Malacca Straits News

The United States is conducting two military exercises in Asian waters this week involving allies Japan, Australia and India, the U.S. navy said on Tuesday.The exercises come as military rivalry between the United States and China is intensifying and days after the United States said China’s claims of sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea were illegal.The United States has long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims on the South China Sea, sending warships regularly through the strategic waterway to demonstrate freedom of navigation.China opposes such exercises and said the U.S.

Stena Line’s "next-generation" ferry Stena Estrid has arrived in Holyhead after completing sea trials and a five-week, 10,000 mile journey from China to the Irish Sea where she will begin service early next year on her inaugural route from Dublin to Holyhead.Designed by Deltamarin and constructed at the China Merchants Jinling Shipbuilding Weihai Shipyard in China, Stena Estrid is the first of Stena RoRo’s nine next-generation E-Flexer Ro-Pax vessels in a series which include five for Stena Line and several additional vessels that will be on long-term charter for other ferry operators.

European ferry operator Stena Line announced that its newest ferry Stena Estrid has departed the AVIC Weihai Shipyard in north-western China, bound for its new home on the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland.Manned by a much-reduced crew of 27, with no passengers on board, the ship will travel on a journey of well over 10,000 miles, taking just over one month and making a number of stops on the way.Stena Estrid is the first of five next generation Stena Line RoPax vessels to be completed at the shipyard and is now en route to Wales from where it will start service in January on the Holyhead to Dublin route.The first stage of the voyage is a week-long 2…

Vietnam has extended an Indian oil concession in the South China Sea and begun drilling in another area it disputes with China in moves that could heighten tensions over who owns what in the vital maritime region. The moves come at a delicate time in Beijing's relations with Vietnam, which claims parts of the sea, and India, which recently sent warships to monitor the Malacca Straits, through which most of China's energy supplies and trade passes. Vietnam granted Indian oil firm ONGC Videsh a two-year extension to explore oil block 128 in a letter that arrived earlier this week, the state-run company's managing director Narendra K. Verma told Reuters.

Global shipping is still feeling the effects of a cyber attack that hit A.P. Moller-Maersk two days ago, showing the scale of the damage a computer virus can unleash on the technology dependent and inter-connected industry. About 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea, with ships and ports acting as the arteries of the global economy. Ports increasingly rely on communications systems to keep operations running smoothly, and any IT glitches can create major disruptions for complex logistic supply chains. The cyber attack was among the biggest-ever disruptions to hit global shipping.

After the first OPEC oil production cut in eight years took effect in January, oil traders from Houston to Singapore started emptying millions of barrels of crude from storage tanks. Investors hailed the drawdowns as the beginning of the end of a two-year supply glut - raising hopes for steadily rising per-barrel prices. It hasn't worked out that way. Now, many of those same storage tanks are filling back up or draining more slowly than investors and oil firms had expected, according…

Indonesian Navy arrested six alleged pirates attempting to hijack a foreign-operated tanker near the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest trade routes,  reports The Jakarta Post. Six suspected pirates operating in the Malacca Straits were caught by Western Fleet Quick Response Team of Tanjung Pinang base on Monday in Batam waters in Riau Islands. The group was suspected of plotting attacks on tankers passing through eastern Malaysia. The Tanjung Pinang Navy base commander, Comm. S. Irawan, said the arrest came about following a tip-off from an informant with information about criminal activities in the Malacca Straits. Irawan said that the team followed it up by intercepting the group at sea. The team managed to detain the boat, which had the six suspects on it.

According to PGI’s Risk Portal, there were at least 81 incidents of piracy or attempted piracy in or around the Singapore and Malacca Straits between April 2015 and April 2016. The majority of these incidents have occurred on the western approach to the narrow waterway, indicative of the heightened risk of piracy in surrounding waters. The actual number of incidents is likely higher, given that many are thought to go unreported. The high-level of piracy in surrounding waters presents security considerations for travel to and from Singapore’s port. Protection Vessels International Comment: Levels of piracy in the Singapore Strait region have continued to increase since 2015 with a spike of attacks on vessels while underway.

India has inked a deal with the US defence and aerospace giant Boeing to procure four more Poseidon-8I (P-8I) long-range surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft ( submarine hunter planes) worth $1 billion. According to industry sources, the current deal is valued at around $1 billion, making it the biggest deal signed by the ministry so far in this financial year. The four aircraft will be delivered to the Navy within three years, sources said. With this deal, the total value of defence deals signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around $15 billion. The P-8I aircraft is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft that Boeing developed as a replacement for the US Navy’s ageing P-3 fleet and has been procured through a direct commercial sale.

Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have agreed to conduct coordinated maritime patrols as part of a broader plan to tackle rising security challenges in the waters bordering the three countries, report local media. This plan was sent in a joint statement following the trilateral meeting among Philippines' National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Malaysia Defense Minister Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein and Indonesia Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu in Manila. They also agreed in principle to have the armed forces of the three countries exercise greater coordination in conducting relevant security and maritime activities. During the meeting, the three officials discussed the recent incidents of kidnappings and armed robbery at sea in common maritime areas.

Satellite images show China may be installing a high-frequency radar system in the Spratly Islands that could significantly boost its ability control the disputed South China Sea, a U.S. think tank reported on Monday. The Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said the images showed that construction of facilities at Cuarteron Reef appeared nearly complete and that the artificial island now covered an area of about 52 acres (21 hectares).

