Damen Shipyards Cape Town Joins WITSA In South Africa

Damen Shipyards Cape Town has joined the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) in South Africa. The yard is represented in the Association by Transformation and ESD Manager Eva Moloi.

An international networking organisation, WISTA has its main focus to attract and support women, at the management level, in the maritime, trading and logistics sectors.

Transformation and ESD Manager Eva has been nominated as the Cape Town Chapter Representative to WISTA South Africa’s Executive Committee.

Eva said, “It is an honour to be nominated to serve on the Executive Committee of WISTA South Africa as the Cape Town Chapter Representative. Along with my fellow members I look forward to playing my part in developing our chapter, growing and diversifying its membership and engaging on workplace inclusivity and equality – subjects of crucial importance for the South African maritime industry.”

Damen Shipyards Group Head of Communications and President of WISTA the Netherlands Sylvia Boer said, “I would like to extend my congratulations to WISTA South Africa on their recent relaunching and wish them every success in their stimulation of workplace equality in the country’s maritime industry. I am pleased to see DSCT supporting these aims. International inclusivity in the workplace is high on Damen’s agenda and forms a significant part of our alignment of operations with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”

Workplace inclusivity is a subject close to the heart of Damen Shipyards Cape Town. It is the ai of yard to give all its employees the opportunity to develop their skills – both personal and professional – to their full potential.

Reference: damen.com

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Port Of Hamburg Achieves Growth In Cargo Handling In First Half Of 2019

Port of Hamburg, Germany’s largest universal port remains on a growth course in the first half of 2019, and achieves a distinct 4.1 % advance to 69.4 million tons in seaborne cargo handling. Especially good growth trend in the general cargo segment, up 6.1 percent at 48.4 million tons, was the main contributor to the excellent figures for total and container handling. The total for bulk cargo handling was just 0.3 percent lower than for last year’s first half at 21.0 million tons.

There is increase of  7.5%  in container handling to 4.7 million TEU is primarily attributable to the four new liner services that have linked the Hanseatic City with ports in the USA, Canada and Mexico since the start of the year.

The 283,000 TEU handled in Hamburg on container services with the USA since the beginning of the year took the United States into second place among Hamburg’s most important partners for container services. Now the Port of Hamburg is directly linked by a total of 14 liner services with 29 ports in the USA, Mexico and Canada.

“A total of eleven new liner services in the 2019 first half make it obvious that the Port of Hamburg has gained in attractiveness for shipping and shippers. With the start of expansion related to the adjustment of the fairway on the Lower and Outer Elbe, we are well on course for further expanding Hamburg’s position as the Northern European hub for worldwide freight traffic. Apart from its trade routes with China and Asia, Hamburg has now become a hub for those with the USA, Mexico and Canada,” said Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing. Mattern is delighted that in the first half, Hamburg proved able to grow more rapidly on container traffic than the major North Range ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. “Even in a generally tough situation on competition, and with traffic on the Elbe still subject to restrictions, Hamburg is making up ground and gaining market share,” said Mattern.

During the first half, there is also increase in total number of container vessels calling Hamburg. There is an increase of 3.7% in total of 3,046 containerships berthing in the Port of Hamburg. These were 89 ultra-large container carriers or 36.9 percent more among these, with a slot capacity of 18,000 TEU and over.

For the Port of Hamburg’s transhipment and hinterland services the first half proved extremely successful. The former profited from transhipment traffic on the new container liner services that produced additional volumes for Hamburg’s enormous network of feeder connections. At 1.7 million TEU, transhipment on to feeder ships in Hamburg rose by 5.5 percent. Seaport-hinterland services on land in the 2019 first half likewise achieved an 8.7 percent advance to 2.9 million TEU. “The positive figures for seaport-hinterland services and the transhipment area underline Hamburg’s outstanding position as Northern Europe’s hub port. More than 100 liner services connecting Hamburg with more than 1,000 seaports worldwide, deliver the containers that then leave Hamburg for further distribution inland,’ said Ingo Egloff, Axel Mattern’s colleague on Port of Hamburg Marketing’s Executive Board. Egloff pointed out that during the first six months of 2019, rail had succeeded in further expanding its share of onward freight for environment-friendly further transport. A total of 24.4 million tons, a 5.0 percent increase, were shifted into or out of the port by rail. In the container transport segment, 1.4 million TEU were handled by rail in the Port of Hamburg. In this way, Hamburg underlines its position as Europe’s leading rail port.

