OCTOBER 8, 2015 – Volvo Penta has announced a new extended service interval for its commercial marine diesel engines. “We recognize that minimizing downtime is a critical requirement for commercial marine operators,”
Construction on the two Jones Act vessels officially began in the shipyard’s fabrication shop when guest of honor Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Mike Stack pushed the button on the shipyard’s plasma cutting machine. The first steel plates that were cut will later become part of the engine room.
At the ceremony, the shipbuilder’s President and CEOI, Steinar Nerbovik, said: “With construction underway on these two product tankers, we celebrate the capstone of an exciting eight tanker series that is part of Philadelphia’s contribution to the energy landscape of this country. The 1,100 men and women working at the shipyard will be busy for years to come completing these tankers and the other vessels we have under contract.”
“We are very pleased to be working with the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard on the construction of four, LNG-conversion-ready tankers, and the start of construction of these two vessels marks a milestone for our expanding fleet,” said Robert Kurz, Vice President of Kinder Morgan Terminals and President of APT. “There continues to be a strong demand for domestic marine transportation of petroleum products and crude oil, and these tankers will provide Kinder Morgan with additional new tonnage to better service our customers.”
The next generation 50,000 dwt product tanker is based on a proven Hyundai Mipo Dockyards (HMD) design that incorporates numerous fuel efficiency features, flexible cargo capability, and the latest regulatory requirements. When completed, each of the 600-foot tankers will have a carrying capacity of 14.5 million gallons to transport crude oil or refined products.
Also under construction at the shipyard are three 50,000 dwt product tankers for Crowley with planned deliveries through 2016, the first two 50,000 dwt tankers for APT with planned deliveries in 2016 and 2017, and two containerships for Matson Navigation Company, Inc. with planned deliveries in 2018.
The three – Yoshiyuki Aoki, Masahiro Kato and Shunichi Kusunose – have been charged with allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the sale of international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere, including the Port of Baltimore. The affected cargo included cars, trucks, construction equipment and agricultural equipment.
Aoki, formerly of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line), and Kato and Kusunose, formerly of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), are among seven executives who have been charged in the investigation so far. Four have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison. NYK, K-Line and one other company have also pleaded guilty and paid more than $136 million in criminal fines.
“The companies and executives who conspired to restrict competition and raise prices for shipping these products must be held accountable,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Antitrust Division. “We previously charged NYK and K-Line for their role in this long-running conspiracy. Today we are continuing our effort to ensure that the executives at those companies who orchestrated the ocean shipping conspiracy face the consequences as well.”
“These felony charges indicate to those intent on corrupting our economy they will be identified and brought to justice,” said Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the FBI’s Baltimore Division. “Our job is to protect victims who don’t see these crimes occurring, but who always end up paying the price.”
The indictment, which was returned by a grand jury in the District of Maryland, charges Aoki with participating in the conspiracy from at least as early as 2001 until at least September 2012; Kato with participating from at least as early as April 2002 until at least September 2012; and Kusunose with participating from at least as early as April 2004 until at least September 2012.
The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, with assistance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Internal Affairs, Washington Field Office/Special Investigations Unit.
Evidence for the dramatic reduction comes from measurements taken by a technologically advanced “nose” or “sniffer” installed on the Great Belt Bridge to monitor ships’ compliance with the new rules. Installed by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and Food, the sniffercan detect the use of illegal fuels by ships sailing under the bridge.
The first air measurements performed by the sniffer show that 98% of ships comply with the sulfur standards and, according to a new report by the Danish Center for Environment and Energy at Aarhus University (DCE), the total content of airborne sulfur has been reduced by up to 60% since the new year.
“Sulfur and particles are harmful to people, so it is good news that the new environmental requirements are having an effect. As the first country in the world, Denmark has implemented new technology to monitor ships’ emissions and ensure full compliance with the requirements. Significant economic savings are possible by circumventing the law, so monitoring and enforcement are important to avoid harmful pollution from the ships and an unfair competitive situation for the law-abiding shipowners,” says Minister for Environment and Food Eva Kjer Hansen.
