Seacurus Bulletin: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 10/06/2016
1. Cruise Giant Causes Stink
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL)’s latest vessel and largest cruise ship in the world, Harmony of the Seas, has become the new focus of residents’ concern over air pollution at the vessel’s base port of Barcelona, Spanish Media reports. Having made her maiden voyage last month, environmental activists are using her recent arrival in Barcelona as an opportunity to highlight the pollution caused by such mega-cruise ships.
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2. Maersk Fights Back
Maersk Line has responded to criticism from an environmental group accusing it of using flags of convenience to bypass EC guidelines on ship scrapping. The world’s largest container shipping line this year announced it would continue to send vessels earmarked for recycling to the Indian beaches of Alang – long a favoured scrapping destination for shipowners. However it has come under fire from environmental campaigners.
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3. Open Register Risks
Flag of convenience (FoC) shipping is a major security risk along Australia’s coastline, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has warned. An Australian Senate committee examining the practice recently made nine recommendations, including a comprehensive assessment of maritime security. But the ITF is concerned that the Senate committee’s interim report will be forgotten.
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4. ABS and Owners On MRV
ABS has announced that, along with a group of Greek shipowners, it has completed a project that enables companies to understand how the implementation of the European Union’s (EU’s) Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) regulation for CO2 emissions will affect them, as well as steps they need to take for compliance.
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5. Pilot Error Blamed
Errors by a Houston Ship Channel pilot were the probable cause of a collision between two ships that led to a major chemical spill last year in the busy, narrow waterway, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The federal agency tasked with investigating marine and aviation accidents nationwide concluded that the pilot’s failure to communicate as he guided the Conti Peridot through thickening fog toward the Port of Houston.
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6. Multi-Purpose Competition
Competition from the bulk, container and ro-ro sectors is an ongoing problem for the operators of multipurpose project vessels. Drewry has previously said that real recovery in the latter is highly dependent on improvements in the former markets. The industry cannot tackle demand, but shipowners do have the ability to influence supply – "so either demolish the ships, consolidate fleets, or make sure that the only ships that are built have demand."
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7. New Hull Performance Standards
It’s taken 12,000 hours of development work, involving 53 expert stakeholders, across more than three years, but ISO 19030 is finally nearing publication, in a move that has the potential to save the shipping industry as much as USD 30 billion in annual fuel costs. In response Jotun, a global leader in marine antifouling coatings, has adapted its Hull Performance Solutions (HPS) guarantee to ensure it is fully ISO/DIS-19030-2 compliant.
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8. Shipping Needs CSR Boost
The shipping industry needs to increase Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness as on average less than 50 percent of the industry fully commits to related activities, according to the Shipping CSR500 Survey. The survey found that the five top rated sectors are oil companies, LNG operators, drilling companies, tanker operators and container operators, while bulk carrier operators, associations, ports and P&I Clubs were identified as under performing.
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9. India Pushed Ports
The Indian government has embarked on a programme to develop and expand the capacity of ports across the country and wants to increase total port capacity from 1,400 million tonnes to 3,000 million tonnes by 2025. A look into the capacity addition at major ports reveals that there has been a significant progress on that front in line with the rising cargo traffic over the last two years.
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10. Boaty McBoatface Helps Seafarers
Sea chaplains hope a new virtual ship "surfing" the internet will highlight the conditions enduring by the world’s seafarers. Named Boaty McBoatface – in a nod to a public vote for the naming of a new polar research vessel – it has been created thanks to a partnership between the Sailors’ Society and the tracking website MarineTraffic. The virtual Boaty will be "docking" at locations including Cape Town in South Africa and Odessa in Ukraine.
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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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