Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2003)

Sustainable Growth for

Liner Shipping

Drewry Shipping Consultants' latest report "Annual Container Market

Review and Forecast 2003/04" high- lights that despite economic uncertainty, the war in Iraq and the outbreak of the

SARS virus, 2003 will be a good year for liner shipping companies as trade volumes, especially to and from China, register strong growth. The report reports how (his year has seen a further recovery in the liner shipping industry as the cargo volume surges experienced in headhaul trades out of Asia in 2002

Costa Victoria in for a Facelift

Radical changes are imminent for Costa

Victoria, one of the nine members currently comprising the Costa Crociere fleet. On

January 6, 2004, at the end of her New Year's

Eve cruise, the ship will leave the port of

Savona bound for Bremerhaven in Germany, where it will arrive after five days at sea and undergo work at the Lloyd Werft shipyard.

During Costa Victoria's stay in the yard, which will last approximately 30 days, it will be dry- docked for routine maintenance work, which is performed regularly every two years on all the company's vessels. At the same time, it will be subjected to extraordinary upgrading work, involving the addition of panorama verandas to 242 oceanview cabins on decks 9 and 10, as well as to 4 mini suites on deck 11 - in all, 43 percent of the ship's oceanview cabins.

This will be the first time that refurbishing of this kind has been carried out on a cruise ship that is already in service, and it will result in the further enhancement of the Costa fleet.

With the advent of the refurbished Costa

Victoria and the new flagship Costa Fortuna - being built by Italy's Fincantieri - due to be christened at the end of November 2003, some 44 percent of the fleet's oceanview cab- ins will now be equipped with verandas over- looking the sea. Costa Victoria, which was built by the Lloyd Werft shipyard and entered into service in 1996, is 75,000 gt, 826 ft. (252 m) in length and 105 ft. (32 m) in breadth. The ship can accommodate up to 2,394 passengers in 964 cabins.

November 2003

Cruise Ship Terminal

URETHANE PRODUCTS CORPORATION • 9076 ROSECRANS AVENUE • BELLFLOWER • CALIFORNIA • 90706 1-800-913-0062 • 1-562-630-4982 • Fax 1-562-630-6974 • www.urethaneproducts.com

Circle 339 on Reader Service Card ll

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URETHANE PRODUCTS CORPORATION 800) 913-0062

Stocking Distributors:

Waterman Supply Company 910 Mahar, Wilmington, CA 90744, U.S.A. 1-800-322-3131

Tel (310) 522-9698 • Fax (310) 522-1043

Anchor Marine &

Industrial Supply, Inc. 6545 Lindbergh, Houston, TX 77087, U.S.A. 1-800-233-8014

Tel (713) 644-1183 • Fax (713) 644-1185 continued into the first half of 2003.

What is more, these containers are being carried at significantly higher freight rates than last year, with Drewry

Shipping Consultants projecting total gross carrier income of a record $106 billion in 2003. up more than 19 percent on last year.

With world container trade expected to grow 11 percent this year and 9 percent

News in 2004 and the supply of new slots (effective capacity) rising by 10.3 per- cent and 8.8 percent, respectively, vessel utilization levels are forecast to remain high over the next two years (see Table

I). This should enable further rate restoration programs to be implemented, with carriers, potentially at least, enter- ing a period of sustained profitability, new global standards.