CMA CGM maintains calls in French ports

CMA CGM maintains calls in French ports and sets up emergency response team for Marseilles customers.

As French ports continue to struggle with serious disruptions, Marseilles-based CMA CGM, France’s largest and the world’s third largest container shipping company, has decided to maintain its calls in ports throughout the French mainland. CMA CGM currently serves the ports of Marseilles, Fos, Le Havre, Dunkirk, Rouen, Brest, Bordeaux and Montoir de Bretagne, making over 40 weekly calls from ports around the world. The Group is doing its utmost to maintain its regular schedule. With regards to Northern France, if stevedoring operations are suspended for vessels in Le Havre, CMA CGM plans to redeploy vessels first to Dunkirk so that customers will not have to bear the added expense of repatriation and shipment of their cargo to and from foreign ports. For the Marseilles region, in spite of disruptions, CMA CGM has decided to continue calls in Fos and has set up an emergency response team. This team is charged with providing information to customers and shippers affected by the strikes and, if necessary, finding solutions to their problems.

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STX in $430m Azerbaijani yard jv

South Korea's STX Shipbuilding Co said it and two companies in Azerbaijan have agreed to build a $430 million shipbuilding yard in the Caspian country.

Under an agreement, STX will have a 25% stake in the factory, while State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, or SOCAR, will own 65%. Azerbaijan Investment Co. has the remaining 10%, the Korean builder said in a statement. Construction of the factory will be completed by the end of 2011, it said.

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Hijacked vessel freed; crew safe

Ten Indians on board the hijacked ship, M V Victoria, have been released and they are safe, the Directorate General of Shipping said in Mumbai.

The other crewmembers and the cargo of the vessel, which was hijacked on May 17 near the Somalia coast by heavily armed pirates, are safe too, DG Shipping said. "This Directorate has received information that the vessel M V Victoria has been released from the pirates. Crew and cargo are safe," DG Shipping said in a statement. There were 21 crewmembers, including Pakistanis, Myanmarese, Bangladeshis, Kenyans and Tanzanians on board the ship when it was hijacked. The ship was carrying 4,200 tonnes of sugar between Mumbai and Mogadishu. The vessel is now moving to Mogadishu Port for discharging, it said. "Two Somali security guards are onboard with small arms for safe passage," DG Shipping said. The ship is owned by Sharjah-based Five Seas Company and operated by Sharjah-based Marwan Shipping. Hijacking of Victoria is the third such incident reported in Somalia in the last five months.

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Daewoo Shipbuilding Wins US$1.3 BLN Order for 2 Drill Ships

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world's second-largest shipbuilder, said that it has won a 1.44 trillion won (US$1.37 billion) deal to build two drill ships.

The deal from an American customer calls for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to deliver the vessels, used for deep-water oil exploration, by April 2011, the company said in a regulatory filing. Shares of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering closed at 46,500 won on the Seoul bourse, down 2.92 per cent. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has set this year's target for orders at $17.5 billion. The shipbuilder posted a net profit of 78.4 billion won in the first quarter, up 51 percent from a year earlier, on sales of 2.12 trillion.

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VOSTA LMG delivers dismountable cutter suction dredger ‘Petra'

VOSTA LMG has delivered, assembled and commissioned a cutter suction dredge to be used for potash production in the Dead Sea by her owners Arab Potash Co. from Jordan.

The design is specific for the harsh corrosive environmental conditions in which the dredge has to operate, thus the use of specific materials, adequate cooling capacity and cleaning devices for coolers. Due to the location of the Dead Sea, the dredge was transported by sea and land to her final destination. This is why the dredge was made dismountable. The use of digital technology and modular design allowed for easy disassembly and assembly. The dredge is a stationary dredge equipped with two spuds on the aft side, which can be hoisted and lowered in a controlled manner. The bottom parts of the spuds are weighted to increase impact during controlled lowering and penetration of the ground. One of the spuds is installed on a spud carrier, which is moved by means of a horizontal hydraulic cylinder. The swing is performed via two side winches installed on the ladder, under the control cabin. The anchors are placed by two anchor booms, located on the forward pontoons on both sides of the vessel. The cutter is driven by a hydraulic motor. For maintenance purposes a cutter platform is provided. The dredge excavates at an average depth of two to three metres.

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Schat-Harding opens South China service station

Booming demand in has led leading lifeboat and davit manufacturer Schat-Harding to open a third Chinese service station, this time in Guangzhou's busy port area of Huangpu in Hong Kong.

The new base is close to all the major repair yards in Guangzhou in order to offer faster response times for the yards and ports of Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the South China region. It opens on June 1 with four service engineers and a service administrator. Andrew Lemmis, who heads up Schat-Harding's China Service Division says, "When we first started service in China in February 2006 we were in a small office operating from the Qingdao manufacturing plant with just four service engineers, a service co-ordinator and myself. We outgrew that office is less than a year and relocated to Shanghai. Now we have service facilities in Qingdao, Shanghai and Guangzhou with 22 service engineers and back office support from ten dedicated service staff." David Bradley, Executive Vice-president of Schat-Harding's servicedivision adds: "It is likely Schat-Harding will soon have to open a fourth service facility in north China, possibly Dalian or Tianjin, such is the demand we are experiencing in China and across Asia."

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