Thorn News

According to Xeneta’s Shipping Index (XSI), global long-term shipping rates sank to a two-year low in July, falling 9.5% since June, plummetting 57.8% since the same period in 2022. And just as rates hit a fresh low, the bad news for carriers could continue for some time as June saw the highest ever monthly deliveries of new ships, with more than 300,000 TEU of capacity from a total of 40 new ships added to the market. In the first six months of the year, a total of 990,000 TEU was delivered…

Iceland-based shipping and logistics firm Eimskip has appointed María Björk Einarsdóttir as CFO, to take over from Egill Örn Petersen, who has decided to resign due to personal reasons. Egill Örn Petersen, who has been the CFO of Eimskip since the beginning of 2019, will take another position within the finance department.María Björk Einarsdóttir has, for the last seven years, been the Managing Director of Alma íbúðafélag (previously Almenna leigufélagið) one of the largest real-estate companies in Iceland which she has led from its foundation. She has a B.Sc. degree in Engineering Management, majoring in finance, from Reykjavík University and she is a licensed securities broker.

Malaysia will detain and charge crew members of Vietnamese vessels caught illegally fishing in its waters instead of turning them away as authorities had done previously, the country's coastguard chief said on Wednesday.Vietnam and its neighbors have for years been involved in disputes over fishing in the resource-rich South China Sea, most of which is claimed by China.

Icelandic shipping company Eimskip announced Tuesday it will reduce staff in continuation of streamlining measures initiated 15 months ago and due to uncertainty both in the Icelandic and global economy because of the COVID-19 pandemic."These streamlining measures include a reduction of 73 full time employees within Eimskip, thereof 47 in Iceland. Direct redundancies are 54, thereof 39 in Iceland. The reduction of FTE’s affects all layers of the company including the management." the company said in a statement.Vilhelm Már Þorsteinsson…

The oldest shipping company in Iceland Eimskipafélag Íslands (The Icelandic Steamship Company), also known as Eimskip, said that its collaboration with the national carrier of Greenland Royal Arctic Line and an Icelandic shipping company has been approved by the Icelandic authorities.As part of the cooperation, three 2,150 TEU container vessels are being built in China with expected delivery late 2019. Two vessel are being built for Eimskip and one for Royal Arctic Line.The vessels will be used in weekly services between Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Island and Scandinavia. The cooperation is built on a well known practice in the shipping industry…

The Danish yard Karstensens Skibsværft is set build and design two new vessels for trawl and purse seine fishing ordered by two Icelandic ship-owning companies. Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine has been selected to deliver an extensive package of ship equipment to both ships.The two fishing vessels of 88 meters will be outfitted with engines, propulsion, steering gear, rudders and winches together with connected control systems from Rolls-Royce. The equipment will be delivered from four of the company’s eight production facilities in the Nordic countries…

The autonomous and smart shipping industry is set to receive a boost, after the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Department for Transport (DfT), in collaboration with the National Oceanography Center’s (NOC) Marine Robotics Innovation Center, successfully secured £1 million in a bid to accelerate the U.K. into a world-leading position in this area.The funding, awarded by the U.K. Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund…

Al Seer Marine and Rafnar, Icelandic marine technology innovators and designers of the Rafnar Hull, have completed a record-breaking 42-hour circumnavigation of Iceland.This news follows the firms' recent partnership announcement for the licensing of the Rafnar Hull. The challenge of circumnavigating Iceland in a small open RIB was an opportunity for Al Seer Marine to gain firsthand experience of the Rafnar Hull in the conditions that shaped it. The journey began in Reykjavík, Iceland, on Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 1:20 p.m. and ended on Saturday, June 2nd at 8:00 a.m. in Reykjavík.

The SejlSikkert (SailSafely ) campaign enjoys fair winds and is now backed by more than 300 ambassadors, says a statement from Danish Maritime Authority (DMA). Nautical warnings are now updated daily in the SejlSikkert App (SailSafely App), it said. Six deaths, 516 reported incidents and almost 3,000 unreported incidents speak for themselves – it is still necessary to pay full attention to safety at sea. For two years, the Danish foundation TrygFonden and the Danish Pleasure Craft Safety Board have focused fully on the safety of fishermen and yachtsmen, and at the core of the activities have been campaigns, ambassadors and the SejlSikkert App (SailSafely App). The latter has just been thoroughly updated for the coming bathing/yachting season.

The Danish Maritime Authority has changed the size of the area of prohibition that was established on 17 August in the North Sea off the coast at Esbjerg in connection with the discovery by divers of a submarine on the seabed. "Initially, the area of prohibition had a radius of 1,000 metres from the wreck, says Director Jan Thorn, Safety of Navigation, National Waters."Subsequently, we have engaged in dialogue with the Defence as well as the local fishermen's association. On the basis of the assessment by the Defence of the danger related to the ammunition found on the submarine, we have decided to change the size of the area of prohibition.

