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UKRAINE’s decision to forbid international shipping from entering ports on the breakaway Crimea peninsula – which comes into force today — is legally well-founded and anybody flouting the ban could find it difficult trading anywhere else, according to legal experts.
The recent decree — which covers the ports of Evpatoria, Kerch, Sevastopol, Feodosia and Yalta— will be difficult physically to enforce on territory that is in effect under the control of Russia.
However, Ukraine remains the legitimate government in Crimea and is recognised as such by the UN, of which the International Maritime Organization is part.
As such, it is entitled to ask other IMO member states to take action against vessels calling in their ports.
Entry into a Crimean port is already a breach of Ukrainian law, according to Odessa-based lawyer Arthur Nitsevych of the law firm Interlegal, who is also president of the local chapter of the Nautical Institute.
A Ukrainian government order from late April makes it a criminal offence to enter these ports, which were closed as part of a general closure of border checkpoints.
“Isolation of the Crimean ports from the international transport market is progressing,” he said in an email to Lloyd’s List. “We may confirm that shipowners themselves pragmatically refuse port calls to the annexed Crimea.”
On that point, he is right, but only up to a point. Data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence suggests that numbers are sharply down, with a drop for the ports concerned from 1,098 calls by vessels of all kinds in the first six months of 2013 to 758 in the first six months of 2014.
The latest move by the Ukrainian authorities should now leave nobody in any doubt what the legal situation is, Mr Nitsevych added.
The ban follows a statement circulated via the IMO in May, in which Ukraine additionally warned that it was not in a position to uphold its obligations on safety and security in the region.
A partner in one of the leading London shipping law firms spoke to Lloyd’s List on condition of anonymity, saying that the issue was sensitive and that he wished to avoid any potential offence to Russian clients.
In general, international law accords port states the power to close ports which form part of their sovereign territory. There is no “right of innocent call” analogous to the right of innocent passage.
“This is complicated stuff, because you have got a situation where the Crimea is Ukraine sovereign territory, despite the Russians’ daft plebiscite and annexation,” he said. “None of that has been recognised by the UN and therefore not by the IMO.
“From an international law perspective, these are Ukrainian ports and therefore the Ukrainian government is perfectly entitled to close them, just like the UK could close the port of Southampton if we had a security issue or whatever.”
Moreover, the basis of saying that it cannot uphold safety and security obligations is also valid, as it does not have de facto control.
Any Russian state assurances that everything is fine is worthless, because while it has de facto control, legally it does not have de jure authority and its annexation is unlawful.
If a UK ship were to ask the UK government whether it should make a call in Crimea, it would almost certainly be told to observe the Ukraine’s ruling.
“A shipping company would deal with that by saying to the charterer, ‘We can’t go in’, and the charterer would have to give alternative orders, or it might be a force majeure.”
In practice, Moscow regards Crimea as part of the Russian Federation and is likely to permit Russian flag shipping to call. Other countries — North Korea is a possible example — may also not feel bound by UN policy.
There is not much that Ukraine can do in the first instance. But if such vessels subsequently call in Ukraine, then they will be subject to arrest and open to legal proceedings against the crew and owner for breach of Ukrainian law.
If the vessel calls at a third country, Ukraine will have the option of asking the port state to arrest the ship on Ukraine’s behalf while a claim is brought against it.
So while it will be possible to flout the closure, there could be negative consequences from doing so.
“Owners would have to say to all potential future charters, ‘We can never go to Ukraine’, which of course reduces the value of the ship, because you want to be able to trade as widely as you can.”
The likelihood, then, is that the ban will be effective and little international shipping will call at the closed ports.
If you still fancy your chances of breaching the ruling without getting noticed, be aware that activist citizens — presumably pro-Kiev residents in Crimea with access to AIS tracking — are already monitoring vessels calls and publishing the names of ships that arrive in Crimean ports on the internet, in English. The allegations can be Googled in seconds.
A briefing from Mr Nitsevych’s firm Interlegal has highlighted the parallels with the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, now served largely by Turkish shipping companies in effect running a shuttle service to a captive market.
