On 12 July, the green light was given to launch the first Multi-Mission Frigate under construction for the Royal Moroccan Navy. The 105m ship has been constructed entirely on land at the Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) yard at Vlissingen East, the Netherlands. Following its ‘direct launch’ , the vessel was towed to DSNS’s Vlissingen-City yard for fimal outfitting. Image courtesy Jorrit Lousberg. Read the rest of this entry »

Retail facilities on P&O Cruises Australia’s cruise ship Pacific Dawn have been upgraded after a major logistics exercise by Southampton marine outfitters Trimline. Trimline Sales and Marketing Director Mike Oliver: “It was one of the biggest logistical exercises that we have completed and getting 40 personnel and 14 containers of equipment to the other side of the world required considerable planning.” Read the rest of this entry »

Having six to ten projects already underway, Allweiler AS, Norway and OptiMarin team up to win major future offshore support vessel (OSV) ballast water treatment (BWT) contracts - estimated to peak at NOK 400 million per year for the next four years in the Norwegian offshore shipping market. Some 500 OSVs in the Norwegian market must be retrofitted with BWT systems by 2014. Read the rest of this entry »

With a payload developed by Kongsberg Seatex AS that receives and forwards AIS messages from ships., the experimental satellite AISSat-1 was launched successfully from India on 12 July 2010, and has already begun transmitting AIS messages from space to earth via Kongsberg Satellite Services’ ground station at Svalbard. The technology will improve safety at sea for vessels in Norwegian waters. Read the rest of this entry »

The manufacturing process for MaK and Cat engines up to 16,000 kW in Germany has been awarded an impressive environmental award. In June, Caterpillar’s Kiel Engine Center in Kiel, Germany, was awarded an Environmental Award from the Economic Association of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany, at a celebration including the governor of Schleswig-Holstein. Read the rest of this entry »

All four of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago’s 41m Austal-designed and built high speed passenger ferries achieved a trial speed above the contract requirement during recent sea trials. Designed to carry 405 passengers at speeds of more than 37 knots, they are intended to help reduce road congestion by establishing a water taxi service between San Fernando and Port of Spain in southwest Trinidad. Read the rest of this entry »

OceanSaver has announced signing a major contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea for the delivery of two ballast water management (BWM) systems for Gungen, a leading Turkish owner and operator of high-spec Suezmax crude-oil tankers. Valued at NOK 25 million (EUR 3.15 million), the Gungen BWM agreement follows OceanSaver’s six VLCC BWM system deal. Read the rest of this entry »

Future Pipe Industries Group (FPI) and its Swedish contractor Scanunit are to replace 1200 m of steel pipe per ship with glass fiber reinforced epoxy pipe systems (GRE) onboard the Atle and Frej icebreakers. Just one year after FPI and Scanunit started their collaboration, the Swedish Maritime Association granted this big order. Both 22,000bhp icebreakers measure 104 m overall and feature a beam of 23.5 m. Read the rest of this entry »

The Grimaldi Group is proceeding with plans to outsource its maintenance responsibilities by signing a new all inclusive MacGregor Onboard Care agreement with Cargotec that covers RoRo equipment onboard 16 vessels in Finnlines fleet. This latest three-year agreement was signed at the beginning of June in Helsinki, Finland and includes an option for a further two-year extension. Read the rest of this entry »

Imtech is observing a recovery of the technological maritime market in the Far East and Singapore. Imtech draws this conclusion based on of the growing intake of orders in this region over the past few months. In this period, Imtech has obtained new orders representing a total value of EUR 36 million. Imtech CEO René van der Bruggen:”The maritime economic climate is recovering there.” Read the rest of this entry »