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I like Ships too

JohnnySavage said:
She's out of the canal and into the bay. Way behind schedule.
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LOL


Ahhh, the beauties of modern technology. According to her track, she apparently must have sprouted some wheels in order to accomplish the overland portion of her voyage across Cecil County !


http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/de...si=265101000&centerx=-75.491&centery=39.39583



...which reminds me of the fabulous entertainment provided by folks on the water who have become wholly reliant on GPS for navigation. Buoys ? Charts ? Landmarks ? Dead reckoning ? What are you talking about ?

 
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thør said:
This was one of the new pussified ones, a Range Rover Sport. No real man would be caught driving one.
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No doubt one equipped with a kangaroo bar for protection from all those 'roos that infest the big city.



 
She's making 14.5 knots and just off Aberdeen Proving Grounds. I'm going to have to miss the big arrival though because those leaves aren't going to rake themselves.
 
JohnnySavage said:
She's making 14.5 knots and just off Aberdeen Proving Grounds. I'm going to have to miss the big arrival though because those leaves aren't going to rake themselves.
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Even in perfect visibility, people who are unfamiliar with the water are often surprised at just how fast those big ships can be on top of you in the Bay. If you don't keep a sharp lookout, you can have a very unpleasant surprise. I'm amazed there aren't more near-misses or collisions.


As we learned from our exercise in calculating distance to the horizon, someone on a small boat can see a maximum of ~4-odd miles in perfect conditions. A vessel traveling at 15 knots can be on top of you in as little as ±16 minutes.



 
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I didn't miss the docking! Pulling into Dundalk.

Also, Enchantment of the Seas is pulling out.
 



I'll be looking at lots of ships over the next week as I'm on my way to 32°18′ N. 64°47′ W.


Since I won't have access to the Interwebz, I'll rely on you to keep a sharp lookout.



 
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that made headlines after sinking in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 8, 1958, she was the largest boat on the Great Lakes, and remains the largest boat to have sunk there. Nicknamed the "Mighty Fitz", "Fitz", or "Big Fitz", the ship suffered a series of mishaps during her launch: it took three attempts to break the champagne bottle used to christen her and she collided with a pier when she entered the water.

http://anchorbar.freeservers.com/images/225fitzport.jpg
 
JackAssJim said:
I just read about 40 or so facts about the Ed. Fitz.

She was headed to Detroit not Cleveland as Gordon told us in the song.


Probably didn't bother using Google to find out back then.:cool:
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That explains it. They were off course.
 
marinetraffic.com seems to be down today. Now I have nothing to entertain me and I might as well go home.
 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...crap-values-speed-up-demolitions-freight.html



Oil-Tanker Rates Seen Rising as Scrap Values Speed Up Demolitions
By Alaric Nightingale
November 14, 2011





Oil-tanker companies may demolish the most ships since 2003, lifting charter rates from their lowest in at least 14 years, as values of older vessels trade 36 percent above the price of scrap.

The cost of 15-year-old tankers fell 48 percent to $23.5 million this year as scrap values advanced 3 percent to $17.25 million, the narrowest gap in at least five years, according to data from the world’s two largest shipbrokers. Owners may break up 5 percent of the fleet within 18 months, the most in nine years...

...While scrapping would reduce the glut and raise rates, it won’t be enough to make ships profitable. Freight derivatives, traded by brokers and used to bet on future rates, anticipate a 68 percent jump to $12,817 a day in 2013 compared with the average so far this year. That’s still 43 percent of what Frontline Ltd., the biggest operator, says it needs to cover costs. Sixteen months of unprofitable charters and falling ship values are lowering expectations from as recently as three months ago, when analysts anticipated fewer demolitions.

“Owners’ perceptions are changing as we speak,” said Charlie Fowle, chairman of London-based shipbroker Galbraith’s Ltd. “Even those who are more bullish will think it’s not worth buying 15-year-old ships if this market continues.”

