NextBoat Inc. (NYSE American: NXB), a pre-owned boat company headquartered in Wilmington, announced Wednesday a strategic partnership with MarineMax Inc. (NYSE: HZO), one of the world’s largest recreational boat and yacht retailers. "Under the agreement, MarineMax becomes the first enterprise dealer group to adopt the NextBoat AI platform as its preferred who ...

Last spring, the Port of Wilmington saw some of its largest container ships on record coming from ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, an Israeli cargo shipping firm. According to Brian Clark, executive director of the N.C. State Ports Authority, the massive vessels were 1,200 feet long, with a capacity of around 15,500 TEUs or 20-foot equivalent units, a standard unit of ...

North Carolina’s Division of Coastal Management issued an objection this week to the proposed deepening of Wilmington's Harbor, citing concerns and a lack of information about the project’s potential environmental impacts. The $1.35 billion project, spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the N.C. State Ports Authority, would dee ...

Wilmington-headquartered Off the Hook Yachts plans to acquire a South Florida marine service, storage and sales company, a move that could boost Off the Hook’s revenue by $30 million.  Off the Hook, a vertically integrated, AI-powered marine marketplace, announced in a news release late last week that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Apex M ...

A tentative agreement between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) Ltd. has averted a worker strike at East and Gulf coast ports, including the Port of Wilmington.  In a joint statement late Wednesday, ILA and USMX announced the groups had reached a “tentative agreement on all items for a new ...

The Port of Wilmington resumed normal operations on Friday, following a tentative wage agreement between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. About 45,000 unionized workers at ports along the East and Gulf coasts, including the Port of Wilmington, went on strike Tuesday after the ILA and the United States ...

Wilmington-based SeaTox Research Inc. and its project partners received an almost $1.5 million grant to develop test kits to help identify toxin-producing algal blooms in Alaska’s commercial shellfish, according to a news release.   The award is titled the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms (MERHAB) grant from the National Centers for ...

Officials with the Cuban government toured the Port of Wilmington last week, and Congressman David Rouzer, R-N.C., has raised national security concerns about the apparently sanctioned visit.  Cuba was first designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1982 due to its track record of supporting guerrilla groups and terrorists, according to the U.S. Bureau of Count ...

Though many events and local operations have wound down for the day in preparation of Hurricane Ian’s arrival, the Wilmington Boat Show is still on.  After pummeling west Florida, Hurricane Ian is projected to make landfall again midday Friday in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane. The Cape Fear region is expected to be inundated with heavy rainfall, wi ...

Environmental and offshore wind researchers shared their insights at the N.C. Offshore Wind and Wildlife Solutions Summit this week, weighing the balance of protecting coastal resources with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through alternative energy sources.  Hosted by the N.C. Coastal Federation and other environmental groups, the summit on Tuesda ...