The 'Konkar Theodoros' has been stranded at Chattogram port for seven months due to complications with the letter of credit (LC). The ship, carrying 58,900 tonnes of raw sugar imported by Abdul Monem Group, still has 14,000 tonnes of cargo stuck on board. The Abdul Monem Group has faced significant financial losses as Islami Bank was unable to issue the LC needed to clear the goods. Over time, the company managed to open LCs with other banks, allowing them to unload 45,000 tonnes of raw sugar. However, there is no clear timeline for when the remaining 14,000 tonnes will be unloaded. The ship arrived at Chattogram port on Feb 7, 2024, en route from Rio de Janeiro Port with raw sugar. The Islami Bank was unable to issue the LC's due to the recent dollar shortage and other internal complications. The new management of Islami Bank has assured us that the remaining LC will be issued soon, allowing to unload the final 14,000 tonnes. Each metric tonne of sugar was valued at $632, meaning the remaining goods are worth approximately $8.84 million. The ship's daily charter fee amounts to around $20,000, leading to an additional cost of roughly $4.2 million over the past seven months.
News
PORT OLYA-3
The 'Port Olya 3' was docked at Port Olya after allegedly transporting short-range ballistic missiles from Iran on Sep 4. The ship, which had previously been at the Iranian port of Amirabad just six days earlier, on Aug 29, and was tracked by satellites. According to a Ukrainian source, the ship delivered approximately 220 Fateh-360 missiles, which were now believed to be destined for the Russian battlefield in Ukraine. Two days later another satellite image showed the ship had left the port. No data has been shared since Aug 29. Six days after the ship last shared its position it arrived at the Russian port. This development comes as the U.S. and European allies announced a new wave of sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's missile transfers. The sanctions target key Iranian and Russian entities, including Iran Air, accused of facilitating arms shipments. Report with photos: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/russian-ship-captured-in-satellite-image-delivering-ballistic-missiles-from-iran/ar-AA1qnR2T
Rotterdam
APM Terminals Maasvlakte II’s new rail service between its Rotterdam terminal and Venlo, a key logistics hub on the Dutch-German border is proving popular. Following the success of the initial five-times-per-week service, plans are already in place to scale this up to 14 times per week over the coming weeks.
Genova
A 24-hour national labour strike is planned on Jul 24, in all Italian ports and all transportations. The planned strike is subject to confirmation in the coming days.
MANA
The 'Mana', carrying 50,071 tonnes of soybeans from Santarem Port, has been stranded at Chattogram port since June 8, 2024, due to a dispute over the quality of the imported soybeans. The vessel has already unloaded 30,000 tonnes of soybeans imported by Shabnam Vegetable Oil Industries and Super Oil Refinery Ltd, both owned by TK Group. Due to water entering the ship and compromising the quality of the goods, the importer, Delta Agro Food Industries, and the associated declaring agent halted the unloading of the remaining 20,070 tonnes of soybean. As a result, the bulk carrier has been stranded at Chattogram port for the past three months. According to the ship's owner, Active Maritime Ltd, and its P&I (Protection and Indemnity) company, the vessel has been counting at least $15,000 daily in charter fees due to the importer and declaring agent's non-cooperation. On Sep 6, the ship's owner and captain sought intervention from Chattogram port authorities and Customs to resolve the issue. Representatives have already met with the port chairman and the Customs commissioner to discuss the issue on Sep 10. Captain Andonov, in a letter to the Chittagong Port Authority chairman and the Customs commissioner, stated, "The receivers have a legal duty to take delivery of cargo and submit any claim they may have after taking delivery of all cargo but instead of performing their obligation they are making unlawful demands and pressurising the owners to pay huge amount of money before they take delivery of cargo. This is clearly an act of extortion, and it tarnishes the image of Bangladesh and Chittagong Port for a vessel to remain in port for nearly three months as a result of the action of receivers who are refusing to take delivery or to abandon the cargo." Mohammad Mustafa Haider, the chairman of Delta Agro Food, stated: "A commercial dispute has arisen due to the damage to the goods. The responsibility for the damaged goods lies with the shipowner as they are the custodian of the cargo. This matter is currently in mediation". He further mentioned that the soybeans already unloaded had quality issues as well. According to Seacom Group, the importer's declaring agent, the value of the cargo is $440 per tonne, bringing the total value of the 20,070 tonnes of soybeans to $8.83 million. Zahur Ahmed, director at Seacom, stated: "The quality dispute arose due to water entering the ship's hatches, and the shipowner's delays have prolonged the issue. However, their representative has arrived in Bangladesh, and discussions with the cargo receivers are ongoing. We expect a resolution within a week." A survey conducted on June 11 by the ship's P&I correspondent, Interport, confirmed water damage to the cargo and recommended manual separation of the affected soybeans, which was not done. As a result, the goods have continued to deteriorate over the last three months. According to officials associated with the ship, initially, salvage teams had offered to buy the soybeans for $300 per tonne, but due to the lack of response from the importer and declaring agent, the deal could not proceed. Now, it would be hard to sell these soybeans for even $100 per tonne. Regarding how the damage had taken place, the ship's P&I correspondent told TBS that the vessel came under stormy weather at sea, which caused water to enter three of the five hatches on the ship. It also mentioned that the covers of the three hatches were damaged from before. Shipping industry insiders have expressed concern over the unprecedented delay, warning that such incidents could negatively affect the reputation of Chattogram port. They urged the port and customs authorities to intervene and expedite the resolution of the dispute. CPA Secretary Md Omar Faruk confirmed receiving a letter from the shipowner and clarified that the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the importer, shipping agent, and P&I club. Once customs clearance and other formalities have been completed and the port's dues have been paid, the port authority was to issue a no objection certificate for the vessel to depart.
