SHIPPING

Dockyard showcases ship building and repair prowess

Asian Work boat world exhibition:

Sri Lanka's pioneer shipbuilding and repair facility Colombo Dockyard PLC showcased the capabilities of local shipbuilding and ship repair at one of the specialised International Shipping exhibition "Asian Work Boat World 2011" from March 1 to 4 in Singapore.

The specialised exhibition focusing on work boat and offshore support vessel owners, suppliers and other industry stakeholders attracted a large gathering of industry audience to the Suntech exhibition and convention centre in Singapore.

Colombo Dockyard has been a regular participant at the many of the international exhibitions, promoting Colombo as a repair and building centre in the region.

These specialised trade exhibitions have been part of the successful marketing strategy adopted by Colombo Dockyard to create a strong brand image for the specialised product and service portfolio, consisting of construction of Offshore Support Vessels and also repair facilities for many OSVs operating in the Indian subcontinent waters.

The positive developments in the country with the dawn of peace has opened up previously closed markets such as Europe, US and Far East many Far East and European clients are looking at Colombo seriously as a potential repair and building facility for their requirements.

DHL introduces full online shipment management service

Simple and secure booking tool:

DHL Express customers can now manage their import shipments online via a new booking tool that makes complex shipment schedules manageable at the click of a mouse.

DHL, the world's leading logistics company, has upgraded its Import Express Online booking tool, to provide a fuller menu of user options that importers can use to accurately prepare shipments with maximum security, speed and visibility.

DHL's Import Express Online is a web-based tool that allows customers to simplify the way they manage their imports by reducing paperwork and improving communications between origin and destination. With no software to install and no sign up fee, customers need only a computer, internet access and a DHL Import Express account number to begin managing their import shipments.

DHL Express Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, CIO Jimmy Yeoh said: "DHL Import Express Online offers over 15 user options, making it the most comprehensive importing tool in the online marketplace.

Accessible 24/7, customers can set up e-mail instructions and prepare shipment labels or invoices, securely and simply."

The benefits of Import Express Online include a simple and user-friendly navigation system, accurate transit time and rate quote calculations, piece-level shipment preparation and tracking visibility.

The tool allows importers to attach documents to the shipment instructions and provide shippers at origin with standing authorizations as well as enables users to copy and paste address books to or from other shipping applications.

The improved online booking tool expands the benefits available to customers importing with DHL Import Express Worldwide., DHL's business-to-business and door-to-door inbound delivery service for documents and packages from almost anywhere in the world.

Somaliland warns will not take in foreign-seized pirates

Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland on Tuesday inaugurated a UN-funded prison aimed at holding pirates but also warned it was not yet accepting those detained by foreign powers.

The prison in the region's capital Hargeisa was refurbished by the United Nations at a cost of about $1.5 million (1.06 million euros) with the aim of making conditions there acceptable to countries wishing to repatriate Somali pirates.

But the region has backed away from accepting pirates seized by foreign forces, in what is likely to prove the latest setback to attempts by the international community to repatriate Somali pirates arrested on the high seas to east Africa or the Horn of Africa for trial. "The transfer issue has not yet been accepted," Ismail Moummir Aar, the Somaliland justice minister, told reporters during a visit to the region by a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) team headed by its director Yury Fedotov.

Fedotov's team came for the official opening of the facility, which has the capacity to house about 425 inmates and which has actually been up and running for the past several weeks. Of the 297 detainees currently in the facility, 88 are pirates from various regions of Somalia. All of them were intercepted by the Somaliland coastguard or by local people.

Aar said that Somaliland would for now accept only the repatriation of any Somaliland nationals to be prosecuted on piracy charges. "We accept Somaliland (nationals) to be transferred to Somaliland. Each territory should prosecute its own pirates," he said. His invitation appears rather theoretical, however, as according to him there are no Somaliland nationals being held in foreign prisons. Hargeisa, AFP