Sanctions on Iran dampen South Korean petchem exports
London - US sanctions on Iran have forced South Korea to look for alternative sources of condensates, thereby impacting tonne-mile demand, writes the research firm Drewry in its last report
Middle East
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DP World’s growth slows down
Dubai - Dubai’s port operator DP World handled 71.4 million TEUs in 2018, with gross container volumes growing by 1.9% year-on-year. The United Arab Emirates handles 15 million TEUs, down 2.7% compared to 2017
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Disappointing factory activity threatens global growth
London - Factory activity was at its weakest in years across much of the world during January, adding to worries trade tariffs, political uncertainty and cooling demand poses an increasing threat to global growth
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“International military action against piracy”
Copenaghen - The international shipping association BIMCO calls for a stronger military and law enforcement against piracy
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Oman Shipping mulls further ship investments
Muscat - Following last week’s order for two very large crude carriers (VLCC) placed with South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME), Oman Shipping Company is set on growing its fleet further
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Iran discovers oil in Abadan region
Geneva - Iran has discovered oil in the southwestern Abadan region for the first time, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.
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A century on, Basra’s British-era shipyard going strong
Basra - Begun in 1918 by British troops, Basra’s shipyard is surviving into old age with little maintenance, relying on its vintage machinery and the skill of its workers to keep going.
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Germany bans Iranian airline on suspicion of spying, terror
Berlin - Berlin has revoked Iranian airline Mahan’s right to operate in Germany, a senior government source told Reuters on Monday.
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Erdogan: Turkey is ready to take over Syria’s Manbij
Ankara - Turkey is ready to take over security in Syria’s Manbij, President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Sunday.
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Pirate attacks multiply in the Gulf of Guinea
London - Piracy increased on the world’s seas in 2018, with a marked rise in attacks against ships and crews around West Africa, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) latest annual piracy report reveals
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Qatar’s ports record highest annual growth
Doha - Qatar’s ports have delivered an impressive performance last year with all round growth in all the segments. The ports in the country achieved highest annual performance in containers, vessels and livestock segments in 2018
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ENI acquires majority in two Abu Dhabi’s concessions
Abu Dhabi - Eni has signed in Abu Dhabi two concession agreements for the acquisition of a 70% stake in two offshore oil exploration blocks
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ZIM and 2M Alliance expand their cooperation
Tel Aviv - Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping Services has signed an agreement with the 2M Alliance, the partnership between Maersk and MSC
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Saudi Arabia’s “biggest investment ever” in Pakistan
Karachi - Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have finalized the memorandum of understanding for the construction of multi-billion dollar Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Gwadar deep seaport city
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Aramco secures long term market for its oil
Abu Dhabi - Saudi Aramco’s plan to set up and run petrol stations across the kingdom will help the world’s biggest crude exporter secure a long-term market for its oil barrels
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GAC to set up operations in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi -Leading integrated shipping, logistics and marine services provider GAC is opening a warehouse and open yard in the Middle East’s largest industrial zone and a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD)
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Iran falls to sixth biggest oil supplier to India in November, from fourth in October
New Delhi - India’s monthly oil imports from Iran plunged to their lowest in a year in November with Tehran dropping two places to become only the sixth biggest supplier
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Adnoc combines LPG and propylene shipments for first time
Abu Dhabi - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has co-loaded liquefied petroleum gas, which is used for cooking and in vehicles, and propylene, a building block for petrochemicals, onto the same vessel as the company looks to lower freight costs
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OPEC works on deal to cut output
Vienna - OPEC and its allies are working towards a deal to reduce oil output by at least 1.3 million barrels per day, four sources said, adding that Russia’s resistance to a significant production cut was so far the main stumbling block
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Virgin Hyperloop One, Bin Sulayem replaces Branson
Los Angeles - Virgin Hyperloop One, the company that has developed a full scale hyperloop system, announced today that Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World, has been elected as its new Chairman
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DP World files lawsuit against China Merchants
Dubai - DP World, the port operator based in Dubai, has filed a lawsuit against the state-owned China Merchants Port Holding, about the controversial Terminal project in Djibouti
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China’s foreign trade jumps 16%
Beijing - China’s foreign trade jumped year-on-year to €3.4 trillion in the first 10 months of 2018. Imports surged 20.3 percent while exports grew by 12.6 percent
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UAE’s Gulftainer to operate U.S. port of Wilmington
Abu Dhabi - Gulftainer, the UAE-based port operator, on Wednesday said it won a 50-year concession to operate and develop the Wilmington port in Delaware, USA, with a $600 million investment
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“Abu Dhabi to develop great LNG export by 2024”
Abu Dhabi - The capital of the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi could develop significant liquefied natural gas’ (LNG) export capacity by 2024, writes the English speaking UAE’s journal The National, quoting an analysis by Wood Mackenzie
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As U.S. starts oil sanctions against Iran, major buyers get waivers
Seoul - U.S. has said it will give eight importers some exemptions. South Korea says it can still import Iranian condensate.
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Iranian marchers chant “Death to America” on eve of U.S. oil sanctions
Dubai - Students attending the government-organised rally in the capital Tehran, broadcast live by state television, burned the Stars and Stripes, an effigy of Uncle Sam and pictures of President Donald Trump outside the former embassy compound.
