Wendell Roelf News

With more ships heading around the Cape of Good Hope due to attacks in the Red Sea region and a shutdown in their main South African bunkering operations, Mercuria and Trafigura have started refuelling services in Mauritius, four sources said.The two trading houses have opened operations in Port Louis to compensate for the shutdown at South Africa's Algoa Bay which stems from a tax dispute with authorities, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.Algoa Bay is South Africa's…

The Indian Navy said on Thursday it had rescued the crew of a U.S.-owned vessel in the Gulf of Aden after an attack by Yemen's Houthi movement as tensions in the region's sea lanes disrupted global trade.Following the attack on the U.S. Genco Picardy late on Wednesday, the U.S. military said its forces had conducted strikes on 14 Houthi missiles that "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region".Attacks by the Iran-allied Houthi militia on…

South Africa has granted Turkey's Karpowership access to the three ports of Ngqura, Durban and Saldanha Bay for a period of 20 years, the transport ministry said on Thursday, as it tries to find solutions to the country's power crisis.Karpowership aims to generate power on its floating gas ships and distribute it through South Africa's electricity grid. The plan received a boost from President Cyril Ramaphosa last week after he told lawmakers the ships would help ease the prolonged…

The already endangered African penguin is being driven away from its natural habitat off the east coast of South Africa due to noise from ship refueling, a scientific study has found.The number of African penguins on St Croix island in Algoa Bay, once the world's largest breeding colony of the birds, has plummeted since South Africa started to allow ships in the area to refuel at sea, a process known as bunkering, six years ago, the study found.Situated in a busy shipping lane along South Africa's east coast…

The docking of the Europa passenger liner in Cape Town on Tuesday was meant to be a ribbon-cutting celebration marking the official start of the cruise ship season in South Africa’s top tourist hub, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.But international travel curbs on southern Africa, where the new Omicron coronavirus here variant was first identified, have blown expectations of a bumper tourist season out of the water.The multi-story luxury liner is the first to dock at…

South Africa's Durban port has suffered major disruption after days of unrest, and operations have also been badly affected at the Richards Bay port and on a national freight rail line, logistics and freight companies said on Wednesday.The violence erupted last week in KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is located, after the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma but it has rapidly escalated in widespread looting and destruction in several other provinces.Durban has one of the busiest shipping terminals on the African continent…

South Africa's National Ports Authority (NPA) will operate as a stand alone business under the aegis of state-owned freight logistics group Transnet, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday, as the country tries to overhaul some of the world's worst-performing ports.A report last month ranking container ports by the World Bank and IHS Markit saw South Africa's major ports at the bottom of the list, with Durban faring the worst among local peers by coming in at 349 out of a total of 351 ports assessed globally.The Container Port Performance Index considered the total port hours per ship call,

A boat carrying more than 1,000 survivors of a highly organized, deadly attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in northern Mozambique arrived in the port of Pemba on Thursday, a Reuters reporter and a diplomatic source said.Aid workers were at the crowded port to give food to those disembarking from the green and white ferry, while police and soldiers kept control of crowds of people excited to see their relatives rescued after the attack that began last week in Palma, the reporter said.Islamist insurgents have been increasingly active in the surrounding province of Cabo Delgado since 2017…

South Africa's government has selected eight preferred bidders, including Turkey's Karpowership, to provide emergency electricity and help prop up the country's ailing power supply, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.The tender for 2,000 megawatts (MW), launched two years ago when South Africa suffered some of the worst power cuts in a decade, aimed to find the cheapest and quickest options to ease a shortage that has cost the continent's most industrialized economy billions of dollars."The evaluation process has resulted in the selection of eight preferred bids totaling 1…

South African police have seized close to a ton of cocaine worth almost 600 million rand ($40 million) from a ship off the Saldanha coast, close to Cape Town, in one of the country’s largest drug busts, authorities said on Tuesday.In an intelligence-driven operation, police and tactical forces boarded the vessel on Monday evening and found 973 blocks of compressed cocaine in three compartments of the unnamed ship.“It is one of the biggest busts in the country,” Brigadier Novela Potelwa told Reuters.She said 10 suspects, four Bulgarians and six from Myanmar, were arrested and are expected to ap

A South African court ruled on Tuesday that a Kuwaiti firm could ship thousands of sheep to the Middle East, dealing a blow to animal welfare activists seeking to ban such exports on concerns that extreme heat could kill the animals en route.In the high court case, South Africa’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) sought an interim injunction to prevent Kuwaiti livestock exporter Al Mawashi from sailing a vessel loaded with sheep out of South Africa’s East London port.In papers filed with the court, the NSPCA said cramped spaces and extreme heat had led to some animals being “cooked alive” on similar voyages across the Equator during the summer months.The court ruled that Al Mawashi could transport up to 56…

CMA CGM, the world's fourth-largest container shipping line, will impose emergency congestion surcharges at Cape Town port in July due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus, it has told customers.From July 1 until further notice, it will impose a surcharge of $550 for 20-foot containers and reefers and a $1,100 surcharge for 40-foot containers and reefers, CMA said in the letter dated June 17 that was seen by Reuters.Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, is the epicenter of South Africa's coronavirus outbreak…

South Africa banned all passenger vessels from its ports on Wednesday due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving tourists on a cruise ship docked in Cape Town in limbo following tests for possible COVID-19 cases on board.The MV AidAmira's more than 1,700 passengers and crew have been unable to leave the ship since Monday, after a crew member on a cargo ship who shared a plane with six passengers on the liner showed symptoms of the coronavirus.Port authorities quarantined the Italian-flagged AidAmira while the six passengers were tested for coronavirus.All those tests came back negative, South Af