Owners scrapped 8 percent of the very large crude carrier fleet in 2003, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker. Rates surged 87 percent to $98,323 the following year, its data show.

Crude Carriers
Single-voyage rates for very large crude carriers, hauling about 20 percent of the world’s oil, averaged $7,627 a day this year, compared with $32,006 in 2010, according to the London- based Baltic Exchange, which publishes costs along more than 50 maritime routes. Rates settled at $12,200 yesterday. Longer-term contracts are also unprofitable, with a 15-year-old tanker earning $16,000 a day on a one-year accord, according to London- based Clarkson.

Vessels in service since 1996 or earlier comprise 14 percent of the global fleet, which expanded 11 percent to 554 ships since the end of 2008, according to data from Redhill, England-based IHS Fairplay. Owners ordered the most new vessels in four decades in 2007 and 2008, when returns in the spot market were 14 times higher than now. Hamilton, Bermuda-based Frontline will report its first annual loss in nine years for 2011, analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

Double Hulls
Owners will probably start demolishing older double-hulled tankers before the end of this year, said Jens Martin Jensen, the Singapore-based chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit. It would be the first time for the vessels, built with an extra layer of steel to reduce the risk of spills, according to IHS Fairplay. Frontline’s fleet includes three double-hulled tankers built in 1995.

Scrapping may be postponed should earnings improve. Daily rates on the benchmark route to Japan from Saudi Arabia jumped 19-fold to $10,479 last week after oil companies and traders booked the most tankers to load Persian Gulf cargoes in at least seven years, according to data from Galbraith’s. That’s 65 percent below Frontline’s break-even level.

China’s economy accounts for about 10 percent of oil consumption and will expand 9 percent next year, or more than twice the speed of global growth, according to the International Monetary Fund. World crude demand will rise by about 1.3 million barrels to 90.5 million barrels a day in 2012, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates. The gain is equal to about 237 additional cargoes for the largest tankers.

Vessel Speeds
Rising returns may encourage shipping companies to sail faster, effectively increasing the number of ships competing for business. The average VLCC is proceeding at 10.4 knots, compared with as much as 12.2 knots in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Owners cut speeds when rates decline to limit fuel costs.

Freight derivatives indicate the past week’s gains won’t be sustained. While the December contract trades at $15,117 a day, 24 percent more than now, rates are projected to decline for the next few months to $8,245 by April, according to data from Marex Spectron Group, a London-based broker of the contracts.

The slump in tankers is being mirrored in ships carrying other commodities and manufactured goods. Daily rates for capesizes, hauling iron ore and coal, averaged $13,839 this year, below the $20,000 they need to break even, Baltic Exchange data showed. An index reflecting charges for six types of containers fell 38 percent since the start of April, data from the Hamburg Shipbrokers’ Association showed.

****​

Double-hulled tankers that were 15 years old were sold for as much as $114 million in 2008, according to data from London- based Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the second-largest shipbroker. The incentive to demolish the ships now may be higher than suggested by the narrowing premium to scrap.

Clarkson’s assessment of the demolition value is based on single-hulled tankers. Those with double hulls would be worth more because they yield more steel, said Calum Kennedy, an analyst at the shipbroker’s research unit in London. The vessels also need surveys of seaworthiness every five years, which can cost $1 million to $2 million, potentially adding to costs for buyers of older transports, said Pak in Houston.

Tanker Scrapping
Bangladesh handled 78 percent of all crude and oil-product tanker scrapping in 2009, followed by Pakistan with 10 percent and China with 8 percent, according to the latest data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Anyone buying an older tanker may also have more difficulty in winning cargoes. Oil companies are increasingly favoring newer vessels, which tend to be better maintained, said Per Mansson, the managing director of Norocean Stockholm AB, a shipbroker in the Swedish capital.