Indian power firm eyes coal acquisitions in S. Africa and Indonesia
( MiningWeekly.com) – India Power Corporation Limited (IPCL) is scouting for coal assets in South Africa and Indonesia
to establish coal supply linkages for its current 1 000 MW thermal power generation projects.
“We are looking at coal mines already in operation or nearing production in South Africa and Indonesia,” IPCL chairperson Hemant Kanoria said.
“A few proposals for some assets are being examined and due diligence is under way. Our target is 100% buy-back of coal from mines having reserves of 5-million to 25-million tonnes,” Kanoria said.
IPCL has floated a wholly-owned subsidiary, Swayambhu Natural Resources Private Limited, dedicated specifically to source coal feedstock for its existing and planned power projects.
Kanoria said that in the medium term, the independent power producer (IPP) would be sourcing coal from the spot markets and also through short-term agreements with international coal asset owners in Indonesia.
Domestic sourcing would depend on purchases through e-auctions from Coal India Limited (CIL) and coal rejects from local washeries, he said. Kolkata-headquartered IPCL was also ready to bid for coal blocks at the forthcoming auction of reserves by the Coal Ministry. Among the current thermal power projects under implementation by IPCL were a 450 MW plant at the port town of Haldia and a 540 MW plant at Raghunathpur, both in the eastern Indian province of West Bengal.
For the Haldia plant, the power producer had established linkages with domestic coal sources and back-up agreements had been concluded for imported coal, Kanoria added. Commenting on the domestic coal shortages that Indian thermal power producers face, Kanoria said: “There are enough coal reserves in India and we are sure that the present government is seriously working on developing mine development operators, both international and domestic, through state-of-the-art technology, which would substantially augment both production and productivity.”
IPCL is an integrated energy company with a presence across energy sources, conventional coal, wind and power along with renewables, wind and solar, as well as distribution businesses. In its previous avatar as Dishergarh Power Supply Company
Limited, taken over by IPCL, it was the oldest power distribution licensee in eastern India with rights over 618 km2 in the eastern Indian coal belt of Asansol-Raniganj.
The company’s strategic plans in the generations segment include 1 320 MW in the eastern province of Bihar, 1 320 MW in Gujarat in the west, 1 320 MW in Jharkhand in the east and 1 320 MW at Sagardighi.
Costa Concordia Refloated
The wreck of the luxury liner Costa Concordia was refloated on Monday and will soon be towed away and broken up for scrap, more than two years after it capsized off the Italian coast, killing 32 people.
The 290-metre Costa Concordia ran aground on rocks near the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio in January 2012. The rusting hulk of the once gleaming-white ship had been resting on a temporary platform since being righted a year ago.
In what has become one of the largest salvage operations in history, air was pumped into 30 large metal boxes, or sponsons, attached around the hull of the 114,500 tonne ship. The air forced out the water in the sponsons, lifting the vessel more than 2 metres off the underwater platform.
Tug boats then attached cables to the ship and shifted it about 30 metres away from shore.
"Little bit heavier than we estimated, but she is up," salvage master Nick Sloane told Reuters, saying that Monday's activities had been "perfect". Work will start again on Tuesday to prepare it for towing within days to Genoa in northern Italy to be scrapped.
"We have to connect some more chains and some wires and do a calculation on exactly how heavy she is now and then on Wednesday, Thursday bring her up properly," Sloane said.
Franco Porcellachia, the engineer in charge of the salvage, said the sixth deck of the ship had started to emerge on Monday, and once that was fully above the water the other decks would become visible in quick succession. "When deck 3 re-emerges, we are in the final stage and ready for departure," Porcellachia said.
The wreck is due to depart Giglio on July 21.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial on charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck as he sailed too close to shore to "salute" the port, and abandoning ship. He is fighting the charges.
Once the Concordia has left Giglio, the search will continue for the body of the last person who was aboard the Concordia the night it sank and has not been accounted for. "We are undertaking an operation that will close a dramatic chapter for our country," Italian Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said at the news conference.
Paying for the disaster, including breaking up the vessel and repairing the damage to Giglio, is likely to cost the ship's owner and operator Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp , more than 1.5 billion euros ($2.05 billion), its chief executive said last week.
