Archives
Sept 2008
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Shipping News
--------------------------------------------------------------- News 18/11/08 Odfjell, the Norwegian tanker owner, has announced it is to re-route its vessels round the Cape of Good Hope in a move designed to avoid the spate of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden. The downside of this action is that Odfjell intends to pass the extra cost incurred in the diversion onto its customers to cover the extra days of sailing involved. The 2008-built, 25,688-grt, containership Maersk Newport caught fire early on 15th November while berthed in the Spanish port of Algeciras. The ensuing blaze caused bottles of oxygen and acetylene to explode trapping the Stevedores working on the bow of the ship who only escaped by climbing down the port side helped by the crew of the tug VB Algeciras and two other tugs at the scene. After around five hours firefighter managed to bring the fire under control but the extent of the damage incurred is not known yet. News 17/11/08 Gunmen boarded the Japanese operated 11,951-grt, 1999-built Chemstar Venus on 15th November. The ship was taken to Somalia along with its twenty-three crew after being seized 155-miles east of the port of Aden. The Stolt Valor that was hijacked on 15th September with 22 crew on board was finally released by its captors yesterday after the ransom (reportedly) had been paid by its owners. Egon Oldendorff has sold the Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft (FSG) shipyard that was founded in 1872. The German shipowner and dry bulk operator has sold out to a management buy-out consortium backed by Munich-based Orlando Management GmbH and headed by the Chief Executive Peter Sierk for an undisclosed price. FSG presently has an order book that extends until 2013. News 16/11/08 A Chinese fishing vessel, Tianyu No. 8, owned by the Tianjin Ocean Fishing Company was seized by armed gunmen on 14th November with a crew of 24 on board. The pirate leader stated that it was illegally fishing in Somalian waters and the crew will be dealt with accordingly. However the Chinese Ministry of Transport has claimed that the ship was fishing off of the Kenyan coast at the time of the hijacking. Early on yesterday morning at around 07.20 GMT Somalian pirates captured their biggest prize yet when they boarded and seized the 2008-built 162,252-grt VLCC Sirius Star. The vessel, owned and operated by Vela International (the shipping arm of ARAMCO), was en-route from the Persian Gulf to St. Eustatius in the Caribbean when it was hijacked some 450-miles south east of Mombasa. This was also the farthest out that the pirates have operated to date and the ship and its 25-man crew was taken to the Somali port of Eyl. Vela currently runs a fleet of 27 crude tankers of which 23 are VLCC’s. News 15/11/08 *** Updated A container ship off the coast of Somalia escaped pirates who attacked it on 13th November with grenade launchers and machine guns, sparking a fire on board, the Russian Transportation Ministry said. The pirates approached, the 16,575-grt, 1998-built Kapitan Maslov, in a high-speed boat late in the afternoon and attacked as it headed from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Mombasa, Kenya. The attack started a fire on board the Cypriot-owned, Russian-operated ship but the crew members were able to extinguish the flames. None of the 17 Russian crew members aboard was injured in the attack, which occurred about 300 miles off the Somali coast. Afterward, the vessel was able to escape the pirates and continued to Mombasa. The ship is owned by Cyprus' Diataxis Shipping Company and is operated by the Russian FESCO Transport Group. News 14/11/08 Hyundai Mipo Shipyard has announced that they have signed a $408m order that revises a previously awarded $373m contract placed by a European customer in 2007 for eight container ships. The new order now comprises two container ships, two product carriers and three LPG vessels. News 13/11/08 The Russian frigate RFS Neustrashimyy (712) and the Royal Navy's HMS Cumberland (F85) both sent up helicopters against pirates as they tried to hijack the Danish-registered MV Powerful yesterday. It was the first action by a Russian warship sent to prevent hijackings off Somalia. The pirates had tried to hit the ship with automatic weapons fire and made several attempts to seize it before HMS Cumberland, currently operating in the area with the NATO SNMG2 force, sent her boats to circle a Yemeni-flagged dhow, that