Snooper News 20090106
Please Note
Belated Christmas & New Year wishes to All …..
Yes, back in office and Snooper News should continue once again …..
Blog page has a text version the ‘No-frills’ edition.
Done a date change to the 2009 editions.
Hopefully facilitates a single file directory that all copies can now be placed in.
Regards
Snooper
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THE ZAC SUTHERLAND UPDATE
Zac's Blog
My name is Zac Sunderland and I am 17 years old. I departed 14th June 2008 from Marina del Rey, California in an attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world alone by yacht.
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Further tales from our long haired solo sailor !
Photo : Zac
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Self portrait with birthday camera
New Year Update - Zac
Hey All!
Well after pushing myself and Intrepid to our limits to cross the Indian Ocean before cyclone season this season, I have had a much needed break. I have been surfing and skateboarding, sightseeing and visiting friends. I've been in touch with a few old friends as well like Chris from Moana who is back to the grind in Australia after he and his father bought a boat in San Diego and sailed it back to Cairns. We initially met in Honolulu and had kept in touch until the Torres Strait. It was great to catch up and think back to our early days at sea together.
I am feeling rested and am now preparing Intrepid to round the Cape of Good Hope. Dad has made his flight arrangements with the great help of John Gezelius who has offered who knows how many frequent flyer miles to get him here! You will be glad to know that I have also been working with a nutritionist, Dave Grotto, via my relationship with sponsor Produce for Kids on preparing a shopping list for my looooong passage to the Panama Canal. Hopefully this will mean that I will have plenty of the right foods to keep me going strong for what could take more than 6 weeks. I have 2 stops on that leg; one at an Island called St. Helena and the other at Trinidad and Tobago off of South America.
If you have any questions about my route, there is a page dedicated to that on my web site. There have been new/old questions regarding my record attempt in relation to other records including that of Mike Perham. These questions are also answered on the site under the FAQs section. I hope it is clear that I am attempting to be the youngest solo circumnavigator. I am cruising and not racing. I am not being ratified by the World Speed Council in the UK. They would have verified my trip but with the short time before my departure and the great cost it would entail, we were not able to do so. Mike Perham, Jesse Martin and David Dicks attempted a solo, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation. We welcome your questions and input regarding this.
The FAQs have been updated recently thanks to Marilyn Simcox who keeps track of all of your questions from the blog while I am at sea and saves them for me. Also, on this page is a small spec sheet on Intrepid and her equipment and upgrades. The Supporters page was recently (finally) updated. If you don't see your name and it should be on there - let us know at marianne@zacsunderland.com.
@PBSTAR: Robin Graham and his circumnavigation in the 60's was in large part my inspiration for this trip. In fact, my route is nearly exactly the same as his except that he was fortunate to be able to stop way more than I am. I have read all of his books (my favorite is The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone)I have not spoken to him but he did contact us by email and I think he is following the trip.
@MindWalker: The strangest food I have eaten recently is Ostrich. It is pretty good and is a lot like steak. Most of the food that I have in port is English style; a lot of meat pies, chips (fries), steaks etc.
@engine advice: Thank you for the interesting and varied input regarding the fuel tanks and fuel pick up etc. We are reading and thinking...
@Anonymous: What do I miss the most? Friends and family for sure.
@Scot: The importance of the record has to be kept in balance with the day to day, week to week running hard of my boat and myself. For now, to be able to do this trip is just so amazing.
Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Zac
Note from Mom:
This weeks signed poster and head shot goes to William Potts. Congrats! We have a few more signed posters. For every poster you buy this week your name will be entered into a drawing for a free signed poster and head shot.
posted by Zac at 5:19 PM
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Visit www.zacsutherland.com
YouTube Videos http://www.youtube.com/zacsvideos
Blog http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/
Email zacsworldadventure@yahoo.com
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Mike Perham aged 16, the youngest person to sail across the atlantic solo now has his eye's on an even more adventurous challenge.
To become the youngest person to sail around the world solo in an open 50 racing yacht.
Feelin’ hot, hot, hot… - 04 01 09
I’ve been thinking about everyone back home tucked inside with their heaters on full blast to compensate for the cold. See, I could really do with something like that now… Just more in the form of an air conditioning unit!
It's become like an oven inside Totallymoney.com with no ventilation apart from my small entry door and a tiny twelve-volt fan. I'm sure that I could boil an egg on the black surfaces on the deck!
Today I've carried on with a couple more small jobs. For example, I’ve charged the emergency Iridium satellite phone, which is kept in the grab bag.
As I drop more and more south the wind is gradually decreasing. This is because I'm getting pretty close to the Doldrums. This is the area between the steady winds of the northern hemisphere and the steady winds of the southern hemisphere.
In the Doldrums, the wind varies a great deal and you can find yourself in the lee of clouds with dead air whilst with more active clouds you can instantly find yourself in forty knots of wind! You have to be ready to reef very quickly, that's for sure.
I've now gybed onto a south-westerly course aiming to reach the longitude of 28 30W and then I will gybe back. The more west we get then the better our route through the doldrums will be. They're not looking fantastic at the moment, which is why we are going pretty far out west. But they could be a lot worse, which is nice to know.
I think of the old stories of how some people have gotten stuck in the doldrums for weeks on end and can't imagine having to be stuck in this heat for so long! I'll be working very closely with my weather router Mike B as we pass through this area.
Flying Fish and a Q&A - 04 01 09
This morning I cleared the Cape Verde islands with relative ease and found six flying fish on the deck! I'm sure I heard a couple hit the deck last night and flap about but waited until today to pick them off and throw them back in the sea. Quite a few people cook and eat them but I'm not really a fan of the idea, as I've never done it before.
This afternoon I had my first real bucket-over-the-head shower! It was freezing cold for a few seconds but, oh so refreshing. I've got some shampoo that works with salt water, which is surprisingly effective. It's frustrating though as it's so hot here I’m a sweaty mess within an hour or so later. Oh well I can't complain, I'll really be missing this lovely warm weather when I get into the south...
I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing all day whether to put up the genneker, my largest furling foresail. At times Totallymoney.com feels like she's a tiny bit underpowered but for the most part she feels just right and happy. I've now got a following sea, so that's also adding to my umm-ing and ahh-ing! I eventually decided against it, as I don't want to race the boat. That's the main difference between the Vendee Globe sailors and I. They’re racing and pushing their boats one hundred per cent all the time. I'm simply pushing mine at ninety per cent and I'm quite happy with that. The speed’s still high and I should suffer far less breakages.
I've rarely seen the speedo drop below ten knots over that last couple of days and Totallymoney.com just sits on an almost steady plane of eleven knots with regular surfs reaching up to the high teens. To wipe out now wouldn't be very nice, I can tell you.
Looking much further ahead to the ever-changing doldrums I've now lined myself up with our rough entry point, although this will most likely change in the next couple of days. At the moment they aren't looking great to the east of where I am but to the west they're still looking good.
I had every single bit of electronics but the pilot off today to see if there was some way that there was some interference that was effecting the autopilot. But no, it still finds a few glitches, interestingly. My mood on the boat is being lifted higher and higher everyday as I sail swiftly south, and as I slot more and more into the swing of things.
Once again, thank you all for your messages of support and your questions, some of which I’ve answered below. Keep them coming!
Q: I have a question about sand storms off the Sahara. Are you experiencing blowing sand on the boat or are you too far off the coast?
Curtis
A: Whilst sailing within 50miles of the Sahara, Totallymoney.com was definitely becoming pretty dirty at times from the Saharan sand. Even now there’s still some dirtier patches on the boat. For example the satellite dome has a layer of the type of muck you get on cars; the kind where you can wipe your finger along and pick up a fine layer of dirt.
Q: For my own information I know the overall single-handed, unassisted sail has been changed to single-handed. Could you not complete the sail back to Gran Canaria and still meet the requirements, or have you just decided to change your goal? Anyway we all wish you the best and will follow your adventure every day. Good luck.
Comment by Lance S
A: Many people have asked why I don't just sail back to Gran Canaria and still get the non-stop unassisted record. The reason is that for me the trip is about getting around the whole world. I left from Portsmouth and will finish in Portsmouth. Only when I get there will I personally feel like I've finally finished. And also, hey what's so bad about possibly stopping in one or two amazing places. However, if I am able to go all the way round without stopping, I will pop into Gran Canaria to claim the non-stop unassisted record on my way back to Portsmouth. The most important thing is that I can stop if I need to.
Q: The idea of sailing single-handed is bad enough but to occupy your time making apple pancakes is mind blowing!!! Do you try to toss them or just cheat and turn them??!!!
A: Let's just say I "try" to toss them!
Q: Why sail east around the world rather than west?
A: Sure, you can sail either way it's true. The big difference is where you have to sail and what course you take for each direction. This is basically decided by all the weather systems around the world. If you sail east and choose to go deep into the Southern Ocean then you sail under the high pressure systems and use all the low pressure systems that come along to your advantage to push you along. If you sailed west through the Southern Ocean you would either go right up above Australia and above the high pressure systems or you would sail very deep south and be upwind for almost the whole southern ocean. It's notably much quicker to sail east around the world if you head into the southern ocean.
Q: Hi Mike,
Freddie (6), asks 'how rough is the sea, and have you seen any more dolphins. I think one is called Ella. How hot is it by Africa, and have you seen any African people sailing by?'
Cheers,
Sally, Dan, Freddie and Toby.
P.S Dan asks, can you see Africa?
Comment by Sally Barter
A: The sea at the moment is pretty flat with around a 2m swell. This because I am sailing in the trade winds and everything is pretty stable in this part of the world. It's pretty hot with temperatures defiantly in the high 20's, possibly even the low 30's. I don’t have a thermometer to hand, so I'm not to sure. I've also been too far away from Africa to see it. Although I can definitely feel it, as some of the sand is being blown out to sea and leaving some dirt on the boat. And as for dolphins, I’ve literally seen hundreds of them.
