Sea News (page 1)

Vitol Group will ship as much as 2 million barrels of fuel oil to Singapore from Rotterdam, the first reported supertanker charter in three weeks between the two oil-storage hubs, shipping data showed, Bloomberg reports. The Geneva-based trader hired the Front Cecilie to load 270,000 metric tons on Aug. 26, according to reports from companies including Simpson, Spence & Young Ltd., the world’s second-biggest shipbroker. The Hong Kong-flagged very large crude carrier has been sailing near West Africa in the past month, based on transmissions captured by AISLive on Bloomberg.

The Port of Rotterdam’s largest coal-storage company said inventories rose as European utilities restocked the fuel in anticipation of stronger winter demand, Bloomberg reports.Stockpiles at Europees Massagoed-Overslagbedrijf BV, or Emo, increased to 3.1 million metric tons this week from 3 million tons last week, according to Sjaak Roukema, commercial manager of the company. Inventories climbed along with demand, Roukema said by phone today.

The World Bank has extended a €50m loan to the Croatian port of Ploce to improve infrastructure.The loan has been extended for the ongoing Trade and Transport Integration Project, which aims to develop trade along the Corridor Vc by improving the infrastructure capacity, efficiency and quality of services at the southern end of the corridor at the Port of Ploce, Ship-Technology reports.
The loan will help finance the total additional costs of €51.3m related to construction of a bulk terminal and bridge the financial gap of €10.

Ports in north China's Hebei province handled 346 million tonnes of cargo in the first half of this year, a 16.7 percent growth from a year earlier, and a volume accounting for 54.9% of annual provincial throughput, Xinhua reports, Shipping Online reports.
The provincial throughput ranked in fifth place among all coastal provinces in China, representing 11 per cent of the national total.
Port of Qinhuangdao posted a throughput of 143 million tonnes, up 6.9 per cent. Tangshan port lifted 147 million tonnes of cargo, up 25.4 per cent. Huanghua port's throughput increased 23.4 per cent to 55.91 million tonnes.

Wouter van Dijk was appointed as head of Logistics in the Containers, Breakbulk & Logistics Department at the Port of Rotterdam effective August 1, 2011, the Port Authority said Tuesday.

After studying economy at the Erasmus University, Van Dijk took up employment at the NEI, now Ecorys. He then worked for nine years in the commercial department of ECT, where he was responsible for the Marketing and Customer Services and rail strategy among other things. In mid-2009 Van Dijk became director of rail operator Optimodal Nederland.