had been involved in the attack and which refused to stop when hailed. The crew of the dhow opened fire at the boats, but surrendered after the Royal Navy crews returned the fire in self defense. An RN crew then boarded the dhow and found that two suspected pirates, believed to be Somalis, had been shot and killed. A Yemeni man also was found wounded and later died despite emergency treatment but it was unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the action or a previous incident involving the pirates. In a separate incident yesterday the Turkish-flagged 3,974-grt, 2007 built tanker MV Karagol was hijacked 16-miles off the Yemen coast. The vessel, with fourteen-crew on board, was en-route to Mumbai with 4,500-tonnes of chemicals. Including this hijacking there have been 84 attacks on shipping this year with 12 ships still in pirate hands. News 12/11/08 Prisco Alexandria, the first ship to be built to the new global standards for ice-class vessels was named 10th November at STX’s Jinhae yard. The 51,000-dwt vessel is the first of seven sister-ships under construction for the Primorsk Shipping Company (PRISCO) for operation in frigid temperatures. Four of the remaining ships will be delivered in 2009 with the last pair due in 2010. Reports from Scandinavia indicate that the Lindø shipyard in Odense could be wound up with the shipyard management and directors making a decision soon as competition from Far Eastern yards hits the company's earnings. Some 3,000 workers are presently employed at the yard and unless some new orders are won before the end of the year a gradual winding process down could be implemented. The yard is currently looking at ways to diversify possibly in to sub-contracting work for other trades, not necessarily shipbuilding, but if the order is given then Lindø could close when the last vessel under construction is completed in 2010/2011. News 11/11/08 On 10th November the 20,059-grt, 2005-built tanker Stolt Strength was boarded and hijacked in the Gulf of Aden with twenty-one crew on board while en-route to India. This is the second Stolt-Nielsen tanker to be seized in the region following the hijacking of the Stolt Valor, which is still being held, on 15th September. Despite the increased naval patrols in the area pirates in the region are still holding another ten vessels, excluding the two mentioned above. The Indian Navy also foiled two near simultaneous attacks on merchant shipping 10th November when the frigate INS Tabar (F44) received an SOS from the Saudi registered tanker MV NCC Tihama saying it had been surrounded by five pirate boats. The INS Tabar immediately launched a helicopter carrying armed commando's who fired on the attackers, chasing them away. At the same time that this was happening the Indian-flagged Great Eastern Shipping's MV Jag Arnav called saying it was under attack, the helicopter responded and was shortly joined by the Indian frigate that opened fire with her guns on the pirates, who promptly fled! The EU NAVFOR force for operations off Somalia will get under way in December with the prime aim of escorting World Food Programme (WFP) ships and their cargo as well as the deterrence, prevention and repression of piracy and armed robbery in the area. Northwood in the UK is the HQ of the EU operation and the RN has appointed Vice-Admiral Philip Jones as the Operation Commander. The six or seven vessel force will depart in December to relieve NATO’s SNMG2 and will remain in theatre for an initial period of twelve months (rotating ships as required) at an estimated cost of €8.3m. News 09/11/08 The European Union has agreed with Poland that the assets of the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards will be sold off to pay back the state aid that was previously granted in breach of EU regulations. This gives no indication as to the future of either yard, gives no guarantee of rehiring employees and sheds no light on what will happen to the ships that are either in build or on order. News 08/11/08 Danaos Corporation took delivery of the 4,253-TEU container ship Zim Kingston from Samsung Heavy Industries on 3rd November and the ship immediately commenced a twelve-year time-charter. Danaos has thirty-one new ships on order with a total of 230,709-TEU with delivery due before 2011 to add to the thirty-nine container ships it already owns. News 07/11/08 CEC Future, a 1994-built, 4,980-grt general cargo ship was hijacked off of the Somalian coast on 7th November with thirteen crew on board despite the increased NATO naval presence