Southern India News

Police in southern India on Tuesday ramped up security around the $900 million transhipment port being built by billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate after scores of people were injured in clashes with protesters from a Christian fishing community.Construction at the mega port project in Vizhinjam on the southern tip of India has been halted for more than three months by the protesters, who have blocked the site's entrance with a makeshift shelter. They blame the port's development for coastal erosion that has hit their livelihoods, an accusation the Adani Group denies.

Only three weeks after launching, a relief fund established to help seafarers and the families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has collected $530,000 in pledges to date, nearly $400,000 of which has already been allocated to help those worst affected.The Seafarers International Relief Fund (SIRF), set up by seafarer welfare charities and the wider shipping industry, said the first three SIRF grants were enabled through The Seafarers’ Charity’s agile and established grant making processes and will provide funds to three seafarer charities…

Satcom Global announces VSAT coverage upgrade benefitting customers operating in European and Indian Ocean waters.Satcom Global announced another extension to its Aura VSAT maritime communications network, with the addition of two new satellite beams; Astra 4a Nordic and SES-12 IOR.The Astra 4a Nordic Ku-band beam was introduced to the Satcom Global Aura network in December 2020 to support customers operating in European waters. With carriers optimized for the performance of smaller Ku-band terminals…

Pirates have kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise, an official with the ship's operator said on Thursday.The loaded vessel, the Nave Constellation, was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island on Tuesday and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized, the official said.Seven other crew members remain on board the vessel. Neither the vessel nor the cargo were damaged, the official said.The shipping…

All crew members of a British-flagged tanker that Iran seized on Friday are safe and still on the vessel, the Iranian embassy in India said on Monday.The seizure of the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz - the world's most important waterway for the oil trade - has deepened a crisis between Tehran and the West that was triggered in May when Washington tightened sanctions, effectively barring all countries from buying Iranian oil."All the crew members including the Indian nationals are in good health, they are still on board the tanker," the embassy told Reuters.Eighteen of the Stena Impero's 23-strong crew are Indian nationals, Iranian authorities said previously.The family of one of them - 26-year-old mess worker Dijo Pappachen…

India's largest port developer Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has agreed to pick up 97% stake in Marine Infrastructure Developer (MIDPL) from Larsen & Toubro at an enterprise value of Rs 1,950 crore ($284 million). According to a press release from the company, Kattupalli Port is one of the most modern ports in India emerging as Chennai’s New Gateway for EXIM trade in Chennai/Bangalore region and provides a whole new dimension of services with speed and sophistication. Amongst the many advantages of Kattupalli port is its unique location – it is located 30 kilometers towards north of Chennai and has connectivity with  hinterland of North Tamilnadu, Chennai,  Bangalore region and South Andhra Pradesh – locations which are highly industrialized.

India has received the first parcel of Iranian oil to partly fill its strategic storage in southern India, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd , which imported the very large crude carrier (VLCC), said on its website. MRPL shipped in 2 million barrels of Iranian oil in the VLCC Dino. India will fill half of the storage with 6 million barrels of Iranian oil while continuing talks with United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for the remainder. A second parcel to be procured by Bharat Petroleum Corp. is scheduled to arrive around Oct. 25, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. India, which is seeking to hedge against energy security risks as it imports about 80 percent of its oil needs…

Krishnapatnam Port, an all-weather; deepwater port on India’s east-coast, earmarked a historic moment for India’s bilateral trade and commerce as the first direct container vessel, part of coastal shipping agreement to facilitate trade between India and Bangladesh, set sail from the port on March 28, 2016. The trade agreements which were signed during the reign of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974 were revived back after a period of four decades during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka last year.

Evergreen Line announced it will partner with Simatech, a feeder operator based in Dubai, in launching a joint Chennai-Colombo-Gulf Service (CCG) service next month aiming to improve its service on the India-Gulf trade. The CCG service will utilize four containerships of around 2,000 TEU each; one to be operated by Evergreen Line and the remaining three by Simatech. The first sailing of the weekly service will be from Colombo on May 9th and call at Vizag (India), Krishnapatnam (India), Chennai (India), Colombo, Cochin (India), Jebel Ali (UAE), Sohar (Oman), Cochin and Colombo once more. In addition to providing efficient transportation services linking the major ports of Southern India and Sri Lanka with the Gulf…

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics rebounded to a US $3.6 million net profit in the third fiscal quarter from a net loss of about $468,000 in the same period in 2013, driven by a significant growth in the shipping activity that has helped the company become a pan-India feeder line. Its total income for the quarter has jumped by 18.37%. "The turnaround in results displays the efficiency of the company. The company expected to perform better, considering the expansion in capacities and support by pragmatic policies of the government to boost economic development of the country," Shreyas Shipping Chairman and Managing Director Ramesh Ramakrishnan said in a press release.

A Bangladeshi-flagged ship is believed to have been seized by pirates off southern India, according to a recent BBC report.According to a report on www.bbc.co.uk, the MV Jahan Moni was attacked after a long pursuit near the Lakshadweep group of islands, some 300km (185 miles) from the Indian coast. The ship, with 25 Bangladeshi crew on board, was on its way from Singapore to Europe via the Suez Canal. The Bangladesh Shipping Department reportedly sought help from the Indian coastguard and from anti-piracy teams in Dubai and Singapore. (Source: BBC)

According to reports, Asian Development Bank has signed an agreement to offer $169 million in local currency debt to India's Petronet LNG Ltd. to help fund its expansion. Earlier this week, International Finance Corp. and other banks offered $300m loans to help Petronet build a liquefied natural gas import-and-regassification terminal in southern India. Petronet LNG has a similar facility in Dahej in the western state of Gujarat. (Source: Reuters)

Petronet LNG Ltd. plans to raise its base capacity for liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from 2.5 million today to 17.5 million tons at two terminals by 2014. Petronet, which built India's first LNG import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat, was created by the Indian government to import the cleaner fuel for the energy-hungry economy. It is building another LNG terminal, India's third, at Kochi in southern India with a capacity of 2.5 million tons. Dasgupta said the new terminal, along with an initial expansion of Dahej to 10 million tons, would be complete by 2009 or 2010. Petronet, which started operations at Dahej in 2004, imported 2.5 million tons of LNG in the year to March 2005 and has tied up about 5 million tons of imports this year.