Foreign Ship News

International shipbroker IFCHOR-Galbraiths (IG) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brazilian dry bulk shipbroker Aries Shipping. Founded in 2005, Aries Shipping is a Rio de Janeiro based firm led by Marcela Rosman and Bruna Moraes.This move follows IG’s launch of a Houston desk dedicated to the US Jones Act tanker market and forms part of a broader strategy to expand its global footprint by establishing very experienced local teams in high-growth regions. South America is a growing market for commodities trading…

Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Mike Ezell (R-MS) delivered his opening remarks at the July 22 hearing on the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) budget request highlighting his interest in the impact of flags of convenience.The FMC is an independent agency responsible for the regulation of ocean-borne transportation in the foreign commerce of the United States. Earlier this year, the FMC announced an investigation into vessel flagging laws, regulations…

As a result of a major White House office wake-up call or Executive Order 14269 determining it is time to start building ships again, Washington DC announced America’s maritime industry has been “dangerously declining” and with that decline we have allowed China to become the dominant force in global shipbuilding. Hard to believe that for nearly 65 years we have overlooked how Japan first got ahead of us or the fact that Korea took the lead not soon after Japan. All that progress was ignored prior to anyone worrying about China.

Finnish police said on Thursday they are investigating whether a foreign ship was involved in the damage of an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia following a sudden outage on Wednesday.Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for potential acts of sabotage following a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since 2022, although subsea equipment is also subject to technical malfunction and accidents.The 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power interconnector remains offline following the outage that began at midday local time on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 M

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have seized a foreign vessel in the Gulf for allegedly smuggling 757,000 liters of diesel out of the country, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.The unnamed vessel's seven crew members, who are foreign nationals, have been handed over to legal authorities, IRNA reported without elaborating on the nationalities of the ship or its crew.Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and b

Russia and Turkey agreed to pursue talks on a potential safe sea corridor in the Black Sea to export grain from Ukraine after discussions in Moscow, the Russian and Turkish defense ministries said on Wednesday.In a statement, Turkey's defense ministry said a Turkish dry cargo vessel, the Azov Concord, had also safely left Mariupol as a result of the talks, and added the ship was the first foreign ship to leave the port since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.Ukraine is one of the top global wheat suppliers, but shipments have been halted by Russia's invasion, causing global food shortages.

Iranian authorities seized a foreign ship attempting to smuggle fuel out of the country and detained its crew, state new agency IRNA said on Wednesday.Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.The ship, carrying more than 550,000 liters of smuggled fuel, was seized in Gulf waters and escorted to harbor in the southern province of Hormozgan, where it was handed to judicial authorities for investigation, t

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have seized a foreign vessel in the Gulf for smuggling 200,000 liters of fuel, a senior Guards commander told the semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday."The ship was seized in the northern part of the Persian Gulf.

Foreign ship owners are becoming increasingly wary of moving cargoes of Russian oil due to the conflict in Ukraine and the impact of Western sanctions on Moscow, the head of leading private Greek shipping group Angelicoussis said on Wednesday.U.S. President Joe Biden has imposed a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and there is growing uncertainty over potentially tougher restrictions across Europe.Maria Angelicoussis, CEO of Angelicoussis Group…

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had seized a foreign ship in Gulf waters loaded with what they described as smuggled diesel.Guards commander Ahmad Hajian said the ship's 11 crew had been detained, but did not give details on their nationality or identify the ship."After inspection, more than 150,000 liters of smuggled diesel were discovered," Iran's state broadcaster quoted Hajian as saying.The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards…

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) made public 13 standardised state-of-the-art ship designs suitable for large barge haulage on river Ganga (National Waterway-1).This marks attaining of a critical milestone in the growth of the country’s Inland Water Transport (IWT) sector as it will help overcome the unique navigation challenges river Ganga throws due to its complex river morphology, hydraulics, acute bends, shifting channels, meanders and current.It will serve as an enabler for domestic shipbuilding industry working on inland vessels and open huge possibilities for cargo and passenger movement on National Waterway-1.The Government…

The built-for-purpose National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) training ship comes to life. Anybody who has spent four years at a State Maritime Academy (SMA) has also spent time at sea on a Marad-owned training vessel. Today, these platforms are long in the tooth, equipped with outdated equipment and not necessarily conducive to the task of training cadets for a future career at sea. For a long time, though, they’ve gotten the job done. It is also true that some of these hulls are one equipment casualty away from the bone yard, despite that best efforts of the schools tasked with their upkeep. That’s got SMA officials worried. The Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s Academic Dean Brad Lima knows what is at stake. “Kennedy is 50 years old and sound mechanically.

Freight rates for large dry cargo ships on key Asian routes, which hit three-year highs this week, are likely to rise further on a shortage of ships available for immediate charter, brokers said. Rates for 180,000 deadweight tonne (DWT) capesize ships are set to break $10 a tonne from Australia to China in the next few days, while rates could also surpass $20 a tonne from Brazil to China. "There are more chances of rates breaking $10 than $20 because the Australian market is more active among miners and vessel operators," a Singapore-based capesize broker said on Thursday.

