Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2001)

Containership Volume To Slow

The giant containerships, which act as a floating conveyor-belt for internation- al trade, are struggling to maintain vol- umes in the face of global slow down, shipping analysts said.

Analysts said it was the container car- rying behemoths on the trans-Pacific trades that had started to suffer first, largely because of U.S. slow down.

Many can load over 6,000 truck-sized units at once, packed with anything from refrigerated fruit and shellfish through to televisions and cars.

The Commonwealth Group estimated the Pacific decline at 10-15 percent since a year ago. The result is that earn- ings will fall.

Clarksons said on top of the threats to shipping demand, there was also the danger of huge oversupply.

The orders were placed during the two boom years of 1999 and 2000.

Shipping database Lloyd's Register-

Fairplay lists over 100 new giant ships under construction, each capable of car- rying over 5,000 truck-sized containers.

Many smaller ships are also in the pipeline.

While the Japanese are reportedly the most exposed, the Germans have taken a heavy hit as well.

Between them, Japan's NYK, K-Line and Mitsui O.S.K Lines had placed about a third of the big orders, while

German tax-incentive schemes were also responsible for about a third.

Traditional European operators had been less involved. Germany's Hapag-

Lloyd and A P Moller, Britain's P&O and Greece's Costamare had between them only contributed to one tenth of the glut. One outcome could be consol- idation within the market, and many smaller players could disappear.

Alstom Wins French

Navy Contract

Alstom SA secured a contract from military shipbuilder Direction des Con- structions Navales to help build two military transport vessels for the French armed forces. Alstom's Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard on France's west coast will provide forward accommodation sections for the 656-ft. (200-m) ships, designed to transport 450 military per- sonnel.

The vessels, to be delivered in the sec- ond quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, would each house six heli- copter pads and four smaller barges in which troops would disembark. Alstom did not disclose a price for the contract but said that the work carried out on the two ships would be equivalent to that involved in building one medium-sized cruise ship.

Hyundai Logistics Plans To

Own Freighter

Hyundai Logistics Co. Ltd., one of

South Korea's top three delivery compa- nies, has reportedly planned to operate its own freighter in 2007 for use between Korea, China and Japan.

Market share of the 13-year-old late- comer rose to over 10 percent this year from less than three percent in 1995.

Evergreen Marine Sales Down

Nine Percent

Taiwan's Evergreen Marine made sales of T$1.55 billion ($44.7 million) in June, down nine percent from the same month a year earlier. That brought accumulated sales in the first six months of 2001 to T$8.88 billion ($256.1 mil- lion), an 8.5 percent drop from the same 2000 period. However, June sales were higher than May's T$1.24 billion ($35.7 million). ai

THE 6th INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION

FOR SHIPPING, SHIPBUILDING, OFFSHORE ENERGY,

PORTS, INLAND WATERWAYS, CRUISE INDUSTRIES,

OCEANOGRAPHY & FISHERIES

For full information contact

Dolphin Exhibitions, 112 High Street, Bildeston, Suffolk IP7 7EB, England

Tel: +44 1449 741801 • Fax: +44 1449 741628 e-mail: [email protected] • website: www.setcorp.ru/neva

Circle 320 on Reader Service Card www. maritimereporterinfo. com 36D www.maritimereporterinfo.com Maritime Reporter & Engineering News