The Japanese shipyard Mitsui E&S shipbuilding has received an order for 30 cargo handling cranes for a customer in Vietnam. The procurement was made by the Port of Haiphong Joint Stock Company (CHP), a subsidiary of Vietnam Marine Corporation (VIMC), which is currently constructing the container terminal in the Lach Huyen area in Vietnam’s northern city of Hai Phong. The new port represents one of the first public-private partnerships between the Governments of Vietnam and Japan.

The order consists of six STS cranes and 24 RTGs. The STS cranes to be delivered have a 65-meter outreach and can be capable of handling large container vessels exceeding 15,000 TEU. This will be one of the largest crane orders for CHP for its port complexes in Haiphong area.

Mitsui has a record of delivering cargo handling cranes to CHP, with the last delivery made in 2007 as part of Japanese government’s official assistance to Vietnam. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is involved in the planning, design and construction of the new Lach Huyen Port.

Plans for the construction of Lach Huyen International Port were first launched in 2013 under Vietnam’s 2020 Seaport Development Plan. It is intended to be an extension of the Port of Haiphong, which over the years has seen a rise in demand for containerized cargo. The new terminal is designed to handle large container vessels, enabling direct exports from Northern Vietnam to the U.S and European markets without using transshipment ports in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Lach Huyen Port is being developed on Cat Hai Island and connected by a sea bridge and access roads to mainland Vietnam. The port is being constructed in phases, and the first two container terminals have already been in operation since 2018.

The third and fourth terminals are still in construction and are expected to be commissioned by 2025, according to a statement in July by CHP. The procurement of the cargo cranes shows the works are on schedule.

Maersk is also working with Vietnam’s HATECO to develop another two deepwater berths at Lach Huyen, capable of handing 18,000 TEU vessels. In the initial phase, the facility will have five STS cranes and 14 RTGs.

Ukraine with support from a growing number of shipping companies is expanding its efforts to open the Black Sea shipping corridor and restore exports. Larger ships made the transit into Ukraine with reports from the markets that traders are taking the first tentative steps at offering Ukrainian grain.

Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov again took to social media to highlight the movement of four more bulkers. He reported that three new cargo ships were on their way to Ukraine for the loading of export products. He said they would be using the temporary corridor established by the Ukrainian Navy while the second vessel that traveled to Ukraine last weekend was now outbound on the corridor.

The Turkish-owned bulker Aroyat (18,315) dwt registered in Palau departed Chornomorsk this morning, September 22, loaded with 17,600 metric tons of wheat. The vessel had traveled into the port arriving last Saturday and is now following the corridor along the western shoreline of the Black Sea. It is heading to Egypt.

She is following the Resilient Africa which arrived off Turkey on Thursday, September 21. The ship is carrying 3,000 metric tons of grain from Ukraine. It is currently in the anchorage off Istanbul with reports that it will proceed to Asia.

Three more bulkers used the corridor and have now arrived at the Ukrainian seaports. The Liberian-registered Eneida (45,572 dwt) traveled to Chornomorsk arriving late today. The ship, which until recently was known as the Bosphorus Prince, is now reported to be managed from Panama. She had been holding in an anchorage off Turkey awaiting a contract.

Two of the vessels however went to the eastern port of Yuzhny marking the first ships to arrive there since July. The Azara (13,898 dwt) is registered in Palau and managed from Poland and arriving from Egypt. The largest of the ships is the Chinese-owned Ying Hao 01. The ship is 74,759 dwt arriving from China.

Kubrakov reports the ships will be loading both agricultural products and iron ore. Ukraine has only recently attempted to restart its ore shipments which were not covered by the year-long UN-brokered agreement which only covered foodstuffs. Kubrakov said the ships would be heading to China, Egypt, and Spain.

Traders are reportedly beginning to offer Ukrainian grains again, although at a steeply discounted price from the Ukrainian ports versus neighboring sources such as Romania. AgriCensus, a price reporting agency, highlights the lower prices as well as higher shipping costs for the products coming out of Ukraine. They note the limited number of ships and crews willing to make the trip. They however are reporting that additional contracts are expected and that additional ships have been fixed and are due to make the trip.

Russia continues not to comment on the Ukrainian exports and appears to have not made any attempts to approach the ships. The UK had warned that the Royal Air Force would be monitoring and seeking to deter any action against merchant ships in the Black Sea.

A coalition of leading maritime companies led by Bibby Marine and with financial support from the UK plans to develop the first zero-emission electric Service Operation Vessel (eSOV) to be used to support the offshore wind and energy industry. It is the latest entrant in the race to develop the first zero-emission vessels with a focus on the offshore sector and the potential of using power at the wind farms to charge the ships.

In their application for the UK’s Zero Emission Vessel Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition, the coalition points to the strong opportunities in the segment to support offshore wind operations. With the UK calling for 40 GW offshore wind energy in additional offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 expanding on the more than 10 GW already in operation, the group estimated that between 62 and 149 vessels will be required. They highlighted that all the UK-operating SOVs have so far been built aboard.

