Since the invasion of Ukraine, there has been extensive attention to the numerous bulkers that were caught in the Black Sea ports, but now comes a report from Latvian State TV of a bulker caught in a legal trap due to the sanctions against Russian interests. The 62,500 dwt Asian Majesty, registered in Singapore and operated U-Ming Marine of Taiwan, has been anchored in the Gulf of Riga, Latvia since March 2022 caught in limbo with even the Latvia authorities unable to find a path to release the ship.

The bulker arrived in Riga in March after having partially loaded a cargo of potassium chloride fertilizer in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The vessel continued loading at the Riga fertilizer terminal. With a full load of approximately 55,000 tons of fertilizer loaded the vessel moved to the anchorage waiting for the final export permits. While other ships came and went, the Asian Majesty found herself caught.

The Latvian customs office explains the issue is not the cargo but the ownership of the cargo. They believe it to be owned by a company controlled by Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, who was among the individuals and businesses sanctioned by the European Union after the invasion. Latvia believes the cargo is owned by a Mauritius-based company, United Fertilizers Company Limited, which in turn is controlled by Mazepin. Latvia’s State Environment Service (VVD) is refusing the export permit based on its belief that it is not permitted to release cargo that would financially benefit the sanctioned oligarch.

In August, Latvian TV reports the crew of the vessel issued an appeal for assistance. They reported that they were running low on fuel, and drinking water and had accumulated waste to remove from the ship. While the authorities assisted the crew, and highlight the crew and the ship is not sanctioned, the problem remains on how to release the ship. Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Environment Service, Finance and Capital Market Commission, VDD, and Freeport of Riga authority are all cooperating trying to assist the ship.

Officials report while Latvia seeks to assist the ship they have no direct contact with either the owners of the vessel or the owner of the cargo. There is no local ownership or involvement of Latvia companies, which is also complicating the situation.

The solution that was proposed was to offload the cargo into a bonded EU warehouse where it could be held. The Riga fertilizer terminal however reports it can not assist because it was only built to handle the loading of ships. It has no equipment to offload the fertilizer. It is possible that the cargo could be offloaded at an alternative port but then comes the question of the financial cost and who would be responsible.

They are estimating the value of the cargo aboard the Asian Majesty at $17 million. Latvian officials told the local outlet that they are continuing to search for a potential solution and in the meantime, the Asian Majesty and her crew remain at anchor caught in limbo.

Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/u-ming-bulker-caught-in-latvia-for-six-months-due-to-russian-sanctions

The negotiating period for a contract dispute between America’s large railway carriers and two major rail labor unions will expire on Friday, raising concerns about the possibility of serious freight disruptions. Affected rail carriers are already suspending shipments for certain goods, and Amtrak has canceled passenger service on several long-haul routes in anticipation of a stoppage.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the SMART Transportation Division say that they are close to a deal with the main carriers, except for one sticking point. The wages and benefits recently recommended by a White House-appointed review board are acceptable to all parties, but an unpopular points-based employee attendance policy – which effectively prevents medical leave, workers claim – could prompt a nationwide walkout. “Our members are being terminated for getting sick or for attending routine medical visits,” claimed BLET and SMART in a joint statement.

The unions are demanding that they be allowed to have unpaid medical leave beyond what is provided for in the points-based system. Dennis Pierce, BLET’s president, accused carriers BNSF and Union Pacific of holding up the deal over this final sticking point, an accusation BNSF categorically denied.

Rail carriers have begun issuing bans on specific cargo classes in advance of the Friday deadline, anticipating a shutdown (or a lockout). Some of these cargoes are essential to industry or agriculture, like ammonia, a key fertilizer ingredient. The carriers assert that this is for safety purposes to ensure that hazardous goods are not stranded in the event of a labor action; however, union officials accuse the rail lines of “using shippers, consumers, and the supply chain” to apply pressure to political leaders and to union negotiators to force a deal.

Congressional leaders and the Biden administration are well aware of the looming deadline and the risk of additional transport disruption. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has committed to legislating a solution to stop a strike if needed, and two Republican senators have written a resolution endorsing the review board’s proposed pay package as written. At the White House, President Joe Biden has spoken with both sides to urge them to accept an agreement.

