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BUSINESSNEW BOSS FOR NEPTUNE ORIENT FLEMMING Jacobs will take over the helm of Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. (NOL), Singapore’s national shipping line. Mr Jacobs will become group president and CEO in June, succeeding Lua Cheng Eng who will become NOL’s chairman. He is a senior executive of the Danish line AP Moller Maersk. The company has been operating in the red for two years and has a debt of US$2.89 billion. (Schednet) YANG MING MARINE REPORTS SECOND-HALF LOSS TAIWAN’S second largest shipping company, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp., suffered a loss of US$27 million during the second half of last year. Yang Ming Marine attributed the loss to cargo imbalance between the US and Asia. The company said marketable securities with a book value of $316 million now have a market value of $199 million. The company also recorded unrealised gains on marketable securities of $148 million on March 31. (Schednet) FRONTLINE ACQUIRES MORE SHARES IN ICB SHIPPING AB Frontline has acquired more shares in the Swedish shipping company ICB Shipping AB. After this acquisition, Frontline controls 65 per cent of the shares and 39 per cent of the votes in ICB Shipping AB. (Hugin) 5 MILLION DOLLAR PROFIT P&O STENA LINE P&O Stena Line had a headline profit of 3.5 million pound ($5 million) for the first quarter of 1999. As the company did not commence trading until 10 March 1998, it is not possible to give comparable figures for prior years. P&O Stena Line itself said it had an ‘excellent quarter’, because yields have increased significantly for both tourist and freight traffic. Freight carryings were particularly strong; and the medium and longer term outlook is highly positive. P&O Stena Line transported 289,000 freight units and claimed a market share of 50 per cent in trafic between UK and the European continent. Carryings and market share include P&O Stena Line’s two routes – Dover/Calais and Dover/Zeebrugge (freight only) – and also Newhaven/Dieppe until 31 January 1999 when it closed. P&O Stena Line said: ‘Total freight market volumes continue to increase and this was particularly noticeable in P&O Stena Line’s carryings. The price rise announced last autumn was introduced on 1 January 1999 and has been applied across the board. The loss making Newhaven-Dieppe route was closed on 31 January. This gave rise to a one-off cost of closure of £10.4 million. The net effect on carryings was slight. ROUTES AND SERVICES WITH deregulation from today, APL, the global container transportation and logistics provider, said it has negotiated and processed hundreds of service contracts for shippers in the US trade lanes with Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The new Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 (OSRA), which comes into effect tomorrow, encourages carriers and their customers to negotiate confidential service contracts. Of the contracts APL has signed, the company said a number include confidentiality clauses at the request of customers. To negotiate and process these contracts effectively and efficiently requires new systems and a complete overhaul of internal processes. “There is no backlog here,” he said, noting that the company would be filing hundreds of new contracts via the Internet with the FMC well ahead of tomorrow’s new regulation start date. For customers who choose to ship at tariff rates, APL offers on its award-winning interactive website, www.apl.com, the tariffs it formerly filed with the FMC. Under OSRA, rates are no longer publicly filed with the FMC. Customers can simply input origin, destination and commodity, and the rate will be displayed. Mr Hinge said APL decided to continue to offer comprehensive tariffs, particularly in the eastbound trans-Pacific trade lanes, in order to support shippers of literally any commodity who may not wish to enter into service contracts. APL’s proprietary Customer Tariff System (CTS) translates even the most complex contracts into electronically readable data to enable automatic rating of bills-of-lading. Mr Hinge commented that the FMC “readily outdid itself in the way it responded positively to industry suggestions to develop a simple and east-to-use contract-filing system.” CARRIERS TO RESTORE RATES ON ASIA-CENTRAL AMERICA CARGOES OTHER shipping companies are following the lead of Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM). TMM will restore rates on ex-Japan/Mexico-bound cargo by US$500 per 40-foot container on May 1. American President Lines (APL), which provides a joint service with TMM, and Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) are planning to do the same. (Schednet) COSCO SEES US TRAFFIC RISE CHINA Ocean Shipping Co (COSCO) has become the sixth largest containership operator in the US import and export trades. It was ranked eighth in 1997. COSCO reported that its containerised traffic to the US rose to 457,000 TEUs last year, up 71.5 per cent from 1997. The increase comes after new ships were introduced in the transpacific trade and on the Asia/Suez/US east coast route. (Schednet) CANALS, PORTS AND STRUCTURES ZIM COMPLETES MOVE TO PIER C ZIM Container Service has completed its move to Stevedoring Services of America’s new 59-acre PCT Pier C facility at Long Beach.It formally launched operations at Pier C with the arrival on March 30 of its first ship, Zim China. Zim’s vessels had previously called at SSofA’s Pacific Container Terminal on Pier J, where it shared the 110-acre facility with Cosco. The move to Pier C gives Zim room to expand its service. Beginning in May, Zim is launching a second weekly fixed-day transpacific service. The Pier C facility was formerly leased by the port to Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd.Hanjin moved to a new 170-acre terminal on Pier A in late 1997. (Schednet)
