Aaa News

In September, Heerema Marine Contractors’ semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) Sleipnir completed its first project, installing the topsides for the Leviathan development in the Mediterranean, a world record lift.At 220 meters long and 102 meters wide, Sleipnir is the world’s largest crane vessel, with two 10,000-tonne revolving cranes. GE said it provided the electrical part of the power and propulsion system including 12 sets of 8-megawatt (MW) generators, eight units of 5.5 MW propulsion motors…

Damen group’s Swedish shipyard, Damen Oskarshamnsvarvet (DSO) has had its credit rating, as awarded by European credit rating agency Bisnode, upgraded from B to AAA."With only 2.3% of companies in Sweden achieving the highest possible rating of AAA, this demonstrates that the shipyard is in excellent financial and commercial health," said a press release from the Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering conglomerate.Flip van der Waal, who was appointed DSO managing director three years ago, is delighted with the accolade. “No changes were made to the fabric of the yard following Damen taking on the ownership, but over the past few years we have substantially boosted our project management capability…

West of England P&I Club has announced its results for the year ending 20 February 2019. The Club’s capital has strengthened and remains considerably in excess of the ‘AAA’ capital strength requirement under Standard and Poor’s model.This has been re-affirmed in its financial strength rating of A-, reflecting its view that the Club will sustain its ‘extremely strong’ capitalization. The free reserve has been maintained in excess of $300 million at a near-record level of $306.4…

Damen Shipyards Group has announced the recent signing of a contract with Oslo, Norway-based SeaDream Yacht Club. The contract marks a historic moment, being Damen’s first for a cruise ship. SeaDream will operate the 155-m Mega Yacht on luxury voyages all over the world.The Mega Yacht, a purpose-built ship, will be prepared to operate in destinations, including polar and tropical, around the world. As such, the vessel will boast ice class Polar Code 6 credentials.The international shipyards group launched its new venture, Damen Cruise, in 2018.

MSC Cruises is eyeing further growth in the North American with a new expansion project in Miami, the cruise line’s exclusive homeport in the U.S. The company announced it has signed an agreement for extended preferential berthing rights as well as of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the construction of a new Cruise Terminal AAA at PortMiami.“The new agreement and expanded partnership with PortMiami and Miami-Dade County is another key step forward in the business growth of MSC Cruises…

U.S. President Donald Trump accused OPEC on Friday of "artificially" boosting oil prices, drawing rebukes from some of the world's top energy exporters."Looks like OPEC is at it again. With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea. Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!" Trump wrote on Twitter.It was unclear what triggered the tweet, Trump's first mention of OPEC on social media during his term.U.S. oil prices are near a three-year high…

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has raised Rs. 660 crore (USD 102mln) as “Government of India(GOI) Fully Serviced Bonds”. The resources raised by way of bonds are in addition to the budgetary support from the Government of India. The Government had taken a decision to enable IWAI to raise Rs 660 crore through GOI Fully Serviced Bonds in 2017-18. The IWAI had engaged arrangers, credit rating agencies, registrars and trustees prior to raising the Bonds. Both CRISIL and CARE rated the proposed instrument of IWAI as “AAA: STABLE”. The e-bidding for raising the bonds was organized on 11th October, 2017 on the BSE Portal with the issue size of Rs. 300 crore and Green Shoe option of Rs. 360 crore.

Eastern Shipbuilding’s forward-thinking inland towboat design now features CAT Tier 4 propulsion and aftertreatment. When Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) introduced its cutting edge 4,000 hp Thunderbolt inland towboat designed around twin azimuthing AAA Propulsion electric V-Pod propulsion and diesel-electric technology back in 2015, the approach was collaborative, with input from operators, naval architects (Gilbert Associates, Inc. (GAI)) and propulsion OEM’s. In selecting the podded propulsion system for inclusion on the design, Eastern met with two inland owner/operators that had Z-Drive towboats, and others that didn’t. Starting as far back as 2013, listening to each and noting their concerns, it was decided that the V-Pod was the best solution.

