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26 Feb 2024

Spain's Ports See Goods Traffic Rise as Red Sea Crisis Continues

© donvictori0 / Adobe Stock

The volume of goods moving through Spain's top ports rose by as much as 25% in January as attacks on shipping in the Red Sea caused companies to divert Europe-bound vessels around southern Africa instead.Spain's northern ports have also seen volumes in transit jump by up to triple as traders opt to avoid moving goods by truck through Europe because of widespread blockades by farmers, Spanish retail and food industry association Aecoc says.Ports such as Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Barcelona saw a 25.4% and 7.6% increase in the volume of merchandise respectively…

12 Feb 2024

Spanish Police Seize Eight Tonnes of Cocaine

© Jezper / Adobe Stock

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.

12 Feb 2024

MARAD’s Title XI Changes: Good News for Offshore Wind?

© Maxim Khalansky / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD) in December issued a final rule updating its financial requirements for the Federal Ship Financing Program, commonly referred to as Title XI. While the move applies to the U.S. maritime industry as a whole, it is seen as especially helpful for players looking to serve the U.S. offshore wind sector.Designed to promote the growth and modernization of the U.S. merchant marine and U.S. shipyards, Title XI provides for a full faith and credit guarantee by the U.S. government. The program essentially aims to encourage U.S.

28 Dec 2023

US Allies Reluctant on Red Sea Task Force

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon (DDG 58) prepares to depart Rota, Spain, December 11, 2023. Laboon is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe area of operations, employed by the U.S. 6th Fleet to defend U.S., Allied and partner interests. (Photo: Alice Husted / U.S. Navy)

U.S. President Joe Biden hoped to present a firm international response to Yemen's Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping by launching a new maritime force, but a week after its launch many allies don't want to be associated with it, publicly, or at all.Two of America's European allies who were listed as contributors to Operation Prosperity Guardian - Italy and Spain - issued statements appearing to distance themselves from the maritime force.The Pentagon says the force is a defensive…

13 Dec 2023

‘America’s Fireboat’ Heads to Quonset Point for Renovation Work

(Photo courtesy Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum)

Preservation efforts are underway to renovate an 85-year old vessel known as “America’s Fireboat”.Designed by noted naval architect William Francis Gibbs and built in 1938 at United Shipyards on Staten Island, the vessel Fire Fighter would go on to serve a long and storied career before being decommissioned and eventually transferred to The Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum in 2013.The iconic fireboat is undergoing extensive renovations to return the vessel to her original glory, the museum announced this week. Escorted by the U.S.

14 Aug 2023

Commercial Fishing on the Great Lakes is a Family Affair

© Hank Erdmann / Adobe Stock

Although the number of fishermen who make a living on the waters of the Great Lakes is much diminished from a half century ago, the region's commercial whitefish fishery continues to be viable and profitable.Henriksen Fisheries is one of about a dozen commercial entities in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan, focused on trap netting whitefish in Green Bay and the waters surrounding the Door Peninsula.Charlie Henriksen started his family-owned fishing business in Door County in 1987.Originally from Illinois…

21 Jun 2023

Transportation Recovery Fund joins Tankers International VLCC Pool

Charlie Grey, CEO of Tankers International. Image courtesy Tankers International

Tankers International, the world’s largest shipping pool for VLCCs, announced that Transportation Recovery Fund (TRF) operated vessel the TRF Horten has joined its specialist VLCC Scrubber Pool.The TRF Horten (297,638 DWT / Built 2018) was delivered to Tankers International earlier this month. The total size of the Tankers International fleet now stands at 64 VLCCs, and the specialist Scrubber Pool has increased in size to 36 vessels.The addition of the TRF Horten has reduced the average age for the scrubber pool to seven years…

25 May 2023

Killer Whales Attack Yacht off Spanish Coast

© Fernando / Adobe Stock

Killer whales severely damaged a sailing boat off the coast of southern Spain, the local maritime rescue service said on Thursday, adding to dozens of orca attacks on vessels recorded so far this year on Spanish and Portuguese coasts.In the early hours of Thursday, a group of orcas broke the rudder and pierced the hull after ramming into the Mustique on its way to Gibraltar, prompting its crew of four to contact Spanish authorities for help, a spokesman for the maritime rescue…

24 Apr 2023

Floating Wind Power Gains Traction But Can It Set Sail?

