Southeast China News

The digital naming of the MR tanker Stena Immortal took place January 18 at Stena's new office in Hellerup in the north of Copenhagen. The 50,000 dwt Stena Immortal was built at the Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI) shipyard in southeast China and is jointly owned on a 50-50 basis by Stena Bulk and Indonesian Golden Agri Resources (GAR). Following her delivery in September 2016, the 183-meter-long tanker has sailed in one of Stena Bulk's global logistics systems, which currently employ some 60 vessels, with a focus on refined petroleum products, vegetable oils and chemicals. When the Stena Immortal was named, it was not physically present in Copenhagen but in Houston where it is already in service.

Two newly built vessels owned by Stena Bulk, Stena Imperator and sister ship Stena Imprimis, were named side by side at the Chinese shipyard Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI) in Guangzhou in southeast China. The two godmothers – for the Stena Imperator, Ylva Syrén Carlsson and for the Stena Imprimis, Denise Baum – wished the vessels, their captains and crews fortune and prosperity on the seven seas and swung the bottles of champagne against the tankers’ bows. The two vessels are numbers 11 and 12 in a series of 13 IMOIIMAX tankers ordered by Stena Bulk…

The Stena Immortal was delivered yesterday from the Chinese shipyard GSI (Guangzhou Shipbuilding International) in southeast China. The vessel is jointly owned on a 50-50 basis by Stena Bulk and Indonesian Golden Agri Resources (GAR) and is the eighth of a total of 13 IMOIIMAX tankers ordered by Stena Bulk in 2012. She will be operated by Stena Weco and will sail in the company’s global logistics system, which currently employs about 60 vessels. 2016: The Stena Imperative, Stenaweco Impulse and Stena Imagination.

The sinking of a cruise boat on China's Yangtze River is likely to mar the country's generally clean maritime safety record, which hasn't suffered an incident of this magnitude since a passenger steamship blew up almost 70 years ago. The Eastern Star, which was carrying 458 people, capsized in a storm late on Monday, state media said, with those on board ranging in age from three to more than 80. Six bodies have been found and over a dozen people rescued, but more than 430 are still unaccounted for. The incident comes after China has beefed up maritime safety regulations in recent years, with authorities becoming even more stringent after last year's South Korean ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people, industry insiders said.

A two-day international seminar on beefing up maritime trade infrastructure in Asia opened on Wednesday in southeast China's Quanzhou City in Fujian Province. Since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in his speech in the Indonesian parliament in October 2013, the initiative has drawn the attention of the international community. Over 280 academics and experts from 30 countries have been invited to discuss proposals to build a "21st Century Maritime Silk Road". The event is themed "collectively building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and creating a community of common destiny". It will involve three round table meetings covering the topics of "the values and significance of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative"…

Seven years ago, I authored an article on quarantine and isolation. With the outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, it is time to dust off and update that article. The concepts of quarantine and isolation lie at the juncture of medicine, law and public safety. When these concepts intersect with the maritime community, things quickly get both interesting and complicated. Quarantine and isolation have been invoked in cases of communicable diseases throughout human history. Special treatment of lepers is mentioned in the Bible.

18 crew members of the ship were rescued shortly before their vessel sank in the Yangtze River after hitting a bridge pier. Damage was visible on a pier of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province after the  cargo vessel, loaded with 12,500 tons of limestone, encountered it, reports the 'China Daily'. The vessel, "Xinchuan 8" was transporting the limestone from Tongling in east China's Anhui Province to Luoyuan, a coastal county in southeast China's Fujian Province, when the accident happened adds the 'China Daily' citing sources in Nanjing Maritime Bureau. The vessel, belonging to Rushan Xinchuan Shipping and Transportation Co.…

Trelleborg Marine Systems has been awarded the contract to supply docking and mooring equipment and LNG cargo transfer technology for the new Yuedong LNG Terminal in China. After working closely with project owner, CNOOC Yuedong LNG, Trelleborg was chosen to supply the project’s LNG terminal with a fully integrated large-scale LNG mooring and transfer system thanks to its ability to provide an industry leading range of products, systems integration and end-to-end support. The range of equipment supplied by Trelleborg includes Double and Triple Quick Release Hooks with hazardous area compliance, SmartHook  Mooring Load Monitoring Systems with electric remote release…

Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co. China has begun construction on its first large luxury cruise liner, which is included in a package of projects aimed at boosting the tourism and shipping industries of a coastal city whose ports are primarily used to handle manufactured goods for export, reports 'What's On Xiamen'. The Southeast China International Shipping Center package includes 10 projects led by the construction of a 100,000-ton luxury cruise liner, a cruise terminal and a shipping business center in the city of Xiamen, local officials said. The combined investment tops 16.73 billion yuan ($2.63 billion), they added. The design and construction of the luxury cruise liner alone is estimated to cost 3.1 billion yuan.

