GERMANY's new EUR950 million (US$1.2 billion) JadeWeserPort (JWP) container terminal will now launch a EUR2 million study on its expansion despite its lack of growth since it opened last September, reports the Maritime Journal.

THE Long Beach Board Port Authority announced ocean carriers in compliance with its ship speed reduction programme in coastal areas, awarding its Green Flag to "K" Line for the eighth consecutive year.

MAERSK will increase rates US$300 per TEU, $400 per FEU, $450 per 40-high-cube and $505 per 45-foot high-cube on cargo from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent to the US and Canada from July 3.

FRENCH President Francois Hollande has urged the European Union to work with China and called for a balanced resolution to an escalating trade dispute that began with solar panels but has since spread to European wines.

THE European Union has lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China's anti-dumping duties on imports of stainless steel tubes, six months after Japan did the same, Reuters reports.

TWO US Coast Guard investigators have assessed "K" Line a US$75,000 fine its failure to report an engine failure that caused its chartered 4,500-TEU Bangkok Bridge to go adrift in a busy Alaskan shipping lane.

ASIA Australia Discussion Agreement (AADA) carriers have announced a two-tier rate increase of US$100 per TEU on July 1 and $200 per TEU on July 15 for cargo shipments from China and Hong Kong to all ports and points in Australia.

HONG KONG-listed China Merchants Holdings (International) Company Limited (CMHI) and French shipping giant CMA CGM have announced the completion of the sale to CMHI with the purchase of CMA CGM's 49 per cent stake.

MARSEILLE-based CMA CGM has announced it will impose a general rate increase (GRI) on services from North Europe to Asia by US$150 per TEU and $200 per FEU from July 1.

German based BBC Chartering, announced intention to bolster business in Korea.

The WINDEA Offshore GmbH & Co. KG has signed a Letter of Intent together with DAMEN Shipyards regarding the sale of one Fast Crew Supplier 2610 type catamaran in order to expand its all in all service portfolio for offshore wind farms.

DESPITE a 7.5 per cent decline in first quarter, Kenya's GDP has been six per cent this year after a peaceful election, Reuters reports.

THE Baltic Exchange is selling a collection of choral music called "Music for Seafarers" with revenues going to the Mission to Seafarers, the Sailors Society and RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Salcombe.

ABU DHABI's Khalifa Container Terminal, which opened last September now stands to transform the local economy, according to the port operator, forwarding giant Agility and an engineering professor interviewed by Dubai's Khaleej Times.

CMA CGM Group has held a christening ceremony at the townhall of Hamburg for its latest 16,000-TEU newbuilding, the CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt, the second of three same-size ships ordered by the French shipping giant.

THE US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is lobbying for public support for its bid to extend the 10-knot speed limit on cargo vessels beyond December to save the whales from ship collisions.

GEORGIA Ports Authority's (GPA) Garden City Terminal at the Port of Savannah has received four new super-post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes.

CHINA's shipbuilders, licensed to use technology from Hamburg's Technolog Gmb, stand to lead global production of LNG fuelled containerships, reports New York's Marine Log.

SOUTHEASTERN port of Xiamen - opposite Taiwan - recorded a 17.3 per cent per cent increase in container throughput to 2.42 million TEU during the first four months of the year, making it the second fastest growing in China after Dalian.

WESTBOUND Asia-Europe container volume in April remained unchanged year on year at 1.16 million TEU, but improved on March's decline of 7.1 per cent year on year, said the UK's Container Trade Statistics (CTS).

RATES have been in free-fall since January in the Asia-Europe trade and Drewry Maritime Research now suspects carriers to first turn even slower steaming and then cut back on service reliability to force up rates.

PORT of Felixstowe, the largest container port in the UK, has opened its the North Rail Terminal, which doubles its rail capacity.

Over 300 industry guests gathered at the Port of Liverpool recently (Thursday, June 6th) to toast the launch of Peel Ports’ landmark deep water container terminal Liverpool2.

Coinciding with parent company Keppel Corporation’s 45th anniversary this year, Keppel FELS has delivered the 45th KFELS B Class jackup rig since it launched the design in 2000.

Kosmos Energy Ltd. (Kosmos) has signed a long-term rig agreement with a subsidiary of Atwood Oceanics, Inc. for the new build drillship Atwood Achiever.

Diana Containerships Inc., a global shipping company specializing in owning and operating containerships, today announced that it has agreed to extend the present time charter contract with CMA CGM S.A.

Ensco plc has ordered an additional advanced-capability DP3 ultra-deepwater drillship based on the Samsung GF12000 hull design.

ZHOUSHAN, a city in eastern China's Zhejiang province, operated a fleet of 1,588 vessels at the end of April, growing 4.27 per cent compared to the same period in 2012.

Teekay LNG Partners L.P. today announced that it has entered into two, five-year time-charter contracts with Cheniere Marketing, LLC (Cheniere) to provide them with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transportation services.

Hull No. 3401, Allseas Pieter Schelte platform decommissioning and pipe laying vessel, float division was finished on 11th May.

MARSEILLES' shipping giant CMA CGM will raise rates on its trade from Asia to North Europe by US$775 per TEU for dry and refrigerated cargo from July 1.

HYUNDAI Heavy Industries (HHI) is reportedly ready to close to a deal for more than US$2 billion to start building seventeen 14,000- to 18,000-TEU ships for the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) with deliveries set from early 2015.

DREWRY Maritime Research has raised the issue of whether Oman needs another big container terminal, which is being developed at the port of Duqm, maintaining that the last thing the Middle East needs at present is another transshipment base.

OOCL has for the second year in a row attained accreditation for the accuracy and transparency of its environmental data disclosure.

The Ocean Industries concept has been firmly in the spotlight during Nor-Shipping 2013 as Norway’s top three industries came together to attract young talent and share technological know-how.

Wärtsilä, the marine industry’s leading solutions and services provider, has been contracted to retrofit its Wärtsilä AQUARIUS®UV ballast water management system for the ‘Marola’.

ES Group announced that Sea Tanker II was successfully delivered today to the Purchaser.

The first of Fjord Line’s two new cruise ferries was christened on Thursday at Bergen Group Fosen’s Rissa shipyard in Sør-Trøndelag county.

USNS Millinocket (JHSV 3) successfully launched, June 5, from the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala.

Berge Bulk, an independent ship owner headquartered in Bermuda and managed out of Singapore, has inked a contract with shipbuilding company Guangzhou Shipbuilding International (GSI).