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Simpson News

08 Mar 2024

Babcock Delivers Refitted HMS St. Albans to Royal Navy Ahead of Schedule

HMS St. Albans (Credit: Babcock International)

Defense company Babcock International has delivered Type 23 frigate HMS St. Albans back to the Royal Navy for sea trials three months ahead of the planned schedule, following a refit operation.Once the current sea trials are completed, HMS St. Albans, with her 178-strong crew, will return to sea as the most advanced, equipped, and capable Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy’s fleet, boasting next-generation weapons systems and radar, according to Babcock.During her time in dock…

21 Jan 2024

Australia Recalls Livestock Carrier Destined for Middle East

Source: Animals Australia

The Australian Government has recalled the livestock carrier Bahijah after it diverted from the Red Sea over a week into its voyage to the Middle East.The Bahijah loaded cattle and sheep in Fremantle, Western Australia, and departed for the Middle East on January 5, 2024. The vessel has an Israeli company name painted in large letters along the side of the hull.At the time of departure, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said it was satisfied that the arrangements for the transport of the livestock were appropriate to ensure their health and welfare.

10 Jan 2024

Surging VLCC Rates Impact US Crude Oil Shipments to Asia

© Andriy Sharpilo / Adobe Stock

The economic incentive to import oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Asia has closed as the cost of booking supertankers on the route has surged amid a jump in bookings for the vessels, traders said this week.With the arbitrage for U.S. shipments closed, Asian refiners may make up some of the difference with similar Middle Eastern crude oil after top regional producer Saudi Arabia cut their sales prices for February, which is expected to carry over to other regional crudes. The spur…

06 Apr 2023

Western Restrictions on Russian Oil Reshuffle Global Shipping Patterns

©Happyphotons/AdobeStock

Global fuel suppliers are turning to longer and costlier routes that produce more carbon emissions to move their diesel and other products as Western restrictions on Russian cargoes have reshuffled global energy shipping patterns.As a result of the European Union ban on Russian fuel that started on Feb. 5, tankers carrying clean oil products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and naphtha are traveling between 16 and 18 days to bring Russian supplies to Brazil or U.S. cargoes to Europe…

24 Mar 2023

SSY Hires Wang to Drive LNG Business in China

Shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) hired Justin Wang will join the global SSY LNG team as a ship broker. Image courtesy SSY

Shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) hired Justin Wang will join the global SSY LNG team as a ship broker, effective from April 2023.Based in Beijing, Wang will be the first active LNG shipbroker in the Chinese capital and will focus on further expanding SSY’s LNG presence in the region, backed up by the current team that is based in London, Singapore, and Stamford, with business development in Madrid & Mumbai. An LNG specialist with over 15 years of commercial maritime experience…

27 Feb 2023

SSY Appoints Adland as Global Head of Research

Roar Adland (Photo: SSY)

Independent shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) on Monday announced it has appointed Roar Adland (Ph.D, FICS) to the role of global head of research, effective May 2023. Internationally recognized with over 20 years of professional experience, Adland has built an impressive reputation as one of the most pre-eminent shipping experts in the world today, gaining a Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holding senior positions at the Norwegian School of Economics and Clarksons.“As evidenced by their recent acquisitions and strong performance…

23 Feb 2023

SSY Acquires Westshore, Enters Offshore Sector

Stanko Jekov, SSY Managing Partner. Photo courtesy SSY

Simpson Spence Young (SSY) agreed on the terms to acquire Norwegian Westshore Shipbrokers AS, part of SSY’s strategy to enter into the global offshore sector. Based in Kristiansand, Norway, Westshore was launched in 1987.“This acquisition marks the first step in realising one of SSY’s key strategic objectives, to become a major global player in offshore," said tanko Jekov, SSY Managing Partner. "We have ambitious plans for this market and I’m confident we can add real value in this sector."“This strategic move will enable Westshore to leverage on SSY’s worldwide network…

01 Dec 2022

The Climate Upside to The Downturn in Container Shipping Rates

©VanderWolf Images/AdobeStock

Global container shipping rates are a widely used gauge of overall consumer sentiment, with high and rising costs indicating strong demand for goods, gadgets, and clothes, while falling rates attest to slowing or falling buyer interest.As the main conduit for global trade in finished and intermediate goods - including an overwhelming majority of the parts and machinery needed to produce other merchandise - the container shipping sector can also offer a glimpse into the state of…

