Saitec starts work on floating windfarm with 15-MW turbines

www.MaritimeCyprus.com) This infographic can help EHS professionals and workers understand the biggest threats to worker safety, offers background on the current state of the industry and lists the most cited OSHA standards related to the industry.

With greater public pressure to cut maritime and port emissions, the European Commission has launched its EU sustainable finance package, enabling tug-related companies and others across the maritime logistics sector to apply for funding to apply green technologies.

Tug owners can use this finance to purchase and operate vessels that comply with specific emissions limits to help EU economies reach the EU’s 2050 decarbonisation goals. Funding may be applied to tugs with hybrid propulsion, batteries and IMO Tier III emissions compliance or by ports introducing emissions reduction technologies.

The main package’s measures are the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive proposal. The Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act complements the Taxonomy Regulation, outlining a set of technical criteria which establishes the economic activities that most contribute to meeting the EU’s environmental objectives.

The criteria must be science-based, technology neutral and ensure the broadest possible range of critical infrastructure is adopted to limit climate change. The EC has committed to regularly update this document and make the necessary clarifications to ensure the highest degree of legal coherence.

The EU Taxonomy’s objective is to provide incentives and legal clarity to investors financing green and transition projects, encouraging companies to develop or implement new projects that are qualified as green.

The Delegated Act will be formally adopted at the end of May and will apply from 1 January 2022.

The EC’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive proposal is a legal initiative extending the obligation of presenting sustainability reports to all companies with more than 500 workers, and all companies, including those involved in maritime, listed on regulated markets.

In Q2 2021, the European Council and Parliament reached an agreement on EU climate law, which sets into law the goal of a climate-neutral EU by 2050. It also sets an objective to collectively reduce net greenhouse-gas emissions to at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.

European institutions have agreed on a series of new decisions that complement the EU Commission’s legislative proposal, for example establishing a European scientific advisory board on climate change.

This board will be tasked with providing scientific advice and reporting on EU measures, climate targets and indicative greenhouse-gas budgets and their coherence with the European climate law and the EU’s international commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The EC has agreed to propose an intermediate climate target for 2040 and set an aspirational goal for the EU to achieve negative emissions after 2050.

In another environmental move, the EU Parliament’s plenary adopted a resolution regarding technical and operational measures for more efficient and cleaner maritime transport.

This document outlined the EU parliament’s position concerning the shipping sector´s decarbonisation debates. It proposes a series of goals and actions the EU Commission and Council can take into consideration when defining the next strategies and policies affecting the maritime transportation industry.

This resolution outlines a series of policy initiatives to achieve the transition towards zero-emissions waterborne transport by 2050 including establishing clean energy incentive schemes that consider the role of transitional technologies.

The resolution also calls on the EU Commission to draw up a strategy on zero-emissions ports and to promote a modal shift towards shortsea shipping.

In the UK, the government announced shipping emissions would be included in its carbon budget for the first time. This sixth carbon budget will limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from 2033 to 2037. The new targets are expected to be approved by the UK Parliament in June 2021.

Maritime logistics supply chain disruption

Meanwhile, the European Tugowners Association (ETA) has partnered with eight other European logistics associations calling on the EC to investigate the practices of container carriers over the last year. If their request is successful, the EC will review how shipping lines’ practices have disrupted maritime logistics supply chains.

ETA says these changing practices have “generated an all-time low schedule reliability, which has been creating congestion and other issues in many port operations.”

For example, changes in practices have led to allocating capacity and hauling containers back to Asia empty to collect better freight rates for import freight.

“These types of practices have provoked worsening levels of capacity availability and service quality, affecting the whole logistics chain,” says ETA in its latest newsletter. This impacts shippers, forwarders, barge and inland terminal operators and port service providers.

The letter highlights the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER), which ETA says has failed to prevent disruption in the maritime logistics and hinterland logistics chain.

CBER is an exemption that container shippers have to European competition rules banning company consortia and collective negotiation.

ETA says this “extension to CBER has not achieved the results expected when the application of this legislation was renewed last year”.

