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Rich Norway

Norway is sitting on a gold mine of 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent in untapped discovered hydrocarbon resources that could generate massive revenue of $106 billion but significant technical and commercial obstacles are barring the way to the glittering prize, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Cosco Profits

COSCO Pacific, the terminal operating unit of Cosco Group, said its profits fell 74% year on year to $146.8M due to lack of one-off gains from disposal of a subsidiary last year.

Excluding the one-off items, COSCO Pacific’s profits rose 2% y/y to $146.8M on container throughput increase, a stock filing of the company said today.

Revenues gained 11% y/y to $440.2M during the same period. The company’s total throughput increased 10% y/y to 32.5Mteu, with the equity throughput up 13% y/y to 9.3Mteu.

For its container leasing, management and sale business, the profit of the segment fell 30% y/y as its box fleet increased 3% y/y to 1.9Mteu. During the period, COSCO Pacific added two berths at Asia Container Terminals in Hong Kong and two berths at Dongjiakou Ore Terminal in Qingdao, China.

As of 30 June, the company was operating 106 container berths, with a total annual handling capacity of 64.3Mteu and was operating 13 bulk cargo berths with a total annual handling capacity of 46.1M tonnes.

In the second half of the year, the group’s container throughput is expected to grow steadily, giving a boost to terminals business profits, it added.

Aivars Taurins, Regional Director of Stena Line in Russia, the Baltic States and the CIS, tells about possible impact of sanctions on transport and logistics market of Russia, as well as about freight market situation and implications of new environmental standards in the Baltic Sea.

– How do you assess the impact of sanctions on the transport and logistics market of Russia? Do you predict whether there will be an increase or decrease in the transport of containers, Ro-Ro cargo through Russian seaports in this situation?

– I believe in a situation of limited imports as a result of EU and USA sanctions, including entry of dual-purpose products into Russia, or restrictions on the import of certain food products in Russia, some part of the cargo flow will be excluded out of the business now. Substitution of imported goods with their own production – it is not a momentary process. Therefore there will be switching from one trade to another; some routes (trade routes or flow) will be replaced with another. It has already been announced about the substitution of the current shortage of some food products with some other imported goods. Thus, I can say, a change of suppliers will happen, but there will not be a  sudden change in the total turnover.

The total amount of cargo flow may change a little but it depends on the general purchasing power in the economy. The flow will increase and decrease in different areas but in general the situation will be balanced.

Statistics data is showing the total volume of traffic at seaports does not change at all, in fact we have seen an increase. As this is the case then  there isn’t any free capacity – no noticeable change in traffic.

Changes in the market conditions will be: Turkey has increased in cargo volume, the Stena Sealine route on the Black Sea (Ilyichevsk–Haydarpasa) works well, with growth of 20% in general, and in the south direction it is showing 60% growth, according to operational data.

Accumulated data from the beginning of the year shows an increase in traffic by 18%.

On the Baltic Sea sector accumulated data shows growth of 13.5% from the beginning of the year compared with the same period in 2013. There are several reasons for the growth-  we added two additional roundtrips: one is on the route Ventspils (Latvia) –  Nynäshamn (Sweden).  There are 6 roundtrips per week now with a departure on a Sunday morning from Ventspils to Nynäshamn that is very convenient for picking up cargo at the weekend  and the second additional roundtrip is to  Travemünde in Germany from Latvia (from Liepaja port there are  5 calls per week now).

Source: http://en.portnews.ru/comments/1837/

The world’s largest gas turbine was loaded on board of a heavy lift vessel, the ANNEGRET in the Buss Hansa Terminal in Hamburg last week.
The gas turbine was manufactured by German engineering and electronics company Siemens for Malaysian power plant TNB Prai.

Pirates have shot a seafarer in the neck after boarding an anchored product tanker, two miles off Teluk Ramunia, Malaysia, on Friday.

According to sources, cash, personal belongings and possibly fuel were stolen by the seven armed Indonesians that boarded the tanker MT Ji Xiang which is registered in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Local authorities were able to intervene, and in their haste to escape, the pirates left two pistols and a machete on the vessel which was carrying 14 crew comprising seven Myanmars, a China national and six Indonesians.

A maritime patrol boat gave chase but lost them in the waters off a neighbouring country. The seafarer who was shot is now recovering in hospital.

For Lieutenant (Military Retired) Dave Daniel Rachimi, CEO of the maritime security organization, World MarSec Union, help in this sort of situation is often too late, too little and too far away. “With endless heartbreaking results for seafarers, shipowners, and officers at sea, we all know the results of piracy,” he said.

“It is plain to see that the authorities in and around the waters of Singapore do not react or are not equipped to react to any emergent situation in order to secure ships in these dangerous waters. The Union knows, however, that under these dangerous conditions it takes just four savvy armed guards to secure any mission.”

It is time for action, he says. “Since the beginning of this year seven confirmed hijacks have taken place in the South Malaysian waters, among them the tanker MT Ji Xiang, MT Orapin 4 and MT Oriental Glory.

“It is financially practicable to place three armory vessels along the main shipping routes of the Straits of Malacca (north, center, and south) and then give all commercial shipowners the option to secure their ships, without needing to challenge the local authorities with endless begging for weapons and port entry permits with arms that will never come. The model of armed secured and savvy armory vessels in international waters that is being employed in the Red Sea and Fujairah can also be employed in the Straits of Malacca.”

Maersk Line has announced a 10 year Vessel Sharing Agreement (VSA) with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) on the Asia-Europe, Transatlantic and Transpacific trades. The VSA will be referred to as 2M. It replaces all existing VSAs and slot purchase agreements that Maersk Line has in these trades.

The VSA will include 185 vessels with an estimated capacity of 2.1 million TEU, deployed on 21 strings. The overall purpose of the cooperation is to share infrastructure (network). Maersk Line and MSC will be able to provide their customers with more stable and frequent services, cover more ports with direct services. The VSA will improve the efficiency of the Maersk Line and MSC networks through better utilisation of vessel capacity and economies of scale.

“I am very pleased with our agreement with MSC. We share the same ambition to have as efficient and effective operations as possible. We will continue to provide our customers with competitive and reliable container shipping in the East-West trades at attractive prices. To do so we have to be innovative and take out cost, while keeping a product that is best in class for our customers in terms of coverage, frequency and reliability. Our agreement with MSC is a step towards achieving all of these objectives in the East-West trades,” says Søren Skou, Maersk Line CEO.

Maersk Group CEO Nils S. Andersen welcomes the agreement with MSC.

“Over the last years, Maersk Line has established itself as a leader in the industry through its customer focus and by improving its competitive cost position.  With this agreement Maersk Line will be able to further enhance its customer offering while also reducing costs and CO2 emissions. I am confident that Maersk Line’s leadership, also after this positive step, will continue to find new ways to strengthen its competitive advantage and customer experience” says Nils S. Andersen.

http://www.globallogisticsmedia.com/articles/view/maersk-line-announces-cooperation-on-the-east-west-trades-with-msc