14 missing after ship sinks in stormy waters

A cargo ship sank in stormy, shark-infested waters in the southwestern Philippines, leaving 14 crew missing, the coast guard said on Tuesday.

Four crewmen from the Mia were rescued by a passing fishing vessel, two days after their ship sank off the Tubbataha Reef, near the southwestern province of Palawan with 18 crew onboard, said Julius Ave of the coast guard station in the provincial capital of Puerto Princesa. The survivors said they were among 11 of the Mia's crew who decided to tie themselves together with a rope, believing they would have a better chance of surviving.

The 426-ton Mia was carrying cement from central Cebu province to Brooke's Point Township in Palawan when it ran into strong winds and big waves churned up by a tropical depression that lashed the northern Philippines over the weekend, the coast guard said.

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High-tech shipyard to come up at Dhamra

A state-of-the-art shipbuilding yard and ship repair yard will be set up at Dhamra in Orissa.

The project will be promoted by Bharati Shipyard Ltd and Apeejay Surendra Group in a joint venture. The Rs 2,200 crore project will come up in three phases. The promoters have identified and surveyed 1,500 acres near Dhamra Port and provisionally selected 1,050 acres for the shipyard. The promoters will sign an MoU with the Orissa government sometime this month. Work will begin by mid-2008. Phase-I is expected to complete early 2009.

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L&T set to build warships for navy

Going after the government’s planned Rs50,000 crore investment for warships, India’s largest engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) plans to build defence warships and para-military vessels at its proposed shipyard at Kattupalli, in Tamil Nadu, to cater to the needs of the Indian Navy.

The proposed shipbuilding facility at Kattupalli will build defence ships also, apart from general cargo ships and jack-up rigs for the offshore oil industry, said sources from L&T. Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, Goa Shipyard Ltd and Mazagon Dock Ltd are others authorized to build warships. All the three yards are state-owned entities controlled by the Union ministry of defence. Cochin Shipyard Ltd, controlled by the Union ministry of shipping, too has license to build air defence ships.

L&T has plans to bid for the navy’s submarine building program, dubbed Project 75 and 76, which involves building 24 submarines with an investment of $14-16 billion. The firm intends to begin construction of ships by end-2009, with delivery of first ship by 2010-11.

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Sri Lanka to negotiate with ONGC for new block

Sri Lanka will negotiate with the Oil and Natural Gas Corp for a new oil block after the Indian state-run firm rejected an offer to operate a block in the island's northwest Mannar basin, officials said.

Sri Lankan minister of petroleum and petroleum development A H M Fowzie said the Indian company had asked for a new block and they have not rejected the offer.
Sri Lanka has eight exploration blocks in the Mannar basin, three of which are up for tender and two have been assigned to China and India on nomination basis. The government is looking for the exploration process to start by August 2008, the non-oil producing nation expects its first commercial crude oil production by 2010.

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Fourth ship for Norwegian Cruise Line

Meyer Werft delivered the 93,500-gt cruise ship “Norwegian Gem” to the cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line in the Dutch port of Eemshaven.

The “Norwegian Gem” is the fourth ship out of a series of four the Papenburg shipyard is building for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). The ship combines modern event gastronomy of NCL’s concept of freestyle cruising with extravagant interior outfitting meeting state-of-the-art technical demands. Along with its new design, the luxury liner offers the passengers numerous specialities and a great deal of convenience.

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Genco Shipping & Trading to sell Panamax vessel

Genco Shipping & Trading Limited announced that it has reached an agreement to sell the Genco Trader, a 1990-built Panamax vessel, to SW Shipping Co., Ltd. for $44 million.

The Company expects to realize a net gain of approximately $26 million from the sale of the vessel in the first quarter of 2008. The delivery of the Genco Trader is expected to take place upon the expiration of the vessel's current time charter between January 1, 2008 and March 20, 2008. Genco Shipping & Trading Limited currently owns a fleet of 22 drybulk vessels consisting of three Capesize, seven Panamax, seven Handymax and five Handysize vessels, with a carrying capacity of approximately 1,522,000 dwt.

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