GovernmentNews

China Bets on LNG Bunkering

By MarEx 2018-08-13 20:35:11

In keeping with its broader push for a natural gas-fueled economy, China's government is putting its considerable influence behind LNG as a marine fuel. On Friday, China's Ministry Of Transport released a timetable for creating a full-scale LNG bunkering infrastructure system by 2025, with a focus on riverine vessels. The plan calls for developing LNG bunkering standards and an initial network for distribution by 2020. By 2025, it envisions LNG bunkering for 15 percent of new government-owned vessels and 10 percent...

Rebuilding America’s “Unmatched Power”

By MarEx 2018-08-13 18:44:49

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $716 billion defense policy bill on Monday. Congress approved $24.1 billion for shipbuilding including funding for 13 new warships. The funding includes $1.56 billion for three littoral combat ships as well as the fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier, six icebreakers and a Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. It also includes the potential for building two Virginia-class submarines. The White House described the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 as “unprecedented support” to help deter...

Coastguardsman Pauses His Wedding to Save Swimmer

By MarEx 2018-08-10 15:56:54

On August 2, an off-duty coastguardsman interrupted his wedding day to rescue a swimmer in distress near Orange Beach, Alabama. Shortly after his wedding ceremony, PO2 Zac Edwards, a Coast Guard member stationed at Coast Guard Sector Mobile, was posing for photographs with his new wife on Orange Beach. A woman approached Edwards and said that there was a young man in the water who was struggling returning to shore. Edwards raced to the water and swam to the man...

Three Firms Accused of Violating Sanctions on N. Korea

By MarEx 2018-08-10 15:37:39

The Korea Customs Service has accused three South Korean firms of importing nearly $6 million worth of banned North Korean commodities from April to October 2017. KCS alleges that the firms imported 35,000 tons of pig iron and coal from the DPRK in seven separate voyages, using Russian port transshipments to disguise the cargo's origins. As a form of payment in kind, KCS charges, these unnamed companies helped North Korea to export its goods to other nations. If accurate, these transactions...

Welding Flaw Could Delay Multiple Submarine Programs

By MarEx 2018-08-08 21:08:46

On Tuesday, Naval Sea Systems Command announced that a subcontractor for the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines has discovered a minor error with potentially major consequences. Nuclear equipment manufacturer BWX Technologies has discovered a problem with weld quality in the ballistic-missile launch tubes for the subs, NAVSEA said. The issue affects 12 tubes, none of which have been installed. Seven had already been delivered to General Dynamics Electric Boat, the prime contractor for the class, and five were still in...

1MDB Sues for Ownership of Superyacht Equanimity

By MarEx 2018-08-08 20:19:06

State investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) has claimed ownership of the $250 million superyacht Equanimity, which was arrested in Indonesia this March on charges that it was purchased with stolen funds. The vessel is now at Port Klang, Malaysia, where it will remain under court arrest until its fate is decided. In a suit filed earlier this year, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the Equanimity was purchased with money embezzled from 1MDB by...

Russia Amends Shipping Code for Open Register

By MarEx 2018-08-08 18:39:01

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law to amend the Merchant Shipping Code to allow the establishment of a Russian Open Register of Ships. The law grants the right to sail under the Russian flag to ships entered into the Russian Open Register of Ships which are owned by foreign citizens or foreign legal entities. According to TASS news agency, the move excludes fishing vessels but includes pleasure craft and small craft used for commercial purposes. Putin also signed...

Italy Transfers Patrol Vessels to Libyan Coast Guard

By MarEx 2018-08-07 20:51:45

Despite rights groups' persistent concerns over the widespread abuse of migrants within Libya, Italy's senate has voted overwhelmingly in favor of providing more resources to Libya's coast guard, which is tasked with returning maritime migrants to Libyan shores. The new measure will provide Libya with ten "500 Class" patrol boats from the Italian coast guard and two Corrubià class 90-foot boats from Italy's Guardia di Finanza. It passed by a margin of 382 votes to 11. "With this decree, the Government...

Human Smugglers Bought Jet Ski for Cross-Channel Trips

By MarEx 2018-08-07 19:11:29

A court in the UK has convicted six men of conducting a "staggeringly reckless" plot to smuggle migrants across the English Channel using small boats and a jet ski. According to investigators, Albanian nationals Artur Nutaj and Saba Dulaj, recruited Albanian migrants in the north coast of France for voyages across the Channel. A Kent-based group, led by the Powell family - father Leonard and his sons George and Alfie - provided the transportion. The group charged up to $7,500...

Trump Reinstates Sanctions on Iran

By MarEx 2018-08-07 12:57:59

On Monday night, the White House reimposed sanctions on third-party trade with Iran that were lifted during the Obama administration. In January 2016, the U.S. and its European allies eased banking and trade sanctions on Iran in exchange for a broad range of concessions, including the removal of 98 percent of Iran's nuclear material, limitations on equipment for enriching uranium, an IAEA nuclear monitoring regime and a ban on nuclear weapons R&D. With sanctions eased under this Joint Comprehensive Plan...