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U.S. seeks funds tied to North Korea from eight big banks
Jul 7, 2017 | Reuters
By Jonathan Stempel
U.S. authorities have tried to seize millions of dollars associated with several companies that deal with North Korea, including the country's military, from eight large international banks, according to court filings made public on Thursday. -
U.S. Seeks North Korea Funds From Eight International Banks
Jul 7, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Greg Farrell
U.S. prosecutors disclosed an effort to seize millions of dollars linked to North Korean entities from eight global banks after tensions with Pyongyang escalated over the Fourth of July holiday. -
Terminal operators allowing shippers to get away with murder
Jul 7, 2017 | Splash 247
By Sam Chambers
... The same type of unprofessional behavior by shippers was also likely the cause of the Tianjin port explosion two years ago, an inferno that killed 173 people and racked up damages in excess of $4bn. -
Chinese paper says assess North Korea trade 'fairly', after Trump tweet
Jul 7, 2017 | Reuters
By Yawen Chen and Tony Munroe
A jump in first-quarter trade between China and North Korea was "unexpected" and masks a declining trend, a state-run Chinese newspaper said on Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China's trade with its isolated neighbor. -
World’s newest container line is officially established World’s newest container line is officially established
Jul 7, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Greg Knowler
The world’s sixth largest liner shipping company was officially established in Tokyo today with One Network Express bringing together the container divisions of Japan’s three major carriers in a joint venture that will start operating in April 2018.
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U.S. seeks funds tied to North Korea from eight big banks
Jul 7, 2017 | Reuters
By Jonathan Stempel
U.S. authorities have tried to seize millions of dollars associated with several companies that deal with North Korea, including the country's military, from eight large international banks, according to court filings made public on Thursday.
The effort was revealed two days after North Korea tested a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska, ratcheting up tensions with the United States and adding to worries about North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear weapons plans.
Thursday's filings show that Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the federal court in Washington, D.C. on May 22 granted U.S. prosecutors' applications for "damming" seizure warrants against Bank of America Corp, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Standard Chartered Plc and Wells Fargo & Co.
Prosecutors believe the banks have processed more than $700 million of "prohibited" transactions on behalf of entities tied to North Korea since 2009, including the period after Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, the filings show.
Some of the transactions were processed for Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co and four affiliated "front" companies that prosecutors said tried to evade sanctions through transactions that would benefit North Korean entities, "including the North Korea military and North Korea weapons programs," according to the filings.
A person answering the telephone at Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co in northeastern China said the company was not aware of the case, and declined to comment.
The company is based in Dandong, a city on the border with North Korea, where the majority of trade between the two countries takes place.
On its Alibaba page, the company says annual revenue exceeds $100 million, and it has 12 years of experience in dealing with anthracite, briquettes and graphite.
In a 2013 online profile for an industry conference in China, Dandong Zhicheng said it imported 1.8 million tonnes of North Korean anthracite coal, worth about $250 million.
Although it did not give a timeframe, that figure makes the company one of the largest suppliers of North Korean coal to major steel producers such as China Minmetels and Hesteel Group.
On February 18, China banned the import of North Korean coal for the rest of the year, and in April ordered trading firms, including Dandong Zhicheng, to return their North Korean coal cargoes, sources said at the time.
Dandong Zhicheng and the alleged front companies were not the named defendants in the court papers made public.
The filings did not say any of the banks knowingly violated sanctions against North Korea.
Asked about the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated that any infringements of U.N. resolutions on North Korea would be dealt with according to Chinese law, and that China opposed "long-armed jurisdiction".
In her decision, Howell authorized warrants requiring the eight banks to accept incoming transactions but not allow outgoing transactions involving the five companies for 14 days, and thereafter to seize what they collected.
Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, overruled a federal magistrate judge's May 2 refusal to authorize the warrants, saying prosecutors had probable cause to obtain them.
She cited a government affidavit describing in "80 pages of detail" how the five companies conduct transactions "designed to conceal the true origin and destination" of funds being wired, "consistent with generalized patterns of North Korean money laundering" identified by multiple sources, including two North Korean defectors.
Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo declined to comment. The other banks had no immediate comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Meng Meng and Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Clarence Fernandez)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northkorea-banks-idUSKBN19S014
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U.S. Seeks North Korea Funds From Eight International Banks
Jul 7, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Greg Farrell
U.S. prosecutors disclosed an effort to seize millions of dollars linked to North Korean entities from eight global banks after tensions with Pyongyang escalated over the Fourth of July holiday.
