Grupo R News

Southern Europe's first all-electric ferry is being built by Navaltagus Reparação e Construção Naval, a member of Grupo ETE, in Portugal.Designed by Vera Navis Naval Architects, the zero-emissions ferry is being built and will operate in Aveiro, Portugal.Shift Clean Energy and Nave De Luz Lda (NDL) are co-leading a consortium to supply and install electrical components for the new vessel. Additional members of the consortium include Danfoss Editron, power electronic and Technology Venture Middle East Marine Services LLC, the technology integration consultants and Marine Electricals (I) Pvt.

Dutch marine and offshore services provider Boskalis said this week it has completed the installation of the fifth and final floating wind turbine at the Kincardine floating wind farm off the UK, currently the world's largest floating wind farm."Last week we successfully connected the fifth and last floating wind turbine to the pre-installed mooring spread in the field offshore Aberdeen," the company said in a social media post on Thursday."This marks the finalization of an impressive transport and installation project within the emerging floating wind industry.

The third - and final - floating wind turbine has been towed offshore as part of the Windfloat Atlantic project, located 20 km from Viana do Castelo on the Portuguese coast. The project, dubbed the first floating offshore wind farm in continental Europe, is operated by the Windplus consortium, consisting of EDP Renováveis (54.4%), Engie (25%), Repsol (19.4%) and Principle Power Inc. (1.2%). Bourbon Subsea Services is responsible for the towing and the connection of the 8.4 MW floating wind turbine supplied by MHI Vestas.With the support of three vessels (the Bourbon Orca AHTS…

Singapore towage and pilotage company PSA Marine has moved into the South American market with the acquisition of Tramarsa Flota, a Peruvian towage company.Tramarsa Flota and its subsidiaries have been acquired from Grupo Romero. Headquartered in Lima, Tramarsa Flota offers towage, pilotage, launch boat and offshore services in 10 major ports along the Peruvian coastline. It owns 45 vessels, including 17 tugs, 23 launches and five support vessels for diving activities and other marine services.The stock purchase agreement was signed in Lima, Peru, on February 12, 2020.“We are delighted to welcome Tramarsa Flota to our PSA Marine global family. This strategic move will strengthen our international towage and pilotage network.

Kalmar has concluded a deal to supply a total of three Kalmar Ottawa Electric Terminal Tractors T2E to the Mexican bakery product manufacturer Bimbo.Kalmar, part of Cargotec, said in a press release that the order was booked in Cargotec's 2019 Q1 order intake, with delivery of the machines scheduled to take place during Q3 of 2019.Bimbo is the largest baking company in the world, with 199 plants and more than 1,800 sales centres across 32 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.The company has one of the largest direct distribution networks in the world, distributing products including fresh and frozen sliced bread, buns and cookies. The Kalmar Ottawa electric terminal tractors will be operated at Grupo Bimbo's new distribution centre in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City.

Singapore's Keppel FELS has delivered the jackup rig, Cantarell IV, to Grupo R with a perfect safety record.The wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M) said that as part of the deal, Grupo R has entered into a sale and leaseback agreement with FELS Asset, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel O&M.FELS Asset will purchase the rig from Grupo R for US$179m which is equivalent to the balance contract value of the rig. Cantarell IV will be leased back to Grupo R on a bareboat charter at competitive day rates over five years. IPC, the parent company of Grupo R, will provide a Parent Company Guarantee on Grupo R's charter payment obligations.Under the bareboat charter…

Grupo Lindley was approached by Administração dos Portos do Douro, Leixões e Viana do Castelo in Portugal to improve the reliability of the aids to navigation in the Douro River. Along this stretch of navigable waters there are many piles that when the river floods become totally submerged.In conjunction with Instituto Hidrográfico (Portuguese Navy), Almarin together with sister company Lindley in Portugal has been working on a topmark that performs as a buoy floating off from the pile in high water.

