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An investigation into the sinking of the 'Angel' laid the blame mainly on a failure to properly maintain its hull, while the Palauan shipping authority knew that the vessel was not seaworthy, but failed to notify the Taiwanese government in advance. The ship with 19 Azerbaijani crew members on board had arrived at the Port of Kaohsiung on July 20, 2023, and sank on July 21. The accident occurred because the hull had not been properly maintained for five years, and the cargo hold floor structure was damaged, the investigation found. After the ship had sailed from Colombo, the bottom plate of the 3rd cargo hold on the starboard side cracked, causing the ballast water in the right side of the third ballast tank to seep into the third cargo hold, it found. After the cargo was loaded at the port of Dalian, the severely corroded floor cracked due to the weight of the containers, causing the water in the ballast water tanks to seep into the 4th and fifth cargo holds. After the ship sailed from Dalian, crew members were unable to enter the hold to deal with the water accumulation and seepage because it was full. On the day of the sinking, oil sludge and residue in the ship’s fuel pipeline blocked the fuel filter, causing the generator to stop running and resulting in a loss of power to the entire ship. Meanwhile, the ballast water pump stopped operating. After the ship tilted 45 degrees to port side,a large amount of seawater surged in. It entered the stern cargo hold and engine room, causing the ship to sink. The investigation showed there were several risks involved leading to the sinking. The crew lacked the ability to address the water seepage problem in the cargo hold after the ship was fully loaded. Aside from the lack of maintenance, the board also found that the ship’s owner and management firm Zulu Shipping failed to follow the International Register of Shipping’s rules requiring underwater hull inspections and additional international safety management audits to be carried out at the first convenient port or anchorage. They also did not complete the 17 improvement suggestions and four improvement suggestion memorandums proposed by the International Register of Shipping within the deadline. The Palau shipping authority knew ten days before the shipwreck that the 'Angel' was not seaworthy, but it did not notify Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Bureau, leaving it with no time to offer emergency assistance before the accident. The S5 Asia (Hong Kong) Ltd. Taiwan Branch as the ship’s agent failed to inform the bureau and Taiwan International Port Corp about the water accumulation problem four days before the shipwreck, while Zulu failed to implement handover training for new and old crew members, and provide timely resources to solve the problem of water accumulation. Crew members had been replaced before the wreck, and the chief officer, who faced a threat to his life, sent an emergency e-mail to the International Transport Workers’ Federation and Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority. When the incident occurred, the Post of Kaohsiung Vessel Traffic Service System did not require the ship’s owner to provide liability insurance information when the ship was anchored in the port.

The Moselle lock in Müden was back in operation on Feb 1, with the first ship being the "Mainz", a ship used by the Waterways and Shipping Authority (WSA), which successfully passed through the lock on the morning. Representatives of the state and the Directorate General for Waterways and Shipping came to the reopening of the lock along with Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing and representatives from Luxembourg and France were also present. According to the WSA Rhein-Mosel-Saar, the repair of the lock has been fully completed. The last test locks were still running until the afternoon of Jan 31. The gate movements were checked again and finer details were adjusted. The experts paid attention to the hydraulics and whether the speed of the 40-ton gate wings was programmed correctly. The work was carried out at record speed. The 'Regina K' remained in Haren as of Feb 4. Report with photo and video: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/rheinlandpfalz/moselschleuse-wieder-frei-100.html

Freeport LNG on Sept. 03 announced that it has shipped the first LNG commissioning cargo for Train 1 from its liquefaction facility located on Quintana Island in Freeport, Texas. Approximately 150,000 cubic meters of LNG were loaded aboard the LNG Jurojin, which departed from the Freeport LNG terminal on September 3. “This first cargo loading is another significant step that gets us one step closer towards our start of commercial operations which is anticipated later this month,” said Michael Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Freeport LNG. “We are very pleased that it took less than 45 days to load our first cargo since gas was first introduced to our liquefaction facilities.” Freeport’s Train 2 is advancing pre-commissioning to support an in service date of January 2020. Train 3 is nearing completion to support an in service date of May 2020. Source: Freeport LNG

Singapore-based port operator PSA International has completed the acquisition of Penn Terminals, located on the Delaware River in the US, from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners. According to PSA, Penn Terminals is one of the best equipped, privately owned multipurpose marine terminals on the Eastern Coast of the US. The deal marks PSA’s first acquisition in the US. Penn has recently undergone a significant capacity upgrade with the addition of two new post-panamax ship-to-shore (STS) cranes in late 2018.

