Condite Spółka z o.o. has been chosen as the General Contractor to build a Hampton by Hilton hotel in the vicinity of Warsaw Chopin Airport, following over a year of formal preparations. The hotel will open its doors to the first guests in mid-2013.
Condite Spółka z o.o. met all requirements set out in the tender documents and offered the lowest price, beating nine other bidders for the work. “We are very happy with the outcome of the tender. This is a huge challenge for us, but we will ensure the highest quality of work and excellent attention to detail,” said Wiesław Milcarz, chairman of the board at Condite Sp. z o.o.
The economy Hampton by Hilton Warsaw Airport hotel will be erected approx. 800m from Chopin Airport’s Terminal A, at the junction of 17 Stycznia St and Żwirki i Wigury St. It will offer 116 comfortable double rooms on four floors and will be targeted at tourists and business travellers. The ground floor will contain the main hall, a 24-hour snack bar, breakfast room, comfortable working and meeting area with Internet access, as well as a conference room and fitness club. Breakfast will be included in the price.
The hotel will be funded and operated by PPL’s subsidiary, Port-Hotel. “I am sure the Hampton by Hilton brand will live up to the expectations of customers travelling both on business and for pleasure. It will do well in the Polish market,” said Mirosław Moczarski, President of Port-Hotel sp. z o.o.
The construction comes at the same time as work on another hotel under the brand, Hampton by Hilton Gdańsk Airport, which will be located in front of the new terminal of Gdańsk-Rębiechowo Lech Wałęsa Airport.
Warsaw Chopin Airport
KUEHNE + Nagel's (KN) information management system, KN Login, is now available in simplified Chinese, in addition to English, German, French, Italian and Spanish to meet the increasing demand of its Chinese customers for supply chain visibility and monitoring.
Through a single web-based interface, KN Login enables customers to know where all their shipments are. It links all the company's business units across the globe, offering trades and industries the detailed information they need, in the way they want to see it. The access to near real-time data drives improvements in productivity and efficiency by offering enhanced monitoring and accurate shipment progress.
Key features of KN Login include: dashboard, direct access, EDI, global standards, images, interactive delivery planner, monitoring and alert tools, statistics, booking as well as order management solutions.
In Asia Pacific, Kuehne + Nagel operates at 165 locations and employs around 7,300 people.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
A WHOLLY-owned subsidiary of SinOceanic Shipping ASA, SinOceanic III AS (Sino III), has taken delivery of the MSC Regulus with a capacity of 13,100 TEU and placed her on a 15-year bareboat charter party with Mediterranean Shipping Company, Geneva, at a daily rate of US$46,650.
The vessel was purchased for $156 million and the initial working capital requirements of Sino III have been financed by a $100 million secured first priority loan which carries an interest of 12 per cent per annum the first year, and 11 per cent in the second optional year.
In addition, the company has arranged for a $20 million secured second priority mezzanine loan which also carries an interest of 12 per cent a year, and a $44 million secured third priority loan which carries an interest of 19 per cent p.a and a back-end fee in the amount of $1 million, payable at maturity. Also these loans have a tenor of one option one year.
The latter loan has been provided by Oceanus International Investment, the largest shareholder in the company, and is without recourse to the company. The loan is re-financeable, and it is the company's intention to seek to refinance this loan once the equity markets normalise.
It is also the objective of Sino III to refinance the senior and mezzanine loans with bank financing in China, or elsewhere, as soon as possible and in accordance with the terms of the loans. The work to refinance these loans is already in progress.
With the delivery of the MSC Regulus, the company has completed its present vessel acquisition programme.
The company now operates four container vessels with a total container carrying capacity of 44,000 TEU consisting of YM Portland (4,440 TEU), MSC Vega, MSC Altair and MSC Regulus, which are three Very Large Container Ships (VLCS) each of 13,100 TEU carrying capacity. The fleet makes the company a top tier container ship provider in Europe.
