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18 Mar 2024

Boskalis Wraps Up Moray West Offshore Wind Farm Ops

(Credit: Boskalis)

Dutch marine services firm Boskalis has completed its activities in support of the development of Ocean Winds’ 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland.As part of its multidisciplinary role in the project, Boskalis deployed six vessels to carry out large number of activities off the east coast of Scotland in the Moray Firth.First, Boskalis’ wholly-owned subsidiary Gardline carried out extensive geotechnical and geophysical survey works prior to the installation work.Then…

26 Feb 2024

Xeneta Appoints Chief Product Officer

Fabio Brocca courtesy of Xeneta

Fabio Brocca after being appointed Chief Product Officer at ocean and air freight rate benchmarking platform, Xeneta.Brocca was previously Head of Product for Global Transportation Technology at Amazon.“Amazon showed me the importance of working backwards from the customer and how a best-in-class tech company is run.“When you are transforming an industry, you must think long term. What we think is needed today may not be what’s needed tomorrow, so it is a continuous pursuit of innovation.“There is a beautiful quote from Jeff Bezos where he says…

20 Feb 2024

DEME Installs First XXL Monopile for Moray West Offshore Wind Farm

(Credit: DEME)

Belgium-based offshore installation services company DEME has installed the first XXL monopile foundation at the 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland.DEME used its Orion offshore installation vessel to complete the task, which is part of its work scope that includes both the installation of monopiles and transition pieces.The company’s jack-up vessel Apollo is also joining the effort, taking care of installing the transition pieces.According to DEME, it is using vibro hammer technology, minimizing the environmental impact from vibrations.Apollo vessel previously demonstrated its ex

13 Feb 2024

US Finalizes Two Offshore Wind Energy Areas in Oregon

BOEM has designated two final Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) off the Oregon coast, the Coos Bay WEA is 61,204 acres and  located approximately 32 miles (mi) from shore. The Brookings WEA is 133,808 acres and  approximately 18 mi off the coast. If fully developed, the Final WEAs could support 2.4 GW of energy production. (Image: BOEM)

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday finalized two wind energy areas (WEAs) in the offshore Oregon region, aligning with government goals to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change.The two WEAs, Coos Bay WEA and Brookings WEA, are spread across 195,012 acres (78,919 hectares) and "the department continues to take steps to evolve its approach to offshore wind to drive towards union-built projects and a domestic-based supply chain," said the agency, which is part of the U.S.

15 Jan 2024

Xeneta Appoints Luykx as Chief Revenue Officer

Tonia Luykx (Photo: Xeneta)

Ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and intelligence platform Xeneta has appointed Tonia Luykx to spearhead its journey to drive revenues through an industry data revolution.Luykx, who has a track record for building and scaling SaaS and tech businesses including Sift, Google, Dropbox and Amazon, has now set her sights on global logistics in the position of Chief Revenue Officer at Oslo-based Xeneta.She said, “I have always worked in organizations that challenge the status quo…

07 Jan 2024

War, Weather Put Ocean Shippers on Notice for Rough Seas in 2024

© Daniel / Adobe Stock

Recent hostilities in the Red Sea have thrown global shippers of vital goods for a loop - but it is hardly the only issue that big carriers are facing as 2024 kicks off.Giants like Maersk say the industry, which handles 90% of global trade, faces the possibility of significant disruptions, from ongoing wars to droughts affecting key routes like the Panama Canal. Complex vessel schedules are likely to be knocked out of sync for giant container ships, fuel tankers and other commodity haulers throughout the year.That will increase delays and raise costs for retailers like Walmart…

03 Jan 2024

Ocean Cargo Rates Climb After New Red Sea Ship Attacks

© Sergey Novikov / Adobe Stock

Ocean freight rates are surging after a missile attack and attempted hijacking of a Maersk ship this weekend prompted carriers to suspend plans to restart transits through the Red Sea, a key artery to the vital Suez Canal trade route.Yemen-based Houthi militants have been attacking high-value cargo vessels in the Red Sea since November in a show of support for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fighting Israel in Gaza. It has forced ships to reroute around the southern tip of Africa…

