Industry Groups News

Seafarers have the right to refuse to sail on ships passing through the Red Sea in a new industry agreement as the situation escalates and further vessels are attacked by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, a labor union and industry groups said on Friday.The Houthis have targeted commercial ships with drones and missiles in the Red Sea since mid-November in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians against Israel in the Gaza war.Seafarers remain in the firing line…

The union representing St. Lawrence Seaway workers in eastern Canada said it reached a tentative labor agreement on Sunday, ending a week-long strike that shut down a key North American trade route linked to the Atlantic Ocean.The Unifor union, representing some 360 workers, said it agreed to a deal with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp (Seaway) that would cover engineering, maintenance, and other worker groups in Ontario and Quebec provinces.Other details of the agreement, which would need to be ratified by the workers, were not shared.

Offshore services vessels are designed for myriad activities in the maritime industry. But as multifunctional assets, they not only offer utilitarian capabilities that are indispensable for commercial diving, subsea construction, mining, and countless other activities, they can simultaneously serve critical crisis response functions in the aftermath of a disaster.Chaos Ready Inc., a new non-profit marine industry initiative, quantifies and coordinates these versatile resources…

An area of the Indian Ocean near Somalia—once known as a piracy hotbed—has been removed from the shipping industry's list of high-risk areas following more than a decade of military, political, civil society and the industry measures to secure the waters. No piracy attacks against merchant ships have occurred off Somalia since 2018.On Monday, shipping industry groups International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), BIMCO, International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), INTERCARGO…

The U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday marked the end of the four-year Subchapter M certificate of inspection (COI) phase-in period for U.S.-registered towing vessels. Subchapter M, the United States regulatory code dealing with towing vessels and requirements for towing vessel safety, has officially been in place since July 2016, when the U.S. Coast Guard finalized the long-awaited Sub M rulemaking. The first COIs were issued in 2018, and all of the more than 5,000 U.S. domestic towing vessels must have valid COIs on board by July 19…

Tanker vessels may face challenges calling California when new emissions regulations take effect, according to a new DNV report.The report, commissioned by Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), indicates tanker vessels and terminals in California could struggle to meet the 2020 amendments to California Air Resources Board's (CARB) Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth Regulation. DNV's technology assessment looked at the feasibility of the current technologies developed around emissions…

The New York State Petroleum Business Tax (PBT), Article 13-A levies a tax on fuel consumption of commercial vessels operating on the waters of New York State. The PBT has long been a source of contention for operators of tug boats and towing vessels transiting New York State waters because of the difficulty to accurately calculate the tax due the state. This led to many long drawn out audits of vessel operators by the state, resulting in unacceptable additional taxes, interest and fines.Over the years, multiple efforts were made by industry groups to repeal the PBT legally without success.

After being very much on the margins of the offshore wind industry, floating offshore wind now appears to be ready to hit the mainstream. With gigawatt scale developments already on the horizon, what will the infrastructure needed to build and support them look like? Over the past 12 months, the floating offshore wind sector appears to have had a major dose of adrenaline. While the largest development, to date, is the relatively small-scale 50MW Kincardine project off northeast Scotland (which will be outdone by the 88MW Tampen project in Norway later next year [2022])…

Banks are demanding much stricter environmental criteria when financing shipping companies as investor pressure grows on the sector to accelerate going greener, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).Shipping, which transports about 90% of world trade, accounts for nearly 3% of the world's CO2 emissions and BCG forecast the industry will need $2.4 trillion to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050."ESG-driven requests are already prompting more action from banks. Shipping is already feeling it and they (shipping companies) are under pressure now…

More than 150 leading companies and organizations including oil majors and port authorities on Wednesday called for the global shipping industry to be fully decarbonized by 2050, urging governments to step up action warning time was limited.With about 90% of world trade transported by sea, global shipping accounts for nearly 3% of the world's CO2 emissions and the sector is under growing pressure to get cleaner.UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has said it aims to reduce overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships by 50% from 2008 levels by 2050…

The Biden administration said on Tuesday it would take steps to restart the federal oil and gas leasing program in the next week and plans to hold a Gulf of Mexico auction as soon as October, court papers showed.The move comes two months after the U.S Interior Department first said it would comply with a June 15 federal judge's order blocking its months-long pause in oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.That order was a blow to a key White House effort to address climate change by reining in fossil fuel extraction.U.S.

