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July 2006 53 Oglebay Norton Sells Six Oglebay Norton Marine Services Company, LLC, completed the sale of six of its nine remaining self-unloading freighters for $120 million to American Steamship Company, a subsidiary of GATX Corp. Acquired were: M/V Oglebay Norton, M/V Columbia Star, S/S Armco, S/S Middletown, S/S Courtney Burton, and M/V Fred R. White. The company is also progressing with its negotiations for the sale of the M/V David Z. Norton and M/V Wolverine and the transfer of the its leasehold interest in the M/V Earl W. Oglebay to an unidentified purchaser. Sale of McMurdo Division McMurdo announced the conditional sale of its Survivor Location Lights business, for a cash consideration of $5.25m, to Danish owned company Daniamant Ltd. Stealthgas Expands Fleet Stealthgas entered into an agreement to acquire its 28th LPG carrier, M/V Batangas, for $9.4m with expected delivery in early July 2006. Batangas is a Fully-Pressurized LPG carrier built in Japan in 1995 with a capacity of 3,300 cbm. Upon delivery, it will be immedi- ately deployed under a bareboat charter to a major gas trader at a rate of $106,000 per calendar month until July 2008. MC Shipping Gets Tanker MC Shipping agreed to acquire a liq- uefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker from the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group of Denmark. The vessel, Hans Maersk is a 1993- built semi-refrigerated LPG carrier of 20,700 cbm capacity. The acquisition is being funded out of current cash hold- ings and a bank loan. The vessel is expected to be delivered before July 31, 2006. Samsung Gets Orders Samsung Heavy Industries Co., has received orders for 14 container ships worth $1.5 billion from three companies including Panama's Naviera Daniela SA and Greece's Danaos Shipping Co. Samsung Heavy will deliver the ships by November 2009. Omega Takes Delivery Omega Navigation Enterprises, Inc. has taken delivery of its second Panamax (LR1) double hull product tanker, Everhard Schulte, to be renamed the Omega King. Omega King is 74,999 dwt, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2004. The acquisition was funded by in part from the net proceeds of the com- pany's initial public offering and debt under a senior secured credit facility provided by HSH-Nordbank AG. Sonatrach, Kawasaki in Tanker Deal A new joint venture of Algerian ener- gy group Sonatrach and Japan's Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation signed a $120 million deal to buy a tanker from a Chinese-Japanese firm, Sonatrach said. The 50/50 venture, called NOVL, signed the purchase agreement with NACKS Shipyard, a joint venture between Chinese company COSCO and Kawasaki. Rutter Books VDR Order Rutter Technologies has won contracts to supply its Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) to the Norwegian Kristian Gerhard Jebsen (KGJS) fleet and to the Greek shipping group comprised of Kristen Navigation Inc., Anangel Maritime Services Inc., Alpha Tankers & Freighters International Ltd. Under two separate contracts KGJS will order 24 VDRs and the Greek fleet owners 56, for a total of 80 units. New Alfa Laval Facility in China Alfa Laval is expanding its facilities to begin assembly of S-separators in Jiang Yin, China, 148 km northwest of Shanghai. The S-separator is a cen- trifuge for cleaning fuel and lubricating oils. With 12 years of manufacturing experience in China, Alfa Laval already produces nearly 85,000 small and large heat exchangers every year in Jiang Yin. "Over the years, we have been increas- ing production at our Jiang Yin facility. The company has been producing heat exchangers for non-marine applications for both domestic use and export since 1994," said Peter Carlberg, General Manager of Alfa Laval Marine & Diesel. Since March 2005 the factory has also produced 1,000 tank cleaning machines for the marine market. Aker Yards Enters Chem Tanker Market Aker Yards signed an agreement with Kleven Maritime to acquire Kleven Florø AS, and Kleven Design AS. Both entities are located in Florø, Norway. The previously announced joint venture with Damen Shipyard Group in Ukraine creates an opportunity for Aker Yards to develop a new line of chemical carriers in combination with Kleven tanker know-how. Aker Yards has agreed to acquire Kleven Florø and Kleven Design at a price of $9.5m including debt, based on a working capital of zero. In addition there will be further