TODAY’S BULLETIN OF MARITIME NEWS
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- First View : ANL ELANORA
- Transnet secures R200 a million loan from BRICS bank for DCT
- New rail mounted gantry cranes (RTGs) for Port of Mombasa
- SA Agulhas returns to duty after drydocking, sails on charter on Thursday
- Joburg-based Shipping & Airfreight Servies (SAS) acquired by Kerry Logistics
- South Africa in Cotonou Agreement talks
- Task team to seek solutions to challenges facing the sugar industry
- Nacala Railway shows strong growth during first quarter
- New trawler design is introduced
- Expected Ship Arrivals and Ships in Port
- Cruise News and Naval Activities
- Pics of the Day : DAL KALAHARI
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The small container general cargo ship ANL ELANORA (IMO 9334820) prepares to go alongside at the Port of Lyttelton on New Zealand’s South Island. This was earlier this month, the ship having arrived to discharge and load containers. With a length of 175.5 metres and a beam of 28 metres the 23,451-dwt ship, which was built in 2007, has a container capacity of 1740 TEU and is flagged in Monrovia, Liberia. It appears she plies her trade between the Australian ports of Melbourne and Sydney and those in New Zealand. This picture in by Alan Calvert
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TRANSNET SECURES A US$200 MILLION LOAN FROM BRICS BANK FOR DCT
Transnet has secured a US$200 million loan from the BRICS New Development Bank which will be put to use in a reconstruction programme at the Durban Container Terminal.
Approval for the loan was announced on Monday during a meeting of the bank’s directors which was held in Shanghai.
The aim of the reconstruction programme at DCT is to enable the terminal, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest and busiest, to enhance capacity ahead of future growth.
Part of the reconstruction programme includes lengthening and deepening berths on the North Quay, berths 203 – 205 to provide 1210 metres of length to accommodate three Super Post Panamax vessels of 350 metres in length and a draft of 14.5 metres, with a depth alongside of 16.5 metres.
Transnet National Ports Authority also intends upgrading other parts of DCT with new cranes and equipment for Pier 2. A longer-term project to extend Pier 1 in the direction of Salisbury Island is also part of the TNPA agenda – this will require the construction of a new quay wall and the filling in of an area that was once used as an inner anchorage section for ship lay-byes.
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NEW RAIL MOUNTED GANTRY CRANES (RTGs) FOR PORT OF MOMBASA
With the advent of Kenya’s new and impressive standard gauge railway between Mombasa and the interior, it was inevitable that a certain amount of new equipment as well as infrastructure would be necessary in order to provide the necessary back-up service required.
This is no more evident than in the port area, and two new rail mounted gantry cranes (RTGs) have recently arrived from China which will be placed in service in the rail yard adjacent…[restrict] to the port’s container terminal.
The container terminal at Mombasa is sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest behind Durban, with an annual throughput of one million TEU.
At the same time the government and the rail authority have enforced a controversial edict on the percentage of containers moving from the port that must be carried on the standard gauge railway.
The two new RTGs are the first of a total of six on order by the Kenya Ports Authority at a cost of Sh2.12 billion.
KPA head of container operations, Edward Opiyo said the port was building capacity because of an increase in the number of transhipment containers arriving at Mombasa.
The Kenyan port acts as the main gateway for the landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, the eastern DRC and South Sudan.
We need to provide the necessary assurances to existing and potential port users that Mombasa can easily and efficiently handle the cargo that passes through the port, Opiyo said.
The balance of RTGs are expected in the coming weeks.[/restrict]
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SA AGULHAS RETURNS TO DUTY AFTER DRYDOCKING, SAILS ON CHARTER ON THURSDAY
Members of the media will be among those gathering on Thursday to witness the departure from Port Elizabeth of South Africa’s cadet training ship, SA AGULHAS.
Newly refurbished and spruced up after a two-month sojourn in the East London dry dock, the former Antarctic supply vessel will sail on charter for the East Coast of South Africa to deploy a number of new buoys used for scientific research.
The vessel will also be carrying 20 new maritime cadets, who are part of the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) cadetship programme, and two training officers, captained by Daniel Postman.
In February the training ship returned from a three-month trip to the Antarctic. On board were scientists and also a large group of maritime cadets who underwent further training while at sea as well as valuable sea-time.
