Page 4: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1992)

tain and increase MarAd's Ready

Reserve Force (RRF) and $19.1 mil- lion to fund FMC operations, includ- ing the activation of the commission's automated tarifffiling system in 1993.

Sea-Land Posts $5 Million

Gain Despite Revenue Drop

Despite a continuing slump in mili- tary cargoes and civilian shipments

Sea-Land Services Inc. increased its operating income by $5 million in the second quarter.

Although the company experienced a $51 million decline in revenue over the period, Sea-Land offset that and restored $48 million by improving its cargo mix and raising prices. Addi- tionally, the company saved $8 mil- lion by cutting expenses, which in- cluded paring 500 employees from its 9,000-strong work force.

Container Companies

Chartering Tramp Ships

For Busy Trade Routes

Reports indicate that containership companies are charter- ing tramp boxships at higher rates and for longer periods of time in order to increase their capacities in the booming intra-Asian, Europe-to-Asia and South American trades. At the same time, they are cutting their con- tainer capacities in the less-profit- able trans-Pacific and Atlantic mar- kets.

As ship demand outpaces supply, carriers are forced to pay increas- ingly higher charter rates to ship- owners. The average daily rate for chartering a typical tramp 1,200-TEU containership reached $14,064, or $11.72 per TEU slot, in July accord- ing to brokers. This is an unusually large, short-term increase of 1.7 per- cent over the $11.52 paid during the month prior. Over the long term, this translates into an 8.2 percent rise over the $10.83 paid in July 1991 and 26.7 percent above the $9.25 rate that prevailed in July 1990.

In addition to the higher rates, liner companies are moving beyond the traditional six to 12 month long charters and are now locking up ves- sels for as long as 18 months.

Bisso Helps Launch 750-Ton Crane Barge

Bisso Marine Company, Inc. of New

Orleans assisted Alabama Shipyard in launching a 750-ton crane barge.

Bisso's 700-ton D/B Cappy Bisso and

Alabama Maritime Corporation's 300- ton gantry crane were used for the project. The launched barge, outfit- ted with a 100-ton crane, will be used by the U.S. Navy.

For free literature on Bisso Marine

Company, Inc.,

Circle 155 on Reader Service Card

Millions Approved For

Title XI Program

The House and Senate may have cleared the way for almost $1 billion in commercial financing for new, militarily useful ships by approving up to $50 million for the U.S. Mari- time Administration's (MarAd) fed- eral ship financing program, known as Title XI. amendments, introduced in the

Senate by Senator John Breaux (D-La.) and in Congress by Repre- sentatives John P. Murtha CD-

Pa .) and Randy Cunningham (R-

Calif.), shipowners whose risk of default on shipbuilding loans is calculated to be 5 percent, will be eligible for $881.6 million in com- mercial loans.

The Senate bill also provides $370 million in funding to main-

Nearly $45 million was approved in the Senate and $50 million in the

House while each chamber consid- ered two separate $22 billion appro- priations bills for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.

Each measure included funds for

MarAd, the Federal Maritime Com- mission (FMC) and National Oce- anic and Atmospheric Administra- tion (NOAA).

Under the new loan guarantee 6 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News

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