A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Monday it has agreed to sell its 30.75% stake in Russian port operator Global Ports Investments to Russia’s largest container operator Delo Group, which also owns a 30.75% stake in the firm.
After the divestment, which needs regulatory approval, Maersk’s port unit APM Terminals would “no longer be involved in any entities operating in Russia or own any assets in the country,” Maersk said in a statement.
Maersk put its stake in Global Ports up for sale in March as it decided to quit Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.
Egypt’s finance ministry has put in place a package of measures to clear a backlog of goods piled up in port, a ministry statement said on Tuesday.
A severe shortage of foreign currency in Egypt over the last six months has sent banks and importers scrambling to pay for the letters of credit needed to get their cargo released from customs. Factories and retailers complain that production and sales have been hurt due to a lack of inputs.
The foreign exchange crisis was triggered by the Ukrainian war and interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The package, to be implemented “in the coming days”, is designed to help reduce commodity prices paid by Egyptian citizens, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said in the statement.
One measures will allow cargoes that have completed their customs procedures and are awaiting the “Model 4” financing to leave ports within “the next few days”, the statement said.
Model 4 is a pledge issued by commercial banks to pay the foreign exporter, according to a 2017 central bank directive. Banks over the last six months have often lacked the foreign currency needed to issue the pledge.
Fines imposed on importers and investors for being late in completing customs procedures will also be suspended if caused by a lack of documents from concerned authorities.
This measure will reduce the financial burden on importers and discourage them from passing on higher prices to consumers.
In addition, shipping agents will be allowed to remove cargo from customs zones and place it in outside warehouses provided they pledge not to release it before they have received permission. This is to relieve investors and importers from the additional cost of storing cargo inside port warehouses.
Supply chain risk company Everstream Analytics said carriers have avoided Felixstowe during the strike, with ship calls dropping by 82% from 29 in the week of August 15 to just five in the following strike week.
“The large-scale vessel diversions have led to higher congestion levels, especially at German ports that have battled labor actions on their own in the last few weeks,” said Everstream.
Waiting times at Hamburg hit a peak for the year of 42 hours last week and at Bremerhaven, 18 vessels per day waited at anchor to berth, another 2022 high and around 63% above the annual average.
The strike at Felixstowe has ended, but the underlying issue of pay is yet to be resolved.
“The ball is now firmly back in Felixstowe’s court. The employer has the opportunity to make a greatly improved offer which will end this dispute. If the employer declines this opportunity, then further strike action is expected to be announced in the coming weeks,” said a spokesperson for Unite the union.
Unions have proposed September 19 as a potential date for more strike action, potentially with fellow dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool striking alongside workers at Felixstowe.
“Knock-on congestion and delays on other European ports are therefore likely to occur in the coming weeks as well as we head into the beginning of Q4 and the holiday season,” said Everstream.
Port owner Hutchison said it offered a “very fair” 7% pay rise to workers along with a one-off £500 bonus.
The threat of further industrial action comes at a time of widespread strikes in the UK, including by rail workers, barristers, council workers, and postal workers. The most prominent reason for strikes is insufficient pay increases in the face of high inflation.
Unite, the union behind the Felixstowe strike, has had recent success in the UK maritime sector. Workers at ferry operator Red Funnel voted to accept a two-year pay deal of between 13.4% and 18.3% covering members including ratings, shunters and customer service staff.
The strikes are the latest in a series of disruptions to the UK supply chain, adding to complications from Brexit regulatory changes, pandemic impacts, and the loss of ferry capacity during the P&O Ferries debacle.
The U.S. Navy said it thwarted an Iranian attempt to capture one if its unmanned surface vessels (USV) in the Arabian Gulf.
While transiting international waters around 11 p.m. (local time), Aug. 29, U.S. 5th Fleet observed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) support ship Shahid Baziar towing a Saildrone Explorer USV in an attempt to detain it. U.S. Navy patrol coastal ship USS Thunderbolt (PC 12) was operating nearby and immediately responded. U.S. 5th Fleet also launched an MH-60S Sea Hawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26, based in Bahrain.
The actions taken by U.S. naval forces in response resulted in the IRGCN vessel disconnecting the towing line to the USV and departing the area approximately four hours later. The U.S. Navy resumed operations without further incident.
