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TODAY’S BULLETIN OF MARITIME NEWS

Newsweek commencing 24 November 2024.  Click on headline to go direct to story: use the BACK key to return.  

FIRST VIEW:   CMA CGM MEKONG

• Ports Regulator Record of Decision on the Tariff Application by TNPA for the Tariff Year 2025/26
• WHARF TALK: offshore construction vessel  – SEVEN SISTERS
• Djibouti maritime forces benefit from EU supported exercise
• COP 29: A common goal – Decarbonising transport
• TRADE NEWS: Over 80 daggerboard bearings produced by Vesconite Bearings
• Liberian Registry receives IMSAS Audit
• Cruise News – Cape Town Cruise Terminal ‘Best in Africa’
• Operation Irini by the numbers after four years
• WHARF TALK: Gateway to Antarctica – FU XING HAI
• SA Navy needs to change and adapt quickly or become obsolete – Mkhonto
• Madagascar’s huge ocean algae bloom was caused by dust from drought-stricken southern Africa
• Transnet peeved with UNTU’s claim about CTCT’s terminal equipment
• Tourist boat sinks in Red Sea – 16 people missing
• MSC’s AGL to invest €uro 40 million into ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz
• Exercise Crocodile Lift is underway in Nigeria
• New maps show high-risk zones for whale-ship collisions − vessel speed limits and rerouting can reduce the toll
• Umhlanga Rocks Lighthouse marks 70 years as a beacon of safe navigation
• SA Port Statistics for October 2024
• WHARF TALK: standards-setting PCTC (car carrier) – HÖEGH AURORA
• Successful trial of articulated skips carried out at Maydon Wharf
• 90-Metre wide floating dock Dourado crosses the Suez Canal
• TNPA Tariff Increase Announcement this Friday
• Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden
• Air Force and Navy ‘hardly operational’ as SANDF performance declines
• Höegh Aurora, world largest car carrier, makes maiden call at Durban
• MSC Musica arrives in Durban at start of 2024/25 cruise season
• Big welcome in Port Elizabeth for Höegh Aurora’s maiden visit

• EARLIER NEWS CAN BE FOUND UNDER NEWS CATEGORIES…….

Africa Ports & Ships

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Masthead:  PORT OF CAPE TOWN

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FIRST VIEW:  CMA CGM MEKONG

An unusual visitor in the port of Durban recently was the neopanamax container ship CMA CGM Mekong (IMO 9718105), seen here entering the Bluff channel leading to the harbour.

The ship, which is owned and operated by CMA CGM SA in France, is flagged in Malta. Her overall length is 300 metres and her beam 48m and the vessel has a summer deadweight of 111,040 tonnes.

CMA CGM Mekong has a container capacity of 10,000 TEUs and was built in 2015 at the Hyundai Heay Industries Co Ltd shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.

Her main engine is a MAN-B&W model 9S90ME producing 4,480 kW.

The picture is by Trevor Jones

Africa Ports & Ships

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Ports Regulator Record of Decision on the Tariff Application by TNPA for the Tariff Year 2025/26

Africa Ports & Ships

On 29 November 2024, Ms. Mukondeleli Johanna Mulaudzi, Chief Executive Officer of the Ports Regulator of South Africa stated as follows:

1. On 01 August 2024 the National Ports Authority (“the Authority”) submitted its tariff application to the Ports Regulator of South Africa (‘’the Regulator”) in accordance with Section 72 of the National Ports Act, 12 of 2005.

2. The Authority requested an average tariff increase of 7,90% for the period 01 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, along with indicative tariffs increases of 18,61% for the period 01 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and 2,52% for 01 April 2027 to 31 March 2028.

3. After reviewing the Application, stakeholder submissions, presentations in the public consultation process, and the updated inflation as per the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS, November 2024), the Regulator applied the Tariff Methodology, Tariff Strategy and the use of ETIMC to the Application and determined that an appropriate overall weighted average tariff increase for the Financial Year 2025/26 is 4,40%.

4. This will be differentiated as follows:
4.1. Marine services and related tariffs (Sections 1-8 of the Tariff Book, excluding Section 7 that deals with cargo dues) are to increase by 6.15%.
4.2. All cargo dues categories are to increase by 3.40%, except for:
4.2.1.Dry Bulk imports and exports which are to increase by 4.00%; and
4.2.2.Tariffs for empty containers on Deepsea and Transhipment will be equalised to Coastwise tariffs.

5. All marine tariffs (Sections 1-8 of the Tariff Book, excluding Section 7 that relates to cargo dues) for existing commercial South African flagged vessels, as well as commercial vessels registered in South Africa from 2019/20, will receive a 30% discount, applicable year on year until reviewed by the Regulator.

6. All license fees for port activities as per Section 5 of the Tariff Book, will continue to be discounted by 30%. Additionally, all license fees (Tariff) applicable per port for the tariff year 2025/26, can continue to be paid in equal instalments on an annual basis over the period of the license.

7. For the 2025/26 tariff year, a reduction in port dues will continue to apply in the following instances (as per Section 4.1.1. of the Tariff Book):
7.1. Vessels not engaged in cargo working for the first 30 days only;
7.2. Bona fide coasters;
7.3. Passenger vessels; and
7.4. Small vessels classified under Section 4, Clause 2 when visiting a port other than their registered port.

8. Vessels in port for longer than 30 days not engaged in cargo working or undergoing repairs will incur a 20% surcharge on the incremental fee of port dues.

9. Additionally, a 60% reduction will be granted to vessels calling for the sole purpose of taking on bunkers and/or stores and/or water or a combination of all three, provided the vessel’s entire stay does not exceed 48 hours. This reduction will not be enjoyed in addition to the 35% reduction granted for vessels not engaged in cargo working for the first 30 days only, bona fide coasters, passenger vessels and small vessels classified under Section 4, Clause 2.

10. The Authority’s request for a 10% reduction on port dues in liquid bulk tankers in possession of a Green Award Certification is supported by the Regulator.

11. Tariff Assessment and approved revenue for the NPA
11.1. The Regulator takes cognisance of the volatility and fluctuations on the components of the Required Revenue which are driven by economic factors, deviation from projected and actual volumes, and over/under recovery of revenues by the Authority.
11.2. A key component of this tariff assessment was the inflation number. The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) expects inflation to stabilise around the midpoint of the Reserve Bank’s 3.00% – 6.00% target.
11.3. The MTBPS figure suggests that the country has entered a transitional period to a low inflation trajectory. Whilst low inflation is favourable in increasing disposable incomes for households, in the adopted rate of return regulatory methodology low inflation increases the real return of capital. In an environment where volume growth is also muted, low inflation results in
increased tariffs in the transitionary period.
11.4. As a result, the Regulator has opted to use ETIMC to soften the switch from high to low inflation phase. Going forward, the low inflation phase allows port users to afford increasing tariffs which will be necessary for the NPA’s investment program.
11.5. The Regulator considers the long-term sustainability and affordability of the port sector. As a result, the Regulator will use R225 million of the ETIMC to mitigate transition to the low inflation phase and smooth tariffs for the FY 2025/26 for port users.
11.6. The Authority is approved Opex of R6 854m, including Group Overhead costs. In so doing, the Regulator disallowed the difference between approved operational costs and actual costs incurred in FY 2023/24, amounting to R 185 million as it believes that the Authority ought to control operational costs and over expenditure should not be passed onto port users. Furthermore, an insignificant disallowance comes from fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R 12 million.
11.7. Reported irregular expenditure of approximately R169 million has been noted in the Authority’s information. Whilst the Authority has substantiated the causes of the expenditure and reported that no financial losses were suffered, the Regulator will follow up to establish the outcomes of the determination tests to decide whether to any of this amount should be clawed back in the next tariff application.
11.8. The Regulator notes that the Ship Repair Strategy, requested in the last Record of Decision, has not been published. The tariff increase on ship repair activities is contingent on the publishing of the Strategy by 30 September 2025. Failure to do so will result in a clawback on the additional revenue resulting from the tariff increase approved herein for ship repair.
11.9. The approved tariff adjustment amounts to revenue of R15 318 million as opposed to the R15 663 million applied for. This will be recovered from R 10 292 million in Marine Services and Cargo Dues, and R 5 026 million in Real Estate Revenue.

12. Port Efficiency
12.1. The Regulator has again noted reports of continued deterioration of port performance caused by lack of refurbishment and investments in equipment by terminal operators. South African ports continue to rank poorly in performance indicators compared with other ports regionally and globally, resulting in increased costs for shipping lines, cargo owners and ultimately South African consumers.
12.2. The deteriorating port efficiency levels, measured through the Weighted Efficiency Gains from Operations (WEGO), have resulted in a loss of R217 million.
12.3. The Regulator will continue to monitor port performance and efficiency levels through the stakeholder engagement process.

13. Corporatisation of the National Ports Authority
13.1. The corporatisation of the NPA, first announced in June 2021 by the President, is expected to be finalised by 30 April 2025. The Minister of Transport, who now represents the shareholder of Transnet SOC Ltd (“Transnet”) has committed to this timeline, a position reinforced by the Minister of Finance (Treasury) through the reported conditions attached to the R47 billion guarantee facilities provided to Transnet.
13.2. The Treasury’s conditions reportedly include implementation of institutional reforms i.e. the corporatisation of the NPA and reform of Transnet Freight Rail business through the establishment of an infrastructure manager separate from rail operations, amongst others.
13.3. In noting the developments within government in relation to corporatisation of the NPA, the Regulator in evaluating the tariff application, has treated the Authority as a corporatised entity.
13.4. Furthermore, the Regulator anticipates that a corporatised NPA, will emerge as an autonomous entity, with an investment grade credit rating able to raise funding at a reasonable cost (interest rates) from the markets.
13.5. The Tariff Methodology is due for a review in FY 2025/26. During the review the Regulator will embark on an overhaul of all the aspects of the required revenue and tariff setting to suit the corporatised entity. The comprehensive review will include the assessment of the cost of funding, efficiency of the tariff structure and the strengthening of the abilities to provide
adequate infrastructure.

14. Conclusion
14.1. The Regulator’s decision follows a prudent approach and takes cognisance of the economic environment within which port users, importers and exporters find themselves in. Even within the binding constraints evident in the ports sector, the Regulator is committed to incentivising National Ports Authority investment, managerial and operational behaviour that will lead to
efficient ports.
14.2. The Regulator is guided by the Directives and in particular, Directive 23(1) that sets out the requirements and/or principles which must reflect and balance amongst others, the following:
i. A systematic tariff methodology that is applicable on a consistent and comparable basis;
ii. Fairness;
iii. The avoidance of discrimination, save where discrimination is in the public interest;
iv. Simplicity and Transparency;
v. Predictability and stability;
vi. Avoidance of cross-subsidisation save in the public interest; and
vii. Promotion of access to ports and efficient and effective management and operations in
ports.