The additional costs of fuel depend on the size and speed of the ship, but they can be up to DKK 1 million for a round trip journey between the English Channel and Baltic Sea.
Monitoring at the Great Belt Bridge is not the only measure. A sniffer is also installed on a small plane that monitors ships sailing along major shipping routes through Danish waters. If the sniffer measurements show that a ship is using illegal fuel, the authorities at the next port are notified so that they can stop the violation.
Chalmers University developed the sniffer technology. The Ministry of the Environment and Food is funding the monitoring efforts, which cost DKK 6.3 million.
“The Danish shipowners fully support the new requirements and there is a positive, close cooperation regarding monitoring and enforcement between the Ministry of the Environment and Food and the Danish Shipowners’ Association, under the auspices of the Partnership for Green Shipping,” says Director General Anne H. Steffesen of the Danish Shipowners’ Association. “Effective international enforcement is crucial to the industry and ensuring equal competitive conditions for all. Remote monitoring from bridges and aircraft can be an important part of ensuring compliance with the rules – especially when stricter requirements take effect worldwide by 2025, making international enforcement even more important.”
A joint international effort to ensure that ships comply with environmental requirements is important. Therefore, Denmark is currently working in the EU and the UN International Maritime Organization to ensure effective and uniform monitoring and enforcement.
Yesterday the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the vessel, which was en route from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan, Puerto Rico, was lost in last week’s storm. The Coast Guard will participate in the NTSB’s investigation.
The team will be led by the NTSB’s Tom Roth-Roffy as investigator-in-charge. NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr is accompanying the team and will serve as the principal spokesperson during the on-scene phase of the investigation.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D. FL.) said that, as a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, she will be asking for “a complete investigation into this tragic incident.”
The Coast Guard said yesterday that search and rescue crews continued searching for possible survivors from the cargo ship El Faro Monday night, covering a total search area of more than 160,574 square nautical miles.While searching in the vicinity of the ship’s last known position 35 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Islands, Bahamas, the Coast Guard located a deceased person in a survival suit in the water.
A heavily damaged life boat with markings consistent with those on board the El Faro was also located Sunday. Additional items located by Coast Guard aircrews within a 225 square nautical mile search area include a partially submerged life raft, life jackets, life rings, cargo containers and an oil sheen Sunday.Coast Guard assets involved in Monday’s search include:
Sea and weather conditions during Monday’s search include one-foot seas and 15 knots winds with unrestricted visibility.All three Coast Guard cutters remained on scene to search through the night.
The plant generates low-pressure steam to heat many of the shipyard’s facilities, to provide process heat and to support hotel services—including hot water, food preparation and galley services—to the ships undergoing construction and overhaul.
“We started researching and evaluating alternative options about four years ago with the goal of implementation by 2016,” said Bill Cash-Robertson, a Newport News Shipbuilding environmental engineer. “Not only does the conversion to natural gas make good business sense, it’s more efficient, it’s cleaner, and it’s safer to operate.”
The old system, which included three 70-year-old boilers, burned about 6 million gallons of heavy fuel oil last year, costing the shipyard about $15 million.
Plant Engineering Supervisor Ken Allmon, a member of the shipyard’s energy management team, said the new system will reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent and save the shipyard several million dollars per year in lower utility costs.”The team is proud of our work to overcome technical challenges and implement a solution that is a win for everybody,” he said.
Will Koeck, the project’s construction engineer, said one challenge was to safely remove and install large boilers in a plant that had to continue operating during the conversion. “We met the challenge with careful coordination and planning, and we had the first new boiler in place making steam in December 2014,” he said.