The cruise liner will be demolished and scrapped in Genoa by a consortium including oil services company Saipem and Genoa-based companies Mariotti and San Giorgio.
Panama Canal’s Cost Overrun Dispute Headed to Miami Court
( Posted by Michelle Howard - Monday, July 14, 2014 ) A $180 million claim involving the Panama Canal's disputed $1.6 billion cost overrun is headed to
arbitration court in Miami next week, canal officials said on Monday.
The $180 million claim by the consortium working on the massive canal expansion project is the first of several disputed construction costs that could
end up in the hands of the Miami arbitrators. The cost overrun temporarily halted work on the massive expansion project in February, and the Panama Canal Authority now says the project is on track to open in January 2016. Additional hearings for other claims may also go to arbitration, should the canal authority and the construction consortium fail to reach a settlement under two other mechanisms established in the original contract, canal officials told Reuters.
Under that contract, all claims are analyzed by both sides before proceeding to a dispute adjudication board if a compromise cannot be reached. If either side is unsatisfied with the board's decision, the claim moves to arbitration in Miami.
A separate claim for about $888 million for work stoppages is still being discussed between the two sides, while another worth about $497 million for the quality of aggregate used for the concrete mix is at the dispute adjudication stage, according to the canal officials.
The first $180 million claim to reach arbitration, over the cost of draining an area to create work space near the Pacific locks of the 50-mile (80-km) long canal,
was to begin July 21 with procedural hearings at the International Chamber of Commerce's arbitration court inMiami.
"Both sides will submit their terms and draft procedural orders for how things will work," said Carolyn Lamm, a lawyer with White & Case representing the construction consortium.
Labor and cost disputes have plagued the effort to expand the 100-year-old canal, fanning fears of delays that could cost Panama millions of dollars in lost shipping tolls and posing a setback for companies worldwide that want to move larger ships through the waterway that links U.S. South and East Coast ports to Asian markets.
Work ground to a halt in early February due to the dispute over who would bear cost overruns that boosted the project's $5.25 billion budget to nearly $7 billion. In a deal signed in March, the Panama Canal Authority and the Grupo Unido por el Canal (GUPC) consortium led by Spain's Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impregilo agreed to inject $100 million to resume work.
Both also agreed to extend repayment of $784 million of advanced payments made by the Panama Canal Authority to the consortium until 2018 at the latest.
Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano in June said between 75 percent and 76 percent of the engineering project was complete, and a third set of locks to allow bigger ships to pass through the waterway should open in January 2016.
Summertime sadness
( Tankers - By Aaron Kelley in Stamford - 11 July 2014, 23:00 GMT)
Turbulence has plagued the tanker market for nearly five years but a growing number of industry forecasters believe the tides are starting to turn. Brokers say less than a dozen VLCCs have been scrapped thus far this year and note orders are on the rise.
Earlier this week Jonathan Chappell, an equity analyst at Evercore Partners, told investors that the light at the end of the tunnel “is finally within reach”. In a note to clients the researcher said he is confident that supply and demand is going to improve in the years ahead
and argued that rates for tonnage trading spot will surpass breakeven levels within the next three to six months.
“Moreover, we believe the anticipated demise of the product tanker market has been greatly exaggerated,” the Manhattan-based forecaster continued.
Chappell believes the recent uptick in rate volatility reflects what he described as “the tightening balance of capacity” and argued that the tanker market appears to have entered “a new phase” characterized by “higher highs and higher lows”.
“Global oil demand growth forecasts continue to inch up as a sustainable economic recovery builds momentum, and with Atlantic Basin oil continuing to shift further east the tonmile dynamic of the crude tanker market is finally beginning to improve again,” he added.
“Moreover, although the correlation of OPEC production and VLCC rates is not as strong as it once was, the forecast of a nearly 1.5 million barrel per day increase in the call on OPEC in 2H14 (sequentially) is likely to result in far more tanker demand than in 1H14.
“At the same time, slowing orders, still-strong slippage, and re-accelerating scrapping continues to mute capacity growth. All told, we now forecast a 13.8 million deadweight ton shortfall in overall tanker capacity in 2014 to 2015.”
