HHI eyes rival’s China operations

Seoul: Hyundai Heavy Industries and two other companies on Tuesday submitted preliminary bids for Hyundai Corp, a South Korean trading company, industry sources said.

BNG Steel Co. and Q Capital Partners also separately submitted letters of intent for more than a 50 per cent stake in Hyundai Corp, according to the sources. Creditors of Hyundai, led by the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Woori Bank have been seeking to sell the trading company since last year. Hyundai Corp was bailed out by the creditors in 2004 through a debt-for-equity swap. Late last year, the creditors extended the workout debt program for Hyundai for one year due to the global economic credit crunch, though the trading company normalized its business operations.

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ASRY to ride out economic storm

Bahrain-based Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co (ASRY) has posted record-breaking figures for 2008. Both Chairman, H.E. Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al-Khalifa and Chief Executive Chris Potter were pleased that the yard’s sales in 2008 broke the US$200 million mark.

They said that ASRY would ride out the economic storm. “ASRY is now debt free for the first time in its history,” said Shaikh Daij, “and we have a strong cash flow. In the past year or so we’ve put new policies in place and these have paid off.”In 2008 the Bahrain shipyard had sales of US$207.5 million, the best year in its history. The yard performed repairs on a total of 133 vessels and offshore craft; 119 in drydock and 14 alongside. ASRY’s customer base is traditionally split between vessels owned by Arab operators and the international shipping market. Last year saw 72 vessels repaired from the international market, valued at US$112.30 million, and 61 vessels from the Arab market, valued at US$95.19 million. A total of 20 vessels came from the Saudi Arabia market, 17 from Bahrain and 13 from Kuwait.

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Crowley launches new heavy-lift deck barge

PORTLAND, OREGON: In the first of several vessel deliveries scheduled over the next few weeks, Crowley Maritime Corporation launched its newest heavy-lift series deck barge, the 455-4, on March 29 at Gunderson Marine Shipyard in Portland, Oregon.

The 400-foot long (121.9-m) 105-foot (32 m) wide barge was christened by Carey Graham, wife of Parker Drilling Vice President Dennis Graham. The vessel's first assignment will be hauling a Parker Drilling rig. Following that assignment, it will be turned over to BP for work on the world's largest land-based rig in Alaska's North Slope at Satellite Drilling Island. Crowley plans to build up to 13 high-capacity barges by 2013. The largest, already in operation in the U.S. Gulf, measures 400 feet by 130 feet (121.9 m by 39.6 m). The 455-5, the next barge in the series, is expected to be delivered by Gunderson in May.

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Krishnapatnam Port sets a Double Record

Krishnapatnam Port of India, is already setting various benchmarks in its maiden year of operation.

The port has achieved two milestones on 25th March by handling the first Cape Size vessel and by achieving an all-India record load rate in 24 hrs.Vessel MV Cape Santa Milagria, owned by Salgaocars of Goa, arrived at the port on March 25 morning to load Iron ore. Krishnapatnam port loaded 48,889 MTs of Iron Ore in the cape vessel in 24 hrs using the conventional handling system of shore cranes. Total cargo of 85,000 MT was loaded within 48 hours with an average load rate of 42,947 MT per day and the vessel was turned around in 54 hours. MV Cape Santa Milagria, the cape-size vessel is 886 ft long with a beam of 141 ft.Cape size vessels are handled only at select ports in India as even most of the major ports cannot handle such vessel due to length, beam, draft restrictions. Krishnapatnam port’s capability of handling such large vessels and with such record turnaround times will hugely benefit the exporters and importers by bringing down the freight costs and making them more competitive globally.

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Shipyards' financial troubles appear and seek quick solutions

After almost six months during which almost no new building orders have been placed, shipyards around the world and especially in the two biggest shipbuilding nations of South Korea and China are facing acute problems.

Besides their urgent need for cash, they are faced with the additional pressure by many of their clients to either delay the scheduled deliveries of new vessels, but also to cancel some of their orders. This situation is more obvious for smaller yards, as well as some of the greenfield yards that were appearing like mushrooms in China during the past couple of years. South Korean yards are actively looking to address their cash availability by issuing corporate bonds. Their goal is to strengthen their position by subsidizing their lack of any recent new business. According to Clarksons weekly report “this is a clear indication of the fact that cash reserves are becoming increasingly depleted which is an ongoing concern with very little sign of any green shoots in terms of serious buyers in the short term”. So, what does this mean for new building prices? Everybody’s wonder is whether we shall witness more aggressive pricing from yards eager to attract more customers, with ship owners being more keen on second-hand vessels at the moment. Clarksons says that one or two Chinese shipyards are more active in terms of pricing on berths going forward. In fact, several yards in China are marketing dry bulk berths at levels that are on par, or close to, modern second hand values and this in turn is starting to generate potential buying interest.

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