General News

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…

The aim of the meeting is to avoid a subsidy war, says the OECD, but the EUÕs Industry Council is unwilling to sign an agreement which excludes the USA. Norway has already…

At Alang, 35,000 people dismantle 200 ships along a 10km beach and the report highlights predictions of increased scrapping of 25 year-old tankers. The class society says waste with no commercial value…

During The Motor ShipÕs visit to Fincantieri last March the company said that delivery was scheduled for December 1998. More recently the company has given the delivery as this month. However, it…

The vessels, which will be built to LR class, will have a service speed of 22 knots and will reduce the normal crossing time between the UK and The Netherlands by two…

Like its sistership, the latest 85,000g vessel will feature gas turbines mounted in azimuthing pods under the hull. As a result of the reduced space required for the propulsion pods, additional space…

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…

On the cylinder cover side the fuel valves have been moved slightly towards the centre. These changes mean the maximum piston crown temperature drops from 509 degC to 421 degC and the…

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…