in the area. The owners, Clipper Projects A/S said that there had been no contact with the hijackers yet but they were in close communication with the relevant authorities. News 06/11/08 Genco Shipping and Trading has cancelled a $530m order for three Capesize and three Handymax dry bulk newbuilds from Lambert Navigation, Northville Navigation, Providence Navigation and Prime Bulk Navigation forfeiting $53m in deposits in the process due to the world trade situation. Genco still has four more Capesize newbuilds on order for delivery in 2009. The French Government has announced it has taken a direct 33.34% blocking minority stake in STX France (formally Aker Yards). This now reduces STX’s holding from 75% down to 50.66% and Alstoms holding down to 16.0% from 25%. Union officials and employees have welcomed the action. News 04/11/08 Damen launched the €21m, 7,987-grt Johan Schepers at their Galati yard on 27th October. The 804-TEU vessel is the fifth out of an order for six container ships for Schepers. Damen hope to launch five more ships at the yard before the end of the year. News 02/11/08 Keppel Singmarine Philippines Inc has had its P589.927m expansion project at Lapu Lapu City in Cebu approved. New equipment will be installed and new facilities will be constructed at the yard, where at present eight ships per year are being produced. News 01/11/08 Turkey’s YASA Shipping’s YASA Neslihan, a 2005-built 82,849-dwt Kamsarmax bulk carrier, was hijacked on 29th October with 20 crew on board off of Somalia as it was en-route from Canada to China loaded with 77,000-tons of iron ore. Two other ships in the region; MV Leander, a Panamanian registered 1999-built 23,594-grt crude oil tanker and the MV Aquilo a 1979-built 14,188-grt general cargo ship were both subject to piracy attacks in the same area on 28th October after what had been a slight lull in incidents. The MV Wael H, which was hijacked on 09th October was released five days later after a ransom had reportedly been paid. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering christened the third container vessel in a series of six at their Okpo yard in South Korea on 30/10/08. The 5,900-TEU Rio Negro was delivered to its new owners five days later and entered service on the Hamburg Sud Good Hope Express connecting Asia and South Africa with the South America East Coast. She follows on from her sister-ships Rio de la Plata and Rio de Janeiro and is expected to transfer in early 2009 on to the Group’s Europe to South America East Coast route. Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has started a $200m per year savings programme with the laying-up of some of its container vessels as the downturn in world shipping starts to bite. NOL already has a number of its empty vessels on Singapore waters and is the first major operator to implement the process of full lay-ups. NOL, along with its alliance partners MOL and Hyundai Merchant Shipping, will be taking around forty ships out of service, most of which will be laid up in Singapore. News 30/10/08 Shanghai Waigaqiao Shipyard (SWS) has delivered its first VLCC. The 164,680-grt Hua Son, the first of eleven VLCC’s to be built, was delivered to Singapore-based Ocean Tankers Pte, who are taking six of the ships, five months ahead of schedule.
File photo of the Hua Son. News 27/10/08 Stena Bulk has taken a 35% equity stake (valued at $250m in share capital) in the Greek company Paradise Tankers bringing three Panamax tankers and two dry bulk carriers in to the Stena fleet. The three 73,500-dwt tankers, to be renamed Stena Callas, Stena Chronos and Stena Chiron, will enter a pool in conjunction with Sonogol, the Angolan State Oil Company, while the two bulk carriers will remain on long-term bareboat charter with their Russian operators. Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd (TEN) has taken delivery of the 2008-built, 105,000-dwt Aframax Maria Princess from Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Japan. She was followed by her sister-ship, Nippon Princess, on 12th November. The tankers are part of an eight vessel “Princess-class” series that started in 2007 with the delivery of the Izumo Princess and Sakura Princess. News 23/10/08 Maersk has taken nine containerships off of its Asian routes due to the economic slowdown in world trade. The line has announced in mid-November that it has suspended its AE8 service, albeit on a temporary basis, following on from the termination of the AE5 loop in May of this year. The nine ships will be transferred to the