Predicting that world seaborne trade will increase by a factor of 2.5 from 29,043 billion ton-miles in 2005 to 72,498 billion ton-miles in 2050, the OPRF says 830,000 seafarers will be required in 2050 “as a result of the increased number of vessels. If we assume that the supply of seafarers will remain the same as at present, the total will be 364,000 short of the required number,” it claims.

By 2050, the OPRF says that container shipments will show a particularly sharp rise during the period of just under six times that of 2005 levels to register 2,894bn teu-miles by 2050.

Predictions regarding intra-regional transportation show that shipments within Asia will increase by a factor of 10.7 from 18bn teu-miles in 2005 to 194bn teu-miles in 2050.

“However, these increases in global and regional seaborne trade are expected to cause heavy maritime traffic congestion and a shortage of skilled seafarers. Accordingly, there may be a corresponding increase in the number of accidents, posting severe risks in terms of safety and the environment,” it says (source: www.www.shipmanagementinternational.com).

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]]> http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/11/01/up-to-364000-seafarer-shortfall-by-2050-says-tokyo-think-tank/feed/ 0 http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/10/04/worlds-largest-cruise-ship-nears-completion/ http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/10/04/worlds-largest-cruise-ship-nears-completion/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:43:33 +0000 admin http://www.thinkmaritime.com/?p=1083 In a little more than two months, Oasis of the Seas will be cruising the waters of the Caribbean on its maiden voyage. For now, however, it is in a shipyard in Turku, on the south-west coast of Finland, with 2000 workers on board, busy putting the finishing touches to what is said to be the largest cruise ship in the world. Sea trials began in May and next month the liner is due to be handed over to its owners, Royal Caribbean.

On my visit to the shipyard, the ship’s gleaming white turrets of steel and glass dwarf the gantries and cranes perched alongside. Though the ship is 95 per cent finished, many fittings are missing and, as I move through the interior, I continually have to duck wiring, step over cabling and avoid workmen.

I get a better sense of the size of Oasis only when I emerge on the top deck, which provides view over Turku harbour.

“We made the ship 50 per cent bigger than anything we’ve ever done, in fact any other cruise ship out there, because we had so many things we wanted to do,” the chief executive of Royal Caribbean, Richard Fain, says. “On Oasis of the Seas, working together with the architects, with the shipyard, with our own engineers, we’ve been able to make much better use of the space than ever before.”

There’s certainly plenty of space – the ship is 360 metres long and 65 metres wide. The Oasis story is one of large numbers and cruising firsts.

There is the ship’s capacity, for a start: 6300 passengers and 2165 crew. There’s the accommodation: it includes 2706 staterooms, some of which span two decks and feature floor-to-ceiling windows with ocean views. The plant life: 12,000 plants, including 56 trees, some more than seven metres tall. The activities: on-board surfing, scuba diving, ice skating, shopping. And so the list goes.

Fain anticipates that the size of the vessel and the scope of activities and facilities will entice passengers on all budgets. Certainly he is encouraged by ticket sales despite the economic climate.

To accommodate all those people, the ship is divided into seven “neighbourhoods”, including Central Park and Royal Promenade. And there is no shortage of things to keep passengers entertained.

Among the attractions are an aqua theatre pool 5.4 metres deep, two rock-climbing walls, the obligatory casino and 21 swimming pools and jacuzzis. There’s also a carousel, ice rink, themed bars and restaurants, high-end shops, a nightclub, a Rising Tide bar that ascends three decks while you sip your martini, a wedding chapel, scuba diving lessons, two wave-flow riders for surfing, a jogging track, library and roaming entertainers.

Entertainment also includes stunt divers, swimmers and actors performing in the 50-metre-wide outdoor pool amphitheatre designed to seat 500 guests.

Royal Caribbean’s schedule has the first Oasis cruise starting in early December in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with ports of call that include Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas, Philipsburg in St Maarten and Nassau in the Bahamas.

Ready for that voyage is Captain William Wright, who began his seafaring career aged 16 and has taken the helm of several new cruise ships on debut at Royal Caribbean.

He had a sneak peak at the ship’s performance during the pre-launch “floating out” ceremony last November.

“It’s clearly one of the most stable ships we have built,” he says. “The size has allowed us to … demonstrably increase the safety of the ship, which is really nice to know. It helps us captains sleep at night.”

Other safety features include smoke and heat detectors and a Hi-Fog water mist fire-extinguishing system.

The ship will have three doctors, five nurses and one medical assistant on board.