Brazilian shipping company Grupo CBO has taken delivery of the final vessel in a series of six Brazilian-built anchor-handlers.The half dozen anchor-handling vessels are of the Havyard 843 design by Norway's Havyard Design & Solutions, which developed the design specially for Brazilian conditions to offer greater width and deck capacity.Havyard signed the initial design contract for the first four vessels in 2014 and a further two in 2016, marking the design firm's first contract…

Singapore yard Keppel Corporation is considering a sale of jack-up rigs to Norwegian offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling, reports The Business Times. The world’s biggest builder of oil rigs is seeking to offload six jack-up rigs for up to US$960 million to the Oslo-listed drilling firm headed by Tor Olav Trøim, said the report. BT also reported that Keppel Capital has already hooked up with structured finance provider Clifford Capital to potentially extend a sale-and-lease-back arrangement for at least one jack-up contracted by Grupo R. The global offshore oil drilling sector is slowly trying to emerge from an industry downturn since the oil price crash.

For more than 30 years, Markey Machinery has worked with the LNG and marine transportation Industries with the goal of developing winches designed to work under the most challenging conditions. The effort includes extensive design shop testing and actual commercial work, a combination that has ultimately produced an understanding of the operational issues facing terminal and tug operators. The many milestones in the development of Markey’s Asymmetrical Render/Recover (ARR) – technology by which hawser winches are able to maintain mean line pulls up to the bollard pull of the tug – came over a period of time that spans 25 years. The initial 20+ years of hawser winch design and Render/Recover development followed a traditional design path, influenced, in part, by market pressures.

The head of the Panama Canal Authority said on Monday a Miami-based arbitration board rejected a demand by Spanish-led GUPC consortium for $192.8 million to cover cost overruns during the building of a third set of locks for the century-old waterway. GUPC or Grupo Unidos por el Canal includes Sacyr SA of Spain, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructura Urbana of Panama. The authority's chief executive, Jorge Quijano, announced the ruling in a post on his Facebook page. "We have been informed that we have won a major arbitration dealing with the expansion of the canal by the GUPC contractor for $192.8 million," Quijano wrote in a post.

China Merchants Group Ltd is in advanced talks to buy Advent International Corp's 50 percent stake in TCP Terminal de Contêineres de Paranaguá SA, Brazil's second-busiest container port, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said on Thursday. According to Estado, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the transaction, talks with the Chinese state-run company known as CMG gained momentum after Advent's negotiations with Dubai-based DP World Ltd hit a snag. Reuters reported in August that Advent had hired Morgan Stanley & Co and Grupo BTG Pactual SA to sell the TCP stake. Sources said at the time that Advent wanted to fetch a price for the stake that could set a minimum value of 3.5 billion reais ($1.1 billion) for TCP.

Leading Mexican maritime operator, Grupo TMM, has signed a Protocol of Delivery and Acceptance with Damen Shipyards Group for a 70 tonne bollard pull ASD Tug 3212 named TMM COLIMA. The tug will operate in the Mexican port of Manzanillo on the Pacific Coast. Ongoing port modifications and changes in port authority requirements were the driving force behind the deal. Founded in 1958, Grupo TMM has become one of the largest integrated logistics and transportation companies in Mexico. The group provides a dynamic combination of specialized maritime services, port and terminal management and integrated logistics services to an extensive Mexican and international client base.

THE top three international employers and training providers shortlisted to compete to be crowned winners at the annual OPITO Safety and Competency Awards in Kuala Lumpur have been announced today (28th September, 2016). Shell Nigeria, Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) and McDermott are shortlisted in the Employer of the Year category, while PT Sampson Tiara, Wild Geese and Grupo Stier have been named in the OPITO approved Training Provider of the Year section. The winning companies in each category will be unveiled during the 2016 OPITO Safety & Competency Conference (OSCC), in partnership with PETRONAS, at The Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday 16th November.

Buyout firm Advent International Corp has hired Morgan Stanley & Co and Grupo BTG Pactual SA to advise on the sale of a controlling stake in TCP Terminal de Contêineres de Paranaguá SA, Brazil's second-busiest container port, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans. Earlier this year, Boston-based Advent had announced plans to sell the 50 percent stake it has in TCP, which can handle about 1.5 million tonnes of cargo containers annually. BTG Pactual joined Morgan Stanley as advisor to Advent at the start of July, the people said. The sources, who spoke with Reuters in recent days, asked for anonymity because the plan remained confidential.

