Surveillance & Maritime News for April 2024

The 2022 Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference (TPM22) was recently held in Long Beach, USA. CULINES was honored to attend as a Gold Partner with companies along the supply chain in the trans-Pacific region. CULINES exchanged with customers and partners on the latest industrial trends and introduced its shipping logistics solutions. This is the debut of CULINES at TPM and also the first time to participate in such an international shipping conference. The conference At the conference, the CO-CEO...

The Seafarers’ Charity has awarded £5,000 to provide a hardship fund, administered by the Fishermen's Mission, for North East fishers, who are experiencing hardship because of the mysterious impact on inshore crab and lobster stocks in North East England coastal waters. Since October 2021 dead crabs and lobsters have been washed up on the North East England shoreline, consequently, many local fishers in the area have had their livelihoods seriously impacted and are experiencing ongo...

FESCO Transportation Group (“FESCO”) has launched a new regular marine container service Japan Trans-Siberian Line 2 (JTSL 2) that will connect Commercial Port Vladivostok (CPV, a FESCO company) with ports of Japan – Toyama, Hakata, Kobe, Yokohama. In the near future, regular ship calls to port Niigata are considered as well. Operation of the line is provided by container vessel FESCO Yanina with a capacity of 962 TEU. Voyage turnover is 14 days. Appearance of the new service...

On 1st February 2022, the first ferry on Stena Line’s new route Nynäshamn-Hanko was seen to set sail towards Finland. The vessel Urd left Nynäshamn/Stockholm Norvik Port after an inauguration ceremony with a small group of guests from business and politics. Starting with three departures per week, the link Nynäshamn-Hanko will soon switch to a daily schedule, when the ferry Stena Gothica joins its sister vessel in the beginning of May.   “By Urd’s departure...

Neste Corporation’s President and CEO Peter Vanacker has given notice of his resignation from the company. He will leave his position at Neste at the latest in June 2022. The search for Vanacker’s successor starts immediately. “I warmly thank Peter for his great work in accelerating Neste’s transformation into a global leader in renewable and circular solutions driven by high climate ambitions. During these past three years, Neste has been able to renew and execute its g...

Swedish ferry company Stena Line announces to enter the Finnish market with a new daily route from Hanko in Finland to Swedish Nynäshamn. The new route is the next step in Stena Line’s ambition to further strengthen its position in the Baltic Sea. Starting with one ferry in February, the new route will be served with two vessels with daily departures from each port as of May 2022. “With our new daily route between Hanko and Nynäshamn, we heavily expand and strengthen our p...

The Seafarers’ Charity has worked with Seafish, The Money Charity and other stakeholders to develop a new training course on money management for new entrants to fishing. The training will set new recruits on the right financial path and enable an understanding of how to manage fluctuations in income, the complexities of budgeting and making credit choices as well as the range of free resources which can help with money management. The charity’s ‘Fishing Without A Safety Net&...

PT Salam Pacific Indonesia (SPIL), which is a pioneer logistics shipping company with more than 40 branches throughout Indonesia, recently established a cooperative relationship with Tokopedia, which is one of the giant E-commerce unicorns in Indonesia. The collaboration is in the IT sector where the two companies are committed to implementing an API (Application Programming Interface) Connection for DO (Delivery Order) payments via Tokopedia. This aims to realize the go digital step carri...

Unifeeder is pleased to announce the appointment of Timm Niebergall as the new director of Shortsea services. Timm Niebergall has been part of Unifeeder for the past 10 years and during that time has carried out a variety of roles, most recently as Regional Director West & Central Europe. Strengthening customer relationships They strongly believe that his background and industry knowledge are assets that will complement and enhance Shortsea growth strategy and strengthen its customer rela...

The first batch of female crew members of SITC International boarded the SITC Makassar and officially embarked on the ship for work. Two female crew members graduated from Shanghai Maritime University with a major in nautical technology and are outstanding graduates of the class of 2021. These are the first batch of female crew members recruited by SITC who have obtained three certificates of competency. Principle of gender equality SITC International adheres to the principle of gender equal...

