Cgt News

Shipments of refined products from French refinery and depots were blocked on Monday by a 13th day of strike action, though some refineries operated with a reduced flow, a company spokesperson said.The industrial action is part of a nationwide movement against pension system changes that lift the retirement age two years to 64. The changes were forced through parliament without a vote last week.There is an increasing expectation of diesel supply shortages in France and Europe as a result of the strike-caused outages…

Rhine river traffic came to a standstill in some places on Wednesday due to strikes against French government plans to raise the pension age, with sections of the river in France, Germany and Switzerland affected, a CGT union representative and Germany's Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSA) said.Around 1.28 million people in France had participated in a sixth day of protests on Tuesday against a draft law that would see the pension age delayed by two years to 64.A blockade at Strasbourg lock on the Rhine was cleared by police and an evacuation of the blockades at the Marckolsheim lock…

Workers at France's Port Jerome and Fos refineries, which are run by Exxon, have decided to go on strike, the CGT union wrote on a union blog page on Tuesday.Officials at Exxon in France could not be immediately reached for a comment.France's Prime Minister said earlier on Tuesday that the country was not at risk of a fuel shortage, despite the wave of protests against government plans to change the country's pensions system. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by Louise Heavens)

South Korean Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) reported its third-quarter net loss of 583.2 billion won (US$ 503.8 million), compared with a KRW80.30 billion loss in the same quarter a year earlier, staying in the red compared with a year ago.The loss widened sharply in the wake of a cancelled shipbuilding deal. Mitsui Ocean Development & Engineering Co. (MODEC) was recently selected as the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit supplier for the Barossa Project in Australia. The FPSO part of the project alone is estimated at US$1.5 billion.Earnings were also hurt as Transocean Ltd. (RIG) said in September a pair of its…

South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has won an order for a 174,000 cbm liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier.With the latest contract with a Greek shipowner, the shipbuilder has secured five orders in two weeks, worth a total 700 billion won ($616 million).According to HHI, the latest LNG carrier newbuild will be equipped with a Hi-ALS air lubrication system on the bottom of the hull to improve fuel consumption. The air lubrication system is expected to cut fuel consumption by eight percent.A report in Korea Times, earlier this month, Hyundai Heavy won orders to build an LNG carrier from a Japanese shipping company…

South Korean shipbuilders came in first worldwide in total new orders in February, outpacing Chinese rivals, Yonhap news agency said. It comes around 90 percent of the new vessel construction orders awarded in the month.According to the data compiled by industry tracker Clarkson Research Institute, Korean shipyards garnered new orders totaling 630,000 compensated gross tons (CGTs) in February to build eight ships (or 90 percent), out of the 700,000 CGTs (15 vessels).Third spot went to Japanese shipbuilders with 10-thousand CGT.In the first two months of 2019, Chinese shipbuilders won orders totaling 1.24 million CGTs (65 vessels or 41 percent)…

South Korea’s shipbuilding industry reclaimed the title of world’s biggest shipbuilder (in terms of orders volume) in 2018 for the first time in six years, since it had conceded No.1 spot to China in 2012.The global orders of Korean shipbuilders stood at 12.6 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT) last year, accounting for 44.2 percent of the total orders, according to Clarkson Research, shipbuilding and marine analysis agency in the U.K. The orders of Chinese shipbuilders were 9.1 million CGT, accounting for 32 percent of the total share.A report in Business Korea quoted Clarkson Research saying that  the major three South Korean shipbuilders made a remarkable progress last year in LNG carriers market.

South Korea maintained its number one ranking in the global shipbuilding market in July. The South Korean yards were responsible for almost half of all new orders placed in July 2018.According to Clarkson Research, Korea received orders in July totaling 970,000 compensated gross tonnage or CGT, a measure of work needed to build a vessel. That accounts for about fifty percent of the month's global shipbuilding orders.Yonhap reported that it is a sign of the industry's possible recovery after years of struggling with a global downturn.South Korea ranked first with new orders worth 4.96 million CGTs, or 115 vessels, in the first six months of this year, marking the first time in three years to be at the head of the pack in the first half.