Japan said on Monday it would respond firmly after Chinese government vessels intruded into what Japan considers its territorial waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea 14 times at the weekend. Ties between China and Japan, the world's second and third largest economies, have for years been plagued by a dispute over the islands that Japan controls, and the waters around them. The flurry of Chinese incursions into the waters follows a period of sustained pressure on China about its activities in the South China Sea, and a Chinese criticism of what it saw as Japanese interference in that dispute. Chinese activity near the disputed East China Sea islands…

From 1 February 2015 a new chairman will head the Danish Pleasure Craft Safety Board. The new incumbent is Jan Thorn, who is in his everyday work Director of the Danish Maritime Authority’s division “Aids to Navigation” that is striving to enhance safety at sea for both commercial shipping and pleasure cruising. Jan Thorn has his background in the now abolished Danish Maritime Safety Administration and the Danish Defence, and he is an active yachtsman who has his own sailing boat. He takes over the post from Francis Zachariae, who has been appointed Secretary General of IALA in Paris from 1 February. IALA is the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The morning scene is increasingly routine for Kenyans. When it's time to start the day, the power is already out. Somewhere nearby, the shell of a wrecked electrical transformer lies on its side underneath the pole where it had been fixed 20 feet off the ground. The culprit is an unusual one: A vandal who is selling the toxic oil, drawn from the transformer, to chefs who use it for frying food in roadside stalls. Five liters of the viscous, PCB-laden liquid sells for $60. It looks like cooking oil, but lasts much longer, users say. Kenyans' appetite for fried food and cheap frying oil is stalling the country's urgent efforts to build a modern electrical grid, even as it sews the seeds of a public health crisis, experts say.

Though maritime transportation is unequivocally proven as the safest and most environmentally benign means to move goods from ‘point A to point B,’ it is a given that accidents do happen. When they do, having a qualified, competent marine salvage company around can be the difference between minor incident and major tragedy. For insights on the maturation and future of marine salvage sector, MR reached out to the leadership of the American Salvage Association (ASA) for answers. What are the major missions, objectives and challenges ASA has on its top line agenda today.

Micanti has won the Dutch Chamber of Commerce’s SME Innovation Top 100 Award. The Dutch maritime technology company Micanti has won the award for its design of a 100% environmentally friendly antifouling foil. Its working is based on small fibers, which make it very unattractive for organisms to attach to the hull of a ship. The innovative nature of this invention and the successful launch of it within the global professional shipping industry has provided Micanti with the title of the SME Innovation Top 100. The SME Innovation Top 100 is the biggest and most prestigious innovation award of The Netherlands. The so-called Thorn-D foil was developed by Micanti’s founder Dr. Ir. Rik Breur.

The board of France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM on Monday voted out its chief executive who had sided with trade unions, allowing shareholder Veolia to retake control and restructure the loss-making firm. Veolia wants to put Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee under court protection to shield it from a European Commission order to repay 440 million euros ($605 million) of state aid and is looking for a buyer of a restructured SNCM. Transport firm Transdev - itself a 50-50 joint venture between Veolia and state-backed Caisse des Depots (CDC) - owns 66 percent of SNCM but Transdev has not been able to impose its will at SNCM because the ferry company's chief executive and board chairman have sided with its unions and ignored instructions of their employer.

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is partnering with the City of Hampton to convert shipyard trash into steam power. As part of the new Single Stream Recycling Program, the shipyard's solid waste is incinerated at Hampton's award-winning steam plant facility and converted to steam through a process known as "waste-to-energy." The energy is then used to power NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC) facilities. "Just last year NNS sent more than 10…

The advance of modern marine coatings and related technologies is not unlike other technical sectors of the maritime industry, primarily driven by emerging regulation from the international, national and regional level, usually in regard to environmental concern. But in recent years, an increased focus on the reduction of marine emissions in tandem with the capability to more directly correlate clean, well-maintained hulls with reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions has driven the industry further faster…

Maritime Technology Company Micanti BV has applied its patented non-toxic antifouling on a crew vessel Lady Rasha in Dubai. Thorn-D is an adhesive foil with fibers that creates a textured surface. Instead of killing marine growth the textured foil is preventing it from attaching itself to the hull of a ship. Thorn-D is set to replace the generally used chemical coatings on hulls of ships. Lady Rasha is owned by GGM in Dubai and mainly operates in the Gulf. Dr. Rick Breur, founder of Micanti: “Five years ago I developed this patented non toxic antifouling.

Port of Amsterdam starts with sustainable film on patrol vessel. Damen Shipyards (Gorinchem, Netherlands) and the Port of Amsterdam are launching a pilot project  to test Thorn-D, a relatively new antifouling film that is applied to ships’ hulls below the water line. The film has an expected lifetime of five years. That is much longer than conventional antifouling coatings, which need to be replaced every six months on average. Dr Rik Breur, the founder of supplier Micanti, developed the film and tested it extensively on trial surfaces and work vessels.

The Intermodal Container Leasing industry is heavily dependent on large-scale domestic and international trade levels. Thus, as consumer spending fell during the recession and demand for goods across the economy dipped, fewer containers were needed for the transport of products. However, China's resilience and strong growth throughout the past five years, and the United States' close trade ties to that nation, kept demand for containers used for international trade high. As the US economy continues to recover, the industry is expected to keep growing at a brisk pace. Operating in the Intermodal Container Leasing industry has become a growing part of business for many shipping companies, with many firms leasing just under half of their total container fleet.

Dutch BMS Towing chooses green antifouling solution. Maritime Technology Company Micanti has applied its patented non-toxic antifouling on the tug Willem-B Sr. Thorn-D is an adhesive foil with fibers that creates a textured surface. Instead of killing marine growth the textured foil is preventing it from attaching itself to the hull of a ship. Thorn-D is set to replace the generally used chemical coatings on hulls of ships. Willem-B Sr is owned by BMS Towing and mainly operates in the Netherlands for towage and salvage services. Dr. ir.

Armel Le Cléac’h, FRA (Banque Populaire) leads the standings in this epic world circumnavigation single-handed race. As they roll seamlessly into their 30th day at sea racing, miles tumbling quickly hour by hour on the heels of strong, 25-30 kts NW’ly winds, the Vendée Globe leaders are consistently returning top speeds but also still proving how closely matched the top of the fleet is. Holder of two 24 hours speed records Jean-Pierre Dick has been the quickest through the night…