asia

CMA CGM chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saadé has signed two strategic partnerships with Lei Fanpei, chairman of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), including an order of 10 containership newbuilds, as well as an agreement to jointly develop more efficient and environmentally-friendly vessels.The deals were signed Monday in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the occasion of the latter’s State visit to France.The 10 new Chinese-built 15,000-TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) vessels will each measure 366 meters long.

Royal Dutch Shell on Monday said it had shipped the first condensate cargo from its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project off northwestern Australia over the weekend."We can confirm that the first shipment of condensate has sailed from the Shell-operated Prelude FLNG facility. This is another step towards steady state operations," a Shell spokeswoman said in emailed comments.Shell had hoped to start generating cash flow from Prelude in 2018, but has yet to start shipping LNG from the project, which was to have been the world's first floating LNG facility but was beaten by Malaysia's Petronas.The company declined to say when it expects the first Prelude LNG cargo.

Rescue services had airlifted 479 people to safety from a luxury cruise liner with engine trouble off the coast of Norway by Sunday morning and began towing the vessel to a nearby port.The Viking Sky, with 1,373 passengers and crew on board, sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted towards land in the Norwegian Sea.The airlift of passengers, many of them elderly, from the Viking Cruises ship by helicopter was halted on Sunday morning as two tugboats started steering the vessel towards the nearest port.Founder and chairman of Viking Cruises, Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen, said he hoped the vessel would arrive at the port of Molde on Norway's west coast by Sunday afternoon.

The Commandant of the United States Coast Guard delivered his first State of the Coast Guard address Thursday at Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach in San Pedro.Speaking from the largest port in the nation, Adm. Karl Schultz highlighted Coast Guard security and marine safety operations, which facilitate $4.6 trillion in annual economic activity.Schultz also recognized the service and sacrifice of Coast Guard men and women deployed around the world ensuring global peace and prosperity, including servicemembers supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is not taking appropriate steps to review and assess potential maritime terrorism risks facing U.S. sea ports, the Justice Department's internal watchdog has found.The audit, released on Thursday by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, found that while top FBI officials believe the country faces a low maritime terrorism threat, that view is actually based on "incomplete and potentially inaccurate information."Moreover, the audit found that the FBI had not conducted its own formal assessment of the matter.In a letter to Horowitz dated Aug.