It is equipped with 18 life boats – or “rescue vessels”, as Wright prefers to call them – each with a toilet on board. “That’s a first, I can assure you,” he says (source: www.theage.com.au).

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A number of the respondents say that a recovery is on the way. However, many respondents are aware of the oversupply of ships, which likely will influence the pace of the recovery, as one respondent said: “Because two newbuildings are being delivered for every vessel scrapped, the shipping market will not be able to pick up over the next three to four years. And it may deteriorate even further, with a number of owners forced into bankruptcy.”

Many respondents expressed their concern about developments in China: “China is now the producer, the consumer, the trader, and the transporter, it has got the cheapest and the most plentiful supply of labour, and it is possibly the richest country in the world. None of these things can be good for the international shipping industry.” (source: www.ShipGaz.com).

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The decision has shocked the Danish shipping community. Ship officer students at Svendborg and Marstal carried out a media stunt, putting up Villa Anna – the house where Mr A P Møller founded the company – for sale.

A P Møller-Mærsk has 3,000 officers employed, of whom 800 are Danish citizens. “I don’t think that the 800 Danes are any better than the 2,200 officers of foreign nationality”, says Henrik Sloth. It has not yet been revealed if the 170 Danes are to be laid off or transferred to other units within the group, or offered land employment (source: www.ShipGaz.com).

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In July, the struggling Icelandic shipping company Eimskip launched a financial re-organisation plan. The plan proposed to create a new and strong shipping and logistics business and to leave the cold storage business. The new business will be owned by the financial creditors of Eimskip; the Icelandic bank Landsbanki is the major secured lender and will own 45 per cent of the new company and Los Angeles investment fund Yucaipa will take a 32 per cent stake, the remaining 23 per cent of new Eimskip will be owned by other unsecured financial creditors, representing more than 50 different creditors. Yucaipa has bought a 49 per cent stake in Eimskip-controlled Versacold Atlas and has an option to buy the remaining 51 per cent of Versacold. Eimskip has sold three reefer vessels in Norway to Atlantica Shipping and reduced indebtedness by EUR 30 million (source:shipgaz.com).

]]> http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/08/23/creditors-back-eimskip/feed/ 0 http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/07/27/the-worst-jobs-in-history-the-maritime-age-part-3/ http://www.thinkmaritime.com/2009/07/27/the-worst-jobs-in-history-the-maritime-age-part-3/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:12:51 +0000 admin http://www.thinkmaritime.com/?p=981

The Government wants to open a major new centre of marine expertise – and Tyneside has been shortlisted as a possible location for the project.

If the plans are given the go-ahead, at least 150 highly-skilled jobs are expected to be brought here. The centre, called the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), will also act as a magnet to bring more firms to the area and boost employment further.

However, the North East is competing for the scheme with other parts of the country. Bids have been made by places including Plymouth, Carrick, the East Riding of Yorkshire, London, Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth and Merseyside.

Ministers are expected to announce their decision by the end of January.

But MPs and various organisations in Tyneside are in the process of lobbying for the project to be brought to this region.

Tynemouth MP Alan Campbell said: “I have met representatives at Defra and have presented our case for the MMO to come to the North East.

“There is a lot of competition for it. But we have a lot to offer and I believe Tyneside is the best place for it.

“We have a tradition of marine industry, whether it’s fishing or shipbuilding and ship repair, and increasingly wind farm and off-shore technologies.

“I have stressed the strengths of the North East with regards to the economy over the last decade or so. I have emphasised that our universities have strong marine departments and research bases.

“Indeed, Newcastle University has the Dove Marine Laboratory in my constituency.

“The benefits of the MMO will be great. There will be at least 150 high-value jobs, it will raise the profile of Tyneside and attract more firms and work in the marine industry. More jobs will follow.”

The MMO headquarters will be responsible for regulating all marine activities and help to enforce laws to protect coastal waters.

It will be a centre for marine management, planning, conservation and licensing.

Consultants have been involved in forming the shortlist of locations. The criteria of assessment includes the availability of labour market with appropriate skills, transport links and access to key stakeholders.

Mr Campbell added: “We have a strong lobby from the North East. Nick Brown, Minister for the region, and regional development agency One North East are among those campaigning for this project. This will be a real boost for Tyneside and will show the rest of the country what we have to offer.”

The MMO will be created under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, which aims for better protection and development of the seas around Britain.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “The effects of climate change and the increasing use of the sea by many competing interests mean we must look after our marine areas for future generations.

