Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 20/03/2017
1. Ezra Files for Bankruptcy
Singapore’s Ezra Holdings has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York US Bankruptcy Court. Filing under Ezra Holdings Limited, the Singapore company lists its primary place of business in New York State and includes subsidiary companies Emas Marine Services Pte Ltd and Emas IT Solutions Pte Ltd in the filing. Ezra Holdings Limited is described as an investment holding company for the Ezra Group. Robin Chiu has been appointed chief restructuring officer and said in a declaration of support for the filing that the difficult operating environment has had a direct adverse impact.
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2. Somalia Pleads for Support
Somali officials said that NATO must do more to prevent the illegal fishing that sparked the latest pirate hijacking. Last Monday’s hijacking of the tanker "Aris 13" with eight crew on board was the first time that Somali pirates had successfully hijacked a commercial ship since 2012. The pirates claimed to be fishermen and released the tanker without receiving a ransom payment. Some Somali fishermen, including ex-pirates, have complained of harassment. "We requested NATO warships to tackle the illegal fishing, but they replied it was not their mandate," the vice president of Puntland, told reporters at Bosasso port.
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3. Panama Welcomes 1000th Neopanamax
The Panama Canal Authority has welcomed the 1,000th Neopanamax vessel through the waterway, less than nine months after the inauguration of the Expanded Canal. On Sunday, March 19, the container ship Mediterranean Shipping Company’s MSC Anzu made the historic 1,000th transit through the Expanded Canal, heading northbound from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Built in 2015, the Panama-flagged containership measures 299.98 meters in length and 48.23 meters in beam with a carrying capacity of 9,008 TEUs. During its transit, the ship called at Panamanian port terminals to discharge and load cargo.
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4. Raising the Sewol
South Korea prepared on Sunday to raise the Sewol ferry that sank nearly three years ago, killing more than 300 people, most of them children, testing a system to bring the ship to the surface in the hope of finding the last nine bodies. The Sewol, which was structurally unsound, overloaded and traveling too fast on a turn, capsized and sank during a routine voyage on April 16, 2014. It lies at a depth of 144 feet, off the southwestern island of Jindo. Of those killed, 250 were teenagers on a school trip, many of whom obeyed crew instructions to remain in their cabins even as crew members were escaping the sinking vessel.
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5. Nigerians Head to Shields
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency is into a new partnership with the South Shield Marine School at the South Tyneside College, South Shield, Newcastle, UK on sea time training. Principal/Head of the school, Gary Hindmarch, said this was a scheme the school authorities had been using to provide sea time opportunities for their students over many decades of the existence of the institution. The sea time will provide the Nigerian youths the required opportunity to complete that aspect of their studies and leading to the completion of their final course works to enable them graduate fully and qualify to be seafarers.
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6. Early Ship Wake up Call
A mystery ship’s horn has woken the city of Melbourne from one side of the bay to the other, leaving them fuming over the unwanted Monday morning wake-up call. The horn went off for about 20 minutes at 5.15am, and could be heard by people from Newport to Hampton. Frustrated Melburnians took to social media to vent their anger over the unwanted wake-up call. Twitter user Lachie McDonald wrote: “Has half of Melbourne been woken by this ship horn? It’s out of control.” Journalist Grant McArthur, was woken up. “What the hell is going on with that ship horn — has the rest of Melbourne been woken up as well,” he tweeted.
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7. New Orders for LNG Ships
Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ shipbuilding affiliate, has won an order to build four 114,000 DWT Ice-Class IA Aframax tankers from Sovcomflot, the Russia’s state-owned shipping company. The world’s first LNG-fueled Aframax tankers, measuring 250 meters (820 feet) in length, 44 meters (144 feet) in width and 21 meters (69 feet) in height, are scheduled to be delivered from the third quarter of 2018 and to be chartered to Shell. The deal is reported to be worth $240 million. By running on LNG, the Ice-Class IA tankers can emit 90 percent less SOx, 80 percent less NOx, 15 percent less CO2.
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8. Tackling Malaria in Seafarers
Shipowners Club previously released a bulletin informing Members of the precautionary measures that can be taken to avoid the contraction of malaria on board merchant ships. The bulletin was released in the wake of an incident in which a crew member died from a malarial infection having not had access to the correct precautionary medication. Despite such efforts to raise awareness, the Club has continued to record malaria related incidents and in 2016 was notified of 12 cases where crew members had contracted the disease. Malaria is one of the world’s most common and serious tropical diseases.
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9. Watertight Door Warnings
During day to day operations of a ship and particularly in situations where the ship has been damaged, it is usually assumed that all watertight doors are closed and that the vessel’s internal watertight subdivision is 100% effective. On board a ship, the safety of the crew and passengers depends on the safety of the ship and this includes the safe use of watertight doors so that they do not pose any danger when passengers and crew pass through the doors or operate them. However, our casualty statistics indicate that this is not always the case.
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10. Titanic Tourism Trail
Seattle-based OceanGate Expeditions has announced that it will conduct the first manned submersible expedition to the wreck of the RMS Titanic since 2005. The Titanic sank in April 1912 and is located 380 nautical miles from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. The price of an ticket for the OceanGate expedition is $105,129, the inflation-adjusted cost of a first-class ticket to stay in the Vanderbilt suite of the Titanic on its maiden voyage ($4,350). The 54 available positions have already been filled. The survey expedition team will use a newly built manned submersible, Cyclops 2, to assess the condition of the shipwreck.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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