Articles in "Coast To Coast"

An Argentinan trade union has instructed its members not to work on British ships or aircraft arriving in the country as a show of support of the Argentinian government's claim of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
In a statement reported in the Argentine press, the country's confederation of transport workers (CATT) said: "We have resolved to boycott any ship with the British flag, or with the lying and invented flag of the Falklands, or with any flag of convenience which the British pirates use.

He succeed Dreyer, who won't seek another term after being cleared of criminal charges
The Port of Houston Authority appointed Leonard D. Waterworth as the interim executive director of the port authority.
Waterworth most recently served as president and CEO of Dannenbaum Engineering, a Texas-based engineering consulting firm. Before that he served as district engineer and commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District in Galveston, Texas.
He succeeds Alex Dreyer, who announced in December that he would not seek another term as CEO after being cleared of all criminal allegations regarding vessel misuse and tampering with government documents.

A measure of the world economy can be made with the number of ships – container ships in particular  that have been made idle because there is no work for them.
When there is either an oversupply or a downturn in the economiy, ship owners and operators are forced to place some of their fleet on layby. According to the French-based analyst Alphaliner, the number and capacity of ships placed in this condition in the eight months since June 2011 has risen 10-fold from a capacity low of 75,000 TEU to 750,900 TEU or 268 ships of all sizes at the end of January this year.
The total active world fleet of container ships by contrast increased 6% in capacity during the same period to 14,8 million TEU so it would appear that an oversupply may be the main problem facing shipping lines.
Alphaliner reported that the Far East – Europe and Far East to North America accounted for 40% of the total world fleet deployment but experienced the smallest capacity growth compared to all other routes during 2011.

Shipowners urged governments to take a heavier hand to captured Somali pirates and their financiers, as the threat to trade and seafarers increases.
The International Chamber of Shipping, whose membership makes up more than 80 percent of the world merchant fleet, said more aggressive military intervention was needed in the Indian Ocean.
“The current situation remains totally unacceptable, with about 200 seafarers still being held hostage in the most appalling conditions, with thousands more still having to transit the danger area in constant fear of their lives,” said the ICS’s board of directors in a statement.
Although better shipping practices and military co-ordination had reduced the chances of pirates being successful, the threat had not diminished.
ICS Chairman Spyros Polemis said shipowners need to persuade the government to directly attack pirates while keeping merchant ships safe. He said every captured pirates should be tried and imprisoned if found guilty.

Spectators at Damen’s Romania based Galati Shipyard were treated to a moment of suspense when the 62 m fishery research vessel NGOLA KILUANGE sharply heeled over at her launch. But as people drew their breath the little ship sprang back, keeping her balance perfectly.
The occasion was the launching of the first of three sea fishery surveillance patrol vessels for the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries. With the three vessels in service Angola will be better equipped to strengthen its knowledge of and exercise control over Angola’s rich fishing grounds.

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is set to lose billions of shillings as it moves to implement a short-term strategy to decongest the port of Mombasa.
Last week, KPA announced a waiver of storage charges for containers lying at the port for more than 100 days as of January 25, 2012, which will be effective up to the first day of March 2012.
Data from KPA shows that there are 466 export containers, 737 domestic import containers and 294 transit import containers that have been at the port for between 100 and 1,000 days.

According to the TDIC, the new port would help it transport construction materials and labour for its ongoing projects on Yas and Saadiyat Islands.
A major port project has been unveiled in Abu Dhabi's Western Region in a move which analysts say will take the pressure off the capital's existing logistics hub.
The port has been jointly developed by Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) and the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) as part of a Dh730 billion investment in the Western Region.
TDIC announced last week that the Louvre,

Former Port Chaplain Paddy Percival, or rather Mama Paddy or Babushka, as she was known to the many eastern European sailors she helped, has won an international maritime award for her years of service to ships’ crews in Durban’s harbour.
Afraid of heights and talking to strangers, particularly men, Percival said she heard a call from God to tend to the needs of the often abused and mistreated eastern European sailors on vessels tied up in Durban’s harbour in the late 1990s.
Each evening, she would first go home, say a prayer and then, together with her sister, Joyce, drive down to the harbour, look for the ships with Russian flags and clamber aboard to share the gospel. Once she retired, Percival joined the International Sailors Society and ministered to the sailors full time.

Troubled Chilean carrier wants to sell remaining shares to third-party investors
Troubled Chilean ocean carrier CSAV announced its shareholders raised $659 million in the first stage of a planned $1.2 billion capital increase.
Shareholders bought 3.222 billion new shares at $0.2045 each, the company said. CSAV will now attempt to sell the remaining 2.65 billion shares to third-party investors and if it falls short it will return to the shareholders who participated in the first round of the fundraising.
Chile’s Luksic family, the biggest CSAV shareholder, has pledged to subscribe for the shares necessary to raise $1 billion.

Expect shortages of essential goods like cooking gas in the coming days following delays in off-loading goods at Mombasa port.
The port is choking under piles of containers, with ships taking more than seven days to offload, up from three days. This has been blamed on inefficiencies in the clearing process over the past six months.
A ship carrying cooking gas is, for example, yet to be allocated space to offload the product two weeks after it arrived at the port. Ships are taking between 10 and 15 days to be allocated a berth, meaning the importer is paying demurrage charges (ship delay charges) of between Sh1.6 million and Sh2.4 million a day, depending on the size of the vessel.

Smaller players in the fragmented industry need to be absorbed by bigger players for the industry to become healthy again
The chief executive designate of the largest container shipping line, Maersk Line's Soren Skou, has called for consolidation in the fragmented industry as it struggles to overcome an overcapacity-induced earnings slump.
Skou, chief executive of the tankers division of Maersk Line's parent, AP Moller-Maersk, was speaking after Monday's announcement that Eivind Kolding, Maersk Line's chief executive since 2006, would step down on January 16.

A businessman in Monrovia has alleged that the Management of the National Port Authority (NPA) unlawfully confiscated his 40-foot container at the port.
The man,Jesse Garduward further alleged that the Management of the NPA took away all of his goods from the container on grounds that they (goods) overstayed and therefore they have become properties or assets of the port.
He named some of the goods: one Nissan Xterra, one Chevrolet, one Toyota Tercel and barrels.
Garduward, who had resided in the United States of America (USA) for several years, claimed that he had completed all financial processes with the shipping line and that it was now left with paying storage fees for his container, but was informed by the Managing Director of the NPA Matilda Parker that the container has now become a port asset.
According to him, the container did not stay for the 90-day period as claimed by the MD of the NPA.