DP World, one of the world's largest port operators, reported a 50 percent leap in net profit for the first half of this year on Thursday, helped by the acquisitions of the Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone and Canada's Fairview Terminal. The company made a profit attributable to shareholders of $608 million in the six months to June 30, compared to a profit of $405 million in the corresponding period last year. EFG Hermes had forecast the company would make a quarterly profit of $432.9 million. DP World's revenue for the first half was $2.09 billion, up from $1.90 billion a year earlier. In July, the company said consolidated throughput for the period was 14.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), down 1.4 percent from a year earlier on a like-for-like basis.

The expansion of the Panama Canal will take traffic through the inter-oceanic passage to a new level, which already handles around 6 percent of global trade transportation, its administrator said on Saturday. With the expansion of the canal's width and depth, the volume of traffic will double, as Panamax-class vessels will now be able to pass through, carrying up to 14,000 cargo containers. Jorge Luis Quijano, administrator of the Panama Canal, said at a press conference that this expansion, which will be inaugurated on Sunday, will open up new opportunities in sectors such as logistics and ship repairs. The main contractor for the expansion was the consortium Grupo Unidos por el Canal.

DP World has won a 50 year concession for the development of a greenfield multi-purpose port project at Posorja, Ecuador, 65 kilometres from the country’s main business city of Guayaquil. The $500 million initial investment (Phase 1) will include the purchase of land, dredging of a new access channel, a 20 kilometre access road and a 400 metre berth equipped to handle containers and other cargo. Construction is expected to start within the next six to nine months and take around 24 months to complete, resulting in 750,000 TEU (twenty-foot container equivalent) of capacity. Total investment will be over $1 billion for the entire project with thousands of jobs duringconstruction…

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) was informed by its contractor Grupo Unidos por el Canal, S.A. (GUPC) on Wednesday, June 1 that the Third Set of Locks have officially passed all performance tests and are now functionally completed to allow a safe, efficient and reliable operation of the new locks in accordance with the provisions of the contract. The ACP said it will conduct a detailed review of the submitted report in order to proceed with appropriate action and respond to the contractor, symbolizing a milestone toward the inauguration of the new lane on June 26.

DP World has won a 50 year concession for the development of a greenfield multi-purpose port project at Posorja, Ecuador, 65 kilometers from the country’s main business city of Guayaquil. The $500 million initial investment (Phase 1) will include the purchase of land, dredging of a new access channel, a 20 kilometer access road and a 400 metre berth equipped to handle containers and other cargo. Construction is expected to start within the next six to nine months and take around 24 months to complete, resulting in 750,000 TEU (twenty-foot container equivalent) of capacity. Total investment will be over $1 billion for the entire project with thousands of jobs during construction…

Keppel FELS Limited (Keppel FELS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has delivered two jackup rigs to Mexican company, Grupo R. Built to Keppel's proprietary KFELS B Class design, the rigs, CANTARELL I and CANTARELL II, will be chartered to PEMEX, Mexico's national oil company, for operations in the Cantarell oil field in offshore Mexico. They are the first two of five jackup rigs that Keppel FELS is building for Grupo R. Mr Wong Kok Seng, Managing Director of Keppel O&M (Offshore) and Keppel FELS, said, "We are pleased to deliver another two rigs in 2016 to our quality client Grupo R. Despite the current low oil price environment, the market continues to prefer safe and efficient rigs with a proven track record like our KFELS B Class.

The Panama Canal has announced that Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the consortium responsible for the design and construction of the third set of locks  project, has successfully completed testing of the reinforcements in sill #3 at the new Cocoli Locks in the Pacific. GUPC technical personnel, the designers, and Panama Canal Authority (ACP) specialists monitored the testing process, which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in sill #3 last August. Later, the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results.

The Panama Canal has announced that Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), the consortium responsible for the design and construction of the Third Set of Locks Project, has successfully completed testing of the reinforcements in sill #3 of the Cocolí locks. GUPC technical personnel, the designers and Panama Canal Authority (ACP) specialists monitored the testing process which consisted of gradually raising the water behind the lock gate to the level in which the seepage was first detected in sill #3 last August. Later, the testing was inspected by a team of independent experts, professors and structural engineers from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), all of whom expressed satisfaction with the final results.