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.
Commissioned in June this year for the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, the hybrid electric aluminium catmaran hulled MPA Guardian is designed to fulfill routine patrol, search and rescue, fire fighting, oil spill response and drone operations. The aluminium hulled vessel is a collaboration between the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) of the Singapore Ministry of Defence, local builder Penguin Shipyard International, and UK-based naval architecture specialist BMT.
As the world’s major container ports gradually return to fluidity following more than two years of congestion during the Covid induced consumer spending spree, the container lines are again blanking sailings and laying up ships in order to manage capacity and support spot rates. The Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) has been steadily falling in recent weeks and the rates to ship a 40’ units out of China are now hovering around the $10,000 level while Transatlantic rates are holding at around the $6,000 level.
In March this year, Japan’s NYK Line took delivery of Plumeria Leader, the company’s second Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) using LNG as the ship’s primary fuel.
Built by Shin Kurushima Dockyard, Shin Kurushima Toyohashi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.
Owned and operated by NYK Line
Chartered by Toyota Motor Corporation
LOA 199m
Beam 38m
Capacity 7,000 units (standard vehicle equivalent)