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China’s Expo attracts 1,000 firms from Belt and Road countries
hanghai - More than 1,000 firms from 58 countries along the Belt and Road will attend the inaugural China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in Shanghai
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U.S. says SWIFT could be sanctioned if it deals with sanctioned entities
Washington - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that Belgian-based financial messaging service SWIFT could be hit with U.S. sanctions if it provides services to Iranian financial institutions that Washington blacklists.
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Iranian crude exports fall further as Trump’s sanctions loom
London - Exports average 1.33 mbpd in first two weeks of Oct. Iran says its oil output fell slightly in September.
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“Middle East ports must explore innovative approaches”
Dubai - According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), entitled “Will Middle Eastern Ports Continue to Succeed?”, ports across the region have enjoyed success by building high-quality infrastructure to serve the large cargo volumes flowing through the region
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Abu Dhabi’s NMDC wins Khalifa Port expansion contract
Abu Dhabi - The expansion at Khalifa Port, one of the world’s fastest growing container, bulk cargo and roll-on roll-off vehicle transport ports, will add 1,000 m of quay wall to the port and deepen its main channel and basin to 18 m from the current 16 m.
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India to keep buying Iranian oil despite U.S. sanctions
New Delhi - India will buy 9 million barrels of Iranian oil in November, two industry sources said, indicating that the world’s third-biggest oil importer is to continue purchasing crude from the Islamic republic despite U.S. sanctions coming into force on Nov. 4.
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Iran, Iraq resume shipping line
Baghdad - Iraqi Ministry of Transport in a statement announced that after a three-year pause, the passenger shipping line has been resumed between Iran and Iraq through Shatt al-Arab-Arvand, IRNA reported
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India allows state refiners to use Iran tankers, insurance for oil imports
New Delhi - India is allowing state refiners to import Iranian oil with Tehran arranging tankers and insurance after firms including the country’s top shipper Shipping Corp of India (SCI) halted voyages to Iran due to U.S. sanctions, sources said
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Cruises, the Med is back on top once again / ANALYSIS
The Chinese miracle seems to have been a mirage, companies are growing their fleets with larger ships: after the crisis, Europe is strategic again.
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Turkey calls for a new chapter in relations with Greece
Athens - Turkey’s foreign minister called for a new chapter in testy diplomatic ties with Greece on Saturday, even as he berated the neighbouring country for providing a safe haven for Turkish “criminals.”
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China close to a deal with Iraq for more crude
Beijing/Dubai - Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO is close to a deal with China’s state-run Zhenhua Oil to boost the OPEC member’s crude oil sales to the world’s top oil importer, four sources with knowledge of the matter said. Iraq is the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
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Iran says Qatar wants more ships to travel to ports
Tehran - Hadi Haqshenas, the managing director of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran,was quoted by the domestic media in Tehran as saying that Qatar had demanded to make the required changes so that more ships would travel between its Hamad Port and Iran’s Bushehr Port.
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British Airways, Air France halting flights to Iran from next month
Reuters
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Iraq to ask U.S. for exemptions on some Iran sanctions
Baghdad - Iraq imports food, car, construction parts from Iran. U.S. promised consequences if countries ignore sanctions
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Erdogan invokes patriotism, Islam as lira remains under pressure
Istanbul - Erdogan says crisis aims to bring Turkey to “its knees”. Gunshots fired at US embassy, nobody hurt.
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Iran tells EU to speed up efforts to save nuclear deal
Ankara - Iran says more needed to save nuclear deal. France’s Total exits giant South Pars gas deal.
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Israel seeks re-tender of mining rights into Dead Sea / GALLERY
Ein Bokek - The Dead Sea is shrinking at the rate of about a meter a year, leaving behind deserted beaches and sinkholes in a slow-motion environmental disaster. The main culprit is the drying up of the Jordan river, its main tributary, as communities upstream draw on it for farming and drinking
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Erdogan tells Turks to buy free-falling lira as Trump doubles metals tariffs
Ankara - Sell-off deepens on concern about Erdogan, U.S. ties. Trump doubles tariffs on Turkish metals. Lira plunges more than 18 percent to new record low.
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UAE’s Stanford Marine creditors in talks about sale of business
DUBAI/ABU DHABI - Creditors of Stanford Marine Group (SMG), which has links to troubled private equity firm Abraaj, are in talks with three potential buyers, sources familiar with the matter say. Banks are overseeing control of Dubai-based SMG after it failed to meet the terms of its debt obligations
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“Trump wrong to expect Saudis to cover loss of Iran oil supply”
London - Iran said on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump was mistaken to expect Saudi Arabia and other oil producers to compensate for supply losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran, after OPEC production rose only modestly in July
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Fincantieri: new defence logistics division / GALLERY
La Spezia - “With an eye to the technologies of the future, we are creating an engineering division dedicated to defence technologies and to better serve the needs of logistical support.” This from the managing director of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono
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DPW to build and operate logistics hub in Mali
Dubai - Global trade enabler Dp World has signed a 20-year concession with an automatic 20-year extension with the Republic of Mali to build and operate a 1000-hectare modern logistics hub outside of Bamako
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Fincantieri Marinette Marine gets Saudi contract via US consortium
Genoa - The U.S. government has awarded the Lockheed Martin-led consortium, which includes Fincantieri, an Undefinitized Contract Action award, as an initial commission ahead of a Foreign Military Sales contract, for the construction of 4 Multi-Mission Surface Combatants for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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Iran eyes oil for goods barter plan to fight sanctions
Tehran - An Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic is considering a plan to purchase goods only from countries that buy its oil.