Log News

The cargo ship Dali knocked down three main truss spans, constructed with connected steel elements forming triangles, on the Francis Scott Key Bridge just seconds after crashing into one of the bridge piers early on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024.The bridge collapse happened so fast that it left little time for the work crews on the bridge to escape. Civil engineers like me have been paying attention to this disaster, because we want to find ways to make infrastructure like these large bridges more resilient. For a bridge this large to collapse would require a catastrophic collision force.

The Baltic Exchange's dry bulk sea freight index fell on Friday to log its third straight weekly decline, weighed down by a dip in rates across all vessel segments.The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, shed 41 points or 2.5% to 1,628 points, its lowest level in seven weeks.The index was down over 10% for the week.The capesize index was down by 80 points, or 3.4%, at 2,274. It logged a weekly rise of over 13%.Average daily earnings for capesize vessels…

Classification society ClassNK announced it has granted an Innovation Endorsement for Products & Solutions to a vessel and voyage performance monitoring platform called Cassandra, developed by Deep Sea Technologies SMPC.Cassandra integrates performance data from vessels with AI technology, and then enables real-time monitoring of the ship’s current status. It is cloud-based and designed to monitor fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, as well as hull and engine performance from shore.ClassNK has verified the functions of Cassandra.CO2 emissions monitoring…

A classic 1930s-built boat with a storied history has been updated with a hybrid propulsion system from Transfluid.Originally built in 1937 in Tacoma, Wash., the Western  Flyer is most well known as the boat chartered by John Steinbeck in his 1940 expedition to the Gulf of California chronicled in The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Called “the most famous research vessel to ever have sailed”, the Flyer is a 77ft wooden fishing vessel that has been restored in Port Townsend, Wash. by the Western Flyer Foundation.The boat was recommissioned as a fishing vessel, and a showpiece for green technology.

Siloed data systems represent a “recipe for duplicative and multiplicative cost inside a company and across companies”, an OrbitMI-hosted panel at the recent Shipping Insight event in the US was told, as a Bureau Veritas-backed study highlighted this as a big barrier to data collaboration for digitalization of shipping to cut emissions.Vast amounts of data are generated from ship operations - such as from sensors onboard or vessel performance management systems - as well as from…

The AST Group recently delivered its advanced remote performance monitoring solution to ScanTech Offshore.ScanTech approached AST with a mission-critical need to access live engine data for its air compressors remotely. Previously, the company had no system in place to collect this information and relied entirely on onsite technicians for reporting and adjustments.ScanTech Offshore will now use iRAMS GenSet – AST's enhanced monitoring solution, in its fleet of rig-safe and Zone…

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…

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.

A severe drought choking major rivers in the Amazon rainforest has disrupted ship traffic near the region's biggest city and pushed up costs for northern shipping routes, raising risks for corn exports in coming months.The unusual heat and dryness, linked to the mass deaths of fish and river dolphins, has already limited local communities'access to food and drinking water, leading the federal government to set up a humanitarian task force. Officials are now warning the thinning rivers could disrupt grains exports in the region."There is concern about shipping part of the corn harvest…

Northern Baltic Sea ferry operator Tallink Grupp, which operates vessels under the Silja Line and Tallink brands, has selected the Finnish-developed nauticAi Log type approved electronic record book for its fleet of ships, with the Swedish-flagged cruise ferry Silja Symphony as the first one to go paperless. “We switched to paperless engine logbooks here on Silja Symphony from 1 June and feel that this is a good step towards even more modern and digitalised operations as well as our overall sustainability goal of going paperless.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its accident investigation report into the fatal engine room fire on board Moritz Schulte on August 4, 2020, citing training issues.On 4 August 2020, a fire broke out in the engine room of the liquefied petroleum gas/ethylene carrier Moritz Schulte when the recently promoted third engineer opened an auxiliary engine’s pressurised fuel filter allowing marine gas oil to spray onto an adjacent auxiliary engine’s hot…

Maritime NZ has issued a detention notice against a log carrying vessel, currently anchored off Tauranga.On Monday 24 July, the Panamanian flagged Achilles Bulker was departing Tauranga, bound for China when it encountered steering problems. It was subsequently determined that the rudder had disconnected from the ship during the outbound pilotage.The vessel remains anchored off Mount Maunganui, and the rudder was recovered by divers last week and brought to shore.Due to the rudder failure, the Achilles Bulker will need to be towed to a dry dock for repairs.Maritime NZ is working closely with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the…

Visualization of dredging is essential to gain insight into the dredging process. But this is only the beginning of the whole dredging story. To complete that story, we meet with Diederik van Halsema of DC Dredging. He is the fleet manager of the entire DC Dredging fleet, including the vessels DC Ostend, Margaret Ann and Rio. These vessels have a lot of things in common, including MSA-Service's VisuDREDGE dredge visualization system, which is installed on each of these three vessels.

Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near Greece have given accounts of traffickers in North Africa cramming them into a clapped-out fishing trawler. They recounted hellish conditions above and below deck, with no food or water.Some also said the tragic end, when it came, was precipitated by the actions of the Greek coastguard. They have told judicial authorities of a doomed attempt to tow the overloaded trawler that caused the vessel to capsize…

Brazilian shipping company Wilson Sons' controlling shareholder said on Monday it is conducting a strategic review of its investment in the firm, sending shares in both companies soaring 12%.London-listed Ocean Wilsons said in a statement that "all potential strategic options" would be considered as part of the review, but noted the move was at an early stage and there was still no certainty as to its outcome.It was responding to a Sunday piece by Brazilian newspaper O Globo saying that Swiss shipping group MSC was in talks to buy Wilson Sons, in a deal that could total around 5 billion reais

More than remote witnessing, more than remote data analysis, remote survey techniques are now going to aid the shift to full vessel autonomy.The technology that enables a robot to safely navigate an environment it has no prior knowledge of is called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). “It is the key to autonomy for any aspiring can-do inspection robot.” That’s according to ScoutDI, a participant in the REDHUS project led by DNV which is developing a prototype inspection drone.SLAM is not a specific, copyrighted piece of technology.

Techcross reports positive responses from its customers in the service sector premised on it providing proactive services and troubleshooting through the Techcross Smart Platform. The Smart Platform, launched early last year, is a service platform that collects and analyzes all log data of BWMS in real-time.Customers can receive proactive solutions from Techcross through the Smart Platform before any issues related to equipment failures, malfunctions or maintenance arise. In the past year…

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.

Brazil-based Log-In Logística Intermodal are working with Nautilus Labs to achieve reductions in fuel consumption and carbon emissions, optimized operations, and successful digital adoption across the latter’s organization.“We chose to partner with Nautilus with the goals of streamlining and unifying vessel data, achieving quantifiable fuel savings and reduced emissions, and increasing transparency and collaboration among internal stakeholders," said Flavio Gonçalves, Operations…

Two crews not maintaining proper lookouts led to the collision between a yacht and a tank vessel near Nassau, Bahamas, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. The collision resulted in the sinking of the tank vessel and nearly $7.9 million in damages.The motor yacht Utopia IV and tank vessel Tropic Breeze were transiting the Northeast Providence Channel on Dec. 23, 2021, when the two vessels collided. The Tropic Breeze’s engine room flooded, and the vessel eventually sank. The vessel’s seven crewmembers abandoned ship and were rescued by a Good Samaritan vessel.

Techcross is accelerating the completion of its smart process and the establishment of an AI-based database.Techcross completed the automation of its coating liquid mixing process at the end of last year after being selected for the ‘2021 Smart Factory Establishment and Advancement Project’, which was hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and funded with approximately $550k. The key objective was to reduce errors by introducing an automation process for making the coating mixture…

New U.S. legislation included in the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 signed into law by President Biden in December aims to improve safety of amphibious vessels known as DUKW boats.The legislation advances NTSB recommendations for amphibious vessels known as DUKW boats and requires the U.S. Coast Guard to provide an initial response to new NTSB recommendations within 90 days.“We applaud lawmakers for their bold action to improve DUKW boat safety, something the NTSB has been concerned about for more than 20 years," said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.

How do you excel at ship design? Bart Daman, Manager Naval Architecture at Ulstein Design & Solutions BV in Rotterdam, has an answer: "In our case, by combining specialist knowledge and expertise focused on certain niche markets with data-driven work. This allows us to quickly develop new high-quality ship designs. Our customers experience the difference, and we often hear that they are impressed by the quality of the information we provide. From quotations to full construction specifications…