Operating System News

The Great Lakes Towing Company (GLT) has hired Salvadore Menoyo for its business development team.Sal has been named Vice President-Special Projects, reporting to Joe Starck, President of GLT. He will be based in Jacksonville, Fla. and use his extensive experience and expertise to identify, develop and manage new business opportunities on the East Coast, including the Gulf and Puerto Rico. In this new role, Menoyo will work with internal and external customers and build relationships with partners and other prospects to bring value and growth to the company.Menoyo…

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…

Marlink renewed its agreement with Intelsat for supply of Ku-band capacity. Via the deal, Marlink will deliver the capacity to users within its hybrid digital network, available to customers across maritime, energy and enterprise sectors. The agreement includes the future use of satellites with a software-defined operating system, improving precision of signal delivery and a highly stable quality of service.The agreement covers global distribution of capacity within the network provided by Marlink and joint development initiatives to prepare users for software-defined satellite (SDS) services.

There is no shortage of challenges confronting the U.S. barging industry, and executives such as Mike Ellis, CEO at American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), are leading their companies past hurdle after hurdle. The Jeffersonville, Ind.-based company, which owns a fleet of approximately 150 towboats and moves a fleet of some 4,500 barges (including roughly 3,500 operated by ACBL), is focusing on factors it can control while planning and investing for the future.The weatherMother Nature is often unkind to the barging industry.

Palantir Technologies signed a deal valued at $20 million over five years to expand its partnership with South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, one of the world's largest shipbuilding conglomerates. The conglomerate's shipbuilding affiliates including Hyundai Heavy will use Palantir's operating system, known as Foundry, to strengthen data-driven decision making, said Palantir's Chief Operating Officer Shyam Sankar.Companies in the export-driven economy, faced with supply chain snarls and volatility for raw material prices…

The possibility now exists for ships to navigate the globe with no one at the helm. This capability has been demonstrated in the United States, Europe and Japan by autonomous workboats, survey vessels, and coastwise voyages by autonomous cargo vessels and ferries with the development of larger vessels capable of making trans-oceanic voyages coming soon. Despite this new reality, aside from a patchwork of voluntary best practices, there are no international standards for the safe design…

Korean Register (KR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ship management company KLCSM and shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) to jointly research and approve the application of autonomous navigation systems for mid- to large-sized vessels.The agreement, which was signed on June 23 at this year’s Korea Ocean Expo in Incheon, Korea, aims to accelerate the commercialization and international competitiveness of domestic autonomous ship equipment and technology…

Marlink said it has reached the 1,000 ship milestone for ITLink Monitor, its solution for simplified IT system monitoring and compliance.Marlink said its ITLink has been attracting interest from shipowners and managers in response to IMO2021 regulations, requiring ships to demonstrate procedures for maintaining cyber hygiene as well as much stricter voluntary schemes which require demonstration of KPIs for system patches and updates.Of the 1,000 ships using ITLink Monitor, 400 have already supplemented it with ITLink’s advanced managed services that provide enhanced cyber security functions…

Marlink said it has expanded its ITLink portfolio with the addition of two new service options to simplify remote IT management and support cyber compliance.The company has rebranded its remote IT solution KeepUp@Sea to ITLink and further enhanced the suite of solutions with both entry-level and advanced IT solutions.ITLink, which has already been installed on more than 1,000 vessels, allows ship operators on shore to centrally manage and update their entire fleets of thousands of PCs in one-go…

Recent cyber attacks to the US Government, the IMO, Maersk, amongst others has caused the world to pay attention to criminal cyber activities by foreign states, terrorists, and criminals. The cyber attack against CMA CGM shut down services for close on two weeks. Two days later, on October 30th the IMO was held hostage by a cyber attack. These attacks follow attacks earlier this year against MSC and COSCO.As of January 1, 2021 all vessels that have a safety management system must address cyber security in order to maintain ISM certification.

DP World Antwerp Gateway has ordered a fleet of 34 Automated Stacking Cranes for its container terminal in Antwerp, Belgium. The Konecranes Gottwald ARMGs will be an expansion to the current fleet of 20 currently in operation. The first batch will be delivered in Q2 2022, the last batch by 2026. This order was booked in December 2020.DP World Antwerp Gateway was very motivated to continue their current operating concept, using their current ASC system delivered by Gottwald in 2006.

Raytheon Anschütz launched a new ECDIS in January 2021, the ECDIS NX Compact, which is a preconfigured system of a 24-inch panel-pc and the ECDIS NX software that is designed to make installation and operation easier and safer. Optimized for ECDIS retrofits, the panel-pc is equipped with interfaces for Ethernet and IEC 61161-1 (NMEA). With a software installation wizard and selectable standard configurations for newbuilding and retrofit installations, the operating system and the ECDIS software install semi-automatically…

Retrofits of new features into existing ports cranes can produce operational efficiency and safety gains not included on cranes delivered 15-20 years ago, including Ship-to-Shore (STS) Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) and Rail Mounted Gantry (RMG) types. Here, Dmitry Lapin, Knowledge and Development Manager, Port Services, Konecranes, looks at retrofit options proven in applications internationally.Sooner or later, the owners of ports cargo handling equipment are going to face a number of technical and organizational questions about the future.

