Official Media News

Venezuela's top court has ruled to give the U.S. government 60 days to request the extradition of fugitive Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis, also known by his alias "Fat Leonard," who is implicated in a U.S. Navy bribery case.The supreme court ruling was issued last week but only made public on Wednesday by a reporter with official media.Francis was arrested on Sept. 21 at Caracas' main airport as he prepared to leave for Russia. The U.S. government had previously issued…

BEIJING, Aug 12 (Reuters) - The death toll from typhoon Lekima in eastern China rose to 44 people on Monday morning, according to official data, as the storm continued up the coast, racking up billions of dollars in economic losses and widely disrupting travel.An additional 12 people were recorded dead from the storm, including seven from Zhejiang province and five from Shandong, with 16 people missing, according to data from provincial emergency bureaus and state media.State broadcaster CCTV had put the death toll at 32 on Sunday.Typhoon Lekima made landfall early on Saturday in China's Zhejiang province, with winds gusting up to 187 kmh (116 mph).

Soon, seafarers can access their certificates from a smartphone. The Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) is preparing the launch of digital certificates for seafarers.According to an official media note from DMA, the development is underway, and an initial test voyage will begin later this month. Digital certificates are expected to make things simpler, faster and safer, it said."For those with practical experience in the burdensome handling of the many pieces of paper used for documentation for seafarers today, the digital certificates will be a welcome change. One app is all you need to access and maintain your certificates, and this app is of course part of the new concept being developed…

China would like to compete with South Korea in the field of building liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers building.South Korea has won 86 percent of the world's total orders or 52 orders for LNG carriers so far in 2018, according to Clarkson Research. The remaining nine orders were shared by companies from China, Singapore and Japan.Though China leads offshore engineering products and mega container vessel shipbuilding sectors, the country is a laggard in LNG shipbuilding.A recent report in the country's official media China Daily quoted Tan Naifen, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) as saing: "The global demand for LNG carriers will continue to surge in the long term…

Seven people have died after a cargo ship sank in the Beijiang River, in south China's Guangdong Province, Chinese official media said quoting local authorities.The report said that the ship, Yueyingde Cargo 8030, capsized and sank at 11:30 p.m. on Monday. All the seven bodies had been recovered by 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday.The maritime rescue center of the city of Qingyuan initiated an emergency response and dispatched search vessels to the site. The rescue is still on-going, it said.A team will be sent to salvage the wreck of the ship and further investigation will follow.

Qatar is planning to increase maritime shipping lines between with Iran, reported Iran's official media quoting Hadi Haqshenas, deputy head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) for Maritime Affairs.According to Fars News Agency, Hadi Haqshenas announced: "The Qataris who met the demand for their goods from Saudi Arabia and the UAE before (the siege and sanctions) have now requested increased maritime shipping between Iran and Qatar to bolster mutual trade."He added that his country is now witnessing an eye-catching growth in shipping lines between the Iranian and Qatari ports.Goods which are transited from Turkey and other adjacent countries to Qatar can also use the proper shipping lines at Bushehr port to carry goods to the Qatari ports…

China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) has commenced construction of CMA CGM’s 22,000 TEU boxships, which would make them the largest container vessels in the world, reported China's official media.The two are among nine 22,000 TEU vessels deal signed by French container shipping operator CMA CGM and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) in September last year.Built by Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, the two container vessels measure 400 meters in length, 61.3 meters in breadth and 33.5 meters in depth.The deadweight of the box ship is 220,000 DWT, which can contain 1,000,000,000 iPhoneX (with standard packing box).

China's first "smart" ship embedded with a domestically-developed intelligent navigation system made its debut in Shanghai, according to official media Xinhua. China Daily also reported that the world's first smart ship, developed and built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC),  has started its first trial voyage in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Christened as 'Great Intelligence' (Great Smart) 179-meter-long ship  is 32-meters-wide and 15-meters-high, with a maximum loading capacity of 38,800 tonnes. The report said that it is installed with SOMS, a China-Developed marine system with autonomous learning ability and intelligent operation system.

Saudi Arabia began naval war games including live fire exercises on Tuesday in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil route, official media reported, a move that coincides with heightened tensions with regional rival Iran. Warships, speedboats, air navy aircraft, Marine Corps and special security naval units took part, state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. Live ammunition was fired during activities. The manoeuvres are aimed at testing combat readiness "in preparation for the protection of the marine interests of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any possible aggression," reported SPA quoting commander of the exercises, Rear Admiral Majed bin Hazza'a Al-Qahtani. The drill is also being conducted in the Sea of Oman, SPA reported.

China plans to make use of Arctic sea route for its shipping to shorten the distance by 30 per cent compared to the ocean passages traditionally used to connect the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Panama Canal. Chinese ships will navigate the Arctic via a Northwest Passage route that will be 30 per cent shorter than the ocean passages, official media here reported. “Once this route is commonly used, it will directly change global maritime transportation and have a profound influence on international trade, the world economy, capital flow and resource exploitation,” said Liu Pengfei, the ministry’s spokesman, at a news briefing.

The total production value of China's maritime industry grew by an average of 8.4 percent annually from 2011 to 2014, representing over 9.3 percent of the GDP each year, reports China's official media. During the same time frame, the industrialized utilization of ocean water had accelerated, according to the 2015 report on China's marine economy development issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA). The daily desalination capacity increased by 331,000 tonnes and annual growth rate of maritime biological medicine added value reached 19.6 percent, the report said. Since 2010, the central government approved Tianjin Municipality and provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian to pilot development of the maritime economy.

Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday. At least 700 people were injured, more than 71 seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the official Xinhua news agency said two fires were still burning. Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometres away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.

Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday. At least 700 people were injured, more than 71 seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the official Xinhua news agency said two fires were still burning. Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometres away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.

Chinese officials on Saturday fleshed out some details for the country's ambitious 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) project in its “one belt, one road,” action plan. Though the plan released by China’s economic planning agency and the commerce and foreign affairs ministries, didn’t commit to specific projects, it has included Kolkata as the lone Indian port to figure in the final blueprint. China claims that the MSR is an initiative that aims to connect China's ports with ports in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Greece and Kenya. But how far India would figure into the plan is yet to be seen. Though India is taking part in the Bangladesh-China-India -Myanmar (BCIM) corridor is closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative…

Hanoi — Eight former top executives at Vietnam's state-owned shipbuilder have appealed against lengthy prison sentences handed to them over their role in its near-collapse, official media said Wednesday. Chairman Pham Thanh Binh, 58, was jailed for 20 years late last month for intentionally violating state regulations at Vinashin, which racked up billions of dollars of debts, shaking investor confidence in the Communist country. Seven other former top executives at the company, formally known as the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, were given sentences of between three and 19 years after a four-day trial in the northern port city of Haiphong.

According to a report from Radio Free Asia, nine senior officials at Vietnamese government-run shipbuilding firm, Vinashin, which now owes debts of $4.5b, are accused by authorities of deliberately abusing their positions for financial gain, the country’s official media reported. The charges against the executives can carry up to 12 years in prison.   Source: Radio Free Asia