PPA S.A. has completed a large-scale infrastructure upgrade works at the Eastern side of Pier II at the Perama Ship Repair Zone.
The works are part of the second phase of a broader infrastructure improvement project in the Perama ship repair zone involving among others a complete platform replacement.
The first ship to berth at the brand new pier, experiencing first-hand the upgraded services, was warmly welcomed by the relevant PPA department.
It should be noted that works are already in progress on parts of the West side of Pier II and the East side of Pier I for the installation of two new Jib Cranes at the beginning of 2023 that are scheduled for delivery to PPA S.A.
The maintenance works at the Piraeus I floating dock were both started and completed during the second half of 2022. The scope of the project includes the replacement of nearly 400 tons of steel plates & stiffeners, high-pressure hydro-blasting & anti corrosion painting in the ballast tanks and external areas, as well as the maintenance and repair of pumps, valves, and piping systems. During the whole period of special inspection and repair, the average number of workforce in dock and workshops reached 150 per day, while directly driving the need of a large number of materials and relating supporting business activities. In addition, this creates a large number of job and income opportunities for local workers and relevant staff in the industry.
Overall, the systematic enhancement projects and the targeted investments at the Perama Ship Repair Zone have already led to the desired outcomes. The large-scale investment projects started back in 2016 by COSCO SHIPPING GROUP, greatly contributed towards the revitalization of the Ship Repair industry in the country. All ship repair operation indicators are improving on a year on year basis, while enabling state of the art services, higher capacity solutions and higher safety standards. It is worth noting that in 2016 were only 69 vessels docked in PPA floating docks while in the year 2022 are expected to reach about 150 vessels. The working days in the docks have been increased similarly from 435 in 2016 to 1306 in 2022.
PPA Chairman Yu Zenggang said: “PPA’s aim was the provision of upgraded ship repair and maintenance services for all companies active in the industry. More importantly, the ship repair zone is an important new jobs generator, positively boosting the local economy.  The 55 million euros in relevant mandatory investment projects are gradually advancing as planned, injecting a strong impetus into the local ship repair industry, towards transforming the Port of Piraeus into a significant regional ship repair hub.”

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Spring Marine Management S.A., a ship manager based in Athens, Greece, has added Dualog® Drive data transfer service to improve the management of their fleet of 25 vessels.
A key challenge for many shipping companies is to reduce manual work and eliminate time-consuming operations when handling data transfers in shipping IT environments. Also, reducing the complexity of handling data exchange in maritime conditions is a key priority.
This was very much the situation for Spring Marine, a small, agile ship management company with a one-person IT department. The objective was clear: Find a solution that helps them spend less time on the IT system while improving the workflow when distributing documents and data across their fleet.
Konstantinos Zacharias, ICT Manager of Spring Marine, explains: " across a fleet has always been a challenge in our industry. Dualog® Drive offers a very streamlined way of automating tasks. Once configured, I can relax because the system automatically transfers the documents from ship to shore and vice versa. I can now spend my time focusing on other important responsibilities."
He also emphasises the user experience for task creation and flexibility in the system: "We started with a few initial data transfer requirements and made tasks to fit those. After testing, we quickly expanded to solve more use cases and created additional tasks to suit these needs. We are confident Dualog Drive will become the perfect tool for future challenges."
Very impressed with the installation procedure
When asked about highlights of the system, Mr Zacharias beams when he describes the smooth roll-out process. "The Dualog systems use something they call 'Link Activation Codes' to get the onboard installations to connect with the office. I only needed to send the small installation file to the captain and share the appropriate code. Within a few minutes, we could see that the vessel was online and ready to receive or transmit data. It worked like magic!" 
Kyriakos Papapolydorou, Regional Sales Manager at Dualog, said: "The entire process with Spring Marine has been very smooth. They had clear goals to improve. Our objective has been to reduce the agony of managing data transfers between ship and shore. Based on customer feedback, we seem to have succeeded”.

