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Dear My Friend,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This morning, I prepared Korea Maritime News 2011 - Third as follows.
Hyundai Samho inks LNG carriers
Greece's Maran Gas Maritime has firmed up on two anticipated LNG-carrier-newbuilding options at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
Contracts on the pair of 164,000-cbm vessels were signed on Tuesday, sources say.
The vessels are due for delivery in 2014 and 2015.
The additional vessels give Maran a whopping nine-ship LNG-carrier orderbook.
New German superpower
German heavyweights Komrowski and Erck Rickmers have confirmed plans to merge.
The move creates the country’s largest shipping company by fleet capacity in a single pen stroke.
The plot could be followed by further growth with the new allies keen to attract additional partners.
Ernst Peter Komrowski, owner of the Komrowski Group, said in a statement: “This alliance is the continuation of an old Hanseatic tradition: different companies pool their strengths in order to confront the challenges of a difficult market environment with a joint strategy.”
Based in Hamburg the new company will boast 162 ships with a capacity of around 9.4 million tones.
The newly-formed titan will have 120 containerships, 25 bulkers, 13 offshore support vessels and four multi-purpose ships.
The shipmanagement activities of the pair, which trade under the banners of E.R. Schiffahrt, Komrowski Befrachtungskontor and Blue Star Shipping, will be brought together under the new umbrella of Blue Star Holdings.
In a statement confirming the deal the new alliance lays out a strategy to boost its fleet to between 200 and 250 ships via the addition of new equity partners.
Coal demand boost helps dry sector
RS Platou Markets identifies good news for bulker owners again.
Days after suggesting rising Chinese iron ore shipments can help soak up a large slice of the capesize orderbook, analysts at the Norwegian finance house have spotted further hope in the fight against oversupply.
International Energy Agency has predicted coal demand will expand aggressively by 600,000t every day over the next five years driven by China and India.
In a report RS Platou Markets said the IEA’s prediction is positive for the market as “Chinese and Indian coal imports are likely to play an integral part in aiding the demand and alleviating the tonnage oversupply in dry bulk shipping segment”.
World's largest gas-fueled ferry
In a ceremony at Fiskerstarnd BLRT shipyard in Ålesund, Western Norway, ferry operator Fjord1 named the world's largest gas-fueled ferry, MF Boknafjord, on Wednesday.
The new eco-friendly ferry, will serve the Arsvågen-Mortavika route on the Boknafjord in Rogaland County, in addition to making sure the Halhjem-Sandvikvåg route in Hordaland County now has a spare vessel.
The traffic on these ferry routes has surged since Fjord1 took over as operator in January 2007, prompting the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) to order the new ferry.
"The increase in traffic on these two ferry links alone has been much higher than our prognosis showed when we started in 2007. The lines and latency have sometimes been longer than what we would like to offer travelers. We are therefore looking forward to getting MF Boknafjord into operation, and we congratulate Fjord1 with the new build, says Øyvind Haaland, leader at the road and transport section in NPRA, Region West.
About 2,2 million cars and about five million passengers used the two ferry links in 2011. The ferry shall also serve as a spare vessel for Bjørnefjorden in case of planned maintenance downtime or any unforeseen problems. The route will then run according to the schedule in effect today.
Leif Øverland, CEO of Fjord1, says that the new ferry will reduce NOX emissions of approximately 90 per cent.
"We strive to minimise our effect on the environment around us, and are therefore encouraged by the government's strong focus on eco-friendly forms of energy consumption in the tendering process", says Leif Øverland, CEO of Fjord1.
Aside from being gas-powered, the ferry's hull design and more efficient engine technology yield additional energy savings by reducing fuel consumption and methane emissions.
By changing from diesel to natural gas, virtually all emissions of particles (smoke/soot) are eliminated, as well as all emissions of sulphur. Furthermore, CO2 emissions will be reduced by as much as 25 per cent.
Maersk orders newbuilds in Chile
Maersk Supply Service has signed a contract with Chilean shipyard Asenav for two innovative new offshore vessels with an option for - up to - four additional vessels.
The project value for the two vessels is close to USD 200 million. The vessels will replace existing vessels operating in the Canadian offshore market.
"We are very pleased with this order for new vessels which as far as working environment for the crew onboard and a green operational profile will be a substantial improvement from today's standards," says CEO of Maersk Supply Service, Carsten Plougmann Andersen.
The vessels will be suitable for a range of services to the offshore industry including iceberg management, anchor handling, standby, general support of drilling rigs and other offshore installations supplying essential supplies - like fuel, water, equipment, drilling mud and other materials required for drilling operations.
"These vessels will set a new standard for emission levels, operational efficiency and uptime in the offshore industry because of many new design features," Plougmann says.
The order is part of Maersk Supply Service's planned investment programme which continues to focus on deepwater and harsh environment areas.
The two vessels have been designed to fit with the operational profile of the vessels working offshore East Canada. That means the hull has been designed to fit with the speed and work patterns in the ultra harsh environment.
