Korean Shipping messenger A collection of articles and daily news for the shipping industry with focus on the Korean shipping and shipbuilding markets.

03 Feb 2014

Shipbuilding News

DSME bags European LNG carriers is expected to be 17.6 mt including 15 % sea margin, ISO conditions. EEDI is calculated to fulfil the 2020 Phase II Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering released a requirement, i.e. more than 20 % below the baseline. The regulatory filing on February3 that the Korean shipbuilding total contract value of Deltamarin’s work with Yangfan giant had entered into a contract to build two LNG carriers Group, to be carried outover an estimated period of six for KRW 439.2bn ($410m) with a European shipowner. months, is around 1.0 M€.For the time being, Yangfan Group is building a total of 21 B.Delta37 vessels, two for This is equivalent to 3.3% of its 2012 consolidated revenue. Tunisian owner Transbulk, eleven for Italian d’Amico, and The contract is valid from January 31, 2014, to December the latest eight for Polsteam. 31, 2016. Deltamarin’s B.Delta37 has attracted significant attention in Hyundai scores UASC's boxships the industry due to its best- in-class (handysize segment) performance in terms of a range of parameters such as low February 2, 2014 - Dubai, UAE - United Arab Shipping fuel oil consumption, low emissions, EEDI, deadweight Company (UASC) is proud to announce that options for six intake and lightweight particulars. additional 14,000 TEU vessels have been exercised bringing the total order to 16 ships. The order has been The vessel also has excellent manoeuvrability and placed with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Korea and performance in heavy seas as experienced during the sea is the largest in UASC's history, worth over $2bn including trials of the first B.Delta37, MV “Wuchang”, which was all options. The order features vessels that will be amongst delivered to the owner, The China Navigation Co. Pte. Ltd the largest, most technologically advanced, and most (CNCo), in October 2013 from Chengxi Shipyard. In the environmentally friendly container vessels ever built. meantime, sister ship MV “Wuchow” was delivered as well to CNCo. As a result of the successful sea trials, China UASC hosted a signing ceremony in Dubai where the Navigation confirmed an additional order of eight B.Delta37 newbuilding contract was signed by His Excellency Salem bulk carriers at Ouhua Shipyard, increasing their totalorder Ali Al Zaabi, Chairman of the UASC Board of Directors, number to 24 vessels. and by Mr. Y. J. Ji of HHI. The ceremony was also attended by UASC President & CEO, Mr. Jorn Hinge, and MV “La Briantais”, the first B.Delta37 for Louis Dreyfus other members of the senior management teams of UASC Armateurs, was delivered to its owner in December 2013 and HHI. from Xingang Shipyard. MV “Strategic Alliance”, the firstB.Delta37 for Strategic Shipping / M.T. Maritime His Excellency Mr. Salem Ali Al Zaabi remarked, "The Management, was also delivered from Xingang Shipyard in exercising of these vessel purchase options is an integral January 2014. part of the newbuilding contract that UASC signed in August 2013. This vessel order positions UASC to deliver Along with the B.Delta37 bulk carriers, B.Delta43 version on its long-term growth objectives and the unique design of the bulk carrier is already being built. Discussions about features of the vessels ensure that UASC will set new further contracts on other sizes, such as B.Delta25, industry benchmarks for fuel economy and environmental B.Delta64, B.Delta82 and B.Delta210, are ongoing with performance." The 14,000 TEU and 18,000 TEU several shipowners and yards. newbuildings included in the overall order are scheduled for delivery from late 2014 and from the first half of 2015, French shipbroking company Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS) respectively. brought their valuable support in arranging the B.Delta shipbuilding contracts with the shipyards. Yangfan pens Polish BCs HHI bags more VLCCs Deltamarin is proud to announce that so far a total of 103 B.Deltas and derivates have been ordered by several New York-listed DHT Holdings announced on January 31 world-known ship owners at nine Chinese shipyards. The that the transportation service provider had signed a letter latest addition is the order of eight open hatch B.Delta37 of intent (LOI) to build three Very Large Crude Carriers bulk carriers by Polish shipowner, Polska Zegluga Morska (VLCC) with Hyundai Heavy Industries. P.P. (Polsteam), at Yangfan Group shipyard.The main dimensions of Polsteam’s B.Delta37 are 179.99 m in The contract price is said to be coming at $97.30m apiece overall length and 30.0 m in beam, with cargo carrying including $2.30m for additions and upgrades to standard capacity of 50,000 m3. With a service speed of14.0 knots, specifications. The three newbuildings are scheduled for at design draft the model tested daily fuel oil consumption delivery in September, October and November, 2016.

