Eastern Asia News

Attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea have hit world trade. Between November and December 2023, the number of containers travelling through the Red Sea each day fell by 60% as ships moving goods between Asia and Europe diverted their routes around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.This route results in at least ten days more sailing time, so has caused freight prices to surge and has triggered costly delays to production. The region has become a bottleneck for the global economy before.

Optimarin, the ballast water treatment (BWT) specialist, has reported a year-on-year increase in sales of more than 100% for Q3, with order intake at an all-time high. The growth, consolidating the trend seen in Q2, comes on the back of a number of new fleet agreements with leading owners and operators, of which Singapore’s Asiatic Lloyd Shipmanagement LLP is the latest signing. “September’s IMO D2 deadline for BWT compliance has created, quite rightly, a sense of urgency in the market…

Abu Dhabi Ports on Monday inaugurated the new Cosco Shipping Container Terminal at Khalifa with a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).The new CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, which includes the largest container freight station in the Middle East, is expected to boost Abu Dhabi’s position as a global maritime hub and support China’s One Belt One Road initiative.CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal is the first international green-field subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Ports; water depth of the semi-automatic terminal is 16.5 metres which allow it to accommodate megavessels typically in excess of 20,000 TEU, said a stock exchange annoucement.With an annual design capacity of 2.5 million TEU…

The first Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker “Christophe de Margerie” has entered the Kara Sea and has started its first LNG cargo voyage through the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The subleased tanker will go through the NSR without the escort of icebreakers and will deliver LNG from Norway to South Korea in 15 days. The utilization of the route from Europe to Eastern and South-Eastern Asia through the NSR halves the transportation time to market compared to the traditional route. The start of LNG shipments through the NSR with the ARC7 ice-class tanker will help to increase cargo turnovers and develop navigation in Arctic Ocean. Currently, the navigation routes for high-tonnage ships through the NSR have already being used and tested, providing security and efficiency of navigation.

Thordon Bearings’ Jacksonville-based distributor Coppedge Marine has secured an order with Tropical Shipping for the COMPAC seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system. The COMPAC systems destined for two 300TEU box ships under construction in China, at the Guangzhou Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard, will represent a first reference for COMPAC with this ship owner. “Tropical Shipping is a long-standing customer to whom we have supplied various Thordon equipment over the years,” said Ed Coppedge, Vice-President, Coppedge Marine.

Austal celebrated the christening of Expeditionary Fast Transport ship USNS City of Bismarck (EPF 9) with a ceremony at its state-of-the-art shipyard on May 13. City of Bismarck is the ninth of 12 Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels (EPF) that Austal has under contract with the U.S. Navy as part of a contract worth over $1.9 billion. The ship’s sponsor, Congresswoman Jane Harman, headlined the group of officials, naval guests, civic leaders, community members and Austal employees who attended the ceremony beneath the hull of the ship in Austal’s final assembly bay. “Austal USA is having tremendous success with the EPF program. We are delivering two ships a year and watching these great ships deploy in less than a year of delivery.

Sea ice in the Arctic is still too thick for Northwest Passage commercial shipping route in spite of warming temperatures. This is according to new research from York University. Despite climate change, Arctic sea ice remains too thick and treacherous, says the study, “Ice Thickness in the Northwest Passage,” published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on September 25, 2015. Scientists with York University carried out electromagnetic ice thickness surveys during April and May in 2011 and 2015 to measure the thickness of sea ice over the Northwest Passage — “a system of gulfs, straits, sounds, and channels in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago connecting the Beaufort Sea in the west with Baffin Bay in the east,” according to researchers.

On 12 February 2010, the container ship Maersk Sydney called at the Port of Hamburg for the first time as part of the Maersk Line’s expanded AE-10 scheduled liner service. This liner service links the ports of Shenzhen (Dachan Bay), Ningbo, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Shenzhen (Yantian), Hong Kong and Tanjung Pelepas with continental Europe. A recent addition is the inclusion of Hamburg as a port of call for the AE-10 service. The service also calls the Baltic Sea ports of Arhus, Gothenburg and Gdansk.