15 Sep 2022

Inland Waterways Report: Columbia-Snake River System

(Photo: Tidewater Transportation and Terminals)

It’s amazing to consider that a commercial vessel in the Pacific Ocean, approaching the mouth of the Columbia River, can continue its eastward journey to finally tie up at the Port of Lewiston, in Lewiston, Idaho, America’s most inland West Coast port, 465 miles from the Pacific Ocean.The Columbia and Snake Rivers form that critical east-west waterway, an economic powerhouse regionally, nationally and internationally. According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA)…

02 Sep 2022

Germany Charters Fifth FSRU

Credit: Excelerate Energy (

U.S.-based LNG firm Excelerate Energy said Thursday that it had signed a term sheet with ENGIE for the deployment of a floating storage and regasification unit (“FSRU”) that will provide flexible and secure LNG regasification capacity for Germany as it continues to seek alternatives to Russian pipeline gas supply.Under the proposed agreement, Excelerate would deploy an FSRU from its integrated fleet to provide regasification services for a period of five years at Germany’s fifth planned LNG import terminal…

03 Aug 2022

Simpson Spence Young to Open Genoa Office

© Luca / Adobe Stock

Shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) on Wednesday revealed it will open a new office in Genoa, Italy.The new SSY Genoa office will open this Autumn. Initially, the team that will be based there will focus on dry cargo, specifically handy, supramax and panamax, with a number of individuals from a local shipbroking firm joining the team.SSY's global head of dry cargo, Stanko Jekov, said, “We’re very pleased to be establishing a base in Genoa and continuing to grow our Dry Cargo division.

03 Jun 2022

New U.S. Hurricane Outlook Sees Five Major Storms

Credit: James/AdobeStock

Forecasters on Thursday amped up their outlook for the U.S. Atlantic hurricane season, saying warm sea temperatures and the absence of a moderating wind shear portend a "well-above average" number of storms.Colorado State University researchers raised their estimate for tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes by one apiece to 20, 10 and five, respectively. There is a 50% chance or more of at least one major hurricane apiece hitting the East and Gulf Coasts, it said.The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season began on Wednesday and continues through Nov.

20 Jan 2022

Appeals Court Revives BP’s Fight Over Deepwater Cleanup Workers’ Claims

Crewmembers on board Coast Guard Cutter Walnut deploy an oil skimmer into oil the ship collects in its inflatable boom, July 2, 2010. The Walnut, homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii has been temporarily redeployed to the Gulf of Mexico to aid in the BP Deepwater Horizon response. - Credit:  Deepwater Horizon Response/(CC BY-ND 2.0)

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived a fight between BP, two contractors, and an insurance company over who should pay for thousands of personal injury claims brought by cleanup workers after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed most of a lower court’s rulings for contractors National Response Corp and O’Brien’s Resource Management, and for O’Brien’s excess-liability insurer, Navigators Insurance Co.The decision was not a complete win for BP, however.

11 Jan 2022

Simpson Spence Young Opens Athens Office

© aerial-drone / Adobe Stock

Shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) on Tuesday announced it has opened a new office in Athens, Greece.The new office, which is based in Glyfada, is being managed by SSY Dry Cargo broker Nicholas Vamvakaris and currently includes teams from the dry cargo division who focus on Cape, Panamax and the Handy Supra markets.SSY said it plans to expand the remit of this office in the near future to include other departments.Mark Richardson, chairman of SSY, said, “We are very pleased to open SSY Hellas, and to have our brokers present in Athens.

09 Dec 2021

SEA-KIT to Expand Fleet with New 12m USV

Uncrewed surface vessel specialist SEA-KIT International has announced plans to build another of its X-class, 12m USVs as a fleet vessel for launch in 2022. This build, the sixth X-class to be constructed at the company’s Essex base, will pave the way for the company to meet increased market demand for unmanned vessels and to penetrate new sectors of the global maritime industry, the company said.SEA-KIT CEO, Ben Simpson, commented: “Our X-class USV has changed very little since we won the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE with USV ‘Maxlimer’ back in 2015.

