New US dedicated littoral warfare systems facility

USA: The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD), a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), has held a ground-breaking ceremony for the Littoral Warfare Systems Facility.

The site will include a state-of-the-art facility, specially designed to support the research, development, testing, evaluation, acquisition support, integration and certification of littoral warfare systems. It will allow NSWC PCD to consolidate work under one roof that is now being performed in facilities spread throughout the base. LWSF also will be a centre of excellence for research, development and integration of existing and future adaptive force packages. These modular and deployable packages will provide warfighting capability to non-traditional and unconventional maritime platforms within the Navy's global maritime partnerships. The project is expected to be completed by November 29, 2009.
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Dubai Maritime City Progresses

Dubai Maritime City, the world’s first purpose-built maritime centre and part of the Dubai World Group of companies, continues to achieve major development milestones and confidently progresses towards its 2012 completion date.

Infrastructure for the Industrial Precinct of the unique maritime development is set to continue significantly during 2009 making it fully operational ahead of schedule with 85 per cent of the work complete. Groundwork for the Commercial Precinct is at 65 per cent, while roadwork is in the final stages. The whole project is expected to be fully operational by 2012 as originally scheduled. Dubai Maritime City is currently in the middle of productive dialogue with local and global maritime interests to determine key areas to be considered as the development prepares to assume its strategic position as the Middle East’s maritime hub. The 2.27 million square metre Dubai Maritime City is divided into the Maritime Centre, the Industrial Precinct, The Academic Quarter, the Marina District, the Harbour Residence, and the Harbour Offices. Different components of the city will be launched at different stages, such as the DMC Academy, which will be finished earlier. The appeal of the development remains solid as the global shipping industry is accustomed to the cyclical nature of both the business and the worldwide economy.

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Shipping companies acquire footing in Port of Rotterdam

In exchange, NYK is giving Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), the parent company of ECT, a majority share in the Amsterdam Ceres Terminal.

Evergreen is giving HPH a 50% share in the Italian Taranto Container Terminal and is also receiving in exchange a minority share in HPH's container terminal in the English Thamesport. 11 Shipping Companies Following implementation of the recent contracts, in addition to NYK and Evergreen a further five shipping companies have an interest in the Rotterdam container sector: Cosco, Hanjin, Yang Ming, "K"-Line (together 49% interest in the Euromax Terminal) and Maersk Line (via sister company APM Terminals). APL, Hyundai, MOL and CMA CGM will join this list when the Rotterdam World Gateway terminal at the Second Maasvlakte goes operational in 2013. On the basis of current market sharing, these 11 shipping companies represent around 70% of world maritime container transport.

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China Shipping and Shougang set up shipping jv

Shanghai: China Shipping has agreed to establish a shipping joint venture with one of China's largest steelmakers, the Shougang Group.

The shipowner will hold a 51% stake, while the steelmaker will hold the remaining shares in the jv. The venture, which will boast a registered capital of 100m yuan ($14.60m), is expected to begin operations in March. Its main business will be to ship steel products from manufacturing facilities, including Shougang's, to the country's coastal regions and markets in Southeast Asia.

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Shipping companies acquire footing in Port of Rotterdam

In exchange, NYK is giving Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), the parent company of ECT, a majority share in the Amsterdam Ceres Terminal.

Evergreen is giving HPH a 50% share in the Italian Taranto Container Terminal and is also receiving in exchange a minority share in HPH's container terminal in the English Thamesport. 11 Shipping Companies Following implementation of the recent contracts, in addition to NYK and Evergreen a further five shipping companies have an interest in the Rotterdam container sector: Cosco, Hanjin, Yang Ming, "K"-Line (together 49% interest in the Euromax Terminal) and Maersk Line (via sister company APM Terminals). APL, Hyundai, MOL and CMA CGM will join this list when the Rotterdam World Gateway terminal at the Second Maasvlakte goes operational in 2013. On the basis of current market sharing, these 11 shipping companies represent around 70% of world maritime container transport.

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Indonesian tin exporter buys four vessels

Indonesia’s largest tin exporter, PT Timah has announced plans to purchase four vessels in 2009 in a fleet investment programme worth US$21.3 million.

The state mining company said that it aimed to expand its offshore exploration division to 50 percent of the company’s total output for 2009, against the 2008 figure of 30 percent. Timah President Director Wachid Usman said that the company would buy one large vessel and three smaller ones.
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Damen Group builds largest ever aluminium vessels

In 2008, the Damen Group completed two Damen Fast Ropax 8521 which arrived in Turkey after they were transported over from Guangzhou, China.

'Yavus Sultan Selim 1' and 'Kanuni Sultan Suleyman' were the largest aluminium vessels ever built by the Damen Group. Both vessels were built at Afai Southern Shipyard in close cooperation with Damen Shipyards Gorinchem, The Netherlands for IDO, the maritime transport authority of Istanbul, Turkey. The Damen Fast Ropax (DFR) 8521 is an aluminum double ended fast car / passenger ferry. It is designed to transport 500 passengers inside and 102 passengers outside the accommodation on balconies. Furthermore a maximum of 112 cars (or 64 cars and 12 trucks) can be accommodated. The two DFR 8521 were built under YN 539301 and YN 539302. Engineering started in July 2006 at the head office of Damen in Holland in cooperation with Damen’s engineering partners MDEM in Ukraine. The aluminium construction of the hull and superstructure started in November 2006 at Damen’s partner shipyard Afai in China. The DFR 8521 is classed by Bureau Veritas and has an overall length of 85 metres on a beam of 21 metres and a three-metre draught.

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