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Business Solutions News

25 Jul 2023

Energizing Naval & Coast Guard Missions

US Navy’s DDG 1000 destroyer (image credit, US Navy)

Moises DelToro at GE Vernova’s Power Conversion business, discusses how deploying a Ship’s Electric Grid is a flexible way to accommodate growing energy demands for naval and coast guard vessels.A new age of electrificationWe’re in a new naval era and it is reshaping views about fleet mixes and capabilities. Modern fleets need to be mission-configurable, highly capable for military advantage, adaptable for technology insertion, but still affordable. The growing demand for vessel power is increasingly an enabler for mission systems, not just for platform propulsion.

01 Feb 2021

Passenger Vessel Operators Looking Forward

(Photo: All American Marine)

As we take a breath and collectively step into 2021, I’m choosing to be optimistic and focus on the opportunities ahead. Trust me, that’s not easy to say. Even as we are still experiencing a global pandemic which has devastated both the health and financial safety of our families, friends, employees, businesses, and communities. We may be down, but I say don’t lose hope.Stronger togetherAs President of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) and President of my family’s business…

10 Dec 2020

Seaspan Orders Five Containerships

Shipowner Seaspan Corporation said it has entered into purchase orders to build five 12,200 TEU containerships. Upon completion and delivery, all five vessels will commence long-term charters with a global liner company and are subject to vessel purchase obligations at the conclusion of the charters.Seaspan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp, said the newbuild vessels are to be financed from additional borrowings as well as cash on hand. This transaction is expected to add approximately $910 million of contracted cash flows over the charter period.Bing Chen, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seaspan, commented…

17 Feb 2020

Partnership to Make Waterways Climate-Neutral

German energy company E.ON, Rotterdam Port Authority and DeltaPort Niederrheinhäfen are partnering up to create conditions conducive to switching inland shipping in Germany and Europe from diesel to battery and/or hydrogen drives.The companies agreed in Essen to develop an infrastructure so that freight and passenger ships with climate-neutral propulsion can exchange battery containers or refuel hydrogen in the ports.The partners' goals include climate protection, improved air quality and the long-term optimization of logistics costs.The pilot concept will initially focus on the German inland DeltaPort location in Voerde and Wesel, which will be developed into a sustainable port network as part of the EcoPort813 project.

21 Nov 2019

Interview: Boriana Farrar, Ship Owners Claims Bureau

Boriana Farrar is a familiar face in maritime circles, the Vice President and Counsel and a Senior Claims Executive and Business Development Director for the Americas at the Ship Owners Claims Bureau, Inc. managers of the American P&I Club.

Boriana Farrar is a familiar face in maritime circles, the Vice President and Counsel and a Senior Claims Executive and Business Development Director for the Americas at the Ship Owners Claims Bureau, Inc. managers of the American P&I Club. We met with her in her NYC office to discuss her path from her native Bulgaria to a top maritime professional position.When Boriana Farrar moved from her native Bulgaria to the United States in 2001, she did so to be close to family, her mother and her sister who had already established a life in the U.S., some 5,000 miles from her homeland.

07 Aug 2019

Smart Ports Paper Offers Digitization Guide

The British Ports Association (BPA) and the Port of Rotterdam have launched a new joint smart ports paper examining port digitalization.The white paper seeks to show how sharing data will help ports work towards digital maturity and grow into smart ports.It outlines a model for digital maturity that shows how ports need to develop and exchange data in order to keep up with the digital developments around them, highlighting that technology plays a key role but is not an objective in and of itself.Joyce Bliek, Director of Digital Business Solutions at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “Our logistics and maritime sectors face a number of economic and ecological challenges.

04 Jun 2018

BW Adds KVH Connectivity Services to 45 More Vessels

Photo courtesy of KVH

KVH Industries, Inc. announced that BW Group has chosen KVH’s connectivity services for 45 additional vessels in its fleet. The two companies will also continue with a connectivity contract for the LPG and LNG vessels in BW’s fleet that have had KVH’s VSAT systems and services since 2013.“We chose KVH because of their commitment to excellence, the ease of working with a sole provider, and the cost advantages that we can achieve with fast, reliable connectivity and global coverage,” says Tor-Egil Gjulem, BW Group’s global head of procurement.

17 Oct 2017

Interferry Conference Reviews Issues with Financial Impact

The challenges and opportunities posed by alternative fuels, safety management and social media dominated Interferry’s 42nd annual conference in Split, Croatia, where a record 370 delegates shared insights on ship technologies, safety issues including cyber security and the customer experience. Attendance at last week’s conference represented 210 ferry operators and suppliers from 27 countries. Mediterranean ferry operators voiced their concerns on meeting the 0.5 percent sulphur emissions cap due in 2020. Minoan Lines managing director Antonios Maniadakis complained that using low sulphur fuel would increase costs by €2 million per year.

