News

On Jan 27, 2020, at 4 p.m. the 'Svytitel Innokentiy' caught fire in the port of Arkhangelsk. Firefighters started fighting the fire in the forward dry hold of 6x5 m of the ship which was currently being repaired at the pier of the Solombal shipyard near the Krasnaya Kuznitsa plant and spread to 66 square meters. At 5 p.m. the 42 fire fighters who attended with 10 engines had achieved a significant reduction of flames and smoke by filling the hold with foam as they could not directly access it. At 6.50 p.m. they managed to put out the fire. No injuries were reported. The fire occurred during welding works aboard the freighter. Russian report with photo: https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2020/01/27/n_13966406.shtml

The saga of the 'F.A. Gauthier' probably ended on Jan 26 when the ship was successfully returned to service after repairs that lasted more than a year. Two regular crossings were scheduled from Matane to Baie-Comeau at 2 p.m., then the reverse route at 5 p.m. The air link which had been set up will be maintained until Jan Jan 31 in order to allow customers who have made a reservation to complete their trip as planned. The Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ) has indicated that the costs of the repairs amounted to more than twenty million dollars. The sum included the cost of air crossings and the purchase of the old end-of-life ferry 'ApolloÄ. The cost of purchasing the ferry 'Sareema I' has not been taken into account since it was an STQ project and the ship will now serve permanently in the fleet. The CEO of the STQ indicated that the company was in discussions with General Electric, the manufacturer of the electric motors of the ferry, to determine who will assume the cost of repairs for the last month as to all likelihood, the engines were incorrectly reassembled in the view of STQ which was also exploring the possibility of taking legal action for the costs caused by the initial breakdown of the vessel. The ship, acquired by the STQ at a cost of $ 175 million, had been decommissioned on Dec 18, 2018 due to major construction defect, after less than four years of service. The 'Apollo', acquired at a cost of $ 2.1 million, had only sailed for 21 days before being definitively withdrawn from service due to major structural problems. For several weeks, ships successively followed one another to ensure maritime service and air links were set up. For the past few months, the 'Saaremaa 1' has operated the Matane — Baie-Comeau — Godbout crossing, however, not without trouble either. In September, the 'Saaremaa I' damaged a wharf at Godbout. About a week later, it was docked due to an electronic problem. The 'CTMA Vacancier' also served as a replacement ferry at the end of the year. The 'F.A. Gauthier' left the Davie shipyard in Lévis in December to return to his home port of Matane.

Calgary based Melius Energy has successfully transported bitumen from Edmonton, Alberta to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, continuing to global markets in custom 20-foot shipping containers utilizing intermodal rail and vessel infrastructure. The shipment is the company’s first BitCrude™ transportation process demonstration, proving the ability to move bitumen safely and efficiently, in adherence to Canada’s regulatory framework.

Container lines Hapag Lloyd, ONE, YML, COSCO and OOCL will jointly run a new direct service from Visakha Container Terminal (VCT), the privately-run facility at State-owned Visakhapatnam Port Trust, to the Mediterranean and Europe, which will also bring connectivity with Africa and the America. The announcement strengthens Visakha Container Terminal’s rising stature as a regional container transshipment hub on the east coast, said shipping industry sources. “The commercial benefits offered by Visakhapatanam Port Trust makes the terminal even more attractive in the long run by being the gateway to the East for both northern and southern regions extending right up to Bangladesh and even Myanmar,” the terminal operator said. The terminal, majority owned by International Cargo Terminals & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, is located centrally and strategically on the East Coast of India between Kolkata and Chennai. The facility handled over 0.45 million TEUs during FY19 and is on the verge of crossing the 0.5-million TEUs in FY20, aided by a 16 pre cent growth in traffic, complemented rail movement and also transshipment.