15. The official tariff Record of Decision for 2025/26 tariff year can be found on the Ports Regulator website, www.portsregulator.org. The Tariff Book will be published by 31 March 2024.

About the Ports Regulator of South Africa
The Ports Regulator (the Regulator) was established in terms of Section 29 of the National Ports Act, No. 12 of 2005 (the Ports Act). The Ports Regulator is a Schedule 3A Public Entity of the Department of Transport, in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, No.1 of 1999, as amended. The Regulator is a key component of the ports regulatory architecture envisaged in the National
Commercial Ports Policy

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WHARF TALK: offshore construction vessel – SEVEN SISTERS

Pictures by ‘Dockrat’ 
Story by Jay Gates

Sometimes an interesting vessel calls in to Durban or Cape Town, along with one or two others calling at the same time, and after placing the said vessels in an order for putting down in a series of articles over the period of that week, the vessel given last priority then gets demoted down the list because something else more interesting, or topical, arrives and takes its place in the writing stakes. So it sometimes takes a while for the vessel to make it to the top of the list.

Yet the ignored vessel still retains a definite interest, if not because in itself it is an interesting vessel, representing a part of the maritime industry that always produces stupendous vessels, and one that invokes thrills for the casual maritime observer, but also because it has an African story to tell that evokes interest, and this publication is, after all, called Africa Ports & Ships.

A month ago, back on 25th October at 07:00 in the morning, the offshore construction vessel ‘Seven Sisters’ (IMO 9390604) arrived off the Table Bay anchorage, from Dakar in Senegal, and went to anchor for the next 24 hours. The next morning, at 08:00 on 25th October, she entered Cape Town harbour, proceeding into the Duncan Dock and went alongside outer berth of the Eastern Mole. As always, such a vessel, and such a berth, is a strong indication that the call is purely logistical and is almost certainly limited to a relatively quick turnaround based on uplifting bunkers, stores and provisions.

Built in 2008 by Kleven Werft shipyard at Ulsteinvik in Norway, ‘Seven Sisters’ is 104 metres in length and has a gross registered tonnage of 5,275 tons. She is a diesel electric vessel, and is powered by four Caterpillar 3516HD generators providing 2,188 kW each, which provide power to two Rolls-Royce AZP100 azimuth thrusters, each producing 2,000 kW, and giving her a service speed of 12 knots.

Her auxiliary machinery includes a single Caterpillar 3508 auxiliary generator providing 968 kW, and a single Caterpillar C9 ACERT emergency generator providing 189 kW. She can produce 25 m3 of fresh water per day. For added manoeuvrability ‘Seven Sisters’ has two bow Rolls-Royce Kamewa TT2200 transverse thrusters providing 1,050 kW each, and a single bow Rolls-Royce Aquamaster UL1201 retractable azimuth thruster providing 883 kW.

She has an Ice class classification of ICE C, which allows her to operate in Baltic Sea first year ice with a thickness of 0.4 metres. Her mix of azimuth and transverse thrusters gives ‘Seven Sisters’ a dynamic positioning classification of DP2, with her position holding requirements all controlled through a Kongsberg K-Pos DP-22 system which takes its position holding data from two DGPS systems, three Gyro compasses, two wind sensor systems, two vertical reference systems, one Fanbeam system, one taut wire system, and one HiPap system.

In terms of dynamic positioning classification, DP2 differs from DP1 by having some system redundancy, and allows the vessel to keep station with the failure of an active component. The redundant system must provide the ability to keep station until work can be safely stopped, and the transfer of operations must be automatic. The highest classification, DP3, has segregated redundancy and can continue station keeping even with the failure of an active, or static component, and the total loss of the equipment in a compartment due to fire or flood.

For her construction work ‘Seven Sisters’ has a Hydramarine knuckleboom crane, with active heave compensation, and a lifting capacity of 150 tons, which is able to work down to a depth of 3,000 metres. Her aft working deck has an area of 850 m2, with an additional mezzanine deck with an area of 290 m2, and a deck strength of 10 tons/m2.

In support of her subsea construction work she has a 7 x 7 metre moonpool, and is equipped with two Work Remote Operating Vehicles (WROV), one a Hercules 17 model, and one a Hercules 29 model, both able to work down to a depth of 3,000 metres. For logistical support, urgent needs, and crew change requirements, ‘Seven Sisters’ has a raised, bow, helideck which has a ‘D’ value of 20.9 metres, and a weight limit of 12 tons, which allows her to accept all models of offshore support helicopter up to the largest type in use, namely the Sikorsky S-92A.

With accommodation for 92 persons, ‘Seven Sisters’ is a part of Subsea 7 SA, of Luxembourg, and is owned by Subsea 7 Offshore Resources (UK) Ltd., in the London suburb of Sutton in the UK. She is operated by Subsea 7 International, of Aberdeen in Scotland, and is managed by Subsea 7 International Contracting Ltd., also of Sutton in London. She is a MT 6026 L design, and was purchased by her owners at a cost of US$84 million (ZAR1.53 billion).

Her arrival from Dakar was due to ‘Seven Sisters’ being contracted to the commissioning of the Sangomar Field since May 2024. The Sangomar Field is the first offshore oil project in Senegal’s history, and is located 54 nautical miles to the south of Dakar. It was discovered in 2014, and covers an area of 400 km2, lying in a water depth of up to 1,400 metres. It is estimated to contain 230 million barrels of oil.

Subsea 7 International were contracted from the outset in 2020 with a work scope for the engineering, procurement, construction, transportation, and installation of the Subsea Umbilicals, Risers and Flowlines (SURF) system and Subsea Production System (SPS). The Sangomar Field has a total of 46 pipeline terminations, with 45 km of umbilicals, 107 km of rigid flowlines, 28 km of flexible risers, and 24 km of flowlines of installed water injection, all installed in water depths ranging from 700 metres to 1,400 metres.

All of the SURF and SPS installations are linked back to Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, named ‘Léopold Sédar Senghor’ after the 1st State President of Senegal. The FPSO was originally built in 2001 as the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) tanker ‘Astipalaia’, with a length of 332 metres, and a gross registered tonnage of 170,296 tons.

The FPSO conversion from a VLCC took place at the Seatrium shipyard in Singapore. She sailed from Singapore in December 2023, under tow, and rounded the Cape, arriving on station in the Sangomar Field in February 2024, with Subsea 7 responsible for the hook-up of the FPSO to the subsea systems, using ‘Seven Sisters’, ‘Seven Oceans’, and ‘Seven Vega’, and with the first oil from the field being produced in June 2024.

FPSO ‘Léopold Sédar Senghor’ is moored in 780 metres depth of water, and is connected to 23 subsea wells. She has a production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil per day, 130,000 ft3 of natural gas, and 145,000 barrels per day of water injection. Her oil storage capacity is 1.3 million barrels of oil, which are offloaded on a regular basis into receiving Shuttle Tankers.

The operator of the Sangomar Field is Woodside Energy, the Australian oil and gas company, who have an 82% interest in the field, and with the Senegal state owned oil company, Petrosen, holding the remaining 18% interest. The development costs of the Sangomar Field were set at US$5.2 billion (ZAR94.52 billion).

The stay in Cape Town for ‘Seven Sisters’ was, as expected, a short one and after 36 hours alongside uplifting bunkers, loading stores, and taking on fresh provisions, she was ready for departure. At 20:00 in the evening of 26th October she sailed from Cape Town, now bound eastward to Singapore, in anticipation of her next contract. She arrived there safely at midday on 20th November.

For the nomenclature aficionado, Subsea 7 have a fleet naming policy of giving their vessels names beginning with that of the owning company, namely ‘Seven’, followed by a word, with vessels in the fleet that have visited Cape Town over the past few years such as ‘Seven Oceans’, ‘Seven Oceanic’, ‘Seven Pegasus’, and ‘Seven Borealis’. In this instance ‘Seven Sisters’ is named after the range of coastal white chalk cliffs, which run along the coast to Beachy Head, in East Sussex in England, and which are a favourite area for coastal walkers, and weekend picnickers.

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Djibouti maritime forces benefit from EU supported exercise

by defenceWeb

The recently finished Exercise Doraleh in Djibouti is a further example of capacity building and improving training for the Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard.

The European Union (EU) naval force in the area under the Operation Atalanta flag worked with the Djibouti code of conduct and regional training centre to improve regional co-operation, maritime security and capacity enhancement among nations and institutions involved with maritime security in the western Indian Ocean.

The exercise, held from 10 to 14 November, was the first tangible evidence of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed eight months ago.

“The Doraleh regional exercise is an excellent example of how collaborative efforts, particularly with the Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard, can significantly improve maritime security in the region,” Force Commander Commodore Armando Valente Tinoco said at the opening ceremony.

“Several activities,” according to an EU NavFor statement, were carried out to improve the knowledge and capacities in maritime security of the trainees. The search and rescue seminar covered survival at sea and current and future search and rescue means concerning Operation Atalanta.

The legal seminar covered relevant areas of maritime interdiction operations (MIO), counter piracy operations (CPO), counter narcotics operations (CNO) and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF).

Maritime domain awareness (MDA) and maritime training operations (MTO) were also covered. The MDA component addressed different platforms to familiarise participants with maritime safety management technological tools followed by discussions of practical cases. The second consisted of theoretical session workshops on board the frigate and practical exercises at sea including an integration exercise.

Representatives from the Somali Police Force Department of the Coast Guard, Puntland Maritime Police Force, Djibouti Navy, Djibouti Coast Guard, EUCAP Somalia, CRIMARIO, Djibouti Code of Conduct, Djibouti Regional Training Centre and Djibouti Port Authority attended.

Doraleh, named after an extension to Djibouti Port, was the first time that maritime security forces of Djibouti and Somalia worked with the Seychellois and Madagascan co-ordination and fusion centres.

Written by defenceWeb and republished with permission. The original article can be found here

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COP 29: A common goal – Decarbonising transport

Edited by Paul Ridgway 
Africa Ports & Ships
London

An official side event at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP 29) brought together IMO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for a side event at COP 29: Decarbonising Transport: Policies and Strategies For Aviation, Maritime and Land. This was reported by the IMO new service in recent days.

IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez reminded participants that international shipping carries more than 80% of international trade and has already improved its energy efficiency performance by over 20% since the first IMO climate regulations came into force.

The S-G said: “I wish to highlight just one aspect which I think is key in achieving ambitious strategies in all transport modes – the need for abundant, safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable fuels and energy sources.

“While the end-fuels may vary across different transport sectors, we can work together to scale up the demand, and thereby boost the production and supply of zero- and near-zero fuels.”

A global framework for action

The IMO Strategy on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from ships, adopted in 2023, provides the global framework for action in the shipping sector.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), inland transport contributes more than 72% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in the transport sector, with 69% stemming from road transport. Aviation is responsible for approximately 2.4% of total anthropogenic emissions of CO2 on an annual basis, whereas estimated total emissions from maritime transport correspond to 2–3%.