Nearly a quarter of U.S. refining capacity out; Motiva down for two weeks; Corpus Christi starts to reopen. Retail U.S. gasoline prices hit two-year highs and global shipping routes were scrambled as the nation's largest refiners remained shut on Friday, even as Harvey was losing strength. Major fuel pipelines feeding the U.S. Northeast and Midwest have been either closed or severely curtailed, prompting shortages in some areas and dramatic spikes in wholesale prices. The storm has roiled global fuel markets and tankers carrying millions of barrels of fuel have been rerouted to the Americas to avert shortages. European refining margins hit a two-year high on a surge in exports.

U.S. drivers are starting to feel the effects of Tropical Storm Harvey in their wallets as the country's fuel distribution network starting at the Gulf Coast and stretching across the country is squeezed by floods, refinery closures and dwindling supplies. At least 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity is offline and more refineries are at risk of shut downs as the storm relentlessly dumps rain on Texas and heads toward Louisiana. The longer refineries remain shut, the more retail prices will increase, traders and analysts said. Two of the major pipelines delivering gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from the Gulf Coast are operating at reduced rates or plan to shut entirely, with wholesale markets in Chicago and the Gulf region seeing sharply higher prices.

The European Investment Bank and Dutch bank ABN Amro will sign an agreement to support investments for greening the European shipping fleet. This framework is the first with a financial institution in the Netherlands and is supported by the Connecting Europe Facility and was made possible by the EFSI (European Fund for Strategic Investments), central pillar of the Juncker Commission’s Investment Plan for Europe. The framework guarantee agreement will ensure that promoters of sustainable projects in the maritime transport sector can benefit from favorable financial terms as a result of the EIB's AAA rating. The facility is open for both retrofitting of existing shipping as well as for projects that envisage the construction of new vessels with a green innovation aspect…

Christopher A. Hart’s term as Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board concluded on schedule Wednesday and Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr will serve as the agency’s acting chairman. Hart will remain at the NTSB, applying his transportation safety expertise in the capacity of a board member. The NTSB has five board members, each nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve five-year terms. By statute, a board member is designated by the President as Chairman and another as Vice Chairman for two-year terms. The Chairmanship requires separate Senate confirmation.

Subsea 7’s newest heavy construction flexlay vessel, Seven Arctic, has been designed and built to Lloyd’s Register (LR) class. Designed to meet the demands of deepwater and harsh environments, she can work at depths of 3,000m and features three offshore cranes, the largest of which is capable of a 1000-tonne lift. Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Seven Arctic measures 162.3 meters in overall length with a breadth of 32m. The vessel also features a 600-tonne top tension tiltable lay system for pipe laying and is fitted with six diesel generators producing just over 25…

Offshore engineering, construction and services company Subsea 7 said it has taken delivery two new builds: a heavy construction flex-lay vessel Seven Arctic and dive support vessel Seven Kestrel, completing its substantial fleet investment program that has added six newly constructed vessels to its fleet since 2014. Designed to meet the demands of deep water and harsh environments, including both tropical and winter conditions, Lloyd's Register classed Seven Arctic is capable of working at depths of 3…

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has announced it has entered into a cooperation agreement with Dispute Resolution Data (DRD) – a research service for international commercial arbitration and mediation. Under the terms of the agreement, the ICC International Court of Arbitration will provide data that will ultimately contribute to a greater understanding of dispute resolution use and practice worldwide. Andrea Carlevaris, Secretary General of the ICC Court said: " Facilitating the access to data and information about arbitration proceedings is among the current priorities of the ICC Court. I am therefore delighted that the Court is joining DRD.

