Arctic Sea: Pusan Bound?

Ariana: helicopter dropped $2.6 m onto its deck

"We've paid the ransom and we are waiting for the pirates to release the Ariana," Spyros Minas, head of Alloceans shipping, declining to disclose the amount of ransom paid.

Maltese-flagged Ariana and its 24 Ukrainian crew were seized on May 2 north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil.

Earlier on Thursday, a pirate source that a helicopter had dropped $2.6 million (1.59 million pounds) onto its deck.

"We have taken a $2.6 million ransom to release the Greek ship," one of the gang, Farah, said by telephone. "We are now dividing the money and will disembark in the afternoon."

Arctic Sea: Phantom Vessel Off Majorca

The Maltese-flagged vessel suspected by some of carrying AA Russian missiles destined for Iran, intercepted by the Russian Navy, and released, in time, and freshly painted, at Malta free of any trace of such cargo, is now off Palma , the major city and port on the island of Majorca.
While Russian reports stated The Arctic Sea cargo vessel is unloading its cargo of timber in the Algerian port of Bejaia under close scrutiny by the country's national security officials, such arrival and departure information has not been found in the usual web sites.
Also from Russian reports: Russian courts decide not to hand the case to investigators in Malta or Sweden.

Ariana: Deep pockets may come to rescue

The ultimate interest in the maltese-flag Ariana IMO 8014150 has been in liquidation since 2008 due the subprime mortgage crisis, but the Logothetis family of Greece has picked up this fleet for a song -$325 million, thus making a release more likely.
The Logothetis family of Greece has re-entered the shipping sector with a big splash as Lomar Corporation announced a $325m purchase of the UK based Allocean fleet.
According to the announcement, the $325m deal involves the purchase of the shares of Allocean Ltd and the Allocean Charters group of companies, both subsidiaries of Allco Finance Group, which entered administration and receivership in November last year.
Lomar, a subsidiary of the Libra Group, announced the acquisition of 26 modern ships today belonging to Allocean, ending days of speculation over the sale of the ships.

The fleet comprises of bulk carriers, container ships, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tankers, platform supply vessels (PSV), anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS), a chemical tanker and a products tanker.

The acquisition brings Lomar’s total fleet size to 32 owned and managed vessels including three newbuildings currently on order. The purchase of Allocean represents a major re-entry into ship ownership for Lomar following its sale of 67 ships from 2004-2006.

According to the announcement, the $325m deal involves the purchase of the shares of Allocean Ltd and the Allocean Charters group of companies, both subsidiaries of Allco Finance Group, which entered administration and receivership in November last year.
Alloceans Shipping Company Ltd (Greece)
ALLOCEAN SHIPPING (UK) LIMITED
Allco Finance Ltd.
Allco Finance Group Limited
Shipping - Allco own or manage 38 shipping vessels with another 23 on order.

Allco is now in liquidation, after previously being in administrative receivership, following difficulties in refinancing debt and a share price fall of 99% since the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV CHARELLE released

The small containership Charelle, hijacked on June 12 by Somali pirates near Oman in June, has been released. The ship was carrying mostly empty containers when it was seized. MV CHARELLE was been sea-jacked by eight pirates around 60 nautical miles south of Sur on the Omani coast. This was the first recorded attack in the waters of the Sultanate of Oman. The German company has as registered owner her subsidiary TARMSTEDT INTERNATIONAL LTD in Samoa (Apia) listed, while TRADEX MARINE LTD of New Zealand are the managers. The 1985 built vessel is insured with the Ship Owners' Mutual P&I Association of Luxembourg. The crew of the vessel is not covered by an ITF agreement.


The crew of 10 aboard the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged ship, including seven Sri Lankans and three Filipinos, were also freed. "It started sailing towards safe waters around an hour ago. The gunmen have left it to the crew. A ransom was paid out.

ANL Australia: cites business ethics forwarder mum

Mario Carniglia, head of the international freight-forwarding firm Otim, said his firm did not know the contents of the cargo shipped on the ANL Australia. [10 Containers with 2,030 detonators for 122mm rockets, as well as electric circuitry and a large quantity of solid-fuel propellant] He said North Korea provided documents identifying the content as “Oil Pumping Equipment.” “We couldn’t see the contents as the containers were sealed when shipped from Nampo,” he said in the interview conducted in Italian. He refused to identify the exporter in North Korea, citing business ethics. OTIM - Organizzazione Trasporti Internazionali e Marittimi SpA. was first Italian company to open an office in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea).


ANL Container Line Pty. Ltd and ANL Singapore Pty. Ltd are subsidiaries of the world's third-largest container shipping company CMA CGM S.A. The company, which has JP Morgan as a financial adviser on the restructuring, says auditors have raised doubts [3 December] about the company's ability to continue as a going concern if it fails to reach agreement with its lenders over a restructuring of its $5.2 billion debt. The Marseilles, France, company, which was founded by Lebanon-born Jacques Saade in 1978 and employs 17,000 people worldwide, is in debt restructuring negotiations due to the effect of "severe market conditions" on the business.

Bahamian-flagged ANL AUSTRALIA: U.S. spies

On July 22, Inspectors from the United Arab Emirates, when alerted to possible contraband in a ship bound for Iran, arrested the boxship ANL AUSTRALIA IMO 8913681, Nominal Teus 2668.
An official said.U.S. spies "played a key role" in tracking the shipment. According to shipping records, the 10 large cargo containers left the North Korean port of Nampo on May 30 on a North Korean vessel, and two days later they were transferred to a Chinese ship in the port city of Dalian, in northern China.

From there, the containers were ferried to Shanghai, where on June 13 they were moved to a third ship, the ANL Australia, a Bahamian-flagged containership.
The nature of the cargo, seized in July and described now for the first time were 2,030 detonators for 122mm rockets, as well as electric circuitry and a large quantity of solid-fuel propellant, according to an account given by UAE and U.N. Security Council officials. The materials were bought from North Korea and shipped halfway around the globe in sealed containers, labeled as oil-drilling supplies, that passed through a succession of freighters and ports. According to shipping records, the 10 large cargo containers left the North Korean port of Nampo on May 30 on a North Korean vessel, and two days later they were transferred to a Chinese ship in the port city of Dalian, in northern China.

From there, the containers were ferried to Shanghai, where on June 13 they were moved to a third ship, the ANL Australia, a Bahamian-flagged boxship owned by ANL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMA CGM, a French consortium.