Progress made

The event at COP29 highlighted the recent progress made by UNECE, ICAO and IMO in addressing the impact of their transport sectors on climate change, as well as showcased how their Member States and key stakeholders are contributing to actions necessary to achieve carbon neutrality.

Need for global rules

In the shipping panel, public and private maritime experts highlighted various aspects of shipping decarbonisation under IMO’s leadership, including the development of sustainable marine fuel standards, the need for global rules, the importance of technological innovation, and the need for enhanced cooperation between governments, shipowners, charterers, shippers, fuel providers and the port sector.

The COP 29 side event

For more on the COP 29 side event readers are invited to see the link see here.

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TRADE NEWS: Over 80 daggerboard bearings produced by Vesconite Bearings

Africa Ports & Ships

Vesconite Bearings has produced more than 80 daggerboard casing bearings for yachts and performance boats worldwide.

This is according to marine sales representative Leanre Coetzee, who has calculated the number of daggerboards that the company has manufactured.

These specialised bearings are known for their unique rectangular design, featuring a central hole shaped like a tail-less fish. This hole accommodates….

Read the rest of this report in the TRADE NEWS section available by CLICKING HERE

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Liberian Registry receives IMSAS Audit

Africa Ports & Ships

The Liberian Registry, the world’s largest flag registry is undergoing the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS).

The initial phase of the audit took place between 20-22 November 2024 at the Liberian Registry’s headquarters in Dulles, Virginia, and will continue in Liberia, concluding on 2 December 2024.

The IMO Member State Audit Scheme is a vital process that evaluates how effectively flag states implement and enforce international maritime regulations.

The audit examines key areas of responsibility, including maritime safety, environmental protection, and the training and certification of seafarers. It also assesses the country’s ability to uphold its port and coastal state obligations, ensuring that IMO instruments are applied and enforced consistently.

As a Category A Member State, Liberia holds a leadership position within the global maritime community, representing countries with the largest interest in providing international shipping services.

This leadership is distinguished by the size and quality of Liberia’s fleet, its innovative solutions, and steadfast commitment to regulatory excellence.

“Liberia plays a crucial role in the global maritime industry, and this audit reflects the importance of maintaining our leadership position. It is not just a matter of compliance but a testament to our responsibility to support the international shipping industry,” says Alfonso Castillero, CEO of the Liberian Registry.

He said this important audit reflects months of preparation and collaboration across multiple departments at the Registry.

“Teams from the Maritime Operations department, including Regulations & Standards, Audits & Inspections, Fleet Performance, Duty Officers, Vessel Certification, and Seafarer Services, worked closely with our IMO team, and Quality, Training, and Investigations departments to provide comprehensive information and ensure a successful audit process.

“The Liberian Registry expresses its gratitude to all stakeholders, including shipowners, operators, and its global network of offices, for their continued support in maintaining the Registry’s position at the forefront of the maritime industry.”

The Liberian Registry comprises over 5,500 vessels aggregating 269 million gross tons, representing more than 16 percent of the world’s ocean-going fleet.

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Cruise News – Cape Town Cruise Terminal ‘Best in Africa’

Africa Ports & Ships

Accolade for Cape Town Cruise Terminal

Congratulations go to the Cape Town Cruise Terminal which has been judged as the ‘Best in Africa’ for the fourth year running at the weekend’s World Cruise Awards.

The awards were held on Sunday, 24 November 2024, in Funchal, the capital of Madeira.

Some of the awards were:

World’s Best Cruise Terminal 2024 – DP World Mina Rashid (Dubai, UAE)
World’s Best Cruise Destination 2024 – Saudi Arabia
World’s Best Cruise Terminal for Sustainability 2024 – Port of Funchal (Madeira, Portugal)
World’s Best Cruise Line 2024 – Norwegian Cruise Line
World’s Best Boutique Cruise Line 2024 – Star Clippers
World’s Best Green Cruise Line 2024 – Grand Pioneers
World’s Best Cruise Line for Shore Excursions 2024 – Silversea
World’s Best Expedition Cruise Line 2024 – The Boat Company

Africa’s Best Cruise Terminal 2024 – Cape Town Cruise Terminal
Africa’s Best Cruise Destination 2024 – Egypt
Africa’s Best Cruise Line 2024 – Cunard
Africa’s Best River Cruise Destination 2024 – Egypt
Africa’s Best River Cruise Ship 2024 – Zambezi Queen
Africa’s Best Cruise Travel Agency 2024 – Cruise Vacations

Indian Ocean’s Best Cruise Destination 2024 – Seychelles
Indian Ocean’s Best Cruise Terminal 2024 – Port Victoria (Seychelles)
Indian Ocean’s Best Cruise Line 2024 – Silversea
Indian Ocean’s Best Cruise Travel Agency 2024 – Silver Wings Travels

Middle East’s Best Cruise Terminal 2024 – DP World Mina Rashid (Dubai, UAE)
Middle East’s Best Cruise Destination 2024 – Saudi Arabia
Middle East’s Best Cruise Line 2024 – MSC Cruises
Middle East’s Best Cruise Travel Agency 2024 – Touri Travel & Tourism

The full list of 2024 Cruise Awards can be found here

* * * * * * * * *

MSC Musica returns early from Mozambique

The cruise ship MSC Musica, currently operating MSC Cruises’ South African 2024/2025 cruise season out of Durban and Cape Town, has returned early from a planned cruises to MSC’s own beach resort at Pomene in Mozambique.

AIS inspection revealed the ship didn’t reach Pomene and instead retraced its path back to Durban, where MSC Musica arrived at 20:00 on Wednesday 27 November, one and a half days early from the intended return on Friday 29th.

A comment on Facebook referred to ‘bad weather prospects’ as the reason.

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Operation Irini by the numbers after four years

by defenceWeb

Now in its fourth year, the European Union (EU) naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea enforcing a United Nations (UN) arms embargo on Libya has hailed over 16 500 merchant vessels.

In addition to the calls, Operation Irini assets made ‘friendly approaches’ to more than 650 vessels and carried out 30 boardings to inspect documents and cargo of suspicious ships.

Current Irini flagship Hellenic Navy frigate HS Limnos (F451) continues executing the operation mandate. In addition to monitoring ships for arms trafficking to Libya, Irini also gathers information on illegal oil exports and human smuggling reporting illegal situations to the relevant authorities.

Hailings, the operation explained, are requests for information transmitted by radio on VHF frequencies from Irini naval and air assets to merchant ships. Information provided by the questioned vessel is cross-checked with other sources and forwarded to force headquarters (FHQ) aboard the flagship and operational headquarters (OHQ) in Rome for further analysis.

Friendly approaches are consensual visits on board vessels or ships aimed at promoting maritime awareness and co-operation. They may be carried out with the consent of the master of the ship without specific approval by the flag state. The visiting team is trained to interact and establish good relations with the crew to strengthen co-operation with the wider maritime community and spread knowledge about Irini, the operation said.

Boardings are inspections on board at sea to verify documents and cargo. They can be carried out only if reasonable grounds suggest the suspected ship could transport arms to Libya in violation of the embargo. Under the relevant UN resolutions, Irini is authorised to inspect the cargo and the entire vessel subject to approval by the vessel’s flag state.

Written by defenceWeb and republished with permission. The original article can be found here

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WHARF TALK: Gateway to Antarctica – FU XING HAI

Pictures by ‘Dockrat’
Story by Jay Gates

On 6th February 2023, the City of Cape Town, under the auspices of Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, and the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos, kick started a campaign to make Cape Town the ‘Gateway to Antarctica’.

Such an accolade is nothing new, as Cape Town has been the Gateway to Antarctica ever since Bouvet de Lozier sailed into Table Bay on 24th February 1739, onboard his flagship ‘L’Aigle’, and announced to the then known world that he had discovered the great lost southern continent of Terra Australis Incognita, better known today as Antarctica. In fact, he had not, but had discovered Bouvet Island.

Since then, Whalers, Sealers, Explorers, Expeditions, and now tourists have all flowed through Cape Town, both heading to, and returning from, Antarctica. Most folk are completely unaware that there is even a glorious memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott, one that is marooned in downtown Cape Town, proudly acknowledging his doomed Antarctic expedition that called into Cape Town in 1912. Such a memorial should be relocated to its proper place in the V&A, which is where both of his ships, namely ‘Discovery’ in 1902, and ‘Terra Nova’ in 1910, called into the V&A for coaling and the loading of stores and equipment.

In another failure of promoting Antarctic tourism, John Cooper, the now retired, great Antarctic Seabird Ornithologist from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology of the University of Cape Town, and myself, worked together to get a bronze plaque cast for display in the V&A, to show how all of the early explorers, from Bouvet de Lozier in 1739, and including Marion Dufresne in 1772 (whose name was given to the island that bears his name), through to Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1907, and Frank Wild in 1922 (who on arrival back from Antarctica was invited to dine with Prime Minister Jan Smuts), had called into Cape Town.

The Antarctic commemoration plaque was presented to the V&A Port Captain, at a crowded ceremony alongside the ‘S.A. Agulhas’, shortly before she sailed for SANAE in 2012, by Captain Bill Leith and myself, and in the presence of the Director General of the Department of Environment Affairs. Sadly, this plaque never again saw the light of day, with its whereabouts unknown, and another opportunity to enhance Antarctic tourism in Cape Town, and within the historical VA&, has been lost.

In more modern times, Antarctic Research Expeditions, and Southern Ocean scientific expeditions, from all around the world, have used Cape Town as their springboard to the Great White Continent. It has stretched beyond simply scientific expeditionary vessels, and now encompasses expeditionary passenger cruise vessels, and even direct flights to Antarctica from Cape Town International Airport, catering for scientific needs, and for touristic needs.

One element of Antarctic development in recent years, that has further enhanced Cape Town’s gateway image, has been that of fishing, both longlining for Antarctic Cod, and trawling for Krill. Both elements of this niche fishing industry are relatively small, in global terms. Out of a worldwide fleet, there are only four longliners based in South Africa, mainly Cape Town, and globally there are only fourteen Krill trawlers in total.

Interestingly, the vast majority of the Krill fleet choose Cape Town as their wintering, maintenance, and operational base. In 2024 no less than seven of them spent the winter in the port, with all of them sailing from Cape Town at the start of the Krill catching season earlier in the year, and all arriving back in Cape Town from September onwards, at the conclusion of the Krill catching season to begin their annual drydocking, maintenance and refit programmes.

Back on 5th September, at 10:00 in the morning, the Chinese Krill Trawler ‘Fu Xing Hai’ (IMO 9959620) arrived of the Table Bay anchorage, from Grytviken in South Georgia. She went to anchor for just under a day, and at 09:00 in the morning of 6th September, she entered Cape Town harbour, proceeding into the Duncan Dock, and went alongside J berth to begin offloading of her Krill cargo. She then moved down the Duncan Dock, and in a surprise move, was placed at the Passenger Cruise Terminal at E berth for a while, before moving to the Repair Quay for the duration of her stay in port.

