When Fishing Boats Go Dark, They’re Often Committing Crimes – We Mapped Where It Happens
In January 2019, the Korean-flagged fishing vessel Oyang 77 sailed south toward international waters off Argentina. The vessel had a known history of nefarious activities, including underreporting its catch and illegally dumping low-value fish to make room in its hold for more lucrative catch.At 2 a.m. on Jan. 10, the Oyang 77 turned off its location transponder at the edge of Argentina’s exclusive economic zone – a political boundary that divides Argentina’s national waters from international waters, or the high seas. At 9 p.m. on Jan.
Reefers Riding Out Spot Rate Storm Better Than Dry Containers -Xeneta
Reefer spot rates are proving more resilient than dry container prices on exports from North Europe, with slow declines as opposed to dramatic drops. According to the latest market analysis from Oslo-based Xeneta, all main trades from the region have experienced falls over the past three months. However, unlike the dry market, the routes are still commanding higher rates than this point last year, pushing the reefer ‘premium’ over standard containers to new heights.Standing (relatively) strong “This reefer spot rate market is clearly not in the same straits as its dry sibling…
Hydrogen as Fuel: Possibilities, But…
Hydrogen is everywhere. You know that from high school chemistry. And you also know it from Marine News’ almost daily updates about H powered vessel projects around the world.As a fuel that could potentially replace fossil fuels, H is in the spotlight. Perhaps the brightest spotlight, at least in the U.S., is within the Department of Energy’s “Energy Earthshots” initiative.R&D on H was the first such Earthshot announced last year. DOE wants the “Hydrogen Shot” program to “accelerate…
USCG Report: Small Cutters Prove They Can Patrol a Big Ocean
The Coast Guard’s 353-ton, 154-foot fast response cutter (WPC) is capable of deploying independently to conduct missions that include port, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. The service plans to build 64 of them to replace the 110-foot Island class patrol boats. The FRC has a range of 2,500 miles, but the endurance of the 24 crewmembers is normally limited to about five days based on the quantity of provisions carried. Both the 110s and 154s have about the same speed and range…
Containershipping's Long-term Reefer Rates Soar to All-time Highs, says Xeneta
According to the latest crowd-sourced data from Xeneta, long-term rates for reefer containers on the key US West Coast to Far East route soared almost 60% in April.In its report Xeneta notes a surge in rates of around $2000 per 40-ft. unit after the latest 12-month contracts came to a close. The average contracted rate recorded on 15 May stood at $5850 per container, while the average for new agreements running from Q2 2022 to the end of Q1 2023 was even higher, at $5945 per 40-ft. reefer.“This is an almighty increase, pushing prices to an all-time high” said Patrik Berglund, Xeneta CEO.
VDL AEC Maritime Wins Order for SOx Scrubber Pair for Seatrade Groningen
VDL AEC Maritime received an order for the delivery of two retrofit scrubber systems to Seatrade Groningen BV. With this order VDL AEC Maritime extends its portfolio for the first time in their own home country, ánd to a Dutch ship-owner. The two SOx-scrubber systems will be delivered and installed before the end of 2022.Seatrade is an international shipping company with a global footprint, a leader in specialized refrigerated shipping and logistics. The globally established group of companies has its head office in Curacao and comprises a worldwide network of offices…
Ship Recycling Prices Continue to Defy Gravity
Prices across the Indian sub-continent ship recycling markets continue their impressive upward trajectory this week, as end buyers press on for any available tonnage, at levels well above $600/LT LDT, especially in the case of Bangladesh and a now firming Pakistani market.The summer months have brought with them a relative paucity of units, which is somewhat surprising given the record levels we are witnessing once again and the fact that the market has more than doubled in just the space of a year.Any supply of vessels is largely from the beleaguered tanker and offshore sectors, but there are
Swire Shipping Deploys MV Lae Chief on (NAX) Service
Swire Shipping deployed its first 2,750TEU newbuild, MV Lae Chief, on its upgraded North Asia Express (NAX) service. Launching the new fixed-day fortnightly service with her maiden voyage, the vessel made her first port call in Shanghai on November 5, 2020.The new 2,750-TEU vessel is fitted with three 45mt cranes capable of dual lifts enabling it to carry all cargo types, including breakbulk, out of gauge and reefers. With strengthened tank tops to 20 t/m², MV Lae Chief is capable of carrying breakbulk such as steel and forest products…
Chinese Ports Hit Capacity as Virus Tests Slow Clearing
