New Ku-Band PLL LNB Module Enables One LNB to be Used in All Regions Across All Satellite Frequencies

Intellian has made a significant advance in technology for Ku-band VSAT antennas, allowing operators to be prepared for any changes in the future operational regions of their vessels or changes in service providers. The introduction of the ground-breaking and patent-pending Intellian Global PLL LNB, presents the world’s first Ku-band LNB module capable of receiving a full range of operating frequencies from any VSAT satellite around the globe. This means that operators will no longer need to change the LNB in the antenna.

The new Intellian Global PLL LNB is a dedicated solution designed for global operation. Users can define the required LO (Local Oscillator) frequency or select from a pre-programmed LO library in the Intellian antenna control unit. The PLL LNB incorporates user programmable support of an unlimited number of LO frequencies and is capable of substituting any type of LNB products on the market. The set up procedure can even be handled from a remote IP access at any time and any location. The Global PLL LNB is also compliant with OpenAMIP, providing for seamless control from the iDirect Hub infrastructure.

Designed and manufactured by Intellian engineers specifically for marine VSAT, the Global PLL LNB is fine tuned for the Intellian VSAT product line to enhance overall system performance. With the highest frequency stability of + 10KHz as standard, the units have been tested by Intellian’s rigorous and extensive in-house testing programme to guarantee exceptional accuracy and ensure that the Global PLL LNB offers superb performance and long term reliability. The PLL LNB will operate over the following standard LO Frequencies 9.75, 10.0, 10.25, 10.5, 10.6, 10.678, 10.7, 10.75, 10.8, 11.0, 11.05, 11.2, 11.25 and 11.3 GHz, as well as any special dedicated frequencies, ensuring future proof operation, and allowing the operator to fine-tune LOs to maximize performance for their specific environment.

The Global PLL LNB is now available as standard for all Intellian Ku-band VSAT series antennas, providing a one-time investment, which can adapt to the operator’s changes in provider requirements or operating regions without the need for hardware changes, or service visit to the vessel.

Once again Intellian has developed technology to assist global operators to provide seamless satellite communications that can be relied upon well into the future.

Source Intellian Technologies

In the past few years airBaltic achieved unprecedented growth that turned Riga into the only functioning transit hub in the Baltic region. However, it came at a cost to the airline. airBaltic has now been stabilised. Currently, we are focusing on reshaping our business, to achieve improvements of LVL 330 million in the next five years, and return to profitability in 2014.
Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic

The new business plan, airBaltic ReShape, outlines the future development of the carrier, including the fleet modernisation, cost optimisation, operational efficiency, revenue enhancement and network improvements. By implementing airBaltic ReShape, the carrier plans improvements of LVL 330 million in the five years 2012-2016. airBalticReShape aims to return the carrier to profitability in 2014.

airBaltic will modernise its fleet to operate two types of aircraft in the future – Bombardier Q400 Next Gen turboprop for regional flights, and either Airbus 319 or Boeing 737 New Generation. The modernised fleet will allow airBaltic to operate more efficiently and retain focus on affordable tickets to Europe, Middle East, Russia/CIS, and increase flight frequencies to the highly demanded destinations.

airBaltic serves 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

Source airBaltic

Montreal- The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2011 accident rate for Western-built jets was the lowest in aviation history, surpassing the previous mark set in 2010.

The 2011 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets) was 0.37, the equivalent of one accident every 2.7 million flights. This represented a 39% improvement compared to 2010, when the accident rate was 0.61, or one accident for every 1.6 million flights. A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and not subsequently repaired for whatever reason including a financial decision by the owner.

“Safety is the air transport industry’s number one priority. It is also a team effort. The entire stakeholder community—airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and safety regulators--works together every day to make the skies safer based on global standards. As a result, flying is one of the safest things that a person could do. But, every accident is one too many, and each fatality is a human tragedy. The ultimate goal of zero accidents keeps everyone involved in aviation focused on building an ever safer industry,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Safety by the numbers:

2.8 billion people flew safely on 38 million flights (30 million by jet, 8 million by turboprop)
11 hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets compared to 17 in 2010
92 total accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) down from 94 in 2010
5 fatal hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets down from 8 in 2010
22 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) versus 23 in 2010
486 fatalities compared to 786 in 2010
Fatality rate dropped to 0.07 per million passengers from 0.21 in 2010 based on Western-built jet operations

IATA member airlines outperformed the industry average for accidents of all aircraft types by 23% (1.84 accidents per million flights compared to 2.40). The IATA Western-built jet hull loss rate, at 0.41 accidents per million flights, was slightly higher than the average for the industry.

