George Morrison News

Climate change, rising sea levels, land reclamation and offshore energy are all factors underpinning business models at Europe’s dredge and marine engineering majors. They are adopting strong sustainability credentials as their operations come under closer environmental, social, governance (ESG) scrutiny and new opportunities open up in the US offshore wind sectorThe relatively small number of global marine engineering and dredge firms face more observation of their business models than ever before.

One of the world’s oldest tugboats, the 117-year-old, steam-driven Daniel Adamson, is set to return to service offering short cruises along the River Weaver, a tributary of the fabled Mersey River in England, after the completion of a project to install new propeller shaft bearings.The 1903-built steamship, rescued from scrap merchants 15 years ago, was fully restored in 2016 at Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird yard, the original builder of the vessel. Thordon Bearings’ SXL water lubricated propeller shaft bearings were installed last year after competitor bearings failed.Chris Simmons…

Thordon Bearings, the provider of bearing solutions for marine, has signed sales and distribution agreements with St. Petersburg-based Industrial & Marine Projects (IMPRO) and Tallinn’s Marine Ecology Equipment (MEE), in a development that anticipates the introduction of more stringent pollution rules for European waterways.The appointment of new distributors for Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Azerbaijan coincides with concern that more should be done to reduce the impact of oil pollution in the ecologically sensitive Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea areas.“While MARPOL Annex I and Annex IV of the Helsinki Convention prohibit the discharge of oil or oily mixtures into the Baltic Sea…

The bearing installations to two Calm Buoys operating offshore Libya are indicative of the wide-range of applications Thordon’s environmentally-safe bearing systems have outside the company’s traditional maritime market.A total of 48 bearings and bushings were supplied in 2014 for installation to the chain stoppers of Monobuoy’s 400t turntable Calm Buoys, a single point mooring system designed to allow oil tankers to load and offload cargoes offshore, without having to berth alongside the refinery.

COMPAC, Thordon Bearings’ seawater lubricated propeller shaft bearing system, won the Tanker Shipping & Trade Environment Award following a verdict that the system allows shipowners to cost-effectively comply with stringent marine pollution rules. Dr. Karen Purnell, the Managing Director of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF), who sat on the award judging panel alongside representatives from INTERTANKO, IACS, UK MCA and Scorpio Tankers, said, “It is a…

Sixteen –year veteran, George Morrison has been appointed the Area Sales Manager for Western Europe replacing retiring Campbell Cunningham. According to Thordon’s Commercial Director, Jan Willem de Jong, George’s experience and energy will be a catalyst for maintaining our strong growth in Western Europe. “George is the perfect leader to develop our existing and new products with our strong distribution network”, said de Jong. “He brings a wealth of bearing and seals experience combined with sales…