“The vessel has two expeditions to undertake in this financial year,” said Sobantu Tilayi, Chief Operating Officer for the South African Maritime Safety Authority and operators of SA Agulhas. “One being the buoy replacement and the other is another charter with an Indian scientific team at the latter part of this year.
“We are happy to have on board once again bright young men and women who are looking towards venturing into various careers in the maritime sector.
“SA Agulhas is a solid vessel that has withstood many ice breaking expeditions. We have hosted many cadets, maritime and scientific experts on board and we are confident that despite her being 41 years of age, she still operates at an optimal level.”
Since arriving from East London, SA Agulhas 1 has taken bunkers and then commenced with the loading of scientific research equipment and personnel for the buoy replacement. The ship will sail from Port Elizabeth on Thursday, 31 May 2018 for the charter which finishes up in Cape Town on 16 June 2018.
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JO’BURG-BASED SHIPPING & AIRFREIGHT SERVICES (SAS) ACQUIRED BY KERRY LOGISTICS
One of Asia’s premier logistics service providers, Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics Network Limited on Monday announced the acquisition of Shipping and Airfreight Services (Pty) Limited (S.A.S.), a well-established freight forwarding and logistics company based in Johannesburg.
Established 30 years ago, S.A.S. provides its international customers with flexible logistics solutions. With the takeover of S.A.S.’ air and ocean freight entities, Kerry Logistics is expanding its service offerings in the South African freight forwarding market, leveraged by a well-established network of agents in Africa. The new Johannesburg office will be managed as part of Kerry Logistics’ Europe division.
S.A.S. freight forwarding unit offers a complete suite of…[restrict] ocean and air freight services, including Less than Container Load (LCL) and Full Container Load (FCL), as well as break bulk services for ocean freight cargoes.
The service portfolio for air freight cargoes encompasses direct air freight shipments, consolidation, and charter services. S.A.S. also provides customised warehousing and distribution solutions to guarantee reliable services in the complex African market.
“South Africa’s economy has an important standing on the African continent with excellent trade lanes not only to the Chinese market but also the large exporting economies of the European Union,” said Thomas Blank, Managing Director of Europe, Kerry Logistics.
“We are pleased about this great opportunity to further develop our business through this trade. We are glad to welcome the entire S.A.S. team into the Kerry Logistics network. Their experience and local knowledge will strengthen our freight forwarding capabilities in Africa.”
“S.A.S. looks forward to joining the Kerry Logistics family and adding first-hand knowledge of the African freight forwarding market to Kerry Logistics’ global network,” said Carla Laue, Managing Director of S.A.S. “Together, we will work to bring South Africa even closer to markets around the world.”
As the second largest economy in Africa, South Africa is an important manufacturing hub for the global automotive market. The automotive industry is responsible for a significant amount of South Africa’s imports and exports and will continue to make foreign trade a staple of the country’s economy.
Kerry Logistics says that the acquisition is part of its long-term international freight forwarding strategy to expand its coverage worldwide.
Over the past year, Kerry Logistics has been growing its network and services under the Belt and Road initiative and expanded its presence in nine countries across Central Asia. In Europe, Kerry Logistics enhanced its footprint with acquisitions in Spain, Germany, Italy, and opening of its first own office in Warsaw, Poland.[/restrict]
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SOUTH AFRICA IN COTONOU AGREEMENT TALKS
South Africa is participating in the 107th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) Council of Ministers and the 43rd Session of the ACP-European Union Joint Council of Ministers, which is underway in Lome, Togo.
On the agenda is the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA), which makes provision for duty-free, quota-free trade for member states into the EU, which expires in 2020.
ACP developing countries and the EU signed the partnership agreement, dubbed the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, in…[restrict] Cotonou, Benin, on 23 June 2000 for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020.
The agreement governs trade and political relations but also cooperation between the EU and 79 ACP countries.
The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Luwellyn Landers, is leading the South African delegation for the talks, which will end on Friday. In the discussions, parties will seek to review the partnership and how the global south stands to benefit further.
South Africa became a qualified member of the agreement between ACP member countries and the European Union in November 1995, and consequently also became a member of the ACP Group through this action.
South Africa’s trade with the EU has taken place in accordance with the provisions of the bilateral Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) between South Africa and the EU and more recently in accordance with the Southern African Development Community-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (SADC-EU EPA).
The decision to join the ACP Group was based on historical and political considerations, and was a manifestation of South Africa’s commitment to South-South solidarity and a desire to use this platform to advance the developmental interests of the Group and the broader South.