Handyman - 02 01 09
As time goes by everything’s bedding in, Totallymoney’s feeling much more relaxed and I'm now definitely getting back into the swing of things (again).
I passed through the Cape Verde Islands this afternoon and am now heading southwest to my waypoint which will mark my rough entry line into the doldrums.
I’ve managed to get another pretty good nights sleep as well. It's amazing, the sea is so flat the AIS is picking up ships from 200miles away telling me their heading, speed, call-sign, co-ordinates etc. It makes sailing much easier as I don't have to worry so much about running into ships!
I've done a few odd jobs about the boat today as during my thorough daily inspection I found a couple of problems that needed my attention. The very small cleat which adjusts the leech lines had come away from the foot of the Genoa, so out came my needle and thread. The only problem was that it was right on the bow and the bow was plunging underwater quite regularly!
So, despite the fierce sun, I threw on my bottom oilies and my boots and wandered up to the bow, hooked myself on with my harness and, just as I expected, within a minute or so my bottom half was soaked through!
Once I had finished this I set about creating a system to hold back the hatch door and am still working on one of the extra protective rope covers on the mainsheet that has come loose. So overall, it's been a handyman kind of day, I would say. I always find it extremely satisfying to see these jobs done well.
Back to the dreaded autopilot! It is still holding the course without me having to physically correct it. I am keeping a log of the movements, which will be sent to NKE for their assessment. After all, if worse comes to worse and all goes to pot I will stop in Cape Town - before I plunge into the heart of the Southern Ocean.
Visit : http://www.totallymoney.com/sailmike/
Blog : http://www.totallymoney.com/sailmike/?cat=5
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First View – CITY OF HAMBURG
Diverted ship – CITY OF HAMBURG in Cape Town harbour. Pictures by Ian Shiffman
The crisis in the Gulf of Aden caused by rampant piracy is resulting in increased bunker calls at the ports of Durban and Cape Town, and includes some unusual ship types for South African ports.
Among these during December was the Ro-Ro vessel CITY OF HAMBURG, which on 4 December 2008 was delivered to its owner and operator, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs SAS and Norway’s Leif Hoegh ASA. The new ship had been built at the Singapore Technologies Marine (ST Marine) shipyard and was named back in June by Mrs Valérie Pécresse, French Minister for Higher education and Research.
City of Hamburg is the first Ro-Ro ship to be delivered to the LDA/LHC partnership – a second sister ship CIUDAD DE CADIZ is due to be delivered by ST Marine during the first quarter of this year. Both ships will sail under the French flag.
City of Hamburg follows the 2004 delivery of VILLE DE BORDEAUX, and both ships will operate under charter to aircraft manufacturer Airbus for the transportation of Airbus A380 components by sea from the various Airbus manufacturing plants across Europe.
The components are collected at Hamburg (centre and aft fuselage), Mostyn in Wales (wings), Cadiz, Spain (tail) and St Nazaire (cockpit) for delivery to the French port of Bordeaux, from where the components are transported by river barge and road to the final assembly line in Toulouse.
http://ports.co.za/news/article_2009_01_4_0751.html
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Japanese whalers call on NZ to reject Steve Irwin
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 1:37p.m.
Japanese whalers are calling for New Zealand to close its port to the anti-whaling ship the Steve Irwin.
The Japanese Whaling Association says the Sea Shepherd group - which patrol and follow Japanese trawlers - is committing violence on the high seas.
The Steve Irwin is believed to be running low on fuel and will need to dock soon either in Australia or New Zealand.
Association spokesperson Glenn Inwood says the conservation group is breaching international laws.
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/NationalNews/Japanese-whalers-call-on-NZ-to-reject-Steve-Irwin/tabid/423/articleID/85959/cat/64/Default.aspx
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News from the shipping lines
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which has recently placed several 7,000-TEU sister ships on its Northern Europe – South Africa service (MSC FLAMINIA and MSC ALESSIA, each 75,590-gt, built 2001, 300m x 40m, draft 14.5m), has taken into service its largest container ship, MSC DANIELA (365.5m x 51.2m, 14,000-TEU) from Samsung Heavy Shipyards in South Korea.
MSC Daniela stows 20 rows of containers across deck but her width of 51m leaves her too wide for the future Panama locks. Not that this will be an immediate problem, MSC Daniela is to be deployed to the Far East – Mediterranean ‘Jade’ service.
Built using high-tensile steel to produce rigidity and reduce the risk of bending, the ship is unusual in featuring a deckhouse two thirds of the way towards the bows, separated well away from the engine room. This provides improved visibility from the bridge while improving container volume capacity. The positioning also has an added advantage by reducing the need for ballast water.
Hamburg Süd, the German container carrier is expecting to take delivery of the latest in the ‘Monte’ series of 5,600 – 5,900-TEU ships, MONTE ALEGRE. She will be the sixth of a second series of ten Monte ships ordered from the Daewoo Group Shipyards in South Korea and Romania. Six of the class are being built to a lengthened 5,900-TEU version.
Monte Alegre was due to sail from the Romanian shipyard last week for the Far East where she will join the company’s Far East to East Coast South America via Durban, South Africa service.
Unicorn Tankers has sold the SOUTHERN UNITY (40,000-dwt, 24,663-gt, built 2004) which has now moved off the local coastal service on which it has been deployed since entering service in 2004 – the ship was renamed AMALIENBORG in December and sailed from Durban wearing the colours of Danish company Dannebrog Rederi.
Unicorn Tankers recently took delivery of the 11-271-gt newbuild chemical and oil products tanker BERG which is currently deployed on the southern African coast including visits to Mozambique ports.
News from the Mercosul Line, which has no bearing on African trade but does have a connection of sorts with Safmarine, is that AP Moller-Maersk, Safmarine’s parent company, intends transferring two 2,478-TEU newbuilds to Mercosul Line, which is an AP Moller-Maersk affiliate.
The two ships will be delivered from the Volkswerft shipyard with the first vessel taking the name MERCOSUL SANTOS and being delivered shortly. The second and as-yet unnamed vessel will be delivered in March. The two ships are the last in a series of ten that were built by Volkswerft for Maersk and its sister company Safmarine.
Singapore-based Pacific International Lines (PIL) has taken delivery of the KOTA NASRAT, the sixth 1,802-TEU container ship ordered at the Dalian shipyard. Kota Nasrat will enter PIL’s service between Asia, East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands (EAS).
http://ports.co.za/news/article_2009_01_4_0751.html
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2009: A puzzle for most analysts of the dry bulk market
Monday, 05 January 2009
Last year proved to be a year of broken records, both positive and negative. With the freight market becoming increasingly volatile and highly unpredictable, one thing’s certain: “prophets” shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Supposedly, in a couple of months from today the market would begin its correction, thanks to a flurry of modern tonnage being delivered by shipyards. Instead, yards are fighting with customers reluctant to take delivery of their vessels, or even looking a way to get out of their contract, even if it was signed 12-18 months ago.
Never in the history of the market, have rates tumbled from all-time highs to near all-time lows at such speed, a mere five months, with the bulk of the fall in just 40 days. This is a testimony that shipping is affected by other non-related factors, mainly the credit crisis, which brought international trade at a halt. By the 20th of May cheers could be heard on shipping companies’ offices. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) had reached 11.793 points, the average daily charter for a capesize stood at $216,504, for a panamax at $91,710, a supramax at $69,441 and a handymax at $49,040.
By the beginning of December the BDI closed at 663 points, while the average daily charter for capesizes was at $8,889, for panamaxes at $4,476, supramaxes at $4,405 and handymaxes at $4,113 just before Christmas.
Consequently, new building orders took a dive during the fourth quarter of the year, while there were dozens of cancellations. Shipowners from Hellas are estimated to have placed orders for a total of 278 ships in 2008, worth a total of $17.2 billion. Compared to the record year of 2007, the figures are almost halved.
During 2007, Hellenic ship owners had ordered a total of 556 vessels, worth $31.87 billion. Similarly in the second-hand market owners from the leading maritime nation are estimated to have bought a total of 197 vessels, worth $8.02 billion. These numbers were compiled by Allied Shipbroking and are updated until the last week of 2008. The difference with 2007 is characteristic of the moderated investment that owners underwent last year.
During the record year of 2007, they had bought 445 ships, worth $16.9 billion. Of course, this trend was similar in a worldwide level, since it is estimated that a total of $28.8 billion was invested in 2008 for the acquisition of 1,060 ships, compared to $44.8 billion and 1,713 vessels that changed hands during 2007.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30879&Itemid=93
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Piracy update – Somali pirates undeterred and surcharging begins
AQUILA COLLEAGUE (13,066-gt, built 1998), diverted via the Cape. Picture by Ian Shiffman
With more than a dozen international warships on patrol in the Gulf of Aden, pirate activity is continuing to make world headlines with reports coming in of attempts, not always successful, of highjacking of commercial ships in the area.
During December two ships were seized by pirates but a number of other attacks were thwarted by the timely response of warships alerted to the fact. In some cases pirates were captured, leaving the international warship concerned with the problem of what to do with the suspected pirates.
One German warship, the frigate KARLSRUHE released its captives after destroying their boats and then deciding they (the Germans) had no further jurisdiction and that no German interests were at risk. This serves to highlight the problem facing international forces combating the scourge of piracy.
In an incident reported to have taken place last Friday (2 January) pirates came under attack from both a Danish warship, the ABSALON and the cargo ship involved. The latter fired flares into the speedboat carrying the pirates, causing the boat to catch fire and the pirates to jump into the sea, from which all five were later rescued by the Danes who now have to decide what to do with them.
