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TODAY’S BULLETIN OF MARITIME NEWS
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- First View : MSC BEIJING
- CMA CGM upgrades MIDAS 1 Loop connecting South Africa with India & Middle East Gulf
- TPT celebrates locally assembled Kalmar straddle carriers
- Debate over why Nigeria wasn’t elected onto IMO Council
- Beira container terminal gets new road access and added storage space
- Second East Africa Port Expansion Conference set for March 2018
- Faster access to new tidal data available from ADMIRALTY Digital Publications
- Expected Ship Arrivals and Ships in Port
- Cruise News and Naval Activities
- Pics of the Day : MAERSK LUZ
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Mediterranean Shipping Company’s 8809-TEU capacity container ship MSC BEIJING (IMO 9289099) makes an impressive entry in Cape Town harbour earlier in December. Built in 2005 at the Hanjin Heavy Industries Co Ltd shipyard in South Korea as hull number 132 for owner Claus-Peter Offen Reederei, the 324-metre long, 43m wide ship is registered in Germany. Capable of a maximum speed of 24.5 knots, the 105,034-dwt ship has been named MSC Beijing since 2005. This picture is by Ian Shiffman
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CMA CGM UPGRADES MIDAS 1 LOOP CONNECTING SOUTH AFRICA WITH INDIA & MIDDLE EAST GULF
French shipping lines CMA CM says that as it strives to serve South Africa exporters’ needs during the peak reefer season, it is pleased to announce it will upgrade the South Africa export coverage on the Midas 1 service which is dedicated to India and Middle East Gulf destinations.
With effect 22 December 2017 with the sailing of ROBIN HUNTER, the MIDAS 1 port rotation will…[restrict] include a direct weekly call at Cape Town for a reliable and competitive service offering.
Middle East Gulf destinations are reached with competitive transit times: Cape Town to Jebel Ali in 18 days, Khor Fakkan in 20 days and Dammam in 22 days.
India Subcontinent destinations are served in direct with fast and reliable transit times: Mundra is reached from Cape Town in 23 days, Nhava Sheva in 25 days and Colombo in 28 days.
South African coverage with the Durban export call should resume in May 2018 (start of citrus season), the Westbound call remains unchanged.
The Midas 1 port rotation will become:
Cape Town – Port Elizabeth – Jebel Ali – Khor Fakkan – Mundra – Nhava Sheva – Colombo – Durban – Pointe Noire – Apapa – Tincan/Lagos – Cotonou – Tema – Cape Town[/restrict]
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TPT CELEBRATES LOCALLY ASSEMBLED KALMAR STRADDLE CARRIERS
Transnet Port Terminals yesterday unveiled 23 Kalmar new straddle carriers assembled locally for the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2 operations, marking Transnet’s commitment to localisation and industrialisation of the country.
The delivery of the 23 straddle carriers forms part of TPT’s strategy to replace ageing equipment with new and modernised equipment. The substantial capital investment by TPT of nearly R308 million will increase the number of reliable straddle carriers available to operations and lower the cost of maintenance due to less equipment failures.
The investment will also ensure greater customer satisfaction through improved delivery time of containers. TPT has sought the services of a global and leading cargo handling maker, Kalmar, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), to supply a substantial portion of the sub-assembled components for specialised cargo handling equipment of this nature through its fellow operating division Transnet Engineering (TE).
This is in line with Transnet’s strategy of local enterprise development and skills transfer. The partnership also involved training and imparting of technical knowledge and skills for local engineers at Transnet. One of the key milestones on the project was the local manufacture of the spreader beams by TE, which were designed to automatically locate and lock the container, operated by the driver.
“Straddle carriers are a core of the terminals’ container logistics and service delivering handling system,” said TPT Chief Executive, Nozipho Sithole. “As such they directly influence the terminals’ ability to handle container volumes in line with the key performance indicators provided by customers.
“Towards the end of their design life, straddle carriers become unreliable as components age and result in increased breakdowns. The consequential impact is a decline in terminal productivity and an increase in maintenance costs,” she said.
The replacement of the 23 straddle carriers reaching their end of life was deemed in 2016 as an essential to increase the reliability of the straddle carrier fleet and to militate against safety risks, explained Sithole.
