General News

Kvaerner Fjellstrand has already delivered a JumboCat 50 to Amco last year. The latest 60m catamaran on order for the Egyptian owner will carry 450 passengers, and 50 cars and two buses…

In the quest for greater speed, ship designers are increasingly looking towards gas turbines. Turbine driven containerships! You can almost hear the gasps of astonishment in Copenhagen and Winterthur. Containerships - the…

Dutch yard IHC has ordered a Hamworthy Marine integrated sewage collection and management system comprising 42 toilets with vacuum collection, and the ST3A sewage treatment plant for a dredger currently under construction…

Combination carriers have been out of fashion for much of the 1990s. A recent design aims to change this. Norwegian shipbroker, O-J Libaek & Partners, a company with over 40 experience in…

The IMO has decided to allow the use of both official raster and vector charts in ecdis navigation systems. This means that an ecdis will meet the IMO`s chart carriage requirement whether…

In their efforts to reduce transit times and attract more passengers, operators are looking to bigger, faster ferries. Incat`s latest high-speed vehicle-carrying ferry boasts the ability to carry its own weight, 800t,…

The shipyard Material Management and Production Control System (MARS) from Logimatic has been ordered by two shipyards in Europe. The Gdynia Shipyard in Poland has taken the complete MARS system as an…

The year 2000 problem represents a critical business risk with well documented problems evident already and warnings of worse to come. An IMO/US Coast Guard report on the year 2000 threat in…

EC-sponsored multi-modal satellite navigation trials are being conducted by Racal in the Baltic Sea, where a Colour Line ferry is using Racal`s prototype EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) system for the…

The number of Danish-owned vessels sailing under the Danish flag remained static last year. As at January 1, the figure stood at 593, still making it the third largest fleet in Europe,…

P&O Cruises` flagship Oriana will undergo a two and a half week refit at A&P`s Southampton yard commencing April 14. It is the second scheduled refit for the 1995-built vessel. The programme…

Finland`s main shipyards have been busy with corporate changes as well as with newbuildings. Kvaerner ASA plans to reduce its debt burden by raising a reported NKr2.5 billion ($39.28 million) through the…

Oil major Shell International Trading and Shipping Company (STASCo) has signed an evergreen alliance agreement with Sembawang Shipyard of Singapore. The agreement commits the scheduled refit and drydocking of the Shell fleet…

As competition increases and the market continues to suffer, the possibility of class society mergers gets closer. There are likely to be mergers or alliances among classification societies within the next few…

Chevron has taken delivery of the first of a new class of four VLCCs with a number of interesting features. The four VLCCs, which were contracted at Samsung Heavy Industries in South…

FastShip is to install 250MW (340,000 bhp) in each of its high-speed container ships to achieve a service speed of 40 knots on the route between the USA and Europe. The company…

Figures from Lloyd`s Register shows the world orderbook grew by 2.1 million gross tonnage (mgt) in the quarter to end-September 1998 to stand at 57.7mgt (2,727 sea-going merchant ships over 100gt). Almost…

The IMO`s Marine Safety Committee will undertake a formal safety assessment study of bulk carriers in order to aid future decision making and has referred several issues to a sub-committee on Stability…

New tonnage orders for the cruise industry continue with French yard Chantiers de l`Atlantique securing a construction contract from operator Radisson Seven Seas France. Ordered is a 46,000t newbuilding scheduled to be…

Korean yards are starting to make their presence felt in the international passenger/car ferry newbuilding market. Last month Samsung secured an order for two passenger/car ferries for Greece`s Minoan Lines. Now Daewoo…

Chinese yard Shanghai Edward Shipbuilding Co has signed a contract to build a 16,800 dwt chemical tanker for Swedish owner Rederi Donsoetank AB. The yard, which is working with a full orderbook…

MAN B&W`s PMI System is a portable computerised tool which can be used for performance evaluation of the company`s two-stroke diesel engines. The system measures the cylinder pressure via a piezo-electric transducer…

Horst Kohler from MAN B&W`s engine technology promotion department argues that diesel engines remain the best option for cruise ship propulsion. When Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines signed a deal to use turbines…