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Wade News

20 Feb 2024

Parana River Reopens to Vessel Traffic with Draft Restrictions

© Alex Ruhl / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Parana River, a global grains thoroughfare, reopened to shipping traffic on Tuesday after a grounded ship was freed, though vessels were told to load less grain while the damage to the channel was assessed.Shipping traffic had been snarled after the ship Clara Insignia, loaded with wheat, ran aground near the waterway's main channel and was stuck for several days, blocking the channel down river from the Rosario grains port hub.The bulk carrier was freed late on Monday…

17 Apr 2023

Argentina Grains Inspectors Strike Halts Shipments at Rosario Ports

© Sebastian / Adobe Stock

Argentina grains inspectors have launched a 24-hour strike that is halting shipments at key river ports in farm transport hub Rosario, the ports chamber CAPyM said on Monday.The strike by the Urgara grains inspectors union is linked to conflicts over a port in the city of Buenos Aires and what it says are high taxes applied to workers' salaries.The strike "is affecting absolutely all the ports (in Rosario).

30 Mar 2023

Rosario Ports Operating Normally Despite Strike

© L Si Saber / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Rosario agro-port hub terminals were operating normally on Thursday in the midst of a strike by the Urgara grain receivers union aimed at storage centers, the country's Chamber of Port and Maritime Activities (CAPyM) said."The ports are not affected," Guillermo Wade, manager of CAPyM, told Reuters, adding that, at most, "those who have stocks will be receiving a little less merchandise or less than the estimated, but they are very specific cases."Grain receivers are technicians who analyze the merchandise stored in collection centers distributed throughout the country…

21 Aug 2022

Serbs Wade in Shrinking Danube as Dredgers Work Flat-out

© goran šafarek/EyeEm / Adobe Stock

Serbian sunseekers flocking to the riverside beaches of Novi Sad have adopted new pastime this summer—wading across a vast stretch of the Danube usually reserved for cargo barges and cruise ships.The navigable channel of western Europe's longest river, a trade and transport artery that passes through ten countries, is usually several hundred meters wide where it flows through Serbia's second-largest city.But drought and record high temperatures have reduced that to a narrow lane only being kept open by dredging…

22 Jun 2022

VLS Environmental Solutions Acquires Plaquemine Point Shipyard

© Miguel / Adobe Stock

Marine services company VLS Environmental Solutions, LLC announced it has acquired barge cleaning and repair yard Plaquemine Point Shipyard (PPSY). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Based in Plaquemine, La., PPSY is located just outside of Baton Rouge and provides full-service barge cleaning and repair along the Mississippi River. PPSY will operate within the VLS Marine Services division, and Wade Grundmeyer, VLS regional vice president of Southeast Louisiana, will run the business reporting to Eddie Van Huis…

19 May 2022

ISS Issues RFP to Construct North America’s First Zero-emissions Towboats

(Photo: ISS)

Houston-based Industrial Service Solutions (ISS) announced Thursday it is seeking bids from U.S. shipyards to build up to four hulls for what will become North America's first fully-electric towboats.The zero-emissions vessels, which will be constructed for New York-based Zeeboat and available for charter from 2025, will run entirely on battery power, without the use of diesel engines—a first for towboats in North America. Vancouver, B.C.-based Shift Clean Energy will deliver the battery energy storage systems.ISS…

19 Apr 2022

Argentine Maritime Workers Plan 24-hour Strike

© claudio / Adobe Stock

Argentine ship workers will stage a 24-hour strike on Thursday to protest what they call delays by the government in awarding tenders to the sector, although the action is not expected to affect activity at key grains ports in and around Rosario.The Maritime, Port and Naval Industry Federation (Fempinra) announced the strike on Tuesday, less than a week after protests by grains truck drivers snarled up transportation of soy and corn right in the middle of the harvest season.Worker protests have grown more common in the South American country, the world's top exporter of processed soy and no.