Thamsanqa Jiyane, Transnet Engineering Chief Officer Advanced Manufacturing, notes that this was the first time the company’s engineers had an opportunity to manufacture straddle carrier component kits for an original equipment manufacturer of Kalmar’s calibre. “Our team had to ensure that the interphase of the spreader box and the T-Bulk was within the required tight tolerance specification,” Jiyane said. “State of the art measuring equipment was purchased for the fabrication and assembly of the T-Bulk. In the process, Transnet Engineering had to design some of the jigs to manufacture these components from scratch.”
The life span of a straddle carrier is 40,000 hours, which equates to around 8 years. According to Josiah Mpofu, Transnet Port Terminals’ GM: Engineering, the revised approach by TPT to maintaining and procuring new equipment has already had a positive impact on improving the agility and reliability of the service for customers.
As part of the contract with Kalmar, a straddle carrier simulator is being supplied and will be installed at the Maritime School of Excellence by the end of January 2018.
Transnet’s Group Chief Executive, Siyabonga Gama addressed invited guests at the DCT unveiling and reinforced the importance of Transnet Operating Divisions fulfilling the ‘One Team One Vision’ spirit. “This particular project showcases the benefits of the Transnet Value Chain Co-ordinator (TVCC) and highlights integration efforts by TPT and TE. It also demonstrates the vast local capabilities that can be achieved when Transnet works in partnership with key stakeholders, and we feel this needs to be further developed in an effort to boost industrial growth and local content,” Gama said.
Durban Pier 2 Container Terminal (DCT) in the port of Durban is a specialised maritime facility with dedicated infrastructure and equipment for the handling of containerised cargo. The terminal’s container handling system comprises of a combination of ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, straddle carriers and rail mounted gantries.
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DEBATE OVER WHY NIGERIA WASN’T ELECTED ONTO IMO COUNCIL
Criticism has been levelled at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) over what is being described as a lack-lustre performance at the recent International Maritime Organisation (IMO) council election held in London.
Nigeria was attempting to be elected to the Council under Category ‘C’ but not only failed but was placed second from last among those being nominated.
African representatives that were elected were South Africa, Liberia, Morocco, Egypt and Kenya.
Critics say the preparation by Nigeria ahead of the IMO council election was shoddy. SOAN President, Greg Ogbeifun, called for the entire NIMASA management to be replaced on grounds of “gross incompetence”. Speaking at the SOAN end-of-year dinner held in Lagos he said Nigeria was unable to arrest its depleting tonnage or the ongoing acts of piracy and crime on its coast.
“The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) which owns…[restrict] a large trading worldwide is unable to register their ships in the Nigerian flag and boost our tonnage. Instead, they have all their ships registered in foreign Flags of Convenience.
“NLNG actually approached our flag administration to express their desire and preference to register all their ships in Nigeria if the flag administration can be enhanced and reorganised to meet international standards.”
Ogbeifun said that NNLG went further and paid for a consultant to carry out a study of Nigeria’s flag administration and make recommendations to achieve this objective. “The report and recommendation have been awaiting implementation by the Maritime Administration since then, over three years ago.”
He accused NIMASA of not engaging and collaborating with stakeholders, ship-owners, ship-repairers and maritime security providers to grow the industry, but instead it specialised in the collection of levies and revenues and the meting out of punitive measures on stakeholders.
The Nigerian Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who was present at the dinner, rejected Ogbeifun’s statement and said that SOAN was making the claim because NIMASA had refused to disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), despite the severe toll the non-disbursement was taking on the shipping industry.
“Guess the question I asked Greg when he came back. I said: I hope you will have the stomach to take my reply and he said yes. The issue is that I will not release that fund even if I would be removed tomorrow as the Minister of Transportation.
“Why won’t I release the fund? We gave over N300 billion to owners and business men in the aviation industry; some took N32 billion, N35 billion, and they disappeared! Some took the money to go and build a bank in Ghana and Sao Tome and nothing has happened. Nothing!” the Minister said, adding “And then he [Ogbeifun] says fire the man at NIMASA; he should probably add, fire also the Minister!”
Piracy a reason
The non-election of Nigeria probably was in part a result of the piracy in the region, said an article in New Telegraph, pointing out that according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) piracy reports, of nine (unsuccessful) pirate attacks on merchant vessels around the world between 16 – 22 November, three took place in Nigeria’s territorial waters alone.
IMB reported further that 39 of the 49 crew members kidnapped globally occurred off Nigerian waters in seven separate incidents. Other crew kidnappings in 2017 have been reported 60 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria.
