Published by The Maritime Executive

Published by The Maritime Executive

Published by HiLo Maritime Risk Management

Published Jul 20, 2022 9:29 PM by The Maritime Executive

GE's wind turbine division plans to diversify its sourcing of a strategic ingredient by signing a supply deal with an Australian mining company, Arafura Resources. Arafura is developing a new project in central Australia to extract NdPr, a mixture of two rare-earth metals which is widely used to make the powerful magnets in wind turbine nacelles.

NdPr is a key ingredient in neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, the most powerful commercially available class of rare-earth magnets. These are an essential component for the high-power, compact generators found in wind turbines. It takes 600 kilos of NdFeB magnets for every MW of wind turbine generation capacity, according to GE, and the global supply only comes to about 170,000 tonnes a year - almost all of it from China. There is only one rare-earth mine in the United States, and U.S. clean-tech manufacturers are almost wholly dependent on Chinese suppliers for magnets.

Arafura's Nolans Project in Australia's Northern Territory could help change this. According to Arafura, Nolans could supply about five percent of global demand over about forty years in operation. It would handle its own processing and waste management on site, reducing uncertainty about environmental impact from third-party processing. 

GE's agreement "charts a path for GE and Arafura to jointly co-operate in the establishment of a diversified and sustainable supply chain," with the hope that Arafura will become GE's preferred supplier of NdPr for renewables for the U.S. and EU markets. NdPr from Nolans may be used in magnets for GE’s Haliade-X, which ranks among the most powerful offshore wind turbines on the market. 

At full buildout, the Nolans project would produce about 4,500 tonnes a year of NdPr oxide, 475 tonnes a year of heavy rare earth oxide, and neary 145,000 tonnes per year of phosphoric acid, a valuable feedstock for making fertilizer. (Arafura hopes to market the acid to customers in India). Hyundai Motor has already signed an offtake agreement for 1,000-1500 tonnes per year of NdPr oxide from Nolans, representing about a third of the mine's capacity. 

The mine may be needed for more than just diversification of the supply chain. Arafura thinks that there could be an NdPr supply gap of up to 50,000 tonnes a year by 2030 as the growth in demand for electric cars and wind turbines takes off. Offshore wind will take flight on the same timetable and will have to source the same material. Analysts are forecasting the volume of annual offshore wind installations to more than triple from 6 GW in 2020 to 23 GW in 2025.

Published Jul 22, 2022 3:29 PM by The Maritime Executive

Responding to political pressures and the threat of a windfall profits tax, CMA CGM Group announced it will expand its discounts for French shippers and exporters in an effort the shipping giant says is designed to support the purchasing power of French households. Today’s announcement expands previously announced discounts from the carrier and was after the company’s chairman and CEO spent two hours before a committee from the French Senate defending his company. Attention has centered on the CMA CGM...

Published Jul 22, 2022 1:57 PM by The Maritime Executive

After more than two months of difficult negotiations brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, an agreement was signed in Istanbul on Friday that lays the groundwork for reopening three Ukrainian Black Sea ports for critical gain shipments. UN officials said Russia and Ukraine established elements such as the ports involved, the establishment of a monitoring center in Istanbul, and inspections routines for the vessels, with both sides agreeing not to attack or hinder the movement of the vessels. “The...

Published Jul 22, 2022 1:44 PM by David Hammond

The United Kingdom’s Upper House of Parliament, the House of Lords, has been driving policy change through greater awareness and accountability of the scale and scope of abuses at sea requiring intervention, as well as associated legal and policy development at state level. The historic first debate in the UK Parliament on the issue of human rights at sea occurred on June 22, 2021, with a question put to the House by Lord Robin Teverson around the scope of what...

Published Jul 22, 2022 12:36 PM by HiLo Maritime Risk Management

If shipmanagers had access to a crystal ball, they would be able to forecast every accident and take steps to avoid every casualty. That may not be possible, at least not yet, but safety analytics company HiLo has the next best thing. By examining thousands of incident reports from thousands of ships, HiLo has developed a deep understanding of the leading indicators of risk, and it uses its systematic knowledge to advise vessel operators on issues to monitor in...

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