The increasing number of attacks on merchant shipping travelling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, or further south in the vicinity of the Somali coast has seen more and more shipping lines opt for the choice of sending their vessels via the longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope. Few companies are making public statements to this effect but have quietly opted for this choice rather than have a ship taken out of service while they bargain for its release and that of its crew.
Shipping lines have the choice of chancing that their vessels can outrun or out-manoeuvre the pirates, while also incurring increased insurance and security costs. On the other hand the alternate of re-routing via the Cape can cost upwards of US$140,000 a voyage (based on 14 days additional sailing at US$ 10,000 a day – a larger ship will cost considerably more).
It is not only shipping lines that are facing this dilemma. Cargo owners will have concerns over whether cargo will reach its destination on time – a ship that has been highjacked may remain in pirate custody for up to three months and that includes the cargo on board.
Cruise operators may decide their ships are capable of outrunning any pirate in a speedboat and there have been several instances to back this up in recent months, but the safety and goodwill of passengers is usually more about having a perception of safety than bland assurances of being able to out-manoeuvre pirates at sea. At least one cruise operator has already opted to fly passengers past the danger leaving the ship with a skeleton crew to make the hazardous journey.
Another innocent victim of this 21st Century phenomena is the Suez Canal, which faces less ships making use of its 120-mile waterway. With over 18,000 ships using the canal, and all paying fees to do so, it is one of Egypt’s most important economic assets bringing in more than US$5 billion in fees last year. Any reduction in this is immediately of concern to the Egyptians. Egypt has already decided to defer an increase in canal rates for 2009.
As a result of these factors it is perhaps inevitable that shipping lines would sooner rather than later begin introducing surcharges to cover rising costs of shipping activity in the region. One of the first is the French line CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container line, which has imposed a US$23 per TEU surcharge on its vessels using the Gulf of Aden. According to CMA CGM the surcharge is directly related to pirate activity as a result of higher insurance and other security costs.
Other lines are expected to follow.
http://ports.co.za/news/article_2009_01_4_0751.html
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Philippines seeks deals for more fishing grounds
THE GOVERNMENT will push to extending tuna fishing operations in the Pacific this year to increase production and offset the loss of fishing access in Indonesia, the head of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said.
The Fisheries bureau targets to sign agreements with the governments of Palau and Papua New Guinea and take advantage of the agreement with Timor-Leste, BFAR Director Malcolm I. Sarmiento said in a phone interview.
Initial talks with Palau officials will start early this month with the visit of Palau officials and private sector leaders, Mr. Sarmiento said. "We are going to match [Palau fishers] with the country’s private sector for joint ventures," he explained.
The government will also talk with Papua New Guinea early this year. "We want to draft a memorandum of agreement to allow fishing access and fisheries cooperation like combatting illegal fishers, joint research and collaboration in aquaculture," Mr. Sarmiento said.
The bureau also plans to do the same with Timor-Leste by surveying the tuna-rich waters of the Banda Sea. The Philippines and Timor-Leste signed an agreement in August last year on post-harvest operations, fish processing development and marketing, coastal management and development, marine fisheries conservation, combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices, as well as environmental protection.
"If the BFAR facilitates negotiations, we are interested in new fishing access," Bayani B. Fredeluces, executive director of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., said in a separate phone interview. "We are hoping that with the coming of new fishing grounds, it would translate to more raw materials for processors, more exports and more jobs."
The Davao and Moro gulfs, as well as Celebes and Sulu seas are the key tuna fishing grounds in the country, which is a top exporter of tuna in Europe.
However, access to credit and financing should be made available to upgrade fishing fleets, Mr. Fredeluces said. "The bigger challenge is that it [upgrading] would mean bigger investments." — Neil Jerome C. Morales
http://www.bworldonline.com/BW010509/content.php?id=053
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Weekly Piracy Report 23 December - 29 December 2008
Suspicious crafts
None reported
Recently reported incidents
26.12.2008: 0340 LT: Posn: 01:18.05N -104:08.9E: Johor outer port limit: Malaysia.
Six armed robbers boarded an offshore support vessel and stole ship’s stores and properties. Authorities informed who later boarded for investigation.
25.12.2008: 0030 LT: Posn: 10:41.22N -106:45.6E: mid stream Saigon River: Vietnam.
An AB stationed on forecastle deck heard some noises and he immediately conducted a search. Two robbers were seen escaping. Upon investigation store padlocks were found broken. Nothing stolen.
25.12.2008: 16:14 UTC: Posn: 14:13.7N – 050:51.5E: Gulf of Aden.
A bulk carrier underway was chased and fired upon by a pirate boat. The vessel sent a distress message which was relayed by a passing ship to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre for assistance. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre immediately contacted the authorities for assistance. A warship and a helicopter was sent to assist the crew and the vessel. Seeing the naval helicopter approaching the pirate boat aborted and moved away. One crew member onboard the bulk carrier was injured on his leg from a bullet fired by the pirates. The injured crew was airlifted to a warship for medical treatment. Rest of the crew safe. Vessel proceeding to destination port
22.12.2008: 0340 LT: Chittagong anchorage, Bangladesh.
Duty oiler onboard a tanker spotted armed robbers near the engine store area. The alarm was raised, crew alerted and authorities contacted. Robbers escaped with stolen engine spares.
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=308:weekly-piracy-report&catid=32:weekly-piracy-report&Itemid=10
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Forget recession: Tuna fetches top yen in Japan
3 hours ago
TOKYO (AFP) — The Japanese passion for sushi is apparently immune to the global economic crisis.
A plump tuna on Monday fetched 9.6 million yen (104,300 dollars) at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, the second highest price ever.
This year's first auction took place before dawn at the world's largest fish market, with 730 tunas lined up for bidding.
The top-priced fish was a blue-fin tuna weighing 128 kilogrammes (282 pounds).
"I just wanted to bid on the best tuna of the day," the winning buyer said, according to Jiji Press. He said he planned to sell the tuna to high-end sushi bars in Japan and China.
The highest price ever paid for a tuna at the market was 20 million yen in 2001.
Tsukiji market, the source of fresh sushi and sashimi flown daily to top restaurants the world over, has long topped must-see lists for foreign visitors to Tokyo.
But the auction was closed to tourists last month and may stay shut indefinitely after fishmongers complained that visitors were bad mannered.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5griGbxOWCBR76rHEodwRfJtR6xEQ
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Antarctica mission leaves on Dec 31
28 Dec 2008, 0547 hrs IST, Paul Fernandes, TNN
PANAJI: An expedition of Indian scientists and researchers commencing shortly from
Goa to Antarctica assumes significance as the team will focus on studying the rapid and worrisome melting of the polar ice cap, especially in the western region.
Climate research has been an ongoing subject in the Indian camp at Antarctic, but the 28th expedition will go deeper into the study of the melting glaciers. "The main focus this time is climate research and the effect of global warming on the polar ice cap," Dr Rasik Ravindra, director, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), told TOI on Saturday.
Explaining further, he said, "Climate research in Antarctic has been identified as a thrust programme and definitely, we will be give it more impetus." The increasing interest in the study has been spurred by the report of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) headed by Dr Rajendra Pachauri. "This report focusses attention on the fact that polar cap is melting very fast and this is witnessed more on the western side of Antarctic region," Ravindra said.
The mercury has been rising at more than 2 degrees celsius in the western region during the last couple of years, which has caused concern globally. The Indian permanent station is located on the eastern side. "Our scientists will study climate change at the site of the new research station," Ravindra said.
Scientists will also look at the polar bio diversity, especially several microbes for possible bio-technological purposes and also medicinal uses. "It is too early to comment at this stage," he added.
The 28th expedition will be flagged off on December 31, 2008, from NCAOR, Vasco, by DIG M S Dangi, chief of Goa Coast Guard. The third and final batch comprising 49 members will board the chartered ship, Emerald Sea, from Cape Town, South Afrcia, and reach Antarctica by third week of January, 2009. The expedition is led by Dr Pradeep Malhotra a leading medical practitioner from CGHS, Kolkata, who was a winter member of the 23rd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA).
The 74-member team of scientists, engineers, doctors and logistic support personnel will head for Antarctica in three batches, by air and by ship, depending on operational requirements. The first two batches of 25 members each have already flown all the way up to Antarctica via Cape Town by a chartered flight operated under Dronning Maud Land Air Network (DROMLAN) agreement. They reached Maitri, on November 6 and 22, 2008.
India is one of the few countries globally, which has set up a permanent station at Antarctica.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Antarctica_mission_leaves_on_Dec_31/articleshow/3901777.cms
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Nigeria receives maritime education assistance from Ukraine government
Nigeria is to be further partnered in the field of maritime education by the Ukraine government.
Already over 500 Nigerian and other cadets and officers from the sub-region have undergone higher maritime education training in the Ukraine and now attention is being turned towards the establishment of the African Maritime University, the first for West Africa, which is to be established in Oyo State.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony for the Oyo Campus of the African Maritime Academy, Nigeria’s Fleet Commodore Muhammed Yusuf said the educational relationship between both Nigeria and the Ukraine had proved mutually beneficial but the need to consolidate the relationship could not be over-emphasised. Yusuf said the programme enjoyed the approval of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
One of the purposes of the academy is to address the employment challenges facing West Africa, particularly in the maritime field, with a view to training skilled personnel in the area of Nautical Science, Marine Engineering and Transport, Maritime Business and Port and Shipping Administration.
Plans to launch the proposed African Maritime University were at an advanced stage, he said, with the technical and logistical support necessary already in place.
Ukraine’s Ambassador in Nigeria, Dr Oleg Skoropad was represented at the function by Ukraine’s representative to the UN on special programmes, Dr Timokhin Viacheslav, who said that the Ukraine would continue to support the academy and offer high quality maritime education to Nigerian cadets within the academy. “It is only proper that we take this relationship to greater heights,” he said.
