Maritime Industry Top News
Fincantieri Delivers Extended Star Pride Cruise Ship to Windstar Cruises
Fincantieri shipyard in Palermo has delivered the Star Pride, the third ship of the extension and modernization Star Plus Initiative project of cruise operator Windstar Cruises.The program, worth $250 million dollars and involved the cruise ships “Star Breeze” and “Star Legend”, delivered respectively in 2020 and last May, and now “Star Pride.”Under the extension and modernization program, Fincantieri was responsible for the installation of a new 25.6 meters mid-body section…
US Port's Supply Chain Fix Challenge: Selling 24/7 Shifts
The Port of Los Angeles is beginning the hard work of convincing terminal operators, importers, warehouses owners and trucking firms to embrace moving more cargo at night."It's not a single lever we can pull today to open up all the gates," Executive Director Gene Seroka said on Thursday.On Wednesday, the White House gathered stakeholders including retailers Walmart and Home Depot, logistics firms United Parcel Service and FedEx, and electronics supplier Samsung.
WISTA International Elects New Board members
The Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) executive committee held its election for three executive positions during their International AGM on October 13. The AGM was hosted in Hamburg alongside a conference that is taking place today and Friday.Connie Roozen, WISTA Netherlands, retains her position as treasurer for another term, whilst two new members were elected as Executive Committee members…
US Soy Exports Picking Up - BIMCO
After a slow start to the export season, partly due to disruption from Hurricane Ida, U.S. soy bean inspections ahead of exports have jumped to 1.6 million tonnes in the week ending October 7, according to shipping organization BIMCO. This represents a 90.9% jump from the week before and is the highest level seen since the start of February 2021 which marked the end of the main export season of the 2020/2021 marketing year.U.S. soy bean exports are heavily concentrated at just a few ports.
AET Completes its First LNG Bunkering in the US
Oil tanker operator AET said Thursday it had recently completed its first-ever liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering in the U.S., working in coordination with Shell to refuel the LNG dual-fuel Aframax tanker Pacific Ruby outside Port Canaveral in Florida.The transfer of 600 metric tons of marine LNG onto the 113,305 DWT petroleum tanker from the Q-LNG 4000 bunker barge was completed within three hours while the entire bunkering operations took nine hours…
Gladding-Hearn to Build Hybrid-electric CTV for Mayflower Wind
U.S. offshore wind farm developer Mayflower Wind announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement with Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding/Duclos Corporation of Somerset, Mass. for the specification, design and manufacture of a Jones Act-compliant, hybrid battery diesel electric crew transfer vessel (CTV).The design utilizes technologies that will provide significant fuel savings and emissions reductions…
ABB to Turbocharge First ME-GA Engines
ABB’s A200-L turbochargers will be used on MAN Energy Solutions’ 5G70ME-C10.5-GA engines destined for six 174,000m3 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers ordered by four shipowners – Korea Line Corp, PAN Ocean, Knutsen OAS and JP Morgan – under a long-term charter agreement with Shell.The ME-GA is MAN’s first low-pressure dual-fuel two-stroke engine. It sits alongside MAN’s well-established high-pressure ME-GI engines…
US Supply Chain Too Snarled for Biden Christmas Fix, Experts Say
President Joe Biden is pushing to ease supply shortages and tame rising prices in time for Christmas, but unsnarling U.S. supply lines could take far longer, experts told Reuters.Biden brought together powerbrokers from ports, unions and big business on Wednesday to address shipping, labor and warehousing pain in the U.S. supply chain, and announced new around-the-clock port operations in Los Angeles.As…
ABS and Kongsberg Digital Announces Digitalization and Decarbonization Partnership
Two maritime digital service providers have joined forces through the product integration of Kongsberg Digital’s Vessel Insight and the ABS My Digital Fleet platform.The alliance brings together data acquisition capabilities from Kongsberg Digital and ABS’ business intelligence capabilities to offer shipowners, ship managers and charterers access to powerful analytics services. It unlocks simplified access…
VIDEO: Guyana-bound Prosperity FPSO Enters Drydock in Singapore
The hull of the Prosperity FPSO has recently arrived from China where it was built to Singapore where Keppel will mate it with topside modules, after which the vessel will set sail for Guyana, to become the South American country's third FPSO in production.The FPSO hull arrived in Singapore in August, when SBM Offshore, the Dutch provider of FPSO units that will deliver the FPSO to end client ExxonMobil…
