Seacurus Top Ten Daily News Stories 15/09/2014
1. Philippine Ferry Tragedy Deaths
Two people were killed and more than 100 rescued after a ferry sank off the coast of central Philippines, disaster and coast guard authorities said on Sunday. The Maharlika II left Liloan port in Southern Leyte province in the central Philippines at noon on Saturday with 26 crew and 58 passengers, including two children, on board, the manifest showed. The ship was also loaded with 13 vehicles, but the drivers were not listed in the manifest. An order to abandon the ship was given as the ferry was buffeted by strong winds and huge waves hours after developing engine trouble in the late afternoon.
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2. CMA CGM Bounces Back into New Alliance
CMA CGM, odd man out in the dissolution of P3, has bounced back as the senior partner in the formation of Ocean Three as the fourth major alliance, in another effort to bring stability to the container trades. The French company has teamed up with China Shipping and United Arab Shipping in an alliance that promises global coverage with 17 weekly schedules operated by 159 vessels with a total slot capacity of 1.5m teu. CMA CGM would supply 45% of the capacity. Ocean Three would have a 20% market share on Asia-Europe and 13% on the transpacific.
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3. Ebola Paranoia as Seafarer Dies
A doctor was called to a ship in Durban harbour on Thursday to confirm that one of its sailors had not died from Ebola. The Chinese man died on board the container vessel Kota Permasan earlier this week, after suffering high fever and severe headaches during a voyage down the African coast. Niven Ora, charter agent for the ship, said: “We needed to be sure he did not die of Ebola.” Professor Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said two separate tests confirmed the man had died from malaria.
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4. Very Large Bulk Progress
In a move that would appear to break China’s ban on Vale’s 400,000 dwt VLOCs the Brazilian miner has signed a deal that four valemaxes will be transferred to Cosco and the Chinese company will build 10 more similar vessels. In a brief statement Vale said it had signed a framework agreement on strategic cooperation with Cosco in Beijing, which would see four 400,000 dwt valemaxes owned by Vale transferred to Cosco and then chartered back by the Brazilian miner for 25 years. The deal was signed by Murilo Ferreira, ceo of Vale, and Ye Weilong chairman of Cosco Bulk.
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5. North Sea Clean Up Confusion
Scotland will ask Britain to help finance the cost of removing old North Sea rigs and pipelines even if it votes for independence and gains most of the oil revenues, a move that bankers and lawyers say may result in years of legal battles. An independent Scotland would benefit from most of the new revenues from North Sea oil output – worth $50 billion a year – but it will nevertheless ask Britain to co-finance some $60 billion of decommissioning to remove old platforms and pipelines. Lawyers and bankers said that deciding who pays what will complicate investment decisions for oil companies.
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6. Ballast Water Implications
As the ratification of the Ballast Water Management Convention seems imminent, parties presenting the different papers are far off from each other regarding the way forward for the topic of amending the G8 Guidelines. The NGOs and certain flag states are concerned about how Type Approval of BWM Systems is conducted. Canada has proposed a period where systems are used without penal prosecution of ships in case they discharge noncompliant. IMO is proposing a study based on interviews, while Liberia seems to criticize a regime that they have undermined themselves by issuing the type approval certificates.
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7. ECDIS Assisted Collision
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch has released its report on the grounding of the chemical tanker, Ovit. The Malta registered vessel carrying a cargo of vegetable oil, ran aground on the Varne Bank in the Dover Strait. There was no pollution. Ovit’s primary means of navigation was an ECDIS and analysis of this system, its installation, training and operation form the backbone of this report. The passage plan was unsafe as it passed directly over the Varne Bank. While it had been prepared in ECDIS by an inexperienced and unsupervised junior officer and was not checked by the master before departure.
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8. Combining Navigational Information
By 2018 ECDIS will be mandatory equipment aboard all vessels. By that time, navigators should be familiar with the fundamental principles for using ECDIS as a part of an integrated shipboard navigational system and be able to react promptly to system malfunctions and/or failures. Eventually we will see different types of navigational information, e.g., AIS (Automatic Identification System) with radar images, ECS (Electronic Chart System) became the first full-featured integrator of this kind – a computer system combining information from a pre-defined set of external sensors on one screen with an electronic chart as the backdrop.
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9. New Regional Anti-Piracy Centre
The newly created Inter-regional Coordination Centre, ICC, for Maritime Safety and Security in the Gulf of Guinea in Yaounde is now functional after the agreement for the location of its headquarters has been signed. At the opening ceremony it was stressed that piracy is a real threat in the Gulf of Guinea; which is the reason why the international community has rallied behind sub-regional institutions to tackle it. He appealed to ECCAS and the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS States to ensure that their sub-regional institutions work hard to ensure success in the fight.
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10. Electric Ferry Ship of the Year
Ferry owner Norled and Fjellstrand Yard have won the prestigious "Ship of the Year" industry award presented in Hamburg last week for the world’s first battery driven car ferry – ZeroCat 120. Rolls-Royce contributes to the innovative ZeroCat 120 ferry with optimized Azipull thrusters and hull design and hydrodynamics, based on advanced analysis. Norled’s new ferry is expected to enter operation on a fjord crossing on the Norwegian West Coast in 2015, and will produce no local emissions. ZeroCat 120 has space for 120 cars and up to 360 passengers.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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