Coastal and Inland News

Sri Lanka has allowed a fire-hit supertanker to sail to the United Arab Emirates, where its oil cargo would be transferred to another ship for further supplies to Indian Oil Corp, officials said.The approval for the ship to leave Sri Lankan waters has been given by the maritime rescue coordination center and it is likely to sail towards the UAE, Captain Indika De Silva said."Two navy ships are shadowing the tanker until it leaves Sri Lanka's 200 mile exclusive economic zone," De Silva added.In early September, the New Diamond caught fire after a blast in its engine room.

U.S. Coast Guard and Port of Virginia personnel are assisting the crew of a bulk carrier that ran aground near Norfolk, Va. on Wednesday night.Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Virginia command center received notification from crewmembers aboard the the Panamanian-flagged Hong Dai stating the 738-foot bulk carrier ran aground on a soft sandy bottom approximately 400 meters Northwest of Sewell’s Point, the Coast Guard said on Thursday.The Hong Dai crew reported no injuries…

Polish divers say they have found the wreck of a German World War Two ship which may help solve a decades-old mystery - the whereabouts of the Amber Room, an ornate chamber from a tsarist palace in Russia that was looted by the Nazis.Decorated with amber and gold, the Amber Room was part of the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg, but was last seen in Koenigsberg, then a Baltic port city in Germany but now the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.It was from Koenigsberg that the Karlsruhe steamer set sail in 1945 with a heavy cargo…

Three years ago, an Ecospeed hull coating was applied on Antarctic, a shallow draft anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel owned by Ark Shipping Company. The success of this application led the vessel's owner to order the same protection for its next two shallow draught AHTS vessels: Polar and Polus. Building of these vessels will start in 2021 and will again take place at the Atlas Shipyard in Kocaeli, Turkey.Ark Shipping is a Russian river and sea shipping company that has been operating in the transport and logistics market since 1992.

Oil is no longer leaking from the cracked hull of a containership moored in the Port of New Yok and New Jersey, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.A sheen around the Danaos-owned YM Mandate was first reported to the Coast Guard on Monday after the ship arrived at the Global Container Terminal in Bayonne, N.J., from Halifax, N.S.A unified command team consisting of the Coast Guard, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Gallagher Marine Systems is responding since…

Fincantieri handed over the 145,000-gross-ton Enchanted Princess to Carnival Corp. brand Princess Cruises on Wednesday, marking the Italian shipbuilder's 100th cruise ship delivery over the last 30 years, and the first since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.The milestone delivery was celebrated with a live video message from Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during a ceremony virtually attended by Micky Arison, Chairman of Carnival Corp.; Arnold Donald, President and CEO of Carnival Corp.…

Shipbuilder Austal said its Austal Australia arm has delivered a new high-speed trimaran ferry to JR Kyushu Jet Ferry at a ceremony held at the company’s shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia.The 83-meter Queen Beetle is the first of its kind to be delivered to Japan and has been custom-designed to provide an enhanced passenger ferry service between Fukuoka, Japan and Busan, South Korea, Austal said.Speaking at the delivery ceremony, Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton…

Spirit of Adventure, the second new cruise ship built by Meyer Werft for Saga Cruises, was delivered to the British cruise line Tuesday in Emden, the German shipbuilder announced.The delayed delivery of the 58,250 GT luxury liner comes after setbacks at the Papenburg shipyard caused by COVID-19."Despite all the adversities in the last few months caused by the [coronavirus] pandemic, we were able to complete both the construction in Papenburg and the testing and commissioning of the ship within a manageable time frame…

A 200- by 60-foot walking spud dredge barge built by LAD Services in Louisiana has been delivered to an unnamed client.LAD contracted The Shearer Group, Inc. (TSGI) to develop the design of the barge which has the capacity to lift 114,000 pounds of dredging spoil. It features two 85-foot-tall removable spuds and one winch operated 85-foot-tall walking spud.The vessel is equipped with a 43,800-gallon fuel tank and two 24,400-gallon freshwater tanks for unimpeded operation.The pedestal crane installed is a Liebherr HS 8300 HD crane with a 125-foot-long boom…

Long Island-based barge operator Bouchard Transportation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after several years fraught with legal and financial difficulties.The family-owned oceangoing tug and petroleum barge firm filed alongside several of its subsidiaries Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.According to the filings, Bouchard has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors, liabilities between $100 million and $500 million and assets worth between $500 million and $1 billion.

A containership with a visible crack in its hull is leaking fuel oil at the Global Container Terminal in Bayonne, N.J., the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday.A unified command team consisting of the Coast Guard, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Gallagher Marine Systems is responding after the National Response Center contacted Coast Guard Sector New York watchstanders, Monday, reporting a sheen near the Liberian-flagged vessel YM Mandate.A nearby Coast Guard Maritime…

Eastern Shipbuilding Group conducted the keel laying for the new trailing suction hopper dredge (TSHD) it is building for Weeks Marine.This new U.S. flag dredge R.B. Weeks, ordered by Weeks Marine in April, is be constructed at Eastern’s Allanton Shipyard in Panama City, Fla., for scheduled delivery in early 2023. Steel cutting commenced on August 19.R.B. Weeks is the second TSHD Eastern is building for the Cranford, N.J.-based marine construction and dredging contractor, following the Magdalen delivered in December of 2017.The R.B. Weeks is named in honor of Richard B.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Research and Development Center (RDC) will run an autonomous patrol boat through its paces to gauge whether the innovative technology installed on board can be used to support personnel in executing Coast Guard missions.The vessel to be tested is a Metal Shark welded-aluminum 29 Defiant craft, the latest product of the Louisiana-based shipbuilder’s “Sharktech Autonomous Vessels” division to be equipped with the SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm technology from Boston-based autonomous technology developer Sea Machines.

