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FreightWaves Staff Saturday, April 13, 2019

Down Under Trucking: spate of horror crashes; law reform; commercial truck sales

Down Under Trucking: a weekly round-up of trucking news from Australia. The country has been struck by a spate of horrible crashes of trucks with multiple trailers have rolled over. On the corporate side, a major trucking-related hostile takeover has broken out. Politicians in Queensland are seeking to modify the Heavy Vehicle National Law and, on the commercial front, truck sales appear to be coming off the boil from last year’s red-hot market.

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 11, 2019

Dry bulk rates continue to sink into the doldrums

When freight rates are terrible, even a slight improvement seems like an uptick. But a terrible market is still a terrible market. Capesize rates have marginally, slightly, improved… but they’re still dreadful. And the rest of the dry bulk shipping markets  are doing their best to impersonate a submarine… they’re all steadily sinking. Ship scrapping that removes some excess tonnage may help rate recovery.

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, April 8, 2019

Cyclone Wallace spares Port Walcott but iron ore exports disrupted

Australia’s maritime officials are keeping a wary eye on the oceans around north west Australia as Cyclone Wallace menaces the Pilbara-region coastline. The harbour master for Port Walcott directed that the port be cleared. However, it was a narrow miss for iron ore export facility, Port Walcott, as the cyclone swerved away. And so the harbour master cancelled the direction to clear the port. Iron ore exports are, nonetheless, likely to disrupted. But it’s not over yet as, to the north east of Wallace, a “tropical low” is threatening to build up into a cyclone too.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, April 5, 2019

ExxonMobil Singapore plant upgrade will produce more low-sulfur fuel

Oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has announced a multi-billion dollar upgrade of its Singapore integrated manufacturing complex to convert more fuel oil and other “bottom-of-the-barrel” crude products into higher value lube base stocks and distillates. The upgrade will also increase the capacity of the facility to produce an extra 48,000 barrels per day (b/d) of low-sulfur fuels to meet the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5 percent sulfur regulation (IMO 2020), which goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, April 4, 2019

EPIK appointment for floating LNG terminal at Newcastle

Brisbane, Australia-based construction company Watpac has been contracted to provide design, engineering and construction services to EPIK, a South Korean liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer for the construction and placement of a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) at the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. Watpac is a subsidiary of Belgian multi-disciplinary engineering company, Besix.

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Huge jump in China Merchants Port Holdings’ revenues and profits

Ports, logistics and finance conglomerate China Merchants Port Holdings announced a massive jump in operating revenues and a rise in profits for the year ended December 31, 2018. Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed China Merchants, which operates box and bulk ports primarily in China but also around the world, reported revenues of HK$10.16 billion (US$1.29 billion). That’s a 16.9 percent increase on the previous calendar year’s figure of HK$8.7 billion.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, March 29, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Cyclone Veronica clobbers Port Walcott – months of disruption

A major iron ore export port with 185 million tons iron ore capacity on Australia’s north west coast has been absolutely clobbered by the recent category four Cyclone Veronica, FreightWaves can exclusively reveal. Port Walcott’s operational ability is down by nearly 90 percent. Rio Tinto has declared force majeure to its customers. Major miner, Rio Tinto, which operates the port, is mostly staying silent. Dry bulk freight rates are likely to be hit, dry bulk sources say.

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FreightWaves Staff Monday, March 25, 2019

Cyclone Veronica – days, possibly weeks, of shipping delays

All ocean shipping, port and cargo operations remain shut at the world’s two largest dry bulk ports, Hedland and Dampier, owing to the passage of Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica. Major liquefied natural gas export facilities along the north western Australian coast have also suspended operations. It’s the fourth consecutive day of suspended operations as Cyclone Veronica is moving very slowly. But there could be weeks of delay if Veronica soaks the landscape.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, March 15, 2019

Port Report: global box-terminal operator DP World reports revenues of US$5.65 billion

International terminal mega-operator, DP World, has announced a solid set of results for 2018. Revenues, earnings before interest taxation depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), and net profit all substantially increased last year compared to 2017. Acquisitions and increased box volumes drove revenues and profits. DP World has announced investment plans for 2019.

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FreightWaves Staff Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Oil major BP announces new low-sulfur fuel

International oil major BP has announced that it will retail a new very low sulfur fuel oil following successful sea trials, however, it has not released a date when sales will begin. The fuel will have a maximum sulfur content of 0.5 percent and will be sold by BP around the world. BP is one of several refiners, such as Shell and Sinopec, that are offering or are researching low-sulfur fuel.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, March 8, 2019

Indonesia and Australia sign new free trade agreement

Trade ministers from Indonesia and Australia signed a new free trade agreement (FTA), the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 4. The new agreement eliminates nearly all tariffs on the two-way trade in goods between the two nations. A wide variety of non-trade barriers will also be removed.

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Global logistics giant Toll unveils two new Bass Strait ships

Global logistics player, Toll, has officially launched two new roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) ships for the carriage of trucks and containers across the Bass Strait between mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania. The first commercial sailing begins in a few days on March 1. FreightWaves reviews the vessels in detail, describes the local wharf upgrades and analyses the Bass Strait trade.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, February 22, 2019

Don’t panic: China has not ‘banned’ Australian coal imports

Widespread jitters in the Australian political and business communities that China may have banned imports of Australian coal now appear to be unfounded. Customs clearance delays at Dalian are happening owing to entirely “normal” reasons and coal cargo can be re-routed around a given port anyway, coal mining and coal transport executives have explained to FreightWaves.

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FreightWaves Staff Thursday, February 21, 2019

Flinders box volumes flat in 2018

Flinders Ports, South Australia, had a mixed bag of containerised cargo throughput results in 2018 compared to 2017, new data analysis shows. Overall containerised throughput – which includes imports, exports, empties and boxes in various configurations – was essentially flat.

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Major legal setback for coal mining in Australia

An Australian court has refused permission for the creation of a coking-coal mine in New South Wales on the grounds that it would adversely contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and would set back the fight against climate change. Legal scholars are hailing the decision as a “hugely significant” ruling.

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FreightWaves Staff Tuesday, February 5, 2019

An Australian first — Port of Melbourne breaks three million TEU mark

Australia’s busiest box port, the Port of Melbourne, broke the three million mark in handling twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. It is likely the first time that any port anywhere in Australia has handled three million TEU in any twelve month period whether that’s on a running month, financial year, or calendar year basis.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, January 18, 2019

Driven to a deadly distraction

The advent of modern communications technology such as, obviously, the mobile phone, has created a new, yet poorly understood and under-researched, form of driver distraction. Australian road authorities are calling for research and are updating their road rules.

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FreightWaves Staff Friday, January 11, 2019

Safely down: new Australian software for descending steep hills

Downhill driving presents particular safety risks to truck driving. Australian law requires truckers to shift to a lower gear and not use the primary brake for the descent. National telematics body Transport Certification Australia has launched a new app that records the details of the descent for the purposes of improving safety and creating an audit trail. (Photo: Shutterstock).

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