Asia-Caribbean routes, AE1 and AE10 will be extended to incorporate Scandinavia, AE3 gets a ninth ship and AE6 will have two additional ports added to it. All AE loops now have an extra ship allocated to it as Maersk cuts speeds to improve efficiency and cut fuel costs. News 20/10/08 Intermarine has announced that it has accepted delivery of the first of eight new heavylift ships from Portugal. The 2008-built, 8,750-grt Industrial Eagle (ex-Apus J) sailed from Hamburg to Antwerp picking up cargo and equipment, including a 196-ton turbine, destined for Brazil. The vessel then sailed to the Pacific to join Intermarines’s Asian services. News 17/10/08 Wilson Shipowning has a new series of eight 4,500-dwt general cargo ships on order with construction taking place by Shandong Baibuting in Qingdao, China. This order is in addition to the eight 8,000-dwt general cargo ships currently being built at the Yichang Shipyard. Delivery of the first of the sixteen vessels is due in December 2009 with the last of the order arriving in February 2012. News 16/10/08 Piracy attacks in and around the Gulf of Aden/Horn of Africa continue unabated in spite of the impending naval protection forces being deployed to the region. On 15th October the 2008-built, 32,379-grt Supramax MV African Sanderling with twenty-one crew aboard was hijacked just hours before the Handysize bulker MV Bright Star (hijacked on 10/09/08) was released today after yet another ransom was paid. News 15/10/08 Aker Philadelphia has said it had been notified that the American Shipping Company are to change the build schedule of its 12-ship tanker programme as it had not yet arranged finance for two of its ships. The two ships concerned were intended for bareboat charter to the Overseas Shipholding Group by ASC to go out to Petrobras of Brazil for operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Aker have confirmed any changes in the building schedule will not delay delivery of any of the tankers. News 13/11/08 OceanFreight have bought the 1991-built Aframax crude tanker MT Tigani (ex-Sea Falcon) for $40m. The 95,951-dwt vessel will be delivered by the end of this year and will immediately go out on a one-year time-charter to Heidmar at a daily rate of $29,800. This now takes the OceanFreight fleet to thirteen vessels comprising of four tankers and nine dry-bulk carriers. News 11/10/08 Navios Maritime Holdings has taken delivery of the 55,728-dwt 2007-built Ultra Handymax Navios Ulysses that will commence a five-year time charter at a daily rate of $31,281. Navios have ten Capesize vessels of 172,000 to 181,000-dwt under construction with delivery before early 2010 of which six have already secured contracts. News 10/10/08 The MV 1984-built 35,886-grt MV Fedra ran aground on the rocks on the eastern side of Gibraltar underneath the lighthouse at around 19.00 hours local time tonight. The ship suffered a loss of power during the storms that lashed The Rock tonight with winds of up to 85kph, the ship dragged her anchor and despite attempts by the tug Warrior, which was alongside the wreck of the New Flame at the time and the local tug Wellington, the ship foundered. The 31-crew were taken of by local rescue crews and a SASEMAR helicopter and as night fell fears grew that she would break up under the force of the waves. More later....
The MV Fedra at first light on 11/10/08 as can be seen her back has been broken by the storm (Photo D. Ferro) News 09/10/08 Caspian Sea Shipping Company launched it's latest tanker, the 150-metre 7,226-grt Jabbar Hashimov at its Zelenodolsk Shipyard in Tatarstan. News 08/10/08 COSCO Container Lines, K-Line, Yang Ming Marine and Hanjin Shiiping (CKYH Alliance) have suspended their weekly Asia-eastern Mediterranean service from today due to falling demand. Seven 2,700 to 3,800-TEU vessels were employed on the run that connected China and Singapore with Israel and Greece. COSCO provided three of the ships, two came from Yang Ming and a single vessel was provided by K-Line. News 07/10/08 C& Line, the embattled South Korean operator, ceased its operations on 05/10/08. Earlier there had been reports that the line had pulled out of a China-Japan service it shared with three other domestic owners. The C& Groups shipbuilding associate, C& Heavy, has reported last September that it had been experiencing problems in getting refund guarantees for its forty-ship backlog of 81,000-dwt Kamsarmaxes and the required funding for the new yard at Koje Island. A consortium of South Korean banks was looking at providing the necessary