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Hi My friends,
Today also I prepared the maritime news 201`2 – April Eighth as follows.
I hope this will help a lot in your business.
1. KOGAS to order LNGC
The Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) announced that the US Sabine Pass LNG project with which KOGAS contracted long-term LNG purchases on January 30, has recently received authorization for liquefaction and export of natural gas by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) of the US, on April 9.
The project is to convert receiving terminal to have liquefaction and send-out capabilities, with capacities of 16 mtpa of LNG volumes.
The project's first phase of constructing two modular LNG trains, with a nominal capacity of approximately 4.5 mtpa, is scheduled to start during the first half this year, while the second phase of building additional two LNG trains will commence in 2013.
KOGAS has agreed to purchase approximately 3.5 mtpa of LNG from 2017 to 2036.
As KOGAS is enable to change or nominate the unloading ports, unlike ordinary LNG purchase projects, it would also make profits by overseas trading in terms of supply and demand of domestic gas.
KOGAS will purchase LNG on a FOB basis and place orders for newbuilding LNG carriers, which is to foster Korean shipbuilding and shipping companies.
2. HMD bacl to world 5th
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which had maintained global 5th place in orderbook by shipbuilding group, took back its place as of the end of March.
According to Clarksons, as Japanese shipbuilders' domestic orders had been added to February results, Japanese yards' orderbook soared. Imabari Shipbuilding took down Hyundai Mipo to the 6th place, while placing itself to 5th.
However, In the end of March, Hyundai Mipo retook its place and South Korean shipbuilders all made into Top 5.
Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung HI, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, STX Offshore & Shipbuilding and Hyundai Mipo ranked from the first to fifth, respectively, while Imabari, Rongsheng HI, Tsuneishi, Shanghai Waigaoqiao and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding placed from sixth to tenth.
3. STX inks six MR PCs
STX Offshore & Shipbuilding and STX Dalian win orders for a total of 6 products tankers, valued at $200 in total.
STX O&S contracted with the US owner Alterna for two 50,000-dwt tankers with delivery for the second quarter 2013, and optional two more vessels.
STX Dalian also inked an order for four 50,000-dwt tankers to be delivered one by one from the third quarter 2014 from Tanker Pacific of Singapore, with additional four more.
If a total of six optional vessels are contracted afterwards, then the contract values would reach to $400m.
With significant amount of cracking facilities scheduled to start operation in 2014-2015, from 2012 to 2013, about overall 30m dwt of MR tankers are expected to be newly ordered, which comes to 650 vessels in numerical term, on basis of 50,000-dwt and exceeds $20bn in value term.
Meanwhile, STX has contracted a total of 12 MR tankers, totalling $400m year-to-date.
Spokesperson from STX said, "As demand for commercial ship is likely to grow, STX O&S and STX Dalian will steadily contract for commercial ship as well as LNG/LPG carriers, etc."
4. VLGC rates rise
The price of shipping Middle Eastern liquefied petroleum gas to Asia on the spot market has reached its highest point so far this year.
The VLGC rate rise finally broke through the $50 per tonne mark over the last week.
With more LPG coming out of the Middle East, charterers were eager to book vessels for loading dates between now and early May over the last week, brokers said.
Owners with available VLGC vessels successfully took advantage of the extra business, demanding higher rates to ship cargoes.
5. Idle boxship tonnage decrease
Alphaliner counts 723,000 teu of idle boxship capacity swinging at anchor on 9 April, down from 913,000 in mid March.
It says, “The reversal of the capacity cuts implemented by carriers since September last year is likely to lead to renewed price competition as the capacity reduction was one of the key factors behind the carriers’ recent success in raising freight rates.”
It added: “The idle fleet is expected to fall further in the next three months, with most of the ships of above 5,000 teu expected to be reactivated by the summer.”
The redeployment of ships, helped by the delivery of 62 new vessels this year, has pushed the active containership fleet of a record 15m teu, the research specialist says.
Scrapping has partially mitigated the fleet growth as 55 boxships have been sent to face the torch in 2012.
“Even though the total capacity scrapped this year could reach 200,000 teu, it will still remain a fraction of the delivered capacity, which is expected to reach 1,388,000 teu,” it said.
6. Korea backs up yards
South Korea's Tongyoung, South Kyungsang Province is to support troubled small-and-medium yards in its jurisdiction to contract new orders amid financial crisis in Europe and depressed global economy.
