Tag: inland navigation

As the longest drought in decades has hit Northwest European countries drying out river waterways, cargo traffic is significantly disrupted with vessels being forced to carry lighter loads. However, on German Rhine, freight is being delivered despite shallow water, German association BDB informed. 

The multinational public transport company Arriva Danmark has recently contracted Damen Shipyards Group for five fully-electric ferries, to be operated for the Danish public transport agency MOVIA, in the country’s capital city Copenhagen, as the city strives to meet its target of zero emissions in public transport in the years to come.

California-based Bay Ship and Yacht Co. has secured a contract to build the first hydrogen fuel cell passenger vessel in the US for Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine. The vessel is expected to be delivered and in service by September 2019 and will operate on the San Francisco Bay.

Following two deadly incidents, involving inland navigation vessels in Russia and Indonesia and claiming lives of nearly 200 people earlier this month, the ITF expressed its deep concern regarding the industry's procedural and safety compliance, noting that these accidents could have been prevented.

The US Coast Guard National Maritime Center issued a bulletin to inform mariners and training providers of changes to the Code of Federal Regulations, 33 CFR Subchapter E – Inland Navigation Rules. This change, advertised in the Federal Register, on 24 January 2018, removed the word “danger” from rule 34.

The Netherlands will impose a nationwide degasification ban for inland navigation vessels. The Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Van Nieuwenhuizen wants the degasification ban to be introduced in the Netherlands by mid-2020. The degassing ban must provide about 95% less emissions by 2023.

Under its 'Connecting Europe Facility' program, the European Commission has funded a project aimed at paving the way for LNG as fuel to trucks and inland waterway vessels in Germany. Berlin-based Liquind announced it will start construction of ten LNG stations after an EU grant of 3.3 million euros.

The world’s largest short sea Ro-Ro vessel, owned by Luxembourg-based CLdN, was christened in a ceremony at Dublin Port, on 20 April. With a capacity of 8,000 lane-meters, and a length of 235 metres, 'MV Celine' represents the next generation of super ferries servicing the Irish Port.

The top-level consultations in the inland container shipping sector concluded to a number of results. These results show that shippers, forwarders, barge operators, inland terminals, deep sea terminals and shipping companies take the congestion issues in the port of Rotterdam seriously and want to make a joint effort to resolve them.

The European inland shipping sector has signed the Declaration of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, on 13 April, reflecting the commitment of the sector to expedite the greening process in the years ahead, to uphold its competitiveness vis-à-vis road and rail transport, as well as to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2030.