Series A News

If nothing else, building vessels in the U.S. is a complicated business.In a session on the domestic shipbuilding marketplace, at Marine Money’s late-November 2023 conference held in New Orleans, Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards (with more than a dozen facilities, in Mississippi and Louisiana), described his company’s architecture as a “three-legged stool approach: commercial newbuilds, government newbuilds and repair/conversion capabilities”.On the same panel…

French engineering company GTT has received an order from an Asian shipyard for the tank design of eight new Liquefied Natural Gas Carriers (LNGCs).The order, booked in the second quarter of 2024, is on behalf of a Middle Eastern ship-owner.GTT will design the tanks of these eight vessels, which will each offer a capacity of 174,000 m3.The tanks will be fitted with a membrane containment system from the NO96 series developed by GTT.NO96 technology is a cryogenic liner used to contain liquefied gas at low temperatures during shipping, onshore and offshore storage, at atmospheric pressure.

UK-based offshore vessel designer Chartwell Marine has started the construction of its new Brevity Class crew transfer vessel (CTV) at the Diverse Marine shipyard, becoming the latest in its growing pipeline of new vessel builds to supply the global offshore wind market.Chartwell Marine’s current new build pipeline now exceeds 15 vessels across six local shipyards – with 14 offshore wind vessels launched and operational at major offshore wind farms, including two in U.S. waters.The company’s latest CTV entered build in March 2024…

Norwegian shipbuilder Vard, a subsidiary of the Fincantieri Group, has presented the next generation of military vessels - the VARD Resilience series.To answer the Norwegian Navy’s demands for the new vessels, VARD has developed VARD Resilience series with a design that meets the request for standardization, modularization, adaptation to the customer's needs and purpose of the vessel.According to Vard, the Resielince series has been designed with a long service life in mind.“One…

For 15 years the Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), an annual three-day event, has brought together government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, international and domestic researchers and solution providers to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. World events highlight that maritime security is increasingly at risk during the current period of great-power competition and ongoing conflicts. The active competition between nations who are not…

Shipbuilder Vard announced it has delivered a new commissioning service operation vessel (CSOV) to Norway's Rem Offshore.The vessel—NB 948, to be named Rem Wind—was constructed at Vard Vung Tau in Vietnam and handed over one month before contractual delivery date, the builder said.Tailor-made for worldwide services and maintenance operations at offshore wind farms, the 85-meter-long vessel is of VARD 4 19 design with a 19.5-meter beam, accommodation for 120 people, a height-adjustable motion-compensated gangway with elevators…

EST-Floattech will be providing the battery system for the purpose-built electric-landing utility vessel (E-LUV) to be built at Coastal Workboats’ new yard Stornoway. The company will also provide the shore-based power supply system.The collaboration with Coastal Workboats Scotland is realized due to Coastal Workboats receiving a £6 million (€7 million) grant to demonstrate the UK's first commercial electric workboat and charging station from the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.The BV-classed E-LUV is set to be the UK's first commercial electric workboat.

Finnish shipping company Meriaura announced it has placed an order for two Ecotrader cargo ships from Dutch shipyard Royal Bodewes. The ships will be built in Hoogezand for scheduled delivery in January and December 2026.The ships are 105 meters long, 1A ice classed 6750 DWT vessels, designed to achieve the lowest possible emission levels, Meriaura said. Like the EcoCoaster vessels Eeva VG and Mirva VG delivered in 2016, the newbuilds will be capable of operating on biofuel made from recycled raw material produced by Meriaura’s subsidiary VG-Ecofuel.

The Coastal Sustainability Alliance (CSA), an industry collaborative effort led by Kuok Maritime Group (KMG), has announced the start of construction of its first fully electric PXO-series tug (e-tug) and supply boat (e-supply boat) by PaxOcean Group.The zero-emissions vessels are among the first and largest local electric harbour craft designed for operation in Singapore’s coastal waters. They are targeted for deployment in 2025, ahead of the nation’s goal for all new coastal…

A fabricated image of characters from the animated television series The Simpsons viewing a collapsed bridge and a large ship has been widely shared on social media with the false suggestion that the show predicted the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.The image shows signs of having been made with AI and an executive producer for the series told Reuters that the image is fake as the show never had an episode where a container ship hits a bridge.The Francis Key Scott bridge…

This week, Seaspan Energy launched the second of its three 7600m3 liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering vessels, the Seaspan Lions, named after the twin peaks of the North Shore, or known as Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn (“Twin Sisters” or “Two Sisters”) to the Squamish Nation.This series of vessels is named after iconic West Coast mountains and the first two vessels, the Seaspan Garibaldi ("Nch'kay") and the Seaspan Lions (Ch'ich'iyúy Elxwíkn), will be delivered in 2024 with the third…

Jennifer Carpenter joined The American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry, in August 1990 and became its president and CEO in January 2020. She highlights some of the greatest focus areas for the 80-year-old trade group—simultaneously looking at both the present day and the road ahead.The towboat, tug and barge industry is in a period of rapid evolution. How is AWO—now in its 80th year…

Turkish tugboat builder and operator Sanmar announced it has launched a new vessel in its exclusive Kocaçay Series of high-powered escort tugs, scheduled to be delivered to Italian customer Rimorchiatori Laziali in May.Kocaçay lX is based on the RAstar 3200SX design developed especially for Sanmar by Canadian naval architects Robert Allan Ltd.The tug’s design is primarily intended for escort operations in exposed areas where exceptional seakeeping capabilities are essential. Following its launch…

SONARAY, manufacturer of lighting products used in marine applications, has introduced its new line of LED flood lighting marketed as the Velocity series.The Velocity Flood Light Series joins the company's high-powered flood light offering and brings contemporary looks along with a choice of models ranging from 200 to 500-watts. Durable die-cast aluminum housing, tough polycarbonate lens, exceptional IP65 and IK10 ratings along with anti-corrosive finish for harsh environments are just some of the features built-in to this series, SONARAY said.

American Cruise Lines is set to take delivery of two more new small ships in 2025.The 125-passenger sister ships, American Patriot and American Pioneer, represent the fifth and sixth ships in the company’s Project Blue series of 12 new small ships for the U.S. market. The ships will be built at the company’s affiliated shipyard, Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Maryland.American Patriot will begin sailing in June 2025, and American Pioneer in November 2025 and both new ships will operate a host of American’s U.S.

Over the past eight quarters, ship recycling of bulkers, tankers and container ships has dropped to the lowest level in 20 years. “A combination of strong demand following a series of market shocks and low orderbooks have kept older ships operating for longer than usual,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.During the first quarter of 2024, only two million deadweight tonnes (DWT) ship capacity were recycled. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter with recycling levels below three million DWT.

The United States on Thursday imposed new Iran-related counterterrorism sanctions against Oceanlink Maritime DMCC and its vessels, citing its role in shipping commodities on behalf of the Iranian military.The United States is using financial sanctions to isolate Iran and disrupt its ability to fund its proxy groups and support Russia's war in Ukraine, the Treasury Department said. The United Arab Emirates-based Oceanlink operates a fleet of more than a dozen vessels deeply involved in shipping Iranian commodities, Treasury said.The U.S.

Singapore-based Seatrium has secured a series of major contracts for vessel repairs, upgrades and conversions, set for completion by the end of 2025.With an aggregate value of S$350 million ($259 million), the contracts have reinforced Seatrium’s reputation as a one of the market leaders in vessel repairs, upgrades and conversions.The diverse range of complex contracts secured by Seatrium Repairs and Upgrades include the upgrades and conversions of Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRU)…

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday approved the country's eighth commercial-scale offshore wind project, which will be built off the coast of Massachusetts, bringing online electricity to power more than 900,000 homes.The approval for Avangrid’s New England Wind Project brings the U.S. one-third of the way to President Joe Biden's goal of permitting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030—a key part of the president's climate change agenda.The project comes just a week after the Interior Department approved another offshore wind project, Orsted's Sunrise Wind, in New York.

The Mongla Port Authority in Bangladesh has taken delivery of its new tug, M.T. Joymoni.The newbuild is a RAmparts 3200-CL designed by Canada's Robert Allan Ltd. and built by Cheoy Lee Shipyards, in China.The RAmparts 3200-CL was designed by Robert Allan Ltd. in 2008 exclusively for Cheoy Lee Shipyards, with the first tug, Ocean Pioneer, delivered to Ocean Sparkle in India in 2011. Based on the RAmparts series, the hull form was developed to provide a high performance, multi-function tug in a shallow draft configuration, with bollard pull of up to 85 tonnes, the designer said.M.T.

St. Johns Ship Building on Wednesday announced it has signed a contract with Seapath for construction of a series of six ABS deck barges in support of their Jones Act leasing business.The barges will be built at St Johns Ship Building’s facility in Palatka, Fla. and will be dispatched to multiple charterers along the US East Coast.Seapath is a subsidiary of the Libra Group, which is also parent to St. Johns’ holding company, Americraft Marine Group.Joshua Lubarsky, CEO of Seapath, said, “Domestic maritime transportation is the backbone of the US transportation system.

The Canadian government on Tuesday announced it has awarded a pair of contracts to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. (VSY) to initiate the next stages of procuring the first flight of Multi-Purpose Vessels (MPV) for the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG).These contracts, which are worth $490.6 million combined (taxes included), following completion of the vessel’s basic design review in late 2023 and allow VSY to undertake pre-construction work, such as selecting specific pieces of equipment…

The latest newbuild for the San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet has been commissioned. The high-speed passenger vessel Delphinus was built by Mavrik Marine in La Conner, Wash. as the second of four new Dorado class ferries. Design was completed by One2three Naval Architects and construction management services were provided by Aurora Marine Design.Vessel construction was funded through the Federal Transit Administration and the State of California’s Proposition 1B in collaboration with…