Franc News

The Compagnie Abidjanaise de Réparation Navale et de maintenance industrielle (CARENA), subsidiary of the Bolloré Group and the SOFIA Group, just acquired a 3rd dock, enhancing the operational capacity of West Africa’s biggest shipyard. With this new dock, CARENA is increasing its hosting capacity by over 40 %. With this 175-metre-long and 26-metre-wide piece of equipment – a nearly 5 billion CFA Franc investment – CARENA’s teams now have more space to accommodate larger ships and receive new clients. CARENA, with its 450 linear metres of docks, is today modernising by investing in new equipment: two new tower cranes, one new floating crane with greater lifting capacity…

Carnival Corporation & plc today announced the official opening of its Arison Maritime Center, a world-class facility dedicated to providing safety training for its bridge and engineering officers responsible for the navigation and operation of the company’s fleet of cruise ships. Located in Almere, Netherlands just outside Amsterdam, the new 75-million-euro facility features some of industry’s most advanced simulators and training equipment to provide annual training to more than 6,500 bridge and engineering officers from Carnival’s 10 global cruise line brands.

Chinese aviation and shipping conglomerate HNA Group wants to make Gategroup into the "undisputed leader in airline catering" after making an offer for the Swiss business, HNA's chief executive said on Monday.   HNA's 53 Swiss franc per share cash offer was unanimously supported by the Swiss caterer's board.   While a rival bid was still possible, Gategroup Chairman Andreas Schmid said on a media conference call, the company was not actively seeking other offers.   HNA Chief Executive Adam Tan did not respond directly when asked whether the Chinese conglomerate would be willing to up its bid if another suitor made a bid. "We've already made a very attractive offer to the shareholders," Tan said.   (Reporting by Paul Arnold, Writing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi)

Ivory Coast began construction on Tuesday of a four-year, 560 billion CFA franc ($962 million) project to build a second container terminal and widen the canal leading to its main port in the commercial capital Abidjan. Among the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa, the port serves Ivory Coast, French-speaking West Africa's largest economy and the world's top cocoa producer, and is also a gateway for landlocked nations to the north. China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd was awarded the construction contracts for both projects with the bulk of the cost covered by a loan from China's Eximbank. Construction of the new container terminal, which will be managed by consortium led by France's Bollore, will last 48 months and cost 409 billion CFA francs.

Vessel sales for April 2015 - (as of May 1) as prepared by Shipping Intelligence, Inc., New York.

First half 2014 profit at shipping company Bollore Africa Logistics plunged to 5.89 billion CFA francs ($11.48 million) from 9.45 billion CFA francs in the same period last year, the company said on Monday. Turnover was 38.07 billion CFA, compared with 41.50 billion CFA francs the previous year, the company said in a statement on the West African bourse. "Events that generated supplementary costs disturbed our business and caused a loss of productivity," Bollore said. It said the problems included costs associated with a delay in setting up a company to regulate the value of imports as well as outlays connected to a delay in installing a new computer system. Bollore Africa Logistics, which is based in Abidjan, is an Ivory Coast subsidiary of French Bollore.

Niger's cabinet of ministers on Friday approved a renewal of French nuclear group Areva's uranium production deal in the West African nation, the government said on Friday, completing two years of often fraught negotiations. The two parties announced the signature of a new 10-year agreement for Areva's Somair and Cominak mines in May, but Friday's green light from President Mahamadou Issoufou and his ministers clears the way for its implementation. The previous production agreement expired in Dec. 31, requiring temporary extensions. Under the deal, Areva agreed to fewer tax breaks and higher royalty rates, the government said in a statement.

Deep in a Swiss mountain, workers have blasted out a cathedral-sized hole for a power plant that will help keep Europe's lights on, but the profit outlook for the 1.9 billion Swiss franc ($2.1 billion) project has darkened since its construction began in 2008. The Nant de Drance plant, and others like it, is being undermined by cheap renewable solar and wind energy, which up-ends its business model of pumping water uphill at night when power prices are low and releasing it to make electricity when prices peak in the daytime - a process known as pumped storage. These pumped storage plants are designed to balance Europe's power supply grids as they can switch on and off at the flick of a switch, unlike nuclear or coal-fired power plants.

Ivory Coast's port of San Pedro is seeking 777 billion CFA francs ($1.65 billion) from private partners to fund upgrades that aim to make it one of West Africa's top shipping hubs, including for iron ore and nickel, the transport minister said. San Pedro is already the world's leading port for cocoa exports, shipping more than half of total output from Ivory Coast, the top producer of the chocolate ingredient. It also exports coffee, palm oil, timber and cotton. But the government of President Alassane Ouattara wants to make the port the centrepiece of an ambitious plan that would see more than 8 trillion CFA francs invested in the development of the country's predominantly agricultural western regions.

Risk to oil flows seen low but Russia key supplier; Russian natural gas supply in doubt, European storage levels high. United States, Europe differ over trade sanctions. Crude oil prices jumped more than $2 a barrel to multi-month highs on Monday, lifted by rising tension in Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Moscow's move to use military force was a "declaration of war" by Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers. Analysts say Russian supplies of oil to the rest of the world are unlikely to be disrupted by the Ukraine crisis but oil prices rose as most financial markets tumbled, with investors pulling out of riskier assets such as stocks.

Thousands of protesters from western France marched through Paris on April 1 to demand tighter shipping laws in the wake of the Erika oil tanker spill which devastated parts of their region. The march was called by action groups from western France along with local politicians and environmentalists. Police estimated 2,000 people attended. TotalFina, which chartered the Erika, was targeted by protesters in two separate incidents before the march. On the day of the protest, activists dumped sand and oil in front of what they believed was the home of TotalFina boss, Thierry Desmarest. According to police, they left the scene upon realizing that they had the wrong address.

Cunard Line celebrated a milestone when a prefabricated section of the keel was lowered into the building dock of Queen Mary 2. The new $800-million Cunard flagship will enter service in January 2004 and will be the largest, longest, tallest and most expensive passenger ship ever built. The keel is the lower part of the outer hull and is the base of the ship upon which everything else is built. date of its official ceremony because it is 162 years to the day that its first ship, Britannia, sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Halifax and Boston. The first liner to be built since the line's Queen Elizabeth 2 entered service in 1969…