Image 1: Kyriakos Papapolydorou, Regional Sales Manager at Dualog
Image 2: One of the 25 vessels in Spring Marine’s fleet

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The Union of Greek Shipowners recognizes the final outcome of the negotiations between the European institutions regarding the inclusion of shipping in the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) as a positive development.
The agreement reflects to a significant extent the positions of the European shipping industry, namely the due application of the “polluter pays” principle - making a ship’s commercial operator responsible for the compliance cost - and the earmarking of part of the revenues generated from shipping for the decarbonisation of the sector. Both proposals have been consistently advocated by the UGS since April 2021.  
“We view several aspects of this provisional agreement positively, notwithstanding the fact that the EU ETS is a regional measure. Many important parameters of its application remain to be determined and vigilance is needed to ensure that they are suitable for the sector”, the President of UGS, Ms. M. Travlos, stated.
The UGS is firmly committed to the decarbonisation of the shipping industry. To this end, it highlights again the importance of committing all the relevant out-of-sector stakeholders to this challenging undertaking. Effective mandatory measures for the other stakeholders, such as fuel producers and suppliers, are also necessary.
“Shipping performs consistently an indispensable service for the welfare of the citizens of the world. The strategic importance of shipping is exhibited more vividly during times of geopolitical turmoil or global emergencies. Similarly, ships will also constitute one of the prime facilitators of global decarbonisation, as they will transport most of the new alternative fuels worldwide”, Ms. Travlos added.
Today, with the beginning of a new round of discussions on shipping’s decarbonisation at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), its Member States must take the opportunity to reach an agreement. The UGS strongly supports the ICS submission for a measure based on a contribution per ton of carbon dioxide emitted by the global fleet, as well as the ICS submission on the revision of the agreed decarbonisation targets.
“We very much look forward to the IMO taking firm decisions that will achieve truly environmental benefits”, Ms. Travlos concluded.
 
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The President and immediate past President of the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) were both recognised with major awards on Friday, December 2 as the 2022 Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards were presented in front of an industry audience of more than 1,000 guests.
Melina Travlos, who earlier this year was elected the first woman President of the UGS, was named Greek Shipping Personality of the Year. Ms Travlos was revealed as winner of the Award just minutes after the Lloyd’s List/Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to her predecessor, Theodore Veniamis, who had led the country’s shipowning community for 13 years until standing down in 2022.
Other major individual awards included the Newsmaker of the Year Award to shipowner Harry Vafias, for a long list of newsworthy activities including the launch of a second Nasdaq-listed shipping company, Imperial Petroleum.
Dorothea Ioannou of the American P&I Club was unveiled as the International Personality of the Year after becoming the first woman to lead an International Group club in the 167 years since the mutual system began.
The Next Generation Shipping Award went to Antonis Malaxianakis, founder and Chief Executive of Harbor Lab, a tech start-up providing innovative software that focuses on port costs for vessels.
In a welcome address, Minister of Shipping & Island Policy Ioannis Plakiotakis offered his congratulations to the nominees as well as the winners of the 2022 Awards.
GMS, the world’s largest buyer of ships and offshore assets for recycling, was overall lead sponsor of the Greek Shipping Awards. Guests enjoyed a pre-dinner drinks reception hosted by Erma First while China Classification Society offered the traditional champagne toast to the health of Greek shipping.
A donation from proceeds of the event went to ‘Argo’, the charity supporting children with disabilities in the families of Greek seafarers. The annual awards recognise achievement and meritorious activity in the Greek shipping industry and promote Greece as a maritime centre. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of judges representing a broad cross-section of the Greek shipping industry.
The 2022 Greek Shipping Awards event was co-hosted by award-winning ERT broadcaster Andriana Paraskevopoulou together with Lloyd’s List correspondent in Greece Nigel Lowry.
THE 2022 WINNERS IN FULL
Melina Travlos was voted 2022 Greek Shipping Personality of the Year.
Theodore E. Veniamis was awarded the Lloyd’s List / Propeller Club Lifetime Achievement Award for a highly successful career in shipping that began nearly 50 years ago.
Lloyd’s List’s Greek Shipping Newsmaker of the Year Award went to Harry Vafias, Chief Executive, StealthGas and Imperial Petroleum.
Antonis Malaxianakis won the New Generation Shipping Award, open to personalities of no more than 40 years of age.
Dorothea Ioannou, Chief Executive of the managing company of the American P&I Club, was elected International Personality of the Year.
The recipient of the Dry Cargo Company of the Year Award for 2022 was Ionic Bulk Carriers, managing a modern fleet of 14 bulk carriers.
As Tanker Company of the Year the panel chose Andriaki Shipping, the tanker managing company established by the N J Goulandris Group, now in its 70th year.
Levante Ferries was unveiled as Passenger Line of the Year.
BRS Group Athens Ltd won the Shipbroker of the Year Award.
The Greek Shipping Financier of the Year Award went to Athens Stock Exchange.
Dr. Chris Leontopoulos of ABS was awarded the Technical Achievement Award.
Load Line Marine won The Safety Award.
Polygreen won The Sustainability Award.
Technava was recipient of this year’s prestigious Piraeus International Centre Award.
The Seafarer of the Year Award was won by Capt. Kimon Christodoulou, Master of the Sun Enterprises tanker ‘Christina’ for a rescue of 27 refugees from a small boat in the Aegean in August 2022.
Project Connect, which operates the Adopt-A-Ship programme in Greek schools, was named winner of the 2022 Education or Training Award.
The Ship of the Year Award went to “Aero 1, 2, 3”, the newly-built catamarans put into service in the Saronic Gulf by Attica Group this year.
The Lloyd’s List Intelligence Big Data Award was presented to HiLo.