Twelve crew members of a cruise ship that docked at Piraeus port near Athens on Tuesday tested negative for the novel coronavirus in repeat checks by Greek health authorities, the ship's operator TUI Cruises said.The Mein Shiff 6 cruise ship had departed from Heraklion in Crete on Sunday with all 922 passengers having tested negative before boarding.But sample tests on 150 members out of the ship's total crew of 666, conducted at a land lab, detected 12 COVID-19 infections.Sailing off the island of Milos…

Estonia, Sweden and Finland will look into fresh evidence on the sinking of the ferry Estonia, which went down 26 years ago on Monday with the loss of 852 lives in Europe’s worst peacetime maritime disaster since World War Two.The roll-on roll-off ferry, carrying 803 passengers and 186 crew, sank on a stormy Baltic Sea shortly after midnight on Sept. 28, 1994. The official investigation in 1997 concluded that the bow shield had failed, damaging the bow ramp and flooding the car deck.However…

Resolute, one of two high-speed passenger catamarans delivered by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation to Bermuda's Ministry on Transport in 2002, has returned to the shipyard for a complete refit. The project’s completion is scheduled for May 2021.Designed by Incat Design (currently Incat Crowther), the all-aluminum 250-passenger vessel measures 84 feet long, 30 feet abeam and draws 5.3 feet.Among myriad items to remove, repair or replace is replacing the vessel’s Detroit Diesel engines with new engine controls and monitoring systems to operate twin MTU 10V2000M72 diesel engines…

A cruise ship carrying about 920 passengers was expected to dock at Piraeus port near Athens, after 12 of its crew members tested positive for the coronavirus, an official at Greece's Civil Protection agency said on Monday.The Mein Shiff 6, operated by TUI Cruises, departed from Heraklion in Crete on Sunday with all passengers having tested negative before boarding.But sample tests on 150 crew members out of a total of 666, detected 12 infections. The ship's operators TUI Cruises said six of the 12 had since tested negative."They are all asymptomatic," the civil protection official said.

A labor union representing Argentine grains port workers said on Sunday it would stage a 24-hour walk-off from midnight after failing to strike a deal on a collective work agreement with the business chamber that represents private port owners.The URGARA union, which represents inspectors who check the quality of grains before they are loaded onto ships, called on its workers to "cease all ... activity in ports throughout the country," in a statement released late Sunday.URGARA's workers are critical to the operation of ports and shipment of grains from Argentina…

BMT won a contract with The Isles of Scilly Steamship Group (ISSG) for new vessel designs for the Isles of Scilly, replacing the iconic Scillonian III.The ISSG require a vessel design solution to run between the harbors of Penzance and St Mary’s, in addition to an onward freight supply chain from St Mary’s to the off islands of St Martins, Tresco, Bryher and St Agnes.“The designs will maximize passenger and crew comfort, will be capable of operating in the challenging conditions of the Atlantic ocean route…

Shipbuilder MetalCraft Marine said it delivered two 34-foot high performance patrol RIBs to be used by the Mississippi Department of Natural Resources Police in the coastal bay areas and offshore checking on commercial and sport fishing compliance.Each boat is equipped with triple Suzuki 300-horsepower outboards, enabling the vessels to reach speeds up to 64 miles per hour.According to MetalCraft, the Interceptor hulls are noted for their "Soft Dry Ride", with a fine entry which easily parts the waves and makes the boat very quiet.The vessels feature a robust T-top and supporting structure…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation has been awarded a $105 million Base and Option B contract award on the Jacksonville Harbor Construction Dredging, 47-Foot Contract C Cut-42 Project, the U.S.' largest dredging services provider announced Friday.Great Lakes said it expects the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award additional option work items on the contract by mid-2021 with a value of $11.5 million, resulting in a total contract award of $116.5 million.Dredging is scheduled…

This September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District awarded the final two dredging contracts on its harbor deepening project, which will make Charleston’s harbor the deepest on the East Coast.The contract awards also coincided with the arrival September 20 of the CMA CGM Brazil, a 15,072-TEU containership stretching 1,200 feet long, and the largest containership to ever call on the East Coast and Charleston harbor.Charleston was the last stop on its East Coast itinerary…

Norwegian engineering and equipment company TECO 2030 ASA said it has signed a letter of intent with Austrian-based powertrain deveolper AVL List GmbH and Dutch shipping company Chemgas Shipping B.V. for the use of fuel cell technology as the main energy source for tugboats in the Blue Danube hydrogen project and similar projects.The Blue Danube project is among Europe’s most ambitious hydrogen projects. It involves production of 80,000 tons of green annually based on wind power in Romania…

Royal Dutch Shell has provisionally booked a tanker to load a crude cargo at Libya's Zueitina terminal on Oct. 3, potentially the first since January at the recently reopened port.The Amoureux tanker is expected to load a 1 million barrel cargo and then discharge in Singapore on Oct. 22, Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed.Shell declined to comment on the booking.Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) lifted force majeure on crude loadings at the port on Sept. 22.The north African…

The second phase construction contract for the New Lock at the Soo has been awarded to Kokosing Alberici LLC of Westerville, Ohio, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials announced Thursday.The much-anticipated mega-project will require three phases of construction. Kokosing Alberici's $111 million contract to complete the second phase will stabilize the existing approach walls, allowing modern vessels to tie up and wait their turn to pass through the new lock. Construction will…

The keel laying ceremony for the first of Swan Hellenic’s two new ice-class expedition cruise ships took place in Helsinki today. This saw the first 347-ton block of the ship – newly arrived from Klaipeda, where it had been outfitted and painted – being set on the keel over coins to bring good luck in accordance with ancient maritime custom.Swan Hellenic announced during the ceremony that the ship would be christened SH Minerva in honor of the company’s first purpose-built vessel, named after the Roman goddess of creativity and wisdom.

