Far East

Sweeney Promoted to VP of Far East Operations at Crowley

Effective March 1, 2004, Alex Sweeney will assume the position of Vice President of Russian Far East Operations. In his new position, Sweeney is responsible for the management of the BETS Sealift to Lunskoye, Sakhalin Island and the tow of the Orlan from Sov Govan, Russia to Ulsan, Korea. He will report directly to Steve Peterson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Energy and Marine Services and will work closely with Chris Peterson, General Manager, Contract Services, who has commercial responsibility for those contracts. Sweeney joined Crowley in 1980 and has over 20 years experience in marine operations for Crowley on the east and west coasts. In 1995 he was promoted to the Director of Atlantic Operations and in 1999 was relocated to Valdez and promoted to the position of General Manager, Valdez Services in 2000, he was named Vice President of the Valdez business unit. In 1997, he Sweeney was presented with the Thomas Crowley Trophy, Crowley Maritime Corporation’s highest honor. He earned his undergraduate degree from City University in Seattle and completed his MBA in 1995.

Dry Bulk Trends

Change Of Sentiment Seen In Atlantic Sector The dry cargo freight market saw a 15 point decline in the Baltic Panamax Index to 1,595, which was largely caused by a change of sentiment in the Atlantic, brokers said. March tonnage in the U.S. Gulf was struggling to obtain previously fixed levels and rates to the Far East in particular were lower, they added. Capesize rates remained steady but handy sizes were in stronger demand world-wide and there were signs that the hitherto depressed

Braemar Appoints New Director

Braemar Technical Services (Incorporating The Salvage Association) announced the appointment of Graeme Temple to the role of Regional Director for its Far East region.   Graeme will take responsibility for strengthening the company’s surveyor network in this important region and further developing relationships with the London and International Insurance markets as well as the local Singapore and other Far East Insurance markets

UMM Salal First Call in Port of Hamburg

On 7 June 2011 the UMM SALAL, the biggest containership to date belonging to United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), tied up in the Port of Hamburg on her maiden voyage. The giant container ship, with a capacity of 13,100 TEU (20 foot standard containers) was handled at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg (CTH).   The UMM SALAL is 365.5 metres long, 48.40 metres wide and is equipped with over 1,000 reefer slots, making it the first of nine ships of this size to be completed in 2011 and 2012

Hamburg Port's Liner Network

Hamburg has one of the most comprehensive liner networks in Europe, which in turn means that it plays an important role as a transport hub for global cargo flows. Specialized liner traffic connects Hamburg to six continents. Over 100 container liner services travelling to destinations all over the world are based in Hamburg. One of the main markets for the Port of Hamburg are liner services from and to the Far East

Westbound Tanker Markets Strengthening

Westbound tanker markets from the Middle East are strengthening while eastern charterers take a break, brokers said. Mideast-U.S. Gulf rates are running at about W80-85 ($17.50 per ton) for VLCC liftings and from West Africa about W90 ($9.25) - up a couple of Worldscale points on last week. But rates to Far East have eased back to the mid W90s ($10.75 to Japan) after climbing past W100 last week.

SembCorp Gets BP Shipping Deal

Singapore's Sembawang Shipyard Pte Ltd., a subsidiary of SembCorp Marine, has entered an agreement to repair the Far East fleet of BP Shipping Ltd. for an indeterminate amount of time. Sembawang Shipyard managing director Heng Chiang Gnee said the company expects to refit and drydock about 12 of BP Shipping's fleet of 30 in a typical year. He said he expected a typical contract value of about $1.2 to $1.7 million to repair each of the vessels

Russian Naval Base Uses Nuclear Subs For Electricity

Frequent power cuts on the remote Kamchatka peninsula have forced Russia's military to fire up reactors on nuclear submarines to provide electricity to bases there, an admiral said. Admiral Valery Drogin told the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta government newspaper that even the strategic nuclear missile bases on the Pacific Ocean peninsula were now being powered by reactors on board the submarines. Power stations in Russia's Far East suffer from chronic fuel shortages because of the high cost

Amur Gets ExxonMobil Contract

ExxonMobil has awarded Amur Shipbuilding Plant a $140 million contract to refurbish the Orlan platform. Reuters reports that the Russian plant, Amur, will modernize the platform in order to start extraction at the Sakhalin oil offshore deposit in Russia’s far east. ExxonMobil operates the Sakhalin-1 project, where work on the platform is anticipated to begin in June.

Product Tanker Stays Strong In Mideast

The New Year started much as the old left off with product tanker markets strong Mideast-Far East and Tran-Atlantic but weak elsewhere. LR2 tanker rates for Mideast-Japan jumped five and ten Worldscale points on successive days, according to brokers.