Testing of imported foods for the new coronavirus is pushing capacity at some major Chinese ports to their limit, major shippers told customers this week, warning of additional fees and possible diversions to other ports.China stepped up inspections of imported food last month after an outbreak of the coronavirus among people working at and visiting a major food market in Beijing."Import container pick-up activities have been severely impacted and as a result reefer plugs are highly utilized especially at the port of Yantian and Ningbo," said German shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd in a customer noti
CMA CGM to Impose Emergency Surcharge at Cape Town Port
CMA CGM, the world's fourth-largest container shipping line, will impose emergency congestion surcharges at Cape Town port in July due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus, it has told customers.From July 1 until further notice, it will impose a surcharge of $550 for 20-foot containers and reefers and a $1,100 surcharge for 40-foot containers and reefers, CMA said in the letter dated June 17 that was seen by Reuters.Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, is the epicenter of South Africa's coronavirus outbreak…
China's Reefer Situation Improving
Chinese port workers have made progress to move a logjam of refrigerated containers that has disrupted supplies of fresh and frozen food and pushed up freight rates outside China amid the coronavirus outbreakFrench container carrier CMA CGM told customers on Friday that the reefer plug utilization has improved in Chinese ports, and almost all reefers diverted to other ports are in the process to be loaded back to their final destination.CMA CGM said it would cancel the port congestion…
China's Port Jam Eases, But Reefer Rates Soar
Severe congestion at Chinese ports is easing, say officials and industry participants, although a logjam of refrigerated containers has disrupted supplies of fresh and frozen food and pushed up freight rates outside China.Thousands of refrigerated containers carrying meat, seafood and fruit from around the world to China have been stuck for weeks at the country's ports after Beijing extended its Lunar New Year holiday and cities around the nation restricted free movement to curb…
Maersk Moves Indian Grapes to Europe
The global container company A.P. Moller – Maersk has started end-to-end cold chain logistics solution for its customers exporting grapes from Nashik and Sangli in India to North Europe.With this new offering, Maersk is enabling the exporters from the region to supply high quality Indian grapes to global market and helping fetch higher returns for the farmer community in and around the Nashik district. Leveraging its variety of services throughout the supply chain, Maersk is improving the overall turnaround time to North Europe by 4 days.Gearing up for the peak grape season and helping exporters based in Nashik, ‘The Grape Capital of India’…
Dunkirk Port Switches on Cold Ironing
French container line CMA CGM announced that its ship APL Singapura has inaugurated the cold ironing facilities of the Terminal des Flandres in the Port of Dunkirk.By plugging into an onshore electricity supply (also known as "cold ironing"), container ships calling at port can shut down their auxiliary engines while still getting the power they need, particularly in order to maintain controlled temperatures in refrigerated containers (Reefers).This innovative technology has significant environmental benefits, including: Zero emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides and fine particles while ships are at berth, and significantly reduced noise pollution.The cold ironing system installed at the Terminal des Flandres will become fully operational during the first half of 2020.
HHI Power System Maximzes Ship Efficiency
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group is to maximize the ship efficiency for Very Large Container Ships (VLCSs) with its latest technology to simplify the power system.HHI and Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) announced that Norwegian-German classification society DNV-GL recently awarded an Approval in Principle (AIP) for the South Korean shipbuilder’s multi-grid design of the power system for 15,000-TEU container ships.The key feature of this latest design is the…
Aarhus Terminals Forecasts Record Volumes
The international container terminal operating company headquartered in The Hague, APM Terminals said that its terminal at Aarhus, Denmark has broken records for reefer volumes, despite murmurings of global downturns. The company attributes it’s growing reefer business to its flexible approach.The latest figures for the terminal, August year-to-date (YTD), show an increase of more than 4% in reefer volumes compared to the same period in 2018. Helle Almind, Head of Commercial for APM Terminals sees signs of the trend continuing, with an extremely strong start to September, and higher volumes forecast until the end of the year.This month the terminal also beat its existing record for the number of reefers loaded onto one service.
