Press Releases
InterManager Supports Industry Campaign Movie In Battle Against Somali Piracy
SOS SaveOurSeafarers, a high profile, shipping industry anti-piracy campaign is taking its message to celluloid with the launch of a short video highlighting the human and economic cost of Somali piracy.
The six-minute video highlights the significant threat of Somali piracy attacks for the worldwide seafarer community and potentially for world trade itself.
The video, which is also posted on YouTube, uses a mixture of hard-hitting real life interviews, and the latest technology to create a hard-hitting action sequence where a ship is captured and hostages taken. This is followed by a harrowing testimony from a former hostage, and comments from the EUNAVFOR Chief of Staff, and from InterManager President Alastair Evitt, representing the SOS Steering Committee.
Commenting on the video, Mr Evitt said: “This footage and the personal testimony from the seafarer are very thought-provoking. I urge everyone to visit the SOS website and to support this vital campaign to help raise international awareness and encourage world leaders to do more to eradicate piracy. We cannot allow our seafarers to endure this treatment!”
In the video footage Mr Evitt advises viewers to click on the SOS website link to send a letter to their national politicians. He says: “Send a letter – it will make a difference!”
Bill Box from SaveOurSeafarers, commented: “Whilst recent incidents such as the high-profile kidnappings of Judith Tebutt and Marie Dedieu have put the issue in the headlines, these two incidents barely scrape the surface of this ongoing crisis.
“Seafarers have been constantly under threat from Somali pirates for the last five years, with at times more than 800 innocent seafarers being held hostage for months on end in appalling conditions and facing mental and physical torture at the hands of their captors. Piracy costs the global economy as much as £12billion a year and continues to threaten key transport routes through the Indian Ocean.”
The SOS campaign, launched in March 2011, is made up of the largest ever grouping of international seafarers’ organisations, shipping companies and shipping industry associations. It has already received backing from the British, Philippine and Georgian governments and has seen support from 180 countries.
Full information on the campaign can be found at www.saveourseafarers.com
The video can also be viewed by the following direct link:
The Problem Of Piracy Affects Us All
InterManager Welcomes Bibby Shipmanagement
InterManager, the international trade association for the ship management industry, is delighted to welcome Bibby Ship Management Ltd to its membership.
Located in Liverpool, Bibby Ship Management Ltd provides a quality assured comprehensive technical management service to the international marine industry. The firm’s parent company, Bibby Line Group Limited, has been established for 200 years and appreciates investment in long-term results and commitment to core values – aims which chime well with InterManager’s aims and objectives.
Between them InterManager’s members are involved in the management of more than 4,370 ships and almost 250,000 crew members.
Alastair Evitt, InterManager President, said: “We are delighted to welcome Bibby Shipmanagement to InterManager’s growing membership. Our members are actively involved in achieving global standards across the industry. Working together and sharing best practice is a hallmark of InterManager membership and we look forward to involving Bibby in our discussions and activities.”
Martin Kent, Managing Director of Bibby Ship Management’s Liverpool and Singapore offices, commented: “Over the past fourteen years Bibby Ship Management has expanded its operations globally within the various disciplines that encompass ship management so it was natural for us to consider joining InterManager. We are pleased to have been given this opportunity and look forward to being an active member within the association.”
InterManager Calls For Freedom Of Choice In Deploying Armed Guards Onboard Ship
InterManager members have called for more proactive methods to be developed in the protection of ships transiting pirate-infested trade lanes by launching a campaign to allow owners and third party managers the freedom of choice in employing armed guards onboard ships they manage.
The InterManager campaign, which has received more than 90% support from its members, proposes to lobby Flag States and Charterers to review their rules relating to armed guards onboard ship.
It claims that any decision taken to provide armed guards should be based on a robust risk assessment of each vessel and its transit and should be in accordance with the guidance set out in Best Management Practices 4 (BMP4) – the recently produced IMO guidelines on the employment of armed guards. Such decisions should be unhindered by restrictive Flag State legislation or Charter Party agreements.
Pressure for greater protection of ships transiting danger areas such as the Gulf of Aden and the NW Indian Ocean has grown following concerns over the effectiveness of naval operations in the area. Notwithstanding the efforts of the international community’s naval forces deployed in the area since 2008, more than 3,500 seafarers have been taken hostage by pirates with around 60 dying as a result of their captivity.
