Marine Link
Thursday, March 28, 2024
SUBSCRIBE

Valerie Parent News

19 Aug 2019

France Loading Rare Wheat Shipment for China

© Igor Strukov / Adobe Stock

A vessel was loading wheat for export to China at the northern French port of Dunkirk on Monday, according to shipping sources and data, in what would be the first such shipment since last year.The Sotka bulk carrier was due to load around 57,000 tonnes of grain destined for the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, port data showed.The cereal being loaded was wheat, shipping sources said.France has in recent years exported large volumes of barley to China but wheat shipments to China are rare.The current loading would be the first since late 2018, which was at the time the first French wheat sh

22 May 2018

US Sorghum Ship Switches Destination from Spain Back to Asia

The RB Eden vessel carrying 70,000 tonnes of U.S. sorghum turned around just before reaching the Spanish port of Cartagena and is now heading to Singapore, Thomson Reuters Eikon ship-tracking data showed.This marks the second U-turn for the ship amid a trade tussle between the United States and China. Anti-dumping measures announced by Beijing in mid-April led exporters to divert hundreds of thousands of tonnes of U.S. sorghum. But China dropped its sorghum probe on Friday in what was seen as a goodwill gesture.The RB Eden initially loaded at grain merchant ADM's elevator in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 18, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

15 May 2018

Fifth US Sorghum Vessel Heads to Spain

The RB Eden vessel carrying 70,000 tonnes of U.S. sorghum is heading to the Spanish port of Cartagena, Thomson Reuters Eikon ship-tracking data showed, in what will be a fifth cargo of U.S. sorghum to be diverted from China to Spain.The ship had sailed towards the Spanish Canary Islands after turning around in the Indian Ocean. Having circled off the coast of Tenerife, it changed destination late on Monday to Cartagena in southern Spain, a regular import terminal for livestock feed grain, Eikon data showed.Traders had been expecting the RB Eden to go on to mainland Spain, like four other U.S. sorghum cargoes bound for Tarragona in northeast Spain, but the final destination had not yet been confirmed.The RB Eden's cargo would bring the volume of U.S.

11 May 2018

US Sorghum Reaches Spain as Traders Divert More Ships from China

A rare cargo of U.S. sorghum has arrived in Spain and will be followed by several more, shipping data showed, a sign that Spain's livestock industry is set to become one of the new homes for U.S. sorghum hit by Chinese anti-dumping tariffs.Exporters have been scrambling to divert hundreds of thousands of tonnes of U.S. sorghum bound for China after Beijing announced hefty anti-dumping deposits on the grain in mid-April, part of a simmering trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.Sorghum is mainly used in livestock feed and the fiery Chinese liquor baijiu.U.S. officials had already flagged sales of U.S. sorghum to Spain…

12 Sep 2016

French Port Workers Join Labor Reform Strike

French CGT trade union port workers will join a nationwide strike against French labor reforms on Sept. 15, the union said on Monday, a move that could disrupt oil, grains and other commodities shipment at French ports. The hardline CGT union led rolling nationwide strikes against the labor reform between April and June against the reform which they said will curb workers rights and make it easier for companies fire workers. The union has demanded that the law be withdrawn. The rolling strikes had disrupted fuel and other supplies at French ports, provoking panic buying and fuel shortages across the country. Reporting by Valerie Parent

15 Jun 2016

CGT Union Calls for French Port Strike

France's CGT union is calling for a nationwide port strike on June 23 and June 28 as part of ongoing protests against the government's labour reform bill, the union said in a statement on Wednesday.   Port workers have participated in rolling nationwide strikes in recent weeks, notably disrupting activity at the oil terminal in Le Havre, northern France, which handles about 40 percent of French crude imports.   Tuesday saw a latest day of nationwide demonstrations against the labour reform, including protests in Paris marked by violent clashes between police and youths.   (Reporting by Valerie Parent, writing by Gus Trompiz)

08 Jun 2016

French LNG Terminal Workers Plan to Strike

Photo: Elengy

Workers at Elengy's three liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in France have voted to stage two 24-hour strikes on Thursday and next Tuesday as part of nationwide protests against a labour reform bill, a CGT union official said on Wednesday. The strikes will halt unloading of LNG tankers and reduce production of gas for the grid to minimum levels, the official told Reuters. A previous stoppage last month had already disrupted activity at the terminals before unloading operations resumed last Friday, the official said.

06 Jun 2016

Three French Oil Refineries Prepare for Restart, Oil Ports Still Shut

Preliminary work got underway on Monday to restart three of Total's French oil refineries stopped as part of nationwide strikes against planned changes to employment laws, but workers were still on strike at the country's two main oil ports. Workers voted to end a strike at Grandpuits near Paris and preliminary work on resuming operations was underway there and at the Normandy refinery, as well as at the Feyzin refinery in the southern Rhone region, a Total spokesman said. Total operates five of the country's eight refineries. The Donges refinery on France's western coast was still blocked by about 30 members of the hardline CGT union, which is leading the campaign of stoppages and protests in the rail and energy sectors against the government's labour reforms.

