The latest United States budget has moved away from the aim of scanning 100% of US-bound container cargo at over 700 foreign ports. The shift in policy follows a report that highlighted the failure of scanning plans, estimating that less than 5% of US-bound cargo was scanned at the world’s largest p
Wealthy investors are buying super yachts again and even those who can’t afford to buy them are indulging in the increasingly popular option of fractional ownership. Global sales of superyachts increased nearly five fold in the first two months of 2010, compared with the same period a year ago, as d
Last year cruise ships brought a record-breaking number of passengers to Portugal, setting a new high after more than 940,000 tourists disembarked from their liners at a Portuguese port. In total, 945,034 cruise ship passengers visited Portugal in 2009, easily breaking the previous record of 904,600
The Nanaimo Shipyard Group is worried cuts to Canada’s military budget will further reduce government projects that the shipbuilding industry relies on. Last week, the Conservatives’ budget showed that they expected to save $2.5 billion by slowing the rate of previously planned growth in the Nationa
The first phase of the Felixstowe South Reconfiguration (FSR) is almost complete, apart from the land-side works, and all the various dredgers, hopper barges, survey vessels and ancillary craft have now left the port… [mappress] Source: Maritime Journal, March 11, 2010;
A port survey has shown that the total investment earmarked for expansion and renovation projects along the 2,838km navigable length of the Yangtze river now comes to around $4bn… [mappress] Source: Port Strategy, March 11, 2010
Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord says 2009 was “an extremely busy one” in its Netherlands region (which also includes Belgium). Said Van Oord: “Construction of Maasvlakte 2, a new area of the Port of Rotterdam, will further boost the port’s continued development.
Saudi Arabia becomes 13th country to deal with piracy at sea by signing the Code of Conduct on the Suppression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (Djibouti Code of Conduct).
JOHANNESBURG – Aim-listed Firestone Diamonds has been selected as the preferred candidate to build and operate a new dredge and a 11,5-million ton a year floating treatment plant (FTP) for Namibian diamond-miner Namdeb… [mappress] Source: Mining Weekly, March 12, 2010
Transocean, USA, has announced that the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship ‘Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2’, which is owned by a joint venture with Pacific Drilling, has commenced operations for Reliance Industries in India under a five-year drilling contract. The dynamically positioned ‘Dhirubhai Deepwate
The Centre has finally admitted that excessive siltation of Brahmaputra and Barak rivers was primarily reasons responsible for recurring floods in Assam… [mappress] Source: The Assam Tribune, March 11, 2010;
A sustained dredging program of the Swansea Channel over the 2009-10 summer means that boats should have no problems coming up the coast and getting into the lake… [mappress] source: Sail World, March 12, 2010
The authorities in Abu Dhabi are reportedly on track to complete by US$409m project to construct a channel that will improve access to the Mussafah industrial zone by the middle of 2010… [mappress] Source: Maritime Journal, March 11, 2010
The House and Senate have voted final unanimous passage of legislation that would promote the offshore wind industry in Virginia. SB 577 sponsored by Senators McEachin and Wagner, and HB 389 sponsored by Delegate Janis, create the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority, an entity of the state
