Northern Europe News

A total of 302 of 2,693 containership sailings, or 11%, have been canceled in May on all the main line trades, according to the latest data from maritime intelligence company eeSea, revealing the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on global shipping.In the first six months of 2020, a total of 1,675 sailings have been canceled, or 11%; which comes out at 13% for 2M, 17% for Ocean Alliance and 17% for THE Alliance, while only 8% of non-alliance sailings have been canceled.However, the number of sailings alone only tells part of the story.

When discussing the arrival of autonomous workboats, many – especially those developing the technologies that enable them – say it’s is not a matter of if, but when. In fact, autonomous harbor tugs are already being put to the test in Singapore, where authorities hope to establish the technological infrastructure to enable fully autonomous ship operations. In the U.S., an autonomous vessel was shown to be able to respond to marine oil spills.But is autonomy really the future?

Corvus Energy is moving forward with plans to invest in its Canadian operations by expanding its Richmond, B.C. facility and increasing manufacturing capacity.As reported in early 2018, Corvus Energy is rolling out plans for expanded maritime battery manufacturing facilities in both Bergen, Norway and Richmond, B.C., Canada. A new automated battery factory in Bergen began producing energy storage systems (ESS) in Q4 2019. Corvus has signed a contract for investment in new production line equipment in the Richmond, B.C.

High in the Arctic Circle lies the Northern Sea Route, one of the planet’s vital shipping arteries. It cuts a journey by almost a third compared to the southern route but it is passing through waters which are mostly frozen.The northern route connects east and west, allowing cargo to be transferred from northern Europe to northeast Asia, via the Bering Strait. It’s a 30% faster passage than the southern Europe-Asia alternative via the Suez Canal and is attractive to shipping companies, thanks to considerable fuel and emission savings.

Corvus Energy has been selected by Westcon Power & Automation (WPA) to supply the lithium-ion battery-based energy storage system (ESS) for a new hybrid coastal cargo vessel being built for Arriva Shipping at Dayang Offshore Equipment in China.The ship is of MDC 1309 Ecolution design made by Marine Design and Consulting (MDC) in Bergen and defines a whole new standard for this type of ship. Energy efficiency has been taken into account throughout the entire design phase. In addition to the large battery pack and electric propulsion…

Norwegian technology firm Kongsberg announced it will install and test autonomous ship technologies on two vessels in Europe's inland waterways and short sea coastal shipping routes.The AUTOSHIP project will aim to test and further develop key technology linked to fully autonomous navigation systems, intelligent machinery systems, self-diagnostics, prognostics and operation scheduling, as well as communication technology enabling a prominent level of cyber security and integrating the vessels into upgraded e-infrastructure…

India’s import and export container trade in Q3 2019 (July-September) remained flat as compared to global growth of 1.5%. The slowdown is aligned closely with the weaker domestic demand, as well as a reflection of the broad-based cyclical weakening of the economic environment in all the main global economies. The negative effects from escalating trade restrictions also weighed on trade growth in the quarter. The trade restrictions have reduced bilateral trade between the United States of America and China…

The  manufacturer of terminal tractors Kalmar has concluded an agreement with long-term customer Eurogate to heighten nine Kalmar straddle carriers operating at the Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg.The order was booked in Cargotec's 2019 Q4 order intake, with the work scheduled to commence in Q1 of 2020 and be completed by the beginning of Q3, the unit of Cargotec said.Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg is one of Northern Europe’s main transport hubs, offering excellent road, rail and feeder connections to the economic centers of Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia.

Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding, the classic Maine boat designer and builder will build to Baltic Workboats design for the domestic workboat market.Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding, the classic Maine boat designer and builder will announce at this year’s International WorkBoat Show that it has entered into the domestic workboat market as the Jones Act builder for the Estonian, Baltic Workboats wave piercing pilot boat, currently popular with Danish and Belgian pilots.How do you feel about taking on something as unusual as building a pilot boat designed and built in Estonia…

Container shipping firm CMA CGM will use the French Mediterranean port of Marseille for refueling some of its planned gas-powered vessels, backed by a supply partnership with energy group Total.Total will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a refueling barge to enable CMA CGM to refuel LNG-powered vessels at the Marseille-Fos hub starting in 2021, the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.The initiative covers five vessels with a capacity of 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent…

Prysmian Group, the major player in energy and telecom cable systems industry,  has has announced that it commissioned the 900MW DolWin3 high voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore grid link in the German North Sea.Prysmian had secured this project in February 2013, with a contract awarded by Alstom Grid (now GE Grid GmbH) on behalf of the Dutch-German grid operator TenneT.DolWin3, the third offshore grid connection in the DolWin cluster, links the offshore converter platform DolWin Gamma…