“IRGCN’s actions were flagrant, unwarranted and inconsistent with the behavior of a professional maritime force,” said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces. “U.S. naval forces remain vigilant and will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows while promoting rules-based international order throughout the region.”
The Saildrone Explorer USV the IRGCN attempted to confiscate is U.S. government property and equipped with sensors, radars and cameras for navigation and data collection, the Navy said. This technology is available commercially and does not store sensitive or classified information, it added..
U.S. 5th Fleet operates a network of manned and unmanned systems in accordance with international law. The integration of unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into fleet operations enhances maritime vigilance for U.S. forces and international partners in waters across the Middle East.
It is official: the former 47,000-ton Horizon is being scrapped in Turkey’s Aliaga.
After two years of languishing in Greece, the vessel departed from Elefsis Bay for the scrap yard last week.
Out of service since 2020, the 1990 vessel will be dismantled with some other classic cruise vessels at the Turkish recycling facility.
During the procedure, the vessel’s fixtures, systems, building materials, and engines will be removed and sold off for reusing or repurposing.
The Horizon first debuted in 1990 as Celebrity Cruises’ first new build. Meyer Weft constructed it; the vessel was designed primarily for offering exclusive cruising in North America.
After debuting in the New York-Bermuda route, the 1,450-guest vessel reportedly served the upscale brand in multiple destinations, including Alaska, Canada, and the Caribbean.
Before quitting the firm’s fleet, the Horizon became the first Celebrity vessel homeported in Norfolk and Philadelphia.
Credits: meyerwerft.de
Transferred to Island Cruises in 2005, the ship became the Island Star.
Collaboration between First Choice Holidays and Royal Caribbean focused on the UK family market in the summers while targeting Brazil’s younger audiences, especially in winter.
The vessel was transferred three years later to the final operator, Pullmantur Cruceros. The latter is also a Royal Caribbean brand; the Spanish firm used the ship for itineraries in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe.
During its career with Pullmantur that spanned 12 years, the Horizon sailed for Croisières De France – the firm’s French brand.
With the ongoing pandemic bringing the cruise fleet to an unforeseen stop in 2020, the Horizon sailed its last cruise in 2020 (March).
A few weeks later, the ship was used to repatriate the crew members of Pullmantur before reaching Greece’s Elefsis Bay – where it stayed for the last two years.
In 2020 (July), after Pullmantur reportedly filed for insolvency, the vessel was returned to the Royal Caribbean Group with fleet mates Sovereign and Monarch, which were beached for scrapping immediately.
The first-ever container vessel on the first-ever China-Scotland direct sea shipping channel has embarked on a journey back to China. It is carrying Scottish items back to the Chinese market, underscoring the earlier success of the new shipping channel in boosting trade between Scotland and China irrespective of global headwinds.
The route connects Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang Province of East China and Dongguan Port in Guangdong Province of South China — two significant export hubs — with the UK’s Greenock and Liverpool.
The service is expected to reduce the shipping time by one-third of that of more conventional lines, Peel Ports Group, which operates Greenock Ocean Terminal, reported to the Global Times on Monday.
The new channel aims to reduce the journey time to nearly 33 days by eliminating unscheduled port congestions and delays in Rotterdam. The track will be operated by six vessels of approximately 1,600 containers each month.
Image for representation purpose only
Per the details offered by Peel Ports, the vessel arrived at Greenock port on Saturday and docked for almost 12 hours. It finished loading and unloading goods before they returned to the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port.
Items carried by ship to China included beer, paper, candy, gin, oil, gas, shortbread, water, machinery, and over one million whisky bottles, Peel Ports said.
Chinese products unloaded from the first vessel included packaging materials, textiles, furniture, fitness equipment, beauty supplies, Christmas decorations, bathroom appliances, toys, and footwear.
Jim McSporran, Clydeport Peel Ports’ director, mentioned that it’s great to welcome the vital service to the Greenock Ocean Terminal.
McSporran mentioned that they believe that the collaboration will be a positive development for customers and businesses and boost the wider supply chain. We look forward to working with our partners on the service in the coming months.
It was known that China Xpress (Ningbo-Greenock channel) was a service much needed by several sectors, yet the level of immediate interest is amazing. The direct trading link to China cuts through the immensely frustrating transhipment delays. This acts as a massive boost for Scotland-based businesses and can help consumers in these trying times, commented David Milne, the MD of KC Group Shipping, one of the new shipping route operators.