funding but unfortunately this was not forthcoming. The Groups steel division was sold for a meagre £11m and the sale of the second shipyard fell through leaving it empty and at present unsold. News 06/10/08 United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) celebrated the naming of its 7th new ship recently at Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan yard. The 306-metre 6,919-TEU MV Hilal (Yard No. 1838) is the latest in a series of eight newbuilds for the Emirates owned company. News 05/10/08 Ocean Tankers has taken delivery of the 10,321-grt, 1999-built MT Stavrodromi (ex-Shakhdag) and is now chartered to Lukoil/Litasco for seven-years (plus three yearly options) at a daily rate of $15,300. This now increases Ocean’s fleet to fifteen tankers. News 04/10/08 The latest newbuild (L214) for Maersk was named today at the Odense Steel Shipyard. The 98,268-grt, 7,000-TEU container ship, Mette Maersk, is the fourth in a series of six new vessels and is fitted with energy saving measures including a waste heat recovery system and a fuel-efficient 12-cylinder Wartsila RT-Flex diesel propulsion unit developing 84,000-bhp. News 03/10/08 Aegean Marine has taken delivery of its 8th newbuild bunkering tanker, the 4,600-dwt Santorini, from the Fujian Shipyard in China. The vessel will be deployed to Gibraltar and will replace the Aegean Rose which in turn will relocate to Piraeus, Aegean has twenty three more of the tankers on order which it expects to take delivery of before 2011 taking its fleet to fifty-two ships. News 02/10/08 Two recent piracy attacks in the South China Sea have been reported: the first, the 25,448-dwt, 1980-built JKM Muheiddine, a Panamanian registered tanker, was boarded by armed pirates on 30/09/08 sixty-four miles east of Tioman Island. The attackers tied up the ship’s master and crew and stole cash and belongings. This morning at 02.20 hours local time seventy-miles north-east of the island another tanker, this time the 4,976-grt, 1991-built Sun Geranium, was boarded by pirates who tied up the master and two of the crew on the bridge before escaping with money and valuables. Authorities suspect that it is the same gang as six incidents of piracy have been reported in the same area so far this year. News 01/10/08 Star Bulk Carriers has taken delivery of the 150,940-dwt, 1991-built Panamax Star Ypsilon taking its fleet to thirteen dry bulk carriers. Star also announced that its oldest vessel, the 45,773-grt, 1983-built Panamax Star Iota has been sold to new South Korean owners for $18.3m. News 29/08/08 Seanergy Maritime has taken delivery of the 1994-built, 73,498-dwt, Panamax MV Hamburg Max and the 1985-built, 38,632-dwt Handysize African Zebra and with these deliveries it completes all the acquisitions under its Master Agreement of 20/05/08. MV Hamburg Max will be chartered out at $65,000 per day while the African Zebra will go at $36,000 per day; both vessels are chartered to South African Marine Corporation until around September 2009. News 28/09/08 Rickmers Linie is to get four new 24,000-dwt multi-purpose ships in an order place by Polaris Ship Management, a Rickmers group company, identical to the four 144-metre ordered from Wuhu Xinlion Shipbuilding for delivery between December 2009 and April 2011. The ships were ordered on 23/09/08 with Guangzhou Wenching Shipbuilding of China with delivery of the first vessel set for May 2011 and the remainder by December 2011. Rickmers currently has sixteen newbuilds on order from Chinese yards. News 27/09/08 The 1971-built, 3,994-grt, Ukrainian registered MV Tolstoy loaded with 5,000-tonnes of scrap metal sank at 04.00 hours local time off the coast of Bulgaria having left Rostov with ten crew aboard. Bulgarian Air Force helicopters and SAR craft later rescued two Ukrainian nationals. No SOS was received and authorities only found out about the incident at 11.00 local time, seven hours after the sinking. News 26/09/08 Kaalybe Shipping of the Ukraine’s 1978-built, 10,932-dwt, Belize registered RoRo, MV Faina was hijacked 25/09/08 with twenty-one crewmembers aboard. The ship was carrying a cargo of 30-33 ex-Soviet T-72 tanks and associated equipment to the Kenyan port of Mombasa for onward shipment by road to the Sudan for delivery to the former rebel group the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). It is said the pirates are demanding a £31m ransom for the ship and its cargo. The USS Howard (DDG 83) and other US warships are monitoring the situation to prevent the unloading of any arms.
