Kodak News

The Norwegian company Yara is currently building a full-electrical containership fitted with an autonomous control system: the Yara Birkeland. During a recent visit to a major maritime conference, imagine my surprise when most attendees – some 200 executives from the maritime sector – discussed autonomous shipping in terms of its risks. The room seemed full of objections and doubts. What if the computer malfunctions? Somewhat understandable in view of the pressure put on the sector by strong international competition and slim margins. Existing companies are used to a certain turnover.

Frank Coles, Transas CEO, delivered the keynote speech at the Transas Global Conference in Malta. We are faced with the perfect storm in the next few years. Many will conclude it is all the fault of President Trump, but in fact it is actually nothing to do with him. If anything he is going to enable the industry to think smarter because he is also bringing change. The perfect storm is the one confronting the maritime industry. It is one which will disrupt all elements of the shipping industry – is technology-driven and in some cases is also self-inflicted.

PPG Industries  said Frank S. Sklarsky will join the company as executive vice president for  finance, effective April 15, reporting to Chairman and CEO Charles E. Bunch. Also, effective August 1, Sklarsky will be named PPG executive vice president and chief financial officer. David B. Navikas, currently PPG senior vice president, finance and chief financial officer, will continue in his current role until August 1, and will then continue as senior vice president in a senior leadership role that will be announced later. Most recently, Sklarsky was executive vice president and chief financial officer, Tyco International, Ltd., a global provider of security, fire protection and flow control solutions with revenues that exceeded $17 billion.

USS Alaska (SSBN 732), a fleet ballistic submarine assigned to Submarine Group 10, is scheduled to change homeports to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga. Alaska was previously assigned to Submarine Group 9 in Bangor, Wash., for 20 years and has been undergoing a 26 month refueling overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Ballistic missile submarines conduct a major overhaul near the mid-point of the submarine's service life, approximately 20 years, to re-capitalize the vessel and extend the useful life to maintain the required SSBN force level. Alaska has completed sea trials and is scheduled to arrive at Kings Bay for the first time in April. Cmdr. Paul Haebler is the commanding officer of Alaska's single crew. The crew will split into a Blue and Gold crew in May.

Jo-Kell Inc., an electrical distributions and engineering company, announced the appointment of John Fischetti as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining Jo-Kell, Fischetti most recently served as Director of Operations at The Noerr Programs Corp. and previous to that he was Worldwide Retail Operations Manager for Eastman Kodak TE Division. Jo-Kell Inc. also announced the appointment of Jim Baur as Vice President of Business Development. Baur will develop customer and vendor relationships and introduce product enhancements to the Jo-Kell product lines. Prior to joining Jo-Kell, Baur served as Director of Engineered Products & Automation at W&O Supply in Jacksonville, Florida.

In a move affirming their commitment to sustainable development and the environment, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced today that Administrator Alberto Alemán Zubieta and Juan Hector Díaz, Director for Environment and Security, attended the World Business Council on Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., as council member and delegate respectively. They joined chief executive officers and executives of major corporations and businesses, such as: 3M, British Petroleum, Eastman Kodak, Caterpillar, Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Time Warner, all members of the WBCSD. The ACP joined the WBCSD in August 2002.

Everyone knows everyone else's business in this industry, or at least they think they do, and certainly try to. Who owns this or is buying that is information as eagerly sought for tactical insight as it is for gossip, and is equally protected by those in the know. The ex-S/R Everett, lately known as the Lincoln Sea, has been a buzz on New York harbor ever since the newswires hummed with reports that K-Sea had bought the Mobil-built boat. But that was back in January. If it's true, the scuttlebutt asked, how come the winter has passed, the spring has passed, and the boat's still painted blue - not the white superstructure, green decks, tan stacks, and red trim of K-Sea?

We couldn't say it never happens, but we doubt it is any too frequent: a fine artist, commission in hand and passion in heart, sets-up easel, mixes palette, and fervently depicts the people at work at the of Motor Vehicles department. Sure they're good people, and they uphold social order. Still, their setting, their actions, their challenges each day, do not seem the sort to engage the artist. This is the stuff for the Kodak Advantix. Artists could spend hours reproducing a gesture that took a split second in life. This gives them time to think. What was the mood of that gesture, and its eventual effect? The artist expands time with those thoughts, having seen what came before, during, and after the instant depicted.