Shanghai - Ningbo - Xiamen - Singapore.

When the EU5 service commences, the EU3 service will omit Xiamen, and the EU4 service will omit Ningbo.

Both calls have been transferred to the EU5 service.

The Grand Alliance, formed in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in global container shipping. Its members are Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), MISC Berhad (Malaysia), NYK (Japan) and OOCL (Hong Kong).

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Grand Alliance starts new European service

The Grand Alliance has implemented a new EU5 Service and updates to its dedicated Far East service.

The newly established EU5, together with service improvements in EU3 and EU4, will enhance schedule reliability and help to better meet customers' needs in a fast-growing market.

Eight vessels with an approximate capacity of 5,500TEU will be deployed in EU5.

The first sailings of the EU5 service are scheduled for week 16 westbound and week 20 eastbound.

The service will operate on a weekly basis with the following itinerary: Amsterdam - Hamburg - Southampton - Singapore -

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Maari platform arrives in NZ

The wellhead platform for OMV New Zealand's Maari oil project arrived in New Zealand waters and the project is on track to be onstream in the third quarter of this year.

The Maari wellhead platform on April 11 sailed into New Zealand on board Dockwise heavy transport vessel Blue Marlin. The 10,000-tonne (11,000-ton), 150-metre (492-ft) tall platform will be unloaded from Blue Marlin in Admiralty Bay over the next few days. The next stage of the project will be preparing the platform for towage to the Maari field, OMV NZ's Managing Director Steve Hounsell said in a statement. "The trip, and the subsequent installation of the platform, is very weather dependent, and not without its technical challenges," he said. The Maari platform will be towed by two SEMCO anchor handling tugs, Salviceroy and Salveritas, to the Maari field, which is 80 kilometres (50 miles) off the coast of South Taranaki. Upon arrival at the field, the structure will self-install in102 metres (335 ft) of water. The platform will be connected to the Tanker Pacific floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Raroa. The FPSO is expected to arrive in New Zealand towards the end of April, having recently set sail from Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. The Maari oilfield holds an estimated 50 million barrels of oil reserves and has an estimated production life of between 10 and 15 years. The partners for the project were granted a 22-year mining permit to the oil field in 2005.

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DSME workers to strike against stake sale

More than 6000 members of the labour union at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Company have voted to strike against a planned stake sale this year.

About 93% (6,047) of a total of 6,503 workers voted in favour of a strike, the labour union said, adding that the timing and extent of the strike will depend on the progress of the sale. The decision follows an announcement by state-run Korea Development Bank and other creditors to select a preferred bidder as early as August to buy their combined 50.4% stake in the shipyard. The 50.4% stake in DSME is valued at approximately $4.2bn at current market prices.

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Indian shipping lines end cartel to fix tariff

Merchandise exporters would soon find their logistics costs coming down significantly.

Shipping companies that handle most of the consignments from India have agreed to discontinue their dialogue among themselves to fix tariff — a practice that regulators consider as cartelization. The move comes after the commerce ministry and the competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stepped up pressure on the companies to end their alleged cartelization. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India is a major participant in the 15-member combine of ship owners offering services to exporters from South Asia and other regions under the umbrella of India Pakistan Bangladesh Ceylon Conference. Others include France’s CMA CGM, Germany’s Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd, United Arab Shipping Company and K Line America Inc. The shipping companies told CCI on Thursday they would no longer hold meetings to discuss tariff. Instead of conferences, ship owners would set up a consortium like the star alliance in the airline industry. The CCI told the ship owners that approval to such a consortium could only be given after examining the content of its charter.

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Indian shipping lines end cartel to fix tariff

Merchandise exporters would soon find their logistics costs coming down significantly.

Shipping companies that handle most of the consignments from India have agreed to discontinue their dialogue among themselves to fix tariff — a practice that regulators consider as cartelization. The move comes after the commerce ministry and the competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stepped up pressure on the companies to end their alleged cartelization. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India is a major participant in the 15-member combine of ship owners offering services to exporters from South Asia and other regions under the umbrella of India Pakistan Bangladesh Ceylon Conference. Others include France’s CMA CGM, Germany’s Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd, United Arab Shipping Company and K Line America Inc. The shipping companies told CCI on Thursday they would no longer hold meetings to discuss tariff. Instead of conferences, ship owners would set up a consortium like the star alliance in the airline industry. The CCI told the ship owners that approval to such a consortium could only be given after examining the content of its charter.

Read More

Indian shipping lines end cartel to fix tariff

Merchandise exporters would soon find their logistics costs coming down significantly.

Shipping companies that handle most of the consignments from India have agreed to discontinue their dialogue among themselves to fix tariff — a practice that regulators consider as cartelization. The move comes after the commerce ministry and the competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stepped up pressure on the companies to end their alleged cartelization. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India is a major participant in the 15-member combine of ship owners offering services to exporters from South Asia and other regions under the umbrella of India Pakistan Bangladesh Ceylon Conference. Others include France’s CMA CGM, Germany’s Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd, United Arab Shipping Company and K Line America Inc. The shipping companies told CCI on Thursday they would no longer hold meetings to discuss tariff. Instead of conferences, ship owners would set up a consortium like the star alliance in the airline industry. The CCI told the ship owners that approval to such a consortium could only be given after examining the content of its charter.

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