“It is my hope to continue to move Nigerian cadets from this academy to Ukraine for further studies in higher maritime education and possibly placement on board vessels in Ukraine.”
http://ports.co.za/news/article_2009_01_4_0751.html
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Institutional Investors see oil prices at $60 for 2009
Monday, 05 January 2009
Oil markets traditionally love the unrest. The conflict in Gaza and Russia’s dispute with Ukraine over natural-gas prices offered the ground to oil prices for capping the biggest weekly gain since 1986. As a result, last Friday crude oil for February delivery rose $1.74, or 3.9 percent, to $46.34. After that extraordinary session, last week prices climbed 23 percent, the most since August 1986. This a very good start for oil prices after a very difficult year, during which oil fell 54 percent, the first annual drop since 2001, therefore recording the biggest loss since trading started. But in an environment of economic crisis and low demand, how much can this trend last and in which level will oil prices end?
The majority of analysts look more optimistic as they predict that oil may rebound this year to an average of $60 a barrel as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries makes record production cuts to counter the deepest economic slump since World War II, according to the median of estimates by 33 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be a 29 percent gain from today’s price.
At the same time, the U.S. Energy Department announced that it will resume buying oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as prices have fallen from a high of $147 a barrel last summer to about $46 today. For 2009, the government plans to buy 25,000 barrels a day. By year's end, the reserve will hold 727 million barrels, about 70 days of oil imports and this decision will give a boost to demand.
But the fundamentals for oil are not strong, for the time being, and according to analysts this situation will not change in favour of oil prices.
Institutional investors’ estimates are very similar - much of Wall Street expects oil prices to average about $50 a barrel in 2009. Some of the firms and their specific forecasts give a more clear view. This view seems to be optimistic for the consumers and especially the shipping industry, as the institutional investors predicts that oil prices will remain in low levels.
Deutsche Bank predicts an average price of $47.50 for all of 2009; the chief energy economist of Deutsche Bank, Adam Sieminski, said recently that the demand for oil in 2009 will drop more than any other time in the last quarter of a century due to the weak economy. Sieminski forecasts oil traded in New York falling as low as $30 and averaging $47.50 for the whole year.
Merrill Lynch has a very similar prediction, saying that prices will average $50 (but if they could predict anything they would have remained independent...).
Moody’s Investors Service also says crude will average $50 a barrel in 2009.
Goldman Sachs is predicting that prices will average $45 for all of this year – but predict a drop to $30 dollars a barrel in the first quarter. Yet Goldman just five months ago predicted oil prices would hit $200 a barrel in 2009.
Marc Faber doesn`t make any specific price prediction, but is buying oil at these prices.
The Energy Information Administration projects crude oil will trade at an average of $51 a barrel in 2009.
Barclays Capital has given its forecast of $76 a barrel average for U.S. crude in 2009, saying improving demand and a supply slide will combine to lift oil prices. The forecast is more than $17 above a consensus $58.48 dollars a barrel in the most recent Reuters poll and was among the highest in the survey of 30 analysts.
Morgan Stanley predicts $82 for 2009. Morgan Stanley is the most bullish investment house on the Street. Jim Rogers says that oil will reach $200 a barrel by 2013.
Bloomberg Consensus: Oil futures may rebound from their worst year to average $60 a barrel next year. The forecast is the median of 33 analysts compiled by Bloomberg.
The Oil Traders Blog price projection for the end of 2009 is $60 to $70 a barrel, based on a sample of 350 retail investors.
Makis Theodoratos, Hellenic Shipping News
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30881&Itemid=94
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Amazing discovery of green algae which could save the world from global warming
By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 12:47 AM on 04th January 2009
Melting icebergs, so long the iconic image of global warming, are triggering a natural process that could delay or even end climate change, British scientists have found.
A team working on board the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance off the coast of Antarctica have discovered tiny particles of iron are released into the sea as the ice melts.
The iron feeds algae, which blooms and sucks up damaging carbon dioxide (CO2), then sinks, locking away the harmful greenhouse gas for hundreds of years.
The team think the process could hold the key to staving off globally rising temperatures.
Lead researcher Professor Rob Raiswell, from Leeds University, said: ‘The Earth itself seems to want to save us.’
As a result of the findings, a ground-breaking experiment will be held this month off the British island of South Georgia, 800 miles south east of the Falklands. It will see if the phenomenon could be harnessed to contain rising
carbon emissions.
Researchers will use several tons of iron sulphate to create an artificial bloom of algae. The patch will be so large it
will be visible from space.
Scientists already knew that releasing iron into the sea stimulates the growth of algae. But environmentalists had warned that to do so artificially might damage the planet’s fragile ecosystem.
Last year, the UN banned iron fertilisation in the Great Southern Ocean.
However, the new findings show the mechanism has actually been operating naturally for millions of years within the isolated southern waters. And it has led to the researchers being granted permission by the UN to move ahead with the experiment.
The scientist who will lead the next stage of the study, Professor Victor Smetacek, said: ‘The gas is sure to
be out of the Earth’s atmosphere for several hundred years.’
The aim is to discover whether artificially fertilising the area will create more algae in the Great Southern Ocean. That ocean is an untapped resource for soaking up CO2 because it doesn’t have much iron, unlike other seas.
It covers 20million square miles, and scientists say that if this could all be treated with iron, the resulting algae would remove three-and-a-half gigatons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to one eighth of all emissions annually created by burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.
It would also be equal to removing all carbon dioxide emitted from every power plant, chimney and car exhaust in the rapidly expanding industries of India and Japan.
Lead researcher Prof Rob Raiswell thinks the process could hold the key to staving off globally rising temperatures
However, the experts warn it is too early to say whether it will work.
The team from ice patrol ship HMS Endurance used sledgehammers to chip deep into the interior of a 33ft-long mass of polar ice from half-a-dozen house-sized icebergs that had blown ashore in Antarctica.
Once back in the UK, they used a special microscope to analyse the samples, which revealed what they had been looking for – tiny iron particles, only a few millionths of a millimetre wide, embedded deep within the ice. Until now, it was thought that the only source of iron in the Southern Ocean was wind blowing in metal compounds from the deserts of nearby continents like Australia. But the research has disproved this.
Prof Raiswell said: ‘These particles measure only a fraction of a millimetre, but they have great importance for the global climate.’
Rising global temperatures, particularly over the past 50 years, have increased the rate at which polar ice melts, causing sea levels to rise.
Ten of the warmest years on record have been since 1991, with experts predicting that 2009 could be the hottest year yet.
The climate-change effect is set to substantially increase over the coming decades, as developing industrial nations pump out more CO2. Temperatures along the Antarctic Peninsula alone have increased by 2.5C over the past 50 years.
But for every percentage point increase in the amount of ice that breaks off, Prof Raiswell calculates that a further 26million tons of CO2 is removed from the atmosphere.
Polar expert Professor Smetacek and a 49-strong German research team is due to set sail from Cape Town in the icebreaker Polarstern in the next few days to conduct their groundbreaking experiment.
Crucially, the scientists want to know how much algae will sink to the bottom of the ocean where the CO2 will be safely trapped.
Rob Raiswell a geochemist at the University of Leeds believes the project is controversial as they are unsure of the effects on the ecosystem
Algae that falls a couple of miles below the surface will remain there for hundreds of years; algae that remains only a few hundred metres from the surface releases carbon back into the atmosphere.
Dr Phil Williamson, scientific co-ordinator of the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere study, funded
by the UK’s National Environment Research Council, called the research ‘exciting’.
‘We have images from satellites which show the ocean stays green for weeks afterwards but the
key will be whether it stays that way,’ said Dr Williamson.
Schemes to fertilise the seas with iron have in the past been driven by commercial interests. This is the biggest ever scientific attempt.
Last May, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity called a halt to fertilisation around the Antarctic until there was more detailed scientific data. But the British findings led to the go-ahead for Professor Smetacek’s team from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany.
Nonetheless, even Prof Raiswell has called the project ‘highly controversial’. He said: ‘Oceans aren’t isolated boxes and it would affect the surrounding areas as well.
‘We don’t know what effect that would have. The ecosystems are very complicated. If the iceberg iron is useful, then it will just buy us more time.
‘The Earth might have fightback mechanisms but we must still try to reduce our CO2 emissions.’
Prof Smetacek said the issue is too complex not to be explored by scientists. He warned: ‘Objections will be swept away when our powerlessness in the face of climate change becomes apparent.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1104772/Amazing-discovery-green-algae-save-world-global-warming.html
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Dearth of fresh orders to hit shipyards
Monday, 05 January 2009
Indian ship makers may maintain profit growth in 2009-10 but order flows will deteriorate further as shipping services firms, stung by a credit crisis and plunging sea rates, put expansion plans on hold and cancel orders. ABG Shipyard Ltd, India’s largest private listed shipbuilder, received its last order in June, worth Rs585 crore. Rival Bharati Shipyard Ltd, which has orders worth Rs4,800 crore, is mostly executing old ones “In terms of financials, they are not going to be impacted as they already have booked orders till 2010-11,” said Anand Sharma, a Mumbai-based independent shipping consultant. “So, if in 2009 there are no fresh orders, it will give them an indication that worse is around (the corner). In such a situation, 2010 calendar year could be bad financially.”
State-run Shipping Corp. of India has postponed its Rs5,000 crore expansion plans by at least six months while Essar Shipping Ports and Logistics Ltd recently cancelled orders for three vessels.
Shipping firms overseas are also going slow on expansion, making it tougher for shipyards to survive, analysts said.
Industry estimates show around 30% of the orders for dry bulk carrier ships globally could be cancelled because of lack of finance and a drop in charter rates since September.
