First Wave News

Global industrial production and containerised freight flows remained in the doldrums at the start of the third quarter, confounding predictions earlier in the year for a strong rebound.Manufacturers and distributors in North America and Europe were struggling to reduce excess inventories after the post-pandemic rotation from goods to services spending.Rising interest rates and a cost-of-living squeeze have also dampened expenditure on expensive long-lived durable items.Global industrial output was up by less than 1% in the second quarter of 2023 from the same period in 2022…

Birdon America, Inc. on Tuesday announced it has awarded the first wave of major subcontracts in support of its $1.187 billion contract to design and build 27 Waterways Commerce Cutters (WCC) for the U.S. Coast Guard. This announcement follows a successful initial Program Management Review (PMR), the first major milestone of the WCC program.The subcontracts range in value from $10 million to $50 million and are firm-fixed price (FFP), indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) for design, development, manufacturing and delivery.

Global freight movements continued to dwindle in the first two months of 2023 as manufacturers and distributors struggled to reduce excess inventories and cope with rising interest rates and increased caution among buyers.Container flows fell further in January and February compared with the same months a year earlier, showing the inventory-liquidation cycle was not over yet:Singapore’s seaborne container shipments were down 6% in February compared with a year earlier, one of the steepest falls since the first wave of the pandemic.Japan’s air cargo through Narita airport…

My first visit in 2007 to the American Society of Naval Engineers’ (ASNE) Multi-Agency Craft Conference (MACC) was an eye-opener. Having built a naval architecture career with frigates, destroyers and other large naval and commercial ships, I was eager to learn of the smaller craft used by the U.S. Navy and other government and military bodies. As my flight into Norfolk, Va. descended over Chesapeake Bay, I gazed in amazement as a Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) raced toward Virginia Beach, slowed, glided up the beach and into its shore base.

U.S.-based offshore wind crew transfer vessel company WINDEA CTV has started construction of three 30-meter hybrid-ready CTVs. Two of the Incat Crowther-designed CTVs will be constructed at St. Johns Ship Building in Palatka, Fla. and one will be built at Gulf Craft in Franklin, La. The CTVs are scheduled to be delivered in 2023 and will go immediately into service for GE Renewables. The vessels will first operate out of New Bedford, Mass., during the Vineyard Wind I construction…

Container traffic at the Port of Rotterdam has reached a record level this year and is expected to be high again in 2022, Europe's largest sea port said on Wednesday.The port said that it had received 15 million containers this year up until Wednesday, marking the first time a European port had reached that level.Container freight, measured in the equivalent of twenty-foot long containers (TEU), has increased at least 5% in 2021 from last year, when transport was heavily disrupted…

More than 1000 ships are expected to be ordered per year through 2030, and with growing pressure on the shipping industry to decarbonize, the shipowners must be careful with fuel selection and ship design, as a misstep here can have damaging consequences in the future.This is according to the latest Maritime Forecast to 2050 launched Tuesday by DNV.DNV stressed that shipping decarbonization was no longer just a top priority for the International Maritime Organization (IMO), but for the regional and national legislators…

Shipbroker McQuilling Partners Inc. and emissions trader Vertis Environmental Finance have partnered to offer carbon offsetting and advisory (CO&A) services to the shipping industry.The agreement will provide ship-owners, oil companies, refiners and traders with direct access to carbon offsetting and advisory solutions to address their environmental sustainability and carbon-neutral shipping needs, as well as their future environmental compliance requirements.With carbon market experience in similar sectors like aviation…

Louisiana shipbuilder Bollinger Shipyards said it has delivered the USCGC Glen Harris to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Fla. The vessel is the 167th Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 44th Fast Response Cutter (FRC) delivered under the current program.The USCGC Glen Harris is the third of six FRCs to be home-ported in Manama, Bahrain, which will replace the aging 110’ Island Class Patrol Boats, built by Bollinger Shipyards 30 years ago, supporting the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), the U.S.

U.S.-based Quark Expeditions has taken delivery of its new polar expedition cruise ship Ultramarine from the Brodosplit Shipyard in Croatia.The 128-meter Ultramarine has accommodations for 199 passengers in 103 cabins, plus 140 crew members. It features two twin-engine helicopters and two heliports as well as 20 quick-deploy Zodiacs for off-ship adventuring.Andrew White, president of Quark Expeditions, said, “Every aspect of Ultramarine has been designed and engineered to enable our teams to get guests off the ship and deep into the polar wilderness better than ever before.

