Federal Waterways And Shipping Administration News

The 2023 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to Caleb Halle, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class (AST2) of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). He was recognized for the outstanding courage, endurance and determination he showed during the rescue of the seven-strong crew of the tugboat Legacy in January 2023.AST2 Halle, based at the Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, received the award at the annual IMO Awards Ceremony in London. The ceremony…

Water levels on Germany's Rhine river are so low that some vessels cannot sail even when empty, a shipping cooperative said on Friday, although long-awaited rain has begun to ease bottlenecks on one of the country's main commercial routes.Weeks of drought across Europe and beyond have added to supply chain problems as vessels have had to lighten their loads to ensure they can travel along depleted water channels."Empty ships can no longer sail in some cases," Roberto Spranzi, director of the DTG shipping cooperative that operates about 100 cargo vessels on the Rhine…

Around 20 ships are stuck in traffic along Germany's river Rhine, where low water levels have already impeded shipping this summer, after a vessel's engine failure closed part of the waterway, authorities said on Wednesday.A vessel with a 1,660-ton load was forced to drop anchor due to an engine failure, closing traffic between St Goar and Oberwesel, river police said."It's backing up," a spokesperson for the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration told Reuters. "The berths are full all the way to Mainz." Mainz is about 50 kilometres south-east of Oberwesel.Downstream was affected more.

Boluda Towage's tug Bremen Fighter passed all administrative procedures and inspections to officially operate, as of February 21, its maritime salvage activity under the German flag.Bremen Fighter is displaying the official German coast guard colors, with a commitment to protect maritime safety in the eastern Baltic Sea, under the command of German Federal Waterway Authorities. Bremen Fighter, an offshore tug, is the most powerful tug in the Boluda Towage fleet.Earlier , the German…

Damen completes work on German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) diving bell shipDamen Shipyards Group has completed construction and outfitting of a diving bell ship for client FMSW Koblenz (Department Machinery Southwest) / operator WSA Rhine (Waterways and Shipping Office) according to schedule. Following her completion, the vessel has recently undertaken successful river trials.The on-time completion of the ship comes despite the challenging conditions posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Belgian dredging group DEME has been awarded a contract as part of a joint venture for the widening of the Kiel Canal in Germany.Two DEME subsidiaries are to carry out marine dredging works for the €99m (£84m) widening of a 4km stretch of the Kiel Canal. Works started in January 2020 and will run until the end of 2023.The Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, represented by the WSA Kiel-Holtenau, commissioned the joint venture with the construction work to expand 4 km of the eastern section of the Kiel Canal.The contract carries a total value of approximately EUR 99 million in which the DEME Group’s subsidiaries Nordsee Nassbagger…

Port of Hamburg announced that mega-ships will from now on find it easy to pass through the Elbe fairway.Vessels with a combined width of up to 98 meters can now pass each other in a widened section of the Elbe in Germany known as the “passing box.” The five-kilometer stretch now has a width of 385 meters, said the Port of Hamburg.“With the initial fairway widenings of the Elbe, meanwhile completed, we are on a good course, immediately improving the conditions for calls by mega-ships,” said Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing. “For shipping and our port customers, this is really gratifying news for the start of the year.” The holding area at Brunsbüttel has also been completed.

Schottel, a manufacturer of propulsion and steering systems for ships and offshore applications, said that the new diving bell ship from the Duisburg waterway and shipping authority (WSA Duisburg) is equipped with its propulsion units.Two rudder-propellers and a pump jet enable maximum maneuverability in narrow waterways, said a press release.The special vessel is being built at the Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Gorinchem. The order was placed by FMSW Koblenz for the federal waterways and shipping administration.The diving bell ship is powered by a total of three azimuth thrusters, two rudder-propellers and a pump jet. All systems are driven by electric motors.Both rudder-propellers type SRP 150 FP (330 kW each) have a ducted propeller diameter of 1.10 m…

The WSV (Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration) represented by the Waterways and Shipping Agency (WSA) Bremen, a branch of the German government, is transferring 67 ships into Lloyd’s Register (LR) class to support the seagoing fleet of vessels owned by the German Authorities. Following a successful tender for vessels under the departments of the Local Offices for Waterways and Shipping along the German Coast, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Federal Police and the Federal Customs, Lloyd’s Register EMEA in Germany is to class the fleet from 1 January 2017 under a five year block fee arrangement. "The decision to make Hamburg the centre for Marine and Offshore in the North European area shows how important this market is for Lloyd’s Register…

Allocation of funds for the widening of the Kiel Canal also boosts the Port of Hamburg’s competitiveness. At the beginning of June the Budgetary Committee of the German Federal Parliament allocated 265 million euros for the widening of the Eastern section of the Kiel Canal. In April, the committee had already approved 485 million euros for construction of a fifth lock in Brunsbüttel. To speed up the remaining planning and tendering for the widening, the first five million euros should be released this year. The Parliament has committed itself to an additional 260 million euros by 2019.

While economies across Europe have essentially bumbled, stumbled and fumbled in the wake of the global economic meltdown, Germany has remained comparitively strong. Despite the general migration of shipbuilding to the Far East, we decided to check in on the current status of this proud nation with a strong maritime heritage. German shipbuilders concentrated in 2012 on building cruise ships, megayachts, freight ferries and additional high-value, specialty ships. In total, nine German shipyards across 12 shipbuilding sites supplied 21 sea going ships with a total tonnage of 473,700.