Product tanker ‘Overseas Nikiski’ delivered

USA: Aker Philadelphia Shipyard delivered its seventh MT-46 Veteran class product tanker to American Shipping Company on June 11.

The vessel, part of a 12 ship series, will leave the yard under the operation of OSG America and will be used to transport petroleum products for Tesoro. The 183-metre product tanker is the second of four vessels planned to be utilised by Tesoro. The vessel was named ‘Overseas Nikiski’ after the small community of Nikiski, located in the Kenai Peninsula Borough of Alaska.

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New orders for STX Offshore & Shipbuilding

Seoul: South Korea’s STX Offshore & Shipbuilding has announced a $34m order from the Agency for Defense Development for a next generation naval test ship.

The vessel, which is designed to weigh 1,200 tons and accommodate about 30 people is scheduled for delivery in May 2012. “Despite severe market conditions, good results were achieved thanks to diversified analysis on customer demands and strategic sales activities,” Do Jong-chil, director of STX O&S Specialised Ship Division, said of the naval vessel order. “We plan to enhance our capability in building specialized vessels through technical cooperation with STX Europe, and a number of inquiries on export in the defence industry, which is beneficial to development of the nation, are coming in from abroad,” he added. ‘Amid of declining orders in the market, STX continuously delivers good news of new orders of vessels for special purposes,’ the company said in a statement.

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‘Edge of a deep abyss’ for boxes

A REPORT on the container market is likely to be tough reading for the beleaguered shipping sector.

Published last week by shipping consultancy Drewry, the report painted a bleak picture: “With nearly half of the year gone, the industry is looking at the edge of a deep abyss.” Cargoes are not showing any real sign of picking up, and freight rate recovery is minimal at best. But the greatest concern is that Asian volumes were down 14.4% year on year, and those in Southeast Asia fell by 18.4%. Such figures firmly point to a continued drop in exports to the main consumer nations in Europe and the US, the study predicted, with global handling activity declining up to 10% by the end of this year. On rates, the report said carriers have failed to secure increases in eastbound trans-Pacific trade. That point supported last week’s finding by IHS Global Insight, which predicted that rates would continue to drift down.

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International Vessel

Vessels built in two or more companies are becoming routine especially in Europe.

Typically the hull is built in a lower cost area such as Poland or China and then completed in the Netherlands where costs are higher. Recently a shipyard in Turkey completed a 135 by 11.45-meter hull with a 4.25-meter molded depth for finishing in the Netherlands. The Karadeniz Shipyard is located in Ünye/Ordu, Turkey. In addition to building hulls the yard builds complete vessels of many types. Once in the Netherlands the hull was taken to the Scheepswerf Gelria in Nijmegen. Here it was completed as a twin-engined inland river vessel. In addition to installation of the superstructure five Cummins engines were installed. These included a pair of Cummins 4BT3.9-G4 powered 64 kVA generators and a QSK15-C bowthruster genset. The main engines are a two Cummins Tier 2 compliant QSK38-M engines each generating 1400 HP at 1800 RPM.

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Shipping can gain from cutting climate impact

The shipping industry has nothing to fear from reducing its pollution and climate-changing emissions and would even gain financially, according to a new study from WWF.

The report, published to coincide with the second greenhouse gas study published by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), says shipping is responsible for almost 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it says the shipping sector could reduce its climate impact by at least 20% and make financial gains.It identifies 'a significant potential' for reducing emissions through technical and operational measures which could increase efficiency and reduce emissions by 25% to 75%. It also identifies benefits that could come from emissions trading or a bunker fuel levy.

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