Arctech Helsinki Shipyard delivered the most powerful newcomer in the Finnish Icebreaker fleet, the Polaris, to the Finnish Transport Agency on 28th September 2016. The Finnish Transport Agency handed the vessel over to Arctia Icebreaking Oy. The prototype vessel built at Helsinki Shipyard is designed to serve for at least 50 years in icebreaking, oil recovery and sea rescue operations. The vessel is the first of her type to be able to use either LNG or low sulphur diesel oil as fuel. The 110m long/24.40m beam, 9,300gt and 17 knot vessel complies with the international IMO Tier III emission standards and special requirement for Sulphur emissions in the Baltic Sea and is equipped with three Azipod propulsion units rotating 360° which enables first-rate manoeuvring qualities. The icebreaking capacity of the Polaris is 1.8 m thick ice at a speed of 3.5 knots. The ship is powered by two Wärtsilä 6000 kW, two 4500 kW and one 1280 kW engines. The azimuth propeller units are ABB 65000kW Azipods at the stern and one 6000kW unit in the bow. The vessel’s bollard pull capability is 214t.

Associated British Ports marked the latest in a series of multi-million pound investments in the port of Southampton by inviting the Rt. Hon John Hayes CBE MP to open its brand new vessel traffic service (VTS) operating room on 21st September. The Minister of State at the Department of Transport was in attendance as ABP revealed its £4m investment in a new office with state-of-the-art equipment at Ocean Gate, Southampton, which will be manned on a 24/7 basis. The port’s vessel traffic service staff are responsible for the daily management of one of Britain’s busiest waterways, co-ordinating the movements of some of the world’s largest container ships and cruise liners, right down to small yachts and leisure boats. The new technology includes a radar system, Automatic Identification System (AIS), CCTV cameras and fibre optic cabling.

This latest announcement follows the port’s recent £50 million investment in vehicle handling facilities, and £8.3 million upgrade of its Fresh Produce Terminal. ABP Southampton added to its trophy case upon scooping a major international award for Port of the Year at the Seatrade Cruise Awards in Tenerife on 22nd September. The awards, which reward excellence across the cruise industry, recognised ABP Southampton for significant investment in all four cruise terminals, through partnership with both Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean International (RCI), enabling the evolving demands of the cruise industry to be met. The award also recognised the recent resecuring of Southampton as RCl’s home port, in a seven-year deal worth over £200 million to the local economy. Also shortlisted in the Port of the Year category was the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, Hong Kong, as well as the Ports of Tenerife. ABP has also announced an investment of £50 million to expand vehicle handling facilities at the port.

Southampton is the UK’s number one port for vehicle handling, with more than 900,000 vehicles passing through in 2015, including around 520,000 for export, nearly a third of which arrive by rail. The vehicle trade has grown far faster than ABP had envisaged in its master plan published in 2009. The company predicted that total movements through the port would reach 844,000 by 2030. Ultimately, the investment will add a further 15,000 spaces to the port’s capacity bringing it up to 55,000 vehicles and bringing the number of multi deck facilities from five to nine. The first £25 million phase of the plan will deliver two new vehicle handling facilities, in the form of massive multi-storey car parks capable of storing 7,600 vehicles en-route from UK factories to global markets. Both vehicle terminals will be built in the Eastern Docks, one close to existing facilities adjacent to the QE2 terminal short stay car park, and the other on land west of the flour mills between Herbert Walker Avenue and West Bay Road.

Blohm+Voss, the shipyard that dominates the port of Hamburg was acquired by the family owned and Bremen based shipyard Luerssen in late September. With the acquisition, Luerssen is entering into a long term relationship to strengthen their portfolio in the repair and refit activities for yachts, naval and commercial ships as well as enhancing its naval new build activities within their corporation. The contract between Luerssen and the funds of British private equity investor Star Capital Partners has been signed and the agreement is currently subject to approval from the German Fair Trade Commission (Bundeskartellamt). Pending approval from the German Fair Trade Commission, Luerssen will combine six highly specialised shipyards with approximately 2800 employees in Northern Germany. The parties have both agreed that the purchase price will be kept confidential. The Star Capital funds acquired Blohm+Voss in December 2011 from ThyssenKrupp. The Luerssen Group was founded in 1875.

