West Sea News

HL D&I Halla (Halla) and Pearlson Shiplift Corp. (PSC) signed a new multimillion-dollar contract for the design and build of a Shiplift System in South Korea. Upon completion, the shiplift system will support the Korean Coast Guard in the West Sea of Korea.The new shiplift system will be approximately 70 x 14m, capable of handling a variety of vessels in the Korean Coast Guard’s fleet.“We are pleased to be building this new state-of-the-art shiplift system in conjunction with HL D&I Halla and are excited to support the Korean Coast Guard with the installation of this new facility…

Northern Xplorer has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Portuguese shipbuilder West Sea for the construction its maiden vessel, said to be the world’s first zero-emission cruise ship.West Sea intends to build the 250-passenger vessel at its facility in Viana do Costello north of Porto for expected delivery at the start of the 2025/2026 cruise season.“As a shipbuilder focused on advanced vessels and high quality, we very much look forward to working together with Northern Xplorer.

Kongsberg Maritime said it has won contracts worth approximately 300 million NOK ($32 million) to equip three adventure cruise ships, with a fourth to follow, for Portuguese cruise company Mystic Cruises.Built by WestSea Viana Shipyard in Portugal, the vessels are to be used for expeditions in the polar regions.The 126-meter, 9,300-metric-ton luxury craft will join an existing trio of sister ships to bring the fleet to seven identical vessels, the first of which – World Explorer – entered service in 2019.

V.Ships Leisure, part of V.Group, a global marine support services provider, has partnered with Mystic Cruises to provide crew management services including deck, engine, and hotel crew for the 9,300 GRT ice-classed vessel World Explorer.The vessel, which is currently under the final stages of construction at WestSea Viana Shipyard in Portugal will be delivered to Mystic Cruises in Q2 2019. With capacity for 200 passengers, World Explorer will be Mystic Cruises’ first newbuild expedition vessel…

Recently the Jose Duarte started its first mining job in Lisbon. The trailing suction hopper dredger has been built in Portugal for a Portuguese dredging company, to a Spanish design and using Dutch dredging equipment. The European cooperation has resulted in a customized dredger performing above expectations on her first job.Portugal has a long coastline and a number of busy navigable rivers – an excellent backdrop for the dredging company Inersel. When Inersel required an addition to its fleet, its preference was to acquire it within its home country.

Bolidt Synthetic Products & Systems' position for decking and flooring in mainstream cruise ship and superyacht markets has been quickly converted into a series of business wins in the fast-emerging polar expedition cruise ship sector.The most recent contract for the Dutch manufacturer’s hardwearing, environmentally friendly and visually attractive products covers the Hurtigruten newbuildings, Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansens, two hybrid propulsion expedition cruise ships under construction at Kleven shipyard in Norway.

U.S. spy satellites have caught Chinese and North Korean ships illegally trading oil on the West Sea 30 times in the last three months, according to South Korean government sources. The reported smuggling comes in the wake of United Nations sanctions banning ship-to-ship trades with North Korea on the high seas since September. But according a report from The Chosun Ilbo, satellites images have since captured more than two dozen illegal transfers and even the names of the ships side by side illegally trading oil.

The 2016 Polar Code has its first luxury-adventure cruise adherents for the long, new ice-free seasons in the high latitudes. Likewise, many designs winning over owners and explorers target exotic Asia-Pacific destinations. Competition is fierce among “designer-shipyards” seeking to build their designs, but their creations could face fewer hurdles to construction than the designs of independents without a yard. Concepts bound for the slipway have something else in common: new davits for large numbers of water craft.

Schulte Marine Concept (SMC) said it has won its first cruise ship contract with Portugal-based Mystic Cruises. Schulte Marine Concept the project management arm of maritime services company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), working together with Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services (BS Cruise), will provide technical consultancy and newbuild supervision services to support construction of the oceangoing luxury expedition cruise ship, MS World Explorer. MS World Explorer will be built as a 126-meter long expedition cruise ship with a passenger capacity of 200 and a crew complement of 111.

Rolls-Royce said it has signed a deal with WestSea Yard, part of Martifer Group, to equip an expeditionary oceanic cruise ship for Portuguese based cruise company Mystic Cruises. The vessel, to be called the MS World Explorer, will be the company’s first expeditionary oceanic cruise ship. The MS World Explorer will offer expeditionary cruise itineraries in Antarctica from November to March and this new vessel’s inaugural Antarctic season is already fully chartered to, and being distributed globally by, Polar Cruise Company Quark Expeditions.

Cohort company EID has been awarded a contract by the Portuguese Navy for the supply of Integrated Communications systems to the Tejo class coastal patrol vessels. The €4.6 million contract encompasses the supply of radio equipment, ICCS, integration engineering and logistic services. The contract also includes additional supplies for the second batch of the Viana do Castelo Oceanic Patrol Vessels, being built by West Sea shipyards in the North West city of Viana do Castelo. “We have been supplying communications systems to the Portuguese Navy ships since 1985.

The former operator of Portugal's largest shipyard Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo (ENVC) must pay back around 290 million euros ($329.79 million) in public support, the European Commission said on Thursday. It said the new operator WestSea did not need to pay the money as it purchased the assets at market conditions and there was no "economic continuity" between ENVC and WestSea, owned by Martifer and Navalria. On the basis of an in-depth investigation opened in 2013, the Commission found that no private investor would have subsidised a loss-making company for 13 years. The roughly 290 million euros were therefore illegal state aid and had to be repaid.   Reporting by Barbara Lewis

Korea's first naval rescue and salvage ship launched at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard. The 3,500-ton Tongyeong will go through a series of tests before being handed over to the Navy next year. The Navy's older rescue ships, the Pyeongtaek and the Gwangyang, were second-hand, bought from the U.S. Navy in 1996 having been originally built in the 1970s. 
 The new rescue ship will take only a day to reach outlying islands Yeongpyeong and Baeknyeong in the West Sea, which is half the time taken by the older vessels.

VIKING continues its march forward in Europe and Asia with four new, well-equipped servicing stations opening in November. Marine and fire safety equipment manufacturer VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has announced it is opening four servicing stations at Brest (France), Split (Croatia), Kaohsiung (Taiwan) and Port Klang (Malaysia). The new ports further expand the company’s already dense network of stations in Europe and Asia. The new facility at Split, on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, is the first VIKING-owned station in Croatia.