Built in 2023 by Huanghai Shipbuilding at Shidao in China, ‘Fu Xing Hai’, and being commissioned in August 2023, she proceeded to Antarctic, and on her maiden voyage arrived in Cape Town on 16th January this year, where she spent just over one week discharging her Krill cargo, uplifting bunkers, stores and fresh provisions, before sailing from Cape Town on 24th January to the fishing grounds of the Antarctic peninsula.

She is 137 metres in length, with a gross registered tonnage of 15,071 tons. She is powered by a Pielstick-MAN main engine producing 12,070 bhp (9,000 kW), driving a nozzled controllable pitch propeller. For added manoeuvrability she has a transverse bow thruster. As a Krill trawler, operating solely in Antarctic waters, ‘Fu Xing Hai’ has an ice classification of ICE B2, which is the China Classification Society equivalent of Ice Class 1B, which allows her to operate in first year ice thickness of 0.6 metres.

She has been designed to process only Krill meal from her catch, and her factory deck is fitted with a Chonson Beyond Krill meal processing line, which is capable of processing 110 tons of Krill per day. She operates with a crew of 129 persons, and has three cargo holds, with a cargo carrying capacity of 8,465 m3, and able to hold 4,232 tons of Krill meal in bags.

Licensed to fish only for Krill (Euphausia Superba) by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), and with her current license valid until 30th November 2024, ‘Fu Xing Hai’ is licensed to fish in UN Sea Areas 48.1 (Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands), 48.2 (South Orkney Islands), 48.3 (South Georgia), and 48.4 (South Sandwich Islands). She is one of only 14 licensed Krill trawlers, of which only 9 of them carried out Krill fishing expeditions in the 2023-2024 fishing season around Antarctica. The Krill trawlers come from just 5 nations, namely China (4), Chile (1), Norway (4), Russia (1), South Korea (3), and Ukraine (1).

The Krill fishing industry is highly regulated, and every licensed trawler carries one, or two, CCAMLR fishing observers on every voyage, who monitor the fishing operation, and log all catch data. They are also required to carry mandatory a vessel monitoring system (VMS), with ‘Fu Xing Hai’ having a CLS Triton VMS fitted.

The VMS transmits continuous position, speed, and heading information via the Iridium satellite communications system directly to CCAMLR. The VMS is tamperproof, with the main unit being sealed, and unable to be opened. Any attempt to open the transceiver unit, or the antenna unit, will result in an alarm being transmitted, as will any attempt to remove the VMS from its bulkhead location.

The specialised krill net being used on ‘Fu Xing Hai’ is 184 metres in length, with a net opening that is 20.5 metres in height, and 18.5 metres in width. It has a net cod end that is 29 metres in length. The catch is not brought up on deck, as on a conventional trawler, but is continuously pumped out of the cod end, and pumped directly into the factory deck for processing.

The net includes mandatory marine mammal exclusion and escape devices, with a whale excluder with a mesh of 60 cm across the opening, with a further seal excluder with a mesh of 10 cm, and four escape panels in a 9 metre zone, with each escape panel being 2 metres by 1 metre in size. The trawl warps and wires also have bird scaring devices laid out along their entire, out of water, length. In the 2023 season, across the entire fleet, only one whale was reported as being caught in nets, and only two seabirds were reported as being caught in nets.

CCAMLR have adopted very high environmental protection regulations in the convention areas. These include no dumping of plastic waste, no oily waste discharge, no incinerator ash dumping, no garbage dumping, no avian product dumping, no sewage dumping, no offal discharge, no general waste discarding, and no dumping of food waste with pieces greater than 25 mm in size.

CCAMLR have also established 3 voluntary restricted zones (VRZ) around selected islands of the Antarctic Peninsula, in order to protect Penguin breeding colonies, which has removed 75 km2 of critical penguin habitat out of available fishing waters. A Marine Protected Area covering 4,500 km2 has also been agreed in the Antarctic Peninsula, where all CCAMLR licensed trawlers observe a permanent closure to fishing in this area. The other waters of the Antarctic Peninsula area are closed to fishing between October and February each year, with the waters of the South Shetland Island being closed between November and March each year.

It is estimated that the Krill Biomass in Antarctic waters amounts to over 60 million tons. The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) limit set by CCAMLR is set at 5.6 million tons, which amounts to less than 10% of the total Krill Biomass. However, the maximum catch limit set by CCAMLR, for all 14 trawlers, for the season is set at 620,000 tons, which amounts to only 1% of the Krill Biomass.

Since 1990, after the collapse of the unregulated Soviet Union krill fishing fleets, when catch limits were set, the maximum CCAMLR catch limit has never been reached. Prior to this, the huge Krill fishing fleets of the Soviet Union, as they did in the waters of Namibia, were literally vacuuming the waters of Antarctica, with the highest recorded Krill catches seen in the 1970s and 1980s. These figures dropped dramatically with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

In the 2022-2023 season the total Krill catch was only 415,508 tons, with the 2023-2024 season having only 424,203 tons as the total recorded Krill catch. The highest ever catch total was 450,781 tons set in the 2020-2021 season. Since 2000 no more than 13 Krill trawlers have been active in any one season. This means that only 0.7% of the total Krill Biomass has been caught, leaving 99.3% of Krill available for Whales, Dolphins, Seals, Penguins, and Seabirds, to exploit.

Owned by the Liaoyu Group, of Dalian in China, ‘Fu Xing Hai’ is operated and managed by Liaoning Pelagic Fisheries Co. Ltd., also of Dalian in China. She is currently the largest Krill Trawler registered in China.

All of the Krill trawler owing companies belong to the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies (ARK), which was founded in 2012. It includes 8 companies, from 4 CCAMLR states, which account for 90% of all Krill catches in CCAMLR waters. There have been no Illegal, Unreported, or Unregulated (IUU) Krill trawlers ever reported, with all ARK vessels operating under the auspices of the 2012 Cape Town Agreement.

The Cape Town Agreement was established to enforce safety requirements for all fishing vessels greater than 24 metres in length. The requirements of the agreement cover safety standards, vessel inspection, vessel certification, control measures, crew training, and vessel safety information.

That all Krill trawlers operate under ARK guidance, and CCAMLR regulations, and that catch figures have never reached agreed totals, hardly mark the Krill fishing industry as one that can be accused of acting illegally, of overfishing, or overexploiting the Krill Biomass, or threatening the wildlife of Antarctica. The CCAMLR constitution works by consensus, and so it requires the agreement of all 26 members to agree to any changes to current catch limits.

That said, the pirates of Sea Shepherd have been making noises about returning to Antarctica to take on the Krill trawlers and to stop their legal operations in those waters. Many folk will remember them from their TV series called ‘Whale Wars’, and their days of chasing the Japanese Research Whaling fleet in Antarctica between 2008 and 2012, under the command of Paul Watson (he is not a Captain, and he has never held any formal Maritime Command Qualifications), with the last TV programme airing in 2015.

Since 2015 a lot has happened, with Japan ending whaling in Antarctica in 2018, Paul Watson was ejected from Sea Shepherd in 2022, and was arrested in Greenland in 2024 on an Interpol Warrant, pending extradition to Japan. Since 2015 when the last TV programme aired, Sea Shepherd have effectively dropped off the radar, and had no real world exposure, as they did with Paul Watson at the helm.

Returning to Antarctica is a way of redressing that lost image, and they are currently seeking donations to fulfill their Krill campaign. It is a nonsense campaign, due to the very fact that only 0.3% of Krill Biomass is being caught, no IUU fishing takes place, the whole Krill fishing industry is highly regulated, and Antarctic wildlife is flourishing. The Sea Shepherd campaign is a pure PR stunt to garner support, based on falsehoods, and to elicit emotional public donation funding.

As for Cape Town, to highlight the fact that she is very much a ‘Gateway to Antarctica’, there was one day in early November when no less than 12 vessels associated with Antarctica were lying alongside in Cape Town harbour. They included the Supply vessels ‘S.A. Agulhas II’, ‘Vasiliy Golovkin’, and ‘Noosfera’, and the Expedition Passenger vessel ‘SH Diana’, the Antarctic Cod longliner ‘Ocean Azul’, and the Krill Trawlers ‘Fu Xing Hai’ and ‘Long Fa’ of China, ‘Antarctic Sea’ and ‘Antarctic Endurance’ of Norway, ‘Sae In Champion’ and ‘Sae In Leader’ of South Korea, and ‘More Sudrozhestva’ of Ukraine.

After over two months in Cape Town completing her winter refit, ‘Fu Xing Hai’ was ready to begin her 2024-2025 Krill fishing season. At 10:00 in the morning of 24th November, she sailed from Cape Town, with her AIS showing that she was bound for Antarctica, and for UN Sea Area 48.2, which is the South Orkney Islands. It remains to be seen if she returns to Cape Town in the New Year, but it does serve to re-emphasise that Cape Town is now most definitely considered to be the ‘Gateway to Antarctica’, especially from a shipowner point of view.

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SA Navy needs to change and adapt quickly or become obsolete – Mkhonto

by defenceWeb
The current geopolitical crises in Ukraine and the Middle East crisis have ramped up the importance of maritime security with the build-up of naval forces in the Red Sea, especially creating serious problems for countries like South Africa.

“As technocrats and politicians pay more attention to rising sea levels and climate change, they also pay more attention to how and where future conflicts will arise,” said Rear Admiral David Mkhonto, the South African Navy’s chief director of Maritime Strategy.

With 70% of the globe being water, 80% of the world’s populations living at or near the coast, 90% of trade carried on sea routes and 95% of the world’s information on undersea cables, maritime security was critical, he said.

Speaking at the recent Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) 2024 conference on Maritime Security, delivering a paper on behalf the Chief of the Navy, Mkhonto said the maritime system depended upon the protection of sea lanes and the control of choke points, which no single state or alliance of nations could do on their own. Maritime security, he said, now encompassed blue crimes, those committed at sea, and terrorism, as well as traditional conflict at sea between countries.

South Africa was faced with the consequences of all these, from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea cutting traffic there by 45% and pushing up traffic around the Cape of Good Hope by 75%, to the increasing use of “grey zone tactics and the regional maritime shadow war between Iran and Israel”.

What was becoming particularly concerning, he said, was the risk of importing geo-political rivalry to the region through the increased militarisation of the Western Indian Ocean by strategic rivals like China, the EU, Russia, the UK and the US, which could undermine the vital cooperation needed to address the need to secure shipping lanes from attack.

At the same time, modern navies must be reconfigured to become agile enough “from pursuing pirates one day to high-tech warfare the next… in the context of cyberspace contestation, technological leapfrogging, the rise of unmanned and autonomous vehicles, climate change, failing and failed states, hybrid warfare, social unrest and the anticipation of the fracturing of alliances such as NATO and the EU”.