Meanwhile, several Chinese freight bookers have been closely monitoring the new shipping channel amid massive European port congestions.
The new route will be thoroughly inspected. We may try if can keep the present journey time and frequency. So far, there are no bookings for the route as shipments are covered between Germany and China, a Yiwu-based logistics agent reported to the Global Times.
The agent observed that Germany’s maritime ports were suffering from congestion, which increased the sea shipping costs and extended the time to almost 40 to 50 days.
The introduction of the new route reflects that it’s in line with the fundamental interests of firms and that it’s not possible for some Britain-based politicians to intervene in the operations of the economic market, or decouple from China on trade, the deputy chairman with the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, Li Yong, informed the Global Times on Monday.
Li mentioned that the UK sought a trading position in Europe after Brexit. Opening the new direct logistics route will help British ports boost their importance. It is also an ideal solution that firms came up with during massive congestion at the major European ports.
Milne also called for the support of Scottish exporters and importers to safeguard the long-term future of the new service, as it has been a massive success for KC Group Shipping, but this is just one of the first of several journeys.
NYK Line, Nihon Shipyard (NSY), ClassNK, and IHI Corporation signed a joint research and development agreement for the commercialization of an ammonia floating storage and regasification barge (A-FSRB).
Specifically, the parties will work on the R&D of the world’s first barge equipped with a floating storage and regasification facility for ammonia. A barge is a flat-bottomed vessel designed to carry heavy cargo mainly in inland waterways and ports. Almost all barges cannot navigate by themselves because they are not equipped with an engine; they must be towed or propelled by a tugboat.
Since ammonia does not emit carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted, it is expected to be a next-generation fuel that contributes to global warming countermeasures.
In Japan, technological development is underway for ammonia fuel mixed combustion power generation at coal-fired power plants as an innovative next-generation thermal power generation technology that contributes to the reduction of CO2 emissions.
On the other hand, when using ammonia in existing thermal power plants, there are issues such as the problem of securing land for new onshore facilities including storage tanks and regasification facilities, and the large initial investment cost.
Advantages of A-FSRB
An A-FSRB is an offshore floating facility that can receive and store ammonia that has been transported via ship as a liquid, warm and regasify ammonia according to demand, and then send it to a pipeline onshore.
An A-FSRB offers the advantages of shorter construction time and lower costs in comparison to construction of onshore storage tanks and regasification plants. In fact, the A-FSRB is expected to speed up the adoption of ammonia fuel and contribute to its wider use as a lower-environmental-impact next-generation fuel.
In August 2020, NYK Line, Japan Marine United Corporation (which has a 49% share of NSY), and ClassNK started joint R&D of an A-FSRB. However, since the demand for fuel ammonia is expected to increase further in the future, the three parties have concluded a new joint R&D agreement with IHI, an ammonia-related equipment manufacturer.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has inaugurated a new multipurpose terminal, Terminal Kijing, at the Port of Pontianak, West Kalimantan on August 9 to support expansion of existing capacity, which has reached peak capacity. The new terminal has a capacity to handle 5,000 twenty-foot TEU of containerized cargo, with a throughput of 200,000 TEU, and eight million tons of general bulk and breakbulk commodities.
To develop Terminal Kijing, state-owned port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) spent around IDR2.9. trillion (US$194 million) and six years of construction, which started in 2013. Pelindo faced many obstacles and progress was stalled several times until 2016 when the central government stepped in to give the project a boost by designating it a national strategic project. This status cleared all bureaucracy.
This situation reflected the reality that a state-run port does not have full control of the port development program. The government retains a big portion of authority in the hands of the Ministry of Transport with the power to allocate budget and give endorsement. However, this policy triggers an asymmetrical business practice among state-run ports and private port operators.
By virtue of Shipping Law No. 17/2008, the port business is opened to both public and public sectors. Nonetheless, the private sector has more support from the government than state-owned port companies.
For example, private port operators do not pay dividend to the state, only income tax and concession fee. Pelindo, on the other hand, has to financially support the state. Moreover, Pelindo’s financial performance is subject to scrutiny by the Audit Board or BPK (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan), the national supreme auditing institution. The private port operators are not subject to this scrutiny.