Total aggregated fixed freight income from the vessels in the fleet is projected to be $1 billion over the charter party periods, and the annual EBITDA is estimated to be $60 million.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
SINGAPORE tops latest edition of the World Bank's Logistic Performance Index (LPI) from 155 countries, followed by Hong Kong, Finland, Germany dropping from top spot, the Netherlands with the US making the biggest leap from ninth rank from 15th two years ago, and UK slipping to tenth.
The logistics gap is widening between those in the bottom 10, all low-income countries with eight in Africa, and the top 10 high-income countries since 2010 following three years of improvement by lower performing countries to improve LP scores. This trend was attributed to logistics reform being assigned less importance in favour of global events like the recession, and the European debt crisis.
For these bottom 10 ranked African countries, all are hindered by conflict and natural disasters affecting access to markets outside of those of independent republic Djibouti and Burundi in central Africa, said the World Bank report.
The impact of this on developing countries, and particularly those that are land-locked and poor, means that the cost of transport and logistics bumps up food prices between 20 and 60 per cent. US imported corn to Nicaragua is marked up by as much as 48 per cent, said the World Bank's logistics survey 'Connecting to Compete 2012'.
"Transport and logistics directly affect the price and local availability of food through the performance and resilience of food chains, especially in African and Middle Eastern countries that depend heavily on food imports," the bank said, cited American Shipper.
But Morocco, which was able to implement a comprehensive strategy to its logistics and connectivity to nearby Europe, has since jumped from 113 in 2007 to 50 in 2012. Other countries improving performance included BRIC nations of China and India with Chile, South Africa, Turkey and the US succeeding ahead of others.
Infrastructure is key to progress for those top performers with logistics services, and customs and border management coming close second and third, said World Bank's International Trade manager Mona Haddad: "All top performers show strong cooperation between the public and private sectors, and a comprehensive approach in the development of services, infrastructure and efficient logistics."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
VIETNAM National Shipping Lines, Vinalines, has wasted billions of dollars with foreign partners on running three ineffective ports, namely the Cai Mep Port (CMIT), SP-SSA Port (SSIT) and the Saigon Container International Port (SP-PSA), in the Cai Mep - Thi Vai area.
SP-PSA is the joint venture among Vinalines, the Saigon Port Company and Singaporean PSA International, while CMIT is the joint venture between Vinalines and Danish APM Terminals.
In the period 2007-2010, the three ports suffered a huge total loss of VND252 billion (US$0.01 billion) from an initial investment of VND1,807.82 billion. In 2011, SP-PSA and CMIT reported a loss as high as VND460 billion.
Despite the ports' ability to receive ships of tonnage up to 100,000 DWT and the slashing of fees, the volumes have not materialised. Ships over 50,000 DWT at international transit ports in Vietnam enjoy a maritime security charge discount of 40 per cent and a pilotage fee slashed by half. Container handling fee is at an all-time low of $49 per TEU lower than the regional average of $40 per TEU.
Regardless of the size of vessels docking, the ship owners can only get some hundreds of TEUs rather than full capacity of a 51,000 DWT at 4,500 TEU due to the low volumes in both exports and imports, said Hanjin Shipping Vietnam general director Park Hoon.
CMIT deputy general director Nguyen Xuan Ky said the unexpected drop in volume against the money invested into the ports has investors "worried stiff". The ports will be in the red for at least 12-13 years, according to analysts, cited a report from VietnamNetBridge.
The projects were made under the leadership of former chairman Duong Chi Dung, now under arrest warrant for his mismanagement of Vinalines.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
EUROTUNNEL's rail freight arm Europorte Channel has completed a trial run of unaccompanied semi-trailers from Antwerp, Belgium to Russell Railfreight Terminal, Barking of East London in seven hours.
The freight train's test run carried megatrailers from Dutch carrier's Ewals Cargo Care with automotive components for Vauxhall on High Speed 1 to London.
Europorte Channel commercial director Neil Crossland said he hopes for a daily service which would operate over HS1 at night, return the following night, leaving roughly 20 hours for trailers to be delivered and reloaded, cited a report from Surrey-based Railway Gazette.
It has already had interest in extending the network to the Midlands and the North-West with Network Rail. If the service allows shippers to migrate from trucks to road, supporting environmental strategies, it must compete on price, he added.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
HONG KONG-based Dragonair has announced plans to commence service to Kolkata, its second destination in India after launching flights to Bangalore in 2008.
Subject to government approval and the date on which the new airport terminal is opened, the service to Kolkata will commence in winter 2012 with four flights a week operated by Airbus A320 aircraft, a company statement said.
The service will link the carrier's Hong Kong hub and its Mainland China network to destinations in North America and Australia through connections to the global network of sister airline Cathay Pacific.
"The launch of a new service to Kolkata marks an important step in building Dragonair's presence in the Indian market," said chief executive officer Patrick Yeung. "India is one of the major economies in Asia and the country has an increasing influence on the world stage."
Kolkata will be the seventh destination to be launched or resumed by the airline this year that includes flights to Xi'an, Guilin, Jeju and Taichung since April. It will launch scheduled services to Clark in the Philippines towards the end of May and to Chiang Mai, Thailand in July.
"Brazil is an important market for Cargolux," Mr Reimen said. "It is the economic engine of the region. The presence of multinational companies has stimulated demand for fast and reliable air cargo transport, which is precisely what we offer our customers."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
DESPITE reporting a net loss of US$18.3 million last year, Luxembourg-based freight carrier Cargolux is expanding its network with the launch of two new weekly routes to Chongqing, China, in mid-May and has commenced weekly cargo service to Manaus, Brazil.
A company release said Cargolux will fly from Luxembourg to Manaus via Sao Paulo, and then route through Quito, Ecuador; Bogata; and Maastricht, Netherlands, before returning to Luxembourg.
On Cargolux's first route to Chongqing, it will depart from Luxembourg, route through Doha, Qatar, and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and then arrive at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport the next evening. The carrier will then return to Luxembourg via Singapore; Kuala Lumpur; and Baku, Azerbaijan, one day later.
Cargolux's second service to Chongqing will route through Tbilisi, Georgia; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Singapore and then return to Luxembourg via Baku, according to the press release.
The decision to launch two weekly flights to Chongqing was based on the region's immense airfreight growth, added Mr Reimen. "We see a lot of potential in Chongqing, not least because of the planned expansion of the airport's cargo facilities to accommodate the region's burgeoning export market."
Cargolux expects to see large volumes of electronics, automotive parts and pharmaceuticals out of Chongqing. On the carrier's new Brazil route, transport equipment, footwear, cars and iron ore are projected to be the key exports, while machinery, chemical products, oil, electronics and automotive spare parts will likely comprise the main imports into Manaus' Eduardo Gomes International Airport.
"Brazil is an important market for Cargolux," Mr Reimen said. "It is the economic engine of the region. The presence of multinational companies has stimulated demand for fast and reliable air cargo transport, which is precisely what we offer our customers."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
RUSSIA's AirBridgeCargo Airlines has inaugurated a new service from Moscow to Chongqing, Zhengzhou and back to Moscow, raising the number of Chongqing's international freighter service to 17, Xinhua reports.
The new service offers two flights per week on Tuesday and Friday, using Boeing 747-400 freighter. The flight arrives at Chongqing at 0015 hrs and leaves at 0315 hrs.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
Sintana Energy (TSXV:SNN) recently announced the closing of an exciting business combination with ColCan, a private Canadian company, to acquire their oil and gas assets in Colombia.
InvestmentPitch.com has produced a "video news alert" summarizing these projects. If this link is not enabled, please visit www.InvestmentPitch.com and enter "Sintana" in the search box.
Sintana is currently partnered with Petrodorado in the Talora block and with Canacol in the COR-39 and COR 11 blocks - all located in the Upper Magdalena Basin.
Under the terms of the agreement, ColCan contributed its interests in the VMM-15, 37 and 4 Blocks in Middle Magdalena Basin and the LLA-18 Block in the prolific Llanos Basin.
Sintana's CEO, Doug Manner stated, "The four new assets involved in this transaction provide Sintana with a significant advancement towards our strategic goals in the area. They enhance our prospect inventory and add tremendous reserve potential, both conventional and unconventional. The 25% carried interests in three of the blocks, as well as the 100% working interest in VMM-37, which could be farmed out for additional capital carries, allows Sintana to significantly increase its drilling inventory with minimal additional capital required."
The Magdalena is the oldest producing basin in Columbia. Major players such as Shell Oil, Ecopetrol, Lewis Energy, Canacol and others are also positioned in the region due to its huge, unconventional shale oil potential.
Two of the new blocks, the VMM-37 and VMM-4, are ideally located in this unconventional fairway.
Recently, Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil and gas company acquired interests in the VMM-2 right next to Sintana's VMM-4 property. The attraction to this area is the fact that the shale is potentially 3 to 4 times thicker than the Eagle Ford Shale found in Texas.
The conventional and unconventional resource estimates in the Middle Magdalena are considerable - ranging from several billion to almost 40 billion barrels of oil.
The Sintana business combination was conditional upon a minimum 11 million dollar financing being completed by ColCan prior to closing. To complete the financing, ColCan entered into a bought deal financing with a syndicate of agents co-led by Canaccord Genuity and Cormark Securities which also includes Casimir, GMP and Clarus.
In other news, Sintana recently began its exploration program on the 175,000 acre Bayovar Block in Peru with 10 wells already permitted. Details on this program can be found on the company's website.
Sintana Energy has offices in Toronto, Dallas and Bogota and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol SNN.
Sintana currently trades at $0.15, and with approximately 114 million shares outstanding, is capitalized at $17 million.
Hugin Online
The United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) names 13,500 TEU containership in Hamburg on 25 May.
The AIN SNAN was delivered after a nine-month building phase in January of this year. The UMM SALAL, the first of nine UASC new builds in this size class already went into service in June 2011. During the course of the first five months of this year all nine vessels have been delivered from the builder Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard in Korea, with whom the order was placed in July 2008.
The 366-metre-long and 48 metre-wide ultra large container ship (ULCS) has a loading capacity of over 145,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage), providing a capacity of more than 800 slots for refrigerated containers.
The ship is deployed on the AEC8 Far East – Red Sea – Europe Service in which CMA CGM and CSCL shipping lines are also partners which they market as FAL 2 / AEX 7.
In addition, Yang Ming, Hanjin, COSCO, have booked slots on this service. The port rotation is: Hamburg, Zeebrügge, Jeddah, Port Klang, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Hong Kong, Yantian, Port Klang, Jeddah, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg.
UASC invited around 100 customers, shipping company representatives, as well as the terminal operator Eurogate to the naming ceremony. During the reception it was possible to visit the containership. The Deputy Harbour Master, Andreas Brummermann personally on board for the ship’s naming ceremony, welcomed the Captain, Nazr Ul Islam and presented him with a plaque bearing the Admiralty Coat of Arms of the Port of Hamburg.
In the presence of UASC Vice President Europe, Bjarne Ehlig-Jensen, the naming ceremony was carried out by Emanuel Schiffer (Eurogate Management). The AIN SNAN was named with water from Zamzam spring in Mecca, Saudi-Arabia. These waters are said to rise from Paradise and have healing powers.
Being on her maiden voyage 13,500 TEU vessel MALIK AL ASHTAR, a sister ship of the AIN SNAN, moored at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai at the same time and therefore joined the ceremony from over there.
Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V.
On May 25, according to a schedule beautiful Italian liner COSTA MEDITERRANEA moored at the berth #15 of the passenger terminal of Odessa port. It is the 5th visit of the ship's to South Palmyra. The city met the ship with music and empty streets (on the eve it was the strongest rain in the last 10 years, which made the traffic difficult in many city districts). The passengers were happy to meet with Ukrainian shore after the "breakthrough" through the stormy winds and waves. The liner came from Constanta and at 18.00 will head to Yalta. During 10 hours moorage the tourists (1933 persons onboard in total) will have time to see the sights of the city on the bus and walking tours. During the moorage of the ship travel agencies have driven 31 tour buses. The liner COSTA MEDITERRANEA (the length of 292.5 meters, flag Italy) is the fourth in length and passenger capacity cruise ship this season. The ship was built and launched in 2002 at the New Shipyard in Helsinki (Finland) is a twin ship of Costa Atlantica. Its interior is made in the style of classical decoration of the old castles of Italy. The ship belongs to the cruise company Costa Crociere.
Odessa Commercial Sea Port
APM Terminals has submitted a proposal to the Commonwealth of Virginia for a strategic partnership with the Port of Virginia, which the terminal operator values at between US$3 and $4 billion.
APM Terminals is offering to operate all the Port of Virginia's facilities in Hampton Roads and related inland locations under a long-term concession agreement with the Virginia Port Authority (VPA).
Under the terms of the proposal, APM Terminals will transfer ownership of its facility in Portsmouth to the Commonwealth. APM Terminals will also pay concession fees, make additional capital investments, and provide a share of the operations' revenue to the VPA.
"We are excited about this proposed next step in our relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia Port Authority," said Eric Sisco, APM Terminals Americas Region president in a company statement.
"Our commitment to Hampton Roads has been long and substantial. We have operated in the port for over 30 years, and the $540 million we spent to build our Portsmouth facility represents one of the largest private investments ever made in the Commonwealth."
The proposal submitted under the guidelines of the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act will undergo a detailed review in the coming months. The 50 page document has been submitted to the Commonwealth of Virginia's Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships and can be obtained by going to: http://www.vappta.org/unsolicited_conceptual_ppta_proposal_brto_operate_port_of_virginia.asp
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
APL, a unit of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), and Pacific International Lines (PIL) is to launch a new joint service linking the Far East and Red Sea.
In a joint statement made by both carriers, APL and PIL said the Red Sea is an important market for exporters in Central and Southern China. By providing weekly sailings from major Asian ports, as well as competitive transit times from Asia to Red Sea ports via the trans-shipment hub in Singapore, both lines are confident that their customers would be well-served with these new connections.
The joint service will deploy eight post-panamax vessels of about 6000-TEU capacity of which three will be operated by APL and PIL five vessels. The port rotation of the new service will be as follows: Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Chiwan, Nansha, Singapore, Djibouti, Aden, Jeddah, Sukhna, Aqaba, Djibouti, Singapore, Nansha and Shanghai. The first vessel will begin its maiden voyage on June 21.
Singapore-based PIL is ranked 19th amongst the top containership operators in the world, owns and operates a fleet of about 143 vessels with a total capacity of about 287,687 TEU.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
EMIRATES Shipping Line has announced plans to introduce a General Rate Increase on its services from the Far East and South East Asia to East Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.
The Dubai-registered carrier said in a statement that the move is in light of recent market developments and in line with market conditions.
From June 1, it will raise the freight rate on its Far East and South East Asia to East Africa trade lane by US$250 per TEU.
On the same date it will increase the freight rate for its container shipping services from the Far East and South East Asia to the Indian Subcontinent by $200/TEU. This will be followed by a second GRI of $150 applicable to this trade lane on June 15.
Likewise, a GRI of $400/TEU on June 1 will be levied on its services from the Far East and South East Asia to the Middle East, followed by a second rate hike of $300/TEU on June 15.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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