Dispatch News

New Zealand said on Monday it will dispatch defense personnel, helicopters and a naval ship to the Solomon Islands to assist in a national election due next month, where relations with China will be a key issue.The deployment is part of a NZ$10.8 million ($6.48 million) support program for the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission announced in January and that will help transport election officers and materials around Pacific Island nations.New Zealand's foreign ministry said the vessel HMNZS Canterbury will leave Auckland on Tuesday to transport two helicopters and crew…

A ship transporting almost 200 tons of food to Gaza left a port in Cyprus early on Tuesday in a pilot project to open a new sea route for aid to a population on the brink of famine.The charity ship Open Arms sailed out of Larnaca port in Cyprus, towing a barge containing flour, rice and protein.The 200-mile (320 km) voyage across the eastern Mediterranean to Gaza with a heavy tow barge could take up to 2 days, Cypriot officials have said.The mission, funded mostly by the United Arab Emirates, is organised by U.S.

Jeffersonville, Ind. based marine transportation company American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL) announced Steve Schappell has been appointed Senior Vice President of Logistics and Network Operations after entering the role on an interim basis in September.Schappell, who joined ACBL in July 2021 as Vice President of Supply Chain and Continuous Improvement, was selected for the position over several external candidates, the company said.Reporting directly to ACBL CEO Mike Ellis, Schappell is responsible for ACBL's Fleets, Terminals, and Interchange business unit.

How the Maximum Contingency of 2,200 MW Was Recast to a 1,200 MW CeilingAs policy makers and energy developers look to develop and interconnect large offshore wind projects in the most economically efficient and least environmentally impactful way, an issue has developed. A relatively recent limit, set in place by the grid operator in New England in a planning process document, states that no single system loss of energy, or “contingency”, can be larger than 1,200 megawatts (MW). This 2016 addition to ISO New England’s (ISO-NE) Planning Procedure No.

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has skipped COP28 in Dubai to personally address “important developments” in the hostage situation involving 17 Filipino seafarers.He is convening a meeting to facilitate the dispatch of a high-level delegation to Tehran, Iran, with the aim of providing necessary assistance to the seafarers.Marcos has assured the Filipino people that the government is doing all it can to ensure the safety of the 17 Filipino seafarers taken hostage by Houthi rebels in Yemen.Yemeni rebels seized the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader and took hostage its 25 crewmembers…

Maritime propulsion specialist Schottel said Tuesday it is expanding its thruster factory in Dörth, Germany, to include a logistics center with a capacity of around 4,000 square meters.A contract for the expansion has now been signed with general contractor Goldbeck from Koblenz.The new building will be annexed to the existing facility and will provide 2,634 square meters of industrial floor space and 1,326 square meters of offices. The groundbreaking ceremony for the 7.5-million-euro structure is to take place at the end of this year…

Without a radical new approach, BIMCO’s CII Operations Clause will remain a worthy but vain attempt to reconcile shipping’s environmental and commercial imperatives,Legal and contractual disputes lie ahead for shipping unless it finds a better compromise between owners and charterers to sustain the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Index (CII).Entering into force on 1 January 2023, the CII relates primarily to the way in which ships are operated and the resulting CO2 emissions.

The European Commission is helping the United Nations and Turkey try to extend a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain and is open to "explore all solutions," a European Union spokesperson said on Thursday, ahead of the deal's possible expiration on Monday.The U.N. and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by Moscow's invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and…

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia's agricultural bank to the SWIFT international payment system, sources told Reuters.Russia has threatened to ditch the grain deal, which expires on Monday, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertilizer abroad have not been met. The last two ships…

“Not only does the top of the river move, but the bottom of the river also moves.” - James Bodron, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, Regional Business Director.Dredging was the Herculean act that allowed much of the U.S. economy to keep chugging along as usual, at least for Midwest and Central states, as drought conditions threatened to shut down river traffic on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, during fall and winter 2022 and early 2023.The full scope of these U.S.

PMA says US West Coast port workers shut down Port of Seattle; workers' union denies claimThe Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents terminal operators, said in a tweet on Saturday that coordinated and disruptive work actions led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have shut down cargo operations at the Port of Seattle."On the first shift today, the ILWU refused to dispatch any longshore workers to container terminals, the PMA said, resulting in the shutdown of the port.The ILWU…

The Pacific Maritime Association on Thursday said the largest longshore union local on the West Coast disrupted work at the nation's busiest seaport complex for the second week in a row, as labor talks covering 22,000 dockworkers from California to Washington state approach the one-year mark.Frustration is growing over the lack of resolution in the talks, which started in May.