Unlike conventional supply vessels, all machinery is optimised for low energy consumption. Main and side propellers only rotate when needed. Furthermore, ventilation of the engine room, cooling water to the engine and other systems are now being applied more intelligently to match with the needs of the crew and the engines.
In total, the new features are expected to reduce energy consumption on the vessels by up to 25%.
The vessels have been designed in collaboration with Maersk Maritime Technology and Wartsila Ship design, and will have a bollard pull of 150 tonnes.
The vessels are expected to be delivered in February 2014 and January of 2015, respectively.
MOL scraps VLCC's
Mitsui OSK Lines has scrapped three VLCCs (built 1996-97) in the past couple of weeks as the first owner to bite the bullet and demolish purpose-built double-hulled VLs.
In a note to clients Dahlman Rose analyst Omar Nokta says the development is an encouraging sign tanker supply is slowly correcting due to the weak market.
Nokta counts 20 VLCCs sent for demolition in 2011, around half of which have bowed out in the final quarter.
This suggests “owners have finally begun to accelerate a supply-side correction”, the analyst says.
Maersk Line new CEO
Eivind Kolding quits as CEO of Maersk Line to take over as chairman of Danske Bank.
Maersk Tankers boss Soren Skou will be new CEO of the line, Maersk Line says.
Nils Andersen, CEO of AP Moller-Maersk, says the world’s largest boxship operator saw an “impressive turnaround” under Kolding’s stewardship to set new standards for the industry. Andersen was also full of praise for Skou.
“Soren is a sharp and visionary leader with strong international leadership experience, not least within shipping,” Andersen said.
“He knows container shipping very well both from the time he worked for Maersk Line but also as a member of the group’s executive board where he has stayed in close touch with Maersk Line and the industry.
“He is quite the right man to continue the development of Maersk Line and expand our positions in the market.”
Skou, who will take up his new job officially in January, previously worked for Maersk Line between 1983 and 1998.
DSME pens Israel LNG-FPSO
Israel Land Development Company Energy has signed a cooperation and development agreement with DSME E&R, an energy-related subsidiary of South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, to look into building a floating LNG facility at the Myra and Sarah gas fields offshore Israel, according to reports.
ILD Energy said on Thursday that it will join with DSME E&R to conduct a feasibility study for the LNG-FPSO project.
Subject to a successful outcome of a feasibility study, the companies will hold talks to set up a joint venture and will hold talks on a gas sales agreement for the sale of a minimum of three million tons of LNG (4.3 billion cubic meters of gas) a year by ILDC Energy to the joint venture over a 15-20 year period.
ILDC Energy and will assist DSME E&R and the joint venture in obtaining all information, permits, and approvals needed for the LNG project, and DSME E&R will make a best effort to find a comprehensive solution for building the project.
ILD Energy is expected to begin drilling by early next year.
Dalian high-tech offshore cluster
As offshore facility and high-end shipbuilding technology being selected as one of Dalian, China's 10 strategic emerging projects, Dalian now actively conducts R&D on jack-up rig, semi-submersible drilling platform, etc.
Also, it pushes forward to make advancement on high-value vessels, such as LNG carrier, ultra-large containership, ultra-large tanker, and others.
Currently, Dalian focuses on building a shipbuilding industry cluster, by establishing the three yard bases in Dalianwan, ChangXingDao and Lvshun. With a full support from the city, builders in Dalian had no difficulties in entering offshore and high-value market and would be able to boast highest-level shipbuilding technology in China.
Meanwhile, Dalian is estimated that its overall yearly revenue has increased by 8% to CNY 76.3bn ($11.95bn). Added turnover of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC) and COSCO Shipyard is expected to exceed CNY 20bn any time soon.
Japan's Nov performance
According to Japan Ship Exporter’s Association (JSEA), its newbuilding export ship ordered in November stands at 17 vessels of 770,000 gt, up by 39% on the same month last year and cumulative new order this year is expected to be 8m gt.
New orders include two cruiseships at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, three pure car carriers, five handy bulkers, two handymax bulkers, four panamax bulkers and one asphalt carrier.
New order in the first 11 months is cumulative 189 vessels of 7.76m gt, down by 22% on the same period last year.
In November, foreign exchange-denominated newbuilding contracted increase to 73%, yen-denominated takes 23% and the rest goes to yen/foreign exchange denominated.
In case of delivery, delivery due 2012 sharply increased to 31%, 8% for 2013, 41% for 2014 and 21% for 2015.
Vessels got through customs in November increased by 39% to 28 vessels of 1.48m gt, on the same month in 2010 and during Jan-Nov period it decreased to cumulative 337 vessels of 15.54m gt, down by 4%. Overall, it would be as same as last year in 2011.
In case of orderbook for export ship as of the end of November, it declined by 10m gt to 831 vessels of 37.71m gt.
Please take your business also helps.
Brgds,
Heun Woo Lee
heunwool@gmail.com
ORRI Center - DAU