Tongyoung invited overseas owners and had a welcoming ceremony on April 20. This aims to encourage them to place new orders as well as promote Tongyoung.
In the ceremony, hosted by Tongyoung and supervised by the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Tongyoung district, 100-some of overseas owners and their family, officials from Korean shipbuilders participated.
Mayor Kim Dong-Jin introduced yards placed in Tongyoung and requested owners to be long-term partners and place newbuilding orders at Tongyoung-based shipbuilders, in his greeting address.
As a return to Mayor's greeting, Rhonda's spokesperson said that let us all work hard to win orders consistently and thanked Tongyoung to have arranged this event.
7. Rolls-Royce bags subsea vessel
April 24, 2012 - Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has been selected by Island Offshore to design, power and equip an advanced subsea construction vessel.
The versatile UT 737 CD vessel will support the most demanding subsea projects, including constructing and servicing oil and gas wells on the sea bed, up to 3,000 metres below sea level.
In order to support such challenging missions the vessel will include special features, including two independent systems for launching and recovering Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), a 125 tonne offshore crane that compensates for wave movements and an advanced offshore tower which handles subsea equipment through a large opening in the hull of the vessel, called a moon pool.
Anders Almestad, Rolls-Royce, President - Offshore said: "This high tech vessel will showcase a combination of innovative technology and world-class, energy efficient design. It demonstrates our position as the market leader in high specification offshore vessels and our ability to meet the challenges of the demanding deepwater oil and gas industry."
The design and fit out of the vessel enables it to perform almost any duty in a deepwater oil field. In addition to supporting subsea operations it can transport cargo to and from offshore oil and gas platforms and act as a rescue and oil spill response vessel.
The vessel will also include a diesel electric propulsion system incorporating four Bergen engines. These will drive two Azipull thrusters and two side thrusters, which will work in unison with a dynamic positioning system to enable the vessel to maintain position when undertaking subsea activities. A diesel electric propulsion system will significantly improve fuel efficiency and lower the vessel's emissions.
The Rolls-Royce designed UT 737 CD will be built at STX OSV's shipyard in Brevik, Norway and is scheduled for delivery in early 2014.
8. Wartsila Hamworthy installs largest scrubber
April 23, 2012 - Wärtsilä Hamworthy, the global leader in complete lifecycle power solutions and integrated systems for the marine markets, today announced an agreement with Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA, the global rolling cargo operator, to retrofit their vessel MV Tamesis with a Krystallon Exhaust Gas Cleaning System (EGCS).
The systems will remove sulphur and particulates from the exhaust gasses of the vessel's main and auxiliary engines. The multi-stream scrubber system will be the world's largest in order to manage the exhaust gasses produced by the 38,486dwt Mark IV RoRo vessel's combined engine power of 28,000kW.
Its installation will prepare MV Tamesis for the upcoming sulphur emissions regulation that comes into force from January 2015, which mandates that vessels must burn fuel with a sulphur content of 0.1% when operating within Emissions Control Areas (ECAs).
The installation will be carried out during the vessel's scheduled intermediate docking in the first quarter of 2013. Following the commissioning a comprehensive third party measurement and verification programme will be carried out over two and a half years, and is partly funded by the Research Council of Norway.
"This is yet another example of the growing market demand for scrubbing systems." said Sigurd Jenssen, Managing Director, Hamworthy Krystallon "The third party measurement and verification of the project, which will be carried out by Marintek, the Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute, is a key element which will further endorse the viability of scrubbing as an efficient and cost effective solution for ECA compliance. We anticipate that more owners and operators will follow industry leaders like Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA in the adoption of scrubbers in advance of the 2015 deadline."
By using a scrubber to reduce sulphur and particulate matter emissions from its main engine as well as its auxiliaries, MV Tamesis will be able to operate in ECAs from 2015 on a ‘business as usual' basis avoiding the $300 to $400 price premium that standard vessels will have to pay for the distillate fuels they will need to burn to remain compliant.
"Installing Hamworthy Krystallon scrubber unit is a major step in preparing our fleet for the regulatory compliance," says Wilh Wilhelmsen ASA's project manager, Thamba Rajeevan. "When new, stricter emissions regulations come into force in 2015, our experience with this technology will be a valuable tool for taking the right decisions for the rest of our fleet. In the end, we want to see both a significant savings in emissions and a strong return on investment for the scrubber installation."