Damen Shipyards has again undertaken a mass shipment of products, 14 in total. The 15,026gt/2010 built SAL Heavy Lift ship Svenja loaded the built-for-stock Stan Pontoons and Tugs on 11th September just down river from the Damen Song Cam Shipyard. The products were shipped from Ha Long Bay to Rotterdam (ETA 15th October) via the Cape of Good Hope instead of the shorter Suez Canal route. On 3rd October Damen Shiprepair Van Brink Rotterdam in The Netherlands announced that it had completed a three-week repair project on the 15,022gt/2004 built Jumbo Javelin, a DP2 Heavy Lift Vessel owned and operated by long-standing Damen client Jumbo. The major aspect of the repair was the replacement of the frames of 15 box coolers. To minimise the time spent in dock, 12 of these were prefabricated prior to the Jumbo Javelin arriving at Van Brink, and the remaining three were built during the docking period. The majority of the steel work was performed by Damen Group company and steel specialist Niron Staal Amsterdam. Additional works included a modification to an existing tweendeck to make it more suitable for its purpose, and the repair and repositioning of the funnel. The lifeboats also underwent routine maintenance and all works were completed in the time originally specified in the quotation. The 145m vessel was built at Damen Shipyards Galati in 2004, along with three similar vessels for the same owner. Together, the Jumbo Javelin, Fairplayer, Fairpartner and Jumbo Jubilee make up the Jumbo J-Class fleet. As well as general heavy-lifting assignments, the Jumbo Javelin recently transported two, large accommodation modules from Croatia to Cameroon. The four ships are active in offshore O&G and wind projects, including installing transition pieces for wind turbines. The Jumbo Javelin previously spent 50 days in 2014 at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam for repairs and her second special survey.

Havyard Ship Technology entered into a contract with Inverlussa Marine Services in late September for construction of a 23m long work boat for the sea farming industry. The vessel, which will newbuilding no. 123, will be built at Havyard Ship Technology`s yard in Leirvik and delivered in April 2017, with an option for one more vessel to be delivered in 2017. The contract price is in excess of 30 million NOK. Inverlussa is located on the west coast of Scotland, and operates a fleet of workboats and small offshore service vessels serving fish farms and offshore wind markets. Macduff Ship Design in Scotland has designed the 9.7m beam vessel that will have a crew of 6 and a 100t deckload.

Hoegh Autoliner’s 76,420gt/2015 built PCTC Hoegh Target became the first Neo- Panamax vessel to call Port Freeport, Texas on 14th September. A maiden voyage plaque was presented to Captain Shi and his crew recognising her first call to Port Freeport. The Hoegh Target is one of the world’s largest PCTC with a carrying capacity of 8,500 car equivalent units and was the first of six Post Panamax vessels that will become part of Hoegh Autoliners fleet.

Neptune Lines of Greece has officially launched a new Ro-Ro service in the Middle East with the inauguration of the new service taking place in Dubai on 27th September 2016. The service will connect the UAE ports of Jebel Ali and Khalifa to the ports of Shuwaikh (Kuwait) and Umm Qasr (Iraq), as well as Bandar Abbas (Iran), Sohar (Oman), Dammam (Saudi Arabia), Hamad (Qatar) and Khalifa Bin Salman (Bahrain).

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. has been given the go-ahead to progress with its fleet rationalisation plan announced in July. A total of 24 vessels will be taken out of service in the coming two years, resulting in the loss of approximately 650 jobs worldwide. Of the vessels that will be withdrawn, ten are from the company’s dredging division and fourteen from the offshore energy division.

UECC (United European Car Carriers), which is equally owned by NYK and Wallenius Lines, took delivery of the world’s first LNG-fuelled Pure Car and Truck Carrier from Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. on 29th September at the NACKS shipyard in Nantong, China. The 43,200gt vessel will be named Auto Eco upon reaching Northern Europe towards the end of November, and she is the first of two sister vessels to be delivered. These new, unique vessels are equipped with dual-fuel engines that can use either LNG or heavy fuel oil and marine gas oil. These vessels will be put into service in Europe, where strict sulphur emission regulations have been introduced.