Marseilles expects 160,000 more passengers in 2009

Marseilles is expecting 160,000 more passengers to embark, disembark or transit at its port in 2009.

This year, the French port expects over 700,000 passengers, including 500,000 transit passengers. In 2008, Marseilles had 140,000 passengers embark and disembark, while there were 400,000 transit passengers. Marseilles has reported a steady increase in cruise traffic since 2000. Cruise liners frequently calling at the port include Costa and MSC.

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Russian shipbuilding update

The Zvezdochka Shipyard may begin weaning itself from building defence ships for the Navy and focus instead on building ships for the civil industry.

At a recent conference titled “Economic activities of Russia in the Arctic direction: problems of developing marine activities,” Russia held assessments of the ability of the yard to take on such orders. There are no concrete plans as of yet for Zvezdochka to make a transition, however, Russian insiders believe it will be highly probable as the Moscow Forum of Oil and Gas Industrialists has given the idea very firm backing and support. Krasnye Barrikady Shipyard has been struggling to pay wages to its employees. The Astrkhan shipyard may be able to gain some assistance from a Turkish company so as to continue work on the Caspian shelf for another one year. Other existing contracts include four orders for oil equipment in Kazakhstan and a drilling platform for the UAE.

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ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems lands international submarine components contracts

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems has lately landed a series of international submarine components contracts from Korea, Italy and Columbia.

In December 2008, ThyssenKrupp-owned company Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) received a contract from Korea for the delivery of six material packages to build Class 214 submarines. The contract was made between the HDW/ Marine Force International (MFI) consortium and the South Korean procurement authority DAPA (Defense Acquisition Program Administration). It will provide Korea with a second batch of boats in this successful class of submarines. In late 2008, Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries, under license from HDW, delivered three Class 214 submarines to the DAPA. Each submarine had a displacement of 1,700 tonnes and had a length of 65 metres. The vessels have a combined diesel-electric and fuel cell propulsion system. Equipped with ultra-modern sensors and an integrated Command and Weapon Control System, the vessels are optimally suited for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks. After studying the tenders produced by national Korean shipyards, DAPA selected Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to build the first boat of the second batch. Submission of tenders for the second boat is due to take place in summer 2009.

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New business model at the Odense Steel Shipyard

Following a period of project financing stalemate due to the financial crisis, the board members of the Odense Steel Shipyard have agreed to a new business model at the Lindo shipyard.

The new business model focuses on a more specialized shipyard, and a new offer to use facilities and other areas of the yard to external businesses. “We will continue to have a shipyard, but one which also entails a reorganization of part of the production at Lindo from ship building to alternative utilization of the workforce and production machinery. Our wish is to keep a shipyard and other production at Lindo. Therefore, we have agreed upon a new business model which is creative and forward thinking, but also realistic and necessary,” said Chairman Lars-Erik Brenoe after the board meeting. There will be three business areas: a shipyard, an industry part, and some shared facilities. In the future, the shipyard will concentrate on producing smaller ships, including, potentially, ships for the offshore area. At the same time, external businesses will be allowed to make use of the Lindo facilities for the production of heavy steel products.

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Three Korean yards slated for debt workout

Daehan Shipbuilding, Jinse Shipbuilding and Nok Bong Shipbuilding are all being urged to apply for rehabilitation proceedings (workout) under the control of banks.

A group of banks have scrutinized the books of these three and concluded they can survive given some help unlike C&Heavy Industries which was cast as under earlier this week by the Korean Federation of Banks. Beginning this month, South Korean financial organizations conducted credit checks on more than 100 shipyards and construction companies mired in deteriorating business performance. Daehan had been faced with a string of problems, including management instability at its parent company Daeju Group. Though it asked owners to change their payment schemes and so on, it decided at the turn of last year to abort the construction of its No.2 dock in light of its worsening financial problems. As for Jinse, its issuance of refund guarantees had stalled, reportedly causing the cancellation of the orders for around 20 bulkers in the autumn of last year. Meanwhile, Nok Bong has a more than 20-year track record in shipbuilding.

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Flex LNG delays floater deliveries

Flex LNG said it had agreed with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries to delay delivery of four floating gas liquefaction units the yard is building for the Norway-listed group.

Flex said it had agreed to push back delivery dates for the floating liquefied natural gas processing units by between six and seven months among other changes to its agreements with SHI. It said the changes would affect timelines for installing the hulls and topsides on fields. Despite the delays, Flex said the business case for its floating LNG technology remained “robust” and it was continuing to develop its project portfolio. The company said it would continue front-end engineering and design (FEED) and pre-FEED work with its engineering partners to developing a range of field-specific LNG modules to allow the floating units maximum flexibility of deployment.

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Marine BizTV adds new satellite ‘Eurobird’

A new satellite named Eurobird streams Marine BizTV making it available in Europe.

In addition to satellites, Thaicom-5 (C Band) and Hotbird 6 (Ku Band), a new satellite named Eurobird also covers Marine BizTV enabling its availability in Europe. The downlinking frequency to obtain the channel is 11919, Polarity: Vertical, Symbol Rate: 27.500, FEC:3/4. The channel has its coverage through satellite and cable TV in Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe, North and South America and parallel coverage on Web TV. Marine BizTV will be distributed to the target segment via DTH in areas where DTH platform is popular and through cable network in areas connected through cable distribution networks.

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