The 56 year old Galician captain of the "Loitador", who had been detained in Lisbon on Feb 1 upon returning from Cape Verde, has been provisionally released, and the ship left the port again en route to Montevideo. It will be the National Court that decides whether he should be extradited to Argentina on charges of "labour exploitation". The case, was opened by the Caleta Olivia Prosecutor's Office (province of Santa Cruz, Argentina) against the captain after complaint came from the doctor who treated a Senegalese sailor in June 2017, who arrived in a coma after his evacuation and recounted torturous treatment - working 22 hours a day, from Monday to Monday. Argentina has assumed that it has jurisdiction because the trawler made two stops in the Malvinas during the four months in which these alleged abuses against crew members continued. Sources from the legal representation of the shipowner, Profesionales Pesqueros, did not specify details regarding the intervention by police officers. The captain was now with his family, awaiting the holding of a court hearing, which will determine whether or not he should be extradited to Argentina to give a statement there. The hearing will be held at the National Court, under the provisions of article 12 of the Passive Extradition Law. On Nov 13, 2024, the captain's arrest was ordered by the Federal Court of Caleta Olivia, which had issued the red notice through Interpol. The red notice is a request addressed to law enforcement agencies around the world to locate and provisionally detain a person pending extradition or surrender. The arrest was concretized by the Spanish police on Dec 18; the captain gave a statement for three hours and was provisionally released. He is accused of a «crime of human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation», taking advantage of the vulnerable situation of the evacuated sailor, E. Thiam, aged 35 at the time.

Fearing an earthquake, more and more residents and tourists want to leave the island of Santorini, which is why existing ferry connections are fully booked. The company Blue Star Ferries announced that it supports the local communities with consistency and responsibility. As a result, the "Kissamos" coming from Crete and the ferry "Bluestar Patmos" from Rhodes were diverted on the night of Feb 3, 2025, with an additional stop in Santorini. Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1886275740888694936

The first berth of the Lamu Port is now 98 per cent complete and is set to be unveiled next month. The construction has been ongoing for three years. Stakeholders are optimistic that it will have a socio-economic transformation of the region through trade. It will open up the corridor counties to the rest of the country and neighbouring states. At least 33 shipping companies have shown interest and their representatives have either toured the site or will do so before the opening date. Lamu Port will be actively involved in the transhipment business as its depth can accommodate big ships from which cargo can be loaded to smaller ships bound for Mombasa, according to Abdullahi Samatar, Kenya Ports Authority general manager in charge of Infrastructure development.

Two workers were killed and three others injured after a cable attached to a ship collapsed on them at a shipbreaking yard at Sitakunda in Bangladesh on Saturday evening. The accident happened at the Ziri Subedar shipbreaking yard and is the latest in a series of deaths at Bangladeshi yards this year. On July 31, three workers died after inhaling toxic fumes from a gas leak while dismantling a tanker in the same shipbreaking yard.

The 'Erdek', en route from Ceuta, has arrived In the Douarnenez Bay on the evening of Feb 2, 2025, and dropped anchor in pos. 48° 12' N 004° 29' W in order to to repair a damage. The maritime prefecture has taken the report into account. A complaint from a sailor on board was received by an IFT/CGT inspector. The crew member mentioned a shortage of provisions on board and the crew being subjected to excessive working hours as well as the structural integrity of the ship is seriously compromised, a situation which worried the Mor Glaz association, The ship remained stationary at its mooring as of Feb 4.

Sweden has released the 'Vezhen', after the investigation has shown that this case was not a case of sabotage, according to the public prosecutor. The ship therefore allowed to leave Karlskrona and continue its journey. The cause of the cable damage between Latvia and Sweden is now considered to be a combination of weather conditions and deficiencies in equipment and seamanship, according to senior public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist. At the same time, however, it was said that they were convinced that the "Vezhen" was responsible for the damage on the night of Jan 26. The affected submarine cable is used by the Latvian State Radio and Television Center (LVRTC), and the damage occurred in Sweden's exclusive economic zone. Latvia sent naval divers to the site of the damage shortly afterwards. As of Feb 3, the 'Vezhen' remained statioary in pos. 56° 04' N 015° 32' E. Reports with photos: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/0Vq3O0/haver-beslag-av-fartyg-inget-sabotage https://www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/aklagaren-haver-beslut-om-beslagtaget-fartyg

NSW Ports and Patrick Terminals have commenced work on a A$190 million project to double on-dock rail infrastructure capacity at Port Botany’s Patrick Terminals - Sydney AutoStrad in Australia. The project includes investment of A$120 million from NSW Ports to deliver on-dock rail infrastructure and A$70 million from Patrick Terminals to deliver automated rail operating equipment at the container terminal. The project will deliver capacity to handle one million TEUs on rail and improve train turn-around times by 33 percent. It will be opened in stages to allow existing rail operations at the terminal to continue throughout the construction period. Once fully operational in 2023, the project will increase rail capacity of the Patrick Terminals – Sydney AutoStrad from 250,000 to one million TEU. It is anticipated to reduce the truck kilometers travelled in Sydney by at least 10 million per year, saving over two million liters of diesel per year – the equivalent of a net reduction of more than 5,400 in CO2 emissions tonnes per year.

The Sri Lankan government on Friday said it has begun a massive development project to further modernize its ports across the country in order to transform Sri Lanka into a maritime hub in the region. The government information department said in a statement that under this mega development project, the Port of Colombo will continue to develop its facilities for container handling by continuous addition of capacity, advanced handling and processing technology. “The development of the East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Port of Colombo will be followed by the West Container Terminal (WCT 1 and 2) ahead of demand. The ECT and the South Asia Gateway Terminal will be expanded to create an ultra large container terminal, expanding the total capacity to 35 million TEUs in the coming years,” Sirimevan Ranasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping and Western Development said. Last year, the Port of Colombo handled a record breaking seven million TEUs(twenty-foot equivalent units).