BAE Systems announces deal to acquire technology and data specialists Techmodal

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August 20, 2020

Techmodal, which is based in Bristol and has approximately 120 employees and 30 associates, has a number of long term contracts with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in support of the UK’s armed forces, particularly the Army, Strategic Command and Royal Navy. Their expertise complements BAE Systems’ existing digital, data and technical services capabilities.

Last year, the MOD launched the Defence Digital initiative which set out how it plans to increase digital capabilities across defence and the acquisition of Techmodal will help BAE Systems to support the armed forces in this transformation.

Techmodal’s capabilities strongly complement the digital and data services BAE Systems currently provides to the Royal Navy which has ambitions to become a fully ‘digital navy’ by 2025. These existing services include the Data Integration Platform (DIP), a collaborative system that provides the ability to view, manage and exploit data provided by multiple systems on the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, allowing the efficient management of these highly complex modern warships.

Techmodal’s experience and expertise in data analytics, data science and digital transformation will strengthen BAE Systems’ ability to support not just the Royal Navy but all of the UK’s armed forces and other customers around the world.

Welcoming the deal, David Mitchard, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Maritime Services business, said:

“We are delighted to welcome the Techmodal team to BAE Systems. This deal will open up many new opportunities for both businesses and for our colleagues. Techmodal’s data expertise is highly complementary to our own digital capabilities and aligns well with our customers’ digital needs and ambitions.

This acquisition allows us to work together to provide further support to the UK’s armed forces’ digital transformation as well as bringing the benefits of leading edge data-driven decision making to all of our customers.”

Hartmann Reederei upgrades connectivity package to expand digitalisation strategy

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August 20, 2020

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The contract will see Hartmann move from an allowance-based VSAT connectivity to an unlimited Committed Information Rate (CIR) service, providing the bandwidth needed to take the next step into digitalisation of its services.

Shipping company Hartmann, part of the Hartmann Group of Companies provides technical and commercial management to a fleet of 62 modern owned and third party ships, comprising gas tankers, container vessels and bulk carriers.

In addition to enhanced connectivity, the new agreement will see Marlink increase its provision of value added digital services including remote access for onboard IT network and OEMs into shipboard systems via its XChange Universal Remote Access.

A separate network for crew will enable seafarers to access Marlink’s XChange Media service, enjoying dedicated news and information in local languages as well as international to improve crew wellbeing and provide them with accurate sources for news distribution.

With increasing complexity of applications across multiple networks, Hartmann has also considered proactive cyber security compliance, implementing Skyfile Antivirus Premium, XChange Data Manager Premium and Cyber Detection solutions as well as IT LINK Monitor for onboard IT management. Together with Marlink’s standard security devices already implemented, this will help Hartmann Reederei to align with upcoming IMO 2021 regulations.

IT LINK monitor provides a managed service that removes the burden of IT compliance from crew, enabling shoreside IT departments to monitor the whole IT infrastructure onboard each vessel. This can be expanded with a software distributor which allows to update networks and software updates remotely.

Additionally shore side receive regular management reports which provides a simplified process for understanding bandwidth consumption and network usage.

Mr. Ulrich Adami, Managing Director, Hartmann Reederei, said:

“Our operations cover the entire value-added chain of shipping and work closely with national and international partners, relying on a solid reputation to achieve high standards of quality. Marlink’s services provide the foundation for a new chapter in our history as we further digitalise our fleet, improve our operational profile and achieve cyber compliance.”

Tore Morten Olsen, President, Maritime, Marlink, said:

“Hartmann Reederei recognises that the modern ship operator needs a suite of smart solutions that seamlessly connects people and assets around the globe. By choosing to upgrade its services with Marlink, we can support Hartmann’s digital enablement strategy to the benefit of the business and the crew.”

Unifeeder acquires feeder and regional trade operators

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August 20, 2020

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Unifeeder Group has announced the acquisition of Transworld Feeders FZCO, Avana Logistek Limited, including its subsidiary Avana Global FZCO, and Transworld Feeders Pvt. Ltd., the containerised Indian coastal and EXIM feeder shipping operations of Shreyas Shipping and Logistics Limited, excluding vessels and bulk operations. Avana Logistek and Avana Global cover 60 ports, whereas Transworld Feeders and Shreyas Shipping and Logistics cover 53 ports.

