International Maritime Organisation News

MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, and renewable energy consultants Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions (GDG) have announced the inception of the 'ShipFuel' research project.The initiative is set to position Ireland at the helm of maritime sustainability by developing a clear path to support the transformation of the shipping sector's reliance on traditional fuels to low-carbon alternatives.The research is funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

German shipowners' group VDR on Tuesday urged the Berlin government to provide legislation implementing European Union requirements to include the sector in the bloc's carbon trading system.The government is behind in transforming an EU agreement late in 2022 to require shipowners to buy EU carbon permits to trigger investment in greener technologies, into national legislation, VDR said at its annual press conference."For us, the cornerstone of our operations is not only planning certainty but also the assurance of uniform competitive conditions on an international scale…

Ukraine has managed to boost its Black Sea grain exports to a level not seen since before Russia's invasion, although the Red Sea shipping crisis poses a new challenge to its crucial agricultural trade.Kyiv's success in replacing a UN-backed Black Sea export deal with its own shipping scheme has brought relief for Ukrainian farmers and importing countries while representing a naval breakthrough for Ukraine's military as a land counteroffensive has stalled.The export turnaround…

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) found carbon emissions fell 83% using a vegetable oil biofuel blend compared with marine gasoil in a trial for a dual-fuel liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier, the center said on Tuesday.This was the third of five supply chain bunkering trials that the GCMD has undertaken as part of an $18 million project to test different biofuel blends to reduce carbon emissions. The trials are key to helping the fuel and shipping industries…

Ukraine on Monday condemned what it called "provocative" Russian actions and called for decisive countermeasures by the international community, a day after Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots at a cargo vessel in the Black Sea.Moscow said on Sunday that its Vasily Bykov patrol ship fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan vessel after the ship's captain failed to respond to a request to halt for an inspection.Russia has said it would treat any ships…

A fire blazed on a cargo ship off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others, the coastguard said.Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased.

Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch shines a light on how to produce electricity efficiently on ships.A ship is like a floating city that needs electricity to power its operations and amenities on board. So how to generate that electricity while being mobile? That question has been challenging the shipping industry for more than 150 years, when exciting new technologies were being pioneered at the forefront of the new age of electricity. Fast forward to today, and the challenges surrounding the production of electricity on board vessels have been spurred again.

Top global ship fuelling hub Singapore is unlikely to be ready for ammonia bunkering by the end of this year, Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said, while industry players have also raised concerns about feasibility. The port authority's clarification came after the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) said on April 27 that Singapore's first transfer of ammonia for bunkering could take place by the end of 2023. "These views do not represent the assessment of MPA and other government agencies – the timeline before end-2023 is not realistic…

Singapore's first ship-to-ship transfer for ammonia could take place by end-2023, the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) said on Thursday, as the city-state prepared to introduce new fuels for ships.Ammonia is one of several fuels that the shipping industry is exploring to reduce carbon emissions and meet targets set by the International Maritime Organisation."We are aiming for the first transfer of ammonia to take place by end 2023, subject to obtaining the green light from the relevant regulatory agencies," said Lynn Loo, chief executive of GCMD.

Member states of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the UN agency that regulates international maritime affairs, are meeting on December 5-16 to discuss how to accelerate the industry’s climate mitigation efforts.An initial strategy – agreed in 2018, when the industry’s emissions were roughly the same as Germany’s – targeted a 50% reduction in shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and included a noncommittal aim to phase out emissions in line with the 1.5℃ temperature…

Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) announces a top management transition with Vijay Arora taking over as managing director effective July 1, 2021. This appointment follows the superannuation of Suresh Sinha on June 30, 2021.A qualified marine engineer with a professional experience of more than three decades, Arora has strong maritime expertise under his belt. During his long tenure at IRClass, Arora has worked in various survey stations in India and abroad and has handled…

The lucrative prospect of transporting COVID-19 vaccines by sea has intensified the spotlight on the maritime industry’s cold supply chain and its ability to carry high-value pharmaceuticals.At present, speed to market is critical to stemming the spread of the pandemic, so the vaccines are being shipped by air to international destinations. Delivering them by sea is a longer-term strategy; certainly, the present urgency would have to calm considerably before enough confidence could be built to support delivery times in weeks…

The lucrative prospect of transporting COVID-19 vaccines by sea has intensified the spotlight on the maritime industry’s cold supply chain and its ability to carry high-value pharmaceuticals.At present, speed to market is critical to stemming the spread of the pandemic, so the vaccines are being shipped by air to international destinations. Delivering them by sea is a longer-term strategy; certainly, the present urgency would have to calm considerably before enough confidence could be built to support delivery times in weeks…

Fifteen Turkish sailors kidnapped by pirates last month in the Gulf of Guinea have been freed in Nigeria and will head home, a shipping company executive said on Friday, two weeks after the attackers made contact to discuss a ransom.One sailor, a citizen of Azerbaijan, was killed in the raid on January 23 which crew, family members and security sources described as a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack. Those kidnapped were from Turkey.Speaking to state TV broadcaster TRT Haber, Levent Karsan from Istanbul-based Boden Shipping said the sailors were all in good health in Nigeria and would be brought to Turkey in the coming days.“This wasn’t a political kidnapping. This kind of kidnapping happens in that region unfortunately and is completely aimed at getting ransom,” Karsan said.