pay- ments based on performance on existing order backlog and new orders in the coming three years. The order intake part of the payments is capped at $5.7m. Kleven Florø has approximately 300 employees, and there are 30 engineers at Kleven Design. The turnover of Kleven Florø and Kleven Design was $55.3m in 2005. The orderbook consists of one juice tanker and two chemical tankers at a total value of approximately $205.4m. MFI Wins Contract Marine Fenders International, Inc., a manufacturer of marine fendering sys- tems, was selected to supply our Ocean Guard Netless foam filled marine fender system for the one of the harshest marine environments in the world, the DeLong Pier at the Thule Air Base in Greenland. The project work consists of jacketing deteriorated north row cais- sons, installation of a galvanic cathodic protection system, coating of the south row caisson to barge interface, the installation of a Ocean Guard Netless foam filled marine fender system and the repair of a damaged barge unit. Bailey Makes Changes Bailey Refrigeration Co. announced the appointment of Donald Booth to the Branch Manager position in Virginia Beach, VA. Bailey welcomes both Don and his wife Karen to leadership posi- tions at the Virginia Beach branch. Don and Karen have been a team in marine refrigeration and air conditioning for more than 30 Bailey also was awarded a $16m contract to supply and install new ship's stores systems for 40 U.S. Coast Guard Cutters. Vacon Extends Factory AC drive manufacturer Vacon has extended its facilities in Vaasa, Finland. The extension parts cover a floor area of 7,100 sq. m. in total, which is divided into Producta I and a middle section connecting Producta I with the old pro- duction facilities. 3,400 sq. m., i.e. about 50% of the facilities is reserved for Vacon and the rest is used by DHL, responsible for Vacon's logistics servic- es. The facilities Vacon leases include production lines, office space, personnel and storage facilities and a new air-raid shelter. The Producta I extension part was built by assignment of Oy Vaasa Parks Ab and the middle section by Varma. ZF Establishes Joint Venture in China At the headquarters of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, the management of ZF and of Nanjing Highspeed & Accurate Gear (Group) Co. Ltd. (NGC) signed a contract to establish the ZF Nanjing Marine Propulsion Co. Ltd. (ZF-NMP). The company will be based in Nanjing, P.R. China, owned 60 percent by ZF (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Shanghai (a subsidiary of ZF Friedrichshafen AG) and 40 per- cent by NGC. The new company will assemble and market ZF Marine's range of heavy duty trans- missions for application in workboats and ocean- going commercial vessels powered by engines up to 18,500 hp. The ZF-NMP factory building is currently under construction and assembly of transmissions will commence in the near future, after all governmen- tal permissions have been received. (L to R): Roland Heil, CEO ZF Marine Group, Wolfgang Vogel, Board Director, ZF Friedrichshafen AG. and Yueming Hu, President NGC. People & Company News Surcharge on Antifoulings as Copper Price Spikes Following the announcement in February that unprecedented raw material costs had created a dramatic new cost base for the marine coatings market, the contin- ued record rise in the price of metals has now forced International Paint to apply a surcharge on all copper containing biocidal antifoulings. Brian Smith, International Paint's Marine and Protective Coatings Commercial Director, said "Copper is a key raw material used extensively in biocidal antifoul- ings. The amount of copper contained in these product types means that it accounts for a significant proportion of product cost. While the price of copper has steadily increased four fold in the last 36 months, recent price rises have been dramatic; from $4,000 per ton in the last quarter of 2005 to a peak of over $8,500 per ton last month. To date, International Paint has largely absorbed these increases. Unfortunately, due to the severity of the increases since the start of the year, we are left with no alternative but to pass some of our additional costs onto our cus- tomers in the form of a surcharge. It is hoped that this surcharge will be a tempo- rary measure and that the current cost of copper is a market spike driven by unprecedented strong demand and constrained supply." MR JULY2006 #7 (49-56).qxd 7/5/2006 12:08 PM Page 53