InterManager, whose members include ship managers as well as crew managers, is keen to give all support possible to protect its seafarers from the mental and physical torture, degrading treatment, food deprivation and dehydration, that those held hostage suffer.
InterManager believes the shipping industry needs to work closer with those flag administrations, oil majors and bulk charterers who prohibit owners from protecting their assets in the manner to which they believe they should be protected. The current situation creates a disparity between those companies free to involve armed private security and those who are prevented from utilising this option, so increasing unnecessary risk for their crews.
Alastair Evitt, InterManager President, said: “At the end of the day it is the welfare of our crew members and their families that is at stake and there can never be too many initiatives running in parallel to address this disgraceful situation.
“Pirates are demanding increasingly larger ransoms as a result of which many ships are being held hostage for longer periods while owners attempt to negotiate deals. This can inevitably cause more personal stress to those captured and their families.
“InterManager believes the shipmanagement sector has to utilise all tools available to it to stop ships being hijacked. Statistics to date demonstrate that no ship carrying armed guards has been captured,” he said.
InterManager Announces The Development Completion Of The KPI Project
InterManager, the international trade association for the shipmanagement industry, is pleased to officially announce the completion of the development phase of its six-year project to produce an industry-wide performance measurement tool. Now the Project is set to be rolled-out to the worldwide shipping industry.
Working with The Norwegian Research Council , Marintek, Wilhelmsen ASA and a wide range of Industry Stakeholders, InterManager has developed a global shipping industry standard for defining, measuring and reporting information on operational performance.
The Shipping KPI Project proposes a global shipping industry standard for defining, measuring and reporting information on operational performance in order to boost performance improvements internally in companies engaged in ship operation activities and provide an efficient communication platform about ship operation performance information to internal and external stakeholders through increased transparency.
InterManager President Alastair Evitt, Managing Director of Meridian Marine Management Limited, announced this milestone at a lunchtime reception at the London offices of the International Maritime Organisation today (June 21st). “I am delighted that InterManager members, in collaboration with many industry stakeholders, have been able to bring this comprehensive new measurement system to the worldwide maritime industry. It has taken a great many hours of work and a huge commitment from our membership and other stakeholders to develop the KPI Project and we look forward to working with all industry stakeholders to ensure it grows into a widely used tool that contributes to placing safety and quality firmly at the heart of the shipmanagement process,” he said.
George Hoyt, InterManager Vice President and chairman of the InterManager KPI committee, gave thanks to all members of the InterManager KPI working group and stakeholders. He said, “The KPI project is the greatest example of ‘team work in shipping’ that I have ever been involved in. Every member of the InterManager KPI working group, and the stakeholders who participated in the project, have made valuable contributions. The position we are at today could have only happened with their extraordinary level of cooperation and their common goal of self improvement by creating solutions through collaboration.
He added: “This tool can help us achieve higher levels of effective communication that will lead to greater levels of safety for our seafarers and efficiency for all operators. Given the proper support, this voluntary initiative will be a giant step forward in the industry’s journey towards continuous self improvement and higher levels of safety. Increased levels of transparency will also help us overcome many of the challenges that currently exist in boosting the image of the shipping industry.”
—ends—
Notes To Editors:
The Shipping KPI Standard – Key Facts:
• A voluntary industry initiative
• Proactive relative to regulators
• Meeting future transparency requirements
• Informing public opinion
• Provide consistent external performance communication
• Indicating policy and regulatory implementation effects
• Internal improvement
• Fleet/industry benchmarking
• Performance based contracting
Shipping bodies raise alarm as pirates take ransom yet keep hostages
The International Chamber of Shipping, ITF, Indian National Shipowners’ Association, NUSI, MUI, IMEC, InterManager, Intertanko and BIMCO deplore the latest development in the Indian Ocean piracy crisis as some Indian crew members of a released merchant ship are retained ashore in Somalia.
The Asphalt Venture, a 1991 built asphalt/bitumen tanker was hijacked by Somali pirates on September 28th 2010 and, following a ransom payment, the ship was released on April 15.
Despite the owners’ concluding a dialogue with the pirates for the full release of 15 crew and vessel and payment of the ransom, the vessel was released but the Master has reported that 6 officers and 1 rating were taken off the tanker and made to accompany the pirates ashore.
