Top Ten Maritime News Stories 13/12/2016

Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 13/12/2016

1. Death on Youngest Breaking
A worker at a shipbreaking yard in Bangladesh has died in accident while working to dismantle German containership Viktoria Wulff, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform has said. The 35-year worker was killed December 4 after he was struck in the head by heavy piece of iron at the Arefin shipbreaking yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh, according to the NGO. The "Viktoria Wulff" (ex MSC Firenze), a 4,546 teu panamax, made headlines in September when it became the youngest containership ever sold for scrap at just 10 years old. The vessel was sold after its German ship owner Wulff went bankrupt in August.
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2. Cyclone Batters India
A cyclone hit the southeast coast of India on Monday, killing at least four people and bringing down trees and power lines as authorities moved tens of thousands of people from low-lying areas. Cyclone Vardah moved west over the Bay of Bengal before hitting Chennai, capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, as well as neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the Indian Meteorological Department said, describing it as a very severe storm. Strong wind of up to 140 kph (87 mph) battered the densely populated coast, uprooting trees and bringing down electricity pylons. Flights at Chennai airport were cancelled.
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3. New View of Seaworthiness
Interim guidelines on cyber related risks in the shipping industry have been approved by the IMO. A maritime cyber risk refers to the degree to which a “potential technology asset” can be threatened or interfered with, which could lead to shipping-related operations, security or safety systems failing as a consequence of the information or systems being corrupted, lost or compromised. A leading P& I Club has commented that “viewing cyber security as simply an Information Technology (IT) issue is parallel to considering safe operation of a vessel as simply a main engine issue. Cyber encompasses the whole vessel and crew.
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4. US Embracing Wind Power
The Block Island Wind Farm is now operational, the first offshore wind farm to deliver energy to the American power grid. Developer Deepwater Wind said commissioning is now complete and commercial operations have begun to deliver electricity into the New England region’s grid on a regular basis. The energy produced from the Block Island Wind Farm is linked to the New England grid by National Grid’s new sea2shore submarine transmission cable system. The 30MW installation is capable of providing power to about 17,000 homes.
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5. Sending Guards Christmas Card
The three year case of the crew and security guards of the Seaman Guard Ohio continues, with the men still being held in an Indian prison. This Christmas, Human Rights at Sea is asking the industry to please support them by sending a Christmas card. The crew remain in jail awaiting their legal appeal while maintaining their innocence throughout. David Hammond of Human Rights at Sea says, "The conditions that the crewmen are stoically bearing are none that you would wish for a family member to suffer. Please take a moment to write. It is only the cost of a stamp to India.”
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6. The Year of Unmanned Reality
Worldwide, the number and scope of projects dedicated to unmanned vessels is increasing, including the world’s first designated test area for autonomous ships and European Union-funded research. Esa Jokioinen, head of Rolls-Royce’s Blue Ocean Team, expects to see more progress in 2017 than in the previous two years combined. “Research has been ongoing for a number of years now and what we have seen in 2016 is that this has become strategically important,” he says. “My thinking is that there will be more people working on autonomy in 2017 than there has been in the past".
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7. Singapore Sees Volumes Climb
Singapore port has recorded 2.57m teu of container throughput in November, up by 7.1% from 2.4m teu in the year-ago period, according to preliminary estimates from Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). The volume recorded for November brought Singapore’s first 11 months throughput to 28.14m teu, a figure that is just 1% lower compared to the same period of 2015. Singapore’s closest rival, Shanghai port in China, is set to retain its crown as the world’s busiest container port as it handled a total throughput of 34.04m teu in the first 11 months of this year.
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8. Big Data Transformation
The change brought by big data to shipping, shipbuilding, and offshore industries will be transformational; so finding a way to harness big data is vital to the future. Recent analysis and application of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data conducted by ABS have proven this point. Since 2002, new ships, all larger sea-going vessels (300 GT) and all passenger vessels have been required to carry an AIS onboard, and more than 40,000 ships worldwide are equipped with transponders. The quality of AIS data has improved significantly in recent years, and the data have been used for diverse purposes.
https://goo.gl/GU3lHU
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9. Korean Auditors Call Time
Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is recommending Hanjin Shipping be liquidated, likely marking the end of what was once South Korea’s largest shipping line. PwC was tasked by a court in Seoul overseeing Hanjin’s court receivership to carry out a due diligence report on the line. PwC is understood to have worked out that liquidating can generate KRW1.9trn ($1.6bn), more than twice the KRW800bn it might earn if it continued to operate. Creditors have already managed to sell off more than 90% of Hanjin’s fleet. The court in Seoul will make a final decision on what to do with Hanjin in early February.
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10. Chinese Line Quashes Rumours
Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp has quashed speculation that it is up next in container shipping’s greatest year of consolidation. With the dramatic consolidation seen across the container shipping sector this year, Yang Ming, which has lost $407m in the first three quarters, finds itself in a precarious position. Now the world’s ninth largest containerline with a fleet of 565,766 slots according to Alphaliner, Yang Ming is set to join new container grouping THE Alliance next April. Increasingly analysts are suggesting a global liner needs to have a fleet of more than 1m teu in order to compete.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions  www.seacurus.com

 

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