Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 05/09/2016
1. Hanjin Shares Slide
Shares of Hanjin Shipping fell by the daily limit of 30% in Seoul today, as trading resumed after South Korea’s top shipping line filed for court receivership last Wednesday. Hanjin, which filed for Chapter 15 in the US too, is now in the process of seeking court protection in another 10 countries including Canada, Germany and the UK to avoid more of its assets being seized. A total of 68 Hanjin ships are currently stranded around the world, while at least one, the Hanjin Rome boxship, has been arrested by creditors.
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2. Storms Batter Cruiselines
Tropical Storm Hermine and Tropical Storm Lester have forced at least two cruise lines to make adjustments to their cruise schedules. Norwegian Cruise Line has moved up the departure of Norwegian Breakaway due to Tropical Storm Hermine. The ship will now leave New York at 1:30 pm today and expedited embarkation began at 9:30 am, a few hours ahead of schedule. Norwegian also made a change to Pride of America due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Lester near Hawaii. The ship departed three hours earlier than normal from Honolulu, Hawaii to avoid the storm’s path.
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3. Remember MLC Amendments
The 2014 amendments to MLC which relate to financial security of seafarers in cases of abandonment (Reg 2.5), and contractual claims for compensation in the event of a seafarer’s death or long term disability, due to an operational injury, illness or hazard (Reg 4.2) will enter into force on 18th January, 2017. As of 18th January, 2017, each ship must carry on board a certificate or other documentary evidence of financial security to comply with these new provisions. Information regarding contents of the certificate or other documentary evidence is provided in the new Appendix A2-1 and A4-1.
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4. CMA CGM Completes Buy
CMA CGM is set to delist Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) from the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday. The French line announced it had completed the compulsory acquisition of all shares it did own in NOL following its SGD1.30 takeover offer. NOL is now wholly-owned subsidiary of CMA CGM and its shares will be delisted from the SGX at 9am on 6 September. CMA CGM has shifted its Asian headquarters to Singapore from Hong Kong as part of the acquisition.
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5. Spill Causes Port Chaos
A 60 metric ton oil spill at Tanjung Bin is badly affecting operations at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) to the point where Maersk Line has sent a note to clients today saying it will have to divert a number of ships from PTP to neighbouring Singapore. The accident happened nine days ago while the tanker "Trident Star" was taking on bunker fuel at a terminal controlled by VTTI, the storage division of the world’s largest oil trader Vitol. At the time spokespeople at PTP played down the impact of the spill, saying operations were carrying on as normal. This is seemingly not the case however.
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6. Heading to Help
The Royal Navy warship "HMS Diamond" will sail to the southern Mediterranean to join an operation aimed at countering arms trafficking. The Type 45 destroyer left Portsmouth last week and will replace the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship "RFA Mounts Bay" during a planned maintenance period. Meanwhile her sister ship HMS Daring will sail on Friday to the Gulf to support US aircraft carriers launch strikes against Daesh, the UK Ministry of Defence said. Diamond will join Operation Sophia for around two months, which is focused on tackling the human smugglers and arms traffickers who endanger the lives of innocent people.
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7. India Looking to Iran
State-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has said it wants to revive its joint venture with Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) following the easing of international sanctions on Iran. Irano Hind Shipping Company was founded in 1974 but was reportedly dissolved in 2012 as trade flows stalled following years of sanctions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. However, SCI Chairman B. B. Sinha has been quoted as saying the easing of restrictions on Tehran, following the January 16 implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has opened the way for the resuscitation of Irano Hind Shipping Co.
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8. Fire Ravages Cruise Ship
The luxury cruise ship "SeaDream I" with 105 passengers and 61 crew caught fire off Naples, Italy. The vessel was making a voyage between Amalfi and Palinuro in Tyrrhenian sea, but one of the generators suffered failure and started smoking. The thick smoke and flames engulfed the whole engine compartment, causing damages to the engineering. The crew activated the CO2 firefighting system and succeeded to extinguish the flames within several minutes, but for safety reasons all the passengers and some of the crew were evacuated by Coast Guard boat to the nearby fast ferry Isola di Vulcano.
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9. Ship Escapes from Breakers
A cargo vessel got grounded off Alang after the anchor cable of this vessel broke and it went adrift from the ship breaking yard, located across the Gulf in Gujarat. Officials are now trying to tow the vessel weighing and its 10-member engine crew back to Alang from roughly about 15 nautical miles where it lies grounded. The ship has been lying at anchor for the last 1.5 years due to a pending court case. Once the anchor cable broke, the ship began to drift. The crew on the ship tried to start the engine but it stalled after sometime. An attempt was made to stop the vessel from drifting away, but that failed.
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10. Tackling our Aging Workforce
It’s been widely reported over recent years that the maritime industry is facing a workforce crisis. A lack of newly trained candidates to fill the gaps caused by retirement of an aging workforce, now compounded even further by the oil price crash, means marine companies are beginning to feel the pressure of staff shortages. It’s not just seafaring personnel who are in short supply: related shore-based roles in ports, engineering and development are similarly affected. Sadly there is a lack of awareness in the general population where regards seafarers: the message needs to be stressed about the amazing opportunities.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
Best regards,
S Jones
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