• Major dredging project for Yangtze.

The mouth of Yangtze River will be dredged to a depth of 12.5 meters by next September to allow safe passage for about 30 percent more cargo ships, the project authority said Thursday morning.

• China to stop illegal sand dredging.

China will continue to combat the illegal dredging of the Yangtze River to protect the fragile banks of the world’s third longest river, a senior official has said.

• Boskalis, Rezayat to pursue Smit merger.

A consortium involving Royal Boskalis Westminster and Saudi group Rezayat said it would pursue a merger with the terminals division of Smit Internationale which rejected their $300 million offer.

• Great Offshore Sells AHTS ‘Malaviya Nine’.

Great Offshore Ltd has announced that the sale of vessel, “Malaviya Nine”, a 1983 built Anchor Handling Tug - Supply Vessel (AHTSV). With this sale, the current fleet of Offshore Vessels of the Company stands at 40.

• Van Oord starts work on Indonesian project.

Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord reports that it has started dredging operations for the access channel to Banjarmassin on the island of Kalimantan, Indonesia.

• Work begins on E.ON’s wind farm.

E.ON has set up its base in the Port of Workington in preparation for the offshore wind farm it is generating nearby.

• Asia Pacific maritime show kicks off in Singapore.

The biennial Asia Pacific maritime show kicked off here Wednesday, featuring 841 exhibiting companies from 52 countries, 650 of which are from abroad.

• Hercules Offshore announces Saudi contracts.

US-based Hercules Offshore announced today it has signed contracts to provide Saudi Aramco with two jackup drilling rigs for three-year terms plus one-year fixed price options at the same rate. The Hercules 300 and Hercules 261, currently known as the High Island I and High Island VIII, respectively, will fulfill the contract commitments.

• Decision still to be made on whether to salvage abandoned yacht.

A decision is yet to be made on whether a delivery yacht abandoned at sea can be salvaged. The four crew on board the Air Apparence abandoned the yacht in rising seas 80 nautical miles off Kaipara Harbour.

• Salvage Or Sink: Alien Boat Lodged On Reef.

Authorities may opt to sink a boat that was found abandoned off Urunao yesterday. It appeared to have been deliberately run aground while some 10 illegal aliens made their way into Guam yesterday morning.

• ABB to transmit offshore wind for Germany.

The automation and power engineering major ABB will link offshore wind to Germany’s power grid. ABB will provide the technology to connect the self-proclaimed world’s largest offshore wind farm to the German power grid in a contract worth more than $400 million.

• Riverdance ferry sinking into sands.

The stricken ferry has taken a terrible beating from massive waves whipped up by this week’s 85mph hurricane-force winds.

• Bourbon FY net soars 155.6 pct, lifted by asset disposals.

Bourbon said full year net profit soared 155.6 pct to a pro forma 390.8 mln eur from 152.9 mln eur in 2006, lifted by 229 mln eur in proceeds from disposals.

• Major dredging programme required in Brazil.

Brazil has admitted that many of its port access channels lack sufficient depth to accommodate modern ships meaning that ports such as Santos and Itaguaí cannot receive the latest generation of container vessel.

• Boskalis still eyes Smit unit, no super dividend.

Dutch dredging group Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster NV said on Monday it will not pay a super dividend after receiving a 167 million euro insurance payout that will boost results this year.

more pictures

• Nigeria: Maritime - Reading for Excellence.

The complexity of the maritime industry is one that challenges even the most well informed about this all-important sector of the economy. Its transactional vocabulary is peculiarly arcane.

• Big job for salvage team.

An Auckland-based salvage team faces a challenging job trying to retrieve a damaged commercial fishing boat stuck fast on a reef with about 2400 litres of oil on board in Doubtless Bay in the Far North.

more information on the farshore windfarm on the Thornton Bank can be found at the C-Power website.

• Salvage crew heads to boat leaking diesel.

salvage crew has safely boarded the stricken commercial fishing boat, Seawyf, near the entrance to the Mangonui Harbour. The Seawyf ran aground on the Fair Way Reef in the early ours of yesterday morning and a diesel leak could be seen spreading up to 2km from the vessel.