Corporate News

Cammell Laird has welcomed two new apprentices to its growing finance department. New apprentices Jae Swift and Sophie Rice join Lewis Nutall and Alexandra Saunders, who started their apprenticeship in the finance team earlier this year. The apprentices are studying for their Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) across NVQ Levels 2 and 3. Biggest in the UK maritime industry Cammell Laird has recruited 46 apprentices over the last year alone Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders...

An exceptional operation was carried out in the Aabenraa Inlet. In a planned operation, a large semi-submersible freighter slowly submerged to prepare for the float-off of 'Magnor', the world’s biggest backhoe dredger. The purpose-built freighter is constructed for this specific type of assignment and can carry vessels that are unable to manoeuvre under their power.  Float-off operation For performing the float-off operation, the semi-submersible vessel ballasted to submerge its ce...

Satcom Direct (SD), the business aviation solutions provider, has inked a preferred supplier agreement with Slovenia-headquartered aviation services company - Elit’Avia. Voice, data, connectivity, and flight deck communication functionality, along with customer support and training, is now enabling Elit’Avia to optimise the full range of SD connectivity services for its mixed fleet.  Demonstrating the value of the SD Xperience portfolio, which enables customisation of bundled p...

Ocean carriers remain in pole position in negotiations for long-term freight contracts, with high demand, port congestion, and supply chain disruption driving further rate increases. The rise in freight rates  According to the Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI®) Public Indices, long-term rates recorded their tenth consecutive month-on-month rise in October, climbing by 2.2%. The indices stand at a colossal 93.1% up year-on-year, with little hope of relief on the horizon for embattled shipper...

Intellian is pleased to announce that its innovative C700 Iridium Certus terminal has been approved for use in Japan. The C700 is the first Iridium Certus terminal to be approved for the Japanese maritime market. “We are delighted that our C700 terminal has been accepted for use in Japan,” said Eric Sung, CEO, Intellian Technologies. Iridium Certus solution Sung added: “As one of the world’s top ship-owning nations, Japan remains a critical market for Intellian; o...

The Seafarers’ Charity - a provider of grants and support to the maritime community - has received funding for a pilot project to develop safety management onboard fishing vessels to the standard of the Fishing Safety Management Code. The new service is called Fishing First Safety Management by SafetyFolder and aims to improve safety in the UK fishing fleet and, at the same time, increase supply chain transparency. Auditable safety standard The Seafarers’ Charity’s Chief Exe...

Swedish freight technology company Einride and GE Appliances, a Haier company announced a partnership for the implementation of electric and autonomous transport at scale. It will be the first time in history an autonomous and electric truck is live and operating on U.S. soil. The partnership will represent Einride’s first installation with its renowned Pods in the U.S., which will operate on GE Appliances’ 750-acre Appliance Park campus in Louisville, Kentucky. The new fleet s...

DC Global Freight Management has chartered vessels directly from China to the UK, while the majority of shipping service operators will stop at several ports along the route to load and unload cargo. Many also stop in Rotterdam and Antwerp on the way and move containers to the UK with smaller vessels. Direct Freight Shipping Service There have been global issues around ports being overly congested due to the pandemic, a national shortage of lorry drivers, soaring consumer appetite for good...

The Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) will be held in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, in June 2023, where tech innovators will participate to seek marine safety and security solutions to take home more than US$3 million in prize money. Organised by ASPIRE, the dedicated technology program management pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the overarching advanced technology research body in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the MBZI...

As part of the UK’s upcoming Carrier Strike Group tour, Rolls-Royce is all set to showcase to Indian Navy customers its capabilities to design, build and deliver customised power and propulsion solutions for India’s naval modernisation requirements. The company also expressed its keenness to explore opportunities for partnering the Navy with end-to-end solutions for the electrification of India’s future warships. Developing electric warships Speaking about the upcoming t...

