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Shipping movements in HK available on Internet

The Marine Department has become the first maritime administration to provide real-time shipping movements in port to a world-wide audience via the Internet.

Ocean-going vessels in the port of Hong Kong; those due to arrive in the next 36 hours; those have left during the last 36 hours and those have arrived within the last 36 hours are available from the Marine Department World-wide Web homepage on the Internet.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the launching of this new service, the acting Deputy Director of Marine, Mr Tsang Man-ching, said that this latest service was one of the many new initiatives the Marine Department provided in line with its mission to promote excellence in marine services.

"Information on shipping movements in port not only vital to the operation of shipping companies, it is also popular with the insurance companies, banks, law firms, cargo forwarders, terminal operators, marine pilots, news media and also friends and relatives of seafarers," he said.

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'Shipping movements in Hong Kong is instantly available to anyone with access to the Internet no matter you are a managing director of a shipping company sitting in a luxury office facing the harbour or the wife of a captain in a house thousand miles away from Hong Kong," Mr Tsang said.

"With about 200 ocean-going ships entering or leaving Hong Kong every day, and the average turnaround time is about 10 hours, we decide to update the reports on the shipping movements on the Internet every 30 minutes to keep the service live," he said.

A simple search facility incorporated into the system makes it more user- friendly. By keying in either the name of the ship, her callsign or her last port of call, the system will automatically display the relevant information.

The service is a joint effort of the department's Marine Officers and the staff of the Information Technology Services Department.