Top Ten Maritime News Stories 11/05/2016

Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 11/05/2016

 

1. Panic as Cadet Turns to Terror

A Kuwaiti national who attended maritime training courses in the UK has allegedly travelled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State militant group – raising the prospect that his knowledge could be used in planning an attack on merchant shipping or on naval assets.  The Shields Gazette of South Shields, UK reports that 28-year-old Ali Alosaimi was enrolled in a three year deck officer training course at South Tyneside College, beginning in 2011. He had previous experience working for Kuwait’s state owned tanker firm, and was expected to continue his career there after graduation. The college’s marine school is well regarded.

http://goo.gl/XjIOQk

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2. CMA CGM Box Ship Spill

A CMA CGM S.A. (CMA CGM) box ship, CMA CGM Bellini, was struck by a pilot boat in Hamburg at 8 a.m. on Sunday while it was docking at the Waltershofer Hafen, causing an estimated five cubic metres (cbm) of bunkers to spill into the water, according to local media reports. The hull of the 5,782 TEU CMA CGM Bellini is said to have been gashed open during the collision, causing bunkers to spill into the water at a rate of about 100 litres per minute. An eight km oil slick of about 50 cm in width is noted to have been observed on the Elbe River toward the town of Wedel.

http://goo.gl/ql0TjO

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3. Seafarers Hampered by Checks

Seafarers’ professional development is being impeded by an over-reliance on monitoring, technology and a “tick-box culture” of regulatory compliance, the secretary-general of Intermanager has said. “We have overloaded our seafarers already with menial tasks and keep demanding more and more from them. Instead of monitoring our seafarers, we should be encouraging them to be thinking and solving problems,” Capt. Kuba Szymanski told the Crew Connect Europe conference in Copenhagen, of which he was also chairman. “We should leave computers for their purpose and stop letting IT be central to how seafarers are monitored". http://goo.gl/cD8432

 

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4. Crew Strike for Downtime

Brazilian seafarers’ unions have voted to take industrial action in an attempt to gain equal shore time to sea time (the 1×1 system). The unions, affiliated to the huge CONTTMAF (Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Transportes Aquaviários e Aéreos, na Pesca e nos Portos) union federation, have voted to take industrial action that will impact all vessels – both tankers and offshore – owned and operated by Transpetro, the oil and gas transportation subsidiary of the Brazilian petroleum corporation Petrobras. The vote for escalating industrial action took place on May 4 and was held on all vessels. Support was overwhelming.

http://goo.gl/TWrlv9

 

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5. Nigeria Oil Output Slumps

Nigeria’s oil output has slumped to a 22-year low, figures showed on Tuesday, because of pipeline sabotage and increasing unrest that has seen major companies evacuate staff. Data compiled by Bloomberg indicated that output in Africa’s biggest oil producer has fallen below 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since 1994. Rebels seeking a fairer share of revenue for locals in the oil-rich southern delta are increasingly targeting facilities, posing a fresh security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari. The attacks have sparked fears of a repeat of violence and kidnappings that plagued the region in the 2000s.

http://goo.gl/2fVl9y

 

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6. Piracy Claim Thrown Out

A judge in the High Court in London has thrown out a claim by a shipowner against a group of 10 war risk underwriters over the total constructive loss of a vessel that the owner claimed was boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden who then detonated a bomb on board. In the case of Suez Fortune Investments Ltd. & Piraeus Bank A.E. v Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Mr. Justice Julian Flaux ruled that reasons given by the shipowner for its refusal to hand over an electronic archive to lawyers were a “fabrication.” Even if the shipowner’s story were true, the judge was “firmly of the view that there could not be a fair trial".

http://goo.gl/RQkJoW

 

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7. Dryships Confirmed in Collision

Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration has announced that the Malta-flagged bulk carrier "Catalina", owned by Greece’s DryShips, has been confirmed to have collided with Chinese fishing vessel Lu Rong Yu 58398 after preliminary investigations. The collision led to the sinking of the fishing vessel and the death of two crew members after their rescue, while another 17 crew remain missing. "Catalina" continued its voyage after the collision, however sailed back to Ningbo for investigation at the request of Chinese authorities. Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration has requested the shipowner to provide assistance for further investigations.

http://goo.gl/YgIwt6

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8. Baltic Slides Again

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was down 22 points Tuesday to 594, the lowest it has been since April 13 when it sat at 567.  Average spot TC rates were down across all major segments Tuesday, as Capesize earnings slid $667 to $5,946 per day, Panamax lost $24 to fall to $4,646 per day, and Supramax declined by $84 to $5,926 per day. The BDI has now fallen every day since hitting 715 on April 27, but is still some away from February’s bottom of 290. It is also noted that Drewry’s secondhand dry bulk price index decreased by 38.4 percent since January 2015.

http://goo.gl/VYVD8l

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9. Gard Announces Results

Gard has announced its results for the year ending 20 February 2016 and a reduction in the deferred call for the 2015 policy year. Reporting at a group level, the key financial results are a surplus after tax of USD 85 million on an Estimated Total Call (ETC) basis, a combined ratio net of 83 per cent, gross written premium USD 911 million, and contingency reserves of USD 1,017 million. The insurance cost for mutual Members will be reduced by USD 37 million. The deferred call for the 2015 policy year will be 15 per cent of the advance call – 10 percentage points lower than the original estimate of 25 per cent.

http://goo.gl/tPqQpC

 

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10. New Insurance Act Beckons

The Insurance Act, which comes into force in August, is the biggest shake-up for the industry in 110 years and will “re-engineer the foundations on which policies are built” according to experts. The act aims to clarify what customers have to tell their insurers, and make it harder for the insurers to wriggle out of paying claims.

A paper published by the British Insurance Brokers Association said that the Act raised “a number of tricky practical questions and creates potential hazards for the broker and customer”. The new rules were passed by parliament last year and replace the 1906 Marine Insurance Act.

https://goo.gl/rTD1P3

 

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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions  www.seacurus.com