Ports News

Spanish police said on Friday they had seized four metric tons of cocaine hidden in rice sacks at Barcelona's port, breaking up a crime ring that operated in Spain, Paraguay and Britain.The drug smugglers processed the drugs into powder in Asuncion, Paraguay, and then put them plastic bags which were hidden inside sacks of rice sewn by hand before shipping them to Europe, the statement said.The containers arrived at Barcelona's port earlier this year but the haul of cocaine was only discovered in July when the smugglers moved the containers, police said.Authorities in Paraguay and Britain seiz

The Port San Luis Harbor District has entered into a project evaluation agreement with Clean Energy Terminals (CET), a leading developer of offshore wind port facilities across the U.S., to asses the development of the West Coast's first offshore wind operations and maintenance port.The agreement enables the parties to jointly evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of an offshore wind operations and maintenance (O&M) port facility in San Luis Obispo Bay.The facility…

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has released Accident Investigation Report 6/2024 into the jetty contact by the tanker Ali Ka.The Malta registered oil and chemical tanker made contact with the westernmost section of Oikos Jetty 2 at Canvey Island on the River Thames, England at 0436 on October 25, 2022. The vessel was departing the berth under compulsory Port of London Authority (PLA) pilotage and without a tug in attendance.The impact caused minor damage to the ship but severe damage to the jetty. Ali Ka grounded close to the pier.

The mayor of the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiisk issued a sea drone alert on Thursday morning, he said on the Telegram messaging app.Mayor Andrei Kravchenko urged locals to stay away from the shoreline. Ukrainian sea drones have in the past attacked Russian ships near the port, disrupting traffic.Novorossiisk is Russia's largest Black Sea port and a key outlet for crude oil and oil product exports in Russia's south.

Representatives from Ports of Indiana and Port of Antwerp-Bruges have signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance key economic and environmental port initiatives.The agreement formalizes a plan to work together to advance economic development, container shipping, decarbonization, port security and technology integration.The agreement was a result of past collaborations between the ports, a recent trade mission by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to Belgium in June, and an MoU between the State of Indiana and the Government of Flanders signed Dec.

The TWIN-PORT VI scheme, a four-year project representing a continuation of the long-term cooperation between ports of Tallinn and Helsinki, has received a funding commitment from the EU in the amount of $16. 8 million (€15.4 million).The TWIN-PORT VI project aims to reduce transport system emissions and to improve conditions for passenger and freight transport operations.In the project, the Tallinna Sadam port will focus on environmental impacts and plans to build on-shore power…

Dutch shipbuilder Damen has signed a contract with Toyota Tsusho for the delivery of four vessels to support the port development project in Namibe, Angola.The order consists of two ASD Tugs 2813, a Pushy Cat 1004 and a Stan Pilot 1905. The vessels will be provided to the Ministry of Transport Angola as part of a Japanese Government funded port development project.Damen will deliver the vessels in the first quarter of 2025.The shipbuilder had already commenced construction of the vessels at Damen Shipyards Gorinchem…

Italy's gas grid group Snam SRG.MI said on Friday it expected a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to become operational by March 2025, allowing the country to diversify further its energy supplies.The floating terminal in the Adriatic sea will have an annual regasification potential of 5 billion cubic metres (bcm), bringing Italy's total capacity to 28 bcm a year, or 45% of the country's gas demand in 2023.The set up of the regasification unit dubbed BW Singapore, which envisages the building of both a platform offshore the costal city of Ravenna and a breakwater, is part of Italy's eff

Adani Ports expects to complete the first of four phases of a key transshipment container port in southern India this year, it said on Friday, firming the timeline for a project already delayed by six years due to protests by locals.The Vizhinjam deep-sea port at the southern tip of the country is of strategic importance due to its proximity to international shipping routes and will help India rival Dubai, Singapore and Sri Lanka.Adani Ports, a part of billionaire Gautam Adani's ports-to-power conglomerate…

Damen’s new cutter suction dredger, the first of Damen CSD600 series, has started operations in Indonesia.The dredger was transported from Rotterdam, the Netherlands to Indonesia as deck cargo on a heavy lift carrier.The stationary dredger, which has been named Jhoni 58, is working on a maintenance dredging project.The dredging operation is located at the Port of Batulicin on the island of Kalimantan. The main activities of the port relate to its important coal terminal.The busy access channel is used by numerous coal barge transports.

About 1.7 million customers remained without power in Texas on Wednesday morning, two days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall, as progress was slow during the night, hampering efforts to restore critical oil infrastructure.The storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday near the coastal town of Matagorda, about 100 miles (160 km) from Houston, lashing Texas with heavy winds that knocked down multiple power lines and caused property damage.Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has estimated that U.S.