11 Mar 2022

What is the Insured’s Duty Under a Marine Insurance Policy? It Depends …

© Aerial Mike / Adobe Stock

The law governing marine insurance in the United States has long been a source of considerable confusion. And if there was once a clear set of principles applicable in such cases, the Supreme Court long ago muddied the waters with their infamous ruling in Wilburn Boat Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 348 U.S. 310 (1955). That case, involving a fire on a houseboat on an inland man-made lake on the Texas-Oklahoma border, established the “litmus test” for when maritime law should…

21 Feb 2022

Argentina Grains Inspectors Start Strike; 'No Impact' at Ports

© Alex Ruhl / Adobe Stock

Argentina's grains inspectors began a 24-hour strike on Monday demanding bonus payments, but port activity and shipments of farm products were not affected in the South American country, the top global exporter of processed soybeans.Juan Carlos Peralta, press secretary of the URGARA union, said there was strong compliance with the strike action and that on Monday afternoon the union would hold another assembly to decide whether to extend the strike."We will continue with the measure if we do not have an answer…

22 Dec 2021

New Fully-electric Towboats Will be the First in the US

Artist rendering of the zero emissions, fully electric towboat. (Image: ISS)

A series of four fully-electric, zero-emissions towboats announced this week are set to become the first built in North America as vessel owners and operators continue to explore new avenues to decarbonize.The new towboats, designed to support cleaner container transport in America's ports and inland waterways, will be built for New York-based Zeeboat and available for charter from 2025. Notably, they'll run entirely on battery power, without the use of diesel engines—a first…

03 Nov 2021

Vard Marine Names New VP for Business Operations

Kristin Jovel - Credit: Vard Marine

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Vard Marine has informed that Kristin Jovel, its Corporate Business Manager, has been appointed the position of Vice President Business Operations for its North American offices.Jovel joined the Houston office in 2010 after serving as a Director of a top-tier service management company. "Over the past 11 years, she has successfully led various strategic development initiatives aligned to the company’s business operations and corporate governance.

27 Oct 2021

Mighty River to Muddy Trickle: South America's Parana Rings Climate Alarm

Illustration only - Aerial shot over Parana River in Front of Rosario City - Credit: Wirestock/AdobeStock

Gustavo Alcides Diaz, an Argentine fisherman and hunter from a river island community, is at home on the water. The Parana River once lapped the banks near his wooden stilt home that he could reach by boat. Fish gave him food and income. He purified river water to drink.Now the 40-year-old looks out on a trickle of muddy water.The Parana, South America's second-largest river behind only the Amazon, has retreated this year to its lowest level since its record low in 1944, hit by cyclical droughts and dwindling rainfall upriver in Brazil.

15 Jul 2021

Low River Water Levels Choke Argentine's Ag Exports

© studio new art/AdobeStock

Ships leaving the Argentine agricultural ports hub of Rosario on the Parana River are having to reduce cargos by thousands of tonnes due to low water levels, the local head of logistics said on Wednesday, amid growing environmental concerns.Dryness in Brazil, where the Parana originates, has diminished cargo traffic and sparked worries by environmentalists about dredging the river below certain depths. The dryness has reduced the amount of cargo that can be carried by ships at the height of the Argentine corn and soy export season."Handymax ships are leaving port with 9…

15 Jul 2021

Parched Argentine River Cuts Into Grains Exports

© aerrant / Adobe Stock

Ships leaving the Argentine agricultural ports hub of Rosario on the Parana River are having to reduce cargos by thousands of tonnes due to low water levels, the local head of logistics said on Wednesday, amid growing environmental concerns.Dryness in Brazil, where the Parana originates, has diminished cargo traffic and sparked worries by environmentalists about dredging the river below certain depths. The dryness has reduced the amount of cargo that can be carried by ships at the height of the Argentine corn and soy export season."Handymax ships are leaving port with 9…

08 Jul 2021

Argentine Province Orders Ports Strike to Be Lifted

© Ari / Adobe Stock

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…

17 Jun 2021

Argentine Port Unions Plan Strike Over Vaccine Access

© Sebastian / Adobe Stock

A coalition of nine Argentine port worker unions will go on a nationwide 24-hour strike starting at midnight to press for vaccinations against the coronavirus, the labor groups said in a statement on Thursday.Workers including tugboat captains and customs officers have held similar work stoppages recently, as the South American grains powerhouse gets hit by a second wave of COVID-19 cases."We have raised the issue and held meetings with different authorities with the purpose to obtaining concrete answers regarding the application of vaccines against COVID-19 to our workers…

