Smit News

Adept design and production strategies underpin global competitiveness in target sectors.Dutch shipbuilding continues to demonstrate resilience and business verve in its target commercial sectors, mainly in the smaller vessel size range. It offers quality and craftmanship at an evidently acceptable price, using technology in the most pragmatic, effective way.The fact that the Netherlands retains a progressive and expansion-minded shipowning and ship management community has a signal influence on the shipbuilding sector…

Berg Propulsion has been contracted to supply the propulsion and control systems for four diesel-electric, firefighting offshore support tugs which will be the most powerful vessels of their type ever built in Türkiye.The vessels have been ordered by Smit Lamnalco from builder Uzmar Shipyard and will initially operate in French Guyana, with Berg due to deliver equipment for the first in the series in November 2026. All four tugs will feature bollard pull (bp) capacities exceeding 130 tons…

The barge Defiant was refloated from the Castillo San Felipe del Morro shoreline in San Juan Harbor, Wednesday at approximately 2:22 a.m., just before high tide.Salvage crews and tugboat operators prepositioned three tugboats and completed all the preparations, including the pressurization of all cargo tanks, voids and compartments in the barge. The tugboat, Lobo Grande, successfully pulled the barge off the rocks with the assistance of the incoming tide.An earlier attempt on…

A new series of six General Cargo vessels being built by Ferus Smit in the Netherlands for Irish ship operator Arklow Shipping will sport EST-Floattech's Octopus Lite battery system. EST-Floattech designed the system to fit the sailing profile of the vessels, a close collaboration with the yard and owner designed to provide both technology and efficiency gains.The new series of 11,000 DWT general cargo vessels represents another successful chapter in the ongoing collaboration between Ferus Smit and Arklow Shipping.The battery systems will support several onboard functions…

Marine salvage is a risky business financially and physically and is governed by complex legal systems, frameworks, and conventions. Over the past two decades the industry has contracted and has consolidated in response to changes which have meant there are fewer marine casualties. That has not been easy for commercial salvors - the members of the International Salvage Union - but improvements in maritime safety that prevent loss of life, loss of property, and damage to the environment…

The recovery of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the waters of northern Sicily is expected to begin in the coming weeks to help shed light on how a supposedly unsinkable vessel disappeared into the sea last August.The 56-metre-long (184-foot) Bayesian, with its majestic single 72-metre mast, was moored off the small port of Porticello when it was likely hit by a downburst, a very strong downward wind, in the early hours of August 19.The Bayesian capsized and sank from the stern in the space of 16 minutes, killing seven people, including Lynch and his daughter Hannah.

The superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others, will be lifted out of the water next month after its mast is dismantled, people close to the matter said on Tuesday.The recovery of the British-flagged Bayesian, lying on its right side at a depth of around 50 metres (164 feet), could help explain why it went down during a sudden storm off the port of Porticello, near Palermo - an event that has baffled naval experts.The salvage operation will be managed by a joint venture of Dutch companies HEBO Maritiemservice and Smit Salvage…

Stena Bulk, the owner of the Stena Immaculate oil tanker, said it is working closely with the manager of the vessel Crowley and U.K. agencies following the last week’s allision with incident the container ship Solong.Salvage experts from SMIT Salvage are continuing with their detailed onboard assessments of Stena Immaculate.As of March 16, the third-party salvage team has confirmed that damage resulting from the containership Solong striking the Stena Immaculate was limited to one cargo tank containing Jet A-1 fuel and one ballast tank containing sea water.At the time of the allision…

A steel cutting ceremony has been held for a new RAsalvor 6500 at Rizhao GANGDA Shipbuilding (Shandong Port) in Shandong Province, China.Designed by Robert Allan Ltd. for Smit Lamnalco, Australia, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the new emergency towing vessel will provide first response capability in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait – some of the most precious marine environments in the world.The vessel is also intended to provide aids to navigation services and other marine services in the region.

More equipment is being readied to contain an oil spill from a ship which ran aground and started to break apart in stormy weather on South Africa's west coast, although there are no signs of affected wildlife yet, authorities said on Monday.Rough sea swells have battered the Panama-flagged general cargo vessel "Ultra Galaxy" since it drifted onto a sand bank three weeks ago close to Doring Bay, some 300 km (186 miles) north of Cape Town, after the ship's crew abandoned the vessel…

Royal Boskalis B.V. on Monday announced it has reached a deal to take full ownership of marine services and towage provider Smit Lamnalco, after another deal for the company to be acquired by Spain’s Boluda Group fell through.Dutch dredging contractor and marine services firm Boskalis, which has held a 50% stake in Smit Lamnalco alongside joint owner Saudi Arabia's the Rezayat Group since 1964, said it signed an agreement to acquire all remaining shares in the company. The companies…

Swedish shipping company Erik Thun has ordered four new vessels, including two methanol-ready coastal tankers and two next-generation multi-purpose dry cargo vessels.The vessels will be built by Shipsveerf Ferus Smit in the Netherlands, bringing the current orderbook from Shipveerf Ferus Smit up to 14 vessels.The contracts cover two multi-purpose dry cargo vessels with 5100 mts dwt and Ice class 1B, which are next generation Lake Vanern Max fit for operating Lake Vänern in Sweden.The…