A go-slow by workers at a major South African port is hitting exports of cars and other commodities, the country's Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday.State-owned rail operator Transnet said it had suspended a number of employees at its Ngqura Container Terminal for engaging in what it said was an illegal industrial action."We are getting reports of a go-slow at some of our ports which is beginning to (have an) impact on the export of vehicles from South Africa in particular but perhaps other commodities as well," Gordhan, whose portfolio includes Transnet, said.Carmakers including Ford, BMW and Nissan have invested billions of dollars to upgrade assembly plants and boost exports from Africa's top automotive hub.The action was also beginning to hit other sectors…

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said on Wednesday a court interdiction secured by the national ports authority has stopped planned strike action at ports from Thursday."Transnet National Ports Authority has interdicted the strike and the Labour Court has reserved judgment until Sept. 5, meaning we cannot go on strike tomorrow," union spokeswoman Zanele Sabela said.The strike was called after a deadlock over salary discrepancies between white and black workers.Reporting by Wendell Roelf

South Africa's transport workers union Satawu threatened a "total shutdown" at major ports across the country from Thursday after issuing a 48-hour strike notice for mariners over a payment dispute, the union said on Tuesday.The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) called the strike after negotiations with management became deadlocked over salary discrepancies between black and white mariners, with what it says are white mariners drawing higher salaries than their black counterparts, even when less experienced.The union said striking workers included pilots who bring ships into port, tug masters who assist pilots…

A South African court ruled on Thursday that a seized ship carrying a Moroccan cargo of phosphate from the disputed Western Sahara should remain in port until the case goes to trial or security is posted, a lawyer for the Polisario independence movement said. The Polisario Front alleges the 50,000 tonne shipment en route to New Zealand was illegally taken from Western Sahara territory and went to court to have the cargo seized. The case is a test of Polisario's new legal tactic in its long-running conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara, a disputed territory where the two sides fought a war until a 1991 ceasefire and where U.N. talks have failed to reach an accord.

Pakistan's first dry bulk terminal will open next month and is expected to handle 3 million tonnes a year of coal imports, rising to 20 million tonnes over the next five years, the port's chief executive said on Thursday. The $285 million Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, which was built with support from the World Bank, will also be used to export cement and clinker, Sharique Siddiqui, chief executive for the Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd, told Reuters at a coal conference in Cape Town. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf)

South Africa's navy has detained three Chinese ships with around 100 crew on board on suspicion of illegal squid fishing, officials said on Monday. The ships were spotted on Friday having entered South Africa's 200 nautical mile economic exclusion zone without permits. When South African officials asked the ships to sail to port they attempted to flee but were eventually captured. "We cannot tolerate the plundering of our marine resources, which are a source of food security," Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana said in a statement. The three vessels - Fu Yuan Yu 7880, Fu Yang Yu 7881 and Run Da 617 - had a combined total of almost 600 tonnes of squid when the navy escorted them to shore. Inspectors found all three ships had no permits to fish locally.

A Sao Tome and Principe court won a key victory against illegal fishing by organized syndicates on Monday when it convicted the captain of a vessel and two crew members on a number of charges, an Interpol official said. Globally, illegal fishing cost at least an estimated $23 billion each year, with one in four fish thought to be caught illegally in Africa with its bountiful marine life. Alistair McDonnell, a criminal intelligence officer at Interpol's fisheries unit, told Reuters that the FV Thunder was part of a fleet of six ships identified as some of the ocean's worst poachers. "This is a great result for transnational organized crime (fighting) cooperation because these guys have been doing this for 10 to 15 years," he said. "We are cutting away at the model.

Gas seen as key to help resolve power crisis; gas could be sourced from Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique. South Africa could build its first 20 billion rand ($1.4 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at the west coast port of Saldanha Bay to feed gas-to-power projects aimed at easing chronic supply shortages, an official said on Tuesday. Importing LNG is among the options Africa's most developed economy is considering to diversify its energy sources away from coal and ease power shortfalls that have curbed growth. Several companies, including Shell, Mitsubishi and Sasol, are expected to bid for 3,126 megawatt (MW) gas-to-power projects in the first quarter of 2016, when exact details will become known.

South Africa could deploy power barges using gas to generate electricity to help overcome chronic supply shortages, a senior government official said on Tuesday. Under the proposal, one of 170 submissions sent to the government after it requested ideas for a gas-to-power programme, power generating ships or barges would dock at ports and supply electricity to the national grid. Africa's most advanced economy is struggling to keep the lights on as rolling power cuts are implemented almost daily by power utility Eskom to save the national grid from collapse. "Power barges are a serious option, definitely yes," Ompi Aphane, deputy director general for energy planning at the department of energy told journalists in parliament.

South Africa's competition watchdog has recommended Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha Ltd (NYK) pay a 104 million rand ($8.5 million) penalty for price-fixing and collusion in the transport of cars. The Competition Commission said on Tuesday NYK had admitted guilt and agreed to pay the fine after an investigation into collusion involving several shipping firms. "The Commission found that NYK colluded on 14 tenders with its competitors for the transportation of motor vehicles by sea," competition authorities said in a statement. The ultimate decision rests with the Competition Tribunal, which in most cases backs deals approved by the commission.