Russia is advocating expansion of ports and shipping along the Northern Sea Route (NSR).The  existing excellent contacts between Port of Hamburg Marketing and Russian ports as well as the Hamburg maritime industry’s second most important trading partner in seaborne freight traffic provided the occasion for an expert session on the use of the Northern Sea Route – NSR - and development of transit freight traffic between Europe and Asia.At a meeting in Hamburg, members of a delegation…

Clean Arctic Alliance has welcome MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company's decision to avoid Arctic shipping route as a new short cut between northern Europe and Asia.Clean Arctic Alliance lead advisor Dr Sian Prior was responding to the announcement that shipping company MSC “will not explore or use the Northern Sea Route between Europe and Asia for container shipping” and that it believes that shipping lines should focus on reducing the environmental impact of existing shipping…

The LNG tanker Ramelia has been delivered to the chemical tankers in Northern Europe Rederi AB Älvtank, becoming the sixth of eight vessels ordered in the Gothia Tanker Alliance series.The vessels are built on a design where FKAB Marine design, in great cooperation with the owners Furetank, Älvtank and Thun Tankers and together with Avic Dingheng Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., have been involved from the first sketch all the way to Detail Design.This design is an ice class 1A environmental friendly tanker…

McQuilling Services Announces the Release of the 2019 Mid-Year Tanker Market Outlook Update.The Mid-Year Tanker Market Outlook Update provides an outlook on the global tanker market in the context of global economic growth and oil fundamentals influencing tanker demand and vessel supply. The outlook includes a view on future asset values, time charter rates, market freight rates and TCE revenues for 24 major tanker trades and four triangulated routes across eight vessel segments for the second half of 2019 through the remaining four years of the forecast period 2019-2023.

Estonian energy company Eesti Gaas began providing liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering services to LNG-powered vessels in the port of Hanko, Finland, for the first time in addition to Tallinn and Helsinki.For the port of Hanko, this means scheduled LNG bunkering on its premises, and Eesti Gaas will be providing the service to two new ships in addition to Tallink’s Megastar.The two ships bunkered by Eesti Gaas in the port of Hanko are the largest dual fuel LNG vehicle carriers in the world.

Corvus Energy, the Norwegian-Canadian designer and manufacturer of energy storage solutions for marine propulsion and electrical systems opens  a new automated battery factory in Bergen, Norway to meet demand.“There is an electric revolution going on in the maritime sector, and we want to deliver the best solutions in the industry,” said Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy.“The Corvus team in Vancouver developed the groundbreaking battery solution that accelerated adoption of zero-emission and hybrid marine propulsion systems, particularly in Norway.

Tugs from Boluda Towage Spain, the towing division of Boluda Corporación Marítima, have recently towed the largest container ship in the world in and out of the port of Algeciras.Built this year, the MSC MINA a has 23,756 TEU capacity and is powered by 228,741 GT. The ship called at the port of Cadiz during its maiden voyage from the Chinese port of Xingang to northern Europe, a service operated jointly with Maersk.The containership with the greatest container-holding capacity in the world was towed upon arrival at the Bay of Algeciras on 4 September by the tugboats VB JUANGONZALEZ…

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s second-biggest container shipping line, has decided not to use the Arctic as a new short cut between northern Europe and Asia and will instead focus on improving environmental performance on existing global trade routes.In declaring the northern sea route out of bounds, MSC follows CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd that have similarly eschewed the commercial benefits of an Asia-North Europe option that is 30 percent shorter than the southern…

The consortium including DEME and Eiffage Métal has won an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract for 80 foundations at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France.The scope includes the design, fabrication, and installation of full face drilled monopile foundations. The consortium contract has a total value of more than EUR 500 million.Design activities already kicked off in order to start the production of the foundations in the spring of…

The CMA CGM Group has launched its first new vessel in a series of nine liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered ultra large containerships at the Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing Shipyard, the France-based shipping and logistics company announced on Wednesday.At 23,000-TEU capacity, the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé and its eight French-flagged sisterships will be the world’s largest containerships to run on LNG propulsion.“With the launching of the first 23,000-TEU ship powered by liquefied natural gas…

Med Marine based in Istanbul signed a newbuilding contract with Danish operator, Svitzer for two icebreaking tugboats. The design is new in Med Marine’s portfolio, the TundRA 3000 concept a design from Robert Allan Ltd. Once delivered, the vessels will operate across Scandinavia, predominantly serving ports in Denmark and Sweden.The tugs are designed for operations in the full range of ice conditions, and Med Marine’s Procurement & Technical Group Manager Ertuğrul ÇETİN said “It is a great pleasure for Med Marine to experience the needs of different geographies.

Total said its first large liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel has been launched, following the signature of a long-term charter contract between Total and Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) in February 2018.After delivery in 2020, the bunker vessel will operate in Northern Europe, where it will supply LNG to commercial vessels, including 300,000 tons per year for CMA CGM’s nine ultra-large newbuild containerships in Europe-Asia trade, for a period of at least 10 years.The LNG bunker…