New Name News

Here’s some good news for America’s sea power. While the U.S. Navy has initiated another review of its 30-year shipbuilding plan in the face of widespread dissatisfaction, one element within that plan has been praised: the decision to provide funding for continued construction of amphibious warfare ships. These vessels offer unmatched flexibility and the capability of transporting, deploying, and supporting ground combat forces – typically U.S. Marine Corps – to conduct amphibious assaults, humanitarian operations, or disaster relief missions.

The Swedish Maritime Administration has purchased the 18-year-old icebreaker Polar Circle, expanding its fleet of icebreaking ships to help keep the nation's ports and shipping lanes clear during the cold winter months.In December, the Swedish Maritime Administration put out a tender to acquire a secondhand icebreaker, with Polar Circle emerging as the most suitable option. The agency recently ran the Polar Circle through trials in the Gulf of Bothnia before committing to purchase the vessel."We are delighted to welcome Polar Circle to our fleet.

HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) has announced Alex Delamere-White’s official appointment as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), following six months as acting interim CCO.Based out of the new HX HQ in London, Delamere-White will bring the global functions under one leadership model to further fuel HX’s long-term growth plans, including newly evolved roles for Nathaniel Sherborne and Jim Sayer. Sayer is appointed to SVP Global Marketing bringing together the global marketing functions under his leadership.

Canada's Heddle Shipyards announced it has rebranded as Ontario Shipyards.The name change was made to "reflect the next phase of [the] company's growth and future success", it said in a statement, noting that the new name also embraces the province's shipbuilding legacy."The province of Ontario was once the epicenter of shipbuilding in Canada, with more than 80 commercial and government vessels built at the Port Weller Dry Docks and many more at the historic Thunder Bay Shipyard.

N-KOM, an offshore and marine repairs facility in Qatar, is rebranding as Qatar Shipyard Technology Solutions. The company adopted launching its new identity in alignment with its 13th anniversary, confirming its endeavor to make a qualitative leap to the service provided to its customers in all fields, including technology. This adoption came in the form of the company's new name to become Qatar Shipyard Technology Solutions emphasizing the importance of its geographical location in the State of Qatar.

Frank Manning has quickly risen through the ranks during his eight years in the shipyard business, today serving as president and COO at Diversified Marine, Inc. (DMI) in Portland, Ore. Crucial along the way has been a passion for the business itself and the people that make it all possible.“The first day I walked in a shipyard I knew that I was in the right industry,” Manning said. “DMI has always been a relationship-based business. All of our customers are close friends, and we have relationships that are second to none,” he said.

Vard Accommodation said Wednesday it had changed its name to Vard Interiors. The company also said it had secured a new contract with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding."Vard Accommodation is changing its name to Vard Interiors to show more clearly the full range of products within the company, covering the full interior of the ship—decoration, furniture, piping, and HVAC-R," the company said."With the new name Vard Interiors, we strengthen our position as a deliverer of the complete interior of the ship…

On a windswept island 50 miles north of Seattle sits a U.S. Navy monitoring station. For years, it was kept busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans:…

An oil tanker confiscated by the United States for carrying Iranian oil and diverted to the U.S. Gulf Coast, was headed to the Bahamas on Wednesday under a new name, ship tracking data showed.The tanker Suez Rajan was the subject of attention this year for carrying more than 980,000 barrels of contraband Iranian crude oil, which was confiscated by the U.S. in a sanctions enforcement operation.It was unable to unload the Iranian crude for nearly two and half months over fears of secondary sanctions on vessels used to unload it. It was renamed the St Nikolas after unloading the cargoes.The vessel fully unloaded the Iranian crude this month and the Suez Rajan Ltd company pleaded guilty in April.

Hurtigruten Group's expedition cruise line Hurtigruten Expeditions is rebranding with a new name, HX.The new HX brand and logo will be fully implemented starting in December, and repainting of the fleet’s six ships will commence over the next 18 months.Hurtigruten Norway will continue with the name simplified to just Hurtigruten.Both Hurtigruten Expeditions and Hurtigruten Norway are 100% owned by Hurtigruten Group and form a portfolio of sustainable travel brands that includes land-based activities…

Rolls-Royce has acquired Team Italia/Onyx Marine, an Italian group specializing in yacht bridges and marine automation.Having begun to collaborate on joint development projects in 2019, the two companies now agreed that the best way to realize strategic growth plans would be for Team Italia to become part of Rolls-Royce.Team Italia, established in 2000, designs and develops integrated bridges and marine navigation and automation systems – mainly for Italian yacht builders and shipyards positioned prominently on the global yacht market.With this acquisition…

AD Ports Group and Premier Marine Engineering Services LLC formed a new joint venture, SAFEEN Drydocks, owned 51% by AD Ports Group, 49% by Premier Marine.The new enterprise will offer a broad range of vital services including drydocking, afloat repairs, ship building and refurbishment. The hub of SAFEEN Drydocks’ operations will be located at Khalifa Port and encompass a 45,000 sq. m. shipyard and repair facility, 350m quay wall for vessel afloat repair, and a floating dry dock for vessel maintenance and refurbishment.

