One of South Korea’s largest shipbuilding firms, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has acquired a 30% stake in Angola’s Porto Amboim Estaleiros Navais Limitada (PAENAL) Shipyard.
DSME president Sang-tae Nam, Sonangol Holdings president Baptista Muhongo Sumbe and SBM Offshore president Francis Blanchelande put pen to paper on the contract in Luanda, Angola, on Thursday last week.
?? PAENAL Shipyard is located near Porto Amboim, a city 300km south of Luanda. The Angolan shipyard was established as a joint venture between Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol and Dutch offshore equipment specialist SBM Offshore in August 2008.
Following the signing of the joint venture, DSME and SBM each has a 30% stake in the shipyard with the remaining 40% owned by Sonangol.
In July this year DSME entered into a memorandum of understanding to acquire a 49% stake in South African shipping company Impinda, which is involved with the transportation of oil, gas and dry bulk products. In 2007 DSME entered into a similar arrangement with the Nigerian company NIDAS.
Obama Signs US Coast Guard ‘Bill Of Rights’
President Obama Oct has signed into law the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. The signing of this bill gives the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Bob Papp, authorities to make changes and operate the Coast Guard to better serve the public.
“The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 provides us with authority to enhance the safety of U.S. ports and waterways, acquisition assistance to acquire state-of-the-art ships and aircraft to patrol America’s waters, and tools to promote individual readiness, including improvements to our family housing and child development centers,” said Adm. Papp in an ALCOAST on the subject adding, “I am particularly pleased with the modernization authority—it will allow us to finish our organizational realignment and enhance our ability to meet the high demand for our services.”
Finishing organizational realignment of the service means using the best processes to ensure Coast Guard men and women have the training, tools, and leadership necessary to safely and successfully fulfill our missions of maritime safety, security and stewardship.
Additional authorities granted within the Act validate the Coast Guard’s decision to take control of the process to replace aging cutters and aircraft, providing our men and women in uniform with state of the art platforms to conduct Coast Guard missions.
Finally, and significantly, the Act bolsters the Coast Guard’s authorities when it comes to combating smugglers of people and narcotics attempting to violate U.S. territorial waters.
“I could not be more pleased with this Authorization Act and want to thank the Administration and Congress for their support,” said Papp. “The Act will help us remain always ready well into the future.”
Diplomatic Row: Malawi Military Attaché Arrested For ‘Cruising’ On The River Shire
Mozambique has confirmed that its police did arrest the Malawian military attaché for operating a boat on the River Shire on the Mozambique side of the border, but says he was released as soon as it became known that he was a diplomat.
The incident is the latest in what appears to be a cooling of relations between the two countries over the matter of navigation on the Shire and Zambezi Rivers.
Malawi has requested of Mozambique that the Shire and Zambezi Rivers be reopened to navigation to facilitate the movement of international trade for the landlocked country. Historically the two rivers were used for this purpose until the coming of the railway in the first half of the 20th century. The railway however was severely damaged during the Mozambique civil war and the line from the Zambezi River crossing into Malawi has never been repaired.
Even before Australian coal mining house Riversdale announced it was investigating the use of the Zambezi River for the purpose of moving large quantities of coal to the sea, Malawi had requested of Mozambique that the Shire, a tributary of the Zambezi, be used to facilitate the movement of trade and people from Malawi. In its response Mozambique said that the matter should first be subjected to an environmental impact assessment.
And now in the latest development Malawi’s military attaché, Colonel James Kalipinde was arrested at the weekend for using a boat on the Shire River and straying into Mozambique territory close to the Malawian river port town of Nsanje.
A spokesman for the Mozambique presidency says that Colonel Kalipinde ignored a police warning and was clearly “following instructions”. Following his arrest the attaché was taken to the coastal port of Quelimane where the police subsequently released him.
According to a report in the Malawian newspaper ‘Nyasa Times’, Kalipinde was acting under instructions of his government which wanted a boat to ceremonially appear on the river at Nsanje recently, in time for a formal recognition of the river and port’s potential. Present at the function were Malawian President Binga wa Mutharika and guests the Zambian President Rupiah Banda and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
The Nyasa Times reported that President Mugabe had given the river project his support and said that Zimbabwe would use it for the movement of cargo – despite Zimbabwe and Malawi not sharing a common border.
In 2007 a memorandum of understanding was signed by Mozambique and Malawi that sought to raise funds for the river project and a committee was established between the transport ministers of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. This met regularly until August last year. The only company to bid for the viability study came from Zimbabwe, which failed to complete the study in the agreed time and had its contract cancelled. The African Development Bank is said to be willing to finance the project.
Matters became soured when Malawi ignored requests to seek authorisation before undertaking a test navigation on the two rivers. Then in September this year, in an almost farcical manner, Mozambique police, including a detachment of riot police and members of the state security service SISE, prevented a barge belonging to a Malawian company, ETC Marine, from loading a test cargo at Marromeu on the Zambezi, because they said the 300 bags were packed with cocaine.
The 60 tons of ‘cocaine’ was returned by truck to Beira where it was analysed and found to be fertiliser, leaving Mozambican authorities with red faces, especially when it was pointed out that had this been cocaine it would have had a street value of more than one billion US dollars. Nevertheless Mozambique authorities insisted that samples of the fertiliser be sent to laboratories in Beira and Maputo for checking.
Thousands Of Imported Used Cars At Mombasa May Be Destroyed
Thousands of used cars imported into Kenya through the port of Mombasa may have to be destroyed or returned to source, according to a report last week
Hundreds of the vehicles were seized at the port and adjacent depots recently and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) are consulting over the next step, which may include having the vehicles destroyed or returned to source.
The vehicles owners are claiming that the vehicles, which are all over eight years of age, were cleared by the Industrialisation Minister, Henry Kosgey, but authorities have suggested that loopholes in the law were taken advantage of.
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