Bockstiegel News

Two German shipping companies that owned and operated the Motor Vessel (M/V) Nils B, pleaded guilty today to an environmental crime in federal court in San Diego before the Honorable Jan M. Adler, announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden and United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy. W. Bockstiegel Reederei GmbH  & Co. KG (which operated the vessel) and W. Bockstiegel GmbH & Co. Reederei KG MS “NILS B” (which owned the vessel), pleaded guilty to one felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to accurately maintain an oil record book for the M/V Nils B. In doing so, the firms failed to disclose that oil contaminated water had been discharged into the ocean from the vessel without the use of pollution prevention equipment.

The fight in the maritime satcom sector is somewhat analogous to the one fought by Apple and Microsoft in the early ‘80s: two tech companies, polar-opposite philosophies and a raging battle for market share. Market watchers  likely have noted an increased “competitive spirit” among providers of ship-to-shore communication services. •    the need to keep crew content with         Email, Internet & entertainment. A corporate driver for change has been Iridium, the McLean, VA-based…

Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) announces that German shipping company Reederei Werner Bockstiegel has selected Iridium Pilot(TM) to upgrade its shipping fleet with broadband communications. Globecomm Maritime, a long-standing Iridium partner, is offering Iridium Pilot as part of an upgraded "Telaurus se@COMM" communications package, and will manage the installation fleet-wide. "We're seeing a rapidly growing appetite among maritime customers to migrate from out-dated narrowband services to satellite broadband communications solutions," said Greg Ewert, executive vice president of global distribution channels at Iridium. "We are proud to expand our service to Reederei Werner Bockstiegel through our innovative partner Globecomm Maritime.

. The MAN B&W Diesel Group has won orders for engines from the successful 48/60B and 58/64 medium-speed series for eleven new container vessels at three Chinese shipyards. The recently ordered diesel engines are intended for the propulsion of container feeders from the German shipping companies Werner Bockstiegel, Hermann Buss and Peter Doehle. To date, a total of 101 MAN B&W engines, at a capacity of approx. one million HP, manufactured at the Augsburg location, have been ordered from China; 48 engines at a capacity of 400 000 HP during the course of this year alone. This gives the MAN B&W Diesel Group a dominant market share in medium-speed propulsion engines in China. These eleven engines will propel feeder vessels at a capacity of between 900 and 1 100 containers (TEU).

Rapidly rising prices for steel plate in China may be taking the edge off the financial performance at some Chinese shipbuilders. But it will take a lot more than that to undermine shipyards' dramatic expansion plans aimed at ensuring the country's builders produce more ships than any other nation by 2015. In the short run, however, the country's relatively inexperienced builders seem to have failed to read the steel supply signs. They have found themselves caught out by a number of factors driving up ship steel prices. These have risen by almost 60% over the last 30 months or so and now stand close to $400 a ton. On the one hand, soaring…

MAN B&W Diesel Group has revised their 32/40 engine series based on a number of innovations, the engine’s soot concentration was reduced under the visibility limit almost over the whole load range. At the same time, the fuel consumption sank. The company has now received two orders for the delivery of six 32/40 engines in total. Two 9L32/40 large-bore Diesel engines with an output of just under 5900 HP each will, by the end of the year, be built for the German shipping company Bockstiegel, Emden, delivered to China and installed in two new 502-TEU container vessels in the Jingling shipyard, Nanjing. In spring 2003, MAN B&W Diesel will deliver the engine components for four 7L32/40 (approx. 4600 HP) to the Spanish licensee IZAR in Cartagena.