The owners the New Diamond supertanker which caught fire with a cargo of two million barrels of oil aboard has agreed to pay 340 million rupees ($1.84 million) to Sri Lanka for its help in extinguishing the blaze and averting disaster.The interim claim is for services provided by the Sri Lankan navy, air force, ports authority and Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) after the fire on Sept. 3 until Sept 15, said Nishara Jayaratne, coordination officer of Sri Lanka's Attorney General.Insurers of the vessel West of England will settle the bill…

The cruise industry has certainly been among businesses hardest hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19. But the industry-rocking fallout extends well beyond the cruise lines themselves, extending through cities throughout Florida where canceled sailings are resulting in loss of revenue to public ports, government at all levels, and private companies that do business with cruise lines.These conclusions are contained in the latest Fact Finding 30 report that was released today by Fact Finding Officer Commissioner Louis E. Sola, of the Federal Maritime Commission.

Earlier this month Sanmar Shipyards delivered a pair of Robert Allan Ltd. designed terminal support/escort tugs to Orkney Islands Council Marine Services, in Scotland. The unique and historical names Odin of Scapa and Thor of Scapa were chosen by a widely supported, local voting exercise launched by the Council in November of 2019. The two 32-meter newbuilds are replacing two of the three tugs currently operated by the owners.The RAstar 3200-SX tugs are purposely designed with…

Construction is well progressed on a pair of 40-meter catamaran passenger ferries at AFAI Southern Shipyard, in the Peoples Republic of China, designer Incat Crowther said on Wednesday.To be operated by the Zhuhai Fast Ferry Company, the vessels will form the next generation of sleek, fast, low fuel consumption ferries operating in the Pearl River Delta region.The Incat Crowther-designed vessels will accommodate 199 economy passengers on a single deck with VIP passengers having a dedicated cabin on the upper deck.

An oil tanker is expected to load crude at Libya’s Marsa el-Hariga terminal this week, the first since a blockade by eastern forces in January slashed the OPEC member’s oil production to a trickle.The Delta Hellas tanker will enter Libya’s Hariga port on Wednesday and load 1 million barrels of oil from the port’s storage, the Arabian Gulf Oil Co which operates the port said in a statement.Eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar said last week his forces would lift their eight-month blockade of oil exports, which depressed the OPEC member’s production down to around 100,000 barrel per day (bpd)

Swiss-based ABB said it has been awarded a contract from Guangzhou Shipyard International to supply electric, digital and connected solutions for two new vessels the Chinese shipyard is building for British operator P&O Ferries.The hybrid propulsion solution, using electric power from 8.8MWh batteries and diesel generators, will cut fuel consumption on P&O Ferries’ Dover-Calais route by 40%, ABB said. The batteries will provide full power for harbor maneuvering and stay in port…

A fire-stricken U.S. Coast Guard cutter docked in Yokosuka, Japan Tuesday for inspection and possible repairs days after an onboard blaze left five crew members with minor injuries.Black smoke was reported on the cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) at 5:18 p.m. (local time) on Sunday while the ship was on deployed within the U.S. 7th Fleet's area of operations, the Coast Guard said.Onboard crews were able to contain the flames in the ship' exhaust stack and nearby spaces, and all fires…

A Russian navy vessel collided with a Swiss-owned container ship in Danish waters on Wednesday near the Oresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden, Danish defense authorities told Reuters.The Ice Rose, which was sailing from St. Petersburg in Russia to Gothenburg in Sweden, collided with a Russian frigate early on Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the Joint Operation Centre said.He said the reason for the collision was not clear, but that the Russian vessel had permission to be…

Singapore is seeking proposals on the electrification of small vessels known as harbourcraft as the industry transitions towards a low-carbon future, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said in a joint statement on Wednesday.The MPA is working with the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI) to seek proposals from industry participants and institutes of higher learning or research institutes to develop commercially ready fully-electric harbourcraft.They are also seeking…

South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) recently held a sail-off ceremony in Ulsan for the delivery of the 27,000 gross tonnage car ferry Queen Jenuvia to Sea World Express Ferry, the largest domestic car ferry operator.The ferry with maximum speed of 21.8 knots and capable of accommodating 1,284 passengers, 478 cars and 88 trucks (25 ton) is scheduled to provide the service between Mokpo and Jeju island from end of this month.The vessel, measuring 170m in length…

A high-tech tug in the Netherlands has traveled without human intervention on an AI-optimized route from Boompjes to Waalhaven in the Port of Rotterdam, marking a milestone on the path toward fully autonomous and maritime sustainable operations.The milestone voyage was led by maritime service provider KOTUG International, ship design company Rotortug and tech start-up Captain AI, as part of the Netherlands Forum for Smart Shipping.The demonstration follows the summer 2018 trial of a Rotortug sailing under remote control from Marseille…

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Knud E. Hansen has introduced a new 144-meter-long icebreaking expedition cruise vessel design with accommodations for up to 300 passengers in 150 cabins.Designed to achieve a service speed of 17 knots in open water, and with the ability to operate in solid multi-year ice of 1.8m thickness, the vessel has diesel electric propulsion, and two azipod-units, each 7.5 MW. The six generators have a combined power of approximately 23 MW and are fueled by a combination of marine diesel oil (MDO), and natural gas (LNG).

