Norwegian fish carrier specialist Intership recently took delivery of the new build well-boat Inter Atlantic with a sister ship to follow. Well-boat, a term believed to originate from the 17th century, is a fishing vessel with a well or tank for the storage and transport of live fish. They are considered to be critical to salmon’s quality and fish-welfare.
Casual students and observers of the marine industry, and even many of the younger generation within the industry, could be forgiven for assuming that containerization has always been with us. However, that is not the case.
While already a market leader in vessel design innovation, Italy’s Grimaldi Group embarked on a new phase of modernization in 2018 with an initial order for six ro-ro vessels in May 2018 at a cost of $400 million. The first of these, ECO Valencia, was delivered in October 2020, arriving at the Port of Valencia in November 2020. Dedicated to the company’s Mediterranean coastal services, ECO Valencia is claimed to be the world’s largest Ro-Ro ship dedicated to short-sea shipping.
Lloyd’s original Coffee House is reliably known to have been opened by Mr. Edward Lloyd on Tower Street in London in 1686 and became a centre for shipping news and intrigue. As time went by and as foreign trade grew, the exchanges matured into basic ship broking and insurance transactions but also the first vessel registers and assessments of vessel quality. From 1768 the Society used the designation a1 to indicate a ship of the highest class.
While recently escaping the cold north for a touch of sunshine, I took this picture of the pneumatic cement carrier Kondili in the Port of Melbourne. Having been built in 2006, the vessel was converted from a handy size bulk carrier to a pneumatic cement carrier in 2018 and is currently dedicated to serving the Australian coast. She is one of 5 cement carriers in the Montreal headquartered CSL fleet.
In the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s the traditional reefer ship ruled the break bulk and pallet movement of perishables across the globe. The demand for citrus fruits, deciduous fruits, bananas, meat and fish of every description ensured that hundreds of ships were fully deployed for other than a few weeks in the northern summer which was referred to as “slack season”. On their ballast legs, many used their tween decks to ship new and/or used automobiles until the modern auto carrier squeezed them out.
In the past month, there has been quite a lot of huffing and puffing around the need to kick start serious global shipping momentum towards decarbonization. The BIMCO CII Operations Clause for Time Charter Parties 2022 has come in for a good deal of criticism on account of widespread scepticism that charterers and owners will find the common ground to cooperate in the implementation. Equally, some owners have dismissed the whole concept of the Carbon Intensity Index on the grounds that it may actually result in higher emission levels – not less.
Boka Vanguard is a uniquely designed and capable semi-submersible heavy lift ship capable of loading project cargoes of up to 110,000 tonnes. She was initially designed to move oil and gas facilities across the globe but as can be seen in the picture, she offers additional flexibility as an emergency drydock.
As the world has already learned, Russia’s war on Ukraine has abruptly turned the energy supply map on its head. The supply lines of coal, oil and gas have fundamentally shifted away from dependency by western nations on Russia as a primary supplier and the logistics of managing this change have almost overnight provided the marine industry with unforeseen challenges and opportunities.
A locally constructed oceanographic research vessel has been commissioned by the Colombian Navy. Design and construction were undertaken in close collaboration with Damen Shipyards Group of The Netherlands. She is the largest vessel ever to be built in Colombia.