Entry-level version of ITLINK management and monitoring software suite simplifies regulatory compliance for vessel and shore teamsMarlink has announced the release of a new stand-alone entry version of its ITLINK software, designed to improve transparency in monitoring and reporting of the status of IT networks onboard ships. The new monitoring tool enables shoreside teams or administrators to view the IT system status and availability, providing visibility on compliance with regulatory and charterer requirements.Starting in 2021…

Wärtsilä said it will install its Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) solution at Peru's main harbor, one of Latin America’s most important ports.Dense fog and haze are a consistent challenge for Callao’s port operations, often making shipping conditions dangerous. Wärtsilä said its VTS solution will provide the technology needed to ensure uninterrupted port operations, while increasing safety levels and facilitating arrival, docking and departures for visiting ships.The technologies to be deployed by Wärtsilä includes solid-state IALA Advanced radar…

The official grand opening of the Port Canaveral vehicle processing facility was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the arrival of 730 new vehicles aboard the 653-foot-long vessel Wisteria Ace, the first vehicle carrier to call at the Port’s facility. The new automobiles were discharged at the Port’s 16-acre auto processing facility located alongside South Cargo Pier 4. Another carrier is scheduled to arrive next week with more than 850 new autos aboard.“A port-operated…

Port of Salalah, the largest port in Oman, hit an all-time record container volume of 4-million TEUs in December 2019.Considering all services and volumes that were re-directed to other ports due to the impact of Cyclone Mekunu in 2018, the Port of Salalah has also achieved a 19% year-on-year volume growth, said a press note from the port, which is situated in the Dhofar Governorate, on the Arabian Sea which is on the northern part of the Indian Ocean.The concerted efforts of employees and the support of stakeholders have been reinforced by significant incremental capital expenditure as part of the company’s asset replacement and capacity augmentation program.“We are proud of the achievement of the team,” says Mark Hardiman, CEO of Port of Salalah.

Kalmar, the provider of cargo-handling solutions and services to ports and terminals,  is delivering two rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) with hybrid drivelines for Exolgan S.A. container terminal in Buenos Aires, Argentina.The order that follows the delivery of four hybrid RTGs to the terminal this December, was booked in Cargotec's 2019 Q4 order intake with delivery scheduled to take place in late 2020, said a press release from the unit of Cargotec.The Exolgan terminal in Buenos Aires is a container-handling port terminal with strategic road, rail and river transport connections. Exolgan Container Terminal is owned by International Trade Logistics (ITL)…

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced today leadership changes at its Ingalls Shipbuilding and Newport News Shipbuilding divisions.Premo Sabbatini has been promoted to vice president of central planning and process excellence at Ingalls Shipbuilding. He succeeds Rick Spaulding, who has accepted a position as vice president of business process standardization at Newport News Shipbuilding.Sabbatini will transition from Ingalls’ amphibious assault ship (LHA) program, where he is the program manager, later this year.

With the release of DNV GL’s Sesam Insight application, which provides shared 3D models among all stakeholders, costly barriers in offshore engineering are removed.When analysis models and data are stored in several places, there is a risk of costly and time-consuming information exchange between the involved players, such as owners, operators, contractors and regulatory bodies. This lack of transparency can lead to issues during the verification process, and uncertainty about the status and quality of project work.In some cases, knowledge and data remain with contractors instead of asset owners, and data recovery costs can be high.With the release of the Sesam Insight solution from DNV GL…

The provider of terminal operating system (TOS) solutions Tideworks Technology announced cooperation activity with Liebherr Container Cranes Ltd. (LCC), a manufacturer of container cranes, regarding their solutions to the container handling industry.According to a press note, this is Tideworks’ first cooperation with an equipment manufacturer and demonstrates a progression of its efforts to provide the global supply chain with next-generation TOS solutions and innovative options that include both software and hardware in a harmonized approach.The cooperation will allow terminal operators to leverage tightly integrated TOS and lifting equipment in future offerings.“We are excited to collaborate with Liebherr…

APM Terminals, an international container terminal operating company headquartered in The Hague, has commenced the global rollout of an advanced application monitoring solution, capable of spotting issues with performance before they start to negatively impact operations.The new solution, which has already been rolled out to 11 terminals, will ensure business continuity, improve terminal efficiency, and safeguard consistency (peak moves per hour) by ensuring that applications consistently operate at the speed they’re supposed to. It will also prevent minor problems from combining to cause a major outage.According to APM Terminals Global Capability Manager…

Guatemala’s Superintendence of Tax Administration (SAT), customs entity, has recognized APM Terminals Quetzal’s transparency and security through its accreditation as an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO). The terminals achieved a 100% compliance rating.The terminal uses a state-of-the-art terminal operating system to optimize security, control and cargo management. It also enables customs and customers to work together as efficiently as possible.Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) recognized the terminal’s compliance with international and local security standards, customs legislation and regulations in areas such as administrative processes and document management…