Fleet Management News

Maritime technology companies Helm Operations and Spinergie announced they are teaming up to create a fully integrated fleet optimization platform and centralized source of record keeping.The partnership will integrate vessel management system data from Helm Operations' Helm CONNECT into Spinergie's Smart Fleet Management, including logbook entries, engine room readings, and other essential sources. When combined with Spinergie’s data streams, including AIS, GPS, custom GIS Maps…

ClassNK granted its Innovation Endorsement for Products & Solutions to U-MING Marine Transport Corporation (U-MING)’s Fleet Safety Management(FSM) System, co-developed and coded with the help of Ericsson.In July 2020, to promote the spread and development of innovative technologies, the Society launched Innovation Endorsement as a swift certification service in cooperation with technological front runners to establish appropriate evaluation criteria. Among the certification categories…

ABB Ability Marine Fleet Intelligence – Advisory combines the power of cloud-based analytics and reporting with user-friendly visualizations to help shipowners, managers and charterers optimize ship performance fleet-wide.ABB Ability Marine Fleet Intelligence – Advisory is offered as a SaaS (Software as a Service), providing a complete overview of all data collected from shipboard systems, enabling a comparison of a a ship’s operational performance with another vessel, with ships built to the same specifications…

Danish dry bulk specialist Clipper Bulk announced that it would acquire the Bulkhandling shipping pool of Supramax and Ultramax vessels, from Norwegian shipowner Klaveness.The Bulkhandling pool dates back to 1963 and was the first pool operated in shipping.All current members of the Bulkhandling pool have been offered to join the new Clipper Bulkhandling pool, and the new pool management will jointly with the members agree on a strategy for further growth and expansion. Following this, Clipper Bulk will manage one of the leading pools for supramax and ultramax dry bulk tonnage in the world. Lasse Kristoffersen, CEO Torvald Klaveness said:  “The Bulkhandling pool is seen as market leading and have significant potential for growth.

Reygar announced that its BareFLEET remote monitoring system is now in use on 100 vessels worldwide. The growth is in step with a general migration to digital solutions across the maritime sector, and the milestone is punctuated as Reygar expands its control system capabilities across dynamic positioning, autonomous vessels and consultancy, with two new engineering hires and a larger premises in Bristol: James Cook and Richard Crowder. Cook joins the business from Rolls Royce…

OSM Maritime Group extended its partnership with Tero Marine, as the Norwegian tech company now prepares to install its TM Master suite on the remaining OSM fleet globally.The frame agreement with Tero Marine means that all vessels with various planned maintenance systems across the OSM fleet would be standardized on TM Master. TM Master is currently installed on close to 70 vessels across OSM’s Norway and Singapore managed fleets. With OSM’s vision in the ship management segment…

Houston-based Excelerate Energy’s unit, Excelerate Technical Management (ETM) has been authorized to operate as ship manager for its parent company’s entire fleet of floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs).The Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Government of Belgium have awarded Interim Documents of Compliance (DoC) under the International Safety Management (ISM) Code to ETM.The Interim DoC is the result of an audit of ETM’s safety management system, confirming compliance with ISM standards which ensure the safe operation of its crew and vessels.“Excelerate has achieved a company milestone with the successful launch of our ship management services. The Compliance certification is tangible evidence of the forward-thinking, dedicated effort of our team.

To encourage More women are joining the maritime ranks in a variety of professions within the industry and with a view to continuing the momentum to empower women in the maritime community, International Maritime Organization (IMO) is supporting a training course aimed at female officials from maritime and port authorities.Twenty-two women from 10 francophone countries in Africa - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon,  Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Guinea, Madagascar, Senegal, Seychelles and Togo -, took part in the two-week "Women in Port Management" course, hosted in Le Havre, France (27 January - 7 February).The course covered lectures on port management, port security, marine environment, facilitation of maritime traffic, marketing, port logistics and other topics.

