Time charter deals seen as a boost for Korea A SERIES of time charter capesize commitments by South Korean principals has signalled a hint of strengthening in the Korean economy. Hanjin has reportedly taken a 1997-built capesize on three-year time charter from Cosco at $12,000/day in the first year, followed by $14,000/day and $16,000/ day in the subsequent years.
Samsung misses Minoan contract A FIRST major ferry-building order appears to have slipped through the fingers of South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries despite optimism just a month ago that the yard was poised to win contracts from Greece's Minoan Lines.
A case for 'pooling' in capesize sector THE benefits of the freshly-merged ABC capesize fleet are so obvious in today's capesize market, that the new chief executive officer, Karl Timmermann, believes that a number of independent capesize owners would be willing to join a pooling arrangement.
Sale and purchase brokers make most of limited trade QUIET determination has resulted in a few notable sales from various ship sectors this week but, as shipbrokers battle with a variety of negative influences to keep the market's momentum moving, the main experience of sale and purchase has been a market dominated by unconfirmed speculation.
Maersk shifts its Far East regional hub to Kaohsiung Danish shipping giant Maersk is shifting its Far East regional hub to Kaohsiung next month.
Held capesize is sistership of sunk bulkers A CAPESIZE ore carrier detained by the Australian authorities in the Port of Dampier has been revealed as a sistership to two bulkers which sank with all hands.
End of the British rating: sinister or just sad? The fact that P&O Nedlloyd is making its British ratings redundant is an event of some historical significance and cannot pass unnoticed. As has been mentioned in these pages, it effectively marks the end of British seamen in the world's liner trades. One assumes that the only Britons left in deepsea ships other than officers are those 'hopefuls' in the entertainment departments of cruise liners, which strikes me as being rather sad.
Aqaba tender result soon Jordan is expecting to announce shortly the winner of the international tender to expand the industrial port at Aqaba, according to Mohammed El-Dalabieh director general of the Ports Corporation.
Now for the reality cheque It is unlikely that Australian shippers will benefit in the short to medium term from the resolution of the Patrick/MUA dispute, according to the president of the Australian Peak Shippers Association, Frank Beaufort. "Everybody has to be pleased that it looks like the dispute has been settled," Mr Beaufort said on Friday. "But that's only one part of it. What we should be looking forward to is improved performance on the waterfront and benefits flowing back to the exporters and importers." He said, however, that due to residual resentment among the MUA's membership over the methods employed by Patrick Stevedores to effectively halve its MUA workforce, it was highly unlikely that shippers would witness productivity improvements in the near future.
Departures depend on maintenance deal The MUA was negotiating with Patrick's new maintenance contractor, Fluor Daniel, at press time on Friday in a bid to remove the last remaining barrier to a settlement of the deal which should result in 500 waterside workers taking redundancy packages on Wednesday night. The MUA's national organiser, Mick O'Leary, noted that until the remaining problems with Fluor Daniel's proposed maintenance contract were overcome to the MUA's satisfaction, the federal government's allocation of a loan to Patrick to pay for a total of 636 redundancies, could not be triggered.
Grainco denies Melbourne pull-out Queensland-based Grainco Limited yesterday denied industry rumors that it is close to abandoning plans to build a dry bulk terminal in the port of Melbourne, in favor of Port Kembla in NSW. A Grainco spokesperson said: "Any proposition that we would move the proposal from Melbourne would be misleading. "We are very much focused on Melbourne and are committed to building a world class terminal there.
Portland records fall Vicgrain's Port of Portland facility has set a record for loading woodchips of 802 tonnes an hour. The terminal loaded a total of 19,248 tonnes of woodchips on board the Shearwater in 24 hours. Terminal manger Terry Hallet said that the previous woodchip record was set in November 1995 when 18,824 tonnes was loaded on the Gyn Yoh in 24 hours at a rate of 784 tonnes an hour.
Triple A drops double calls The Australia Asia Alliance or 'Triple A' consortium has quietly dropped its twice-weekly Sydney and Melbourne calls in the South-East Asia trade, after scheduling difficulties and cargo booking patterns prompted a review. Although member lines are making no official comment the changes, which in essence see Triple A revert to once-weekly fixed-day calls at the major ports, come into effect immediately. Triple A's dual-loop service was implemented in June after remaining members of the previous MNM group, MISC and MOL, joined former rivals PIL and OOCL in an eight-ship service linking Port Kelang and Singapore with Sydney, Melbourne, Burnie/Bell Bay, Adelaide and Fremantle.
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