Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1993)

)espite Drain In Funds, vtarAd Continues To Seek \dditional Ships For RRF

Although the Maritime

Administration's (MarAd's) recent $226 million purchase of 12 roll-on/ roll-off vessels for its Ready Re- serve Fleet (RRF), together with $60 million in related U.S. shipyard repair work, has almost exhausted the agency's ship purchasing ap- propriations fund, MarAd is still seeking additional vessels.

In the meantime, MarAd is re- ported to have a "short list" of 29 vessels that are being considered for purchase for the RRF, including 20 RoRos and several tankers.

Two of those ships are RoRo/con- tainer vessels belonging to Crowley

Maritime Corp., of San Francisco, the American Condor and the

American Falcon. Both 15,636-gt vessels were built in 1981 and are presently chartered to the U.S.

Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC).

Not included however are five modern RoRo's belonging to Atlan- tic Container Line (ACL) Ltd. ACL's asking price of $70 million each was much higher than the $22.2 million average payed by MarAd.

However, MarAd's purchase of two RoRos from the National Ship- ping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) for $25 million each, opens the possibility that NSCSA may buy at least two of ACL's vessels.

Additional ships available for sale include: three 31,000-ton ships owned by Ignazio Messina & C SpA, of Genoa; two 21,000-ton vessels owned by OT Africa Line, London; two 27,000-ton vessels belonging to the German company of Rukdolph

Oetker; and two ships owned by

Puerto Rico Marine Management,

Inc. Compagnie Generale Maritime (CGM), of Paris, is also expected to have several RoRo vessels for sale.

Move To Deepen Suez

Deferred By Authorities

A decision on whether or not to deepen and widen the Suez Canal to accommodate fully-laden 250,000 to 300,000-dwt ultra-large tankers has been deferred for one year by the Suez Canal Authority.

While the ambitious plan to in- crease the depth of the canal to a draft of approximately 68 feet was delayed, a current operation to in- crease its depth from 53 to 56 feet continues.

A group of international ship- owners who recently visited Egypt to lobby against the canal expan- sion plan welcomed the authority's decision.

The owners believe that deepen- ing the Suez would weaken an al- ready flat tanker chartering mar- ket. By being forced to avoid the canal because of its depth and make the journey around Africa to Eu- rope, adding an extra 4,700 miles to the voyage, the demand for tanker tonnage increases.

According to Egyptian authori- ties, if the decision is finally made

February, 1993 to dredge the canal to the full 68 feet, the project is expected to cost ap- proximately $900 million, most of which will be financed from soft loans.

Norwegian Owners

To Spend $30 Billion

On New Tonnage

Over the next decade, Norwegian shipowners are expected to spend nearly $30 billion on new ship con- struction, according to industry sources. Norway currently has 82 ships of five million deadweight tons on order, ensuring its continued prominence as a leading commercial maritime nation.

It is likely that this large capital investment will be accompanied by some significant structural changes to the country's shipping industry, as smaller operators merge into larger units.

The Norwegian Shipowner's As- sociation put the size of the country's owned or operated commercial fleet at 1,900 vessels of 65 million dwt.

However, many of these ships are approaching the end of their opera- tional life and must be replaced with new tonnage.

Because of the reluctance of many banks to invest this heavily in ship- ping, many smaller shipping compa- nies will be forced to join with larger partners in order to afford expensive fleet replacement programs.

American President Buys

Two C9 Containerships

American President Companies, the Oakland, Calif.-based parent company of ship operator American

President Lines (APL), has com- pleted the purchase of two C9-class containerships that had been leased under long-term charters.

In a press release, the company said that it paid a total price of $197 million for three vessels, the two leased ships and a third that had been purchased in December.

The company also said that while the vessels were under charter, divi- dend payments to the company from its APL unit were subject to restric- tions under the terms of its operat- ing-differential subsidy agreement with MarAd. These restrictions have now been eliminated, American

President said.

Biospherics Awarded $ 16 Million Navy Contract

Biospherics, Inc., of Beltsville,

Md., has been awarded a five-year contract valued at up to $16 million from the Navy Public Works Com- mission.

In a press release, Biospherics said that the contract calls for it to sample and analyze wastewater treatment in plant effluents, other liquid wastes and drinking water.

In connection with this contract, the company has opened a regional office in Hampton, Va. ^^ Don't miss the • - HII •

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