Two new maritime lines are launched from Hamad Port which will enhance Qatar’s trade connections with various ports in China, India, Malaysia, Turkey and Greece, among other countries. Qatar News Agency (QNA)  said that both lines will run on a weekly basis. The first line starts in the Mediterranean and will be serviced by with four ships, with a total capacity of 6,000 containers including 400 reefer containers. The China Gulf Express Service will connect Shanghai in China with Hamad Port…

Roughly one in two Greek shipping companies (56 percent) would consider relocating their administrative bases abroad, according to the findings of an Ernst & Young study. The results of the study titled “Repositioning Greece as a Global Maritime Capital” warn of a possible exodus by the country’s shipping enterprises at a time when global maritime centers are interested in attracting Greek shipowners. The Greek shipping industry has weathered the storm and the Greek-owned fleet…

The Inauguration of the Expansion of Pier III of COSCO Piraeus Container Terminal(PCT) was held yesterday. Premier Li Keqiang of China sent a congratulatory message, which was read by Mr. Zou Xiaoli, Chinese Ambassador to Greece during the ceremony. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece attended the event and made congratulatory remarks. Executive Vice President Sun Jiakang of COSCO Group delivered a speech and cut the ribbon together with the Prime Minister and Ambassador.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. won $400 million in orders from Greece to build five containerships and four bulk carriers. Hyundai Heavy said the 5,500 TEU containerships will be delivered to Greece's Costamare Shipping Co. between late 2000 and the first half of 2001. The bulk carriers, all 75,000-gt class, are scheduled for delivery to Arcadia Shipmanagement Co. of Greece by the end of 2001. Hyundai Heavy said with the orders from Greece its shipbuilding orders this year rose to $2.5 billion and its backlog orders stands at $6 billion.

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW) has established operations in Patras, Greece, expanding the company's presence in the Mediterranean. Patras, located on the western coast of Greece, serves as a strategic commercial hub connecting Greece and the Balkans with Italy and the rest of Western Europe. The port, ranking second in Greece in terms of size, caters to all segments of shipping and has a particular emphasis on the international ferry business. Aegean has been serving the Patras market on a limited basis since the second quarter of 2008 from its base in Piraeus. The company plans to assign four of its Piraeus' stationed double-hull bunkering tankers to this market.

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) advised of 48 hour strike action in Greece by the Seamen’s Union from 0600 on Thursday 31 August until 0600 on Saturday 2 February 2013. ISS Greece has confirmed that the strike disruption means that there will be no assistance by tug boat crews with berthing and sailing movements for vessels calling at the ports of Piraeus, Aspropyrgos, Eleusis and Lavrion and pilots have also confirmed they will be joining the strike from 12.00 until 16.00 on 31st January. Vessel movements at Thessaloniki will not be affected as the local towage company will not be joining the strike. ISS Greece will continue to monitor developments on behalf of ship owners and operators and will keep customers updated.

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), a  maritime services provider, is advising of 48 hour strike action in Greece by the Seamen’s Union from 0600 on Thursday 31 January until 0600 on Saturday 2 February 2013. ISS Greece has confirmed that the strike disruption means that there will be no assistance by tug boat crews with berthing and sailing movements for vessels calling at the ports of Piraeus, Aspropyrgos, Eleusis and Lavrion and pilots have also confirmed they will be joining the strike from 12.00 until 16.00 on 31st January. Vessel movements at Thessaloniki will not be affected as the local towage company will not be joining the strike. ISS Greece will continue to monitor developments on behalf of ship owners and operators and will keep customers updated.

China is closely monitoring the policies of the new Greek government after Athens said this week it will stop the sale of a majority stake in Greece's biggest port, China's trade ministry said on Thursday. The Greek government last year had shortlisted China's Cosco Group as a potential buyer of a 67 percent stake in Piraeus Port Authority. But Greece stopped the sale this week, saying it would be put on hold as newly elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras halted privatisation plans agreed under Greece's bailout deal. "We are paying a great deal of attention," Shen Danyang, the spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said when asked about the suspended deal.

Crews scrambled on Wednesday to clean up an oil spill from a sunken tanker which had spread to some of Athens's most popular beaches. The 45-year-old vessel, Agia Zoni II, was carrying 2,500 tonnes of fuel when it sank off the island of Salamis on Sunday. By Wednesday, a thick oily tide had covered stretches of the Athens Riviera several miles away. "This is a catastrophe," said Fotis Yiamanis, a resident of the seafront neighborhood of Faliro, where Greeks enjoy morning swims several months of the year. "Even if the oil leaves the surface of the water, the rest is going to sink and set in the sand. The coast guard said authorities had sealed the shipwreck on Tuesday and there was no further spillage.

Greece will conclude the evaluation of deep-sea oil and gas exploration bids in the coming weeks and will name the preferred bidders soon after, its energy minister said on Friday, as the country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves. Plunging crude oil prices have cut spending on oil projects around the world but cash-strapped Greece is pushing ahead with investment in the industry in a bid to reduce dependence on oil imports and boost public finances. "We are evaluating three bids made by oil companies whose financial strength, experience and infrastructure ensure they are in a position to successfully perform gas and oil exploration and production," Energy Minister Panos Skourletis said.

Greece’s deal with Chinese shipping giant COSCO is “helping the country stand on its feet,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. “We are sending a strong message to the international markets that Greece is decisively entering a new phase,” Tsipras said. According to a report in Xinhua, China and Greece have great hopes for Piraeus port, as attested to by the meeting of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras on Monday. Li met with Tsipras in Beijing on Monday afternoon, with much of their meeting focused on Piraeus.