Satellite images show China may be installing a high-frequency radar system in the Spratly Islands that could significantly boost its ability control the disputed South China Sea, a U.S. think tank reported on Monday. The Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies said the images showed that construction of facilities at Cuarteron Reef appeared nearly complete and that the artificial island now covered an area of about 52 acres (21 hectares). China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

A hydrographic survey of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS) was launched today by the three littoral States - Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore - and the Malacca Straits Council of Japan at the Marina South Pier. This initiative was one of the key recommendations that arose from a study conducted by OMC International Pty Ltd - a maritime engineering consultant - commissioned by the littoral States of the SOMS in 2013 on real-time monitoring of under keel clearance in the SOMS. The data from the survey will be used to produce large-scale Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) covering five areas in the Straits critical to navigation.

The Singapore-flagged Ocean Energy was hijacked in the Straits of Malacca on Saturday and fuel siphoned from tanker. According to a report from the Southeast Asian piracy watchdog ReCAAP, the taker bound for Myanmar is the fifth to be targeted by robbers since the start of 2015. At 2130 hrs on Saturday eight perpetrators armed with guns boarded the vessel whilst it was heading up the Straits of Malacca. The pirates ordered the ship to anchor off Port Dickson and a barge came alongside. The Master and crew were locked away and a reported 2023 MT of Marine Gas Oil was siphoned off. The perpetrators left the vessel at about 0430 hrs on Sunday morning, after damaging the ship’s communication equipment and took away the ship’s Iridium phone, the crew’s cash and mobile phones.

Specialist marine insurance intermediary Seacurus has launched a petro-piracy endorsement for ships operating in the South China Sea, Malacca Straits, Indonesian Archipelago and Gulf of Guinea. South-East Asia accounted for three-quarters of global maritime piracy last year, according to figures published by the International Maritime Bureau. A surge in tanker hijackings helped fuel a 22 per cent jump in armed robbery and pirate attacks on ships in the region. There were 183 actual and attempted incidents of piracy and robbery in South-East Asian waters last year, compared to 150 in 2013. Denis Nifontov, Head of Marine K&R at Seacurus, believes these numbers will hold steady in 2015.

With progress being made against piracy off Somalia, it seems that other maritime security issues are becoming top line issues for shipowners. The Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI), is a global focal point for maritime security matters, and is well placed to highlight the current maritime security concerns, those which are over the horizon and the initiatives which are being rolled out to counter the threats and mitigate the risks. While there has been a degree of containment of Indian Ocean piracy…

Piracy’s gone away, right? You’d be forgiven for thinking that. The predominant narrative for the Indian Ocean is that Piracy has been suppressed to an extent that ship-owners are requesting fewer guards, even unarmed in some cases. Certainly private security team composition has adjusted beneath the “rule of four” and the nationality of guards has shifted significantly away from the UK only model. But given the recent attacks in South East Asia and the prevailing amount of maritime crime and piracy off the Gulf of Guinea…

The guide will offer comprehensive, practical and authoritative information for Chinese cargo ships for sailing through the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage, to Europe, reports China Daily, citing Zhai Jiugang, deputy head of the Ministry of Transport's Maritime Safety Administration. The new route can save Chinese cargo ships 5,186 kilometers and nine days from the traditional voyage to Europe, which goes through the Malacca Straits and the Suez Canal. The guide elaborates on such things as the Northern Sea Route's nautical charts, sailing methods, ice-breaking providers and Arctic geography and climate, as well as laws and regulations of countries along the route…

Recently developed commercial tidal models developed by applied oceanography specialist Tidetech for online viewing. The online viewer – OceanView – is an entry-level version of the company’s tidal models, viewable on any internet browser and on internet capable mobile devices. OceanView offers a highly detailed and accurate tidal current atlas featuring tidal current predictions at 1km resolution for every 30 minutes. Other features include latitude and longitude, place names, scale showing speed of current in knots (no interpolation necessary), and shipping lanes for easy reference.

Network will facilitate a coordinated response to a major problem, utilizing the latest interactive web-based tools to offer the maritime sector “security through community”. CSO Alliance, a global digital network dedicated to serving Company Security Officers (CSOs), has been launched to provide a ‘real time’ coordinated approach to the increasingly multi-faceted fight against maritime crime. The community is designed to utilize the latest online and interactive tools to enable maritime CSOs to meet, share market intelligence, and assess the mutual risks their crews and assets face on a daily basis in multiple regions. CSO Alliance shares valuable human insight and transposes it within a private and secure platform where over 12…

Singapore to chair the Aids to Navigation Fund (ANF) Committee from 2013 to 2015, & hosts the 10th Meeting of the ANF Committee. The ANF, one of the three pillars under the Co-operative Mechanism on Safety of Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS), was established in 2007 to fund the renewal and maintenance of aids to navigation in the SOMS. In connection with the recent meeting, Singapore has signed a Letter of Acknowledgement with the Republic of Korea to affirm the latter's commitment to the ANF for another three years, following its contributions from 2009 to 2012. At the welcome reception organised to acknowledge the contributors to the ANF…

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office's (UKHO) security charts are designed to protect against risks, including piracy. The two new Admiralty Maritime Security Charts, cover the waters around India and Southeast Asia, including the Malacca Straits. These paper charts provide a single point of reference for recording the most up-to-date security information and, taken together with the UKHO’s three existing security and piracy charts, create the world’s first suite of security planning charts. Admiralty Maritime Security Charts are designed to be used by ship personnel, shore-based managers and security specialists as a key voyage planning tool for recording the latest security-critical navigational information…

Tidetech and NAPA have agreed the supply of tidal current prediction data for ship optimisation fuel saving, initially for South East Asia and UK–Europe. Tidetech applies the science of oceanography to create data models that benefit commercial shipping – cruise ships, ferries, container ships, tankers – and offshore operations. Following a successful three-month trial aboard a 8,530DWT cruise ship – using Tidetech’s Singapore and Malacca Straits models – the agreement includes developing an expanded data model to cover the vessel’s full operating area of Phuket…