Seacurus Daily Top Ten News Stories 10/10/2014

Seacurus Daily Top Ten News Stories 10/10/2014

 

1. IMO Pushing to Create Seafarers

The International Maritime Organisation hopes to see at least 40,000 qualified seafarers by 2030 as the merchant fleet grows. But attracting people to the profession is difficult, said IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu. Sekimizu said, "This is a significant challenge. We need to generate interest in people, the younger generation. I am talking about people in Japan and other advanced nations. "We need to highlight the importance of shipping. We need to provide real tangible benefits for those people who will work on the sea. This is probably the biggest challenge." Ship managers said recruiting sufficient seafarers would be challenging.

http://goo.gl/20eKyF

 

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2. Worlds Largest Submersible Barge Arrested

The world’s largest semi-submersible barge has been reported as being arrested in Singapore, according to press reports.  The Singapore admiralty sheriff detained the 50,000-dwt semi-submersible barge Gavea Lifter (built 2002), owned by Fairmount Marine, on Wednesday evening. The Panama-flagged vessel was arrested on the instructions of local law firm Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP. It is considered likely to be related to outstanding payments for services. This is the fourth vessel to be arrested in Singapore waters since the start of October, experts believe that this is a prime indicator of deteriorating market conditions.

http://goo.gl/gaOFrk

 

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3. Armed Guards Distress Paranoid India

Commercial ships with armed men on board, which navigate along India’s territorial waters, pose a threat to the country’s security, a senior Coast Guard official said. "…Major challenge in the recent times is the large number of commercial ships that have armed men on board for security of these vessels (which) pose a threat to our coastal regions and the national security, as they do not declare the weaponry on board, if they are not calling on Indian ports," Inspector General Satya Prakash Sharma, Regional Commander, Coast Guard (East) said. Sharma said they pose a threat to India, since there is no check on them.

http://goo.gl/RqKOcd

 

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4. Ocean Blaze Linked to Flag Failings

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) says that a major blaze on board the livestock carrier "Ocean Drover" in Fremantle once again shows the dangers of sub-standard Flag of Convenience (FOC) shipping. ITF Australia Co-ordinator Dean Summers said an ITF inspector is on the scene, working to ensure the safety of the crew and the provision of appropriate accommodation and services. Mr Summers said around 70 seafarers from the Philippines and India work on the vessel. “As always our first concern is for the seafarers who are often forced to live in unsafe, cramped and dangerous conditions,” Mr Summers said.

http://goo.gl/hHHQwx

 

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5. Filipino Schools May be Cut

Up to half of the Philippines maritime schools may not make it to a “white list” that comply with the European Maritime Safety Ageny’s (EMSA) standards for STCW compliance and certification. The Philippines maritime training system underwent its latest STCW audit by EMSA last week and officials are hopeful of being able to prove over the next 12 months that it has met the standards required. This would lift the threat of a ban on Filipino officers serving on EC-flagged vessels. “Based on the feedback from our maritime authorities the visit was positive,” Gerardo Borromeo, vice chairman and ceo of Philippines Transmarine Carriers.

http://goo.gl/MFWy92

 

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6. Shipping Needs to Step Up on Emissions

Leading shipowner Andreas Sohmen-Pao of BW Group believes shipping needs to take the lead in CO2 emission reductions and be model for other industries, and continues to push for a carbon tax. “I think carbon pressure is coming and it’s coming fast and we need to get ahead of it because if we are sitting here in five years without having done anything on mitigation then we are going to be in this usual disarray of trying to deal with all these proposals cap and trade, this that and the other, rather than us taking the lead and saying here is a framework,” Sohmen-Pao told the closing of the Danish Maritime Forum in Copenhagen.

http://goo.gl/PLD1KL

 

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7. Rubber Fenders Scam Exposed

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has become aware of a sophisticated scam, using a falsification of AMSA’s crest and stamp to endorse rubber fenders. Ship Safety Division general manager Allan Schwartz said the scam contained what appears to be a certification or approval letter from AMSA’s “quality control department” for the ‘yokohama’ style of fenders, designed for the berthing and mooring of a ship to another ship or berthing structure. “These letters bear a stamp and crest in the name of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority,” Schwartz said. “AMSA does not carry out testing or issue approval certification of this nature." http://goo.gl/Q2CzNb

 

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8. Ballast Water to be Pasteurised

“Nobody thought it was possible,” commented Kim Diederichsen, CEO of BAWAT AS, a Danish company that it releasing to the shipping industry the first type-approved ballast water treatment system utilizing the pasteurization process. In simple terms, his system cooks and then deoxygenates the ship’s ballast water to kill all the critters that enter the ballast tanks while in port.  The vast majority of other ballast water treatment systems, of which there are many, utilize in-line mechanical filtering and UV radiation to eliminate these organisms. As of today, there are roughly 1000 ships that have ballast water treatment systems installed on board.

http://goo.gl/3J5WBL

 

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9. Iranian Tankers Claim Sanctions Lifted

European Union sanctions against Iran’s largest oil tanker company NITC have been lifted after there was no appeal by the EU to the General Court’s ruling against the EU’s 2012 blacklisting designation of the company, NITC said. An EU official told Reuters that the time for appeal had expired, but that they were still working on keeping the company on the black list. The sanctions were imposed in 2012 over Iran’s nuclear programme, and banned any trade between NITC and the EU, including insurance and banking. NITC contested the blacklist designation, arguing that the company is privately owned by Iranian pension funds.

http://goo.gl/XFSqCG

 

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10. Offshore Industry Not Always Paved with Gold

Sensationally proving that not every OSV venture is paved with gold, Hallin Marine has closed down. Just four years after Superior Energy Services bought the company from its founder, John Giddens, for more than £100m, the American firm has decided to ditch it, citing its unprofitability. All staff of the Singapore-based firm have been laid off and a newbuild order has been cancelled. The irony of the decision to close the company is that Giddens, who built Hallin Marine into a global subsea services player after starting it from a container in his back garden, has just re-entered the industry with an order for a 105 m subsea operations vessel.

http://goo.gl/9y4x7g

 

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