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Dr. Chris Leontopoulos, ABS Director, Global Ship Systems Center, received the Technical Achievement Award at the 2022 Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards for his contributions to pioneering vessel technologies and research, including the prototype award-winning “Smart Bearing Sensor” and the pioneering of the bearing double-slope optimization concept, already applied in the majority of new building vessels.
His more recent initiatives involved the ABS approval in principle (AIP) to the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI) for a revolutionary vessel design that negates the risk of pollution from oil lubricated bearings and promotes efficient vessel operations. The SDARI design, developed in cooperation with Thordon Bearings Inc. and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), involves removal of the stern tube casting, employing seawater for aftmost bearing lubrication and creating an aft chamber to permit in-water shaft and bearing maintenance for the first time, thus eliminating the need for drydocking or shaft line removal for bearing/seal replacement.
“I am delighted for Chris and the project stakeholders to be recognized for their work by the industry. As a technology leader, we are pleased to apply our insight and experience to support innovation, working with industry leaders on significant new technologies like this one for SDARI, NTUA and Thordon Bearings,” said Patrick Ryan, ABS Senior Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology.
ABS is guiding the industry with leading research and insights to support technology advancement in the marine and offshore industries. More information about ABS’ innovative approaches for safe and sustainable operations in maritime can be found here.
Photo Caption: Dr. Chris Leontopoulos, head of the ABS Global Ship Systems Center, accepts the Technical Achievement Award from sponsor Leonidas Karystios, DNV Director Business Development