Established in 1982, Transworld Feeders and Avana Global are leading independent feeder and NVOCC (Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers) operators, offering container feedering services and regional trade solutions connecting a wide range of ports in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Far East with a number of central hub ports in the region, including the central hub port of Jebel Ali (UAE). Combined, the companies handle approximately 1.2m TEU annually.

Ramesh S Ramakrishnan, Chairman of the Transworld Group, says:

“Our strength lies in our strong customer relationships, local expertise, and network across the Indian Sub-continent, which have allowed us to deliver an efficient product to the market. The acquisition of three of our portfolio companies, will provide Unifeeder ISC with a robust platform to jointly deliver a more complete range of solutions to our customers. We look forward to building on our continued legacy as a globally renowned independent shipping and logistics conglomerate.”

Through Transworld Feeders and Avana Global, Unifeeder now has a strong presence towards the west of the Indian Subcontinent and complement our recent acquisition of Feedertech and Perma Shipping, which especially have a strong market position in the trades towards the east. Through Shreyas Shipping and Avana Logistek, Unifeeder now has the ability to offer a broader range of Indian based door-to-door solutions.

Jesper Kristensen, CEO of Unifeeder Group, says:

“We are excited to be united with a company that shares our values. Transworld Group’s asset-light business model and continuous goal to be the preferred business partner for logistics solutions is in perfect line with the Unifeeder way of working. Both Unifeeder Group and Transworld Group have always aimed for the best solutions for our customers, and with this expansion, we will increase the logistics capabilities of both groups, which delivers greater flexibility and efficiency for our customers.”

The deal is expected to close in 2020. TRANSWORLD GROUP logo-01The Transworld Group is one of the leading shipping and logistics solution providers with strong presence in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and the Gulf Region, operating more than 30 vessels and handling more than 1.2m TEU annually.

Strike disrupted vessel arrivals at the Port of Montreal

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August 20, 2020

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Starting in July 2020, dockworkers have held several strikes. A series of scheduled strikes took place during the weeks of July 2, July 27, and August 3. Then, on August 10, workers started an indefinite strike that is continuing into its second week.

In response to the disruptions, carriers that visit the Port of Montreal have diverted vessels to the Port of Halifax and other ports.

To understand the impact of the strikes on port performance, CargoSmart has reviewed the weekly trends in vessel arrivals, vessel arrival delays, and berth times at the ports of Montreal and Halifax from May 31 through August 15, 2020.

Fewer Container Vessels Arrive at Montreal During the Strikes

While weekly vessel arrivals increased at Halifax from July 19 through August 14, they decreased at Montreal. For the week of August 9, at the start of the indefinite strike, no vessels arrived at Montreal.

Vessel Arrival Delays Fluctuate Throughout the Summer

During the studied period, weekly average vessel arrival delays at Montreal ranged from 9 to 36 hours, with three of the weeks experiencing average delays of more than 35 hours at Montreal. Weekly average vessel arrival delays ranged from 6 to 23 hours at Halifax.

Halifax Weekly Average Berth Times a Fraction of Montreal’s Times

Lastly, weekly average vessel berth times were between 11 and 23 hours at Halifax, while they extended from 44 to 98 hours at Montreal.

Planning for Eastern Canada Schedule Changes

While the strike at Montreal continues, shippers may want to closely monitor their cargo scheduled not only through Montreal, but also nearby ports of Halifax and St. John as carriers and shippers seek ways to move cargo efficiently through the area.

Source: CargoSmart

Port of Piraeus vehicle logistics goes digital with INFORM

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August 20, 2020

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To further expand the strategic importance of its port for the international vehicle trade, the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) S.A., member of COSCO SHIPPING group, has decided to invest into end-to-end digitization and optimization. The company has awarded a project to the well-known optimization specialist INFORM from Aachen, Germany, to improve the efficiency and transparency of vehicle handling at the port’s car terminal.

