Baltic Sea Coast News

The first vessel carrying LNG for Germany's Baltic Sea terminal of Mukran arrived on Saturday for a test operation as the country steps up its quest to replace Russian pipeline gas.Private company Deutsche ReGas said that Energos Power, a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), had moored at the terminal on Ruegen Island, having received approval from local authorities.Germany has intensified its quest to increase LNG capacity for regasification on its shores, as European countries seek to reduce their heavy reliance on Russian gas following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The tests will

Germany cannot be relaxed about the need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the Baltic Sea, a high-ranking economy ministry official said on Monday, a week after plans emerged to scale down the region's Mukran project after local resistance. "We should not be relaxed about supply security in the next winter," said Stefan Wenzel, a parliamentary state secretary in the ministry led by Robert Habeck of the Green Party. "We cannot afford to be unprotected and we also have…

S5 Agency World (S5) signed a contract with Deutsche ReGas to act as terminal agent at its new Deutsche Ostsee LNG terminal at Lubmin Port, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. The new LNG terminal will process LNG imports into Germany and has a regasification apacity of up to 5.2 bcm of natural gas per year. The agreement will see S5 Agency World managed the incoming clearance, pilot coordination and necessary paperwork for three shuttle tankers working between a floating storage unit moored near the port in the Baltic Sea and the floating regasification vessel Neptune at the Lubmin terminal.

The German government made an offer to buy the insolvent MV Werften's Rostock shipyard for its navy, a defense ministry spokesperson said on Friday, in a move to top up capacities for repairing and servicing war ships.Germany, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been scrambling to bring its military back in shape after decades of attrition following the Cold War.In a major policy shift, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged in February to sharply increase defense spending, including an initial 100 billion euro ($106 billion) fund to fill gaps in weapons and other military equipment.The d

The Polish government and the Polskie LNG company signed a grant agreement on 24 April for the extension of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Świnoujście, in north-western Poland on the Baltic Sea coast.Almost EUR 128 million from the European Regional Development Fund is invested in extending this terminal, which is the only facility of its size in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said: "The extension of the Świnoujście terminal will help diversify natural gas supply sources and improve the country’s energy security. This is a new example of the Energy Union in motion, supported…

Despite the persistently challenging market environment, German terminal operator Eurogate managed to close the 2018 financial year with stable container handling volumes.In 2018, the Bremen-based group managed to handle a total of 14.1 million TEUs at its twelve locations in and around Europe.The volume of intermodal container transports increased by 2.8 per cent to around 1.05 million TEUs.At the Eurogate Group’s five German terminals, the previous year’s handling figures were confirmed. Overall, 7.76 million TEUs were handled here in 2018 (-0.2 per cent, 2017: 7.78 million TEUs).At a good 5.48 million TEUs, the Bremerhaven container terminals recorded a throughput almost on a par with 2017 (-1.3 per cent, 2017: 5.54 million TEUs).

The international conference on maritime security and defense (MS&D), held for the seventh time in Hamburg during the SMM maritime trade fair, focused on current and future challenges to maritime security and defense. Twenty naval, industrial and science experts discussed topics such as how to protect international ocean trading routes, when and how to deploy naval forces on crisis missions, as well as cyber security issues.The welcome address opened the event with somber words as Rear Admiral Thorsten Kähler…

Damen Oskarshamnsvarvet informs it has won a contract for the refit and repair works of a Swedish ferry from Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration). Awarded after a public tender process, the contract refers to the Castella, a 77-meter-long Ro-Ro ferry. Damen Oskarshamnsvarvet, part of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, will complete the works between November 2017 and March 2018. Trafikverket, the Swedish governmental body responsible for national infrastructure, operates more than 40 different ferry routes that mobilize more than 60 ferries.

MAN Diesel & Turbo and MV Werften have concluded a contract to equip two Global Class cruise ships for Star Cruises. With a registered tonnage (RT) of 200,000 tons each, the ships will be some of the largest on the market and will each be equipped with six type 48/60CR engines with a combined output of 96,000 kW. The ships are scheduled for delivery in 2020 and 2021. The customer and recipient of these ocean-going giants, which will operate in China and all over Asia, is the Star Cruises brand of Genting Hong Kong.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier Bomin Linde LNG said it has secured a capacity of 7,500 m3 LNG bunker supply vessel, the largest of its kind to date, via a time-charter contract signed with ship owner Bernhard Schulte on September 30, 2016. The vessel is chartered by a joint venture, established in November 2015, in which Bomin Linde LNG holds 90 percent. The remaining 10 percent are held by Klaipėdos Nafta, the owner and operator of the Klaipeda LNG import terminal. Upon the vessel’s commissioning slated for late 2018…

German shipbuilding has made a significant turnaround. The country’s shipbuilding industry has seen increases in the number of employees, orders and deliveries compared to 2013, according to the German Shipbuilding and Ocean Industries Association (VSM). The special shipbuilding sector drove this growth, as 20 of the 34 delivered new builds could be classified as high-quality special vessels or naval units. Although VSM announces its annual balance officially in May of each year, MR was able to obtain some early insights into the results.

Poland's biggest shipyard Stocznia Gdynia plans to list on the Warsaw and London exchanges next June and invest its IPO proceeds in further development, a company official said on Wednesday. Gdynia, which has shown interest in buying Masa-Yards of Finland and becoming one of the first large eastern European firms to invest abroad, is owned by its management and employees, the state treasury and several minority shareholders. Last year Gdynia, the world's fourth biggest maker of container vessels, bought the neighboring bankrupt Gdansk shipyard. "With the dynamic growth we are now experiencing, we can encounter logistical barriers and that is why we plan to use the money from the public offer exclusively for the company's development," an official said.

Poland boasts a varied and capable ship and boat building and repair base, a core of shipyards and marine equipment suppliers tested and proven to provide advanced marine solutions for owners both domestic and foreign. The companies, which constitute the Polish marine industry, are not unlike their colleagues from around the globe, in that the market forces of consolidation and competition continue to shape and re-shape the industry today. A sign of arrival was seen earlier this year, when Stocznia Gdynia was one of the more active participants in the push to purchase Kvaerner's two high-valued Masa-Yards facilities in Finland, and its announcement of an impending Initial Public Offering. The following serves as an update on Polish marine activities.