Neste and Ravago aim to establish a joint venture to build an industrial facility for chemical recycling in North Sea Port in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The facility is intended to be the starting point of joint global chemical recycling (often also called “advanced recycling”) activities, built upon the advancement of the thermochemical liquefaction technology of US-based Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company. With this, Neste, the producer of r...

MAN Energy Solutions has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mitsui E&S Machinery Co., Ltd. (MES-M) and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) regarding the low-speed, ammonia-fueled main engine that MAN Energy Solutions is currently developing.   The MoU provides for keeping MOL and MES-M updated on MAN Energy Solutions’ progress in this regard, with the ultimate intention of creating the basis for a more detailed LoI (Letter of Intent) leading to an actual purchasing contract f...

Neste, the provider of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel as well as a forerunner in renewable and circular solutions for the polymers and chemicals industry, further accelerates the implementation of its growth strategy by establishing an R&D centre in Singapore. With this investment, Neste aims to increase its R&D and innovation capabilities globally, and drive collaboration with partners in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in Singapore. Production capacity “Nes...

Neste and Hesburger, a Finnish restaurant chain, will engage in significant circular economy collaboration. Used cooking oil from more than 300 Hesburger restaurants in Finland and in the Baltics will be recycled to produce renewable diesel. As a result of the collaboration, Hesburger will begin using Neste MY Renewable Diesel™ in the majority of its transport vehicles in Finland, reducing the greenhouse gas emissions in these transports by up to 90% compared to fossil diesel use. Produc...

A.P. Moller - Maersk has announced the signing of a global end-to-end logistics agreement with Danish Crown from 2021. The three-year end-to-end agreement covers all Danish Crown’s business units, delivering solutions on ocean services, inland logistics and cold chain logistics.   Access to the digital supply chain platform, Tradelens, which is underpinned by blockchain technology, is also a core part of the agreement between A.P. Moller - Maersk and Danish Crown. A.P. Moller - M...

Inmarsat, the pioneer in global, mobile satellite communications, announces that Ben Palmer OBE will be joining the company as President of its Maritime Business Unit on 8 November 2021. Most recently head of Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems division across Europe, Ben brings 25 years’ experience of driving transformational change in technology-heavy industries, including maritime, with a strong customer-centric focus and a track record of delivering results. Maritime sat...

Maersk Growth, the corporate venture arm of A.P. Moller - Maersk, invests in Vertoro – a Dutch start-up focused on developing liquid lignin technology which can be used as a marine fuel.   Maersk’s investment will be used to further develop and commercialise Vertoro’s patented liquid lignin technology, and it will enable Vertoro to build a demo plant, which will become operational in 2022. The output of this plant will be used to develop marine fuels in partnership wit...

Neste recently conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) study on the environmental impacts of the usage of its 100% renewable feedstock, Neste RE™.  It shows a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction of more than 85% over the life cycle when Neste RE was used to replace conventional fossil feedstock in the chemical and polymers industry. The study thereby confirms the results from earlier studies on Neste’s feedstock for the polymers industry. LCA Study follows a 'cradle-to-gat...

As the travel industry continues to bounce back, the Swedish travel technology firm Sembo has just secured a $12m (approx €10.3m/104mSEK) investment from its parent company Stena Line. Sembo is now embarking on an ambitious expansion plan. The funds are to be used to support the recruitment of some of the sharpest software developers available in order to speed up the first phase of the company´s international expansion. With the vast majority of travelers now planning and booking th...

Following in the footsteps of A.P. Moller - Maersk’s Ocean ECO Delivery product launched in 2019, Maersk Japan will be launching a pilot to offer customers sustainable drayage in Japan. It will utilise renewable diesel to provide immediate carbon emission reductions. This will be the first permanently fixed green solution for container drayage in Japan and promises to reduce carbon emissions for container drayage operations by up to 80% based on lifecycle analysis. Ground-breaking seri...

