• S'pore registry sails past 200m gross tonnes mark
  Merchant fleet ranks 10th in the world; SRS has grown -1/3 in size from early 1996
• Uncertainty over VLCC market due to Asia crisis
• Aussie Labor to offer ideas on waterfront work problems

• Boeing may delay deliveries to M'sian, Philippine, Thai airlines
  Boeing says it will probably meet Malaysian Airline officials this week
• Broad outlines drawn for US-Japan air traffic deal
• Air New Zealand increases Aussie flights
• Frankfurt airport operator hits out at EU ruling
• India experiencing war of the small cars

• Bid to boost shipping profile
  The government and shipowners are working together to promote Hongkong as a shipping hub

• High and low-tech solutions to letters of indemnity in oil trade

• Hanjin unveils global network scheme - and ship sales
• FMC keeps liner space-charter probe on the boil
• TSA bands together to increase rates
• Evergreen pass ISC service over to Uniglory
• Singapore set overhaul Hong Kong as top box port
• Second Evergreen Kaohsiung terminal started
• MSAS sets up joint venture with Brazilian agent
• Europe/Asia air-freight traffic volume increases
• Rolls-Royce to form joint venture with American Airlines
• Airlines hampered by EU policy

• ECT shareholders want to sell
• Eye of Brits and Dutch falls on Thai airport
• Smaller ECT profit
• TNT and PTT Post become 'TNT Post'
• TNT Post still in line for a large takeover
• Penske recruits among competitors

• Vancouver port commission chooses development option
• Rate group fighting high Japan port costs
• FFA adds surveillance of air courier shipments
• U.S. rail freight traffic posts increase for 1997
• Boeing maintains dominant market position in sales
• Canada trades with U.S. to the tune of $1 billion daily
• Oil spill reported in Portland channel

• THC hike to be picked up as agenda by TWRA
• Documentation fee change for SARA
• Hanjin to start Portland calling
• Russia drastically cuts rail freight
• "Silkroad Rail Forum" to be held in Yokohama
• NCA president urges early air accord
• Kai Tak sets record high in 1997
• MSAS expands in Brazil

• 90,000 jobs go at China yards
  CHINA State Shipbuilding Corporation is to sack 90,000 of its 270,000-strong workforce over the next three years as rival yards in Japan and Korea benefit from favourable exchange rates.
• Hyundai rules out Halla offer
  HYUNDIA, South Korea's largest shipbuilding group, has finally ended speculation that it will acquire troubled rival Halla Engineering & Heavy Industries, writes Tony Gray.
• DSR-Senator starting critical recovery phase
  DSR-Senator Lines is approaching a critical stage in its recovery programme as new service schedules are introduced.
• Cosco rates plea to US
  CHINA Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) has petitioned the US Federal Maritime Commission for a limited exemption to file rates in the US cross-trades on one day's notice "to match - but not to undercut - the rates of competing carriers [and] complete fairly with non-controlled carriers," writes Joel Glass, Washington Corres-pondent.
• Carriers face closure of credit tap
  Despite Asia's economic woes, Hong Kong Correspondent Matthew Flynn found Orient Overseas (International) chief financial officer Harry Wilkinson in ebullient mood.
• Cautious approach hits hoped-for tanker market boom
  POTENTIAL tanker buyers and investors are exercising caution in the freight market after the Far East financial crisis dashed expectations of an industry boom last year, leading Norwegian analyst Bassoe has claimed.
• Major contracts in offshore market
  YARDS in Croatia and Singapore have secured two major contracts to lengthen offshore support vessels (OSV) this week.
• Work starts on 'Norwegian Sky'
  LLOYD Werft is shortly to begin outfitting the hull of the former Costa Olympia hull for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) in a $300m contract.

• ECT seeks foreign investments
  ROTTERDAM-based stevedore European Combined Terminals (ECT) is ready for more foreign adventures as an international terminal operator.
• Thai minister sets new privatisation deadline
  THAILAND'S deputy minister of transport and communications has given the Thai Shipowners Association (TSA) until January 23 to respond to its TMN proposal.
• 600 rescued from sinking ferry
  CHINA'S marine police rescued more than 600 passengers from a sinking ferry off the coast of southern Guangdong province on January 16.
• New Color Line head rules out newbuildings
  TRYGVE Sigerset, the new md of Color Line, has ruled out placing orders for cruise ferry newbuildings.
• Australia launches Asian credit scheme
  THE Australian government has announced a A$300m ($198m) credit underwriting scheme to prop up Australian trading contracts with Asian nations affected by the currency crisis.
• Visakhapatnam attracts Indian bidders
  FIVE private Indian companies have come forward to construct berths at the east coast port of Visakhapatnam on a build, operate, transfer basis.
• Lines complain of high Japanese terminal costs
  MEMBER lines of the Transpacific Westbound Rate Agreement (TWRA) say that the high cost of moving a container through Japanese port terminals is causing serious problems.
• Hyundai moves out of Marsaxlokk
  HYUNDAI Merchant Marine has pulled out of Malta Freeport less than a year after the carrier began operations at Marsaxlokk.
• SNCM back in the black
  FRENCH ferry company SNCM which operates services between France, Corsica, Sardinia and North Africa has recorded a profit in 1997, after two years of losses.
• Curaçao's cruise volume set to climb
  CRUISE volume at Curaçao will be ten per cent higher in both the number of cruise calls and passengers handled during the 1997/98 season.
• International law firms form alliance
  INTERNATIONAL law firm Sinclair Roche & Temperley (SR&T) and Singapore-based banking and commercial law firm Colin Ng & Partners have formed an alliance.
• Marine adjusters merge
  TWO international marine adjusting and consulting companies, the Richards Hogg Group and E R Lindley, have merged.
• Thai repairer undercuts rivals
  THAILAND'S Unithai Shipyard & Engineering has taken advantage of the baht's depreciation to offer ship repair prices 10-15 per cent cheaper than Singapore yards.
• Korean newbuilding orders at record high
  SOUTH Korean shipyards won orders for 201 vessels totalling 12.75 gross tonnes last year, reaching an all-time high and ranking Korea as the largest shipbuilding nation again.
• Algoma ponders fifth tanker
  ALGOMA Central Corp is looking to add a fifth Imperial Oil tanker to the four it has already agreed to purchase.
• Long Beach decision set for May
  THE US Navy has announced it will not make a decision until May regarding the future of the closed Naval Station in Long Beach.

