News

The difficulties experienced by operators in Douala port constitute a roadblock to wood exports in Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon. This is revealed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in its sectoral report on the international wood market covering the period from July 1 to 15, 2018. “Much of the efforts of producers and exporters is focused on trying to overcome shipping problems caused by congestion, limited access for vessels (Ed. Note: due to the congestion of the channel which is yet to be dredged) and loading difficulties at the port of Douala”, the ITTO informs in its report. It also adds that “the knock-on effect of the port congestion has been a temporary decline in shipments of some products notably okoume sawnwood from Gabon and logs from Republic of Congo”. This situation coincides with an increase in the demand for Okoumé and tropical sawn wood on the international market. Therefore, to cash in this situation and benefit from the price increase projected by the ITTO, the exporters are striving to send their products. For instance, according to credible sources, some exporters sent their woods via Kribi deepwater port commissioned in March 2018 in South Cameroon. Our source also reveals that Société d’exploitation des parcs à bois du Cameroun (SEPBC), the concessionaire of Douala port’s log yard was granted about 23,000 metric cube storage area in Kribi port. According to the ITTO, from there, SEPBC will intensify its containerized exports with the support of a Chinese ship-owner. Source: BusinessInCameroon

Chantiers de l'Atlantique (formerly STX France) has cut the first piece of steel for Celebrity Cruises’ second Edge-class ship at its yard in Saint-Nazaire, France. To be named Celebrity Apex, the newbuild is set to join the Celebrity fleet in spring 2020 and will offer many of the innovative features and venues that will debut onboard Celebrity Edge this year. “Welcoming Celebrity Apex into our family with the leadership team was a very special moment, especially when we all signed the ship silhouette cut from the first piece of steel,” said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, at the ceremony. “We are so grateful for our partnership with Chantiers de l'Atlantique and are thrilled to work on another very special ship together. The success and momentum for Celebrity Edge has been incredible, and with Celebrity Apex we will yet again show how we are taking our brand to the next level.

Meyer Turku are expecting to deliver the new MEIN SCHIFF 2 earlier than scheduled. http://cruisedeck.de/neue-mein-schiff-2-kommt-frueher-historisches-treffen/

Thieves have stolen 114 tonnes of cobalt from a secure warehouse in Rotterdam’s port area, local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond reported on Friday. The haul has a value of some €7m and must have been removed by lorry but it is unclear as yet how the thieves were able to do this, RTV Rijnmond said. Cobalt is a rare mineral used largely for the production of batteries and pigments.

Virgin Voyages unveiled the long-awaited name of its first ship “SCARLET LADY” at its shipyard in Genoa, Italy. Founder Sir Richard Branson and president and CEO Tom McAlpin revealed further details about the cruise line’s debut ship, including a ban on single-use plastics on board, renderings and animations of nine new public spaces and the plans for its wellbeing programme, “Vitamin Sea”. The single-use plastics ban will range from bottled water to take-away coffee and tea cups as Virgin Voyages strives to create one of the cleanest fleets at sea. Mr McAlpin said: “We believe that in order to fulfill our purpose of creating an ‘Epic Sea Change for All’ we must make a commitment that is bigger than just eliminating straws.

Peel Ports’ flagship deep-water container terminal, Liverpool2, will welcome its largest regular caller to date when 2M (Maersk and MSC alliance) introduce a new transatlantic container service to the port beginning 22 July 2018. 2M is switching its TA2 service from Felixstowe to Liverpool on a temporary basis. At the same time, Maersk Line’s South American service, Colombia Express, will also start calling at the port of Liverpool, exporting UK goods to Newark. Liverpool will be the final port of call for both weekly services as they head westbound across the Atlantic. The ships will load UK export cargo such as Scotch whisky, food products and trade machinery. The new services will also see the Port of Liverpool open up direct links with the US ports of Charleston and Savannah.

A steel cutting ceremony held today (July 20) at Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente (Genoa) shipyard marked the official start of construction for the second of three cruise ships on order for Virgin Voyages (part of Virgin Group).

Adventure travel operator Lindblad Expeditions has revealed plans to order a second purpose-built polar expedition cruise ship, which is expected to be delivered in 2021. Prompted by growing customer demand for “high quality and authentic expedition travel”, the ship will be the latest in a line of newbuilds for Lindblad. They include coastal vessels National Geographic Quest (launched in June 2017), National Geographic Venture (to debut December 2018) and Lindblad's first new purpose-built polar expedition ship , the 126-guest National Geographic Endurance. The latter, which was designed by Norway’s Ulstein Design & Solutions, is currently being built to Polar Class 5 standards at Crist Shipyard in Poland and will be delivered in early 2020. Once she starts service, the yet-to-be-named newbuild will joins National Geographic Endurance to become the fourth polar vessel in the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic fleet.

Royal Caribbean's new cruise terminal in PortMiami is under construction, and we have a look at the progress being made. Royal Caribbean Blog reader Lovetocruise2002 took photos of the new Terminal A building while sailing away on a cruise over the weekend. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/07/23/new-royal-caribbean-cruise-terminal-portmiami-photo-report

Princess Cruises and Fincantieri have agreed about the newbuilding of two further cruise ships to be built on the Monfalcone yard. http://cruisedeck.de/neu-bestellungen-von-princess-cruises-bei-fincantieri/

Consent has been granted to dredge Whangārei Harbour clearing the way for fully laden super-sized fuel tankers to visit the Marsden Point oil refinery. The "Suezmax" tankers already visit the refinery regularly but could only do so 90 per cent full because of the channel depth. Refining NZ sought the consent on the basis a deeper, straighter channel to allow greater oil shipments would mean ultimately, fewer tanker visits would be needed - with less impact or danger to the environment This week, a panel of three independent commissioners granted a raft of resource consents to deepen and realign theh Whangārei Harbour entrance and approaches.

