10 AUG 2020  Singapore’s OCBC Bank has sought a court-appointed supervisor to manage shipping firm Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd and four of its subsidiaries. Xihe Holdings is part of the troubled Singapore-based Lim family business empire, which also includes oil trader Hin Leong Trading and fleet manager Ocean Tankers (Pte) …

09 AUG 2020  The economic impact of the coronavirus is taking a strong toll on the shipbuilding industry according to a new analysis from BIMCO. While the orderbook is at its lowest point in 17 years, BIMCO however reports that even with increasing demolitions fleet volumes are continuing to rise …

8 AUGUST 2020 The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more. The country’s prime minister Hassan Diab said the blast was caused by around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near the city’s cargo port. …

7 AUGUST 2020 As if spiderwebs weren’t already icky enough, some spiders have gone and made them poisonous as well, a new study reveals. The unique properties of spiderwebs have long fascinated materials scientists. They’re constructed from one of the toughest known natural materials: lighter, yet five times stronger than steel, and bacteria resistant to …

06 AUG 2020  A series of two massive blasts at the port of Beirut, Lebanon caused extensive damage Tuesday, leveling multiple buildings and damaging vessels. Bystander video shows that the both blasts originated in a warehouse complex on the east side of the port’s large concrete silo, next to Basin Number …

05 AUG 2020 The International Maritime Organization (IMO) released the long-awaited 575-page final report for its Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study. Coming six years after the third report, the results are viewed as a critical scorecard measuring the success of the shipping industry towards the goals of reducing greenhouse gas …

04 AUG 2020  Faced with increasing economic pressures, many shipowners are looking at downsizing fleets and disposing of older vessels. The challenge has been to address environmental concerns and increasing restrictions while retiring older or worn-out vessels. While in very different sectors of the shipping business, Carnival Cruise Line and …

Navtek Naval Technologies has laid the groundwork for the future by designing and building the world’s first all-electric tug, ZEETUG® – short for Zero Emissions Electric tug. It started with two – superficially straightforward – renewal requests: Gisas Shipbuilding asked for harbor tugs that were both “lower emission and smaller size” than …

02 AUG 2020  On Sunday evening, a river cruise boat sank on Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River. All 60 passengers and 15 crewmembers aboard were safely evacuated to a nearby pier. According to local media, the three-deck dinner cruise boat High Season 1 picked up a company of Chinese and Thai tourists at …

01 AUG 2020 The heads of the three unions representing Military Sealift Command civilian mariners are calling on MSC to reevaluate the “Gangways-Up” order as concerns mount over the mental health safety of the mariners. In a July 29 letter to Admiral Michael A. Wettlauer, Commander of the Military Sealift Command, the …