Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 02/03/2017
1. IPad Assisted Collision
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch has issued its report into last year’s collision between a historic motor launch and a DFDS roll-on/roll-off ferry on the Humber River, identifying a number of safety issues including the launch skippers’ reliance on an iPad app for navigation. On May 16, 2016, the Danish registered ro-ro freight ferry Petunia Seaways and the wooden motor launch Peggotty collided on the River Humber while in dense fog. The motor launch was severely damaged in the collision, causing the vessel to take on water and sink. No injuries or significant pollution was reported.
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2. Owner In Dire Trouble
Another Russian owner is in dire financial trouble. A bankruptcy claim has been lodged in Moscow against Fesco, one of Russia’s largest transport firms with interests in shipping, ports, rail and logistics. Kapital Asset Management, Russia’s seventh largest asset management firm, filed the claim at the end of last month after Fesco defaulted on bonds. Fesco maintains it is in discussions with its creditors to resolve its current financial predicament. Fesco has frozen a number of bond payments in the past six months. Last November it also faced another bankruptcy claim from Interprombank.
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3. EU Loses Patience
The European Parliament has lost patience with shipping industry inaction over climate change and has outlined plans to include vessels in its Emissions Trading System (ETS). Ship owners are furious, claiming it is wrong that they will effectively be charged for carbon pollution in Europe Union waters ahead of any wider international arrangement. But the members of the parliament in Brussels endorsed a recommendation from their own environment committee that the maritime industry should be included in the European Union’s ETS, a cap-and-trade scheme aimed at tackling global warming.
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4. Making a Maritime System
Midway through European Shipping Week and the OECD is ruminating on what the EU needs to do with its maritime transport system. 2017 will be a special year, in case you have not noticed. Each day brings the news of new political surprises that could potentially disrupt the global world order. It could be a year of destruction; the challenge is to make this a creative destruction. By some lucky coincidence, 2017 is also the EU maritime year. Will Europeans use the opportunity to rethink maritime transport and build up a more appropriate maritime transport system? A first indication will during European Shipping Week.
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5. CMA CGM Takes Aim
CMA CGM’s new CEO has vowed to be the top container carrier on all US trades. Rodolphe Saadé, son of the founder of the French line, took the reins as CEO last month. Yesterday in his first major speech since taking on the role, he spoke at TPM, the annual liner event organised by the Journal of Commerce in Long Beach, California. “We want to be number one in the US on all trades, not only transpacific,” Saadé said. Combined with new acquisition APL, CMA CGM commands a market leading 14% of the transpacific, but the CEO was adamant that other tradelanes could be targeted for leadership too.
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6. Master Banned from Port
The captain of the Indian tanker that rammed the side of a LNG carrier and another vessel while navigating through vessels at a Fujairah offshore anchorage has been banned from commanding vessels calling at the port, a document from Port of Fujairah shows. The port has also imposed a fine of nearly $22,000. The accident occurred February 23 as the Indian-flagged MT Jag Laadki made contact with the anchored LNG carriers Al Khattiya and later Iglc Anka at the Fujairah Offshore Anchorage in the United Arab Emirates.
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7. Voice Tracking Hoaxsters
Temporary Denial of Service 911 hoax calls plague our nation’s first responder agencies. Hospitals, police and fire departments, and other public service entities are continually vulnerable to bomb threats, active shooter situations, and general false emergency claims. Similarly, there is a growing hoax call problem on the Channel 16 maritime distress frequency, which mariners rely on for radio communications in our nation’s ports and waterways. Search and rescue (SAR) hoax calls disrupt and divert the Coast Guard’s operational response to legitimate mariners in emergency situations.
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8. Abu Sayyaf Yachtsman Murder
This week, the Philippines-based terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) followed through on a threat to execute German yachtsman Jurgen Kantner, who was abducted from his sailboat late last year. The group beheaded Kantner and posted a video of his death online. "We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim," said Philippine presidential advisor Jesus Dureza in a statement. "We all tried our best. But to no avail."
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9. Catch22 Sulphur Situation
The 0.5% fuel sulphur content cap regulation by the IMO is less than three years away from the enforcement date of 1 January 2020, leaving the refining and shipping industries caught in a catch-22 situation. The problem with the 0.5% sulphur cap regulation is indeed a textbook conundrum for refiners (the fuel suppliers), and shipowners (the fuel buyers), caught in a quandary whereby suppliers are unable to commit on how much to produce as buyers do not know how much is needed, vice versa. In July this year, the IMO will meet and present a more detailed roadmap, which is seemingly much needed.
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10. Shipping Industry Wishlist
A group of 10 international shipping associations attending European Shipping Week have issued a joint industry statement calling for work to begin on drawing up a new EU Maritime Transport Strategy for when the current one expires in 2018. Bearing in mind the global rise of protectionism, such a strategy should assert the EU’s role as “the world’s champion of free and fair trade,” they say, as well as assist IMO in ensuring the shipping industry meets its international sustainability goals. The strategy should include “a fundamental overhaul of the EU Reporting Formalities’ Directive,” they urge.
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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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