GL opens 11th Chinese station in Yangzhou

German classification society Germanischer Lloyd has inaugurated its 11th new station in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Headed by station manager Gerhard Patz, the team of more than 20 employees service the ship newbuilding at five shipyards and 90 component manufacturers and cover the regular fleet in service inspections at the ports of Yangzhou, Taizhou and Lianyungang. Yangzhou is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze river and the Jinghang Canal. Because of its location, it has historically been a leading economic and cultural centre as well as major port of trade. Today, Yangzhou is once again an important transportation and market centre. It also has some industrial output, chiefly in cotton and textiles. GL opened its first Asian office in Shanghai in 1870. The classification society currently has a presence in Dalian, Jiangyin, Nanjing, Ningbo, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Hong Kong, and Kaohsiung and boasts a network of more than 200 experts in China serving shipyards, supply industry and shipping companies. Roughly 750 container ships, multi-purpose vessels, bulk carriers and oil/chemical tankers are presently being built or in the GL orderbook at more than 60 shipyards.
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StealthGas Acquires Newbuild

StealthGas Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire from an unaffiliated entity a resale new build Korean built 47,000 deadweight IMO 3 M.R. type Product Carrier.

The purchase price of the vessel is $57.5 million and she will be financed through a combination of bank debt and internally generated cash resources. Upon her expected delivery to the Company in April 2009, she will be deployed on a three-year time charter to a Far Eastern based ship operator at a rate of $22,000 per day. The company also announced that it completed on March 19, 2008 the previously announced purchase of the Gas Premiership Japanese built 7,200 cbm Fully Pressurized LPG carrier; she has been deployed on a near four-year time charter to an international gas trader. The time charter rate will increase annually in January 2009 by 4.0%, in January 2010 by 3.8% and in January 2011 by 3.7% respectively. The company also announced that it has completed the third of three previously announced sales of Handy Size LPG carriers. The Gas Renovatio was delivered to her new owners on March 19, 2008. The company also announced that upon completion of her existing bare boat charter in mid-May the Chiltern would immediately commence a new five-year bare boat charter to a European LPG operator at a rate representing a circa 20 percent increase over the existing bare boat charter rate.
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Gulf Navigation Holding approves foreign shareholding

An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in Gulf Navigation Holding approved the board’s proposal to allow non-GCC nationals and institutions to hold shares up to 20% of the company.

The move, aimed at broadening the GulfNav investor base to include expats living in the GCC, fund managers in non-GCC banks, etc, will be implemented following necessary regulatory approvals. "We live in an era where inclusion of all sections of the population in economic development and especially in the financial markets is the need of the hour,” said GulfNav chairman Engineer Abdullah Al Shuraim. ”We cannot remain closed to business opportunities that committed investors bring with them, be they GCC nationals or expatriates. We have opened the doors to global funds, investment vehicles and individuals that are interested in diversifying their equity portfolios by investing in a company that has an excellent long-term outlook while being risk averse at the same time. We realize that new investors would demand a higher level of corporate disclosure and we are confident of providing that.” GulfNav announced a record profit of AED116.05m ($311.5m) in 2007, a 120.77% increase as compared to AED52.57m for 2006. The company started trading on the Dubai Financial Market February 07, 2007.
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Jurong/Mac Laren shipyards announce Brazilian yard agreement

Jurong Shipyard, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Marine, signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Rio de Janeiro-based Mac Laren Shipyard to operate a shipyard in Brazil.

Under the five-year Alliance Agreement, Jurong Shipyard will collaborate with Mac Laren for all future offshore oil and gas-related projects to be undertaken in Brazil. Jurong Shipyard will have management lead for all the projects. In return, Mac Laren shall provide Jurong Shipyard the exclusive use of its existing shipyard facilities located in Rio de Janeiro. Located in Niteroi in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Mac Laren is a mid-sized shipyard with a total land area of 408,000m², comprising 128,000m² of waterfront land and 280,000m² of construction yard. The Mac Laren Shipyard is currently expanding its shipyard facilities with the construction of a new 150 x 130 x 13-metre drydock. Scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2009, the new drydock will be one of two purpose-built drydocks in Brazil capable of drydocking semi-submersible rigs, including the largest production rigs. Besides the drydock, the shipyard is also expanding its structural and piping workshop to 11,860m² and increasing its quayside length to 240 metres to accommodate the berthing of VLCC-sized FPSOs.
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Ports of Auckland gains in service shake-up

New Zealand's Ports of Auckland will benefit from the latest round of port rotation rationalization by overseas shipping lines.

The NZX/NZS consortium of shipping lines has designated Auckland Port as the key New Zealand import port call after its recent review of its two-loop South East Asia service. The new NZX/NZS rotation, starting in June, will see five vessels operating a weekly service utilized by PIL (Pacific International Lines), OOCL (Orient Overseas Container Lines), MOL (Mistui OSK Lines), NYK (NYK Line) and MISC (Malaysian International Shipping Corporation).
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Safmarine appoints Jonathan Horn regional executive

SAFMARINE has appointed Jonathan Horn as the new Africa region executive, effective May 1.

Mr Horn takes over from Alan Jones, who soon becomes senior key account executive for Safmarine, until his retirement in October 2009 after 33 years with the multi-trade shipping line.

South Africa-born Mr Jones said: "Phasing out my involvement in Africa to focus on South Africa will not only allow me to work closely with Jonathan, providing the necessary mentoring and development for a period of 18 months, but we believe the handover period is also in the best interests of Safmarine's customers."

Mr Horn joined Safmarine in 2004 as a regional executive for Kwazulu Natal, then moving to Cape Town in 2005 when he joined the personnel department before moving into customer service.

Prior to his appointment at Safmarine he served as vice president in Energy, Utilities & Chemicals Sector at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Singapore.

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World's biggest container maker expects demand to fall this year

CHINA International Marine Containers (CIMC), the world's largest container maker, forecasts that the global demand will remain flat or decline in 2008.

The overproduction of containers in 2007 is another reason for the company to make provisions for 2008, in light of fewer purchases and more competition, a company statement said.

But company says trade in standard dry cargo containers and reefer boxes trade will not suffer much because it expects improvement in the domestic market for road operations, energy and chemicals equipment sales as well as airport facility activity to buoy business during global slowdown.

CIMC will spend CNY5.7 billion (US$814 million) this year, CNY1.33 billion of which for vehicle manufacturing, CNY650 million for energy and chemicals equipment manufacturing.

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