The handing over of China’s largest container ship, Costco Shipping Universe, from builder to owner was completed early on Tuesday. The vessel, which has a capacity of 21,237 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) and was built by state-owned enterprise China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), was successfully transferred to China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, according to a report by China Central Television. The ship is 400 metres in length, 58.6 metres wide, has a travel speed of 22 nautical miles per hour (25.3 miles per hour) and is able to carry a maximum of 198,000 tonnes of cargo. Another five 21,000 TEU containerships, as well as a further four 22,000 TEU cargo ships, will be delivered to China COSCO Shipping between the final few months of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. The vessel is set to sail along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which links China’s coast to Europe and Africa through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. The ship will both become a flagship vessel for this route and help to implement China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to promote China’s trade with around 70 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. Source: GBTimes

(Reuters) A heated exchange erupted after interior minister Matteo Salvini told more foreign NGOs operating migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean they could not dock in Italian ports. Salvini, who is also leader of the right-wing League and deputy prime minister, posted remarks on Facebook and Twitter in an escalating row with NGOs as one ship, the Aquarius, headed to Spain after being banned from Italian ports. Salvini has vowed to continue to block foreign humanitarian boats from Italian ports as Europe wrestles with how to share the responsibility of handling migrants trying to enter the EU from war zones and poor countries, largely across Africa and the Middle East. Salvini, who has emerged as the most outspoken member of Italy’s two-week-old government, said on Facebook that two other foreign NGO ships, the Lifeline and the Seefuchs, were off the coast of Libya waiting to pick up migrants abandoned by human traffickers. “They should know that Italy no longer wants to be an accomplice in the business of illegal immigration and therefore they will have to aim for other, non-Italian, ports,” Salvini said. Both ships fly Dutch flags. Italy says humanitarian NGOs are being exploited by human traffickers, a charge the NGOs deny. Rome says only migrants rescued by Italian ships can be brought to Italian ports. Following Salvini’s Facebook post, one of the NGOs, Mission Lifeline, tweeted in German “When fascists promote us …” An irritated Salvini tweeted back, saying “insults and threats will not stop us” and that Italians would run their own country. Hours later, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Twitter that “Holland should make them come home”, saying the rescue missions were in violation of codes of conduct because they did not have adequate means or personnel and could endanger lives. Mission Lifeline tweeted that they are “in full respect” of conduct codes. The Dutch mission in Brussels said the ships were not on the Netherlands’ official register. “But it does once again make poignantly clear this is an EU problem asking for an EU solution,” the Dutch mission said. The Lifeline, when contacted by Reuters, said it was sailing under a Dutch flag and that it was not on the official Dutch register because it was a smaller ship. The website marinetraffic.com listed both ships as being Dutch and both now off the coast of Libya. The exchange of barbs took place a day after Italy and France tried to bury the hatchet following a diplomatic squabble over Rome’s refusal to accept the Aquarius. The ship was off the coast of the Spanish island of Majorca on Saturday morning and was expected to arrive in Valencia on Sunday. It originally carried 629 migrants but some were later moved onto two Italian vessels escorting it to Spain. gCaptain

MSC Cruises has ordered a fifth Meraviglia-class cruise ship, cut the steel for its fourth Meraviglia-class ship, laid the keel for MSC Grandiosa and floated out MSC Bellissima – all in one ceremony at the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. Held on 14 June, the jam-packed ceremony saw MSC Cruises and STX France sign a contract for the €900 million (US$1.06bn) newbuild, which will be the first in the Meraviglia class to have dual-fuel engines powered by LNG. The 6,335-guest vessel will also have an advanced wastewater purification system to ensure she complies with the world’s strictest environmental regulations when she debuts in 2023. The newbuild is the 13th vessel to be ordered as part of MSC Cruises’ 10-year investment plan.

There is now another “front in the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Mikhail Zhirokhov says. “It is the Sea of Azov … a real cold war which at any moment risks growing into an open armed conflict” as Russia tries to block all shipping to Ukrainian littoral ports and thus weaken Kyiv’s hold on a region adjoining the breakaway Donbass. In order not to run afoul of international maritime law, the Ukrainian military expert says, Moscow has chosen “a relatively legal path,” of requiring inspections of all ships under any flag to be inspected if they are headed to or from the Ukrainian ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol. According to Mariupol port officials, that meant that there were no ships loading or being offloaded in that port from June 2 to June 4, something that is costing the city’s economy dearly. Moreover, shippers, delayed by the inspection, are losing between 5,000 and 15,000 US dollars per hour as a result. Not surprisingly, they don’t want to suffer such losses. The practice continues. Last night, Zhirokhov says, Russian coastal guards detained a Turkish freighter for three hours, again inflicting higher costs on any ship that might be destined to or from these Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov. Russian forces have also take additional steps to complicate the lives of the two Ukrainian ports, the Kyiv analyst says. They have announced live fire drills and exclusion zones, and they have introduced new and more powerful naval vessels into the Sea of Azov to underscore Russia’s advantages. https://www.hellenicshipp...