News

The 'Magritte', laid up for five years, was the first to arrive at the dock of the Mar del Plata Naval Base, a space of the Argentine Navy ceded to the Port of Mar del Plata for dismantling of ships in order to recover operational spaces and docking space in the port. On Sep 12, 2022, the cutting work began. At Pier 2 the first stage of preparationhad been carried out with cleaning of fuel tanks and first scrapwork of its structure Moored to the docks of the port of Mar del Plata there are almost 50 ships that went out of service, in some cases almost more than a decade ago, and they obstruct 1/3 of the berthing space of this terminal. The cutting of vessels in the dock of the Mar del Plata Naval Base is one of several alternatives to which the Mar del Plata Regional Port Consortium appealed to reduce out-of-service vessels to scrap. Others faced the stage of scrapping in local shipyard facilities and, in the case of the fishing vessel "Simbad", it was ordered to sink it to enrich the "Cristo Rey" underwater park, intended for diving in the area of Punta Mogotes. Report with photo: https://www.lacapitalmdp.com/con-el-pesquero-magritte-se-inicia-el-desguace-de-buques-en-la-base-naval/

The 'Phoenix J.', en route from Liverpool to Rotterdam with 14 crew members on board, needed a change of cylinder heads of the main engine 25,2 nautical miles from Lizard Point in position 49 32 51 N, 05 19 07 W on Sep 12, 2022, at 1.20 p.m. After the issue was fixed, the ship resumei its voyage with an ETA as of Sep 14.

The first paperless, instantly financed and fully door-to-door tracked container made its way from Korea to the warehouse of Samsung SDS in Tilburg via Port of Rotterdam on blockchain-based platform DELIVER. ABN AMRO, Port of Rotterdam and Samsung SDS demonstrated that blockchain technology enables interoperability, and that integrated container tracking and tracing, required cargo documentation processing and financing can all be done in a trusted, secure and paperless way.

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA), Southeast's deepwater port, said that five rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes arrived at Wando Welch Terminal to further modernize operations. The Port has received 14 of the 24 new cranes ordered for the Wando terminal; the terminal currently has 52 RTGs overall. Meanwhile, SCPA reported its strongest May on record, with 204,457 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) handled last month.

The SAR helicopter Helimer 206 of Salvamento Marítimo medevaced a crew member of the 'Argo' on Sep 13, 2022, which was en route from Malaga to Paranam. He had suffered a heart attack when the ship was about 12 nautical miles north of the island of Gran Canaria. The Las Palmas Rescue Center received an alert requesting the urgent evacuation of the patient, so the Helimer 206 helicopter was mobilized, which hoisted the man and transferred him to the Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Doctor Negrín.

The 'Maersk Surabaya', en route from Le Havre to New York, suffered a defect to a valve of the main engine in position 49 39 05 N, 005 24 38 W, about 20 nautical miles southwest of Lizard Point, on Sep 12, 2022, at 3.30 p.m. UTC. The engineer started fixing the valve, and the defect has been rectified and the vessel was continuing its voyage at 5.45 p.m. with an ETA as of Sep 19.

In one of the biggest pushbacks against Chinese president Xi Jinping’s Belt Road Initiative Tanzania has suspended the construction of the $10bn Bagamoyo port project, citing the onerous financial conditions put in place by Beijing. The project, which broke ground four years ago and was set to be run by China Merchants Holding International, would have been the largest port in East Africa. Tanzania’s president John Magufuli has accused the Chinese project backers of presenting “exploitative and awkward” terms in exchange for financing. Chinese financiers set “tough conditions that can only be accepted by mad people,” Magufuli told local media. “They told us once they build the port, there should be no other port to be built all the way from Tanga to Mtwara south,” Magufuli told a delegation of business people at State House in Dar es Salaam earlier this month. “They want us to give them a guarantee of 33 years and a lease of 99 years, and we should not question whoever comes to invest there once the port is operational. They want to take the land as their own but we have to compensate them for drilling construction of that port,” he said. Magufuli also said the new Bagamoyo port risked undermining the ongoing $522m expansion of Dar es Salaam port that would enable it to triple its current capacity when complete by the end of this year. Source : Splash247

Container throughput continues to grow in Rotterdam. Following a record year in 2018 and a record quarter in 2019, April of this year was the best month ever for the Port of Rotterdam. 13.6 million tonnes of container freight was handled in April 2019. The previous record month was August 2018 (13.2 million tonnes). Measured in TEU, the standard unit for containers, April 2019 was the second-best month ever, with 1.3 million TEU, just a fraction lower than the record month of August 2018.

The barge 'Sung Fatt 36', 1826 gt, which was being towed by the 'Sung Fatt 31', was boarded by at least 11 perpetrators in position 001 12 41 N, 103 32 37 E, while transiting the westbound lane of the Singapore Strait on Sep 7, 2022, at 3.25 p.m. UTC. The tug master reported that the perpetrators stole scrap metal from the barge. The crew was safe and accounted for. The vessels did not require any assistance and continued their voyage to Penang with an ETA as of Sep 12.

The 'Hilal Bay', which had run aground with a cargo of wheat in position 57 40 01.2 N, 21 40 33.0 E, 17 natical miles north of Ventspils on May 1, 2022, and suffered damage to the tank area, was granted a single towage after temporary repairs from the classification society, the flag state authority and the Harbour Master. The tug 'Christos XXXIV' (IMO: 7907415) took the ship in tow from Riga anchorage, Latvia to Yalova on July 25 with an ETA at the Yalova shipyard area as of Sep 13.

Tangier will today celebrate the opening of the largest container port in capacity terms in the whole of the Mediterranean, something that will bring enormous competition to the likes of Algericas just 25 nautical miles away across the Strait of Gibraltar. The $1.6bn expansion of Tanger Med port, located to the east of the Moroccan city of Tangier, due to be unveiled today will create Africa’s largest port with an annual capacity of 9.5m teu. The port is operated by APM Terminals, Eurogate and a local firm.

Samsung C&T Corp., a construction unit under Samsung Group, said Tuesday it has won a US$179.5 million project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Vietnam. Under the deal with Petrovietnam Gas Corp., Samsung C&T and Vietnamese firm PTSC will build the Southeast Asian country’s first LNG terminal, in the coastal area 70 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City for 40 months. The project also calls for the construction of LNG tanks and other related facilities, according to Samsung C&T. Samsung C&T has a 61 percent stake in the project. Source: Yonhap