Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 25/10/2016
1. Koreans Awake to Heavy Costs
Irate Korean taxpayers reacted with shock Sunday as the full enormity of Seoul’s bailout of the nation’s beleaguered shipping and shipbuilding sectors was revealed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF stated in a report on Sunday that the full bill for restructuring South Korea’s shipping and shipbuilding sectors would likely run to KRW31trn ($27bn), something that would take a decade to claw back. The IMF report also stated that redundancies in the local shipbuilding sector would total around 10,000 workers. The general public in South Korea have become increasingly disenchanted with government.
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2. Hanjin Crew Still Suffering
A container ship and its 22 member crew remains stranded off the coast of Victoria, seven weeks after the financial collapse of the company operating the vessel. The 279 metre "Hanjin Vienna" has been in legal limbo ever since Hanjin’s collapse. According to reports the crew on the ship are being well cared for and supplies are being delivered to the ship thanks to the German company which owns the vessel. Both the Hanjin Vienna and the Hanjin Scarlett, which was in Prince Rupert when the financial troubles hit, were placed under arrest last month due to millions of dollars in unpaid bills.
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3. New Alliance Cleared
A proposed vessel-sharing alliance involving some of the world’s biggest container shipping companies has cleared a major regulatory hurdle with approval to from the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The Asia-focussed alliance, named Ocean Alliance, is comprised of COSCO Shipping, CMA CGM, Taiwan’s Evergreen Line and Hong Kong-based Orient Orient Overseas Line (OOCL). It was announced in April to rival the 2M Alliance, made up of container ship giants Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company. The FMC said Friday it had completed its review of the OCEAN Alliance and decided to allow it to become effective.
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4. Time For Arctic HFO Ban
As the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting opened today in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance called on IMO members to end the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in Arctic waters. HFO, a toxic, tar-like sludge that breaks down extremely slowly in cold Arctic waters and close to impossible to clean up in the event of a spill, is used by almost half the ships operating in the Arctic. HFO poses a severe risk to the fragile marine Arctic environment and the coastal communities that depend upon the sea’s resources.
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5. Latest ReCAAP Piracy Figures
Between January and September 2016, a total of 59 incidents involving armed robbery or acts of piracy were reported compared to 169 incidents during the same period in 2015. This equates to a 65% decrease. Of these 59 incidents, 56 involved armed robbery whilst three involved acts of piracy. Furthermore, the majority of the incidents – 43 in total – occurred whilst ships were at berth or anchorage, with the remaining 16 incidents having involved ships in transit. The locations of the incidents reported between January to September 2016 were Indonesia, South China Sea, Straits of Malacca and Singapore, India and Vietnam.
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6. Dangers of Lifeboats
The death of a crewman and injury of four others during a recent lifeboat drill has once again drawn attention to the danger posed by the complexity of modern lifeboats. Captain Anuj Velankar, P&I executive and Loss Prevention Advisor, UK P&I Club, reviews the issues around lifeboats and offers suggestions for safer usage: “As the design of lifeboats has progressed, the requirement to understand the mechanics of launching operations has become more complicated. Merchant ships, such as tankers and bulk carriers, are progressively losing touch with the maintenance of wires and ropes due to lack of routine".
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7. Learning Lessons After Actions
A new tool to help navigation officers learn from their actions has the potential to vastly improve ship safety without undermining the role of often victimised ships’ crews. Singapore-based Safe Lanes, a training consultancy, is a winner of the innovation award at this year’s Lloyd’s List Asia Awards. It won thanks to its recently launched Quantum V analytical tool. This is a service that offers a near real-time opportunity to give bridge teams feedback of their decision-making. It takes bridge data from the voyage data recorder and can assess the processes that occur during an officer’s navigation watch.
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8. Crime at Sea Discussed
The UK Chamber of Shipping in partnership with international law firm Hill Dickinson held a half-day Crime at Sea Seminar at Hill Dickinson LLP’s office. This event discussed, amongst other things, how shipowners should preserve and collect evidence when a crime occurs or is alleged on board their vessel as well as previous experiences of what happens when such a scenario arises for real. In addition, presentations were given on jurisdiction at sea, the role of the police when a ship arrives in a UK port after a crime has been admitted as well as a presentation on the IMO guidelines on preserving and collecting evidence.
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9. Rotterdam Suffers Volume Dip
Compared to the excellent first three quarters of 2015 (+5.4%), cargo throughput in the same period this year fell by 1.9%. The decrease was particularly strong in coal and iron ore. Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority: “Each of the different sectors in the port has its own dynamic. The 1.9% decrease is consequently the sum of a number of different developments. In 2016 as a whole, we hope to get near the total throughput achieved in the record year 2015.” Last year, throughput in the port increased by 4.9%, to 466 million tonnes.
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10. Safe Anchorage Anger
Influential Nigerians (top politicians and military personnel) and foreigners in collaboration with maritime agencies have come in for criticism for collecting between $10,000 and $20,000 as anchorage fees from tankers engaged in Ship-To-Ship (STS) transfers. The safe anchorage was created by the Goodluck Jonathan administration through the advice of the "Committee on Harnessing of Maritime Potentials" at a time when tankers were refusing to enter the nation’s waters at the height of activities of pirates along the country’s seashore. This ongoing situation appears to be falling into a local political argument.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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