Latest news with #CrowleyMaritime
Bloomberg
29-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
The First US Cable Boat for Offshore Wind Starts Work in Trump's Shadow
The first US-flagged boat that can bury the undersea cables to connect offshore wind turbines to the power grid on land has started work within view of the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline. The Marmac 306, a 300-foot (91-meter) barge built in Louisiana by Norwegian cable company Nexans SA and operated by US maritime company Crowley Maritime Corp., started work this month. It's digging a trench for the cables that will transmit the electricity generated by Equinor ASA's $5 billion Empire Wind 1 project all the way to the Brooklyn power grid.
Forbes
28-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How This Billionaire Family Is Succeeding Despite The Collapse Of The American Shipping Industry
T he tanker American Energy is 900 feet long with a black hull; its bridge reaches the height of a ten-story building. Jutting out of the top deck are the squared-off corners of the ship's enormous liquefied natural gas storage tanks—painted a turquoise that complements the waters of the port of Peñuelas, on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. There, in June, the ship—owned by Jacksonville, Florida–based shipping company Crowley Maritime—made its first delivery to the island of 35 million gallons (130,000 cubic meters) of super-chilled (to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit) liquid natural gas (LNG) sourced from American shale frackers. That's enough in one shipment to generate the electricity to power 80,000 homes for a year, says Tom Crowley Jr., the 58-year-old chairman and majority owner of Crowley Maritime. American Energy is a new ship for Crowley, but despite its gleaming appearance, it's far from new. It was built in 1994 and was headed to the scrap heap before Crowley picked it up last year for an estimated $25 million. Why would he invest in this ship, when on any given day a dozen bigger, newer, more efficient tankers are loading up on American LNG to export to the world? Conversely, why can't one of the hundreds of other modern megatankers filling up on LNG in Louisiana or Texas just make a stop in Peñuelas? The answer is the Jones Act. Otherwise known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, it requires vessels transiting from one U.S. port to another be built in the U.S., be crewed by Americans and fly the Stars and Stripes. Or get a waiver. Jamel Toppin for Forbes It turns out a waiver was needed in the case of American Energy, which was built in France. Crowley got the ship approved as a Jones Act vessel only after finding a loophole—a 1996 law that allows ships built abroad before 1996 to be used in Jones Act trade. 'We were concerned we wouldn't find a single one,' he says. This is nonsensical. You shouldn't have to divert an old ship from the junkyard on a technicality so that a U.S. territory can get deliveries of the same product we've been selling to Europe and Asia for years. But it's a prime example of how Crowley has learned to navigate the shallow shoals of regulatory hazards in one of the world's most unforgiving hard-asset businesses. Of the 125 vessels Crowley owns, 112 are Jones Act–compliant, making it, with $3.5 billion in revenue, the biggest in this niche. By sticking to this protected swim lane, Crowley—who along with his immediate family owns some 80% of the company, worth an estimated $1.5 billion—is able to steer clear of shipping whales like Denmark's Maersk ($56 billion revenue) and China's Cosco ($32 billion). 'Though it doesn't drive the company, Crowley says, 'the Jones Act is something we operate within.' In 1892 Crowley's grandfather, Tom Crowley, then 17, used all his savings (about $80) to buy an 18-foot Whitehall rowboat. When a big ship dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay, he'd row out with supplies. After the great earthquake of 1906, Crowley helped A.P. Giannini's Bank of Italy (which later became Bank of America) protect cash and securities by stuffing them in milk cans anchored on a Crowley boat in the harbor. The founder's son, Thomas Bannon Crowley, took over the company in the 1940s and helmed it through World War II and postwar growth into Alaska and the Caribbean. Their ships carried material to build out Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. After the Exxon Valdez spill in March 1989, Crowley invested $1.5 billion to retrofit its fleet of smaller tankers to add double hulls. When his dad died in 1994, Thomas B. Crowley Jr. was 27, a graduate of the University of Washington with a passion for computers. In the three decades since, he has fought the purported family-business curse (from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations) by standing up to longshoremen's unions, dumping the company's San Francisco Bay ferry business in 1997 and quickly selling off Crowley's South American shipping line after international trade negotiations went sour. And he leveraged his fleet's protected Jones Act status to win contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development managing emergency shipments of disaster aid like Ebola medicine to Liberia and frozen chicken to Cuba. Luck has also played a role. Crowley's last big USAID contract ran out last year, so he wasn't hurt when the Trump administration killed the aid agency and most of its programs. How to Play It Patrick Welsh for Forbes By William