Car Carrier Still Burning off Dutch Coast as Hunt for Cause Begins
A burning car carrier was drifting off the Dutch coast on Thursday, the coastguard said, a day after the Panamanian-registered ship caught alight, causing the death of an Indian crew member and injuring several others.The 199-metre (653 ft) Fremantle Highway caught fire overnight Tuesday and several of the 23 crew jumped overboard to escape the flames and were rescued by the Dutch coastguard.The coastguard said on its website Thursday the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying "the fire started in the battery o
Ship Carrying 3,000 Cars Burns off Dutch Coast, One Dead
A fire blazed on a cargo ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased.
Netherlands to Join French-led Strait of Hormuz Naval Mission
The Netherlands will contribute a ship to a French-led naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz for a six-month period starting in January, Dutch news agency ANP said on Monday, citing government sources.On Saturday, the Dutch parliament said the initiative could start early next year and around 10 European and non-European governments would join, pending parliamentary approvals.France has pushed for a European security alternative in the Strait of Hormuz after ruling out joining a U.S.-led coalition protecting oil tankers and cargo ships from threats posed by Iran in the strategic waterway. (Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Mark Heinrich
Dutch Insurers Want Security Guards
Last year the number of cases of piracy off the coasts of East and West Africa doubled, with 800 crew members being taken hostage, NRC.informs 'Dutch News'. The Netherlands' government does not allow ship owners to hire armed guards but it does provide soldiers as protection. However, the two organisations say there are not enough of them to protect all the ships sailing in the area. Other countries, such as Cyprus and Malta, do allow their ships to employ armed guards and the organisations say this will lead to Dutch ships choosing to sail under foreign flags which would be detrimental to the government as ship owners pay their tax to the country under whose flag they sail. Piracy costs insurers and ship owners a great deal, in ransom money, repairs to ships and damaged goods.
A.P. Moeller Shares Bounce Back
Danish A.P. Moeller shares rebounded on Friday after news of its purchase of Dutch tug and salvage company Wijsmuller Group Holding on Thursday, brokers said. The two A P Moeller stocks, D/S 1912 and D/S Svendborg, traded at 69,500 crowns ($7,898) and 91,500 crowns respectively, 2.2 percent and 1.7 percent up from Thursday's close. The Copenhagen bourse's top 20 index KFX was down 0.4 percent at 316.15. Moeller shares have underperformed the KFX index by more than three percent the past 10 days, dented by news that Morgan Stanley within a year would cut the conglomerate's weight in its Denmark index. "The shares are rebounding on the Dutch news and it seems foreign sale pressure in the shares has faded," a trader said.