Unlike counterparts from other countries, Indonesian state-owned port companies do not enjoy any advantages, preference or special treatment from the government. In fact, the government often hampers the growth of the state-run ports.
For example, the government’s poor handling of the development of Patimban Port in Subang, West Java. The Ministry of Transport claimed Patimban Port is complementary to the Port of Tanjung Priok, Indonesia’s busiest port, which is located not far away.
However, the facilities at both ports are similar with the same container and car terminals. When the Patimban Port was officially launched in December 2020 by Jokowi, the ministry was reportedly deviating car carriers from Tanjung Priok to Patimban. Some responded positively but many, especially big car carriers, still called at Tanjung Priok.
The Patimban Port is financed partly by the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which funded IDR14.17 trillion of the IDR17.16 trillion needed for the first phase of the construction, which included the building of car, container and multipurpose quays, vehicle and box yards and other supporting facilities. JICA has a 49 percent stake in the port.
PT Pelabuhan Patimban Internasional (PPI), the port operator, handed over the operation of the car terminal to Toyota Tsusho for a two-year contract, and reportedly the contract to operate the container terminal is given to a company majority-owned by Chairul Tanjung, an Indonesian businessman and former cabinet minister. It seemed that PPI has morphed into a landlord instead, which may be in breach of the agreement it has with the Ministry of Transport.
Another similar story involved the Tanjung Carat project in South Sumatra, which was located close to the existing Boom Baru Port operated by Pelindo. Pelindo, again, has to compete with Tanjung Carat Port.
The Terminal Kijing project has shown that port development by the Ministry of Transport and state-owned companies tended to favor small facilities scattered across the archipelago. Consequently, they attracted less interest from main line operators and limited cargo flow from the hinterland.
The government should give Pelindo, the biggest national port operator, the authority and freedom it deserves to develop ports. Pelindo, whose work can trigger great impact in the country, is to be hailed for its tenacity amidst unfavorable business climate. So, next time, if Pelindo wants to develop a port, the government should give it permission to construct it adjacent to the Strait of Malacca with giant capacity and modern technology. Hopefully.
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. has conducted a trial use of marine biofuel which was supplied by pioneering marine biofuel supply company GoodFuels on Supramax bulker “ALBION BAY” with the cooperation of JFE Steel Corporation.
“K” LINE signed a deal for marine biofuel supply with GoodFuels. The vessel completed the loading operation of Hot Rolled Steel Coils at JFE Steel Corporation West Japan Works on July 24th, 2022 and started navigation to discharging port at Pakistan. The marine biofuel was delivered to the vessel at off Singapore on Aug 3rd, 2022. After leaving Singapore, the vessel conducted the trial use of the marine biofuel and safely arrived at discharging port on Aug 16th, 2022.
Marine biofuel has the potential to become an environmentally friendly alternative fuel generally. Bio-diesel will be able to reduce CO2 by about 80-90% in the well-to-wake (from fuel generation to consumption) process without changing current engine specifications. “K” LINE conducts this trial by using marine biofuel blended with bio-diesel and fossil fuel.
In addition to this trial, “K” LINE is planning same kind of trial use of marine biofuel by cape size bulker for raw material shipment of JFE Steel Corporation.
Ships calling at American ports in 2018 carried almost 1601 million tons of international traded goods for a total value of $ 1.762 billion, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. Because of the quantities involved, ship cargo never has a low value, even if the vessel is small and the unit price of the traded commodity modest.
A 2020 report by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) about the causes of 1801 ship accidents in Europe within the 2014-2019 timeframe indicates humans were responsible for 54% of accidents. The primary factor was noncompliance with collision prevention rules issued by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The U.S. National Transportation Security Board reached similar conclusions. In “Safer Seas Digest 2020,” the board examined the causes of 42 major accidents in recent years within American waters or American vessels and concluded “those who do not attend (or attend to) accident lessons most risk paying a steep price—not necessarily only a financial one.”1
Paradoxically, the increased flow of information on the bridge provided by improved monitoring technology may increase cognitive stress and lead to delayed decisions by the officers on watch. Technology itself may trigger accidents it is supposed to prevent.
In the future, by ever-increasing vessel dimensions and sea traffic to a global scale, an intelligent, autonomous ship will be able to process information flows quickly enough to react accordingly and guarantee safe delivery of valued cargoes (see Fig. 1).