SBM Offshore is pleased to announce it has completed the project financing of FPSO Prosperity for a total of US$1.05 billion. The project financing was secured by a consortium of 11 international banks. The Company expects to draw the loan in full, phased over the construction period of the FPSO. The financing will become non-recourse once the FPSO is completed and the pre-completion guarantee has been released. The project loan has a tenor of two years post-completion, in line with the du...

Tianjin Branch of Shanghai New SITC Container Maintenance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as SITC Tianjin Branch) held a grand opening ceremony at the Xinhua Tin yard in Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone . Guests present Lai Zhiyong, President of SITC Logistics Group, Kefei, General Manager of Container Lines Tianjin, Yu Jian, General Manager of Yard & Shipping Agency Development, Guo Xinde, General Manager of Qingdao Singamas, and Sun Luqiang, General Manager of Xinhua Tin Yard and other re...

Neste and LyondellBasell announced a long-term commercial agreement under which LyondellBasell will source Neste RE™, a feedstock from Neste that has been produced from 100% renewable feedstock from bio-based sources, such as waste and residue oils and fats. This feedstock will be processed through the cracker at LyondellBasell’s Wesseling, Germany, plant into polymers and sold under the CirculenRenew brand name. “We are delighted that our strategic relationship with LyondellB...

Despite the ongoing pandemic, ferry company Stena Line has achieved another important milestone in its major new fleet investment programme with the ‘launching’ ceremony of the first new extended E-Flexer vessel in Weihai, China. The vessel was ordered in 2018 and the delivery is expected in 2022. For now, the name of the new vessel and the route on which it will operate are being kept a closely guarded secret by Stena Line. Stena Line is well underway in modernising its large Europ...

RCL announces the launch of a new shuttle service between Thailand and South China with its partner Mariana Express Lines. The service will call at Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) – Laem Chabang – Nansha – Shekou – Laem Chabang using 2 X 1,200 ship rotation. RCL will brand this service as "RBS". The maiden voyages The maiden voyages will commence 5 June 2021 on the southbound ex Nansha. Mariana Express Lines will initially deploy 2 X 1,200 TEU on the service with RCL...

Neste and NuStar Energy L.P announced that supply trucks are able to load Neste MY Sustainable Aviation FuelTM at the NuStar-operated Selby Terminal near San Francisco, California. The first gallons have been safely picked up and delivered to the nearby Monterey Regional Airport. Due to the strategic location of the Selby Terminal, Neste and its partners Avfuel and Signature Flight Support are now able to supply sustainable aviation fuel to a growing number of airports across the western United...

On the release of its new strategy in March 2021, Seafarers UK announced that its working name will now be ‘The Seafarers’ Charity’ and will reference its heritage by using ‘King George’s Fund for Sailors’ within its brand. The Seafarers’ Charity has been the UK’s national maritime charity since 1917 and is still officially registered with the Charity Commission as the ‘King George’s Fund for Sailors’. The new strategy, 'Thrive',...

The Swedish ferry company has increased the number of female managers it employs by an impressive 42% in only 5 years and has the ambitious target of ensuring they account for 30% of all management by the end of next year. Only a meagre 2% of the 1.2 million seafarers globally are women, so ferry company Stena Line is already doing a lot to challenge and change that. By working hard to tackle the gender gap, the company has increased the number of female managers to one out of every five it emp...

ReSea Project is a community-driven solution to remove plastic from oceans and rivers. The certification covers their traceability system for the collection process in Indonesia.  The cleanup solution is community-driven, meaning that people in local communities are employed to recover the plastic polluting oceans and rivers. This contributes to better living conditions for those removing the plastic and their families, and it helps raise awareness to stop plastic pollution at it...

SBM Offshore is pleased to announce the successful pricing of a US$850 million non-recourse senior secured notes transaction in a 144A/Reg S offering by a subsidiary company. The issuer of the notes is Guara Norte S.à r.l. (Guara Norte), which owns the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela. SBM Offshore owns 75% of the equity in Guara Norte and the remaining 25% equity is held by Mitsubishi Corporation. Transaction details The notes are rated Ba1 (Moody’s) and BB+ (Fitch) and were priced at 99...