Boluda Tows World’s Largest Container Ship
Tugs from Boluda Towage Spain, the towing division of Boluda Corporación Marítima, have recently towed the largest container ship in the world in and out of the port of Algeciras.Built this year, the MSC MINA a has 23,756 TEU capacity and is powered by 228,741 GT. The ship called at the port of Cadiz during its maiden voyage from the Chinese port of Xingang to northern Europe, a service operated jointly with Maersk.The containership with the greatest container-holding capacity in the world was towed upon arrival at the Bay of Algeciras on 4 September by the tugboats VB JUANGONZALEZ, VB TITAN, VB TRON and VB ANDALUCIA, all belonging to the Boluda Towage Spain fleet in Algeciras.After unloading the containers with the help of six cranes…
ONE Expands Reefer Fleet
Container line Ocean Network Express (ONE) is adding another 6,000 refrigerated containers (reefers) to its fleet as the trade continues to outperform that for conventional boxes.The new Reefer would expand its current refrigerated container (reefer) fleet of 240,000 TEU. Reefers include 500 units equipped with advanced Controlled Atmosphere (CA) technology which slows down the respiration and ripening process to maximize the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.These reefer containers will be made available for accepting new bookings towards end of the year to meet reefer peak season global demand around the world.ONE has one of the largest…
SCCT Announces Reefer Repair Hub
The Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT), strategically located at the mouth of the Suez Canal in Egypt, has announced its intention to open its reefer container inspection and repair hub to all brands. The terminal will also launch a dry container inspection and repair hub in October 2019.Until just over a year ago, the terminal faced unnecessary costs for moving and repositioning reefer containers with damaged panels or defects that hadn’t been recorded, said a press release from the APM Terminals, which holds majority stake in SCCT.Since it opened its reefer container inspection and repair hub for Maersk containers around a year ago, the terminal has inspected close to 30,000 reefers.
Sea Shepherd, Namibia Fight Fisheries Crime
The Namibian Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) compliance officials and Sea Shepherd, onboard the Ocean Warrior, have jointly carried out successful surveillance activities in Namibia`s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), effectively causing illegal factory trawlers to abandon the Skeleton Coast.The main objective of these joint patrols was to tackle Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in Namibian waters. These initiatives assisted the MFMR and other Namibian law enforcement agencies to force illegal and foreign industrial factory trawlers out of the Namibian EEZ suspected to have targeted horse mackerel stocks through IUU activities.Large foreign industrial factory trawlers – former Soviet Union made trawlers - have been ‘border hopping`…
Hapag-Lloyd Orders 13,000 Reefers
German-based cargo container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd AG has placed a record order for 13,420 refrigerated containers, known as reefers, which are set for delivery in November 2019.A statement from the fifth biggest container shipping line in the world by market share said that production of 970 20-foot containers and 12,450 40-foot containers is already scheduled to commence as early as July.Delivery of the refrigerated containers, which have traditionally been white as opposed to Hapag-Lloyd’s orange standard containers, is set for November 2019 – or right in time for reefer season, as that is when harvest season begins in countries in the southern hemisphere.It will primarily be fruits and vegetables – such as blueberries…
MSC to Boost Costa Rican's Export
Swiss-based shipping line MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company is improving trade links between Costa Rica and northern Europe by adding a new direct call from the Port of Moin.The container shipping that operates in all major ports of the world said in a press release that MSC Katya R. has become the largest vessel to call Moin Terminal in Costa Rica, launching a new era in cargo shipping for the port and for exporters using its facilities.MSC’s service will bring larger container ships with more capacity to carry refrigerated produce on transatlantic routes to European and Asian markets.MSC Katya R. will operate on the company’s Ecuador Service…
ZIM Expands Refrigerated Container Fleet
The Israel-headquartered container carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM) is expanding its ZIMonitor containers fleet in 2019 and adding advanced “Star Cool” containers manufactured by Maersk Container Industry (MCI).MCI informed that it has secured an order of 500 Star Cool Integrated Reefers from ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, establishing a strong relationship with the customer.For decades, ZIM has been offering advanced transport of fruit, meat, medicines, and other frozen or refrigerated cargo to its customers. The new MCI “Star Cool” containers have the refrigeration unit integrated directly into the container box. This design has several advantages…