Norwegian dry bulk operator Torvald Klaveness and Japanese trading house Marubeni have merged their panamax pool activities into a new jointly-owned pool management company called Maruklav Management.Maruklav, claimed to be the world's biggest panamax bulker pool, will be led by Michael Jørgensen as the company MD, with Masashi Kobayashi from Marubeni as Deputy MD. The combination of existing fleets in the MG Harrison Shipping and Baumarine Pools will see the venture with a fleet of approximately 30 vessels starting operations in early April."Combining the strengths of major trading house Marubeni and long-term Owner and Operator Klaveness will not only leverage individual capabilities…

Those shipowners looking to install marine exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) as way of meeting global sulfur cap requirements are advised to ensure that manufacturers, shipyards and installers are using quality, high-end materials.Based on the collective experience gained from more than 1500 EGCS installations, Clean Shipping Alliance (CSA) 2020 members found the quality of materials and coatings used is the most important factor in optimizing EGCS safety and averting any corrosion problems during operation.“There are always some challenges involved when specifying ships’ machinery systems and scrubbers are no different,” said Arne Hubregtse, Executive Board Member, Spliethoff.

Greek commercial ship management company Signal Maritime Services and tanker vessel trader Heidmar join forces to deliver commercial management to the global tanker market.Both companies have agreed a milestone partnership, under which Signal will manage a joint tanker fleet using its proprietary technology and analytical approach, said a press release.Signal’s Artificial-Intelligence-backed solution to pool management has consistently delivered superior earnings to its pool members since its launch in 2018.Commercial management of 18 Aframax vessels in Heidmar’s Sigma Pool will be handled by Signal with immediate effect, with a transition period of one month.Signal will also be working with the Heidmar team to manage the LR2 vessels in its Sigma Pool…

British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat plc will extend its service portfolio for customers with the launch of Fleet LTE, following an agreement with subsea fibre and offshore LTE network operator, Tampnet.The new service which is primarily aimed at offshore support vessel (OSV) operators, but could also be used by fishing and ferry operators operating in the area,  leverages low-latency, high data speed communications available via a dedicated Access Point Name (APN) on the Tampnet North Sea LTE network and could be extended to other regions such as the Gulf of Mexico if successful.Inmarsat’s new Fleet LTE service means customers can access high speed 4G…

Singapore based shipowner and operator Grindrod Shipping announced a number of transactions relating to the extension of its IVS Bulk joint venture, implementation of a financing arrangement and a fleet update.Grindrod Shipping has extended the termination date of its IVS Bulk joint venture from September 30, 2019 to November 30, 2019."We continue to progress the transaction agreed in principle with the joint venture partners whereby the company would acquire an additional 33.25% stake from one of the partners with the other partner retaining its 33.25% stake, as well as the negotiations with lenders to refinance all of the existing debt of IVS Bulk and provide us sufficient capital to acquire the additional 33.25% stake.

V.Group has appointed John Adams as managing director of V.Ships UK Ltd. Adams brings a wealth of experience from 30 years at Teekay Shipping, most recently holding the position of Managing Director, Glasgow and Chair of the Operational Leadership Team.In his time at Teekay, Adams played a key leadership role during Teekay’s growth, integrating acquisitions into the expanding fleet operations. He is also Chairman of Bahamas Shipowners’ Association and Vice Chair at the International Chamber of Shipping…

British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat plc and the provider of electric, digital and connected solutions for the marine industry ABB Marine & Ports have signed a master supply agreement aimed at tackling an obstacle identified by ship owners which has stopped them using IoT (Internet of Things) technology.A recent 2018 Inmarsat survey of 125 owners found 51% identifying an inability to get data off ships in real-time as their obstacle to IoT adoption.The agreement recognises ABB as a certified application provider to work with Fleet Data, the IoT platform developed by Inmarsat and Danelec Marine which collects information from onboard sensors…

Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation, the provider of transportation of petroleum products (clean and dirty) and bulk liquid chemicals, announced that its fleet consisted of a total of 41 vessels as of November 7, 2019.The owner and operator of tanker vessels said that out of 41 vessels, 13 are very large crude carriers (VLCCs) (including three bareboat chartered-in VLCCs expected to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021), 26 are product tankers, two are chemical tankers.Navios Acquisition sold the Nave Electron, a 2002-built VLCC vessel of 305,178 dwt to an unaffiliated third party for a sale price of $25.3 million on October 8…

