Steel Containers News

Shipping companies are transforming rust buckets into gold mines in a modern-day alchemy that could fuel already rampant inflation for years to come.The disruption to world trade caused by pandemic lockdowns and a shortage of new cargo vessels has pushed freight rates for ageing containerships to record highs.Cashing in on the boom, shipping firms are locking in long-term leases lasting three to four years, which means consumers could carry on paying the price for the surge in costs until hundreds of new ships on order come into service.Take the Synergy Oakland…

Take a look around you.Perhaps you’re snacking on a banana, sipping some coffee or sitting in front of your computer and taking a break from work to read this article. Most likely, those goods—as well as your smartphone, refrigerator and virtually every other object in your home—were once loaded onto a large container in another country and traveled thousands of miles via ships crossing the ocean before ultimately arriving at your doorstep.Today, an estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea…

Bulk shipping operations could soon return to the San Francisco Bay's Port of Oakland for the first time in 20 years. The Port said  it’s negotiating with a Canadian building materials shipper to transport sand and gravel here.The Port’s governing Board yesterday authorized talks with Vancouver-based Eagle Rock Aggregates. The firm seeks a vessel berth along with 20 acres of adjacent land at the Port’s Outer Harbor Terminal.Eagle Rock would use the property as a base for distributing sand and gravel for Bay Area construction sites. The firm said it wants a 15-year lease for one berth on Outer Harbor. Eagle Rock would ship sand and gravel from British Columbia to produce concrete for Bay Area builders.Oakland is one of the busiest container seaports in the U.S.

Thirty-six hours after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the port of San Juan was back up and running, scanning the incoming relief cargo as it arrived. Now, nearly a year after the historic storm, San Juan remains one of the most secure and efficient ports in the world, scanning and adjudicating cargo shipments at an unprecedented speed, with wait times similar to pausing at a stop light. It was the first and only port in the Western Hemisphere to scan near-100 percent of incoming containerized cargo (bulk, un-containerized cargo is not scanned).

Siegfried Schmerer already dreamed of becoming a captain as a young boy. Later, as a sailor on a coaster, he suffered from seasickness. Though he thought about giving up, he stuck with it and eventually worked his way up all the way to the bridge. After half a century at sea, Captain Schmerer will sail on his last voyage this September on board the Colombo Express. In Hapag-Lloyd Insights, he takes a look back at his career, such as at the long voyages to Australia in what was then the world’s largest general cargo ship or the 20-meter-high waves near the Azores.

A cargo ship abandoned by its crew with 359 Syrian refugees on board was towed ashore in Italy on Saturday in the second such rescue this week, prompting calls for stronger European Union action in the face of new tactics by human traffickers. The Ezadeen, a Sierra-Leone-flagged vessel that had set sail from Turkey, docked in the southern Italian port of Corigliano Calabro. The passengers, including 62 minors, were in good condition and were being transferred to immigration centres and foster homes across Italy, coastguard and police officials said. The decrepit vessel, licensed only to carry livestock, was strewn with steel containers, broken chairs, piles of garbage bags, empty gasoline tanks and scattered clothes and belongings.

After proving out its frac protection coatings in mobile and static frac and acid tanks, Castagra’s Ecodur veggie-plastic coating is being applied to one of the world’s largest offshore fracking ships in Houma, Louisiana. “This is major progress for us,” commented CEO, Peter Roosen. “Our coatings have proven themselves in the harshest possible scenarios in the land-based fracking industries in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Canada, especially with harsh acids. “Now we have entered offshore fracking where…

TT Club, established to fill a gap in insurance as the freight container revolutionized trade, celebrates 45 years dedicated service to the transport and logistics sector. In 1956, the first strengthened containers were loaded onto a spar deck of the converted tanker, Ideal X. This marked the fulfilment of a dream for American trucker Malcom McLean who had, since 1937, been working on how to reduce the long waiting hours for dockers to stow or unload his vehicles onto or off ships. The container age was quietly born.

Ray Holubowicz, Father of Shipping Containerization and founder of UK based Marine Ventures Ltd, Dies at 88. Romuald Paul, better known as "Ray" Holubowicz, a prime mover in the shipping industry's changeover to the use of shipping containers, died on New Year's Day in England. He was 88. A native of Cudahy, Wisconsin, Ray Holubowicz was in the first (1942) graduating class of the United States Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point, NY). After only a few months' training, he was…

In early 2012, a state-of-the-art Liebherr Mobile Harbour Crane, type LHM 550, marked the 40th delivery to the North American market. Of these machines 32 were delivered to the United States and 8 to Canada. Since 2006 a stable upward trend has been evident, especially in the United States. Since 2006 more than 20 Liebherr Mobile Harbour Cranes are guarantying highly efficient cargo handling throughout North America. The 40th crane delivered was purchased by the Maine Port Authority for their port in Searsport, ME USA.

The CMA CGM Group has just acquired another 18,000 new units, bringing its eco-container fleet to nearly 140,000 teus. For many years, the Group has attempted to minimize its impact on the environment through the following initiatives. Since 2005, the Group has been offering containers with bamboo floors. The result of a collaboration between CMA CGM and one of its main customers, these containers meet two objectives: to limit the use of wood from primary forest and to improve the technical qualities of the containers. Today, more than 10% of the Group’s fleet is equipped with this type of flooring. What’s more, the Group is currently testing new synthetic resin flooring.

CMA CGM Group announced the delivery, on March 18, in South Korea, of the CMA CGM Andromeda (11,400 Teu), the world’s first containership to be equipped with the state-of-the-art Fast Oil Recovery System designed to prevent marine pollution. Due to the interplay of judiciously placed pipes, this system allows, if need be, a fast recovery of the oils contained in the tanks without having to open a hole in the vessel’s hull. Initially designed for oil tankers, this device was adapted to containerships because of the joint efforts of CMA CGM’s New Buildings Department and the French company JLMD Ecologic Group. •    Pre-equipment allowing the use of alternative maritime power while at berth.

The Italian sub-sea construction service provider will begin offloading oil from the sunken tanker Solar 1 on March 14. Although Sonsub International expects the offloading to be an easy job, they assured that they have contingency plans in the event of another oil spill. Officials expect the offloading operations to last for about 25 days, but not shorter than 20 days, subject however to the amount of bunker fuel remaining in the ten cargo holds of Solar 1. It is estimated that by April 14, they will already be demobilizing their equipment. It's not that we want to stay any longer, we just want to ensure that each tank is empty of oil, he added. Sonsub will be bringing in Allied Shield for the operation, which will be conducted round the clock.