Weekly Edition 26th August

Pilots steered to pay compromise

NEWCASTLE Port’s marine pilots will receive only half the pay increase they have sought over a long campaign after a request by their union representative for their salaries to be brought in line with Sydney counterparts was thrown out by Fair Work Australia (FWA).

Oakajee signs three foundation customers

OAKAJEE Port and Rail (OPR) has signed three foundation customers to ship iron ore on its rail and through the projected Oakajee deepwater port in Western Australia.

Marine polluters facing tougher penalties

SHIPPING industry figures say that proposed new marine environment protection laws could see ship masters jailed.

Ship not hung-ho over election outcome

THE SHIPPING and transport industry is this week considering the effects a hung a parliament may have on policy in their key sector of the economy.

Asian demand for coal drives trade

India and China join Japan among the most important import markets, while Australia remains top seaborne exporter, reports JULIAN MACQUEEN

Austal profits up four-fold

AUSTRALIAN fast ferry builder Austal increased its profit after tax more than four-fold to A$37.1m (US$33m) for the 2009/10 financial year to the end of June, up from A$9.2m last year, although the earlier result was affected by a number of one-off factors.

NZ’s top two bounce back

ANNUAL results for the ports of Auckland and Tauranga show both are rebounding from the adverse effects of the global financial crisis on the New Zealand economy – but both port companies remain cautious about the future.

Domestic market slows export pace for Indonesia

DOMESTIC demand in Indonesia for thermal coal is expected to slow export growth over the next five years.

Pacific exports drive seaborne coal volumes over 1bn tonnes by 2012

Surging demand from Asia-based power plants to see Australia and Indonesia trade boom, writes MICHELLE WIESE BOCKMANN

Cleared dry bulk trades up 25% in last quarter

NORWEGIAN clearing house NOS, which has an interest in shipping exchange Imarex, increased its share in the dry bulk freight forward agreement market in the second quarter and saw business rise 25%, despite global volumes decreasing.

Evergreen pulls the plug on order for 12 boxships

EVERGREEN Marine, the world sixth largest container line, has ended talks with South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding to order 12 8000 teu containerships.

Liverpool invests in IT system to save truck time

THE PORT of Liverpool has invested £1.1m(US$1.7m) to speed up turnaround times for truckers, so that 95% of drivers are processed within an hour and 65% within 30 minutes.

New orders at Chinese yards set to slowdown

CHINA Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (Cansi) forecasts that Chinese shipyards will see a 73% growth in new orders to 45m dwt for 2010, but also says the pace of new orders will slow over the rest of this year.

TMT takes a super-sized gamble

The previously lifeless oil bulk and ore carrier market has been boosted by an order for 11 giant vessels from TMT. But finding employment has proved to be tough, writes MARTYN WINGROVE TAIWANESE shipowner TMT’s new Whale series of very large combined oil and bulk ore (OBO) carriers is breathing new life into a sector that many thought to be in decline.But there are still questions on whether the vessels will be fully employed in markets they were initially designed for.

Big ships recast dry bulk landscape

Industrial giants are shifting their iron ore transport business to supersize bulk carriers, with significant structural changes for the major capesize route from Brazil to China, writes MICHELLE WIESE BOCKMANN

OOCL condemns freight swaps

HONG Kong box line Orient Overseas Container Line is the latest ocean carrier to question the benefits of freight rate derivatives.

Panama and Suez canals sense revival

TRAFFIC through the Panama Canal declined 2.8% in the third quarter. While general cargo and vehicle carrier transits were both up compared with the same period last year, dry bulk, containers and reefer cargo and passenger ships all decreased slightly.

Road ahead improving for car carrier fleet

SIGNS have emerged that market conditions for the global fleet of 667 pure car carriers are tracking back to normal, after the protracted slump of 2009.

DP World posts 5% jump in revenues

DP WORLD saw half-year 2010 consolidated revenues rise 5% to US$1.5bn as consolidated throughput increased 7% to 13.2m teu.

Evergreen Marine returns to the black

TAIPEI-listed Evergreen Marine, the world’s sixth largest container line by capacity, returned to profit in the first half ended June 30, on the back of higher freight rates and larger volumes as the world economy recovered from its worst economic downturn in decades.

Maersk storms back with US$2.5bn profit

Danish shipping and energy group AP Moller-Maersk stormed back into the black in the first half of 2010 with a profit of US$2.5bn, having lost US$539m in the same period of 2009.

Thoresen Thai still takes downbeat view of dry bulk

BANGKOK-listed Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) remains bearish on the outlook for the dry bulk sector despite its contribution to the company’s latest quarterly results.

Briese set to boost orderbook at Vietnam's Lisemco shipyard

VIETNAM’S fledgling shipbuilding industry is poised to receive an important vote of confidence from German shipowner Briese Schiffahrts.

China starts to take on Korea’s giant offshore specialists

CHINESE shipyards are entering the drillship and oil production ship market, dominated by the big three South Korean yards. In 2007, Cosco Dalian secured a US$950m order from Chinese company Dalian Deepwater and has the hull of a defunct drillship project for bankrupt company MPF.

SCF Baltica breaks new ground on Arctic trip

ICE CHALLENGE: The ship, which is en route from Murmansk with a full cargo of gas condensate for China, is expected to take 12 days for the voyage if ice conditions are favourable.

Alert to ships in Strait of Hormuz

THE JAPANESE transport ministry has issued an advisory to Japanese ships to be on the alert as they transit the Strait of Hormuz.

French free pirates

FRENCH naval vessel FS De Grasse, part of the EU Navfor force, intercepted a suspected pirate skiff in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor in the Gulf of Aden.

Increase in piracy incidents off Iraq

IRAQ has witnessed a spate of piracy incidents involving international merchant shipping for the first time since 2007, in what security experts believe may be an escalation of previously under-reported attacks on dhows and fishing vessels.

Line to take delivery of prison boxes

ATLANTIC Container Line (ACL) will soon be able to keep stowaways under lock and key when it takes delivery in a couple of weeks of five containers converted in temporary prison cells.

Small craft may have attacked M. Star

RADAR evidence points to a small craft attacking the Japanese tanker M. Star, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Inmarsat offers global high-speed broadband

LONDON-listed Inmarsat has announced a US$1.4bn investment in its next-generation satellite system as it enters the VSAT market.

Multipurpose vessel demand to stay soft for 2010, says Drewry

MULTIPURPOSE vessel demand will remain “soft” for the rest of this year after volumes fell 19% in 2009, but consultant Drewry is predicting a positive outlook for 2011 and says that the pick-up should continue steadily until “at least 2014.

Flammable gas found on board MSC Chitra

TRACES of the flammable gas phosphine have been found on board MSC Chitra, the Mediterranean Shipping Co containership that has been out of action since a collision earlier this month forced the closure of India’s top container port complex.

MSC told it must pay for cost of Indian clean-up

TWO INDIAN port authorities have sent Mediterranean Shipping Co a demand for the entire clean-up cost of the recent oil spill that closed Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Mumbai, despite the carrier’s insistence it was not to blame for the collision that sparked the shutdown.

Chaos on the cards as box claims flood in

SHIPPERS have been warned of a cargo claims chaos in the wake of the MSC Chitra casualty where hundreds of containers have been washed overboard outside India’s Jawaharlal Nehru and Mumbai ports.

Khalija 3 owner ordered to pay US$7m to Smit

SMIT has reportedly won a legal bid to prevent the removal of a cargo from the port of Mumbai until the brass plate owner of the bulk carrier involved in a recent spectacular collision pays it US$7m, according to the local Lloyd’s agents.

Casualty Briefs - 26th August 2010