In order to continue its growth of recent years and to further expand its strategic position, PPA is implementing an intelligent IT system from INFORM Vehicle Logistics that is designed to enable end-to-end transparency of all processes in the supply chain. Customers, suppliers, 3PL and customs authorities will be able to track via a web portal where and when a car has been delivered. In addition, the algorithms of this system are capable of optimizing the operational processes in the compounds through real-time decisions and advanced planning. Consequently, this system gives PPA the advantage of improving its offered services and the flexibility of planning new business processes.

The system will allow PPA to more effectively use available resources and to continuously improve their processes. In addition, it will allow PPA to increase their capacity to operate their car terminal. Covering over 145,000 square meters, the PPA’s car terminal provides a capacity of over 600,000 movements per year. Located close to the centre of Athens, the Port of Piraeus occupies a geostrategic position for the eastern Mediterranean region. It is also considered an important transit hub for trade between Europe and Asia.

Hartmut Haubrich, Director Vehicle Logistics Systems at INFORM, says:

“Digital decision making for us means both making automated optimized decisions as well as helping our customers’ management to make operational and tactical decisions more easily by providing reliable real-time data. In the case of PPA, for example, we will automatically generate work orders and optimize the work orders in real-time to ensure that operations are smooth and target dates are met efficiently. In this way, we will increase the service capacity of the terminal, but also the availability and intelligent allocation of storage spaces”.

For the purpose of identifying a suitable system for their project, PPA executives had visited various ports in Europe. Among others, the International Car Operators (ICO) terminals in Zeebrugge, Belgium, where INFORM’s applications have been successfully implemented. Through an open international tender the above system was evaluated as the best one for PPA, thanks to its effectiveness, modularity and innovative design.

As PPA BoD Chairman Mr. Yu Zenggang stated:

“Under this new cooperation, PPA targets to increase its Car Terminal’s efficiency and competiveness and to make it more attractive for its customers. We believe that the vehicle logistics system of INFORM can guarantee the successful digital transformation of PPA Car terminal”.

DOP Dredger 250 the first locally built dredger in Argentinian history

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August 20, 2020

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The Argentinian shipyard will build major components and assemble the dredger. The DOP Dredger 250 will be used to dredge underneath a floating dock, which the shipyards wants to keep operational full-time. The trick is that the dock will remain in place during the dredging activities.

The Argentinian ship builder SPI has an extensive yard in the bay of Mar del Plata, located on the South Atlantic Ocean. Beside the newbuild of tugs, fishing vessels and barges, the yard also has a repair division. The 150 metre floating dock is in use round-the-clock for repairing local vessels. Therefore, towing away the dock for dredging activities is not desirable. The DOP Dredger will be built by the yard – being the first locally built dredger in Argentinian history.

SPI´s main strengths are based on the productive capacity and infrastructure available for the development of the repair and shipbuilding business.

The infrastructure mentioned is located in the interior of ports (Mar del Plata and Caleta Olivia) and on the banks of Arroyo La Cruz (secondary artery of the Paraná Las Palmas River), in Campana, Buenos Aires.

All the different elevation systems available at the shipyard require dredging maintenance tasks, due to the few natural water depth on the ports. That is why they must be dredged periodically in order to maintain the commercial activities that take place there.

The DOP Dredger, type DD250, is a standard dismountable dredger. The dredge has been designed to remove silt or sand from -2.5m to -15m dredging depth. It pumps some 1.250 m3/h using a Ø250 mm pipe line. The total installed power is 395kW. Shipped in only a few containers will be the operating cabin, the power pack, a jet pack as well as the various hydraulically driven winches.

The specific equipment (dredging pump, accessory equipment and control equipment) will be provided by Damen. In the development of this project Damen’s engineers worked together with SPI’s engineers in a modified version designed on a standard equipment base, which reach the shipyard´s needs and allows them to keep their lifting equipment at 100% of its operational capacity, making business more efficient.