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Technomar Shipping Inc, a leading Greek owned ship management company, has confirmed that it has signed an agreement that will provide its seafarers access to over 70 e-learning titles from Ocean Technologies Group (OTG).
The agreement includes a comprehensive portfolio of e-learning resources as diverse as personal safety, firefighting, cargo handling, ship handling & navigation, marine engineering, maintenance & repair, cyber security, mental health, maritime legislation and environmental protection. The agreement covers the entire Technomar fleet of 84 container and bulker ships.
The initial project began in 2020 with Technomar’s office team utilising OTG’s pre-employment assessment tests for the evaluation of new joiners. This was swiftly followed by an e-learning pilot conducted in 2021 onboard five vessels inducting and consulting with crew members in how to use and get the most out of the Ocean Learning Platform and its resource library. These pilot projects helped Technomar to identify the key training requirements for their crews so it could make that content available to them through OTG’s learning platform onboard and online.
Due to the success of both the office and onboard pilot projects, Technomar has decided to roll-out Ocean Learning Platform and its suite of e-learning titles to its entire fleet.
“We’re really happy with how the roll-out is progressing as our crew and office teams have access to the latest learning modules which they can access 24/7 anywhere in the world. The titles cover important mandatory STCW training courses which all crew members need to have studied before going aboard. There are also titles aimed at specific roles so that seafarers can ensure they are aware of the most up to date practices which will improve their key competencies and reduce incidents and accidents,” said Capt. Panagiotis Fasilis, Health Safety Quality and Environmental Manager for Technomar.
“Winning this contract off the back of such successful trials is very satisfying. We have learned a lot from the two pilot projects and are grateful for all the feedback we have received from the staff at Technomar. Such positive collaboration set us up nicely for the piloting of future innovative developments such as our Adaptive Learning concept, that Technomar are keen to explore.” said Ioannis Athanasopoulos, Managing Director for Ocean Technologies Group in Greece.
Image: L-R:  Capt. Panagiotis Fasilis, Health Safety Quality and Environmental Manager for Technomar shaking hands with Ioannis Athanasopoulos, Managing Director for Ocean Technologies Group in Greece

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Oriani Hellas recently announced that they will be representing the Israel-headquartered, innovative start-up – Captain’s Eye in Greece.
The New Generation of On-board Vessel Safety Management
Marine transportation is responsible for moving billions of dollars’ worth of goods each day. In 2020, the estimated world seaborne trade volumes were estimated to be more than 10 billion tons.
However, this huge volume of global marine transportation often comes with a cost – accidents. These can result in fatalities, irrecoverable injuries, ecosystem destruction, significant cost claims, and corporate reputational damages.
According to the 2021 Annual Report of Nordic Association of Marine Insurers, between 2017 and 2021, 15% of the total cost of insurance claims came from incidents of fire on-board. This was the second highest category, after machinery, and shows no signs of a downward trend.
Captain’s Eye has developed a holistic system using Artificial Intelligence (AI) that provides real-time video analytics by detecting & immediately alerting on safety, operational & security incidents onboard. The AI integrated system can detect & therefore prevent a number of internal events and anomalies onboard such as leakages, smoke, fire, unresponsive crew and more.
Oriani’s team of experienced maritime professionals actively take on the role of a Trusted Partner of the Greek Shipping Industry, by offering the most innovative and value-add maritime digital solutions to help the industry increase their operational efficiency with the help of technology.
“We are proud to promote a solution that is so focussed on increasing the safety of the crew on-board and the vessel itself. While digital solutions, such as Captain’s Eye, have the potential to drastically improve operational efficiency while also providing a solid return on investment – we must never forget that it’s the crew on-board who are the most valuable asset, and their safety must be paramount”.
Mr. John Vandoros, Business Development Director of Oriani Hellas.
Captain’s Eye will set a new on-board safety management standard for Greek Shipping Companies with its AI integrated system, through dramatically shortening the detection time of potentially hazardous events on board, preventing accidents & environmental pollution.
"We are excited and happy to offer our product to the Greek shipping market. We are confident in our ability to give our customers great value by saving human lives, saving money and allowing our customers efficiency and savings in day-to-day operations” added Uri Ben Dor, CEO of Captain’s Eye.
Picture: Uri Ben Dor – CEO of Captain’s Eye

