News

The "Aasheim", en route from Gdansk to Ellsemere, with a crew of nine on board, suffered a defect in its AIS transmitter on Dec 1, 2018, at 3.50 p.m. in position 58 23 00 N, 005 21 00 W, near North Minch, Alpha report point. The ship was carrying 4.657 tonnes of coke. The defect was rectified by the crew and the vessel resumed its voyage. It reached Belfast on Dec 6 at 09.40 a.m.

The "Kryssholm" was troubled on Nov 30, 2018, in the Baltic Sea southwest of Bornholm, one day after its departure from Frederiksværk to Kaliningrad. The ship limped towards the northeast tip of the island and dropped anchor. On Dec 2 she was taken on tow by the Danish tug "Ronja" (IMO: 5111696), to be pulled to Svendborg, ETA Dec 4. On the last leg to port the "Birk" (MMSI: 219016144) assisted as stern tug and berthed at the Marstal Værft A/S at 10.15 a.m.

ArcelorMittal Gent, the Flemish investment company “Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen” (“PMV”), Euroports and North Sea Port are collaborating on the first ever roofed loading bay and warehouse in Ghent: the “All Weather Terminal” (AWT). An investment worth more than 50 million euros. The new terminal is being built next to the existing mixed cargo bay of ArcelorMittal Gent and will be used in the first place to store and ship finished steel coils. Twenty percent of the storage capacity can also be used for the handling of other materials such as paper or other mixed cargo. The new “All Weather Terminal” will be owned by AWT GENT NV, a company founded by PMV and EPICo (www.epicofund.eu). AWT GENT NV, who are responsible for the design, construction, financing, maintenance and exploitation of the Terminal. Thanks to “AWT”, AWT GENT NV will be able to provide services to ArcelorMittal Gent and other customers. AWT GENT NV entrusts Euroports with the role of maritime logistics, namely the distribution of flows from, to and in the AWT.

The first of 60 new Konecranes rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs) have arrived at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) as the Port of Virginia begins its $375 million expansion project. NIT will put the cranes into service by the end of September, when the first three of its 30 new container stacks will be ready to use. Once all 60 RMGs are operational, Port of Virginia expects NITs annual capacity to increase by 400,000 TEU by mid-2020. In November 2016, the port finalized a $217 million contract with Konecranes to build and deliver 86 RMGs - the largest one-time RMG order ever.

Norway’s accident investigation board has raised questions about the watertight integrity of the Nansen-class frigates and was pointing its finger at shipbuilder Navantia in the wake of the collision and subsequent sinking of the "Helge Ingstad". In a preliminary report released on Nov 29, the board reached an initial conclusion that confusion on the bridge during watch turnover was the proximate cause of the accident, but the sinking of the ship was caused by progressive flooding that appeared to overmatch Ingstad’s watertight integrity. The Accident Investigation Board Norway issued a public addendum to the report and a pair of warnings that the issues that sunk Ingstad could also apply to other Navantia ships, raising questions about a widespread quality issue at the Spanish shipbuilder. “The AIBN has found safety critical issues relating to the vessel’s watertight compartments. This must be assumed to also apply to the other four Nansen-class frigates. It cannot be excluded that the same applies to vessels of a similar design delivered by Navantia, or that the design concept continues to be used for similar vessel models. The AIBN assumes that its findings are not in conformity with the required damage stability standard for the Nansen-class frigates.” Navantia has offered to work with Norway on the investigation in order to clarify the accident and stated: "Navantia will analyze all the possibilities, considering that some of the mentioned possibilities … are concluded from a very preliminary investigation. Navantia has not received any official communication, neither any consults about possible causes, nor participated in any action … in Norway". In the addendum to the report, the board found that the initial assessment by the crew in the wake of the accident was that some crew quarters, the aft generator room and the ship’s stores room were flooded, but that the ship was stable and could survive if the situation remained relatively controlled. The crew began seeing water quickly flooding into the gear room via the ship’s hollow propeller shaft, with flooding then creeping into the engine rooms through the bulkheads. The board’s initial assessment based on crew interviews was that the stuffing boxes did not work as designed on the "Helge Ingstad": “This meant that the flooding became substantially more extensive than indicated by the original damage. Based on the flooding of the gear room, it was decided to prepare for evacuation.” As a result of the findings, the AIBN issued two warnings: one to the Norwegian military to assess its ships to address the safety concerns, and one to Navantia to “conduct investigations into the issues identified during this initial investigation and to ascertain whether this is also an issue relating to other vessels.” Apart from the flooding that ultimately sank the "Helge Ingstad", the accident itself raises some vexing questions. The report found that the fregate was transiting the channel at about 17 knots well before dawn, faster than one might expect near a busy port at night. It also found that the collision took place about 10-15 minutes after a watch turnover. The report concluded that the bridge watch team mistook the "Sola TS" for an object on land, and that Sola’s illuminated deck lights obscured its navigation lights from view. Furthermore, even after the Sola got underway there would have been relatively little motion of Sola’s lights as it moved away from the quay. In the last six minutes before the collision, the "Sola TS" contacted the "Helge Ingstad" and instructed it to turn away from its course whose watchstanders thought they were communicating with one of the other ships in the channel, still thinking the "Sola TS" was a stationary object, and said if they turned, they’d run into the object that turned out to be the rapidly closing tanker. By the time the fregate’s bridge team recognized the error and tried to evade Sola, it was too late, the report found. “The AIBN's preliminary assessment is that the accident was not caused by any single act or event, but can be explained by a series of interacting complex factors and circumstances. The investigation team is seeking to identify and understand these factors. So far, the AIBN has not seen any indication of technical systems not working as intended up until the time of the collision." Full report: https://news.usni.org/2018/11/30/norwegian-frigate-helge-ingstad-accident-report

