Columbia Shipmanagement and merger partner Marlow Navigation, via their jointly established software company Blue Dynamics, have signed a new agreement with Lufthansa Industry Solutions to develop a range of digital systems for the maritime sector.

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a partnership in the smart ship sector with the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri).

TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico has agreed a deal with ORBCOMM for the provision of its GSM-based VesselConnect solution to remotely manage TOTE Maritime’s fleet of smart refrigerated containers at sea.

Marlink has expanded its VSAT portfolio with its new Sealink Business service plans, featuring a choice of seven Committed Information Rates (CIR) from 32 to 256 kbps to guarantee constant minimum bandwidth at all times, alongside burstable Maximum Information Rates (MIR) up to 2 Mbps.

Kongsberg Digital and VesselMan have entered into a partnership agreement which will see VesselMan’s applications for dry-docking and repair management added to Kongsberg’s digital ecosystem for its newly launched Kognifai platform.

Oldendorff Carriers has reached an agreement with BMT SMART, a subsidiary of BMT Group, to roll out the SMARTFLEET fleet performance management platform along with a vessel data collection system to drive improved efficiency in the operation of Oldendorff’s ships.

Marlink reports that it has completed the acquisition of Palantir, a Norway-based company specialising in remote IT management systems for the maritime sector.

ABB has launched ABB Ability, a portfolio of digital systems and services across all industry verticals that will aim to combine ABB’s existing expertise with network connectivity and the latest digital technologies to optimise planning and control for real-time operations.

ABB is expanding its vessel maintenance technology capabilities with an upgrade to its Remote Diagnostic Service (RDS) platform, backed by its Integrated Operation Centres in Asia, Europe and the USA.

Rolls-Royce has announced the latest stage in its research and development plans to make remote and autonomous shipping a reality, confirming that Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation – has agreed to provide “a significant research grant” to fund further investment in an unmanned ship R&D centre in Turku, Finland.