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Large Steel News

03 Dec 2023

ExxonMobil CEO Rebuffs IEA Criticism of Carbon Capture Strategy

Darren Woods (Source: ExxonMobil)

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods on Saturday rejected the International Energy Agency's recent claim that using wide-scale carbon capture to fight climate change was an implausible "illusion", saying the same could be said about electric vehicles and solar energy."There is no solution set out there today that is at the scale to solve the problem," Woods told Reuters on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai."So, you could say that about carbon capture today, you could say that about electric vehicles, about wind, about solar.

19 Jun 2023

Austal USA to Build Fifth T-ATS Ship for the US Navy

(Image: Austal USA)

Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Austal USA has been awarded a $71,706,745 fixed-price incentive contract option from the U.S. Navy for the construction of an additional Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ship (T-ATS 15).With the award, the company is now under contract for five T-ATS, having received awards for T-ATS 13 and 14 in July 2022 and T-ATS 11 and 12 in October 2021.Paddy Gregg, CEO of Austal USA's Australian parent company Austal, said the contract award again highlights Austal USA’s growing steel shipbuilding capability…

12 Dec 2022

How Do Floating Wind Turbines Work?

Three of the common types of floating wind turbine platform. (Image: Josh Bauer/NREL)

Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible.Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep – roughly the height of an 18-story building – these “monopile” structures are pretty much out of the question.A solution has emerged that’s being tested in several locations around the world: wind turbines that float.In California…

13 Apr 2022

Welding Tech: Inrotech Partners with Gullco International

Inrotech-Crawler - Vertical & Horizontal welding in site storage tanks (Photo: Inrotech)

The Danish provider of mobile robotic welding and adaptive multi-pass welding technologies, Inrotech has partnered withGullco International, a manufacturer of automated welding and cutting carriages, modular automation, and custom automation solutions.The two companies will use their partnership to strengthen their customer offerings and market position. With this partnership, both companies combine their knowledge together and offer smart, easy-to-use automation solutions equipped with intelligent software and scanning technology for the growing need for welding automation technology…

09 Mar 2022

Fincantieri Marinette Marine Dedicates New Construction Facility

(Photo: Fincantieri Marinette Marine)

Leaders from Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the U.S. Navy, and Wisconsin-based Miron Construction dedicated a new facility at the Marinette shipyard with a small ceremony Mar. 8, 2022.Employees and guests gathered to open the newest building at the Marinette shipyard, Building 35, where giant plates of raw steel begin the journey to become a U.S. warship. The 32,000 sq. ft. building is connected to a new panel line where steel is prepared, marked, cut, and welded on an automated assembly line complete with state-of-the-art robotic welders.

12 Apr 2021

Ever Given Fiasco Illustrates Importance of the Shipping Container

(Photo: Suez Canal Authority)

Take a look around you.Perhaps you’re snacking on a banana, sipping some coffee or sitting in front of your computer and taking a break from work to read this article. Most likely, those goods—as well as your smartphone, refrigerator and virtually every other object in your home—were once loaded onto a large container in another country and traveled thousands of miles via ships crossing the ocean before ultimately arriving at your doorstep.Today, an estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea…

11 Apr 2021

Shipbuilding: Is there a different future for ship repair and conversion?

© Photocreo Bednarek/AdobeStock

There is an old adage that states that a repair yard can economically build new ships, but a new construction yard should never touch ship repair jobs. In my experience there is a lot of truth to that statement, and it does not mean that new construction yards are run by less capable people; it simply means that ship construction and ship repair and conversion are fundamentally different business models. Ship construction uses a script, while ship repair and conversion is improvisation. I will not drive the theater comparison completely home, but it has some validity.

30 Dec 2019

Sif Holding Eyes Japan Project

Sif Holding, the manufacturer of large steel tubulars, has entered into exclusive negotiations for the delivery of 33 monopiles and 33 Transition pieces (25 KTon steel) for an offshore wind project in Japan.The current state of negotiations has led to a pre- order of the steel for the project, said the Netherlands-headquartered company, which provides steel foundations to the offshore wind, oil and gas markets.Manufacture of the MP/TP-foundations and disclosure of project details is subject to the issue of a Notice To Proceed (NTP) by the client, it said.Sif’s orderbook for 2020 now has approximately 175 Kton of which 25 Kton under exclusive…

