Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 11/04/2017
1. Vessel Freed, Crew Held
Somali security forces have liberated an Indian cargo ship from the pirates who hijacked it, but only two of the ten-man crew were rescued, authorities in central Somalia report. Abdulahi Ahmed Ali, district commissioner for the pirate-hub region of Hobyo, told local press the “Al Kauser” ship had been held off the Indian Ocean coast near Yemen after the hijacking on March 31. “We have the boat and two of the crew members but eight other members of the crew are still missing because the pirates took them off the boat,” the commissioner said.
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2. Fire Ravages Ferry
Ro-Ro passenger ferry "Mutiara Persada III" caught fire near Pulau Tunda island in Indonesia. The vessel was enroute from Jakarta to Panjang with 116 people, but on the half way the crew raised alarm for fire on board and ordered people to take life jackets and move to deck three. The accident was reported and VTS ordered the nearest ship to assist the troubled ferry and to evacuated all the passengers and non-essential crew. All but three passengers and two crew were accounted and transferred to Lampung. The remaining where were treated with respiratory problems, caused by the smoke.
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3. Maersk Sells Mercosul
Maersk Line will divest itself of Mercosul Line, its Brazilian subsidiary, to appease the Brazilian competition authority CADE as it pushes through with the acquisition of Hamburg Sud, a liner which also has a strong presence in Latin America’s largest country. Mercosul was founded in 1996, and taken over by Maersk a decade later. Its four ships C each of 2,5000 teu capacity C are used on the Brazilian cabotage trades. They are deployed on two loops.
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4. 30 Year Overnight Success
“The Isle of Man used to be the best register you have never heard of,” quips Dick Welsh, the flag’s director. That has now changed. “The message,” he tells Maritime CEO, “is out there that it is a great choice for quality operators looking for a flag that fits with their quality objectives and works alongside them in partnership to keep their ships operating to the highest standards in very tough economic times.” The register has evolved and changed its operating models and its target markets as it has matured over its 33 years in existence as an international register.
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5. VLCC Spot Trade Boom
It seems that it’s a good thing to trade your VLCC tanker in the spot market these days. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Charles R. Weber noted that “an absence of meaningful crude oil supply growth in the Middle East during the first prompted strong Asiabound trades from alternative markets during Q1, spurring record spot marketgenerated VLCC tonmiles. A total of 1.10 trillion tonmiles were fixed on the spot market during the quarter, surpassing the previous record of 1.02 trillion tonmiles observed during 1Q12 during the runup to sanctions against Iran’s petroleum sector.
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6. Understanding Somali Actors
With decades of political and economic decline and instability, internal conflict, high unemployment and continued sectarian violence, piracy in the Horn of Africa may be on the verge of returning. After long and heated discussions, members of Somalia’s Puntland Piracy Network (PPN, the Harardheere-Hobyo Networks (HHN) and factions of the notorious Hobyo Pirate Network (HPN) have agreed to “test the waters” as they consider returning to sea. Active clan and pirate militias include, Ali Zwahila Group, the Laasqoray Action Group, the Salebaan Clan (Harardheere-Hobyo Network) and Islamic State.
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7. Port Bid Too Low
Greece’s Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund has asked the three parties who bid for the nation’s second largest port, Thessaloniki, to raise their offers. The fund deemed the bids from the three parties interested in taking a 67% stake in the port as too low.
DP World, ICTSI and a consortium featuring CMA CGM all lodged bids as part of Greece’s ongoing privatisation drive. Last year Cosco won the rights to privatise Greece’s largest port, Piraeus.
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8. Sewol Shifted Ashore
Salvors and engineers successfully transferred the wreck of the Sewol from the heavy lift ship White Marlin onto a pier at the port of Mokpo, South Korea. The government-led team used 600 modular transporters to pick up the lifting beams that divers had placed below the ship prior to raising it to the surface. On an ebb tide, the transporters rolled the 17,000-ton wreck across a steel ramp onto shore, maintaining a speed of 65-100 feet per hour. The White Marlin deballasted as the transfer progressed in order to keep her deck level with the pier.
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9. Hitting a Berthed Ship
The feeder "Iapetos" collided with berthed container ship "MSC Donata" at Pier 6 in Port of Thessaloniki, Greece. The boxship Iapetos was maneuvering to berth into the port, but adrifted the stuck with the already berthed MSC Donata. The collision caused slight damages to both vessels, but fortunately they remained afloat and without water ingress. The accident was reported to local authorities and the both container carriers were detained for further inspection and special survey. Fortunately during the collision there were no reported injuries and no water pollution.
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10. Seafarer Health All Important
Videotel has produced a series of 10 programmes with accompanying workbooks that explore the many aspects of crew health onboard. The “Healthy Living at Sea” series highlights many important areas, including the benefit of eating a balanced diet, regular exercise, disease prevention, and proper working patterns to avoid fatigue and stress. “In today’s tough climate, ship owners and ship managers cannot afford any downtime in a ship’s operations, so maintaining a full complement of healthy crew is vitally important,” says Joe Pitcher, Videotel sales director. Management and crew must have a good understanding of the risks.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd C providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
Best regards,
S Jones
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