In preparation for 2020, the ACP has undertaken a process of reviewing its performance over the last 40 years and reflecting on how the ACP could restructure the organisation to respond to the current global environment and also developing its negotiating memoranda for a new successor framework agreement to the CPA.
Through ACP processes, all three regions – Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific — have embarked on regional and continental discussions aimed at formulating their positions in preparation for the negotiations on the finalisation of a successor agreement to the CPA. source: SAnews.gov.za[/restrict]
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TASK TEAM TO SEEK SOLUTIONS TO CHALLENGES FACING THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
A Sugar Value Chain Task Team has been set-up to seek solutions facing the sugar industry.
The establishment of the task team follows a meeting held at the Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti) premises on Monday. The meeting discussed challenges faced by the industry.
“The Task Team is between government and the private sector and composed of representatives from Beverage Industry, Retailers, South African Sugar Association (SASA), small holder farmers, small manufacturers and the Industrial Development Cooperation.
“The aim of the task team is to seek rapid solutions to the challenges facing…[restrict] the industry focusing on short, medium to long term plans,” said the Departments of Economic Development, Forestry & Fisheries and the dti in a joint statement.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies and the Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel.
The Task Team will hold its first meeting on Wednesday where it is expected that joint recommendations from the Task Team will be submitted to the Ministers concerned.
“There was a view that through collaboration between Government and Private Sector some better solutions in terms of inclusive growth, transformation, competitiveness and sustainability of the industry can be attained,” said the departments in their statement.
SASA Chairman Suresh Naidoo said the biggest threat to the industry has been the sustained increase of deep sea sugar imports, peaking at just around 500,000 tons in 2017/18 season.
The effect is that these imports displace locally produced sugar into the depressed global sugar market.
The South African Farmers Development Association (Safda) stated that prices for sugar cane have declined to such an extent that some growers have received negative statements at the end of the season and in fact owe to the millers.
Safda is of the view that local producers cannot compete against subsidised foreign countries and the sugar producing countries around the world offer their sugar industry a range of policy support measures to protect them against distorted world market.
The Beverage Industry made proposals regarding proposed interventions in support of small holder farmers in the sugar industry and also how to improve productivity in the sugar value chain.
Sugar is a strategic industry in South Africa, contributing an estimated R14-billion to the gross domestic product. The industry employs 85,000 people directly, and indirectly provides work for a further 350,000 people in food processing and other industries. source: SAnews.gov.za[/restrict]
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NACALA RAILWAY SHOWS STRONG GROWTH DURING FIRST QUARTER
General freight carried on Mozambique’s Northern Development Corridor (CDN) between the port of Nacala and Malawi and Zambia has exceeded estimates for the first quarter of 2018.
Between January and March this year almost 100,000 tonnes of general freight was carried on this, the Nacala Corridor. This excludes the railing of coal from the Moatize mines in Tete Province to the coal export terminal at Nacala-a-Velha.[restrict]
The almost 100,000 tonnes represents a 41% improvement over the estimates for that period.
The railroad concessionaire in the northern region and the port of Nacala had expected to transport 79,955 tons of miscellaneous cargo.
This positive performance is due to the quality of the services provided by the CDN and the good condition of the railroad, combined with the increase in freight transport to Niassa as a result of the reduction of the tariff on the Nacala-Lichinga line from 2,900 to 2,150 meticais, effective from February this year.
“During the first three months we shipped a lot of clinker and fertilisers to Zambia, and we recorded a large flow of cargo to Lichinga, factors which contributed to our exceeding our target,” Dário Viegas, head of Commercial at CDN, says.
In the second quarter of this year, CDN’s challenge is to seek the improvements needed to meet existing demand, and as a consequence, improve its performance.
On the passenger side, a total of 119,470 persons were transported during the period under review, against 84,544 in the same period last year.
From January to March, 294 trains travelled the Nampula-Cuamba, Cuamba-Lichinga and Cuamba-Entre Lagos sections. source: CDN[/restrict]
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NEW TRAWLER DESIGN IS INTRODUCED
An entirely new design for the ocean factory trawler segment has been released by Knud E. Hansen’s Faroe Islands design team. From stem to stern this design redefines the classic trawler layout which has remained more or less unchanged for decades.
The designers state: “The aim of this design is to set new standards for the next generation of ocean factory trawlers, seeking innovation in all solutions and adaption of new technologies to the long proven concept of stern trawlers”.
