Inland River News

KOTUG International, a marine services and towage provider based in the Netherlands, announced on Thursday it has concluded its acquisition of Kotug Seabulk Maritime (KSM), taking full ownership of the Caribbean marine towage business.KOTUG said it has acquired the interest of its joint venture partner, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based SEACOR Holdings via its Seabulk subsidiary KS Maritime Holdings, owner of the 50% share in KSM.Founded in 2017, KSM acts as the exclusive provider of maritime terminal support services for Buckeye Partners’ Bahamas Hub…

Nashville-based Ingram Barge Company announced it has formed a new material handling and supply chain solutions subsidiary, Ingram Infrastructure Group.The move, fueled by the company's acquisitions of Inland River Transport Holdings (SCF) and NexStar Solutions, is intended to enhance Ingram's end-to-end supply chain solutions capabilities.Ingram acquired integrated river transportation and logistics services provider SCF from SEACOR Holdings following the signing of a purchase agreement last October.Ingram currently operates across more than 4,500 miles of the U.S.

SEACOR Holdings Inc. announced it has concluded the sale of its Caribbean liner and logistics business SEACOR Container Lines LLC (“SEACOR Island Lines”) to King Ocean Services Ltd. The transaction includes all operations and assets.King Ocean specializes in marine transportation and logistics solutions to close to 50 destinations across the Caribbean and South and Central America out of their Port Everglades facilities in Ft Lauderdale, Fla.“For 40 years, King Ocean, a multi-generational…

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…

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. based SEACOR Holdings Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its inland river transportation and logistics business to Ingram Barge Company LLC, a division of Nashville-based Ingram Marine Group.Part of the SEACOR family of businesses for over two decades, Inland River Transport Holdings LLC (SCF) includes more than 1,000 covered dry cargo hopper barges, eight 6,000-plus horsepower towboats and a network of terminal and fleeting infrastructure along the Mississippi River.“I am extremely pleased to enter this transaction with Ingram…

There is no shortage of challenges confronting the U.S. barging industry, and executives such as Mike Ellis, CEO at American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), are leading their companies past hurdle after hurdle. The Jeffersonville, Ind.-based company, which owns a fleet of approximately 150 towboats and moves a fleet of some 4,500 barges (including roughly 3,500 operated by ACBL), is focusing on factors it can control while planning and investing for the future.The weatherMother Nature is often unkind to the barging industry.

Jennifer Carpenter has been president and CEO of The American Waterways Operators (AWO) in January 2020, but her time with the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry dates back to 1990. This month, she weighs in on top challenges and opportunities currently present in the industry, from difficult regulatory changes to the uptake of cleaner vessel technologies.What are some of the biggest and most important issues facing the tug, towboat and barge industry?Big picture, I feel like our industry has never been more relevant.

Extreme weather events—including both high and low water levels—can wreak havoc on inland waterways transport. In late 2022, severe drought conditions brought the latter to the Mississippi River Basin, underlining the importance of America’s dredging fleet.When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Memphis District's dredge Hurley returned to its home port, Ensley Engineer Yard, in Memphis Harbor, on January 13, 2023, it wrapped its longest, most productive season on record.

U.S. marine terminal and logistics company Enstructure announced Monday that it has acquired Richardson Companies, a terminal and logistics company with primary operations in  Port Houston and the Port of Mobile.Richardson handles a diverse mix of breakbulk cargoes, including steel products, forest products, and project cargo. The company operates approximately one million square feet of industrial warehousing in Houston, Baytown, Freeport, and Mobile.Following the acquisition…

Commercial cargo shipments on Russia's Azovo-Don inland waterways have slumped in 2022 to the lowest level on record amid Western sanctions and traffic suspensions on vessels in the Azov sea, Russian Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) said. The Azovo-Don waterways are used during the summer period as an alternative to railways for the export of cargoes, including oil products from Russian refineries via the ports of the Black and Azov Seas. Rosmorrechflot said the main reason for the decrease in the volume of cargo shipments was the restriction on ship movement through the Sea of Azov, as well as the sanctions imposed against Russian domestic companies and certain types of cargo.

