Bender Shipyard fire under investigation

A large fire broke out at Bender Shipyard in Mobile, Ala., at around 3:00 p.m.

The fire started aboard Seacor Sherman, an anchor handling tug supply vessel under construction at the yard for SEACOR Marine. The fire started in the engine room of the vessel. All personnel from the shipyard were evacuated without injury, but two firefighters were injured in an explosion onboard the ship, and a third firefighter suffered a medical condition at the scene. Two firefighters have been released from hospital, while one who received burns to the face is still being treated. Firefighters released carbon dioxide in the engine room and used around 300 gallons of foam to smother the flames aboard the ship. After the explosion, firefighters withdrew and used water from ladder trucks and a fire boat to extinguish the fire. Cleanup at the shipyard is underway. The U.S. Coast Guard approved and monitored the offloading of 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel onboard the vessel once the initial fire was put out, despite some reflashes that occurred. The Coast Guard stated that there have been no waterway closures due to the fire. The Coast Guard will investigate the cause of the fire, as the ship was in the water when the fire started. SEACOR Marine has a contract for six anchor handling tug supply vessels with Bender Shipbuilding and Repair, the first of which, John Coghill, was delivered and christened recently.

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NOL bucks the credit crunch

In the midst of what economists have described as a slowdown in the global economy, Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has reported a 183% increase in net profit for the first quarter of 2008 (1Q08) to $121m as compared to the same period the year before.

Earnings before tax for the global container shipping, terminals and logistics group also saw a substantial increase to $137m, up 114% on the prior year, while revenue rose year-on-year by 27% to $2.41bn. “Our increased revenue clearly shows our Group is well positioned in a growth industry,” said NOL Group president and Ceo, Dr Thomas Held. ‘At a time of economic uncertainty and unprecedented fuel costs, we have again illustrated the viability of our business model and our strong focus on cost management.” He added that the group expects the market to remain challenging with cost pressures impacted by escalating fuel prices. Despite a 2% fall in US West Coast volumes, APL, the group’s container shipping business contributed $2bn in revenue to total earnings, having carried a total of 662,900 FEU (forty-foot equivalent unit) during 1Q08 (14% more in cargo than seen in 1Q07). APL has attributed the 16% increase in its overall Transpacific volumes to increased backhaul volumes and to US East Coast cargoes rising as a proportion of total Transpacific liftings. Additionally, Intra-Asia volumes saw a growth of 12% for the period. NOL’s revenues from its logistics activities rose 12% to $363m on pre-tax earnings of $17m, placing it among the more profitable logistics service providers.

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“Big” names bid for port of Thessalonica

Binding bids by three parties were offered for assuming container handling operations at the port of Thessalonica, Hellas’ second largest port, located in the north of the country.

Bids were given by China’s Cosco Pacific Limited, a consortium of companies comprised by Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Aktor Concessions SA and Piraeus Bank and the scheme that also entered the Port of Piraeus tender bid, i.e. Hutchison Port Holding- Alapis SA and LID SA. Peninsular & Oriental, the leader of one of the consortia, is a subsidiary of Dubai Ports World. Aktor Concessions, which is part of the same consortium, is a subsidiary of Elliniki Technodomiki Group, the leading Hellenic constructions group and among the biggest in the Balcans with presence also in the fields of energy and real estate. Also, the other two bidders were the same that are competing for the port of Piraeus, having placed their offers at the end of last week. Cosco Pacific is the fifth largest port terminal operator, with presence in 27 ports around the world, having handled 39.8 million TEUs during 2007. Dubai Ports World is also listed among the biggest port operators, being present in 43 terminals in 28 countries, with an annual handling of 42 million TEUs during 2006. Finally, Hutchison Port Holding is part of Hutchison Whampoa Limited, the world’s biggest operator, present in 24 countries and 47 ports, having handled 66.3 million TEUs during 2007. The bids were scheduled to be opened today by the Committee of the Tender bid, which will conclude officially the first stage of the process.

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Japanese owners look to simplify fleets

Japanese owners are focusing on a smaller number of vessel types in response to seafarer shortages and management complexities.

"Taking into account ship management efficiency, we do not want to expand ship types so much," one owner told. "But, since specializing in a single ship type will be dangerous from the perspective of risk diversification, the ideal setup is to focus on two to three ship types. If we form a fleet with the same type of ships, the number of ships one superintendent can oversee will increase. Management efficiency will drop sharply if there are other ship types, even just one unit." "If we own many ship types," said another owner, "we must also get hold of many superintendents and seafarers, leading to higher costs. This will also lead to poor efficiency, as we cannot divert the seafarers we employ to other assignments."

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