Leading Vietnam coal port resumes operation

Hanoi: Vietnam’s main coal port, Cam Pha has resumed about 70% of loading capacity, after its loaders collapsed during a storm last week, The Economic Times reports state coal monopoly Vinacomin as having said yesterday.

“Repair is under way and the port would resume full operation in a month,” a Vinacomin spokesman said.The port in Quang Ninh, Vietnam’s northern coal hub, which handles most of the country’s coal exports to China and Japan, can now load about 20,000 tonnes of coal daily as compared to around 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes per day before Aug 6 when three of its four loaders collapsed, a port official said. About two thirds of the fuel shipped via Cam Pha goes to China and the rest goes to Japan and other countries, he said. Last month Vietnam estimated its coal exports for the first six months of 2008 dropped 22.7% to 14.47m tonnes as compared to 2007, but revenues jumped 38.4% to $811m, boosted by high world prices. The Southeast Asian country is struggling to meet soaring energy demand at home and plans to slash coal exports this year by more than 32% to about 22m tonnes to save more for new power plants, the Industry and Trade Ministry has said. Vinacomin has forecast coal output could rise to 43m tonnes in 2008, beating previous industry projections of 40m tonnes.

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Yangshan Port ship access passes 10,000 mark

In late July, a Maersk vessel pulled into the third berth of the Shanghai Yangshan Port Phase II, becoming the 10,000th international sailing ship since Yangshan Port first opened.

The Yangshan Deepwater Port area opened on December 10, 2005, and saw the number of ships accessed reach 5,000 as recently as September 2007. The Yangshan Deepwater Port was built to circumvent the growth limitations of the Port of Shanghai, which has shallow waters. The new port allows berths with depths of up to 15 metres to be built, and is capable of handling even the largest container ships. The port is located in Hangzhou Bay south of Shanghai. When fully operational in 2012, the port will have four phases in operation with 30 berths capable of handling 15 million TEU per annum.

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West and Central African states to co-operate in sub-regional Coastguard network

Twenty member States of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) have adopted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of a Sub-regional Coastguard Network for the West and Central African sub-region at the 13th General Assembly of Ministers of MOWCA.

The adoption of the MoU is a major landmark in a long-running campaign by IMO and MOWCA to improve maritime safety, security and environmental protection in the sub-region. It follows a feasibility study undertaken by IMO and the successful IMO/MOWCA forum on the establishment of an integrated coast guard function network for West and Central African Countries held in Dakar in October 2006. The MoU provides an institutional framework for suppressing piracy, armed robbery and other unlawful acts against ships and addressing illegal fishing, drug and weapon trafficking, illegal migration, oil theft, damage to gas pipelines and maritime accident response in the sub-region. It provides guidelines for coastal surveillance, presence in the exclusive economic zones of the sub-region and enforcement of international conventions, regulations and codes – principally those of IMO and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It has provisions on a “right of hot pursuit” in case of unlawful acts perpetrated against ships. IMO – the International Maritime Organization – is the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.

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