Magdalena News

Ukraine is holding talks with Turkey and the United Nations to secure guarantees for grain exports from Ukrainian ports, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday."Talks are in fact going on now with Turkey and the U.N. (and) our representatives who are responsible for the security of the grain that leaves our ports," Zelenskiy told a news conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson."This is a very important thing that someone guarantees the security of ships for this or that country - apart from Russia, which we do not trust.

Seemingly overnight, a new structure appeared on San Francisco’s waterfront. Situated at Pier 22½ just behind historic Firehouse 35 and nestled beside the Bay Bridge, this floating building is San Francisco’s new Fire Station 35. The facility is an answer to the city’s long-awaited need for updated fire and marine safety on the Bay.The overnight materialization of Fire Station 35 on San Francisco’s waterfront was due to the method in which it was built. To reduce public impact and avoid disruption along the bustling Embarcadero…

A Liebherr LHM 420 Crane is at the heart of a rapidly expanding shortsea shipping success story. Reliability is the key for a port that’s turned the corner, with nowhere to go but ‘up.’Way back in January of 1996, I moved to Richmond, Virginia from Houston, Texas. Still very much in the maritime business as a cargo surveyor and ship expeditor, the Port of Richmond intrigued me, every time I drove past it on I-95. Eventually, I got a tour of the struggling port, courtesy of then port director and retired USCG Captain Marty Moynihan. Moynihan, an energetic executive, was keen to expand the port’s horizons.Back then, as much as half of the port’s meager business was tobacco shipping to and from Philip Morris, just across the street.

The ideal solution for the tightening regulatory noose also brings a different (and welcome) shade of ‘green’ for workboat operators.As the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ramps up enforcement of regulations that mandate that all vessels over 24 meters (78 feet) operating in US waters must switch over to EALs in all oil-to-sea interfaces before their next drydocking, it is an arguably good time to be in the lubricants business. At the same time, Thordon Bearings, a manufacturer of seawater lubricated bearings for the marine industry has its own thoughts on that very topic. Specifically, Craig Carter, Thordon Bearings’ Director of Marketing and Customer Service, asks, “What is the point in shipowners investing in costly bio-lubricants when seawater is widely available and 100% free?

Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht is looking to dispose of its entire stake in Colombia's Magdalena River navigability project, as the company battles corruption allegations across Latin America, an official told Reuters. Odebrecht had last year planned to give up most of its 87 percent stake in the Navelena consortium, tasked with the 2.5 trillion peso ($854 million) effort to increase cargo capacity on the river, sending the government on a fruitless months-long search for a replacement. But the company later decided to keep a majority of its share after Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui bank said it would finance $250 million of the project.

The first four of 15 Impala Terminals Colombia-operated tug/tow boats have been converted from oil to water-lubricated tailshaft bearings. Impala Zambrano, the first of 15 triple-screw and twin-screw push boats scheduled for oil-to-water conversion, was retrofitted in July 2015 with a Thordon RiverTough bearing and TG100 shaft seal combination. Three triple-screw and one twin-screw pusher vessels have since been converted and Thordon’s Colombian distributor Delta Marine and River Services will now work on the next vessels in the series.

A smartphone application that allows users to scan the Mediterranean for boats in distress is being tested by a migrant rescue service, which hopes that crowdsourced information will help it save more people. The I SEA App, available on iTunes, divides a satellite image of the sea route migrants are taking into millions of small plots which are, in turn, assigned to registered users. Each user then monitors their plot through the app and can send an alert to the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and the authorities if they spot potential trouble.

The growing worldwide demand for marine technologies, port construction and shipbuilding is generating new export opportunities for U.S. companies. As more firms look to boost their bottom line by maximizing their reach to the more than 95 percent of world consumers who live outside of the United States, many are taking advantage of numerous export resources along the way. At the same time, many other businesses have yet to export. International Trade Specialist Maryanne Burke leads the U.S. Commercial Service’s Marine Technology Team, and is based at the Boston U.S.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has ended its sea rescue operation aimed at reducing the number of migrants and asylum seekers killed while trying to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa to Europe, it said on Tuesday. MSF said its three ships had rescued more than 20,000 people in over 120 search and rescue operations during eight months at sea. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said 3,771 people died in 2015 while trying to reach Europe by sea, making the year the deadliest on record for those seeking sanctuary from conflict and poverty. "Whilst we remain absolutely convinced of the importance of dedicated search and rescue in saving lives…

Your company is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year. Please provide an overview of your activities. The Lindley group of companies began its activities in 1930 with the establishment of Ahlers, Lindley, Lda. as a distributor of harbour and industrial equipment in Lisbon, Portugal. Today the group activities evolved to manufacture, distribution and service of port infrastructure. Ahlers Lindley and Almarin share engineering and production capabilities pooling design and manufacture of fixed and floating structures for the marine environment.

The hulking backhoe dredges up rocks and silt from the shallows of the muddy Magdalena River in the first laborious step to transform the waterway into an engine of economic growth. The excavation along a verdant stretch near Barrancabermeja, an inland oil and coal hub, is part of a $600 million government bid to reclaim the river, once Colombia's primary transport route. By clearing logjams, the aim is to allow big cargo barges to steam up 900 km (560 miles) from the Caribbean coast to Puerto Salgar, close to the capital Bogota.

Colombia awarded a 2.5 trillion peso ($1.33 billion) contract to a consortium led by Brazil's Odebrecht SA on Friday to improve navigability on the Magdalena River, which the Andean nation has long planned to exploit for cargo transport. Odebrecht will have an 87 percent stake in the joint venture, called Navelena. Navelena was was the only bidder for the contract, which covers a 908 km (564 mile) stretch of the Magdalena, which flows north to the country's Caribbean coast from the southern interior. Colombian construction firm Valorcon holds the remaining stake in the joint venture, Odebrecht said in a statement. The project, focused on building navigation channels in shallower stretches…

For decades, barge owners and operators had no reason to think twice about their rigging. There were only a few choices when it came to winches, and there were ratchets as well. Because of the simplicity of these machines, few people in the industry were compelled to think critically about how such a basic item might be improved. But winches and ratchets have their downsides: fouling and birdnesting can and do happen. Wire rope is heavy, and traditional rigging takes a lot of it. And old-fashioned winches require a good amount of time and effort to operate. But what else was there?

Wison Offshore & Marine Announces Award for construction of World’s First Floating LNG Liquefaction Unit. Shanghai-based Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of the Wison Group, announced today the successful award of a contract by the Exmar group for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of the world’s first Floating LNG Liquefaction, Regasification and Storage Unit (FLRSU). The facility will be used by Exmar under a Build, Own, and Operate contract with Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation, and located on the Caribbean coast offshore Colombia.

AAPA Elects Armando Duarte of Santa Marta, Colombia, As 2013 Chairman. The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA)—representing the interests of seaports throughout the Western Hemisphere—this week during its Centennial Spring Conference board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C.—elected Armando Duarte-Peláez as its next chairman of the board. Mr. Duarte- Peláez’s one-year term will begin the last day of AAPA’s 101st Annual Convention in Mobile, Ala., which runs Oct. 21-25, 2012.

·        Turnover: first semester $253.6m; third quarter $130.4m; YTD 2008 $384m; YTD 2007 $361.5m. ·        Operating cash flow (EBITDA): first semester $63.5m; third quarter $3.6m; YTD 2008 $97.1m; YTD 2007 $88.5m. ·        Operating result (EBIT): first semester $31.5m; third quarter $16.2m; YTD 2008 $47.7m; YTD 2007 $49m. ·        Average number of shares: first semester 33,726,338; third quarter 33,146,594; YTD 2008 33,531,679; YTD 2007 34,983,120. ·        Operating cash flow (EBITDA) in USD per share: first semester $1.88; third quarter $1.01; YTD 2008 $2.90; YTD 2007 $2.53. ·        Operating result (EBIT) in USD per share: first semester $0.93; third quarter $.49; YTD 2008 $1.42; YTD 2007 $1.40.

Guido Perla has always had a love of the sea. Perla, who was born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, came to the U.S. in 1971 to pursue his dream of using the "tools" he was given to become a naval architect. His story is one that is marked by innovation, relationships and hard work. — By Regina P. Guido Perla’s philosophy on naval architecture and marine engineering — on life — is easily summed up: "I always follow what my father used to say," Perla said. "It is better to be wrong than to be average." Perla is not shy to admit that he's not always perfect, but that does not mean that he will not try and try again until he achieves perfection. "You don't learn anything from sitting around and doing nothing," Perla quips. "You learn from making a move and taking risks.

Turn of the century photographs of dirty, hot, cramped machine spaces filled with boilers, engines, gratings and bulkheads begin to tell the story of the state of steam power just after the birth of the propeller. Oil squirt cans, dancing connecting rods, and sweating coal passers and firemen characterized the engine rooms of the late 1800s when paddle wheels were gradually being replaced with the screw. Pioneers of screw propulsion experimented with an assortment of propeller designs before commercial application of the concept began. The first screw-driven vessel in the U.S. Navy was the Princeton, built in 1843 by John Erickson. Even though the prop had many advantages over the paddle wheel…