Top Ten Maritime News Stories 29/06/2017

Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 29/06/2017

1. Maersk Attack Contained
Maersk officials claim the cyber attack that hit it hard across the group’s global operations has been contained and a “technical recovery plan” is now underway, according to its latest update released this morning. All vessels are maneuverable and crews are safe, Maersk stated. Maersk was one of the largest corporate names to have been hit by the Petya attack yesterday, underlining to shipping the very real threat posed to global supply chains by hackers. While Maersk has been the most high profile victim of yesterday’s attacks, Splash understands other shipping lines were also hit but have kept quiet on the matter.
———————————————————————————
2. Bookings Back On
As of Wednesday evening Maersk Line said it was taking bookings via box platform INTTRA in the wake of Tuesday’s cyber attack while sister firm APM Terminals said most of its terminals were back up operating, albeit not all of them at normal speeds. The Maersk Group became the most high profile maritime hacker victim in history on Tuesday when the Petya ransomware crippled much of the giant Danish conglomerate’s operations across the world. The Financial Times today suggested Maersk had been hit hardest among all companies in the world from the Petya attack.
 https://goo.gl/6nwXwh
———————————————————————————
3. More Executive Trouble
Shipping executives Anders Boman, Arild Iversen and Kai Kraass have been indicted with participating in a long-running price fixing conspiracy. The indictments were unsealed in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore and relate to price fixing on international ro-ro cargo shipments to and from the U.S. and elsewhere, including the Port of Baltimore. A federal grand jury returned the indictment in November 2016. Boman, a citizen of Sweden, and Iversen, a Norwegian citizen, are former executives of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL). Kraass, a German citizen, is a current WWL executive.
———————————————————————————

4. China Enters Unmanned Race
Unmanned Cargo Ship Development Alliance, a new alliance jointly promoted by China’s HNA Group and China Classification Society (CCS), has been launched in Shanghai. The alliance is also joined by CSSC’s Marine Design & Research Institute of China, Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research Institute, ABS, DNV GL, Wartsila and Rolls Royce. The members of the alliance will work together on technology, standards, regulation, and marketing for unmanned cargo vessels. The alliance expects that China’s first unmanned cargo vessel will be delivered by 2021.
goo.gl/FXSmMY
———————————————————————————

5. Hitting Cyber Snooze Button
Ian Millen, security and intelligence advisor at Global Navigation Solutions, passes comment on this week’s ransomware attack. Despite the recent focus on cyber-security issues, the maritime industry was still caught by surprise by the news that Maersk and other shipping lines suffered a major cyber-attack on June 27.
To judge from the speed of its response, Maersk should be congratulated for the contingency plans it had in place, that were clearly capable of handling a major incident of a scale which prompted the shutdown of its IT infrastructure and affected 17 terminals.
———————————————————————————

6. Hapag-Lloyd Upgraded
Rating agency Standard & Poor has upgraded its rating of Hapag-Lloyd after the container shipping company’s merger with United Arab Shipping Company (UASC.) The ratings company confirmed Hapag-Lloyd’s B+ rating and has taken the company off its CreditWatch list with future negative implications. Hapag-Lloyd was upgraded to Outlook Negative. The merger with UASC, completed in May this year, involves the operations of all 45 UASC services and 58 UASC vessels being fully integrated into Hapag-Lloyd’s service routes this year.
———————————————————————————
7. Seafarer Day Flops
Nautical Institute President Duke Snider is concerned that with IMO’s Day of the Seafarer falling on a Sunday it may have passed people by. I have not seen any statistics, but I have wondered if this day of recognition, falling as it did on a Sunday, was observed to the same degree as previous years.  I only know from likes and retweets of my own posts that there seemed to be somewhat more individual interest, but it appeared to me that corporate interest was low. Perhaps IMO has watched the internet more closely and noticed any trend that may have existed.
———————————————————————————
8. Newbuilds on the Up
Tanker and dry bulk vessel newbuild contracts have been signed at an increasing pace so far in 2017, with newbuild activity for the first half of 2017 surpassing the same period last year by 20 percent. According to BIMCO, 5.9 million DWT was contracted in May 2017 and 3.1 million DWT so far in June 2017, which brings the total amount of newbuild orders up to 19.6 million DWT for 2017. So far for June 2017, 22 tankers have been contracted amounting to a total of 2.6 million DWT.
———————————————————————————
9. Seafarer Lost Overboard
The U.K.-based charity Human Rights at Sea has documented the case of a Ukrainian seafarer that went missing on May 28. The charity was told by the Ukrainian Marine Trade Union’s Federation that Oleksandr Chernyshenko went missing on the Panama-flagged chemical tanker Violet-1. Chernyshenko is believed to have gone missing at 0330 local time while en-route to Port of Tokuyama, Japan. However, Human Rights at Sea was told that it was only at 1730 local time that same day that the vessel turned around to search for him. He therefore would have already been in the water for 12 hours before the alarm was raised.
———————————————————————————

10. Greek Shipowner Hold Sway
Greek publication Naftiliaki has trawled through mounds of statistics, confirming the country’s largest owners have mainly stood their ground. There are presently 69 fleets under Greek control which top 1m dwt, three fewer than mid-2016, but the smaller number of owning companies control more ships and carrying capacity than ever. Further, there are a couple of companies a vessel or so short of the 1m dwt. Naftiliaki’s 30th annual survey of Greece’s largest operators reveals, the 69 tonne millionaires, between them run 2,838 ships of just over 289.8m dwt, some 58 ships and 16.9m dwt more than 12 months ago.
goo.gl/xmXF2a
———————————————————————————

Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions  www.seacurus.com

 

Best regards,

S Jones
Seacurus Ltd

 

Registered in England No. 5201529

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
A Barbican Group company
 

Telephone: +44 191 4690859
Facsimile:  +44 191 4067577

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.seacurus.com

 

Registered Office: Suite 3, Level 3,
Baltic Place West, Baltic Place,
South Shore Road,
Gateshead,
NE8 3BA,
United Kingdom

 

This message, and any associated files, are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it was addresses and may contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or constitutes a trade secret. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately.

0 Comments

Leave a reply

©2024 InterManager - Promoting Excellence In Ship Management

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?