Port Of San Juan News

On August 11, 2022, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment charging seven defendants with running a criminal enterprise dedicated to extorting and misleading shipping companies into paying fees for the loading and unloading of cargo at the Port of San Juan—Piers 9, 10, and 11—under the threat of strikes and blockades on the part of union members of the ILA-1740 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (ILA) and under false representations…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District awarded a $8.4 million contract to Cleveland-based Great Lakes Towing on April 20 for lease of the tugboat Don Raul to serve on the Great Lakes.The boat will primarily be used on Lake Erie between Buffalo, N.Y. and Toledo, Ohio, but may serve all the way to Massena, N.Y., towing the Buffalo District’s repair fleet. The fleet is one of three strategically located across the Great Lakes, providing a flexible, rapid response…

U.S. Coast Guard air and surface rescue crews at Sector San Juan responded and assisted the distressed M/V Island Express Wednesday afternoon, after the ship started taking on water when it departed the Port of San Juan for storm avoidance in anticipation of Tropical Cyclone 9.The M/V Island Express, a Cyprus flagged 412-foot ro-ro cargo ship, and its 18-man crew is now safely moored in San Juan Harbor.Coast Guard watchstanders in Sector San Juan received a Mayday VHF radio transmission on Channel 16 from the Captain of the M/V Island Express…

US shipbuilder Metal Shark said it has delivered a new 36-foot welded-aluminum patrol boat to the Policia Municipal de San Juan (San Juan Police Department).The new patrol boat is a 36 Fearless stepped-bottom center console vessel built at Metal Shark’s Jeanerette, La. production facility and custom-configured to meet the specialized requirements of its newest Puerto Rican customer. The high performance craft has been equipped with triple 300 HP Suzuki outboard engines and reaches a top speed in excess of 50 knots, the builder said.

Commission Expresses Concerns about Puerto Rico Terminal Facilities Agreement.An agreement filed at the Federal Maritime Commission allowing a joint venture between two adjacent terminals at the Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, will go into effect on August 29. However, concerns about the agreement and its impact on the marketplace will lead the FMC to adopt a more vigorous oversight plan than its traditional monitoring program.Under the terms of the Puerto Nuevo Terminals LLC Cooperative Working Agreement (FMC Agreement No.

The Coast Guard Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the education and welfare of all Coast Guard members and their families, recently recognized Chairman and CEO Tom Crowley Jr. and Crowley Maritime Corporation for more than 30 years of support at its 25th Tribute to the Coast Guard Seventh District event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The event, originally scheduled for late January but postponed due to the partial government shutdown, was held April 18. The rescheduled date did nothing to dampen spirits…

A heavily corroded 180-foot ship to shore crane was demolished last week in a rare crane toppling event  in San Juan."The crane needed to be demolished as it was heavily corroded and SSA International (a stakeholder of the port in San Juan) decided that the quickest way for this to happen would be to go down the unusual demolition route of toppling, rather than the more conventional; taken apart piece by piece," said a press release from Global Rigging and Transport (GRT)."To bring down a crane of this magnitude down requires careful planning. GRT engineers had to calculate where to cut, blast and pull the crane so that it's falling could be controlled," it said. Essential to any crane toppling is the creation of the "drop zone", which is the area where the crane falls.

Thirty-six hours after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the port of San Juan was back up and running, scanning the incoming relief cargo as it arrived. Now, nearly a year after the historic storm, San Juan remains one of the most secure and efficient ports in the world, scanning and adjudicating cargo shipments at an unprecedented speed, with wait times similar to pausing at a stop light. It was the first and only port in the Western Hemisphere to scan near-100 percent of incoming containerized cargo (bulk, un-containerized cargo is not scanned).

Leaked fuel that contacted a hot surface in the engine room was determined to be the immediate cause of a fire that burned for three days aboard the auto and passenger vessel Caribbean Fantasy in August 2016.According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who reported their findings Tuesday, the fire started in the main engine room of the 614-foot long, Panamanian-flagged vessel, when fuel spraying from a leaking flange contacted the hot surface of the port main…

Crowley Maritime Corp. said it has retrofitted two of its heavy lift, flat-deck barges, 455-3 and Marty J, to provide additional capacity to customers shipping cargo between the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico. With the 455-3 sailing early Tuesday morning from the Port of Jacksonville, Crowley has now expanded its fleet from nine to 16 vessels, further increasing U.S. flag capacity to transport commercial and relief supplies to support the island’s recovery after Hurricane Maria in late September.

TOTE Maritime continues to see an increase in overall productivity at the Port of San Juan as more and more containers leave the terminal for communities around Puerto Rico. Monday the terminal reached 87 percent productivity with more than 330 loads of relief and commercial goods leaving the terminal. TOTE Maritime has been working closely with a number of partners including the Department of Homeland Security, American Red Cross, FEMA, the Puerto Rican government, the Government’s Elderly Support Team and customers to support their needs as they deliver goods to the island. The TOTE Maritime team in San Juan has been working around the clock to ensure that drivers and customers coming to the terminal are able to access their goods.

20 Vessels, 6,500 Loads of Cargo will be Offloaded by Week’s End. The Full-Scale Logistics Operation includes 375 Trucks Used to Expedite Deliveries. With employees working around the clock and its vessels calling the Port of San Juan almost daily, Crowley Maritime Corp. said today it will have offloaded by the end of this week more than 6,500 loads of FEMA and commercial cargo from 20 vessels since Hurricane Maria struck the island in late September. And the company projects another 9 vessels, carrying between 2,500 and 3,000 loads, will arrive in Puerto Rico next week. “I am very grateful for the extraordinary work of our teams in San Juan, Jacksonville and in other parts of the country,” said Tom Crowley, chairman and CEO.

Shipments of gasoline and diesel into Puerto Rico have resumed after Hurricane Maria, with ports restarting operations, though there were still long fuel lines around the island on Thursday, according to traders and Thomson Reuters tracking data. Residents lined up for diesel for power generators and to fill cars with gasoline, while at least one tanker discharged at the port of San Juan as oil terminals reopened some facilities. The territory still faces logistical hurdles to distribute food, fuel and water. Critics called for more resources and a single authority to oversee relief efforts. Most of the Caribbean island's 3.4 million people still lacked electricity. Gasoline stations have been unable to remain open for more than a few hours at a time, the U.S.

President Trump has waived shipping restrictions for Puerto Rico on Thursday at request of the island's governor Ricardo Rosselló and after an outcry from Congress about the scarcity of fuel, food and emergency supplies following Hurricane Maria. "At @ricardorossello request, @POTUS has authorized the Jones Act be waived for Puerto Rico. It will go into effect immediately," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted this morning. The Jones Act – which limits shipping between U.S. ports exclusively to U.S.

Puerto Rico Ports Authority issues RFP for Marina District. The Puerto Rico Ports Authority (PRPA), a public corporation and government instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the leasing, design, construction, operation and financing of the rehabilitation, improvement and operation of the Isla Grande Dry Dock ("IGDD") in the City of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the design, construction, financing, and development of a superyacht marina complex. The PRPA is seeking comprehensive proposals from highly qualified developers and operators of luxury marinas and vessel maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities.

Thanks to a pier expansion and enhancement, Puerto Rico will welcome the two largest cruise ships in the world, Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, in 2016. This announcement is part of the commitment made under the administration of Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla to attract mega-cruise ships to the island, once the renovation of the Pier 3 is completed. About 60,000 more cruise passengers are expected to visit Old San Juan in 2016 on Royal Caribbean's Oasis and Allure of the Seas. Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s Executive Director, Ingrid Rivera Rocafort said that the ships will visit the U.S. territory a collective total of 10 times next year. Each ship can carry nearly 6,300 passengers.

The Port of San Juan, which is experiencing a tremendous growth of maritime traffic and planning for more, received an additional economic boost today when NOAA debuted a new nautical chart that will make ocean-going vessel traffic safer and more efficient through San Juan Bay and the port area. “There is not only more traffic, but larger vessels are making San Juan their port call,” said Capt. John Lowell, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. “Mariners asked for NOAA’s help when they started finding themselves too far right of the port entrance,” Lowell said. “The San Juan harbor pilots knew the ship captains were at risk of endangering their vessels.

The Port of San Juan, which is experiencing a tremendous growth of maritime traffic and planning for more, received an additional economic boost today when NOAA debuted a new nautical chart that will make ocean-going vessel traffic safer and more efficient through San Juan Bay and the port area. “There is not only more traffic, but larger vessels are making San Juan their port call,” said Capt. John Lowell, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. “Mariners asked for NOAA’s help when they started finding themselves too far right of the port entrance,” Lowell said.

Puerto Rican-based Shipping Company Sentenced to Pay $700,000 Penalty for Intentional Cover-Up of Oil Pollution. WASHINGTON – Epps Shipping Company, a Liberian corporation doing business out of Carolina, Puerto Rico, was sentenced in federal court for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and making false statements to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno and United States Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez. The company was sentenced to pay a $700,000 criminal penalty to include a $100,000 payment towards community service projects to rehabilitate and protect coral reefs in Guanica Bay, Puerto Rico.

Commercial tugs come to the assistance of the M/V Kent Reliant, aground outside the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Panamanian-flagged freighter ran aground while approaching the channel entrance early in the morning Sept. 18 . None of the 17 crewmembers aboard were injured, and no pollution has been observed from the vessel. Coast Guard personnel from Marine Safety Office San Juan are onboard monitoring the safety of the vessel and its crew, as well as investigating the cause of the grounding. San Juan Harbor remains open.

Nicanor E. Jumalon pleaded guilty in federal court in Puerto Rico, for his involvement with the illegal dumping of oily sludge, bilge wastes, and oil contaminated ballast water from the 479-foot general cargo vessel the M/V Sportsqueen, the Justice Department announced. Jumalon pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges related to his actions while aboard the ship and will serve prison terms of eight months in prison. According to the plea agreement, on April 14, 2007, the Sportsqueen arrived at port in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard. During the boarding, the Coast Guard discovered that Captain Jumalon had ordered crew members to discharge oil contaminated ballast water into the ocean prior to arriving into port in San Juan.