Efforts to produce a fully autonomous ship of IMO degree four, in which “the operating system of the ship is able to make decisions and determine actions by itself,” are underway in Scandinavia and other neuralgic maritime areas.
The four IMO degrees of autonomy are:
Degree 1: Ship with automated processes and decision support. Seafarers are on board to operate and control shipboard systems and functions. Some operations may be automated and at times be unsupervised, but with seafarers on board ready to take control.
Degree 2: Remotely controlled ship with seafarers on board. The ship is controlled and operated from another location. Seafarers are available on board to take control and operate the shipboard systems and functions.
Degree 3: Remotely controlled ship without seafarers on board. The ship is controlled and operated from another location. There are no seafarers on board.
Degree 4: Fully autonomous ship. The operating system of the ship is able to make decisions and determine actions by itself.
Beyond radar: electro-optical ship sensors
In 2015, Rødesth and Burmeister created a modularization scheme of components for the design of autonomous vessels based on the concept of an unmanned dry bulker of approximately 50,000 tons dwt.2 IMO recommended their Formal Safety Analysis (see Fig. 2).
(Image credit: Ø. J. Rødesth and H. C. Burmeister [2])
FIGURE 2. Schematic of an autonomous ship system proposed by Rødesth and Burmeister.
Several factors limit the identification of potential collision risks by radar and automatic identification systems (AIS). Radars have a blind spot and do not register smaller wood or fiberglass craft unless they carry a reflector. They are further subject to signal clutter in traffic-intensive ports or in access waters to ports. AIS is a passive type of sensor that provides information only on targets also carrying an AIS that must be switched on (not always the case).
Rødesth and Burmeister proposed integrating information from electronics with the input of electro-optical sensors: a visual camera and a FLIR camera in the far-infrared.
The specific advantages to seafaring of each IR waveband are:
MWIR and LWIR. A bit ahead of the times, the German Navy in WWII feared the Allies could track submarines on surface at night by the IR emissions of their diesel engines. Thermal emissions of a ship cause a temperature difference with its surrounding background of sky and sea that can be readily identified in darkness by thermal sensors—no external target illumination is needed. Some masters use thermal cameras to improve night navigation. Castaways, if alive, can be identified in darkness by the temperature difference between the sea and their bodies. Small craft, sail ships, buoys, or lost containers with little or no thermal emission are hardly perceived in the midwave-infrared (MWIR), but by residual temperature difference with the waters, it can occasionally be done in the longwave-infrared (LWIR).
SWIR and NIR. Signals in shortwave-infrared (SWIR) and near-infrared (NIR) are less influenced by scatter and allow more efficient long-distance sensing in adverse weather and visibility conditions (snow, rain, fog, haze, and smoke). Smaller craft and objects with temperatures similar to the sea background are more easily detected. SWIR cameras, like those in the visible, rely on reflected light via the sun, moon, or artificial sources. Data fusion is favored by analogous imaging of the two, and some NIR sensors perform down to 500 nm with a favorable overlap that enriches images in the visible.
Almost half of recent research on algorithms for ship detection focus on IR imaging, according to a 2021 survey by Liquian Wang and colleagues of Shandong University, with 20% dealing with the combination of visible plus IR.3 Because of the reduced atmospheric absorption, the majority of the researchers (68%) use LWIR. SWIR ship detection is primarily done via satellites in space.
Multispectral sensing, with information extraction from visible, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR images, provides comprehensive target detection and discrimination the shipping community needs for autonomous vessels. An intelligent system capturing and evaluating data in different spectral bands is more error-proof. The increase of contrast leads to more sensitivity—for instance, the advantage of blending visible and IR images (see Fig. 3).
(Courtesy of Groke Technologies, Finland)
FIGURE 3. Improved night vision of port and ship with thermal blending in the visible and the IR.
The three bands IR sensor
Four distinct cameras onboard a ship are located in strategic positions, which can be a rather cumbersome solution. More input sources complicate the data fusion algorithm and the detection process, but favorable developments of IR sensor technology may help in the near future.
Quantum well photoconductors (QWIPs) and sensors based on mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe; MCT) are available and feature dual-band IR detection. But QWIPs have a low response, and the use and production of mercury cadmium photodetectors face regulatory limits and cooling requirements that currently aren’t attractive solutions on merchant vessels.
