Articles

Tuesday 22/02/22

The Felicity Ace, a specialist cargo ship carrying more than 4000 cars, caught alight near the Azores on Wednesday 16th Feb. Cars aboard the vessel, include Audis, Bentleys, and Porsches, various ones containing lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are “keeping the fire alive,” according to a captain of the nearby Faial Island port, João Mendes Cabeças. Cabeças also noted that special equipment needed to extinguish the battery fire is en route.

Tug masters employed by Svitzer Australia (represented by the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU)) are undertaking extensive Protected Industrial Action (PIA) across many ports in Australia.

These strike actions are impacting on vessel arrivals and departures in Port Botany, Brisbane and Fremantle. 

The current notified PIAs in Australian container ports are:

Port Botany:

• 48-hour stoppage from 00:01 on 17 February to 00:01 on 19 February
• 48-hour stoppage from 00:01 on 22 to 00:01 on 24 February

Brisbane:

• 48-hour stoppage from 0600 on 17 February to 0600 on 19 ...

Australia is set to re-open its doors to international tourists next week, paving the way for a welcome boost to airfreight capacity.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the 21 February reopening after nearly two years of Covid border restrictions, allowing “fully vaccinated” passengers with a visa into the country for the first-time with no prior exemption required.

The news will come as welcome relief to an airline industry left financially dented by Covid travel restrictions – according to the Board of ...

As a result of detections of live BMSB in some containerised commodities originating in China, the department will be adding China as an emerging risk country for the remainder of the 2021-22 BMSB season.

The increased random inspection activities will apply to the following goods:

• Goods manufactured in, or shipped from China and,
• FCL / FCX containers – for goods shipped in sealed 6 hard sided containers and,
• Goods tariffed as Chapters 39, 68, 69, 70, 73, 84, 85 and 89.

LCL / FAK ...

A 32-year-old Brisbane man is scheduled to face Brisbane Magistrates Court after the Queensland Joint Organised Task Force (QJOCTF) charged him with importing 83kg of methamphetamine allegedly hidden inside hollowed-out timber pallets.

The QJOCTF – which comprises the AFP, Australian Border Force (ABF), Queensland Police (QPS) and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – arrested the man in December following a five-month investigation named Operation Wirraway.

The operation began in August 2021 after ABF officers at the Port of Brisbane examined a container ...

Supply chains already stretched due to Covid-related staff shortages have been severed after flooding in South Australia washed away parts of the railway linking the eastern states with Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Parts of the Australian Rail Track Corporation network between Adelaide and Tarcoola in SA have temporarily ceased operation, as repair works are under way along a section of track over 300km in length.

The operations to Perth and Darwin have been suspended since 21 January with the ARTC ...

The wharfies’ union has given up veto rights over hiring decisions as part of a landmark deal with Patrick Terminals in which the stevedore will drop its bid to axe union pay and conditions and guarantee pay rises are not overtaken by inflation.

Patrick chief executive Michael Jovicic and Maritime Union of Australia national secretary Paddy Crumlin reached the 11th-hour deal just days before the stevedore’s application to terminate the union’s old agreement and send workers back to the award minimum was due ...

Maersk’s mega-ship, the Mumbai Maersk, which grounded near the German island of Wangerooge in the North Sea on 2 February, was successfully re-floated in the early hours of Friday 4 Feb on the high spring tide.

The 20,500 teu ship was seen at the mouth of the the river on vesselsvalue.com’s AIS heading for Bremerhaven at a speed of 8kn, as of 11am on 4 February.

Meanwhile, Maersk posted this update on February 4th:

“We are pleased to confirm that the ...

A 46-year-old Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel TRINITY SPIRIT with a capacity to process up to 22,000 barrels of oil per day, inject up to 40,000 barrels of water per day and store 2 million barrels of oil, has exploded and sunk at the Ukpokiti Terminal, Nigeria on Wednesday 2nd February.

Ten people working aboard the vessel were reported missing and presumed killed.