24 Aug 2017

Voith Opens 'Digital Campus' in Raleigh

From left to right: Ashley Cagle, Wake County Economic Development; Stephan Keuschnigg-Zingl, Voith Digital Solutions; Marc Begin, Voith Digital Solutions; Representative Cynthia Ball, N.C. House of Representatives; Darryl Stevenson, Voith Digital Solutions; Rene Habets, Voith Digital Solutions; and Jenn Bosser, City of Raleigh, Office of Economic Development and Innovation. (Photo: Voith)

Voith marked the opening of its new high-tech campus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday that was joined by many key Voith executives and local dignitaries and community leaders. The Digital Campus is the latest venture of the Voith Digital Solutions Division (DS): a campus where bright minds come together to learn, teach, discover and bring the Internet of Things to life for all of Voith’s platforms. Raleigh, being a geographic hub for research and technology, was chosen to be Voith’s North American digital hub for the team there to lead the way for digitization and innovation.

18 May 2017

Wilhelmsen Drone Project Takes Off

Marking a seismic shift in just how ships agents can support their customers, Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) will soon be delivering its agency essentials via drone. A much talked about technology, with obvious applications for the shipping industry, it is WSS’ ships agency team, rather than the company’s supply chain, or product divisions, which have been assessing the business opportunities offered by drones. Marius Johansen, VP Business Solutions & Marketing, WSS Ships Agency explains, “Whether it is deliveries of critical documents or vital medical supplies, tank inspections, or monitoring cargo and stockpile levels, we believe semi-autonomous drone flights can support and further enhance what our ships agency team can offer our customers”.

18 May 2017

WSS to Trial Drone Deliveries to Ships

Photo Credit:  Nicolai Aass

Marking a shift in how ship agents can support customers, Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) said it will soon begin delivering its agency essentials via drone. A much talked about technology, with obvious applications for the shipping industry, it is WSS’ships agency team, rather than the company’s supply chain, or product divisions, which have been assessing the business opportunities offered by drones. Dispensing with the need for launch boats to deliver such essentials to vessels at anchorage, along with cutting delivery times, Johansen estimates drone flights will also slash costs.

20 Apr 2017

New Venture Aims to Uproot Shipping’s Status Quo

Nisomar CEO Captain Claus Hyldager (Photo: Nisomar)

With a belief that innovation in shipping has fallen well behind other sectors, new entrant into the maritime industry Nisomar has launched a range of services for ship owners, operators, brokers, charterers and financial institutions. Nisomar said it has pioneered a method of collecting global shipping data and created proprietary technology, based upon technology that generates highly accurate business-critical data. The firm will derive insights from big data to offer analytics that support business decisions…

14 Feb 2017

1-Stop, Bestshore Team-up for European entry

1-Stop Connections (1-Stop) and Bestshore Business Solutions UK Ltd (Bestshore) announce a new strategic alliance to bring their productivity solutions to the European and Indian-sub continent port community. Through the partnership with Bestshore, 1-Stop assures that their products and solutions are represented by trusted advisors and experts in the shipping industry. 1-Stop’s flagship product, the Vehicle Booking System (VBS), is the premier system for the Terminal to Landside interface. The VBS is active in 13 terminals across Australia, New Zealand and most recently, the Philippines. Throughout the Philippines the VBS is known as the Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS) and has achieved a 20% increase in truck throughput…

20 Oct 2016

Countdown to London International Shipping Week

The countdown to London International Shipping Week 2017 (LISW17) officially began last night with an exclusive launch reception held at the iconic Norton Rose Fulbright building on London’s South Bank. The launch reception brought together representatives from many of the maritime world’s leading organisations and figures from UK Government to learn of the aspirations, plans and exciting opportunities that LISW17 will deliver between September 11-15, next year. Addressing the 130 invited guests, Jeremy Penn, Chief Executive at the Baltic Exchange and Chairman of the LISW17 Steering Group, proudly acknowledged that London International Shipping Week had firmly established itself as a major event in the world’s maritime calendar.

12 Sep 2016

ABB Names Jouret Chief Digital Officer

ABB has appointed Guido Jouret as Chief Digital Officer, reporting to ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer, effective October 1, 2016. Jouret, a pioneer of the Internet of Things, will lead the next level of development and deployment of ABB’s digital solutions for customers globally and across all businesses. Jouret is a citizen of both the United States and Belgium, with long experience in Silicon Valley. He served for 20 years at Cisco after obtaining a PhD in Computer Science. His most recent role at Cisco was as General Manager of the Internet of Things division, which aims to connect billions of devices to the internet across a wide range of industries.

