Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

pengecatbintang

Last updated at 6:34 PM on 13th September 2009


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html#ixzz0RDmz5Exf

[size=+0][size=1.2em]The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination  -  and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year


The 'ghost fleet' near Singapore. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies
The tropical waters that lap the jungle shores of southern Malaysia could not be described as a paradisical shimmering turquoise. They are more of a dark, soupy green. They also carry a suspicious smell. Not that this is of any concern to the lone Indian face that has just peeped anxiously down at me from the rusting deck of a towering container ship; he is more disturbed by the fact that I may be a pirate, which, right now, on top of everything else, is the last thing he needs.
His appearance, in a peaked cap and uniform, seems rather odd; an officer without a crew. But there is something slightly odder about the vast distance between my jolly boat and his lofty position, which I can't immediately put my finger on.

Then I have it - his 750ft-long merchant vessel is standing absurdly high in the water. The low waves don't even bother the lowest mark on its Plimsoll line. It's the same with all the ships parked here, and there are a lot of them. Close to 500. An armada of freighters with no cargo, no crew, and without a destination between them.
Simon Parry among the ships in southern Malaysia

My ramshackle wooden fishing boat has floated perilously close to this giant sheet of steel. But the face is clearly more scared of me than I am of him. He shoos me away and scurries back into the vastness of his ship. His footsteps leave an echo behind them.
Navigating a precarious course around the hull of this Panama-registered hulk, I reach its bow and notice something else extraordinary. It is tied side by side to a container ship of almost the same size. The mighty sister ship sits empty, high in the water again, with apparently only the sailor and a few lengths of rope for company.
Nearby, as we meander in searing midday heat and dripping humidity between the hulls of the silent armada, a young European officer peers at us from the bridge of an oil tanker owned by the world's biggest container shipping line, Maersk. We circle and ask to go on board, but are waved away by two Indian crewmen who appear to be the only other people on the ship.

'They are telling us to go away,' the boat driver explains. 'No one is supposed to be here. They are very frightened of pirates.'
Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers - all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen.
They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia's rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour.



'We don't understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board,' said local fisherman Ah Wat
It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies.
So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever-present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year.
Local fisherman Ah Wat, 42, who for more than 20 years has made a living fishing for prawns from his home in Sungai Rengit, says: 'Before, there was nothing out there - just sea. Then the big ships just suddenly came one day, and every day there are more of them.

'Some of them stay for a few weeks and then go away. But most of them just stay. You used to look Christmas from here straight over to Indonesia and see nothing but a few passing boats. Now you can no longer see the horizon.'
The size of the idle fleet becomes more palpable when the ships' lights are switched on after sunset. From the small fishing villages that dot the coastline, a seemingly endless blaze of light stretches from one end of the horizon to another. Standing in the darkness among the palm trees and bamboo huts, as calls to prayer ring out from mosques further inland, is a surreal and strangely disorientating experience. It makes you feel as if you are adrift on a dark sea, staring at a city of light.
Ah Wat says: 'We don't understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.'



Two container ships tied together in southern Malaysia, waiting for the next charter
As daylight creeps across the waters, flags of convenience from destinations such as Panama and the Bahamas become visible. In reality, though, these vessels belong to some of the world's biggest Western shipping companies. And the sickness that has ravaged them began far away - in London, where the industry's heart beats, and where the plummeting profits and hugely reduced cargo prices are most keenly felt.
The Aframax-class oil tanker is the camel of the world's high seas. By definition, it is smaller than 132,000 tons deadweight and with a breadth above 106ft. It is used in the basins of the Black Sea, the North Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the China Sea and the Mediterranean - or anywhere where non-OPEC exporting countries have harbours and canals too small to accommodate very large crude carriers (VLCC) or ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCs). The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA) tanker rate system and is an industry standard.

A couple of years ago these ships would be steaming back and forth. Now 12 per cent are doing nothing
You may wish to know this because, if ever you had an irrational desire to charter one, now would be the time. This time last year, an Aframax tanker capable of carrying 80,000 tons of cargo would cost

pengecatbintang

SAMBUNGAN

'This is the time of year when everyone is doing all the Christmas stuff,' he points out.

'A couple of years ago those ships would have been steaming back and forth, going at full speed. But now you've got something like 12 per cent of the world's container ships doing nothing.'
Aframaxes are oil bearers. But the slump is industry-wide. The cost of sending a 40ft steel container of merchandise from China to the UK has fallen from

marumaru

banyaknye kapal...

geng_tx

'good news ' utk singapore bashers

kabukiman

terima kasih pengecatbintang for such eye opening artcle.

Malang sunggoh bukan reporter Malaysia yg korek and unearth whats happening right under our noses, but instead it takes a brit to come over 7,000 miles and do the article.

mamaque

SAMBUNGAN

'This is the time of year when everyone is doing all the Christmas stuff,' he points out.

