​Crowley and Puerto Rico recovering After Maria Hurricane

​Almost seven weeks passed after Maria hit but some are yet to feel the relief and ​recovery. With assistance of American Maritime Partnership there were additional vessels included into the Land-San Juan route to deliver more relief cargo to the island. 25 vessels more, and among them are container ships, RoRo and LoLo barges, offshore supply vessels. As the trade volume raised, domestic Puerto Rico shipping companies started adding additional ports of discharge to minimize the transit time. 53' containers were added to the routing and as it was reported on Nov 16th, by that moment the island has already accepted more than 36k containers of commercial and aid cargo.

J. Lauritzen Boosting Their Fleet

Danish shipper J. Lauritzen has added four more vessels to its chartered fleet during Q3 of 2017. Three bulk carriers and one pressurized gas carrier will serve on a medium-term time-charter.

The company announced its financial results for the quarter, with CEO Mads P. Zacho commenting on the EBITDA of USD -9.8 million: “Despite continued dry cargo improvements in Q3, a balanced market is still some time away.” 

The year-over-year EBITDA improved from USD -43.1 million to USD -23.2 million as the company paid off the outstanding JLA02 bond. J. Lauritzen currently controls 126 vessels.

Germany’s Port of Hamburg plays a significant part in  the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada.

Canada is among the EU’s Top Ten trading partners, and  Port of Hamburg will simplify  Germany’s trade with Canada. The trend was positive for other countries like Lithuania, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Vietnam, Chile  and  Mexico.

The Germany’s Port of Hamburg increased in 20.5 container traffic with Canada  percent  during last  9  months. Comprising the general and bulk cargo segments, seaborne cargo handling in Hamburg during the first nine months at 104.3 million tons was at a stable level. 

"The throughput of loaded boxes underlines Hamburg’s attractiveness as a Northern European hub port,” Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, said.

Wessels Converting More Ships to LNG Operation 

Germany's Wessels Reederei and MAN Diesel & Turbo have signed a letter of intent to convert three Wessels ships to dual-fuel gas operation. The ships are sisters to the Wes Amelie, a 1,036 TEU containership with a multi-fuel MAN engine.

“The Wes Amelie project was really a pioneering moment in the European container-feeder market and shows clearly that existing MAN engines can be converted to LNG operation with a tremendous effect on exhaust emissions and the environment,” MAN Diesel & Turbo Senior Vice President, Stefan Eefting, said of the first-ever engine conversion of this kind.

Wes Amelie has 23 sister ships, allowing for a 'multiplier effect' when it comes to implementation, according to MAN.

New Generation of 'Megaships' is About​ to Come  

​According to Alphaliner, the largest shipping companies are in process of fast fleet​ enlarging. At the moment CMA CGM is expecting for its 9 new 22,000 ​TEU  vessels, while MSC waiting for 11 22,000 ​TEU containerships ordered. Nowadays we are in pace from an upcoming next-generation megavessels era, of MGX-24​ ships capable to carry 24 containers loaded along and across their decks 12 containers high. Such carriers are 400 meters long and around 62 meters wide with capacity 23​, 500 teu, similar to Maersk Triple-E class ships