PRINCIMAR JOY

A bulk carrier that lost power in bad weather off Australia's east coast has been towed into Botany Bay, near Sydney, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.The Hong Kong-registered Portland Bay left Port Kembla on Sunday and experienced engine failure with 21 people on board, about 1.2 kilometers east of Garie Beach, NSW on Monday morning.The vessel had been anchored off Cronulla Beach since early Monday evening after breaking free from towing cables attached to smaller tugs which had been attempting to move the vessel away from the shore.

Dutch shipbuilder Kooiman Marine Group said it has secured a contract from Van Oord to build two Water Injection Dredgers (WID) for delivery scheduled in the first half of 2024.The order follows the previous deliveries of the WIDs Maas and the Mersey delivered in mid-2021.“The experience with the first two vessels motivated several changes applying to this subsequent order,” said Peter Bijkerk, Project Manager on behalf of Van Oord.  “The most notable modifications involve a larger accommodation, more battery power and the fendering. These modifications will increase the vessel’s deployability still further.

A methanol dual fuel 300,000 DWT crude oil carrier (VLCC) has received Approval In Principle (AIP) from classification society Korean Register (KR).The methanol dual-fuel VLCC, which was developed under a joint project between KR and shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), is powered by methanol and marine gas oil (MGO). HHI has developed the vessel so that the methanol fuel tank can be placed in either the open deck or the cargo area and KR has verified the safety and suitability of the vessel’s design, ensuring it complies with domestic and international regulations.

Western partners should do more to help unblock Ukraine's Black Sea ports to release exports of grain, metals and mining products, a Ukrainian official told Reuters on Tuesday, warning the country's finances were increasingly precarious.Logistics problems linked to the war with Russia, notably at seaport Odesa, hit exports, causing currency inflows to Ukraine to drop to around $2.5 billion per month from around $7 billion before the war, Rostyslav Shurma, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.

VSTEP announced that Viking Cruises has chosen to facilitate its professionals with VSTEP's  CESNI compliant simulation products. With this partnership, Viking Cruises enables learning by simulation at a large scale for all its sailing professionals.Viking Cruises is facing, like many other inland shipping companies, a shortage in personnel. By investing in their own simulation solutions, they gain control over their learning paths and reaching their training objectives. The partnership with VSTEP facilitates access for Viking Cruises to the latest innovations in the market and to maritime simulators that are realistic for what their professionals would experience on the job.