Siem Shipping News

Testing, inspection and certification (TIC) services company Bureau Veritas (BV) announced Alex Gregg-Smith has joined the BV group as Marine & Offshore Country Chief Executive, China.Reporting to Claude Maillot, Senior Vice President North Asia Zone, Gregg-Smith is based in Shanghai."We are delighted to have Alex back onboard with BV – and in such an important role," Maillot said. "China is so central to our activities, both for new construction and ships in service, so we needed someone with the expert background in classification that Alex provides.

German shipbuilding company Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has handed over another Ro-Ro ship to SIEM Shipping.The Flensburg-based designer and manufacturer of ships for commercial and naval applications worldwide said in a press release that this is the sixth RoRo ship that FSG has delivered to SIEM and is identical in construction to the sister ship “ALF POLLK”.The “MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO” will be chartered out to Moby Lines Europe and deployed in the Mediterranean area on the routes to and from Sardinia and Sicily.Together with its sister ship “ALF POLLAK”, this will be amongst the newest and most modern RoRo ferries in the Mediterranean area…

Norwegian liner Siem Shipping Inc. has won a one-year contract renewal for a regular weekly service from Ecuador to St. Petersburg, Russia. The contract extension for the service covers seven reefer vessels. The service, which employs seven vessel, is largely for banana trades and has been renewed for an additional year. The company did not, however, disclose any further details on the value of the contracts or expected start date. Star Reefers has been operating between Ecuador and Saint Petersburg for years and recently introduced an interim stop in Vlissingen, Netherlands. The  Oslo-listed reefer player has started 2016 strongly with a near eight-fold increase in first quarter net profit. Net income for the quarter was $3.9m versus the $500,000 seen a year ago.

Oslo-listed Siem Shipping reported a net profit of USD2.5 million (Q3 2014: net loss USD-0.2 million). The container lines are continuing to use very aggressive pricing strategies to win market share in the reefer segment. The specialist reefer operators continue to fight back by highlighting the superior quality of the service they provide but the margins are being squeezed. The forecasted El Niño climatic event is expected to change the banana supply mix in the coming months from Ecuador/Central America. Siem Shipping is well positioned to adapt to the change in demand whilst continuing to provide a first-class service. The Company’s…

Norwegian company Siem Offshore has sold the platform supply vessel (PSV) “Siem Sasha”. It has delayed delivery of four of the nine platform support vessel (PSV) newbuildings it has under construction in Poland. The Oslo-listed company did not reveal financial details of the sale nor the client, but said the agreement was made at market terms. Siem Sasha is designed to carry out regular supply functions and cargo transport for the oil industry as well as Standby functions. The PSV was built in 2005. It is of VS 470 MK II design, 73, 4 meters long vessel and can accommodate 34 persons. The vessel had worked on a one-year contract for Nigeria’s Marine Platforms Limited since December 2013. This is Siem’s second vessel sale in the space of a month.

Cash-strapped ferry operator SNCM looks set to seek legal protection from its creditors after Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday it must pay back 220 million euros ($289 million) of French state aid. SNCM, owned 66 percent by transport group Transdev, has racked up losses as low-cost competitors have eaten away its market share and is fast running out of funds. Transdev - itself a joint venture between water and waste firm Veolia and French state bank CDC - has said it will…

Veolia Environnement, a global leader in water and waste management, has a little local difficulty: an ailing France-Corsica ferry operator that weighs on its shares, gives its CEO nightmares and puts the brakes on its strategic plans. At the end of 2012, new Chief Executive Antoine Frerot decided to get out of transport to focus Veolia on its higher-margin water, waste andenergy businesses, and agreed with state-owned Caisse des Depots (CDC) that it would gradually stake over Veolia's stake in their joint venture Transdev, which runs trains, buses and taxis in about 20 countries. CDC had one condition - that Veolia keep Transdev's 66 percent stake in Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee (SNCM), a loss-making ferry operator that once had a monopoly on France-Corsica routes.

The board of France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM on Monday voted out its chief executive who had sided with trade unions, allowing shareholder Veolia to retake control and restructure the loss-making firm. Veolia wants to put Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee under court protection to shield it from a European Commission order to repay 440 million euros ($605 million) of state aid and is looking for a buyer of a restructured SNCM. Transport firm Transdev - itself a 50-50 joint venture between Veolia and state-backed Caisse des Depots (CDC) - owns 66 percent of SNCM but Transdev has not been able to impose its will at SNCM because the ferry company's chief executive and board chairman have sided with its unions and ignored instructions of their employer.

French transport firm Transdev expects to return to profit this year, but sees no quick solution for its troubled Mediterranean ferry unit SNCM, which is blocking a reshuffle in Transdev shareholdings between Veolia and state-owned bank CDC. Transdev's 2013 net loss narrowed to 130 million euros ($179 million) from a restated 391 million loss in 2012. The loss was mainly due to 107 million euros worth of writedowns related to SNCM, which runs ferries between Corsica and mainland France. At the presentation of the firm's 2013 earnings, Transdev CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac said a partial sale of Veolia's 50 percent stake in Transdev to its joint-venture partner CDC remained conditional on the sale of Transdev's 66 percent stake in SNCM, as CDC does not want to take it over.