Tag: containerships

Maersk has seen the value of its containership fleet fall 24% in the past 12 months Containership owners have seen billions of dollars wiped off the value of their fleets over the past year.Massive overcapacity has squeezed not only freight rates, but also the value of steel floating on water. The world's largest container ship owner, AP Møller-Maersk, has seen the value of its containership fleet fall 24% in the past 12 months.Its 222 vessels currently in service are now worth $9.1 billion, compared with $12 billion at the start of November last year,Similarly, major owner and operator MSC's fleet of 202 containerships in service at present are worth $6.9 billion, compared with $8.4 billion 12 months ago.A report reveals that the Vessels Value data shows that today's fleet values are closing in on what these ships would have been worth in November 2009 - continued declines in freight and charter rates this year have pushed asset values back to the lows of two years ago, when the containership market was suffering the worst downturn in its history.Online ship valuation service VesselsValue.com was launched this year by London-based sale and purchase broker Seasure Shipping and this week expanded its coverage ...

They may have been filled with contaminated refrigerant gas The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) issued a notice cautioning that refrigerated shipping containers re-gassed in Vietnam between March and June 2011 may have been filled with contaminated refrigerant gas.Container owners/operators and shippers or consignees should check their records to determine whether any of their containers may be impacted.Service and maintenance work on the refrigeration units on refrigerated shipping containers should only be performed by qualified refrigeration technicians using appropriate precautions.For more information, click here.Source: AMSA

The shipments had taken place up to three months prior and often with different carriers The ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has identified a number of suspect Bills of Lading for shipments into Nigeria.The shipments, all containerised, were for small quantities of consumer products and were due to be shipped into Lagos. The Bills of Lading were all purportedly for cargoes transported by major carriers and featured the logos of the respective liner companies.IMB enquiries found that the shipments had taken place on board the stated vessels, between the stated ports, however, the shipments had taken place up to three months prior the stated dates and often with carriers different to those on the presented Bills of Lading.IMB Deputy Director Michael Howlett commented: "It is clear here that there have been underlying shipments in these cases, but the documents the IMB was asked to verify related to a different shipment. It would appear that bills of lading had already been issued by the physical carriers for the original shipments, suggesting that someone with a degree of inside knowledge had lifted these details wholesale and transposed them onto a set of false documents."It is common for different shipping companies to share ...

Shipbroker Braemar Seascope trend is at least five years old Container ship operators are ordering ever larger vessels even in the face of a weak freight and time charter environment during 2011, according to Braemar Seascope. The London-based shipbroker says in statement: "This may appear to be counter-intuitive. In fact, it reinforces a trend that is at least five years old."Braemar Seascope notes that containership operators cannot control freight rates, especially in a post-liner conference competitive environment. They can however control the unit cost of shipping each TEU through economy of scale. Ordering ever larger containerships is a direct consequence of this cost management.During the recent Containerisation International Mediterranean Freight Conference held in Istanbul, Braemar Seascope Research Manager Mark Williams highlighted the strong correlation between the price of bunker fuel oil - the largest single cost per TEU movement - and the average size of containerships ordered over the past 10 years.The strength of the relationship is confirmed by the fall in bunker prices and average TEU capacity of newbuildings ordered in 2009, though of course the ships ordered in 2009 will likely be delivering into a higher bunker price environment in 2012 and later.The trend cannot carry on for ...

Says to build first reefer factory in Latin America Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk plans to invest about $170 million in a new factory in Chile to produce refrigerator containers, known as reefers, for a Latin American export boom.The factory in San Antonio, Chile, will begin operating by the end of 2013 and reach an annual output of 40,000 reefer containers and 30,000 reefer refrigeration units by early 2017, Maersk's container industry unit said on Friday.Maersk Container Industry (MCI) has production facilities in Qingdao, Dongguan, and Huidong in China and annual output of 41,000 reefer containers, 37,000 reefer refrigeration units and 200,000 twenty-foot dry containers, the company said.MCI is an independent unit within the A.P. Moller-Maersk group. Historically about a third of its containers have gone to the group's Maersk Line, which is the world's biggest container shipping company, and the rest to other customers.Reefers were earlier produced in the United States, but now all reefer production is concentrated in China, so the Chilean plant will be a milestone in the development of the industry.It will be located next to a Maersk port terminal in Chile."The new factory will produce Maersk's high-tech reefers in a part of the ...