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has paid $253,300 in penalties to the California Air Resources Board for violating the Ocean-Going Vessel At-Berth Regulation, which requires cargo ships to reduce emissions while docked at the state’s busiest ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Hueneme, San Francisco and San Diego.The violations were discovered during routine audits of the company’s 2017 and 2018 vessel fleet visits to the Port of Oakland. CARB’s investigation revealed that from 2017 to 2018, Mitsui O.S.K.

Knut Kloster, one of the founders of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and a pioneer of the modern cruise industry, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91.“We are incredibly saddened by the loss of the visionary who not only brought our company, but our industry, to life,” said Frank Del Rio, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings president and CEO. “Knut was a pioneer in our industry and certainly ahead of his time, exploring every opportunity to be at the forefront and break boundaries.

Manson Construction Co. signed a contract with Keppel AmFELS to build a new hopper dredge at the shipbuilder's facility in Brownsville, Texas, the Seattle-based marine contractor announced Monday. The new dredge is scheduled to be fully operational by spring 2023 and continues a dredge building boom currently underway in the U.S.The self-propelled trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) Frederick Paup will be the largest in the United States, representing Manson’s single biggest investment in its 115 year history, the company said.

Robert Allan Ltd. is a consulting naval architectural firm, established in Vancouver, Canada in 1930. Mike Fitzpatrick has been a driving force in the company’s growth since joining the firm in 2003. As a key member of the initial employee ownership group, he was named president and CEO in 2015, responsible for corporate direction, business development, management of senior project managers, and project priorities, schedules and profitability. Fitzpatrick is a 1995 graduate of the University of New South Wales in Australia, with a Bachelor of Engineering in naval architecture.

A ferry carrying almost 300 people between Finland and Sweden ran aground off an island in the Baltic Sea on Sunday but nobody was hurt, said Viking Line, the company which operates the ship.“The situation is stable.

Japan said on Friday it will send a five-person team to Mauritius to investigate the grounding of a Japanese-owned ship off the country's coast that led to an environmental crisis.A bulk carrier owned by Japan's Nagashiki Shipping and chartered by Mitsui OSK ran aground on a reef off Mauritius on July 25 and later began leaking oil into the pristine waters around the Indian Ocean island.The Japanese government said in a statement that it would send a team of five people to Mauritius on Sept.

Throughout the world, offshore wind is on a growth trajectory. With green energy mandates from states in New England and the mid-Atlantic, the U.S. is joining the fray. Consultants Wood MacKenzie, in its U.S. Offshore Wind Outlook 2020-2029, suggested that as much as 25 gigawatts (GW) of capacity could be deployed in the U.S. by 2030 (though estimates range from 14 GW to as much as 34 GW), accounting for a hefty portion of incremental capacity coming online.Shipyards in New England have already seen the tip of the offshore wind iceberg…

A cargo ship master and chief engineer have been sentenced and fined after admitting to charges relating known engine problems that led to their ship to lose power and run aground at the Port of Tauranga in July.The Singapore-registered log-carrier MV Funing lost power and passed over a channel marker with the propeller becoming caught in the markerchain, before making contact with a sand bar in the Tauranga Harbor channel.A Maritime NZ investigation and subsequent prosecution…

TUI is planning a share sale to raise up to 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), as the world's largest holiday company looks to ride out the coronavirus-linked travel slump, people close to the matter said.No decisions have been taken and a number of options are still on the table, the people said, adding a possible equity injection by a German government rescue fund was being discussed.Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, who owns 25% of the London-listed firm, is expected to invest pro-rata in any rights issue, which could be decided in the coming weeks, the sources said.TUI and the German fina

On September 11, Damen Shipyards Group launched a Marine Aggregate Dredger (MAD) 3500 at its Galati yard in Romania. Damen is building the MAD for UK-based Hanson, who will use the vessel to conduct offshore aggregate extraction in water depths up to -55 metres in the North Sea and English Channel.Following the launch, Damen will complete work on the vessel, to be named Hanson Thames, and afterwards undertake commissioning, including of dredge equipment and screening installation…

Trans-Pacific short vs long contract freight rate gap hits record $2,400 per FEUAs the year 2020 continues to deliver positive surprises for the container shipping sector, the gap between short and long term contract freight rates on the Trans-Pacific trade lane has never been wider, according to a recent market note from BIMCO, noting that conditions are right for carriers to achieve higher long term contract rates.On 17 September, for containers shipped from the Far East into the US west coast…

Corvus Energy will deliver lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems (ESS) from for five new all-electric ferries being built for Amsterdam’s municipal public transport provider, GVB, that will replace the current fleet built in 1930s.The order for the Corvus Energy ESS has been placed by Holland Ship Electric. The ferries, that are being built by Holland Shipyard Group, will operate on three of the North Sea Canal routes, replacing the current fleet built in the 1930s.

Sri Lanka is seeking at least 340 million rupees ($1.9 million) from the owner of the stricken oil supertanker New Diamond for assistance given to the vessel since it caught fire on Sept. 3, the coordinating officer to the country's attorney general said.Nishara Jayaratne said the cost was for services provided by various departments including the Sri Lankan navy, air force, ports authority and Marine Environment Protection Authority, among others, up until Sept. 15.The fully-loaded vessel is still in Sri Lankan waters…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation has secured several major dredging awards totaling $118.8 million, the U.S.' largest dredging services provider announced on Wednesday.The awarded deepening, coastal protection, and maintenance dredging work includes projects in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and New York.The Post 45 Contract 4 Charleston Lower Harbor New Work Dredging Project (Capital, S.C., $52.9 million) consists of maintenance and new work dredging of material from the Charleston Lower Harbor to Hugh Leatherman Terminal.