21 May 2021

Stranded Grains Ships to Be Towed Free from Rosario

(Photo: Claudio Elias)

Seven grains ships stranded at Argentina's export hub of Rosario will be towed free and sent out to sea after they were loaded with more produce than could be carried on the port's increasingly shallow waters, local authorities said on Friday.Rosario traffic has been snarled in the aftermath of a 48-hour strike by tugboat captains and other workers managing the flow of agricultural cargo ships.Seven ships, six of them large Panamax vessels, loaded with soymeal, corn and other farm products were moored at Rosario during the work stoppage.

21 May 2021

Argentina's Key Grains Port Snarled After Strike Over Vaccine Access

© pepe / Adobe Stock

Argentina's main grains port of Rosario was snarled on Friday in the aftermath of a 48-hour strike by tugboat captains and other workers managing the flow of agricultural cargo ships, who are demanding access to COVID-19 vaccines, port authorities said.Seven ships—six of them large Panamax vessels—that had been loaded with soy and other farm products were stranded at their docks, unable to embark due to the falling water level of the Parana River at Rosario, according to a letter…

05 May 2021

Low Water Levels Hamper Shipping on the Parana River

© Wirestock / Adobe Stock

Argentina's Parana River, the grains superhighway that takes soy and corn from the Pampas farm belt to the world, has gotten so shallow that it has started "trimming" international shipments just as the country's export season gets underway.The level of the Parana at the export hub of Rosario, home to some of the biggest soy crushing plants in the world, was a scant 0.90 meters on Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard.Between 1996 and 2020 the median depth of the river at Rosario in April was a much deeper 3.58 meters.

20 Apr 2021

SeaspanLNG Secures AIP for LNG Bunker Vessel

(Image: SeaspanLNG)

SeaspanLNG said it has secured an approval in principle (AIP) with Bureau Veritas for the design of a 7,600 cubic meter capacity liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel.The LNG bunker vessel has been designed for ship-to-ship LNG transfer as well as well as coastal/short sea shipping operations by Seaspan Ferries’ partner Vard Marine Inc. Seaspan Ferries’ class of dual fuel hybrid electric ferries were developed by Vard in 2014 and included a new method of bunkering the vessels.

08 Mar 2021

Vard Marine VP Andrew Kendrick Retires

Andrew Kendrick (left) and Derek Buxton  (Photo: Vard Marine)

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Vard Marine announced Derek Buxton, current vice president business development, has taken on the additional duties as vice president for the company's regional office in Ottawa effective immediately, following Andrew Kendrick’s retirement from the company.Kendrick started the position as president of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) on January 1, 2021 and continues to work for Vard Marine as a principal consultant.Kendrick’s career in the defense and security industry spanned 45 years…

02 Feb 2021

Vard Marine Wins Contract to Design Chilean Navy Vessels

The Vard Amphibious & Military Sea Transport Vessel for the Chilean Navy (Image: Vard Marine)

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Vard Marine said it has secured a contract from Chilean state-owned ASMAR Shipbuilding & Ship Repair Company to design an Amphibious and Military Transport Vessel for the Chilean Navy.The new ships, to be constructed at the ASMAR shipyard in Talcahuano, Chile, will be capable of operating throughout the Pacific and Southern Ocean with services to include logistic support, search and rescue (SAR) missions, troop and asset movement and deployment, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations.Based on existing Vard Series 7 desig

21 Oct 2020

Royston Wins UK Navy Engine Services Contract

HMS Shoreham, which will be supported under the contract, operating out in the Persian Gulf and leading USS's Sentry, Devastator and Dextrous during an International Mine Counter Measures Exercise (Crown Copyright).

Royston has won a multimillion pound contract to support and maintain small diesel engines onboard amphibious assault ships, mine hunters and other Royal Navy vessels, the marine engineering and propulsion specialist said Wednesday.The £5.5 million ($7.2 million) five-year Ministry of Defense (MOD) contract will see U.K.-based Royston responsible for providing diesel engine spares and technical support alongside repair and refurbishment of engines when required.This will include various Caterpillar…