Baltic Dry Index, the barometer of global trade demand, slumped 92% in 2008, on a global financial crisis, falling commodity prices and slowing economic growth, closing the year at 774 points, a level last seen in 1987. Trade volumes of iron ore, coal, grains, fertilizers, cement and oil—drivers of freight boom—are also shrinking on fears of recession and access to export finance.
“All they (Indian shipyards) need to ensure now is that their orders do not get cancelled. If fresh orders are not coming in, it is still okay,” said an analyst with a foreign brokerage who didn’t want to be identified.
However, shipbuilders in India are hopeful they can face the challenge.
“We are on a sound footing. We have not faced any cancellations yet. We are more focused on executing our orders,” Dhananjay Datar, chief operating officer, ABG Shipyard, said in a telephone interview.
“Everything now depends on how the global financial markets pan out. If it brings any new surprises, I don’t know,” Datar said, adding the company expects to grow at around 30% in FY10.
In the year ended March, ABG’s net profit grew 38% to Rs160 crore on net sales of Rs970 crore.
Bharati Shipyard, which clocked 47% growth in profit last year, expects to maintain a 35-40% growth rate, a senior official of the company said on condition of anonymity.
The company earns 70% of its revenue from offshore supply vessels, which has not seen a slowdown yet, analysts said.
Shares in ABG have lost nearly half its value in 2008, underperforming the CNX Midcap index’s 28% fall. Bharati Shipyard tanked 80% in the period.
“There is a concern, of course. But the impact is not significant. Whoever has the requirement will have to place orders. Negotiations are going on. Fresh orders will be there,” the Bharati Shipyard official said.
Source: Reuters
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30873&Itemid=79
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Posted: Mon, Jan 5 2009. 3:32 PM IST
India signs deal with US for long-range maritime aircraft
The government had approved the deal in its last Cabinet Committee on Security meeting in 2008 after protracted talks
PTI
New Delhi: In its largest defence purchase ever from the US, India has signed a deal to buy eight maritime aircraft from aerospace major Boeing to strengthen the Navy’s intelligence gathering capabilities.
“The $2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft was signed between a Defence Ministry official and Boeing’s country head Vivek Lall here on 1 January,” Navy and industry sources said here today.
The government had approved the deal in its last Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting in 2008 after protracted talks.
According to sources, the deal with Boeing was through a direct commercial contract and issues such as end-user verification agreement between India and US for these defence products were still pending.
“The Navy will get its first aircraft under the deal by 2012-13 and the rest of the aircraft would be delivered in phases by 2015-16,” sources said.
The contract also provided for the Navy to place follow-on orders for about eight more of these aircraft, being purchased to replace the existing fleet of eight ageing Tupolev-142M turboprops.
The P-8I is armed with torpedoes, depth bombs and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and is capable of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare.
Expected to help in plugging the existing gaps in Navy’s maritime reconnaissance capabilities, the aircraft has an operating range of over 600 nautical miles.
http://www.livemint.com/Articles/PrintArticle.aspx?artid=FB912FBA-DB0F-11DD-9585-000B5DABF636
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South Korea shipyard confident in crisis
Monday, 05 January 2009
To see how shipbuilders in Northeast Asia have rushed to expand in the past several years, visit Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. Here, ships are being built at the same time as the plants themselves. Inside half-finished sheds the size of a few football fields, workers are putting together shipbuilding modules: huge steel blocks, bigger than houses, that become a mammoth ship when welded together. Outside, hydraulic rams drive piles into the seabed to reclaim land for more yard space. Trucks rumble by as they move earth. Completed modules lie scattered in the open yard, leaving a visitor momentarily confused as to whether this is a gigantic construction site or a shipyard.
For Sungdong's chief executive, Yu Kwan Hong, the engineering task in his ever-expanding shipyard is nothing compared to dealing with what he calls a "tsunami" that started an ocean away, from the toxic U.S. mortgage market.
Not far from Yu's shipyard, covering 200 hectares, or 500 acres, along the southern coast, the financial turmoil in South Korea and China is exacting a heavy toll on dozens of smaller shipyards that have sprung up during the building boom of recent years but now find the party over when they have barely begun building any ships.
"This is not a situation where some get orders but some don't," Yu said. "This is as if everything has stopped."
In just three years of building vessels, Sungdong already has the world's sixth-largest order book. Its tumultuous yet systematic way of putting ships together epitomizes what keeps South Korean shipyards on top of the global industry, with 45 percent of all shipbuilding contracts in the world.
But that growth has dropped sharply in recent months as fewer cars and homes are built, steel makers cut output, and mines produce less ore. Exporters' hands are tied at ports because they cannot find banks willing to handle their transactions.
Shipping rates for bulk commodities like iron ore and grain fell more than 90 percent as of December last year. Hard-pressed shipping lines are freezing new orders for ships and canceling contracts because banks will not finance them.
In October, the number of new ships ordered around the world declined a third consecutive month to 46 vessels, the lowest monthly tally for nearly a decade, according to Clarkson Research Services. In June, 69 container ships were ordered; in October, not a single one.
Shipbuilding contracts for 2008 totaled $129.6 billion as of Nov. 1, down 38 percent from a year earlier. In South Korea, the first casualty was C& Heavy Industries. The two-year-old shipyard on the country's southwest coast had an order book of 60 ships worth 3 trillion won, or $2.3 billion. But unable to get 160 billion won to finish its docks, the company filed for aid from creditor banks. Now, half-completed hulks sit in its deserted yard.
Starting in January, banks will start investigating the books of 26 medium-sized shipyards to determine which would be viable if given financial relief, and which would not, said Kim Jong Chang, head of the government's Financial Supervisory Services. In China, authorities have stopped certifying new yards amid worries about the pace of growth.
This is a sobering season for South Korea, which takes exceptional pride in its shipbuilding industry - one of the few sectors where it has dislodged Japan, its historical rival, for market leadership. South Korea is now home to six of the world's 10 largest shipbuilders, including the top four: Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung and STX. This year, shipbuilding became South Korea's largest export sector, while its semiconductors and cars struggled overseas.
In this port town, 330 kilometers, or 205 miles, south of Seoul and home to five shipyards, there seemed to be no sign of recession. Hammers clanged and welding sparks streamed down the hulls at the shipyards.
That is because shipbuilders are building and delivering ships now that were ordered two or three years ago during the boom. Yu is worried about the future: Since it takes several months or even years to build a ship, shipyards must keep their order books filled with ships that will be delivered three years from now.
"I don't expect new orders through the first quarter of next year," Yu said.
Lee Jong Sung, an analyst at NH Investment and Securities, was even more pessimistic. He said shipbuilders would have to suffer a sharp drop in new orders at least for two years.
"That's the time it will take to clear away the shipbuilding bubble that began in 2003," Lee said. "At the time, shipowners raced to place new orders on the belief that China's economy will continue to grow at an explosive rate of more 10 percent, guzzling oil, coal and iron ore and creating a worldwide shortage of vessels."
Global investments in new ships surged from $31.9 billion in 2002 to $249.3 billion in 2007. Of $556.7 billion worth of ships on order books now, South Korea accounts for $212.4 billion and China $158.6 billion, according to Clarkson.
South Korea rushed to designate shipbuilding parks along its southern coast, opening roads and offering tax incentives to attract shipyards and module builders. Now those sites are on hold, half-finished and half-filled.
Chinese shipyards are hit harder than their rivals in South Korea and Japan because they depend more on building dry bulk carriers, which are easier to build. What seemed like an insatiable demand for those vessels has dried up now because shipping lines cannot find enough bulk cargo to carry amid the global recession.
In contrast, top South Korean builders like Hyundai, Daewoo and Samsung had already shifted their focus to building more complex vessels like supercontainer ships, offshore oil platforms, drill ships and dome-shaped liquefied natural gas carriers - vessel types that are less vulnerable to the current downturn because they are technologically more demanding and less exposed to oversupply.
Smaller latecomers, which rested their fortune on bulk carriers, now must face a flood of requests from shipowners to renegotiate prices, or worse, analysts said.
Sungdong, one of the most successful among those that entered the market during the boom, reported no cancellations and won a rare order for two large crude oil carriers worth $310 million in October. But Yu worried that shipowners now may try to amend existing orders for bulk ships to build vessels, like oil tankers, that have better freight rates.
Sungdong began taking orders in 2004. In July 2006, when it had just begun building its first ships, it hired Yu, a retired chief executive of Hyundai's shipyard. Sungdong expects to deliver 20 ships this year, worth $850 million. It has a backlog of 111 ships, worth $8.2 billion.
Sungdong won many of those orders by showing its clients pictures of a beach where it was going to build a new yard.
Yu's style is reminiscent of that of his mentor, Chung Ju Young, the founder of Hyundai and of the country's modern shipbuilding industry. In the early 1970s, Chung won his first orders by showing a Greek shipping tycoon two items: a picture of a sandy beach, to demonstrate that he had the land to build a shipyard, and a 500 won bill featuring a 16th-century armored "turtle ship," to show that Koreans had the skill to build ships.
Sungdong's engineers did not wait for a dry dock to be built. Instead, they reverted to the technique popular before the age of dry docks: building ships on skids. They build mammoth ships on the open yard, then push them down greased skid rails to a barge-like "floating dock." The ships are launched when the dock is submerged.
At Sungdong's yard, currently 18 ships are taking shape. At the same time, it is building its first dry dock, one of the world's largest at 640 meters by 150 meters, or 2,100 feet by 490 feet.
Yu is confident that bigger shipyards like Sungdong will survive the crisis. But for now, Sungdong is tightening its belt as banks tighten their grip on credit. Beginning in October, it began paying its subcontractors in bonds to preserve cash.