Maersk is donating the services of its Special Project Logistics (SPL) unit and charging a symbolic nominal freight cost of $1 per 40’ container for urgently needed medical supplies to be distributed to medical facilities in India in response to COVID-19 related shortages. "Several donors and organisations had donated supplies worth millions of dollars; however, they all were struggling with the shipment process disrupted by Covid. We thank Maersk and the Government of India profusely f...

CMA CGM informs its customers that its AMERIGO service (connecting West Med to the US East Coast) will temporarily stop calling Savannah due to severe congestion in this port (8-10 days) and in order to protect schedule integrity & weekly sailing frequency. Impacting first sailing A new call at Charleston will be inserted in the rotation and Savannah shipments will be directed to Charleston. The first sailing impact will be m/v CMA CGM LA TRAVIATA voy. 0MR9TW1MA, ETA Algeciras on October 3...

Currently, women represent only two per cent of the maritime industry, while only eight percent of employees in engineering are women. This is in stark contrast to the UK workforce as a whole, of which women make up 47%. For many women, entering a sector that’s perceived as a ‘boy’s club’ isn’t always appealing. If a sector looks unwelcoming to women from the outside, it’s unlikely to attract female employees in any role. But this means these workers are pote...

Inmarsat, the pioneer in global, mobile satellite communications, publishes a new report pinpointing the impact of COVID-19 in accelerating global shipping’s digital journey. Written by maritime innovation consultancy Thetius and sponsored by the Inmarsat Research Programme, ‘A Changed World: The state of digital transformation in a post-COVID-19 maritime industry’ captures a sector fast-tracking IoT-based solutions from November 2019. It characterises COVID-19 as a 'univers...

To companies like Fibertex, a reliable and multimodal transport setup, timing and precision are essential. That is why it was with humbleness Blue Water in the spring of 2021 entered into an agreement with the company to take over more of their global transport. The new cooperation involved Fibertex assigning the majority of their road traffic to Blue Water along with their oversea freight, and consequently also the responsibility for the company’s biggest and most critical markets. Prec...

MAN Energy Solutions has signed a cooperation agreement with DP World (Drydocks World), the globally renowned provider of smart logistics solutions. Effective immediately, the agreement targets common progress in the field of decarbonisation and is scheduled to run for five years, with an option to extend thereafter.   Wayne Jones OBE – Chief Sales Officer, and Gaby Hanna – Senior Vice President and Head of Region – Middle East & Africa, acted as signatories for MAN...

The UK government has selected eight new freeports in England, as a means to boost trade, jobs and investment, across the country. The special taxation and customs rules for the freeports will help businesses develop new facilities and operations, to trade and manufacture goods more cost-effectively, countering the effects of other complications, such as Brexit and COVID-19 pandemic.  Early deliverability of opportunities for new businesses is the key, with Solent Gateway Ltd, at Marchwood...

Golden Ocean Group Limited, one of the world’s largest listed dry bulk shipowners announces the sale of two older Panamax vessels, Golden Opportunity and Golden Endurer, and an agreement to construct four Kamsarmax vessels. Sale price The aggregate sale price of the vessels is $37.2 million, and the Company expects to record a gain from sale of approximately $4.9 million in Q3 2021 and $5.0 million in Q4 2021 and receive net cash proceed of approximately $22.2 million in Q4. The net cas...

Inmarsat is delighted to return as Official Communications Partner to The Maiden Factor, the round-the-world sailing campaign promoting equal access to education for girls from all backgrounds and countries. Spearheaded by iconic sailing legend Tracy Edwards, Maiden’s campaign began in 2018, which saw a rotating all-female crew sail over 33,000 miles around the globe, visiting over 23 destinations in 12 countries. However, they were forced to put their voyage on hold in 2020 becau...

Rolls-Royce has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy Brandenburg (MWAE) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to advance the research and development of hybrid-electric propulsion systems for the next generation of aviation in Brandenburg.   The partners agreed on the establishment of development, testing and production facilities, creating an industrial eco-system for hybrid-electric aviation propul...