East India News

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) and the Port of Duqm Company, which oversees port management and terminal operations in Oman, signed a memorandum of understanding at Duqm Economic Forum 2025 to collaborate in the development and connectivity of the port of Duqm.NYK has positioned the Middle East as one of its key strategic regions. On April 1, 2022, NYK established its Middle East region head in Dubai to deepen its regional strategy and enable more agile business development across the area.Oman…

RightBridge Ventures Group has announced a proposed reverse acquisition of Swemar, which has entered into an agreement to acquire an offshore oil service company with operations across the Middle East, India, and South-East Asia.The company to be acquired by Swemar operates a fleet comprising Anchor Handler Tug Supply (AHTS) vessels and crew transportation vessels. It owns three vessels outright and operates an additional five to ten vessels under charter or management agreements.The acquisition marks a strategic first step toward establishing a strong maritime presence in Asia.

The offshore rig market recovery appears to have taken a pause, with demand tapering off and marketed utilization hitting the lowest levels recorded since recovery began in 2021. A variety of factors have contributed to this – including Saudi Aramco’s suspension of over 30 jackup contracts by up to one year, the entry of newbuild rigs into the market without work to go to, and the deferment of several long-term deepwater drilling and plug and abandonment projects.The unexpected…

Fugro’s Board of Management has appointed Annabelle Vos as Group Director for the Middle East & India, effective January 1, 2025.Vos has been part of the Fugro family since 2016, when she joined as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Prior to joining Fugro, Vos worked in private practice for 11 years at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, a tier-one law firm in the Netherlands, in their M&A and corporate litigation practice groups. Vos holds a Master of Law degree from Leiden…

Oceans worldwide hold untold riches hidden beneath the waves. Now treasure hunters are using  cutting-edge technology to explore them, discovering some of history's most treasured sunken finds from Caribbean waters to Arctic depths rewriting maritime history and uncovering fortunes lost at sea.According to estimates by marine archaeologists and treasure hunting experts, the value of treasure lying beneath the waves could range anywhere between $60 billion to over $100 billion.

South Korea’s KT Marine has welcomed its new vessel, a Fast Ferry 4212 named Hamel, delivered by Dutch shipbuilder Damen.KT Marine placed its order for the vessel earlier this year. Hamel will transport up to 423 passengers at speeds of up to 40 knots.The vessel will operate a route between Yeosu Harbour and Geomundo Island. Hamel is the seventh Damen Fast Ferry, and the fifth Fast Ferry 4212, to be delivered to South Korea in recent years.The Fast Ferry 4212 features catamaran design, built at Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam.

Lighting solutions specialist Glamox said Wednesday that Tommy Stranden would replace Håkon Helmersen as Chief Sales & Commercial Officer for Glamox’s Marine, Offshore, and Wind (MOW) division.Stranden (46) is the general manager for MOW’s Northern Europe business. He joined Glamox from NOV in January 2018 and has led MOW’s Northern European business with international responsibilities for Scandinavia, the UK, the Middle East, India, Africa, Australia, and South America. He will report to Astrid Simonsen Joos, Group CEO of Glamox, and join the Glamox Group Leadership Team.

Russia said on Sept. 21 that it had temporarily banned gasoline and diesel exports to all but four ex-Soviet states in response to domestic shortages, a move that will disrupt global trade that has already had to adjust to Western sanctions on Russian fuel exports.Russia eased some of the restrictions on Sept. 25, saying it would allow the export of bunkering fuel for some vessels and diesel with high sulphur content. The government has yet to give a timeline for any further easing…

The city of Haifa is set to become an increasingly significant east Mediterranean shipping hub, with Chinese and Indian firms buying into its ports as Israel normalizes ties with its Gulf Arab neighbors under a U.S. diplomatic push.Earlier this month, as U.S. President Joe Biden visited the Middle East, India's largest port developer Adani Ports and Israeli minority partner Gadot agreed to buy Haifa Port for 4.1 billion shekels ($1.18 billion).Its founder, Asia's richest man Gautam Adani…

Singapore has held onto its spot atop the list of the world's best maritime cities, according to a recent report from classification society DNV and Menon Economics.The 2022 edition of the Leading Maritime Cities (LMC) report launched Thursday provides fresh insights into which global hubs offer the best infrastructure, technology, finance, and world-class talent, to help the maritime community connect and prosper.There have been many dramatic developments since the last edition of the LMC report was published in 2019. For one, we are still living with the pandemic.

