Iranian arms ship makes northbound transit
A sanctioned Iranian cargo vessel, which in the past is likely to have been involved with shipping arms to Syria, has just completed a northerly passage up the Red Sea.
The Iranian-owned cargo vessel Elyana (IMO: 9165827) was located on May 3, underway and entering the southern end of the Suez Canal. As of the end of the day on Saturday, the AIS signal shows it has completed the Suez Canal transit.
The 15,670 GT vessel set off from the Bandar Abbas commercial port on April 18, making a port call in Jebel Ali, and departed on April 21. The vessel is not known to have made any port call en route and hence has taken much longer to complete the Jebel Ali to Suez leg of its voyage than would a normal commercial vessel.
Troubled ferry Glen Sannox has vibration issues
The long-delayed Scottish ferry Glen Sannox had another setback in March, when a failed weld seam put the ship out of commission for two days – and resolving the matter fully could take even longer. The ferry just entered operations after six years of construction delays.
The five-inch crack in Glen Sannox’s hull had relatively minor effects on operations, and it was quickly repaired with welding. The cause, however, may be associated with a previously undiscovered source of vibration. The brand new ferry has a vibration problem that “only occurs near where the crack appeared,” operator CalMac told The Scotsman.
“Further investigation into the root cause of the vibration is underway and CalMac, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (Cmal) and Ferguson Marine are working together,” a CalMac spokesperson told the outlet.
Large hybrid zero-emission ferry readied for delivery
Denmark’s Scandlines is anticipating the delivery of its newest ferry which is completing trials and certification in Turkey. When the hybrid-electric vessel enters service later this year it will be the first the line had that is capable of operating in a fully zero-emission mode.
The vessel which is still going by its hull number 1090 and the code name Futura is equipped with a 10 MW battery capacity which will make it possible to complete the run between Rodbyhaven in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany in approximately one hour in zero emissions mode at a speed of 10 knots or 45 minutes at a speed of up to 16 knots in hybrid mode. Shore charging will be introduced this fall making it possible to recharge the battery system in just 12 minutes.
The ferry was designed by LMG Marin and in addition to its hybrid propulsion was to be ready for future upgrades to methanol. While achieving the reduction or elimination in emissions the ferry is also 23 percent larger than the four Scandlines runs on the route currently. It is 485 feet (147 meters) in length with a capacity for 66 freight units (1200 lane meters) and a maximum of 140 passengers.
New alliances start to impact containership schedule reliability
The first monthly data has appeared since the major container carrier alliances began to shift, and it is showing a positive impact on schedule reliability. The analysts at Sea-Intelligence highlight that the sector remains in transition with the move to the new routes, schedules, and feeder systems not expected to be fully rolled out until July.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announced their new alliance called the Gemini Cooperation for key east-west trade routes promising 90 percent reliability for the key long-distance trade routes. Based on large investments in terminals and port operations, they are using a new approach based on more feeder routes into hub ports and fewer port calls for the larger vessels on the long-distance routes.
The companies have been saying anecdotally that early results showed they were meeting their goals and now the data analysis from Sea-Intelligence for March confirms that the Gemini Cooperation is on target. Sea-Intelligence highlights during their service transition there are multiple ways of measuring performance while reporting that Gemini is achieving between 85.7 and 90.3 percent reliability.
For Gaza off Malta, activist group claims drones attacked aid boat
A small vessel issued a distress call shortly after midnight local time off Malta on May 2 reporting that it was on fire and claiming it was under attack by drones. The activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition which is campaigning to free Gaza quickly reported it was their vessel named Conscience on a humanitarian mission to Gaza.
The group is claiming that the vessel was in international waters approximately 16 miles from Malta when “armed drones attacked the front,” of the vessel twice. The boat which is registered in Palau was reported to be heading to Malta to take on more human rights activists, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, as part of its mission to Gaza.
The group reports the ship experienced “a fire and a substantial breach in the hull.” They assert that the vessel’s generator was targeted to leave it without power and put the ship at risk of sinking. Freedom Flotilla Coalition claimed in a statement that the drones were continuing to circle the ship.
Houthis are detaining and threatening vessels in Ras Isa port
Multiple reports are coming from Yemen that the Houthis have been denying permission for vessels to depart the Ras Isa port complex in the two weeks since U.S. forces attacked the oil terminal facilities. The UK Maritime Trade Operations which monitor the region said that it has been able to validate the reports.
An unspecified number of vessels are in the anchorage at Ras Isa with AIS signals appearing to show at least a dozen tankers and several bulkers. Both Russian and Turkish diplomatic sources acknowledged that they had vessels near the port when the U.S. forces struck on the night of April 17-18. The U.S. Treasury Department as part of its sanctions’ announcement this week named three vessels that had violated the expiration of permits and had unloaded petroleum products in the Houthi-controlled port.