“For the first half of 2019, the Port Railway reported increases cross the board,” said Jens Meier, CEO of Hamburg Port Authority – HPA. “Also apparent, moreover, is the extreme efficiency of the Port Railway: Compared to last year’s first half, the number of trains was up by 3.6 percent, and of standard containers up by no less than 12 percent.” On just one day of heavy traffic for the Port Railway, a total of 225 freight trains will be running on the its network. On altogether 70 days during the 2019 first half, the number exceeded 200 per day. That is a dimension not even remotely attained by other European ports.

The Port of Hamburg guarantees more than 156,000 jobs in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region as a broadly based universal port. The port is also an important industrial location, with total value added of 21.8 billion euros of immense significance for the entire German national economy. “Yet for many of our European neighbours, Hamburg is also their transhipment port for seaborne foreign trade, and a hub for the services on land along the Silk Road between Europe and China,” declared Mattern.

Senator Westhagemann expressed satisfaction with the figures. “It is good to see that shipping companies and their customers continue to appreciate the Port of Hamburg’s qualities. This shows that we have invested in the right elements of the port, and the green light for the fairway adjustment in autumn last year has found positive acceptance. Thanks to the high quality of service rendered by enterprises in the Port of Hamburg and its superb connections with the hinterland, our port enjoys a tremendous reputation worldwide. Only just recently, I personally was able to convince myself of this when with major shipowner clients in Asia and Europe.”

For the second half of the year, against a background of repercussions on world seaborne trade that is influenced by the current trade and currency disputes between the USA and China, Port of Hamburg Marketing’s two Joint CEOs anticipate total growth of four percent in seaborne cargo throughput, and one of between five and six percent on container handling.

Reference: hafen-hamburg.de

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Top 10 Ship Tracking Websites

With the internet, communication and GPS satellites no part of the world has been left untouched. We can get real-time information whenever and wherever we want it. Thus, the process of tracking ships has also become very easy and accurate as there are several ship tracking websites that allow you to do just that.

Most of the ship tracker websites use the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to make this possible and satellite-based Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS). Google Earth is probably the most popular and feature-rich of the web applications that can be used for the purpose. With its help, you can access almost every public detail about any ship that you need.

In spite of some of these websites claiming to provide real-time location data, in reality, they are always behind by at least a few minutes up to several hours. Hence, one should never rely on these services for navigational purpose.

Related article: A Guide To Ship Prefixes For Naval And Merchant Vessels

List of Top Ship Tracking Websites

Here we have listed 10 of the top vessel tracker websites and applications that are commonly used for tracking ships. They give information not just related to the location, but also other technical details that one might require. They even provide photographs. The ship tracking websites are as follows:

1) Marine Traffic

Marine Traffic is probably the most widely used ship tracking service in the world. The popularity might be a direct result of it being so feature-rich.

It helps display real-time positions of vessels like ships and yachts all of the world as accurately as possible.

It has an advanced search feature and the AIS system that it uses has a massive database that stores the details of every possible kind of ship. Apart from the regular features it also tracks the number of ports around the world.

It is a paid app which can be downloaded on phones and tablets. It has more than 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store.

2) Find Ship

Find Ship is an application that allows people to search vessels by sorting through various options like the ship’s number, owner, type of construction, etc. and everything you search gets stored in their database just like many other websites that provide search functionality so that the next time you are looking for something you previously searched you will get faster access. This website also has a premium membership option that one can opt for in case they need some of the more advanced features. It has free live ship tracking also.

3) Fleet Mon

Fleet Mon is one of those services that have apps for both iOS as well as Android. It was established in 2007. One of the features that make it stand out is the FM explorer that all registered users have access to. It has customers across 164 countries of the world. Some of its prestigious customers are Tesla, Microsoft, Bosch, Lloyd’s Register, DHL, etc. It has got almost all the features that Marine Traffic and Ship Finder offers and happens to be one of the finest ship tracking services available.

4) Vessel Finder

Vessel Finder is another important website for free AIS ship tracking. Apart from the free real-time tracking solution, the newer version offers an OpenStreetMap interface, which makes the task of AIS Live vessel tracking even easier. One positive point about Vessel Finder is the fact that one need not register to use the site. Vessel tracking by name is available to users as well as search by IMO number, MMSI. Users can search through a database containing over 150,000 vessels. One can get to know the time of an arriving or a departing vessel or browse the gallery containing photographs of the vessels.

5) Shipfinder.co

Shipfinder.co is actually a companion app from my.pinkfroot.com which is a social network for a growing community of aviation and marine enthusiasts and professionals. Apart from the usual search functionality based on name, MMSI, IMO, destination, callsign or location it has some extra features like the ability to embed location-specific maps in your own website, playback of historic journeys, a Google Earth “Sail Me” simulator, etc.