Today, a leading US tanker broker, Poten & Partners, agreed that optimism in the tanker segment appears to be on the rise but argued that it remains to be seen whether this is warranted or not. “While it is likely too soon to assess the longevity of positive support in freight rates, demand growth coupled with seeming supply moderation could be an early indication that the market at least has the potential for rebalance,” the firm told clients in a weekly market briefing.
Poten pointed out that the International Energy Agency believes demand for oil could top 92.7 million barrels per day (bpd) on average by the end of 2014, which is only slightly higher than the estimate issued at the start of 2013 but could have a surprisingly significant impact. “Although this is an increase of only 2%, the ton-mile effect on the tanker market could be felt in multiples,” it explained before reminding clients that a 100,000 bpd increase in crude production in the Arabian Gulf could support the full-time employment of up to four VLCCs.
“To that end, an additional 2 million bpd sloshing around the system would have a decidedly more pronounced effect,” the tanker broker continued, adding: “Demand for 2015 is currently expected to increase by an additional 1.4 million bpd over 2014 levels.”
In closing, Poten said it believes a glut in global fleet capacity still poses a threat to the tanker market.While the firm agrees that an increase in ton-mile demand would offset oversupply to some extent it highlighted the problem that tends to arise when freight rates spike.
“Improving freight conditions generally incentivize owners to trade their assets later into their lives,” it said.
“Twenty years marks the final birthday for most asset types. Today, nearly 13% of the tanker fleet is over 15 years of age with the fleet average age of eight years. “These statistics suggest that the market is likely wellsupplied for the medium-term, especially if freight rates continue to improve.
Additionally, persistent high bunker prices preclude the likelihood of vessels speeding up, but with a higher rate environment, anything
is possible. “At least for now, the spot market freight rates appear to be reflective of a tighter vessel supply to demand ratio. In general, the crude tanker markets have seen upward movement in spot freight rates since the first week of June.”
THE “day of reckoning” on how the US will handle a projected surplus of US crude oil could likely come in 2017 or 2018, depending on a variety of global market factors and domestic policy decisions, according to a leading energy expert.
Speaking at the US Energy Information Administration’s 2014 conference in Washington DC., John Auers, of Turner, Mason & Associates – an engineering consultancy, said that the abundance of crude oil production could likely exceed the domestic refinery capacity at around that time, if output projections play out.
“We can produce crude better, refine crude better than any other system in the world,” Mr Auers said on Monday.
That ability continues to drive the increase in domestic production of light, tight oil, according to EIA data.
The three largest oil fields in the US — the Bakken fields in North Dakota, the Permian basin in western Texas, and the Eagle Ford formation in south Texas — were mostly responsible for the 1m barrel per-day year-over-year increase in crude oil production in April, according to EIA data for the most available month.
Looking ahead, there are at least two scenarios on how much crude the country can pull out of the ground.
The government agency has two straightforward models — strong growth peaking in 2019, then falling off; and a continued and sustainable rise well through the next decade, according to Lynn Westfall, an EIA representative speaking at the conference.
In the former scenario, which the agency calls its reference model, the US will see a 1.6m bpd increase over 2013 levels by 2019. The high resource model, however, is more bullish on US crude production, with 5.1m bpd more than what was produced last year.
Mr Auers said his company’s projections fall closer in line with the high-resource projections.
Fellow speaker, Jason Bordoff, of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, agreed.
“Actual production has traditionally tracked to the high resource [model],” he said.
Whether that crude will find its way on the water remains unclear, with conference participants saying that those decisions will be made through legislative action in the US Congress or executive decisions made in the White House.
The likelihood of a fragmented Congress changing the 1975 ban on US crude exports through a sweeping legislative act is slim.
“The chances of that are nil,” said Jacob Dweck, a partner with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan.
Instead, change may come incrementally, as seen by the recent private ruling from the Department of Commerce. That agency’s approval of two requests from Enterprise Products Partners and Pioneer Natural Resources to export lease condensate —a lighter oil that is put through a distillation tower – may likely continue, according to Mr Dweck, who represented Enterprise in that process.
Those approvals are less a reflection of a groundswell shift in public policy, but rather a technical analysis – and confirmation – of laws already in place, he said.
