Astilleros y Servicios Navales S.A. ASENAV

A dozen countries have have committed to facilitate crew changes and achieve key worker designation for seafarers, following a virtual ministerial summit hosted by the U.K. government on Thursday, marking progress to help resolve a growing crisis facing the maritime industry, and enable hundreds of thousands of stranded seafarers to go home or join ships.“The inability of ship operators worldwide to conduct ship’s crew changes is the single most pressing maritime operational challenge to the safe and efficient movement of global trade,” representatives from 12 countries said in a joint statement expressing their concern about the current crisis.

In Vietnam, Damen Song Cam Shipyard, together with joint venture partner Song Cam Shipyard hosted a keel-laying ceremony Tuesday for the electric RSD-E Tug 2513 that Damen is building for the Ports of Auckland, New Zealand.A fully electric version of Damen’s standard RSD Tug 2513, the new RSD-E Tug 2513 is the world’s first fully electric tug with 70 metric tons bollard pull. It will contribute toward meeting Ports of Auckland’s goal of being a zero emissions operation by 2040. With 80% of electricity in the country already cleanly generated, the tug will complete a green energy cycle in the ports.

A wave of oil and gas bankruptcies in North America is likely to continue this year as oil prices remain depressed and a new surge of COVID-19 cases threaten to stall any recovery in fuel demand, law firm Haynes and Boone said in a report released this week.Bankruptcies surged in the second quarter, including from major shale independents Chesapeake Energy and Whiting Petroleum, as oil prices collapsed due to the pandemic and a brief, unexpected price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

EY, the court-appointed supervisor for Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (OTPL), has proposed two restructuring options to the shipping company's owners and could meet with them as early as next week to discuss the plans, according to an EY report seen by Reuters.The discussions are to ascertain whether the owners - Lim Oon Kuin, his son Evan Lim Chee Meng and daughter Lim Huey Ching, or the Lim family - are "willing to support any future restructuring of OTPL", the report said.EY declined to comment. Its lawyers, Rajah and Tann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Surface plating is widely used to repair or salvage critical components in the marine industry. As many components need disassembly, the repair process is typically carried out when the ship is in dry dock. Due to the nature of the plating process, this work is usually performed by plating or machine shops off-site. In a quest to add value through reduced downtime and labor costs, many shipyards are looking to bring this service in-house. Mark Meyer, Sales Manager North America at SIFCO ASC, explains how shipyards can put key technologies in the dock which offer speed, portability and efficiency.