Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 09/01/2015
1. Biggest Ship Excitement
The world’s largest ship, with a massive cargo so big it could supply everyone in the country with something, has arrived in Britain. The Chinese-owned CSCL Globe, which is longer than The Shard is tall, left Shanghai on its maiden voyage on December 8 carrying 19,100 containers. Four thousand of the containers – with a total of 57,000 tons of cargo of food, drink, clothing, electrical goods and furniture – are being unloaded at Felixstowe in Suffolk.
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2. Gains From Non-Compliance
Some shipowners and operators in Europe stand to gain as much as $20,000 a day by ignoring new Emission Control Area (ECA) regulations in the short-term, according to analysts. New sulfur rules, which came into effect January 1, 2015, have limited the sulfur content of marine fuel used in ECAs to no more than 0.10 percent by weight, meaning operators must either choose to use more expensive low-sulfur fuel, or invest in technology.
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3. Markets Plunge to Fresh Lows
Rates for capesize bulk carriers have plunged to fresh six-year lows and could fall further with cargoes scarce in the post-holiday period, brokers said. “There are still a lot of ships that are anchored off South Africa, Singapore and Taiwan with not a lot of cargo volume to soak them up,” a Singapore capesize broker said on Thursday. “Rates are still coming off.” Some European owners are choosing to anchor vessels rather than charter at a loss, the broker said.
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4. Losses Await for Oil Explorers
Dangerous and difficult oilfields that looked like goldmines when crude fetched more than $100 a barrel have turned into money pits as oil crashes to multi-year lows. Collapsing oil prices not only shrink profits for producers and imperil dividend payouts prized by investors, they can cripple a company’s future growth by starving it of cash needed to find, drill, assess and equip discoveries. A spending halt in deep-water fields could disrupt the chain of new projects.
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5. Manila Awaits Worsening Congestion
Expecting worse congestion at the Ports of Manila to worsen with the arrival of Pope Francis on January 15, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has urged shippers to clear out their cargo from the port by the weekend. The Philippine Ports Authority says that the next seven days will be crucial in government’s efforts to decongest the ports in Manila, ahead of Pope Francis’ visit as it will further disrupt cargo movements in and out of the congested port.
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6. Nigerian Navy Receives US Boost
The United States (U.S.) government has strengthened the fighting capability of the Nigerian Navy with the gift of another war ship that sailed into the Navy’s docks on January 2, 2015. The ship will not only protect Nigeria against external aggression but also will scare away local pirates and oil thieves from the economic shores of the country. The Ship, which has been named NNS Okpabana by the navy, was in the United States (U.S.) Coast Guard fleet.
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7. Anti Piracy Capacity Building
The Seychelles Coast Guard, Air Force and Police together with the EU Naval Force Somalia and the EU’s civilian maritime security capacity building Mission, EUCAP Nestor, have carried out an anti-piracy exercise. The purpose of the exercise was twofold; firstly, to practice cooperation between the Coast Guard, Air Force, the Police and EU Naval Force (EU Navfor) Atalanta, and secondly to test the effective processing of suspected pirates and evidence handling.
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8. Mind Your Language
The IMO will soon be considering a submission from the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) on the implementation of controlled language during operation and in maintenance manuals supplied to the vessels. Chief engineer Paul Doherty co-wrote the submission with the chairman of IMarEST, which looks at the necessity for Simplified Technical English (STE) for non-native speakers.
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9. Hydrographic Leap Forward
Mariners will now be able to send hydrographic information directly to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) via mobile devices, after the organisation introduced its new ADMIRALTY H-Note App. The Hydrographic Note, or H-Note, has long been an important source of new hydrographic and navigational data for the UKHO, with seafarers submitting information using a hardcopy H-Note Form or a computer.
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10. New Investment for Shipowners
Greek shipowners invested a total of 12.21 billion euros in the period from January to November 2014, either in ordering new ships from shipyards or on the acquisition of used vessels, according to Intermodal shipbrokers. In the first 11 months of last year Greek shippers parted with 7.54 billion euros for the acquisition of 330 used ships and another 4.67 billion in orders for the construction of 125 vessels.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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