Turn Services expands in Texas with new fleet in Houston

Turn Services has announced the opening of its new Houston location; Turn Services La Porte Fleet. Located adjacent to Mile 29 on the Houston Ship Channel, the new facility currently offers over 20 acres of shoreside access, barge fleeting, shifting, towing, crew change, potable water and trash disposal needs.

“We are extremely excited to expand our footprint into Texas with our new facility. This location will allow us to offer logistical solutions for our customers in both the Gulf and Mississippi River regions. In the near future, the size of the property will give us the ability to add to our slate of services and explore additional growth opportunities,” stated Mario Muñoz, President of Turn Services.

ABOUT TURN SERVICES Turn Services, founded in 1990 and headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, is one of the largest independent fleeting and shifting companies in the United States. Combining a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals with top-quality vessels and equipment, Turn Services provides outstanding services at all of its locations. It offers a broad range of bargerelated resources including cleaning, repair and vessel services along the Lower Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the mouth of the river. It also offers towing services on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Texas to Florida.

When Turn Services started 30 years ago, it had a single barge fleet in Burnside, Louisiana, and no vessels — but it had a vision of how to best serve its customers, its team and its community. In those early years, Frank Morton managed payroll and contracts from his home. Operations later moved to Davant, Louisiana where Turn Services provided barge fleeting, cleaning and topside repair for companies like Electro-Coal, IMT and ACBL.

By the early 2000s, business growth led to the company’s acquisition of the first towboat, the Valley Sunrise, later renamed Sir Barton. In 2004, Morton teamed up with David Fennelly and Gary Poirrier, co-chairmen of Associated Terminals, a major terminal operator on the Lower Mississippi River. Turn Services became the primary barge fleeting and service provider for Associated Terminals. That’s when Turn Services began naming towing vessels after champion thoroughbreds, starting with Triple Crown winners.

Over the past decade, Turn Services has been growing its fleet and expanding its reach. Under the direction of Muñoz, the Turn team now operates barge fleeting locations throughout the New Orleans region, as well as Michoud Fleet in the Michoud Canal and Intergulf Marine Fleet on the Houston Ship Channel. As the company’s fleet of pushboats has grown, Turn has expanded its barge transport services as well. It now offers shifting, towing and ‘last mile’ services on both the Lower Mississippi River and all along the Gulf Coast while maintaining its core values and commitment to safety.

Christening of U-Ming’s eco-friendly Post-Panamax bulk carrier ‘Cemtex Excellence’

U-Ming Marine Transport Corporation (TSEC code: 2606 – one of nine publiclisted companies of the Far Eastern Group), has contracted with Japan’s Sumitomo Marine Co. Ltd. to commission Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. to build a 99,990dwt Post-Panamax bulk carrier Cemtex Excellence.

A Christening ceremony was hosted by Douglas Hsu, Chairman of the Far Eastern Group on 9 March this year, at the group’s headquarters in Taipei and was connected on-line with Oshima Shipbuilding yard. Eugenia Chen Chang, wife of Chairman Chia-Juch Chang, China Development Financial Holding Corporation, christened the vessel as online sponsor from Taipei. The ceremony was well attended by many business associates and distinguished guests. The new ship is expected to be officially launched on 14 March 2022.

Cemtex Excellence has a length of 235m, width of 40m and deadweight of 99,990 metric tonnes and she is the first of the 99,990dwt Post-Panamax series built for U-Ming by Oshima Shipbuilding.

The high quality eco-efficient features and an enhanced digital operation system greatly improves the operating efficiency and safety of the vessel. The increasing size of ships reduces fuel consumption per unit cargo and lowers operating costs. In view of the industry trend towards low-speed operations, speed of navigation is optimized. The narrow streamline design of the bridge also helps to reduce wind resistance.

Due to stricter new environmental regulations to be implemented in January 2023 such as Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEXI) and Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), old ships that do not meet the regulations will be phased out.

In the second half of 2020, container shipping saw a significant increase in demand which resulted in a high volume of large container ship orders. Many yards will be occupied with container newbuilding work in the next few years leading to a slow-down in delivery of dry bulk vessels.

On the demand side, many countries are competing for infrastructure improvements which will in turn increase the demand for raw materials which drives up the freight rates of bulk shipping.

According to Clarksons’ Dry Bulk Trade Outlook for January 2022, the growth rate of dry bulk fleet is expected to be only 2.1% in 2022 versus the demand for dry bulk shipping at about 2.5%. The expected slower pace of tonnage supply will continue to favour the dry bulk market in the short term.

U-Ming continues to seek long-term strategic partnerships with high quality customers to secure its win-win cooperations and to ensure steady revenues to sustain its business.

By improving the management efficiency, integrating internal organizational resources through inter-departmental team co-operation, evolving high efficiency ‘Eco Ships’, providing sustainable diversified services and digitalizing U-Ming’s business, the company aims to strengthen its core competitiveness and contribute to a greener and sustainable shipping market.

ABOUT U-MING U-Ming currently owns and operates Capesize, Panamax, Post-Panamax, Supramax and Ultramax bulk carriers; cement carriers; Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) and Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV); amounting to a total of 60 vessels including vessels that are in operation, under construction, joint ventures and ship management services; totalling deadweight of 8.25 million tonnes. The average age of the owned bulk fleet is about 6.5 years. Besides the subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and China Xiamen; U-Ming Marine Offshore Co., Ltd. was recently set up to provide offshore wind maritime transportation services in Taiwan.

Left to right: Mr Jeff Hsu, Executive Vice President, U-Ming Marine Transport Corporation; Mr CK Ong, President, U-Ming; Mrs CK Ong, wife of Mr CK Ong; Douglas Hsu, Chairman of the Far Eastern Group; Mrs Eugenia Chen Chang, wife of Chairman Chia-Juch Chang, China Development Financial Holding Corporation; and Chairman Chia-Juch Chang, China Development Financial Holding Corporation