An oil belt floating off the coast of southeast China's Fujian province has been mostly cleaned up from the Singapore-registered ship, Barelie which struck a nearby reef recently, local maritime authorities said. About five cubic meters of heavy oil and four tonnes of wastewater have been salvaged from the spill so far, with no new spills detected, according to the Fujian Maritime Rescue Center. Rescuers have unloaded 216 shipping containers from the ship, finding no dangerous goods inside, the center said, adding that container unloading and pollution control efforts are still under way. The Singapore-registered Bareli is aground near Jiangyin Port while on route from the city of Ningbo to the provincial capital of Fuzhou. All 21 of the ship's crew members have been rescued.

Singapore flag vessel m/v Bareli (35,881gt built 2004) is aground in Chinese waters having suffered hull damage. The crew has been rescued. The ship normally plies between ports in Africa and the Far East. The Fujian Maritime Rescue Center said that rescuers are working to retrieve the ship's fuel oil which has leaked into the sea, and they have called ship repair factories to send workers to help offload 1,913 containers loaded on the ship. The stranding ocurred near Jiangyin Port in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province.

A.P. Moller - Maersk Group and Xiamen Port (Group) held a grand opening ceremony for the Xiamen Songyu Phase I Container Terminal at Songyu Port, Xiamen. Madam Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council, presided over the opening ceremony in the presence of Madam Ma Xiuhong, Vice Minister of Commerce. More than 200 people attended the event, including government officials from Fujian province and the city of Xiamen, as well as senior executives from the Xiamen Port Group and from A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, including Mr. Tom Behrens-Sorensen, Group Executive Vice President, and Mr. Richard Nicholson, Vice President for APM Terminals in the Greater China Area. APM Terminals is the terminal operating unit of A.P. Moller - Maersk Group.

Dennis L. The concepts of quarantine and isolation lie at the juncture of medicine, law, and public safety. When these concepts intersect with the maritime community, things quickly get both interesting and complicated. Quarantine and isolation have been invoked in cases of communicable diseases throughout human history. Special treatment of lepers is mentioned in the Bible. During the middle ages, the Venetians required ships arriving from suspect areas to anchor out of port for 40 days, based on the assumption that any disease on board would run its course during that time. Modern quarantine and isolation are more sophisticated, but only slightly.

ABB has won a $4m contract to supply an Integrated Central Control System for a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the Peoples Republic of China. The Fujian LNG Terminal & Trunkline Project will be owned and operated by CNOOC Fujian LNG Co. Ltd., a co-investment of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Fujian Investment and Development Corporation. Located in the city of Xiuyu, Fujian Province, in southeast China, the LNG regasification terminal will have an initial capacity of 2.6 million tons of LNG per year in Phase I. Expansion plans are already under way. The natural gas from the terminal will be provided to the gas fired power plant terminals, city industries, commercial and residential users along the coast.

At least 57 people are missing after two ships sank in high winds in the Taiwan Strait off southeast China, the state news agency said on Friday, according to a report on www.cbc.ca. Xinhua said the first ship, carrying 37 people, struck a reef near coastal Fujian province's Pingtan island late Thursday. The Fujian Maritime Safety Administration says the ship, headed for Indonesia, was fully loaded with aquatic products when strong winds carried it onto the reef. About two hours later, a fishing boat with 27 people sank near Pingtan island. Three people were rescued, but the rest are missing.

A ten-year development program has been drawn up to develop Xiamen, a port city in southeast China's Fujian province, into a shipbuilding base by 2015, www.ChinaView.com reported. According to the plan, a group of shipbuilding and shipyard enterprises will be built in the city, which are set to handle 100,000-tonnage vessels and other relevant services and equipments. Shipbuilding will be a key industry in Xiamen, a place on the west bank of the Taiwan Straits, which is expected to bring along development of the electro-mechanical sector, steel and tourism, said an official with the local economic development bureau. Local officials expect the city's annual shipbuilding capacity to reach 800…