SOCATRA– SOCIETE D’ARMEMENT & DE TRANSPORT

The Water Quality Insurance Syndicate (WQIS) appointed John P. Phillips as Senior Underwriter based in Houston, TX. Phillips will report to Justin A. Mongello in New York, NY."We are very excited to have John join the WQIS team as he brings a wealth of experience, expertise, and first-hand knowledge of WQIS' customers and our broker partners. For certain a great addition to our team," said Justin.Phillips was most recently Head of Marine Programs at Aspen Insurance U.S.-based in Houston, in charge of the development and management of all Specialty Marine Programs throughout the Americas.

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved FY21 funding for Energy and Water Development (E&WD) that funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by a party line vote of 30 to 21.Overall proposed funding for the Corps is $7.63 billion, a decrease of $21 million below FY20’s record-setting appropriated level, but $1.7 billion above the President’s FY21 budget request.The House bill also provides for seven new study starts and seven new construction projects to be selected by the Administration, one of which is for inland waterways lock and dam modernization.The Corps’ Investigations account funding is $151 million, equal to the FY20 enacted level and $48 million above the FY21 request.

The U.S. Navy on Monday awarded a $34,999,948 to L3 Technologies, Inc. for the development of a single medium unmanned surface vehicle (MUSV) prototype, with options to procure up to eight additional MUSVs. The award follows a full and open competitive procurement process.Funding is in place on this contract for the initial prototype. With all options exercised, the contract is valued at $294,508,976 if additional funding is provided in future budget years.“The award of Medium USV is the culmination of a great dialogue with industry to right-size the requirements for a capable, reliable, and affordable unmanned surface vehicle that will employ a variety of modular payloads,” said Capt.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index fell on Tuesday weighed by falling rates for capesize vessels, while the panamax segment was flat following eight straight sessions of gains.The Baltic dry index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities and reflects rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, fell 50 points, or about 2.8%, to 1,742.The Baltic capesize index lost 169 points, or 5.2%, to 3,082, its lowest since June 17.Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport cargoes of 170,000 tonnes to 180,000 tonnes, including iron ore and coal, was down by $1,402 at $25,562.

In recent years the U.S. Coast Guard has identified an increasing trend in the use of cellular phones by the maritime public when communicating distress. In 2018, leadership in the Office of Search and Rescue (SAR) at Coast Guard Headquarters asked the Research and Development Center (RDC) to investigate available technologies that could assist Coast Guard responders in adapting to this trend by leveraging the cellphone’s internal GPS. The RDC, located in New London, Conn., has been serving the Coast Guard for nearly 50 years through research, testing and evaluation of various technologies across all 11 missions.