MISSUNDE III
Due to the ongoing difficulties with the 'Missunde III', the old Schlei ferry 'Missunde II' is back in service. The state had to spend 100,000 euros to buy back the old ferry, which had previously been sold to Denmark for just 17,000 Euros. The new ferry, costing 3.3 million Euros, was supposed to replace the old one at the beginning of the year, but it turned out that the much larger new vessel was not able to cope with the wind and current conditions. The i ferry has now to be rebuilt, with autumn 2025 being given as the new date for commissioning. The old ferry will continue to run between Kosel and Brodersby-Goltoft. The traffic situation in Missunde has eased somewhat, as the "Missunde II" has been given a license until 2028. The state was initially able to buy the ferry back for 46,000 Euros. However, the Danish owner was granted a right of repurchase until autumn 2024. When it became apparent that the commissioning of the new ferry would be delayed, the state also bought this right of first refusal from him for 50,000 Euros. Including VAT. The state has therefore paid more than 100,000 Euros to buy back the old ferry. The new "Missunde III" is now in Olpenitz. The tender for the conversion work has not yet been issued, but construction work is planned to be completed by late summer 2025. The "Missunde III" is scheduled to go into operation in autumn 2025. The cost of the conversion is estimated at more than one million Euros. In the meantime, the state has commissioned a law firm to examine claims for damages against the engineering firm due to design errors on the 'Missunde III'.
Churchill
Canada’s arctic port of Churchill is set to resume its first grain shipments since 2015 after a group backed by investor Prem Watsa stepped in last year to buy the facility and a related rail line linking the northern town with the rest of Manitoba. The 88-year-old port on the shores of Hudson’s Bay will resume operations in the next few months, reducing by several days the shipping time to deliver grains to Europe and the Middle East across the Atlantic Ocean.
King Abdullah Port
In the largest commercial operation of its kind in the history of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Port has received 28 state-of-the-art Liebherr cranes to start the expansion of the container terminals. The latter was decided through a MoU signed with National Container Terminal on the day the port was officially inaugurated in the presence of the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman last February. The new cranes include 20 gantry cranes and 8 ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, which are the largest of their kind, with an outreach of 70 m (25 rows) and a safe working load of 65 t. The cranes that were supplied in this deal will join their operational counterparts in the port. They are the largest cranes exported by Liebherr and can serve mega container ships easily and seamlessly.
SHINGLE
The sinking of the 'Shingle' in Killala Bay to become an artificial reef, which was scheduled to take place on Sep 15, has been postponed until the following week as a result of unfavourable weather conditions..The fish carrier was seized by Customs officers at Drogheda Port as part of a €14m tobacco seizure in 2014 and was held by the Revenue Commission. It sat in the dry dock at New Ross in the years since. Earkier in 2024, a Maritime Area Consent licence was granted to the Killala Bay Ships 2 Reef project team, a group of diving enthusiasts, to allow them to tow the 'Shingle' to Killala Bay for sinking. Planning permission was then granted by Mayo County Council in July for the preparation, transportation, positioning and placement of the 'Shingle' on the seabed of Killala Bay. The towing operation to bring the ship from the port at New Ross up to Killala will take three days and upon arrival, a company has been employed to prepare the ship for sinking. It was now likely that it will be either Sep 18 or Sep 19 before the ship arrives in Killala Bay.As Ireland’s first artificial reef, it is hoped that the project can bring a boost in diving tourism to the west of Ireland as well as promoting local marine ecology.
SILVERPILEN
On Sep 7, 2024, the robot boat 'R142-Ystad' was extremely close to a collision with the 'Silverpilen'. The former military boat had a speed of 37 knots despite dense fog and was a few meters away from the ferry, which was on its way from Utö in the Stockholm archipelago to Årsta havsbad with 30 people on board. The 'R142-Ystad' passed just astern. The ferry crew tried to contact the 'R142-Ystad', but were unsuccessful. The Coast Guard will investigate the incident regarding negligence in maritime traffic. The ferry operator Blidösundsbolaget has submitted an incident report to the Swedish Transport Agency and will also investigate the incident internally. The robot boat is almost 44 meters long with a displacement of 240 tons. The ship is owned by the Maritime History Museum. Report with photo: https://www.sjofartstidningen.se/skargardsbat-meter-ifran-kollision-med-robotbat/
Barcelona
BEST terminal in the Port of Barcelona has recently increased its storage and connection capacity for refrigerated containers, from 1,600 connection points up to 2,750, an increase of 70%, making it one of the terminals with the most connections for refrigerated containers in the whole of the Mediterranean area.
Walvis Bay
NAMPORT’s new container terminal will be officially inaugurated on 2 August, and normal operations are expected to start on it on 24 August. The new terminal, constructed at a cost of N$4 billion, is expected to increase container handling capacity from the current 355 000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to up to 1 005 000 TEUs. Firstly, there will be a shutdown on 17 August of container operations in the port to start relocations to the new terminal. The equipment to be relocated include rubber-tired gantries and mobile harbour cranes, while reach stackers, haulers and forklifts will move the containers.