Shipping & Logistics

With state-owned enterprises restructuring, China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), one of leading ocean energy transportation enterprises, began its transportation capacity raising.

In January 2010, MV NEW PARADISE, the VLCC built by Japan’s Sumitomo Group, was delivered to CMES. Meanwhile, another two monsters built by Dalian Heavy Industry, namely MT KAIYUAN (凯源) and MV MINGYUAN (明源), were delivered successfully as well.

China has warned that expanding ice cover in northern China will have a “serious” impact on oil exploration and shipping.

The deep freeze is also restricting activity in the Yellow Sea, where ice may reach 90 nautical miles from the coast by next week.The thickness of the ice may reach 40 centimeters, the State Oceanic Administration said on its website.

Newspaper report says liner company went from hedging to ‘pure speculation’

CMA CGM lost nearly $1 billion in ill-timed derivatives investments in 2008, largely in oil prices, leaving the world’s third largest container ship carrier financially crippled heading into the shipping downturn last year, according to a newspaper report in France.

Facing enormous deficits, company to focus on non-asset business.

In a dire New Year’s speech to employees, NYK Line president Yasumi Kudo said the company is reducing the size of its fleet of container ships and car carriers and plans to focus on its non-asset-based business "for the time being.”

Kudo said NYK has already cut its container fleet to slightly more than 90 ships with a capacity of 360,000 20-foot units from 115 ships of 410,000 TEUs a year ago. NYK’s fleet of car carriers has been reduced from 130 vessels to approximately 90 vessels as “export shipments of new-cars from Japan were almost halved from the previous year's level, far exceeding the earlier projected downturn.”

Increase anticipates Transpacific Stabilization Agreement’s planned rate hike. The spot rate for shipping a 40-foot container from Hong to Los Angeles jumped 10 percent so far this week compared to the week ended Jan. 10, according to price data provided to Drewry Shipping Consultants by non-vessel-operating common carriers in Hong Kong.

The spot rate this week is $1,416 per FEU, compared to $1,284 per FEU last week.“It’s the direct result of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement’s plan to raise freight rates on Jan. 15,” said Philip Damas, managing director of Drewry Supply Chain Advisors in London. “We have seen quite a solid discipline by the carriers to push for their emergency rate increase.”

Mehr News Agency reported that the third largest container shipping company in the world started its operations in Bushehr Port of southern Iran.As per report, France’s CMA-CGM firm chose the port of Bushehr due to its reasonable infrastructure established in the past few years.

CMA-CGM announced that it will increase its activities in the port 10 times more than present.Mr Siavash Arjmand deputy director of Bushehr Ports and Maritime Organization said that with the berthing of Simba container ship in Bushehr, the third largest container shipping firm started its activity in this port.

STX Pan Ocean has set aside more than $200m to swell its fleet in a new year. The South Korean shipping company is in the market for six ships and is considering newbuildings, according to a statement to the Singapore Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

“The board of directors...wishes to announce that the company is planning on investing in six vessels including bulkers with the amount of around $203m in 2010."

With such a large amount to spend and with capesize newbuilding prices currently below $60m, STX’s wish list is likely to include a number of large bulkers.

The value of a panamax containership was almost cut in half last year according to Clarksons which today ended a 16 months break in its publication of ship values. Five-year-old VLCCs and resales each lost around a quarter of their price tag over the same timeframe while capesize bulker values headed in the opposite direction, figures from the world’s largest shipbroker show.

Clarksons places a price of $15.5m on a 10-year-old, 3,500-teu containership at the end of 2009, according to its first report of 2010.At the end of December 2008 the same ship was worth $29m, meaning its price has fallen by 47% in the interim.

  CSBC Corporation of Taiwan has resolved to kick off new business operations in 2010 by tapping the lucrative markets of China and India, including setting up a ship design and consulting firm in China.

W.L. Cheng, chairman of CSBC, told local media his company will be developed into a conglomerate by expanding business scopes, including the establishment of a coating firm.

China is to encourage its domestic shipping industry to compete with foreign LNG players with the launch of a CNY 20bn ($2.9bn) fund, foreign media reports.

The fund is to target investments in large-scale specialized LNG and LPG vessels and also semi-submersibles.

It is being hailed as the first investment fund made available for the maritime industry in China.