shipping News

UPS Found Liable For Shipping Contraband Cigarettes In New York, but Damages Reduced

A federal appeals court found United Parcel Service Inc liable to New York state and New York City for shipping hundreds of thousands of cartons of untaxed cigarettes, but reduced its payout for damages and unpaid taxes to about $97.6 …

Shipping Fears Linger That Fuel Switch May Lead to Accidents

The global shipping industry is about to undergo one of the biggest changes in its recent history with concerns lingering about just how safe the shift is going to be. Starting in January, vessels the world over will have to …

Gulf Tanker Incidents May Raise Shippers’ Costs, Cut Traffic

Seizures of oil tankers and other hostile Iranian measures in the Strait of Hormuz are already raising insurance rates for shipping companies and could eventually reduce tanker traffic in the vital waterway, with a spike in global oil prices a …

Seeking to Avoid Escalation, Ships Deploy Unarmed Guards to Navigate Gulf

LONDON — Shipping companies are hiring unarmed security guards for voyages through the Middle East Gulf as an extra safeguard after a wave of attacks in the region, security companies involved said. Relations between Iran and the West are increasingly …

How to Sink the Pirates Plaguing West Africa: Viewpoint

Remember those Somali pirates? Earlier this decade, they brazenly hijacked giant oil tankers, demanded ransoms in the millions of dollars, and gave Tom Hanks yet another chance to play the everyman overcoming a life-defining crisis. Now, thanks to a multinational …

Oil Tanker Insurance Costs to Jump After Gulf Attacks

Oil tanker owners are turning increasingly nervous about loading cargoes from the world’s largest export region for crude after the latest round of attacks on vessels. Both owners and the companies that charter their ships paused bookings on Thursday as …

Insurer Says Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Likely Organized Tanker Attack

LONDON/OSLO — Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are “highly likely” to have facilitated attacks last Sunday on four tankers including two Saudi ships off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Norwegian insurers’ report seen by Reuters. The …

Mississippi River Barge Shipping Resumes After Floods, but Rains to Return

The upper Mississippi River fully reopened to boat and barge traffic this week for the first time since November as shippers scrambled to move a backlog of overdue fertilizer barges to farmers racing to sow corn before the end of …

Coast Guard Partially Opens Houston Ship Channel After Collision

The U.S. Coast Guard partially opened the Houston Ship Channel near Bayport, Texas, on Saturday after a collision spilled an estimated 9,000 barrels of a gasoline ingredient into the water. The waterway was opened to one-way tow traffic between Light …

Houston Channel Importance Swelled as Oil, Gas Exports Rose

About the photo: A ship is docked on the Houston Ship Channel, part of the Port of Houston. Photographer: Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images On a normal day, 42 tankers, 19 freighters, 391 barges, 128 ferries and 2 cruise ships will move …