• Dunkerque attire des trafics flamands
  Le port de Dunkerque exerce un pouvoir d'attraction grandissant sur les entreprises implantées dans la région voisine de l'autre côté de la frontière avec la Belgique (qu'on appelle en flamand le "Westhoek", le "coin ouest"). L'achèvement de la dernière section de l'E40 à hauteur de la frontière, qui fait que cette autoroute se poursuit désormais sans interruption jusqu'au tunnel sous la Manche, joue un rôle appréciable dans cette évolution. Mais celle-ci découle également de la politique commerciale mis en œuvre par les responsables du port du Nord de la France.
• ECT est à la recherche d'un actionnariat international
  Le manutentionnaire de containers rotterdamois ECT estime qu'il y a de bonnes affaires à réaliser dans certains ports d'Europe du Sud et axera de manière plus prononcée ses activités sur des ports "présentant un hinterland intéressant". C'est ce que le président de l'entreprise, Wouter den Dulk, a déclaré lundi après-midi à l'occasion de la présentation des chiffres annuels de 1997. Le bénéfice net d'ECT est resté stable à 40 millions de NLG, montant déjà atteint en 1996 (contre 44 mio. en 1995).
• Vers une exemption de l'eurovignette pour les transports portuaires?
  Les reproches adressés par l'AGHA dans sa récente note politique à l'adresse des autorités fédérales ont été entendues au parti social-chrétien flamand. La fraction de la Chambre va, ces prochains jours, adresser une série de questions parlementaires et introduire des propositions de loi sur les principaux problèmes évoqués par le secteur privé du port d'Anvers. Les chrétiens-démocrates veulent notamment que les véhicules qui sont uniquement alignés dans les transports portuaires bénéficient d'une exemption de l'eurovignette. Selon le CVP, les ports maritimes doivent également être exemptés du paiement de taxes d'assurances. Enfin, le CVP plaide pour une concertation portuaire fédérale, un meilleur fonctionnement de la douane et une politique plus active en matière de transport fluvial.
• L'UE et la Suisse vont reprendre les négociations
  Le gouvernement suisse a confirmé lundi que, suite à une conversation téléphonique entre Bruxelles et Berne, les négociations sur le transit alpin devraient reprende très prochainement. Une délégation suisse emmenée par le ministre des Transports Moritz Leuenberger devrait rencontrer le commissaire Neil Kinnock et le ministre britannique Gavin Strang à Bruxelles ce vendredi 23 janvier. La base des négociations serait un prix de transit de 330 CHF par poids lourd.

• Pacific carriers consider raising handling fee
• Cargo mix-ups feared if airline alliance is made
• Transportation and Congress
• Airlines hit EU competition stance
• The more things change: 1997 ends on same weak note as the year before
• Clarification
• RailAmerica subsidiary buys Canadian firm
• Drivers, trucking companies continue talking
• Final rules for handling rate complaints published
• Washington's Port of Anacortes wins back Texaco in 3-way deal
• Port of Halifax set record in 1997 for growth in container handling
• European Union set to impose ban on noisy jets in April '02
• Former JofC reporter David Cawthorne dies
• After some tough breaks, Germany's inland-waterway operators will receive $58 million in government aid to help them modernize
• BNSF's operating results up, net down
• Transport stock index rebounds

• Tasman shippers hit with new box charge
  A New Zealand import Service charge of up to $NZ181 per container on all cargoes into NZ ports has been imposed by shipping lines of the TransTasman Alliance.
  They said the charges were being applied in lieu of a freight rate increase to recover wharfage charges levied by the local port companies and government charges levied by the Ministry of Forestry and Ministry of Agriculture.
• Union opposed to reform: Reith
  Waterfront efficiency will not be improved by an increase in the number of stevedores as long as the Maritime Union of Australia has a stranglehold on labour market conditions according to the Federal minister for Workplace Relations, Peter Reith.
• Damage found on Cordigliera
  The freighter Cordigliera, on which 29 seafarers lost their lives, received serious structural damage, according to preliminary results from a $US200,000 expedition to determine the cause of the vessel’s loss. Sonar scans of the wreck, lying in 300ft of water off the coast of South Africa show damage around the ship’s No 1 cargo hold.
• UPS lifting local presence
  Global distribution giant United Parcel Service is set to ramp up its modest presence in the Australian international express freight market, with plans under way for the US-based company to commence its first regular service to Australia with its own aircraft. UPS Asia Pacific vice president Charles Adams, who met with Qantas executives yesterday to discuss the proposed changes, revealed that UPS wants to commence a weekly Boeing 747 service between Sydney and the US as soon as possible.
• MUA bid to form council termed ‘smother attempt’
  The push by the Maritime Union of Australia to establish a Maritime industry Consultative Council has met with a cool response from industry sources.
  One of them suggested yesterday that the move was an attempt to "throw a blanket over any transparency on the real problems of the waterfront."