“The accident rate for airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry was 52% better than for non-IOSA operators. These numbers show that IOSA is helping to drive safety improvements for the entire industry, not just IATA member airlines. Of the 369 airlines on the IOSA registry, 130, or 35% of the total, are non-IATA member airlines,” said Tyler. He noted that  IOSA registered airlines flew 64% of all commercial flights in 2011, and that IOSA now includes 68 Safety Management System (SMS) standards that provide a baseline SMS assessment.

Regional Review—Western-built Jet Hull Loss Rates

Asia-Pacific (0.25), Europe (0.0), North America (0.10) and North Asia (0.0) performed better than the global average of 0.37.
Asia-Pacific, Europe and North Asia recorded improvements compared to their performance in 2010, while North America stayed the same.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (1.06) was higher than the global average and also higher than last year (0.0).
Latin America and the Caribbean performed better than 2010 (1.28 in 2011 vs.1.87 in 2010), but was still almost 3.5 times worse than the global average.
The rate for the Middle East and North Africa region worsened to 2.02 from 0.72 in 2010.
The rate for Africa improved by 56% to 3.27 from 7.41 in 2010 but still was the worst performing region in the industry. IOSA carriers in Africa had a zero hull loss rate in 2011.

Safety in Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

The total number of accidents for African airlines dropped from 18 in 2010 to 8 in 2011. The total accident rate for African airlines that are on the IOSA registry was almost equivalent to the world average, while the accident rate for airlines that are not on the IOSA registry was more than five times as high. The same trend occurred in the CIS, where the accident rate for IOSA-registered airlines was more than five times better than the rate for non-IOSA registered airlines.

“The problems of Africa are complex and include both insufficient government oversight and a lack of infrastructure investment. It is quite clear from the industry’s performance that global standards like IOSA are an effective means to improve safety. We are eager to work with governments to make IOSA a part of their safety oversight programs,” said Tyler.

Accident Analysis

Runway excursions, in which an aircraft departs a runway during a landing or takeoff, were the most common type of accident in 2011 (18% of total accidents). This is slightly reduced from 2010 when runway excursions accounted for 21% of total accidents reflecting industry efforts to reduce their frequency. Despite industry growth, the absolute number of runway excursions decreased from 23 in 2009 to 20 in 2010 and 17 in 2011. Eighty eight percent of runway excursions occurred during landing. Unstable approaches--situations where the aircraft is too fast, above the glide slope, or touches down beyond the desired touchdown point--and contaminated runways are among the most common contributing factors to runway excursions on landing.

IATA’s Global Safety Information Center (GSIC) provides trend analysis that is helping the industry improve performance.  For example, a new Flight Data eXchange (FDX) system within the GSIC tracks unstable approach performance for the more than 700 airports in the database. Sharing such safety data complements the work of the Runway Excursion Risk Reduction (RERR) Toolkit, the second edition of which was launched in May 2011, and fuels global efforts to find solutions.

Ground damage was another concern, accounting for 16% of accidents in 2011. This was up from 11% in 2010. These accidents include events such as damage resulting from ground handling operations and collisions during taxi. IATA has launched a number of initiatives to address ground accidents. In 2008, IATA launched the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO). This is the first global standard for the oversight and auditing of ground handling companies. Subsequently, IATA has launched the IATA Ground Operations Manual (IGOM) and the Aircraft Ground Damage Database (GDDB) to collect and analyze reports of ground damage from participating operators and ground service providers.

Sharing Information

Data sharing is helping to identify and reduce risks. In 2010 the International Civil Aviation Organization, the US Department of Transportation and the European Commission agreed with IATA to create the Global Safety Information Exchange (GSIE). This was enriched in 2011 with the addition of databases covering ground damage and flight data. “The wider that we cast our net to collect safety information, the more effective we can be in allocating resources to mitigate identified risks. Further developing GSIE is a model for international cooperation that continues aviation’s great tradition in this area,” said Tyler.

“Aviation’s good record is not the result of complacency. The strong performance in 2011 should not distract us from the need for continuous improvement to drive the accident rate even lower. An even safer future will be built on the foundation stones of global standards, cooperation between industry and government and information sharing,” said Tyler.

IATA

BP announced today that the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP) has approved its farm-in to four deepwater exploration and production concessions operated by PetrĆ³leo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) in the Brazilian equatorial margin

BP Energy do Brasil Ltda. is taking a 40 per cent interest in each of the blocks, located in the Barreirinhas and CearĆ basins, from Petrobras.