The 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), scheduled to be held Nov. 15-17, 2022, hosted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Argonne campus in Lemont, Illinois, recently unveiled the full conference program, packed with experts with insights on the challenges facing the inland waterway systems.Click here to read the fulll program for MRS 2022MRS is an annual international event focused on risks involving the global maritime transportation system (MTS). For the MRS, the U.S. Coast Guard partners with the sponsor…

As 2022 moves into its final months, low water levels and drought form the basis of the news impacting inland waterways operators and barge companies. In the first week of October, numerous barges were reported grounded in the Mississippi River, particularly south of Baton Rouge. This has consequences: barge rates jumped 218% in St. Louis, compared to 2021.Low water was so severe that on October 7 Ingram Barge CEO John Roberts issued a force majeure notice (force majeure - unforeseeable…

The 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) is scheduled to be held Nov. 15-17, 2022, hosted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Argonne campus in Lemont, Illinois. MRS is an annual international event focused on risks involving the global maritime transportation system (MTS). For the MRS, the U.S. Coast Guard partners with the sponsor, the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the hosting agency. MRS began in 2011 and has grown in size, scope and interest. The MRS event will be followed by the U.S.

It’s amazing to consider that a commercial vessel in the Pacific Ocean, approaching the mouth of the Columbia River, can continue its eastward journey to finally tie up at the Port of Lewiston, in Lewiston, Idaho, America’s most inland West Coast port, 465 miles from the Pacific Ocean.The Columbia and Snake Rivers form that critical east-west waterway, an economic powerhouse regionally, nationally and internationally. According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA)…

Rarely does a vessel come along with the potential to radically change the way an industry operates, but one such vessel is set to hit the water in 2023.This new vessel, a towboat named Hydrogen One, is being developed by Louisiana-based Maritime Partners, the largest lessor of marine equipment in the U.S. It will be the first of its kind globally to run on emissions-reducing methanol-to-hydrogen generator technology—no diesel propulsion on board—as the maritime industry continues…

An Inland River Transportation Caucus could help inland river transportation interests that are often misunderstood and greatly undervalued.For anyone doing business on the inland river transportation system, the goal is to keep the rivers open for business, the barges moving and the landside facilities efficient in order to keep America’s supply chain strong.To accomplish this, it takes the federal agencies that are charged with operating and maintaining inland rivers to have the support of congress, the funding congress allocates and legislation passed by congress.

The theme of Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) 2022 is “The Importance of Inland Systems to the MTS.” The global MTS consists of numerous inland networks that connect the major transnational and inland ports. The United States has more than 25,000 miles of navigable waters, which can carry around 630 million tons of cargo annually. Barges carry the bulk of the commodities on the inland river networks while freighters carry the commodities on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway. About 60 percent of the U.S. farm exports travel through inland waterways.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) on Monday announced that up to $684.3 million is now available for Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grants, to be awarded on a competitive basis to projects that improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of the movement of goods into, out of, around or within a port. This marks the most, annual funding for PIDP in history and will help improve our supply chains, speed up the safe, efficient…

Thordon Bearings Reports it has secured a contract to supply a range of water-lubricated and grease-free bearings for installation to several fleet boats under construction at the FMT Shipyard & Repair facility, for workboat owner Maritime Partners.Twelve twin-screw push boats are scheduled to be delivered from the Louisiana shipyard with equipment that includes RiverTough tailshaft bearings, ThorPlas-Blue rudder bearings with Pucker Seals, ThorPlas-Blue steering linkage bushings…

In the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, Congress amended the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) administered by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) to reserve to smaller ports 18% of the amounts appropriated for grants under the PIDP, and increased this percentage to 25% in the NDAA for FY 2022. This replaced the minimum dollar threshold for PIDP grants of the lesser of $10 million or 10% of the total amount appropriated for the PIDP for a fiscal year.

More than $241 million in discretionary grant funding has been awarded for projects to improve U.S. port facilities, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Thursday.The grants, which will go to 25 projects in 19 states and one territory through the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP), are intended to help strengthen America's supply chains to meet heightened demand and help address inflationary pressures, the DOT said.“U.S. maritime ports play a critical role in our supply chains,” said U.S.

Port Milwaukee’s Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously approved its new ‘StewardSHIP’ sustainability initiative for vessels that have implemented emission reduction measures and other environmental improvements. The port’s newly-approved 2022 tariff creates the program, which will benefit Milwaukee’s harbor by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, deploying clean energy solutions, and supporting climate adaptation activities at the port. The tariff goes into effect April 1, 2022…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) awarded $12.6 million in grants to nine marine highway projects across the Nation under the America’s Marine Highway Program (AMHP). The funding will help address supply chain disruptions, enhance the movement of goods along our navigable waterways, and expand existing waterborne freight services in Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.“These investments through the America’s Marine Highway Program will help us move more goods…