Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 28/07/2015
1. Sweeping Tide of Change and Mergers
The marine insurance industry is being swept with a wave of mergers rule changes and scarcity of seafarers. Speakers the Propeller Club in New York noted that “more M & A activity is on the way”, while elsewhere a constantly changing set of laws and their interaction with court decisions is hitting insurance. There were also concerns that a scarcity of qualified seafarers was a major factor impacting the business likely leading to more accidents.
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2. Joint Port State Campaign
The Maritime Authorities of the Tokyo and the Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control will launch a joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC) on Crew Familiarization for Enclosed Space Entry. The aim of the CIC is to ensure effective procedures and measures are in place to safeguard seafarers on board ships when entering and working in enclosed spaces and to check compliance with the applicable requirements of SOLAS.
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3. Unpaid Seafarers Finally Going Home
After several months, 20 of the 24 Filipino crew members of a stranded Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier in Greece are finally going home. The crew members of MV Golden Arrow III have been stranded in Aleveri Port since April 5 after the ship was arrested due to unpaid wages and other financial obligations to the crew members and creditors, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The crew change is expected to happen in the next few days.
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4. How Can we Manage Oceans?
This question came up often during the reporting of The New York Times’s series about lawlessness at sea. Labor, human rights and environmental abuses are widespread largely because the oceans are so sprawling, jurisdiction is complicated and policing is rare. To address these problems, maritime and law enforcement officials have proposed a variety of measures, some of them already being put into effect. Read on to find out more…
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5. Cruise Ship and Coastguard Collision
According to a Greek newspaper, a cruise ship collided with a Greek Coast Guard vessel. The "Aegean Paradise" and the Coast Guard vessel collided near Chios. No injuries were reported in the collision. The newspaper says that the collision was caused due to "misty conditions." The coast guard vessel, which was carrying 25 migrants, suffered damage. The "Aegean Paradise" will remain at Chios harbor until an inspection is carried out.
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6. Yangtze River Collision
General cargo vessel "Jiang Xia Xiang" collided with the tanker "Bai Chi" on July 23, 2015, at 1 a.m. in the Wusong area, Shanghai, on the Yangtze river. The cargo ship was loaded with 7000 tons of stone, the tanker was carrying 30000 tons of crude oil. The "Jiang Xia Xiang" suffered a breach at portside and water ingress. It was taken to an anchorage, where it with the starboard side remaining above water, small leak reported. 16 crew safe.
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7. Understanding Maritime Security Cause and Effect
To understand the maritime security issues afflicting Ghana, it is instructive to first look at Nigeria. Nigeria is the major trade corridor for neighbouring, land-locked nations such as Niger and Chad. A lot of the wealth generated within Nigeria spreads across to its neighbors, and with a newly elected government, it is likely to see a boost in economic development. That means more ships, travelling to and from Nigeria and more targets.
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8. Shaping Somali Coastguard
The EU’s capacity building division has delivered more training and equipment to the Somali coastguard in Mogadishu, although experts warn that the trained officers should also be paid if maritime security efforts are not to fail. EUCAP Nestor (Horn of Africa and Western Indian Ocean) has delivered six Nissan 4×4 vehicles and IT and communications equipment such as computers and GPS devices to enhance on-shore capability and connectivity.
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9. Lithuanian Shipping Gets Loan
SEB bank is set to grant a a EUR 3 million loan to the state owned enterprise Lithuanian Shipping Company (LSC), it will be guaranteed by Lithuanian Railways. Moreover, Bankruptcy proceedings initiated against LSC will be stopped after the government stepped in, as they were concerned the company’s vessels were going to be caught up in a low cost "fire sale" – something which would have hit the nation hard.
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10. IMO Signs Energy Efficiency Pact
IMO, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed an agreement to allocate $2 million to a two-year global maritime energy efficiency partnership project which aims to support increased uptake and implementation of energy-efficiency measures for shipping. The so-called GloMEEP project will focus in particular on building capacity to implement technical and operational measures.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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S Jones
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