28 Nov 2019

Royal IHC Collaborates with Breman Machinery

Royal IHC (IHC), a Netherlands-based player in design and construction activities for the specialist maritime sector, and compatriot Breman Machinery, a company that makes components for the builders of machinery, have signed an agreement to cooperate on building complex and steel structures with high tolerances and high precision as part of the tender to replace the Royal Netherlands Navy’s Walrus-class submarines.IHC is competing in the tender as a partner of the highly experienced Naval Group. If the group goes a stage further in the process – which will be announced in a so-called ‘B-letter’ – it will be able to draw on Breman’s extensive expertise and experience.IHC and Breman have been working together for decades on various shipbuilding projects…

14 Dec 2018

INSIGHTS: Lorry Wagner, Ph.D., President, LEEDCo

Dr. Lorry Wagner has served as president of the Cleveland-based Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) since May of 2010.LEEDCo is the public private partnership behind the effort to construct Icebreaker Wind, a 6 turbine 20.7 megawatt offshore wind energy demonstration project in Lake Erie, 8 miles off the shore of Cleveland. LEEDCo has received funding from the U.S. DOE under its Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects award and has partnered with Fred. Olsen Renewables of Norway. Dr.

28 Sep 2016

US Boatbuilding: Sink or Swim

Joe Hudspeth

Navigating interesting times has the nation’s shipbuilding industry searching in unusual places. The answers could be blowing in the wind. Conducting commerce and forecasting the future for shipyards is akin to setting out in uncharted waters. For some, the voyage might prove to be easy sailing with favorable winds. Other times, it can be a rough ride, forcing long and unprogressive diversions. In the worst cases, one might run aground temporarily, hit rock bottom, capsize belly up, or be forced to turn around and give up.

09 Aug 2015

Powerful storm hits Taiwan, six dead

A powerful typhoon battered Taiwan on Saturday with strong wind and torrential rain, cutting power to 3.62 million households as the death toll rose to six. Four people were missing and 101 were injured, authorities said. Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled and more than 9,900 people were evacuated from their homes. Television footage trees uprooted and power poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind and shipping containers piled on top of each other at a port. "The storm will weaken but we expect more rain, particularly in southern Taiwan," said Wang Shih-chien, an official with the island's Central Weather Bureau.

06 Jul 2015

Buoys in Disputed Waters Roil South China Sea Dispute

Buoys stretched "as far as eye could see" - Philippine sailor. The Philippine navy recently found a large steel marker bearing Chinese inscriptions and hundreds of yellow buoys in waters near the Reed Bank, an area of the South China Sea where Manila has long explored for oil and gas, Philippine naval sources said. One source, a sailor, told Reuters he was on a fishing boat being used by the navy that discovered the rubber buoys and the floating steel marker at the end of May. The buoys stretched "as far as the eye could see", the sailor said. He said there was no evidence Chinese ships had placed them near the Reed Bank, which is also claimed by Beijing.

28 Jul 2014

Offshore Installation at Lerwick

A large steel oil storage tank to be installed west of Shetland as part of Premier’s development of the Solan field has arrived in Lerwick onboard a heavy-transport vessel Xiang Yun Kou, to make use of the port’s deep-water quays and anchorage. The vessel is berthed at Holmsgarth 5 and local engineering and logistics companies have been engaged to prepare the tank prior to it being taken to the field. Around 1 August, the Xiang Yon Kou will move to an anchorage in the port and ballast down for the tank to be floated off the deck of the vessel. The tank will then be transferred to tugs accompanying Thialf, the world’s largest semi-submersible crane vessel, which will install the tank.

06 Dec 2013

New Steel Processing Equipment Helps Build Australian Warships

Inventive steel processing companies provide the backbone for infrastructure, transport, shipping and consumer goods sectors. One such company, Ferrocut Australia, was called on by the Royal Australian Navy’s Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Shipbuilder program, to provide steel plate cutting services and support for the life of the warship-building project. Ferrocut, a South Australian plate profiling business, specializes in offering oxy, plasma and laser cutting…

11 Sep 2013

Sterling Builds Massive Dredger

Deck barge Dale Pyatt sits in May Shipyard while construction is finalized. (Photo: Eric Haun)

Vessel’s crane is the centerpiece of this state-of-the-art, technologically advanced workhorse platform. Sterling Equipment, Inc., an East Coast marine construction rental company based out of Quincy, Mass., has more than 135 pieces of floating equipment in commission, but its newest barge, a 180- x 65- x 12-foot crane dredge, will be among its largest and most technologically advanced. In September 2012, Sterling, a subsidiary of Jay Cashman, Inc., contracted May Shipyard on Staten Island, N.Y.

