The U.S. has calculated how much it will cost to build a bridge in Baltimore
The construction of a new bridge in the city of Baltimore in the U.S. state of Maryland to replace the collapsed in late March will cost from 1.7 billion to 1.9 billion dollars, writes the Washington Post with reference to estimates of the state authorities.
Earlier, the Associated Press agency, citing estimates by a number of experts, reported that the construction of a new bridge in place of the collapsed in the U.S. Baltimore could take up to seven years, while the cost of the project could reach up to a billion dollars.
IMO to establish new office in Fiji to support Pacific Island countries
At the International Maritime Organization (IMO) headquarters in London on 18 March, Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of IMO, and Ro Filipe Tuisawau, minister for Public Works, Meteorological Services, and Transport of the Republic of Fiji, officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the opening of a new IMO office in Fiji.
The Regional Presence Office is established to address the maritime needs and priorities of Pacific Island countries. It will ensure alignment of IMO actions with national and regional development policies, offering guidance on crucial maritime matters such as training, safety, security, legislation, and marine environment protection, according to the statement.
Additionally, the Office will play an important role in facilitating active field-level involvement in implementing the IMO's technical cooperation framework.
On behalf of the Fijian Government, Ro Filipe Tuisawau commented, “The IMO Pacific Regional Presence Office provides an opportunity to address critical issues, including the challenge of providing an efficient inter-island shipping service, to ensure the safety of our Pacific people in inter-island shipping.
He further added, “As host of this regional office, Pacific Member States will be assisted in addressing global standards for ships, and compliance issues related to energy efficiency, safety equipment and maintenance of safety systems according to IMO standards.”
Furthermore, governments in the Pacific Islands have emphasized the necessity for increased opportunities within the maritime sector, particularly for the youth. This includes advocating for seafarer certification and broader employment prospects.
“I welcome this opportunity to enhance the global presence of the IMO as well as our ability to work in step with the Pacific region and Member States. In addition to Fiji as host country, I would like to thank the Governments of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands for their generous financial and in-kind support which has helped make this collaboration a reality,” stated IMO Secretary-General Dominguez.
The upcoming office in Suva, the capital and largest city of Fiji, will serve as the seventh Regional Presence Office for the IMO and will operate under the leadership of a Regional Coordinator. It will complement the existing offices located in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Francophone) for West and Central Africa; Accra, Ghana (Anglophone) for West and Central Africa; Nairobi, Kenya for Eastern and Southern Africa; Manila, the Philippines for East Asia; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago for the Caribbean; and Alexandria, Egypt for the Middle East and North Africa.
In the Pacific Islands region, there are a total of 14 IMO Member States, which include Australia and New Zealand. The other twelve are small island developing States (SIDS), with three classified as least developed countries (LDCs).
Hong Kong seizes duty-unpaid electronic waste and products from container
Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department busted an attempt to smuggle electronic waste and electronic products to Malaysia.
An ocean-going boxship was detained at Kwai Chung Container Terminal on 4 April and a large number of suspected smuggled electronic parts, electronic products and electronic scrap, with an estimated market value of about US$13 million, were seized.
The container was declared to contain aluminium alloy and the contraband items included integrated circuits, computer servers, routers and a batch of electronic scrap.
Information about the ship was not disclosed, but vessel-tracking data suggests the ship was Wan Hai Lines’ 3,055 TEU Wan Hai 329, which departed Hong Kong on 4 April and arrived in Malaysia’s Port Klang on 10 April.
Following investigations, Customs officers arrested a 53-year-old woman on 5 April.
China's foreign trade turnover grew by 5 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
The total volume of China's foreign trade in goods in yuan in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 5 percent year-on-year, with new records set for both the scale of the figure and its growth rate, official data released on Friday showed.
According to the General Administration of Customs /GCP/ of the People's Republic of China, the figure for the period from January to March in the country amounted to 10.17 trillion yuan /about $ 1.43 trillion/. US DOLLARS/.
According to the data, China's exports grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 5.74 trillion yuan, while imports increased by 5 percent to 4.43 trillion yuan.
The country's foreign trade turnover in the period exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time in history, while the growth rate reached a new high in the past 6 quarters, said Wang Lingjun, deputy head of China's State Customs Committee, at a press conference.
The growth rate of China's trade with countries participating in the joint construction of the Belt and Road and other BRICS countries in the first quarter of this year was faster than the growth rate of the index as a whole.
The data shows that China's trade with the Belt and Road partner countries increased 5.5 percent to 4.82 trillion yuan, accounting for 47.4 percent of China's total foreign trade. Meanwhile, the European Union, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan together accounted for 33.4 percent of the country's total foreign trade turnover.
China's trade with both Latin America and five Central Asian countries recorded double-digit growth. Over the same period, trade with traditional markets such as the US and Japan recovered positively, with import and export declines of 5.9 pp and 1.2 pp, respectively, in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2023.
China's foreign trade is expected to continue to show an improving trend in the second quarter of 2024, while it will mainly remain in the growth range in the first half of the year, Wang Lingjun summarized.
Eight missing after SITC boxship collides with Chinese fishing trawler
A ship operated by SITC Container Lines collided with a Chinese fishing trawler off Hainan Island, China just after midnight local time on 3 April, leaving eight persons missing after the trawler capsized.
The Panama-flagged ship, 1,032 TEU SITC Danang had just departed China’s Qinzhou port and was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, when the accident happened around 12.15 am local time.
The collision with the fishing trawler, Yuenan Aoyu 36062, occurred 22 nautical miles southwest of Yinggehai town in Ledong, off Hainan’s southwestern coast.
The Chinese Navy and Coast Guard mobilized 21 ships and five aircrafts to undertake water and air searches at the scene. Three professional divers have also joined the rescue mission. At the time of writing, none of the missing persons has been found.
As the cause of the accident is being investigated, SITC Danang has been anchored in Sanya, Hainan.
SITC’s representative told the media that the ship is owned by Japanese tonnage provider Shoei Kisen Kaisha, and technical management is handled by a third-party company, whose staff have gone to Hainan to make the necessary arrangements.