IMO publishes new IMDG Code (2008 Edition)

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A new edition of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code, the standard guide to all aspects of handling dangerous goods and marine pollutants in sea transport, has been published by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in hard copy, as a download and [...]


Security upgrades set to make India�s ports even more costly

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Bangalore: India’s relatively high-cost ports are likely to charge even more as the government takes steps to beef up security following the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The government is planning to install equipment to scan cargo containers, set up a marine commando force, increase the number of security personnel and buy speedboats to help in search operations.
[...]


Suez traffic not affected

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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,’ [...]


Shipping industry urges EU governments to take up arms against Somali pirates

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Abdul Hassan, chief of the pirate group called the ‘Central Regional Coastguard’, carries a rocket-propelled grenade on to a boat with some of his crew. Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images
European shipowners are urging their governments to wage war on Somali pirates and seize vessels by force, the Guardian has learned, amid growing fear that shippers [...]


Shipper calls for military force on Somali pirates

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The world’s militaries must work together to battle pirates off the Somali coast or ships will have to be diverted and the cost of moving goods will skyrocket, one of the world’s largest oil tanker companies said Friday. Frontline Ltd., which sails five to 10 tankers of crude a month through the treacherous Gulf of [...]


BW Gas, TMT, Euronav May Avoid Somalia After Attacks by Pirates

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By Alaric Nightingale and John Martens
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — BW Gas Ltd., the world’s biggest operator of liquefied-gas tankers, Euronav NV and TMT Co. Ltd. said they may divert ships away from Somalia after an escalation in piracy led to the capture of a Saudi Arabian supertanker.
BW Gas is urging its customers to avoid the [...]


Melting polar ice cuts pollution in Straits of Malacca

KUALA LUMPUR: The polar icecap in the Arctic is melting away. Bad news for many scientists, but welcomed by shippers who see the fabled Northwest and Northeast Passages finally opening up.

And that could lead to fewer ships using the Straits of Malacca, causing less pollution and erosion of Malaysia’s coastline.
Maritime experts, though, believe Malaysia’s ports [...]