09 May 2013

Keel Laid for World's First FLNG Project

Prelude Keel-lay ceremonyL Photo credit Shell

Shell has laid the keel for 'Prelude FLNG', the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project. When complete, Prelude is expected to be the largest offshore floating facility ever built. The hull will now be assembled in the dry dock, before the turret and the topsides are fitted at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea. “This is a key milestone in Prelude’s story,” said Rob Kretzers, Shell Executive Vice President Projects. “Innovative thinking and leading edge technology…

08 May 2013

New DNV JIP to Speed Up Subsea Construction

Bjørn Søgård (Photo: DNV)

One challenge in the construction of a subsea project is the long delivery time of large steel forgings used for key components. This is mainly due to compliance with oil companies’ individual requirements. DNV is now inviting the subsea industry to jointly obtain synergies by developing a best-practice approach. The aim is to reduce delivery time and production costs and improve material quality, thus reducing the risk throughout the supply chain. Due to quality concerns, the end users of subsea systems are stipulating company-specific requirements for subsea forgings…

22 Mar 2012

BAE Systems and Moran Iron Works Join Forces on Fabrication

Mobile, Alabama – BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards and Moran Iron Works Inc. signed a teaming agreement in order to collaborate on the pursuit of plate steel fabrication projects for industrial plant customers. Together, they will serve customers throughout the northern and southern regions of central and eastern North America. With access to the Great Lakes, Moran Iron Works is able to reach customers throughout the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States and Canada, providing fully integrated and outfitted steel platework assemblies and modules ready to install at their industrial sites. BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards has facilities located in Mobile…

19 Aug 2011

Metso Wins Major Automation Contracts for Advanced Ships

Metso has been awarded major automation system contracts for 3 advanced vessels to be built in Finland. One contract is for 2 Multifunctional Icebreaking Supply Vessels (MIBSV) by Arctech Helsinki Shipyard Oy for Russian Sovcomflot. The second is a Multipurpose Deck Cargo Carrier by STX Finland Oy for Finnish Gaiamare Ltd. belonging to Turku based Meriaura Group. The MIBSV’s are designated for the Sakhalin-1 Arkutun-Dagi gas field and will be used as supply vessels for the Exxon Neftegas Ltd gas platform. They are designed for the harsh environmental conditions in the Sakhalin area with drifting ice and temperatures down to minus 35°C.

16 Mar 2011

Implications of the Japan Crisis

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that has hit Japan, fears are growing over the potential for radiation leaks from damaged nuclear plants. Equity markets have been hit while FFA prices have also sustained significant losses. With the situation still unfolding, the longer term impact of the disaster on commodity markets is unclear, although some initial conclusions can be drawn. In the short term, shipping has been disrupted with 13 ports reported by Reuters to have closed, with some of these unlikely to be operational for several months or even years. Initial assessments by Macquarie and the Steel Index put production at five large steel mills in the worst-affected region at risk, accounting for 15-18 million tonnes (Mt) of annualized steel production capacity.

25 Oct 2010

Waller Marine Delivers Caissons to Venezuela

Photo courtesy Waller Marine, Inc

Waller Marine, Inc recently delivered two large steel caissons to clients in Venezuela to be used for closure of a basin that is under construction at the Tacoa floating power generation facility. The caissons, each having dimensions of 115-ft in length, 16-ft in width and standing 26 ft high will be installed at the entrance of the basin that will house the two 170 MW power barges constructed by Waller and now undergoing pre-commissioning activities at the site. The caissons will protect the power barges from wave and tidal action from the sea.

26 Feb 2009

Strategic Marine Opens Shipyard in Vietnam

Western Australian shipbuilder Strategic Marine officially opened its $16.3m (USD) shipyard in Vietnam on February 24, demonstrating that the company is confident it can ride out the current global economic turmoil. Strategic Marine Chairman Mark Newbold told several hundred dignitaries and guests attending the grand opening that the Vietnamese yard had already won more than $61.8m in orders. Newbold said with three other yards in Australia, Singapore and Mexico, the company was currently constructing 63 fully-financed vessels with an order book value of $164.2m…