The EU member states’ experts on ship recycling met in Brussels to discuss the latest developments, six months ahead of the application of the 2013 Ship Recycling Regulation. With the recent decision by the Chinese government to stop the import of end-of-life ships for scrapping, the shipping industry is quick to lament that there will not be enough recycling capacity and that there will be too few options for them under the EU List of approved recycling facilities. The industry claims that the standard set by the EU must be lowered so that beaching yards can be approved. As much as it is a pity that the Chinese yards who have already made efforts to be included on the List may now no longer be receiving EU-flagged ships for recycling…

While orders for new vessels have continued to decline worldwide in 2017, the situation in the German and European shipbuilding market is different, with an increase of incoming orders. As shipping experts state: “…this is not a trend but a snapshot, but it indicates a high competitiveness of the German shipbuilding industry, particularly on technologically advanced projects.”The global mood barometer of the maritime industry had reached its lowest point in 2016. From the abyss confidence and order have carefully increased…

South Korean shipyards emerged on top for new orders in April, Business Korea reported quoting industry data. The global total amount of new shipbuilding orders reached 750,000 CGT last month and 340,000 CGT and 260,000 CGT went to South Korean and Chinese shipbuilders, respectively. Japanese shipyard orders came to nil. In terms of numbers, Korean shipyards clinched new orders to build 12 ships. South Korea took the largest portion of very large crude oil carrier (VLCC) orders placed in quantity early last month, said the report. In the January-April period, South Korean shipyards secured 1.23 million CGTs worth of new orders to build 34 ships. China took the top slot with 1.43 million CGTs, or 78 ships, says HongKong Standard.

Bondholders at final meetings agree to debt-to-equity swap; shipbuilder needs about $400 mln in operating funds by April-end. South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd has won near unanimous agreement from bondholders to swap their debt for equity, meeting a condition that unlocks a $2.6 billion bank bailout for the world's biggest shipbuilder. Daewoo won approval from over 96 percent of bondholders at two meetings on Tuesday and three on Monday, with attendance exceeding 78 percent. The meetings came shortly after the shipbuilder won the approval of its biggest bondholder, the National Pension Service. "We will normalise the company as soon as possible through bone-grinding effort…

Port workers in Greater Rosario, from where 80 percent of Argentina's grains is shipped, suspended plans for a 24-hour strike on Thursday after a truck driver ran over and killed a protester, a union leader said. The driver drove through a line of protesters and had been drinking alcohol, according to local television reports. The workers had started a strike at midnight to protest recent layoffs and demand higher salaries in a range of professions related to port operations. "We are going to suspend the day of fighting that we had planned for today," Edgardo Quiroga, a delegate for the CGT union in San Lorenzo, north of Rosario, said in an interview with local radio.

Italian yard Rossinavi has launched its new 49.9-metre superyacht Endeavour II during a ceremony attended by 300 guests and shipyard staff. Known as project FR032, the yacht is built entirely out of aluminium to a design by Team 4 Design. Featuring exterior styling by Team For Design, naval architecture by Arrabito and interior décor by Salvagni Architetti, this displacement yacht comprises a total volume of less than 500GT. Up to 10 guests can sleep in the yatch , as well as a crew of 9. Performance wise she is powered by 2 x CGT/Caterpillar C32 Acert engines providing the yacht a maximum speed of 16 knots and a cruising speed of 12 knots. Designed for long range cruising, FR032 is fitted with twin diesel-electric engines that drive the two Rolls Royce azimuthing pods.

The Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), International Container Terminal Services, Inc.’s (ICTSI) flagship operation and the Philippines’ largest container terminal, capped 2016 with a milestone as it reached its first year-to-date two millionth TEU move last December. The MICT has an annual capacity of 2.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). The two millionth TEU container was offloaded from SITC Osaka, which is operated by Chinese megaliner SITC Container Lines. The container vessel originated from Ningbo in China. SITC is one of MICT’s longtime clients with regular vessel calls to the Port of Manila. MICT reached its first one million-TEU move back in December 2002. A ceremony held to commemorate the milestone was led by Christian R.