FureBear, a joint venture between Swedish shipping company Furetank and Canadian shipping company Algoma, together with U.K.-based Larsson Shipping, has taken over the ownership of Algoma’s product tanker Algonorth.The 2008-built, 6,958 dwt double hull product oil tanker has arrived from Canada to trade in Northern Europe under the new name Fure Skagen.Owned by FureBear and Larsson Shipping and flying the Faroe Island flag, Fure Skagen will be commercially managed by Furetank Chartering in the Gothia Tanker Alliance.Furetank and Algoma formed the FureBear joint venture in 2022…

In the 45 years since the Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard (ASRY) opened on reclaimed land in Bahrain, the Middle East has become one of the world’s ship repair hotspots. A broad range of shipyards now service both regional and global markets.Regional yards have a ready market, with hundreds of offshore rigs working across the region together with the service ships that support them. Then there are thousands of tankers and gas carriers that arrive each year to load energy cargoes for far-flung destinations.

Spanish authorities moved a luxury yacht linked to the sanctioned head of Russian defence group Rostec after the shipyard where it was berthed stopped receiving payments for its repairs, a transport ministry source said.The multi-million-dollar Valerie was transferred to a marina last month, the source and other officials said, highlighting the logistical challenges authorities have faced managing vessels being held across Europe because of sanctions imposed over Russia's military actions in Ukraine.Spain ordered the ship "frozen" - meaning the vessel can not be used or sold - in March, saying it was acting on European Union sanctions.

Tacoma, Wash.-based Silverback Marine is a relatively new name in boatbuilding, formed with the tall ambition to “change the way the world thinks about workboats”.“We started Silverback with the vision of essentially bringing, what I would call, the big boat experience to smaller workboats. Enabling people to get a smaller workboat, but also have a real naval architect and engineer go through it—give them renderings, give them that tailored experience that you would normally only find if you’re getting a much larger vessel…

Long-serving marine, energy and industrial market consultancies International Maritime Associates and World Energy Reports have merged to form Intelatus Global Partners.While Intelatus is a new name, its team of business consultants has nearly five decades of experience across the entire maritime supply chain, producing multi-client analytical studies for sectors including offshore oil and gas, renewables and the energy transition, ports and terminals, transport and logistics…

Norwegian shipowning company Norside has taken ownership of Blue Ship Invest’s platform supply vessel ‘Farland’ and will convert it into a walk-to-work vessel for the offshore wind industry."The PX121 design by Ulstein has once more proven to be a preferred design for conversions into new segments, and 'Farland' is about to transfer from the offshore oil & gas industry to the offshore wind industry," Ulstein, a Norwegian shipbuilder and designer said this week.Hans Martin Gravdal…

Known best for its construction of U.S. Navy warships, Austal USA in September 2020 acquired waterfront property along the Mobile River and established a commercial ship repair facility. Mike Bell, Austal’s VP Operations and Harley Combs, Director, Austal West Campus Ship Repair discuss the plan. Austal USA’s long-established shipbuilding facility in Mobile, Ala., is a modern ship manufacturing factory, one of the largest aluminum warship builders in the world producing new ships for the U.S. Navy.

Norwegian-headquartered Salt Ship Design said it has completed its acquisition of Serbian naval architecture firm Albatross Ship Design.Albatross was founded in 2001 as a member of Norway's Vik Sandvik Group, working under name Vik Sandvik Albatross until it was acquired by Finnish technology company Wärtsilä and renamed Wärtsilä Ship Design Serbia in 2009. It became a private independent company with the new name Albatross Ship Design in 2016.Salt Ship Design, which specializes in the design of offshore and fishing vessels, said it has previously worked with Albatross Ship Design on various aspects of many vessel projects.Salt now adds 20 employees through the integration of Albatross.

Borealis Finance, a company that owns a fleet of bulk and container vessels, has sold one of its containerships.The Oslo-listed firm said Thursday that the 2,824 TEU containership Bomar Bellini had been sold for $16,4 million."The vessel was today successfully delivered to new owners," Borealis Finance said, without disclosing the name of the buyer.The vessel was built in 2007 by Hyundai Mipo. It was previously known as Santa Bettina and Cap Byron.Data from VesselsValue suggest that the vessel has been sold to Global Ship Lease, and also that its new name is Matson Molokai. According to AIS, the vessel is currently in Long Beach, California…

InfraStrata, the UK quoted company focused on strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset lifecycle management, has applied to Companies House to trade under the name Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc.The company, which in 2019 bought Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic, has said it has over the past year and a half proceeded through various phases which have included, the acquisition of assets, significant upgrades to all its facilities, the introduction of state-of-the-art technology and has simultaneously established a substantial sales pipeline.

Applied Telematics is the new name for AST Marine Sciences Limited, a provider of remote monitoring and asset management services for fishing enforcement authorities, vessel owners and commercial operators of fixed and mobile assets globally.Applied Telematics, part of The AST Group, was given the new brand and operating name to reflect the its expertise in telemetry and services—its core focus and business—the company said,As part of this rebrand, the firm's growing team of maritime experts have moved into new offices in Norwich…