Steel Content News

Has the lid finally come off for crude oil tanker demolition in 2021? If judged by the 1.9 million DWT of capacity that was removed in September, the answer is “yes”, says shipping organization BIMCO. Despite this, it is still too early, however, to declare a sudden U-turn, as we have only seen 2.2 million DWT scrapped in the previous eight months of this year.For the month of September, 15 crude oil tankers, three oil product tankers, two small Handymax bulkers and no containerships have been demolished.

In the first four months of 2021, the amount of oil product tanker capacity that has been sent for demolition has already reached the total amount of demolished capacity in each of 2019 and 2020 due to unfavourable freight rates. If that pace continues for the rest of the year, an 11-year record is set to be broken.This according to a report out today from BIMCO, which shows that so far this year, 10 crude oil and 38 oil product tankers have left the active trading fleet and the…

A ‘work in progress,’ the North American brown water, shallow draft sectors have experienced a tumultuous year of evolution, changing market conditions, a rapidly shifting regulatory environment and new opportunities. Anything but boring; and within the pages of Maritime Reporter’ & Engineering News’ Annual Yearbook, Joseph Keefe, editor of sister-publication MarineNews, takes a deep dive into the issues driving the domestic waterfront.Workboat EmissionsMore than one year ago, Volkswagon learned the ultimate (and painful) meaning of the iconic U.S. adage of “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time – or at least pay the staggering fine.” And pay it forward, Volkswagen did.

Global consulting firm AlixPartners, in a new paper entitled, “Too many ships, too few rigs: why recovery is still a distant dream for the OSV sector,” warns that companies counting on a quick return to stability in the OSV sector are in for a rude awakening.The September report goes on to say that OSV companies continue to face pressure due to a radically changed oil industry and must take quick and decisive action in order to survive in what should be considered the ‘new normal.’Separately, VesselsValue.com’s Head of Offshore, Charlie Hockless told MarineNews, “I would agree that there are murmurs of a potential market recovery brewing…

As the Baltic Dry Index plumbs all-time depths, those with long memories are recalling the dark days of the 1980s for the shipping markets. However, steel traders can look forward to a bumper year of supply of vessels for recycling this year, if previous experience offers a guide for the 2012 outlook. Bets are now being taken about how many vessels will be forced by the weak freight markets into the arms of recyclers. Globally, ship scrapping capacity has very big limits being a simple business of driving ships onto beaches and cutting them up with oxyacetylene torches.

Leading international classification society Bureau Veritas and French shipowner Services & Transport have developed an Ecomax tanker design intended to address all the major causes of large oil spills. The Aframax design has two independent engine rooms, power supply systems and steering gear, increased hull scantlings, reduced high tensile steel content, duplicated navigation equipment with off-track monitoring and full inerting of all ballast spaces. The Ecotanker design is based initially on an Aframax vessel, but studies have also been done for larger and smaller vessels. same. The possibility of machinery and systems failure is addressed by duplicating the engine rooms, stern tubes, propellers, steering gears and rudders.

International classification society Bureau Veritas and French shipowner Services & Transport have developed an Ecomax tanker design intended to address all the major causes of large oil spills. gear, increased hull scantlings, reduced high tensile steel content, duplicated navigation equipment with off-track monitoring and full inerting of all ballast spaces. "While smaller oil spills are getting less frequent, the occurrence of large spills due to tanker accidents is remaining constant," says Philippe Anslot, technical director of services & transports. "When we looked at the underlying causes of those spills we saw that the four main factors were machinery failure, navigation error, fire and explosion and hull damage.

International classification society Bureau Veritas and French shipowner Services & Transport have developed an Ecomax tanker design intended to address all the major causes of large oil spills. gear, increased hull scantlings, reduced high tensile steel content, duplicated navigation equipment with off-track monitoring and full inerting of all ballast spaces. "While smaller oil spills are getting less frequent, the occurrence of large spills due to tanker accidents is remaining constant," says Philippe Anslot, technical director of services & transports. "When we looked at the underlying causes of those spills we saw that the four main factors were machinery failure, navigation error, fire and explosion and hull damage.

Europe's fledgling offshore wind power industry has produced an order for an entirely new breed of vessel designed to transport and position wind turbines. U.K.-based engineering firm Mayflower Energy has contracted one such vessel from Shanhaiguan Shipyard in northern China on the strength of emerging demand for alternative, 'clean' energy sources. U.K. government plans call for 1,300 new 2-MW offshore turbines to be brought on stream over the next 10 years, and other littoral European countries have formulated large-scale projects for wind power generation systems. The perceived environmental acceptability of harnessing wind power for electricity generation is a strong motivator for the evident political approbation.

Innovation on the tanker front comes from many venues, and one of the latest — the Ecomax tanker design — is offered from the minds and experience of a pair of French companies, classification society Bureau Veritas and shipowner Services & Transport. The new Aframax tanker design is intended to address all the major causes of large oil spills, and features two independent engine rooms, power supply systems and steering gear, increased hull scantlings, reduced high tensile steel content, duplicated navigation equipment with off-track monitoring and full inerting of all ballast spaces. "While smaller oil spills are getting less frequent, the occurrence of large spills due to tanker accidents is remaining constant," says Philippe Anslot, technical director of Services & Transports.

For an independent tanker owner to undertake a newbuild fleet development program amounting to 3-million tons of crude oil carrier capacity in itself demonstrates a high degree of business verve. But to emphatically put one's own stamp on the design, construction and equipping of such tonnage is an added expression of will, given the production-driven tendency in the industry towards shipyard-orientated and class-minimum specifications. Piraeus-based Hellespont Shipping Corp.'s commitment to a new generation of ultra large crude carriers (ULCCs) is exceptional on its own account, given the paucity of new investment in the category over the past quarter-century.

As an endorsement of a commercially circumspect approach to double-hull bulk carrier design and construction, UK-based Graig Group has generated a tranche of orders for its cost-competitive Diamond ultra-handymax type. Although a letter of intent signed with China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC) during the SMM Exhibition in Hamburg last September had put four newbuilds and four options in the frame, recently confirmed transactions open the way to a 16-ship program. New Century Shipbuilding has been entrusted with four examples of the robust 53,000-dwt Diamond class, and Chengxi Shipyard has been awarded three vessels, and a total of nine options have been taken out at the two yards.