The emergence of naval drones with sensors and explosives has heralded an exciting evolution, transforming the essential elements of naval warfare.

“The future of naval warfare is poised on an exciting balance between traditional naval power and the innovative potential of unmanned systems in a seascape that is evolving before our eyes.”

Technology has changed the tools and the tactics and the nature of conflicts themselves, which South Africa has to keep abreast of to ensure the continued survival of its people, Mkhonto said.

The SA Navy’s strategic approach was premised on domain awareness and domain response. To this end, Project MATHLO aims to purchase new radar and sensor systems from Reutech, with the sensors being integrated into the Institute of Maritime Technology’s indigenously developed VISTANET system and ultimately into the “national satellite”.

This information would be shared with strategic partners, such India, Madagascar, Seychelles, Tanzania and Brazil and bolstered by data shared by them in turn.

In terms of domain response, the SA Navy would continue to participate in multinational exercises, but that this would be evaluated on the benefit these exercises brought to strengthening regional efforts. As such, exercises such as IBSAMAR (India, Brazil and South Africa Maritime Exercise), MOSI (China, Russia and South Africa) and OXIDE were extremely important.

The Chief of the Navy, Mkhonto, said, would encourage the western world (the US and its allies) to support Southern African Development Community (SADC) exercises and operations, but he warned the US in particular to be aware of regional decorum.

“If you are doing an exercise in Tanzanian waters, Tanzania must invite us, not the US. That is why we didn’t support these exercises in the past.”

Reshaping the South African Navy to meet the demands of modern warfare would require technology and investment. Project BIRO and Project HOTEL were examples of the capability in the South African maritime industry’s capacity and with investment in Armscor’s Simons Town’s dockyard, South Africa could potentially return the availability of the Navy’s platforms to 100% with little or less foreign assistance.

“However, the SA Navy is committed to working closer with its own BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] partners to develop and establish refits and upgrade capacity with Armscor.”

Citing the example of the Red Sea where naval ships had been unable to repel threats using 20 mm cannon, he said: “we have to change and adapt quickly, otherwise we will become obsolete.”

Written by defenceWeb and republished with permission. The original article can be found here

Added 27 November 2024

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Madagascar’s huge ocean algae bloom was caused by dust from drought-stricken southern Africa

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Transnet peeved with UNTU’s claim about CTCT’s terminal equipment

Africa Ports & Ships

Transnet SOC Ltd (Transnet) has taken issue with a statement on social media by the United National Transport Union (UNTU) regarding the condition of previously used container handling equipment for the Cape Town Container Terminal.

According to Transnet, the UNTU statement “falsely claimed that Transnet purchased unsuitable second-hand cranes, with no spare parts of which only five were in working order, which were too small for the Cape Town Container Terminal operations and endangered the lives of employees and truck drivers.”

The statement also called on the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy to hold Transnet accountable, for what UNTU described as self-inflicted challenges and costly errors.

Inaccuracies

These accusations contain inaccuracies, said Transnet.

“It needs to be placed on record that Transnet management has formally addressed this concerning trend of issuing media statements that contain inaccuracies, slanderous allegations, and reckless accusations at a whim.

Transnet said it has a myriad of formal consultation structures where matters of mutual concern and strategic intent are shared with organised labour on a regular basis.

“In addition to that, management is committed to open communication and is readily available to discuss and clarify any matters of concern.”

Transnet said it intends to formally raise the matter of continued misstatements with the union.

The argument concerns a delivery of seven pre-used Rubber-Tyred-Gantry cranes (RTGs) delivered in December 2023 for the Cape Town Container Terminal. Transnet says the acquisition of the RTGs was instrumental in improving efficiencies at the Cape Town Container Terminal.

This was by means of increasing its capacity to handle more containers, reduce congestion and improving the overall flow of goods.

“As a result of the increased efficiency in container handling, the terminal has seen an improvement in vessel turnaround times and enhanced service delivery to customers.”

According to Transnet, it was thanks to the tactical interventions that it implemented to address a range of challenges, that there has been a noted improvement in the vessels’ turnaround at the Port of Cape Town.

“The acquisition of the gantries was instrumental in improving efficiencies at the Cape Town Container Terminal, by increasing its capacity to handle more containers, reduce congestion and improving the overall flow of goods,” says Transnet.

Deciduous season

Transnet says the port is working hard in ensuring that vessels berth on arrival. “Apart from those unavoidable delays due to inclement weather, vessels waiting at outer anchorage are kept at minimal and within the target of 2 vessels.

“Transnet’s immediate priority is to ensure equipment availability and reliability during this deciduous season, with the customer at the centre of our actions and decisions.

“This year, we will go into the season with over 70 pieces of additional equipment, such as new haulers, reach stackers, and container empty handlers. This investment is aimed at improving efficiencies as South Africa exports its grapes, peaches, apricots, and plums to the global markets.”

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Tourist boat sinks in Red Sea – 16 people missing

Africa Ports & Ships

Egyptian authorities announced that 16 people are missing from the tourist boat named Sea Story on a diving excursion which sank in rough seas south of Marsa Alam on Monday morning (25 November 2024).

Reports say that 28 people were rescued and taken ashore.

Among the sixteen missing are 12 non-Egyptians. The Sea Story apparently capsized after a wave struck. Reports say the Sea Story had a total of 44 people on board – 31 tourists and 13 crew, according to a revised number issued by the Red Sea Governorate.

A number of the tourists were reported to be in their cabins when the wave struck the 34-m metre long Egyptian-owned vessel, which capsized before sinking.

Among the passengers were UK, Belgian, US, Irish, Chinese, Finns, Germans, Poles, Slovakians, Spanish, and Swiss people.

Earlier, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority had forecast rough and turbulent seas in the Red Sea area, advising the suspension of all non-shipping maritime activities during Sunday and Monday.

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MSC’s AGL to invest €uro 40 million into ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz

Africa Ports & Ships

The Namibian ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz are to be the recipients of a major investment from Mediterranean Shipping Company’s subsidiary, Africa Global Logistics (AGL).

AGL was recently awarded the concession to manage and operate the Port of Walvis Bay Container Terminal and other sections of the country’s main port, together with investments in the port of Lüderitz.

Much of the N$757 million (R757m) investment will go towards supporting the nation’s oil and renewable energies sectors, according to a report in The Namibian, which quoted AGL’s managing director for Southern Africa, Koen Rombouts.

Namibia’s energy sector is expected to undergo a remarkable growth as the offshore oil and gas developments offshore the Gariep (Orange) River mouth come into production. There will also be a strong emphasis on renewable energy benefiting from the Atlantic coast’s abundant sunshine and wind.

“Our investment will help us capitalise on the growing demand for logistics services as the country develops its natural resources,” Rombouts was quoted as saying.

His remarks were made during a recent African Energy Week conference.

AGL is currently building a new warehouse at Walvis Bay and has announced plans for development at Lüderitz.

AGL is establishing an energy unit to provide oil and gas services at these ports. The facilities will support oil exploration activities and the importation of wind turbines and other renewable energy equipment.

He pointed out that Walvis Bay and Lüderitz are strategically situated and increasingly important for regional trade and economic development.

“With the decline in efficiency at South Africa’s Transnet, there is a growing opportunity for companies like AGL to expand their operations and potentially partner with other stakeholders to improve rail infrastructure,” he said.

AGL also manages and operates the terminal at the Angolan port of Lobito, which handles export minerals arriving along the privatised Lobito Atlantic Railway from the DRC and Zambia.

Walvis Bay Container Terminal

As from 1 October the container terminal at Walvis Bay has been handed over to TIL (Terminal Investment Limited), another MSC division, which now manages and operates the modern container facility in terms of a concession period of 25 years.

The modern container terminal is a recent addition at the port of Walvis Bay but immediate improvements being undertaken include dredging with the aim of widening and deepening the entrance and leading channels to 16 metres, in order to accommodate larger ships.

With TIL’s association with the parent company MSC, it can be anticipated that that the Walvis Bay terminal will in future also focus on development as a hub port for the wider area covering the west coast region of Africa and beyond.

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Exercise Crocodile Lift is underway in Nigeria

by defenceWeb

The Nigerian Navy has kicked off the 2024 edition of Exercise Crocodile Lift, held in conjunction with the French Navy, which has brought a Mistral class amphibious warfare vessel to participate.

The three-day exercise was officially launched by Rear Admiral Shehu Gombe, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Naval Doctrine Command, at Naval Base Apapa on the weekend.

Exercise Crocodile Lift comes weeks after Exercise Grand African Nemo (4-12 December), which was also organised with French input.

“While Ex Grand African Nemo primarily focused on Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) operations and legal resolutions, Crocodile Lift is designed to enhance amphibious warfare capabilities,” Gombe said. “This aligns with our vision of fostering a safe and secure region for shared prosperity and development.

“This platform offers an invaluable opportunity for participants—units, ships, and formations—to achieve the objectives of Crocodile Lift 2024.

“The exercise also presents an opportunity for partners with a shared understanding of our security objectives to deploy African-led solutions to transborder threats and challenges to enhance regional security,” Gombe said.

“The Nigerian Navy remains resolute in the sustained fight against crude oil theft, piracy, illicit trafficking and other maritime crimes, which is part of our policing role. Furthermore, being the nation’s maritime sentinel we remain relentless in the task of fostering a safe and secure maritime environment that engenders a thriving blue economy for enhanced prosperity for all Nigerians.”

Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Western Naval Command (WNC), Rear Admiral Monday Oamen, said the objective of this year’s edition is the creation of a safe and secure maritime domain through the simulation of an amphibious operations towards safeguarding the Gulf of Guinea against piracy, sea robbery, crude oil theft, and other forms of criminality.

“During this year’s exercise, the Nigerian Navy will be conducting a combined amphibious operation in collaboration with the French Navy. On its part, the Nigerian Navy will deploy two ships (NNS Kada supported by DB Abuja), two Special Boat Service detachments and two helicopters.”

The French Navy Mistral class amphibious assault ship and helicopter carrier Dixmude arrived in Lagos on 21 November to take part in Exercise Crocodile Lift 2024.

Written by defenceWeb and republished with permission. The original article can be found here

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New maps show high-risk zones for whale-ship collisions − vessel speed limits and rerouting can reduce the toll

A blue whale swims close to a large vessel near the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Asha de Vos, CC BY-ND

Anna Nisi, University of Washington

Imagine you are a blue whale swimming up the California coast, as you do every spring. You are searching for krill in the Santa Barbara Channel, a zone that teems with fish, kelp forests, seagrass beds and other undersea life, but also vibrates with noise from ship traffic. Suddenly, the noise gets louder.

You start to make a slow, shallow dive, but without much urgency – after all, your species evolved over millions of years without this mysterious noise, so why would you know what to do when you hear it? A minute later, you are fatally struck by a container ship.

Your body slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it will nourish deep-sea creatures for decades but will never be seen by humans again. Indeed, your death goes unnoticed; the vessel barely registers the impact of hitting a member of the largest animal species on Earth.

