World's longest sea-bridge links Shanghai and Ningbo

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge, linking Shanghai with the booming port city of Ningbo.

There are no cars yet but the world's longest cross-sea bridge is open. The cable-styled structure spans Hangzhou Bay and is 36 kilometres long. It will cut journey times between Shanghai and Ningbo from four to two and half hours. The bridge is China's first major public project to attract private finance - almost a third of the 1.7 billion dollars needed to build the structure came from the private sector.

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Global fleet up by eight

Worldwide offshore rig count increased by eight this week as the start of several jack-up contracts in the US Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Asia-Australia region, while the total available offshore rig fleet size increased by three.

This week, 622 of the world's 688 mobile offshore drilling units are under contract. Worldwide offshore rig fleet utilization is 90.4%, according to ODS-Petrodata's weekly mobile offshore rig count. The worldwide offshore drilling fleet was expanded with the delivery this week of Diamond Offshore newbuild jackup Ocean Shield from Keppel Fels. The rig is expected to leave Singapore this month to start a one-year assignment with Eni in Australia. The Offshore Resolute jack-up also joined the global fleet following its delivery on 25 April to Scorpion Offshore by Keppel AmFels. The rig is currently undergoing endurance testing in the Gulf of Mexico prior to mobilizing to Vietnam for a contract with Thang Long Joint Operating company. Also, the semi-submersible Neptune Finder returned to the active fleet. The US Gulf of Mexico contracted offshore rig count experienced a net increase of six this week as a result of seven new jack-up contracts and the end of a semisub contract. With 106 rigs out of 125 available under contract, fleet utilization stands at 84.8%. In the Asia-Australia region, the number of rigs under contract rose by two this week, while the total offshore fleet size rose by two. With 102 out of 105 available offshore rigs under contract, fleet utilization stands at 97.1%. In West Africa, the offshore rig fleet size and the number of contracted rigs increased by one each. With 58 rigs out of 59 available under contract, utilization remains at 98.3%.
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ShipTek delegates witnessed the Guinness attempt of the world’s longest steel snake boat along with a networking houseboat cruise.

ShipTek delegates was taken for a business-networking cruise through the captivating backwaters of Alleppey in Kerala on 1 May 2008, after the successful completion of ShipTek 2008.

The two-day conference of ShipTek 2008, ShipTek expo 2008 and the second international maritime video awards was followed by a business-networking cruise through the backwater. The cruise was in the solar powered BOTEL (Backwater Operated Tourist Entertainment Launch) with eco friendly features, which is also highly acclaimed by the tourism industry. BOTEL is a perfect ensemble of beauty and luxury. Several prominent names of the marine industry were present for the fun packed networking cruise and also to witness the Guiness Book attempt of the world’s longest steel snakeboat (143 ft).
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Zumwalt readies for production after successful US Navy review

Raytheon Company has successfully completed the mission system design readiness review for the Zumwalt-class destroyer program.

The review confirmed that the mission system design for America's new multi-mission destroyer is mature and meets US Navy requirements. To date, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) and the Zumwalt National Team have completed more than 2.7 million lines of software code and 10,127 drawings, conducted detailed design reviews of 92 per cent of the programs detail design and integration elements, and transitioned 56 per cent of those elements to production. Raytheon has also completed extensive land-based and onboard-ship testing of the prototype dual band radar. "The team has done an outstanding job to ensure the mission system design meets the end-to-end requirements and is producible and affordable," said US Navy Captain James Syring, Zumwalt program manager. "I was very impressed with the design maturity of the mission system and its readiness for production." The review focused on Zumwalt's mission systems, providing a status and technical assessment of the hardware, software and crew design. The review included an in-depth assessment of Zumwalt's advanced mission area capabilities, including air defence and land attack. It also included surface, information and undersea dominance, all enabled by Zumwalt's open architecture design, surveillance, engagement and mobility capabilities, and high level of stealth.

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ShipTek 2008

ShipTek 2008, the regions premiere event on International Conference on Shipbuilding and Conversion Technology has drawn the worldwide maritime attention to the Port City of Kochi. The much awaited ShipTek 2008 was inaugurated on 29th April 2008, Tuesday, 9.00 am at Hotel Taj Residency. Mr. Noboru Ueda, Chairman & President, Class NK, Japan, lit the lamp and inaugurated the prestigious event organized by Marine BizTV and Aries Marine.

The mega event was sponsored by the members of International Association of Class Societies (IACS) like Class NK, Germanischer Lloyd and RINA. Other lead players like Keppel Offshore & Marine, MSI, Transas, Zebec Marine and Seagull Marine were also among the sponsors. The event was co sponsored by Master Shipyard. Over 200 delegates from all part of the world marked their presence for the biggest maritime convergence in South Asia.

The conference had four sessions on the most relevant current issues of the maritime world scheduled for two consecutive days, out of which two sessions including eleven paper presentations were scheduled for the first day. The theme of the conference was trends, new concepts/technology, commerce surrounding the design, construction of new vessels and conversion of the existing ones.

The topics for paper presentation for the first day were Indian Shipbuilding Industry and its Future Prospects, Super Eco-Ship - A Human and Environmentally Friendly Ship, World Shipbuilding Trends & Korea Shipbuilding Industry, Strength Aspects and Weather Routing of Multi-Purpose Ships, Assessment of Hull Structural Slamming Loads on High Speed Planing Crafts, Design and Strength Assessment of Moonpool Region and Development of Design of Heavy Lift Cum Pipelay Vessels LTS 3000.

ShipTek Expo 2008, the exhibition showcasing the latest technology and trends in the Shipbuilding industry was also inaugurated on 29th April 2008 at Hotel Taj Residency at 1.00 pm. Mr. Kevin Shakesheff, ICS, UK and Rear. Admiral Ajit Tewari, Indian Shipbuilders Association, India inaugurated ShipTek expo 2008. ShipTek Expo constituted exhibitors from all part of the globe like Keppel O&M, Singapore; Class NK, Japan; MSI, Singapore; Walport International, UK; Aries Marine, UAE; Zebec Marine, India; Transas, Russia; Marine BizTV, UAE, Fogtec, Germany; GL, Germany and Pacific Technology, UAE.

The second and final day of ShipTek 2008 was resumed on 30th April 2008. There were two sessions included for the final day. The topics included in the first session were Conversion of Single Hull Tankers, Some Major Design Aspects of FPSO Conversion, Opportunities & Challenges in Rigs and Repair & Upgrade of Drilling Rigs. There was also a special presentation on Role of Visual Media in the Maritime Industry. The papers presented for the last session included Support to Shipping through Professional Education, Role of Technology in Shipping Industry, Maritime Arbitration in Asia and ‘India - an Emerging Outsourcing Destination for Ship Design’. ShipTek Expo also continued to the second day and all the exhibition stalls were closed at 6.00 pm.

Associating with the media partners - DVV Media, Ship Repair and Conversion Technology, MAREX, Water Link, Sailor Today, The Marine World, Shipping Today, LOG India, DiveStyle, EXIM, Ships and Shipping, The Maritime Executive, Transport Weekly, Baird Maritime and Work Boat World, the event got a wider publicity all around the globe even before the commencement itself.

The support and assistance from the worldwide maritime corporate transformed the entire facet of the event into an ever-memorable networking experience to the delegates and to the Shipbuilding industry as a whole. The live telecast of the event is was available at http://live.marinebiztv.com/ on 29 & 30 April 2008. This is also the first event in the maritime industry, which had a live telecast.