Six Sri Lankan crew members of the 'CMA CGM Ural' were suffering from fever and high temperature on board of the 'CMA CGM Ural' which had sailed from Shekou, China, on Jan 15 and was headed towards the Suez Canal via Singapore and was presently transiting the Gulf of Aden. The ship called Shenzhen on Jan 15; Xiamen on Jan 14; Ningbo-Zhoushan on Jan 11 and Yangshan from Jan 8-9. The Merchant Shipping Association of Sri Lanka was alerted on a mass crew illness in the morning of Jan 27. It was not known of course, at present, if the men were in fact infected with coronavirus. Upon the arrival in Suez on Jan 30, the exact type of the disease can be identified with medical facilities.

In the night of Jan 26 the 'Ocean Viking' rescued another 184 distressed migrants from two rubber boats off Libya and in Maltese waters. After these operations the ship now had on board a total of 407 migrants which were rescued in five operations within less thant 72 hours.

Three South Korean brokerage firms, including Samsung Securities Co. Ltd., underwrote around 250 billion won ($208 million) of a subordinated debt on Abbot Point coal terminal in Australia in the second investment by South Korean institutions in the export terminal. Samsung and Hanwha Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. acquired 150 billion won of the five-year debt in aggregate for an expected yield of about 8%. They are selling them down to domestic institutional investors.

Carnival Cruise Line is to fully renovate and significantly expand Cruise Terminal F at Florida’s PortMiami to accommodate its Excel-class cruise ships, which will be the largest in its fleet and will be powered by LNG. Following approval from the Miami-Dade County Commission, Carnival has shared its plans to work with Miami-based design firm Berenblum Busch Architects to create a terminal with a simple and open layout. The terminal will be equipped with various technologies, such as facial recognition systems, to make the embarkation process quicker and safer. Terminal F is set to open in October 2022 to coincide with the arrival of Carnival’s second Excel-class ship (yet to be named) and is one of three dedicated to the line’s operations in Miami.

The 'Valiant' encountered steering problems during its voyage from Poole, where it had sailed at 5.40 p.m. towards the Channel Islands in the night of Jan 25, 2020, and the issue became exaggerated as it neared Herm on Jan 26. The tug 'Duke of Normandy', the pilot boat 'Golden Spur' from Guernsey and the iwork boat 'Sarnia' assisted the 'Valiant' into port in deteriorating weather conditions. A towing connection was established just outside Guernsey's port, and the 'Duke of Normandy' towed it safely into St. Peter Port at 2.36 p.m.

On Jan 25, 2020, a person had to be medevaced from the 'Color Magic' which was enroute from Oslo to Kiel, after having been injured in a brawl. The Danish Navy took the man from Porsgrunn off with a rescue helicopter. H was transferred to Skejby for treatment in hospital.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has signed a contract to supply Infraestructura Portuaria Mexicana (IPM) with two ship-to-shore (STS) and three rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes for the IPM Altamira terminal. The order, which also includes Kalmar SmartPort process automation solutions for the RTGs, was booked in Cargotec’s 2019 Q3 order intake with handover scheduled to be completed during Q1 of 2021. The IPM Altamira terminal is located on the Gulf of Mexico, in the state of Tamaulipas. The terminal’s current equipment fleet already includes one Kalmar STS crane, eight Kalmar RTGs and a variety of Kalmar mobile equipment such as terminal tractors and forklifts. The Kalmar STS cranes will be Super Post-Panamax size with an outreach of 21 container rows and have twin-lift capability with a capacity of 65 tonnes under the spreader.

ECOsubsea, the Norwegian cleantech firm with a unique hull cleaning technology has won contracts to clean in North European ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge thanks to the technology’s ability to remove all hull fouling from the water, the company said in its release. The technologically-advanced system has now been approved for use in the two North European ports following around 500 vessel cleanings in Southampton and Norway and its proven ability to meet strict environmental requirements. While hull cleaning is an important part of vessel efficiency it has become mired in controversy due to the high risk of invasive species being easily transferred across the oceans and becoming an environmental and economic hazard.