The DOP Dredger DD250 will be able to work in two configurations: with a cutter head targeting compacted soils and with a jet water assisted mining head for easy pumping away loosened bulk sediment. Especially with the compact jet water assisted head, the DOP pump – which is mounted at the bottom end of the ladder – will be able to reach the pit at – 11m underneath the floating dock. Due to continuous tidal movement and traffic in the busy post, each year a layer of silt of some 30-40 centimetres is built up underneath the floating dock.

As a complement to the main activity on which this investment is based on, the dredger will also be available for any port infrastructure need, with the possibility of being moved and easily assembled on where it is required.

The DOP Dredger will not be used in Mar del Plata only. The modular construction of the dredge enables easy transport by road. SPI is planning to relocate the dredger regularly to their other two shipyards, being Campana Port – some 80 kilometres north of Buenos Aires – for the maintenance of another yard including floating dock. The trucks will also transport the DOP Dredger some 2,000 kilometres south to the Caleta Paula shipyard for the same maintenance duties, ensuring maximum uptime of the local ship repair facilities.

The dredger will be operational early next year.

Maersk Drilling secures contract for low-emission rig under the Aker BP alliance

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August 20, 2020

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In direct continuation of its previously announced work scope, the rig will move to the Ula field offshore Norway to drill the Ula F – Producer 1 well. The contract has an estimated duration of 85 days and is expected to commence in April 2021.

The contract value is approximately USD 21.6m, excluding integrated services provided and a potential performance bonus.

Maersk Integrator is contracted under the terms of the frame agreement that Maersk Drilling and Aker BP entered into in 2017 as part of the Aker BP Jack-up Alliance which also includes Halliburton. The tripartite alliance uses a shared incentives model, thereby securing mutual commitment to collaborate and drive digital initiatives to reduce waste and deliver value. Contracts under the alliance are based on market-rate terms but add the possibility of an upside for all parties, based on actual delivery and performance.

COO Morten Kelstrup of Maersk Drilling says:

“We are pleased to add one more well to Maersk Integrator’s work scope for Aker BP in 2021. Our alliance with Aker BP and Halliburton is enabling new ways of working as one team across the value chain, and our close collaboration also allows greater flexibility in future well planning, so additional wells can be committed to as plans mature. We have achieved impressive efficiency gains in the alliance, and this also translates into a reduction of the CO2 emissions associated with drilling. The upgrades currently being performed on Maersk Integrator will improve our emissions profile even further.”

Maersk Integrator is an ultra-harsh environment CJ70 XLE jack-up rig, designed for year-round operations in the North Sea. It was delivered in 2015 and is currently finalising its scheduled Special Periodic Survey offshore Norway. The rig is further undergoing a series of upgrades to turn it into a hybrid, low-emission rig before expectedly moving to the Ivar Aasen field for Aker BP this month.

Tropical Shipping signs agreement with Octopi by Navis for its St. Croix terminal

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August 20, 2020

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Octopi, part of Navis and Cargotec Corporation, the provider of operational technologies and services that unlock greater performance and efficiency for leading organizations throughout the global shipping industry, announced today that Tropical Shipping has signed a subscription agreement for Octopi by Navis at its St. Croix location. This agreement comes on the heels of the Tropical St. Thomas go-live, making St. Croix the second Tropical Shipping terminal that has signed with Octopi this year.

As a hub for transporting goods throughout the Caribbean, Tropical St. Croix handles a mix of cargo and operates at 76,000 TEU annually. Since its inception, Tropical St. Croix was tracking all container movement and operations at the terminal manually and wanted to invest in technology to make its location more modern and efficient for its customers. The terminal needed a TOS that was nimble and able to provide more data visibility to its stakeholders without requiring any additional IT investment, so it selected Octopi’s cloud-based TOS to enhance its operations.

Doug Vogt, VP Operations and Equipment at Tropical Shipping, said:

“Octopi will allow St. Croix to upgrade to an automated, cloud-based TOS with little effort and will offer us the tools to drive operational efficiency, increased visibility and data transfer through its user-friendly interface. Since we will be eliminating manual entry, we will be able to utilize that time to look for other opportunities to better service our customers at our terminal.”