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The Chios Marine Club organised an information and experience sharing meeting on Aspects of New Environmental Regulatory Impacts for Shipping, on 30 November 2022. The meeting was held at the Angelicoussis Group Auditorium, Athens, Greece, and was attended by over 80 members.
The President of Chios Marine Club, Capt Antonis Pitsilos, opened the event and welcomed all participants.
Nikos Kakalis, Chios Marine Club Secretary Special and Lloyd’s Register Global Bulk Carriers Segment Director moderated the event, outlining that “the adoption of new environmental targets and regulations adds another dimension of complexity to the existing high market volatility, the geopolitical situations and the energy crisis”. Kakalis said that “technology and fuels on-board, fleet deployment and allocation, optimal operation, performance monitoring and digitilisation, crew training, are only fraction of the aspects that need to be considered from a different view-point. That is why engagement of wider industry stakeholders is a must to understand the new landscape better and identify possible pathways for navigating through”.
John Cotzias, Director Assets/ SnP & Projects in Xclusiv Shipbrokers mentioned that “the implementation of CII from January 1^st 2023 for most ship types with gross tonnage above 5,000 will change the landscape of global shipping, with vessels ranked from A to E per year based on their CO2 emissions”. Cotzias stressed that “from the one side, high-cost solutions for ship-owners to improve their vessels’ rating to the practically possible extent and from the other charterers’ vessel selection considering CII and their possible responsibility on redelivery, are expected to generate turbulence on shipping markets, affecting the balance of ships supply/ demand and impacting freight rates at unknown for the moment degree”.
Theodoros Kourmpelis, Strategic Key Accounts Director in Lloyd’s Register stated that “the timeline for implementation of new environmental regulations at both the international and regional levels looks quite tight from next January 2023 to 2030 in order to meet the decarbonisation targets up to 2050”. Kourmpelis emphasised that “although the potential financial aspects may be significant, silver-bullet solutions do not exist and shipping companies will need to consider proactively what is the optimal mix of technologies and fuels according to their profiles, fleets, and strategy, that meet safety and their techno-economic feasibility targets”.
Bill Stamatopoulos, Global Business Development Director for Bureau Veritas VeriFuel, said “conventional biofuels are compatible with modern marine engines and can be used safely onboard ships; yet questions remain about full supply chain sustainability and the wide-scale availability of 2nd and 3rd generation biofuels given the competition with other sectors”. Biofuels are a flexible solution that can be produced in different locations via different sources. Biomass-for-biofuels is theoretically available everywhere, limiting the amount of transportation required for distribution. They can also be mixed with fossil fuels to reduce emissions without needing full dependency on biofuels. Stamatopoulos emphasized that “biofuels are an immediately actionable turnkey solution offering a range of advantages as a more sustainable fuel source. Biofuels require minimal investment to keep in line with evolving regulations and ensure crew safety and are, therefore, one of the best stepping-stones to decarbonisation".

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Under the message “We are keeping you one step ahead” Margetis Maritime established a new “Cyber Security” department.

Rapid digital transformation provides a competitive advantage and enables shipping companies to be more efficient. Companies’ operations and performance depend on networks, information, connectivity, digital systems, and migration to the cloud. On account of this, computer security, cyber security, and information technology security become an immediate and imperative priority.
As the business ecosystem expands, a shipping company must shift its efforts to increase its resilience against cyber threats and protect computers, networks, programs, and data against unauthorized access. Additionally, regulatory requirements rise. Since 2016, the World Maritime Organization (IMO) has issued relevant guidelines mandatory to everyone in the marine community and their proper implementation in offices and ships is being inspected.
Margetis Maritime, recognizing the increasing needs of the shipping community in order to manage challenges, comply with regulations and continue their day-to-day operations, has developed the new Cyber Security services division. The purpose of this team is to offer shipping companies a holistic way to structure their cyber security in the best and most cost-effective way.
Through these services, each shipping company can identify its cyber security weaknesses, anticipate the potential impact that a cyber-attack will have, and design its security architecture and finally, implement these plans in its daily operations in its offices and ships as a single policy.
The new department is staffed with specialized people in the area of Cyber Security consulting, as well as IT issues, providing dedicated services for assisting Maritime Companies.
Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and learn more about our services
Margetis Maritime Cyber Security, Building trust is more important than ever

Image: From right Vassilis Mavrofrydis, George Margetis, Panagiotis Christias

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