U.S. Lawmakers Press for Action on Maritime Sexual Assault Allegations
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday urged the Transportation Department to take action to address persistent allegations of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment made by midshipmen at the government's main school for merchant mariners.Lawmakers said a "toxic culture" had allowed sexual abuse to fester and go unchallenged at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), which works with major shipping lines to prepare new recruits for a life at sea.Senator Maria Cantwell…
Ports Pushing to Ease Holiday Bottleneck, Biden Says
President Joe Biden on Wednesday launched an effort to ease supply chain blockages that are threatening to disrupt the U.S. holiday season, relying on expanded port and shipping operations and urging other businesses to speed up operations.The moves were a first step, Biden said, to pushing supply chains in the United States, the world's biggest consumer economy, to operate faster.Biden brought together powerbrokers from ports…
Tallink Charters Out Additional Vessel to COP26
Tallink Grupp announced it recently signed a charter agreement for its Latvian-flagged cruise vessel Romantika, which has also been hired to provide accommodation at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), taking place in Glasgow, Scotland on October 31– November 12.Several weeks ago, the company said it signed a charter agreement for its Tallinn-Helsinki route cruise…
US Aims to Hold Up to Seven Offshore Wind Auctions by 2025
The United States plans to hold up to seven offshore wind auctions in the next four years and will extend its ambitions to areas that have yet to be developed such as off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Mexico, a Biden administration official said on Wednesday.The announcement comes as the administration is looking to bolster the nascent industry as part of a plan to address climate change by decarbonizing the power sector by 2035.The U.S.
QFC Orders 79-meter Freezer Trawler
Norwegian naval architecture firm Skipsteknisk announced it has secured a design contract from fishing company Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corporation (QFC) operating out of Iqaluit on Baffin Island in Canada for itsnew state-of-the-art freezer trawler.The new multi-species factory freezer trawler Saputi II will have a carrying capacity of 800 tons of shrimps or 1,200 tons of turbot. The vessel is of ST…
Great Lakes Wins $95 Million Contract for Port of Houston Dredging
The Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority met Tuesday in a special meeting to consider the first dredge contract for Project 11, the Houston Ship Channel billion-dollar expansion and deepening program.Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC was awarded up to $95,375,349 to dredge 11½-miles of the 52-mile channel, widening a major portion of the Galveston Bay reach from 530 to 700 feet. The…
DP World Says Long Time Until Shipping Supply Chain Disruptions End
There is no end in sight to the shortage of shipping containers, port congestion and sky rocketing freight rates that have rattled global trade, the chairman of Dubai ports giant DP World said on Wednesday. The bottlenecks have been caused by a combination of COVID-19 lockdowns and an unexpectedly rapid recovery in demand as economies emerge from the pandemic.“These are the complications. Nobody knows how long it’s going to take.
Lack of Signalman Led to Bulker Crane’s Contact with Grain Facility - NTSB
The absence of a dedicated signalman likely led to a bulk carrier’s crane striking a grain facility in Convent, La., in 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found.The contact occurred on November 11, while the bulk vessel GH Storm Cat was completing corn loading operations at the Zen-Noh Grain Corporation facility with its number 1 crane boom. The vessel’s crew was removing a payloader from the number 1 cargo hold, which had been filled.
White House Working to Ease Shipping Bottlenecks
President Joe Biden will host a meeting on Wednesday to hail progress in addressing supply chain problems weighing on the economy and threatening the holiday season, while he asks business and union leaders to do more to ease shipping backlogs.The Port of Los Angeles is going to 24/7 operations to ease the shipping snarl there and at the Port of Long Beach, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the meeting.In addition…
Great Lakes Iron Ore Trade Up 38.8% in September
Shipments of iron ore from U.S. ports on the Great Lakes totaled 5.4 million tons in September, an increase of 38.8% compared to a year ago, according to trade group the Lake Carriers’ Association (LCA). Shipments were a near match to the month’s five-year average.Year-to-date the iron ore trade stands at 37.4 million tons, an increase of nearly 32.8% compared to the same point in 2020, LCA said.Through…