“In short the ruling was issued, because we asked for it and we happened to ask first,” Mr Dweck said.
High Shipping Costs Deter Buyers of W. Africa Crude
Nigerian crude oil differentials held at two-year lows on Monday as demand remained subdued, partly due to high shipping costs from West Africa to Europe. Nearly half of the loading program for August, which originally had 65 cargos, was unsold on Monday. But traders said that demand might pick up temporarily later this week as traders placed cargoes for India Oil Company's import tender.
High freight rates aboard suezmaxes to Europe are deterring shipments to refineries there, traders said.
Rising exports of similar oil grades from Libya has also hurt demand.
Libyan oil output has risen to 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) as the El Sharara oilfield ramps up, the state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Sunday.
The premium of Qua Iboe grade crude oil cargoes was assessed unchanged at around dated Brent plus $1 a barrel, compared with Friday. The United States used to be the top importer of West African crude but imports have fallen due to the rise of U.S. shale production.
Differentials of West African crude oil have dived over the past month because Asian demand has failed to pick up the slack.
West African crude oil exports are set to fall to 1.68 million bpd in July from 1.93 million bpd in June, a Reuters survey found.
Nigeria - Qua Iboe and Bonny Light were assessed dated Brent plus $1-$1.50 a barrel although there were no fresh trades on Monday.
Asian Tenders - IOC issued a tender for September-loading cargoes with part one on Tuesday, part two on Wednesday and the results on Thursday.
Tanker cargoes disrupted as Yemeni pipeline is blown up
TANKERS face new disruptions to cargo loading, following the blowing up of a major pipeline in Yemen, affecting crude supplies from the pipeline to the Ras Isa export terminal on the Red Sea.
The pipeline was blown up by Yemeni tribesmen campaigning for a larger share of jobs and government revenues, according to international media.
The pipeline, Yemen’s largest, carries 100,000 barrels per day, and if all this ends up as exports at the terminal, it is enough for around one cargo for a very large crude carrier every 20 days.
Yemen exported an average of 144,000 bpd in 2013, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.
Disruptions have reduced exports dramatically.
In May, exports averaged as low as 31,000 bpd, the data shows.
That month was the last time the pipeline was attacked.
Only VLCCs are shown by Lloyd’s List Intelligence as the tankers hauling cargoes from the country, with China as the sole importer.
Yemen’s export problems come amid other crude export concerns in the Middle East.
Iraq’s export future faces uncertainty as violence grips the country.
Libya has seen exports plummet, although there are moves to increase volumes as ports reopen.
Elsewhere, Nigeria’s export industry currently appears stable, although tensions and fighting in the country have raised the prospect of disruptions to these barrels.
CROATIAN tanker company Tankerska Plovidba has chartered out one of its aframax crude tankers to haul crude from Libya, as the struggling North African country is poised to raise its crude exports.
The 2009-built, 108,932 dwt Olib will load a cargo of Libyan oil any day now, according to fixtures data.
The aframax is currently positioned at Libya’s Hariga port in Tobruk, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel tracking data.
Its destination is shown as Malta.
The Hariga port in Tobruk is one of two eastern ports that rebels agreed in April to reopen, the other being Zueitina.
The rebels have said that the larger ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf will soon be able to export crude cargoes freely.
Despite port reopenings, there has not yet been a flood of fixings from Libya, say brokers.
Nevertheless, the expectation is that the return of Libyan cargoes will boost the crude tanker market in the coming quarters.
“Return of Libyan oil could give the market another shot in the arm,” RS Platou told the market recently.
Average aframax earnings on the spot market are $17,990 per day, up more than $1,000 from the previous reading, according to Baltic Exchange data.
Aframaxes on the cross-Mediterranean benchmark route from Ceyhan in Turkey to Lavera in France are earning $11,586 per day, up $421 from the previous reading.
The fighting in the north of the country has stifled Libya’s crude exports.
Volumes are only around 300,000 barrels per day, but it is hoped that the widespread reopening of ports will gradually push exports back up to around 1.5m bpd.
This will offer employment opportunities for aframax tankers, the vessels most employed to ship crude cargoes out of the country.