There is no indication that the government believes that any of banks -- Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Standard Chartered Plc and Wells Fargo & Co. -- knowingly violated U.S. sanctions against North Korea.
The Justice Department’s attempt to seize the funds, disclosed Thursday in court filings, comes after North Korea tested a long-range missile this week capable of reaching Alaska. The U.S. government’s actions show a continuing determination to identify and shut down Pyongyang’s points of access to the U.S. financial system.
According to the filings, the eight banks have processed more than $700 million in transactions since 2009 on behalf of entities linked to North Korea. Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo declined to comment. Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered didn’t provide a comment, and HSBC didn’t respond to inquiries.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, where the warrants were filed, declined to comment.
Federal prosecutors received approval from a judge in May to file “damming” seizure warrants with the banks. The warrants ordered the banks, over a 14-day period, to allow incoming wire transfers to Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co. and four related front companies for North Korea, but to not allow any wire transfers out. At the end of the two-week period, the warrants ordered the accounts frozen to allow for seizures.
The transactions under scrutiny involve correspondent accounts that are affiliated with global banks for the purpose of clearing transfers in U.S. dollars. It’s common practice for blacklisted nations to set up front companies abroad in efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-06/u-s-seeks-north-korea-funds-from-eight-international-banks
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Terminal operators allowing shippers to get away with murder
Jul 7, 2017 | Splash 247
By Sam Chambers
Shippers continue to put lives at risk by outing cargo regulations. And they’ll carry on getting away with it as competition among terminals for business is so erce that blind eyes are turned on a daily basis to boxes that could kill.
A quick glance at our partner MarineTrac’s site shows the severity of shippers failing to follow guidelines correctly. Remember the MSC Daniela? The 13,800 teu boxship suffered a re on April 4 this year in its aft section off Sri Lanka. The ship continued to smoulder for weeks after the blaze was extinguished. MSC suspects shippers misdeclaring hazardous cargoes was the most likely reason for the blaze.
The ship was eventually able to make its own way to Shanghai, arriving on May 22, for what ocials at the time said would be a fortnight’s repair work. As of today, MarineTrac clearly shows this huge boxship still moored at China Shipping Industry’s Changxing yard.
The fire – caused most likely either by a non-declaration of IMDG cargo, or poor stowage of the same by the shipper – ripped through up to eight bays of the ship. All lashing platforms would have become distorted and now brittle, and will need replacement. New hatch covers will need to be fabricated. Cells guides might also need some attention, at least the opening ange part. Any electrics will have also burned out, so maybe a massive re-wiring is also required. Then a spot of painting and nally new sea-trials might also be required.
At least no one died in this accident.
The same type of unprofessional behavior by shippers was also likely the cause of the Tianjin port explosion two years ago, an inferno that killed 173 people and racked up damages in excess of $4bn.
I was chatting with a terminal operator today who described his week’s current travails. Operations had to be stopped on one ship on Monday as a hazardous container did not have labels. This container had loaded in another overseas port, been feedered, landed at a terminal nearby, stored, trucked through the port, entered the operator’s terminal, stored again and then loaded before anyone realised.
Tuesday saw the same hassled operator struggling with ve feu which were loaded beyond their maximum payload, and whereas seemingly VGM compliant, needed to be lightered before shipment.
That same day he had to put up with customer sending a bayplan over, then asking my source to manually update 155 containers as IMDG hazardous.
“This is just a snippet of safety violations experienced this week, and we still have three days to go to complete the week,” my frustrated source conded.
There is little in terms of process eciency or compliance within our industry, and we are very lucky that we only get a few cases such as the MSC Daniela.
The root of the problem lies with commercial competition. Terminal operators are unlikely to take a strong stance on non-compliance, as competitors hover nearby willing to take anything that comes their way.
Occasionally I get the odd greenwashing release from the world’s largest terminal operators, talking about what they are doing to save the environment together. It would be nice to see them come together with a collective stance on safety.
http://splash247.com/terminal-operators-allowing-shippers-get-away-murder/
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Chinese paper says assess North Korea trade 'fairly', after Trump tweet
Jul 7, 2017 | Reuters
By Yawen Chen and Tony Munroe
A jump in first-quarter trade between China and North Korea was "unexpected" and masks a declining trend, a state-run Chinese newspaper said on Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China's trade with its isolated neighbor.
Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter, Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday, casting doubt on China's assertion it is working to press North Korea to rein in its nuclear and missile programs.
Data released in April by Beijing showed China's trade with North Korea grew 37.4 percent in the first quarter over the corresponding 2016 period, the Global Times said, adding that subsequent data showed declining trade in April and May.
