Category Archives: Shipping and Logistics

The owner of the 53,609 dwt Supramax bulk carrier Paguera (shown above) and the disponent owner of the 51,215 dwt Papillon have withdrawn their ships from long-term time charters with Emirates Trading Agency LLC (ETA), a company registered in Dubai. ETA is said to owe more than US$10 million to Bremen-based HARPA Bulk Shipping & [...]

The largest Rickmers ship ever to call in the Port of Hamburg arrived at the Burchardkai Terminal late evening of Friday, 13th August. The 13,100-TEU Maersk Edinburgh, christened Pearl Rickmers by Nina Ruge in South Korea on 2nd July, was built for the Hamburg-based Rickmers Group by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and is now [...]

Continuing its expansion into the clean markets, Malaysia’s AET formally accepted two newbuild 6,600dwt product tankers into its fleet at a naming ceremony in Haydarpasa Port, Istanbul, on 7 August 2010. AET Sanjar and AET Nissa were built by the Okskaya Sudoverf Joint Stock Company in Russia and are sisters to AET Gala, delivered earlier [...]

A new US West Coast direct service by American President Lines (APL) has spotlighted the strategic role of the Naha International Container Terminal in Okinawa operated by International Container Terminal Services Inc’s (ICTSI) Japanese unit. The weekly Pacific South 5 (PS5) all-US Flag service links the ports of San Pedro and Oakland, California; Dutch Harbor, [...]

The nearly one and a half thousand delegates attending the ITF congress in Mexico will vote tomorrow (Sunday, 8th of August) on whether or not to accept an overhaul of the ITF’s FOC policy that is designed to take it forward for the next four years.

The production and use of biofuels for transport has increased dramatically in recent years and is set to continue, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and meeting growing consumer demand. As most biofuels will be transported by sea, the industry needs to take stock of its growing experience of what can go wrong aboard ship and develop [...]

It seems there’s no slowing down for Malaysian tanker operator AET, the subject of our blog earlier this month. Yesterday, 20th of July, the company signed a contract with South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd for the construction of four new 320,000 dwt VLCCs to be delivered between December 2012 and October [...]

Newbuilding orders aren’t exactly the kind of news that would titillate us. They happen all the time. But AET’s signing of a contract with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries for four 158,500 dwt Suezmax tankers has made us pause. It’s not really because the newbuilds, for delivery between April and October 2012, will become the [...]

Even for Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipyard group, it was a remarkable occasion. In a quadruple naming ceremony at HHI’s Ulsan shipyard on the 2nd of July, the Hamburg-based Rickmers Group christened four ultra-large container ships (ULCS) of 13,100 TEU each.

Kuala Lumpur-based AET took delivery of its 53rd aframax tanker on 22nd June from the Tsuneishi shipyard in Japan. The 107,000dwt Eagle Kangar is the third in a series of eight sisterships being built for AET by Tsuneishi, with delivery of the final vessel scheduled for September 2011. The event somehow underscores Malaysia’s growth as [...]

Word is that the transpacific container trades are currently plagued by a shortage of boxship capacity and equipment, raising fears of new surcharges. The shipping business, of course, has its ups and downs, highs and lows. Alas, the Philippines will be seeing none of the Pacific action. The last Filipino transpacific liner service folded up [...]

“Bulk Carrier Practice” by Captain Jack Isbester was first published in 1993. Since then, it has become, in the words of IMO Secretary General Rear Admiral Efthimios E Mitropoulos, “something of a bible for the industry.” Last week, the London-based Nautical Institute launched the second edition of the tome. If you’re in any way involved [...]

At a ceremony held today, 11th May, at the Sungdong shipyard in South Korea, AET formally named and took delivery of its 51st aframax tanker. The new 114,000 dwt vessel is the first ship to join the fleet of Paramount Tankers – the new tanker operating company jointly owned by AET and Golden Energy, part [...]