South Korean authorities have opened an investigation into a UN panel’s finding that North Korea transhipped over 9,000 tons of coal, disguised as Russian exports, to South Korean ports in Incheon and Pohang, North Gyeongsang, last October. According to a recent United Nations panel of experts report, North Korean coal shipped to the Russian port of Kholmsk was reloaded on two vessels that entered South Korea’s Incheon and Pohang ports and arrived after the UN Security Council’s comprehensive coal ban was implemented in August last year.

The Belgian transport engineering company Sarens has agreed to double a planned investment to modernise the port of Hamina in southeast Finland. The deal builds on a 2016 agreement between Sarens and Tengizchevroil (TCO) — a consortium of oil companies operating the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan — to build a trans-shipment base in the Finnish coastal city. The new port in question would primarily be used for offloading cargo from ocean-going vessels. TCO has entrusted Sarens with the transportation and installation of oversized pre-assembled equipment for a new plant designed to increase the production capacity of the existing Tengiz refinery.

The season of icebreaker assistance in the water area of port Sabetta and at the approaches to it is over from 20 July 2018, 00:00 Moscow time with ice navigation restrictions lifted. The decree was signed by Acting Harbour Master Boris Gorbushin. According to the decree, vessels should mind sporadic ice floes in the water area of the port and at the approaches to it.

Carnival Corporation has ordered two additional dual-fuel cruise ships, which will join its Princess Cruises brand in late 2023 and spring 2025. The 175,000gt ships will accommodate around 4,300 guests and will be primarily fuelled by LNG to significantly reduce harmful emissions and environmental impact. The new ships, which will offer various onboard innovations, will be the largest by capacity in the Princess Cruises fleet. “This revolutionary platform for next-generation, LNG-powered cruise ships will introduce innovative design and leisure experiences driven by the future holiday and lifestyle trends of our guests – further evolving the already best-in-class Princess Cruises experience we deliver today,” said Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises. “We look forward to collaborating with Fincantieri to bring our vision for this next-generation premium cruise ship into service.” Both newbuilds will be constructed by Fincantieri at its yard in Monfalcone.

Naming ceremony of the new MEIN SCHIFF 2 will take place at Lisboa on 6th February 2019. http://cruisedeck.de/neue-mein-schiff-2-kommt-frueher-historisches-treffen/

INGAPORE's APL, now a unit of French shipping giant CMA CGM, announced that its Gulf Asia Express 2 (GA2) service will soon be calling at the Port of Umm Qasr in an effort to continuously provide market connectivity between the Far East and Middle East. Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), also announced direct calls to the Port of Umm Qasr in its Middle East Service 4 (ME4) service, starting on August 6 with the first sailing in Shanghai.

Singapore — Rotterdam-based Royal Vopak has acquired a 29% share in Elengy Terminal Pakistan, whose subsidiary Engro Elengy Terminal owns a floating LNG import facility anchored at Port Qasim in Pakistan, the companies said in a joint statement Friday. Register Now The deal gives Vopak, the world's largest independent petroleum storage company, a foothold in Asia's expanding market for LNG infrastructure, driven by growing adoption of LNG as a fuel source. It also underscores how traditional oil-focused companies are diversifying to natural gas in line with oil major strategy. "This new step in our cooperation gives Vopak an excellent entry in the growing Pakistan LNG market. This fits very well with our ambitions to grow and diversify our service offering in LNG," Vopak's chairman and chief executive Eelco Hoekstra, said. As of end-April, Vopak operated 66 terminals globally with a storage capacity of 35.9 million cu m, but gas products accounted for only 3-5% of its total portfolio, while the bulk was oil products at 40-45% and the remaining were chemical facilities, industrial terminals and vegetable oils storage. Even most of Vopak's growth projects under development for 3.1 million cu m of capacity are for oil products, chemicals and LPG. Vopak has said it continues to look for opportunities in the LNG infrastructure market and the FSRU market on a project-to-project basis through joint ventures or acquisitions The share purchase agreement between Vopak and Engro, who already operate the Engro Vopak chemical terminal jointly near Port Qasim, is for Pakistan's first LNG import facility that started operations in 2015, and supplies gas to state-owned Sui Southern Gas Engro holds a 15-year time charter for the FSRU and the project has long- term LNG supply contracts for feeding power generation, industrial use and as feedstock for fertilizers in Pakistan, which is a market of more than 200 million people and growing energy demand. The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, and expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018. After the deal, the LNG terminal's shareholders will be Engro, Vopak and the International Finance Corporation. Source : Platts

Industrial companies based in the North Sea Canal Area seek to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, bringing them down from the current level of 15 megatons. Virtually all circular waste flows must be recycled by 2050 and carbon emissions minimised. In committing to these targets, the area aims to be among the leading regions in Europe when it comes to reducing climate change.

French container carrier CMA CGM announced Friday it has acquired from CHINA SHIPPING Ports Development Co. Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of COSCO Group, a 10 percent equity interest in CSP Zeebrugge Terminal NV, through its wholly-owned subsidiary CMA Terminals. CMA CGM is currently the major client of the Belgian container terminal and accounted for one third of CSP Zeebrugge's total throughput in 2017. COSCO SHIPPING Ports completed the acquisition of the remaining 76 percent equity interest in CSP Zeebrugge terminal in November 2017 and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary.