2012-05-22
Ships Electronic Services (SES), a leading supplier of marine electronics equipment, has announced that the company has been awarded a £375,000 contract to supply all the navigation and communications equipment for two new Hybrid Ferries building at Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow for Caledonian Marine Assets.
These will be the world’s first hybrid diesel electric Ro Ro vehicle and passenger ferries to enter service and will be operating the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service from spring 2013. The green technology will be incorporated throughout the ships, supplying a minimum of 20% of the energy consumed on board.
SES has a long standing relationship with Fergusons, supplying and installing electronic and communication equipment for a number of the yards projects. Richard Dean, Managing Director of Ferguson Shipbuilders commented, “These are important vessels for the yard and show Scottish ship building at the forefront of green technology, substantially reducing fuel usage and emissions. We are delighted to be working once again with SES who have provided exceptional service to the yard over the years.”
Director of SES, Colin Anderson based at the company’s Grangemouth offices, said “We are proud to be associated with Fergusons and this world first. This is the latest in a line of contracts won by us for major commercial projects. We represent some of the industry’s largest electronic manufacturers, providing us with the ability to specify exactly what our customers require to create a reliable and cost effective electronics and communications solution. We also have service centres around the UK coastline, a 24 hour helpline and engineers capable of travelling globally to provide our customers with the best service wherever they operate.”
SES will be fitting a full specification of electronics on the hybrid ferries including Furuno Radars and Transas ECDIS. A complex double ended heading system from Raytheon Anschuetz will be installed enabling all the headings to the AIS, ECDIS and Autopilot to be changed 180 degrees, along with all the navigation lights, at the touch of a single switch. They will also be supplying the Autopilot system which utilises their extensive interfacing knowledge with the Voith Schneider drive units.
Saltwater Communications
3 x P 220B access platforms supplied to Oslo Liftutleie
Whether hire or municipal use - platforms by PALFINGER PLATFORMS meet the highest demands for profitability and work safety required in the “pick up & go” business. PALFINGER PLATFORMS dominates the 3.5 t class. The most recent example of this is the handover of three P 220B access platforms to the prestigious Norwegian hire company Oslo Liftutleie.
Oslo Liftutleie manages a vehicle pool of approx. 30 truck-mounted access platforms with working heights between 14 and 62 m. Seventeen of these access platforms come from the PALFINGER PLATFORMS stable. Things will continue in the same vein following handover of the three new P 220B models. PALFINGER Norge will shortly supply this customer with another two PD 140 V and a P 300KS.
PALFINGER AG
Communications and safety at sea specialist, Ocean Signal has further strengthened its worldwide presence by appointing Australia’s leading marine electronics distributor and service company, Taylor Marine as the dedicated Australian distributor. Based in both Henderson, Western Australia and Brisbane, Queensland, Taylor Marine will be responsible for distributing Ocean Signal’s SafeSea range of GMDSS products, which are fully approved for use by Australian registered vessels.
“We are excited to have been appointed by Ocean Signal as its dedicated distributor for the Australian market. The SafeSea portfolio offers easy battery replacement and superior battery performance, so we are confident about being able to grow sales of the product range and look forward to working with the team at Ocean Signal moving forward,” comments David Maitland, Managing Director, Taylor Marine.
Ocean Signal’s SafeSea portfolio offers highly reliable and easy-to-use GMDSS products, which includes the V100 GMDSS hand-held radio, as well as the E100 and E100G EPIRBS and S100 SART.
Saltwater Communications
THE Asian Shipowners' Forum (ASF), supported by the Japanese Shipowners' Association (JSA), are protesting proposed Panama Canal toll increases, saying that they were made without consultation and at a time when the industry can least afford them.
"Under the current economic situation, the newly proposed toll increase would be detrimental to the shipping industry," said the ASF, which was separately issued by the JSA.
"The ASF urges the ACP [Panama Canal Authority] to withdraw its current proposal for toll adjustments in 2012 and 2013 and to maintain a close and interactive dialogue with the shipping industry to ensure that toll adjustments would be reasonable, transparent and gradually implemented," said the statement.
This comes in response to the ACP announcement of its intention to raise tolls in July and again next year 2013 and to modify the toll structure. The ACP has invited comments.
Said the ASF statement: "Given the importance of the Panama Canal as an international public infrastructure vital for efficient operation of the global supply chain, the notice period for the proposed toll increase given by the ACP was too short.
"The proposed toll increase was unilaterally formulated without any form of consultation or dialogue with the shipping industry and the ASF is of the view that this may inhibit business planning which could possibly lead to reduction in the total revenue received by the ACP," the statement said.
The ASF would also request the ACP to review its pricing policy to increase tolls at an annual 3.5 per cent average rate for 20 years, which was referred to in the "Proposals for the Expansion of the Panama Canal" in April 2006.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
THE Canadian Pacific Railway faces an imminent strike by 4,800 employees over pension reform brought in by the company's new interim CEO whose appointment has resulted from a fierce proxy battle, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.
The strike is over the appointment of new management following weeks of board-level battling between the old board and a major shareholder Bill Ackman, of New York's Pershing Square Capital Management, who successfully removed the old CEO Fred Green, replacing him with railway industry veteran Stephen Tobias as caretaker CEO.
The Teamsters Canada union ended its five-year contract on December 30, and now worried that Calgary-based CP will place new employees on less generous pensions in an effort to turn around underperforming freight operations.
Said CP chief operations officer Mike Franczak: "The offer on pension aligns with the industry and allows the railway to remain competitive as we invest in strategic infrastructure upgrades along our network."
Mr Franczak said the offer is fair. "We are willing to enter into binding arbitration or negotiation period extensions should an agreement not be reached at this stage," he said.
"This would ensure the continued operations of freight and commuter trains on CP's Canadian network for the benefit of our customers. Any extension to the bargaining process requires consent of the union or action of the federal government," he said.
Mr Ackman, 46, is CP's largest shareholder with a 14.2-per-cent stake. He and six other Pershing Square nominees now serve on CP's new board. Pershing Square is touting its recovery plan to chop CP's annualised operating ratio to 65 per cent within four years of replacing Mr Green.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
LONDON's Drewry Maritime's Carrier Performance Insight team reports that service standards in the container shipping are as low as 40 per cent when weighed against key performance indicators.
For "on-time shipment of cargo", whether a container leaves port as scheduled had a success rate of 66-70 per cent, showing delays were common before loading.
"An average score of 70 per cent is far too low for a key service industry," said Drewry research chief Simon Heaney. "Carriers will have to aim higher."
The most reliable carriers, said the report were Maersk Line and sister company Safmarine followed by Hanjin.
Four in 10 shippers obtained a bill of lading within three days of submitting shipping instructions, said the report. Performances ranged between zero per cent and 93 per cent over the October 2011 to February 2012 survey period, reported London's International Freighting Weekly. Transit times noted were better, but 25 per cent of containers spent longer at sea than planned.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
CHINA Merchants Logistics is to build a distribution centre in eastern China's inland City of Hefei, which will be the state-run group's first project in Hefei, Xinhua reports.
The facility will cost CNY1.1 billion (US$174.1 million) and take up an area of 17.53 hectares. It will offer supply chain service for local manufacturers of home appliances, automobile, machines, pharmaceutical and other consumer products.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
SOUTHERN China's island province of Hainan has built an agricultural product trading and logistics centre in the northern city of Tianjin.
This is Hainan's first such facility outside the province, and is invested by the Hainan provincial government to secure steady sales volume of Hainan's farm products in northern China, Xinhua reports.
The facility cost CNY286 million (US$45.2 million) to build, occupying 15.14 hectares, comprising of three trading halls, one exhibition hall. It will offer cold chain logistics services such refrigerated transportation and storage for the perishables.
The facility will develop into a distribution hub for agricultural products from Hainan, northern and eastern China, and even those from Japan, Korea and Russia.
Hainan's agricultural product sales volume in the Bohai Rim region accounts for more than a quarter of provincial produce sales.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
GUANGZHOU is to widen the range of its existing logistics indexes to better reflect the development of the industry, Xinhua reports.
Guangzhou will add logistics industry added value, social logistics cost (the cost of all logistics operations), social logistics industry output and social logistics value to the existing cargo transportation volume and turnover volume. (Social logistics in a mainland term encompassing all logistics business from micro to macro.)
An Guangzhou Transportation Commission official pointed out that more detailed indexes can help government devise better policies for the future development of the logistics industry and can be a better indicator for the enterprises to refer to and adjust their strategy and allocate their resources.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
CARGOTEC has established Rainbow-Cargotec Industries Co Ltd (RCI) in a joint venture with Jiangsu Rainbow Heavy Industries north of Shanghai.
Cargotec's ownership in the joint venture is 49 per cent and its equity investment in the joint venture is EUR30 million (US$38.35 million).
The joint venture RCI will build a new facility to Taicang in China to increase Cargotec's delivery capacity, a company statement said. The foundation stone of the facility will be laid in June.
RCI is tasked with providing heavy crane solutions globally and seizing growth opportunities in the Chinese and global markets. The joint venture will focus on ship-to-shore cranes, rubber-tyre gantries (RTG), rail mounted gantry cranes and marine specialty cranes.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
DUBAI's DP World chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and vice chairman Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah have made a tour of inspection of their DP World Dakar terminal in Senegal.
Mr Bin Sulayem and Mr Bin Thaniah also toured Terminal Conteneur, West Africa's largest and most modern container facility, managed and operated by DP World Dakar.
Four quay cranes and 10 rubber tyre gantries (RTG) were installed at the terminal recently, completing the upgrading work, which included a new gate complex and new reefer storage facilities, said the DP World statement.
The terminal opened last November after DP World carried out new expansion work that more than doubled capacity to 600,000 TEU under a concession agreement signed in 2007.
Said Mr Bin Sulayem: "As the most modern and efficient terminal in western Africa, DP World Dakar acts as a growth engine in a rapidly developing emerging market region."
Since winning the Dakar concession in 2007, DP World has introduced window berthing, where vessels book a specific time they can berth, virtually eliminating waiting time at anchorage, said the release.
DP World has also reduced truck turnarounds to less than half an hour and introduced clear tariffs and processes supported by modern technology systems.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
WITH EBIT down 2.2 per cent and cash-flow off by 19.8 per cent, Australia's Toll Group is considering the future of its Japanese trucker Footwork and other loss-making divisions, according to the UK's Transport Intelligence.
"Continued pressure from the soft retail sector in Australia affected the financial performance of our domestic businesses with an exposure to that sector, together with weakness in the global apparel sector impacted on volumes and EBIT in Toll Global Forwarding," said Toll managing director Brian Kruger.
This, he said, has prompted the company to take "a close look at underperforming businesses and are already undertaking strategic reviews of Footwork Express, Toll Marine Logistics Asia and Toll Refrigerated."
Toll Group quarterly revenue was up 4.7 per cent at A$4.43 billion (US$4.407 billion) with EBITDA increased 5.2 per cent at A$380 million (US$377 million).
Toll's forwarding division, results were affected Footwork's problems which experienced a revenue decline of two per cent. Without Footwork numbers, the division would have made 5.7 per cent more revenue and 3.8 per cent more EBITDA.
Reporting a "swing from air freight to ocean freight in the retail sector during calendar 2012", Toll said its first quarter ocean freight volume came in at 248,000 TEU while air freight stood at 66,000 tonnes.
This shift from air to sea was common to all markets, with importers in all regions minimising high-cost air cargo services, said the report.
Toll Global Logistics revenue was up 4.8 per cent and EBITDA increased 11.8 per cent. Here, contract logistics in Asian markets generally prospered, with chemical, FMCG, and automotive logistics growing in markets such as Singapore and Malaysia. But the China business was hit by rising costs of labour and fuel.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
PROJECTS FPS - the recently-established project forwarding and third-party logistics arm of Famous Pacific Shipping Lanka - has cleared and delivered a 9,000 cubic metre shipment of brewery equipment from Colombo to a new brewery at Meegoda, 35 kilometres inland.
The project - which included 37 stainless steel tanks, the largest of which measured 15 metres long and five metres in diameter - arrived in Colombo aboard a chartered vessel from Denmark.
Project FPS, a member of FPS, with its permanent secretariat in Hong Kong, transported the tanks inland over 10 nights, using two purpose-built 15 metre long low-loader trailers with rear steering to negotiate turns in the road.
The trip to the new Millers brewery also involved passing under many low-hanging telecoms and power cables. This required the assistance of staff from Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Telecom. All movements were conducted under police escort.
Said Project FPS manager Mohan Lazarus: "This was a massive undertaking. Although the route was short, it included many challenging obstacles. But everything went well, and the customer was pleased. We would like to thank the police and utilities staff for their help throughout."
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
RUSSIAN tycoon Sergei Generalov, the controlling shareholder and president of Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), has decided to sell the country's once the country's biggest shipping company after disputes with the Kremlin over his ambitions, reports New York's Business Insider.
The reported sale talks are a signal that Generalov is willing to sell if he is paid enough, reported Russia's often controversial business daily, Kommersant. The reported buyer is Summa Capital. owned by Ziyavudin Magmedov, a rival of Mr Generalov's ports and container activities.
Maritime industry sources said they were not surprised at the planned sale as FESCO is struggling and Mr Generalof's expansion plans into container handling and rail logistics has been thwarted by Russian Railways (RZD) boss Vladimir Yakunin and the Ministry of Transport.
Their opposition has also made the profitability of Mr Generalov's railway operations vulnerable to state competition, said the report.
Mr Generalov wanted to buy control of Transcontainer, the state-owned rail carrier and dominant intermodal players, but was blocked by Mr Yakunin and the Kremlin. FESCO's market value has reportedly collapsed from a peak of US$3.5 billion in 2008 to $700 million and $1 billion since January.
Mr Generalov holds 56 per cent of FESCO through his holding of Industrial Investors. Another 13 per cent is held as treasury stock through an offshore entity called Neteller Holdings. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and East Capital holds four per cent and a Swedish investment fund has seven per cent. Public shareholders of Moscow-listed FESCO hold 20 per cent.
FESCO's shipping generates 10 per cent of its operating profit, while its port terminals add another 22 per cent. If Mr Magomedov takes over, and combines it with his quarter-share in the Novorossiysk and Primorsk port companies, he may improve his status as a preferred bidder.
Mr Magomedov may then figure more in the privatisation of other port assets around the country, as well as in the government's privatisation plan for Transcontainer, said the report.
Mr Generalov's exit reportedly reflects the weakening of Russia's container business, and the intensification of competition between Russian box carriers. The slowing of growth of Russia's container volumes, reported as the third quarter gave way to the fourth quarter last year, has now turned into an outright decline in the latest figures released for the first quarter by Transcontainer.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
AN Air Cargo Carrier Shorts SD-360, on a freight flight from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Houston Intercontinental, with two crew aboard, had already landed on Houston's runway 27 and was taxiing when fire broke out in the brakes of the right main landing gear.
The aircraft stopped, emergency services responded deploying numerous fire engines and put the fire out, reported the accident tracking Aviation Herald of Salzburg, Austria. No injuries occurred, the aircraft however received substantial damage to the right hand main gear and right wing, said the report.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the aircraft was already on the taxiway when a tyre caught fire causing substantial damage to the aircraft. The FAA is investigating the occurrence.
Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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