Industrial Groups News

The intergovernmental agreement signed between French and Italian States to establish Naviris, the joint-venture (JV) between the shipbuilders Naval Group and Fincantieri.This agreement makes the long term alliance launched by these two industrial Groups fully operational.The JV, owned equally by the two groups, will manage ambitious projects, including mid-term modernization of the Franco-Italian Horizon frigates, common R&D, export opportunities and the development of a European Patrol Corvette. “We welcome this intergovernmental agreement, which reinforces our joint-venture Naviris. We are delighted to be able to count on the support of both the Italian and French governments together with the Navies of our two countries to carry out our mission effectively”…

Flogas Britain, the UK’s leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) provider, and Stolt-Nielsen LNG Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen Limited (Oslo Børs: SNI), a leading global provider of bulk liquid transportation and storage solutions, announced a joint project to explore bringing LNG to areas of Scotland not served by the existing natural-gas grid. The initiative is a step towards reducing the cost of energy for homes and businesses located off the national gas network. LNG will be shipped by Stolt-Nielsen LNG via small-scale LNG carriers and stored in bulk at the Port of Rosyth, before being distributed by Flogas across Scotland by road tanker, mainly to industrial customers. At present, Scotland’s off-grid natural gas is delivered by road tanker from Kent, South East England.

ISU’s President weighs in on the current state of international salvage, a changing landscape and the need for mutual fairness from all stakeholders in the global salvage and response arena. The last three decades have seen a significant reduction in marine casualties which is to be welcomed by all. Better ships; better inspection and port state control; the SOLAS convention; improved operational practices, liability concerns – both civil as well as criminal – and better crew training have all played their part.

The Maharashtra state government has given approval to its comprehensive Maharashtra Port Development Policy for creating better facilities around 720 km coastal region of the state. A decision to constitute the Maharashtra Port Connectivity Corporation has been taken for development of ports and related projects. The New Port Development Policy 2015 has been planned to synchronise with ‘Make in Maharashtra’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ policies. Policy covers greenfield ports, jetties, coastal shipping and inland waterways, shipyards, coastal economic zones and facilitation for maritime projects. The state government has announced sops including concession on VAT, stamp duty, electricity duty, port tax and tariff.

A delegation of Middle East maritime heavyweights including H.E. Khamis Juma Buamim, chairman & group CEO Drydocks World and Maritime World and Rashid Mohammed Al Habsi, the chief executive of Tasneef, will attend the ‘Maritime Transportation of Energy and Mediterranean Ultra Deep Water Exploration’ event in Athens. On the sidelines of the event, the UAE delegation will meet with various industrial groups from Greece including those specialized in shipbuilding, repair and maintenance; maritime transport; ship owners and renewable innovations in ship design industry to explore avenues for mutual growth of the UAE and Greek shipping sectors, says a press release from the company.

In the presence of the Minister for Education, University, and Research Stefania Giannini, at the Auditorium at Villa Farnesina in Rome, Fincantieri, represented by its Chairman Vincenzo Petrone, today won one of the prizes in the Major Industrial Groups category during the National Award for Innovation ceremony. The prestigious prize was awarded to Fincantieri for promoting an innovation culture among youngsters and for having won the Andrea Pininfarina Award for Business Innovation, assigned by Confindustria. Now in its sixth year, the National Award for Innovation, better known as the “Prize of Prizes for Innovation”, is the most important award dedicated to “Made in Italy” innovations.

In large part, the wide-ranging reaction to President Barack Obama's signature effort to cut power plant carbon emissions could have been written months in advance. Key Republicans and many industrial groups decried it as a job-killing war on coal that would drive up power prices; environmentalists and many Democrats hailed it as a landmark measure making good on Obama's pledge to tackle climate change. Behind the bombast, however, more measured voices found a proposal that was not as severe as critics had feared nor as ambitious as proponents had hoped for. Basing the average 30 percent reduction on the year 2005 - near a high point for such emissions…

Cavotec strengthens US presence with ThyssenKrupp, Robbins orders for advanced cable & hose reels. The Cavotec engineering group has illustrated its rapidly growing presence on the critical US market with two important orders from leading industrial groups – ThyssenKrupp and The Robbins Company – for advanced cable and hose reels for applications in Saudi Arabia and Singapore. For ThyssenKrupp, Cavotec will manufacture explosion proof (Zone 21) Atex cable and hose reels, medium voltage cables, one Brevetti stainless steel circular power cable chain and related materiel. The equipment will be used to power indoor stacker and reclaimer machines that will handle coke and sulfur at an application in Saudi Arabia.

Aker Maritime, which wants wide-ranging link-ups with Kvaerner, proposed a new board for Kvaerner before a corporate showdown on Friday. Aker, the top shareholder in Kvaerner with 17.8 percent, put forward Pehr Gyllenhammar, chairman of Britain's biggest insurance group CGNU, as chairman of its proposed board. Kvaerner has said it opposes Aker's plans for link-ups. Gyllenhammar said he hoped he could help resolve the clash between the two Norwegian industrial groups but stressed he would be independent. "The new board will have a completely free rein to assess the best strategy for Kvaerner," he said. Last month, Kvaerner's own election committee proposed a new board led by former Christiania Bank chairman Harald Arnkvaern.