The move will give BP access to four new concession blocks in Brazil: BM-BAR-3 and BM-BAR-5 in the Barreirinhas basin, and BM-CE-1 and BM-CE-2 in the CearĆ basin. Together the blocks cover a total area of 2,113 square kilometres.

BP is building on our strengths in exploration and the deepwater and these four new blocks bring exciting new exploration opportunities, adding to the already significant position we hold in Brazil, said Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive. I am pleased that this also deepens our strong relationship with Petrobras, one of the world leading deepwater operators.

Guillermo Quintero, BP Brazil President added: Over the past year, in addition to acquiring ten upstream concessions from Devon Energy in May, we have made major investments in biofuels and expanded our aviation business in Brazil. I am delighted with this continued growth of our presence in Brazil.

Following the farm-in, BP will hold concessions in 14 blocks in Brazil, operating six. BP will be a partner with Petrobras in nine of these concession areas: the Xerelete field, BM-C-34 and BM-C-35 (in the Campos basin); BT-PN-2 and BT-PN-3 (in the ParnaĆ­ba basin); BM-BAR-3 and BM-BAR-5 (in the Barreirinhas basin) and BM-CE-1 and BM-CE-2 (in CearĆ basin).

Source BP

The MAN SE Executive Board, the MAN SE Works Council, and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) have signed a Joint Declaration on Human Rights and Working Conditions in the MAN Group. In it, they profess their support for basic human rights and employee rights. The Agreement aims to create a reliable set of minimum standards that all MAN employees worldwide can refer to while also laying the ethical foundation for the actions of the Company and its employees.

Commenting on this move, MAN SE CHRO Jörg Schwitalla said: "A company can only succeed if it shares values and has a culture of mutual respect. With this Agreement, we are anchoring socially responsible conduct in corporate culture and leadership as well as providing the workforce with the necessary support for its actions."

IG Metall Chairman and IMF President Berthold Huber backed this, saying: "The Agreement stands for the joint interest in social values in the industry and the need for regulation in the interests of the workforce, not just in Germany, but all over the world. In a globalized economy, the rights of employees have to be respected everywhere. We are taking a concrete step toward this today."

Jürgen Dorn, Chairman of the MAN Groups Work Council, added: "The International Framework Agreement enables colleagues and those representing their interests around the world to champion further improvements in their working conditions themselves. It is only through ideal working conditions and mutual recognition that sustainable financial success can be achieved and guaranteed for the benefit of the workforce and the Company."

The Group's Management and the employee representatives of MAN have been debating the Agreement since last year. Both parties agree that social responsibility and the ability to compete are mutually dependent. The principles now agreed are based on the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) but also take their own approach. The declaration is intended to reflect different cultures and the diversity of moral concepts in society. The Group's Management will now report on implementation of the principles regularly every year and debate it with the parties to the Agreement.

Source MAN SE

VR Group put much effort last year into developing its services. Development projects and higher costs were visible aspects of this. The Group’s net result weakened from the previous year.

“We are building VR Group into a modern service company, and this can be seen in terms of several development projects and higher costs. We are using the Group’s funds above all to develop services and we are working to improve customer satisfaction. We have divested some of our international operations and aim now to concentrate on our main business in Finland,” states President and CEO Mikael Aro.

The Group’s net result was poor in 2011. The Group’s operating profit was M€ 20.9 (43.1) and the profit for the period was M€ 15.3 (30.0). Net turnover amounted to M€ 1,437.2, a 1.0 % increase on the previous year. The Group’s financial position remained strong.

“We have a very challenging year behind us, and the net result was just half the previous year’s figure. The instability in the overall economic climate affected the logistics business in particular, and demand fell off in the second half of the year,” says Mikael Aro.

“We expect 2012 to be a clearly better year than 2011. The renewal of passenger service tickets has started to have a visible effect, with an increase in the number of passengers and in ticket sales. Customer satisfaction is improving. Infrastructure Engineering has boosted its competitive standing. The outlook for logistics remains uncertain, however,” states Mikael Aro.

Source VR Group

The EU is funding research to learn more about how bacteria and other microorganisms can better survive toxic settings so that they can be used to clean hazardous waste sites. Breakthroughs could help communities clean up abandoned chemical plants, polluted military bases, leaky fuel tanks and other sources of soil and water pollution throughout Europe.