On May 13, 2018, the "Granville" crashed into a pontoon and the sailing yacht "Shamu" after its control system failed, a marine incident report has found. The vessel was making its way into the port at seven knots, having come from Sark, to berth alongside the Albert Pier. During the berthing procedure, the 58-year-old master of the boat transferred control onto the port-side wing controls on the outside deck of the vessel. As he went to put the "Granville" into reverse, he realised that the lights, which indicated the successful transfer of control, had not come on. He immediately shouted to his staff captain, who was still at the interior controls, to put the vessel into reverse but he was not able to do so in time. At around three knots, the vessel then hit the ten-metre-long yacht "Shamu" and the pontoon to which it had been moored. No one was injured on either vessel, but the accident caused damage to the exterior of the yacht, its wind turbine mast, deck, deck ladder and handrail. The skipper of the "Shamu" was inside the boat at the time of the incident and an account of his experience was included in the report. He heard people shouting “astern, astern” and others shouting in panic. He felt something on top of the stern of Shamu and looked out of the port forward bow window to see the anchor of the ferry. He immediately went out on deck as he felt the weight of the ferry roll off the stern. The Ports of Jersey, which compiled the report, found that the vessel’s speed of seven knots was a contributing factor and recommended that the transfer of control to the ‘wing’ should take place earlier to allow for any potential failures. It was later discovered that a computer-processing unit was to blame for the failure and the unit was replaced. The control system suffered another failure while it was in Sark later in the year, and the "Granville" was taken out of service while it was repaired.

The soporific seaside town of Berbera is slowly changing as it takes on a major role on the Red Sea shipping route, allowing breakaway Somaliland to dream of prosperity and even recognition. At the Berbera port, dozens of containers are stacked on a sun-scorched platform and a few cranes creakily transfer sacks of sorghum and other goods from a rusting cargo ship. The facilities are far from modern, but Somaliland hopes its position on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes will turn the state into a job-creating dynamo — and encourage international recognition 27-years after it split from Somalia. Somaliland’s ambitions were boosted in March when it struck a deal giving Dubai port giant DP World a 51 per cent stake in the port and Ethiopia 19pc. DP World says it plans to invest $442 million to modernise the port, with a first extension of 400 square metres to begin in October that is expected to take 24 months.

The Port of Felixstowe has started to recover from the delays experienced in early July 2018, caused by the failure of its terminal operating system (TOS). The Hutchison Ports facility’s increased throughput has come after the port made key upgrades to the TOS over the course of last week. It handled 74,000 TEU in the week ending 22 July, a rise of 70,000 TEU from the previous week, although this is still lower than throughput handled in July 2017. Hutchison Ports reported that it had handled 11,600 rail containers during the week commencing June 16, including a 15% increase in the number of containers loaded to trains. https://www.porttechnology.org/news/port_of_felixstowe_starts_recovery

The "Carmen" was ordered to leave New Zealand waters after the discovery of stentctors a.o. in the cargo which may affect New Zealand's unique natural plant and wildlife. The shipping industry was informed about the sharpened rules for stentctors for cargo ships before the start of the season. Biosecurity found three living and 39 dead brown marbled stinks and 69 other dead specimens of stinctures when the ship arrived in Auckland in the morning of Nov 27, 2018, with a cargo of vehicles from Europe and the United States. It left Auckland on Nov 29 and is now going through a major cleaning process offshore before it can return. After that, a thorough inspection was to be carried out before being permitted to unload the cargo.

The "Lanka Jaya" has been arrested as per orders of the local High Court in Chittagong, dated Nov 29, 2018, in a litigation at outer anchorage of the port. The vessel, laden with 14.520 tonnes of limestone, had arrived at Chittagong port on Nov 26 and was arrested on Dec 1. The ship remained anchored in pos. 22° 7.63' N 091° 43.64' E on Dec 3.

The central city of Da Nang has officially put into operation the second stage of Tien Sa port after two years of construction, bringing its total capacity to 12 million tonnes of cargo per year. General Director of Da Nang Port Joint Stock Company Nguyen Huu Sia said that the second stage at Tien Sa Port had cost more than 1 trillion VND (44.2 million USD), of which 36 percent was funded by the company. He said the second stage, which included two piers, would allow access to 70,000DWT (deadweight tonnage) ships, 4,000TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) container ships, and 150GT (gross tonnage) cruise ships. Sia said the port was a key hub in central Vietnam and met international logistics standards in the region connecting the East-West Economic Corridor that links Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. According to the latest report, the Tien Sa port, 10km from the city centre, handled four million tonnes of cargo in the first six months this year, a 6.14 percent increase in comparison with the same period last year.

To signify its first day of operations at Damen Shipyards Mangalia in Romania, Damen held a modest ceremony at the yard on Monday, July 23rd. The celebrations mark Damen’s successful completion of the transaction with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) for the Mangalia shipyard, formerly known as Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (DMHI).