They are proposing a 295-foot vessel that would be primarily powered by electricity and batteries and have dual-fuel methanol-powered engines as backup. The ship will be ready for offshore charging and can recharge its batteries at night.

They expect that it will be possible to operate a two-week cycle onsite at an offshore wind farm emissions-free. Near shore the vessel will operate solely on battery power and also while onsite. For the long transits between the shore homeports and the farms, the vessel will use its engines and with methanol fuel, it would be possible to still reduce emissions by 90 percent versus fossil fuel operations. They noted in the application if offshore charging is not available, the vessel would use its methanol engines to recharge its batteries and would still achieve a 50 percent reduction in emissions compared to a conventional SOV.

DNV, which is one of the members of the coalition notes, “The number of fully electric and hybrid vessels will surge over the next few years, and continuing development on these technologies will be a key part of the maritime industry’s transition to a zero-carbon future.”

Bibby, which is leading the effort notes the vessel will be a natural progression in its decarbonization effort and the first new vessel for Bibby Marine in five years.

It was one of five projects that was announced today at London International Shipping Week as a winner in the UK Government’s competition designed to support the development of new zero-emission maritime technologies. Under the rules of the competition, the vessel needs to be in service by 2025.

They are estimating a cost of $37.5 million for the project with the UK government awarding them $25 million in funding. The project participants include Bibby Marine, Port of Aberdeen, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Kongsberg, DNV, Shell, and Liverpool John Moores University.

In the previous rounds of the funding competition, the UK has also awarded support to projects seeking to develop the technology required to provide offshore recharging capabilities. It has been highlighted that one of the challenges is the increasing distance from shore for the location of the wind farms, making onsite recharging critical. The UK projects are one of several looking at offshore recharging and creating vessels that are fully electric or use other technologies to be zero-emission ships.

The current decade is a critical one for the shipping industry on its course to net zero, but in its latest outlook report, DNV concludes the progress is slow and the industry faces significant challenges. In their new iteration of the Maritime Forecast to 2050, DNV outlines challenges including costs, an expected shortage of low-carbon fuels, a lack of infrastructure, and the need to share the investment to develop new technologies.

“The 2020s is proving to be the decisive decade for the decarbonization of shipping,” writes DNV pointing to the emergence of the latest regulations from the European Union and the International Maritime Organization’s revised goals. “Focusing on fuel alone can distract us from making an impact this decade, and ambitious future declarations are not good enough. What we need is tangible actions that will reduce emissions,” said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime.

DNV points out that the large-scale transition to new fuels is underway. As an example, the report cites that half the orders tonnage will now be capable of using LNG, LPG, or methanol-dual fuel engines. This compares they said with a third of the orders last year. Further, 6.5 percent of the tonnage in operation can now operate on alternative fuels, up from 5.5 percent a year ago.

While those numbers are seen as a signal that the industry has begun to move, DNV compares the speed of the change to that of a supertanker coming about. They highlight that overall, only 0.1 percent of the fuel used by merchant shipping is biofuels currently.

They warn the clock is ticking louder for the efforts to identify, define, and resolve barriers to successfully and safely decarbonize. However, they recognize that decarbonization will increase costs for individual shipowners for technology, fuels, and carbon pricing, which will all impact the commercial attractiveness and long-term profitability of the operations. Careful consideration they say will be required to avoid unattractive or stranded assets.

DNV believes that a dependence on low-carbon alternative fuels alone with not be enough highlighting that the shipping industry will face competition from aviation and road transportation in particular as well as other industrial users that are also considered to be hard to decarbonize. The report calculates by 2030 the shipping industry would require 17 million tonnes of carbon-neutral fuels. That would represent 30 to 40 percent of the expected available production.

The report reiterates basic measures that should be implemented to achieve immediate fuel savings. Among the energy-efficiency measures they highlight are speed reduction, route optimization, and hull and propeller cleaning. They also point to smart and digital technologies. Still, they also point to an urgent need for low-emission technologies.

DNV selected six technologies that are increasingly drawing attention and adoption in the industry examining them and developing scenarios. The ones they focused on are solid oxide fuel cells, liquified hydrogen, wind-assisted propulsion, and air lubrication systems to reduce hull drag.

The other technologies they looked at are longer-term including onboard carbon, which DNV remains skeptical of despite progress on various tests. They however did find onboard carbon capture can be operationally feasible in their scenario for a large container vessel. Still, they highlight the lack of the infrastructure to handle CO2 captured aboard ships. They also look at the potential of expanding nuclear propulsion from military applications into the commercial industry. They report there would be a “long road to travel before nuclear can be scaled.”

They conclude that the maritime industry needs to adopt an integrated approach that incorporates the evolution of regulations, fuel supply, and technologies. DNV believes the cost of decarbonization must be carried through the maritime value chain and points to mechanisms such as green corridors as providing support during this critical decade.

The complete report is available online.