Seafarers still hang around Manila’s Rizal Park, more popularly known as Luneta. But the festive atmosphere is gone following the closure last month of the recruitment booths seen in this photo. Crewing agencies were ordered to vacate the booths and dismantle their corporate signboards because they were recruiting outside their office premises, an illegal act. It’s a thankworthy move by the labour authorities. The area had practically been turned into a marketplace, Continue reading
We’ve had some doubts on the matter, and they were reinforced yesterday. A young man who’s due to join a cruise ship complained to us about he and others being required by their agency to undergo medical exams twice a year – one at the Department of Health and another at a private clinic. We’ve heard similar gripes before from the cruise ship hotel personnel deployed by the same large and well-respected manning agency. In Manila, where money is deified by rich and poor alike, some things just do not change. Continue reading
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 on a 10-year charter to Maersk Line. Continue reading
Last week we were in a pool hall in Manila playing 9-ball with our favourite old salt. At a table next to ours were a Korean couple in their 20s. The sight of them suddenly reminded us of how affluent South Korea has become, so affluent that its young citizens can go on pleasure trips to the Philippines. You see them shopping at the local malls and boarding flights at the domestic airport for some R&R on the beaches of Boracay or Bohol. The hot-blooded males, of course, come for sex. Continue reading
We’ve not heard from green yacht designer Richard Sauter for quite a while. It turns out that he’s been busy on the drawing board. And now he has announced his newest baby: a “Revolutionary Plug-in, Super Fast, Super Green, Solar Hybrid Vessel” said to be capable of generating enough surplus electricity to cruise carbon-neutral for 7,000 nautical miles every year. Continue reading
Paddy Crumlin, the dynamic and tough-talking national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, was elected president of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) during its world congress in Mexico City that ended on 12th August. Whether this will see a more belligerent ITF remains to be seen. We have no doubts, however, that Mr Crumlin will add more vigour to the organisation, which represents 4.6 million members of 760 trade unions worldwide. Continue reading
The waterfront is larger than life. It’s not only the huge ships and the huge machines that make it so. It’s the vibrancy of human commerce under a bright sun with the smell of salt water filling the air. Here are some old photos we took when we were still using a manual SLR film camera. The images tempt us to visit the wharves again. ~Barista Uno
Cebu International Port
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 this year. All three vessels are owned by AET and flagged in the Marshall Islands. Continue reading
A certain Fred R. Barnard, in a 1921 article for the advertising trade journal Printers’ Ink, coined the slogan “One look is worth a thousand words.” The following pictures of Philippine maritime personalities illustrate the adage. We took these photos with a fixed lens digital camera except the last one, which was captured on our Nokia phone’s 2-megapixel camera. ~Barista Uno
Jae J. Jang, Uni Group of Companies chairman and philanthropist
Of late, we’ve been up to the gills with press releases. So we’ll just make a short, brazen plug for the 11th Asia-Pacific Manning & Training Conference coming up this November in Manila. Why attend at all? Because it’s the biggest annual manning event starring the biggest names in the industry. Because it’s organised by Informa Maritime Events. And because all Marine Café Blog visitors get a 10% discount! Just click on the Informa banner on the right-hand column of this page (cite VIP Code KT0142MCAFWB). ~Barista Uno
Some fellows at Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc must be feeling slightly giddy. The company’s combined volume from April to June was up 25% at 1.048 million TEUs, the second quarter in a row of double-digit growth. All three geographic segments of the Group – Asia, Americas and EMEA – posted double-digit increases. ICTSI’s Madagascar terminal led the Asian volume surge with a 38% uptick but it was handily overshadowed by the Tecon Suape terminal in Brazil, where throughput was up by a dizzying 52% Continue reading
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, Alaska; Pusan, South Korea; and Yokohama and Naha, Japan. Photo shows the APL Korea, one of five PS5 vessels that are the largest to call at Naha with a capacity of almost 5,000 TEUs each.
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. Continue reading
GLOBAL DIRECTORY
