Pollution control vessels to be deployed to keep oceans clean

Concerned over increasing movement of oil vessels through Indian Waters, the Coast Guard will soon deploy ‘dedicated Pollution Control vessels’ to keep the ocean around the country clean.

About one-lakh, vessels pass through Indian Waters every year, and it is time better pollution control systems to be in place. The CG had placed an order for three ‘dedicated pollution control vehicles’. One of the vehicles would be deployed by next March or April. The Indian CG had already had good capability in controlling sea pollution and the additional vessels would boost that capability. The CG also planned to provide an indigenously developed low cost emergency alert transmitter for anglers. The transmitter is a simple device to operate with four buttons for medical emergency, cyclone, fire, and sinking boat respectively.

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Storms keep Mexican oil ports shut

Mexico kept its main crude oil exporting ports closed due to bad weather that hit earlier in the week.

The Gulf of Mexico ports of Dos Bocas, Cayo Arcas and Coatzacoalcos, which together ship some 80% of Mexico’s oil exports, remained shut, along with the Pacific Coast oil port of Salina Cruz. The closures mean some shipments have now been delayed for two days, although state oil company Pemex said all cargoes held at dock would be sent out as soon as the ports reopen. Authorities had begun closing around a dozen commercial ports from Tuesday, but several reopened. Pemex’s exports have been repeatedly disrupted in recent months by bad weather that has halted shipments for days at a time and in some cases triggered oilrig evacuations. Today’s bad weather was part of a cold snap that has buffeted the Pacific and Gulf coasts with strong winds and sprinkled parts of Mexico with snow and frost as temperatures hit some of the lowest levels in recent history.

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2007: A reasonably good year for shipping

Last year was a reasonably good one for the shipping industry overall, with some parts doing significantly better than others.

Major concerns include rising bunker costs, the slowing US economy, sub-prime woes and impending anti-monopolies regulations in Europe. While cargo growth and rates have been good on most trades, the sharp increase in bunker prices towards the second half of last year was an unexpected cost that container lines in particular struggled to recover from shippers. This year in general has been good. Cargo growth to Europe, the Middle East and Africa has been satisfactory. Cargo growth mainly contributed by China exports had supported a good market in containers for Europe and the US, as well as the North/South trades. In general, this was a good year after all. NOL was similarly pleased with last year’s performance. ‘Ongoing strength in the world economy, together with continuing outsourcing of global manufacturing production to Asia, drove double-digit growth in demand for international container shipping services in 2007.

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