• Lukoil eyes Arctic offshore projects.
• New MD for Employment Agency Oceanwide.

© International Marine Consultancy (IMC)

• OPFOR (OPFOR –military jargon for opposing force) has the story on the Russian built carrier ‘Varyag’ and China’s plans to convert it into their first aircraft carrier.
• Nakheel unveils the ‘new map of Dubai’
• Havila Shipping ASA signs contract for new Platform Supply Vessel with Fjellstrand Werft.
• Mercator is betting big on dredging.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Group is set to make a splash in shipbuilding and dredging with two separate companies. Sources said the petroleum-to-retail giant is expected to invest around $1 billion each in two companies and has begun talks with international majors for a strategic tie-up for the dredging business. This $2-billion investment is over and above the $1.3-billion investment committed for the Rewas Port, off Navi Mumbai.

The shipyard will come up at Rewas, where Reliance is setting up a mega port and a special economic zone (SEZ). The company is also looking at a ship repair yard at Kakinada for servicing offshore/platform vessels and rigs. This facility is expected to be the hub for all its offshore activities in the KG basin, where Reliance Industries (RIL) has struck oil and gas in abundance.

The group will spend around $1 billion to build dredgers at its own shipyard and other yards. Plans are also afoot to set up a mega dredging company, which will compete with international giants such as Van Oord and Dredging International. Sources said Reliance wants to cash in on the two booming sectors of shipbuilding and dredging.

As a majority of existing foreign shipyards are full with orders, shipbuilding prices are expected to remain firm for another couple of years. On the dredging side, almost all Indian ports are trying to deepen their berths and approach channels in order to accommodate larger ships. This has increased the demand for dredgers, pushing up charter rates to new highs, while the supply remains sluggish.

Sources said around 80 percent of the world’s dredging market is serviced by a handful of European majors — mostly from Holland and Belgium — such as Royal Boskalis, Dredging International, Van Oord and the Jan de Nul Group. Sources said Reliance wanted to start building dredgers at the yard initially, and later expand the capacity to build other ocean-going vessels.

“Talks are currently on, and it is likely to take a final shape in a month or two,” said a senior RIL official. He said the Kakinada facility will be owned by Reliance Logistics while the shipyard project will be owned by Reliance Logistics Investment and Jai Corp, a company belonging to Anand Jain. An RIL spokesperson refused to talk about the proposed plans. An e-mail questionnaire sent to RIL went unanswered.

Amma Lines, the initial promoters of Rewas Port, is expected to join hands with the Reliance Group for the two projects. Sources said Amma Lines, promoted by a first-generation entrepreneur Meka Vijay Papa Rao, has already signed an agreement with the Dutch dredging major IHC Holland to bring their ship designs to India. While the dredging company will help Rewas Port deepen the channel and berths, it is also hoping to bid for other dredging contracts coming up in India and abroad.

According to Rewas Ports president KV Natarajan, the dredging project at Rewas Port will make it the largest in India, even bigger than the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP) in terms of volume. “Over 120 million cubic metres will be dredged in the Amba river at Rewas at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore for the first phase alone,” he said. This is much bigger than Sethusamudram Canal which involves dredging of 80-90 million cubic metres, at a revised cost of around Rs 2,600 crore, which has now on the slow track due to political opposition and a few legal cases.

Rewas Port’s current draught — depth at the berth — during the tidal window is about 4-5 metres. “We want to make it 14.5 metres in the first phase and 20 metres in the second,” said Mr Natarajan. The Reliance Group will invite other dredging companies to start the first phase of dredging, and is ready with a global tender, which is scheduled to be floated next month. Reliance is in touch with all global dredging majors to ensure that they are ready with equipment to participate in the tender when floated. The successful bidder will have to start dredging by January 2008 and complete it within 30 months.

The dredging firm, proposed to be set up by the Reliance Group, is expected to take up the second phase of dredging at Rewas, which is scheduled to begin after two years. Rewas Port, with 10 berths for containers, general cargo and car carriers, is expected to be commissioned in October 2008. While Reliance Group companies own 65 percent, Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) owns 11 percent, and the initial promoters, Amma Lines, the remaining 24 percent.

source: TradingMarkets

Tags : Reliance, dredging

In the 1970’s ship breaking was done in docks in Europe and the United States. It was a highly mechanised industrial operation. But as countries grew more conscious of environmental standards, and health and safety measures, costs of scrapping began to escalate. So where could ship owners go so that their profit margins would not be eroded?

In the 1980s enterprising businessmen in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan seized the initiative with a simple, transforming idea: to break a ship they did not need expensive docks and tools; they could just wreck the thing — drive the ship up onto a beach as they might a fishing boat, and tear it apart by hand.

About 90% of the ship breaking industry moved to Asian countries, to India, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Turkey, poorer nations with lax environmental and safety standards. Every year 600-700 sea vessels are brought to the once pristine beaches of Asia for scrapping. In India most of the ships are beached at Alang, in Gujarat, on the West Coast of India. The shipyards at Alang recycle about 50% of the ships salvaged in the world. The yards are located on the Gulf of Khambat, 50 kilometres southeast of Bhavnagar. After the beaching of the MV Kota Tenjong in 1983, this once beautiful beach has become the world’s leading shipbreaking yard.