Scientists discovered in the 1970s that certain types of bacteria could be used to clean up toxic waste - literally by consuming and digesting it. However, many types of pollution-eating bacteria that did their jobs in laboratories did not work so well when they were introduced to contaminated sites. They simply starved and died before consuming any of the waste.

Researchers with the EU-funded "BACSIN" project are working to overcome this critical challenge: helping bacteria survive after they are released into highly toxic environments.

"The idea was simple: we could go to a catalogue, pick out a bacteria - A, B, C - apply it to the contaminated area, and then the contaminated area would be gone," said BACSIN coordinator Jan Roelof van der Meer of University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "But this hardly ever works in practice. You can't just spray bacteria on the pollution."

Marking significant progress, van der Meer's team has discovered that plants can be used to protect bacteria after they are placed in toxic settings by giving them a place to live on their roots and providing nutrients. Plant seeds and the roots of saplings are coated with or soaked in the bacteria, which then "grow with" the plants, van der Meer said. After the plants are placed in a toxic site, he said, the plants' roots provide nutrients and protection to the bacteria. Because healthy bacteria multiply spontaneously and on a massive scale, they can digest waste quickly once they begin to thrive.

This technique has been successfully transferred from the lab to the field, offering potential for cleaning up Europe's many remaining toxic sites. It also opens up a huge market for BACSIN's work, van der Meer said, including polluted military installations such as a former Soviet airbase in the Czech Republic, and chemical factories like those in Germany's Leipzig-Bitterfeld area. BACSIN is working through its partners toward performing future clean-up work at these sites.

The very notion of pollution-eating bacteria is a quirk of nature. Ironically, many toxins are ideal food for certain bacteria. The bacteria that are used to clean up oil spills, for instance, evolved this way because of natural oil seeps from the ocean bottom. A bacteria discovered in the Antarctic Ocean can break down diesel oil and PCBs. Other bacteria can remove chlorine from carcinogenic solvents and dry-cleaning chemicals.

Past discoveries such as these, combined with the progress already achieved by BACSIN, is cause for hope. "Our work has produced some very stimulating findings," van der Meer said, referring to the discovery that these bacteria's can live in toxic areas when supported by plants. "I'm very optimistic" states van der Meer.

MEDIA CONSULTA

Despite the difficult navigation conditions associated with lasting longer than usual ice campaign,handling of dry cargo berths at the port of Odessa in February, up 15% over the same period last year. Thus, according to the operative data of the main control room SE "OMTP", the volume of transshipment cargo ships in the past month amounted to 1358.5 thousand tons (compared to 1182.5 thousand tons in February, 2011). The growth is mainly achieved by increasing in the bulk handling of grain: 412.5 tons (230% by February 2011), and ferrous metals: 372.4 tons (106.9%). A summary of dry cargo in January-February 2012 amounted to 2695.5 thousand tons, which was 476.9 thousand tons more than the result of the same period last year (121.5%). At the same time due to lack of traffic Venezuelan and Azerbaijani oil, decreased the amount of liquid cargo. According to experts, because of the difficult ice conditions in a number of Northern Black Sea ports, the port of Odessa in February, the additional party of steel products are accepted, including transit. This created a certain reserve in March. Press-Service.

Source Odessa commercial sea port

GENEVA's Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is deploying very large containerships on the transpacific, with the deployment 12,560-TEU MSC Fabiola, now the biggest ship to ply the transpac trade, reports Alphaliner.

The Paris-based analysts note that the recently delivered 12,560-TEU MSC Fabiola has been deployed on in the trade in the Pearl River Express Service, jointly operated by CMA CGM between Fuqing, Xiamen, Shenzhen-Chiwan, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Yantian, Long Beach, Oakland and back to Fuqing.

They will also be 11,300-TEU MSC Francesca, expected to join the transpacific fleet from the Asia-Europe run later this month, which will be replaced by an even bigger vessel between 13,000 and 14,000 TEU, said the report.

Containerisation International's Freight Rate Forecaster calculations, eastbound transpacific cautions that utilisation is expected to hit 69 per cent in the first quarter, creating excess capacity unless accompanied by layups. CI also said the average for this year's peak season is expected to rise to just 76 per cent, assuming cargo growth of four per cent.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

MOL president Koichi Muto has announced the launch of a plan to regularly publish the results of key performance indicators in operational, environmental and safety areas for its containership service worldwide.

The Japanese shipping giant said it has established a set of goals for each of these indicators to offer industry-leading transparency to customers.

In addition, MOL is planning to start regional key performance indicator monitoring that will be more focused on the services required in each region.

