Port Access News

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has caused supply chain disruption on the US East Coast but, so far, it has not seen an increase in ocean freight container shipping rates.Data released Monday by Xeneta reveals average spot rates from the Far East into the US North East Coast (including Baltimore) have fallen slightly (-1%) since the bridge collapse on March 26 to stand at USD 5,421 per FEU (40ft shipping container).When including other US East Coast ports such as New York / New Jersey…

The U.S. Transportation Department on Friday said it reached an agreement with Baltimore County to revise an $8.26 million grant agreement to enable Tradepoint Atlantic (TPA) to accommodate more cargo.Repurposing the funds will allow a boost in cargo to Sparrows Point at the Port of Baltimore, which is outside the area affected by last week’s collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and continues to move cargo.The changes will enable Baltimore County and TPA to speed paving at least 10 acres that will be used for an additional cargo laydown area by the end of April…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it expects to open a new channel to the Port of Baltimore by the end of April, freeing up commercial shipping blocked by a collapsed bridge, and then restore port access to full capacity by the end of May.The main channel has been blocked by wreckage since the fully loaded container ship Dali lost power and rammed into a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, killing six road workers and causing the highway bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River.The Army Corps…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced over $653 million to fund 41 port improvement projects across the nation under the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP).The investments—part of the largest dedicated funding for ports and waterways in history, nearly $17 billion through the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—are intended to help grow capacity and increase efficiency at coastal seaports, Great Lakes ports and inland…

Viking Cruises will compensate hundreds of passengers on its Orion cruise ship after cruisers were forced to stay on board and miss multiple stops because officials blocked port access due to marine growth on the ship's hull.The 930-guest capacity Viking Orion docked in Sydney on Wednesday, the final stop on what is normally a 15-day, 9-stop cruise of New Zealand and Australia.But plans went awry, local media reported, after New Zealand officials asked the ship to leave the country's waters part way through its cruise after finding small amounts of biofoul - plants, algae and small animals - that grow on ship hulls.Steaming directly to the southern Australian port of Adelaide and bypassing planned stops in Tasmania and New Zealand's south island…

A United States Coast Guard vessel was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because the Solomon Islands government did not respond to a request for it to refuel and provision, a U.S. official said.The islands' government did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment. The Solomon Islands has had a tense relationship with the United States and its allies since striking a security pact with China in May.The USCGC Oliver Henry was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara…

New federal money promises dramatic impacts throughout the United States’ inland waterways system in 2022 and beyond. This report focuses on America’s central rivers; the Western rivers will be covered in a future report. These central rivers reach 11,000 miles, from Pennsylvania to Florida and from Texas to South Dakota.Consider the money within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “Civil Works Program Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), 2022 Construction Spend Plan.”In Arkansas…

After being very much on the margins of the offshore wind industry, floating offshore wind now appears to be ready to hit the mainstream. With gigawatt scale developments already on the horizon, what will the infrastructure needed to build and support them look like? Over the past 12 months, the floating offshore wind sector appears to have had a major dose of adrenaline. While the largest development, to date, is the relatively small-scale 50MW Kincardine project off northeast Scotland (which will be outdone by the 88MW Tampen project in Norway later next year [2022])…

German rescue charity Sea-Eye said on Thursday it had asked Italy for a safe port to disembark some 800 migrants it rescued from boats in distress in the central Mediterranean.The charity vessel SEA-EYE 4 Took onboard another 400 people from a wooden boat on Wednesday night in a seventh rescue operation since it set sail in mid-October, bringing the total to around 800, Sea-Eye said in a statement.It said Rise Above, another rescue ship operated by NGO Mission Lifeline, reached the split-level wooden boat first…

Even after concerted efforts from leaders in the maritime community and some improvement in the numbers, the crew change crisis caused by COVID-19 restrictions continues to create challenges, the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization has warned.In a statement, IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim said that based on industry analysis, the numbers of seafarers requiring repatriation after finishing their contracts had declined—from a high of around 400,000 in September 2020, to around 200,000 as of March 2021, with a similar number waiting to join ships.

South Carolina (SC) Ports has celebrated the structural completion of the operations building at Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. Terminal, a new container terminal along the Cooper River, which will open in March 2021.S.C. Ports celebrated today the structural completion of the terminal’s new operations building. More than 300 people — contractors, port employees, elected leaders and community members — cheered as a steel beam and tree were placed atop the steel structure as part of a traditional “topping out” ceremony.The 34,853-square-foot building, built by Samet Corp., will have offices, meeting spaces, crane operator rest and training areas, and a full-service kitchen, as well as the backup power required to maintain critical infrastructure in the event of a power outage.Sen. Hugh K.

Luxembourg-headquartered dredging and construction engineering company Jan De Nul Group completed the capital dredging works for the improvement of Liepaja Port in Latvia ahead of schedule.In order to allow larger vessels to enter and leave the port of Liepaja fully loaded, the access channel to the port needed to be adapted. As part of the Liepaja Port Water Infrastructure Works, Jan De Nul Group was awarded the dredging works.The scope for Jan De Nul Group entailed the removal of 2.7 million m³ of sediments to deepen the port access channel from 12.5 m to 14.5 m, and to create a new navigation channel of -14 m towards one of the main bulk terminals within the port area.Jan De Nul Group faced challenging weather and soil conditions during the execution of the project.