Russia launched 20 drones and five missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday, killing two people in the Black Sea region of Odesa, damaging port infrastructure and hitting an energy facility in the northwest, officials said.A truck driver and security guard were killed in the southern Odesa region during the missile attack, which damaged port warehouses, trucks and a civilian ship, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. A sailor was also wounded, he said.Odesa region is the central hub for…

Severe weather conditions near the Cape of Good Hope has brought container traffic to a halt this week according to analysis by LSEG Shipping Research.Since Monday, daily transit data and vessel location data via the LSEG Workspace Interactive Map show no containerships passing the Cape of Good Hope – adding to congestion and delays exacerbated by the Red Sea crisis. The Interactive Map layer shows marine weather and waves over 10 meters high.Fabrice Maille, Global Head of Shipping & Agriculture at LSEG…

A strike planned for Monday by ship and dock foremen at west Canadian ports has been called off after the country's industrial relations board found the union's strike notice was in violation of the labor code, the board said in an order."The Board directs the union to rescind its strike notice," Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) said in the order, adding that the strike violated the Canada Labour Code.It said that the union - International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship and Dock Foremen Local 514 - failed to bargain in good faith.The union did not immediately respond to a request f

The largest ports in Texas closed operations and vessel traffic on Sunday as Hurricane Beryl intensified as it approached the Texas coast near Houston.Beryl, which left a trail of destruction this week in the Caribbean, killing at least 11 people, was now a category 1 hurricane and may strengthen into a category 2 by landfall on Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.The ports of Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City said they closed after condition "Zulu" was set by Coast Guard captains on Sunday.

Nordic Fender has entered a strategic partnership with SkyLab IoT for the development and expansion of smart fender and buoy solutions that provide real-time data worldwide.Nordic Fender products can now benefit from live monitoring of critical parameters such as air pressure, temperature, humidity, acceleration, angle and rotation (X, Y, Z), and location services based on GPS, GNSS, geolocation, and WiFi/MAC addresses. In addition to the standard data, it is also possible to monitor other environmental…

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded 26 on Thursday in Ukrainian regions stretching from the south to the east and northeast, local authorities said.A missile strike in southern Odesa region killed a woman, injured seven people and damaged port infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.In northeastern Kharkiv region, a second woman was killed and a man wounded in a strike by a Russian guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.Nine others…

Cargo shipments at Ukraine's Black Sea and Danube ports were 68% higher in January to June than in the same period of last year, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.Six functioning ports processed 52.7 million tons of cargo compared with 31.3 million tons last year, Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the parliamentary finance committee, said on the Telegram messenger.More than 63% of total shipments constitute agricultural products, he said.In the first half of 2023, shipments were carried…

Port of Brownsville, along the U.S.-Mexico border, said on Wednesday that it would limit ship traffic due to gale force winds from Hurricane Beryl, a Category 4 hurricane heading for the Gulf.Only vessels that will be able to finish and sail by Friday night or Saturday early morning will be allowed to come in, said Michael Davis, Harbor Master at Port of Brownsville.All river barges will need to depart no later than noon on Friday and vessels remaining in the port must double up lines and ensure that they are properly anchored…

Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk was operating as normal on Wednesday after an attempted Ukrainian maritime drone attack, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the local administration."There are no restrictions. Shipping goes as normal," Interfax quoted a statement from the local administration.Novorossiisk is Russia's largest Black Sea port and a key outlet for crude oil and oil products exports and transit in Russia's south. It also loads oil coming from Kazkahstan and Azerbaijan and handles grain…

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has approved a proposal from Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor to establish the first international sea cargo container terminal on Lake Michigan. This would create the only all-water container route for ocean vessels to serve the greater Chicago metropolitan area via the Great Lakes.The Burns Harbor terminal is located in northwest Indiana, inside the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area and within sight of the Chicago skyline. It is part of the 25th largest U.S.

The construction of Germany's first land-based liquefied national gas (LNG) terminal at the inland port of Stade kicked off on Friday with the goal of starting operation in 2027, said the project firm Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH).The project on the river Elbe is part of Germany's broader efforts to diversify its energy sources after a sudden drop of Russian gas imports following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The terminal will include two LNG tanks with capacity of 240,000 cubic metres each and will be ammonia-ready as Germany and its neighbours aim to replace gas with green hydrogen and its deriv

Congestion at Singapore's container port is at its worst since the COVID-19 pandemic, a sign of how prolonged vessel re-routing to avoid Red Sea attacks has disrupted global ocean shipping - with bottlenecks also appearing in other Asian and European ports.Retailers, manufacturers and other industries that rely on massive box ships are again battling surging rates, port backups and shortages of empty containers, even as many consumer-oriented firms look to build inventories heading into the peak year-end shopping season.Global port congestion has reached an 18-month high…