The city council of Bremen has decided to consent to a plan for expansion of the container terminal on the River Weser in Bremerhaven. The quay will be lengthened by 340 meters in the direction of the North Sea. Thanks to this, larger ships can be unloaded, also larger numbers of post-Panamax vessels. This involves an investment of well over $ 100 million. In 2003 construction will have been completed. In 1997, Bremerhaven already took 700 meters of new quayside into use, with 800,000 m2 of terminals. EVERGREEN MOVES VANCOUVER OPERATIONS Taiwan’s shipping company Evergreen will move operations in Canada’s Port of Vancouver to Deltaport, starting from the end of April. Deltaport is equipped with four post-Panamax cranes and has on-dock capability for two 7,000ft (approximately 2,130m) trains shipside. Adjacent is a 35-acre rail yard with four sets of tracks, the largest rail facility in Vancouver. There is direct access to the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Rail systems, eliminating the use of intermediate third party rail operators and intermediate handling or grounding. Among the expected improvements in service are fewer congestion delays, better equipment control and better container tracking functionality for cargo inbound to and outbound from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba and the Maritime provinces, Evergreen said. (Cargoweb) US UNVEILS HARBOUR MAINTENANCE FEE PROPOSAL THE US government has sent advanced copies of the harbour maintenance fee proposal to the port industry and congressional committees. The proposal would raise almost US$1 billion a year for port projects, by imposing a new tax on vessel operators But the port industry and other proponents of the proposal say funding should come from the US Treasury. The proposal was drawn up to replace the Harbour Maintenance Tax which was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1997. (Schednet) SHIPYARDS AND EQUIPMENT CESA URGES FOR POLITICAL WILL THE Committee of EU Shipbuilders’ Association (CESA) is urging its member governments and other countries to defend the European shipbuilding industry. This follows Kvaerner’s withdrawal from shipbuilding, which affects about 10,000 jobs and 13 shipyards in seven countries. Kvaerner made the harsh commercial decision due to unprofitability caused by low prices in the global shipbuilding market. CESA has been complaining about Korean efforts to achieve market share. “Due mainly to their large capacity increases, prices from South Korean shipyards have been falling since 1992 as they have struggled to fill this additional, and unnecessary capacity,” CESA said in a statement. “It should now be clear that European shipbuilders are not just complaining to advance their own interest in retaining subsidies but are drawing attention to real and serious problems.”
P&O NEDLLOYD has signed a contract for four containerships. The new vessels, each with a capacity of 6,788 TEUs, including 710 reefer slots each, are to be built at the Hyundai Shipyard in Korea. Among the largest containerships in the world, they will be driven by the world’s most powerful Hyundai-Sulzer diesel engines (89,640 BHP) which give a service speed of 25 knots. The new ships, which will replace older vessels, are to be delivered between late 2000 and the first half of 2001. They are planned to enter the Grand Alliance Asia-Europe services. Commenting on the new contract, P&O Nedlloyd director Rutger van Slobbe, said: “This latest order demonstrates our satisfaction with the performance of our similar size Southampton Class Vessels which have brought new standards of operational efficiency and customer service to our regular Grand Alliance Asia-Europe loops. We are confident that the new ships will further enhance the quality of service which we provide.” BLOHM+VOSS WILL BUILD IN NORWAY The German shipyard Blohm+Voss has said that they will build the Norwegian Navy frigates in Norway if they win the NOK 12 billion contract with the Defence Department. “We will build four frigates in Norway if we are awarded the contract. We have a Since the Nor-Eskort Group’s chances of getting the huge defence contract look thinner and thinner, Mr. Wulfer hopes to entice the UMOE Group over to their side for a co-operative deal. The German shipyard Blohm+Voss put in their tender to deliver five frigates for the contract The first of the frigates would be built in Germany. Next week the Defence Department begins negotiations with the Spanish shipyard Bazan, which is the only one who has said they can build six frigates for the NOK 12 billion. (SI)
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