9. AVEVA wins orders from Russia
AVEVA announces on April 25 that it has won two significant contracts in Russia with SevZap NTC, a leading Russian EPC in the power industry and DO “Vympel”, a Marine design office based in Nizhny Novgorod.
SevZap NTC has signed a license agreement to implement AVEVA Plant solutions. AVEVA technology will enable SevZap concurrent multi-location engineering for work on large scale capital plant projects.
The development of its own engineering approach based on AVEVA Plant portfolio will allow improved design quality and efficiency throughout the lifecycle of its projects. As part of the contract with SevZap, its designers will also receive training at the AVEVA educational centre in St. Petersburg.
DO “Vympel” will standardise its 3D engineering design on the recently released version of AVEVA Marine, rolling out a suite of software applications for all its new projects. AVEVA Marine will allow DO “Vympel” to execute global projects in a single engineering design environment, through a distributed team.
Dmitry Bahansky, Chief Designer CAD, DO “Vympel” commented, "We need to optimise our resources and reduce costs. Technology is not standing still and there is serious competition in the shipbuilding market. We must reinforce our leadership with solutions like AVEVA Marine in order to open up new opportunities for our business.”
Evgeny Fedotov Vice President, Russia & CIS, AVEVA explains, “We are able to offer the Russian market a new level of ’Integrated Engineering & Design‘ efficiency, with savings of up to 30% through new releases of AVEVA Plant and AVEVA Marine. We have demonstrated our flexibility and openness in assisting SevZap with the development of its own technology based on AVEVA Plant, as well as the benefits offered to DO “Vympel” by standardising 3D design on AVEVA Marine. These are both excellent benchmark customers for the Russian market.”
10. Nordic Yards upgrades in offshore
Wismar, Rostock-Warnemünde April 20th, 2012. Nordic Yards, manufacturer of innovative special ships and major maritime projects, has vacancies for well-trained and qualified skilled staff, particularly but not exclusively in the field of engineering, to work on projects such as the order placed in February by Siemens Energy for a third offshore HVDC converter platform.
Personnel are required to work in particular on project planning, design, construction and quality assurance. In addition, there are also vacancies for certified welding engineers.
"The expansion is logical and also benefits the SylWin project. Now it is a matter of finding good, professional staff," says Björn Cleven, Personnel Manager at Nordic Yards.
Start of construction of the largest platform of its type is planned for May and will represent a milestone in the development of Nordic Yards. SylWin Alpha is capable of feeding 864 MW of renewable energy into the German power grid and is therefore bigger than the BorWin Beta and HelWin Alpha platforms currently being built.
With the addition of the secondary electrical systems, and the HVAC and fire-fighting packages, the scope of the services provided by Nordic Yards has been considerably enlarged compared with the previous two transformer platforms. The expansion of our activities also results in a corresponding increase in the demands of the project, of the fulfilment of quality assurance criteria and in the staff required to improve our market position.
With this third transformer platform, Nordic Yards must now be considered as the world market leader in the HVDC platform segment - three of the six projects currently awarded will be bearing the label "Made at Nordic in Wismar and Warnemünde".
Vitaly Yusufov, owner and Managing Director of Nordic Yards: "With these three transformer platforms, we shall be making a considerable contribution to the switch to sustainable energy in Germany. At the same time, our transformation process in a futureoriented market segment has been a de facto success - we are now a ‘real' special shipyard. Adopting the same active approach as before, we shall be taking part in the coming international tenders for offshore wind platforms and of course for ship projects in our traditional niche market."
11. Technip wins China subsea
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has awarded France’s Technip a pipeline installation contract for the Liwan 3-1 shallow-water project in the China Sea.
The 260 kilometre long pipeline will link the Liwan gas platform to CNOOC’s Gaolan gas plant in Zhuhai city in China’s Guangdong province.
The contract, which was awarded by China Offshore Oil Engineering Corporation (COOEC), the offshore engineering division of CNOOC, covers the shallow-water portion of the project and will see Technip install 160 kilometres of 30 inch export oil and gas two-phase pipeline from the Liwan platform to a water depth of about 70 metres.
The contract will be carried out by Technip’s operating centre in Singapore in cooperation with the project engineering office in Shekou, China.
The offshore installation will be carried out using Technip’s Global 1201 pipelay vessel and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
12. Bergen wins Ekofisk hook-up
Bergen Group Offshore has been awarded a Nkr175 million ($30.5 million) contract by ConocoPhillips for hook-up of the US operator’s Ekofisk 2/4L platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
The work, which will be carried out by subsidiary Bergen Group Rosenberg subsidiary, will generate activity for the Norwegian contractor through this year and next.
