NTPC Awards Two-Year Coal-Purchase Contract to State Trading of India

NTPC Ltd., Asia’s second-largest power producer by market value, awarded a contract to import coal in the next two years to State Trading Corp. of India Ltd., a company official said. NTPC said last month it was seeking 12 million metric tons of coal, equivalent to about 27 percent of India’s thermal coal purchases last year, by the end of March 2013, said a company official, who declined to be identified, citing company rules. State Trading will import the fuel for the Read More>>

Shipping companies eye fabled Asia route as ice melts

Shipowners are showing growing interest in a fabled trade route to Asia which climate change is beginning to open up at last as polar ice recedes. On Saturday the first non-Russian vessel to make an intercontinental commercial voyage through the Arctic Northeast passage will set sail from Norway for China.The route is thousands of kilometres shorter than traditional passages, promising to reduce travel time dramatically, along with fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.The Hong Kong-flagged Nordic Barents will sail from the northern port of Kirkenes with 41,000 tonnes of iron ore for Qingdao in China, aided by two Russian icebreakers and taking some 26 days.Its owners, the Danish firm Nordic Bulk Carriers, said the ship would cover only about half the distance of its usual route through the Suez canal, spend eight fewer days at sea and save US$180,000 in fuel costs.'It can be very interesting Read More>>

India: Govt revises demand data June quarter GDP

India has revised the demand component of its April-June GDP growth data, but has kept the headline number unchanged at 8.8 percent, the Economic Times reported on Thursday. The Central Statistical Organisation nearly tripled the initially estimated growth on the demand side to 10 percent, from 3.7 percent announced on Tuesday, following a raise in private consumption, government expenses and Read More>>

Sri Lanka port bidder warns against surcharges, price war

A Sri Lankan conglomerate, part of the consortium selected to build a new container terminal in Colombo port, warned against surcharges by shipping lines and also creating excess capacity ahead of demand. Parakrama Dissanayake, director of the Aitken Spence group and chairman of its maritime unit, called for resistance against moves by feeder operators to impose congestion surcharges in Colombo. "Today we're told feeders are trying to impose a congestion surcharge," he told a forum on ports at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce organised by the Asian Shippers' Council. "We should resist the move. Having made the bid (for the new terminal) we're concerned by it." There was congestion in Colombo in recent months because of a sudden breakdown in the movement of containers between terminals, aging equipment, and bad weather. But port officials said the congestion had largely eased. The government this week announced it had awarded the 450 million Read More>>

Three groups bid for Indonesia port project

Three company consortia are competing for the breakwater and dredging facility construction projects worth US$110.98 million at Tanjung Priok port, according to Bisnis Indonesia. Suwandi Saputro, director of port and dredging at the Ministry of Transportation revealed each consortium consisted of Indonesian and Japanese companies.The consortia are Rinkai-Waskita, Penta Ocean-Wijaya Karya, and Toyo-Adhi Karya. The project funds would come from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loans."The breakwater facility at Tanjung Priok port will be expanded Read More>>

Surge in pirate attacks

SEAFARERS have reported a surge in attacks by armed pirates in a South China Sea shipping lane, an international maritime watchdog said Thursday. Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre, said there had been eight attacks off Indonesia's Mangkai island in the past two weeks. 'It appears one Read More>>

Shortage of Shipping Containers - Bottleneck for Exports

Finnish export industries are suffering from a shortage of shipping containers. Demand for containers for export goods exceeds supply coming from imports. Factors limiting the availability of containers in Finland include the balance of transit traffic, and the Finnish-Russian road haulage agreement. A major reason for the shortage in containers is that the Russian economy has not recovered at the same pace as that of Finland, which means that the containers moving from Finland to Russia outnumber those going in the other direction. Kimmo Naski, director of the Port of Kotka, sees another reason for the shortage. “A year and a half ago Finland implemented an excess weight fee on Read More>>

Port of Mumbai Eases Restrictions

India's Port of Mumbai eased restrictions imposed earlier on vessel movements following the MSC Chitra-Khalijia-3 collision in the main harbor channel Aug. 7. "Ships with a draft of up to 9 meters are allowed free movement in and out of Mumbai Port both during daylight and night hours," the port authority said on Thursday.The authority said vessels with a draft of more than 9 meters Read More>>

India: Fair-practices Bill for shipping to bring transparency

The Shipping Trade Practice Bill, aimed at bringing transparency and uniformity in maritime logistical trade practices in the country, is languishing in the shipping ministry. The Bill, among other things, requires service providers to register with the government. The service providers would also be required to publish their rates, mode and manner of fixing tariff and display it on their premises or website, when the Bill comes into force. In its current form, the Bill has limited scope — it will cover only containerised shipments. The proposal applies to maritime logistical service providers such as container ship owners, non-vessel operating common carrier, Customs house agents, forwarding agents and other players in the chain. The exporters and importers who find they pay arbitrary and exorbitant charges for the services provided mostly by unregistered players would be the primary beneficiaries of the new law. The industry agrees on the need to infuse some degree of transparency in the business and to make the charges public. The exim sector had also been demanding creation of a body that would speed up maritime grievance redressal, necessary to avoid the need to resort to legal recourse that take years to settle. This body should have a clear understanding of the maritime law and the authority to settle cases expeditiously, they say. Opponents of the Bill, primarily the freight forwarders lobby, find Read More>>

Lanka geared to handle global shipping industry

Port development projects have the highest level of private public partnerships in developing resources at national level. The other sectors need to take a cue from the shipping industry in developing different sectors to contribute to the overall growth , Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dr. Anura Ekanayake said. He was speaking at a seminar on “Sri Lanka: Connecting to compete - Port of Colombo - What are the prospects/threats?” held yesterday in Colombo.The private sector should match the facilities provided Read More>>