It said in a statement that the company has already been very transparent with its on-time performance and now it is making a point to provide additional data results for customers. Results are accessible at www.CountOnMOL.com .

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

KUWAIT's UASC has taken delivery of the Unayzah third of a series of nine 13,470 TEU ships from Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries and expected to join Far East-Middle East service organised by CMA CGM, CSCL and UASC (AMA/CIMEX/AGX 1).

Ordered in June 2008, the vessel is in drydock in China to receive antifouling paint and is expected to join the fleet shortly to replace ships on two existing with a single loop of seven ships in the 13,000 - 14,000 TEU range.

The Unayzah follows the Ain Snan, delivered in January. UASC is in the process of receiving eight of its nine A13 class ships during the first half of the year, including the Ain Snan.

The delivery of these ships was postponed by a year because several of them were completed in 2011 and then mothballed. The first unit in the nine-ship series was delivered in April 2011 while the eight remaining units are being handed over to UASC in close succession in the first half.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

THE No 8 and No 9 berths at Zhaoyin port area of the Port of Xiamen will become operational by the end of this year, adding an extra 2.8 million tonnes to the port area's capacity, Xinhua reports.

The two berths have a depth of 17.5 metres and have the conditions to be developed to accommodate containerships of over 100,000 tonnes in the future.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

EGYPTIAN Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri has ordered the formation of a commission chaired by Osama Saleh, president of the General Authority for Investment (GAFI) to look into the conditions of the Kuwaiti company contracted to build the Damietta container terminal.

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abul-Naga said the project aims to establish an international container terminal designed to have an annual capacity of four million TEU.

Ms Abul-Naga said Egypt lost investments worth nearly US$10 billion since last year's revolution because of market turmoil, according to an Egypt State Information Service communique..

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

VIETNAM's shipping firms are expected to face difficulties in the year due to global economic uncertainties and the oversupply of vessel tonnage.

A report by VietNamNet Bridge highlighted that shipping fees for importing and exporting goods are likely to increase significantly with some of the rate hikes for transporting goods to Europe and Africa due to commence this month.

Several shipping lines have indicated that rats would be doubled from the current rate to US$700 per TEU. The new fees for imports from some ports in Europe have been implemented since mid-February with rises of between $200 and $300 per TEU, according to the report.

But Vietnam Ship Owners' Association chairman Do Xuan Quynh said this year's shipping fees for transporting sea freight via domestic and international routes would not see big changes.

Mr Quynh said he was surprised by the news regarding a fee hike, adding that the downwards trend is still dominating the container shipping market. As global trade has been decreasing, the issue of idling containerships is becoming more serious, especially when it involves larger vessels.

It is estimated that the number of idle containerships waiting for deployment has reached 700, including many ships in the 3,000-TEU class.

Mr Quynh added that if shipping fees are raised, only foreign shipowners would stand to benefit, and not the Vietnamese shipping companies.

A report from the Vietnam Maritime Bureau showed that out of the 1,633 ships carrying the Vietnamese flag, 1,013 ships, totalling three million deadweight tons, serve domestic routes. Most are bulk carriers with tonnage of less than 5,000 tons. There are 38 containerships, but only two of can handle more than 1,000 TEU.

"We have excessive tonnage for the small ships, while we lack specialised and big tonnage ships," said Nguyen Ngoc Hue, former head of the Maritime Bureau.

Zhaoyin port area is formerly Zhangzhou port. The port merged with Xiamen in 2006.

Since the merger, the port area's throughput has been rising rapidly. It lifted six million tonnes in 2005 and 13 million tons in 2008. Last year, its throughput topped 19 million tons.

The port area started building the two new berth in May 2010. The whole project has now come to the final phase.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News

THE shipping community is invited to join major cargo owners and retail brands, including Diageo and Li & Fung, and some of the biggest names in logistics, transport and ports this March to discuss the outlook for Asia container trade at the TOC Container Supply Chain: Asia 2012 conference and exhibition.

Held at the at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre from March 13-15 under the theme "Intra-Asia: the road ahead," the three-day event provides a valuable chance to take stock of immediate and longer term prospects at a time of continued uncertainty in world markets.

Senior figures from leading companies including Accenture, Agility, CMA CGM, Cosco Pacific, DP World, Hapag-Lloyd, Modern Terminals, Panalpina, UASC and others will share views with cargo owners on evolving supply chain and trade dynamics and the impact for logistics and transport.

For more information, visit http://www.tocevents-asia.com/press .

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
 

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