The contract, part of a frame agreement for wider modification work in the Greater Ekofisk Area signed in 2009, will mainly be executed in late summer 2013 with final delivery in the third quarter of that year.
13. KOGAS orders 7 LNGC, 2013
The Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) is expected to place newbuilding orders for seven LNG carrier, at most, as early as the second half of 2013.
According to KOGAS, existing Korean-flagged four LNG carriers will be put into other projects, when its previous contract terminates, by extending the deals - one in DSLNG project, three in GLNG.
As for newbuilding tonnage needed after 2017 for the US' Sabine Pass, if LNG consumed domestically overall seven newbuilding LNG carriers is estimated to be needed, one for GLNG project and six for Sabine Pass. In case of export to Europe, a total of four - one for GLNG and three for Sabine Pass would be needed.
Considering that deliveries usually take around three years, to meet those needed after 2017, KOGAS should award orders for newbuildings in the end of 2013 or early 2014.
To secure stability and profitability of transportation, KOGAS is suggested that it would place orders by stages bearing in mind Russian PNG scheduled in 2017.
Also, in deciding ship size, progress of expansion of the Panama Canal needs to be considered.
Also, for the sake of transparency and fairness, operators should choose shipyards and evaluate shipping companies' newbuilding operational capacity as well as select shipping companies in a competitive bidding.
Moreover, some brings up an item regarding installing Korean-made cargo containment system KC-1.
14. OSV prices keep raising
Offshore support newbuildings and secondhand vessels' prices continue to increase in the first quarter of 2012, according to data from Clarksons.
The cost of new anchor handlers and platform supply vessels both crept up in the first three months of the year, while a climb in the value of larger PSVs pushed up the overall price of secondhand offshore ships.
Figures from the world’s largest shipbroker pin offshore newbuildings at 2% more expensive at the end of the quarter, while secondhand tags are up 5% since the start of the year.
Clarksons prices a new top end anchor handler of 240-tbp at $92.5m, a rise from $91.0m at the end of 2011.
A new large PSV of 4,000-dwt is just over $1m more expensive at $48.0m.
Clarksons values a five-year-old AHTS of 200-tbp at $57.5m at the end of March, up just 1% over the first three months of the year.
The cost of a 4,000-dwt PSV of the same age picked up by 6% to $35m.
15. Tuzla wins seismic newbuild
Turkey is building its own seismic newbuilding vessel to search for natural gas and oil.
Energy minister Taner Yildiz said the general directorate of mineral research exploration had agreed a deal at the domestic Tuzla Shipyard.
The EUR 100m ($132m) vessel, set for delivery in 2014, will be used for two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic exploration.
“A growing and developing Turkey cannot have a stagnant energy sector. All areas of Turkey are growing, therefore we will conduct our exploration activities with the latest technology,” Yildiz added.
16. Rongsheng VLOCs strengthened
Four very large ore carriers under construction at China's Rongsheng Heavy Industries for Oman Shipping for long-term charter to Brazilian miner Vale have received added strengthening since last year’s damage to Vale Beijing.
However, the Omani owner has said that the adjustments made have been “small” and that the company is “comfortable” that the 400,000 dwt vessels, all due for delivery this year from Rongsheng, are structurally safe.
The company emphasized that the design was a different one to that of Vale Beijing, which was built at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding in South Korea, and that the design had since been subjected to various analyses.
While the VLOCs in the valemax building programme share characteristics such as size and dimensions, each of the yards involved has its own design and way of constructing elements of the hull.
The first two of Oman’s quartet of giant bulkers, Vale Liwa and Vale Sohar, have both been floated out since mid-March.
The owner and yard have agreed to put the delivery dates back by a few months. The two ships are now due to undergo sea trials next month and should be handed over in June.
The second pair of Oman Shipping VLOCs are due to be delivered later in 2012.
17. BC oversupply main issue
The oversupply of the dry-cargo tonnage keeps going on, Wells Fargo Securities says.
Analyst Michael Webber said, “We continue to believe the significant oversupply of dry bulk tonnage on the water, and continued near-term fleet growth will be material headwinds for the sector, likely keeping rates, asset values, and the stocks in check”.
While scrapping may offer some relief from the flood of newbuilding deliveries, he notes the panamax and capesize fleets are relatively young - blunting the impact of elevated demolition in the long-haul trades.