Source: International Herald Tribune
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30872&Itemid=79
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Submarines - Russian Boomers Done Got The Breakdown Blues Again
January 5, 2009: And there's yet another delay for the new Russian Borei Class ballistic missile nuclear subs (SSBN, or "boomers"). This boat, which was launched a year ago, was to have begun sea trials this month. But that will be delayed for at least three months, as more inspections are made of how the nuclear reactors and safety systems were installed. The latter is the result of an accident on a new Akula SSN last November. There, a sailor hit the wrong switch and accidently triggered a fire suppressant system in a compartment where several dozen people were sleeping, killing twenty of them. The safety system was poorly designed, making it too easy for someone to do what the sailor did. Such design problems are common in Russian ships, and the additional months of inspections and modifications for the Borei is another attempt to eliminate such problems.
The first of three new Borei Class boats will be based in the Pacific when finally commissioned, probably, maybe, next year. During the Cold War, most of Russias SSBNs were based in the north, at several bases east of the Norwegian border, and facing the Arctic ocean. But now Russia is spending over $350 million to expand and improve its submarine base on Kamchatka island. This will enable its new SSBNs to threaten China, as well as the United States.
The first of its new Borei class subs was moved to a dry dock two years ago, for additional work. This ship, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was supposed to have been launched three years ago. But there were technical problems that delayed it until now. Construction of the Yuri Dolgoruky began thirteen years ago, but money shortages, and technical issues, slowed progress.
This is the first new Russian boomer to enter service in 18 years, and the first new Russian sub design since the end of the Cold War. The second ship in the class, the Alexander Nevsky, is also nearing completion. Construction on the third, the Vladimir Monomakh, began two years ago. Russia wants to have about a dozen of these boats, to replace the current Delta IV class SSBNs. The Delta IVs are getting old, and have only about a decade of useful service left. Currently, it appears that the navy will get at least eight Boreis.
The Boreis are closer in design to the Delta IVs, than to the more recent, and much larger, Typhoon boats. The Boreis are 558 feet long and 44 feet wide. Surface displacement is 15,000 tons, and twelve Bulava SLBMs (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) are carried. Work on the Yuri Dolgoruky was delayed for several years because the first missile being designed for it did not work out. A successful land based missile, the Topol-M, was quickly modified for submarine use. The Bulava was a larger missile, cutting the Boreis capacity from twenty to twelve missiles. The boat also has four torpedo tubes, and twelve torpedoes or torpedo tube launched missiles. The Borei also sports a huge sonar dome in the bow.
The Boreis have a crew of 107, with half of them being officers (a common Russian practice when it comes to high tech ships like nuclear subs). Each of these boats will cost at least two billion dollars. This high cost, by Russian standards, is partly because many factories that supplied parts for Russian subs were in parts of the Soviet Union that are not now within the borders of present day Russia. So new factories had to be built. All components of the Boreis, and their missiles, will be built in Russia. A dozen of these boats probably won't be completed for at least a decade.
Another problem is the reliability of the new Bulava missile, which, so far, has failed five of its ten test launches. The Bulava is believed to be fundamentally sound, but it could be another year, or more, before all the kinks are worked out. The Yuri Dolgoruky might be ready before its ballistic missiles are, which is not unusual for a new class of SSBN, carrying a new missile.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/articles/20090105.aspx
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Somalia - Send Lawyers, Guns And Money
January 5, 2009: As if shipping companies don't have enough problems with pirates off the Somali coast, now they have lawyers insisting that a precise count be made of pirates engaged in each successful attack. That, it turns out, will determine which of the multiple insurance policies larger ships carry, will have to pay.
It works like this. Two types of insurance can cover the costs of a pirate attack. Normally, marine insurance covers acts of piracy. But that was for attacks that amount to robbery or mugging (when a few pirates get aboard at night and get away with whatever they can grab, or come upon crew members, who they rob). However, according to a regulation established in 1986, if twelve or more pirates are involved, the act becomes a "riot", and thus an act of war. That means the separate war risk insurance will pay the bill. Chances in the regulations in 2005, shifted some of the piracy risk from war risk insurance, although not every insurer has accepted this. However, the "riot rule" could be argued in court if two insurers (one issuing a maritime loss policy, and the other a war risk policy to the same ship) found themselves in a position to make the other guy pay off on a large ransom.
Meanwhile, the Somali pirates have developed an infrastructure of agents and advisors that enable them to negotiate large ransoms for hijacked ships, and deal with all those lawyers. The ship owners have assembled their own teams of negotiators, lawyers and other specialists. When a ship is taken by pirates, the owner calls in the insurance company, which then engages professional negotiators. The insurance company and the shipping company will spend $300-500,000 on negotiators, lawyers and cash transportation specialists to carry out the deal. Of late, the negotiations have taken about two months, and a ransom of one or two million dollars is usually paid. Some ransoms being currently negotiated may be much larger, thus sending the lawyers looking for an escape clause for the insurance company they represent.
The insurance companies are less concerned with possible court battles, and more interested in developing new policies to deal with the unique situation off Somalia. For example, some insurance firms are offering a special policy for ships that must pass close to Somalia. This policy covers "business interruption" losses. With captured ships spending months moored near a pirate base, the owners can lose over a million dollars in lost income and wages for the captive crews. These ships cost thousands of dollars a day to operate, and bring in even more when they are carrying cargoes. The new insurance policy pays for those losses. Even the smaller fishing boats find this kind of insurance attractive, because, despite the pirate risks, the valuable catches to be had off the Somali coast (illegally caught, it should be pointed out, because there is no Somali government to tax foreign boats that take fish in Somali waters) are so profitable, that the extra insurance costs are worthwhile. The crews are less enthusiastic about this business model, and bonuses must be paid to them to compensate for the risk.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htseamo/articles/20090105.aspx
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Somalia - The New Disorder Approaches
January 3, 2009: The twenty or so warships of the anti-piracy patrol have made a difference, with half the number of ships being captured by pirates since the foreigners arrived. There were only two captures in December, while in the months before that, it was about four a month. Most of the warships are escorting convoys of merchant ships through the Gulf of Aden. But many merchant ships don't want to wait for a convoy to form, go it alone, and are most vulnerable to the pirates. Last year, about 120 ships were attacked, and 40 captured. At least 19 of these are still being held. Those that were ransomed are believed to have been paid a total of $30-40 million.
The TNG parliament has 30 days to elect a new president, via secret ballot. The TNG was supposed to hold national elections in 2009, but that seems unlikely. Most of the clans negotiated the organization of the TNG, but could not agree on how to run it. Now several factions of the TNG, several factions of Islamic Courts, Somaliland, Puntland and several wealthy pirate warlords up north, all contend for power.
Ethiopian convoys have begun leaving Mogadishu, and there is panic in Baidoa (the capital of the TNG) at the thought of Ethiopian troops leaving there as well. African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu are also discussing getting out, rather than face the wrath, alone, of local clans eager to regain their control of the city. The Ethiopians are expected to be all gone by the end of the month, and then there will be more intense fighting, as the clan militias, as is their custom, try to make the most of the new situation.
December 31, 2008: In Mogadishu, clan militias loyal to the TNG are planning on leaving with the Ethiopians, not wanting to face the gunmen from local clans alone.
December 30, 2008: Fighting has intensified in Mogadishu, where local clans sense that they will be able to return to their neighborhoods, from the refugee camps outside town, because Ethiopian troops are leaving.
December 29, 2008: After four years in office, Transitional National Government (TNG) president Abdullahi Yusuf has resigned. He was never able to unite the many factions in the country, even though all those factions, after several years of negotiations, were able to cobble together the TNG. Part of Yusuf's problem was corruption, Much foreign aid flowed to the TNG, and much of it was stolen by Yusuf and his cronies. Those friends, their families, and what's left of the loot, are now fleeing Baidoa for Puntland.
December 28, 2008: Al Shabaab was forced out of another central Somali town, by more moderate Islamic fighters. This left another twenty or so dead or wounded. More moderate Islamic Courts militia, some of them allied with the Transitional National Government (TNG), have united to oppose the radical al Shabaab fighters, who are too radical and righteous for most Somalis tastes.
December 27, 2008: For the last few days, there has been fighting in Gureil (370 kilometers north of Mogadishu) between radical Islamic fighters (al Shabaab) and local, generally pro-government Islamic Courts group. There have been several dozen casualties, and the al Shabaab group was eventually driven away.
December 24, 2008: Yemen is creating a regional anti-piracy center, which will collect and distribute information on piracy and anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden region. The center will be operational in about six months. Many of the "Somali pirates" are actually Yemenis, and the Yemeni coast guard is too small to keep pirates away from the Yemeni coast. However, the government has sufficient control on land to prevent pirates from establishing the kind of bases they have in northern Somalia.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/somalia/articles/20090103.aspx
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Intelligence - On Her Majesties Secret Service
January 5, 2009: Britain has allowed the American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to recruit and run its own informant network among Britain's large Moslem community. This is because Islamic terrorist organizations have, for years, been aggressively recruiting among Moslem populations in Europe, especially in Britain. It's hard to get numbers, but the effort has had some success. At least a dozen British Moslems are known to have died in Iraq, while serving the terrorist cause. At least three of them died as suicide bombers. Over fifty are believed to have gone to Iraq, and over a hundred, over the last seven years, have gone off to be active terrorists around the world. That's about twenty people per million British Moslems per year. Most of those are actually not British, but men born in the Middle East or Pakistan, who sought political asylum in Britain. Many of these men were found to have had a terrorist background, and had fled from their native countries, and sought refuge in Europe. Until recently, most European countries, and particularly Britain, were quick to grant asylum to these terrorists. While most of the terrorist "refugees" simply lied about their backgrounds, some admitted to their disagreements with their home governments, and got asylum anyway, or simply refused to show up when the immigration authorities called them in to explain exactly what they were fleeing from. Although many Europeans still back easy asylum policies, the trend is towards taking a closer look at those trying to get in. When this is done, it is often found that many of the refugees are basically criminals or terrorists looking for a place to hide out.
