Shipping News

Late 2018 saw the tanker market bubble upwards through late November, with daily vessel hires moving in the direction of, though not yet reaching levels not seen since late 2014-2015, when oil prices were in freefall and inventories building to the brim. A few pundits have suggested that we are seeing a “mini 2014” where lowered oil prices are coaxing another inventory build which would drive tanker capacity utilization, and per diem freight inflows, higher. The oil market has changed over four years…

Louisiana shipbuilder Gulf Craft has delivered the third vessel in a series of new class monohull fast support vessels (FSV) for SEACOR Marine.According to designer Incat Crowther, the vessel Libby L. McCall advances the traditional offshore support vessel model and offers a more cost efficient, comfortable, flexible, and safe option to helicopter transportation.The vessel features redundancy to mitigate against down time or loss of functionality due to mechanical complications.

Key Middle East oil terminal bans open-loop scrubbersFujairah in the United Arab Emirates has become the latest major port to ban a type of fuel exhaust cleaning system to comply with a coming tightening in rules regarding global sulphur emissions, mirroring similar moves in Singapore and China.Under International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules that come into effect from 2020, ships will have to reduce the sulphur content in their fuel to less than 0.5 percent, compared with 3.5 percent now, forcing huge changes upon global shippers and also oil refiners.Fujairah's harbour master said in a faxed document seen by Reuters that the port "has decided to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters ...

US Coast Guard and other federal agencies are operating at a reduced capacity following US government shutdown, said North of England Protecting and Indemnity Association (North P&I Club).Since 21 December 2018, the US Government has been in shutdown following the failure of Congress to agree federal funding. With no end in sight, it is the longest shutdown in US history, it said."We have not received any indications as yet that the shutdown is causing significant disruption to shipping," said a statement from North P&I Club.

Connecticut-headquartered Eagle Bulk Shipping said that its wholly-owned subsidiary Eagle Bulk Ultraco has received a loan commitment from a consortium of banks for a new five year senior secured facility totaling approximately $208 million.According to the company, the Facility will include a term loan equating to approximately $153 million and a revolving credit facility of $55 million, and will be used to refinance the existing debt of Eagle Bulk Ultraco LLC and Eagle Shipping…

Europe's logistics services provider Neele-Vat Logistics and the Port of Rotterdam Authority have signed a contract for the development of a distribution centre on the last vacant lot at the City Terminal site near Eemhaven (Heijplaat-Rotterdam).According to a press release, the logistics service provider will be using the new distribution centre for ‘cross-docking’: unloading cargo from an incoming transport unit and combining it with other cargo which is then loaded onto an outbound transport unit.

The Danish Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs and the Indian Ministry of Shipping have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen the cooperation in the maritime sector between the two countries.With the conclusion of this agreement, the two countries’ mutual commitment and interest in cooperating to ensure good conditions for the maritime sector is underlined.Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Rasmus Jarlov said: “India is a major growth economy that plays a key role in the global maritime sector.

India's largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), has made its way to the top-30 container ports across the globe.JNPT notched up five spots as per the latest Lloyds Report, to be 28th on the list, compared to its previous ranking," Indian shipping ministry said in a statement.This is a validation of all the efforts and strategic initiatives being implemented at JNPT in order to enhance overall port efficiency, it said.Various new processes activated under the 'ease of doing business' initiative have not only helped in overall growth of the port business…

The port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates has decided to ban the use of a type of ship exhaust cleaner, becoming the latest location to impose restrictions on so-called open-loop scrubbers, a port document showed.In recent months, many shipping companies have opted to fit scrubbers onboard their ships, ahead of major changes in the use of marine fuel across the world.The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will prohibit ships from using fuels with sulphur content above 0.5 percent from Jan.

The port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates has decided to ban the use of a type of ship exhaust cleaner, becoming the latest location to impose restrictions on so-called open-loop scrubbers, a port document showed.In recent months, many shipping companies have opted to fit scrubbers onboard their ships, ahead of major changes in the use of marine fuel across the world.The International Maritime Organization (IMO) will prohibit ships from using fuels with sulphur content above 0.5 percent from Jan.

Exports of Turkmen oil via Russia's Black sea port of Novorossiisk will resume in February, four market sources said.Turkmenistan stopped transit of its oil via Russia in 2016 and has been exporting all its crude via the Azeri Caspian port of Baku.Pumping Turkmen oil through the Makhachkala-Novorossiisk pipeline could add as much as 200,000 tonnes of crude per month into Russia’s Transneft system. Turkmenistan is currently shipping oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline…

Dualog has taken shipboard cyber security to a higher level by launching a new service that promises to protect vessels and their onboard IT systems, a literal first line of defense, blocking malware and unwanted data traffic at the DNS level.This extra level is particularly important factor if you consider the findings of a Cisco Security Research paper which claims that 91.3 % of malware uses DNS in attacks.Dualog Protect blocks ransom-ware, trojans and phishing attempts as well as preventing ‘command-and-control call-backs’ and data exfiltration. By operating at the DNS-level, the service protects all computers and devices attached to all onboard networks.