Previously, both companies entered into a newbuilding Sumitomo wins LR2 PC duo agreement for two VLCCs in December 2013 and one more unit in January this year for $92.70m apiece. Sumitomo Heavy Industries was awarded an order to build two LR2 Product Carriers (PC).According to a broker Meanwhile, Greek shipowner Metrostar Management also report, the Japanese yard won a contract for two 110,000 placed additional orders for two VLCCs at the Korean yard. dwt LR2 PCs from Greek owner Neda Maritime for delivery TradeWinds reported that the owner has a total of six 300K in 2015 and 2016. tankers on order at theyard including the latest ones, expected to take all the delivery from September 2015 by The pricing has not been unveiled but the newbuildings are March 2017. said to be constructed based on a newly developed vessel size. Meanwhile, Sumitomo has increasingly bagged Newbuilding price has not been disclosed but brokers tanker orders backed by a weak yen,for instance, it inked a estimate that VLCC newbuilding price might have contract to build three 105,000 dwt Aframax PCs with increased to $97.50m apiece by now. overseas owners last year.

Shipping & Business News

Chinese shipping groups chart opposing defaults in China’s shadow banking sector, the profitability courses and debt levels at large state-owned companies are also coming into focus. China’s two largest shipping groups were sailing in opposite directions ahead of Chinese New Year when Late last year, the Chinese government reported that local China Shipping Container Lines issued a profit warning. government debts had soared 70 per cent to Rmb18tn over the two-and-a-half years to June 2013. China’s overall Just a fortnight before, China Cosco Holdings issued a government debt tally, however, was still estimated at “positive profit alert” after two consecutive years of losses. Rmb30.3tn, or 55 per cent of GDP.

