Yantai to launch truck-ferry intermodal service to Japan, Korea

A full container load (FCL) truck-ferry cargo service is soon to be launched between Yantai, a city in northeast China's Shandong province and Japan and Korea.

The service allows cargo to be transported on the same truck via ferry directly to its destination without transshipping at the border. Preparation for the new service is undergoing in the three countries.
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Bad weather hits India field

Hardy Oil and Gas has shut down the PY-3 field off India's east coast due to a production equipment problem brought about by bad weather.

Co-venturer Hindustan Oil said production from PY-3 had been suspended due to the breakup of the crude oil import hose occasioned by bad weather conditions prevailing on the south east coast of India. UK-headquartered Hardy is hoping to restart production as soon as there is a weather window. Gross average daily oil production at PY-3 for the six months ended 30 June 2007 was 4948 barrels per day compared to 5913 bpd in the same six months last year. The field is located off the east coast of India in the Cauvery basin with water depths ranging from 40 metres to 200 metres. The project interests in PY-3 are operator Hardy (18%), Tata (21%), Hindustan Oil (21%) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (40%).
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Mexico gets taste for biodiesel

Mexico plans to encourage production of biodiesel from crops like beets, yucca root and sorghum after a new biofuel law comes into effect early next year, said Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas.

"Mexico could develop biodiesel faster than ethanol”, says Cardens. Ethanol, an alcohol used as an additive in gasoline to reduce emissions, is usually made from maize or sugar. But competing with the US, the world's number one maize producer and Brazil, a leader in sugar-based ethanol will be a challenge for Mexico, where cane is expensive to produce and farmers grow less maize than the country consumes. Biodiesel industry would help the country's poorest farmers, and that none of the crops Mexico currently grows for food would be replaced with biofuel plants. Critics say biofuel production hurts the poor as increased demand for crops drives up food prices. The Mexican government pressured maize flour producers in January to cap rising prices for tortillas, a staple corn pancake, amid street protests.
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China Merchant Group receives new tanker

China Merchant Group, the Chinese leading tankers fleet owner, recently has its new tanker delivered from Sumitomo Heavy Industry, Japan.

The christening ceremony was held in Sumitomo's Yokosuka Shipyard. This newly finished Aframax ship is named 'New Advance' and was delivered a month ahead of schedule. 'New Advance' is the first tanker that Merchant Group received after it was listed in Shanghai stock market. With following eleven tankers and seven capsizes to be finished by 2012, China Merchant Group will strengthen its leading role in China resource shipping strategy.
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Russia to release sick Japanese fisherman

Russia plans to release the captain of one of four Japanese fishing boats seized in disputed waters last week because of his poor health, said Japan's Foreign Ministry.

Russian authorities informed Japan through its consulate in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk that they would free Toshigemi Fujimoto. A Japanese Coast Guard ship will be dispatched from the port of Nemuro in northern Japan to pick up Fujimoto, who suffers from an unspecified chronic ailment. The Russian border guard detained four boats last Thursday off the northern coast of Kunashiri Island, one of four islands claimed by both countries. The boats' exact location and activities at the time of their capture have remained unclear. Russian authorities have frequently seized Japanese boats in recent months as they have stepped up patrols in and around the area. Last August, Russian patrol boats fatally shot a Japanese angler and seized a vessel in the disputed northern waters, escalating tensions between the two nations.

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Japan denies dropping whale hunt

Japan has made no agreement to stop hunting humpback whales, said its foreign ministry.

There is no (new) written, diplomatic agreement between Japan and the United States over the current specific whaling mission... and whaling in general,'' said Tomohiko Taniguchi, spokesman for the Japanese foreign ministry. He was responding to comments by US ambassador Thomas Schieffer, who reportedly told journalists that Japan and the United States agreed on no harvesting of humpback whales for the time being. Japan's ships set sail last month on the country's largest hunt yet, which for the first time since the 1960s will kill humpbacks, one of the most popular animals for Australian whale watchers. The mission defied warnings from Japan's usual Western allies including Australia.
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