27 May 2016

Strike Idles 38 Oil Tankers at Fos-Lavera

Some 38 oil tankers have been held up at the Fos-Lavera oil port in southern France, the country's biggest, including 25 at harbour, up from 12 the previous day, a port authority spokeswoman said on Friday. She said 13 other tankers were waiting at quay. Under normal busy operations, at most five vessels wait at harbour. In the northern port of Le Havre, 11 oil tankers were waiting at harbour and five at quay, a port official told Reuters. The rolling strikes by France's CGT and FO unions, aimed at forcing the government to withdraw a planned labour reform, have shut down of refineries, blocked petrol depots and disrupted fuel supplies. Reporting by Valerie Parent

26 May 2016

Fos Tanker Queue Grows as Strike Impacts Refinery Ops

Nearly two dozen vessels were queued outside the French oil import terminal in Fos, southern France on Thursday, held up by a strike organised by the hardline CGT and FO unions over planned labour reforms. A spokeswoman for the port of Marseille told Reuters that yesterday 29 oil, LNG and chemicals vessels were waiting between the wharf and harbour on Wednesday. This morning, 21 vessels including 12 carrying oil, LNG or chemicals, were waiting. During normal busy operations, about 5 vessels would be waiting, the port authority said. CGT port workers and dockers joined the nationwide rolling strike on Thursday and Friday. The stoppages hitting the power, fuel and transport sectors is aimed at forcing the government to withdraw the planned labour reform bill.

28 Apr 2016

French Wheat Exports Await Indonesia Approval

French wheat exports to Indonesia are on hold as traders await the approval of a food safety agreement between the two countries, something exporters say is being delayed by Indonesia in retaliation against a French palm oil tax plan. A farm ministry official from Indonesia, the world's largest producer of palm oil, said the delay was a procedural one, and denied any link to the proposed tax. France's additional tax on palm oil, due to come into force next year, is billed as an environmental levy on a product associated with deforestation and other environmental damage. The delay to exports from the European Union's largest grain exporter was on the agenda of France's Secretary of State for Trade Matthias Fekl when he travelled to Indonesia earlier this month.

29 Mar 2016

Euronext to Add More Wheat Silos at Ports

Euronext is to expand the number of port delivery points for wheat traded on its Paris-based futures market <0#BL2:> and is considering a system of storage certificates to cater for inland grain operators, the European exchange said on Tuesday. Its steps to reinforce its wheat futures, a price benchmark for the European market, come after it scrapped a short-lived premium wheat product, and as CME Group is moving closer to launching a rival European wheat contract. Euronext will launch an additional delivery point at the northern French port of Rouen from September 2017 after reaching an agreement with trading firm Lecureur to use its silo there, Olivier Raevel, head of commodities at Euronext, told Reuters.

29 Jan 2016

Listing Freighter Drifts Towards French Coastline

A crippled cargo ship was drifting slowly towards the French Atlantic coast on Friday as rescue teams struggled to board the distressed vessel. The Modern Express, which was transporting 3,600 tonnes of wood from Owendo in Gabon to France's northern port of Le Havre, listed heavily to one side earlier this week in rough seas and has not recovered to an upright position, leading to the evacuation of the crew by helicopter. French media reports said the problem may be due to its cargo having shifted. As of Friday morning, the vessel was less than 300 kilometres from the western port town of La Rochelle, after being estimated at around 370 km from the port on Thursday afternoon, a spokesman for the French Atlantic coast authority told Reuters.

15 Apr 2015

Cargo Ships Stuck off Yemen as Fighting Worsens Food Security

At least five merchant vessels carrying food are stuck off Yemen as warships from a Saudi-led coalition search them for weapons bound for Iran-allied Houthi rebel forces, with delays adding to a humanitarian crisis. Yemen imports more than 90 percent of its food, including most of its wheat and all its rice, to feed a population of 25 million. Much of its needs had been serviced by foreign ships, although shipping lines have now reduced or stopped port calls. Ship tracking data showed at least five cargo ships were anchored off Yemen unable to enter Yemeni waters. "Disruption of navigation in Yemen's territorial waters will adversely affect food security," U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said.

30 Jul 2014

Egypt Buys 175,000mt of Russian Wheat

Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said on Wednesday it had bought 175,000 metric tons of Russian wheat for shipment Sept. 11-20. GASC said it bought the wheat at an average price of $260.14 a metric ton, on a cost and freight basis. The world's top wheat importer has so far bought 890,000 metric tons of Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian wheat since the start of the fiscal year on July 1. The supply ministry said earlier this month its stocks had increased to six months worth, to last until the end of 2014. Egypt purchased a total of 5.46 million metric tons of wheat from abroad in the 2013-2014 fiscal year in addition to 3.7 million metric tons of local wheat.

04 Apr 2014

Moroccan Wheat Trade Pushes for Longer Import Window

Millers and wheat importers in Morocco have asked the government to establish a longer annual window for imports after scrambling to secure shipments this season, trade sources said. Morocco, like other North African countries, depends on imports of staple cereals. It is expected to buy around 2.5 million tonnes of foreign wheat in the 2013/14 marketing year. The country's import campaign typically runs from October to May when the local harvest starts. But this season, shipments did not get under way until January, condensing the shipment period and leading to a glut of cargoes at Moroccan ports. To give greater visibility, Moroccan wheat trade federation FIAC and flour millers group FNM have proposed to the authorities that the import campaign start in September, trade sources said.