6) Vesseltracker

Vesseltracker is a website which can accurately track Marine vessels and find ship location with more than a hundred thousand being in its database. It is user-friendly as it helps the client to track the desired vessel with the help of maps and nautical charts. It can provide real-time as well as historical data of vessels all over the world. It was started in 2006 and is also compatible with all types of devices and several languages.

 7) VT Explorer

VT Explorer is a ship-tracking website that provides real-time AIS ship position data to the users along with other technical data. It is said to monitor 150,000 vessels on a daily basis. It can also provide the user with pictures of vessels. It is compatible with phones, computers, tablets, etc. It is a paid service which initially provides users with a free trial version.

8) Cruisemapper

Cruisemapper is a cruise ship tracker that provides location and schedules of cruise ships all over the world. It is unique as it is one of the very few tracking websites providing features and technical details of cruise ships. It is compatible with all devices.

9) Myshiptracking

Myshiptracking is a website that provides the user with real-time location and position of ships and vessels all around the world. It is useful in analyzing as well as controlling maritime traffic. It is available as a website and an app on both android and iOS.

10) Equasis

Equasis is a website which gives services in providing ship details. It is available free of cost. A user simply needs to register and log in to the official website in order to access all of the services it provides.

Here are the links for tracking ships of some of the biggest logistic companies in the world

1) Maersk Vessel Tracking
    https://ift.tt/2KAbHfq
https://ift.tt/31K05MB

2) MSC Vessel Tracking
      https://ift.tt/2KCQBNq
https://ift.tt/31Fv8sN

3) Hapag Lloyd Tracking
     https://ift.tt/2KCvgDV
https://ift.tt/31Fva3T

4) CMA CGM Vessel Tracking
https://ift.tt/2KC16R5
https://ift.tt/31NqxVL

5) Cosco Vessel Tracking
      https://ift.tt/2KCyNlm
https://ift.tt/31FvcJ3

 

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Teekay Takes Delivery Of Fourth Arc 7 Ice-Breaking LNGC Out Of Six New Builds

Teekay LNG Partners is on the path of growth. Around six LNG carrier newbuildings is to be built in partnership with its new joint venture partner, China LNG Shipping (CLNG), for the Yamal LNG Project in Northern Russia. Four out of six Arc 7 Icebreaking LNG new builds has been delivered to the company. Vladimir Voronin, which is named after the famous Soviet sea captain, have recently taken final delivery of Vladimir Voronin HN 2431, which is the fourth in the series of our six Arc 7 ice-breaking LNG newbuilds.

Under the SBC and into the TCP at 11:21 local Korean time in international waters off the coast of Russia the delivery has been made.

This was a team effort from the team onboard, strategic development, newbuild site, and operations team. The company congratulated everyone involved in the project.

The update for last two deliveries of our Arc 7 ice-breaking LNG new builds will be updated soon.

Reference: teekay.com

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DEME’s New Dredger “Bonny River” Driven By Schottel Propulsion Solutions

The trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) “Bonny River”, which is built at Royal IHC’s Chinese partner yard COSCO Guangdong Shipyard, is propelled by SCHOTTEL. The TSHD is driven by controllable pitch propellers and transverse thrusters from the German propulsion expert has recently handed over to the Belgian dredging company DEME. The vessel with a 15,000 cbm capacity is capable of dredging hard soil and is able to work in water depths of more than 100 m.

Jan Gabriel, Head of the Technical Construction and Conversion Department at the DEME Group, comments, “The design of the ‘Bonny River’ is inspired by a drive to continuously innovate from an ecological and efficiency perspective. As such, DEME continues to be at the forefront of the industry and significantly reduces the environmental impact of its operations. SCHOTTEL’s propulsion solutions fit in this strategy.”

SCHOTTEL SCPs and STTs for maximum maneuverability

“Bonny River” is driven by two SCHOTTEL Controllable Pitch Propellers type SCP 129 4-XG with an input power of 8,000 kW each and a propeller diameter of about 4.5 m. It reaches a speed of approximately 16 knots. Beyond this speed, maximum maneuverability and propulsion efficiency are provided by tunnel thrusters, that is two STT 3 FP (750 kW each) and one STT 5 FP (1,500 kW), which can be demounted from above.

A complete power management system was developed together with SCHOTTEL’s control partner NORIS and IHC Systems. This controls the mechanically driven dredging pump, PTOs and the propellers without overloading the dual-fuel engines.

