Acceptable Solution News

IMO’s 2050 deadline to reduce GHG emissions 50% from 2008 levels has set off a gold rush to develop Zero Emissions SolutionsClimate change is the biggest issue facing [all aspects of] the maritime industry, said Kitak Lim, IMO secretary general, in an interview earlier this year with Maritime Reporter & Engineering News. He predicted that shipping could experience as much change in the next 10 to 20 years as it has in the last 100 years, as the industry races to meet a number of challenges…

Earlier this year in New York City the Exhaust Gas Cleaning System Association (EGCSA) held its annual meeting to discuss the business, technologies and future of scrubbers as a solution to the looming IMO 2020 fuel rules. At the meeting, Maritime Reporter & Engineering News was afforded the opportunity to pick the brains of several leading executives to help understand the challenge and promise that scrubbers provide. In October 2016 a landmark decision was handed down from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which set January 1…

The design of many DP vessels dates back to a time when there was limited understanding of how to make closed bus power plants fully fault tolerant. This resulted in a number of potentially costly incidents. This poor incident record eventually led to many operators preferring to operate with open bus-ties, especially for critical DP operations. In addition to cost and fuel efficiency burdens, open bus-ties can impose other restrictions on a vessel’s ability to carry out its industrial mission, often resulting in otherwise avoidable downtimes.

IMO/adopted guidelines for the mandatory carriage of damage stability verification instruments (software, computers, etc.) onboard all (new and existing) tankers beginning in January 2016. IMO has adopted guidelines and applicable IMO Code amendments for the mandatory carriage of damage stability verification instruments onboard new and existing tankers. Amendments to MARPOL Annex I, BCH Code, IBC Code, IGC Code and to the Survey Guidelines under HSSC to mandate the provision of a computer program capable of calculating the applicable damage stability requirements were agreed.

Thordon Bearings has signed a contract to supply COMPAC seawater-lubricated propeller shaft bearing solutions to two Jones Act containerships under construction at the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard Inc. (APSI) for Matson Navigation Company, Inc. The order represents the first large containership reference for the manufacturer and the largest commercial ship propeller shafts to be fitted with COMPAC bearings, Thordon noted. The 3600TEU Aloha Class vessels, the largest Jones Act containerships ever built…

Russia and France are close to reaching an agreement for Paris to cancel a frozen contract on the sale of Mistral helicopter carriers and reimburse Moscow, a Russian source close to talks indicated on Friday. France suspended the delivery of the warships last year after the European Union decided to impose sanctions on Russia over the separatist conflict in neighbouring Ukraine. French President Francois Hollande, who was holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Friday, suggested on Wednesday that Paris could cancel the contract and reimburse Moscow. Putin had said the previous week that Moscow would not impose penalties on France over the 1.2 billion euro ($1.29 billion) deal if all costs incurred by Russia were reimbursed.

APM Terminals Mumbai established a new record for Indian ports by handling a total of 2.01 million TEUs during the Fiscal Year of 2014-15, representing the period between April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. APM Terminals Mumbai is one of three terminals currently operating at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), India’s largest container port, accounting for 45% of JNP’s throughput, and approximately 20% of India’s total container traffic. Larger vessels of the 9,000 TEU capacity class have begun calling APM Terminals Mumbai since 2013. The deepening of the Mumbai harbor channel in 2014 combined with an increase in the vessel size and container volumes are contributing factors to the growth.

GasAtacama, energy provider to metal producers in Chile's Atacama desert, has lined up eight potential U.S. natural gas suppliers for a proposed import terminal on its Pacific Coast, but uncertainty about energy demand has delayed deals, CEO Rudolf Araneda told Reuters on Thursday. GasAtacama plans to build a $350 million offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that would take shipments of the fuel to help create 500 megawatts of electricity for power-hungry miners in the mineral-rich north.

Kvaerner, the international engineering and construction Group, today said that its Board, in an extraordinary meeting last night, decided that there is a basis for continuing operations until shareholders vote over the proposed refinancing of the Group at an Extraordinary General Meeting on November 29. In negotiations over the last two days, a basis has been established for the necessary funding of the Group until the end of November – amounting to NOK 250 million. The necessary liquidity will be secured through new loans from the Group’s major banks and, additionally, an amendment to the payment terms for a major ongoing project. The new loans will be established against a standstill agreement previously negotiated as part of the long-term refinancing.

In line with the strategy decided by the Board, Frontline Ltd. is currently in the process of establishing a separate entity to develop the company's heavy lift activity. Such a company will include up to six single hull Suezmax vessels. Five of these vessels are on long term leases from Ship Finance International Limited, and a deal is subject to reaching a mutually acceptable solution with Ship Finance International Limited for a purchase of these vessels. One vessel is currently being converted to a heavy lift vessel at Cosco shipyard in China and will be completed in April 2007. One further firm contract has been signed for a second vessel to be delivered in August 2007, and optional conversion contracts are in place with the yard for up to four more vessels.

Created just three years ago, Chartco embraces a small company's flexibility and innovative attitude but is supported by a big company bankroll. Dr. Andy Norris, Chartco's managing director, recently spent some time with MR/EN to discuss the present and future of electronic charts. The realization of electronic charts replacing their paper brethren has been slow in coming, to say the least. For a number of technical, political and economic reasons, the fight to develop and implement a universally acceptable solution and standard has yet to be accomplished. This is not to say, though, that tremendous strides have not been taken, as the quantity and quality of electronic charting products and systems has grown exponentially in recent years. Despite the numerous stops and starts, Dr.