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Scrapped at Grenaa 03/2023 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=6194700710578065&set=pcb.10162132714438943

The Irish Defence Forces scrambled to deploy ships and aircraft after spotting the two Russian government vessels 'Umka' and 'Bakhtemir' off the west coast equipped with technology capable of interfering with subsea cables. Suspicions were raised when the ships were spotted loitering near a newly operational communications cable linking Ireland and Iceland. Both ships had been involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, resulting in them being sanctioned by the US government. After being spotted, the ships were put under surveillance by Air Corps aircraft and Naval Service assets. However, later analysis determined the ships’ unusual movements were probably a result of efforts to avoid bad weather, rather than anything sinister. Both ships left the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on March 27, 2023, and are currently sailing south to the port of Malabo with an ETA as of April 19. They departed the northern Russian port of Murmansk three weeks ago. They remained under surveillance during their time in the Irish EEZ. EU countries, including Ireland, have stepped up surveillance of vital subsea infrastructure since the explosions that disabled the Nord Stream pipelines. The ships had thus raised serious concerns among Irish military officials due to their movements around the IRIS high-speed, subsea communications cable, which became operational in 2022 and runs west off the Galway coast. The ships appeared to double back on themselves several times in the general area of the cable. Suspicions were heightened after an Air Corps aircraft observed one of the ships towing a large platform. This was later confirmed to be a 100m long cable-laying barge.

British unions and politicians were on the other end after the country's largest ferry company - P&O Ferries - on March 17, 2022, fired 800 employees without notice, and put security guards to remove the fired from the ferries. In the morning of March 18, the ferries were still not sailing, and according to announcements from the shipping company on Twitter, they will not do so for the rest of the day. DFDS, which competes with P&O Ferries on the route between Dover and Calais, announced on March 17 that they were largely able to transfer the travelers who are currently unable to sail with P&O Ferries. The unions have called for large demonstrations in Dover, Liverpool and Hull on March 18, while the fired crew members are already taking action on the ferries. It was uncertain whether some of the fired were still on board the ferries. Not only the unions that are furious over the dismissals, but also politicians from both major parties condemned in sharp terms the methods used. P&O Ferries, owned by DP World in the United Arab Emirates, in the morning of March 17 ordered all the company's ferries into port, where the crews had to wait for an important announcement from the company. The announcement took the form of a Zoom meeting, where a representative of the management in a recorded feature announced that 800 employees had been fired with immediate effect and that as a result they would have to leave the ferries immediately. The vacancies will be taken over by foreign employees, subject to other agreements. According to the fired crew members, the new crew members were already present in the ports, where they were waiting in buses. Security guards were also waiting at the port. The guards were tasked with removing the fired employees from the ferries. In addition to the affected ferries on the Dover-Calais route, P&O operates ferry routes from Hull to Rotterdam, Liverpool to Dublin and Cairnryan to Larne in Northern Ireland.

On November 18, the first steel cut for the SILVER NOVA for Silversea Cruises was celebrated at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg, and the construction phase officially began. The SILVER NOVA will be hybrid driven: LNG is to be used as the main fuel, fuel cells and batteries are to be used in ports so that the ship can stay there without emissions. The SILVER NOVA will be measured with approx. 54,700 gross tons and designed for 728 passengers. Delivery is planned for summer 2023. Full article + image: https://www.cruisedeck.de/bau-der-silver-nova-hat-begonnen/

The 'Nikolay Chiker' was spotted sailing back and forth east of Shetland between Unst and Saxa Vord and down towards Fetlar. could be carrying out a covert military role, Alistair Carmichael, MP for the Isles, warned, stating there was "reasonable suspicion" the vessel could be there for military purposes, as a maintenance vessel or surveillance. It comes as a space port is set to be build on Shetland, with SaxaVord Spaceport developing a launch site and ground station at Lamba Ness in Unst with its first launch planned later in 2023. The Russian ship has previously been accused of surveilling off the coast of Florida during similar preparations for a SpaceX rocket launch.

