Oh News

For Cheryl “Cherrie” Felder, the path to the maritime industry was both untraditional and seemingly meant to be. After studying African art, she began her career working in a museum in New Orleans before landing a role directing professional rodeo in the Big Easy.“It was a lot of fun, and I learned a whole lot,” Felder said. “But as you may imagine, New Orleans is not a rodeo town. After the third year, the board of directors decided, okay, that's it. No more rodeo.”And that’s when Felder’s doorway to the maritime industry swung open…

The physicist Max Planck (actually born as Marx Planck) is best known for the development of his universal constant that defines physics at the most basic level. It is an important number, and today it even defines the kilogram and therefore most engineering units. Regardless, in my daily life I have little use for it.Max Planks is less known for his Principle, which, to me, is much more useful and I encounter it almost on a daily basis. Max Planck provided this Principle in his Scientific Autobiography (and Other Papers…

At Gastech 2023, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) offers a separate 216 sq. m. exhibition hall at the Singapore Expo venue showcasing its technological developments in LNG and LCO2 transport vessels, centered around the FLNG (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Production Facility) models.On the September 7, SHI plans to hold a future eco-friendly technology seminar for key customers to address global climate change. Dubbed "Sustainable Future with Green & Digital," the seminar will feature participation from major customers…

Mike Complita is going on 30 years in the maritime industry. Complita started work at Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) as an intern while attending the University of Washington in his hometown, Seattle. “And since that time, I've served in pretty much every role, from a technical and project management standpoint, all the way up to principal of our organization,” he said. Today, as Principal in Charge and VP of Strategic Expansion, Complita works alongside EBDG’s other principals to help guide the firm’s project managers…

Jennifer Carpenter has been president and CEO of The American Waterways Operators (AWO) in January 2020, but her time with the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry dates back to 1990. This month, she weighs in on top challenges and opportunities currently present in the industry, from difficult regulatory changes to the uptake of cleaner vessel technologies.What are some of the biggest and most important issues facing the tug, towboat and barge industry?Big picture, I feel like our industry has never been more relevant.

Wärtsilä received its first order for carbon capture and storage-ready scrubber systems - CCS-Ready scrubbers.Wärtsilä said that four 8,200 TEU container vessels, being built at undisclosed Asian-based yard, would be fitted with Wärtsilä’s CCS-Ready 35MW scrubber in an open loop configuration.The scrubbers are termed CCS-Ready because, as part of their installation, Wärtsilä will perform additional design and engineering work to ensure that future retrofits for a full CCS system on the vessels have already been accounted for during the newbuilding construction stage…

With the creation of a full-fledged U.S. offshore wind industry undoubtedly comes many opportunities for those that own, operate, build and service relevant vessels as developers work toward the nation’s goal of 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030.But for every opportunity there are at least a handful of challenges, many of which have recently been amplified by supply chain volatility, inflation pressures and other unwelcome factors that have spurred cost increases for…

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has signed a "Strategic Collaboration Agreement" with Equinor, Norway's largest energy company, to strengthen its competitiveness in the offshore EPC business.According to SHI, the two companies have recognized that a longer-term and closer collaboration on the future project portfolio could be mutually beneficial for Equinor's future projects requiring "Asian Solutions" over the next five years and will form a Collaboration Board to share opinions on mid-to long-term business strategies and expand cooperation.Based in Norway…

The Interlake Steamship Company held a christening ceremony in Cleveland on Thursday for its new vessel, Mark W. Barker, the first U.S.-flagged freighter built on the Great lakes in nearly four decades.“This is truly a historic celebration for our company and for the United States maritime industry as we proudly christen the newest vessel to join the U.S. flag fleet on the Great Lakes and our first new build in 41 years,” said Mark W. Barker, President of The Interlake Steamship Company and the vessel’s namesake.

A third crude tank caught fire and collapsed at Cuba's main oil terminal in Matanzas, its governor said on Monday, as an oil spill spread flames from a second tank that caught fire two days earlier in the island's biggest oil industry accident in decades.Cuba had made progress fighting off the raging flames during the weekend after drawing on help from Mexico and Venezuela, but late on Sunday the fire began spreading from the second tank, which collapsed, said Mario Sabines, governor of the Matanzas province…

DNV signed two Memorandum of Understanding Agreements (MOUs) with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Kongsberg Digital (KD). The partners agreed to closely cooperate on improving DNV’s data infrastructure verification as well as further strengthening SHI’s and KD’s respective vessel and system design when it comes to providing efficient and standardized data access for ship owners. The MOUs were signed at the Posidonia trade Fair in Athens by Oh Seong-Il, SHI SEVP, Kim Evanger…