Out of the 265,000 bpd on average exported in May, aframaxes hauled 233,000 bpd and the rest went on suezmaxes, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
VLGC earnings stay above $100,000 per day for 4 weeks
( LL ) VERY large gas carrier spot market earnings have stayed up at more than $100,000 per day for around four weeks, having levelled out since around mid-June. Freight rates have experienced minor dips during that period, but nothing to rock the market dramatically and bring daily earnings back down to earth. The forecast among brokers is that rate rises, and therefore earnings, are on the horizon as the August loading
programme gets in full swing over the coming days.
THE UK Conservative MP Claire Perry has been named as the new junior minister at the Department for Transport, replacing Stephen Hammond, who was sacked this morning as part of a ministerial reshuffle.
The move is almost certain to give Ms Perry responsibility for UK shipping as well as rail and buses in the run up to the general election in May next year, unless prime minister David Cameron takes the unusual step of redistributing Mr Hammond’s portfolio.
That would make Ms Perry, a 50-year-old former banker at Bank of America, McKinsey & Company and Credit Suisse, the first woman shipping minister in recent decades, and possibly the first woman shipping minister ever.
Elected as MP for Devizes, Wiltshire, in 2010, Ms Perry has served as parliamentary private secretary to Philip Hammond during his time as defence secretary, and as government assistant whip.
She is perhaps best known in politics for her advocacy of tighter controls on what people can see on the internet, unless users decide to opt out of restrictions, in order to protect children from inappropriate content.
UASC and CSCL seen most obvious partners for CMA CGM
( JOC ) United Arab Shipping Co. and China Shipping Container Line are the “most obvious” partners for CMA CGM after the French ocean carrier
was excluded from the recently unveiled 2M alliance between Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co., according to Drewry Maritime
Research.
COSCO Pacific, the Hong Kong-listed ports arm of China Ocean Shipping, saw robust throughput growth in its Yangtze River Delta, southeast coast and Pearl River Delta terminals, but nearly flat growth in its north China Bohai Rim ports in June year-on-year.
The port terminal operator reported a 16.5% rise in volumes for the Pearl River Delta, with its biggest facility, Yantian International Container Terminal, reporting volume of 953,100 teu in June, a rise of 8.1% compared to the same month last year.
Volumes at the company’s Guangzhou South China Oceangate Container Terminal grew 12.2% to 392,900 teu during the same period.
The Pearl River Delta figures included new volumes from Asia Container Terminal, to a total of 117,700 teu for the month. The company bought a 40% interest in the terminal in March this year.
Cosco-HIT Terminal in Hong Kong reported a 2.4% drop in June year on year, a reflection of continued declining volumes at Hong Kong’s ports as ports on the Chinese mainland north of Hong Kong grow.
The company’s terminals along China’s southeast coast — including Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal, Kao Ming Container Terminal and others — saw collective volume growth of 15.1% in June year on year.
Volumes at Xiamen grew a robust 76.6% during the period, the highest growth rate of any of Cosco Pacific’s terminals for the month of June.
Terminals in the Yangtze River Delta — including Shanghai Pudong International Container Terminal and Nanjing Port Longtian Container Co, the two largest — reported collective volume growth of 12.6% to 836,300 teu.
North China volume growth paled in comparison, with Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, the largest in the area, reporting a 0.1% fall in volumes to 1.3m teu in June year on year. The total volumes for Bohai Rim container ports grew by 1.7% to 2.1m teu during the period compared with last year.
Overall, Cosco Pacific’s volume growth at all its ports in June amounted to 10.4%, beating figures for exports and imports released by China’s customs authority for June.
Exports grew by 7.2% for the month, below the estimates of many economists. Imports grew by 5.5%, also below forecasts.
CONTAINER throughput in Antwerp increased for the third consecutive quarter during the period April through June, to continue its steady road to recovery following last year’s traffic decline.
During the second quarter, Antwerp handled 2.3m teu, up 4.8% on the same period in 2013 when 2.2m teu was moved by the Belgian box port.