The 'Lady Mary Joy 3', which was docked at the pier of Baluk Baluk island, caught fire on March 29, 2023, shortly after 11 p.m. LT, Zamboanga to Jolo. There were much more 200 people on board, with the exact number unknown as not all were registered. At least 31 passengers died in the blaze, among them a six months old baby and two more children. 195 passengers and 35 crew members were rescued, 23 of them had to be treated with burn injuries. Many jumped over board to save themselves from the flames. Many were surprised while sleeping and panicked. The blazing wreck was towed to Basilan's shoreline, where authorities discovered an additional 18 bodies. The SAR operation was still going on as of March 30. The majority of people managed to flee from the ship. Report with photos: https://www.wdio.com/front-page/world-national/philippine-ferry-fire-leaves-31-dead-at-least-7-missing/

⚓ Brazilian Port workers carry out strike this Friday ⚓ Federal government lifts restriction for travelers coming from Africa Brazilian Port workers carry out strike this Friday This Friday (28), port workers all over Brazil have been on strike. The demonstrations have begun at 7 am and shall last until 7pm. The context of the demonstrations is related to CODESA, port authority for the state of Espírito Santo, set to be auctioned on March 25th, 2022. With other four similar auctions being expected this year, port workers are protesting against what they view as a privatization process of the Public Port Authority. After leasing 12 port terminals in 2021 (generating a total of BRL 1.8 billion in investments), the Federal Government now aims to modernize the port authorities themselves. The demonstrators, however, believe Brazil is going against basic principles of the global port system, where the State is present in port management for its administration in matters such as health, safety and the environment. Federal government lifts restriction for travelers coming from Africa Last Friday (21), the Federal Government published an ordinance that ends restrictions on entry into Brazil for travelers coming from Africa. The measure follows Anvisa's guidance published in early January. Now, travelers with passages through South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe are once again allowed to enter Brazil, provided they present the RT-PCR test with a negative result performed 72 hours before, or the negative antigen performed 24 hours before. It will also be necessary to fill in the Traveler's Health Declaration (DSV) and present the vaccination card. Our team is closely monitoring the situation. For any questions please direct to noelmagioli@gmail.com

The Port of Kiel has launched a three-step plan that puts the port's 'Blue Port' concept into concrete terms, as a framework of its effort to completely reduce all of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030. "The port will be climate-neutral by the end of this decade," noted Dr. Dirk Claus, Managing Director of Port of Kiel. The port's three-step plan envisages covering 60% of the energy requirements of ships calling at Kiel with green electricity as early as next year. This figure is expected to reach 80-90% by 2025, before climate neutrality is achieved for all activities of the German port in 2030, through a range of measures to supply port facilities with 100% climate-neutral green electricity that have already been implemented. The port is also planning to further decrease nitrogen oxides emissions. According to an environmental report, the Port of Kiel already avoided more than 6,200 tonnes of CO2 in 2020, while almost 18,800 tonnes were still emitted. The energy demand at the terminals has already been sustainably reduced by switching to economical LED technology and increasing energy efficiency, while photovoltaic systems provide around 290,000-kilowatt hours of solar energy every year. The port in the Baltic is also gradually converting its own vehicle fleet to electric drive and offers incentives to customers to promote the decarbonisation process. Moreover, the port has invested in on-shore power to reduce emissions. After the first system for shore-side power supply was connected to Norwegenkai in 2019, a second larger one was commissioned at Ostseekai in June, earlier this year. In the meantime, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding the establishment of a digital test field in the port to make the processes at the freight terminals even more efficient. Operational processes will therefore be optimised and made more sustainable on the basis of a 5G campus network. In this way, climate-neutral growth in port handling is expected to be supported by innovative information technology (IT). Measures towards zero emissions by 2030 in the German port also include electrification of the vehicle fleet, such as industrial trucks, digitalisation of operational processes for increased efficiency, as well as tariff-based environmental discount as an incentive for climate-friendly transformation.

The Irish Defence Forces scrambled to deploy ships and aircraft after spotting the two Russian government vessels 'Umka' and 'Bakhtemir' off the west coast equipped with technology capable of interfering with subsea cables. Suspicions were raised when the ships were spotted loitering near a newly operational communications cable linking Ireland and Iceland. Both ships had been involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, resulting in them being sanctioned by the US government. After being spotted, the ships were put under surveillance by Air Corps aircraft and Naval Service assets. However, later analysis determined the ships’ unusual movements were probably a result of efforts to avoid bad weather, rather than anything sinister. Both ships left the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on March 27, 2023, and are currently sailing south to the port of Malabo with an ETA as of April 19. They departed the northern Russian port of Murmansk three weeks ago. They remained under surveillance during their time in the Irish EEZ. EU countries, including Ireland, have stepped up surveillance of vital subsea infrastructure since the explosions that disabled the Nord Stream pipelines. The ships had thus raised serious concerns among Irish military officials due to their movements around the IRIS high-speed, subsea communications cable, which became operational in 2022 and runs west off the Galway coast. The ships appeared to double back on themselves several times in the general area of the cable. Suspicions were heightened after an Air Corps aircraft observed one of the ships towing a large platform. This was later confirmed to be a 100m long cable-laying barge.