Baldwin Ocean shippers have a habit of going bankrupt, a consequence of high debt ratios, inelastic supply and volatile demand. The better way to invest in the movement of heavy goods across the seas is to bet on the future of liquefied gas. (Yes, gas is heavy: A ship typically carries at least 70,000 tons of it.) Cheniere Energy runs LNG export operations. Pembina Pipeline is a diverse fuel hauler with a new liquefied-propane dock in Canada. EQT Corporation is a gas producer interested in sending as much gas as possible abroad. All three are reasonably priced, with enterprise values between 10 and 14 times earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation. William Baldwin is Forbes' Investment Strategies columnist. Even Jones Act supporters like John McCown, who used to operate a container shipping business and is now at the Center for Maritime Strategy, admit it adds 20% to shipping costs, but that 'more than pays for itself in terms of the national security benefits of having a ready merchant fleet.' If the law were repealed, McCown would expect lower-cost global giants to quickly subsume all the routes between Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, Alaska and the mainland. 'At the heart of it is that America needs to be able to run ships,' Crowley says. In 2017 he won his biggest contract, with the Department of Defense, to manage the logistics of shipping 300,000 pieces of equipment annually (the contract was renewed in 2024 at $2.3 billion for seven years). After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and its power grid in 2017, Crowley moved 40,000 power poles, 7,000 transformers and 10 million miles of cable to the island. Even in the best of times, Puerto Rico's grid is unreliable, and Crowley began hearing the same message from the pharmaceutical factories and food distributors who wanted to invest in their own gas-powered microgrids to ensure redundant electricity supplies: 'You've got to figure out a way to get American LNG to Puerto Rico.' And why not? 'The U.S. has an infinite supply,' he says. From nothing a decade ago, the U.S. now exports 12 billion cubic feet of gas per day, 9% of domestic production. But none of it was going to Puerto Rico because not a single Jones Act–compliant LNG tanker existed anywhere in the world, at any price. Crowley initially moved smaller amounts of LNG in insulated cargo containers offloaded onto trucks, but this was extremely inefficient. The company contracted with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Wisconsin to build a 400-foot LNG-carrying barge that it now uses in Savannah, Georgia's harbor as a mobile filling station for ships. But it wasn't big enough to go to San Juan, and the last time an American yard had built a large LNG carrier was 50 years ago. The U.S. used to be a shipbuilding powerhouse. By 1776, timber from eastern American forests outfitted a third of the ships in the British Royal Navy. During World War II the U.S. built more than 5,000 ships. Now that's down to fewer than 10 per year, totaling less than 1% of global oceangoing tonnage. Today, supported by state subsidies, protectionist laws and cheap labor, China is the biggest shipbuilder with a 50% share, followed by South Korea and Japan. Crowley would like to build American, if it makes sense. Two of his ships, the six-year-old El Coquí and Taíno, are hybrids that carry both containers and vehicles between Jacksonville and San Juan, and were built in Pascagoula, Mississippi. El Coquí' s captain, Nick St. Jean, says the LNG-powered propulsion system has been highly reliable and easier to maintain than older diesel-fueled steam engines, and with 40% lower carbon emissions. Crowley competitors Matson Shipping and Pasha Group each recently sent an aging U.S.-built, Jones Act–compliant vessel to Asia to have their old engines replaced with efficient new ones that run on LNG. Matson says the overhaul cost $72 million, which is more than the price of a new Chinese ship. For now, American Energy is still powered by steam turbines. Not all of Crowley's ships meet the requirements of the Jones Act. He chartered his newest four container ships (to run routes from Florida to Central America) from Hyundai's Mipo yard in South Korea. The company also had to acquire non-U.S.-built roll-on/roll-off ships to satisfy the specifications of the Defense Department contract. 'We needed them quickly, so we bought foreign,' Crowley says. Listacle All In The Family The Crowleys aren't the only clan breaking the three-generation curse. Here are a handful of big businesses that go way back—and are still run by their founding families. Zildjian (cymbals) • Fifteen generations Zildjian Founded in Constantinople in 1623 by an Armenian alchemist who discovered the perfect alloy for musical cymbals while trying to make gold, the company moved to Massachusetts in 1929. It's now chaired by 14th-gen Craigie Zildjian, who was its first female CEO. Yuengling • Six generations Billionaire Dick Yuengling lords over America's oldest brewery, founded in 1829 by his great-great-grandfather; his four daughters are execs. Smucker's • Five generations Jerome Monroe Smucker started the jelly-and-jam maker as a small Ohio cider mill in 1897. His son and grandson took it public in 1959; now fifth-gen Mark Smucker is CEO of the $8.7 billion (sales) business. Wegmans • Five generations The beloved East Coast grocery chain began with two brothers selling produce from a pushcart in 1916; now fourth-gen CEO Colleen