Sofrana moves

again to block

Acta

Sofrana Unilines is seeking a court injunction to stop ship ping competitor ACTA (Associ ated Container Transportation Australia) from offering a Noumea service. The court move was made in Sydney in mid-July when Sofrana learnt that ACTA was due to begin a Noumea service in early August.

It is the second court bid by Sofrana against ACTA - an application for an injunction against the provision of a Fiji service by ACTA was rejected by a Sydney judge late last year.

ACTA had been a sharehol der in PAD Line (Pacific Austra lia Direct) along with ANL and the Swedish company Trans atlantic, but withdrew from PAD in October 1986. How ever, PAD ran several joint ventures with Sofrana.

Sofrana claims that in starting a Noumean service ACTA is in breach of a protection clause in the contract between Sofrana and PAD - that PAD could not service Noumea within two years of the expiration of the contract.

The PAD/Sofrana contract expired on December 31 last year.

ACTA argues that it was no longer covered by the PAD/ Sofrana contract since it with drew from PAD in October last year to go alone.

In last year’s case Sofrana sought an injunction restraining ACTA from servicing Fiji, arguing that ACTA was still a partner of Sofrana and could not compete.

As well as rejecting the claim the judge also awarded costs to

Acta

Mission takes

trade inquiries

An Australian trade relations mission has been touring Ton ga, Western Samoa and the Cook Islands. The mission re ceived trade inquiries about, among other things, construc tion of industrial premises, sew ing machines, cans and mach inery for footwear, saddlery and woollen garment manufacture.

New gold

discoveries in PNG

largest gold exploration com panies in the Pacific region, has announced the discovery of seven gold prospects in Papua New Guinea.

Samplings of the finds at Sehulea on Normanby Island have indicated gold values ran ging from just over one gram a tonne to almost 18 grams, the most significant results yet obtained by the company.

The managing director of City Resources, Mr Laurie Johnson, said samples taken almost a kilometre away from the site showed returns of 13 grams a tonne, indicating the potential extent of the ore zone.

He said the discovery had followed other successful finds of epithermal gold prospects, which are produced by volcanic action and are generally within a few hundred metres of the ground surface.

Mr Johnson also said that the company’s mine on Lihir Island was now showing the potential to be the largest deposit in the world.

He said 12 million ounces had already been mined and that it was possible the mine could now produce another 12 million ounces.

Lini signs Vanitel

agreement

The Vanuatu Government has acquired a one-third sharehold ing in Vanitel, the company which owns and operates Vanuatu’s telecommunications service. The Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, last month signed a share agreement with the Cable and Wireless Com pany of Britain and France Cables Et Radio, the two com panies that owned Vanitel. The new company has been given the sole right to own and operate international telecom munications for Vanuatu for the next 20 years. The British and French companies will manage Vanitel for the next five years.

Negotiations will begin soon to bring both international and internal telecommunications under the one management.

Vanuatu exports

fall Vanuatu’s exports for 1986 were down almost 50 per cent from the figures for 1985. The Annual Export Bulletin states that the total value of exports in 1986 was $9.5 million, about half that of the previous year.

Re-exports fell from $12.8 mil lion to $8.7 million following the closure of the South Pacific Fishing Company on Santo.

The main destinations for Vanuatu’s exports in 1986 were Japan, France and Holland, with copra accounting for 47 per cent of the value of all exports. Cocoa and beef accounted for a further 20 per cent and 15 per cent respec tively.

Australians seek

large PNG market

A West Australian trade mission sponsored by the State Gov ernment, the Confederation of Western Australian Industry and Austrade will visit Papua New Guinea in November, with delegates from the organi sations attending special inter

trade seminars in Port Moresby and Rabaul. A new shipping service from Western Australia to Port Moresby and Lae has increased the state’s exports to Papua New Guinea, although these still account for less than two per cent of the all-Australia export total. West Australian Transport Minister, Mr G. Troy, said the new service had had a dramatic effect on the state’s trade effort. By the end of the year West Australian exports to Papua New Guinea will have increased by about 300 per cent, against a 15 per cent increase in total exports to Papua from Australia, he said.

PNG Shipping

sold off The Papua New Guinea Gov ernment has sold the PNG Shipping Corporation to Steamships Trading Company for $2.3 million.

The PNG Shipping Corpora tion was established in 1977, but recorded 10 years of losses totalling $9.5 million. The deci sion to sell the company was taken when the administrators of its creditors scheme decided that the company had no chance of trading out of its financial difficulties. The PNG Government retains a minority shareholding in the company of about 27 per cent.

New rice mill

for PNG

Papua New Guinea’s first rice mill and packaging plant is to be built at Lae by PNG’s largest rice distributor, Rice Industries Pty Ltd.

The mill will start operating next year and will process and package imported rice as well as locally-grown rice from the Sepik and Morobe provinces.

It will cost several million dollars and will employ an initial 30 workers. The managing director of Rice Industries, Mr Paul Davis, said the aim of setting up the mill is to encour age the development of more rice farms in Papua New Guinea.

New beer

for Tonga

A new locally-made beer has gone on sale in Tonga, pro

duced by the Royal Beer Com pany under the chairmanship of Crown Prince Tupouto’a.

The beer, which is the pro duct of a 50-50 joint venture between the Pripp Brewery of Sweden and a Tongan firm, will hopefully dominate the market, replacing Australian brews cur rently available. Tongans have been asked to show their loyal ty to the kingdom by switching to the new beer.

The beer is only available in bottles which, the company says, are reusable and better for the environment than the alu minium cans containing Austra lian beer. In addition, a spokes man for the company claimed that the pop-off rings from the aluminium cans, besides giving indigestion to cattle and fish, wreaked havoc with lawnmowers.

Steel-frame houses

for Pacific

An Australian company, Duraf rame Australia, is to supply more than 500 steel-framed houses worth $l6 million to the Cook Islands over the next 18

months.

The houses have galvanised steel frames and use a simple locking slot system for accurate assembly. There is a 50-year warranty on the frames and the houses will withstand termites, white ants and cyclones. They are also relatively fire resistant In addition, the houses offer a saving of up to $6OOO per house as compared with con ventional-style buildings and can be assembled quickly by unskilled labor.

The company is currently negotiating to supply homes and technology to other parts of the Pacific.

Phosphate

feasibility study

Two Australian companies are to investigate the possibilities of mining phosphate deposits left on Banaba island in Kiribati by the British Phosphate Commis sion in 1979.

The Kiribati Government estimates that the remaining deposits could be worth up to $18.5 million, The study will be carried out in September.