Lazard's Stokes says carriers are looking to cuts costs, expand market share Further consolidation of container shipping lines is likely as carriers seek to cut costs, expand market share and bolster balance sheets, said Peter Stokes, senior analyst and head of shipping at investment bank Lazard."I believe that we will finally see a number of non-cash defensive mergers as companies struggle to remain competitive on the major east-west routes or seek to strengthen their position in north-south and intra-regional trades," Stokes told the Marine Money conference in New York.Container shipping survived 2009's market slump, which produced more than $15 billion in losses, without major failures or consolidation. Stokes said, however, that container shipping and certain specialized sectors of shipping may be better candidates for mergers and acquisitions than commoditized bulk shipping companies."This is because these are businesses which are much more complex to operate, where greater synergies can be realized and where factors such as market share and long-term customer relationships can be a significant part of value," Stokes said. "In the current, desperately poor, container shipping market, the arguments for consolidation for purely defensive reasons are hard to refute."He said that mergers of large container ship lines during the ...

Operators can practice clearing out pirates from hijacked vessels The Marine Corps is planning to build a three-story mock container ship on a plot of land at Camp Lejeune, N.C., so special operators can practice clearing out pirates from hijacked vessels.The 12,000-square-foot land-locked ship will have a wheelhouse, aft rudder room, captain's quarters and a saferoom, or citadel, where crews lock themselves up after pirates have boarded their ships, said Bill Fondriest, a Marine Corps training systems deputy program manager."It will present just about every challenge a marine could face going on a ship boarding," he told National Defense.Piracy has been a scourge in recent years with Somalia-based raiders boarding numerous types of ships and boats in the seas off the East Africa coast. Once aboard, they demand ransom for both the crews and the cargo.Navies from several nations, including the United States, have patrolled the waters during the past few years in an effort to curtail piracy.In one of the most famous cases, the crew of the MV Maersk Alabama in 2009 managed to render the ship inoperable and sink the pirates' speedboat as it was being taken over. The pirates took the ship's captain as a hostage in ...

Reefer containers suffering explosions Following on from last week's Bulletin alerting the industry to the hazardous issues of defective reefers the UK P&I Club has gained insightful analysis from Industry experts, Cambridge Refrigeration Technology. CRT have kindly given permission for the Club to publish their initial findings. Their present advice is outlined below;QUOTECOUNTERFEIT REFRIGERANT IN REEFER CONTAINERSThere have been cases of reefer containers suffering explosions.Refrigerated Container refrigeration units should contain polyolester oil and the refrigerant HFC-134a (1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane) and should therefore be incapable of exploding.Material recovered from the exploded units have been analysed by a laboratory and have found to be corroded by a chlorinated compound. Traces of alumina (AL2O3) were also found at the sites.From the above data we can be reasonably certain that the pyrophoric liquid ( burns in contact with air) to be is trimethyl aluminium (Al2(CH3)6). The explanation is that the system has been contaminated with a counterfeit refrigerant containing methyl chloride (chloromethane, CH3Cl). This gas works as a refrigerant but reacts with the aluminium in the compressor forming trimethyl aluminium, which is a liquid at room temperature.The issues that need to be resolved are:1. How can this be prevented from occurring again? 2. How can the ...

Concern continues over potentially dangerous reefer containers The ITF is taking action to protect the health and safety of port workers and seafarers as concern continues over potentially dangerous reefer containers.Some 900 refrigerated units were withdrawn by shipping line Maersk last month after three fatalities were linked to maintenance work carried out on containers in Vietnam.Although as yet unconfirmed, it's thought that some reefers may have been topped up with contaminated gas causing them to be potentially explosive under certain conditions.ITF affiliates across dockers, seafarers and road and rail sections, have been informed of the potential risk attached to these units and are being advised to follow up with their local health and safety authorities.ITF dockers' section secretary Frank Leys said: "We are pleased to see that big shipping lines like Maersk have reacted quickly to this situation and we would join our US affiliate, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, in urging any companies or organisations who haven't already taken steps to alleviate this risk, to follow suit now."Seafarers' section secretary Jon Whitlow added: "We are extremely concerned for the welfare of those workers on ships who may be unaware that a defective container is being carried on board."Whilst ...

US Coast Guard admits it has no plans yet for dealing with containers At least ten more potentially explosive containers have been found at the Port of Seattle with a question mark still hanging over the fate of the growing collection of containers.Earlier this year maritime authorities reported that three reefer containersexploded or caused a fire, resulting in two fatalities in Vietnam and one in Brazil.The explosions were believed to be the result of contaminated gas added to the boxes' refrigeration units during servicing in Vietnam.According to local reports, a growing stack of 80 refrigerated containers at the Port of Seattle have been sitting by itself, isolated from the rest of the port for safety reasons.The US Coast Guard said it is working with the terminal operators to keep the 80 containers away from everyone, but admits there is no specific plan yet for dealing with them.Rudy Finne of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said: "I personally think it's ludicrous to have possible bombs at every corner here and have everybody seem not that concerned about it."The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the various terminal operators, said it is looking for a solution to checking each container to see ...