Oman Shipping Company (OSC) is expanding courtesy of an order for a pair of newbuild Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC ) with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).According to Michael Jorgensen, OSC's CFO and acting CEO,  said the VLCCs are expected to be deployed in the spot market, as the company plots further fleet expansion in the bulk and container market.Today OSC’s fleet includes 49 vessels including 16 VLCCs, 17 product tankers and 4 chemical carriers.The two latest additions will be constructed at DSME’s Okpo shipyard measuring 336m in length…

British ferry and shipping freight operator P&O will re-flag its entire UK registered fleet to Cyprus ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union to keep tax arrangements in the bloc, the company said on Tuesday.Last month P&O said it was re-flagging two of its UK ships operating on the English Channel route to France to the Cyprus registry."In advance of Britain leaving the European Union on March 29, 2019, we undertook a review of the flag status of our ships on the English Channel," a P&O spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday."For operational and accounting reasons, we have concluded that the best course of action is to re-flag all ships to be under the Cyprus flag." Reporting by Jonathan Saul

Momentum in the red hot cruise industry continues to build as TUI Cruises takes delivery of New Mein Schiff 2 from Meyer Turku shipyard.“For us it has been a thrill working with TUI Cruises on the design and construction of this ship. The passengers will surely notice and hopefully like the differences to the previous ships," CEO Jan Meyer said. "We have redesigned many of the areas of the ship, e.g. the Schau Bar and the restaurant area in front of the aft diamond structure”…

Norwegian shipping company GC Rieber Shipping has won a technical management contract from Statnett Transport for the Norwegian logistics company’s two RoRo vessels.The vessels are the 9,120-bhp Elektron (built 2008) and 1,500-bhp Elektron II (built 1969), said a stock exchange announcement from the company that operates offshore subsea support vessels, marine seismic vessels and polar logistics and research expeditions."The contract has a duration of three years plus options.

Elengy, the main French LNG terminal operator, has announced that it is preparing the sale of access capacities to the Fos Tonkin LNG terminal for the period 2021 – 2030, in the context of a dynamic liquified natural gas (LNG) market.The unit of the energy giant Engie said in a press release that within the sale process, Elengy will offer its potential customers several types of services, including the conventional unloading of Medmax-type LNG tankers (vessel with a capacity of 75…

Associated British Ports Holdings (ABP), which owns and operates 21 ports in the United Kingdom, has announced a GBP 2.2 million investment in a new state-of-the-art warehouse at the Port of Ayr which will improve its customer offering.According to a press release from the port company, Work on the new 4,000 sqm agribulk terminal began in 2018 to support South West Scotland's growing agricultural sector.

The freight transport solutions provider Blue Water Shipping has assisted Marine Group AB, Sweden with placing three out of four lock system elements with great accuracy on board Marine Group’s barge “Carrier 16” in Copenhagen.According to Blue Water, subsequently the barge was to transport the elements to Stockholm, Sweden to form part of a major lock system. The biggest element measured 25 by 65 meters, and “Carrier 16” was adjusted for this specific project.But first of all, the four lock system elements had to be moved out of the dry dock on Refshaleøen, it said.

German shipping group Hamburg Süd announced that it is selling its bulk shipping business to Singapore’s China Navigation Company (CNCo), part of the Swire Group,  as it focusses on its liner business with its two container shipping brands, Hamburg Süd and Aliança.The agreement includes Hamburg Süd subsidiaries Rudolf A. Oetker (RAO), Furness Withy Chartering and the bulk activities in Aliança Navegação e Logística (Aliabulk).A.P. Møller – Maersk acquired the bulk shipping, tanker…

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has launched a new financial scheme, Incentive Scheme Climate-Friendly Shipping,  supporting projects intended to reduce the shipping sector’s CO2 emissions.The Port of Rotterdam Authority has made five million euros available to this end. Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority: “We wish to play an active part in the reduction of CO2 emissions generated by the shipping sector. Through this scheme, we are able to give various parties…

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and the marine transportation services provider Asahi Tanker Co have launched a new MR product tankers pool with a fleet of about 25 ships.The new pool, named Asahi MOL Tankers and headquartered in Republic of the Marshall Islands, will also launch MR product tankers that will be assigned to the pool.MR stands for Medium Range and refers to product tankers in the 45,000-55,000 deadweight ton class. This ship type has great versatility in transporting petroleum products such as gasoline…

Taiwanese ocean shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. (YM) has announced the launch of CMS service (China-Malaysia service) with effect on February 23rd, 2019 (estimated time of berth from Qingdao).The service is jointly operated by Yang Ming, Gold Star Line Ltd.(GSL), T.S. Lines Co., Ltd (TSL) and CNC, a brand of APL Co. Pte Ltd. Each carrier will deploy a container vessel of nominal 4,250 TEU capacity, said a statement from the marine transportation company.The ports of call are Qingdao…