Fortnightly maritime news for the industry and PortXL community
Boskalis unblocks the Suez Canal
Boskalis announces the successful salvage operation of the grounded 20,000 TEU container vessel Ever Given in the Suez Canal. With a length of 400 meters and a width of nearly 60 meters this giant ship had been wedged in this vital shipping route since 23 March 2021 blocking all shipping traffic ever since.
How will the Suez Canal crisis affect the global supply chain?
The global supply chain is likely robust enough to cope with any fallout from the blockage of the Suez Canal and logistics processes will be able to absorb any problems that will arise from it, as has been apparent in the face of previous supply chain disruptions. The suspension of traffic through the Suez Canal, caused by the previously grounded Ever Given container ship, has created uncertainty across the global supply chain and stoked fears that the port and terminal sector could suffer a new congestion crisis, particularly in Europe.
$1.5bn plans unveiled to integrate hydrogen into the northwest German coastline
Several of North Germany’s largest industrial companies have partnered together in a $1.5bn project which aims to integrate hydrogen into the northwest German coastline. Dubbed Clean Hydrogen Coastline, the partners want to integrate a capacity of up to 400MW for electrolysis with corresponding storage for hydrogen to be added to the energy network by 2026. The project contains companies from across the German hydrogen network chain meaning each will have its own responsibilities ensuring that the hydrogen is successfully incorporated into the area.
Ships born again with ‘smoothie’ fuel
In a 12-month trial, United European Car Carriers (UECC) replaced conventional fuel with biofuel onboard the 20-year-old, 140 m long roro vessel Autosky. The results show how ageing assets can potentially be transformed into environmental frontrunners. Provided by supplier GoodFuels, this green shipping “smoothie”, as UECC executives describe it, is made from a variety of food stocks, including processed cooking oil.
Brazilian ports get the digital twins treatment
Wilson Sons, the largest integrated port and maritime logistics operator in Brazil, has bought a minority stake in Docktech, an Israeli startup. The deal also includes a commercial exclusivity agreement to install Docktech’s technology throughout Brazilian ports. With the digital twins technology developed by Docktech and, through the data collected by its fleet of 80 tugboats, Wilson Sons said yesterday it will be able to understand the pattern and the silting behaviour of Brazilian ports, predicting how certain factors could affect navigation conditions and security.
Installed scrubbers have doubled since 2020’s global sulphur cap introduction
The price gap between low and high sulphur fuel oil has failed to hit the highs scrubber advocates would have wanted to justify their investments in the 15 months since the start of the global sulphur cap and yet the number of exhaust gas containment systems installed since the key legislation came into place has nearly doubled.
Shipping of CO2 goes mainstream with MOL investing in Norwegian pioneer
Shipping of CO2 is going mainstream with news Japan’s largest shipping line is moving into the sector. Until now, the movement of carbon dioxide cargoes at sea has been a very niche trade, but a host of developments in the last 12 months suggest CO2 has a bright future as growing trade. “Liquefied CO2 ocean transport plays a key role in carbon dioxide capture utilization and storage value chains as a means of effectively connecting collection sites with storage or usage sites,” MOL explained in a release on March 19th. This maritime carbon capture is drawing attention, MOL said, as a step towards realising a low-carbon society.