Satellite images of the Gujarat coastline

Ships destined for shipbreaking are “wastes” as defined by the Basel Convention, and in most cases are likely to contain hazardous substances to an extent rendering such ships “hazardous waste” under the Convention. When such ships destined for shipbreaking involve a transboundary movement, i.e., move from an area under the national jurisdiction of one state to or through an area under the national jurisdiction of another state, they are subject to the Basel Convention (and other applicable regional hazardous waste trade regimes). In the case that such ships move from an OECD country to a non-OECD country, the Basel ban applies and the movement is prohibited. Furthermore, under the Basel Convention, a transboundary movement from any state to any of the shipbreaking operations in non-OECD countries, e.g., India, is prohibited because, due to the conditions in the shipbreaking yards, it would not constitute “environmentally sound management” as required by the Convention.

Beaches where ship breaking happens in Asia, are now graveyards littered with machinery parts, oil rags and leaking barrels, the air poisoned by open fires, the land and surrounding water contaminated by asbestos, heavy metals, dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants.

In Alang, you can see women carrying asbestos waste on their heads and dumping it in the sea. Workers dismantle the ships with their bare hands. Almost one out of every three workers suffers from cancer making ship-breaking one of the deadliest industries in the world. Even their sleeping quarters are not free from danger. Many are also injured or killed by suffocation or explosion related mishaps. The saddest part is that the workers are mostly temporary and are not covered under any labour benefits. But for the workers the choice is simple- exploitation is better than starvation. (watch Greenpeace video on shipbreaking in India)

It’s a recycling yard and an environmental disaster. The situation is set to get worse, 200 single hulled oil tankers need to be disposed of by 2015.

On the other hand, without shipbreaking at least one million people in India would go hungry. Aside from those employed as shipbreakers, the ships that are beached along the shores of Alang bring money to those who sell the scrap metal, work in steel mills, drive the trucks that deliver the metal, and resell any of the valuables found on the ships. This is their gold rush.

Ship breaking images, The BIG BREAK, Chittagong Ship Breaking pictures, Greenpeace

sources: Greenpeace, Wikipedia, BBC News, Find Articles, SSPC, Basel Action Network

Tags : ship breaking, Alang

Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) announced that it has awarded a $1.5bn turnkey contract to the Archirodon Construction (Overseas) Co. S.A. / Boskalis Westminster Middle East Ltd. / Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company Ltd.

The project is set for substantial completion by late 2010.

The Khalifa Port is a multi-purpose maritime facility located 5 km offshore of Taweelah and covers an area of 2.2 km2.

It will be able to accommodate the current and future marine traffic served by Mina Zayed and will create a gateway for the import of all cargo into Abu Dhabi and export of goods manufactured in the adjacent industrial zone.

Phase 1A of the Port is anticipated to have an annual throughput of 2 million TEU’s (twenty-foot equivalent container units) and over 6 million tonnes of general cargo.

The Khalifa Port will ultimately be developed in 5 stages.

The project will start with the creation of a 260 hectare marine platform.

The island platform will be made from reclaimed seabed material that will be dredged to create the harbor basin and the 16.5 meter deep and 12 km long approach channel.

The outer perimeter of the port island will be protected by rock revetments and breakwaters. Quay walls will line the inner harbour perimeter to berth vessels.

The contract agreement signed with the ABH Consortium will involve over 47 million cubic meters of dredging and reclamation, the construction of 3.2 km of quay walls, 7.3 km of breakwaters and revetments and a 4.6 km causeway/bridge connecting the offshore port to the onshore port facilities.

In addition, the contract will also include the construction of a 3.5 km causeway/trestle and an 800 m long berth for the use of Emirates Aluminum (EMAL), which is currently constructing the largest single site smelter in the world with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per year.

The decision to award the contract to the ABH Consortium is the result of a careful and thorough pre-qualification and tendering process, which was initiated in November 2006 following two years of detailed engineering and environmental studies led by HPA/Halcrow of New York.

Elaborating on the award of this substantial contract, Mr. Ahmed Al Calily, CEO and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Ports Company, said:

‘The awarding of the contract to the ABH Consortium is a significant milestone and a major step forward in the development of Khalifa Port and the adjacent industrial zone. Considering the scale and tremendous scope of the Khalifa Port project, we were very careful and keen on consulting only the best-in-class companies. The ABH consortium was selected from among four consortia with great records of experience.’

‘We continue to rely on reputable companies to help us in the rapid implementation of our vision to create a state-of-the-art port, industrial zone, and logistics hub in the region and to contribute to significant industrial growth and diversification in the UAE’, Ahmed Al Calily added.

Khalifa Port is part of the multi-billion dollar development project, Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ). KPIZ will be a multi-purpose facility located in Taweelah between the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

In addition to the container and industrial port, the project includes the development of over 100 square kilometers of industrial, logistics, commercial, high-technology, educational and residential special economic and free zones.

KPIZ is ideally suited to become a world-class industrial and logistics hub with its strategic location easy access to two major ports, two major airports, and the new Emirates rail.

source: AME Info

Tags : dredging, Khalifa Port, Archirodon, Boskalis