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Norwegian shipbuilding firm Vard said Friday it had delivered the Yara Birkeland - the vessel that will be the world’s first all-electric autonomous container ship - to its owners Yara International.Vard was tasked with building a vessel prepared for autonomous operations which Yara will further develop.The hull was built by Vard Braila in Romania, and initially, the plan was for Vard Brevik to outfit and deliver the vessel, however, this was then transferred to Vard Brattvaag, Vard said in a social media post.

Venezuela has resumed direct shipments of oil to China after U.S. sanctions sent the trade underground for more than a year, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and internal documents from state company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).Chinese state companies China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and PetroChina - long among PDVSA's top customers - stopped loading crude and fuel at Venezuelan ports in August 2019 after Washington extended its sanctions on PDVSA to include any companies trading with the Venezuelan state firm.

Danish international shipping and logistics firm DFDS is setting up a new freight ferry route between Ireland and France, "to facilitate trade between Ireland and continental Europe."From January 2, 2021, the new freight ferry route between Rosslare in Ireland and Dunkirk in Northern France will offer trucks and their drivers direct and paperless transport between EU countries, avoiding the paperwork hassle that Brexit may bring.The port of Dunkirk is a gateway to Ireland’s top export markets – France, Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands – and a host of secondary markets.

French shipbuilder and marine engineering firm Piriou has designed a new cable layer vessel, to be used to lay and repair both fiber-optical and energy cables. "This vessel will be able to lay cables on wind farms as well as repair a damaged cable on the continental shelf or deep sea," Piriou said.The 100 meters long vessel has been designed and developed by the Piriou Ingenierie teams in ConcarneauFranceAccording to Piriou, the optimized hull will allow the cable layer vessel to burn less than 10t of fuel per day in transit at 12.5 kn and is already compliant with the IMO III regulation.

Turkish shipyard Tersan has ordered a boiler package from Parat for the NB1105 Arctic Freezer Trawler, which it is building for PF Havborg from the Faroe Islands."Steam will be delivered by our MCS combined steam boiler utilizing the exhaust heat and is equipped with an MDO atomizing burner. Parat will also deliver an MVH oil-fired smoke tube boiler for hot water," Parat said.The system will be delivered with a feed water tank, water treatment, heat exchangers, hot water boiler, pumps, and surplus steam dumping system. The steam system will be used for the trawlers processing plants, the MVH Hot Water Boiler will be used by the central heating system.