The MV Faina (Author, date and location unknown) News 25/09/08 Danaos Corporation has added two new 4253-TEU container ships to its growing fleet. The 39,900-grt Zim Sao Paolo and the 40,030-grt Zim Rio Grande, both built by Samsung Heavy Industries have both commenced twelve-year time-charters. News 24/09/08 STX Shipbuilding of South Korea is two build two new product tankers for a European company at a cost of $105m with both vessels due for delivery in May 2011. News 23/09/08 COSCO announced today that it had won an order from an undisclosed German company for two new bulk carriers for delivery in 2010 and 2011, COSCO also have been awarded nine conversion contract which together with the German order totals $256.2m. News 22/09/08 Despite having a full order book, worth €225m, the Lindenau Werft Shipyard in Kiel has declared insolvency. The company has a short-term cash flow, of about €9m, and is presently unable to complete a double-hull tanker for its long-time customer German Tanker Shipping of Bremen. Charterworld Shipping’s Bahamas registered MV Captain Stephanos, with nineteen-crew on board, was hijacked by pirates on yesterday. The vessel was carrying a cargo of coal at the time of the incident. Meanwhile it was revealed that the BBC Trinidad and her crew were released by their captors in late September after being hijacked on 21/08/08. Ships held at present include (at the time of writing) Stella Maris, Bunga Melati 2, Irene, Iran Deyanat, Bunga Melati Lima, Stolt Valour, Centauri and the Captain stephanos. News 20/09/08 COSCOL saw the steel cutting ceremony for their new 50,000-dwt New Generation Semi-Submersible in China late last month. The 216-metre vessels are being built at the Guangzhou Shipyards with the first due to enter service in September 2010. News 19/09/08 Piracy continues at a alarming rate off the Horn of Africa with fifty-six such attacks recorded this year alone. On 18/09/08 a Sinotrans bulk carrier, the 27,000-dwt, 1998-built Great Creation with twenty-five crew aboard was hijacked while on its way from Tunisia to Pipavav in India just hours after a Greek ship had suffered the same fate. The 1977-built, 12,812-dwt Centauri, also with twenty-five crew, was attacked by pirates after leaving Ethiopia bound for Mombassa. Four days earlier the 2004-built, 25,269-dwt tanker Stolt Valor carrying twenty-two crew was boarded by armed men some thirty-eight miles off the coast of Yemen. News 16/09/08 StealthGas Inc, the Athens-based operator, has ordered two new 156,000-dwt Suezmax Crude Oil Tankers with options on a further pair. The first of the new ships should be delivered between May and July 2011 with the second due between July and September 2011. StealthGas has also recently acquired the 50,500-dwt Multi-Role Product Tanker Stealth Argentina which is due to be put out on bareboat charter in the Far East when it enters service in 2009. News 14/09/08 Trada Maritime, the Indonesian shipowner, is eyeing a $170m bulk fleet expansion by buying two or three Panamax or Handymax bulkers for the transportation of coal. Trada currently operates a fleet of thirty-eight vessels of which all bar five are owned by the company including five Floating Storage Offloading (FSO) ships. News 13/09/08 Seanergy Maritime Corporation have taken delivery of a fourth ship MV Bremen Max, a 1993-built, 73,503-dwt Panamax, which will be be chartered to the South African Maritime Corporation until about September 2009 at a daily rate of $65,000. News 11/09/08 J & J Trusts South Korean registered 1987-built, 15,872-grt bulk carrier Bright Ruby was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden on 10/09/08. There were no casualties reported amongst the twenty-one crew members on board at the time of the incident. News 10/09/08 The Bristol Port Company is proposing a new £500-600m deepwater container terminal on the site of a former oil terminal outside the locks at Avonmouth. The 1.5m-TEU facility, if approved, should commence operations in 2013 about one mile from the existing port at Avonmouth in the deep-water channel, although eleven miles will still need to be dredged to accommodate the larger container ships. When completed the terminal will have 1,200-metres of quayside, ten cranes, four deep-water berths and 100-acres of land for the handling and storage of containers. C&Heavy Industries, one of South Koreas emerging shipyards, is reported to be facing serious financial difficulties despite having an order backlog of over forty ships. The company has said it has only secured refund guarantees for eleven Kamsarmax ships out of a total of thirty-six in addition to the two Capesize vessels also on order. Omega Navigation and Grand Union are known to have orders with the yard as well as the affiliate C&Shipping. News 09/09/08 Navios Maritime Holdings have placed contracts for new two Capesize vessels of approximately 181,000-dwt with STX Shipbuilding Company of South Korea. The ships costing $108.5m and $109m apiece will be delivered in mid 2009 and