Longtime Maersk executive Jack Mahoney has been named president and CEO of Westwood Shipping Lines, Inc., a Puyallup, Wash. based independent conbulk liner carrier in the north Transpacific trade. He succeeds Guy Stephenson who is retiring after 13 years in the role. Stephenson will continue in a support role as Executive Advisor/General Counsel.Mahoney’s recent posts with Maersk include three years as President of Maersk in Canada and, more recently, he has been Vice President of the Automotive Industry in Florham Park…

Port of Hamburg welcomed the ‘AAL Kembla’ on her first call in Germany’s largest universal port. She berthed at C. Steinweg’s multi-purpose Süd-West-Terminal.AAL Shipping is deploying the heavy-lift/project cargo ship on its new monthly liner service connecting ports in Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia. The service is overseen by AAL’s Hamburg office, opened in 2012, which also offers tailormade tramp chartering shipping to all regions in the world. Built in 2011, the ‘AAL Kembla’ is one of the carrier’s second generation A-class multi-purpose, heavy-lift vessels. She is 193.81 meters long and 29.1 meters wide, with a draft of 9.2 meters. The vessel has four shipboard cranes and a maximum lift capacity of 700 tons.

The  global ocean transport operator AAL Shipping has launched a new Europe-Middle East/India-Asia Monthly Liner Service to serve the market’s multipurpose vessels (MPPs) and project heavy lift cargo transport requirements.The new service, which connects main ports between Europe, Middle East/India and Asia, harnesses AAL’s second generation 31,000-dwt mega-size A-Class fleet, renowned for its 40,000-cu m cargo intake capacity 700-tonne lift ability.The new liner service will follow a fixed route, with port call flexibility. Base ports will include Antwerp, Porto Marghera, Jebel Ali, Dammam, Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai, Tianjin and Masan.

In the 2019 first half, 106,000 TEU - 20-ft standard containers - were handled in Hamburg on direct services with Indian ports, a gain of 17 percent. This brought India up into tenth place in Hamburg’s ranking of its trading partners for container transport.With Hapag Lloyd and its partner shipowners ONE, YML and COSCO offering an additional weekly sailing from Hamburg on the IEX - South-East India–Europe Express service from November onwards, the prospects for further growth are good.Ten liner services link the Port of Hamburg with India. Of these, four are container liner services, three are Ro-Ro services transporting vehicles, and three are general cargo services…

German-based cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG expects Indian container market to grow further and it launches two new services."In response to growing demand, Hapag-Lloyd will offer more services from and to India. Two new services, the South East India - Europe Express (IEX) and the Middle East-India-Africa Express (MIAX), will enter into operation in October," the shipper said.Both the IEX and the MIAX will further strengthen and optimize Hapag-Lloyd’s market-leading position in India and connect the country even more closely to North Europe and Africa.“We believe in serving the needs of all Indian customers. To do that…

India's container trade growth slowed to 1 percent (9% in the same period last year) in Q2 2019 on account of various factors like growing trade tensions and slump in manufacturing sector, Maersk said."The slow down is due to a cocktail of international factors such as slowing trade growth, and growing trade tensions – coupled with domestic factors like rural consumer distress, tightening liquidity and a slow-down in key manufacturing sectors. Combined, these triggers impacted the country’s economic activity, slowing overall import-export growth," said Maersk India Trade Report Q2 2019.India’s exports to China declined by 20%, led by a reduction in demand for India-made textiles &  apparel, which were large export commodities in the corresponding period last year.

