Singapore crosses one billion shipping tonnage mark early

The Singapore maritime industry has crossed the one billion gross tons shipping tonnage mark way ahead than usual, judged against previous years.

In terms of timescale, the mark was achieved four months ahead compared to four years ago when the shipping tonnage surpassed the billionth figure in December in 2004. The vessel which had the honour of crossing the one billion mark was APL Australia, a container ship of 50,243 gross tons (GT). It arrived at the port yesterday at 1025hrs. Said Capt M Segar, Group Director (Hub Port), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, “Over the past few years, vessel arrivals in terms of shipping tonnage have registered double-digit increase. This new high in terms of timescale for the one billion breakthrough signals that 2008 may very well be another record breaking year for the Singapore port. All these achievements are possible because of the efforts put in by our port and maritime community in ensuring that Singapore port continues to add value and provide quality services to the global shipping community.”

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Polaris Shipping buys $40.8m VLCC

Seoul:  South Korean ship owner, Polaris Shipping has agreed to pay $40.8m for a 1990-built 261,343 dwt single hull tanker Titan Pisces is due to be delivered by current owner Hong Kong’s Titan Petrochemicals in the next four weeks.

The vessel, the sixth VLCC acquired by Polaris Shipping since last year, is likely to be converted into a very large ore carrier for long term charter to Pohang Steel and Steel Company (Posco). Commenting on the sale, Titan Petrochemicals chairman Tsoi Tin Chun said the company is continuing to reduce its exposure in the volatile VLCC market where prospects are poor. “The sale represents a good opportunity to enable the group to realise the value in the Vessel and the cash flow generated will be available for deployment for the benefit of the group,” he added. 

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New container service from CMA CGM and CSCL starts in Hamburg

A new container service connecting Northern Europe with China and Malaysia has been launched recently.

  

On August 5, the ‘CSCL Long Beach’ arrived the HHLA Container Termina Burcharkai, Germany. On the occasion of the first arrival of the service, the Head of the Hamburg Nautical Centre, Uwe Claassen, together with Niels Harnack, Managing Director CSCL Hamburg and Bengt van Beuningen (Port of Hamburg Marketing) gave the captain of the ‘CSCL Long Beach’, R Nayyar, the Hamburg Admiralty Coat of Arms. This new joint service of the French-Asia-Line 4 (FAL-4) / Asia-Europe-Express- Service 8 [ AEX-8 ] was launched by French shipping company CMA CGM and China Shipping Container Line (CSCL).  FAL-4 / AEX-8 are each deploying four ships from the partner shipping companies, each with a capacity of approximately 9,600TEU. From the AEX-1, CSCL is relocating the ‘CSCL Long Beach’, ‘Xin Hong Kong’, ‘Xin Beijing’ and ‘CSCL Le Harve’. Meanwhile CMA CGM is contributing the newbuild ‘CMA CGM Orfeo’, ‘CMA CGM Pelleas’, ‘CMA CGM Butterfly’ and the ‘CMA CGM Ivanhoe’. The port rotation in the Far East is as follows: Shanghai – Xiamen -Yantian (Shenzhen) – Nansha (Guangzhou) – Port Kelang, from where the service will proceed directly to Zeebrugge and Hamburg. It then returns to Shanghai via Rotterdam. The transit time to Hamburg as of Shanghai in a westward direction is 28 days and only 19 days as of Port Kelang. Due to the vicinity of the important industry and trade location of Guangzhou in the South China Pearl River Delta, considerable cargo volumes are expected right from the start of Nansha port. The low number of ports of call makes it possible for the ships to have a fuel-saving cruising speed with a roundtrip time of 56 days.

 

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