Director of IMB, Pottengal Mukundan, said, “In general, all waters in and off Nigeria remain risky, despite intervention in some cases by the Nigerian Navy. We advise vessels to be vigilant. The number of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea could be even higher than our figures as many incidents continue to be unreported.”
There is little doubt that this will have counted against Nigeria’s chances of being elected. Nevertheless, there is another factor that is being mostly overlooked which is that of geography. Of the African nations elected each came from a specific region isolated from the others. West Africa is represented in that sense by Liberia, one of the world’s largest flag nations (even though it remains a Flag of Convenience) which would prove hard to replace.
Nigeria by its size and importance does possess the potential of becoming the largest maritime nation not only in West Africa but in sub-Saharan Africa as well. Nigeria has the largest economy in the sub-continent, larger even than South Africa’s at present where that country remains in recession. An estimated one third of all seaborne traffic into and from West Africa involves Nigeria. Given these factors alone it has reason to expect a more important role among the world’s maritime administrators. However, it continues to fail as a leader primarily by failing to ensure safety of navigation in its own territorial waters.
Nigeria’s neighbours in the Gulf of Guinea have all had success in ensuring that their waters remain safe for navigation. It is something that can hardly be overlooked when it comes to Nigeria’s peers having to decide who should represent the region on the world body.
NIMASA responds
NIMASA Director-General, Dr Dakuku Peterside, in response to the debate over Nigeria losing its bid to be elected, admitted that the loss was a result of Nigeria having started too late in its preparations.
He said that Nigeria failed to lobby for election to the council among other nations and did not spend enough on the campaign. Nigeria was just emerging from a recession, he said, and could not afford to spend as much as other countries.
Peterside claimed there was a false impression created that piracy was rife in the Gulf of Guinea and said the wrong impression was always conveyed to the IMB. However, NIMASA had developed an anti-piracy legal framework. “We have developed an anti-piracy bill which will be forwarded to the National Assembly. When passed into law, Nigeria will be the first country to have a dedicated anti-piracy law in the whole of Africa.”
Prior to this Nigeria had no law to address piracy and maritime crimes. “We are building on the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and with the support of international organisations.”
Nigeria was last a member of the Council in 2011 and since then has failed to be re-elected.
“The IMO acknowledged the fact that Nigeria had done very well as a maritime administration. We are the first country in Africa to subject ourselves to mandatory audit by the IMO. We are highly rated as performing very well in our Port and Flag and Coastal State functions,” Peterside said.
“In the last one year, we have attracted more training than many African countries.”
Peterside suggested that NIMASA should not have been directly involved with international organisations which he considered the Foreign Affairs Ministry should handle.
On a regional front however, NIMASA was working with partners in the whole of West and Central Africa.
“We are host of most of the co-ordinating centres in West and Central Africa [that are] dedicated to the co-ordination of maritime security and piracy.”[/restrict]
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BEIRA CONTAINER TERMINAL GETS NEW ACCESS ROAD AND ADDED STORAGE SPACE
The Port of Beira Container Terminal has a new access road and three hectares of container storage.
Mozambique Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, Manuela Ribeiro, officially inaugurated the road and storage facility at the port yesterday.
Cornelder de Moçambique SA, which operates the port and terminal, recently invested approximately US$6.2 million under its Development Master Plan in increasing cargo capacity in its container terminal, as well as in the construction of a new five-lane access road, expandable to seven lanes.
The new access infrastructure will increase the capacity of the terminal, especially…[restrict] in peak periods when there is a greater truck traffic with containers for shipment.
At present, access to the container terminal has been one lane in each direction, causing congestion and constraining normal vehicle traffic volume on roads near the port. The new access capacity should put an end to this, as well as improving security.
This new access, together with the dredging of the access channel to the port which commenced last November and the completion of the National Road Number 6 (EN6) rehabilitation, is designed to make the Port of Beira more efficient, competitive and responsive to the needs of national and regional markets. Source: A Verdade[/restrict]
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SEOND EAST AFRICA PORT EXPANSION CONFERENCE SET FOR MARCH 2018
The 2nd East Africa Port Expansion Conference is set to take place from 21-23 March 2018 in Mombasa, Kenya, reports the event organizer IQPC.
East African ports are undergoing massive expansion in order to meet growing global trade demands. New projects include port infrastructure development, dredging operations, rail link construction and upgrade of terminal operating systems.