Canadian grain shipments through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway trade corridor are up 20% in response to continuing world demand for wheat and canola, the latest figures show.Year-to-date shipments of grain (from April 1 to August 31) totaled 5.2 million tonnes, as ships transported Prairie wheat and canola and Ontario wheat and soybeans for both domestic use and for export to markets around the world.The rush of grain, which is carry over from last year’s crops, has helped to offset continuing pandemic-related declines in other key cargoes such as iron ore (down 23%)…

Crowley said it overcame a number of challenges to lighter and deliver nearly four million gallons of military specification fuel to Eareckson Air Station on the Aleutian Island of Shemya in Alaska.Shemya’s radar and aircraft refueling station, Eareckson Air Station, and the 180 service members, contractors and civilians who operate it rely on Crowley’s twice-yearly fuel deliveries to supply fuel required for incoming aircraft for the Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, Air Force and other state and federal agencies.

New legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) will codify the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking mission on the Great Lakes and increase the icebreaking capacity of the Great Lakes fleet.The Great Lakes Winter Commerce Act aims to increase Great lakes icebreaking capacity, which the lawmakers say will help the businesses and workers that rely on the maritime industry to transport their goods to market and grow the regional economy.“In recent years…

Berlin offered to spend 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build two liquid natural gas terminals in a bid to dissuade the United States from imposing sanctions over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, due to bring gas directly from Russia to Germany, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday.The weekly paper said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz made the proposal in an Aug. 7 letter before Washington imposed sanctions on companies involved in building the Baltic Sea pipeline, effectively freezing its…

Dubai's DP World is partnering with an Israeli group to bid for one of Israel's two main ports and to examine opening a direct shipping line between the two Middle East states, it said on Wednesday.The announcement came a day after Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed an historic agreement to normalize ties, and marks a big development in trade and economic collaboration.Dubai state-owned DP World, which operates ports from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, signed a series of agreements with Israel's DoverTower including a joint bid in the privatization of Haifa Port on the Mediterranean…

The French government will reimburse 30 million euros ($35.5 million) in payroll costs to French ferry companies hit by the coronavirus crisis and Brexit, Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament.Shipping firms have suffered from lower traffic to and from Britain due to quarantine measures and uncertainty around Britain's exit from the European union."We have decided to reimburse all of Brittany Ferries' payroll costs for the 2021 financial year.

Port of Los Angeles container volumes hit an all-time high in August, as importers restocked warehouses and retailers prepared for the upcoming holiday season, but officials warned that uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 remains an economic threat."The future of the economy really depends on the future of the pandemic, and the path of the virus right now continues to be the biggest uncertainty," said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation.Total volume at the busiest U.S.

Carnival Corp said on Tuesday it expects to post a loss of $2.9 billion in the third quarter, hurt by the suspension of cruises due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending the cruise operator's shares down 3% in premarket trade.The cruise business is one of the worst affected from the health crisis and has forced operators, including Japan’s Luminous Cruise, to file for bankruptcy, or to raise money even at the cost of pledging ships.Carnival, which has already raised billions in debt…

Energy companies, ports and refiners raced on Monday to shut down as Hurricane Sally grew stronger while lumbering toward the central U.S. Gulf Coast, the second significant hurricane to shutter oil and gas activity over the last month.The hurricane is disrupting oil imports and exports as the nation's sole offshore terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), stopped loading tanker ships on Sunday, while the port of New Orleans closed on Monday.The U.S. government said 21%…

Wilson Sons creates intelligent tool to expedite tug maintenance   Brazil's largest tugboat operator has developed a chat bot that simulates conversations and handles demands for fleet repairs to help expedite diagnosis and services of corrective maintenance.Wilson Sons said it developed the intelligent tool to expedite tug maintenance  across its fleet of 80 tugboats. Designed by Tuglab, the company's innovation laboratory, and by the Maintenance and IT areas, a chat bot—a robot…

A new ice breaking tugboat built by Blount Boats in Rhode Island has been delivered to the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to work in the Niagara River to help alleviate shoreline flooding and reduce the likelihood of ice limiting the power production at large hydro plants along the Niagara River. The Breaker II joins a fleet of three boats that work every winter to install the Lake Erie—Niagara River Ice Boom—a series of 22 spans of steel pontoons that straddle the mouth of the…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) officially kicked off the project to deepen of the Mississippi River Ship Channel to 50 feet Friday, as Weeks Marine’s cutterhead dredge Captain Frank started dredging 5 miles above the Head of Passes.The USACE awarded this first contract for the Ship Channel deepening to Weeks Marine on September 3, 2020, and the Captain Frank started the deepening Friday. The USACE awarded the second cutterhead dredge contract to Manson Construction on September 8, 2020. Manson’s cutterhead, the Robert M. White, is expected to begin deepening in late September.