After what has seemed like the longest year ever, the offshore energy sector is emerging from a position of strength, from the standpoint of both economics and sustainability. Between the lockdowns implemented to reduce COVID-19, which reduced energy demand, to the oil price war between state-backed producers, 2020 was an unprecedented storm that hit the American offshore energy market. Now, there are unmistakable signs of a recovery, and policy makers in Washington, D.C. should embrace the opportunity before us to for sustained economic…

In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare coined the phrase “salad days” to mean a youthful time filled with unbridled enthusiasm and idealism. Indeed, youth, much like salad, is often raw, flavorful and most of all… green. Therefore, it is fitting to think of our present time as the salad days of offshore energy in the United States. Let’s dig in.Executive Order appetizersOn January 27, President Biden took early steps to implement his campaign promise to transition the United States away from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy…

The cruise industry has weathered many storms, including fairly regular brushes with disease. Outbreaks of norovirus, H1N1 and measles have all happened in the not too distant past. Despite this, a cruise has traditionally been regarded as a safe holiday—the kind where you don’t have to worry about a thing.COVID-19 has changed this. Cruise ships were a hotbed of transmission during the early stages of the pandemic, particularly the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined for six weeks in Japan in spring 2020.

About 800 workers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday will be in the first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations for employees at the United States' busiest seaport complex, which has been hard hit by pandemic-related workforce disruptions and surging imports.Congress members last month joined state and local leaders in urging California officials to hasten COVID-19 vaccinations for employees at the ports amid high-stakes battles over which workers should be prioritized as essential.Such decisions at times are made at the local level…

Belgium's Euronav expects pressure on freight rates to continue until late 2021, the tanker operator said as it reported weaker than expected quarterly results on Thursday, citing OPEC+ export cuts because of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on demand for oil.The company, one of the world's largest tanker companies, benefited from soaring demand for oil storage at sea in early 2020 as buyers struggled to find space for surplus crude when demand collapsed during the first wave of the pandemic.However, reduced OPEC+ exports limited oil oversupply in the second half of the year."As a result, the ma

Business interruption, pandemic outbreak and cyber incidents -- three separate but 'strongly interlinked' matters -- lead the pack as the top threats to maritime in 2021, according to the 10th Allianz survey on risk in the maritime sector.The maritime industry, on its best day, is fraught with risk, as people, machinery and the bulk of world trade regularly traverses some of the most perilous conditions on the planet. According to the 10th Allianz Risk Barometer 2021 for the sector…

Ocean Infinity, a U.S. based marine survey firm developing the world's largest fleet of unmanned surface vessels - Armada - has ordered Sonardyne sensors for its robotic vessels.As reported previously, Ocean Infinity in February launched Armada, a marine technology and data company boasting the industry's largest fleet of unmanned surface vehicles (USV).Sonardyne said Wednesday it would provide the first wave of Ocean Infinity’s new Armada fleet with key sensor technologies for underwater platform navigation…

While there is no consensus on what will be the maritime 'fuel of the future', developers across the world are for the first time testing the use of hydrogen to power ships as the maritime industry races to find technologies to cut emissions and confidence grows the fuel is safe to use commercially.To reach goals for the shipping industry set by the United Nations, industry leaders say the first net-zero ships must enter the global fleet by 2030. Ships powered by green hydrogen…

The ongoing flood of crude oil into China is obscuring the fact that demand in the rest of Asia remains weak, and that countries in the world's top-consuming region didn't join China is stocking up when prices slumped.China's crude imports set consecutive records in May and June, and will remain at high levels in July and likely August too, as the massive volumes of oil bought during a brief price war in April enter the country.China imported 12.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in June…

As COVID-19 and a historically weak energy market wreaks havoc on maritime, Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO Maritime, DNV GL, tells Maritime Reporter & Engineering News in its May 2020 edition that this could be the beginning of a Renaissance period for the industry. "Everything will be looked at with new eyes, it’s going to be a renaissance for the maritime world and I think we’ll have a lot of innovation and new ideas," said Ørbeck-Nilssen. "Things that we’ve traditionally done for years simply will not hold up…

Bollinger Shipyards on Thursday delivered the USCGC Harold Miller to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Fla. This is the 161st vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35 year period and the 38th Fast Response Cutter delivered on the current program. The USCGC Harold Miller is the third of three FRCs to be home-ported in Galveston, Texas. “We are very proud to announce our latest FRC delivery, especially given the unprecedented times and challenges which we’re facing as a nation,” said Bollinger President & C.E.O. Ben Bordelon.

Prices for very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) in ports around the world have fallen within the first month since the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) new regulation for a 0.50% global sulphur cap for marine fuels has taken effect.Singapore has seen one of the largest drops in the price of VLSFO, which peaked on January 7, 2020 at $740 per metric ton (MT) and dropped $99 to $641 per MT on January 22, BIMCO points out.Prices rose in December as shipowners transitioned…

The final quarter of 2019 marked a massive decline of high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) sales, as the industry transitioned into compliance of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) 2020 Sulphur Cap (IMO 2020). In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, the bunker sale landscape saw significant change as the sale of high-sulphur fuel oil dropped tremendously in a matter of months. In contrast, the sale of low-sulphur fuels skyrocketed in the final quarter.The first wave…