Analysts suspect that one is desperately trying to cover its Corporate debt levels are much higher and now exceed losses with asset sales, while the other is pulling as many 100 per cent of GDP. Cosco’s net debt-to-equity ratio has losses as it can into this year to ensure a happier 2014. increased from 23 per cent in 2010 to an estimated 132 per cent, according to Barclays. Over the same period For Cosco, a third annual loss in 2013 would have forced it CSCL’s debt burden grew from 9 per cent to 50 per cent. It to delist from the Shanghai stock exchange, making it the is this trend – rather than state-owned groups’ carefully first large state-owned company to suffer that fate. It was managed profit and loss figures – that most worries a saved, however, by a series of asset sales to its parent growing number of analysts. company that generated more than Rmb8bn ($1.3bn) in profits. On January 27, CSCL warned shareholders that it would report an unspecified loss for 2013, citing a range of Cosco is asking the exchange to delisting risk warning. It factors including “the global financial crisis [and] the slow attributed the profit turnround in part to “revenue generated recovery of the world economy”. Two days later, CSD from the disposal of equity interests and assets”. predicted that it would report losses of up to Rmb2.3bn for 2013. Meanwhile, analysts suspect both CSCL and one of its sister companies, China Shipping Development, of Last year, CSCL sold its headquarters building in Shanghai deliberately “kitchen sinking” their 2013 results to pave the and other assets, generating profits of almost Rmb1.2bn. way for a return to profitability this year, thus avoiding two The profits, however, will not be booked until 2014. consecutive years of losses and the same delisting threat that has hung over Cosco since 2011. Both CSCL and While CSCL is moving profits forward into 2014, CSD is CSD are units of Cosco’s domestic rival, the state-owned transferring provisions back into 2013. An Rmb418m China Shipping Group. provision for the scrapping of 13 bulk carriers will be accounted for in its 2013 results. CSD will also transfer Like Cosco, CSCL and CSD have engaged in a series of losses that it expects to accrue from leasing contracts in related-party transactions with their parent group. But 2014 and 2015 to its 2013 books. these transactions are being booked in a manner that will concentrate losses in 2013 and gains in 2014. As Zim sinks, Ofer family's UK shipping cos prosper “This is likely driven by [China Shipping Group’s] desire to avoid the type of scrutiny experienced by China Cosco The Ofer family's British shipping companies made annual Holdings,” Barclays analysts Jon Windham and Esme Pau profits of $100-150 million over the past decade. wrote last week. “As a result, both CSD and CSCL should be able to report significant profit improvement in 2014.” In the wake of the debt settlement at Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., "Globes" analyzes the prosperous While market concerns over recent months have focused private shipping businesses of Idan and . on the debts accumulated by local governments and The private shipping business of the Ofer family was companies generate regular and stable profits, almost all divided after the death of Sammy Ofer in 2011. Eyal, the of which are distributed as handsome dividends, in part older brother, managed the company's cruise and hotel because of the negligible taxes paid to Her Majesty's operations from London and Monaco. Idan, the younger government. brother, received (TASE: ILCO), a 9.7% stake in Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF), and XT The British office of the Ofer family may have heard about Shipping (formerly Ofer Shipping), through XT Group Ltd. the global credit crunch, but it was no more than a whisper. (formerly Ofer Holdings Ltd.), which is jointly owned with The tsunami that drove Zim aground caused no more than chairman Udi Angel, as well as the company's operations a ripple beneath the hulls at Zodiac and its sister in Singapore. companies. The operating profits of the Ofer family's British shipping companies were $100-150 million a year over the Ironically, there are no official records for the businesses of past decade. The companies' aggregate operating profits Idan Ofer's private company in Israel. peaked at $234 million in 2007 and $231 million in 2008. Altogether, the British shipping companies generated an The headquarters of the Ofer's British operations is at 1 operating profit of just over $1.5 billion in 2003-12, and the Hanover Street in London. Online pictures show a stately operating profit margin was 39%. building at the corner of Regent Street, close to Oxford Circus. In 2010, a floor in the building was leased for £700 In addition to the high operating profit margin, the per square meter. According to trade publications, Zodiac companies paid a tax rate of 0.49% of their profit. The Ofer Maritime Agencies Ltd. has the largest British flagged fleet, family's tax planners enabled the companies to pay a zero with 150-160 ships. The company's website lists 104 ships, companies tax rate in the UK, and the family's individual including container and general cargo carriers, as well as income tax rate paid in the UK is derived from the amount oil, natural gas, and chemicals tankers. Zodiac's ships are of cargo carried by the ships. Under these conditions, it is leased to shipping countries around the world, including no wonder that the companies' controlling shareholders four container ships leased to Israel Corp. subsidiary Zim. have pocketed $1.1 billion in dividends in the past decade.

Zodiac proudly offers a full-service package to anyone The companies' directors have also been handsomely seeking to hire it. "Committed to customer service and compensated. For example, Zodiac's four directors industry standard compliance in practice, not just on received about $1 million each in the past two years. The paper," it says on its homepage. Ofer family's directors are businessmen, some of them simultaneously serve on the boards of 200 companies, but Zodiac may be the Ofer family's oldest and best known the fact that the address of almost all of the companies is shipping company in the UK, but it is not the only one. in the same building and that they conduct the same Meticulous information collated by high-tech entrepreneur business makes it easier for the directors to do their job. Dror Dvir indicates that the family has established more than 300 companies in the UK in recent years. Most of There has been a generational change at the Ofer family's these companies owned no more than one ship and most companies. Eyal Ofer's sons, Daniel and David, have of them have been closed. Currently, about 200 shipping taken up directorships, succeeding longstanding directors, companies operate in the UK, controlled by Liberian- such as Captain Rami Zinger and Amnon Leon. registered companies First Maritime and Oceana. As for Zim, in its previous debt settlement in 2009, the Ofer To analyze the Ofer family's business activity in the UK, family made the gesture of cutting leasing fees for the the companies' annual financial statements were examined, sinking shipper by 35%, compared with a 23.9% reduction as they appear in the public record, in contrast to the for other shipping companies. Zim saved $150 million from practice in Israel. this reduction through 2013. The present debt settlement mentions a further $300 million write-off on Zim's huge High profits, near-zero taxes debt. A media report claims that Idan Ofer recently said that the bulk of Zim's leasing debt, $300 million, was owed The picture that emerges from the analysis of the financial to his company, whereas the debt to his brother's company, statements of Eyal Ofer's private companies is the Zodiac, was just $40 million. opposite of the situation at Zim. The Ofer family's British

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