Competing with MCT, a more ecofriendly antimonide technology, T2SL, may enable more flexible solutions. Research activity based on Type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices is targeting a new generation of IR imaging instruments with multispectral response. There is a further drive to reduce the cost of systems and increase their operation temperature to be more conducive to implementation on ships.
At Northwestern University’s Center of Quantum Devices, Professor Manijeh Razeghi is pursuing development of T2SL materials with “a remarkable tuning capability from SWIR to long infrared.”4 In 2020, Razeghi presented bias-selectable, multiband photodetectors based on indium arsenide (InAs)/gallium antimonide (GaSb)/aluminum antimonide (AlSb) and InAs/InAs 1-x Sb x type‐II superlattice that features a wide spectral response in the IR at temperatures of 77 and 150 K (see Fig. 4).
(Image credit: M. Razeghi, A. Dehzangi, and J. Li, Res. Opt. (2021); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rio.2021.100054)
FIGURE 4. Bias-selectable, multiband photodetectors based on indium arsenide (InAs)/gallium antimonide (GaSb)/aluminum antimonide (AlSb) and InAs/InAs 1-x Sb x type‐II superlattice, featuring a wide spectral response in the IR at temperatures of 77 and 150 K.
The system consists of three layers grown on each other for the LWIR, MWIR, and SWIR, respectively. Activation in sequence of each absorber depends on the applied bias voltage.
IR eyes on the seas: an example
Situational awareness systems for ships are designed to support and eventually surrogate humans in the key functions of organizing object detection, identification, classification, and tracking.
Finland is a pioneer in situational awareness systems for autonomous ships. A system designed by Groke Technologies is an example of IR cameras using the sensor pack for ship detection and identification in darkness. Mitsubishi Corp. is one of the main investors in the company, and Groke has a strong presence in Japan. Groke is participating in an R&D initiative led by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., JRC Ltd., and YDK Technologies Co. Ltd. Fujitsu is expected to develop the AI segment.
The goal of this R&D project is to design a system to prevent serious maritime accidents, such as ship collisions and groundings. The project aims to meet degree one of the IMO standard of autonomous ships development.
Groke has tested two awareness systems: the AS Lite is a pilot installation working on a fare in Japan, and the AS Pro, which has been in trials since March 2021 on the Ship Polaris VG on the route from Rauma in Finland to Rostock in Germany.
Data from AIS receivers, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and onboard inertial measurement units (IMU) are fused with those of a visible and thermal camera for measuring the position of the vessel and monitoring the sea surface.
“When we started at Groke, we evaluated the different technologies and we decided to go with the combination of daylight and thermal cameras,” says Iiro Lindborg, co-founder and VP of Groke; he is the former general manager of remote and autonomous operations at Rolls-Royce. “The unique part of this solution is the so-called ‘thermal blending,’ where we combine both visible and thermal image. We get the color from the camera in the visible and the thermal signature from thermal camera, and we join them together in our user interface.”
For data fusion, “our system uses data fusion by comparing the data from multiple sources, like AIS and camera detections,” Lindborg adds. “And then, if they are defined to be information on the same target, it is fused and only one object detection is shown. For that object, we can then provide details based on all the available sources.” The sea situation can be checked in real time on a bridge and from any location on the ship via handheld devices.
Groke had to develop its own IR sensor as well. “In the AS Pro, the 180 thermal camera is possibly the first in the world with such a field of view and performance,” says Teemu Helenius, hardware development lead at Groke. The situational awareness system developed by Groke will be installed on all company vessels owned by Tsurumi Sunmarine Co., Ltd, a chemical/clean tankers operator.
In 2018, the car ferry “Falco” of Finferry was the first vessel ever to navigate completely autonomously on a voyage from Parainen to Nauno within the Finnish archipelago. Rolls-Royce designed its situational awareness system, and Konghsbergs Maritime acquired Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine in 2019.
In 2020, the world’s merchant fleet consisted of 119,999 ships.5 Sooner or later, this expanding fleet will need some form of autonomy or at least more sophisticated sea-awareness systems. Supplying this promising market with broadband IR sensors based on antimonide technologies is the future task of the photonics industry.
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