Page 3 - Al-Rashed Newsletter May 19

SHIPPING WORLD
SHIPPING NEWS

Major fire on KMTC container ship in Thailand
At least 25 port workers have been injured and locals evacuated after an explosion
in a container on a ship at dock at the Laem Chabang Port in Chon Buri, east of
Bangkok. Mis-declared chemical cargoes of calcium hypochlorite and chlorinated
paraffin wax are believed to have caused a blast and fire onboard a KMTC
containership at port in Thailand that resulted in 130 people being taken to hospital.
The KMTC Hong Kong was alongside at terminal A2 in Thung Sukhla on Saturday
morning, Laem Chabang port when a fire erupted at around 6-45am on 25th May,

MIDDLE EAST SEES HER LARGEST CONTAINER VESSEL
Khalifa Port accommodated two 20,000-plus TEU China COSCO SHIPPING mega-
vessels while King Abdul Aziz Terminal docked Saudi's largest vessel call. The
ships Solar and Pisces are the third and fourth main line vessels to pass through
CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal since it started trial operations in April. They are the
largest container ships ever to dock in Port Khalifa and follow the arrival of CSCL
Mercury, a Chinese container ship with a capacity of 14,000 TEU, on 20 April 2019,
and CSCL Globe, which arrived on 27 April 2019 with a capacity of 19,000 TEU.

The vessel CSC Solar later sailed to King Abdul Aziz Port, becoming the largest
container ship ever to make port in Saudi Arabia.
Solar is 400 meters long, 59 meters wide and has a draft of 16 meters, but what
makes it a record-breaker is its immense cargo capacity of 21,300 TEU (twenty-foot
equivalent unit).

Sri Lanka, Japan, India to Jointly Develop Colombo South Port
Sri Lanka, Japan, and India have reached an agreement to cooperate on the
development of Colombo South Port’s East Container Terminal (ECT) in Sri Lanka.
The governments of the respective countries signed a Memorandum of Cooperation
(MoC) on the matter on May 28, reflecting the longstanding good will and
cooperation among the parties.
Japan has provided cooperation for the development of the Jaya Container Terminal
since the 1980’s, while around 70% of Colombo Port’s transshipment business is
India-related.
Sri Lanka, Japan and India will work together for further development of the
Colombo Port and contribute to further regional prosperity and stability of global
trading networks.
Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) retains 100% ownership of East Container
Terminal. The Terminal Operations Company (TOC) conducting all East Container
Terminal operations is jointly owned by Sri Lanka, with a 51% stake, and the joint
venture partners with a 49% stake.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News, Logistics Middle East