Nakilat has acquired the full ownership of four Q-Flex liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from its joint-venture partner International Seaways, following execution of a sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of the remaining 49.9% ownership interest in these vessels from INSW. This brings the total number of vessels wholly-owned by Nakilat from 25 to 29 LNG vessels, out of its overall fleet of 74 LNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels.With a cargo carrying capacity of 217…

Fleet Data from Inmarsat has received Approval in Principle (AiP) from leading classification society Bureau Veritas.This is a major milestone for the maritime industry’s leading secure sensor data and Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Conditions of approval by Bureau Veritas verify that Fleet Data can be installed safely on board without its operation affecting existing navigation, safety and radio communication systems.The bandwidth-inclusive platform allows ship owners and managers to take control of sensor data collected on board, pre-process, extract and aggregate it in cloud-based storage to be exploited by the operator’s own decision-making software or third party applications.

South Korea’s container shipping giant Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and compatriot shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) have joined forces on the research, development and innovation in the field of smart ship technologies.Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the parties would conduct research on real-time service system based on IoT (Internet of Things), design on-shore platforms for optimized fleet operation, develop automated warehousing systems for ship materials and development economic navigation solutions.HMM plans to promote the innovation of smart ship technologies underway of directly reflecting and testing operational data to its own container vessels.In fact, certain part of smart ship solution related to optimized ship operation has already been compl

Commodities trader Cargill and shipowner Maersk Tankers aim to build a joint Medium Range (MR) tanker pool with more vessels as they seek to cut emissions."The strategic partnership will improve flexibility for customers and reduce fuel consumption and emissions, whilst having a positive impact on time-charter-equivalent earnings for partners," claimed Maersk Tankers which operates 164 product tanker vessels.Cargill will enter its MR fleet into the existing Maersk Tankers MR pool, creating a new joint pool that will significantly increase the scope of their Medium Range (MR) spot tanker business, combining Maersk Tankers' digital expertise with Cargill's experience in trading.The pool will be managed by Maersk Tankers…

The manager of specialized floating assets EXMAR Ship Management and ship management company Anglo Eastern Univan Group formed  a joint venture (JV) dedicated to the newbuilding supervision and vessel management of LNG carriers for third-party owners.The joint venture, AEX LNG Management, brings together two of the leading names in ship management and LNG ship management, with more than 70 years of combined industry experience.Based in Singapore, AEX LNG Management will draw on EXMAR’s niche expertise in the LNG sector, while leveraging the systems, resources and global reach of Anglo-Eastern to provide specialist services for the growing LNG carrier market.Services will include newbuilding planning and supervision…

Hunter Tankers, a subsidiary of Norwegian investment company Hunter Group, has selected Tankers International Ltd as commercial manager for its fleet of very large crude carriers (VLCCs).According to Oslo-based company, Tankers International, a chemical tanker company, would establish “the world’s first scrubber-fitted VLCC pool.”In addition to the Hunter vessels the pool will consist of vessels from Hartree Maritime Partners Ltd., International Seaways Inc., Oak Maritime (HK) Inc., and Ridgebury Tankers.The Scrubber Pool will consist exclusively of modern scrubber-fitted VLCCs operated and maintained to the highest standards and will, combined with TI’s existing VLCC pools, represent the largest VLCC fleet in the world with more than 70 VLCCs on a fully delivered basis.

Grindrod Shipping Holdings announced that it took delivery of the IVS Okudogo, the first of the two owned ultramax “eco” newbuildings that the Company agreed to acquire in May 2018.In conjunction with the delivery, the global provider of maritime transportation services in the drybulk and product tanker sectors, also announced the completion of a drawdown of a portion of the previously announced $31.4 million indicative newbuild financing with IYO Bank for the vessel.The $15.7 million facility relating to the IVS Okudogo has a seven-year term, is repayable in quarterly installments with a balloon payment at the end of the repayment schedule, bears interest at a rate of LIBOR plus 200 basis points per annum and is secured by, amongst other security, the IVS Okudogo.