The nine associations state that customers have “not benefited from the extension of the CBER in view of the evolution of the freight rates and the simultaneous fall-back in frequency, reliability and connectivity”.

They have therefore asked the EC for a factual inquiry about developments during 2020 and Q1 2021 to establish the real causes of the disruption in the maritime logistics and hinterland logistics chain.

Source: rivieramm

Shipowners and seafarers’ representatives have asked the United Nations to establish an interagency task force to examine the implementation and practical application of the MLC, 2006 during the pandemic, including its impact on seafarers’ fundamental rights and on the shipping industry.

The crew change crisis peaked at over 400,000 seafarers trapped on ships working beyond their contracts because of local Covid restrictions and the failure of governments to cooperate and coordinate to address the crisis.

The number of seafarers still stranded is around 200,000 and is on the rise again as authorities respond to new variants and explosions in cases like the devastating second wave currently tearing through India. While some governments have responded well, designating seafarers as key workers and facilitating their travel, too many are sitting idly by while ship’s crews are unable to get home in a situation that is tantamount to forced labour. Urgent action is needed.

Source: marineinsight

The Valencia Containerized Freight Index (VCFI) continues its upward trend, reaching 2,314.89 points in April, an increase of 17.39% over the previous month. In a global context marked by the generalized growth of freight rates, the VCFI links its ninth consecutive month of growth and exceeds two thousand points for the first time in its history since the index began in January 2018. The effects of the incident with the Ever Given vessel in the Suez Canal, released at the end of March, have added to the complexity of an already stressed market. To this, we must add the upward forecasts for world GDP which reinforce market demand, the congestion in the main US ports and the increase in the price of some fuels.

Thus, the April World Economic Outlook, published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), points to an increase in world GDP in 2021 of 6%, compared with the estimate of 5.5% in January and 5.2% in October 2020. Regarding trade in goods, the projection is for a growth of 9.4%, 1.1 points higher than in the previous report. With regard to port traffic, the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index benchmark reflects an increase in March (latest available month), which places shipping levels above the pre-pandemic situation.

According to Alphaliner data, the commercially idle fleet remains at minimal levels, i.e. 56 vessels, representing 0.8% of total capacity. In terms of equipment, some shipping lines have announced orders for new units to alleviate the market situation.

With regard to bunker prices, the behavior during this month has been fairly stable. According to Shipandbunker data for the main bunkering ports, the price of low sulphur bunker fuel closed April at 514 dollars per tonne, which represents an increase of 3% compared to the beginning of the same month.

By geographical areas, and given their relevance in Valenciaport’s relations, it is worth highlighting the increase in export freight rates to the U.S. and Canada of more than 30%, which has now increased for nine consecutive months. In addition to demand factors, the congestion situation that some US ports have been suffering for weeks is exerting constant pressure on freight rates. The trend seems to be pointing, albeit timidly, towards an improvement, even if the problem remains serious, as illustrated for example by the 7.5 days waiting time required for ships to berth in the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach. Problems of capacity or availability of equipment are thus aggravated. In fact, this situation is being extended to the entire American continent and the restrictions are also causing freight rates to rise.

Source: maritimetoday

Defense, engineering and IT conglomerate Leidos announced on Friday it has completed its $380 million cash acquisition of marine engineering and naval architecture firm Gibbs & Cox.

The deal, announced in February, will see Gibbs & Cox operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary combined with Leidos’ maritime systems division.

Headquartered in Arlington, Va., Gibbs & Cox is the largest independent ship design firm focused on naval architecture and marine engineering. The acquisition positions Leidos to provide a broad set of engineering solutions to the U.S. Navy and to an expanding set of foreign Navies.

Leidos chairman and CEO Roger Krone said, “Gibbs & Cox is widely regarded for developing the most talented and experienced naval designers in the world. We look forward to this new era of innovation while combining the best of both companies.”

Gibbs & Cox president and chief executive Chris Deegan said, “Gibbs & Cox will remain the nation’s largest independent provider of maritime services. The combination of our world-class naval architecture, design and engineering services with Leidos’ speed, security and scale will significantly enhance our combined offerings in the fast growing maritime undersea, autonomous and cyber security segments.”

Source: marinelink