On MArch 30 at 1:50 a.m., the 6-m-boat 'Charly Segundo' with tow crew members on board suffered an engine failure about four nautical miles east of the port of Alicante. The 'Salvamar Leo' was tasked to assist and towed it safeöy to Alicante. The response was coordination by the MRCC of Salvamento Marítimo in Valencia.

FBCCI would like CTG port’s capacity increased After completion of some development projects like Bangabandhu Industrial City a s nd other economic zones of the country within years, the pressure on Chittagong Port will increase several times. Against this backdrop, the capacity of the port needs to be increased to cope with increasing demand As the economy recovers from the Covid, leading business leaders of the country have emphasized on increasing the capacity of Chittagong Port to cope with increasing export and import in the coming days. President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) Jasim Uddin made the remarks at the first meeting of the FBCCI Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping on Thursday afternoon, according to a press release. He said that Bangladesh will become a member of developed economies by 2041 as set by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the capacity and service of the Chittagong Port need to be improved like the developed countries. He u rged the standing committee to find short, medium and long the problems regarding the Chittagong Port.term solutions by identifying After completion of some development projects like Bangabandhu Industrial City and other economic zones of the country with in years, the pressure on Chittagong Port will increase several times. Against this backdrop, the capacity of the port needs to be increased to cope with increasing demands, said FBCCI boss. "If the capacity of Chittagong port is increased, it will be poss ible to reduce the cost of doing business in the country by at least 5%. At the same time, the interest of foreign entrepreneurs to invest in this country will also increase," he said. "At present, the speed of cargo vehicles on the Dhaka hour. If this speed Chittagong highway is 40 kilometres per d is doubled, the competitiveness of the export sector will increase by 6%," FBCCI boss further said. FBCCI vice-president Amin Helaly said that some more ports would be opened in the future. “If we can work according to the plan, the progress of the count utilizing the potential of these ports,” he said. FBCCI vicery can be further accelerated by president Habib Ullah Dawn alleged that importing vehicles through Chittagong port would cost double the fare as compared to Mongla port. He remarked that different fares in diff Standing Committee Directorinerent ports in the same country is unreasonable. Charge AM Mahbub Chowdhury said the profit of Chittagong port has increased several times in the last few years. Despite being a nonprofit service organization, it was taking increase the amount of profit, he added. steps to increase the tariff again to The Chairman of the committee Dr Pervez Shazzad Aktar called for not increasing the tariff in order to create a business friendly environment. He said most tariffs have to be paid in dollars. If tariff increases, the cost of also increase. foreign exchange will Moreover, foreign ship owners can also increase the fare in this opportunity. In that case, there will be fear of an increase in the price of imported goods. In the open discussion, the members of the standing committe port and customs officials to speed up the import hoped for the cooperation of the export activities.

Heavy rains put pressure on Itaqui and Ponta da Madeira terminal Heavy rains in state of Maranhão have put pressure on the shipment of iron ore and soybeans. Climatologically, the month of March is one of the rainiest months of the year in the region of São Luís, capital of Maranhão. However, we are facing the second rainiest March in 15 years, having already accumulated more than 686mm. During this week, the region reported a line up of 70 vessels. In addition, an accident with one of the eight conveyors belt that load the iron to the ships at the beginning of the year made the productivity projections more distant from being reached. According to José Reinaldo, ex-governor and ex-minister of Transport, a way to minimize the problems would be to start the transition from the Ponta da Madeira Terminal to receive other cargo, especially from agribusiness. It is worth mentioning that the completion of the North-South Railway and its connection with Fico (Central-West Integration Railway), scheduled for the next three years, will cause the volume of agribusiness loads to rise and the EFC (Railroad) Vale's Carajás), in addition to the ports in Maranhão, could become bottlenecked for the flow of these new volumes. To avoid the bottleneck, Reinaldo suggests the construction of a railway extension from the EFC to the TPA (Alcântara Port Terminal), a private terminal already approved by ANTAQ. The new terminal negotiates with Vale to make the handling of ore cargo feasible. TPA draft is superior to that of Ponta da Madeira and would expand the Brazilian ore shipping capacity. It is estimated that TPA's handling capacity could reach 560 million tons per year, which would make it the largest iron ore port on the planet. Companies should be aware of potential disputes with demurrage claims and cargo (soy) quality due humidity. With informations from Agência INFRA. Our team is closely monitoring the situation. For any questions please direct to noelmagioli@gmail.com