Tel Aviv: Zim today announced an annual loss of $433m for 2012 as fourth quarter losses hit $239m. The loss includes a $133m one time charge related to the recent cancellation of ship orders.

London: Hurricane Sandy has cost the global marine market a total of between $2.5bn and $3bn, the International Union of Maritime Insurance (IUMI) reports.  

Dubai: Offshore ship and rig yard group Lamprell today announced a full year net loss of $110.5m for 2012 as earnings fell 8.9% to $1bn.

Riyadh: National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) is planning to launch a debut Islamic bond issue to help refinance a debt of $1.3bn taken to acquire Saudi Aramco's Vela last year.

Singapore: Rickmers Maritime (RM) is launching a S$101.7m ($81.5m) rights issue to repay loans to meet its extended loan-to-value covenants waiver.

Panama: The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) Annual meeting in Panama City called for Central American countries and the Dominican Republic to establish national logistics agendas to improve policy coordination and adapt their ports to the...

Singapore: Offshore services provider Ezion Holdings has bagged a considerable cash amount raised from placement of 10m new ordinary shares in November 2012.

Shanghai: China Cosco Holdings Co. (China Cosco) may sell assets worth as much as RMB27bn ($4.3bn) to its parent, Bloomberg reports.

Copenhagen: Restructuring and impairment costs on top of low freights have dragged Torm to a pre-tax loss of $579m.

Asia's largest commodities company Noble Group will shortly take delivery of the last of a series of six post-panamax bulker newbuildings, but confirms its strategy is to remain "asset light" in current market conditions.