“Scrapping is only a partial safety valve,” Webber wrote. “While scrapping reached 3.4m dwt last June, it fell to an average of 1m dwt per month in Q4 2011 as spot rates improved.
“In short, there remains no avoiding this oversupply, which we believe will remain the sector’s biggest variable for the foreseeable future.”
18. Sovcomflot eyes LNG & Offshore
Sovcomflot, owner of the world’s largest tanker fleet, is expanding offshore services and liquefied natural gas transportation to benefit from Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin’s call for more than $500 billion of investments on the continental shelf.
The Russian state-owned shipper plans to double the share of revenue from LNG and offshore services by 2017 as it seeks long-term contracts to reduce the cyclical nature of the tanker business, the St. Petersburg-based operator’s Chief Financial Officer Nikolay Kolesnikov said. LNG will account for 20 percent and offshore services 40 percent of the total, he said.
“We see potential growth and have aggressive expansion plans,” Kolesnikov said in an interview in Moscow. Partners in the Arctic may include OAO Gazprom’s Shtokman project, OAO Novatek’s Yamal LNG project and a joint venture between OAO Rosneft and Exxon Mobil Corp. to explore the Kara Sea, he said.
Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, aims to create new production centers offshore and in remote Arctic regions as output falls in mature regions. Putin this month proposed tax breaks for new offshore projects that he said will help attract $500 billion of spending. Sovcomflot has been developing the so- called Northern Sea Route, sending test cargoes of gas condensate to Asian markets since 2010.
Yamal LNG plans to start production in 2016 and produce 16 million metric tons of the fuel by 2018. Rosneft and Exxon may start drilling in the Kara Sea in 2014, with first output as early as 2018.
Sovcomflot has $1.4 billion of outstanding shipbuilding contracts, including four LNG tankers, four Aframax tankers for use on the Baltic Sea and two very large crude carriers that were commissioned by PetroChina Co., Kolesnikov said.
19. Chinese BC resale rises
Chinese shipyards are rushing to re-sell newbuildings of which the original contracts have been canceled and the deliveries are impending.
Clarkson Hellas said that Chinese yards struggle to manage newbuilding resales of its increasing volume of prompt new tonnage.
Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries has currently committed to resale of its cancelled one capesize bulker, while Jinhai Heavy Industry is known to already have traded off or being in progress for its seven capesizes and two kamsarmaxes, at most.
The bulker newbuildings are under construction and set for delivery within months.
As Chinese shipyards are hurrying to promote newbuilding resales of drawing near to delivery, this is dampening values down to levels that seem to entice interest from cash rich shipowners.
20. Sungdong eyes profitable orders
Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea, now proceeding restructuring program with finances from the creditor group, has not booked orders this year as it is reluctant to contract in low value.
However, starting from the second half, Sungdong seems to resume sales of its profitable newbuildings.
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank), the main creditor bank, and other industrial sources said, Sungdong is likely to win one or two newbuildings in H2.
As its creditor group prevents Sungdong from securing low-price newbuildings, new order prospected in H2 would be profitable projects.
With sufficient orders in the book, creditor group forecast that when shipbuilding market recovers from the second half of 2013, Sungdong is possibly to normalize.
However, capital reduction and debt-to-equity swap planned in the end of last year, when creditors decided to inject cash for the yard, are still making a slow progress, which needs to be settled soon to be provided additional finance.
21. Orders for midsize ships grow
Stepping in the second quarter, orderings for medium-sized bulker and tanker seem to increase gradually.
In April, China's Taizhou Sanfu contracted four 51,000-dwt bulkers from a domestic owner and Japan's Oshima Shipbuilding and Tsuneishi Shipbuilding contracted five 82,000-dwt bulkers and three 45,000-dwt bulkers, respectively.
As for medium range tanker, South Korea's STX Offshore & Shipbuilding booked orders for six MR product carriers, with optional six vessels more, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Heavy Industries contracted two MR PCs and two LR1 PCs each. China's Guangzhou Shipyard International contracted for 3+3 MR PCs, etc.
Furthermore, after some interval, order for car carrier has resumed. Hyundai Mipo inked one 6,500-ceu pure car and truck carrier, while Imabari Shipbuilding of Japan penned for two 6,500-ceu PCTCs.
Of global PCTC orderbook, those scheduled for delivery in 2012 are 40 vessels and only five or so are to be delivered after 2013.
That’s it for today.
Thank you, bye.
Heun Woo Lee