“We are working with other modes of transportation, including shippers and truckers, air freight, to see how they can step in and keep goods moving in case of this rail shutdown,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference Tuesday.

The impact of a rail shutdown would be felt at container ports on the U.S. West Coast, where rail capacity has been a key limiting factor for throughput in recent months. It would also impact grain shipments right at harvest time, according to the National Grain and Feed Association.

Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-rail-lines-get-ready-for-disruption-as-contract-talks-stall

BEIJING, Sept. 13, 2022 /CNW/ –An initiative was released on Friday at the 2022 Silk Road Maritime International Cooperation Forum kicking off Thursday in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province, calling on shipping logistics firms to strive to maintain unimpeded supply chains and serve the domestic and international economic flows.

To achieve the goals, the 2022 Silk Road Maritime International Cooperation Forum Xiamen Initiative, jointly released by related organizations from shipping logistics sectors around the world, proposes to further build a multi-cooperation pattern and a multi-party cooperation mechanism to better serve domestic and international economic connectivity and exchanges.

It also proposes to strengthen infrastructure construction and management and collaboration to jointly promote the construction of the Silk Road Maritime platform and give full play to the roles of ports as hubs, pursue digital and green development, build first-class logistics facilities and shipping hubs, enhance innovation, and vigorously improve service capabilities and professional levels, so as to better serve the domestic market and a higher-level opening-up.

Silk Road Maritime is a shipping-themed international comprehensive logistics service brand and platform for the Belt and Road construction, and is founded on December 2018. The Silk Road Maritime International Cooperation Forum has been held for four consecutive sessions since 2019, and strives to become an international exchange and cooperation platform serving the joint construction of the Belt and Road.

Source: https://www.userwalls.news/n/xinhua-silk-road-initiative-released-2022-silk-road-maritime-international-cooperation-forum-3808619/

The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that the capsizing of the fishing vessel Emmy Rose – which went down with all hands off Massachusetts in late 2020 – was likely due to an unsecured hatch cover on its lazarette, which could have allowed rapid flooding when water accumulated on deck.

In the early hours of November 23, 2020, Emmy Rose was under way off Provincetown, Massachusetts with about 50,000 pounds of fish in her holds. She was headed to Gloucester, with winds of 20 knots and following seas of about six feet in height. At 0130 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Boston command center received an EPIRB signal from the vessel; no other communication came in, and the four members of the crew were never found. The wreck was later located in 800 feet of water some three nautical miles west of her last known position, intact and upright on the seafloor.

Courtesy NTSB

According to the Emmy Rose’s manager, the hatch cover for the lazarette – located between the stern ramps on the trawler’s back deck – had no securing mechanisms at all, contrary to the requirements of thevessel’s stability booklet. The force of waves over the transom in following seas could have knocked off the cover and allowed seawater to flood into the compartment, according to NTSB. Accumulation of water on deck may have been exacerbated by closed restrictor plates on many of her freeing ports, which would have limited the outflow of water from the deck. As she settled lower in the water, downflooding could have progressed into the fish hold, which had a weathertight (but not watertight) wooden hatch cover. An analysis by the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center determined that this could have resulted in a stern-first sinking.

Courtesy NTSB

To address the identified risks, NTSB called on the U.S. Coast Guard to expand the scope of commercial fishing vessels’ third-party safety inspections to include an examination of freeing ports and hatch covers.

The agency also reiterated its previous call for mandatory personal locator beacons (PLBs) for all mariners and fishermen.

“Had the crewmembers of the Emmy Rose carried personal locator beacons on board and had they been able to activate them and abandon the vessel, search and rescue crews would have had continuously updated and correct coordinates of individual crewmembers’ locations, thus enhancing their chances of survival,” NTSB concluded.

Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/ntsb-loose-hatch-cover-may-have-caused-the-loss-of-the-emmy-rose

Turkish officials confirmed today that the decommissioned Brazilian Navy carrier NAe São Paulo which was to have been dismantled at Aliaga has reversed course and is now heading back to Brazil. The tug towing the carrier changed its AIS signal now showing that they will arrive back in Rio de Janeiro on October 2. The two-month roundtrip is a similar fate to her sistership the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau which was also turned away by the Indian government in 2006.

