Seacurus Bulletin 03/06/2014
MARITIME LABOUR CONVENTION AND SEAFARER NEWS
Greek Bulkers
The buying interest from Greek ship owners is focused on bulkers to an increasing extent, BIMCO said. Data from VesselsValue.com reveal that Greek owners were at the buying end of 43% of all bulker sales completed so far in 2014. As of June 2014, the number of Greek bulker purchases so far is 91, compared to 81 for the full year of 2012. The level of activity seen so far in 2014 would suggest Greek owners are on target to top the 199 purchases in 2013.
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Posidonia Opens
"Posidonia 2014", one of the largest and prestigious maritime exhibitions internationally, was inaugurated in Athens on Monday evening by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. In his address, Samaras praised the sector’s major contribution to ongoing efforts to pull Greece and the world out from the current economic crisis. Over the next five days more than 19,000 visitors are expected to stop by the stands of a total of 1,850 exhibitors from 93 countries.
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Sorry State
For three days, the body of a young Burmese sailor has been on board a Korean-flagged coal-handling vessel, Sunny Young, berthed at Ennore port. Naylin Maung Maung, 29, died on Saturday evening after inhaling poisonous gas during a routine inspection. He was taken to a private hospital in Minjur where doctors pronounced him dead. Since police did not order a postmortem, the crew took the body back to the ship. The ITF has questioned the conduct.
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Skills Shortage
The issue of getting sufficient number of crew and skilled manpower remains a challenge for the offshore marine sector to overcome, industry players have highlighted. The manning and crewing issue is becoming all the more challenging during the booming offshore industry backed by strong oil and gas exploration and production expeditures and activities. Mark Pointon, of Farstad Shipping said hardware is irrelevant without competent crew to operate them.
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Rena Plans
Plans to remove the second part of the sunken aft section of the Rena will not be pursued after a sonar survey confirmed the change in movement during Cyclone Lusi has left it in a risky salvage position.
Spokesperson for the ship’s owners and insurers – Daina Shipping and The Swedish Club – Hugo Shanahan says the survey undertaken after the March storm shows the aft section of the hull has moved on the face of Astrolabe Reef.
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Weather News
KVH Industries has announced that Applied Weather Technology, has become the WEATHERlink launch partner for KVH’s IP-MobileCast(TM) content delivery service. KVH will use IP-MobileCast, a breakthrough service utilizing multicasting technology, to deliver AWT’s high-resolution weather and ocean data to ships at sea for a low fixed monthly fee. AWT is a marine industry leader in weather forecasting and ship routing.
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PIRACY AND MARITIME SECURITY NEWS
New Structure
Ministers from participating States in the Code of Conduct concerning the Repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (the Djibouti Code of Conduct) have recognized the need to develop a mechanism for the region to run its own counter-piracy agenda, following the successful implementation by IMO of numerous projects aimed at improving regional capacity to counter piracy.
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Iran Rescue
Iranian warships rescued an Iranian cargo ship from a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced. "The Navy’s 30th Flotilla rescued the Iranian ship near Bab-el-Mandeb strait (in Gulf of Aden)," Admiral Sayyari told reporters on Monday. He said 23 pirate boats planned to hijack an Iranian ship, but failed due to the timely action of the Iranian warships.
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Asia Struggle
In light of the growing threat to shipping in Asia, Lee Yin Mui from Recaap, an international organisation combating piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia, has been speaking to the BBC about recent incidents of piracy in the region. A Thai tanker was recently hijacked and there have been 72 reported piracy incidents so far this year of which 60 were in Asia, mostly South East Asia. Fuel theft is on the rise, aping the model of piracy off West Africa.
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Asset Protection
Organisations with high value assets recognise the need to protect their goods and employees, especially when they are at their most vulnerable – when in remote or isolated situations, at night and when operating alone. Maria Andersson of the Swedish Defence Research Agency is working on ARENA (Architecture for Recognition of thrEats to mobile assets using Networks of Affordable sensors) research and development project which also includes shipping.
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Joined Up Thinking
Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission used his presentation at the Posidonia 2014 opening ceremony to discuss "World shipping: regulating effectively together to promote open trade". Using a notional example of a ship moving cargo from Rotterdam to Panama, he said the same rules should apply throughout the voyage – so to do the threats facing the vessel, and these include ship safety, piracy and other security concerns.
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ENDS
Daily news feed provide by Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
Best regards,
S Jones
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