Weekly edition 28 July

High seas and rain wreak havoc with Port Botany turnarounds

SHIPPING lines have claimed extensive delays are occurring at Port Botany owing to adverse weather and berth congestion.

Svitzer switch man at top in ‘challenging’ market

MARK Malone has been appointed as the new managing director of Svitzer Australasia. He will take over with effect from August 1.

Shipping people and projects into Antarctic good business for Tasmania

LISTEN to John Brennan and your mind drifts away to a frozen and windswept land.

Truss launches broadside at Oz shipping plan

WARREN Truss, the leader of the National Party and shadow minister for infrastructure, has said that the Gillard government’s proposed changes to the Navigation Act will place jobs in the firing line.

Patrick does Maersk box deal and orders cranes

STEVEDORING company Patrick has signed a five-year deal to handle an extra 190,000 containers a year for Maersk Line.

MUA, port in agreement

ESPERANCE Ports and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have agreed terms for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) after more than six months.

Offshore petroleum regulations shake up state/federal relations

REGULATION of offshore petroleum in Australia is set to undergo a major shake up following proposed amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.

Air cargo firm is flying into marine and offshore salvage

Chapman Freeborn, an air cargo charter service provider, is extending its footprint to the marine salvage & offshore industry. Air cargo charters can lift personnel and equipment out to crisis situations in remote locations. Such could prove invaluable to Australia, given the multiplying amounts of offshore oil and gas projects off the coast – especially off the north-west shelf, off the coast of the Northern Territory and in the Bass Strait. The following article on the application of the air cargo charters was provided by Chapman Freeborn.

SECURITY PROBE: Police and federal agency presence urgently recommended for Australia’s major ports

CRIMINAL activity threatening the Australian maritime industry has been highlighted in the report of a recent parliamentary inquiry.

Coal carriers face lay ups as rates soften

GERMAN coal importers are forecasting an average freight rate of US$9-$12 per tonne for the benchmark route between Richards Bay and the ARA ports – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp – for the current year, due to the overcapacity in the bulk carrier market.

Enigma of Indian ore to China challenges brokers

FOR SUPRAMAX brokers, the mysterious east still has its mysteries, at least when it comes to demand for iron ore voyages from India to China.

Markets this week 28 July 2011

Bulker and tanker rates fail to ignite at the end of July.

Global economic indicators paint worrying picture for ship finance

SHIPPING finance is looking increasingly daunting from a variety of perspectives.

Building a system from shipping data

DIGITAL sailing schedules may have saved a few forests and released space for more interesting titles on office bookshelves, but the problem of handling shipping data still plagues the industry.

Building a system from shipping data

DIGITAL sailing schedules may have saved a few forests and released space for more interesting titles on office bookshelves, but the problem of handling shipping data still plagues the industry.

PSA confirms Cuban deal

SINGAPORE’s PSA International has confirmed it will manage the new terminal being built at the Cuban port of Mariel on the island’s northwest coast.

Singapore - The island state at a glance

SINGAPORE continues to recover after being hit by the economic crisis in 2008. Other countries could improve their trading competitiveness if they adopted some of that nation’s ways, sources say.

Mega box ships on E/W route will cascade big ships onto Aus trades

MEGA container ships of up to 18,000 teu will enter the market in the next few years. Many of them are expected to call at Singapore. Sources say this will in turn, lead to bigger box ships entering Australian ports.

Pirate attacks see worrying increase this year

ASIAN shipowners have expressed “impatience, anger and frustration” at the increasing number of pirate attacks on ships and seafarers.

NOL orders 12 new mega ships

SINGAPORE-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has ordered 12 new mega container ships, ten of which will be the largest in the company’s fleet.

Maersk to split s-e Asia service in two

MAERSK has announced changes to its Singapore/NZ service, which will become a two-loop weekly butterfly service with additional vessels and port calls.

Advance on duty of care in port liability cases

THERE has for some time been a perception that claims by shipowners against stevedores for damage caused to their vessels during cargo operations will not be viewed favourably by the courts in the Netherlands.

Insurers back cargo stowing campaign

A CAMPAIGN by container lines to force shippers to properly stow containers and declare the actual weight of goods has been given a lift after the major insurers threw their weight behind it.

Hyundai Heavy earnings fall 40%

HYUNDAI Heavy Industries’ net income in the second quarter was down 40.3% quarter on quarter to Won538.8bn (US$508.3m) due mainly to lacklustre performance in some of its non-shipbuilding units.

Box charter market ‘dead’ as service cuts knock demand

THE CLOSURE of several services by container lines is driving down activity in the charter market – which brokers were recently describing as “dead” – as demand for vessels continues to decline.

US business logistics costs increase by 10%

A NEW survey feeling the pulse of US supply chains shows that business logistics costs rose 10.4% in 2010 to US$1.2trn, but still only on a par with 2005 levels.

Big egos said to hold back dry bulk sector

CONSOLIDATION will never happen in the dry bulk sector because shipowners’ egos are too big, a group of leading owners have declared unanimously and proudly in New York.

Casualties briefs July 28, 2011

Maritime

P&I clubs draw up lists of approved security providers

SOME protection and indemnity clubs in Asia have drawn up their own lists of approved shipboard security providers, in response to escalating requests from shipowners for guidance in deploying armed guards, according to industry sources in Hong Kong.

HMM takes on the challenge of larger capacity box ships

SOUTH Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) is planning to add up to 10 vessels of 12,600 teu vessels to its fleet in a bid for survival in the Asia-Europe trade.

Japan imports more LNG than South Korea

JAPAN has imported more than 31,000 tonnes of LNG so far this year, more than double the amount of the second-biggest LNG importer South Korea, says London-based Drewry Maritime Research.

Los Angeles port rapped over costs

PORT of Los Angeles, the top US container hub, has been criticised for cost overruns in an official audit which identified the need for “process improvements” to increase transparency.

Blue Star Line’s Port Hobart was prime example of a Shaw Saville prototype

PRIOR to WWII, Harland and Wolff had built a number of fast motor/cargo liners for the Shaw Savill Line.

Built from a mould that spawned so many useful ships

THE BASIS of this type of vessel was the C3 of the US Maritime Commission. Early vessels of this type were built before the US had entered World War II.

Twenty years since an energy opportunity missed

Nostalgia July 28, 2011

Slow march forward for Vale’s very large ore carrier project

The naming of an unfinished valemax at China Rongsheng meant more theatre than progress, reports TOM LEANDER

Size matters for ballast water systems as firms eye riches

BALLAST water system maker Oceansaver is waiting to hear if its new upgraded model will gain type approval in time for what it thinks will be a rush in retrofitting.

CMA CGM buys 18,000 more eco-boxes

CMA CGM has acquired a further 18,000 eco-containers, increasing its environmentally-friendly maritime box fleet to 140,000 teu.

New Lloyd’s Open Form is timely

The two most significant changes introduced by LOF 2011 relate to the publishing of awards and the procedures to be followed in respect of salvage services provided to container vessels, writes SIMON TATHAM*

The sole US serious crime is contempt of cop

A seven-hour wait imposed on 2000 elderly cruise passengers demonstrates how unwise it can be to question US border enforcement bureaucracy, writes JOHN AC CARTNER*