Harvey Gulf International Marine is continuing its push to diversify, announcing on Monday its plan to convert four of its platform supply vessels (PSV) to be redeployed in the lightering support market.The four vessels will provide lightering services in California, Texas, Louisiana and Florida, said Shane Guidry, CEO of Harvey Gulf. “In this market, we will offer a larger vessel with newer equipment in order to provide a safer service, all at the price of the smaller vessels presently doing this work…

The dredging market in the U.S. is strong and growing, a bright spot for U.S. shipyards, with increased funding for critical infrastructure projects and port dredging at the federal and state levels. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, the country’s largest dredging company, has invested mightily in new dredgers at U.S. yards. Lasse Petterson, CEO and President, shares insights on the strategy ahead.You have sat at the helm of Great Lakes Dredge and Dock for just over three years. What…

The number of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins seen around Hong Kong has jumped as the pause in high-speed ferry traffic due to the coronavirus allows the threatened species to make something of a comeback, scientists said.Marine scientist Lindsay Porter of the University of St. Andrews said the mammals - also known as Chinese white dolphins and pink dolphins - were moving back into parts of the Pearl River Delta that they typically avoided due to the ferries that connect Hong Kong and Macau.Dolphin numbers in the area had jumped by up to 30% since March when the ferry traffic was suspended…

Sri Lanka has initiated repair work on the ruptured fuel oil tank in the engine room of a stricken fully loaded oil supertanker after plugging the leak, the country's Navy said.The supertanker is currently 52 nautical miles (96 kms) from the Sri Lankan coast, Navy spokesman Indika de Silva said. "Salvors are on board, they plugged the leak and the repair is still going...They have vacated the ruptured tank and transferred the dirty water into the ballast section," de Silva told Reuters. A fire broke out in the engine room of the Greek-owned New Diamond tanker on Sept.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) suspended tanker offloading at its offshore marine terminal on Sunday because of Tropical Storm Sally, the company said in a statement posted on-line.The LOOP is the nation's only oil port able to receive the largest crude oil tankers. Its onshore storage facilities continued to operate as Sally, forecast to become a hurricane, threatened the Louisiana coast, the company said. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Vancouver, Wash. based Tidewater Transportation and Terminals announced Friday it has hired Johan Sperling as its new Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.Sperling will have direct oversight and responsibility for the maintenance and engineering department, vessel operations, dispatch and terminal operations. Additionally, he will work closely with Tidewater Environmental Services and Tidewater’s Canadian entity, Island Tug and Barge, to support their efforts for safe and reliable operations.

P&O Maritime Logistics (P&OML), the marine services arm of global port operator DP World, has taken delivery of a Sanmar Shipyards-built tug for the DP World managed Berbera Port on behalf of Somaliland Port Authority (SPA). The M JEEX (ex. Dogancay XXV) arrived Berbera Port under P&OML management and crew on September 10, 2020. The delivery follows a previous purchase from Sanmar, the EGAL (ex. Dogancay XXVI), delivered in the summer of 2018.Powered by a pair of Caterpillar 3212B diesel engines (two 1…

A salvage team is still trying to plug a fuel leak from the fire-stricken New Diamond oil supertanker, Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Indika de Silva said on Friday.The tanker, which is carrying the about 2 million barrels of oil, caught fire on Sept. 3 and is currently 45 nautical miles (83 km), off Sri Lanka's east coast.The fire has been extinguished but the New Diamond has left two long trails of fuel oil after the Navy towed it out to sea.Authorities want to avoid damage to the…

Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior blocked a tanker on Thursday from delivering crude oil from Norway to Sweden's Lysekil refinery in a protest against plans to expand it, the advocacy group said.The 850-tonne sailboat decorated in rainbow colors dropped anchor in a fjord near the installation owned by Sweden's largest refiner Preem to block passage for the Grena Knutsen carrying crude from Norway's Gullfaks oilfield."We will not let any crude oil to the refinery until Preem stops its plans to expand," said Greenpeace member Gustav Martner during a live feed from Rainbow Warrior as it lower

Maritime navigational safety near two U.S. Navy installations in Kings Bay, Ga., and Portsmouth, N.H. has been improved thanks to new Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems, also known as PORTS, installed by NOAA and the U.S. Navy. They are the first new PORTS in two years, and the 34th and 35th in the nationwide network.The system near Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, the East Coast home to America’s Ohio-class submarines, is an integrated series of sensors which will provide critical real-time information on oceanographic and meteorological conditions.

Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd said on Friday it would spend about 1 billion yen ($9.42 million) on measures to help Mauritius, including the clean-up of the island's mangrove forests and contribution to an environmental recovery fund.A bulk carrier owned by Japan's Nagashiki Shipping and chartered by Mitsui OSK ran aground on a reef in Mauritius on July 25 and later began leaking oil, causing a marine ecological disaster around the Indian Ocean island."The owner of the ship takes primary legal responsibility…

Bunkering ports around the world have long used a variety of small tankers or tug and barge combinations to deliver fuel to visiting ships. Mostly this was heavy oil, but recently a new breed of bunkering vessels is emerging to deliver clean burning liquefied natural gas (LNG) to modern ships with dual-fuel capabilities.The fall of 2020 will see a new addition to this fleet servicing ships in Florida and the Caribbean. As an articulated tug barge (ATB) combination, the vessel will have a cargo capacity of 4,000 cubic meters of LNG.