“Owners have a challenging economic decision ahead of them,” said Pak. “If your view is that we are going to be in this situation for the next couple of years, if your horizon is a two- to three-year outlook of depressed earnings, the decision becomes more and more compelling to scrap the ship.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...crap-values-speed-up-demolitions-freight.html
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Headed into Baltimore:


The Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a three-masted barque rigged sail training vessel owned and operated by the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation. It is based in Bergen, Norway and contracted out for various purposes, including serving as a school ship for the Royal Norwegian Navy (using RNoN's prefix "KNM", English: "HNoMS").

It was built in 1914 as a school training ship for the German merchant marine under the name Grossherzog Friedrich August. After the First World War the ship was taken as a prize by the United Kingdom and in 1921 the ship was bought by former cabinet minister Kristoffer Lehmkuhl (hence the name, which means 'Cabinet Minister Lehmkuhl'). With the exception of the Second World War, when she was captured by German troops and called Westwärts, the ship has belonged to Bergens Skoleskib until it was donated to the Foundation in 1978.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statsraad_Lehmkuhl
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...s-shows-2-3-billion-vale-mistake-freight.html



China Shunning Biggest Ore Ships Shows $2.3 Billion Vale Mistake
By Bloomberg News
November 22, 2011


The Vale Brasil, the biggest commodity ship ever built, was designed to carry iron ore to China from South America. After six months in operation, it hasn’t done that once.

China’s refusal to accept the Brasil has derailed Vale SA’s push to control shipments to its biggest customer by building up a fleet of 35 ships, each almost as large as the Bank of America Tower in New York. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, ships about 45 percent of sales to China, the largest consumer of the steelmaking ingredient.

Vale’s plan, which includes buying 19 vessels for $2.3 billion, has spurred opposition from Chinese shipowners who say it will worsen overcapacity, slumping cargo rates and industrywide losses. Steelmakers are also likely against it as the ships would give Vale more control over pricing and delivery, said Chang Tao, a China Merchants Securities Co. analyst.

“Nobody in China wants Vale’s fleet to come,” he said. “Not shipping lines, not shipowners, not steelmakers.”

The miner may struggle to find alternative uses for all ships as no other markets are as big, he said. Vale also likely can’t cancel vessel orders or quit leasing contracts without paying “very heavy penalties,” said Ralph Leszczynski, the Beijing-based head of research at shipbroker Banchero Costa & Co.

“I’m pretty sure that Vale themselves have by now realized that they made a big mistake,” he said. “I find it really incredible that they committed so much money in this project without first getting written assurances from the Chinese side that they would be able to use the ships.”

Daewoo, Rongsheng
Vale’s press-relations office in Rio de Janeiro declined to comment. The miner is buying vessels from China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. It will also lease eight from STX Pan Ocean Co. under a $5.8 billion 25-year deal, according to 2009 statements from the Seoul-based shipping line.

Vale’s then-chief executive officer Roger Agnelli oversaw agreements for the 400,000 deadweight-ton vessels to reduce a reliance on outside shipping lines and risks from changes in freight costs. The Baltic Dry Index, a benchmark for global commodity-shipping rates, fluctuated more than 40 percent on an annual basis every year except one from 2001 to 2010.

130 Million Tons
The Vale vessels are about twice as big as the capesize ships that are now generally used to ferry commodities from Brazil to China. The miner plans to send about 130 million tons of iron ore on the route both this year and next.

The company is also investing $1.37 billion to set up a distribution centre in Malaysia that will be able to handle the very large ore carriers. Transferring cargo there to smaller vessels for shipment to China would likely increase freight costs, eroding at least some of the gains from the larger vessels’ size and fuel efficiency, said China Merchants’ Chang.

Vale has held talks with Chinese shipping lines about selling or leasing the about 360-meter-long vessels, Teddy Tang, the chief financial officer of its China operations, said in September. No deals had been reached.

The China Shipowners Association, whose members hold about 80 percent of the nation’s shipping capacity, has advised lines not to take the vessels, said Executive Vice Chairman Zhang Shouguo.

“The most important thing for Vale is to stop building,” said Zhang, a former deputy director in the transport ministry’s shipping division. “The additional capacity will exacerbate the already bad freight market.”