28 Dec 2023

Red Sea Shipping Workarounds Add Costs, Delays for Suppliers

© EvrenKalinbacak / Adobe Stock

Toymaker Basic Fun's team that oversees ocean shipments of Tonka trucks and Care Bears for Walmart and other retailers is racing to reroute cargo away from the Suez Canal following militant attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.Suppliers for the likes of IKEA, Home Depot, Amazon and retailers around the world are doing the same as businesses grapple with the biggest shipping upheaval since the COVID-19 pandemic threw global supply chains into disarray, sources in the logistics industry said.Florida-based Basic Fun usually ships all Europe-bound toys from its China factories via the Suez Canal…

15 Dec 2023

Congestion Plagues Brazilian Ports

Source: BIMCO

Brazil is the world’s largest grain exporter, accounting for 24% of the world’s exports in 2022, and congestion has surged this year due to large harvests and low water levels in the Amazon River.“Congestion for ships loading grain cargoes at Brazilian ports has surged this year due to large harvests and low water levels in the Amazon River. Between January and November, the average waiting time reached 15 days, up from nine days average between 2018 and 2022 and well above the global average of five days for grain loadings in 2023…

11 Dec 2023

Nations and Industry Partners Respond to Green Shipping Challenge

Source: Yara

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry are co-leading an international initiative to accelerate reduction of emissions from the shipping sector, and on December 1, during COP28, they chaired a new round of announcements under that initiative, the Green Shipping Challenge.Various countries and organizations proposed measures to reduce emissions from shipping. This year’s announcements include:• Amazon: Amazon and other…

06 Nov 2023

In Brazil's Amazon, Cargill Grains Ports Meet Local Resistance

© JR Slompo / Adobe Stock

For centuries, riverside communities, including the "quilombola" descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations and ranches, have shared Xingu Island in Brazil's Amazon Basin.Its inhabitants live in brightly painted wooden houses overlooking rivers where small boats crisscross between islands and Abaetetuba city on the mainland to trade fish, seeds and fruits gathered from the Amazon forest in their backyard.In 2016, however, strangers docked on Xingu Island, in Para state…

30 Jun 2023

Fashion Industry Driving Demand for Green Shipping, Maersk Says

© VanderWolf Images / Adobe Stock

Fashion brands are a key driver of demand for green shipping fuels, according to shipping group Maersk MAERSKb.CO, as the sector faces pressure from consumers and regulators to reduce their climate footprint.Retailers ship huge volumes of clothes from production centres in countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh to consumers around the world, causing carbon dioxide emissions.Overall, the textile industry is estimated to be responsible for between 2% and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions…

10 Oct 2023

Amazon Drought Chokes River Traffic, Threatens Exports

© Pulsar Imagens / Adobe Stock

A severe drought choking major rivers in the Amazon rainforest has disrupted ship traffic near the region's biggest city and pushed up costs for northern shipping routes, raising risks for corn exports in coming months.The unusual heat and dryness, linked to the mass deaths of fish and river dolphins, has already limited local communities'access to food and drinking water, leading the federal government to set up a humanitarian task force. Officials are now warning the thinning rivers could disrupt grains exports in the region."There is concern about shipping part of the corn harvest…

11 Oct 2023

New Pusher Tugs Enter Service for Hidrovias do Brasil

(Photo: Robert Allan Ltd.)

A pair of new modern pusher tugs has entered service for Hidrovias do Brasil S.A., pushing barges containing bulk products in the Amazon River system.The newly built shallow-draft vessels, HB MAPARÁ and HB DOURADA, are RApide 4600-Z3 push boats designed by Canada's Robert Allan Ltd. (RAL) and built by Uzmar Shipyard in Izmit, Turkey.According to the designer, both vessels are designed to meet ABS and Brazilian Flag State (NORMAM-02/DPC) requirements and provide the highest standards for crew comfort and safety.

