A huge blaze has destroyed a party boat in the port of Rotterdam. Nobody was injured. The fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning and was difficult to control. It took firefighters six hours to quench the flames, but the ship, the MV RiverZZ, got damaged beyond repair. The vessel was built in 1959 as a ferry and was originally called Berlin, plying between the German cities of Cologne and Rüdesheim. Among the people having travelled on the ship are Queen Elizabeth II, President J.F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley and Louis Armstrong. More with Video www.rnw.nl/englis...

An overcrowded ferry carrying around 800 passengers off the east African country of Tanzania has capsized, with hundreds of people missing. The ferry, MV Spice Islanders, was heavily overloaded. Police in Zanzibar said they had recovered 192 bodies, and found 606 survivors. Survivor Abdullah Saied said and some potential passengers had refused to board when it was leaving the mainland port of Dar es Salaam. It sank in an area with heavy currents, in deep sea between mainland Tanzania and Pemba Island at about 1am on Saturday. Boats frequently traverse the route, but travel times vary depending on the vessel. www.telegraph.co....

Major Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. said on Thursday it completed a tender offer as part of a $179 million acquisition of Portek International, a Singapore-based international port operator, the Journal of Commerce reports. Mitsui’s acquisition of Portek International is part of the company's effort to expand its logistics business in emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Portek International operates and manages a portfolio of seven medium-sized container and multi-purpose terminals in Indonesia, Algeria, Malta and Gabon, along with a dry port in Rwanda. Read more at en.portnews.ru/ne...

Cargo starts moving through Tripoli, Benghazi Ports Security conditions at Libya’s ports of Tripoli and Benghazi have stabilized, aside from celebratory gunfire at the capital, allowing international trade to restart, according to GAC, a global logistics operator, the Journal of Commerce reported. Tripoli received cargo ships this week from Italy and Malta in the wake of the European Union lifting sanctions against the war-torn country. Maersk Line resumed service to Libya starting Sept. 8. Police and former rebels control Tripoli after the latter wrestled control of the city from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime last week. “The only danger [at the Port of Tripoli] is celebratory fire that is often fired out to sea,” stated a GAC report. The Port of Benghazi, used by former rebels to ship supplies during the civil war, began receiving ships last week carrying Russian grain, according to Reuters. Trade and shipping sources told Reuters last week that Libya plans to import 500,000 metric tons of wheat and 400,000 metric tons of flour over the next two to three months.

CMA CGM added a direct call at the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal, a DP World facility in India’s Port of Cochin, to its North Europe-Mediterranean-Oceania service, the Journal of Commerce reported. The new port call is in addition to the existing call at the Port of Chennai, a major container hub on India’s southeastern coast, which is struggling to cope with increased congestion CMA CGM operates the service with with Hapag-Lloyd. The Cochin call enables the NEMO service to pick up cargo relayed over leading hub ports in the region, particularly Sri Lanka’s Port of Colombo. The weekly NEMO currently deploys 13 vessels with capacities ranging from 2,500 to 3,000 20-foot equivalent units. The revised port rotation is: Colombo, Cochin, Malta, Damietta, Genoa, Tilbury, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Genoa, Damietta, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Singapore, Port Kelang, Chennai, and back to Colombo.

Bolloré Group is to invest US$200 million at Guinea’s main port of Conakry to expand facilities by 2013, ifw-net reports. The French group will deepen an access channel to the harbour to 13.5 metres from the current 9.5 metres, and build two quays to allow Conakry to handle the larger containerships that currently have to go to Dakar, in Senegal, for offloading. Bolloré was awarded the contract for the Conakry port in March, two days after Guinea President Alpha Conde cancelled a 2008 deal between the West African nation and NCT Necotrans Group unit Getma International, citing a “breach of dealer obligations”.

The 9,178 TEU MSC Chicago has become the latest vessel to take advantage of the newly deepened and widened port entrance channel in the Port of Durban, one of Africa’s busiest and largest multi-service ports, Port Technology reported. The ship is now also the biggest to date to sail into South African waters. Last week the vessel arrived on its maiden voyage to the country en route from Europe and stopped at the Ports of Cape Town, Ngqura and finally Durban. The Port of Durban’s harbour widening and deepening project was completed in March 2010 and saw the channel depth increased from 12,8m to a variance of 16m in the basin to 19m in the outer channel. The width was increased from 125m to an average of 225m.

From August 2011 Transport Group Fesco became the sole owner of Commercial Port of Vladivostok.

Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) vessel Musandam has rescued Indian boom ship Tiba-2 Halima and its 11-member crew from Somali pirates off Ras Al Hadd. According to the Ministry of Defence, Tiba-2 Halima, carrying 4,000 goats, was hijacked by 12 Somali pirates on September 1. The pirates were planning to use the vessel as a mother ship to launch attacks on ships. After receiving a tip-off, RNO vessel Musandam sailed to the area. Efforts by the navy men to negotiate with the pirates to free the boom ship and the hostages failed as the pirates used the hostages as human shields. Thereafter, the naval vessel fired at the boom ship to incapacitate the hijacked vessel. The pirates immediately surrendered. The RNO vessel later gave first aid to the injured and shifted them to Sur referral hospital. The pirates were handed over to the Coast Guard of Royal Oman Police. Source: www.omantribune.c...

Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) and Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) upgrade facility at Mina Freeport and Municipality Harbour located in the heart of Abu Dhabi City. Both facilities will be secured 24 hours a day by security and operational personnel, with the aid of a new 3.7 km fence and security gate system which has been installed. The Freeport has a total of 49 berths covering a total quay length of 2,885m ranging in depth from 6m to 8m. Announcing the recent upgrades, Abu Dhabi Terminals commented "Both locations are integral parts of our everyday lives, providing essential services to small and large businesses alike in the shipping industry. On any given day we have a wide diversity of vessels utilizing these ports from, tugs, offshore supply vessel, barges, dredges and local Dhows.