Shipping firms face unhappy new year
cargo
As 2008 draws to a sorry close, the boom momentum that the shipping industry was enjoying at the start of the year is now a distant memory with demand falling in direct proportion to the economic slowdown.
Charter rates continue to plummet with the scenario of idle tonnage becoming a certainty for the near future, especially [...]
Piracy at ‘Intolerable’ Level, Says Maritime Executive
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The massive deployment of foreign navies to the vital shipping lane off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden has so far failed to slow the rate of pirate attacks, with new ships taken almost daily, according to maritime executive Christopher Hayman. He said most commentators agreed that piracy was merely the symptom [...]
ITF: New piracy high risk area agreed
itf
Maritime unions and shipowners have reached an agreement to extend the piracy high risk area to cover the entire Gulf of Aden. The designated high risk area previously only covered part of the Gulf of Aden. Members of the International Bargaining Forum (IBF), reached the agreement following a full meeting of the negotiating body in [...]
HELCOM report shows sharp decrease in ship collisions in the Baltic
helcom
While every year there are more and more ships plying the waters of the Baltic Sea, the occurrence of ship-to-ship collisions, one of the most serious types of accidents at sea, has decreased sharply since 2005, especially in such a busy traffic area like the Gulf of Finland, according to the latest HELCOM study. Analysis [...]
EU to launch anti-piracy mission next week
piracy
A European Union flotilla will begin anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia next week, the EU’s foreign policy chief said Wednesday. The six warships and three maritime reconnaissance aircraft will replace a NATO naval force that has been patrolling the region and escorting cargo ships carrying relief aid to Somalia since the end of [...]
Once upon a time… there were new buildings
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Long gone are the days when Greek ship owners were placing up to 10 new building orders for vessels every week, bringing the total orderbook of the leading maritime nation to over 1,100 ships. According to the latest reports the last couple of months (October and November) no new orders have been placed. The Baltic [...]
Suez traffic not affected
suez_canal
Egypt denied that international shippers were avoiding the country’s Suez Canal, the waterway that carried a tenth of the global seaborne trade in 2007, after an escalation in piracy off east Africa. ‘We have not been notified by any shipping company that they are re-routing away from the Suez Canal because of the Somali piracy,’ [...]
Regional shipping industry jobs still safe
operations-of-shipping-firms
Despite the current slowdown in the global shipping industry, which has impacted operations, regional shipping companies will continue to retain their staff, said senior industry players.
Major international shipping companies have already announced more than 3,000 job cuts in an effort to reduce costs in the wake of the increasing financial crisis that continues to adversely [...]
IBF Extends “High Risk Area” In The Gulf
itf
Following a full meeting of the IBF in Hong Kong on Friday 21 November and subsequent correspondence, the International Bargaining Forum have agreed to extend the “high risk area” to cover the entire Gulf of Aden*, backdated to 21 November at midnight. The expansion has been agreed because of the number of attacks which had [...]
Russian Register of Shipping - Guarantee for quality and safety
russian_register
Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) has been awarded a golden medal ‘Guarantee for quality and safety’. RS has become a laureate of National Safety awards and has received a golden medal in the nomination “For the development of technical standards aimed at ensuring safety of offshore oil and gas facilities”. The National Safety awards [...]