"Bourbon's performance for the year 2008 reflects strong growth in the offshore activities, keeping pace with deliveries of new vessels, with the renewal of old contracts and the use of outside charters when requested by our customers," said Jacques de Chateauvieux, Bourbon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Bourbon's 2008 annual revenues totaled $1,205m, up 21% (+28.5% at constant exchange rates). The activity of both Divisions is still affected by the dollar trend, which became favorable again starting in the 4th quarter. In the 4th quarter of 2008, revenues rose by 30.3% (+23.5% at constant exchange rates). Bourbon now conducts 95% of its business abroad. The Offshore portion is up and accounted for 81% of the group's revenues in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Vietnam's fledgling shipbuilding industry has raised its international profile by entering into a seminal agreement with the UK's Graig Group for the construction of a series of double-hulled bulk carriers. Cardiff-based Graig's bold move, potentially entailing 15 vessels of the Diamond 53 handymax type, draws on its experience in assigning a similarly extensive program, for 14 examples of the 53,000-dwt design, to Chinese yards. For the industrially-ambitious Vietnamese, who have already made substantial investments in modern shipbuilding equipment and practises, the Graig deal has particular appeal not only for its promise of serial production of one of the most well-considered, future-oriented bulker designs, but also for the broader package which the firm brings to the project.

Liner shipping is traditionally a cyclical business, subject to dramatic peaks and troughs and sudden changes in fortune in individual trade lanes. Today's ebullience among all sectors of container shipping, including its various intermediaries, compares starkly with the situation in the latter part of 2001, when the market had hit a low point and the prophets of doom were out in force. Yet, only a year before that, market analysts had been talking of inexorable growth in seaborne containerized transport. Right now, the industry exudes confidence that the bull market for deepsea carriers will continue through 2004, after what proved generally to be a boom time for the liner shipping world last year, on the back of a rebounding world economy.

With its bid for commercial marine power applications strengthened by the addition of the MT30 aeroderivative gas turbine to its range, Rolls-Royce is pushing the concept of gas turbo-electric powering in the buoyant LNG carrier market. gas turbine-based system. A saving of around 40-percent in installation man-hours is claimed by Rolls-Royce for its powering solutions using either simple cycle or combined cycle arrangements, along with significant savings in weight relative to steam turbine, dual-fuel diesel-electric and low-speed diesel alternatives, all of which have now been embraced by the LNGC sector. Capable of dual-fuel operation…

Palmali Group shipping company has put into operation a Suezmax tanker that replenished its overall fleet deadweight. The Company reported that the vessel was named in honor of national leader Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan. Its is length 274 m, width 50 m, sea-gauge 17 m. Heydar Aliyev is one of the series of Suezmax last generation built in South Korea. The tanker deal cost $96m. The vessel is designed for transportation of up to 165,000 tons of crude oil and heavy grades of petroleum products with unrestricted sailing area. The major advantage of the new tanker is its performance capability. Main routes start from ports of the Black and Mediterranean Seas running to ports of the United States and South-Eastern Asia. Launching of the next Suezmax tanker is scheduled for November 20.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has expanded its commercial marine operations in Singapore with the creation of an Asia-Pacific Distribution Center for its Sperry Marine business unit, in a move to provide faster, more responsive shipboard service for both owners of commercial vessels and shipyards in the region. The Asia-Pacific Distribution Center will shorten the supply line from Sperry Marine manufacturing facilities in Europe and North America to customers in southern and eastern Asia. A reduction of 36 hours in transit times is expected for emergency shipments. The Asia-Pacific Distribution Center will maintain inventories of new and refurbished spare parts for all of Sperry Marine’s product lines in quantities to support customers and representatives throughout the region.

As the sole shipbuilding organization outside eastern Asia with a current involvement in the construction of large LNG carriers, IZAR is determined to maintain a long-term position in a promising, higher value-added field of the newbuild market. The present business profile is based on a series of membrane-type vessels of 138,000-cu. m. capacity, contracted in recent years in the face of fierce international competition and oriental domination of gas tanker production. However, the gathering momentum behind the Spanish group's research and development drive has increased its offering to the LNG transportation sector beyond the impressive new generation of ships now taking form in Sestao and Puerto Real for Spanish and Norwegian interests.