UIPA, the South Korean Information and Communication Technology Promotion Agency has awarded Kongsberg Digital the contract to supply a fully-featured bridge simulator for a new, state-of-the-art autonomous ship research facility in Ulsan, South Korea. The Korean government has committed to invest 130 billion won (US$110 million) in the project over the next three years, with a goal of starting operations in 2023. The simulation contract is being delivered through maritime ICT convergence specialists eMARINE Global. The simulator will be used primarily for research and development of navigational equipment and display ...

Japan and South Korea are expected by their respective meteorological agencies to see higher-than-average temperatures for the last week of August and the first three weeks of September. The warmer weather at the tail-end of summer could offer some relief to LNG sellers that have struggled to offload cargoes — some of whom have even resorted to float their cargoes on the water without firm destinations. Spot LNG prices have continued to track at three-year lows as the region emerges from a mild-winter in a severely oversupplied market. As of ...

The World Ocean Council (WOC) and the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) have signed an MOU on long-term cooperation. The partnership agreement provides a commitment and framework for the two bodies to collaborate on ocean sustainable economic development through information exchange, communications, events, joint working groups, etc. on topics of shared interest. More specifically, PIANC and WOC will begin by working together to develop: 1) Tools and methods for port and coastal infrastructure adaptation that can be scaled up to address port resiliency needs, especially regarding extreme weather ...

While there seem to be only bad news from the macroeconomic side these days, the New Contex has nevertheless gained another 4 points

Where does the danger lie? When measuring dangerous gases prior to enclosed space entry, we need to take into account the relative weight of the gas when compared to air. For example, we need to be aware that methane is lighter than air, carbon monoxide is the same weight and hydrogen sulphide is heavier than air. This difference in molecular weight requires gas measurements to be taken at different heights of the enclosed space to ensure thorough gas measurement prior to man entry into enclosed space. You can learn more ...

The delivered 380 CST bunker fuel price spread between South Korea and Japan widened to a record high Thursday, due to persistent tightness in high sulfur fuel oil supply in South Korea and rising supply in Japan. The South Korea versus Japan delivered 380 CST bunker spread rose $6/mt day on day to $81.75/mt Thursday — the highest on record, S&P Global Platts data showed. Delivered 380 CST bunker in South Korea typically trades at a premium to a similar grade delivered in Tokyo Bay. The price of delivered 380 ...

On the 3rd July I specified the very large crude carrier, the Grace 1, under the Sanctions Regulations. The designation of the vessel arose from information providing Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar with reasonable grounds to suspect that the Grace 1 was being used in breach of applicable EU Sanctions against Syria. The information suggested that the vessel was bound for the Baniyas Oil Refinery in Syria where it would supply its cargo of 2.1m barrels of crude oil to the Assad regime. At 2am on 4th July 2019, the ...

Maersk delivers a 17% increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to USD 1.4 bn in Q2 compared to the same quarter last year. Revenue grew slightly to USD 9.6bn, which is on par with last year, and the underlying profit increased to USD 134m from USD 15m in Q2 2018. “Q2 was a quarter of solid progress. EBITDA was up 17% and cash flow improved 86% year on year, driven by continued recovery in Ocean,” says Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk. On the ...

TORM’s results in the first half of 2019 reflect the Company’s strong operating performance relative to its peers and our focus on maintaining efficient operations and a low cost base. Our profit before tax of USD 28.7m in the first half of 2019 represented the strongest half-year result in three years, and we are pleased to be able to generate a profit also in the second quarter of year that has been negatively impacted by an unusually high and prolonged refinery maintenance period,“ says Executive Director Jacob Meldgaard and adds: ...

Leading classification society, the Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass), recently launched a bespoke training course for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) at IRClass’ head office in Mumbai, India. Welcoming senior officers of the ICG, Mr Suresh Sinha, Managing Director of IRClass, lauded the close collaboration between IRClass and ICG in co-creating course material relevant to ICG’s training needs. “IRClass, through its training arm, IRClass Academy, worked under the auspices and guidance of ICG Inspector General TP Sadanandan, TM, DDG (M&M) and ICG Deputy Inspector General Sudhir Sahni to curate course ...

Golden Ocean Group Limited (NASDAQ: GOGL / OSE: GOGL) (the “Company” or “Golden Ocean”), a leading dry bulk shipping company, announced its results for the quarter ended June 30, 2019. Highlights Net loss of $33.1 million and loss per share of $0.23 for the second quarter of 2019, which includes $13.3 million in mark to market losses on derivatives, compared with net loss of $7.5 million and loss per share of $0.05 for the first quarter of 2019 Adjusted EBITDA of $21.5 million for the second quarter of 2019, compared ...

NORDEN has contracted with Enviva to transport 1.3-1.5 million metric tons of wood pellets from the United States to Europe over a 6-year period. The Contract of Affreightment (CoA), which runs from 2021 to 2026, builds on NORDEN’s long-term collaboration with Enviva, which began in 2012 and expands the co-operation between the 2 companies. “With Enviva being the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, we are delighted to further cement our good relationship and proud to be entrusted to once again deliver even more Enviva products to their customers across ...

Q2 weaker than Q1 – but continued belief in an autumn market turnaround Developments during the second quarter were largely as we expected – namely, weak but still stronger than the corresponding quarter the previous year. Among the reasons were OPEC’s production cuts, extended seasonal maintenance of refineries prior to IMO 2020 and extensive deliveries of new vessels. The increased number of vessel deliveries is largely due to delays. The vessels should actually have been delivered in the first quarter but came into service in spring instead. Normal refinery maintenance ...

APM Terminals Poti has commenced the implementation of uninterrupted 24/7 operations to maximise berth utilisation, increase efficiency and speed up vessel handling. The implementation of a flexible workforce management solution will take place in two phases. Phase one will apply to single berth occupancy. The workforce currently allocated to the free berth will be assigned to the operational berth to cover break times and support a smooth and uninterrupted workflow. The second phase, which will apply when both berths are occupied, is expected to be fully implemented in Q4 2019. ...

A shortlist of five port and supply chain options to manage Perth’s long-term freight requirements has been released with all options proposing a new container port. The Government of Western Australia said the assessments of the independent Westport Taskforce ranked 25 different options featuring the ports at Fremantle, Bunbury and Kwinana against each other. Three shortlisted options feature container operations – all of which are currently managed at Fremantle – being moved to a new port in Kwinana Outer Harbour. Two further options propose sharing the container-handling task between Fremantle ...