Float News

Australia’s Department of Agriculture (DAFF) has stated that testing has returned negative results for Lumpy Skin Disease and Foot and Mouth Disease, after over 150 cattle died on a voyage to Indonesia on Vroon’s Brahman Express.Australia has received confirmation from the Indonesian authorities that the export of live cattle from a particular registered establishment in the Northern Territory has been suspended pending further investigations to determine the cause of the deaths.The department continues to investigate…

Roll Group has cut steel for its latest addition, Roll Barge One, in Batam, Indonesia. Scheduled for delivery by ASL Yards in the third quarter of 2024, this marks Roll Group's entry into the barge market with its own assets."This is a new milestone in the history of our company," said Peter Rondhuis, CEO of Roll Group. "By entering the barge market with our own assets, where we have been servicing our clients so far with rented barges, we're aligning with our strategic vision. Roll Barge One represents the first of many we plan to build.

German container shipper Hapag-Lloyd said on Thursday the global oversupply of container ships and a crisis in the Red Sea will force it to cut costs in 2024, adapting sailings and ports following a bruising 83% fall in net profit.Ship operators face prolonged disruption while Yemen-based Houthi militants are attacking vessels travelling on one of the world's busiest routes, wiping out the benefit from higher freight rates with costly redirections around Africa.Hapag-Lloyd's problems chime with those of competitors such as Maersk and CMA CGM, exacerbated by the arrival of additional ships orde

Frank Manning has quickly risen through the ranks during his eight years in the shipyard business, today serving as president and COO at Diversified Marine, Inc. (DMI) in Portland, Ore. Crucial along the way has been a passion for the business itself and the people that make it all possible.“The first day I walked in a shipyard I knew that I was in the right industry,” Manning said. “DMI has always been a relationship-based business. All of our customers are close friends, and we have relationships that are second to none,” he said.

German container shipper Hapag-Lloyd on Thursday posted a net profit of 3.2 billion euros ($3.43 billion) for the first nine months of 2023, down by 77% from a year earlier, and cut its forecasts for full-year earnings.Net profit was down from 13.8 billion euros in comparable 2022 when the shipping industry, a proxy for global trade, boomed amid post-pandemic recovery and because logistics disruptions drove up prices for consumers.This year, the global economic slowdown and the clearing of port log-jams sent freight rates down sharply…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced over $653 million to fund 41 port improvement projects across the nation under the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP).The investments—part of the largest dedicated funding for ports and waterways in history, nearly $17 billion through the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—are intended to help grow capacity and increase efficiency at coastal seaports, Great Lakes ports and inland…

A barge carrying three trucks and 2,000 empty cooking gas cylinders lies stranded on the vast sand banks of a diminished Rio Negro river after running aground last month, highlighting the plight of river transport in the Amazon region hit by severe drought.Officials warned that low river levels risk disrupting grains exports from nearby farm states. On the Madeira, they said barge routes used by grain firms such as Cargill, Bunge and Amaggi, are open but loads are being reduced as a precaution.Shipping and logistics group A.P.

Pacific Northwest aluminum boatbuilder BRIX Marine announced it has built a new whale watching vessel for Allen Marine Whale Watching Tours in Sitka, Alaska.The custom-built vessel Eagle is 48 feet long with an 18-foot beam, and its lightship weight is approximately 31,000 pounds.Powered by quad Suzuki 350-horsepower engines, the vessel boasts an array of features tailored to elevate the whale watching journey, BRIX Marine said. The vessel is constructed with 5086 alloy aluminum hull skins…

The Panama Canal will extend restrictions on ships' maximum depth, it said on Tuesday, and it has limited average crossings at one of the world's busiest trade passages to just 32 ships a day as a prolonged drought continues.The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) will maintain a depth limit of 44 feet, or 13.41 meters, for neo-Panamax container ships.In June, the authority put off further restrictions that would have brought depth limits up half a foot, meaning ships would have needed to lighten their loads to float higher.During Panama's rainy season…

The Panama Canal will postpone depth restrictions that were set to affect the largest ships crossing the key waterway, the canal authority said, after much-needed rain provided relief to the strained maritime passage.A series of measures were scheduled to go into effect on June 25 and July 9 requiring ships to float at higher depths, meaning they needed to carry less cargo or otherwise shed weight and impacting trade at one of the world's busiest commercial crossings.Panama's rainy season had been slow to give respite to a months-long drought.

