Boat show to mark ‘Maritime Fiesta’

KOCHI: Marine BizTV, a maritime television channel based here, will organise a nine-day ‘Maritime Fiesta’ in Kochi from December 14.

The events will take off with the inauguration of ‘Maritime Cultural Olympics,’ in which maritime students will showcase their talents. International Boating Awards ’08 will honour outstanding contributions and craftsmanship in the boating and yachting industry. Another event will be Boat India 08, a boating and lifestyle exhibition. There will also be a two-day international conference on boating and yachting on December 15 and 16 at Hotel Taj Residency. ‘Boat India Expo’ will showcase the latest products in the boating and yachting industry. A debut Marine Film Festival will be conducted December 17 and 22 at Sangeetha Theatre.

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Boxlines braced as US recession made official

Singapore: Containerlines across Asia are braced for a tough day’s trading at local bourses today following the news overnight that the US has entered recession. Overnight, news that the US is officially in recession saw stocks on Wall Street plunge.

The Dow Jones Index lost nearly 8 per cent and the Nasdaq and Standard and Poor’s indices fell even more. The U.S. economy has been in a recession for a year, the nation’s business cycle arbiter declared on Monday. Alarming for box lines is the economic data just out showing factories were slashing output in the United States, Europe and China last month as demand dropped. China’s manufacturing sector slumped in November as new orders tumbled, showing the world’s fourth-largest economy was being sucked deeper into the global maelstrom. Back in the US hopes that consumers may ride to the rescue appeared to be optimistic. U.S. post-Thanksgiving sales, which mark the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, looked less dire than feared but that did not stop investors from dumping shares of retailers. Analysts warned that while stores were crowded, the sales growth may have come at the expense of profits and overall demand remained weak.  The transpacific has been torrid for containerlines this year and next May’s annual rate negotiations already look bloody in prospect.

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Drydocks World gears up for China venture

Singapore: Drydocks World is confident it will have all the paperwork out the way to get cracking on its China debut by year end.

Denis Welch, ceo, Drydocks World, Southeast Asia, told Seatrade Asia Online that he was meeting with Chinese officials today to close in on the yard in Jiangsu province near Nanjing on the Yangtze. The yard has been wholly owned by Singaporean outfit Top Niche Associates and has been in the building game for the past 18 months. By neatly buying out the yard operations of Top Niche, Drydocks World has circumnavigated the China ruling banning foreign majority shareholdings of Chinese yards. The site has a building berth to fit panamax sized ships and to begin with Drydocks World will focus on low end ships such as self-propelled barges and tugs. ‘It gives us a toe hold in China,’ said Welch. Meanwhile, last week saw another milestone in the fast emerging Dubai headquartered yard operator with the launching of the second rig from its new Batam yard in Indonesia. Reclamation at the site will go ahead, said Welch, giving the facility an eventual 175 ha of space. Globally, Drydocks World now boasts 29 building berths and eight floating docks.

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