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Fire-Ravaged Maersk Honam to Be Towed to Jebel Ali
Maersk Line’s ultra large containership Maersk Honam, which was hit by a major fireon March 6, will be towed to Jebel Ali, the UAE, where its cargo will be off-loaded.
The estimated time of arrival (ETA) is still to be confirmed, and may be approximately two weeks from now, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said citing its 2M alliance partner. The salvage operation is led by Smit Salvage and Ardent.
Maersk Line said earlier that the berthing and discharging operations of the fire-ravaged boxship would result in high extraordinary costs.
“We will only be able to clarify the situation once the cargo has been discharged at the port of refuge and inspected.” MSC said.
The company has therefore decided to declare General Average, under which all parties with a financial interest in the voyage are to proportionally share the losses resulting from the incident.
The Danish carrier appointed Richards Hogg Lindley (RHL), London as the General Adjuster and they will keep all containers under their control until security arrangements have been made with the Average Adjusters, both for General Average and Salvage.
The fire has claimed the lives of five of 27 seafarers that were manning the ship prior to the incident.
A full investigation into the case is expected to determine the cause of the fire and the impact to the vessel and cargo.
ZIM Points to Lingering Market Volatility as It Recovers from Loss
Market conditions in the container shipping industry remain volatile despite the recent pick up in rates, according to Israeli shipping company ZIM.
Mergers and alliance reshuffling in the sector did contribute to a recovery, however, overcapacity still exists in the market and rates partially decreased towards the end of 2017, the company said while announcing full-year results.
ZIM managed to seize the benefits of the market recovery to return to the black in 2017, with a reported profit of USD 50 million. This is a major comeback from the loss of USD 150 million booked for 2016.
Nevertheless, the downward trend in rates in the final quarter of 2017 saw ZIM report a net loss of USD 10 million for the three months ended December 31.
For the full year, ZIM’s total revenues were USD 2.97 billion, compared to USD 2.53 billion in 2016, which is a 17 pct increase year-on-year.
The company carried 2,629 thousand TEUs in 2017, which was described by ZIM as an all-time record of containers carried, reflecting an increase of 8 pct when compared to 2016.
CMA CGM launches 3 new weekly Asia-Latin America services from April 4
French shipping giant CMA CGM has announced that starting April 4 there will be three new weekly services between Asia, Mexico and the west coast of South America in a partnership with Cosco and Evergreen.
This comes in conjunction with existing CMA CGM services, and will provide expanded port coverage with 10 ports in Asia, three ports in Mexico and four ports in South America, among the largest on the west coast, reduces transit times, for producers of perishable reefer cargo.
Specifically, there will be the ACSA 1 service rotating through Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Shekou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Buenaventura, San Antonio, Callao, Lazaro Cardenas, Manzanillo, Yokohama, Busan and Kaohsiung.
This provides connections with AZTECA and INCA weekly services of the CMA CGM to serve Central America and Northern Chile. The EA service is designed for reefer transport of fresh fruit and perishable goods to Asia.
Then there is the ACSA 2 service that rotates through Xiamen, Shenzhen-Yantian, Shanghai, Qingdao, Busan, Ensenada, Manzanillo, Callao, San Antonio, Lirquen, Manzanillo, Shanghai and Xiamen. This provides connections with CMA CGM's INCA service, designed for the transportation of wood and pulp from southern Chile to Asia.
And finally the ACSA 3 service that rotates through Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Yantian, Kaohsiung, Ningbo, Shanghai, Manzanillo, Buenaventura, Callao, San Antonio and back to Hong Kong with connection to the INCA service, designed for reefer cargo of fresh fruits and perishables to Asia
Gemadept to pay 80% dividend
Gemadept Corporation – a logistics firm - plans to make an 80% dividend payout rate, equal to VND 8,000 (US $35 cents) per share, if its plan gets approved by the HCM Stock Exchange on February 26.
Gemadept Corp general director Do Van Minh told local media that the dividend payout rate included a 15% rate that was approved by the company shareholders at its general meeting in 2017.
The remaining part of the dividend payout rate is 65%, which was generated from Gemadept’s selling of its stake in its two subsidiaries – Gemadept Shipping Holding Co LTd and Gemadept Logistics Holding Co Ltd – to the Korean business CJ Logistics, Minh said.
The Gemadept Corporation had previously offloaded half of its ownership in those two sub-units to CJ Logistics Hong Kong, holding 51% in the former company and 49.1% in the latter one.
The two sub-units were re-named to CJ-Gemadept Shipping Holdings Co Ltd and CJ-Gemadept Logistics Holdings Co Ltd.
The Gemadept Corporation is listed on the HCM Stock Exchange with code GMD, having increased by total 10.3% since February 8 to close February 23 at VND 42,800 per share.
Source: World Maritime News
