Algeciras News

LR’s latest FOBAS Fuel Insight report highlights broadly steady fuel quality with particular issues around high sediments and chemical contamination, and an increased use of biofuel blends with developments in energy-content measurement.Global bunker fuel quality remained resilient in the first half of 2025 despite growing fuel diversity and tightening environmental regulation, according to Lloyd’s Register’s latest FOBAS Fuel Insight report. The findings highlight how improved testing…

The shipping industry is looking into ammonia as an alternative fuel for powering ships, amid other ongoing plans to cut carbon emissions and achieve net-zero by 2050.Here is a list of companies with ammonia-fuelled ship projects:NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA (NYK)NYK, with IHI Power Systems and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK), completed the world's first ammonia-fuelled tugboat, Sakigake, on Aug. 23. The vessel will operate in Tokyo Bay for three months.NYK is also building the world's first ammonia-fuelled medium gas carrier…

Shipping giant CMA CGM said on Thursday that brisk international trade and Red Sea disruption supported its main maritime division in the second quarter and should limit any market slowdown later this year as new ship capacity arrives.The world's third-largest container shipping line reported a 6.8% year-on-year increase in volumes in the second quarter. Volumes also rose more than 6% from the first three months of the year when the group started seeing an upturn in demand.Restocking by U.S.

Smart maintenance and remote access technologies provider Telemar is opening an office in Algeciras to better support digital solutions for Telemar and Marlink customers.The Algeciras office will enable Telemar to directly serve customers in the region for the first time, increasing the scope and range of services available with a dedicated team in place to handle client requests in the fifth busiest port in Europe by annual TEU volume. The new facility will also provide solutions such as Smart Maintenance and Smart Data, Telemar's maritime Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution.

Disruption to Red Sea container shipping is rising, Maersk said on Monday, forecasting this will cut the industry's capacity between Asia and Europe by up to 20% in the second quarter.Maersk and other shipping companies have diverted vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope since December to avoid attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in the Red Sea, with the longer voyage times pushing freight rates higher."The risk zone has expanded, and attacks are reaching further offshore…

Ocean Network Express (ONE) has announced its Transpacific service starting from February 2025 which will deploy 16 core weekly services.“The emphasis will be on quality end-to-end direct services with high schedule reliability.

Japanese trading house Itochu Corp will study joint ownership and operation of ammonia-fueled ships with Taiwan's U-Ming Marine Transport Corp, Itochu said in a statement, as Japan is bets on ammonia to cut emissions.The shipping industry transports about 90% of world trade, and accounts for nearly 3% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions; and installing ship engines that burn cleaner fuels could help slow global warming trends.The IMO has set a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by around 2050…

Spanish police seized eight tonnes of cocaine from Suriname hidden in a container disguised as a power generator in the southern port of Algeciras, tax authorities said on Monday.The haul of cocaine, one of the largest ever intercepted in Spain, was inside a metal structure designed to escape detection from scanners.But customs agents detected a large quantity of stacked goods that practically filled the container, so they forced it open.The drug smugglers had planned a route designed to make the discovery of the cargo's true contents as difficult as possible.

Boluda Towage – one of the divisions of Boluda Corporación Marítima that focuses its activity on port, coastal, and offshore towage, as well as maritime salvage – has acquired the towage company Resolve Salvage and Fire (Gibraltar) Ltd.Resolve Salvage and Fire, owned by Resolve Marine Group, provides towing and marine salvage services as well as in engineering and maintenance projects for marine installations and construction. Two divisions are part of the sale: the company's harbor towing operations and fleet were sold to Boluda Towage Europe…

DFDS has completed its acquisition of FRS Iberia/Maroc, a short-sea ferry company connecting Spain and Morocco via the Strait of Gibraltar.“We are excited to start the integration of FRS Iberia/Maroc and look forward to applying our joint capabilities to grow the business while continuing to provide reliable, efficient ferry services to both passengers and freight customers,” said Torben Carlsen, CEO of DFDS.Reporting preliminary revenue of DKK 1.0bn for 2023, FRS Iberia/Maroc has three routes operated by a total of 850 staff of which just over 400 are own employees.