“This new system of protection and management of our seas will help to halt the decline in biodiversity and to create clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically-diverse oceans and seas. And all of us will be able to walk along more of the length of the coast and get close to the sea right around England.” (source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk).

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Nearly 600 turned out for the announcement in a former cinema not far from the city’s still challenged downtown – a downtown better known as the site of a 1968 race riot that left three dead and 27 injured than as a fulcrum of economic development or international trade.

Among those attending were vendors, construction contractors, real estate agents, maritime and logistics professionals, and members of the business and economic development community from throughout the state.

The $600 million (Dh2,204bn), 1,300-acre project – Jafza’s first in the Western Hemisphere – will be built in five phases, with the ground-breaking for the first phase in the third or fourth quarter of 2009, said Steven Eames, Vice-President of operations for Jafza Americas.

Total built-out on the project, on the site of a former sod farm is to be completed by 2032. Although he acknowledged the ongoing financial crisis, Eames expressed confidence that the company would meet is timeline for development.

“The current economic climate has made all our clients restrict their spending,” he said. “However, we are long-term investors. We remain confident that this is an opportunity to position South Carolina and ourselves for the upturn.”

Jafza, is part of Economic Zones World, which is currently building logistics and R&D-driven industrial parks in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

In India, it has partnered with Tata Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, to build a chain of business and logistics parks throughout the country, Eames said.

In North America, the first – $140m phase – of its South Carolina project will comprise about 135 acres of mixed-use development, with an emphasis on light manufacturing and light industrial.

Phase two, covering an additional 93.5 acres and expected to be completed by 2016, will include warehouse and distribution space as well as 63 acres of intermodal yard development.

Phase three of the build-out will add another 130 acres of warehousing, distribution and light manufacturing space.

By the time that phase of the development will be complete in 2020, Eames said Jafza believes about 3,000 people will be employed at the site, with another 2,500 jobs anticipated statewide at companies doing business with its clients.

By then, Eames said, about 660,000 containers will come through the site with about 350,000 leaving the site on an annual basis. He said by the time the third phase of the project is completed, activity at the site will generate 50,000 daily truck trips on South Carolina’s highways and interstates.

Eames did not elaborate on the fourth and fifth phases of the project, explaining the company will continue to weigh its assumptions about the site and market demands as it moves forward. However, he did suggest there will likely be a technological component developed in partnership with Techno Park, one of its sister companies under the Economic Zones World banner.

Another of its sister companies, UK-based Gazeley, which Economic Zones World bought from Asda Wal-Mart last June for a reported $450m, will also play a significant role in developing the site.

Gazeley, which bills itself as a provider of “sustainable logistics space” is one of the biggest industrial developers in the UK. The company also has operations throughout European as well as in India, Mexico and China.

Eames described Gazeley as a “leading developer of sustainable warehousing”, which will bring “unmatched efficiencies” to the project. Among the green initiatives its brought to other projects are the use of solar panels and wind turbines for energy production, and innovative approaches to stormwater collection. “This project will be sustainable, in terms of its impact on the surrounding communities… it will be green, and will be a model for us going forward,” Eames said.

The Jafza unveiling took place at an economic development conference hosted by Orangeburg County last week, which, in addition to people in the global supply chain industry, also attracted business and government officials from the state and region. In fact, Jafza’s announcement proved such a draw at the event 200 people had to be turned away due to a lack of space.

One of the reasons the project is getting such attention in South Carolina is that it’s being done in a county that had the state’s sixth-highest unemployment rate in September at 12.5 per cent. That rate was up from 9.5 per cent a year earlier. Among those describing the Jafza project as a “game changer,” was US Representative Jim Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, who represents the area.

During remarks that preceded the unveiling of the master plan, Clyburn cited statistics and told several anecdotes highlighting the area’s poverty and its poor job outlook.

“Because of these facts, they’ve called this area, and its neighboring counties along the Interstate-95 corridor in South Carolina, the ‘Corridor of Shame’,” he said. “The way to turn around these statistics is to invest in infrastructure,” Clyburn said.

In fact, the need for new infrastructure linking the site both to the Port of Charleston and to distribution hubs throughout the country was a significant topic of conversation among attendees at the conference.

Former South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges, who is serving as an advisor to Jafza, said improvements in freight rail connectivity and service is one of the biggest needs associated with Jafza project and the growing port. “Come 2014, about the time both the new terminal and the first phase of Jafza’s project are done, a newly enlarged Panama Canal will be open and containers will also be surging into the port through the Suez Canal,” he said (source: business24-7.ae).