'A couple of years ago those ships would have been steaming back and forth, going at full s ...
pengecatbintang Post at 16-9-2009 07:41

kesian singapork.....ekonomi tak pulih lagi...susahla depa nak makan babi hari-hari

halil_ksbharta

tak faham sangat artikel tuh... ada yg boleh tolong summerise kan dalam bhs Melayu tak???

Feno

2# pengecatbintang
thanks for such informative articles indeed and tickling the mind to see from different perspective.

p4k4bu

1# pengecatbintang

Tak nampak tanda2 ekonomi dunia akan pulih dgn cepat. Saham naik mungkin sebab pelabur2 berharap yg positif.

Tengok Obama punya ucapan pun berhati2 sahaja. Tidak dengan keyakinan. Cuma cuba memberi harapan.

p4k4bu

tak faham sangat artikel tuh... ada yg boleh tolong summerise kan dalam bhs Melayu tak???
halil_ksbharta Post at 16-9-2009 08:38

Pak Abu cuba ya ... tadi dah taip sekerat ... hilang pulak ... memang ada ghost gamaknya

1.  Reporter ni pergi naik sampan ke sebuah kapal 750 kaki panjang. Kosong saja sebab kapal itu timbul tinggi. Cuma ada sorang Pak Guard India. Dia halau reporter ni. Semua kapal2 tu, lebihkurang 500 buah kosong jugak. Tak ada kargo, tak ada krew, tak pergi mana2.

2. Sebelah kapal tu ada sebuah kapal lagi, kosong jugak. Kapal2 ni kepunyaan syarikat2 besar spt Maersk. Dia nak board, officer kat kapal tu tak kasi. Takut lanun.

3. Dijangka ini adalah himpunan kapal yg terbesar dan paling rahsia dalam sejarah perkapalan. Sebesar armada laut British + USA. Kapal kontena, kapal minyak. etc yf septutnya mengangkut barang ke eropah & USA kerana krisma dah hampir. Masa yg sepatutnya paling sibuk sekali.

4.  Ini menandakan ribut yg melanda ekonomi global. Terletak di selatan johor, 50 batu di timur singapura.

5. Ah Pek tu, nelayan, dia heran apa pasal banyak kapal ni. Tapi talak olang. Tau2 saja satu per-satu muncul. Ada yg lepas seminggu dua, dah tak ada, tapi kebanyakannya menetap di situ. Macam kapal hantu.

6.  Tempat ni agak terpecil, jadi ramai orang tak perasan. Syarikat kapal dan pakar2 ekonomi kerajaan memang tak mau orang nampak simbol betapa mendalamnya masalah ekonomi dunia. Malam2, bila kapal pasang lampu, lagi nampak banyak. Macam bandar pulak.

(nanti sambung lagi)

IceMallet

kenapa tak keluar dalam media mainstream kita?..ker media kita hari2 dok syok sendiri sanjung najib?

p4k4bu

7.  Kesannya adalah pada syarikat perkapalan yg kebanyakannya berada di London (gamaknya sebab tu reporter ni dapat cium bau cerita ni). Untung menjunam, harga kargo berkurang.

8. (Details pasal kapal tangki minyak. Malas nak terjemah.) 12% Kapal2 ini "tersadai".  Kalau nak sewa kapal, inilah masanya. Walaupun kapal2 berlebihan, tapi kapal2 yg telah ditempah sedang dihantar juga.

9. Kapal2 dijejaki oleh Vesseltracker dgn satelite. 12 bulan dulu, financier & broker kapal untung banyak. Tapi hari ini tak ada siapa yg mahu. Jika benar ekonomi sedang pulih, sepatutnya kapal2 ini sudah bergerak semula.

NIXAR

ini dah teruk.

RedDevils

kenapa tak keluar dalam media mainstream kita?..ker media kita hari2 dok syok sendiri sanjung najib?
IceMallet Post at 16-9-2009 14:26

Hari hari dok ratib: 1Malaysia...1Malaysia...1Malaysia....

RedDevils

Tengok gambar2 kapal tu tengah parking teringat movie POTC

Eokboy

Apa kata forumer CI sume tong duit sewa satu kapal? Buleh wat cruise keliling donia.

c_antique

tq pak abu...mls nk baca pjg2

kabukiman

misc parking bunga raya bunga melati bagai tuh off lumut.

Kat tenggara johor i suppose senang parking kapal. sama mcm dulu gawat 98 puak2 indon parking kapal offshore pasir gudang nak sorok daripada kene tarik dek bank,,

TanSriJess

cita2 aku suatu hari nanti nak ada sebijik kapal...kalau g curik yg "tersadai" tu ok tak??

asher

nasib baik ader pak abu translate..