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Canaveral Board Green Lights New $80-$85 Million Cruise Complex

Port Canaveral has announced that the port commissioners have unanimously approved building a new $80-$85 million cruise terminal and 1,000-vehicle parking facility that is scheduled to open in November 2014. The 185,000-square-foot terminal will be located on the south side of the harbor in the Cove restaurant and retail area. (more…)

Too big to sail? Cruise ships face scrutiny

One of the largest cruise ships in 1985 was the 46,000-ton Carnival Holiday. Ten years ago, the biggest, the Queen Mary 2, was three times as large. Today’s record holders are two 225,000-ton ships whose displacement, a measure of a ship’s weight, is about the same as that of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. (more…)

COSCO Signs ‘Queen Elizabeth 2′ Refurbishment Contract

On October 15, COSCO (Zhoushan) Shipyard, a subsidiary of the COSCO Shipyard Group, and QE2 Holdings Ltd, entered into a contract for the refurbishment of the legendary cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 into a luxury five-star floating hotel. This is the first cruise ship conversion project COSCO Shipyard has undertaken; it is also the first time project of such kind and scale was assigned to a Chinese Shipyard, marking the successful entrance of the Chinese Shipyards into the international cruise ship conversion market. (more…)

Shipping lanes are getting too noisy for the whales, coastal survey shows

Humpback whales and killer whales are losing up to 94 percent and 97 percent, respectively, of their communication space in the busiest areas of the ocean off the British Columbia coast, according to a new study. Although this simplified summary represents a somewhat pessimistic interpretation of 10,000 hours of underwater noise levels in various sites off the coast that yielded highly variable results, researchers say the finding is helpful because it demonstrates a method that tries to interpret what those noise levels might mean to fish or whales. (more…)

European ports ready for the Maersk giants

European container ports are now gaining first-hand experience of Maersk’s Triple-E container ships with delivery and entry into service of Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller, first of twenty such vessels on order. Since the introduction of the container, the size of ships employed in their transportation has grown inexorably. Ten years ago ships such as the Axel Maersk, at around 9,000 TEU were among the largest such vessels afloat. The following decade saw the capacities of container ships increasing by around 1,000 TEU annually. (more…)

Shipping capacity futures set sail in Shanghai

The Shanghai Shipping Freight Exchange Co will launch the world's first derivatives for shipping capacity delivery on Thursday in a bid to meet increasing demand for hedging tools. Analysts said that the contracts will provide better insight into domestic shipping rates, as well as giving China a larger voice in pricing and more experience in developing financial products for the shipping industry. (more…)

DLR, AWI Test Satellite-Based Methods for Improving Maritime Navigation

The German Aerospace Center is working on a satellite-based system for substantially improving ship navigation in ice-affected waters. The Earth observation satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X provide the high-resolution images needed to make this possible. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) – the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research based in Bremerhaven – are currently on their way to Antarctica on board the research vessel ‘Polarstern’ to test the practicality of this technique. (more…)

Historic Sea Route Opens Through Canadian Arctic Waters

For the first time ever, a bulk carrier is using the North West Passage as a transit trade lane, when transporting coal from Vancouver in Canada to Finland. The historic transit is shorter than traditional shipping routes and will not only save time, fuel and CO2, but also increase the load of cargo with 25% compared to the Panama Canal. Nordic Bulk Carriers A/S, the Danish pioneer, is once again behind a new business adventure. (more…)

Royal Caribbean Cuts Steel for Third Oasis-Class Ship

Royal Caribbean International cut the first piece of steel today for its third Oasis-class ship, marking the first construction milestone for a vessel that, at approximately 227,700 GRT, will be the world’s largest and most innovative cruise ship. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Richard D. Fain and Royal Caribbean International President and CEO, Adam Goldstein together with Laurent Castaing, chief executive officer, STX France, attended the event at the STX shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, where the ship will be built. The cruise line’s third Oasis-class ship is expected to be delivered in mid-2016. (more…)

A Magnificent Transformation: World Shipping 50 Years Ago and Today

It began to take shape fifty years ago. Parts of the outline of the highly efficient global merchant shipping industry we see today started to become visible in the early 1960s. The transformation process was already well under way by then, in the tanker sector. But back in 1963 much of the world’s shipping system, consisting of cargo liner services and dry cargo tramp trades, was not functioning well. Dramatic changes were beginning, however, which would revolutionise the dynamics over the next decade and beyond. (more…)