In Asia and Europe, ports are preparing for a big arrival — a vessel taller than a 20-storey building, wider than most freeways and 12 times longer than a blue whale, the largest animal alive today. Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping operator, is expecting delivery of the first of 20 massive container ships of a new class called the Triple-E in late June. No port in North or South America is currently able to take the vessels, nor are the newly expanded Panama Canal locks, d...

Over the past week, here at DNV, we have done another market analysis to assess how fast LNG will win into the marine fuel market. I am not at liberty to share the results, but it got me thinking about a broader theme. But first, here’s what we did: We have developed a model that combines various sources for number of port calls and future fleet growth. With this model we can estimate the number of ships of a certain type and size that will call in a certain port in the future. Once we have t...

DUBAI, UAE, April 9, 2013 - Future Pipe Industries Group (FPIG), as part of the execution of its global growth strategy, has acquired 100% of the fibreglass reinforced pipe business, Specialty Plastics, Inc. (SPI) from ITT Exelis (NYSE: XLS). SPI, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, is a leading supplier of fibreglass pipes and systems for offshore platforms and marine vessels. The takeover is a strategic addition to FPIG's composite pipe business and adds a significant new offering to its...

According to offshore investment plans in ‘China's 12th Five-Year Development Plan’, China’s three oil majors, PetroChina, Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), are planning to invest around CNY 290bn-360bn (equating to $58bn, at most) in offshore oil and gas development. The investment plan in offshore has increased as twice as the investment scale of ‘China’s 11th Five-Year Development Plan’, and considering facility investment share to be around 25~30% of total, off...