As the maritime industry settles in on a COVID-19 induced ‘new norm,’ and long-range planning is dramatically shortened,, Nick Brown, Marine and Offshore Director, Lloyd’s Register, said that while much deserved focus must be paid to the current crisis, the industry cannot lose sight of another one looming just as large: climate change.
In the past few weeks, Manila Bay in the Philippines has been transformed into the world’s biggest parking lot for cruise ships, none of which have any guests.More than 20 vessels collectively weighing about 2 million tonnes are clustered off the coast of the capital, awaiting coronavirus clearance for more than 5,300 Philippine staff to return home from abandoned cruises
In late Spring at about 0300 local time, an aging towboat (#1) was pushing two loaded barges upbound on a swollen and fast-moving northwestern U.S. river. It was a moonless night and, while certainly not unusual conditions for the veteran captain and his longtime deckhand, it didn’t diminish the added challenges of the short but tricky nocturnal run.
Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Group) has taken delivery of Takaroa Sun, a methanol carrier equipped with two-stroke dual-fuel engine tech that allows the vessel to be powered by methanol. Built in South Korea at Hyundai MIPO Dockyard, the new ship was funded through NYK’s green financing initiative established to support environment-friendly projects.
Carnival Corp’s Princess Cruises on Thursday extended the suspension of some of its voyages in Australia, Canada and Taiwan as ports around the world remain shut due to the coronavirus crisis.Cruise lines, hammered by a crisis which has seen some ships develop into high-profile infection hotspots, in recent days have been steadily pushing back cancellations well into the second half of 2020.
EnBW Baltic 2 one of Germany’s largest offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea will soon be serviced from the Danish port of Klintholm on the island of Møn, EnBW said Tuesday. The company has so far had its service team of up to 25 people travel from Rostock to a hotel vessel close to the EnBW Baltic 2 offshore wind farm.
The captain of a Vietnamese oil tanker has been jailed for over five years in Singapore for his role in a scheme that saw around $150 million of oil stolen from Shell's biggest refinery over several years.Doan Xuan Than, 47, was sentenced to 66 months in prison on Thursday, a spokesman for the State Courts of Singapore said
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is positioned for another year of record oil production in 2020, despite massive cuts in investment.According to Rystad Energy, most of this growth coming from deep water projects.“2020 is expected to be another record year with average production above 1.9 million barrels per day,” says Joachim Milling Gregersen, an analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team.
A study published by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that polystyrene, one of the world’s most ubiquitous plastics, may degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight, rather than thousands of years as previously thought. The study published October 10, 2019, in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
Marking the opening of a new China-Europe freight train route a freight train left Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, heading for Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.According to a report in Xinhua, the train consists of 42 containers loaded with laptops, LED panels, green tea and other products manufactured in Hunan province.
Familiarity can and does breed contempt. You don’t need anything else added to that heavy burden.We live and work in a frenetic environment replete with a wide range of both human and technological distractions. When those two elements came together on the bridge of a towboat traveling downriver to pick up a load of empty barges, the result was career-changing for the vessel’s first mate
Castor Maritime, a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry-bulk vessels, announced that through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, took delivery of the M/V Magic Sun, a 2001 Korean built Panamax dry bulk carrier, from an unaffiliated seller.The Cyprus-based company said in a press release that the vessel is expected to commence its initial charter with Oldendorff Carriers