Features – Page 8 – Pacific Maritime Magazine

Demurrage and Detention: FMC Asks if a Shake-Up Needed

Do demurrage and detention (D&D) fees help or hinder efforts to untangle the supply chain at America’s seaports? D&D fees are assessed by MTOs—marine terminal operators and “common carriers,” meaning vessel operating common carriers (VOCCs) and non-vessel operating common carriers. (NVOCCs). The fees have a straightforward intent: pick up and return your stuff on time or you will pay extra, a notion that most people support. To distinguish: Demurrage is charged daily by the shipping line from the date of discharge until the container is moved out of the port, while detention is charged per day per container by a…

Hockema Group: 25 Years and Going Strong

In 1997, after 18 years working as a naval architect and planner at shipyards and for a naval architecture firm, Hal Hockema founded his own naval architecture firm, Seattle-based Hal Hockema & Associates. And over the past 25 years, Hockema Group as the company is now known, has become a full service independent naval architecture firm primarily involved in commercial and government projects in various sectors of the marine industry. It provides naval architecture and marine engineering services for tugs, barges, commercial fishing vessels, dredgers, cargo vessels, workboats and passenger vessels, as well as government/military service vessels. The company’s work…

Bay Area Report 2022: Pandemic Rebound

Two years after COVID-19 swept the world, the Bay Area, like many maritime regions, continues to feel the effects of the pandemic. During this time, the Bay Area’s maritime industry has been working to rebound from the impacts while investing in its future, whether it is seaports finding ways to ease the bottlenecks stemming from pandemic-driven cargo records or a transportation agency working to maintain services as ferry riders slowly return. Here’s a look at what’s happening in the region: PORT OF OAKLAND For the past several months, the Port of Oakland has been working to solve a major shipping…

Cargo Handling Equipment

Cargo handling bridges the divide between tradition and technological innovation as aging equipment is updated and new options are being added. Much of the time, the focus of maritime industry headlines is ships, which can leave equipment and logistics as an afterthought. Yet these machines and the technology used within them make up a vital part of the maritime shipping process—container-handling equipment or cargo-handling equipment (CHE). CHE generally consists of the equipment used to move, load, and unload cargo and containers between ships and the dock. As described in the reference Ship Construction (7th Edition), this equipment went largely unchanged…

West Coast Labor Talks: An Update

In an era marked by tariffs, a pandemic and a war in Ukraine, those in the maritime industry are bracing for a new disruption to an already strained supply chain: upcoming contract negotiations between West Coast longshore workers and their employers. During a March 1 session at the TPM22 Conference, GSC Logistics Inc. President David Arsenault and Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy for the National Retail Federation, pondered what hot-button topics could be discussed at the upcoming talks between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), and how shippers…

Hydrofoil Survey Boats Keep Grain Ships Moving on the Columbia River

For the last year, West Coast shipping news has been dominated by the huge assortment of container ships waiting to unload Asian imports in southern California, but the spotlight may eventually turn to a very different cargo—American wheat for export. This vital commodity rarely attracts much attention, but the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine are expected to reduce the world grain supply significantly this year. The USA and Canada each supply around 14% of the wheat on the world market in a typical year, while Russia exports 18% and Ukraine 8%. The loss of any of this grain could have…

Maritime Construction: 2022 Update

As consumer demands grow, so do the vessels that bring those goods to West Coast ports. Throughout the U.S. and Canadian West Coasts, seaports are in the midst of planning and building for that growth, whether it’s outfitting terminals with the tallest cranes and newest cargo-handling equipment, or dredging harbors to ensure that these mega-ships can safely arrive. The COVID-19 pandemic-driven congestion at larger seaports has only highlighted the need for more capacity. Here’s a look at a number of projects port officials are planning, or in some cases, are already in progress. PORT OF LOS ANGELES The nation’s busiest…

West Coast Ports Eye Global Partnerships, Electric Vehicles to Battle Climate Change

Industrial giants are often the first to be called upon when the nation demands environmental change. West Coast shipping terminals occupy prime waterfront real estate—each of them operating right on the doorstep of a major metropolis. In the regular course of business, they utilize waterways alongside sensitive marine populations and ecosystems already stressed by human activity. Over the last few decades these ports have made major strides in the move toward greening their operations and being accountable for their impacts on their local environments while servicing goliath cargo ships. The California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach share San…

Crowley Maritime’s Newest Assist Tugboat Begins Working Life in Puget Sound

At the time of this writing, Crowley Maritime’s newest chartered assist tugboat, Athena, is being delivered to Puget Sound for its final sea trials and first days of working life. Athena was built by Diversified Marine and joins Crowley Maritime’s Ship Assist and Escort Services Group. The compact 77-foot assist tugboat is hull number 44 for Crowley Maritime and packs 6,386 horsepower thanks to two Caterpillar 3516E engines. The twin screws are direct drive with two 2,700-mm 4-blade props. According to Crowley, Athena delivers 90 short tons of bollard pull, making the new assist tugboat the most powerful for its…

Seaports and Cybersecurity — An Introduction

For the past six months seaports have been in the news. The stories range from supply-chain disruptions, large numbers of ships waiting to offload their containers, and most recently, a ransomware attack on at least 17 European oil port terminals. Obviously, the news is affecting the day-to-day management of seaports and just adds to the list of “to-dos” for Port leaders and their management teams. This article is intended to offer a high-level introduction to the cybersecurity attack surface offered by today’s modern seaports with some ideas on ways to better prepare your port for future cyber threats and attacks.…