Weekly edition 17 November

Melbourne empty box parks system shows some promise

AN ONLINE booking system aimed at reducing congestion at Melbourne empty container parks (ECPs) has received cautious approval from industry.

Art prize shows relation of humanity to the sea

SOME of the nation’s best maritime art is currently on display at the Mission to Seafarers centre in Melbourne.

Lines in call for urgent action

‘Port Botany inhibits growth’

Sydney Ports enters a defence

‘Peace with unions is the key’

Port privatisations on horizon for Oz infrastructure growth

FUTURE infrastructure growth can be financed through the further privatisation of mature, ‘brown field’ government assets, such as ports, according to Infrastructure Australia (IA).

Minister calls for private investors to finance national infrastructure

Mr Albanese is the federal minister for infrastructure and transport. What follows is an edited version of his speech to the Infrastructure Australia financing conference held in Sydney last week.

Record golf day a big hit

A RECORD field of 136 hit off in the 20th anniversary Shipping Industry Golf Challenge at Mona Vale last week.

Weather hits nickel ore

NICKEL ore exports from the Philippines have been reduced to a trickle as monsoon weather in the country has made exports all but impossible.

India to be jewel in coal crown

THE BIGGEST opportunity for dry bulk shipping could be India, James Leake, managing director for research at ICAP Shipping, told the Informa Maritime Events Turkish Shipping and Ship Finance Conference in Istanbul.

Markets this week 17 November 2011

Large vessels witness spot earnings rebound

Port pipeline is project nirvana

The project cargo and heavy-lift market might be something of a global roller-coaster - but what’s not to like about Australia? DALE CRISP reports

Gantries – bound for Botany Bay

MAKING a spectacular sight, four new RTGs (rubber-tyred gantries) arrived in Port Botany last week on board Austral Asia Line’s AAL Brisbane.

Beluga bust shockwaves receding

The project cargo and heavy-lift market has endured massive upheaval this year following the collapse of one of the market’s leading players.

Cargo through AMC support offshore boom

MAJOR LNG projects under construction on Australia’s north-west shelf are driving large volumes of project cargo through the Australian Marine Complex (AMC), says the its general manager.

AAL likes it both ways

THE NATURE of the heavy-lift and project cargo shipping business is that the spotlight usually shines intensely in one place for a period of time, and then moves on. The hardware – the specialist shipping – is by definition peripatetic: it goes where the demand is and that demand shifts all the time.

BBC moves up a level with fleet renewal

GERMANY’S BBC Chartering is another that has leapt into the gap caused by the Beluga collapse, establishing a global project division “aiming at the exclusive delivery of high-profile, heavy-lift project tenders”.

MV Lone performs SAL’s heaviest lift

THE CURRENT world champions of weightlifting, SAL’s Type 183 vessels Lone and Svenja, have been quickly put to use exploiting their 2 x 1000-tonne SWL lifting capacity.

MD leaves specialist in good shape

BERNDT Olesen has resigned as managing director of SAL Australia Western Australia.

PPG adds US, China members

HEAVY-lift freight forwarding network, the Project Professionals Group, has developed a strategic over-dimensional gateway into the US with the appointment of the port of San Antonio as a new project support member (PSM).

Fairstar craves fair weather

FAIRSTAR Heavy Transport, the Rotterdam-based operator of semi-submersible, heavy-transport vessels, is not particularly positive about the current state of the market – despite its two current vessels being fully booked for two years.

Hitching a lift in style

Australia is a key origin/destination in the Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) global network – but the only yearly voyage Down Under is already full both ways, according local agents Aurora Global Logistics.

Rickmers/Maersk US partnership success

UNITED States-based subsidiaries of German project cargo liner service operator Rickmers-Linie and Danish giant Maersk Line have formed a joint venture to operate heavy-lift, multi-purpose vessels under the US flag.

DYT sails away from Dockwise

DUTCH heavy-lift specialist Dockwise has decided to sell its specialised subsidiary Dockwise Yacht Transport (DYT) to a consortium of management, private equity and a US maritime logistics company.

Demand grows for world’s biggest

DOCKWISE has locked up a second major assignment for its massive new flo-flo vessel Dockwise Vanguard – which is not even due for completion until the end of next year.

Japan’s top three box lines could merge

THE HEAD of Japan’s largest shipping line – Mitsui OSK – says that a spin-off of the three major Japanese box lines into one entity “could be one option” to the financial problems facing each of the lines individually.

Yang Ming set on ordering five 16,000 teu vessels

TAIWAN’s Yang Ming Marine confirmed that it plans to order five 16,000 teu vessels at CSBC Corp Taiwan, Taiwan’s biggest shipbuilder.

Greeks warn of trade ‘havoc’ from piracy

GREEK shipowners have warned of havoc on vital international seaborne trades if piracy is not curtailed more effectively.

Shipowners ‘double claiming’ for attacks

SHIPOWNERS could be committing fraud by double claiming for pirate attacks due to perceived lack of clarity over where they should be making their claims.

China set to launch armed patrols on the Mekong

IN THE wake of the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in Thailand in October, China will launch armed patrols on the river’s upper reaches with its south-east Asian neighbours. The 13 sailors were on board two Chinese cargoships on the Mekong when they were attacked on October 5 in the Golden Triangle, an area where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, which is famous as a source of drug smuggling.

Casualty briefs 17 November 2011

Maritime

Stop paying pirates, Puntland president pleads

SHIPOWNERS paying ransoms to pirates are unwittingly supporting the Islamist group al-Shabaab, according to the president of Puntland state of Somalia, Abdirahman Mohamud Farole.

DP World box third- quarter volumes up on stronger throughput

DUBAI-based global ports group DP World has yet to see signs of weakness in its container throughputs as 2011 third-quarter gross volumes reached 14.4m teu, 10% ahead of the corresponding quarter last year.

How Cosco will escape its financial quandary

Cosco will never face a liquidity crisis, but it could face insolvency if the market stays low for too long. TOM LEANDER asks, what will it do?

Container port rankings shaken up

Drewry forecasts Asian companies and Turkey’s Yildirim to break into top 20, reports Janet Porter

Hamburg Süd sells six 3700 teu boxships for charter back

HAMBURG Süd is selling six 3,700 teu vessels to Greek and other interests under a sale-and-charter-back arrangement.

Capesize renaissance forecast

PROSPECTS for the dry bulk market are more positive than many recent forecasts suggest, according to shipbroker representatives speaking at the Informa Maritime Events Turkish Shipping and Ship Finance Conference in Istanbul.

Grand China joins list of transpacific casualties

GRAND China Shipping’s transpacific adventure lasted just six months, with the line joining a growing list of casualties as it prepares to suspend its Asia-US service because of unfavourable market conditions.

Soaring fuel costs forcing ro-ro shippers to look at box option

Lack of transparency in bunker adjustment factors can mean a difference of between US$1500 and US$2000 per unit, requiring a change in business model for many shippers to stay competitive, reports ROGER HAILEY

OOCL condemns top three ‘market share chase’

Hong Kong container line says competition on Asia-Europe trades determined by top players’ ability to withstand losses, reports TOM LEANDER

Newbuildings mean sailing into a crisis

Forget talk of consolidation. Recovery will only come from inward retrenchment, not external expansion, writes PAUL SLATER*

Marine pollution scientists have to guard against bias

As R&D budgets are cut, objective studies are vital if we are to deal with causes of pollution, writes DR KAREN PURNELL*