Massive naval drill begins

The navies of the United States, Australia, India, Japan and Singapore have begun a massive naval exercise, codenamed "Malabar", in the Indian Ocean.

Thirty-four ships and submarines from the five countries have joined the six-day exercise, about 100 nautical miles off the Andaman archipelago. "This will perhaps be the biggest ever peace-time joint naval exercise in Asia," Indian navy spokesman Captain Vinay Garg said.

The ships and submarines would take part in anti-piracy manoeuvres, reconnaissance and rescue missions and improve ways of working together, he said. Two super-carriers of the US navy - USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk of the Pacific fleet - will be joined by India's lone aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, in the exercise. A US nuclear submarine, USS Chicago, is also taking part. The six-day exercise has been fiercely opposed by India's left-wing parties.

In the past, India has held exercises with navies from Britain, France, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam. A tri-nation event involving Brazil, India and South Africa is also due to be held in May 2008.

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Gemadept to build deep-water container port

Vietnamese cargo forwarder, Gemadept, has confirmed it will begin construction of a US$410 million deep-water container port worth in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau next year.

The port, which will have a l6-metre depth, will serve as a transshipment hub and should attract much of the traffic that is currently serviced via Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Construction is expected to be completed by 2010. Gemadept is currently building two ports. One at Dung Quat, US$36m and the other at Nhon Hoi, US$230m.

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Petrobras taps Technip for subsea work off Brazil

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has awarded three contracts totaling $270 million to France's Technip for pipeline work in deepwater developments off Brazil.

The first contract covers engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning of a rigid flowline that will connect Canapu oil and gas field to the Ciadade de Victoria floating production, storage, and offloading vessel anchored in 1,400 m of water. This 21-km flowline will be the first application of pipe-in-pipe (PIP) technology for subsea gas transportation in Brazil. Technip's Deep Blue deepwater pipelay vessel will install the flowline during fourth quarter 2008.

Technip's operations and engineering center in Rio de Janeiro will execute these contracts. The flexible pipes will be manufactured by Flexibras, one of the Group's flexible pipe plants in Vitoria, Brazil.

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Engineers begin expansion of Panama Canal

A crowd, totaling an estimated 30,000, included world leaders in business and government, joined employees of the Panamanian government and the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a ceremony and groundbreaking to celebrate the beginning of the first-ever expansion of the nearly 100-year-old waterway.

An explosive ceremony marked the start of a 3.8 billion euro project, which will allow the world's increasingly huge cargo ships to take the short cut between the Atlantic and the Pacific. They are also putting in a couple of bigger locks, doubling the number of ships which will be able to pass through the 80 km canal at any one time. Former US President Jimmy Carter was there to see the work get underway, along with Panama's president Martin Torrijos.


The new work is planned to be ready by 2014, the hundredth anniversary of the canal's opening. The Panama Canal was a marvel of its time when it opened to shipping.

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Hutchison Port Holdings opens two terminals in Egypt

Hutchison Port Holdings and Alexandria International Container Terminals (AICT) have celebrated the official opening of their two new container terminals at Egypt's Alexandria and El Dekheila ports.

The two terminals have been converted from general cargo facilities into container terminals with a depth alongside of 12 metres and quay lengths of 380 metres and 510 metres in Alexandra and El Dekheila ports respectively, an HPH statement said. The terminal located at the Alexandria commenced operations in March this year. AICT is a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group, a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL).

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Hyundai Mipo wins 873mln orders

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., a unit of Heavy Industries Co. the world's largest shipbuilder, said it has clinched deals valued at a combined US$ 873 million to build 17 ships, including container vessels.

The contract from an European shipping company calls on Hyundai Heavy to deliver eight container ships by December 2010, the company said in a regulatory filing.

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