Free Republic

Like more Baltimore-style bridge-ship collisions? According to a news nugget buried deep in a long Washington Post investigative report, ships losing propulsion is shockingly common and can lead to ships running aground or colliding with bridges and other structures. A look at Coast Guard records showed that more than 100 incidents involved huge container ships. One of the reasons they happen is because of greenie fuel mandates.The story is actually very good and very long, giving the reader a feel for what drives how ports operate.But that tiny item about greenie environmental regulations forcing ships to change fuel after they...

Layoffs continue across the freight and logistics industry, with companies in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas announcing job reductions and facility closures over the past two weeks. Universal Logistics Warren, Michigian-based Universal Logistics is permanently shuttering two of its subsidiaries and laying off a total of 677 employees, according to notices recently filed with the state. The layoffs are related to Universal-operated entities Logistics Insights Corp. and Universal Dedicated of Detroit, an auto parts warehousing and logistics facility. Both operations were in Detroit. Universal Dedicated of Detroit’s closure will affect 230 truck drivers who worked from the facility. Logistics...

Why shipping choke points like Panama are FUBAR and getting worse. Long, detailed explanation of all the problems.

“… Others believe this was a deliberate attack of US infrastructure based on various factors that do not seem to add up. Could it have been an inside job or a foreign agent? The truth will come to light, as it always does. Let me begin by explaining how crucial the Francis Scott Key Bridge was to America’s supply chain. Around 52.3 million tons of international cargo estimated to be worth $80.8 billion passed through the port in 2023. Around 4,900 trucks, carrying around $28 billion in goods, must be rerouted due to the bridge collapse. It is the second...

When I awoke early on Tuesday morning, I was stunned to learn that the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore had collapsed. We are being told that it was a tragic “accident” and that there is no evidence that any foul play was involved. Hopefully that is true. But no matter how it was caused, this tragedy is going to have an enormous impact on U.S. supply chains. And of course this comes at a really bad time, because Houthi missile strikes in the Red Sea and low water levels in the Panama Canal have been putting a tremendous amount...

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Guest editorial by Jim Nelles: The video footage of the Singaporean-flagged cargo vessel, the Dali, crashing into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is truly horrifying. Video footage shows the ship’s lights flickering on and off, indicating it lost power shortly before crashing into the bridge’s stanchion. The video also shows black smoke coming from the ship’s exhaust vents, indicating that the crew was trying to restart diesel engines. Unfortunately, eight workers were performing construction on the bridge at the time of collapse, only two of whom were rescued. Given the temperatures of the Patapsco River, they must be...

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland which crosses the Patapsco River has reportedly Collapsed within the last few minutes after being Struck by a Large Container Ship

Despite an agreement with China to give safe passage to all Chinese shipping in the Red Sea, the Houthis struck a Chinese ship with a ballistic missile on Saturday.From 2:50 to 4:30 a.m. (Sanaa time) March 23, the Iranian-backed Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) into the Red Sea in the vicinity of M/V Huang Pu, a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated oil tanker.At 4:25 p.m. (Sanaa time), a fifth ballistic missile was detected as fired toward M/V Huang Pu. The ship issued a distress call but did not request assistance. M/V Huang Pu suffered minimal damage, and a fire on...

Half the workers at Eilat Port are on the verge of losing their jobs after the seaport took a major financial hit due to the crisis in Red Sea shipping lanes, Israel’s main labor federation says. Eilat sits on a northern tip of the Red Sea and was one of the first ports to be affected as shipping firms rerouted vessels to avoid attacks by the Houthis in Yemen.

The Yemeni militia’s three-and-a-half month long campaign of ship seizures, missile and drone strikes has added billions of dollars to global commercial shipping costs, with the fighters vowing to continue their partial blockade of the Red Sea until Israel halts the war in Gaza. The Houthis will continue their operations against Israel-affiliated commercial vessels and Western warships in the Red Sea throughout the holy month of Ramadan, militia spokesman Yahya Saree has announced. “We will continue to prevent navigation to the ports of occupied Palestine until the end of the aggression and the siege of Gaza,” Saree said in a...

“I don’t know a single maritime professional who thinks this is a good idea given the location and conditions ashore, but orders are orders.”During President Biden’s State of the Union address, the President stated that he was directing the military to set up a temporary pier in Gaza that would enable supply of humanitarian aid the the Palestinians. We had predicted that he would say that: Biden to Announce Plans to Build Port in Gaza for Humanitarian Aid Shipments: President Joe Biden will announce during his State of the Union address plans to build a port on Gaza’s coast to...

The U.S. military port that is intended to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza is expected to take up to two months to construct and requires over 1,000 U.S. servicemembers to complete, the Pentagon said. In a press conference on Friday, Press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that that port would take at least 1,000 U.S. forces. "We anticipate that it'll take over 1,000 U.S. forces to participate in building this capability," Ryder said. "As far as time frame, several weeks, likely up to 60 days in order to deploy the forces and construct the causeway and the pier,"...

Powering the nation’s long-haul trucks with electricity would require the same amount of electricity for more than 46 million homes every year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 2022, California adopted regulations that required all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions by 2035. Immediately, 17 states eyed the electric vehicle mandates and started considering their own. That was on top of the Biden administration’s own tailpipe standards, which many say function as a federal EV mandate. The vision of a forced electric vehicle transition hasn't quite gone as California and the Biden administration have hoped. But in...

The head of the Yemeni Houthi terrorist organization, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, issued remarks on the eve of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on Sunday guaranteeing to his supporters that he would continue to orchestrate terrorist attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea despite the holiday season. “We will continue our operations and many of our fundamental and necessary activities must continue,” Houthi promised, according to the Iranian state Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Houthi’s terrorist group, formally known as “Ansar Allah,” began a campaign of drone and missile strikes against seemingly random ships attempting to navigate in the greater...

A congressional investigation has discovered strange communication equipment on Chinese-built cargo cranes at U.S seaports, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Rather than building them domestically at potentially higher costs, the U.S. relies heavily on Chinese-built cargo cranes that are relatively cheap to produce and equip at seaports across the country. The congressional probe discovered that several of these cranes, built by Chinese mega-manufacturer ZMPC, contain communications devices that were not requested or don’t appear to support standard operations, heightening existing espionage concerns, according to the WSJ. U.S. intelligence has warned that Chinese cranes – equipped with an array...

An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick, the U.S. military said Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on Feb. 18 while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said. The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was...

Commercial shipping expert and host of the "What's Going on With Shipping?" YouTube channel, Sal Mercogliano, returns to discuss whether Operation Prosperity Guardian is actually deterring the threat posed by the Houthis and keeping the sea lanes open in and around the Red Sea.

Two missiles have hit a ship off Yemen and caused a fire on board, authorities say, in another apparent attack by Yemen's rebel Houthi movement. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said the unnamed vessel was in the Gulf of Aden when it was attacked and that US-led coalition forces had responded. A maritime security firm identified it as a Palau-flagged cargo ship. There was no claim from the Houthis, but they have been targeted merchant vessels in the region since November.

"The Middle East looks set for a path of escalation on multiple fronts as Israeli forces close in on what is left of southern Gaza, and as Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch their most damaging strike yet on a ship in the Red Sea.The crew of the British-owned, Belize-flagged bulk carrier MV Rubymar were forced to abandon ship in the Gulf of Aden on Monday, receiving help from a nearby merchant vessel and coalition warship to reach a nearby port after “two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” according to U.S. Central Command." (snip) Twenty-six...