East Coast News

US-based commercial boat builders Blount Boats & Shipyard has become the eighth shipbuilder to join Green Marine, a voluntary environmental certification program for North America’s maritime industry.“We’re already committed to delivering vessels that exceed our clients’ expectations and now wish to go beyond compliance in our work in terms of the environment as well,” said Marcia Blount, the company’s president.“The Green Marine framework is tailor made for the marine industry and scalable to our size of operations.

Blount Boats, Inc. becomes the eighth shipyard company to join Green Marine.“We’re already committed to delivering vessels that exceed our clients’ expectations and now wish to go beyond compliance in our work in terms of the environment as well,” says Marcia Blount, the company’s president. “The Green Marine framework is tailor made for the marine industry and scalable to our size of operations. It will provide guidance towards greater sustainability for our shipbuilding activities.”Green Marine further expands its shipyard and U.S. East Coast membership by welcoming Blount Boats, Inc.

On September 26, the State University of New York Maritime College hosted a conference on the emerging east coast offshore wind industry. “Offshore Wind Power, Planning for America’s Ocean Energy” focused on four fundamental topics:• East Coast Wind Farm Overview – Status of the Industry.• Jobs and Supply Chain Technical Working Group.• Wind Farm Port Development.• Offshore Wind Maritime Operations.In some ways, actually clocking in for a day’s work on an offshore wind turbine is tantalizingly close. Ditto for power flowing from an offshore substation to a mainland interconnection.

Seabulk Towing Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc., announced Wednesday it has contracted with Alabama-based Master Boat Builders, Inc. for the construction of four 80 metric ton bollard pull harbor tugs with an expected delivery beginning in the second half of 2021 through early 2022.Two of the newbuilds will augment the company’s existing Rotortug fleet and feature updates to the Rotortug design, Seabulk said.The other two Azimuth Stern Drive newbuilds will be equipped with diesel mechanical and electric motor propulsion systems. These vessels represent Seabulk’s initial investment in hybrid power towing assets and will operate alongside the company’s existing harbor fleet in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. East Coast.

Surface Navy Association (SNA) names two new Vice Presidents to focus on Navy and Coast Guard Enlisted membersThe Surface Navy Association has established two new Vice President positions created to specifically focus on providing tailored programs, professional development and other outreach initiatives dedicated to better serve our Navy and Coast Guard Enlisted members. The Association’s board of directors has approved Retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles “Skip” Bowen and Retired Fleet Master Chief (AW/SW) JoAnn Marie Ortloff to the new positions.Bowen joined the Coast Guard in 1978 and served for 32 years. A lifelong cutterman, Bowen commanded five separate Coast Guard units ashore and afloat.

Vroon Offshore Services reports its Singapore-managed anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS ) vessel VOS Champion has started a five-month contract with a major international oil and gas engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contractor. The firm period of the current contract will last until March 2020.VOS Champion, which had been under charter to Chevron earlier this year, was delivered to her new charterers in early November and immediately mobilized to Sandakan, Malaysia.

U.S. offshore wind farm support company Atlantic Wind Transfers (AWT) has signed a multi-million-dollar, market-first order for two state-of the-art Chartwell 24 Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), developed by Chartwell Marine.The vessels, to be deployed in support of new wind farms off the East Coast, will be built by Blount Boats, with delivery scheduled for 2020."Meeting the demands of U.S. offshore wind developers and asset owners - many of whom have a background in the European sector - requires domestic supply chain firms to capitalise on existing technology…

One Year In: Industry SME (Captain) Pat Folan weighs in from the front lines.It has been an interesting year for towing industry. As the new Subchapter M towboat rule rolled out, it didn’t take long to discover that the regulation wasn’t perfect. As stakeholders look ahead to what comes next, it is also helpful to take a look back at what went right, what didn’t, and more importantly – why.The U.S. Coast GuardThe US Coast Guard does not have the manpower to add more than 5,000 vessels to its workload.

High Speed Transfers goes global with BareFLEET, as the firm commits to monitoring and reporting best practice proven across European operations.High Speed Transfers (HST), a Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) operator supporting the offshore wind energy and oil and gas industries, is adopting BareFLEET, Reygar’s advanced remote monitoring system, across the entirety of its fleet as the business looks to replicate its European successes in the U.S. and Taiwanese markets.Offshore energy is an increasingly global sector…

The construction support vessel (CSV) Southern Ocean, owned by a joint venture between Bourbon Offshore Norway and Oceanteam, has bagged two charters from an undisclosed client on offshore projects located off the East Coast of India.The scope of the contract is a partial continuation of the scope that was initiated in 2018.Works on the first short term contract have commenced this month whereas the second, longer term contract is expected to commence in December 2019 and works…

Dutch dredging and heavylift company Royal Boskalis Westminster has acquired the remaining 37.5% in the United Arab Emirates’s Horizon Group, a company specializing in the provision of marine geophysical surveys and geotechnical services.Earlier this year, Boskalis already acquired 62.5% of the shares. The 2019 revenue is expected to exceed USD 100 million and the activities will be consolidated as of 2020.Following this transaction, Boskalis will be able to optimize its successful…

Israeli international cargo shipping company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services continued to record improvements and to expand its global network to its customers confronting  challenging business environment.ZIM has reported a net profit of USD 5 million for the third quarter of 2019, after returning to black in the second quarter of the year. (Compared: Net loss of $6.6 million in Q3 2018).Eli Glickman, ZIM President & CEO, said: “In spite of the challenging market conditions, ZIM continued to record improved results in Q3, as it did throughout 2019.