10 Nov 2021

OpEd: Why We Must Assess Shipping’s Route to Decarbonization

© nmann77 / Adobe Stock

Despite transporting roughly 90% of the world’s cargo, the shipping industry has so far been underrepresented in the global decarbonization discussion. This rhetoric is however changing. For the first time in history, shipping was officially on the agenda at the UN climate change conference, COP26. Likewise, the recent United Nations General Assembly saw leaders from the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan place shipping at the top of a list of pledges, with plans to form a “Green…

15 Sep 2021

SEA-KIT's USV to be Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Credit: Sea-KIT

SEA-KIT, a company designing and building Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs), has won funding to install a PCB-based hydrogen fuel cell, engineered by Bramble Energy, on its 12m USV ‘Maxlimer’ and demonstrate zero-emission maritime operations.SEA-KIT secured the grant through the recent Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) – Strand 2 in the UK funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) working with InnovateUK.The project will showcase a successful diesel to hydrogen…

30 Aug 2021

Hurricane Ida Makes Landfall Near Port Fourchon, Louisiana

Credit: NOAA

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, forcing those who did not flee to brace themselves for the toughest test yet of the billions of dollars spent on levee upgrades following Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.Ida came ashore near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CDT (16:55 GMT), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Hurricane-strength winds extended 50 miles (80 km) out from Ida's eye, forcing New Orleans to suspend…

24 Aug 2021

Karstensens Shipyard Taps Wärtsilä Power for Newbuild FVs

Gifico’s new fishing vessel, “Ginneton”, will operate with a Wärtsilä 32 main engine and other Wärtsilä solutions. © Karstensens Shipyard

Danish shipbuilder Karstensens Shipyard placed main propulsion equipment orders for two new fishing vessels with Wärtsilä. The first vessel is a custom designed 77-m overall length fishing vessel the ‘Christina S’, owned and operated by the Fraserburgh, Scotland based Simpson family’s Christina S Fishing Company in partnership with P&J Johnston. It will be powered by a Wärtsilä 31 main engine, and will also feature other Wärtsilä solutions including an NOx Reducer emissions reduction system, the reduction gear, controllable pitch propeller, and ProTouch propulsion remote control system.

09 Jun 2021

Need a Survey? There’s a USV for That

Blue Essence hybrid USV. Image courtesy Fugro

While the adoption of unmanned/uncrewed surfaces vessels (USVs) was initially in defence, use of these low footprint systems has spread into other sectors, not least survey, and now the race is on for greater capability, endurance and autonomy. Elaine Maslin reports.After starting small, in inland waterways, use of USVs for survey operations has moved into coastal and now offshore waters. Given the extensive amount of seabed and rapid growth in offshore wind, there’s plenty of work out there for them to do.With the travel restrictions posed by Covid and increasing awareness of climate change…

27 May 2021

Market Signals Fast Rebound in Floating Production Orders

© Igor Kardasov / Adobe Stock

The deepwater market is rapidly returning to pre-COVID-19 activity levels, and the recovery appears to be gaining strength, according to a recent in-depth analysis completed by International Maritime Associates (IMA) and World Energy Reports (WER).“Lots of green shoots have appeared,” says Jim McCaul, head of IMA/WER. “Oil inventory has been brought down to seasonal average, crude remains in the mid-$60s, bullish forecasts are being heard from key industry players and an upward…

20 Apr 2021

SSY Futures Completes First Handysize 38 FFA Trades

© alexmina / Adobe Stock

Newly launched SSY Futures Ltd announced it has completed its first Handysize 38,000-dwt FFA trades on both the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and European Energy Exchange (EEX) for the April and May contracts.Mark Douglas who is leading the new contract from SSY Futures FFA team, said, “It was extremely encouraging to see the opening days interest culminating in the April trade at 19000 and the May trades at 20500. The ever-growing liquidity down the curve is extremely promising and…

02 Apr 2021

Floating Production Systems Market Bounces Back on Recovering Oil Prices

Illustration only - Credit: Igor Kardasov/AdobeStock

Orders for production floaters have bounced back over the past month driven by rising crude prices, according to Jim McCaul, head of offshore business intelligence firm World Energy Reports.McCaul bases his assessment on data in a new floating production systems report prepared by World Energy Reports. The report provides details for 206 floater projects in the planning stage, 44 production or storage floaters now on order, 307 floating production units currently in service and 44 production floaters available for redeployment contracts.As detailed in the report…