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Human error led to the
sinking of the ”Bow Mariner”
The final report by the US Coast Guard on the explosion and sinking of the 1982-built, chemical/product tanker ”Bow Mariner” on February 28 last year in the Atlantic, is grim reading and bears witness of human error and inadequate operational management.
Ice class tankers require
expert operation
By 2008, an estimated ten per cent of the world’s tanker fleet will have some sort of ice class, against only three per cent in 1992, reflecting the increased demand for both dirty and clean tonnage for shipments principally from Russian ports in the Baltic, in the Far East and in the Barents Sea area. With new deliveries in 2006, the total ice-classed fleet – both high and low spec – will have grown to around 27 million DWT.
“Kapitan Spivak” before the sale in spring, 2003, with Novoship’s funnel mark and Liberian flag. Photo: Madli Vitismann
The long-awaited new
Russian ship register 
On December 7, 2005, 142 members of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation – the Upper Chamber of the Russian parliament – voted in favour of an act that will enable the establishment of a Russian International Ship Register. The purpose of this law, which has been in preparation for half a decade, is to bring back under the Russian flag at least a certain percentage of the domestic fleet that has left during the past decade.
Århus turning towards transshipments to the Baltic
The Port of Århus is taking a big step into the future. During the last year, the port has been marketing its AAR-HUB, the next big hub for containers bound for the Baltic area. Along with the marketing process, the port is also working hard on the physical side of the AAR-HUB. This is the difficult part of the plan: enlarging the port, ordering a new post-panamax crane, organising the land facilities.
Making a concentrated effort
in the Baltic area
Scandlines, one of the pioneers in the trade with the Baltic states, is now ready to sail on new terms after a major adjustment of their services. Several services were closed down or diverted to other ports in an effort to centralise the activities on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.
An expanding cruise market
on the Baltic Sea
During the last five years, the Baltic Sea has been one of the fastest growing cruise regions in the world. It is not the sun but the stable conditions that attract visitors from all over the world.
Muuga – cheaper route
for containers
Muuga Container Terminal has managed to increase their container turnover tenfold within the past dozen years, which naturally has required substantial investments. A further expansion of the terminal and upgrading of technology has a potential to increase the current capacity threefold. For customers, the shuttle train that is being planned would improve the quality of services.
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 It was here it all started in 1977: ”Niels Rask”, a 90 TEUs feeder, owned by Unifeeder. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen
Unifeeder – workhorse
of the Baltic
The world has changed much since March 1977, when Unifeeder started their first scheduled sailings with containers. Some 80 containers sailed from Århus on board Unifeeder’s own vessel Niels Rask bound for Hamburg. Today, Unifeeder ships more than 1.2 million TEUs in the Baltic region with future prospects of today’s business increasing twofold in the next ten years.
Finnish ports get their share
of Russia’s economic growth
The volume of container shipments on the Baltic Sea is growing rapidly, mainly thanks to the ever-increasing demand for consumer goods at the Russian market. As the country is one of the largest exporters of oil in the world, the high oil prices boost the Russian economy.
Port of Helsinki: Serving
the whole country
The port of Helsinki is Finland’s largest commercial port, handling more than 500,000 TEUs in 2004. According to preliminarily figures it is estimated that the number of TEUs handled in the port decreased by some 30,000 units in 2005. The main reason for this is a downturn in the transhipment of containers from Helsinki to St Petersburg, which has been replaced by direct calls to St Petersburg.
Port of Kotka: Russian imports meet Finnish exports
In Kotka, Finland’s second largest container port, the incoming and outgoing container traffic is in balance. However, the import goods are bound for Russia, while the exports mainly originate with the Finnish forest industry.
Port of Hamina: Large investments in container traffic
Finland’s easternmost port in the small city of Hamina, 35 km from the Russian border, has a strong foothold in the Russian transit traffic. The imports of containerised general cargo bound for Russia are growing fast, and a project to enlarge the container terminal has been launched.
The Russian container market –
a growing bear with potential
In the 11 months of 2005 the container throughput of the Big Port of St Petersburg reached 1,001,196 TEUs, which is a 44 per cent growth year-on-year. Experts are sure the potential in the Russian container market is greater not only than in the European market, but also in the Chinese market.
“Inger”: a short-sea
vessel of the 1930’s
In the early 1930’s, the typical short-sea cargo vessel on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea was a coal-fired steamer of less than 4,000 DWT. Despite the fact that Swedish owners in an early stage introduced motor vessels, most of the Swedish paper, pulp and sawn timber for the European market was carried by vessels of this type. There were hundreds of them, and they were often both old and slow but still well suited for their purposes.
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