Reference: schottel.de

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APM Terminals Poti To Commence Uninterrupted 24/7 Operations For Increased Efficiency

APM Terminals Poti has commenced the implementation of uninterrupted 24/7 operations for maximized berth utilization, increase efficiency and to speed up vessel handling.

The implementation of a flexible workforce management solution will take place in two phases. Single berth occupancy will be applied in phase one. Currently, the workforce has 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 is expected to be fully implemented in Q4 2019. The second phase will apply when both berths are occupied. In this case, an external, flexible workforce will be applied to speed up the vessel handling process.

This concept of being flexible also means that, in alignment with the best international labour practices, equipment operators will receive two breaks. This proactively addresses potential fatigue issues, improves safety and work-life balance, and has a positive impact on productivity and customer satisfaction.

Increased volumes

During trials involving a number of shifts on a variety of different vessels the positive impact on productivity was confirmed. The implementation of continuous operations during single berthing alone, is forecast to increase capacity at the terminal with an additional 8,677 moves for the remaining 2019. Around 55% of total operational time is taken in single berth occupancy. These improvements will contribute to faster vessel turnaround times and once phase two is fully implemented, it will equate to an additional 56 crane hours per week.

The APM Terminals Poti team will continues to engage different stakeholders that will directly influence the logistics chain in the port, for promoting this new way of working and ensure its long-term success.

Klaus Laursen, Managing Director of APM Terminals Poti, congratulated his employees for, “This utterly smart and mutually beneficial remodelling,” and wished them every success in future endeavours to take customer experience to the next level in Poti Sea Port.

Reference: apmterminals.com

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Interlake And Fincantieri Celebrates First US-Flagged Bulk Carrier Construction After 35 Years

On Wednesday, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and The Interlake Steamship Company hosted a ceremonial first-cut-of-steel event to celebrate the historic start of construction on the first U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier built in more than 35 years. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding’s blast and prime team prepared the event, and its fabrication team prepped and then cut the steel with automated precision within the shipyard’s largest fabrication building in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

“The first cut of steel is a major milestone that signifies we, along with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, are ready to begin production on this historic project,” says Interlake President Mark W. Barker.

“We are extremely proud to build our company’s first ship since 1981 on these freshwater shores with the hardworking women and men who help power our industry and with American-made steel from the iron ore we carry on our U.S. flag fleet vessels. It’s a true Great Lakes success story.”

“Our workforce is very proud to begin construction on what will become a “homeport ship” so to speak,” says Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding’s Vice President and General Manager Todd Thayse. “This large-scale bulk carrier will be built on the Great Lakes and operate right here on the Great Lakes, which creates a sense of local and regional pride. Today’s ceremony with Interlake was a great way to demonstrate how excited and appreciative we are for their continued confidence in the quality of our work.”

The first plate of steel which was used in the ceremony was sourced from ArcelorMittal’s Burns Harbor steelworks location. ArcelorMittal is the premiere steel provider for the project.

“ArcelorMittal is privileged to serve as a steel supplier for the newest bulk carrier on the Great Lakes,” says Gary Mohr, Vice President of Supply Chain Management at ArcelorMittal USA. “The expansion of Interlake’s fleet will further support water commerce and the movement of raw materials using the safest, most efficient and environmentally friendly method of transportation. The construction of a new bulk carrier is a great example of how the steelmaking process comes full circle.”

Since 1983, the new River-Class, self-unloading bulk carrier is believed to be the first ship for U.S. Great Lakes service built on the Great Lakes. The length is of 639 feet (78 feet W, 45 feet H, 28,000 DWT), and the ship will transport raw materials to support manufacturing throughout the Great Lakes region. The Interlake Steamship Company, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and Bay Engineering are jointly designing the bulk carrier, complete with advanced vessel and unloading systems automation.

The completion has been scheduled in mid-2022, the carrier will be built by Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding’s nearly 700 skilled trade workers and will generate business for partnering contractors, vendors and suppliers. Major partners for the project include, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS); Bay Engineering (BEI); EMD Engines; Caterpillar; EMS-Tech, Inc.; Lufkin (a GE Company) and MacGregor.

“The Interlake Steamship Company is always proud to build locally, supporting surrounding communities and states – a legacy that we began more than 100 years ago,” Barker says. “We live and work in the Great Lakes region, and promoting growth and the positive economic impact of Great Lakes shipping is integral to our mission and vision as a leader in this industry.”

Reference: interlake-steamship.com

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