Classification society DNV said it has recently approved several projects for digital infrastructure solutions developed by COSCO, Kongsberg Digital and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).According to DNV, digitalization of the maritime industry is set to radically enhance the operational efficiency, safety and environmental performance of ships, but right now is taking place in a fragmented way, with no pan-industry alignment on data infrastructure reliability and data quality in compliance with global standards.As ships get smarter and increasingly packed with sensors…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District awarded a $4,565,000 contract to Michigan-based Ryba Marine Construction Company on May 17 to conduct dredging of the federal navigation channel in Toledo Harbor and the Maumee River.Dredging of harbors like Toledo’s and rivers like the Maumee ensures accessible depths for large vessels, the continued flow of commodities across the Great Lakes, and the economic viability of United States waterways.“The heavy manufacturing and maritime transportation sectors are at the heart of Northwest Ohio’s economy.

New legislation introduced in Congress aims to create a federal entity dedicated exclusively to advancing solutions to the challenges faced by the eight states of Great Lakes region.Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin together, contain a large core of the United States’ commercial and defense industrial base, as well as the largest freshwater system anywhere on Earth, but lawmakers say the Great Lakes region lacks the support present in other regions where the federal government has an array of commissions…

Jennifer Carpenter joined The American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association representing the inland and coastal tugboat, towboat and barge industry, in August 1990 and became its president and CEO in January 2020. She weighs in some of the most important developments in the industry today, from “hugely exciting” opportunities in offshore wind , tech innovation and decarbonization, to labor and recruitment challenges.The recent Infrastructure bill is a huge boost for many industries…

My brother, who is the executive editor of my favorite boating magazine (Soundings), and I occasionally send strange tidbits to each other by email. For some reason he sent me an email about the 17th Century ship Vasa and focused on one of the causes of the vessel’s failure to float properly.This is the Wikipedia paragraph he focused on:"The use of different measuring systems on either side of the vessel caused its mass to be distributed asymmetrically, heavier to port. During construction both Swedish feet and Amsterdam feet were in use by different teams.

South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) received an approval in principle (AiP) from classification society DNV for the DSME Rotor Sail System for large oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.Desigend to provide eco-friendly auxiliary propulsion for ships, a rotor sail system incorporates the installation of cylindrical columns (rotors) on the vessel’s deck to generate additional power to propel the ship by using the force of the wind and column rotation during operation.“In this time of growing pressure to decarbonize…

U.S.-based ballast water treatment sysems manufacturer Ecochlor has appointed Zen Hong Oh as Regional Service Manager for Southeast Asia.Oh has more than 11 years of involvement in the maritime industry both in shipbuilding and in project management of vessel repairs and retrofits. Prior to Ecochlor, he was Field Service Manager at Emerson Process Management Marine Solutions. He also acted as Assistant Manager of Green Technologies for Sembcorp Marine with responsibilities that…

Stuart Ostrow developed ShipMoney as a means to make the process of paying crew more efficient and cost-effective for both vessel owner/operators and the crew. Little did he realize then that his company would be instrumental in helping seafarers during their greatest time of crisis.Stuart, to start, how did you come create ShipMoney and get into a career in the maritime business?I'm the definition of an accidental salesman. By professional training, I'm a Big Six CPA, and I was always one of those frustrated accountants. Many years ago, I read a business plan that talked about prepaid.

For the Design issue Greg Trauthwein asked me to write about a favorite ship design. I have no favorite ship design, or should say there are simply too many that are truly worthy of mention. But when considering favorite designs, ship designers (and builders) do carry a strange curse. Unique among engineers (and artists, architects, and industrial designers) their creations only live for about 30 years. With very few exceptions, in their own life time, ship designers get to see the disassembly of most of their creations. I am not aware of any other creations that are so readily tossed aside.

Maritime and offshore classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has granted Approval in Principle (AiP) for the design of what it described as "a wide breadth, single row, near-shore LNG Floating Production Storage Offloading Vessel (FPSO) hull with a jetty-moored system." The hull design has been developed by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME).The 64m wide barge-shaped hull features a GTT NO96 single row containment system with a storage capacity of 209,000 m3.

How many times have you heard someone say, “Oh, that person is a born leader; I could never do what they do as I am not a born leader”? That train of thought has recently come under increased scrutiny and debate as the U.S. Merchant Marine enters the 21st century. As part of this focus, the International Maritime Association (IMO) updated the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) with the 2010 Manilla Amendments.

South Korean shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) have gained Approval in Principal (AiP) for the application of the “solvent free 1 coating system” for ballast water tanks from both the Korean Register of Shipping (KR) and the Liberian Registry.The eco-friendly (solvent free) 1 coating system has been verified for excellent coating quality when compared to the traditional double coating system and has passed quality standards for alternative…