Why fix what is not broken?
What we have seen in recent years and what our clients in the North Atlantic have stated, is the fact that there have been very little change and improvement in the design of ocean factory trawlers for decades.
Trawlers need large towing power and therefore the engines and propellers keep getting bigger to improve efficiency. As the trawler draught sets a limit for the size of the propeller, trawlers are often designed with a stern trim, which can have a negative effect on the propulsion performance and slamming.
The classic ocean factory trawlers have grown bigger in size and capacity over the years but there has been very little innovation in recent designs and constructions.
The classic stern trawler layout, commonly known as the Norwegian design, originates to some extent from the early Faroese stern trawlers built in Norway. Theses designs have hardly changed over the decades. If you have sailed one, you have sailed them all.
Marni Olsen explains, that “at Knud E. Hansen the evaluation of the original design, construction, components and technology led us to conclude that improvements can be made – and are indeed needed”.
So we set a course to rethink and improve many aspects of the trawler including:
- Construction of the hull, including trim, draught and ballast
- Engines and propulsion system
- The arrangement aft on the trawl deck
- Cargo hold, including accessibility and working conditions
- Stairways and accommodation quarters
- Engine room arrangement
The new design is a complete rethink of all main features, construction and components of the classic ocean factory trawler. Improvements have been made to almost every aspect of the original layout bringing out an entirely new functionality and simplicity.
Having the cargo hold and engine room kept separated on the lower decks in the full length of the vessel generates the changes of the entire layout. Having a linear arrangement on these decks opens up new options for functionality and workflow, and use of space throughout the entire vessel.
The main distinctive features of our new design include:
• High bulbous bow forward and hull shape aft that gives a good flow to the two propellers. The hull is designed for even trim, with the rise of keel built into the keel.
• This trawler does not have traditional seawater ballast tanks. Instead, it features a ballast keel that apart from the solid weight also can contain 150 tonnes of flow-through seawater ballast.
• This trawler is designed with diesel electric propulsion system consisting of 4 diesel generators, 2 electric propulsion engines and two ducted fixed-pitch propellers.
• The twin slow-rotating electrically driven propellers almost double the propeller disc area compared to a single propeller design. This generates high torque and very good efficiency.
• Having the engine room laid out on one deck in full length of the ship significantly improves the practical working conditions for the ocean factory trawler engineer.
• The extension of the engine room in full length of the ship also allow us to move the casings for exhaust and ventilation forward. This results in better working area on the trawl-deck aft.
• The deck area in the cargo hold is more than double the size of the deck area in a traditional trawler layout. This also gives a practical working height comparable to the height inside a refrigerated container, improving practical working conditions and safety during fishery and when unloading.
• The increased working areas aft on the trawl-deck allow us to design improvement for the equipment and handling of fishing gear. The traditional gallows and outhauls are replaced with a single hydraulic A-frame on top of the lifted deck. From this position it can, due to the opening in the upper deck over the trawl slip, cover the area from behind the stern to the aft end of the trawl lanes.
Accommodation quarters are all placed forward on deck 4, 5 and 6. On deck 4 there are twenty cabins, on deck 5 and 6 there are six cabins on each deck. The crew lives in single berth 15 m2 cabins, incl. toilet, with the officer’s cabins being somewhat bigger.
The mess-room, galley and saloons are all on deck 5. The mess-room has the capacity to serve the entire crew at the same time and features good visibility through big windows.
There are six stairwells in the ship for all passage between decks to allow the crew to move easily throughout the vessel; two on each side aft, two on each side amidships and two on each side forward.
The accommodation quarters, cabins, corridors and stairwells are arranged so that starboard crew on watch doesn’t need to disturb port crew off duty and vice versa.
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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.
Over the past 40 years the name DAL KALAHARI (IMO 9526904) has become synonymous with the container service between northern Europe and South Africa provided by Deutsche Afrika Linien (DAL), a member of the original partnership of shipping companies operating jointly that continues to this day although no longer being referred to as a ‘conference’. The current ship with this name is the former Maersk ship MAERSK LUZ, which changed names on 1 April this year when she went on charter to the German company. The 106,043-dwt DAL Kalahari has a length of 300 metres and a width of 46 metres and a container capacity of 7,450 TEU. She was built in 2011 at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Ltd, South Korea as yard number 4217. This picture is by Keith Betts
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
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