The China Iron & Steel Association has no position on suppliers’ shipping operations as long as they aren’t used to manipulate iron-ore prices, said General Secretary Zhang Changfu.

Rongsheng Heavy
The Brasil was this week in the Arabian Sea headed for Oman, according to data on the Bloomberg terminal. The ship was handed over to Vale by Daewoo Shipbuilding in May. The Seoul-based shipyard has also delivered two other similar-sized vessels, as it works through orders for seven worth a total of $748 million. More deliveries will follow next year and work is progressing as planned, the shipbuilder said by e-mail.

Vale also ordered 12 of the very large ore carriers from Rongsheng Heavy for $1.6 billion in 2008. The Shanghai-based shipbuilder expects to deliver the first this month, said Chief Executive Officer Chen Qiang. The handover is about two months late because of certification issues, he said. The company has begun building the other 11 on-order ships, with Vale paying in installments as work progresses, he said.

“I am not worried about any possibility of Vale canceling orders,” Chen said. “They need the ships to carry iron ore, and the vessels are greener and more advanced.”

Management Shakeup
Vale CEO Murilo Ferreira, who took on the job in May, this week named a new logistics head, Humberto Freitas, as part of a management reshuffle. The previous operations head, Eduardo Bartolomeo, will run the company’s fertilizers and coal unit.

Ferreira’s new regime may also herald a change in the approach to shipping, which could be announced at an investor day next week, said Rafael Weber, a Porto Alegre, Brazil-based Geracao Futuro Corretora analyst.

“They can’t fight with their main customer,” he said. “The company may decide against going ahead with it to avoid discord with the Chinese government.”

China’s Transport Minister Li Shenglin said earlier this month that the government will strengthen control of vessel deliveries and “guide the orderly arrival” of new ships amid tumbling rates and losses for shipping lines. China Cosco Holdings Co., the nation’s largest sea-cargo carrier, lost 4.8 billion yuan ($755 million) in the first nine months.

China Ports
The Vale Brasil was diverted on its maiden voyage in June from its original destination of Dalian, China to Italy after a request from a European customer and because “draft services” at the Chinese port weren’t ready, Ferreira said in July. The ships will “undoubtedly” go to China when needed, he said.

The ports of Dalian, Qingdao and Majishan near Shanghai are able to handle Brasil-sized vessels, Vale said in June. Qingdao, northeast China, hasn’t opened its facility because of “restrictions,” Li Yuzhai, a spokesman for Qingdao Port (Group) Co., said yesterday.

Calls to Majishan port yesterday went unanswered. Dalian Port PDA Co.’s press office referred enquiries to the company’s iron-ore handling unit. Calls there weren’t answered. A call to the ministry of transport wasn’t answered.

STX Pan Ocean has begun operating one of its eight VLOCs for Vale. The vessel is awaiting loading in Brazil, the shipping line said by e-mail yesterday. No changes to its agreement with Vale are expected, it said. The shipping line’s vessels are being built by affiliate STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co.

BW Group, Oman
BW Group will also operate four vessels for Vale, the miner said in 2007. One, the Berge Everest, was due to be delivered in September by Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., according to a statement on the website of BW affiliate Berge Bulk.

Rongsheng Heavy is also building four VLOCs for Oman Shipping Co., which will be leased to Vale and used to haul commodities to the sultanate. The vessels are all due to be delivered in the second half of 2012, the shipping line said by e-mail yesterday.

Still, Vale needs to use ships on China routes to fully utilize the fleet, and the country’s opposition to the vessels is unlikely to weaken, said Huang Wenlong, a Hong Kong-based analyst with BOC International Holdings Ltd.

“Once Vale moves its own iron ore, its control on the supply of iron ore extends into shipping, further diminishing Chinese steelmakers’ bargaining power,” he said. “That is a situation China doesn’t want to see.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...s-shows-2-3-billion-vale-mistake-freight.html
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