In 2020, Neste’s renewable products helped customers in several geographic markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10.0 million tons altogether. This amount equals the annual carbon footprint of 1.5 million average EU citizens (source: World Bank) or the removal of 3.7 million passenger cars from the roads for a full year. “We are committed to help customers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million tons annually by 2030. We aim to achieve this commitment with our portfoli...

Neste has placed 4th on the Corporate Knights’ Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies. This marks the company’s 15th consecutive inclusion on the Global 100 list. Neste has been included on the list continuously for longer than any other energy company in the world. “We are pleased to be recognised as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. Many businesses are continuously improving their sustainability efforts and placing on the list gets...

Neste successfully processed 400 tons of liquefied plastic waste at its refinery in Finland this fall, an amount corresponding to the annual amount of plastic waste generated by 20,000 average European citizens. This was the first time Neste processed liquefied waste plastic at an industrial scale. During the run, packaging and mixed waste plastics were upgraded into high-quality recycled feedstock for petrochemical industry uses, e.g. for the production of new plastics. The processing run mar...

Ferry company Stena Line has announced the new names of the two modern ferries that are due to start operating on the route between Nynäshamn in Sweden and Ventspils in Latvia during 2021. The new ferries will add a further 30 percent freight capacity and offer an attractive alternative way to travel on the Baltic Sea. After receiving close to 600 name suggestions from customers online the new names are - Stena Scandica and Stena Baltica. In October Stena Line announced the strengthening o...

Inauguration of the new shore power facility in Kiel means that Stena Line now have the possibility to connect 14 vessels at seven terminals with on-shore electricity during port stay. The new connection in Kiel will reduce the CO2 emissions from the two vessels Stena Scandinavica and Stena Germanica with 2,700 tonnes per year. In total Stena Line reduce its CO2 emissions with shore power with 13,000 tonnes per year. The new shore power facility in Kiel provides 100% green electricity, thus als...

Ferry company Stena Line moves its Nynäshamn ferry terminal to the newly built Stockholm Norvik Port. On November 9th the terminal was officially opened with the first arrival of the vessel Stena Flavia at 7 a.m. The new ferry terminal is an important part of Stena Lines expansion plans in the Baltic Sea that includes the deployment of two new modern ferries and 30 % additional freight capacity on the Nynäshamn-Ventspils route in 2021. Pioneer ferry companies The new modern ferry te...

From November 9th, the Danish authorities will introduce restrictions in the Northern part of Jutland to reduce the spreading and development of COVID-19 virus. Stena Line has therefore decided to temporarily stop the passenger operation between Frederikshavn in Denmark and Gothenburg in Sweden between November 9th and December 3rd. The freight operation The freight operation on the route will continue to keep the vital supply lines open The freight operation on the route will continue to ke...

Ferry company Stena Line has announced a further expansion of their operations across the Baltic Sea region. Next year the current vessels on the Travemünde-Liepaja route will be replaced with two modern RoPax vessels, which will add a further 40 per cent freight capacity to the route, shorten the crossing time and offer a fixed timetable with 12 weekly departures. The new vessels will also offer improved onboard facilities. Stena line is one of the world’s leading ferry companies wi...

As the dry season approaches and sea conditions abate, an increase in attacks has traditionally been seen, so maritime security risks to vessels operating in the Gulf of Guinea require renewed attention. Masters and crews need to be extra vigilant and ensure all security measures are taken. Increased Security Threats To ensure the safety of all vessels and afford the best protection to global trade it is vital: Comply with Flag State Requirements and Guidance. CSO’s and Masters appl...

Ferry company Stena Line has announced an expansion and strengthening of their operations across the Baltic Sea region. Next year the current vessels on the Nynäshamn-Ventspils route will be replaced with two modern and lengthened RoPax ferries Stena Lagan and Stena Mersey, which will add further 30 per cent freight capacity. The new ferries will also offer an attractive alternative way to travel on the Baltic Sea. Stena line is one of the pioneer ferry companies with 18 ferry routes in Eu...