Collisions with ships are a critical threat to many large whale species. While these events are difficult to study, scientists estimate that thousands of whales are killed by ships yearly. In some regions, whales die from vessel strikes at rates that exceed what is considered sustainable after decades of whaling. Collisions with vessels threaten some critically endangered species.

Research and experience show that simple measures can reduce these collisions – for example, rerouting shipping lanes to avoid important areas for whales, or reducing vessel speeds. But to implement these interventions, scientists and policymakers need to know where whales are most at risk.

Colliding with cruise and container ships is one of the most serious threats to endangered whale species.

Mapping risk to whales

In a newly published study in Science, colleagues and I mapped global ship-strike risk for four species of Earth’s largest whales: blue, fin, humpback and sperm. Within each species’ range, we found that vessels traveled the equivalent of thousands of times the distance to the moon and back every year.

Our maps reveal widespread risk of vessel collisions in areas including the U.S. West Coast, the Mediterranean Sea and the northern Indian Ocean. These zones already have documented high levels of ship strikes.

We also found many other regions with similar levels of risk that are less studied and recognized. They include several stretches along the coastlines of South America and southern Africa, and the area around the Azores off the coast of Portugal.

Predicted patterns of whale-ship collisions for blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales. Areas in purple are places of higher ship-strike risk, with high levels of shipping traffic and high habitat suitability for each species. Ship-strike risk was predicted for each species across their range map – as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature – which for fin whales excludes the tropics.
Anna Nisi, CC BY-ND

Most high-risk areas are unprotected

Whales are largely unprotected from vessel collisions around the world. We identified collision-risk hot spots – areas in the top 1% of predicted risk globally that represent the riskiest places for each species.

We found that fewer than 7% of collision-risk hot spots had put measures in place to reduce collisions, such as limiting vessel speeds or requiring ships to avoid certain areas. Exceptions include the west and east coasts of North America, as well as the Mediterranean, which have higher levels of ship-strike management.

Where such measures exist, they often are voluntary. Mandatory restrictions on speed cover just 0.54% of collision-risk hot spots for blue whales, 0.27% for humpback whales and none of the hot spots for fin or sperm whales.

For each species, we found that ship-strike risk was higher within exclusive economic zones – areas up to 200 nautical miles from coastlines, in which each country has exclusive jurisdiction over marine resources – than on the high seas. This can make it easier to implement conservation and management measures in these areas.

Within exclusive economic zones, individual countries can either adopt voluntary vessel measures or propose mandatory changes through the International Maritime Organization, which regulates international shipping. There is a lot of opportunity for countries to protect whales in their national waters.

However, since political boundaries mean nothing to whales, the most effective approach would be for neighboring countries to coordinate efforts to reduce ship-strike risk across whale migratory routes.

This video shows whales’ use of space in the ocean, shaded from blue (lower use areas) to white (high use areas), with global ship traffic overlaid on it, colored by vessel speed.

We also found high levels of ship-strike risk within existing marine protected areas – zones where countries have adopted various measures to conserve and manage sea life. Most of these marine protected areas were created to protect sea life from fishing, but very few place any restrictions or regulations on shipping. When marine protected areas contain high levels of ship-strike risk, governments could add such measures to the protected areas’ missions.

Benefits of protecting whales

Protecting whales from ships would benefit other species too. Vessels can strike many marine species, including seals, sea turtles, sharks, fish, penguins and dolphins.

Marine shipping is the top source of underwater noise, which is a major threat to marine life. Underwater noise can disrupt feeding, interfere with communication and cause stress for many species. Vessels run more quietly at slower speeds, so speed-reduction measures can reduce noise pollution as well as collision risk.

Humans can also benefit from slowing down and rerouting ships. When vessels travel more slowly, their fuel efficiency increases, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The marine shipping industry currently produces carbon emissions comparable to those from aviation.

Slowing vessels down also reduces emissions of harmful air pollutants that threaten human health in coastal areas and are estimated to contribute to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths annually. In 2023, for example, vessels cooperating with a voluntary slowdown in California cut 45,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions and 1,250 metric tons of nitrogen oxides, and they reduced the risk to whales by more than half.

Changing vessel routes can make waters safer for local fishermen. In Sri Lanka, for example, heavy ship traffic hugs the coast, overlapping with local fishermen as well as with foraging blue whales. Collisions with cargo ships have killed several fishermen there in recent years. In response, some shipping companies are voluntarily shifting their lanes farther offshore to reduce the risk of colliding with humans and whales.

In our interconnected world, 90% of consumer goods travel by ship before they get to market. Most items that consumers in wealthy nations purchase in their daily lives have traveled across the ocean at some point.

Our study shows that ship-strike risk is widespread – but in our view, protecting whales from these collisions is a solvable issue. And by protecting whales, humans can also protect themselves.

This article has been updated to add a video showing areas of the ocean that are used by whales, mapped in combination with global ship traffic.

Anna Nisi, Postdoctoral Researcher in Biology, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Umhlanga Rocks Lighthouse marks 70 years as a beacon of safe navigation

Africa Ports & Ships

One of South Africa’s most recognisable sites, Umhlanga Rocks Lighthouse today (Monday 25 November 2024) celebrates its 70th anniversary. The Lighthouse was first lit by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), then known as SAR&H, on the night of 25 November 1954.

The Umhlanga (also spelt uMhlanga) Rocks tower was built soon after the opening of nearby Cooper Lighthouse in Durban, which was commissioned on 31 July 1953. It took just four days and 19 hours to construct and was commissioned a year later.

The original site for the uMhlanga Rocks Lighthouse was on the grounds of the Oyster Box Hotel. When 33 centimetres of rain fell in less than 24 hours in January 1953 and caused erosion close to the proposed site, the current location was chosen because it had a rock foundation.

Situated on the Umhlanga Promenade, approximately 15 kilometres from Durban Central, the 21-metre cylindrical concrete tower is painted white, with a red top and red lantern house. The rotating lens system produces three flashes every 20 seconds.

The lighthouse is automated and TNPA carries out scheduled maintenance. It is one of the two lighthouses built to replace the Bluff Lighthouse; Cooper Lighthouse is the other. Bluff Lighthouse was in operation from 1867 until 1940 and was demolished in 1941 to make way for the placement of heavy artillery guns for World War II.

Other lighthouses in KwaZulu-Natal are Cape Vidal (1985), Cooper (1953), Durnford (1916), Green Point (1905), Ifafa (1980), Jesser Point (1986), North Sand Bluff (1968), Port Shepstone (1906), Richards Bay (1979 original concrete structure, 2018 current structure) and Tugela (1972).

The National Ports Act, 2005 (Act No.12 of 2005) mandates TNPA to provide, operate and maintain lighthouses and other marine Aids to Navigation (AtoNs) to assist the navigation of vessels within commercial port limits and along the coast of South Africa.

Lighthouses, beacons, and buoys are the most common types of visual AtoNs.

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SA Port Statistics for October 2024

By Africa Ports & Ships

Port statistics for the month of October 2024, covering the eight commercial ports under the administration of Transnet National Ports Authority, are now available.

The statistics here reflect port cargo throughputs, ships berthed and auto and container volumes handled together with liquid and dry bulk volumes.

Motor vehicles are measured in vehicle units being the equal of 1 tonne per unit.

Containers are counted in TEUs, with each TEU representing 13.5 tonnes.

Figures for the respective ports during October 2024 are:

Total cargo handled by tonnes during October 2024, including containers by weight

PORT	October 2024 million tonnes
Richards Bay	7.6560
Durban	5.821
Saldanha Bay	3.321
Cape Town	1.105
Port Elizabeth	0.769
Ngqura	1.229
Mossel Bay	0.088
East London	0.141
Total all ports	20.124 million tonnes

CONTAINERS (measured by TEUs) during October 2024
(TEUs include Deepsea, Coastal, Transship and empty containers all subject to being invoiced by NPA

PORT	October 2024 TEUs
Durban	202,535
Cape Town	56,984
Port Elizabeth	9,511
Ngqura	41,347
East London	471
Richards Bay	42
Total all ports	310,890 TEU

MOTOR VEHICLES RO-RO TRAFFIC (measured by Units- CEUs) during October 2024

PORT	October 2024 CEUs
Durban	36,271
Cape Town	0
Port Elizabeth	12,913
East London	7,200
Richards Bay	0
Total all ports	56,384

SHIP CALLS for October 2024

PORT	October 2024 vessels	gross tons
Durban	238	8,284,093
Cape Town	151	3,499,209
Richards Bay	120	5,232,940
Port Elizabeth	5	1,599,580
Saldanha Bay	36	2,265,772
Ngqura	45	2,125,289
East London	20	736,931
Mossel Bay	23	154,756
Total ship calls	683	23,848,670

— source TNPA, with adjustments to include container weights by Africa Ports & Ships

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WHARF TALK: standards-setting PCTC (car carrier) – HÖEGH AURORA

Pictures by Keith Betts 
Story by Jay Gates

On 7th and 8th October 2024 the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) took place, obviously at Hamburg in Germany. The HSC is about tackling future problems concerning sustainability, and the aim of the HSC is to develop initiatives to achieve more rapid implementation of the sustainability goals that have been adopted by the United Nations.

Amongst its goals are how can batteries, which are the key to climate protection, be produced with sustainably sourced materials, how can international financial structures be reformed to support all countries in achieving sustainable development, how can we better utilise the potential of the private sector and civil society stakeholders to achieve the global sustainability goals, and what guidelines can politics establish to enable today’s sustainability pioneers to set tomorrow’s standards? All very laudable, and shipping was not left out of the HSC goals.

For the two days of the HSC, Hamburg played host to around 1,600 participants, from 102 countries, and ended with more than 15 agreements reached. One of the major goals was to agree to a declaration in respect to how shipping corridors be created, and supplied, with green hydrogen to enable CO2 neutral shipping. The outcome was the Hamburg Declaration on the Decarbonisation of Global Shipping, which was signed by 14 organisations, which included various ports, green fuel producers, shipbuilders, financial institutions, as well as terminal operators, logistics companies, and shipping companies, one of which was Höegh Autoliners.

On 21st November, at 09:00 in the morning, the pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) ‘Höegh Aurora’ (IMO 9962677) arrived off the Durban Bluff, from Port Elizabeth, and entered Durban harbour, proceeding to the Point and going alongside at G berth to begin her discharge of vehicles loaded in European ports. Her arrival in Durban was her maiden arrival in the port.

Built by China Merchants Heavy Industry shipyard at Jiangsu in China, ‘Höegh Aurora’ was commissioned only as recently as July 2024, and is 200 metres in length with a gross registered tonnage of 84,074 tons. She is the first of a class of twelve sisterships, with a further four on option, known collectively as the ‘Aurora’ Class’, and her gross registered tonnage makes her both the largest PCTC in the world, and the most environmentally friendly.

