Shipping News - The Maritime Executive

The Charles W. Morgan is the last of an American whaling fleet that once numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Ships like the Morgan often used routes defined by the trade winds to navigate the oceans.

Fast Facts: What are the Trade Winds?

By MarEx 2019-03-23 19:37:02

Early commerce to the Americas relied on the trade winds - the prevailing easterly winds that circle the Earth near the equator. Known to sailors around the world, the trade winds and associated ocean currents helped early sailing ships from European and African ports make their journeys to the Americas. Likewise, the trade winds also drive sailing vessels from the Americas toward Asia. Even now, commercial ships use "the trades" and the currents the winds produce to hasten their oceanic...

Trump Withdraws Sanctions on Two Chinese Freight Forwarders

By MarEx 2019-03-22 17:52:51

In a Twitter message Friday, President Donald Trump said that he had intervened to lift sanctions on two Chinese freight forwarders accused of trading illegally with North Korea. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” the president wrote. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” The U.S. Treasury did not announce any North Korea-related measures on Friday, but on Thursday its Office of...

Maersk Trials Biofuel Blend in Triple-E Container Ship

By MarEx 2019-03-22 12:54:40

Maersk Line is partnering with the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition to conduct the largest ever pilot of biofuel in a maritime application. Maersk sees this as part of its strategy to act on climate change and work towards its internal goal of net zero GHG emissions by 2050. During the pilot, one of Maersk's Triple-E class boxships will use up to 20 percent second-generation biofuels on a 25,000 nautical mile journey from Rotterdam to Shanghai and back. It will be...

RSPCA: Australian Government Ignores Own Scientific Panel

By MarEx 2019-03-20 15:00:44

Australia's Department of Agriculture will ask no more of live sheep exporters for the upcoming northern hemisphere summer and will allow Australian sheep to continue suffering heat stress, says RSPCA Australia. The condemnation comes after regulations proposed for sheep exports during the May to October 2019 period were released by the Department last week. The proposal ignores the advice of the Australian Veterinary Association and contradicts a key recommendation of the McCarthy Review to move the regulatory framework from one...

60-foot wave hitting tanker off Alaska. Credit: Captain Roger Wilson/NOAA

Report: Rogue Waves are Getting More Extreme

By MarEx 2019-03-20 14:17:14

Research led by the University of Southampton suggests that rogue waves are occurring less often, but becoming more extreme. Waves are classed as rogue when they are over twice the height of the average sea state around them. From trough to peak, past observations have put some at over 30 meters (98 feet) high. The fiercest are capable of damaging or sinking ships, can wound or kill crew members and on occasions have swept people off the shoreline and out...

Global Trade Increasing, But Supply Chains Face Risk

By Omera Khan 2019-03-20 13:16:15

“On-shoring,” localization, Trump’s tariffs, Brexit—pay attention to the media, and it’s all too easy to imagine that global trade is contracting. In fact, of course, it’s doing anything but contracting, as World Trade Organisation statistics make clear. In 2019, for instance, global trade growth of four percent is expected, well above the three percent annual growth rate typical of the early years of the decade. But if global trade remains in robust health, the same can’t be said for global...

Russia Releases Comprehensive Plan for Arctic Logistics

By MarEx 2019-03-19 18:14:13

Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources has prepared a plan for mineral exports from the Arctic which includes 118 projects aimed at the processing of Arctic mineral resources and shipping them along the Northern Sea Route. Implementation of the projects would cost around 10.5 trillion rubles ($163 billion) up to 2030. LNG, oil, condensate, coal and minerals are already transported year-round from the ports of Sabetta and Dudinka and the seasonal ports of Numgi, Pevek and Cape Verde. An increase in...

BW Group Buys Epic Gas

By MarEx 2019-03-19 02:35:10

BW Group purchased over 38 million shares in Epic Gas from key shareholders on Tuesday. This represents 54.7 percent of the issued shares, and BW has now launch its unconditional tender offer to acquire the remaining shares. Epic Gas is the largest commercial operator and second largest owner of small pressurized LPG carriers. It has a fleet of 39 vessels ranging from 3,500 to 11,000 cbm that typically serves the short-haul or regional LPG and chemicals trade. Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Chairman of...

The pilot placed his weight on this ladder prior to disembarking and both side ropes parted.

CHIRP: Latest Bulletin Discusses ECDIS, Fatigue and Pilot Ladders

By MarEx 2019-03-18 17:21:22

The CHIRP Charitable Trust has published Maritime Feedback 54, its first bulletin of 2019 which contains reports on lifting operations, rigid hull inflatable boat operations, AIS and ECDIS offsets and heat and fatigue. The issue of pilot safety is also raised through a report of a combination ladder deficiency and the follow up which involved both the port authority and the regulatory authority (Port State Control). This vessel presented itself for a pilot boarding with the following deficiencies: •...

Extreme Flooding Affects Inland Traffic in U.S. Midwest

By MarEx 2019-03-18 14:16:30

In response to historic levels of flooding in Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, the Coast Guard has closed a 70-mile section of the Missouri River to ensure the safety of navigation. Flooding on the Illinois River has shut down two locks to marine traffic, and transit on the Mississippi River is restricted to daylight hours only for downbound traffic between St. Louis and Thebes, Illinois, according to American Commercial Barge Lines. The stretch between Memphis and Vicksburg has a similar restriction in...