Ship owners could be forced to pay for pollution from their vessels or face bans from European Union ports under draft plans to add shipping emissions to the bloc's carbon market.Shipping does not at present face EU emissions targets, but that is set to change under proposals to make its economy greener which are due to be published next month.A draft proposal, seen by Reuters, would expand the carbon market to cover shipping emissions within the EU, international voyages to the…

The European Union will push for tougher standards to cut the CO2 emissions intensity of ships at a meeting of the United Nations' maritime agency next week, a senior official said on Thursday.The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will next week discuss measures to steer shipping towards its pledge to halve shipping's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, from 2008 levels.Among them are standards requiring ships to reduce their CO2 intensity. An IMO working group has proposed an 11% carbon intensity cut by 2026…

A federal appeals court on Tuesday confirmed bans on offshore oil leasing in most federal Arctic waters and in the Atlantic after the Trump Administration tried to open them up to development.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said President Joe Biden's reinstatement of Obama-era protections makes moot the previous administration's attempts to allow oil development there.The Trump administration pressed for oil-and-gas development throughout the United States as the nation's crude production surged to a record 13 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2019.

This week, U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioners Daniel B. Maffei and Carl W. Bentzel sent letters to the Governors of major port states urging them to prioritize the vaccination of the maritime workforce to protect the nation’s supply chain.Letters were sent to the Governors of Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas and Washington following an earlier letter to the Biden administration encouraging the prioritization of maritime workers for access to vaccinations…

Britain could lose more jobs in its fishing sector if the current delays and increased costs involved in exporting to the EU post-Brexit are not ironed out soon, industry groups told British government officials on Tuesday.Speaking at an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee inquiry, representatives of Britain's fishing sector said small to medium-sized enterprises were especially at risk and called on the government to urgently negotiate new export rules with the EU."(Even) if we get (export) systems sorted, we will still have cost implications.

Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation, has voiced his support for the Jones Act, a federal law that regulates maritime commerce in the United States.Buttigieg's comments came in response to questioning by Sen. Maria Cantwell (Dem.-Wash.) during a nearly three-hour confirmation hearing held by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Thursday."I am a big Jones Act supporter, and the state of Washington and the trade that we have related to the Jones Act to make sure that we have U.S.-flagged vessels," Cantwell said.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced America's return to the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the centerpiece of a raft of day-one executive orders aimed at restoring U.S. leadership in combating global warming.The announcements also included a sweeping order to review all of former President Donald Trump's actions weakening climate change protections, the revocation of a vital permit for TC Energy's Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Canada…

The Connecticut Port Authority (CPA) approved the appointment of John Henshaw as its new executive director, effective September 8, 2020.Henshaw comes to the CPA after serving as the executive director of the Maine Port Authority for over 10 years and after serving as commissioner for the Board of Harbor Commissioners for the Port of Portland.He was selected for the position following an extensive search by the CPA board for a candidate with a specific set of skills and experience.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim commended Nigeria’s antipiracy efforts in the Gulf of Guinea as the West African nation continues to make strides to curb attacks against ships in the world’s top piracy hot spot.Lim said recent actions made by the West African country to restrain piracy in the region “send a strong and valuable message to the international community”.The IMO head welcomed the latest initiatives to address maritime security concerns in the Gulf of Guinea…

Container shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) counts biofuels and hydrogen-based fuels among options worth studying to potentially help the shipping industry meet decarbonization targets, one of the company's executive told an industry conference in Switzerland on Monday.“There’s no one single solution to decarbonize shipping. We need a range of alternative fuels at scale and we need them urgently,” said Bud Darr, MSC Group's Executive Vice President, Maritime Policy & Government Affairs…

The United States has an opportunity to accelerate offshore wind energy growth, and benefit from 28 new gigawatts of wind power and $1.7 billion in U.S. Treasury revenue by 2022, according to a study released by the energy intelligence group Wood Mackenzie. Apart from the benefits to the Treasury, the offshore wind industry in the U.S. could create 80,000 jobs annually from 2025 to 2035.Commissioned by four energy industry groups, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA)…

The European Union's carbon market could capture a large chunk of emissions from outside Europe if the bloc succeeds in including shipping in the scheme, according to the European Commission's first report on maritime CO2 emissions.Pollution from ships plying international waters typically escapes countries' domestic emissions-cutting targets, but the EU's executive has said the sector must contribute to its trillion-euro push to achieve a "climate neutral" economy by 2050.It wants to curb shipping's carbon footprint by adding it to the Europe-wide emissions trading system (ETS)…