News

The Indian government has announced that, in partnership with the private sector, it is to invest $60bn into the national port network by 2020 to accommodate increasing levels of growth.

The Northern Sea Route will see its third record in less than a month when the largest ever bulk carrier to take the route leaves Murmansk next week. It is also the first time a Japanese shipping company sends a vessel through the Northeast Passage.

Abengoa Bioenergy has received a conditional commitment for a $133.9m federal loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy to build its bio refinery unit in Kansas, the US.

Initec Energia has secured a €260m contract to construct a 500MW combined-cycle gas-fired power plant in Maranhao, Brazil.

Romania's natural gas consumption rose 3.5 percent in the first half of the year to some 81.5 million megawatt hours, with imports accounting for roughly 25 percent on average,

Uzbekistan and South Korea signed a $2.6 billion deal to build a gas-chemical plant in the Central Asian state which their leaders said was "unprecedented" in Uzbek-Korean relations.

Pyongyang is interested in participating in a project to build a 10 billion cubic meter/year pipeline from Russia to South Korea via North Korea, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

Hong Kong-listed commodities trader Noble Group​ has secured its first charter for an LNG carrier. ICIS Heren understands that Noble Group will take control of the 1979-built 126,000 cubic metre (m³) LNG Taurus from April 2012 for a period of two years.

Argentina will receive three LNG cargoes this week as low temperatures drive up natural gas demand, a person close to the operations said Wednesday.

APL today introduced a new service to expand its presence in Latin America. The West Coast Express​ (WCX) service replaces the Panama Andean Express 2 service. The new service is a vessel sharing agreement with Hamburg Süd.

Japan will import liquefied natural gas from Norway for the first time since 2008, with the Arctic Discoverer tanker expected to arrive at the Oita LNG terminal in southwestern Japan on Sept. 10, an industry source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

On 20 August 2011 the tanker Vladimir Tikhonov, owned by SCF Group (Sovcomflot), started her Arctic voyage from Murmansk along the

China-based shipbuilder Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co. (SWS) has received an order from Piraeus, Greece-based shipping company Polembros Shipping (Polembros), which includes four 206,000 dwt bulk carriers. The new ships are due to be delivered in 2013.

Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V. (FAIR) has signed a third contract with Chevron PTY LTD and the Kellogg Joint Venture – Gorgon. Under the terms of the contract, the semi-submersible vessel FJELL

Vroon Offshore Services (VOS) have taken delivery of a new addition to their offshore fleet. The VOS Triton, a 1,400 dwt anchor handling tug support

Maersk Line is increasing the size of individual ships from 8,600-TEU to 10,000-TEU by raising the wheelhouse and adding another layer of containers on deck.

Incat Crowther announces the launch, trials and delivery of the 24m Catamaran Ferry Fantasea Sunrise. In June, Incat Crowther announced the sale of the vessel to prominent Great Barrier Reef operator Fantasea Cruises. Since that announcement, Brisbane shipyard

Germany plans to lobby other European Union countries to allow the deployment of private armed guards on their merchant ships in high-risk areas as a piracy crisis escalates, ministry officials said.

On August 17, a naming ceremony was held at the Geoje Island shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries , Ltd. in Korea for two LNG vessels being built for joint owners NYK LNG (Atlantic) Ltd. (headquarters: London, UK), a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK; Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

India will seek private funds for seven new ports costing 350 billion rupees ($7.6 billion) as the government tackles transport bottlenecks that are hindering plans to triple exports of agricultural and manufactured goods