Sina News

China first domestically developed aircraft carrier looks set to begin sea trials after pictures appeared on the Chinese internet on Monday of it leaving its dock in the northeastern port of Dalian. The still-unnamed carrier was launched this time last year but since then has been undergoing fitting of weapons and other systems and has not yet entered service. Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing an ambitious military modernisation scheme, including stealth jets and anti-satellite missiles, as China ramps up its presence in the disputed South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan, an island it considers its own. Online Chinese news portals…

Eleven Chinese warships sailed into the East Indian Ocean this month, a Chinese news portal said, amid a constitutional crisis in the tiny tropical island chain of the Maldives now under a state of emergency. A fleet of destroyers and at least one frigate, a 30,000-tone amphibious transport dock and three support tankers entered the Indian Ocean, news portal Sina.com.cn said, without linking the deployment to the crisis in the Maldives or giving a reason. "If you look at warships and other equipment, the gap between the Indian and Chinese navy is not large," Sina.com.cn said on Sunday. It did not say when the fleet was deployed or for how long.

For the first time in Europe, Public Prosecutors are bringing criminal charges against a ship owner – Seatrade – for having sold vessels to scrap yards in countries “where current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and pollute the environment”. The case is being heard in a Rotterdam Court this week, and the Dutch Public Prosecutor calls for a hefty fine (2.35 mill EUR) and confiscation of the profits Seatrade made on the illegal sale of four ships, as well as a six month prison sentence for three of Seatrade’s top executives. Seatrade is based in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is the largest reefer operator in the world.

Contship Italia Spa, also on behalf of Eurogate GmbH & Co. KGaA, KG, recently signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.) with Sina Port & Marine Company (SPMCO), part of SINA Group which is one of the largest Iranian companies, with interests in various economic activities, such as health care, pension, banking, logistic infrastructure, ports and maritime activities as well as manufacturing and insurance. SPMCO is a public company, organized and existing under Iranian law. SPMCO is the largest port operator in Iran (listed in the Teheran stock exchange) and affiliate company of Bonyad Mostafazan Foundation (BMF) known also as BOBACO which was established in 1997 and is today  one of the largest holding company of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the Islamic Republic will soon launch a new domestically-manufactured submarine. "The Navy's new submarine will be launched soon," Iran's state-run news agency quoted Rear Admiral Sayyari as saying. The Submarine 'Fateh' (triumphant) was tested in a joint military forces maneuver in January 2015. Iran is also working on a new destroyer and expressed hope that the vessel would join the Navy by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19, 2016), he said. The Iranian Navy commander noted that the new destroyer is armed with "a collection of missiles and torpedoes" and will be displayed to the public soon. The new destroyer features a variety of new military equipment and weapons.

Nils S. Andersen, Maersk Group CEO in Q & A session with members of Chinese social media network Sina Weibo. During the CEO's recent visit to China, he engaged with Maersk employees, industry professionals, students, and general public in a new way - through Sina Weibo, the most popular Chinese social media platform with over 250 million users. ‘It’s exciting for me to be able to reach so many of you directly here today thanks to new technology,’ said Mr. Andersen when greeting Maersk Group’s Weibo followers on video. One week ahead of Mr. Andersen’s visit, a post on the Maersk Group Weibo main page asked followers to post questions for him to answer. Feedback was very positive and hundreds of questions were raised. In a video interview, Mr.

Iran will build 10 new frigates and destroyers, according to Navy deputy chief Rear Adm. Abbas Zamini The new ships include a Mowj-1 class destroyer, launched in 2010, and Velayat, a Mowj-2 class destroyer, whose construction is 70 percent complete and will finish by the end of the current year.. The new projects also include Mowj and Sina-class destroyers and guided missile frigates, Zamini said. The Iranian Navy floated out its first domestically built destroyer, Jamaran, in February 2010. This 1,420-ton destroyer is equipped with modern radar systems and other electronic warfare capabilities and has a speed of up to 30 knots. Equipped with a helipad it also features highly advanced anti-aircraft, anti-surface and anti-subsurface systems.

Tidewater Regional Transit (TRT), Norfolk, Va., operates mass transit in the Hampton Roads area. It includes three passenger ferries that transport nearly 500,000 people per year across the Elizabeth River between downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va. Like other mass transit providers, TRT receives federal, state and local funds and is encouraged to use alternative fuels to reduce dependence on foreign oil and help improve the environment. But unlike any other transit authority, TRT is successfully operating the world's first passenger ferry powered exclusively by natural gas. The idea to convert one of TRT's diesel-powered ferries to natural gas resulted from a 1989 meeting with representatives of Virginia Natural Gas to discuss bus fuel conversion.