Containership demolition has reached an all time high, providing a positive surprise for the struggling container shipping sector. “The demolition activity in the last three months’ surprised BIMCO positively and it exceeded our initial expectation based on the appalling 2015 demolition activity,” said BIMCO’s Chief shipping analyst Peter Sand. “It is important that the demolition of excess capacity comes sooner rather than later, as there is still a huge delivery schedule hanging over the container shipping industry for the rest of this year and well into 2017-2018,” Sand said. According to BIMCO, so far 500,000 TEU have been scrapped in 2016. This is 4.2 times more TEU than the scrapping activity for the same months in 2015.

The global shipbuilding industry continued its downturn in 2015 with the number of new orders halved compared to 2013 level. The year 2016 is shaping up to be even worse. The “Big Three” shipbuilding nations China, Korea and Japan are major customers to the world leading maritime equipment and system producers from Germany. The fact that the domestic supply chain has been generating more than half of its sales within Europe will come in as an important stabilizing factor to weather the current storm: according to Clarksons Research…

Shipyards have become the next victim of the deteriorating conditions in the dry bulk, container and offshore markets as 2016 looks to set the record for the lowest newbuilding contracts in more than 20 years, according to international shipping association Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO). After a decline from 2010 to 2012, shipbuilding had a rebound in 2013 and was expected to level out over the next few years. The reality was a slight decline in 2014 and 2015, but still high levels of contracting measured by compensated gross tonnage (CGT).

A dramatic collapse in newbuild orders due to a weak market environment across all shipping sectors is putting pressure on the global shipbuilding industry, says Teekay Corporation. Just 7.2 million compensated gross tones (CGT) of new orders have been placed through the first eight months of the year, by far the lowest year for new orders since at least the early 1990s, and possibly longer (accurate orderbook data is patchy pre-1996). The problem for the yards is that global shipbuilding capacity is far higher than it was in the past, at approximately 50 million CGT per year vs. 15-20 million CGT per year in the 1990s. The current lack of new orders is therefore having a greater impact on shipyards…

French CGT trade union port workers will join a nationwide strike against French labor reforms on Sept. 15, the union said on Monday, a move that could disrupt oil, grains and other commodities shipment at French ports. The hardline CGT union led rolling nationwide strikes against the labor reform between April and June against the reform which they said will curb workers rights and make it easier for companies fire workers. The union has demanded that the law be withdrawn. The rolling strikes had disrupted fuel and other supplies at French ports, provoking panic buying and fuel shortages across the country. Reporting by Valerie Parent

France's CGT union is calling for a nationwide port strike on June 23 and June 28 as part of ongoing protests against the government's labour reform bill, the union said in a statement on Wednesday.   Port workers have participated in rolling nationwide strikes in recent weeks, notably disrupting activity at the oil terminal in Le Havre, northern France, which handles about 40 percent of French crude imports.   Tuesday saw a latest day of nationwide demonstrations against the labour reform, including protests in Paris marked by violent clashes between police and youths.   (Reporting by Valerie Parent, writing by Gus Trompiz)

Workers at Elengy's three liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in France have voted to stage two 24-hour strikes on Thursday and next Tuesday as part of nationwide protests against a labour reform bill, a CGT union official said on Wednesday. The strikes will halt unloading of LNG tankers and reduce production of gas for the grid to minimum levels, the official told Reuters. A previous stoppage last month had already disrupted activity at the terminals before unloading operations resumed last Friday, the official said.

Preliminary work got underway on Monday to restart three of Total's French oil refineries stopped as part of nationwide strikes against planned changes to employment laws, but workers were still on strike at the country's two main oil ports. Workers voted to end a strike at Grandpuits near Paris and preliminary work on resuming operations was underway there and at the Normandy refinery, as well as at the Feyzin refinery in the southern Rhone region, a Total spokesman said. Total operates five of the country's eight refineries. The Donges refinery on France's western coast was still blocked by about 30 members of the hardline CGT union, which is leading the campaign of stoppages and protests in the rail and energy sectors against the government's labour reforms.