Developing world-class services and facilities in African…[restrict] ports involves a number of challenges such as rapid increase in container traffic, long container dwell time, low performance of the inland modes of transport, decrease in cargo volume and more.
With this is mind, IQPC says it will gather senior port representatives, consultants and contractors, as well as the best suppliers across the industry, at the 2nd East Africa Port Expansion Conference in order to share their knowledge and drive better business in the region.
According to the organizer, the event will explore sea port development projects in the region – including latest port projects and expansions in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, etc – and emphasise opportunities that market opens to contractors and sub-contractors.[/restrict]
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Santa and chaplain with some of the crew on board MSC Earth in Durban harbour
Santa Claus arrived in the Port of Durban a little early this month and enlisted his helpers, the chaplains of various Missions, to accompany him and board vessels in port to hand out gifts – part of the 1400 parcels packed by other volunteers.
Paul Richardson and Jessie John, Sailors’ Society chaplain and missionary respectively, together with Santa visited seven ships on 8 December to the delight of the seafarers. On this visit 159 gifts were handed out.
Crews gave the Christmas visitors a warm welcome and prayers were said with those who so wished.
Seafarers often experience loneliness owing to the nature of their profession, but at certain times it is more keenly felt, on birthdays, anniversaries and of course Christmas. So we trust that to receive a small gift and realise they are thought of, will help.
Yvonne de Kock
Sailors Society, Durban
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UKHO to give ships faster access to new tidal data through ADMIRALTY TotalTide
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is introducing regular tidal data updates to ADMIRALTY TotalTide (ATT) as part of ADMIRALTY Digital Publications (ADP) Version 18 in December 2017.
ATT helps mariners to make fast, accurate tidal height and tidal stream predictions for more than 7,000 ports and 3,000 tidal streams worldwide. Version 18 will allow the UKHO to send new tidal data to mariners through ATT on a more frequent basis, moving away from the previous annual update cycle. This will help to ensure mariners have access to the latest tidal data when making predictions.
As part of ADP Version 18, certificates will now show ATT’s update status in the same format as ADMIRALTY Digital List of Lights (ADLL) and ADMIRALTY Digital Radio Signals to support compliance. In addition to this update the UKHO has also added its ADMIRALTY e-Nautical Publications (AENP) updates on to the ADP weekly update disc, increasing the frequency with which the new AENP data reaches the mariner.
Susie Alder, Product Manager at the UKHO, commented:
“This major update for ADP, to Version 18, brings important added features that will directly benefit the mariner. Whilst tidal data changes slowly, the ability for the UKHO to update tidal data more frequently helps us to ensure that the mariner is using the most accurate information available.
“There are also efficiency benefits to be realised through this update and proper use of all ADP’s functionality, in terms of the time taken by bridge crews in planning their voyage. Accurate tidal data gives mariners the certainty they need to operate in the industry’s competitive market environment.
“The software will also ensure that they can demonstrate compliance, by showing the ATT update status on the certificate in the same way as ADLL and ADRS.”
ADP is permitted to be carried as an alternative to paper versions by Flag States accounting for over 80% of ships trading internationally. This means that ATT provides the same level of compliance as traditional ADMIRALTY paper-based publications.
To find out more about ATT and the entire ADP range, visit: www.admiralty.co.uk/att
The UKHO is an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and a trading fund. This allows UKHO to operate as a self-funding organisation in the digital era and sustain its position in the long term.
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EXPECTED SHIP ARRIVALS and SHIPS IN PORT
Port Louis – Indian Ocean gateway port
Ports & Ships publishes regularly updated SHIP MOVEMENT reports including ETAs for ports extending from West Africa to South Africa to East Africa and including Port Louis in Mauritius.
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CRUISE NEWS AND NAVAL ACTIVITIES
QM2 in Cape Town. Picture by Ian Shiffman
We publish news about the cruise industry here in the general news section.
Naval News
Similarly you can read our regular Naval News reports and stories here in the general news section.
A regular visitor to these shores is the Maersk Line container ship MAERSK LUZ (IMO 9526904) shown here departing from Durban several days ago. Flying the flag of Hong Kong the 7,450-TEU capacity Maersk Luz was built in 2011 at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Ltd, South Korea as hull number 4217. The ship has a deadweight of 94,267 tons, a length of 299.9 metres and a width of 45.2 metres with a maximum draught of 13 metres. She has a reported top speed of 22.5 knots and is a Maersk Line owned ship. These pictures are by Keith Betts
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
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