New World Alliance and Grand Alliance offer joint Black Sea Service

The member lines of The New World Alliance and the Grand Alliance have begun a jointly operated service from Asia to the Black Sea.

TNWA member lines comprises Mitsui OSK Lines, APL, and Hyundai Merchant Marine. TNWA and the Grand Alliance carriers began co-operating in February this year with a slot exchange on their respective fortnightly services to the Black Sea. The new joint service will now provide shippers a weekly frequency with the common port coverage. Eight vessels will be deployed on the service. TNWA members will operate three vessels. Grand Alliance member lines will operate five vessels. Hanjin and UASC will keep participating in this service as slot charterers. Capacity for these eight ships is about 5,000TEU. Port rotation for the "EBX" (East-Mediterranean/Black Sea Express) Service is as follows: Shanghai - Ningbo - Shekou - Singapore - Suez - Istanbul - Constanza - Odessa - Constanza - Istanbul - Damietta - Suez - Jeddah - Singapore - Shanghai.

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Completion of FLC - Aker Yards transaction scheduled for July

Norway's Aker Yards and the Russian company FLC expects to complete the transaction in which FLC buys 70 percent ownership in three Aker yards in Ukraine and Germany in July 2008.

The agreement was announced on March 25, 2008. The one remaining item in the process before the transaction is concluded is to complete the process to obtain approval from the Ukraine competition authorities. This process has taken somewhat longer than anticipated, but FLC and Aker Yards expect that it will be possible to get this final approval shortly.

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CSCL, Hapag-Lloyd and Maruba to launch service from Asia to South, West Africa

Hapag-Lloyd will join a new service with China Shipping and Maruba Lines called WSX to cover the Asia, South and West Africa market.

The service will deploy five ships ranging between 2,000 and 2,500TEU with reefer plugs. Hapag-Lloyd will deploy one vessel in the service, which will be jointly operated with partners China Shipping and Maruba Lines. The fortnightly WSX service will link Asia to South Africa, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria on the following rotation: Shanghai - Ningbo - Xiamen - Shekou - Port Kelang - Durban - Tema - Lome - Lagos - Durban - Kelang - Shanghai. The first departure will be from Shanghai on July 15.
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Two Costa Ships Launched

The Italian Company Costa Cruises and Fincantieri have together set record: for the first time ever, two ships have been launched the same day.

The Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica, respectively the 13th and 14th members of the Costa fleet are the newly launched ships. Both will enter service next year. The Costa Luminosa, which will be able to accommodate 2,828 Guests and is 92,700 gross tonnage, was launched at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera (Province of Venice) in the presence of the Honorable Renato Brunetta, the Italian Minister for Public Administration and Innovation. Meanwhile, the Costa Pacifica, total Guest capacity of 3,780 and 114,500 gross tonnage, was also launched in Genova-Sestri Ponente. Costa Cruises has invested over $1.4b in the construction of the two liners, with the labor of around 6,000 people, comprising both Fincantieri’s own employees and those of about 500 contracted suppliers. The two ceremonies held the launch by floating out. The Costa Luminosa is due for delivery at the end of April 2009, the Costa Pacifica at the end of May 2009. Their naming ceremonies will be another first for the cruise industry: the two new fleet members will be christened together on June 5, 2009 in Genoa, the city where Costa Cruises – this year celebrating its 60th anniversary – has always been headquartered. Also for the first time, Guests booked to travel on the maiden cruise of either ship will also be able to witness the christening ceremony.
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Terra Nova back on line for Petro-Canada

Petro-Canada had restarted the Terra Nova oilfield off Newfoundland after a two-week maintenance outage and expected output to be back at full production in the next two days.

Petro-Canada is the operator of the field with a 34% interest in it. The field was shut in on 13 June. The company took the floating production, storage and offloading vessel off line to replace flaring equipment and valves, as well as to inspect other gear. Terra Nova is located 350 kilometres (217 miles) southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Petro-Canada’s partners are ExxonMobil with 22%, Husky Energy with 12.5%, StatoilHydro with 15%, Murphy Oil with 12%, Mosbacher Operating with 3.5% and Chevron.

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Hebei Spirit oil spill damage costs grow

The estimated cost of damages caused by South Korea's worst oil spill may reach as high as over 573.5 billion won (US$554 million), a local government official said.

Around 12,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the west sea following a collision between an oil tanker owned by the Hong Kong-registered Hebei Spirit Shipping Co. and a barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. last December. The oil spill occurred in waters off Taean County, South Chungcheong Province, blackening beaches and fish farms along the west coast. The barge, which was carrying a crane, separated from its two tugboats and collided with the tanker. Officials at South Chungcheong Province said the total amount of losses arising from the spill is currently estimated at a maximum figure of 573.5 billion won, quoting Willem Oosterveen, director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds). The newly estimated loss has increased 149.5 billion won from the amount originally released by the IOPC Funds in March. "The increase came as business activities (in Taean) have yet to normalize, and with consumer trust in Taean's seafood products having decreased, there are likely to be less visitors," said an official.

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Singapore shipyards hit for safety shortfalls

Officers from the Ministry of Manpower have uncovered a raft of shortfalls in safety standards at shipyards here.

Of the 40 shipyards spot-checked so far, an unspecified one has been ordered to 'down tools'. The checks follow a string of shipyard accidents that have left five people dead and 18 others hurt in three weeks.
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