http://morethanshipping.com/bill-of-ladings/ Wed, 07 March 201240 YEARS -By Maurice Gent -maurice.gent@omanobserver.om -The links between Brazil, Oman and trading routes to the East are becoming ever more important. Oman is now the Middle East headquarters of Vale, the Brazilian mining giant and the great significance of this role was underlined this week when Vale Omans $1.36 billion industrial complex was officially inaugurated before a bevy of important dignitaries from both Brazil and Oman.The implications of the Vale deal are local, regional and worldwide. Local in that a considerable number of jobs are being provided to Omanis. Regional in that Sohar is becoming increasingly important as a major industrial port in the Middle East and Indian Ocean Region, and international in that there are links to industrial development projects both in the Philippines and Malaysia.Oman Shipping Company is also a very important part of this new and complex web, building four vast ships for transporting materials across the world. Two are expected to be operational by the middle of this year and two by the end of the year.Social responsibility and sustainability are also on the agenda as this great project goes forward. An in-depth socio-economic study of the whole Al Batinah Governorate has already taken place. Now special empowerment programmes are being worked out with two other major organisations operating in the area, Sohar Aluminium and Oman Oil Refineries.The Latin American link is also providing a further advantage. Vale has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vicosa University, the leading agricultural educational institute in South America, to conduct agronomic studies in Oman. Scientific research is currently under way to investigate and identify preventative measures to combat diseases and pests that attack mango trees, date trees and lime plantations in the Sultanate.Already in April of last year the first Vale production line in Sohar opened and steel pellets are being successfully supplied to steel producers in the Middle East region. The planned final production figures are so large that it is difficult to comprehend them. Suffice it to say the Brazil-Oman link is of increasing significance and in the future it promises to become a vital factor in Omans future prosperity.Those at this weeks ceremony spoke about achieving a virtual iron ore mine in Oman. Certainly Vale sees its achievements here as creating a base for operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.source: Oman Daily Observer (via LinkedIn) Friday, 09 March 2012 | 00:00The numbers may have changed, but the issues that keep transpacific container shipping lines and their customers at each others throats remain the same.Every year before the giant transpacific maritime conference in March, not coincidentally called Trans-Pacific Maritime, the carriers in the trade release a statement on how freight rates need to go up.The Long Beach conference is perfectly timed, coming just before annual contract negotiations between shippers and the carriers, so the Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement gets in early with its statement.Current rates are unsustainable is the recurrent theme and 2012 was no different. No one would argue with that, either. Even though shippers will happily pay bargain basement rates