She is a dual fuel vessel, and is powered by a single MAN-B&W 7S60ME-C10-GI seven cylinder, two stroke, main engine producing 17,430 bhp (12,998 kW), that drives a Kongsberg fixed pitch propeller. The dual fuel main engine of ‘Höegh Aurora’ can burn either low sulphur marine fuel, or liquid natural gas (LNG), for which she is also fitted with LNG fuel tanks, and which has been readied to burn either ammonia, or methanol, fuel when they become more readily available in the near future.

Her auxiliary machinery includes three Wärtsilä 8L20 generators providing 1,498 kW each, and a single Cummins NT855-M emergency generator providing 210 kW. She has a single Alfa Laval Aalborg XS-7H exhaust gas boiler, and a single Alfa Laval Aalborg OS-TCi oil fired boiler. For added manoeuvrability she has a single Wärtsilä transverse bow thruster.

With a beam of 38 metres, ‘Höegh Aurora’ is designed to carry the equivalent of 9,100 Car Equivalent Units (CEU) across 14 cargo decks, some of which are 6.5 metres in height. She has a stern quarter ramp, with a carrying capacity of 375 tons, and a stern entrance door which is 19 metres wide. She also has a single amidships starboard side ramp. Her decks are strengthened for heavy loads, and connected by internal ramps, with every one of her 14 decks capable of being loaded with battery powered electric vehicles (EV).

She has been designed to carry a wide variety of mobile cargo, and not just cars, trucks, buses and motorhomes. These include out of gauge cargo, project freight, heavy mining vehicles, heavy construction vehicles, mobile crane vehicles, large agricultural vehicles, railway locomotives, railway carriages, tramway cars, industrial plant, motor boats, and yachts.

Her environmental credentials also include the fitting of 1,500 m2 of solar panels on her top deck, which reduces the onboard generator electricity production by up to 35%. She is also cold iron ready for electrical shore connections, which removes the requirement to run onboard generators when she is alongside in port. Her environmentally friendly design, machinery, and equipment fit means ‘Höegh Aurora’ has cut carbon emissions by up to 58%, compared to other classes of PCTC in the fleet.

She is owned as part of Leif Höegh & Co. Holdings AS, of Oslo in Norway, and is operated by Höegh Autoliners AS, also of Norway, with her management being undertaken by Höegh Autoliners Management AS, also of Oslo. The company was founded in 1927 by Leif Høegh. The company has a target of reducing overall carbon emissions by 40% before 2030, and are currently achieving 37%, so well on target to achieve their immediate climate change goals. Höegh Autoliners AS intend to have reached net zero emissions by 2040.

The company seriousness of becoming a carbon neutral company is borne out by them being one of the first signatories to the recent Hamburg Declaration on the Decarbonisation of Global Shipping. It is a challenging target as Höegh Autoliners AS have a large fleet that is active on eleven global deepsea trade routes, and whose fleet make over 3,000 port calls per annum, carrying over 1.6 million CEU annually.

The maiden voyage of ‘Höegh Aurora’ began in August 2024, when she sailed from the shipyard in China to Singapore, in order to load her LNG fuel tanks. From there she returned to Japan and South Korea to load her fist commercial cargo of cars and trucks, bound for Europe, where she called at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Gothenburg and Hamburg. Her arrival at Hamburg was just two weeks after the signing of the Hamburg Declaration. From there she both loaded, and discharged, further vehicles at Bremerhaven, Southampton, and Santander, before sailing south for her maiden call at South Africa ports.

She first arrived at Port Elizabeth at 21:00 in the evening of 18th November, and spent 24 hours alongside working her cargo. At 21:00 in the evening of 19th November, she sailed from the Windy City and headed for her first call in Durban. Her coastal voyage between Port Elizabeth and Durban covered a distance of 402 nautical miles, at an average speed of just 9.6 knots.

She is currently running a day late from her earlier published schedule, and on sailing from Durban she is bound for Fremantle in Western Australia, where she is scheduled to arrive on 7th December at 06:00 in the morning to continue her vehicle discharge. From there she will continue on to Melbourne in Victoria, Port Kembla in New South Wales, and Brisbane in Queensland. It is expected that she will then back to Japan and South Korea to load a new cargo of cars and trucks for Europe.

In Durban, a statement from TNPA, in regard to the arrival of ‘Höegh Aurora’, gave an interesting insight as to why the port is listed in international tables as it is. The Durban Port Manager said “the on-time berthing of ‘Höegh Aurora’ demonstrated TNPA’s responsiveness to ensuring volumes are efficiently handled at the Durban port.” It is interesting that a Port Manager considers that berthing a vessel on arrival is something to be lauded. It should actually be considered to be an industry norm, and to be expected by shipowners and charterers, rather than to be looked at as being an occasion that warrants self-praise.

Whilst in South Africa, and especially in the port of Durban, which is the busiest of the three South African ports that handle large volumes of export and import vehicles, ‘Höegh Aurora’ is looked after by the local office of Höegh Autoliners (Pty) Ltd., who have their offices in the Durban suburb of La Lucia, which lies 14 km to the north of Durban’s CBD and port.

The ‘Aurora’ class of PCTC vessels, of which ‘Höegh Aurora’ is the first, has now grown to two, with the second of the class ‘Höegh Borealis’ having now entered service. To indicate the environmental importance of this class of vessels to both Höegh Autoliners AS, and to the Norwegian Government, the launch of ‘Höegh Borealis’ in China was attended by none other than the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre. The third vessel, currently being completed is to be named ‘Höegh Australis’, which continues the current ‘Aurora’ theme.

The seriousness of the environmental targets that Höegh Autoliners AS are striving towards can be shown by the fact that back on 19th March 2021 the ‘Höegh Trigger’, which is one of the smaller ‘New Horizon’ class of PCTC, and which has a capacity of 8,500 CEU, achieved an important milestone in that company’s environmental programme.

She arrived in Durban, at the conclusion of a voyage from Europe, having received the accolade of becoming the first PCTC of the Höegh Autoliners AS fleet to achieve the impressive environmental result of officially recording a ‘carbon neutral’ voyage. This impressive achievement was brought about as a result of ‘Höegh Trigger’ using only advanced biofuels throughout her voyage from Europe to South Africa.

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Successful trial of articulated skips carried out at Maydon Wharf

Africa Ports & Ships

In a bid to improve efficiencies when loading chrome at Durban’s Maydon Wharf Terminal, a pilot operation has been successfully carried out using articulated skips instead of traditional skips.

The trial set an efficiency record of more than 50%, increasing the loading rate from an average of 140 tons per hour per vessel crane to 350 tons per hour per vessel crane.

Transnet Port Terminals, which manages the Maydon Wharf Terminal, the pilot, which is in partnership with customer Samancor Chrome Limited and their extended partner Bidfreight Port Operations and Steinweg, said this underscores the collaboration with customers to improve efficiency and maintain competitiveness.

Equally impressive, vessel turnaround time also improved by over 40%, with the vessel completing the loading of 20,000 tons of chrome in three and a half days.

The automation in the articulated skips also improved crane swing times from a maximum of 8 to 3.5 minutes.

According to TPT, this Maydon Wharf trial will be extended to other bulk handling terminals across the country, with potential full roll out, if successful.

The process enhances safety, improves productivity and is cost effective in the long term. Terminal Manager, Sihle Mpungose commended the team for the successful pilot after the vessel, the MW Observator set sail, ferrying another cargo of South Africa’s export chrome to China.

“Samancor Chrome, on behalf of the industry, is grateful to its partners, BPO and Steinweg for their willingness to invest in this trial including Transnet, and TPT Maydon Wharf, in particular, for supporting the trial,” said Lawrence Pillay, Samancor Group Manager: Logistics and Exports.

“This is the first piece of new equipment (articulated skip) that has been introduced since the original skip loading operation, which was first introduced in the late 1970s,” Pillay said.

“If partnered correctly between TPT (Maydon Wharf and Richards Bay) and industry, this could be a game changer for all neo-bulk exports out of South Africa.”

The Maydon Wharf Terminal is one of 16 sea-cargo terminals managed by Transnet Port Terminals, the operating division of Transnet SOC Ltd.

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90-Metre wide floating dock Dourado crosses the Suez Canal

Africa Ports & Ships

The widest floating vessel to transit the Suez Canal has done so earlier this month.

The vessel concerned is the Turkish floating dock Dourado, under tow and en route from Singapore to Türkiye. There were no less than seven tugs in attendance as the giant dock was towed slowly northward through the canal, having successfully crossed the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.

Being destined for Türkiye means the Houthis in Yemen were not interested with the dock or its owners as it slowly passed the Yemen coast and through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Admiral Ossama Rabiee, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, who is also the usual spokesman for the SCA, announced the successful completion of the canal transit, carried out as part of the northward convoy through the canal. He referred to it as “…the biggest qualitative transit operation in the canal’s history for a towed marine unit with a beam of 90 metres.”

Towed from the front by two escorting tugs, Dourado was piloted by five others to safely ensure the combined dock and towing tug length of 450 metres behaved the way intended. A team of senior SCA pilots and tug masters carried out the duty.

Adm Rabiee said this was a result of and thanks to the Southern Sector Expansion Project. Prior to this expansion, the maximum allowable beam to transit the canal was 70 metres.

Because it is a towed vessel, the transit of Dourado was considered to be one of the non-conventional transit operations, especially as it was the largest floating unit to transit the canal by towing. The tonnage of the dock is 91,000 tons.

Complex navigational arrangements were necessary with steering coming from the tugs and requiring precise manoeuvring and careful monitoring of the directions of air and water currents to maintain its navigational axis in the canal throughout the voyage, said the admiral.

The transit took nearly 24 hours and required an initial inspection of the dock conducted at the Suez Anchorage area by a group of pilots and tug masters.

The two escorting tugs from Singapore are the Hulk II and Maverick 1. SCA assisting tugs were Barka 1, Mohamed Bashir, Nabil Helaly, and Suez 1 and Suez 2. Altogether 16 canal pilots and 10 tug masters took part in the transit, which never exceeded 4 knots.

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TNPA Tariff Increase Announcement this Friday

Africa Ports & Ships

Tariff Announcement

The Ports Regulator of SA (PRSA) will announce its decision this Friday at 10:00 (29 November 2024) on the Record of Decision regarding Transnet National Ports Authority’s application for tariff increases.

TNPA’s detailed tariff application for the financial year 2025/26 is available on PRSA’s official website.

The decision by the Ports Regulator will be published here in Africa Ports & Ships as soon as the announcement has been made.

The PRSA is the body responsible for the economic regulation of South Africa’s commercial ports, regulates port tariffs and ensures fair competition among port operators.

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Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden

Edited by Paul Ridgway 
Africa Ports and Ships
London

Regional maritime security strategy

Signatory States of the Djibouti Code of Conduct/Jeddah Amendment (DCOC/JA) are working to develop a framework for regional coordination to tackle shared maritime threats. This was reported by the IMO media service on 21 November.

