Weekly edition 6 October

Shipping reform: the form and substance start to take shape

Federal transport minister Anthony Albanese gave the keynote speech late last week at the Australian Shipowners’ Conference in Sydney, where he outlined further details of the government’s policy on shipping reforms. This is an edited version of that speech.

Three vessels get the green light to join ausmepa

GREEN marine charity and educational group, AUSMEPA, has accepted three more vessels into its ship membership scheme.

Conference told of dangerously high public complacency on maritime, port security

AUSTRALIA must avoid complacency in relation to its maritime security regimes.

Piracy shaping up as long-term problem – and the solution seems harder to nail down

MANY ships sailing past the Horn of Africa and Somalia were “sitting ducks” for pirates and “not following best practice techniques” the Port & Maritime Security 2011 conference in Melbourne was told.

Labour shortages cause doubts over LNG dates

AUSTRALIA has failed to allay fears in the liquefied natural gas shipping industry that its LNG production projects will be delayed leaving a slew of vessels without employment in three years.

Letter to the editor

Furthering flow of shipping data promotes the industry

Deepwater dreaming: SA iron ore stymied by glacial port progress

South Australia is chock full of minerals. Iron ore is amongst the most bountiful. But for as long as there is no deepwater port, the question remains over whether the state can capitalise on the commodity’s boom before it goes bust, reports MIKE FOLEY

Bulk materials handling berths

An increasing level of coal and mineral exports from Australia has created a strain on existing export facilities and has resulted in the need for expansions to existing facilities and new export facilities, writes RICHARD MORGAN*

Greek firm says kamsarmax project in wings

GREECE-based Chartworld Shipping has confirmed it expected to ink a deal with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) for an initial two kamsarmax newbuildings by the end September.

Soyabean boost for bulker owners

SOYABEAN shipments from Brazil are set to rise to “higher than normal” levels over the next few months as US exports of the commodity are reduced, which could boost employment opportunities for panamaxes and supramaxes in the South Atlantic trading region.

US ethanol exports boost chemtankers

US EXPORTS of ethanol, which is blended with petrol to create a cleaner fuel for use in vehicles, have almost trebled this year from last year, boosting employment opportunities for chemical tankers shipping the product to South American markets.

Markets this week 6 October 2011

Chemoil market stays flat going into fourth quarter

Victoria rolls out consultation vehicle

Victoria’s Department of Transport is carrying out a feasibility study into the relocation of car imports and exports from Web Dock at Melbourne Port to its neighbour, Geelong Port, reports RHIANNON ZANETIC

Geelong seeks car trade flag: how it stacks up with the stakeholders

Industry stakeholders have expressed a number of concerns about the relocation of car imports and exports from Melbourne Port to Geelong Port.

Sector heads consider the challenges facing industry

Australia’s car carrier/ro-ro market has been strong in the past six months despite the March Japan disasters, which temporarily shook the industry, according to two key players, reports RHIANNON ZANETIC

Hoegh Autoliners appoints new chief executive officer

Carl-Johan Hagman has decided to step down as chief executive officer of Hoegh Autoliners after three “transformational years”.

MOL adopts fuel-saving coating

JAPANESE research into new low-friction paint for ships’ hulls has yielded a positive result, with Mitsui OSK Line adopting a new paint following an onboard test with a newbuild vessel.

Ro-ro deliveries may drag stretched Pacific Basin down further

PACIFIC Basin’s fortunes in the ro-ro sector look set to slide further, with two newbuilding ro-ro vessels due for delivery in the next few months for which charters have not been fixed.

MOL and Höegh in European joint venture

MITSUI OSK Lines and Norwegian ro-ro carrier Höegh Autoliners have launched a new European shortsea car-carrying company in a sign of consolidation in the sector.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen banks on future fleet flexibility

A FASTER than expected rebound from the Japanese auto sector has helped soften the impact of increased costs and a weakening dollar for Wilh.Wilhelmsen, but the Norwegian car carrier and maritime services group’s commitment to fleet flexibility suggests a hesitant view of a finely balanced market.

OceanSaver installs first high-capacity ballast system

NORWAY-BASED ballast water treatment supplier OceanSaver has installed the first high-capacity system on board the car carrier Höegh Trove, operated by Höegh Autoliners.

ITF trade figures fuel concern over downturn

LATEST trade volumes statistics from the International Transport Forum (ITF) think-tank have fuelled further concerns about a global economic downturn.

Short-term floating storage volumes lowest since 2008

SHORT-term floating storage of crude and oil products fell to its lowest level since the end of 2008 in August, with just 48.3m barrels being kept on tankers at sea, according to the latest data released by the International Energy Agency.

AP Moller-Maersk to support Indonesian port operator

AP MOLLER-Maersk has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indonesian state-owned port operator Pelabuhan Indonesia II. The Danish shipping giant says it is committed to helping infrastructure development in the country.

Casualty briefs 6 October 2011

Maritime

IMO asks coastal states to ‘facilitate’ armed guards

PORT and coastal states close to Somalia should “facilitate” the passage of armed guards and their weapons on merchant ships at risk of pirate attack, according to a circular agreed last week by the International Maritime Organization.

Japan’s MOL and NYK outlook downgraded

RATINGS agency Moody’s has downgraded the ratings outlook of both Japanese shipping groups it rates, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Mitsui OSK Line, from stable to negative.

NOL box revenue down 20%

AVERAGE revenue per feu at Neptune Orient Lines fell 20% from a year earlier in the July 30 to August 26 period, while volume carried was up 8%.

Vessel relets damaging boxship charter market

CONTAINER lines reletting tonnage they have chartered into their fleets is one of the main reasons behind current weakness in the charter market, the co-head of a German KG house said.

Danish tanker operator turns to dry bulk in move to boost its prospects

DANISH shipping line Torm has opened a dry bulk operation in Singapore as it gradually increases its non-tanker operations.

The pilgrim trade to Mecca by sea in 1965 before the age of air transport – part 4

THE YEAR I “did the hajj”, as the saying went, there were about 6500 intending hajjis from Malaysia. To deliver all of them to Mecca in time for the 8th to 12th day of the last month of the Islamic calendar so as to be there to successfully complete the hajj, required three round trips for the ship.

Pilots in another push for pay and more work – 25 years ago

REPORTERS for the Daily Commercial News (DCN) were kept busy in September 1986 investigating waterfront disputes.

Lender tells shipping companies to find alternative funding

SHIPPING companies will have to look for alternative financing sources to bank loans as ship lenders will not be able to provide the necessary funding alone, a leading German shipping banker has predicted.

How Chinese and Korean yards are passing Japan

ANALYSIS of the current values of tankers and dry bulk carriers built in the three main shipbuilding countries Japan, South Korea and China, reflects the different profiles of those countries’ recent shipbuilding activities.

It is ship recycling now, not ‘breaking’

A gap between perception and reality is obscuring the true scale of the reuse of ships at the ends of their lives, writes SHASHANK AGRAWAL

Exploring the potential of the Arctic’s new frontier

The northern sea route holds great promise, despite the problems presented by such a harsh environment, writes EVGENIY AMBROSOV*