Wight Shipyard Co said it has built and delivered four ferries simultaneously from its yard in Cowes, Isle of Wight, for a Maltese tour operator.The order, WSC’s largest ferry export order to date, consists of two 20-meter and two 33-meter lightweight ferries, designed by One2Three Naval Architects.Jo Daly, COO, WSC, said the four ferries were produced within a year, despite the restrictions and changes to working brought about by the worldwide pandemic COVID-19.The bespoke vessels for Captain Morgan Holdings Ltd…

Master Marine, Inc. (MMI) has delivered the 67- by 28-foot Iron Lady, the first of four new push boats it is building for Lower Mississippi River operator Plimsoll Marine.The four vessels are designed by Entech Designs, LLC. and are fully compliant with all U.S. Coast Guard regulatory requirements.Towboat Iron Lady is powered by two Laborde Products, Inc. Mitsubishi 803 HP Tier III diesel marine engines operating at 1,400 RPM and coupled to Twin Disc 5321 gears. Laborde Products…

A large fire erupted on Thursday at Beirut port, sending a huge column of smoke above the city a little more than a month after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital.The blaze erupted in the shattered duty-free zone of the port and one official said it was limited to that area. But it jangled nerves in a nation grappling with a deep economic crisis that has posed the biggest threat to Lebanon's stability since its 1975-1990 civil war.The army said a store of oil and tires had burst into flames…

The Sri Lankan navy has towed a fire-stricken supertanker further out to sea to keep it off the coast of the Indian Ocean island after the wind picked up strength and changed direction, a spokesman said on Thursday.The tanker, loaded with 2 million barrels oil, was 50 nautical miles (95 km) from the east coast and moving in a northerly direction, the navy spokesman, Indika de Silva, said. Earlier, it had been headed southwest.The stricken vessel has raised fears of an environmental disaster…

A strong start to the peak shipping season led the U.S.' second busiest container port to record its best August in its 109-year history.Dockworkers and terminal operators at the Port of Long Beach moved 725,610 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container cargo last month, a 9.3% increase compared to August 2019, the port announced Wednesday. Imports rose 13% to 364,792 TEUs and exports were up 1% to 126,177 TEUs. Empty containers shipped overseas climbed 8.5% to 234,642 TEUs.The boost comes at the start of the peak shipping season…

The Sri Lankan navy said on Tuesday an oil slick had been spotted a kilometer from a loaded supertanker carrying roughly 2 million barrels of oil that has been engulfed in intermittent fires since an explosion on September 3.Oil from the engine room of the 20-year old New Diamond tanker “appears to have leaked out to the sea” following regular bouts of water-dousing by fire-fighting vessels, the navy spokesman said.The oil slick has raised concerns about the potential of further leakage from the cargo holds…

Turkish shipbuilder Sanmar Shipyards said it will soon deliver the fifth and final vessel in a series of new tug builds for operator Svitzer at Oman's Port of Sohar.The newest tug Svitzer Saham is the third 80t bollard pull RAstar 2900SX variant, Sanmar’s Bigacay class, joining sister vessels Svitzer Sohar and Svitzer Shinas, alongside two other earlier deliveries in 2020 of the 50t bollard pull variant of the RAmparts 2200 (named Svitzer Liwa and Svitzer Barka), Sanmar’s Sirapinar…

Europe has been the clear leader in offshore wind power since the world’s first offshore wind farm was built off the coast of Denmark in 1991. Now, as regions in Asia and North America set out to harness the huge energy potential gusting off their shores, local firms are drawing from the expertise laid out in the well-established European industry as they build the foundations for new offshore wind markets of their own.It’s no surprise, then, that designs for offshore wind support vessels currently being built in the U.S. come from the other side of the Atlantic.

Sri Lanka will take legal action against the owner of the oil supertanker that caught fire on Thursday as there is a large leakage of bunker oil from the stricken vessel, an official at the Marine Environment Protection Authority said.“We are deciding whether to claim criminal liability or civil liability or both,” Jagath Gunesekara, Deputy General Manager of the Authority said. He said action will be filed under Sri Lankan laws protecting the marine ecosystem.Greece-based Porto…

A ferry in Bangladesh carrying around 40 passengers capsized after colliding with a sand-laden vessel on Wednesday, leaving at least 11 people dead and many more missing, officials said.The dead include five children and three women, said Kazi Mohammad Abdur Rahman, district administrator of Netrokona, where the accident happened on the Gumai river 160 km (99 miles) north of the capital Dhaka."So far, 11 bodies have been recovered," he said.

The Sri Lankan navy said on Wednesday it had extinguished another fire on a stricken supertanker loaded with 2 million barrels of oil and is towing it to deeper water.The navy's disaster management team put out the fire that reignited on Monday on the MT New Diamond, and there were currently no fires burning on the ship which is 41 nautical miles (76 km) off Sri Lanka's east coast.Officials were working to assess any damage to the environment from the incident, which began on Sept.

Brookes Bell said it has been contracted by Norwegian Cruise Line to deliver its software solution SRtP Onboard across its Breakaway Plus class of vessels. Brookes Bell was engaged directly by the Meyer Werft shipyard for these tasks whose close collaboration greatly enhanced the final output to Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.The software was installed on the newly launched Norwegian Cruise Line ship, Norwegian Encore in December 2019 including the delivery of training to all crew involved.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently awarded a $54 million construction contract to Callan Marine, Ltd. for the North Breton Island Restoration Project. The funds for the project come from the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment oil spill global settlement reached in 2016.Located northeast of Venice, La., the restoration project includes dredging 5.7 million cubic yards of material in order to restore the barrier shoreline through beach, dune, and marsh fill placement.