Credit: Untrakdrover/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

After a bumper year for floating offshore wind farm tenders, the nascent industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming decade as countries strive to cut their carbon emissions. But it's unlikely to be all plain sailing. Rising costs and supply chain bottlenecks have hit some projects and without investment in infrastructure to launch the vast turbines and tow them to sea, hopes of harnessing the full power of the ocean's winds to hit climate targets could be dashed, industry experts say.

12 Dec 2022

Shell's 34,000t North Sea-bound Penguins FPSO Leaves Chinese Shipyard

Credit: Boskalis (supplied)

Shell's Penguins FPSO has set sail from China loaded aboard Boskalis' White Marlin semi-submersible heavy transportation vessel.In a social media post on Thursday, Boskalis said: "Boskalis’ semi-submersible transport vessel White Marlin departed from Qingdao, China with an impressive cargo; the 34,000-ton cylinder-shaped Shell Penguins FPSO. After a smooth and safe float-on and [seafastening] campaign, the vessel started her journey to Norway." At the time of writing, the White Marlin was sailing past the east coast of Taiwan…

09 Dec 2022

Barcelona-Marseille Hydrogen Subsea Pipeline to Cost Around 2B Euros

©alexyz3d/AdobeStock

An underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille will cost around 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion), according to preliminary estimates of the project agreed between Spain, Portugal and France, two sources told Reuters. It comes as an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has accelerated European plans to bolster renewable energy as an alternative to Russian gas. Spain and Portugal aim to become clean hydrogen hubs and net energy exporters, causing…

01 Dec 2022

Construction of Shell's Penguins FPSO Completed in China

Illustration only - Credit: Sevan (File Image)

The construction of the Penguins FPSO for Shell's namesake field in the UK North Sea has reportedly been completed in China.CGTN, the China Global Television Network website, on Thursday, shared a video of the completed Penguins FPSO, and said the 118-meter-tall cylindrical FPSO, constructed by the Chinese Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. company in Qingdao, had been delivered to "a British client."In January 2018, Shell made a decision to redevelop the Penguins field in the northern North Sea…

29 Nov 2022

Nigeria Stowaways Who Survived 11 Days on Ship Rudder Must Return Home - Spanish Police

©Spanish Coast Guard/Twitter

Three migrants rescued in Spain's Canary Islands, after apparently enduring an 11-day journey from Nigeria crouched on the rudder of a fuel tanker, should now be returned home under stowaway laws, a police spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday. In a photograph distributed on Twitter by the Spanish coast guard on Monday, the three stowaways are shown crouching on the rudder under the hull, just above the waterline of the Alithini II.The 183-metre ship, sailing under a Maltese flag, arrived in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria after setting out from Lagos in Nigeria on Nov.

03 Nov 2022

Maersk to Produce E-methanol in Spain for Its Cargo Ship Fleet

©Jerome/AdobeStock

Shipping giant Maersk plans to produce up to two million tonnes of e-methanol a year in Spain by 2030 to supply its fleet of cargo ships and reduce its carbon footprint, the Spanish government said on Thursday.The project will require an investment of about 10 billion euros ($9.75 billion), according to Spanish government calculations, and Spain may enter as a strategic investor. An agreement on the project, which will be partly financed by EU recovery funds, was signed on Thursday in Madrid by Maersk CEO Søren Skou and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

17 Oct 2022

Dozens of LNG Carriers Queue off Europe's Coasts Unable to Unload

© Wojciech Wrzesień / Adobe Stock

Dozens of ships carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) are circling off the coasts of Spain and other European countries unable to secure slots to unload because plants that convert the seaborne fuel back to gas are full.Europe is facing an energy supply squeeze as Russia has progressively cut gas flows after the West imposed sanctions in response to the Ukraine war.The region has had to find alternative supplies, including LNG, but the arrival of multiple cargoes of the superchilled…

22 Sep 2022

Port of New Orleans Board Elects Jensen as Chairman

Jack C. Jensen, Jr. (Photo: Port NOLA)

Rhe Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) on Thursday elected Jack C. Jensen, Jr. to serve as Board Chairman, succeeding Charles H. Ponstein, whose term as Chairman ended this month. Also elected were Joseph F. Toomy, who will serve as Vice Chairman, and Walter J. Leger, Jr., who will serve as Secretary-Treasurer for the nine-month term.“Jack Jensen has brought decades of transportation and logistics experience to this board, and we look forward to his…