14 Sep 2023

Shippers Launch Tender to Accelerate Zero-Emission Shipping

© EvrenKalinbacak / Adobe Stock

The Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) has launched a Request for Proposals (RfP) for 600,000 TEUs over a three-year period on ocean vessels powered by zero-emission fuels.This will help its member companies reduce nearly one million metric tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to taking 215,000 cars off the road. The RfP is the first major buyer-led initiative to accelerate the transition to zero-emission maritime fuels. ZEMBA was launched as a nonprofit membership organization in March 2023 by the Aspen Institute…

07 Jul 2023

Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China

On Feb. 10 last year, the cable ship CS Dependable appeared off the coast of the island of Diego Garcia, an Indian Ocean atoll that’s home to a discreet U.S. naval base.Over the next month, the ship’s crew covertly laid an underwater fiber-optic cable to the military base, an operation code-named “Big Wave,” according to four people with direct knowledge of the mission, as well as a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery and ship tracking data.The new super-fast internet link to Diego Garcia, which has not previously been reported, will boost U.S. military readiness in the Indian Ocean, a region where China has expanded its naval influence over the last decade.The CS Dependable is owned by SubCom…

11 Aug 2023

Drought-hit Panama Canal Lets More Unbooked Ships Pass in bid to Ease Queue

Credit: BlackMac/AdobeStock

The drought-hit Panama Canal has temporarily limited the number of new reserved passage slots to help ease a bottleneck of ships that are waiting to transit without reservations, the waterway's authority said on Thursday.A logjam of commercial vessels seeking to pass through the canal, one of the world's busiest trade passages, has sent companies that typically use the waterway chasing alternative routes, according to executives and data.Any delay or disruption can put shippers on edge.

11 Oct 2023

Vessels Run Aground in the Rivers of the Drought-hit Amazon Region

© juerginho / Adobe Stock

A barge carrying three trucks and 2,000 empty cooking gas cylinders lies stranded on the vast sand banks of a diminished Rio Negro river after running aground last month, highlighting the plight of river transport in the Amazon region hit by severe drought.Officials warned that low river levels risk disrupting grains exports from nearby farm states. On the Madeira, they said barge routes used by grain firms such as Cargill, Bunge and Amaggi, are open but loads are being reduced as a precaution.Shipping and logistics group A.P.

16 Oct 2023

Amazon River Port Water Levels Drop to 121-year Record Low

© Matyas Rehak / Adobe Stock

The water level at a major river port in Brazil's Amazon rainforest hit its lowest point in at least 121 years on Monday, as a historic drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon river have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote jungle villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins.The port in Manaus…

07 Jun 2023

Two Oil Tankers Attacked by Indigenous Protesters in Peru's Amazon

© Omar / Adobe Stock

A group of indigenous protesters in Peru's remote Amazon region attacked two oil tankers with gasoline bombs apparently because they are angry about changes by the government to social oil funds, the operator of the vessels said on Wednesday.A dozen crew members from both tankers, one of which contained 40,000 barrels of crude, were also kidnapped by the assailants, according to a statement from Canada-based PetroTal.PetroTal accused protesters affiliated with indigenous association Aidecobap of blocking an Amazon tributary preventing the passage of the two oil tankers, one of which was empty,

02 Aug 2023

New Expedition Cruise Ship Delivered to Seabourn

Seabourn Pursuit (Photo: Seabourn)

Carnival's Seabourn brand has taken delivery of its second purpose-built, ultra-luxury expedition ship, Seabourn Pursuit, during an official handover ceremony at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. The "yacht like" small ship is designed and built for remote, diverse environments to PC6 Polar Class standards and includes modern hardware and technology that extend the ship's global deployment and capabilities and allows the line to offer a wide range of expedition activities led by an expert 24-person expedition team of scientists…

19 Oct 2023

It's Crunch Time for Brazilian Ports

© Erich Sacco / Adobe Stock

Brazil’s commodities export hubs are strained with record volumes of soy, corn and sugar to be moved at a time of the year when rains start to increase in southern ports, according to traders, analysts and shipping data.Exporters are reporting delays in coffee shipments due to a tight availability of trucks and containers, while loading waiting times for vessels have jumped, resulting in additional costs for traders and delays for the commodities to reach destinations.Brazil ports have been dealing with high volumes this year…

12 Jun 2023

Indigenous Protesters in Peru's Amazon Release Captured Oil Tankers

© Omar / Adobe Stock

Indigenous protesters in the Peruvian Amazon have released two oil tankers and their crew members being held since last week in protest over changes to a development fund, a source at the company operating the vessels, PetroTal, said on Monday.The firm's marine shipments in the area also resumed earlier on Monday, the source added.The two ships were hijacked on Tuesday, one with 40,000 barrels of crude aboard. The release occurred on Saturday after a meeting between the Indigenous group's leaders and local authorities…

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