Category: Shipping

Denmark tightens environmental rules

The Danish government has announced a regulation that will ban the discharge of ship wastewater from open exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) into Danish territorial waters from 1 July 2025. Scrubbers are used to comply with the limit value for the sulphur content of exhaust gases set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in 2020. Such exhaust gas cleaning systems use a chemical solution (seawater and caustic soda) to "wash" sulphur out of the flue gases. The wash water then contains heavy metals (mercury, lead, arsenic, etc.), nitrates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and sulphur: a toxic mixture that changes the pH value and makes the water acidic! Because there is no further purification step in open systems,...

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Maritime trade: two bottlenecks with influence

International trade drives the global economy and is responsible for around 80 % of global goods transport by sea. Access to the two most important canals, the Panama and Suez Canals, is fundamental for uninterrupted supply chains and therefore also for economic growth. Current disruptions show the vulnerability of these important shipping routes. Suez Canal The French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez completed this shipping link in 1869. It connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and became the fastest and most economical route between Europe and Asia. Around 30 % of global container traffic, i.e. up to 15 % of global trade, passes through this waterway and generates...

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Russian warships in the Red Sea

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that warships from the Russian Pacific Fleet entered the Red Sea from Bab-el-Mandeb at the end of March. These are the missile cruiser "Varyag" (Hull No. 011, 186 metres, Slava class) and the destroyer "Marshal Shaposhnikov" (Hull No. 543, 163 metres, Udaloy class). The tasks assigned to both ships and the final destination of the formation were not mentioned in the report, nor was the reason for the deployment. Both ships have since met up with the landing ships sent from the Northern and Baltic fleets to the eastern Mediterranean and have resupplied in Tarus/Syria. Allegedly, both combat ships are in...

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Hamburg: Hapag-Lloyd utilises land routes through Saudi Arabia

Since Hapag-Lloyd AG has rerouted its container ships due to the security situation in the Red Sea, it is no longer possible to call at ports in Saudi Arabia (SA) and Jordan (JO). Hapag-Lloyd, but also other shipping companies such as Maersk, expect supply routes through the Red Sea to ports in the Near and Middle East, but also on the routes from Asia to Europe, to be interrupted for months. Hapag is providing its customers with a live ticker so that they can follow the latest developments. Well over 100 passages operated by the Hamburg-based shipping company and its partners are currently affected, which is why Hapag is cancelling land corridors from the Persian Gulf (Jebel Ali...

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Fire on US Navy ship

A fire broke out in the engine room of the USNS Sgt. William R. Button (T-AK-3012, 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo class) at the end of March, causing her to lose propulsion about 24 miles (approx. 38 km) off the coast of Dauphin Island in the Gulf of Mexico. Four tugs took the ship to the Alabama shipyard in Mobile. USNS stands for United States Naval Ship and is the ship name prefix for US naval vessels that are not in direct military service but are owned by the US Navy. The ship belongs to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) and is part of the Navy's Maritime Prepositioning Force. At the time...

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