The Southeast United States is expected to be hit with fuel shortages in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, as the storm barrels toward one of the largest energy-consuming regions in the country. Some states are already experiencing supply constraints as motorists fill up tanks as an emergency precaution. The region is not known for energy production, but there are significant storage facilities directly in the path of the storm that have already been evacuated. Roads in Florida…

Falmouth Scientific, Inc. These are small, lightweight, battery-powered, intelligent devices that can be mounted directly on AUVs, Gliders, or other underwater equipment for recovery after their mission duration has elapsed. Multiple user-programmable settings allow for selection of delay, timing, flashing, and frequency options which enable use in a variety of different applications. The Stand-Alone Flasher uses high power, high color-temperature LEDs for optical flashing, and the Flash-Pinger adds a pinger transmitter for acoustic tracking below the water surface.

A recent partnership between Sembcorp Marine and GE aims realize one of the most challenging offshore projects in recent times for Heerema’s new Semi-Submersible Crane Vessel (SSCV) Sleipnir, which at 220 meters long and 102 meters wide, will be the world’s largest crane vessel. Equipped with two cranes, each boasting a lifting capacity of 10,000 tons, Sleipnir will be used for offshore construction and heavy lifting. A recent deal signed between GE’s Marine Solutions business…

Moody's Investors Service has today changed to stable from positive the outlook on CMA CGM S.A.'s B1 corporate family rating, B1-PD probability of default rating and B3 senior unsecured rating. Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed the ratings assigned to the company. This follows CMA CGM's announcement of a pre-conditional voluntary general cash offer to acquire Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL, unrated), a Singaporean container liner, for a consideration of $2.4 billion. Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (Aaa stable), NOL's largest shareholder with a 67% stake, has irrevocably undertaken to tender all of its shares into the offer. "While the affirmation reflects that CMA CGM's potential acquisition of NOL would strengthen its business profile…

The U.S. Congress could lift the 40-year old ban on domestic crude oil exports within a year as a drop in gasoline prices and the potential return of Iranian oil to global markets makes it an easier measure for politicians to support, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said on Thursday. U.S. gasoline prices have dropped since last year along with global crude prices, thanks to strong crude output from the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. On Thursday, the U.S. average for regular gasoline at the pump was nearly $2.74 a gallon, down from $3.65 a year ago, according to the AAA motorist club. If that remains the case, it has the potential to allay politicians' fears that they could be blamed any rise in gasoline prices if the crude oil export ban was lifted.

The Swedish Club today announced its half-year results in which it reported that the club continued to demonstrate a solid performance in the first six months of the new accounting year with an overall surplus of $10.3 million, this outcome being largely a result of continued positive underwriting performance in a benign claims environment for the club and its members, as well as from a stable investment return. At June 30, 2014, the club showed a net combined ratio of 93% and free reserves level reaching $178 million. The club’s investment portfolio generated a return of 3.15% against a benchmark of 2.46%. Standard & Poor’s revised its assessment of the club’s capital and earnings from “moderately strong” to “sStrong”…

Shipowners have been warned they could face being saddled with ‘negative equity’ in the insurance aftermath of disasters at sea, according to Keith Jones the outgoing chairman of the Association of Average Adjusters (AAA) at its London AGM, reports UK shipping trade association Maritime London. Jones listed a potential series of pitfalls awaiting shipping companies when a ‘constructive total loss’ (CTL) is declared. He urged owners to be wary from the outset of the costs over which they had control, of the expensive business of maintaining a wreck pending investigation of the cause of the casualty, and cautioned that they may be unable to recover their costs if the sums exceeded the eventual proceeds of sale of the wreck.

PHA Signs Memorandum of Friendship & Trade Cooperation With Port of Marseille-Fos, Provence Promotion Economic Development Agency. Finances are very strong for August, Executive Director Len Waterworth shared in his report to the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority at its monthly meeting today. "I am very pleased to announce that we had another $20 million+ month, that's four out of eight this year, extremely good," Waterworth said. Waterworth also reported August's net income of $11 million, up $7 million or 212 percent.