late 2009 respectively. The first has secured a charter for ten-years at a daily rate of $42,250 while the second will be chartered out for seven-years (plus three one-year options) at a daily rate of $44,850. News 06/09/08 Exmar have sold their 1998-built 25,000-cu.m fully refrigerated LPG/NH3 Careli Bay to ABG Sundal Collier for $49.5m. The ship will be delivered in October following a dry-docking period in Europe. News 05/09/08 HDW-Gaarden in Kiel conducted a double launching on today of two 2702-TEU container ships. The 218-metre vessels, Main Trader and Mosel Trader are the second and third in a series of three built for Herman Buss Shipping Line of Leer and both will be chartered out to the Chinese Hong Kong-based TS Lines in September 2008 and December 2008 respectively. In response to the recent hijackings off the Horn of Africa the Malaysian Navy has sent three warships with helicopters and troops to protect the country's commercial shipping in the area. This year alone thirty ships have been seized by pirates with four being hijacked within forty-eight hours last month. The Malaysian Navy have announced that they are not planning any military action to release the two Malaysian vessels currently in the hands of the pirates. News 03/09/08 Soli Shipyard in Turkey recently launched their fourth newbuild at Kocaeli in the Mamara Sea. The 20,000-dwt chemical/oil product tanker Madeiro is the third in a series of six in a contract worth around $240m. Titan Quanzhou Shipyard has said it had received a letter of intent for ten small chemical/oil tankers in what could be a $110m order. Parent company Titan Petrochemicals have confirmed that there are ongoing talks with several company’s who are interested in following Japan’s K-Line in investing in the shipyard. AET Tankers has ordered three 6,600-dwt chemical/oil tankers from Russia’s Okskaya Shipyard for delivery between July and December 2009. AET also revealed that long-term charters for these vessels had already been secured. MISC of Malaysia has put an immediate ban on all of its ships entering the Gulf of Aden following the recent hijacking of two of its tankers and crew. The 1997-built, 22254-grt Bunga Melati Dua was seized by pirates on 19/08/08 and the 1999-built, 22116-grt Bunga Melati 5 befell the same fate ten days later. The ban will remain in force until added security measures have been put in place to safeguard the vessels and their crew. At the time of writing there are eight ships from Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria and Thailand that are in the hands of hijackers in the region. News 02/09/08 Grand Union the Greek shipowner has completed an outline deal to sell twenty dry bulk carriers to the Canadian-based Tailwind Financial. The fleet acquisition includes eleven existing bulkers (valued at $600m+) as well as nine new buildings ordered by Grand Union for delivery 2010-2011. Tailwind estimates the fleet will earn more than $113m in 2009. Grand Union had previously been operating a number of second-hand Panamaxes and Capesizes but then embarked on a newbuildings programme which includes the six Capesizes (Plus three options at the time of order), six Kamsarmaxes (plus options) and up to seven Handysize bulkers. The deal is still subject to approval by Tailwind’s shareholders. Maersk/Odense Steel Shipyard (Lindo) has put the Lokska Shipyard in Estonia up for sale. The yard has been owned by Maersk since 1994 and became one of the leading manufacturers in commercial hatch covers, steel structures and components. Seanergy Maritime Corporation has taken delivery of the first three out of six dry bulk carriers that were purchased in May 2008. Two Supramax ships, the 2008-built, 31,091-grt Davakis G (ex-Melody II) and the 2008-built, 30,937-grt Delos ranger (ex-Rhapsody II) have been chartered at $60,000 per day until around September 2009 while the 1997-built, 15,868-grt Handysize African Oryx (ex-Gangga Nagara) is chartered out at $30,000 per day also until around September 2009, all to the South African Maritime Corporation. News 01/09/08 SAL in Germany has cancelled its order for four type-179 heavylift vessels with the J. J. Sietas Shipyard. The ships were to have a crane capacity of 2 x 1000-tonnes and DPS but various factors over the last few months has led to the cancellation. The delivery of two new type-179’s with 2 x 700-tonnes capacity is however not affected and these will be delivered in November 2008 and February 2009 as expected. D’Amica International has sold two tankers, the 2005-built 45,913-dwt High Harmony and 2005-built 45,896-dwt High Consensus (both constructed by Shin Kurishma) for 56.5m each. Both vessels will be put out on bareboat charter to United Arab Chemical Carriers in October. D’Amica currently has 34 product tankers with another fourteen owned ships, two Time Charter with purchase options, two Time Charter without purchase options and one Indirect Interest with purchase options on order.
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