Penny News

Four Greenpeace activists on Tuesday boarded the heavy transportation vessel carrying Shell's Penguins FPSO aboard, calling on the oil major to "Stop Drilling. Start Paying."Six Greenpeace International activists attempted, and four managed to board Boskalis' White Marlin vessel in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Canary Islands. The heavy transportation vessel is carrying the recently delivered 34,000t Penguins FPSO, which is planned to ultimately be deployed northeast of the Shetland Islands in the North Sea for the Penguins field project.

The increasing need to secure energy supplies after easing COVID-19 restrictions has pushed China to gradually resume Australian coal imports and urge domestic miners to boost their already record output.The lifting of the unofficial ban on Australian coal imports, which were halted in 2020 in a fit of Chinese pique over questions on COVID's origins, is the clearest sign yet of the renewed ties between them. The resumption is also a reminder of their economic interdependence as Australia's raw materials play a crucial role in fuelling the export-oriented economy of China…

Hong Kong is in "all-out combat" to contain a surge in coronavirus cases, the city's number two official said on Sunday, with the ramping up of community isolation and treatment units helped by mainland Chinese construction teams.Scenes of people lying outside public hospitals in the rain and chilly weather have shocked many in the global financial hub, leading to an apology from authorities. Officials have now organized facilities to shelter patients amid a drop in temperatures as healthcare facilities are overwhelmed.Officials reported 6…

Provider of metocean data to the maritime industry Tidetech Commercial Marine Pty Ltd says it is enhancing the scope of its services in response to a growing demand for marine weather data.Tidetech generates and curates a wide range of marine weather data for delivery to shipowners and third party software vendors. Its latest enhancement is the introduction of the ‘Data Cube’, which enables users to query the data in three dimensions: longitude, latitude and time.When a shipowner or operator wants to obtain a weather forecast for their next voyage…

The Navy will christen its newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship, the future USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), during a 10 a.m. CDT ceremony May 5 in Mobile, Alabama. The principal speaker will be Cincinnati Councilmember David Mann, also a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. Former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will serve as the ship's sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, she will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow. "The future USS Cincinnati is a symbol of the strong connection between the people of Cincinnati and the Navy and Marine Corps team," said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. The future USS Cincinnati is the fifth U.S. Navy ship to honor Ohio's third largest city.

McDermott International shareholders on Tuesday approved a merger with Chicago Bridge & Iron Co that creates a vertically integrated onshore and offshore engineering and construction company, thwarting an attempt by offshore drilling contractor Subsea 7 to block the deal.More than 50 percent of McDermott shareholders supported the deal and approved a 3-to-1 reverse stock split, according to a spokesman. CB&I shareholders also voted in favor the merger, the companies said, and the combination is expected to close on May 10.Shares of CB&I were up about 6 percent…

The Port of Los Angeles and GE Transportation are partnering to digitize maritime shipping to help goods reach consumers faster. First-of-its-kind port information portal delivers fast, data-driven insights to enhance maritime supply chain performance and better serve ultra-large container vessels. With consumer spending on the rise, U.S. businesses need greater reliability and visibility from the supply chain to maintain their edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Given that 90 percent of global trade moves on the ocean, seaports are critical nodes of the supply chain. However, today’s major ports face the growing challenge…

A strategic partnership with the USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management aimed at improving the global competitiveness of the nation’s supply chains was signed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker on October 14 at the University Park campus. “Through this new partnership, we hope to encourage ports around the country to increase efficiency by adopting new technologies that will provide more information on the flow of goods to port users and stakeholders,” said Secretary Pritzker. The partnership with USC Marshall will allow for collaboration on digitalization of the nation’s supply chains, including applications related to IoT (Internet of Things).

P3: An alternative to tolls or lockage fees in public-private partnerships for inland waterways. Within the generally sorry state of the U.S. inland waterways infrastructure, there are some locations where conditions are particularly dire. Among those in this latter situation are several locks and dams on the Illinois River, including the La Grange Lock and Dam and the Peoria Lock and Dam, both of which were completed in 1939. Both of them are on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, which is a dubious distinction for a major transportation facility of the twenty-first century.

DSC Dredge, LLC, based in Reserve, La., has received the 2016 President’s “E-Star” Award for exports. In a ceremony held on May 16, 2016, at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said, “These companies demonstrate the opportunity inherent in selling Made-in-America products to the broad customer base that exists outside our borders. During her remarks, Secretary Pritzker singled out several companies, including DSC.

U.S. U.S. ports and our marine transportation system – and the hardworking men and women behind these operations – are essential drivers of the American economy. Every day, our ports and waterways handle millions of tons of domestic and international cargo, including food and agricultural products, petrochemicals and automobiles. In 2014 alone, $1.7 trillion worth of U.S. goods moved through our ports, representing 75 percent of imports and exports by weight. But ports, like our highways and bridges, face challenges.

U.S. natural gas futures on Friday sank to within a penny of a 1995 low as drillers continue to pull near record amounts of gas out of the ground despite forecasts for warm weather and light heating demand and with stockpiles at record high levels. Front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were down 2.3 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $1.616 per million British thermal units at 7:27 a.m. EST (227GMT), the lowest level since August 1998. If the contract falls below $1.61, it would drop to the lowest level since September 1995. Futures have been on a downward spiral for months. So far this year, the front-month has collapsed over 30 percent. Friday's decline puts the front-month on track for a sixth down week in a row, the longest losing streak since January 2015.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders turned their attention to China on Tuesday on the second day of a summit intended to improve commercial links and provide a united front on maritime disputes with Beijing. After a first day discussing trade and economic issues at the Sunnylands resort in California, Obama and his Association of Southeast Asian Nations counterparts were to try to arrive at a common position on the South China Sea, where China and several ASEAN states have conflicting claims. Not all the 10 ASEAN nations agree on how to handle the disputes and U.S. officials want a statement calling for China to follow international law and handle disputes peacefully.

U.S. President Barack Obama and allies from Southeast Asia will turn their attention to China on Tuesday on the second day of a summit intended to improve commercial links and provide a united front on maritime disputes with Beijing. After a first day focused on trade and economic issues, Obama and his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will try to arrive at a common position on the South China Sea during a second day of talks at Sunnylands, a California resort. China and several ASEAN states have conflicting and overlapping claims in the South China Sea, but not all the Southeast Asian nations agree on how to handle them. U.S. officials want the summit to produce a statement calling for China to follow international law and handle disputes peacefully.

One of the U.S. Senate's top advocates for lifting the ban on domestic crude exports urged the Commerce Department on Thursday to disclose whether any oil swaps with Mexico have actually been finalized after the agency approved the transactions in August. Administration officials told Reuters in August that the Commerce Department was "acting favorably on a number of applications" to export U.S. crude in exchange for imported oil from Mexico, in a step seen as loosening the ban on most crude oil exports.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence has admitted a Royal Navy submarine was responsible for dragging a trawler backwards off the Northern Ireland coast earlier this year. A Royal Navy submarine did get entangled in a fishing boat's nets and dragged it for 18 miles, almost pulling the vessel underwater. The admission however comes 5 months after the incident. There was widespread speculation at the time that a Russian submarine had been involved following comments from UK Government ministers expressing confidence that no British submarines were involved. “…the RN [the Royal Navy] has now confirmed that a UK submarine was, in fact, responsible for snagging the KAREN's [fishing vessel] nets,” Penny Mordaunt, minister of state for the Armed Forces, said in a statement.

Big investments, lean manufacturing techniques borrowed from the automotive industry, and a more engaged workforce have revamped the Wisconsin shipyard where Italy's Fincantieri SpA builds the Freedom variant of the U.S. Navy's coastal warships for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. Fincantieri invested $100 million in recent years to transform the 1940s era shipyard into a state-of-the-art facility, where seven LCS ships are now under construction, including three that have already been launched into the river.

Charity endurance event ‘Row Around Singapore Island (RASI)’ beats electrical storm and finishes with time triumph, high emotion and VIP celebrations at the finish line. ‘Mission RASI’, took place last week as part of Singapore’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, was successfully completed in 23 hours and 15 minutes – within the tough target time of 24 hours. The rowers survived a violent storm at sea overnight, and half way through the daring challenge, which threatened to halt the race altogether. The tall ship Royal Albatross carried families of the rowers, supporters and the press and media. Starting and ending at Resorts World Sentosa they raised S$600…

Though the market for Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs) is soft, advances in technology, fit and finish in  the sector is unrivaled in any other maritime niche over the past five years. Here’s a look at some of the more notable designs and deliveries. Few vessels have inspired as much attention or coverage as the Harvey Energy, the first OSV of its kind in North America, able to run on both Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and diesel. Harvey Energy, chartered to Shell for its deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico and owned by Harvey Gulf International marine…

A group of shipping companies and a powerful dockworkers union clinched a tentative labor deal on Friday after nine months of negotiations, settling a dispute that disrupted the flow of cargo through 29 U.S. West Coast ports and snarled trans-Pacific maritime trade with Asia. The settlement, confirmed in a joint statement by the two sides, was reached three days after U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday to broker a deal with the help of a federal mediator who had joined in the talks six weeks earlier. The White House called the deal "a huge relief" for the economy, businesses and workers. President Barack Obama urged the parties "to work together to clear out the backlogs and congestion in the West Coast ports as they finalize their agreement…

The chairman of the U.S. Senate's Energy Committee and 20 colleagues on Wednesday urged the Commerce Department to allow crude oil exports to Mexico, saying it would benefit the economies of both countries. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, the committee's chairman, and Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, urged Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzkerto to approve a pending application from Mexico's state oil company Pemex to swap heavy Mexican crude oil for light U.S. crude. Existing U.S. laws "clearly authorize swaps and exchanges" of oil to Mexico that "should be authorized without delay," said a letter signed by Murkowski, Heitkamp and 19 other Senators, most of them Republicans. The United States has allowed some oil exports to Canada since 1985 for use or refining within the country.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Two U.S. Cabinet secretaries joined congressional leaders, three governors and a big-city mayor on Wednesday in pushing shipping lines and the dockworkers' union to settle a contract dispute that has led to months of turmoil and cargo backups at 29 West Coast ports. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker weighed in as emissaries of President Barack Obama, who has come under rising political pressure to intervene in a conflict that has reverberated through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain and could, by some estimates, cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars. Worsening cargo congestion that the union and shippers blame on each other has slowed freight traffic since October at the ports, which handle nearly half of all U.S.

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) advises ship owners and managers that the rate governing the collection of UK Light Dues is set to reduce from April 1, 2015. As advised by Trinity House in Circular No 533, for vessels other than those where periodic payments apply, the charge will be 39p per Net Registered Tonne (NRT). Rates for the coming year (2015/16) have been reduced from 40p in 2014/15, which is a further penny less per NRT than the previous year. The reduction follows efficiency savings by the GLAs and reflect a UK Government commitment to “create the right conditions to support one of the UK’s most important industries”. The 39p rate applies up to a cap of 40,000 NRT (i.e. a maximum charge of £15,600) for vessels with and International Tonnage Certificate.