Wegman has expanded it beyond 100 locations. *Based on the latest generation to hold an executive role at the company. Jones Act critics such as Colin Grabow at the Cato Institute argue that if the purpose of the law was to protect and incentivize a strong domestic shipping fleet, it has objectively failed and should be scrapped. He says Crowley's ploy of cleaning up an old French-built tanker and calling it American Energy 'demonstrates the gains that can be realized when Americans are provided even a partial reprieve from the Jones Act.' Crowley did make one recent American-made addition to the fleet: an all-electric tugboat called eWolf, built by Master Boat Builders of Coden, Alabama. The 82-foot tug boasts 70 tons of towing capacity. Now working in San Diego's harbor, it cost about $35 million, double the price of a traditional tugboat. Zero emissions is nice, but the tug has a limited range. Even after getting $13 million in subsidies from the San Diego Air Pollution Control District and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Crowley says he can't justify buying another one. In time, decision making will fall to the fourth Crowley generation, including a daughter who works in insurance in London and son Bannon Crowley, 27, who oversees harbor tugs in Jacksonville. 'I've been a steward of this,' the current Crowley boss says. 'I'm trying to teach them the same kind of stewardship.' More from Forbes Forbes Red States–And AI–Are Big Losers From Trump's Clean Energy Massacre By Christopher Helman Forbes Why Ramaco Says It Can Beat Its Government-Backed Rival For Rare Earth Supremacy By Christopher Helman Forbes Inside Private Equity's $29 Trillion Retirement Savings Grab By Hank Tucker Forbes The Best Brokers For Saving On Capital Gains Taxes By William Baldwin
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Puerto Rico Pays More For American Energy Than Its Neighbor
Crowley Maritime, an American shipping company, recently announced that it raised the U.S. flag on a 31-year-old French-built LNG carrier to comply with the Jones Act—a 100-year-old law—finally allowing for U.S. LNG to be shipped from the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico through a loophole in the protectionist law. Over 100 years ago, Congress passed the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the Jones Act, requiring all goods transported between U.S. ports to be carried on ships that are built in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, crewed by Americans, and flagged under the United States. While support for the Jones Act was built on maintaining a strong U.S. maritime industry and protecting national security, it has failed to live up to these promises. Due to absurdly strict requirements, the Jones Act increases the cost of shipping and ship manufacturing by limiting competition in domestic markets and even inspiring collusion. These inflated costs have historically made it impossible for Puerto Rico to import LNG from the United States. Unlike the mainland, Puerto Rico can't import LNG via trucking or rail and must instead import LNG using Jones Act carriers (which, until recently, didn't exist). There is, however, a minor workaround. The U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1996 grants coastwise authorization (which is required for transportation of U.S. LNG to Puerto Rico) to foreign ships built before October 19, 1996, so long as they meet the remaining Jones Act requirements. This technical exception allowed Crowley Maritime's recently purchased American Energy, an LNG carrier built in France in 1994, to finally start supplying LNG to Puerto Rico. This technicality offers a raindrop of relief to Puerto Rico, but it does little to address the financial costs of the Jones Act. While Puerto Rico's economy is strangled by inflated costs because of the Jones Act, the Dominican Republic is free from its restrictions, and it imports U.S. LNG at a fraction of the cost. Global markets are much more competitive and have access to modern, efficient LNG carriers. As a result, shipping prices are dramatically cheaper. In the most recent Maritime Administration operating cost report, it was revealed that "U.S.-flag crewing costs were roughly 5.3 times higher than foreign-flag vessels in 2010" and a recent post on X by Sen. Mark Kelly (D–Ariz.) shows that the cost of operating a U.S. flagged vessel is 4.3 times higher than foreign ships—$8.5 million more. The Dominican Republic is able to use more efficient and cheaper foreign LNG carriers that have had transportation prices as low as $3,500 per day in 2025. Even their most recent estimated operating costs of $15,000 per day pale in comparison to the estimated $64,500 per day in operating costs alone for the U.S.