Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 22/09/2016
1. Hanjin Shareholder Digs Deep
The largest shareholder of Hanjin Shipping Ltd agreed on Wednesday to lend $53.96 million to help unload cargo that has been stranded since late last month. Korean Air Lines said it would make the previously pledged loan using Hanjin’s accounts receivable as collateral, even as media reports said the South Korean court handling Hanjin’s receivership doubted its ability to survive a restructuring.
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2. Panama Embraces HK Convention
The International Maritime Organization’s effort to implement new international regulations intended to the promote safe and environmentally sound ship recycling received a major boost this week with ratification by the world’s largest flag state. Panama has became the fifth IMO Member State to accede to the IMO’s Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmental Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention), which is aimed at ensuring that ships sent for scrap do not pose a risk to human health and safety or to the environment.
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3. Lifting Stranded Rig
The ship that will take the damaged oil rig Transocean Winner to Turkey for decommissioning has arrived off the coast of Lewis. The drilling rig is to be floated on to the deck of Offshore Heavy Transport’s semi-submersible "Hawk" vessel. The complex operation is dependent on favourable weather conditions. The 17,000-tonne "Transocean Winner" rig ran aground at Dalmore, near Carloway, on the west side of the island during a storm over a month ago. The drilling rig was taken to the east side of Lewis. Hawk was already in Scottish waters having taken another rig to an anchorage in the Cromarty Firth in the Highlands.
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4. RBS Winding Down Book
The Royal Bank of Scotland has begun winding down its global shipping finance business, ending efforts to sell it off during a worsening downturn across the freight industry. Chief Executive Ross McEwan is battling to complete a restructuring , which includes asset sales and thousands of job cuts, amid a low-interest rate that makes finding profitable new business tough. “In line with the bank’s strategy to create a simpler, stronger, and more sustainable bank, better aligned to the needs of our customers in the UK and Western Europe, we are commencing the wind down of our shipping business,” an RBS spokesperson said.
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5. Stacking of Drillships
In a far corner of the Caribbean Sea, one of those idyllic spots touched most days by little more than a fisherman chasing blue marlin, billions of dollars worth of the world’s finest oil equipment bobs quietly in the water. They are high-tech, deepwater drillships — big, hulking things with giant rigs that tower high above the deck. They’re packed tight in a cluster, nine of them in all. The engines are off. The 20-ton anchors are down. The crews are gone. For months now, they’ve been parked here, 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago, waiting for the global oil market to recover.
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6. Great Hope for Ship Repairers
The ratification of the International Maritime Organization Ballast Water Management Convention is an opportunity for more business in Greece’s ship repair zone, according to the sector’s entrepreneurs. The development emerged last week as Finland signed on to the treaty, thereby raising the share of the global fleet to have accepted it to 35 percent, which means it can now be activated. Fearnley Securities estimates that between 2017 and 2020 the owners of some 70,000 vessels must decide whether they will install ballast water management systems (BWMS) in their oceangoing ships or scrap their older ships.
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7. Second Crew Member Dies
After a tragic lifeboat accident back in July, reports have emerged that another crew member has now succumbed and sadly died from his injuries. The law firm which represents the crew member posted Ben Buenaventura, a Filipino who was a waiter onboard the 144,000 gross ton "Norwegian Breakaway" passed away at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida. Ben suffered from horrific injuries after one of the ships lifeboats fell into the water during a scheduled emergency drill. Three other crew members were also on the lifeboat at the time and one of them sadly died on the same day.
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8. Unions Gather to Tackle Industry
The second International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Maritime Roundtable (MRT) has been held, bringing together activists from affiliated unions from all continents. Paddy Crumlin, ITF president and chair of the dockers section, said of the event, “Dockers and seafarers face more potential issues at work than ever before: automation, subcontracting, the race to the bottom on health and safety standards, the rise of multinationals. Employers are thinking about profit margins, and in a lot of cases that’s it. If it means workers are impacted then so be it. There has to be someone there that says that’s not OK and that’s us."
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9. Understanding the London Protocol
A new brochure outlines why the London Protocol is needed and explains how permitted waste materials are assessed for a dumping permit. Governments have been urged to ratify the London Protocol treaty which regulates the dumping of wastes at sea in order to ensure the universal application of its precautionary approach towards protection of the marine environment. The London Protocol, which currently has 47 Contracting States and has been in force since 2006, prohibits all dumping of wastes and other matters at sea, except for those on an approved list, which may be assessed and considered for dumping.
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10. Tackling Fears of Liquefaction
The Association of Bulk Terminal Operators has warned that cargo liquefaction – an issue commonly associated with the seaborne transportation of unprocessed mineral ores and concentrates – is also an issue which bulk terminals need to pay attention to. ABTO chief executive Ian Adams, said: “The liquefaction of bulk commodities is a serious issue which can and should be managed effectively shoreside. However, allowing ship’s crews access to stock piles to assess solid bulk commodities such as Bauxite and nickel ore is not the answer in view of the fact that stock piles have been known to collapse.”
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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S Jones
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