Keppel Offshore & Marine has delivered another Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD) to Jan De Nul Group.Named Ortelius, the 6000m3 Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger, is the fifth dredger that Keppel O&M has delivered to Jan De Nul Group, following the delivery of three 3500m3 TSHDs and one 6000m3 TSHD last year. According to the shipbuilder, all five dredgers are Ultra-Low Emission vessels (ULEv) and the world's first European Union (EU) Stage Vdredgers.Ortelius is fitted with a two-stage filtering technique for exhaust gases.

Proman Stena Bulk, a joint venture between Proman Shipping and Stena Bulk, has agreed to build an additional vessel, the methanol-powered Stena Prosperous.The joint venture in November 2019 signed a deal with Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China to build two IMOIIMeMAX methanol-ready 49,900 DWT vessels, with the first vessel due for delivery at the beginning of 2022. Now, the company will add another vessel, the Stena Prosperous. which will join the Stena ProPatria and the Stena ProMare in the Proman Stena fleet in the second half of 2022.

UK’s new polar research ship being built at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead RRS Sir David Attenborough has achieved another important milestone with the commissioning and testing of the ship’s lifeboats and lifeboat davits.The lifeboats, each capable of carrying 90 people, are now in position on both sides of the vessel, along with the operational davits that allow for the safe deployment and recovery of the boats.RRS Sir David Attenborough is the first International Maritime Organisation’s Polar Code-compliant ship to have been built in the UK. These regulations extend to the ship’s lifeboats and davits, all of which are capable of operating at the Polar Service Temperature of -35ᵒC.British Antarctic Survey and Norsafe worked closely to develop the equipment…

Tougher rules on sulphur emissions from ships set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) from January burden the profit outlook for Germany's container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd this year after a good 2019, its chief executive said."This will make it difficult for us to achieve a better (2020) result," Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters in Hamburg in comments on the ban on ships using a sulphur content above 0.5% on risk of fines, which is shaking up oil and shipping.But with above-market growth rates in transport volumes in 2019…

Stena Bulk said it completed a test run of biofuel aboard its MR tanker Stena Immortal, as shipping companies seek fuel alternatives to help lower their carbon footprint and comply with more stringent environemental regulations.The 49,646 dwt tanker received its first delivery of Bio Fuel Oil made from used cooking oil a call at the Port of Rotterdam. The fuel, which GoodFuels launched in 2018, is said to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 83% and substantially reduces SOX emissions.As Stena Immortal ran in typical commercial operation…

As stakeholders across the maritime industry assess future fuel options in support of the International Maritime Organisation’s 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas reduction ambitions, Lloyd’s Register (LR) and the Methanol Institute (MI) have produced a Bunkering Technical Reference on Methanol, which is among the future fuels receiving close attention.The new guidance outlines the procedures required for the safe bunkering of methanol and incorporates dedicated checklists to assist shipowners/operators…

Low-sulfur fuel sales rose sharply in Rotterdam in the last quarter leading up to the implementation of International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 0.5pc sulfur cap on 1 January.According to Port of Rotterdam, the demand for LNG, bio and low-sulfur bunkers has increased enormously in Rotterdam over the past year. Total sales in this largest European bunker port fell from 9.5 million m3 to 9 million m3.In the last quarter of 2019, sales of low-sulfur bunker oil with a maximum sulfur content of 0.5% – the so-called VLSFO, very low sulfur fuel oil – increased enormously. In December, 62 percent of the fuel oil sold was VLSFO, said Europe’s largest sea port.Over the entire last quarter, 48% of the fuel oil sold was VLSFO.

As the maritime world collectively feels its way forward in a time now defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers of the SMM in Hamburg, traditionally the world's largest and most influential maritime and shipbuilding trade event, share market overview insights on the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the the shipping industry.The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the world economy on its head. “The recession this year will likely be more severe, and recovery in 2021 will be slower than we anticipated two months ago…

Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia has outlined the developments in 2019 and what we can expect in 2020:“While the global container demand was lower in 2019 due to weaker growth in the global economy, India witnessed a broad-based slowdown in its import export trade as well after a growth of several years. This is aligned closely with the weaker domestic demand, tight liquidity and working capital as well as a reflection of the overall cyclical weakening of the economic environment in all the main global economies.