The DCoC-JA is a regional initiative to combat piracy, armed robbery against ships and other illicit maritime activities in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

A two-week workshop from 10 to 21 November, hosted at the Jeddah Academy for Maritime Science and Security Studies brought together representatives of governments, regional maritime centres and partner organizations.

Complex maritime threats

Participants worked on developing a unified strategy to address complex maritime threats in the region. They recognized the need to harmonize coordination among regional mechanisms and addressed the wide range of maritime security challenges and threats affecting the region. This included work to create national and regional maritime security risk registers as a basis for a coordinated response.

Enhancing cooperation, communication and coordination

Delegates discussed ways to enhance cooperation, communication and coordination among maritime security entities, both nationally and across the region.

They developed terms of reference for new DCoC sub-working groups, focused on the following specific thematic areas: Port and Ship Security; Protection of Vital Coastal Installations; Illegal Unreported & Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, and Maritime Environmental Protection.

In the week ahead, High-Level Meeting in Dar

The outcomes of the workshop will be considered by the upcoming High-Level Meeting on the Implementation of the DCoC/JA, to be held in Dar es Salaam, from 28 to 30 November.

It is anticipated that a final regional maritime security strategy will be presented for adoption at the 2025 High-level Meeting.

Broad representation

Workshop participants included representatives from: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Maldives, Oman, Seychelles, Somalia, the United Republic of Tanzania; as well as from the Regional Centre for Operational Co-ordination (RCOC – Seychelles), Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center (RMIFC-Madagascar), the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), the Indian Navy, the UK, INTERPORTPOLICE and IMO.

This initiative was supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

For further information

Readers are invited to learn more of the DCoC – Djibouti Code of Conduct, by using the link here which is introduced by the IMO S-G: https://dcoc.org/secretary-general/

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Air Force and Navy ‘hardly operational’ as SANDF performance declines

Guy Martin – defenceWeb

The South African Navy and Air Force have, due to a lack of maintenance and funding, seen key assets become less productive, resulting in a decline in time at sea and hours flown. This has resulted in a Navy and Air Force that are hardly operational, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has said.

SCOPA’s comments come after receiving a briefing on 19 November from the Auditor General (AG) on the 2023/24 financial year audit outcomes of the Department of Defence (DoD) and the Department of Military Veterans (DMV) as well as Denel.

On the decline in hours flown by the SA Air Force (SAAF) and hours spent at sea by the SA Navy, the AG presentation to SCOPA has it this impacted on training and development with the loss of aircrew currency in the Air Force. Not achieving these – and other – targets points to deteriorating capabilities.

“The SA Navy and SA Air Force have seen a decline in the number of hours their key assets have been productive, with vessels spending 2,641.47 hours at sea in 2023-24 from a high of 11,081.7 in 2013-14 and aircraft flying a total of 711.9 hours for force employment in 2023-24 from a high of 11,696.71 in 2012-13,” the Auditor General noted.

In the 2023/24 financial year, the Air Force only flew 6,904 hours instead of the target of 12,000 per year and the Navy spent 2,641 hours at sea instead of the 8,000 targeted hours, as set out in its annual performance plan. The decline in the available budget to make repairs and maintenance on the existing vessels and aircraft is one of the root causes for failure to meet the targets, which has resulted in a Navy and Air Force that is hardly operational, SCOPA said in a statement following the Auditor General briefing.

“The decline in available capabilities has had an impact on training and development, with several aircrew staff losing their currencies. The decline can be attributable to the reduction in Armscor Dockyard’s capacity as well as the challenges at Denel, which have led to a significant increase in their backlog,” the Auditor General found.

Missing targets mean the DoD, through the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), “might not meet its obligations to SADC [Southern African Development Community] and the maritime borders of the Republic might not be secure, resulting in increased illicit activities in the country’s sea border.”

At year-end, 62.5% of SANDF commitments were unfunded. This includes the deployment of SANDF personnel to the SADC mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo through Operation Thiba, the AG pointed out.

Reserve force utilisation (3.2 million achieved in 2023/24 vs 1.9 million planned) exceeded the planned reserve force man-days due to an increase in capacity to support current military operations and protection.

“The lack of funding and the deteriorating state of the department’s capabilities was evidenced in the non-achievement of planned targets on the number of flying hours and the number of sea hours.

“Procurement delays for prime mission equipment, such as drones and troop packs, that can be used as a force multiplier for border safeguarding continue to negatively impact the effective service delivery of border controls.

“Given the decline in available air capabilities, the department has had to charter private aircraft to meet some of its day-to-day activities,” the AG presentation said.

After these and other concerning findings, SCOPA said it will call Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Angie Motshekga to respond.

Written by defenceWeb and republished with permission. The original article can be found here

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Höegh Aurora, world largest car carrier, makes maiden call at Durban

Africa Ports & Ships

Any maiden ship call at a port like Durban is a special call, for which the port will invariably lay on a water display by the tugs as a welcome to the particular ship.

Such a welcome was made this week for the car carrier, Höegh Aurora (IMO 9962677), which as reported earlier this week in these pages, is on a maiden visit to South Africa from Europe, with calls scheduled for Port Elizabeth and Durban. See two articles below for that report.

Having successfully completed her call at Port Elizabeth Car Terminal, the world’s largest car carrier (9,100 car capacity), arrived in Durban at 09:20 on Thursday 21 November, taking a berth at the Point section of the giant Durban Car Terminal.

On arrival she was met with a water salute from several of Durban’s latest tugs that entered service themselves only months ago.

Her impressive capacity is not the only notable feature of this advanced car carrier. Höegh Aurora is considered, in the modern semi-technical parlance of the day, as a next-generation vessel – a result of her advanced green energy solutions, which signifies a new era in sustainable shipping.

The vessel is powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), equipped with solar panels, and designed for future conversion to methanol or ammonia fuel once the engines are ready.

The Durban Port Manager, Nkumbuzi Ben-Mazwi, said the on-time berthing of the Höegh Aurora demonstrated TNPA’s responsiveness to ensuring volumes are efficiently handled at the Durban port.

“This operational milestone also highlights the impact of our new tug fleet,” he said, adding that the five new tugs represent a significant enhancement to the port’s marine services, “enabling us to meet the demands of global shipping with efficiency, reliability and sustainability.”

In our report on the Port Elizabeth visit of Höegh Aurora we said the ship was returning to Europe on completion of the Durban call. It appears we were misinformed – the vessel’s AIS shows her next port of call to be Fremantle in Australia, which makes more sense. Apologies for any confusion.

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MSC Musica arrives in Durban at start of 2024/25 cruise season

By Terry Hutson 
Africa Ports & Ships

MSC Musica, the vessel that will be based in South Africa for the 2024/2025 cruise season, has arrived in Durban, ready to commence a series of short cruises from Durban to the Mozambique resorts of Portuguese Island and Pomene.

It’s not the first time Musica has cruised in these waters, having operated from both Durban and Cape Town over several seasons.

Last year MSC Cruises staged MSC Splendida to operate the 2023/24 season. That ship could accommodate up to 3,900 passengers. That MSC Cruises now returns to the smaller Musica suggests Splendida was simply too large for the South African market.

Regardless of the reason, MSC Musica will be welcomed by the trade and passengers alike for its more intimate experience.

According to Ross Volk managing director of MSC Cruises South Africa, “MSC Musica is a great ship for the South African traveller, with plenty of bars and lounges, ample deck space and endless entertainment for everyone to enjoy.

“We are excited to welcome new and regular cruisers alike, onboard throughout the summer,” Volk said.

The cruise season now underway with the arrival in South Africa of MSC Musica, will include the popular cruise to Portuguese Island off the coast of Maputo and close to Inhaca Island, is where passengers can party on the beach or go swimming in crystal clear waters, or add a visit to the larger historic Inhaca Island.

Slightly longer voyages go to Pomene, MSC’s own resort further north along the long Mozambique coast.

An even longer cruises goes to ever popular Mauritius and Réunion and includes Madagascar.

In early 2025, MSC Musica will reposition to Cape Town, where she’ll offer cruises to Namibia’s Lüderitz and Walvis Bay, known for their remarkable coastal and desert landscapes and marine life.

“Our commitment to South Africa is unwavering and goes beyond providing great experiences and excellent service to our guests. It is also about our ongoing investments in Durban, the local economies and the country’s tourism industry,” Volk says.

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Big welcome in Port Elizabeth for Höegh Aurora’s maiden visit

Africa Ports & Ships

The Port Elizabeth Car Terminal marked a major milestone when it handled the newly built PCTC Höegh Aurora (IMO 9962677) on the car carrier’s first call to Africa on Tuesday, 19 November 2024.

Readers may recall we reported on the launching of this special vessel in our 6 August 2024 issue. See details below.

The advanced cargo-handling vessel, with a capacity of 9,100 vehicles, discharged 1,966 imported vehicles from the Bremerhaven and Santander ports in Germany and Spain, respectively.

“Welcoming Höegh Aurora is a proud moment for our terminal. It demonstrates our ability to manage high-volume shipments efficiently while showcasing our commitment to supporting South Africa’s automotive sector,” said Wandisa Vazi, Managing Executive for Transnet Port Terminals in the Eastern Cape region.

She added that collaborative efforts ensured seamless cargo handling and adherence to safety protocols which were essential for a vessel of this scale.

“The terminal demonstrated its readiness through meticulous pre-arrival planning with shipping line representatives and the stevedoring company,” she added.

The Port Elizabeth Car Terminal is one of three critical hubs in South Africa’s automotive port logistics chain and in the previous seven months of the 2024/2025 financial year, handled 8% more volumes than budgeted for the same period.

The terminal has consistently exceeded operational targets, handling 114,041 fully built units (FBU) against budgeted volumes of 105,596 FBU. This achievement has demonstrated the terminal’s ability to attract global automakers and foster long-term partnerships, Vazi said.

After 16 hours of offloading, Vessel Höegh Aurora departed from Gqeberha at 21:13 on Tuesday 19 November and is en route to the Durban Car Terminal where she is due to arrive at 10:00 on Thursday 21st, before returning to Europe.

According to Höegh Autoliners this is the largest and most environmentally friendly PCTC ever built, which further accelerates their decarbonization efforts and sets a new standard for more sustainable deep-sea transportation.

Further reading about this sophisticated newbuild vessel is available from here.

Added 20 November 2024

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GENERAL NEWS REPORTS – UPDATED THROUGH THE DAY

Total cargo handled by tonnes during October 2024, including containers by weight

• see full report for the month in the news section here

PORT	October 2024 million tonnes
Richards Bay	7.650
Durban	5.821
Saldanha Bay	3.321
Cape Town	1.105
Port Elizabeth	0.088
Ngqura	1.229
Mossel Bay	0.088
East London	0.141
Total all ports during October 2024	20.105 million tonnes

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Terry Hutson