Greece is planning to cut tax rates for oil and gas companies as it wants to attract them to help exploit its untapped offshore hydrocarbon resources, its energy minister said on Tuesday. Under the plan, oil and gas explorers will pay 25 percent tax, down from 40 percent currently, and 5 percent of the tax will go to local communities. "We have done this in order to incentivize our investors to invest in the future of Greece," Ioannis Maniatis, Greece's Energy Minister, said at a conference in London. He did not say when the new tax rates would come into effect.

According to sources, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co said it has won 730m in orders from firms in Belgium and Greece. The shipbuilder said it has secured an order from Exmar Marine NV of Belgium for two LNG regasification vessels and a contract from Gulf Marine Management SA of Greece to build two very large gas carriers. It did not disclose details of each contract. The deals take its order book to 5.22 bln usd or 25 ships, including nine liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

Athens, Greece, May 4, 2011 - Danaos Corporation (NYSE: DAC), a leading international owner of containerships, announced that on May 4, 2011, it took delivery of one more newly built containership, the Hanjin Greece, expanding its operational fleet to a total of 55 containerships aggregating 257,029 TEU. The Hanjin Greece, built at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. has a carrying capacity of 10,100 TEU, is 349 meters long, 45.6 meters wide and has a speed of 25.50 knots. The Hanjin Greece has commenced its 12-year time charter at a fixed charter rate immediately upon delivery.

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) appointed by Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) to support a key marine seismic survey project in Greece. Under the three month research project, ISS Greece will provide marine services to the survey vessel ‘Nordic Explorer’ and two smaller support vessels as they work along the western Greek coast from Patras Port. The national project has been commissioned by the Greek government to try and seek out important new reserves of natural gas. George Andreakos (ISS Greece and Mednet Operations Manager) is leading the operational team to assist the project in close co-operation with the ISS Offshore Solutions team, headed by Dan Whysall. This is the third contract awarded by PGS to ISS Greece and follows previous surveys in Cyprus.

Euro zone countries have approved the disbursement of a 1 billion euro tranche of aid to Greece after it passed a series of reforms to qualify for the money, the Greek government said on Wednesday. The decision came after lawmakers passed a bill last week to merge public sector pension funds and allow more construction and business activity along Greece's long Mediterranean coastline, plans for which sparked outrage in the country. The bill also included a proposal to supervise the funding of political parties. The money - whose release was approved by the Euro Working Group - will help Greece meet bond payments later this month and precedes a major review of Athens' progress by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in September.

Greece's shipping sector faces paying a higher tonnage tax, and a phase-out of the special tax allowances it has enjoyed, under the latest proposals presented by the country's creditors, according to documents seen by Reuters. Together with tourism, the shipping sector is a vital generator of income for Greece. According to an official document indicating steps Greece must take, its lenders say the country must "increase the rate of the tonnage tax and phase out special tax treatments of the shipping industry". A separate document showed Greece had proposed to "increase tonnage tax and implement an effective taxation framework for commercial shipping". (Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Matthias Sobolewski, George Georgiopoulos and Michele Kambas)

Oil and shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Tuesday it was experiencing no problems funding operations in Greece or getting paid by Greek customers despite the imposition of capital controls by Athens. Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping company,  has offices in Greece and vessels passing though its ports. Maersk's terminal operator unit, APM Terminals, was invited to bid for Greece's biggest port, Piraeus Port. "We are not facing issues funding local operations.

A sailboat carrying migrants sank in in the Aegean sea between Turkey and Greece on Tuesday and at least 17 people were missing, Greek authorities said. Greece's maritime ministry said Greek and Turkish rescue efforts had saved 16 of the between 33 and 37 migrants believed to be on board when the boat went down between the Greek islands of Farmakonisi and Agathonisi. Their nationalities were not known. "The operation is ongoing," said a spokeswoman for Greece's maritime ministry. More than 135,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea in the first half of this year, many of them fleeing war, repression and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Most are Syrians.

Louis announced that ferry services to Greece have resumed for the summer season. The cruise ship Princessa Marissa would be offering ferry services to Piraeus and Rhodes for the second year in a row following a hiatus of around five years. Ferry services between Cyprus and Greece were suspended after violence flared in Israel during the second intifada. The service used to run from Piraeus to Limassol before ending in Haifa, and most of the demand for ferry services was from Israelis wanting to travel to Greece or take their cars to Europe. However, when Israelis stopped traveling, demand from Cyprus was not enough to keep the services running. Last year was the first time the Princessa Marissa resumed schedule under a pilot scheme that was to run until September.

Pantazopoulos as General Manager of its Piraeus office. shipping and Greece. of leading ship management company Avin International S.A. in Athens. posts in the maritime sector in Greece and the United States. most vibrant and innovative truly maritime nation in the world.

Greek coast guard searching for 38 migrants off Lesbos. Four children, two men and one woman drowned and 38 migrants were missing after their wooden boat sank north of the Greek island of Lesbos, the coast guard said on Thursday, as an extensive search operation continued for a second day. The coast guard rescued 242 people off Lesbos on Wednesday in what was thought to be the largest maritime disaster off Greece in terms of numbers involved since a massive refugee influx began this year. The search went on overnight. Four coast guard vessels were deployed on Thursday, assisted by fishing boats. Three helicopters were hovering above the sea.

China wants to invest in Greek airports and railways as well as the busiest port, officials said on Friday, as the country where the euro debt crisis began seeks a role as China's gateway into Europe. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is on a three-day trip to Greece to boost economic ties between the nations, who have drawn closer since China's Cosco Paficic won a 35-year concession in 2009 to upgrade and run two cargo piers at the Piraeus port. Greece, which relies on bailout loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund…