Strait Of Gibraltar News

DFDS has completed its acquisition of FRS Iberia/Maroc, a short-sea ferry company connecting Spain and Morocco via the Strait of Gibraltar.“We are excited to start the integration of FRS Iberia/Maroc and look forward to applying our joint capabilities to grow the business while continuing to provide reliable, efficient ferry services to both passengers and freight customers,” said Torben Carlsen, CEO of DFDS.Reporting preliminary revenue of DKK 1.0bn for 2023, FRS Iberia/Maroc has three routes operated by a total of 850 staff of which just over 400 are own employees.

Four migrants died after being thrown from a speedboat yards from a beach in Cadiz in southern Spain, Guardia Civil police and rescue service said on Wednesday.The boat was carrying a total of 27 immigrants, 23 of whom arrived alive.Images published on social media and carried by local media, whose authenticity has not yet been confirmed by Reuters, show a black inflatable speedboat circling in heavy tides off the beach and people onboard pushing others off the side, who start to swim in the swell."We saw a drug trafficking boat arriving but they weren't trafficking drugs but with migrants.

The Navy wants, and needs, more ships; but it can’t build them fast enough.While the U.S. Navy aims to achieve a 355-ship fleet, it is decommissioning older (and some not so old) ships at about the same rate it's adding new ones.A Congressional Research Service report stated that, as of April 17, 2023, the Navy included 296 battle force ships. "The Navy projects that under its FY2024 budget submission, the Navy would include 293 battle force ships at the end of FY2024 and 291 battle force ships at the end of FY2028."But there is progress…

Killer whales severely damaged a sailing boat off the coast of southern Spain, the local maritime rescue service said on Thursday, adding to dozens of orca attacks on vessels recorded so far this year on Spanish and Portuguese coasts.In the early hours of Thursday, a group of orcas broke the rudder and pierced the hull after ramming into the Mustique on its way to Gibraltar, prompting its crew of four to contact Spanish authorities for help, a spokesman for the maritime rescue…

Ship-to-ship (STS) loadings of Russian Urals blend crude oil hit a record high in January in the Mediterranean as traders moved cargos onto larger vessels to make long-haul shipments to Asia more cost effective, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.Since the European Union banned purchases of Russian sea-borne oil in December over Moscow's actions in Ukraine, the bulk of Russian oil has been diverted to Asia.STS operations involve the transfer of cargo in international waters from smaller to larger vessels…

Remotely piloted aircraft are assisting Spanish authorities in actively monitoring sulphur emissions from ships transiting one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.Over the summer the European Maritime Safety Agency’s (EMSA) aerial drones have been monitoring the level of sulphur oxides released by ships transiting the Strait of Gibraltar. The operation carried out by the Spanish General Directorate of Merchant Marine  – under the direction of the Spanish Ministry of Transport…

Elcome International, provider of maritime systems integration, technical support and shipboard service, announced the opening of another office in Europe. Based in the Spanish port city of Algeciras, the facility will offer sales and technical support for the company’s growing portfolio of ship navigation, communication, satellite connectivity and coastal surveillance systems. Shipboard services will include annual radio surveys and annual testing of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)…

The European Commission will co-finance the construction of the first vessel to be fully dedicated to liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering at the Port of Algeciras, Spain.The grant agreement was signed with Enagás and the Port Authority of Algeciras Bay on Tuesday.Enagás said the project is "boosted" by the Enagás start-up that specializes in small-scale LNG supply infrastructure, Scale Gas, and the Port Authority of Algeciras Bay (APBA).The initiative, coordinated by Enagás…

Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has begun offering to ship its own oil, figuring in the costs in crude supply deals to help customers who have struggled to hire vessels to carry the country’s oil due to U.S. sanctions, according to company documents seen by Reuters.The United States has blacklisted vessel owners, shipping operators and threatened to sanction any tanker facilitating the country’s oil exports as it tightens restrictions on trade with the South American country.Washington has been trying to weaken socialist President Nicolas Maduro by choking the OPEC member’s oil exports, depriving the government of petrodollars — its main source of revenue.Most shipping firms are avoiding Venezuela because of the sanctions…

Australia’s new, nearly completed icebreaker built at Damen's Galati shipyard in Romania is traveling to the Netherlands to undergo final commissioning and sea trials that had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.The Nuyina is currently under a month-long tow from Romania to the Dutch port of Vlissingen, where teams of equipment installers from Western Europe will access the new research and supply vessel (RSV) for final commissioning of essential propulsion, electrical and navigation systems…

Portugal’s Navalrocha Shipyard is reporting a flurry of activity in 2020 as it navigates the COVID-19 outbreak and prepares for a packed order book in the coming months.Navalrocha commercial director Sergio Rodrigues said the shipyard had recorded several landmarks during a highly memorable period in its history, completing its first multimillion Euro refit for a seismic survey vessel before managing its first ballast water treatment system (BWTS) installation.The projects were accompanied by a series of other deals involving bunker tankers…

Tankers carrying nearly two months worth of Venezuelan oil output are stuck at sea as global refiners shun the nation’s crude to avoid falling foul of U.S. sanctions, according to industry sources, PDVSA documents and shipping data.Washington is tightening sanctions to cut Venezuela’s oil exports and deprive the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro of its main source of revenue.The OPEC member’s exports are hovering near their lowest levels in more than 70 years and the economy has collapsed, but Maduro has held on - to the frustration of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.Washington has blacklisted ships and…

Finnish manaufacturer of cargo-handling machinery Cargotec Oyj said that its subsidiary Kalmar has concluded an agreement with long-term customer EUROGATE Tanger in Morocco to upgrade the capabilities of four ZPMC ship-to-shore (STS) cranes.The order was booked in Cargotec's 2019 Q3 order intake, and the project is scheduled to commence in Q1 of 2020 and be completed in Q2 2021.The EUROGATE Tanger (EGT) container terminal is conveniently located on the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, making it the ideal transhipment hub for the western Mediterranean, Africa, as well as North and South America.With a quay length of 812 m, a terminal area of 400,000 m² and a water depth of up to 18 m, the facility is well-equipped to handle the new generation of container ships.

Stena Bulk  chief executive and president Erik Hanell wrote to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to personally enter the efforts to secure the release of UK-flagged tanker ship Stena Impero and its primarily Indian crew members, who have been detained in Iran since mid-July.According to media reports, the owner of British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized by Iran on July 19 with 23 crew, including 18 Indians on board, has appealed to  Modi personally intervene to negotiate with Tehran.The oil tanker Stena Impero was seized by Iran while passing through the Hormuz Strait. It was done in retaliation, after Iran's own…

War with Iran is the mother of all wars, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday in a speech broadcast live on state TV, warning once again that shipping might not be safe in the Strait of Hormuz oil waterway.Tensions have risen between Iran and the West since last year when the United States pulled out of an international agreement which curbed the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions on Iran."Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, war with Iran is the mother of all wars," Rouhani said at the Foreign Ministry in a speech which also praised Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif after the United States imposed sanctions on him on July 31.If the United States wants to have negotiations with Iran then it must lift all sanctions…

APM Terminals Medport Tangier container terminal has officially opened its doors in Morocco.Part of the Tanger Med Port complex, it has an annual capacity of 5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalents)."With this new capacity, Morocco is establishing itself as one of the most important transshipment locations in the world. Tanger Med Port is already ranked as the leading African port and is amongst the world’s top 50 container ports due to its prime location along key trade lanes and increasing cargo flows, to and from Africa," said a press release from the international container terminal operating company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands.The construction of APM Terminals MedPort Tangier facility took two years and a total investment of USD 800m.

HullWiper, the hull cleaning solution provider, in partnership with global provider of ship fuel conservation and underwater services SCAMP, is offering an affordable, safe and eco-friendly hull cleaning solution for vessels transiting the Strait of Gibraltar.The agreement marks the latest expansion under HullWiper’s global leasing program, introduced in 2017, to work with partners worldwide to offer ship owners and operators a cost-efficient, brush- and diver-free alternative to traditional hull cleaning methods that is friendly both to the environment and the bottom line.The Port of Gibraltar’s strategic location serves as one of the…

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, is to deliver two rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) to EUROGATE, Europe's leading shipping line-independent container terminal operator, for use in their Tanger S.A. terminal in Morocco.The order was booked in Cargotec's 2018 Q3 order intake, with delivery scheduled to take place during Q3 of 2019. The EUROGATE Tanger container terminal is conveniently located on the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, making it the ideal transhipment hub for the western Mediterranean, Africa and South America.With a quay length of 812 m, a terminal area of 400,000 m² and a water depth of up to 18 m, the facility is well-equipped to handle the new generation of container ships. All RTGs currently operating at the terminal have been supplied by Kalmar.

USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75), the Carrier Strike Group EIGHT (CSG-8) flag ship, passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, April 27. "I'm proud of the professional seamanship our Sailors showcased as we transited through one of the busiest sea lanes in the world," said Truman's Commanding Officer, Capt. Nicholas Dienna. Along with Truman, the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) made the journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea through the second busiest waterway in the world. But this event carried with it more than breathtaking visuals of the Gibraltar landscape. More importantly, it served as a strategic step for the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG).

The first group of three, of a total of 12 advanced remotecontrolled ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, has departed China for delivery on February 15 to the new APM Terminals MedPort Tangier, Morocco terminal. Manufactured by ZPMC in Shanghai, the super post-Panamax cranes will be able to accommodate 20,000 TEU vessels, giving the facility an annual container throughput capacity of five million TEUs. “Our goal is to use proven technology to create highproductivity for our clients on one of the world’s most strategically important trade lanes on the Strait of Gibraltar,” said APM Terminals MedPort Tangier Managing Director Dennis Olesen. Scheduled to become operational in 2019…

Rolls-Royce and Sanmar Shipyards in Turkey have signed a contract for the delivery of eight MTU Series 4000 engines for four new terminal tugs, including an option for a further four engines. The tugs will each be fitted with two 16V 4000 M73L MTU engines, each delivering an output of 2,700 kW (at 1,850 rpm). The MTU brand is part of Rolls-Royce Power Systems. Sanmar and MTU have been working closely together since 2009. Knut Müller, Head of the Marine and Government Business Division at MTU…

APM Terminals has announced orders for 12 remote-controlled Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes and 32 Automated Rail-Mounted Gantry Cranes (ARMGs) to equip the new five million TEU* APM Terminals MedPort Tangier facility now under construction at the Tanger-Med II port complex. The container terminal will be the second operated by APM Terminals at the Tanger-Med port complex designed to serve the newest Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) with capacities up to 20,000 TEUs. APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will have up to 2,000 meters of quay length and increase the Tanger-Med complex’s overall capacity to over nine million TEUs. The facility complements APM Terminals Tangier which handled 1.7 million TEUs in 2015.

Port operator APM Terminals to develop a new transshipment terminal in Tangier, Morocco with an annual capacity of five million TEUs. APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will become operational in 2019, serving multiple trades and will be the first automated terminal in Africa. The 30-year concession of APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will complement the current operations of the existing APM Terminals Tangier facility. APM Terminals has been named as the operator of a new container transshipment terminal at the Tanger Med 2 port complex. APM Terminals already operates the APM Terminals Tangier facility at Tanger Med 1 port, which started operations in July of 2007 and handled 1.7 million TEUs in 2015. The new terminal will have annual capacity of five million TEUs.