Sri Lanka's navy said on Tuesday that an oil slick had been spotted a kilometer from a loaded supertanker off the country's east coast, as efforts to extinguish a fire on board continued.Sri Lankan officials are working to assess any damage to the environment and marine life from the incident, which began on September 3, when a fire initially broke out in the engine room of the New Diamond supertanker.The first fire aboard the ship, which was chartered by Indian Oil Corp to import some 2 million barrels of oil from Kuwait, was put out, but a second one broke out on Monday."The ship has tilted

Emergency responders extinguished a fire aboard a commercial crane barge near Egmont Key, Fla. Sunday.The U.S. Coast Guard, West Manatee County Fire Department, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and commercial salvage crew responded after Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg watchstanders were made aware of the blaze by a good Samaritan via VHF-FM Channel 16.The Coast Guard directed the launch of Coast Guard Station Cortez and Coast Guard Station St. Petersburg 45-foot Response Boat—Medium boat crews to create a safety zone around the burning vessel…

Sri Lanka has "better control" over a fresh fire on a loaded supertanker off the island nation and is looking for any signs of potential oil leaks from the ship. A fire first broke out last Thursday in the engine room of the very large crude carrier New Diamond and spread to the bridge of the vessel, which was chartered by Indian Oil Corp for importing 2 million barrels of oil from Kuwait. That blaze was doused on Sunday. However, new flames erupted on Monday. The re-ignition of the fire occurred on the "right side of the vessel near the funnel at the rear…

Ballard Power Systems has launched what it says is the fuel cell industry's first module designed for primary propulsion power in marine vessels. Ballard's says its FCwave fuel cell product is a 200-kilowatt (kW) modular unit that can be scaled in series up to the multi-megawatt (MW) power level.The FCwave product provides primary propulsion power for marine vessels – such as passenger and car ferries, river push boats, and fishing boats – as well as stationary electrical power…

Firefighters are again battling flames aboard a fully loaded oil supertanker off Sri Lanka, the island's nation's navy said on Monday, four days after fire first broke out on the New Diamond."Fresh flames have risen in the funnel section of the MT New Diamond Supertanker and firefighters are battling the fire using foam to contain the blaze," said the Navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva, adding that the fire had not reached the oil cargo of around 2 million barrels.A fire first broke out last Thursday in the engine room and spread to the bridge of the very large crude carrier…

Japan has told Mauritius it would offer support on an "unprecedented scale", Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Monday, after a Japanese-owned ship struck a coral reef off the country's southeast coast in late July and spilled oil.Motegi was speaking to reporters after a phone call with Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth."A sense of gratitude was expressed over our offer of support on an unprecedented scale, including financial support," Motegi told reporters.Jugnauth said during the phone call that he did not believe Japan was responsible for the accident…

Japan's coastguard said on Monday that its search-and-rescue mission for 40 missing crew from a capsized cattle ship in the East China Sea remains suspended, with no timing set for resumption.So far, two crewmen have been rescued, while another died after being found unconscious on Friday. Their ship, the Gulf Livestock 1, had sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan last Wednesday as Typhoon Maysak lashed the area with strong winds and heavy seas.The search was suspended due to bad weather on Saturday…

A Massachusetts-based acoustical engineering consulting firm recently completed an underwater radiated noise study to quantify noise, potential impacts to orcas and other marine life, and methods of reducing noise for Washington State Ferries (WSF). Noise Control Engineering (NCE), a subsidiary of naval architecture and marine engineering firm Glosten, said its study included measurement of nine vessels representing all seven operating classes of WSF vessels. The firm specializes in noise and vibration design…

A lawsuit has been filed in Nueces County, Texas on behalf of a worker who was injured and burned in an explosion and fire that occurred while he was working on the dredge Waymon L. Boyd in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel last month.The dredge worker, Jose Cantu, is among six crew members who were hospitalized after the dredge struck a gas pipeline, causing the vessel to catch fire and sink. Another four personnel on the vessel died.The lawsuit alleges that the dredge owner Orion Marine Group and pipeline owner Epic Midstream “failed to adequately plan the job…

Vancouver, Wash. based Tidewater Transportation and Terminals announced it will expand its service on the Columbia Snake River System.The Pacific Northwest focused inland marine transportation company has been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) to aid in the expansion of its barge service from the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Ore. to Vancouver, Wash.The expansion will include the procurement of a new barge capable…

There is no real risk of a spill from a fully loaded supertanker that caught fire off the east coast of Sri Lanka, a senior official in the Indian Ocean nation's navy said on Friday.The fire that broke out in the engine room of the New Diamond on Thursday morning had spread to the bridge of the ship, carrying about 2 million barrels of oil, though it has not reached the cargo area, the Sri Lankan navy said.Director-General of Operations Rear-Admiral Y N Jayarathna told reporters it was the navy’s view that there was no real danger of a spill…

Draft U.N. proposals to ban the use and transport of heavy fuel oil by ships in the Arctic contain waivers that will allow many vessels to keep sailing without enough regulatory control over their emissions, a study released on Thursday found.Antarctic waters are protected by stringent regulations, including a ban on heavy oil fuel (HFO) adopted in 2011, even though no cargo moves through the turbulent southern waters. For the Arctic, the rules are looser.Environmentalists say HFO produces higher emissions of harmful pollutants, including sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxides, and black carbon.

Global port operator DP World and Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec are nearing a deal to invest an additional $4.5 billion in their global portfolio of port terminals, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.DP World and the Canadian pension fund manager could announce the injection of funds as early as this week, the report added.DP World and Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec were not immediately available to comment in response to a Reuters request. (Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter)

A report commissioned by Crown Estate Scotland has found that Scotland has good technical capability to support offshore wind port functions in some, but not all locations and that investments in port capacity will be required to meet the needs of the growing offshore wind industry.Arup, technical consultants tasked with producing the report on the Scottish ports' role in the offshore wind space, said there was a significant risk that existing port capacity will be insufficient to support the offshore wind build-out rates required in Scottish waters to meet the UK-wide net-zero target.