-flagged LNG carrier. Puerto Rico is also forced to pay more for the product itself as a result of the Jones Act. A 2020 contract between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and Naturgy (a major energy company in Puerto Rico) includes a provision that states, "If the Jones Act is repealed, or amended such that it does not apply to shipping LNG from the US mainland to Puerto Rico, or a waiver of the Jones Act is granted that permits shipping from the US mainland to Puerto Rico without complying with the Jones Act," would result in an 8 percent unit price reduction. Crowley's new ship is not a long-term solution. The vessel is old, has a smaller than average shipping capacity, and is only Jones Act-approved because of a loophole. This is not innovation; it's desperation and it shows to what extent Puerto Rico has to go to receive relatively cheap American energy. Rather than modernizing our maritime fleet to be competitive on a global scale, we're instead buying unwanted vessels from other countries and celebrating them as innovative solutions. In truth, American Energy is a reminder that the United States citizens in Puerto Rico are being exploited because of a century-old law that has done nothing good for us. The problem is the Jones Act, and the answer is repealing it. It's time to stop patching holes in a sinking ship. The Jones Act is a policy failure that has harmed the people of Puerto Rico for over a century. The truth is that Puerto Rico should not have to rely on legal loopholes to access American goods. Foreign nations should not have cheaper access to American products just because they aren't bound by U.S. laws. Repealing the Jones Act isn't radical—it's necessary, and it provides immediate benefit to the Americans in Puerto Rico. The post Puerto Rico Pays More For American Energy Than Its Neighbor appeared first on
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Yahoo
Container ship captain arrested after UK tanker crash
British police have arrested the captain of a cargo ship on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, a day after the vessel crashed into a tanker carrying US military jet fuel off the east coast of England, leaving both vessels badly damaged. The tanker, Stena Immaculate, which carries jet fuel for the US military, was at anchor on Monday when it was struck by the smaller Solong, causing huge fires and explosions, releasing fuel into the sea, and potentially posing a danger to wildlife. Neither vessel is now expected to sink, transport minister Heidi Alexander said in a statement after an earlier assessment had said the Solong was unlikely to remain afloat. One crew member from the Portuguese-flagged Solong is assumed dead, maritime minister Mike Kane told parliament. Thirty-six people were brought ashore following the incident and no others remain missing, the coastguard said. "We have arrested a 59-year-old man on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision," police said in a statement. The ship's owner, Ernst Russ, said the arrested man was the ship's captain, or master. "The master and our entire team are actively assisting with the investigations," Russ said. Aerial video on Tuesday showed a gaping hole in Stena Immaculate's hull, with fire damage along its length, although the flames that engulfed it after the collision appeared to have subsided. Crowley, the US logistics group which operated the Stena Immaculate, said in a statement the fire onboard had greatly diminished with no visible flames. — Crowley (@CrowleyMaritime) March 11, 2025 The Solong appeared badly burned and smouldering. The coastguard said a one-kilometre exclusion zone had been placed around both vessels. "... early indications suggest that both vessels are now expected to stay afloat and that the Solong can be towed away from the shore, and salvage operations can get underway," Alexander said after a meeting with the coastguard agency. Owners of the Solong said the vessel was not carrying sodium cyanide, contrary to an earlier report from maritime data provider Lloyd's List Intelligence, which cited the local coastguard, but conservation groups said the environmental impact from the spillage of jet fuel could prove wide reaching. The Solong owners said they were monitoring four containers which had previously been used to store sodium cyanide. The surrounding area is home to large colonies of protected seabirds including puffins and gannets as well as a delicate coastal ecosystem. Dutch marine provider Boskalis, appointed to salvage the Stena Immaculate tanker, said four ships carrying foam and extinguishing agents were heading to the scene. Authorities are ready to deploy equipment to minimise pollution at sea, including spray dispersants for oil spills and containment booms, if required, the British government said. The potential environmental impact remains under assessment. Local MP Graham Stuart said most of the spilled jet fuel appeared now to have burned off and there was no sign of either ship leaking engine oil. ++++ UPDATE ON HUMBER OIL TANKER COLLISION: BROADLY GOOD NEWS ++++ — Graham Stuart MP (@grahamstuart) March 11, 2025 Authorities said the risk to public health was very low. The operators of the vessels and maritime authorities have yet to offer an explanation of why multiple safety systems on board modern vessels failed to prevent Monday's collision. Data from maritime analytics website MarineTraffic showed the 183m Stena Immaculate was anchored off Immingham, northeast England, when it was struck by the 140m Solong, which was en route to Rotterdam. The Solong was sailing at cruise speed and close to the maximum of around 18-19 knots, shipping sources said, and the vessel had sailed through the same area on past voyages. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesperson said there was currently no suggestion of "foul play". The Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks, but it was unclear how much of it was spilled after at least one tank was hit, Crowley said on Monday. While Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch will gather initial evidence, overall responsibility for investigating the crash lies with the US and Portuguese authorities, the flag states of the vessels.