"First quarter data cannot speak for the whole year," the paper said in an editorial that carried the headline "China-NK Q1 trade data must be read fairly".
"The trade volume for 2017 is unlikely to grow significantly from last year," it said.
While the first-quarter rise was "somewhat unexpected", the newspaper said China had been strictly implementing U.N. sanctions against North Korea, and that a ban on imports of its coal had taken a toll on two-way trade.
The newspaper said trade between China and North Korea had declined during the previous three years.
China has not imported North Korean coal since it banned imports of the fuel on Feb. 18, the General Administration of Customs said in April.
The Global Times, published by the official People's Daily, reiterated that sanctions should not affect normal trade activities with North Korea, especially those concerning people's livelihoods.
"America's public opinion mistakenly depicts U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang's nuclear and missile activities as a total embargo," it said, citing a four-fold increase in China's grain exports to North Korea in the first quarter.
"Beijing will never export materials to Pyongyang that could be used for nuclear and missile activities."
It also urged China and the United States to communicate further on the sanctions on North Korea and "narrow down their divergences".
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, referred questions on the trade figures to the Commerce Ministry, and reiterated that as neighbors, China and North Korea had "normal" trade relations.
China also fully enforced U.N. resolutions on North Korea, Geng told a daily news briefing.
China's Commerce Ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the Global Times article.
(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by Josephine Mason, Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-northkorea-trade-idUSKBN19S0FD?il=0
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Jul 7, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Greg Knowler
The world’s sixth largest liner shipping company was officially established in Tokyo today with One Network Express bringing together the container divisions of Japan’s three major carriers in a joint venture that will start operating in April 2018.
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha established a holding company in Tokyo and an operating company in Singapore. ONE has the world’s sixth-largest fleet, with 250 ships and a capacity of 1.38 million TEU, and the joint venture integrates the three companies' container shipping businesses, including their terminal operation businesses outside Japan.
The carriers had planned to set up the joint venture by July 1 but were delayed by regulatory setbacks. But on July 3, the lines said in a statement that they had received all the approvals necessary to comply with local competition laws in regions where compliance was required.
The only country to reject the liner shipping merger proposal was South Africa, but the carriers plan to appeal the ruling. The US Federal Maritime Commission voted down the carriers’ proposed “tripartite agreement " saying the Shipping Act of 1984 did not provide them authority to review and approve mergers, but the ONE carriers expect to secure permission to operate in the US by the time the new company starts operations in April next year.
The Japanese carriers first announced in October 2016 that they would be merging their liner shipping divisions into a JV company, further consolidating the industry that at that time had already seen the collapse of Hanjin Shipping, the merger of Cosco and China Shipping, the acquisition of APL by CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd merger with United Arab Shipping Company and Maersk Line’s plan to takeover Hamburg Sud.
The shareholding structure will have NYK holding 38 percent and “K” Line and MOL each holding 31 percent. MOL, NYK, and “K” Line are currently individual members of the vessel sharing agreement with Hapag-Lloyd- UASC and Yang Ming Line. The carriers have said they expect higher rates and greater container volume to come from the membership with THE Alliance.
Merging their container shipping divisions will generate the scale and cost benefits that are essential to be competitive against the industry giants such as Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM. In October 2016 when the merger announcement was made, “K” Line said, “Since last year in the liner container ship industry, the movement to increase competitiveness by expanding operational scale through merger and acquisition has been actualized, and the business model itself has been drastically changed.
“Now, the three Japanese shipping companies have come to share the same thought, recognizing that in order for us to keep up and compete with these overseas carriers, which will be developing larger-scale operations from now on, what we need is not only to properly grasp market needs and then offer high-quality services, but also to enlarge the business scale.”
An improving container shipping market is lifting the profitability of carriers as rates and volume increase. Cosco Shipping has just announced that it expects to make a first half profit of $272 million and the ONE lines have forecast a profitable turnaround in their 2017/18 financial year that ends just as their April joint venture begins
Despite posting combined operating losses of $550 million in the year ended March 31, MOL, NYK Line and “K” Line announced in filings to the Japan Exchange that they expect to record a combined operating profit of $517 million in the 2017/18 year as the container shipping market stages a gradual recovery.
“We expect the Asia-North America cargo volumes to continue to be firm on the back of the strong US economy. On Asia-Europe routes, we also expect cargo volumes from Asia to be firm as well based on current demand levels,” MOL said in its outlook
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/world%E2%80%99s-newest-container-line-officially-established_20170707.html
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