Korea Line future in doubt

From Reuters

SEOUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A court could decide whether to restructure or liquidate Korea Line Corp. within a month, a company official said on Wednesday, a day after the South Korean company filed for bankruptcy protection. The country's second-biggest dry bulk shipping line filed for receivership with the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday after struggling to stay afloat amid a sharp drop in freight rates.

"We are seeking all ways to normalise operations through additional borrowings and debenture issues but we have no choice but to file for receivership on persistent pressure from bad loans in the past and high-cost charter contracts," Korea Line said in a statement on Tuesday.

click here for link to complete article

Chinese (or Lunar) New Year is Feb. 3, 2011

The Chinese (Lunar) New Year falls on Feb. 3rd this year.

Because it is based on a lunar calendar, it's always a different date.

Anyone who works in the international shipping business from Asia, knows the impact of this holiday.

Basically all the factories shut down for at least a week, generally more. Everyone goes home (which is often a small village in China) to celebrate the holiday with their family.

And because the business of the country is shut down, nothing ships out, or in.

There could also be some major shifts in the Chinese economy.

From Bloomberg

China may raise the reserve requirement ratio for banks this year, the People’s Daily said, citing Bank of Beijing Co. Chairman Yan Bingzhu. The country may also use “other tools” to reduce liquidity, the report said, citing Yan.

The nation may raise interest rates around the Chinese New Year, the China Securities Journal said in a Jan. 21 front-page editorial.

As I have said before, China's economy will be driving the rest of the world in the next decade, so it's important to notice what's going on in China.

Government Documents regarding Mafia arrests

I haven't yet started reading this, but on the USDOJ (U.S. Department of Justice) web-site is available details of charges against those arrested today.

Here's the link

USDOJ:OPA: Documents and Resources from the January 20, 2011 "La Cosa Nostra" press conference

More on the Mob arrests on the waterfront

This from The Wall Street Journal

The indictment filed against more than 100 alleged mobsters arrested in a three-state sweep Thursday morning describes a scam used on the New York and New Jersey waterfront.

Three accused Cosa Nostra members would turn up before Christmas, when workers from the International Longshoreman’s Association receive a check from the “container royalty fund”–a sort of year-end bonus for union members. According to the indictment, workers’ payments to the alleged mobster were “induced by wrongful use of actual and threatened force, violence and fear.”

In other words: extortion. The indictment cites incidents going back to 1982, making this scheme a holiday fixture over nearly three decades.

“It’s tradition on the waterfront,” said Ronald Goldstock, a member of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, which is tasked with countering the influence of organized crime on the docks. “If you want to work there — if you want the good assignments or overtime — you kick back the Christmas check to the people who allow you to work there.”

click here for link to article

Arrests made in extortion of dockworkers in New Jersey

Today, more than 100 persons were arrested in a round-up of Mob types in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

From the NY Times

An indictment handed up in Newark charges 14 people with racketeering and extortion of Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen’s Association and other dockworkers locals, including several current and former union officials who are said to be affiliated with the Genovese family. The indictment alleges a conspiracy over the course of many years to extort union members around Christmas, when they receive an annual bonus based on the number of cargo containers that move through the port.

And, from Bloomberg News

“It means that actual longshoremen in this case, with real mortgages and real families, were forced to kick back to corrupt officials of ILA Local 1235 between $500 and $5,000 each from their annual Christmas bonus if they hoped to rise above entry level jobs on the docks. Eventually those kickbacks helped line the pockets of the Genovese crime family.

“Organized crime means what it has always meant on the waterfront: mobsters getting rich on the backs of dock workers. This case helps put an end to it.”

It will be interesting to see the list of those arrested.

Stay tuned.

Update- Shipcraft vessel Leopard

Nothing new to report today.

Shipcraft is not saying if the pirates have made contact with them.

This report from IC Publications gives a very good account of the incident.

A Danish shipping company said Friday it was searching for six crew members who have been missing since their cargo ship was attacked by pirates two days ago in the Gulf of Aden off Oman.

"We do not know where the crew is and we are concentrating on locating them and bringing them home to safety," Shipcraft chief executive Claus Bech said in a statement.

He confirmed a report late Thursday that the pirates had taken the six crew members -- two Danes including the captain, and four Filipinos -- and abandoned the cargo ship, The Leopard.

He did not reveal if the kidnappers had demanded a ransom.

A search onboard the boat Thursday by Turkish soldiers, who are part of an international NATO-led force in the Gulf of Aden, turned up "neither pirates nor crew members," Bech said.

The shipping company last had contact with The Leopard crew on Wednesday at 1300 GMT, when the captain sent a distress signal indicating that the cargo ship had been "attacked by pirates who were boarding from two speed boats," the statement said.

After receiving the alert, NATO sent the Turkish warship Gaziantep to the scene, a spokesman for the alliance's anti-piracy mission, Jacqui Sheriff, told the Politiken daily's website.

Shipcraft, which has not provided information on what the cargo ship had been carrying, is known as a specialist in shipping explosives and ammunition, the paper reported, adding that The Leopard was transporting weapons.

All the company's ships have traveled in the area with armed guards since pirates attempted to capture another of its cargo ships, The Puma, in mid-2009.

However, Politiken.dk reported that The Leopard had let off its armed guards at the Oman port of Salalah before sailing into a zone considered "safe" where it was attacked.

Location unknown of Leopard crew

Yesterday the speculation was the crew of the Leopard was taken, as the vessel was found with (apparently) all cargo intact.

Today however, there has been speculation the crew was killed.

This is what the BBC is reporting.

The two Danes and four Filipinos are now thought to be held on a captured Taiwanese fishing boat, the Shiuh Fu No.1, an EU naval official said.

Pirates in two skiffs attacked the Danish-flagged M/V Leopard on Wednesday but later took the crew off the ship.

Nato sailors searched the abandoned vessel. Its cargo is said to be intact.

The Nato sailors from a Turkish warship, the Gaziantep, boarded the M/V Leopard on Thursday, when it was found to be drifting.

It is not clear why the ship was immobilised, said a spokesman for the EU's Navfor anti-piracy mission.

"We believe the ship was carrying arms, ammunition and explosives, and we believe the cargo is still intact," said the spokesman, Wing Commander Paddy O'Kennedy.

The international naval forces refrained from attempting a rescue as a radio message picked up while the pirates were on board warned them to stay away, he said.

The M/V Leopard is reported to be about 810km (500 miles) from Oman's port of Salalah.

The ship's owner, Shipcraft, says "our main focus is now on the safe return of our crew; however, at present we do not hold any reliable information as to their whereabouts".