Monjasa remains active in the market for secondhand tonnage following the acquisitions of three tankers earlier this year. The oil and shipping group on Thursday revealed additional ownership of the two tankers, Monjasa Leader (68,589-dwt) and Monjasa Refiner (13,051-dwt) for floating storage and bunker operations in West Africa.Monjasa recently took delivery of the two vessels Monjasa Leader (formerly Cabo San Antonio) in Algeciras, Spain and Monjasa Refiner (formerly Saturn) in Bremerhaven…

Shipshave has won the Most Innovative Proven Technology Award in the inaugural SNIC Innovation Awards for its in-transit hull cleaning solution that removes biofouling to boost fuel efficiency and decarbonization.The prize was handed out at the Singapore Norway Innovation Conference (SNIC) 2023, with the theme Innovate to Zero, that is hosted annually in Singapore by the Norwegian Business Association Singapore (NBAS).Shipshave earned the accolade for having “the most innovative…

Spanish police have made a record cocaine seizure, finding 9.5 tonnes of the drug hidden among boxes of bananas in a shipping container from Ecuador in the southern port of Algeciras.The stash was the largest ever found in a single container in Spain, the police said in a statement."This operation was an unprecedented blow to one of the world's most important criminal organizations in cocaine distribution, targeting major criminal networks in Europe," it said.The boxes were marked…

Spanish oil company Cepsa signed on Wednesday two agreements aimed at shipping green hydrogen between Spain and the Netherlands, a day after renewable energy giant Iberdrola took a similar step.The two Spanish companies are vying to become green hydrogen leaders, with planned investments worth billions of euros. The recent agreements will help them sell part of their expected production of green hydrogen and derivatives to industrial customers eager to decarbonize in Europe's economic powerhouse…

Ocean Network Express (ONE) has taken delivery of its first 24,000-TEU container ship, ONE Innovation.The first of six Megamax class vessels, the 400-meter ONE Innovation was delivered by Japan Marine United Corporation’s Kure Shipyard.The vessel has a capacity of up to 24,136 TEU and will help bring economies of scale, says ONE. It features significantly lower carbon emissions through its hull design that aims to maximize cargo intake and minimize fuel consumption. The vessel…

Last month, a Hydrex diver team carried out an underwater stern tube seal repair on a ro-ro ship berthed in Algeciras, Spain.The ship was suffering from an oil leak, making an on-site repair necessary. Using a Hydrex flexible mobdock, the team was able to carry out the entire operation on-site and underwater, saving the owner an expensive and time-consuming trip to drydock.Once the operation was approved, all preparations were handled swiftly and the lightweight equipment was…

An oil tanker runs aground off eastern China, leaking fuel into the water. Another is caught in a collision near Cuba. A third is seized in Spain for drifting out of control.These vessels were part of a "shadow" fleet of tankers carrying oil last year from countries hit by Western sanctions, according to a Reuters analysis of ship tracking and accident data and interviews with more than a dozen industry specialists.Hundreds of extra ships have joined this opaque parallel trade…

Spain's Cepsa has signed a deal with the Dutch port of Rotterdam to ship green hydrogen it plans to produce in Andalusia to northern Europe, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing the oil and gas group's chief executive.Countries and companies have seized on green hydrogen- a fuel obtained by passing renewably-produced electricity through water to split the element from oxygen - as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, especially from heavy industry.Cepsa, which is diversifying into green energy…

A Greek-registered supertanker recently came to the rescue of a group of Syrian refugees stranded without water, food and fuel in the Mediterranean Sea.Late in the evening on May 27, 2022, Samaris Konstantinos from Brittania forwarded an email that the club’s emergency line received from the NGO ‘Watch the Med’ in regard to a rescue request nearby the Euronav very large crude carrier (VLCC) Antigone. Eight Syrian refugees, including seven men and one female, were sailing a small craft and were without water…

Marine fuel sellers have stopped serving vessels flying the Russian flag at major European hubs including Spain and Malta in another blow to Moscow's exports, five industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.Losing access to refueling points in the Mediterranean Sea poses major logistical problems for Russian oil tankers going from Baltic ports to Asia and also creates safety concerns over potentially being stuck at sea with flammable cargoes, shipping sources say.Russia…

The blocking of the Suez Canal by one of the largest container ships in service in the world – the Ever Given – in March 2021 caused huge delays to hundreds of vessels waiting to transit the canal, one of the biggest chokepoints on the critical East/West trade shipping route. The blockage was estimated to have affected an estimated $9.6bn of goods each day, or around 12% of total world trade.The latest in a growing list of incidents involving large vessels, the Ever Given has…

Remotely piloted aircraft are assisting Spanish authorities in actively monitoring sulphur emissions from ships transiting one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.Over the summer the European Maritime Safety Agency’s (EMSA) aerial drones have been monitoring the level of sulphur oxides released by ships transiting the Strait of Gibraltar. The operation carried out by the Spanish General Directorate of Merchant Marine  – under the direction of the Spanish Ministry of Transport…

Supply chain issues tied to liner shipping have been front page news throughout 2021; just about everyone agrees that there’s a problem. The underlying cause is right out of Economics 101: a surge in demand for moving containerized cargo, in the face of “inelastic” throughput capacity (which includes vessels and their landside interfaces to surface transportation, trucks and rail) that could not handle the swell, attributable to re-stocking of containerized cargo as economic activity recovered from the pandemic induced jolts.