The Panama Canal will expand restrictions on the largest ships crossing the waterway, one of the world's busiest trade passages, the canal authority's administrator said on Wednesday, citing shallower waters due to drought.The measure follows a series of depth restrictions in the 50-mile (80 km) canal since the beginning of the year due to a drought, which authorities had hoped would ease by the start of the Central American country's rainy season.Ship traffic, including container ships and oil tankers, using the canal between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean accounts for about 3.5% of glo

Search teams detected underwater sounds while scanning the North Atlantic for a tourist submersible that vanished with five people aboard during a deep-sea voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said early on Wednesday.The detection of the sounds by Canadian aircraft on Tuesday, day three of the search, was reported by the Coast Guard as the clock ticked down to the last 24 hours of the missing craft's presumed oxygen supply.Robotic undersea search operations were diverted to the area where the sounds seemed to originate…

Rescuers were in a race against time to find a missing submersible on Tuesday, two days after it lost communication while taking wealthy tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic in deep waters off Canada's coast.One pilot and four passengers were on board the submersible that disappeared on Sunday. The operating company said it had the capacity to stay underwater for up to 96 hours - giving those aboard until early on Thursday before air ran out.U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral…

This is going to be about whales, but it will actually be an engineering discussion rather than a nature discussion. Let’s start with an easy truth. Whale deaths due to offshore wind activities is utter nonsense. It has no basis in fact, and is a total fabrication by truly malicious characters.There, now let’s get into more interesting stuff. Whale deaths caused by humans is a complex issue that will never be solved completely, but, with careful adjustments, can be reduced. There is a possibility that occasionally there are whale COVID style epidemics that cause unusual levels of mortality…

With the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s financial muscle is beyond question. Howev-er, at a corporate level, the country’s capital markets offer a range of benefits to overseas companies seeking equity, debt … or both. Øivind Amundsen is CEO of Oslo Børs and, as you would expect, a strong advocate of the Norwegian capital as a place to raise money for marine-related projects. The diverse nature of the companies which are listed on the Børs, part of Europe’s largest stock exchange group…

German shipbuilder Meyer Werft has floated out its latest newbuild for Royal Caribbean's luxury cruise line Silversea Cruises.After water had filled the drydock at Meyer Werft's shipyard in in Papenburg, tugboats maneuvered the vessel Silver Nova from one of the world’s largest enclosed construction halls into the adjacent harbor, where the fitting out phase will continue. Meyer Werft’s craftspeople cleaned the ship’s hull, attached its funnel, and installed its liquefied natural…

Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible.Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep – roughly the height of an 18-story building – these “monopile” structures are pretty much out of the question.A solution has emerged that’s being tested in several locations around the world: wind turbines that float.In California…

One of the world's largest cruise companies Royal Caribbean Group announced it has signed a declaration with the aim to chart the way forward for innovative and sustainable shipbuilding in Finland.The declaration, signed with the Finnish government, represented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (MEAE) and shipbuilder Meyer Turku Oy, has been signed with the goal to advance innovation, strengthen competitiveness and bolster the maritime industry's ecosystem, U.S.

State oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plans to float its marine and logistics subsidiary in the coming months, two sources said, the second initial public offering of one of its businesses this year.ADNOC, which raised $2.5 billion from listing its gas business in March, is gearing up for a June listing of ADNOC Logistics & Services (ADNOC L&S), said the sources, declining to be named as the matter is not public.HSBC was appointed as joint global coordinator on the syndicate this week…

Shell's Penguins FPSO has set sail from China loaded aboard Boskalis' White Marlin semi-submersible heavy transportation vessel.In a social media post on Thursday, Boskalis said: "Boskalis’ semi-submersible transport vessel White Marlin departed from Qingdao, China with an impressive cargo; the 34,000-ton cylinder-shaped Shell Penguins FPSO. After a smooth and safe float-on and [seafastening] campaign, the vessel started her journey to Norway." At the time of writing, the White Marlin was sailing past the east coast of Taiwan…

Finland's Meyer Turku shipyard has floated out what it says is the world's largest and Royal Caribbean International’s most environmentally friendly cruise ship, Icon of the Seas.During the upcoming weekend, the ship will be moved to the outfitting dock, where its now fully assembled hull will be finished into "a magnificent cruise ship" during next year."Outfitting of the ship is a challenging job, the end result of which is to build an unprecedentedly versatile vacation possibilities on the ship.

Rivers are critical corridors that connect cities and ecosystems alike. When drought develops, water levels fall, making river navigation harder and more expensive.In 2022, water levels in some of the world’s largest rivers, including the Rhine in Europe and the Yangtze in China, fell to historically low levels. The Mississippi River fell so low in Memphis, Tennessee, in mid-October that barges were unable to float, requiring dredging and special water releases from upstream reservoirs to keep channels navigable.Conditions on the lower Mississippi may be easing somewhat…

NOV's Marine and Construction business unit has come up with a "new and flexible" Modular Service and Operations Vessel (MSOV) concept to "optimize offshore wind farm operations and maintenance." NOV says the vessel's features resemble those of a sea otter."The Enhydra series design characteristics resemble the sea otter's (Enhydra) unique and physical behavioral features. The sea otter is the sole marine mammal to use tools, and it uses its streamlined body design to efficiently perform deep dives to the seafloor and adapt its lung capacity to float effectively on the surface…