News from Industrial Members
MSM (Mediterráneo Señales Marítimas)
15th anniversary event
IALA Industrial Member MSM has achieved major milestones over the past fifteen years and the company’s team will be celebrating this anniversary in a grand event full of surprises as they look back on years dedicated to innovation and development of marine aids to navigation.
Founded in 2006 MSM has been growing step-by-step to achieve its big dream: to become an international benchmark company in the aids to navigation sector.
Over the past fifteen years the MSM team has patented new LED lighting systems for major lighthouses such as the MLL1000 lamp. They have developed elastomer buoys that withstand the harshest conditions, and have designed excellent lighting performance beacons.
The company will commemorate these achievements and will be celebrating with customers and friends in an exclusive event on 30 September. This will enable MSM to thank customers for the trust and loyalty placed in the company over time.
These celebrations will be streamed so that MSM’s friends can participate in this event worldwide.
Readers are invited to follow MSM’s social media and its website on the occasion of this unique event, see here: www.mesemar.com The latter is available in Spanish, English and French versions.
Almarin, Spain
Modular onshore beacons for marine infrastructure
Logistics in marine works are frequently more expensive than the equipment installed. This is certainly true with marine aids to navigation equipment in locations with difficult access, where occasionally placing equipment with helicopters can be the most cost-effective solution. On a much smaller scale installing beacons at the seaward end of inaccessible moles or piers poses the same challenge. Equipment may cost a few thousand Euros and the logistics tens of thousands per hour.
To address this issue Barcelona-based Almarin has developed modular steel towers. Each component is light enough to be transported and assembled by two persons yet each is strong enough to resist the harsh marine environment.
Almarin’s modular beacons are offered where resources are limited, and access is difficult. It is understood the Group’s assembly team can safely carry the different modules over breakwaters without requiring the use of lifting gear. Besides facilitating transport and installation, this type of marine aids to navigation can be prefabricated to accord with the different requirements of the customer.
Almarin has extensive experience in the manufacture of towers and beacons for port and coastal marking and its engineers have developed the most suitable solution: from 40-metre towers with sector lights to 3-metre beacons marking the entrance of a small harbour.
Manufactured of galvanised and painted steel Almarin’s ALT 3 modular beacon was recently established in the east dock of Marina Empuriabrava, Spain..
The company provides marine aids to navigation made of stainless or galvanized steel, glass reinforced plastics or roto-moulded materials.
Such beacons can be equipped with independent energy systems to cope with most power requirements.
The equipment provided by Almarin is designed and painted in accordance with IALA recommendations.
ALT 7 modular beacon of galvanised and painted steel by Almarin, manufactured in Portugal, was recently supplied to the Panama Maritime Authority.
Sternula, Denmark
As already reported Danish commercial satellite operator, Sternula, has signed a partnership agreement with the Ghana Maritime Authority for the provision of VDES as part of strategic sector cooperation between Danish and Ghanaian maritime authorities and to strengthen the maritime sector in Ghanaian and West African waters enabling reliable and accurate Maritime Safety Information (MSI) to be transmitted
Sternula is Denmark’s first commercial satellite operator. It offers global VDE-SAT connectivity for maritime authorities and industries using its own fleet of advanced micro-satellites in Low-Earth Orbit 3 (LEO) which will be operational from 2022. It is understood that Sternula will be offering its VDE-SAT infrastructure enabling VDES on a global scale from 2023.
Sierra Leone has one of Africa’s busiest territorial waters and aims to improve its capabilities for digital implementation of key IMO instruments for navigation and safety at sea. In mid-June an online ceremony was held in which the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration signed a Letter of Intent with Sternula for the use of its VDES capacity.
According to Acting Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration, Sama Gamanga: ‘There is a great potential in implementing this satellite-based e-Navigation technology to boost the entire country’s maritime sector. The new relationship will help the country gain a better and more accurate picture of the traffic in our waters, which in these time of maritime insecurity is an urgent necessity.’
CEO at Sternula, Lars Moltsen commented: ‘We are very pleased to start this second collaboration in West Africa in just a few months. At Sternula, we are currently building a satellite network for VDES, which is going to be a shared infrastructure for all nations in the World who wants to be part of it. In parallel, we are working closely with the first-movers, like Sierra Leone, to implement our systems and capacity to best meet your needs, and I am looking much forward to meeting you soon in Sierra Leone to discuss these needs in more detail.’
Rapporteur: Paul Ridgway