In Britain the big problem is that there is a tremendous anti-Western attitude in the British Moslem community. For that reason, there are fewer than 400 Moslems in the British armed forces, and efforts to increase that much have, so far, been futile. Since large numbers of Moslems (mainly from Pakistan and India) began arriving in Britain sixty years ago, there has been a lot of discrimination. The recruiting difficulties are one of the side effects. Interestingly, the French military is over ten percent Moslem, mainly because the unemployment rate of Moslems is much higher in France, and the military will take anyone who is French, physically fit, and without a criminal record. But the French are a bit nervous about how much they can trust many of the Moslem soldiers. So far, there have been no problems. However, a British Moslem soldier was arrested and convicted of spying for Iran while serving as an interpreter for the senior British commander in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has not had such problems with recruiting Moslems. The reason is that the culture in the United States is geared toward eventually accepting immigrants. Most other nations, which are not composed largely of immigrants, or the descendents of immigrants, are generally much more hostile to "others." For this reason, some of the CIA operatives are from families that immigrated from South Asia to the United States. These agents, even if they don't speak South Asian languages well (or speak the right ones), have an easier time connecting with British Moslems (who know of the easier time Moslems have in the United States.)
This novel arrangement annoys some CIA officials, who believe the British should take care of their own Moslem problem. But U.S. and British intelligence officials are practical, and recognize that you go where the most opportunities are. Britain has most of the South Asian (particularly Pakistani) migrants in Europe, and this group is the most likely to have, or develop, contacts with Taliban and al Qaeda groups in Pakistan. So the CIA, MI-5 (British domestic intelligence) and MI-6 (British foreign intelligence) coordinate their efforts, and pool information to spot, and block, terrorist operations in Britain. Meanwhile, the CIA also collects information on terror operations outside Britain, that are being planned or supported by Islamic terrorists inside Britain.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20090105.aspx
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Business Times - 05 Jan 2009
Baltic Dry Index falls as steel demand slumps
Settling of annual iron-ore supply deals key to recovery in shipping rates
(LONDON) The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, fell to extend last year's record decline, when steelmakers cut output on slumping demand from builders and a credit freeze curbed trade.
The index tracking transport costs on international trade routes retreated one point, or 0.1 per cent, to 773 points, according to the Baltic Exchange.
The gauge dropped a record 92 per cent in 2008 as global economic growth slowed and money markets stopped working efficiently after Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed in September.
'We expect dry bulk rates to remain at very low levels in most of the first quarter, before various 'rescue packages' in China and the rest of the world should kick in and help improve parts of the construction industry,' Oslo-based analyst Rikard Vabo said in a note. 'We could then see some improvement.'
The steel industry accounts for almost half of all dry bulk trading, according to shipper Golden Ocean Group Ltd. Global production of the metal fell 19 per cent in November compared with the same month of 2007, according to data from the World Steel Association on Dec 18. China, the world's biggest steelmaker, announced in November a 4 trillion yuan (S$857 billion) economic stimulus package running through 2010.
Chinese steelmills including Baosteel Group Corp and Magang (Group) Holdings are still depleting expensive iron ore stockpiles instead of placing new import orders. China has 220 million tons of ore reserves, Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information, said on Dec 12 citing data from the China Iron and Steel Association. Clearing that backlog will take until the end of March, he said then.
Settling of annual iron-ore supply deals between producers and Asian clients will be 'key' to a recovery in shipping rates, analysts at Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad in Kuala Lumpur, headed by Yeonzon Yeow, said in a report on Dec 31. The annual contracts typically run from April 1.
'Current dry bulk rates are abnormally low and should recover to a more healthy level upon normalisation of iron ore trade and conclusion of the 2009 iron-ore price negotiation,' the report said. The index will average 2,000 points this year, Kenanga forecast.
Rents for so-called capesize vessels rose 1.2 per cent on Friday to US$8,977 a day, up from a record low US$2,316 on Dec 2. Daily break-even costs are US$6,000, according to DnB NOR Markets ASA in Oslo.
Investors bet rates will average US$14,125 this quarter, data on derivatives known as forward freight agreements, from Oslo- based broker Imarex NOS ASA, showed.
Rents of smaller panamaxes, the biggest vessels that fit the locks on the Panama Canal, fell 3.4 per cent to US$4,326 a day. FFAs showed investors expect an average of US$8,625 next quarter\. \-- Bloomberg
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg:80/sub/storyprintfriendly/0,4582,312593,00.html?
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Korean shipbuilders facing tough times
Monday, 05 January 2009
Korean shipbuilders are headed for a turbulent 2009 amid a sharp contraction in the global shipbuilding sector, with small firms expected to take a particularly harsh battering. "2009 will be a year of restructuring for the shipbuilding sector, but the big three may get opportunities to solidify their market leadership," said Jo Young-jun, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co. The global shipbuilding industry was hit hard by the recent financial market turmoil and the ensuing global market slump. New shi orders, which came in record volumes until early last year, have virtually stopped. Korea's big three makers, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., received orders for a total of just five vessels since October.
According to London-based shipbroker Clarkson Plc., shipbuilding orders placed around the world between January and November in 2008 totalled 40.9 million CGT, less than half of 87.8 million CGT a year earlier. In the third quarter, orders won by Korean yards amounted to 3.29 million CGT, less than half of the 7.12 million CGT three months earlier, which is about 32% of global orders. In 2009, orders are projected to reach 15.2 million CGT, down 11.6% from 2008. However, construction output will increase to 18 million CGT, up 20% from 2008.
The three giants, having secured enough work for the next 3.5 years, should be able to withstand the abrupt downturn in the global shipbuilding sector, and may even be able to cement their leadership, experts said. "A focus on high-tech, high value-added vessels would pay off, sharpening their competitive edge," the analyst said.
However, many new small and medium yards that have borrowed from banks to expand capacity may go bankrupt when ship owners cancel or postpone orders, they warn. During the boom years, many new players emerged in the sector, mainly producing bulk carriers. Korea has about 300 shipyards, of which about 30 are big enough to build vessels with a capacity of more than 10,000 tons. Builders of the low-cost bulk carriers, particularly those in China and Korea, have been racing to expand capacity until recently and are unprepared for a downturn like this.
The Korean government is pushing for a restructuring of small shipyards, in a bid to rescue viable ones. C&Heavy Industries, a unit of C&Group, already faces bankruptcy, sparking the restructuring of cash-strapped shipyards in earnest.
Meritz Fire and Marine Insurance, the largest creditor of C&Heavy Industries, last month backed out of a plan to inject emergency capital to the liquidity-squeezed company.
Source: The Motor Ship
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30874&Itemid=79
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Windows for Warships™ reaches Royal Navy frigates
By Lewis Page
Posted in Government, 5th January 2009 12:27 GMT
The Royal Navy's plan to fit most of its fleet with command systems based on Windows boxes continues, with the commencement last week of a programme intended to replace the existing commandware of the Service's Type 23 frigates. The Type 23s will make up the majority of the British surface fleet for the foreseeable future.
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), HMS Montrose has now entered a planned docking and refit period during which BAE Systems plc will replace her original DNA(1) gear with DNA(2), said to be "based on the system being fitted to the Royal Navy's powerful new Type 45 Destroyers". This means it will be based on fairly everyday hardware running legacy Windows OSes - people who have worked on these programmes inform us that both Win2k and XP will be in use across the fleet.
Along with replacement computers and cabling (12km of new string will be run aboard Montrose during her refit, apparently), the frigate will receive a mid-life update to her Sea Wolf close-in surface to air missile system. This will no doubt be welcome, as it is no longer a secret that the basic system had reached a level of almost total no-confidence among operators as of the turn of the century.
Commodore Graham Peach, the man in charge of looking after surface warships in the MoD purchasing and maintenance empire, hailed the new off-the-shelf IT approach.
"This docking period is an important milestone in our programme to develop a common command system across the fleet," he said. "We have worked closely with the contractor, BAE systems, to develop DNA(2) and its sister systems which will enable us to provide more efficient support to the fleet, simplify operator training and deliver cost savings in the long term as servicing is required."
According to the MoD, BAE will "develop a common command system across the fleet" for just £30m under a contract awarded in 2006, perhaps putting an end to decades of horrifyingly frustrating intership networking problems. Anyone like your correspondent who has served at sea in the last ten years will recall the use of embarrassing expedients such as reading endless strings of figures across voice channels (often enough civilian mobile phones or marine VHF) or re-keying them from hardcopy printouts into another machine in the same ship.
In addition to the frigate and destroyer fleets, the Navy has recently announced conversion to Windows in its submarine flotilla. It is also understood that the new aircraft carriers, whenever they arrive, will also use similar commandware. It would seem that one large customer at least isn't having any of this Vista/7 malarkey, certainly not for the foreseeable future.
Many in the software community have criticised the Navy's moves, feeling that Windows cannot offer the sort of guaranteed reliability one might wish to see in computers which will sometimes have direct control of powerful weapon systems - and on which Blighty's fighting matelots may one day depend for their lives. However, one ought to note that the preceding custom solutions were usually so terrible that a reasonably stable Windows box would actually be a serious improvement. Furthermore, it is fairly rare in naval combat for there to be any need for "man-out-of-the-loop" operations.
The only common situation where weapons need to be fully autonomous is that of surface ships defending against sea-skimming missile attack, which calls for extremely fast reactions based on limited information. Existing Phalanx and Goalkeeper auto-gun systems are already commonly switched to autonomous operation as missiles close in - or are thought to be closing in - and this is also done in such situations with American Aegis firecontrol systems in charge of Standard interceptor missiles.
If the new Type 45s ever find themselves trying to beat the dreaded supersonic sea-skimmers of the future to the punch - and if they never do this, they will not have been worth buying: they can't do anything else you might pay a billion quid per ship for - they will need to let their command systems shoot instantly at any fast, close low-altitude track which appears in the command system. A human, if in the loop at all, will not have time to add anything to the decision-making process.