Jan De Nul Group, the international  dredging company, said that the maintenance dredging works in the marinas of Nieuwpoort on the Belgian coast got underway.“What makes this project so unique, are the CO2-reducing measures taken by Jan De Nul Group. An example for the industry and future dredging works in Europe,” said a press release from the company. "Its an example for the industry and future dredging works in Europe."The maintenance dredging works in Nieuwpoort entail the dredging works in the port access channel and in the marinas. A large part of the dredging works are executed by means of the Cutter Suction Dredger Hendrik Geeraert and the split hopper barges Magellano and Verrazzano.Earlier this year, Jan De Nul Group announced its commitment to emit 15% less CO2 on this project.

The leader of a Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday that Italian authorities had refused to grant port access to its Open Arms ship, leaving the vessel stranded in rough conditions in the Mediterranean with more than 70 African migrants on board.The 73 migrants were picked up from a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya on Wednesday night.Italy has allowed the ship to enter its national waters to shelter from a storm but has refused to let the vessel dock, the charity said.Open Arms Mission Chief Ricardo Gatti, who is onboad the ship, said the organization has requested to land in Italy and Malta but has been denied permission.

American, Australian-Domiciled global ship building company  Austal Limited said that its latest USA-made Navy vessel was officially christened during a ceremony Saturday at the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.The future USNS Newport, the Navy’s 12th Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) vessel, was honored during a ceremony featuring the traditional breaking of a champagne bottle on the side of the ship by its sponsor, Charlotte Marshall of Newport, R.I.Newport is the twelfth of fourteen EPF’s that Austal has under contract with the U.S. Navy, 10 of which have been delivered with the remaining 4 in various stages of construction.Austal Limited Chief Executive Officer David Singleton said the Expeditionary Fast Transport is a successful…

The greening of America’s energy signature will not come without the usual discussions, regulatory oversight – and opposition from a raft of special interests.Amidst an atmosphere of possible resurgence in the domestic offshore oil energy, maritime stakeholders are also reminded that there is more than one kind of energy available for development off the four collective coasts of the United States. That process is underway in the Great Lakes; it has already happened off of New England.

The International Maritime Organization approved the Bering Strait and Bering Sea ship routing measures proposed by the United States and Russian Federation. Taking effect Dec. 1, 2018, the six two-way routes and six precautionary areas are the first internationally recognized ship routing measures the IMO has approved for polar waters. In November 2017, the U.S. and Russia proposed a system of two-way routes for vessels to follow in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea in response to increased shipping traffic there. “We have observed a steady increase in Arctic shipping activities over the last decade, and these routing measures were jointly developed in response to this increased activity,” said Mike Sollosi, the chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Standards Division. Located in U.S.

Japan has told the United Nations about a North Korean tanker spotted in the East China Sea that it suspects was engaged in a transfer of goods with another tanker in defiance of U.N. sanctions, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles capable of hitting the United States has spurred deepening U.N. Security Council sanctions and stoked fears of a military conflict. According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the North Korean-flagged tanker "Rye Song Gang 1" - blacklisted by the United Nations last month for carrying banned cargo - was spotted by a Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force patrol plane with the Dominican-flagged tanker "Yuk Tung" tied up beside it in the East China Sea on Saturday.

More than 10,000 people killed in Yemeni conflict. The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it would keep Yemen's Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port open for a month, despite a fresh missile attack at Riyadh, but it kept up air strikes that killed at least nine people. The Western-backed coalition, which controls Yemen's airspace and port access, said last month it would allow humanitarian aid through Hodeidah following a nearly three-week blockade imposed because of a missile attack towards the Saudi capital's international airport. The Saudis say the Red Sea port, which is Yemen's main entry point for food and humanitarian supplies, is also a hub used by the Iran-allied Houthi rebels to bring in weapons.

The construction of the new port and logistics hub in Tema will have huge benefits for the Ghanaian economy and the livelihoods of Ghanaian people when opened in 2019. As part of the port master plan, APM Terminals Inland Services Africa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Government of Ghana, and the non-profit road safety organization Amend to ensure port access roads and highways that will handle the inland transportation are safe and able to handle increased traffic flow. APM Terminals Head of Africa Inland Services Peter Jakobsen, based in Ghana, attended the signing ceremony and said, “We wanted to start this…

There are a variety of jurisdictional lines in the water. The first line to be considered is the national boundary between two adjacent or nearby countries. Adjacent countries tend to draw agreed boundaries extending their shoreside boundaries, with accommodations for headlands, capes, etc. Most national boundaries have been agreed upon long ago. A few, though, are not officially resolved. Somewhat surprisingly, of the four marine boundaries between Canada and the U.S., three are still in dispute.

As most of  Hanjin Shipping Co's assets are stranded at sea or in ports world-wide, the the South Korean company is seeking to protect assets world-wide. Hanjin Shipping’s government-backed creditors are ready to provide the collapsed carrier with roughly 100 billion won ($90.60 million) of loans if Hanjin’s parent provides collateral, Fortune reports South Korean government officials as saying. Hanjin's collapse has left much of its fleet stranded at sea, unable to dock over fears that vessels be seized by creditors. According to BBC Seoul could give 100bn won ($91m; £68m) or more in long-term funding at low interest rates if Hanjin provided the necessary collateral.

The problems that collapsed South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping could be just the tip of the iceberg. Its fleet is either stuck in ports or unable to dock, with port authorities fretting that the company will not be able to pay its bills. According to Business Korea,  the company’s 53 vessels – 48 container ships and 5 bulk carriers – were stranded indefinitely or blocked from ports at home and abroad. One vessel was seized by the ship owner. Hanjin Shipping’s 47 containers ships and three bulk carriers are denied access to ports in Sri Lanka and Vietnam, following the U.S., China, Japan and Spain, while two other bulk carriers are stranded on the East Sea and the Mediterranean.