The Chamber of Shipping offices will be not be issuing port passes for the Port of Vancouver between December 23, 2020 to January 10, 2021. Arrangement for passes expiring during this period should be made before or after the closure period through the normal on-line process.  Staff will still be available remotely during this period.

Clear Seas, in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute, has released the findings of their third Canada-wide public opinion poll on the marine shipping industry. The poll takes into consideration the COVID-19 pandemic and impact it might have had on Canadians’ overall awareness about the industry and the role it plays in the global and national supply chain. The findings show that building on what now is a five-year trend, four-in-five Canadians say they have a favourable view of marine shipping.  The industry is expected to play a major role in the post-pandemic economic recovery, but Canadians also want marine shipping to continue to make strides in environmental protection. Find the full report here.

Two crew members on a bulk carrier anchored in Vancouver's English Bay were seriously injured after a lifeboat unexpectedly fell into the water during a drill on Tuesday. Both crew members were on the lifeboat when it was released from the ship, and it was sinking when rescuers were called. The Canadian Coast Guard, the Vancouver Police Department's marine unit and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority all responded to the mayday call. A rescue vessel was on scene within 10 minutes and paramedics treated the two crewmen for significant injuries, but both are in stable condition.

As part of the Cooperation Agreement signed at the end of 2018 aimed at improving their respective and common port services, the port authorities of Montreal and Trois-Rivières have announced the rollout of three projects that will improve the marine operations of both ports: the implementation of a common extranet portal to manage ship arrivals, the standardization of practices and procedures and the implementation of a single security access control system (Port Pass) for workers and visitors.

Canadian Pacific and Hapag Lloyd have announced that that Hapag Lloyd will begin a container line service at Port Saint John in 2021. Combined with geographic and intermodal attributes, including presence of a world-class container terminal operator, two Class I railways, the West Side Modernization Project continues to attract private sector investment and interest in the Port of Saint John.

Canada’s Waterfront Shipping Company is adding eight new methanol dual-fuel tankers to its fleet. They have ordered the eight 49,999 dwt vessels from South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and are scheduled for delivery between 2021 and 2023. The new vessels will add to Waterfront’s existing fleet of 11 methanol-fuelled ships.

Glencore Agriculture has rebranded to officially take the name of its Canadian subsidiary, Viterra. Glencore Agriculture, co-owned by commodity firm Glencore and two Canadian public-sector pension fund investment firms has announced that it has started to use the name Viterra in most of the 37 countries where it operates. Apart from the name change and refreshed brand, it is business as usual across the company.

Last week, we reported on a study commissioned by the Government of Canada that concluded that Canada should prohibit the use of exhaust gas cleaning systems in Canadian waters. This week, Transport Canada clarified Canada’s position during a meeting to review the outcomes of the recent IMO meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee. It stated that Canada’s current regulations respect the IMO’s 2015 Guidelines and that Canada will continue to support a review of these Guidelines by the IMO. Should there be changes because of the review, Canada will amend its regulations accordingly. Notwithstanding confirmation of Canada’s position, it remains unclear why Environment and Climate Change Canada would commission this study in the United States and endorse its recommendations without having coordinated directly with Transport Canada.

Transport Canada has issued Marine Security Operations Bulletin 2020-003, which introduces two new temporary measures to further reduce risks related to COVID-19.  Transport Canada-Marine Security Operations may now consider offering a temporary exemption relating to 90-day extension to certain marine security documents if it has been determined that it is not operationally feasible to conduct a security assessment (renewal) due to COVID-19. Additionally, Marine Security Operations may also consider deferring the intermediate security inspection related to certain marine security documents (issued no later than April 1st, 2018) by offering a temporary 90-day extension, where it not operationally feasible to inspect due to COVID-19.

Transport Canada has released Ship Safety Bulletin 24/2020 to advise the marine industry of the of the Policy on Authorized Service Providers (ASP).   The policy implements requirements from the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Resolution A.761(18) (Recommendation on conditions for the approval of servicing stations for inflatable life rafts), as amended, and Resolution MSC.404(96) (Amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, as amended). These IMO resolutions relate to the maintenance, testing and servicing of life-saving appliances. This policy also sets parameters for authorizing service providers.

The US Department of Energy has issued a rule to exclude environmental reviews for marine transport of LNG, as the Trump administration unleashes last minute rules supporting the fossil fuel industry. The rule frees LNG transport license applications from including environmental reviews that have been required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The requirement has only been on LNG shipments to countries with which the US does not have a free trade agreement. The rule is expected to be overturned by President-elect Joe Biden’s administration and challenged by environmental groups in the courts.

The US Navy has decided to scrap the amphibious landing dock USS Bonhomme Richard due to extensive damage from last July’s fire at Naval Base San Diego. They came to the decision after an assessment concluded that the cost to restore the ship could be more than $3 billion and would take between five and seven years to complete. The vessel will instead be decommissioned, towed away and dismantled.

The US Coast Guard has completed a 30-day demonstration and evaluation of unmanned surface vehicles off the coast of Oahu. The test sought to explore how current and emerging technologies might be used to enhance maritime domain awareness in remote regions. It also showed ways USVs with assorted sensor capabilities might support the Coast Guard’s missions around the globe ranging from search and rescue, to law enforcement.

New research released by shipping consultancy Drewry’s Ship Operating Costs indicates that vessel operating costs have risen at their fastest pace in over a decade this year, on higher insurance cover premiums and Covid-19 related expenses. Drewry estimates that average daily operating costs across the 47 different ship types and sizes covered in the report jumped 4.5% in 2020, compared to underlying increases of 2% and 2.5% respectively in the previous two years. This followed a period in which opex spending stagnated or contracted over three consecutive years by 8% in 2015-17.

An Ocean Network Express containership is estimated to have lost more than 1,900 containers overboard in the Pacific Ocean approximately 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. The containers were lost overboard when the vessel encountered a storm cell producing gale-force winds and large swells, causing the ship to roll heavily, resulting in the containers dislodging and falling into the ocean. A full investigation will be conducted into this incident.

Leaders of Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Norway, Palau and Portugal have committed today to sustainably manage nearly 30m sq km of their national waters by 2025, a move that will have significant ramifications for the shipping industry, not least in its drive to decarbonise. The countries have committed to bringing a holistic approach to ocean management that balances protection, production and prosperity.

 

The British utility SSE Plc and Norwegian energy major Equinor ASA reached financial close on the world’s biggest offshore wind park the east coast of England. It will have skyscraper-sized turbines and produce enough electricity to supply 5 percent of the U.K.’s demand, or the equivalent of six million homes. Total investment in the first two phases of the project will be around 6 billion pounds and has already created hundreds of U.K. jobs.

Orange Marine it will build a new cable ship that will be even more efficient and with a reduced environmental footprint. It will be the first cable ship of its generation specially designed for the maintenance of submarine cables, both fiber optic telecommunication cables and inter-array power cables used in offshore windfarms. It will replace C/S Raymond Croze, launched in 1983, who carried out more than one hundred cable repairs, mostly in Mediterranean, Black Sea and Red Sea.