So yes, there will be scope for errors; but this is more a problem of surface-based air defence than it is one of OSes. The danger presented by a combat ready air-defence destroyer in what it considers to be a threat zone would probably exist no matter what software it was running.
Given that the Navy will have its warships anyway, UK taxpayers might at least be pleased at the prices the Service seems to be paying to have its commandware replaced. Again, regular IT people won't be terribly impressed at fairly small numbers of fairly humdrum platforms being replaced for tens of millions of pounds: but in the context of traditional warship computer programmes the ongoing MoD projects are actually looking pretty good.
Whether that's adequate compensation for the possible attendant security and reliability issues will remain a matter of opinion for a while - until the new war-Windows platforms start seeing widespread, networked-up service. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05/windows_for_warships_hits_type_23s/
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After biggest military deal with US, India eyes military pacts
January 5th, 2009 - 7:22 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) After signing its biggest-ever military deal with the US for eight long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for the Indian Navy for $2.1 billion, New Delhi is now eyeing to fast track three key military pacts with Washington. These include one under which their militaries can refuel ships and aircraft in cashless transactions that are balanced at the end of the year.
Apart from the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), the other pacts pending are the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) that will enable the two militaries communicate on a common platform, and an end-user agreement governing the sale of US military hardware to India.
“The deal for the eight P8I reconnaissance aircraft has been signed directly with the Boeing Company. The terms and the end-user agreement governing the use of sensitive technology is yet to be sorted out with the US government,” a senior navy official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
These three pacts have been in the limbo for long.
India has so far refused to sign the end user agreement in its present form for being “intrusive” and has asked for modifications.
“It’s like this: we purchase, say, night vision goggles from the US and deploy these on the LoC (Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir). Obviously, we cannot allow US inspectors to physically verify this,” an official said.
“Therefore, we’ll work out a system where we will certify where the equipment is located and the US will take our word for it,” the official added.
The LSA would require both countries to provide their bases, fuel and other kind of logistics support to each others’ fighter jets and naval warships.
Explaining the advantages of the agreement, the official said: “India had to spend close to Rs.100 crore (Rs.1 billion) for participating in the Red Flag exercise (with the US Air Force last year).
“Had an LSA been in place, India would not have had to physically pay the money but would have provided reciprocal facilities in this country whenever the US defence forces required them,” the official added.
The US has agreements similar to the LSA in place with some 65 countries.
In most cases, it is called the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) that was formerly known as the NATO Mutual Support Act. It was enacted to simplify exchanges of logistic support, supplies, and services between the US and NATO forces. It was amended in 1986, 1992 and 1994 to permit ACSAs with non-NATO countries.
With the Indian and US militaries increasing their engagement in war games on land, in the air and at sea, CISMOA has become a necessity to ensure there are no communication glitches.
“With the increasing number of military exercises between the countries, the pact is set to be given the green signal soon,” the official said.
The P8I, which is based on the Boeing-737 platform, has been specifically developed for the Indian Navy’s requirements. The aircraft, which is still in the conception stage, is expected to fly by 2012.
This will be the second big-ticket purchase from the US in a year after a $1 billion agreement inked last January for six Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for the Indian Army’s Special Forces.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/after-biggest-military-deal-with-us-india-eyes-military-pacts_100138561.html
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Tanker profits to be volatile this year
Monday, 05 January 2009
Tanker owners in the region will this year rake in reasonably high profits from voyages made at lucrative routes from the Middle East, although profit margins will remain volatile, say industry players and analysts. Spot market charter rates on the Middle East-Far East route are likely to firm up in the first quarter of 2009, following a slide in the last quarter of 2008 Although players do not see a quick return to the high levels of profits witnessed in the first quarter of 2008, they believe that the tanker sector will continue to operate far above the breakeven point and will remain the healthiest sector.
"There is a high possibility that the current financial crisis will ease in the first quarter of this year, we see demand returning to levels that will bring more profits for the sector," said Abdullah Al Shuraim, Chairman Gulf Navigation Holding (GNH).
"We do not anticipate a problem of over supply as most single hulls are scheduled to be phased out and some tankers on order could face delays in delivery."
According to a leading shipping broker RS Platou, 2008 has been "the best year ever" for tanker owners, with charter rates reaching the highest levels in almost a decade. Charter rates for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) reached $110,000 (Dh403,700) per day in the first quarter of 2008 on the back of demand for oil, especially in the Far East.
However, rates slumped in the third quarter of 2008 by almost half as oil prices fell from their historic peak of close to $150 a barrel, which was followed by a cut in oil production by Opec.
According to the tanker index of RS Platou, which is derived from six different sizes of crude and product carriers, average daily earnings for owners were $64,000. This figure is marginally higher than 2004 levels which previously held the record, said the report.
The report pegged Suezmax and Aframax earnings for this year at $67,200 and $49,800 per day respectively. According to the Norwegian brokerage, both product and chemical tanker rates "have bucked the general trend in shipping of slumping returns, particularly in the dry-bulk and container shipping sectors," it said.
The year 2008 saw several instances of counter-seasonal strength in spot tanker rates, which pushed earnings for many owners to record levels, according to Tankerworld. This counter-seasonal strength in spot rates has been attributed to heightened oil demand from the United States, China and India and rising exports from tonne-mile intensive Opec producers. Stockpiling ahead of the Beijing Olympics and port delays in the US and Japan also contributed to counter-seasonal increase in spot rates.
Several players also said that robust conversion and scrapping volumes checked tanker supply growth and in turn propped up rates.
"During the first nine months of 2008, the world tanker fleet grew by three per cent, a decrease from the annual fleet supply growth rate of about six per cent experienced for the same period in 2006 and 2007," according to one source. Leading operator Teekay Corporation said rates for medium-sized crude oil tankers remained relatively firm.
This is "primarily due to the seasonal increase in oil demand during the northern hemisphere winter, rising volumes of non-Opec production as seasonal maintenance was completed in the North Sea", it said.
Source: Emirates Business
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30876&Itemid=79
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India: Maritime security plan aims to harmonise various agencies
Monday, 05 January 2009
The country's new maritime security architecture in the pipeline after 26/11 includes both a coastal command (CC) and a maritime security advisory board (MSAB) to establish "effective functional linkages and mechanisms" across the entire maritime domain. Defence minister A K Antony said the formal proposals would soon be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval. "We have already entrusted major responsibilities to Coast Guard. At the same time, Navy, state coastal police, central excise, customs and shipping ministry have all now become pro-active," said Antony, on the sidelines of the centenary celebrations of `Sainik Samachar'.
Though the new architecture is yet to take final shape, officials said the CC would be headed by the Coast Guard director-general, while MSAB would have a maritime security advisor (MSA) as its chief. Both the CC and MSAB chiefs, consequently, will be three-star Vice-Admirals.
"The CC will not be a physical regional command but more of a coordinating mechanism, with a strengthened Coast Guard at its epicentre. It will have a central operations room, backed by regional hubs in coastal states. This will also make intelligence-sharing mechanisms more effective," an official said.
In conjunction with strengthened marine police forces of nine coastal states and four Union Territories, it will be Coast Guard which will be responsible for securing the country's coastal waters as well as the 7,516-km coastline.
Towards this, Coast Guard will get nine more stations in addition to the existing 30 or so and a 1,000-strong Sagar Prahari Bal with 80 fast-attack crafts. The Navy will continue to play the primary role in all maritime matters.
The MSAB, in turn, will act as a single-window apex federal agency to handle all maritime security issues, including cohesive policy-making and coordination among different agencies. "The MSA will also report to the national security advisor," said another official.
The MSAB will include officials from all forces, ministries and departments connected with maritime affairs, including Navy, Coast Guard, DRI, customs, fisheries, shipping and the like. All coastal states and UTs are also likely to have their own maritime security bodies.
Other important coastal security measures on the anvil include a chain of radars along the entire coastline to keep tabs on vessels in Indian territorial waters and beyond, as also biometric identity cards for all fishermen and installation of AIS (automatic identification system) transponders on vessels even below 300 metric tonnes.
At present, International Maritime Organisation regulations make AIS transponders mandatory for ships only over 300 metric tonnes. The transponders will ensure coastal radars can locate, identify, track the speed and course of vessels dynamically.
Incidentally, TOI was the first to highlight after 26/11 the need for a federal maritime body as well as an MSA, as also the urgent need to have a coastal radar network, fishermen identity cards and AIS transponders on fishing trawlers.
Source: Times of India
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30944&Itemid=79
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Suez Canal to announce toll changes next week
Web posted at: 1/1/2009 23:55:11
Source ::: Agencies
ISMAILIA, Egypt: The Suez Canal will announce new tolls for 2009 on Monday, Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported yesterday, quoting a canal authority spokesman. The authority will also answer questions about the impact of the financial crisis on the canal during a news conference. Earlier in the day, an official with the Suez Canal Authority said the announcement of the new tolls was postponed for the first time in history because of uncertainties about the global economy.
The authority usually makes the announcement by the end of the year, setting tolls for the coming 12 months. Daily fluctuations in traffic and revenue in December made it difficult to decide what the tolls should be, he said. “All the current indicators, including lower shipping rates, slower world economic growth, the decision of some lines to avoid the canal because of piracy, and the freeze on work in some shipyards for lack of liquidity, make it more likely that the management will go for a toll cut this year, or at least leave rates unchanged,” he added.
The effects of recession in developed economies did not show up in the figures for November, the last complete month available. The canal earned $419.8m in the month, 1.7 percent more than in the same month of 2007.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Business_News&subsection=market+news&month=January2009&file=Business_News20090101235511.xml
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Regards
Snooper
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