Dubai Maritime City supports rapidly growing boating community

Dubai Maritime City, the world's first purpose-built maritime centre and part of the Dubai World Group of companies announced that the maritime centre is poised to support the region's rapidly growing boating community and maritime operators.

The support will be through its comprehensive ship repair and maintenance facility situated in the Industrial Quarter and managed by Dubai Drydocks. When fully completed, the ship repair complex will have a top capacity of over 80 vessels, which is considerably greater than existing facilities. 'Dubai Maritime City has been established not just to cater to the requirements of the maritime sector, but to add more value to the whole maritime community by enabling full integration and easy interaction among maritime businesses and services. Dubai Maritime City's self-contained development concept provides unparalleled benefits to investors, business organizations and all boat owners in terms of efficiency, productivity and comfort. This dream project is something the entire boating community can truly call its own.' said Ali Al-Daboos, COO of Dubai Maritime City. With 227 ha of gross floor area, and a new law establishing the Dubai Maritime City Authority as an independent maritime authority and regulatory body, the state-of-the-art integrated facility is expected to provide unprecedented premium value to the entire boating community, particularly in Dubai, where up to 50,000 boats are expected to be located within the next five years.

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Japanese operators raising own capital ratio in newbuildings

Against the backdrop of favorable business results, Japanese operators are raising the ratio of their own funds in the construction of their own ships.

Sanko Steamship has significantly increased its own capital ratio to 50 percent in its own ships to be completed in the future, while Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has boosted its equity to an average of 40 percent in ships that will be built with its yen funds. According to Marine-net, Shinwa Kaiun Kaisha and Daiichi Chuo Kisen are shouldering about 20 percent of the ship prices using their own capital. Other operators are studying taking the same step. Japanese operators mainly procure ships through three methods. Building their own ships, chartering from shipowners and tax leasing such as the Japanese-style operating lease (JOL). When constructing their own vessels, the operators build the ships using their own capital and funds obtained through loans from banks. But when the shipping industry plunged to a recession, there were cases in which virtually no own capital was invested in building their own vessels. However, there is now a growing number of operators who are raising their own capital ratio in building ships with the growth in their cash reserves thanks to excellent business results in recent years, as well as the anticipated effective use of funds, reinforcement of the competitive edge of fleets and the reduction in interest-bearing debts.

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Indian Navy agrees to increased costs of Russian aircraft carrier

Indian Navy agreed with the increased costs for the aircraft carrier 'Admiral Gorshkov'.

Head of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, admits that the higher costs for the vessel will be 'inevitable'. Mr. Mehta had earlier refused the Russian demand for a refit of the contract conditions, which were agreed upon in 2004. The costs linked with the extensive reconstruction of the vessel have become far higher than anticipated. The Sevmash shipyard also announced that it would not be able to complete the vessel in line with the original time schedule. The 'Admiral Gorshkov' as it is called in India, was originally to be sold together with 16 MIG-29K fighter jets and six 'Kamov' helicopters to India for US$1.5 billion. It is now expected that the vessel will be completed by mid-2010. After that, it will undergo 18 months of extensive sea testing by the Russian Navy to ensure all systems are working properly. The Indian Navy expects to take over the ship in early 2012. The defence ministry does not mention any figures, but New Delhi is willing to pay another US$$600-800 million for the 44,570-tonne aircraft carrier.
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IMO nears agreeing ship pollutant limits

The world's top maritime body has tentatively agreed new sulphur limits for ship fuels that will slash air pollutants, but cost the oil and ship industry.

At a major U.N. International Maritime Organization meeting in London this week countries gathered to thrash out how best to reduce harmful ship pollutants, like sulphur dioxide, and tackle climate changing gases. The industry source who is involved in the negotiations said countries party to the IMO had provisionally agreed on sulphur limits in ship fuels, a bugbear of the industry and a critical milestone, late last night. The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee will agree the final figures and timetable on Friday. Negotiations on tackling climate changing CO2 gases emitted from ships were still continuing, he said. The world's 50,000 ocean-going vessels, which carry more than 90 percent of the world's traded goods by volume, currently mostly burn fuel oil rich in sulphur. This will be a massive shakeup for the refining industry, they (oil industry) tell us they will be extremely challenged to meet these figures," said Simon Bennett, secretary at the International Chamber of Shipping commenting of the figures. "It has been reported that this will have far wider implications for the availability and price of diesel for road transport," Bennett said, emphasizing that cleaner distillate fuels would increasingly make up a substantial part of the fuel mix in the future. Bennett, who welcomed the overall initiative on pollutants, said fuels currently represent 50 percent of operating costs for container ships, for example, which carry manufactured goods.
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Cruise ship debts leave tourists stranded

Several hundred passengers on a luxury round-the-world cruise-ship tour were stuck Thursday on an island in the Atlantic Ocean after the vessel's owners ran into legal troubles.

The 460 passengers and 200 crewmembers were marooned after their cruise ship sailed into a port in the Madeira Islands, a Portuguese archipelago about 684 kilometers (425 miles) west of Morocco. Portuguese authorities detained the ship, the Van Gogh on Tuesday because of a legal claim against the ship's owners, said Marcus Neal, operations manager for Van Gogh Cruises. They seized it in the port of Funchal, a city of about 100,000. The passengers were making their next-to-last stop on a 93-day cruise around the world. They paid between $12,000 and $44,000 for the voyage. Passengers are able to leave the ship, said British actress Shirley Ann Field, who was among those on board, but she said most were staying put until the dispute was resolved. The Van Gogh is owned by a Dutch company called Club Cruise, and it had been chartered for years by a separate company, Travelscope Holidays. Van Gogh Cruises, which operates the ship, said it did not know why the administrators launched their claim shortly before the end of the cruise, rather than afterwards.

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