Diverse and conveniently located, St. Johns Ship Building has quickly developed into a reliable partner for its many repeat customers. Today, and as a direct result, a lot more people know exactly where Palatka, Florida is located.On the St Johns River, just 60 miles south of Jacksonville, lies the sleepy town of Palatka, Florida. Founded as a trading post in 1821, its location on the highly navigable river made the area attractive to orange growers and timber men alike.In its heyday between 1875 and 1900…

Dutch heavy-lift firm Mammoet  has reached an agreement that will enable it to provide offshore wind services at the Port of Coeymans Marine Terminal, in New York.The collaboration allows Mammoet access to the port’s 400-acre marine terminal facility, which is owned and operated by Carver Companies , in Coeymans, New York, conveniently located along the Hudson River 100 miles North of NY City and 10 miles South of Albany, NY.Over the years, Mammoet has developed a relationship…

Product tanker freight rates softened in the third quarter of 2019 but rebounded strongly at the start of the fourth quarter following an increase in crude tanker rates that began after the attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities and accelerated dramatically to multi-year high levels at the end of September when the US imposed sanctions on two subsidiaries of China's COSCO Shipping.Denmark-based TORM said that growth in global demand for oil products generally remained subdued…

UK's technology innovation and research center  Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has announced ambitious expansion plans in the Humber, including a commitment to open a base of operations in Grimsby and create 50 to 70 jobs in the region in the next 10 years.The Catapult is already an active member of Aura, a regional partnership of leading industry and academic organisations focused on driving forward the growth of the UK’s offshore wind sector, and collaborates with…

The Panama Canal is a strategic crossroads for maritime traffic, and is arguably one of the most important maritime developments in the past century. Here we take a deeper dive into the history behind that famous strip of waterway.The present canal, which saw its first vessel transits in 1914, along with possible alternatives through Nicaragua and Mexico, had actually been on the minds of merchants, explorers and military/political strategists since the Age of Exploration in early 1500’s.

Vard Marine, a naval architecture and marine engineering company, recently completed the concept design of a new 5,400 cubic meter (CBM) LNG bunker barge for Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding.The barge is being designed for Polaris New Energy’s bunkering operations that will support LNG fueled ships in the east coast of the United States. It will be built at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and is expected to be delivered in November 2021.Vard Marine is currently…

UK's East coast port , Port of Blyth, said that it is installing a bespoke wind turbine training facility at its Bates terminal as part of a GBP1mln investment in training provision aimed at the offshore energy sector. This is a first for the UK wind industry.With the rapid growth of renewable energy providing the North East with major inward investment opportunities, the skills gap that currently exists in the sector is a key barrier to growth.This investment has enabled the Port of Blyth…

In the 2019 first half, 106,000 TEU - 20-ft standard containers - were handled in Hamburg on direct services with Indian ports, a gain of 17 percent. This brought India up into tenth place in Hamburg’s ranking of its trading partners for container transport.With Hapag Lloyd and its partner shipowners ONE, YML and COSCO offering an additional weekly sailing from Hamburg on the IEX - South-East India–Europe Express service from November onwards, the prospects for further growth are good.Ten liner services link the Port of Hamburg with India.

Baker-Polito Administration Celebrates the First-in-the-Nation Offshore Wind Training Facility Located at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. MMA steps out in front to train the professionals who will make the coming wave of domestic offshore wind.Today, Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides, and Stephen Pike, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, joined officials from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to launch the first-in-the-nation offshore wind crew transfer training facility.

Pieridae Energy moved closer to building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on Canada's East Coast after taking ownership of fields from Royal Dutch Shell which will feed gas into the plant, the company said.The Goldboro LNG terminal would be the first on Canada's East Coast and compete with the growing number of plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast, hoping its shorter distance to Europe and further west will help sell its LNG by cutting shipping costs.Pieridae said in a statement late on Thursday it had closed a C$190 million ($145 million) acquisition of Shell's gas assets in Alberta's Foothills region, giving it most of the gas…

Global Container Terminals (GCT) will deploy the IBM-Maersk TradeLens platform at its four North American terminals.GCT operates four strategically located, big ship ready terminals on the west and east coast of North America. A leader in technologically advanced terminal operations, no company is more prepared to keep pace with the changing needs of global supply chains than GCT.In the Port of Vancouver, GCT Canada is the heart of the Asia-Pacific Gateway. GCT Deltaport is Canada’s largest marine terminal…