South Korean carrier said revenue fell 9.9 percent to $6.4 billion last year. South Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine reported a 2011 operating loss of $327 million, reversing a profit of $541 million in 2010, as revenue fell and costs rose, JOC reports. Hyundai said revenue fell 9.9 percent to $6.4 billion, the company said in a filing to the Korea Stock Exchange. The diversified shipping company cited higher bunker costs and lower rates aggravated by vessel overcapacity. The losses were the latest in a series for container lines, which Drewry Shipping Consultants has forecast lost a total of $5.2 billion in 2011. South Korea’s largest container line, Hanjin Shipping, last week reported a $437 million loss for 2011, including $487 million for container shipping. www.joc.com/conta...

German travel and logistics group TUI is close to a deal to sell part of its stake in container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd HPLG.UL to its majority shareholder, the Albert Ballin consortium, two people close to the talks said, Reuters reports. TUI has been in talks to agree a deal that would keep the world's fifth-biggest container shipper in German hands, as well as being affordable for the city of Hamburg and other consortium members. The sources told Reuters on Friday the consortium, named for the former Hapag boss credited with having invented the cruise, may buy 20 percent of the world's fifth-biggest container shipper, less than expected. TUI, which holds 38.4 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, has said it wanted to divest a 33 percent stake. "We are in advanced talks," said a spokesman for the city of Hamburg's finance authority. A spokesman for TUI AG said talks were going well.

The order was renewed as a result of the Sietas shipyard not being able to continue with an order originally placed in 2010 because of the terms of the company's insolvency proceedings. Delivery of the complex vessel is planned for early 2013. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price secret. Sietas says it will be the first German shipyard to build an offshore wind power transport and installation vessel. Receiver Berthold Brinkmann: “This order is a bridge into a new future for the Sietas shipyard. I am pleased that we were able to successfully conclude negotiations with our client Van Oord within a short time. The offshore wind power transport and installation vessel is a first in Germany, and points the way forward for Sietas and German shipbuilding.” More at www.heavyliftpfi....