CBS News
11-03-2025
- General
- CBS News
U.S.-flagged tanker, cargo ship in North Sea collision off coast of England, setting both vessels on fire
A U.S.-flagged tanker carrying jet fuel was struck by a cargo ship in the North Sea off the coast of eastern England on Monday, triggering multiple explosions, setting both vessels on fire and sending fuel pouring into the water, officials said. An English port boss said he had been told there was "a massive fireball" following the collision. Several hours after the collision happened, the cargo ship's owner said one crew member was missing. Efforts to locate the missing crew member were ongoing, the German-based Ernst Russ said in a statement. Earlier, local lawmaker Graham Stuart said he was told by U.K. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander that 37 crew members were aboard the two ships, with one hospitalized and the other 36 mariners safe and accounted for. Where did ships collide in the North Sea? Crowley Maritime, which operates the U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, said the tanker was anchored in the North Sea off the coast of Hull, about 155 miles north of London, when it was struck by the Portugal-flagged container ship Solong. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said details of the collision and its cause "are still becoming clear." Abdul Khalique, head of the Maritime Center at Liverpool John Moores University, said it appeared the crew of the cargo ship had not been "maintaining a proper lookout by radar" as required by international maritime regulations. The Stena Immaculate was at anchor near the port of Grimsby, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The Solong was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. According to the BBC, the Stena Immaculate was en route from Agio Theodoroi in Greece to Killingholme in the U.K. It is one of just 10 tankers enlisted in a U.S. government program designed to supply the armed forces with fuel during times of armed conflict or national emergency, the BBC reported. A cargo tank on the ship containing jet fuel ruptured, leaking fuel and a fire broke out, Crowley said. "The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard," Crowley said. "All Crowley mariners are safe and fully accounted for." The company said it was working with authorities to contain the fire and secure the vessel. Stuart said he was concerned about the "potential ecological impact" of the spill, whose cause was being investigated by the U.K.'s Marine Accident Investigation Branch. Meanwhile, business information service Lloyd's List Intelligence said the cargo ship was carrying 15 containers of the chemical sodium cyanide. It wasn't immediately clear if any of the containers were damaged. A U.S. official confirmed that the Stena Immaculate was carrying cargo in support of the Defense Department, CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported. The collision will not impact operations or combat readiness, the official said. Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said 13 casualties were brought in on a Windcat 33 high-speed vessel, followed by another 19 on a harbor pilot boat. He said he was told about the fireball following the collision. "It's too far out for us to see — about 10 miles — but we have seen the vessels bringing them in," he said. "They must have sent a mayday out. Luckily there was a crew transfer vessel out there already. Since then, there has been a flotilla of ambulances to pick up anyone they can find." Erik Hanell, CEO of the Stena Immaculate's co-owner Stena Bulk, told BBC News that the ship's crew consisted of more than 20 people. Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the alarm was raised at 9:48 a.m. local time (5:48 a.m. EDT). The coast guard said several lifeboats and a coast guard rescue helicopter were dispatched to the scene in the North Sea, along with a coast guard plane and nearby vessels with firefighting capability. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution said "there were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships." It said three lifeboats were working on search and rescue at the scene alongside the coast guard. Video footage aired by BBC News and apparently filmed from a nearby vessel showed thick black smoke pouring from both ships. Greenpeace said it was "extremely concerned" about the collision, which took place in a busy fishing ground and close to major seabird colonies. "As more information emerges about what the ships were carrying, we are extremely concerned about the multiple toxic hazards these chemicals could pose to marine life," said Paul Johnston, a senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at Exeter University. Scientists said the environmental impact might be less severe than with a spill of heavier crude oil. "Whilst the images look worrying, from the perspective of the impact to the aquatic environment it's less of a concern than if this had been crude oil because most of the jet fuel will evaporate very quickly," said Mark Hartl of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University. Mark Sephton, professor of organic geochemistry at Imperial College London, said jet fuel disintegrates more quickly than crude oil, and warmer temperatures also speed biodegradation. "In the end, it all depends on the rate of introduction of fuel and the rate of destruction by bacteria," he said. "Let's hope the latter wins out."
