bridge training jeopardising ship safety

ONLY 18 months ago, in the heady last days of the shipping boom, amid all the cash and confidence, concerns were still rife over navigational errors and the steady rise of accidents at sea.

Recovery for ships under 3,000 teu to start by 2012

MARKET conditions for boxships below 3,000 teu will improve faster than for larger vessels, a recent study by Bremen-based research institute ISL has found. Relatively few smaller ships have been ordered.

New group targets emissions

Entrepreneurs’ group, the Carbon War Room, takes its environmental message to the shipping industry, reports Craig Eason

Shipowners divided over cap-and-trade proposals

TALKS within the International Chamber of Shipping to find a consensus on the best option for the industry to deal with greenhouse gas emissions have been “polarised” by the launch of a discussion paper promoting cap-and-trade.

Industry poll shows slow return of confidence

SHIPPING industry confidence has continued to grow steadily over the past three months, according to the latest survey published by consultants Moore Stephens.

Orders face chop as line cuts costs

CMA CGM has announced plans to renegotiate and cancel an unspecified number of newbuilding orders as part of continuing measures to reduce its costs.

Melbourne shipping ball was a generous

 

Boxed art at Federation Square

 

Postcard from Rhodes – wish we were there

I AM writing this column from an internet café in Rhodes. I don’t suppose that a cruise of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea would be most pilots’ idea of a relaxing holiday but I am immersing myself in the crucible of myth, legend and history.

2009 Shipping Industry Golf Challenge

Mona Vale Golf Club - Tuesday, October 20, 2009