Two dozen ships help Alang sail again

Alang in Gujarat is swinging back to life.

Once world’s largest ship demolition centre, now a marginal player, Alang is slowly breathing life into itself, thanks to over two dozen junk ships that were beached recently for breaking, after an unusually long break. A ship-breaker from Alang said that Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is only providing beaching permissions, and that none have received breaking clearance. “At least 25 ships have come to Alang for demolition. However, confusion remains about their dismantling, after the supreme court came up with strict guidelines in October. Both GMB and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) are yet to begin strict implementation of the guidelines. While India has gone ahead with its own rules for safe ship breaking, International Maritime Organization (IMO) is close to finalizing set of guidelines.
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Salmon suffer in attack of the jellyfish

Northern Ireland's only salmon farm has been wiped out by a freak jellyfish attack.

More than 100,000 fish worth more than £1 million ($2.38m) were killed in the invasion at Glenarm Bay and Red Bay, on the County Antrim northeast coast. John Russell, managing director of Northern Salmon Co Ltd. says that he have never seen anything like this in 30 years, and it was unprecedented and absolutely amazing. The sea was red with these jellyfish and the seven-hour attack last week saw the jellyfish covering a sea area of up to 26 sq km and 11m deep. Scientists cite this as an evidence of global warming.

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DMCC plans world's first LNG contract

As surging energy prices increase demand for hedging tools, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) is planning to launch a liquefied natural gas future contract on its exchange.

An LNG contract could help invigorate spot trade in the product, which is now sold primarily based on decades-long contracts, and would aid efforts to arbitrage cargoes between Asia and Europe and the United States, where pipeline gas futures contracts are already actively traded. DMCC, along with LNG Impel, is setting up a 40 to 65 billion cubic feet LNG storage facility at a cost of about $2 billion to offer customers the ability to store and trade the product. The exchange is based in the commercial hub of the world's top oil-exporting region, which according to the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association has half the world's petrochemical projects.

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Vizada Launches Fleet Broadband

FleetBroadband service of Inmarsat was officially launched, being a part of Vizada's broadband offering.

Vizada is a provider of mobile and fixed satellite communications solutions for merchant ships, oil & gas platforms, fishing boats and many more. FleetBroadband is the latest addition to Inmarsat's fleet family of services providing simultaneous broadband voice and data. It offers IP services via a standard IP connection at speeds up to 432 kbps over a shared channel allowing email, Internet and intranet access. It also provides videoconferencing, ISDN connection and SMS service facilities.

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Greece funds to prevent Malacca Strait piracy

The Greek government would give $1 million (682,000 euros) to help secure the Strait of Malacca, a vital shipping route in Southeast Asia hit hard by piracy.

Greek Merchant Marine Minister Georges Voulgarakis made the announcement during a meeting of the 162-member UN agency International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London. Voulgarakis hopes other countries would follow the lead of Greece, which maintains the world’s largest shipping fleet. Sea routes connecting the Pacific and Indian oceans, the 805-kilometer strait is the one most affected by piracy. The sum will be deposited into a fund created by the IMO “to improve the security of the straits,” in cooperation with countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia bordering the maritime corridor which handles 30 percent of all sea transport globally.
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Frontline floats above

Frontline, the world's biggest crude oil tanker fleet operator floats above the rest, while the oil tanker sector has been hurt recently by high oil prices and an oversupply of vessels.

Frontline's business model has paid off by converting tankers and selling vessels for big profits, while aggressively maximizing shareholder value through dividend declarations. Its shares have consistently traded higher than competitors have even on days when the stock market was down and other tankers plunged. Frontline's business model works well during strong markets in the short-term but there are risks at the corporate level because the company only owns a limited number of its assets.
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COSCO aims to be a major shipbuilder

COSCO Shipyard Group has reinforced its status as major shipbuilder, booking in US$1.34 billion worth of bulker newbuilding orders for its Dalian and Guangzhou yards.

Main shareholder, Singapore-listed Cosco, had bagged orders for 17 supramaxes of 57,000DWT, worth US$699 million in total, eight 80,000-DWTbulkers for US$400 million and four 92,500-DWT bulk carriers for US$266 million.

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