Profoundly damaging announcement by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) puts foreign companies first and American companies and workers last. The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) today responded to an announcement by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to withdraw its second proposal to modify and revoke letter rulings. This decision hurts American workers, vessel owners, and U.S. shipbuilders and prevents the creation of 3,200 new American jobs. Obliging to foreign interests, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommended a regulatory review process that will significantly delay the lawful and correct enforcement of the Jones Act which requires good moving between one U.S. port and another be moved on vessels that are U.S. built, U.S. owned and U.S. crewed.

According to a latest report in Korea Times, South Korea's biggest container carrier Hanjin Shipping's efforts to settle the rescheduling deadlines for financing ships and reducing charter fees before the end of July has not yet be resolved. This situation is raising concerns over the possibility that the nation's top shipping line may go into court receivership. Or, Hanjin may get a month's extension from creditor banks of an August 4 deadline of a voluntary restructuring agreement, giving the shipping major more time to comply with conditions that will prevent it from seeking court receivership. As on Tuesday, Hanjin Shipping has failed to conclude negotiations with foreign ship owners and creditors in a bid to lower charter fees and prolong looming deadlines for financing its shipping.

The U.S. Navy conducted a series of cooperative air defense test exercises with the Spanish navy that culminated in live missile firing events using the latest Aegis Weapon System baseline July 20-21. The event was not only the first interoperability test of the latest Aegis Baseline 9.C1 with a foreign ship, but also the first combined Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trial with that country's navy since 2007. Guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) and Spanish frigate Cristobol Colon (F 105) participated in the testing. In addition to live missile firing events, Tactical Data Link interoperability exercises were held July 12-14. "While our combat systems suites are slightly different, the way we operate and execute missions are quite similar," said Cmdr.

South Korea's largest shipping line Hanjin Shipping said bondholders agreed to extend the maturity of Won35.8bn ($30.1m) in debts by four months to September 23 this year, in a major step to help the company avoid bankruptcy. According to a report in the Korea Herald, during a meeting on Thursday, bondholders gave the nod to the firm’s proposal,  marking a good start to meeting one of the conditions for its creditor-led restructuring. On May 5, creditors of the Cash-strapped Hanjin Shipping agreed to offer financial assistance to the company and initiate a corporate rehabilitation program with conditions attached. The debt maturity extension was part of conditions that include a cut in charter rates and an inclusion in a global shipping alliance.

The Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) of the 13th Parliament of Malaysia has passed the Merchant Shipping Ordinance (Amendment) Bill 2016 aimed at standardizing national maritime law with the international maritime community, reports Bernama. Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi, when winding up the debate on the bill, gave assurance that the government would ensure that all merchant shipping companies would adhere to the national maritime law in ensuring the wellbeing of seafarers. "The Marine Department will carry out annual audit on these merchant shipping companies to ensure compliance of the maritime law," he said.

The American Maritime Partnership (AMP), the voice of the domestic maritime industry, today released a statement in response to the sheer number of factual errors in the recent report published by the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure’s (Aii) – Jones Act: Protectionism v. Global Trade. “The publication is littered with fabrications intended to mislead policymakers and we demand a retraction of the report," said Tom Allegretti, Chairman of AMP. “It is shocking that a nonprofit organization led by former senior members of the U.S. military would produce such a factually inaccurate report and take such a myopic view of an important national security issue. They have failed to even acknowledge the fact that the U.S.

A former member of the 9-11 Commission recently wrote in The Hill that an “often overlooked” benefit of the Jones Act is its role in homeland security and border protection. Former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton and former state attorney general and homeland security expert from the Commission, said he finds border security the Jones Act’s “most vital benefit” in addition to its economic benefits of supporting more than 500,000 American jobs and the nearly $100 billion it fuels into the U.S. economy every year. The complete article written by Mr. As homeland security and border control remain a top priority among presidential candidates, one important provider of that security is often overlooked—the principal role the domestic maritime industry plays in securing America’s borders.

Singapore Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) has condemned Iranian forces for firing warning shots in the Gulf at a Singapore-flagged Alpine Eternity which it said was in international waters, calling it a “serious violation of international law”. Five Iranian boats had fired shots across the bow of Alpine Eternity in the international waters off the Gulf, and MPA said it is "deeply concerned with such actions". The Alpine Eternity was attacked by a number of small craft in international waters off the UAE in the latest escalation in the region. MPA also urged Tehran to investigate the incident. “With regard to the reported shooting incident on 14 May 2015…

Speaking at the Intermodal Association of North America on May 5 in Chicago, U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner William P. Doyle discussed several of the shipping industry’s hottest topics, including ocean carrier consolidations and alliances, container weight VGM under SOLAS, and chassis. “We’ve all heard the recent announcements related to consolidations, for instance, CGM CGM and NOL-APL; and COSCO and CSCL. “We’ve all heard the announcement that Hapag Lloyd and UASC are in discussions on a possible merger.

The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) issued a statement regarding Senator John McCain’s proposal allowing foreign-built vessels to take over marine transportation in the United States, stating the amendment would gut U.S. shipbuilding while outsourcing jobs and security. “Senator McCain has proposed an amendment to eliminate a cornerstone of U.S. maritime policy that dates back to the founding of our nation. The reservation of domestic transportation to U.S.-built vessels ensures the existence and viability of America’s shipbuilding industrial base.