Santa Fe News

Brendan Smith brings more than a decade of maritime experience to his role as president of Seaward Services, a marine services company specializing in the operation, maintenance and repair of government and privately owned vessels. The company is part of the Hornblower Group.During his 6.5 years with the U.S. Navy, he served aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Santa Fe, and his roles included chemistry and radiological controls assistant (CRA), quality assurance officer (QAO) and combat operations instructor.

Hornblower Group announced that Brendan Smith, formerly VP of Engineering, NYC Ferry, has been named President of Seaward Services, Inc. Smith replaces John Keever, who has retired after 50 years in the industry, and will report to Scott Thornton, COO of Hornblower Group’s Ferries and Transportation Division.As President of Seaward Services, Inc., Smith will oversee the operation and maintenance of both government and privately owned craft, including High-Speed Craft, Range Craft, Experimental Craft, Training Craft, Research Vessels and Unmanned Surface Vessels.

The government of Argentina on Monday declared a 180-day “water emergency” for the Parana River, which is suffering a historic bout of shallowness that has affected the amount of grains that can be shipped from the country’s key ports hub of Rosario.The country is a major international food supplier. The Parana, which originates in a drought-hit part of Brazil, carries about 80% of Argentina’s agricultural shipments, which are the country’s main source of export dollars.The river is at its lowest level in 77 years.

The government of Santa Fe province in Argentina late on Wednesday ordered port workers to suspend a day-old strike that had blocked grains shipments at the country's main agricultural export hub and mandated wage negotiations be resumed.Protests by port construction workers in Argentina's key grains hub Rosario had snarled exports, with roads blocked at some of the area's key export terminals, an industry official told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.The protest began late on Tuesday and on Wednesday spread to the districts of Puerto General San Martin and Timbues…

One of South America’s leading push boat operators is on its way to completing a fleet-wide retrofit to Thordon’s water lubricated tailshaft and rudder bearings.In 2014, Argentinian owner Atria Logistics UABL, which operates a fleet of workboats on the Paraná River, installed Thordon’s RiverTough tailshaft bearings to its first push boat, the 135-foot-long Concepcion. In 2020, six more vessels in the company’s 26-strong fleet were converted.Egnard Bernal, Thordon Bearing’s Business Development Manager…

Argentine grain port workers launched surprise strikes to protest stalled wage talks, their labor union said on Monday, delaying shipments from one of the world's top exporters."We are going to make surprise halts as much as we consider it necessary," said Juan Carlos Peralta, a spokesman for the URGARA union, which represents inspectors who check the quality of grains before they are loaded onto ships."It is a strike in one of the richest sectors in Argentina. We have exhausted…

Shallow water in Argentina's Parana River will slow exports and hurt the country's soy crushing margins at least through September, officials said, as more cargo ships are needed to carry the same amount of commodities.Drought has pushed the Parana to its lowest level in decades, complicating transportation and soymeal production.An increasing number of ships are running aground and higher costs are pressuring margins at the giant soy crushing plants that make Argentina the world's top exporter of livestock feed…

Due to the continuous growth of its South American operations, global logistics provider Dachser recently relocated both its Buenos Aires, Argentina regional office as well as its Santiago, Chile regional office to larger facilities.“The business in both Argentina and Chile is expanding and we simply outgrew our offices in these countries. We needed more employees, equipment and space to properly handle the business we have today as well as prepare for the growth we anticipate in these markets,” said Guido Gries, Managing Director Dachser Americas.

A.P. Moeller – Maersk will extend its end-to-end container logistics services with JDA Software Inc.’s Warehouse Management solutions, further building its warehousing and distribution services.American software and consultancy company providing supply chain management said Maersk will gain support in its ambition to provide visibility throughout the supply chain to improve on-time performance, adapt to real-world disruptions and simplify its customers’ supply chains.Today Maersk Warehousing and Distribution provides its customers the advantages of an end-to-end delivery network and greater flexibility through a wide range of logistics solutions…

The U.S. Navy has a balanced fleet, but it wants to grow bigger and better. Will the budget allow both? Maritime Reporter's March 2017 cover story on the U.S. Navy was all about the numbers. There exists several plans to grow the fleet beyond the current number of 308 ships, the Mitre recommendation of 414 ships, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment 340-ship proposal, and the Navy’s decision to grow the fleet to 355 ships, and the Trump administration’s 350. With so many numbers being bandied about, there are even more suggestions on how to get there.

Bryan Day, executive director of the Little Rock Port Authority, weighs in on President Donald Trump’s proposed infrastructure plan, calling for U.S. policymakers to consider inland waterways and ports in America’s infrastructure plan. President Donald Trump and members of Congress continue to discuss plans for a major infrastructure spending plan for our country. With calls from leaders from across the country, members of the federal government are coming together to embrace the importance of maintaining America’s infrastructure.

Vessel sales for December 2015 (as of January 1) as prepared by Shipping Intelligence, Inc., New York.

Vessel sales for September 2015 (as of October 1) as prepared by Shipping Intelligence, Inc., New York.

Shipping containers are ready for their close up. Long the invisible building blocks of the global economy, shipping containers are having their moment. Entrepreneurs and developers are utilizing them on land, in full view of the public that depended on them for delivering, well, everything since they were widely adopted by shipping carriers in the late 60's. The containers are being used to build housing, shopping centers, medical facilities and even farms. NPR reported yesterday on a Boston-based company called "Freight Farms…

Chairman Mario Cordero announced that the Federal Maritime Commission has completed compromise agreements recovering a total of $503,000 in civil penalties. The agreements were reached with five non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs), two unlicensed transport businesses and one vessel-operating common carrier. The agreed penalties resulted from investigations conducted by the Commission’s Area Representatives in Miami and Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. headquarters staff.

It may be five years before a nuclear waste dump in New Mexico closed by a radiation leak is fully operational again, and the facility will need at least $240 million to pay for the initial recovery, a U.S. Energy Department official said on Tuesday. Operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where radiological debris from U.S. nuclear labs and weapons sites is disposed of in a salt mine half a mile (1 km) below ground, were suspended in February after an accident released high levels of radiation and contaminated 22 workers. Findings from a preliminary investigation of the accident suggest at least one barrel of plutonium-tainted waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe ruptured after being stored at the underground dump.

Crowley Maritime subsidiary Titan Salvage appoint Michael G. Johnson Vice-President of Business Strategy & Process. Johnson will report to TITAN’s Managing Director Rich Habib, and will be domiciled in the company’s Houston office. In his new role, he will be responsible for assisting with the administration and running of TITAN, focusing on strategic issues to help further grow the business. “It is very exciting for us to have Michael on our team, especially during a time of continued growth and international expansion in our company,” said Habib.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission certified the final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) intermodal railyard and approved a landmark rail infrastructure project that would increase the efficiency and competitiveness of moving containerized cargo through the nation’s busiest harbor complex to U.S. and global markets. “Modernizing our transportation infrastructure is crucial to creating jobs, strengthening our economy and improving our quality of life in Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino.

Family and friends bid farewell to the crew on the submarine piers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam as the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) departed July 29, for a deployment to the Western Pacific region. Santa Fe's Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Timothy Poe said the submarine and her crew are excited to get underway to the Western Pacific and train on numerous mission areas as well as participate in theater security cooperation engagements. "Santa Fe is in excellent condition.

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada's largest port, said on Thursday it has approved a new facility to transfer coal from trains onto barges at Fraser Surrey Docks, a decision that followed lengthy public scrutiny over the project's environmental and health impact. After a permitting process lasting more than two years and including environmental impact, air quality and other human health assessments, the port said it found no "unacceptable risks" in allowing the $15 million project to move forward. The Fraser Surrey Docks terminal would handle up to 4 million metric tonnes of coal from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co (BNSF) each year, loading it on barges bound for Texada Island, north of Vancouver, where it would be transferred to large vessels for export.

U.S. coal-burning power utilities are being forced to turn to barges and more expensive trucks to move coal, desperate to shore up stockpiles left dangerously low by the widespread bottlenecks on rail networks. The shift in how coal is being delivered to some power plants from mining regions such as Illinois Basin and comes amid persistent railroad delays that began during last year's severe North American winter. The delays have been perpetuated also by a surge in rail deliveries of crude oil and grain…

Tropical storm Polo barreled nearer on Friday to the Mexican Pacific resort of Los Cabos where thousands of troops were restoring order following widespread chaos caused by Hurricane Odile at the start of the week. Odile plowed into the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula on Sunday as a category 3 hurricane, causing major damage to beach resorts and sparking widespread looting. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a tropical storm warning was in effect from Santa Fe to La Paz on the normally arid peninsula, adding that Polo could dump rains from Jalisco state to the southern port of Baja California. At around 2100 GMT, Polo was moving northwest at 6 miles per hour (10 km per hour) and is expected to veer further westward over the next 48 hours…

Built in 1945, the 141-foot steam powered tugboat was utilized by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroads. Originally named the Edward J Engel, it moved railroad car barges from Oakland to San Francisco until 1969. After which she passed through several hands and eventually her name was changed to TV ‘Respect’. She remained a steam powered vessel till 2007, when she sank at her moorings in the Oakland Estuary. In 2013, the United States Environmental Protection Agency embarked on a program to clean up the Oakland Estuary. Global Diving & Salvage, Inc.