24 Aug 2016

MN100: MarineCFO

(Image: MarineCFO)

Founded in 1992, UA Business Solutions was a pioneer in the field of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and an early Microsoft Partner. The ERP evolution into the maritime industry found UA developing industry specific solutions for marine clients. These UA marine solutions became commercially available in 2007 under the UA proprietary brand, MarineCFO. UA Business Solutions, along with the MarineCFO brand, was purchased by VerticaLive in 2013. A reimaged MarineCFO emerged from this acquisition at the forefront of SubChapter M solutions…

27 Jul 2016

Drones: Is the Maritime Industry Ready?

SHIP SERVICE: Maersk Tankers is testing drones for making deliveries to its vessel. (Photo: Maersk Group)

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or “drones” in common parlance, are not a part of the historical maritime vocabulary. At least not yet. While the term “drones” may conjure images from science fiction, the reality is that companies are designing commercial UAS for the private sector, and they are gradually permeating our daily life. Henry Ford is rumored to have opined on his invention of the automobile that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said “faster horses.” In the case of UAS…

18 Apr 2016

Navis, Ideal Tech Partner to Accelerate TOS Projects

Ideal Tech Labs is an idea accelerator and technology partner for startups, mid-market and enterprise customers. Together with its global clients, Ideal Tech has created and delivered technology and business solutions across geographies with a borderless approach to innovation. In the past, Ideal Tech has had remarkable success rates in working with various Navis Professional Services teams across the globe including the core-engineering group and automation teams. Veteran technologist Mahesh Subramanian, Founder and CEO of Ideal Tech worked for Navis prior to founding Ideal Tech Labs. During this time, he was involved in the development of Navis’ N4 EDI module and worked on large-scale N4 implementations, including participation in the first ever go-live of N4 in Lyttelton, New Zealand.

02 Jan 2016

Management Changes at GAC

Four managers from the GAC Group start 2016 with a new challenge as they take on new roles for the global provider of shipping, logistics and marine services. Peter Österman moves to his native Sweden to take on the new role of Commercial Manager – Shipping for Denmark, Finland and Sweden combined. He is replaced as Managing Director of GAC Global Hub Services by Ronald Lichtenecker who relocates to Dubai for his new role. Lichtenecker was previously Managing Director of GAC Singapore. Henrik Althen takes over his former role in Singapore, after serving as Managing Director of GAC Kuwait. He is replaced by Filip Björklund, previously Group Business Controller.

27 Mar 2015

Damen joins World Ocean Council

Dutch-based Damen Shipyards Group has become the latest member of the World Ocean Council (WOC). The global shipbuilder headquartered in the Netherlands is the first European shipbuilder to join the WOC, the international business leadership alliance on ocean sustainability, science and stewardship. Damen works to reduce environmental impacts of shipping, by focusing on optimizing ship design and working on product innovations. This has resulted in, for example, the E3 label, applying to new Damen designs that are environmentally friendly, efficient in operation and economically viable. In addition, Damen recently formed partnerships with the Bellona Foundation, the Oslo-based institute for sustainable environmental solutions, and with the BlueTec Tidal Energy project.

02 Jun 2015

Web-based Port Data Platform Launched

Photo: Marcura

The Marcura Group, a Dubai-based group of companies focused on providing innovative business solutions to the maritime industry, has announced the launch of PortPoint, an online platform with modules for port costs, port information and port agents’ data. With the PortCosts module, users are able to quickly look up port costs globally based on data from over 200,000 anonymous and actual port calls. This unique feature enables brokers, charterers, operators and other players in the dry bulk and tanker industry to secure valuable cost information for use in pre-fixture negotiations…

20 Jul 2015

Fuel Efficiency: The Way Forward

Roger Strevens

The Immediasea Shipping Debate Forum ‘Fuel Efficiency - The Way Forward’ was held in connection with the Nor-Shipping event in Oslo, Norway, in June. Leading the panel was Mark Fuhrmann from Blue-C who invited leading maritime executives to share their views on the future of shipping fuel-efficiency. Below are select quotes. “Our goal is clear, zero emissions. It will though take a while getting there.” He reminded the audience that “by 2050 we have to cut off CO2 production completely…

09 Dec 2015

Hempel Appoints Boyer-Søgaard as CFO

Hempel A/S announces that Anders Boyer-Søgaard, CFO and member of Executive Management of GN Store Nord A/S, will succeed CFO Kim Junge Andersen who will join Rockwool as CFO as per January 1, 2016. In 2007, Anders Boyer-Søgaard joined GN Store Nord where he is the CFO and member of the Executive Board. GN Store Nord is listed on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen and is part of the OMX C20 index. GN Store Nord had 5,000 employees and revenue of more than DKK 7bn in 2014 in the two businesses GN ReSound and GN Netcom. Anders started his career with A.P. Moller in 1990 and worked in financial management roles in Copenhagen and Singapore. He joined Aston Business Solutions as CFO in 2000…