U.S. inland marine transportation and logistics solutions company American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL) announce it has hired Joel Gard as senior vice president of its newly established Interchange & Logistics business unit.With the associated realignment, ACBL is now comprised of three uniquely integrated strategic business units (SBU): Dry Cargo, Liquid Cargo and Interchange & Logistics.A veteran of the transportation and supply chain sector, Gard brings extensive experience in building and deploying technology to enhance traditional transportation models.

Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific International Holdings (AG&P) said Sunday that it had converted the 137,512 cubic meter LNG carrier called ISH into a Floating Storage  Unit (FSU), which will be a part of an LNG import terminal in the Philippines from 2023."The ISH is a central component of the first Philippines LNG Import Terminal (PHLNG). Ready to be docked at AG&P's PHLNG facility in Batangas, the FSU is part of the combined offshore-onshore  import terminal that will have an initial capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Staff shortages caused by an ongoing strike over wages are impacting container and car terminals at South Africa's Durban port, one of the busiest on the continent, a unit of state-owned logistics company Transnet said on Tuesday.Transnet, which manages South Africa's freight rail network and ports, declared force majeure last week after its workers went on strike over a wage dispute.In an update on its website, Transnet Port Terminals said the strike had impacted waterside and landside operations at its Durban port…

About the Author: Captain Rahul Khanna is Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. A marine professional with 26 years of experience within the Shipping and Maritime industry, Captain Khanna served more than 14 years on board merchant ships in all ranks, including Master of large oil tankers trading worldwide. Although shipping losses have more than halved over the past decade fires on board vessels remain among the biggest safety issues for the maritime industry.

Offshore installation contractor DEME Offshore has awarded Proserv Controls a contract for the provision of the inter-array cable monitoring system, or CMS, for the first two phases, A and B, of the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK.Proserv said Tuesday it would deploy its ECG holistic cable monitoring system to deliver the project."ECG has been initiated and driven by Proserv with critical support from its partner Synaptec, a power system monitoring expert," the company said."ECG represents a step-change in traditional monitoring methods…

The Malaysian Port of Tanjung Pelepas is taking the next step on its digitalization journey, tackling congestion and boosting sustainability with a port information management system (PMIS) powered by artificial intelligence (AI).The Port of Tanjung Pelepas, the 15th busiest port in the world, will deploy Innovez One’s MarineM solution to optimize tug and pilot operations, minimizing delays in the first and last mile of its logistics chains, while simultaneously reducing emissions.Innovez One has already provided port management information systems to major global players…

Chinese iron ore futures dived more than 8% late on Friday after the country's regulators and industry association issued warnings against recent unusual price moves of the key steelmaking ingredient.Earlier on Friday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which is the country's state planner, said it and the market regulator would dispatch investigation teams to the commodity exchange and key ports to look into iron ore inventories and trading in the spot and futures market.The NDRC…

Peru's environmental regulatory agency said on Wednesday it was investigating the possibility that Spanish energy company Repsol SA was responsible for a second oil spill in as many weeks off the country's central Pacific coast.The suspected new spill may have occurred on Tuesday as Repsol's La Pampilla refinery was withdrawing oil reception and dispatch equipment as part of an investigation into what caused the initial spill blamed on unusually strong waves triggered by a volcanic eruption in Tonga this month, according to the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA).The age

On June 24, Ingram Marine Group held a special christening ceremony for four vessels: M/V Capt. Roy Daniels, M/V Randy Hooper, M/V Debbie L. Owen and M/V Harold B. Warren. The M/V Debbie L. Owen and M/V Capt. Roy Daniels are new builds. The M/V Randy Hooper and M/V Harold B. Warren are refurbished vessels.“The people we are honoring today are a testament to the kind of company we’ve worked hard to build. They really represent the ‘Ingram Way’ which is why it is so fitting to christen some of our vessels in their honor…

Wärtsilä Voyage acquired PortLink Global, a global port solutions company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The move is intended to speed Wärtsilä Voyage along its path towards creating an end-to-end connected maritime ecosystem.The transaction was signed and closed in June 2022.PortLink and Wärtsilä Voyage have partnered in the past – collaborating on projects including the co-development of a Port Management Information System (PMIS) for the largest Mediterranean and African port…

Japan's NYK said Thursday its new crew transfer vessel (CTV) Energizer had started its charter with Northern Offshore Services AS (NOS), a subsidiary of the Sweden-based Northern Offshore Group AB (NOG).The CTV, which will be used to service offshore wind farms, is owned by NYK and is being chartered to NOS through a long-term bareboat charter contract. It will transfer crews to offshore wind power stations, mainly in Europe, under the operation of NOS. NOG operates about 60 CTVs in the offshore wind power market in Europe…