Erik Thun Group selected Berg Propulsion’s Dynamic Drive technology to optimize efficiency on board all 10 of its latest newbuildings. The Swedish owner confirmed its decision after pilot installations exceeded energy efficiency gain expectations, with the integrated drive solution helping to save 10% of fuel, rising to 20% in some operational conditions.As part of Erik Thun’s rolling fleet renewal strategy, the owner recently expanded its newbuild program with Dutch yard Shipsveerf Ferus Smit B.V to include four 5…

A cargo ship that ran aground off St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month has been refloated and towed to a safe mooring location at the Crown Bay Sandfill dock, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Vessel owners and salvors will now coordinate further operations to remove the damaged cargo, remaining oil and conduct further salvage or repair operations for the Bonnie G.The Vanuatu-flagged vessel began taking on water and ran aground on October 4, leading the 12 people on board to be rescued after abandoning ship. No injuries were reported.To refloat the Bonnie G, DonJon-SMIT, Inc.

Sweden’s Erik Thun Group has unveiled its next generation battery-hybrid, dry cargo vessel series being built at Shipyard Ferus Smit in the Netherlands.The Lake Vanern Max is hybrid, with a battery pack for peak shaving and power smoothening, reducing the reliance on auxiliary engines for electricity generation. The vessel is designed to stay at anchor without using auxiliary engines. Shore connection enables clean and silent port operations and allows the vessel to shut down all engines onboard…

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has called for the safe and environmentally friendly recycling of the FSO Safer, currently being salvaged off the coast of Yemen.The UNDP is looking for a destination for the FSO’s recycling, and the Platform is calling on the Dutch government, one of the biggest donors to the Stop Red Sea Oil Pollution operation, to assist UNDP in identifying a suitable recycling facility. The Netherlands has shown leadership in preventing the environmental disaster an oil spill from the FSO Safer would have caused, says the Platform, along with Dutch company Boskalis, via its subsidiary SMIT Salvage, which has been tasked with the removal of the oil from the FSO.Referring to Dutch involvement in the Stop Red Sea Oil Pollution operation…

Operations to salvage 1.1 million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker moored off Yemen's coast will soon begin after a technical support ship arrived on site on Tuesday, the United Nations said.U.N. officials have been warning for years that the Red Sea and Yemen's coastline was at risk as the Safer tanker could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.The Ndeavor tanker, with a technical team from Boskalis/SMIT, is in place at the Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen's Ras Isa, the U.N.

The IMO is urging Member States to contribute equipment to help UN-led efforts to prevent a possible catastrophic oil spill from the FSO Safer, an ageing and rapidly decaying floating storage offshore (FSO) unit moored 4.8 nautical miles off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.A converted super tanker, the FSO Safer contains an estimated 150,000 metric tonnes (approximately 1.1 million barrels) of crude oil, four times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989. It has been moored at Ras Isa since 1988 where it had been receiving…

Dutch marine services firm Boskalis has, through its subsidiary SMIT Salvage, reached an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to remove the oil from the decaying FSO Safer moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast in a push to avoid environmental disaster. This project is a part of the UN-coordinated operation to remove and transfer more than one million barrels of oil from the decaying tanker into a safe modern tanker and the responsible disposal of the Safer.

Boluda Corporación Marítima, through its Boluda Towage division, has reached an agreement to acquire Smit Lamnalco, the world's fifth-largest towage operator.With the acquisition of Smit Lamnalco, Boluda Towage will boast a fleet of 600 tugboats with its tendrils reaching 50 countries and 148 ports around the world.Smit Lamnalco is 50% owned by Boskalis Group and Rezayat Group currently employing more than 1,600 people and owning 111 vessels."Boluda is a company that has never stopped growing and transforming itself," said Vicente Boluda Fos, Chairman of Boluda Corporación Marítima.

ABB said Monday its digital technologies have enabled the harbor tug Maju 510 to become the first vessel in the world to receive Autonomous and Remote-Control Navigation Notation from ABS classification society, and first Singapore-flagged vessel to receive the Smart (Autonomous) Notation from MPA. The notations acknowledge the breakthrough performance of the tug, demonstrating autonomous collision avoidance capabilities in trials conducted at Raffles Reserved Anchorage, off Singapore Island…

Dutch marine services firm Boskalis and its co-shareholder KS Investments Pte. Ltd. (Keppel) have completed the sale of their equity stakes in their harbor towage activities in Singapore and Malaysia - Keppel Smit Towage Pte Ltd and Maju Maritime Pte Ltd - to Rimorchiatori Mediterranei.Boskalis received EUR 92 million in cash for its 49% equity stake in the joint ventures resulting in a pre tax book gain of approximately EUR 50 million. Keppel Smit Towage (KST) was established in 1991 as a joint venture between Keppel and SMIT, a subsidiary of Boskalis. Over the past thirty years, Boskalis said, KST/Maju has developed into one of the largest and leading providers of harbor towage services in Southeast Asia.

Alfa Laval signed an agreement to acquire marine tank cleaning equipment supplier Scanjet.Scanjet has expanded from fixed and portable tank cleaning equipment into intelligent tank management, and its solutions and organization will become part of Alfa Laval per an agreement signed on 16 June 2022.“Scanjet is a tank cleaning innovator with exciting developments in the pipeline,” says Alfa Laval’s Peter Nielsen, President of Marine Separation & Heat Transfer, whose business unit will receive the acquisition.