OCTOBER 5, 2015 — French ballast water treatment system (BWTS) manufacturer Bio-UV has just supplied the Piriou Groups Concarneau shipyard with the first skid-mounted versions of its Bio-Sea 100 BWTS. They will
The Hobart shipyard will commence work on construction of the wave piercing catamaran immediately, with delivery scheduled for the first quarter of 2017.
The newbuild super ferry, Incat hull number 088, will be named KatExpress 3, the fast ferry will be an upgraded and more customer-friendly version of near sister-ship vessels KatExpress 1 (Incat hull 066) and KatExpress 2 (Incat 067). The new fast ferry can take up to 1,000 tonnes of cargo, equivalent to up to 1,000 passengers and 417 cars. LikeKatExpress 1 and KatExpress 2, the new fast ferry will carry trucks, campervans, motorcycles and bicycles.
KatExpress 3 is expected to commence operation on the Mols Linien route between Aarhus and Odden and the route between Ebeltoft and Odden in late May 2017.
KatExpress 3 is likely to replace the company’s smallest ferry Max Mols, an Incat 91 m vessel (Incat hull 048) built in 1999.
Incat Chairman, Robert Clifford, in Copenhagen Denmark at the Interferry Conference said “A large ship order to a repeat customer is proof positive of the quality and reliability of the vessels our team build in Tasmania. This is the third Incat ship that Mols Linien have added to their fleet in a period of just four years”.
Incat Tasmania Managing Director Simon Carter said “We have been working on the project for some time, and although the design team still have some finer details to complete, construction will commence immediately”.
“The 250 production staff are currently building four passenger vessels for Manly Fast Ferries, with another six boat order for Sydney Ferries to commence in 2016. This new large ship order will secure work for an expanded workforce for at least a further two years”.
In a statement to the Danish Stock Exchange Mols-Linien announced that since the inauguration of the first super ferry it has increased the number of passenger cars it carries by 58 percent in the period from 2011 to 2014.
The El Faro, a 790-foot roll on, roll off, cargo ship, departed Jacksonville, Florida, Sept. 29, en route to San Juan.
At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, VA, received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating the El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion, and had a 15-degree list. The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained.
No further communications have been received from the vessel
A Coast Guard HC-130 search and rescue crew from Air Station Clearwater, Florida, spotted the life ring 120 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Island, Bahamas. A Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter crew recovered the life ring and confirmed it belonged to the missing ship.
Search and rescue crews have searched more than 30,000 square-miles since Thursday.
Sea conditions in the search area yesterday were reported to be 20 to 40-feet with winds in excess to 100 knots. Visibility for search and rescue flying between 500 and 1,000 feet was reported to be less than one nautical mile at times.
Tim Nolan, President of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, issued the following statement regarding ongoing efforts to locate and communicate with the El Faro and her crew:
“This morning TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico’s second ship, the El Yunque, and a contracted tugboat reached the area between the last known vicinity of the El Faro and the location that the Coast Guard recovered a life ring yesterday and carried out a visual survey.
“The two vessels discovered a container, which appears to be from the El Faro, and observed what appears to be an oil sheen.
“At this time there has been no sighting of the El Faro or any life boats.
“TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico and the Coast Guard remain focused on the continuing search for the crew. The contracted tugs as well as other vessels transiting the area are also keeping a lookout for any sign of the ship.
Our thoughts and prayers remain with the 33 individuals aboard the ship and their families. They are our number one priority.”
A Coast Guard pilot searching for the missing containership, near the eye of hurricane Joaquin, recounts the weather conditions Oct. 3, 2015. The Coast Guard has been searching since Oct. 1, after losing communications with the El Faro.
U.S. Coast Guard video
Work will be performed worldwide and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2016. Working capital contract funds in the amount of $8,000,000 are subject to availability in fiscal 2016 funds, and will expire at the end of fiscal 2016.
This contract was not competitively procured, in accordance with statue 46 U.S. Code 3316.
The Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N00033-13-D-8015).