The Sydney Morning Herald News

Australia said on Monday it would accelerate plans to buy advanced sea mines to protect its maritime routes and ports from "potential aggressors" amid China's plans to increase its influence in the Pacific region.The so-called smart sea mines are designed to differentiate between military targets and other types of ships, a defence department spokesperson said in a statement."(Australia) is accelerating the acquisition of smart sea mines, which will help to secure sea lines of communication and protect Australia's maritime approaches," it said.

Australia is reviewing the 99-year lease of a commercial and military port in the country's north to a Chinese firm, a government source said on Monday, a move that could further inflame tensions between Beijing and Canberra.Australia overhauled its foreign investment laws late last year, giving the government the retrospective power to impose new conditions or even force a divestment on deals that have already been approved.Defense officials are looking into whether the Landbridge Group…

Global miner BHP Group may award contracts worth close to $1bln to companies bidding to build the world’s first fleet of bulk ships fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG).According to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald, the contracts could be awarded in the next three months after reviewing 17 bids from gas producers, shipbuilders and financial institutions.BHP, the largest charterer of bulk carriers in the world, has revealed it is close to deciding who will win a tender to design and supply LNG-powered ships to transport up to 27 million tonnes of its iron ore exports to Asia.The report quoted Rashpal Bhatti, maritime vice-president of the Australian miner…

Coal mining giant Glencore has now applied to have the competition watchdog oversee pricing in the  newly privatised Port of Newcastle, reports  The Sydney Morning Herald. The NSW port is hiking some shipping charges up to 60 percent after its $1.75 billion privatisation last year. Glencore has made the application to the National Competition Council, describing the shipping channels in the Port of Newcastle as a natural 'bottleneck' monopoly. This pitch for Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) protection comes as management of Victoria's Port of Melbourne stares down a similar threat of declaration under national competition law…

According to multiple media reports including The Sydney Morning Herald (smh.com.au) as well as Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the the Russian Navy reportedly sank one of its own, junked vessels to create an obstacle, a Ukrainian official claimed. Ukraine Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Mazepa was quoted as saying that Russian sailors pulled the anti-submarine vessel Ochakov out of a naval junkyard and sank it in the straits that connect the Black Sea with a body of water known as Donuzlav Lake. “The Russian Navy Ochakov Kara-class cruiser was sunk . . .

Vandals have damaged the wreck of a Japanese midget submarine in Sydney Harbour and made off with protected relics. The submarine, known as the M24, is a key piece of Australian World War II history and was one of three midget submarines that entered Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942. It's believed divers entered the protected zone around the shipwreck and broke off and removed propeller blades and relics, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. One of the three submarines was blown up by its occupants after getting tangled in the boom net across the harbour. The M24 followed and fired torpedoes at the cruiser USS Chicago but instead hit the HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 naval personnel. It then disappeared until 2006, when scuba divers discovered its wreck off a Sydney beach.

A shipload of potentially explosive chemicals sitting off Newcastle, New South Wales, was given the all-clear by a federal agency, the NSW government says, according to a report in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' newspaper. Chemicals manufacturer Orica loaded about 3000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate onto the cargo ship MCP Kopenhagen for storage while the company carries out maintenance at its Kooragang Island plant. An AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) spokesman said eight operational deficiencies identified on the ship were fixed before the vessel sailed from port. None of the deficiencies related to the carriage of dangerous cargo, and none was serious enough for AMSA to detain the vessel, the spokesman said.

The State Government has ordered Sydney Ferries to come up with a way to lift its performance by next week, saying too many vessels were out of service. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, at least 80 percent of ferries were supposed to be available, but the rate over the past two months has been 77 per cent - too low to ensure ferry services run on time. The Herald revealed that half of Sydney's most modern ferries, including most of the RiverCats, were lying idle at the Balmain maintenance depot. The ferries' 80 per cent availability requirement is not as high as that for State Transit, which needs to have at least 90 percent of its bus fleet on the road at morning peak hour. (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Adsteam Marine has kept the expansion plans of its would-be nemesis, Australian Maritime Services, at bay after renewing its "exclusive contract" to provide towage at the Port of Fremantle for another seven years, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report. The deal effectively blocks AMS' plans to operate in all of Australia's container ports. Now the question is how long the so-called Virgin Blue of the tugboat market, which is racking up millions of dollars of losses a year, can survive. The exit of AMS from Port Botany, Melbourne and Brisbane - where it controls around one-third of the tug jobs - should provide a big boost to Adsteam's share price. Source: Sydney Morning Herald