In subsequent press reports it is suggested that pirates in Harardhere have taken the decision not to honour the agreement made but to prolong the hostage ordeal of the 7 seafarers in retaliation for the arrest of Somali pirates by the Indian Navy in recent weeks.
This is a fundamental change to previous practice and moves the issue from being just between the shipowner and the pirates to being between the pirates and a government. It is a major shift in the pirate‐hostage equation which will need to be considered and addressed by the international community.
Our thoughts are very much with these seafarers and their families as well as with all the other seafarers who are being held by the Somali pirates and with their families.
As the state of lawlessness spirals downward in the Indian Ocean and the level of violence that pirates are prepared to use to coerce seafarers and to influence the hostage negotiation increases, this breach of the ransom agreement sets a precedent that is of the utmost concern.
The international and national representative organizations are gravely concerned with this new development as international governments continue to fail to adequately respond to this 21st century example of organized and violent criminality that threatens the safe passage of world trade through the region, where 40% of the world’s oil is transported, and which may lead to increases in oil prices.
For more information please contact:
ICS/ISF Simon Bennett simon.bennett@marisec.org Phone +44 20 7417 2857
ITF Jon Whitlow whitlow_jon@itf.org Phone +44 7770 362 932
INTERTANKO Bill Box bill.box@intertanko.com Phone +44 20 7977 7023
BIMCO Peter Grube pg@bimco.org Phone +45 44 366800
INSA Anil Devli, CEO +91 22 4002 3168 / 69 Fax: + 91 22 2218 2104
NUSI (also MUI) Abdulgani Serang nusi@vsnl.com +91 98 2014 9654
Put Ship-Based Decision Making Back In The Hands Of The Crew Says Intermanager President
Decision-making needs to go back to the hands of crew and away from shore-based managers, says InterManager President Alastair Evitt.
“I regret to say it – but in many cases shipboard management teams have to be retrained to think for themselves, to understand the commercial issues and to have an awareness of product and service delivery,” he will tell delegates at the influential CMA conference in the USA today (March 21st).
Taking part in the opening round table debate, entitled: The State of the Industry Today, Mr Evitt will outline modern issues affecting the recruitment and retention of quality seafarers.
Describing how he believes current maritime legislative and methods are “driving decision making from the bridge and control room of the vessels to the respective shore-based management office”, Mr Evitt will encourage the shipping industry to place more importance on the training of officers and crew to improve career opportunities and to put sea-based roles on a par with university graduates.
“It is incumbent upon the industry to use modern communications and training facilities to return the responsibility for onboard management to the vessels – where it rightfully belongs – and in doing so restore the pride and self respect of those serving at sea,” he will say, pointing out: “It is our responsibility to promote and enhance the image of the industry and the career opportunities that it presents.”
Mr Evitt, Managing Director of Meridian Marine Management, says he has noticed a rise in the number of enquiries for cadet positions since the recession began and also following recent announcements that UK university tuition fees are set to rise: “Certainly our own experience has shown a marked rise in cadetship enquiries as the recession in the UK has had the combined effect of decimating graduate employment opportunities and increasing the cost of university courses up to 300%.”
Calling for the industry to re-introduce management training, Mr Evitt will say: “The whole maritime cluster is dependent on high quality candidates passing through the system. The attraction of quality entrants and training them accordingly is a long term investment. Officer training must be seen as university-equivalent vocational training.”
IMO Commends KPI Project
The International Maritime Organisation has commended InterManager for its work to introduce an industry‐wide standard measurement tool, known as the KPI Project.
In a letter to the InterManager Secretary General, the IMO’s head of Policy and Planning, Ms A Rothwell, congratulated InterManager on the progress made through its “continued commitment and hard work”.
“I commend you on the project objective to raise the quality of shipping standards globally,” she wrote. “A focus that is very much in accordance with the IMO’s own objectives of safe, secure and efficient shipping on cleaner oceans.”
Pledging continued support she added: “As a stakeholder to the project we will continue to participate wherever possible in support of the overall aim of improved standards in shipping.”
George Hoyt, an InterManager Vice‐President, welcomed the positive feedback: “This letter is 100% result of a team effort. I have never participated in a project where there has been better team work, support and cooperation between shipping companies and other industry stakeholders in every aspect of the project. We are very honoured and grateful to have the IMO’s support.”