Writing that the will of the Turkish people was being honored, Ednan Arslan, a member of the Turkish parliament confirmed the reports that the carrier was returning to Brazil. He Tweeted an image of the AIS ending two weeks of speculation and initially a standoff between Brazil and Turkey.

Like her sistership, the issue for the NAe São Paulo became the question of the presence of toxic materials aboard the carrier and if a proper inspection had been done before the sale to the breakers. Last year, Brazil auctioned the carrier, which had been decommissioned in 2018, with reports that only one of the eight bids was found to meet the conditions and have the necessary credentials. The carrier departed Rio on August 4, 2022, under tow.

Shortly after she departed environmentalists began protesting citing what they believed was a fault inspection of the vessel that reported only minor amounts of toxins aboard. The watchdog organization NGO Shipbreaking reported that only 12 percent of the spaces aboard the carrier had been tested to prepare the report which estimated just 9.6 tons of asbestos-contaminated materials onboard the vessel. The Clemenceau by comparison contained at least 600 tons of asbestos. The report failed to test electrical cabling and said that there was no presence of PCBs. Finally, the NGO contended the carrier had been used by France in the 1960s with atmospheric nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific meaning that it could have radioactive contamination.

Turkey responded by calling for a second inspection of the vessel before it arrived but Brazil said the vessel had already left making it impossible. Two weeks ago, Turkey’s Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister, Murat Kurum, announced that due to Brazil’s failure to carry out a second audit process that “the Brazilian navy ship NAe Sao Paulo, which will arrive at the ship dismantling facility in Izmir Aliaga, will be sent back.”

The tug towing the carrier was waiting off northern Africa for the past two weeks with reports that the British authorities had denied a permit to transit the Strait of Gibraltar. Media reports indicated that Brazil had agreed that the vessel should return but it had continued to linger off the Moroccan coast.

Commissioned in 1962 as the Foch, the 32,800 dwt carrier (fully loaded) was a sistership to Clemenceau. France operated her for 37 years selling her while she was still in service in 2000 to Brazil where she would have a career troubled by mechanical failures. After a fire in 2012, Brazil had said she would be fully reconditioned, but by 2017 she was listed as demobilized and officially decommissioned the following year.

The Clemenceau had become the center of world attention, including protestors blocking her entry into the Suez Canal, in 2006 when she was turned around after an Indian court ruled that she had to return to France. She was finally dismantled starting in 2009 at a specialized facility in the UK that met international standards for the handling of toxic materials.

Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/tow-for-toxic-aircraft-carrier-reverses-course-back-to-brazil

The U.S. government announced a $20 million federal RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant to the port of Los Angeles on September 7th. The grant has been awarded to resolve a trucking bottleneck by constructing a rail-roadway grade separation and by improving trucking access to the state highway system.

A grade separation is a junction of two or more routes that are separated by height so that the flow of traffic in one does not impede flow in the other. There is an 80-acre marine storage facility (MSF) on Terminal island which caters to the storage needs of all the ports in the Pedro Bay complex. However, access to the MSF is severely limited for truckers as the heavily used railway tracks loop around the complex, and the sole access to the facility gets hampered by a low clearance tunnel. Currently, truckers have to travel a circuitous route to get to the MSF. In addition to this, while in the tunnel truckers can only travel at about 5mph to prevent accidents.

The awarded project involves the construction of a 4-lane rail-roadway grade separation. This will allow trucks much better access to the marine storage facility. The project will also connect the trucks directly to the state highways in two directions. The completion of this project will save 2500 truck-hours worth of delay per day. It will also reduce emissions by preventing the idling of engines in the tunnel and reducing the longer travel route by 1200 truck miles per day. The project will begin in the coming 15 to 18 months and will generate 300 new jobs.

Source: https://www.fleetmon.com/maritime-news/2022/39493/port-la-receives-20-million-federal-grant-resolve-/