Martin Bardi, Vice President of Global Sales, Octopi by Navis, said:

“In these unpredictable times, we are glad that we can provide a solution via remote assistance to help our customers achieve higher productivity and operational visibility goals. After experiencing a successful remote go-live at their St. Thomas location, Tropical Shipping signed with Octopi at their St. Croix terminal because of the seamless transition to the TOS and the immediate results they had seen after implementation. Tropical Shipping has been a great partner to work with and we look forward to continuing and potentially expanding our relationship with them in the future.”

NORDEN establishes joint venture for technical management of tanker fleet

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August 19, 2020

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NORDEN has established a joint venture with Synergy Marine Group which will handle the technical management of the company’s owned tanker vessels, effective as of 20 August 2020. NORDEN already has a good partnership with Synergy, which has successfully managed the dry cargo fleet since September 2019.

In-house technical management is incompatible with NORDEN’s transition to a trading-oriented business with large and frequent fluctuations in the number of ships owned. While NORDEN has delivered safe, reliable and cost-efficient technical management of the NORDEN owned fleet over many years, it does not provide the commercial flexibility required nor economies of scale to invest in digitalisation of technical management, where Synergy is a leading provider of digital solutions.

CEO Jan Rindbo says:

“NORDEN requires a nimble approach to ownership, both commercially and organisationally. The partnership with Synergy enables NORDEN to be fully focused on optimising trading and commercial operations while ensuring safe, efficient and flexible technical management of the owned fleet.”

NORDEN will transfer 116 employees to the 50/50 owned joint venture, which will be headquartered in Copenhagen, supported by a 100% owned subsidiary in India, and with Danish flagged vessels continuing to sail under the same flag. The 116 employees transferred to the joint venture includes seafarers currently employed directly through NORDEN. The remaining seafarers will be offered new contracts through Synergy.15 employees will be offered employment in new roles in either NORDEN, the joint venture or Synergy.

However, as a consequence of the restructuring, NORDEN will unfortunately part ways with 25 colleagues in Copenhagen, Manila and Mumbai. Technical management has been an integrated part of NORDEN’s history for many years so it is not a decision taken lightly, especially in view of the dedicated contribution from many skilled colleagues over the years. The partnership does, however, enable NORDEN to be fully focused on optimising trading and commercial operations across the company, areas where NORDEN has a real competitive edge.

ClassNK grants AIP to “K” Line and Airseas for their Seawing kite system

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August 19, 2020

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Leading Classification Society ClassNK has granted an Approval in Principle (AIP) based on its “Guidelines for Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems for Ships” and related regulations to Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K” LINE) and AIRSEAS SAS for their automated kite system “Seawing”.

According to an announcement by “K” Line and Airseas, ““Seawing” is a kite system which assists vessel propulsion by harnessing natural wind power through its dynamic flight. A simple switch launches or recovers the kite which unfolds, operates and refolds autonomously. The “Seawing” system collects and analyses meteorological and oceanic data in real-time, then adapts its flight to this information in order to optimize its performance as well as to ensure maximum safety.”

Obtaining the AIP marks the completion of the initial design related to the kite structure and controls. Now the company steps into further development and detailed engineering, with the target of installation and operation on the first “K”LINE vessel.

Through this project, “K”Line will promote wind propulsion as a environment-friendly as well as economical measure. K-Line therefore invests right now in this innovative “Seawing” kite technology in order to lead this transition towards zero emission ships. Its trustful collaboration with Airseas thus demonstrates once more its pioneering spirit and its engagement to contribute to the Society.

ClassNK released its Guidelines for Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems for Ships in September 2019 in order to contribute to the safe integrity and design of this technology and the ships that are installed with it.

Upon receiving the application from “K” Line and Airseas, ClassNK reviewed the basic design of the kite system in line with relevant international conventions, ClassNK rules, and the above-mentioned guidelines. Following its successful completion, ClassNK granted an AIP for the basic design of the kite system.