Port of Singapore records container volume growth
The port of Singapore grew its container throughput 4.1 percent in June, compared to the same month last year, handling 2.84 million 20-foot containers, according to preliminary figures from the city-state port authority.
Cosco scraps two dozen ships in first half
China Cosco Holdings scrapped another eight vessels in the second quarter, taking to 24 ships disposed of in a fleet renewal program...
CHINA International Marine Containers, the world’s largest box manufacturer, has forecast its net profits during the first half of the year have risen by at least 50% from the year-ago level due to stronger performance in side businesses and taxation changes.
The Shenzhen- and Hong Kong-listed firm told investors it expects first-half net profits to reach Yuan828m-Yuan1.1bn ($133.4m-$177.8m), compared with Yuan552m during the same period of 2013.
CIMC’s offshore engineering business in Yantai, composed of CIMC Raffles, flipped into the black in the reported period after deliveries of three jack-up drilling rigs and two semi-submersible accommodation rigs.
( LL ) KOREA Line has won a freight contract worth nearly Won307bn ($301.5m) to ship nickel ore from New Caledonia to South Korea for 20 years from the first half of 2016, according to an exchange filing.
The Seoul-listed carrier agreed to deploy two ultramax vessels to ship 1.05m tonnes of nickel ore per year for SNNC, a joint venture between SMSP and Posco that operates a ferronickel smelter.
SMSP is a nickel ore producer based in New Caledonia.
The SNNC plant, which has an annual production capacity of 30,000 tonnes, is located adjacent to Posco’s steel manufacturing complex in Gwangyang, South Korea.
The announcement cames after Korea Line booked two 64,000 dwt bulkers, which are due for delivery by May 30 2016, for a total of $55.6m at the end of June .
The carrier, which emerged from bankruptcy last November, has been fetching newbuilding deals linked to charter contracts.
On a non-consolidated basis, Korea Line posted net profits of Won815.1bn in 2013 and of Won13.8bn during the first quarter of this year.
MISC’s anti-piracy mothership to be stationed off Sabah
( Piracy - Gary Dixon in London ) A Malaysian “mothership” is to be stationed off the east coast of Sabah to battle pirates.
Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told reporters that MISC’s 699-teu Bunga Mas Lima (built 1997), which was converted into an auxiliary ship for the navy in 2009, will be deployed “as soon as possible”.
“It will serve as a ‘mothership’ where we can place our men, complete with fast boats, and, if there were to be any kidnappings, hopefully we can intercept them before they cross the border,” he added.
The vessel is occasionally used for naval training and operations by the armed forces.
Two decommissioned Petronas oil rigs will also be turned into forward operating bases in waters between Semporna and Lahad Datu within six months.
Alert for Travel to USA : Enhanced security check for Travellers to UK/U.S.A./Canada
( GAC-Griffin, Dubai ) We would like to inform all passengers travelling on flights to UK, USA and Canada of some enhanced security measures implemented by the TSA (Transport Security Administration)
Passengers must ensure all electronic devices like cell phones and handheld devices must have enough power.
Due to enhanced security checks passengers must be able to power up/switch on the electronic devices when requested by security otherwise you may be denied boarding.
If you are flying from Milan to New York, your devices will be checked at Malpensa Airport (MXP).
Powerless devices will not be permitted on board the aircraft and may lead to additional screening..
Ask your family and friends to do the same when flying to these countries as this is part of the enhanced security measures recently implemented by these countries.
Update on Iraq
Suspension of travel for Indian Nationals travelling to Iraq upto 19Jul14.
As per directive of Under Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs due to disturbed situation in Iraq , it has been decided to stop emigration clearance to Iraq with immediate effect upto 19th July.
Star bulker deal done in US
Star Bulk has rubber-stamped a merger with Oceanbulk to create the largest dry cargo owner listed in the US.
Nasdaq-listed Star says the 54.104 million shares deal to take the Oceanbulk fleet closed on Friday only hours after shareholders supported the transaction.
Oaktree Capital will control 61.3% of the upsized Star Bulk, with chairman turned chief executive Petros Pappas 12.6%. Monarch and Gowda Harsha will be the other substantial shareholders with 7.4% and 2.2% respectively, according to a recent report by Fearnley Securities.
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