Taiwanese ocean shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation enhances its Intra-Asia service network by launching a new Japan–Thailand service (JT1) effective from September 11th, 2019.The JT1 service will call at Shimizu, Tokyo, Yokohama, Pusan, Laem Chabang. It will directly link Laem Chabang with Japanese ports and Pusan.The new weekly service will be added to Yang Ming’s network through a space swap program with Ocean Network Express Pte. Ltd.With the launch of JT1 complementing the existing two Japan–Thailand services, JTC and JTX, Yang Ming will provide customers with more convenient and reliable services between Japan and Thailand.Yang Ming will also launch a new service, East India and North Europe Express (code: IEX).

Over recent years the United Arab Emirates has emerged as an important maritime hub with grand ambitions. Mark Venables visited the region to discover what is driving that growth.When the UAE was elected to the IMO Council as a Category B member, it immediately raised its profile within the maritime community. The Emirates have taken a significant step forward in the maritime world.Despite this success, the region remains a challenging market for shipping and logistics. One of…

The Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg will sail again with support from the shipping agency Greencarrier Group, which has announced that it will take the full operational and financial responsibility for the ship for the next two years.The Nordic's largest privately-owned transport company said in a press release that it is underwriting the sailing of the East Indiaman Götheborg replica from its home at the Port of Gothenburg.According to the sources, the ship is a copy of the East Indiaman that ran aground in 1745 and sank at Hunnebådan at the entrance to the port. In 1986, a team of marine archaeologists began excavating the original…

Ocean Network Express (ONE)  announced the launch of a new direct service, the Indian Ocean Service 3 (IO3), which covers South East India, Mediterranean, and North Europe.The new product will offer new port coverage and boost reliability to a wider range of direct port call options to ONE’s valued customers, the Japanese container shipping company said in a press release.It will also further expand ONE’s already comprehensive service offerings and allow its clients to enjoy greater choice while bringing efficiency and additional values to the supply chain, the release added.The first sailing of the loop is now expected to start from…

Container lines Ocean Network Express (ONE) is launching a new service covering Africa, India and the Middle East (AIM).The new product will broaden ONE’s already expansive global coverage by offering direct port calls between West Africa, South Africa and key locations in West Asia.The new service will offer market leading transit times between the West Asian ports of Jebel Ali, Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Colombo and African ports of Durban, Cape Town, Tema, Tincan and Apapa.The AIM Service, launched through a joint cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, will commence from October 2019 with 9 ships of nominal 2,800 TEU. Hapag-Lloyd adds it as Middle East-India-Africa Express (MIAX)."With MIAX…

The international oil & gas advisory and classification society DNV GL has won a major contract to provide independent verification services for the Danish transmission system operator Energinet’s section of the Baltic Pipe project, offshore Denmark.The Baltic Pipe project aims to enable the transport of gas from Norway from a tie-in to the existing Europipe II in the Danish North Sea to the export facility in Zealand. The pipeline in the Baltic Sea towards Poland is not included in the contract. The Baltic Pipe project is planned to be fully operational by 1 October 2022.DNV GL’s contract scope includes independent verification and submarine pipeline certification to the DNV GL certification regime DNVGL-SE-0475.

Maersk Line, the world's largest shipping company, announced the expansion of its product portfolio between Europe's Mediterranean region and Canada to cater for the growing demands of importers and exporters on both sides of the Atlantic. The exclusive, fully Maersk Line-operated weekly service will be a five-vessel rotation stopping in Salerno and La Spezia (Italy), Fos-sur-Mer (France), Algeciras (Spain), Montreal and Halifax (Canada), and Valencia (Spain). Other Mediterranean markets will also be conveniently connected to the new service thanks to our integrated transhipment services in Algeciras and Valencia, with consistent products to/from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.