21 Sep 2022

St. Johns Begins Building CTVs for Atlantic Wind Transfers

(Photo: St. Johns Ship Building)

St. Johns Ship Building earlier this month began building the first in a series of new crew transfer vessels (CTV) for Rhode Island-based Atlantic Wind Transfers (AWT).The Palatka, Fla. shipbuilder held a keel laying ceremony on September 8, marking the start of construction for the first of six new 24m aluminum catamarans that will AWT will use to service the U.S. offshore wind industry.AWT announced the orders with St. Johns Ship Building in August, revealing that the first two vessels are expected to be delivered in the summer of 2023 and January 2024…

14 Feb 2022

MV Charlie delivered to dship; Fourth "Eco-friendly" Newbuild

MV Charlie, dship’s newest F-500 vessel providing reduced fuel consumption. Image courtesy dship Carriers

dship Carriers took delivery of number four of four newbuilds, the MV Charlie, the latest generation eco-friendly F-500 vessel type. The quartet of new ships enhances dship's capabilities in the multi-purpose heavy lift market during a time when cargo slots are rare and the market is tight.dship ordered the four eco-friendly F-500 multipurpose heavy lift vessels—MV Mick, MV Keith, MV Ronnie and MV Charlie—as part of its fleetexpansion program initiated back in 2018. All ships were developed to reduce fuel consumption while increasing stowage flexibility.

21 Mar 2022

Mercuria Joins Tankers International VLCC Pool

The Mercuria-operated Seaways Kilimanjaro has joined Tankers International’s specialist VLCC Scrubber Pool.The Seaways Kilimanjaro (296,999 DWT / Built 2012) was delivered to Tankers International on March 15. The total size of the Tankers International fleet now stands at 58 VLCCs, and the specialist Scrubber Pool has increased in size to 21 vessels, with four more retrofits expected to join throughout 2022.Charlie Grey, Chief Operating Officer, Tankers International, said, "The addition of the Seaways Kilimanjaro further improves the unrivalled strength and depth of our pool, which will deliver unique benefits for Mercuria as well as our other Pool partners.

05 Jul 2022

Tankers International Updates Its VLCC Fixture App

© Haris Andronos / Adobe Stock

Tankers International, a shipping pool for very large crude carriers (VLCC), announced an update, including a new subscription scheme, for its VLCC Fixture app.First launched in 2014, the Tankers International VLCC Fixture app provides fixture data for the global VLCC fleet, including data that was once only provided to a select few brokers. The app has received over 259,000 visits a month since it was re-launched in December 2021.Paid app subscribers will benefit from faster data updates and a suite of additional insights.

17 Jan 2022

Brix Marine Delivers New Water Taxi

(Photo: Brix Marine)

Aluminum boatbuilder Brix Marine said it has delivered the newest installment of its PAXCAT portfolio, a 32’ x 12’ catamaran GOAT 1 to the Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation (QXMC), the business arm of the Klahoose First Nation, located on Cortes Island, B.C., Canada. The corporation, whose activities include forestry, aquaculture, tourism and retail, operates the 12-passenger vessel as a water taxi.The vessel was delivered in September 2021, and a traditional cedar brushing ceremony marked the vessel’s arrival at Klahoose Wilderness Resort.

02 Aug 2022

Crowley Names Jors Chief Naval Architect

Charlie Jors (Photo: Crowley)

Crowley has appointed Charles "Charlie" Jors as chief naval architect for the company’s engineering services. He will lead Crowley’s vessel design and marine engineering teams.With nearly 20 years of naval architecture and marine engineering experience, Jors has served in previous leadership roles on complex projects, involving vessel design and development, construction, structural analysis, conversion and modification.Since joining Crowley in 2010, Jors has played an active role expanding the company’s engineering services capabilities for maritime partners and customers.

12 May 2022

Mass Maritime Puts on Offshore Wind Training Demo for Governor Baker

Photo Courtesy Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Governor Charlie Baker, Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Bethany Card, and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center CEO (MassCEC) Jennifer Daloisio joined Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) officials for a Global Wind Organization (GWO) training demonstration at the Academy. Nearly three years since helping launch MMA’s first-in-the-nation offshore wind crew transfer training facility, Governor Baker returned to observe a wind and life raft training and highlight the investments the Baker-Polito Administration is proposing to expand the offshore wind workforce further.