Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 04/09/2017
1. The Future is Here
The dawn of the drone shipping era has come a step closer. Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has revealed details of a landmark test run whereby a PSV "Highland Chieftan" was controlled remotely 8,000 km away. The testing, which involved driving the vessel through a sequence of manoeuvres using a combination of Dynamic Positioning (DP) and manual joystick control, was carried out on August 21 off the North Sea coast of Scotland in collaboration with Gulfmark Offshore, an American OSV operator. The remote control navigating was carried out from the Wärtsilä office located in San Diego, California.
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2. Bibby Restructures Debts
Bibby Offshore is set to go through a debt restructuring, according to The Times newspaper. The company has hired consultants EY to reorganise its finances. Bibby Line Group has worked offshore since the early 1980s. In 2003, the group consolidated all its offshore activities into Bibby Offshore, based in Aberdeen. It now focuses on two areas: subsea construction/IRM and offshore operational and maintenance support. Earlier in the month it was rumoured Dutch offshore and dredging giant Boskalis was looking at buying into Bibby Offshore in a deal which would value the company at around £52m.
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3. No Cyber Attack Evidence
An investigation into the separate recent collisions between two Navy warships from the Seventh Fleet and commercial vessels has so far shown no evidence of cyberattacks, according to Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations. Richardson said that “to date, the inspections we’ve done show that there’s no evidence of any kind of a cyberintrusion.” The admiral said it has become “sort of a reality of our current situation that part of any kind of investigation or inspection is going to have to take a look at the computer, the cyber — you know, the informational warfare aspect — of our business".
goo.gl/kfVEwa
An investigation into the separate recent collisions between two Navy warships from the Seventh Fleet and commercial vessels has so far shown no evidence of cyberattacks, according to Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations. Richardson said that “to date, the inspections we’ve done show that there’s no evidence of any kind of a cyberintrusion.” The admiral said it has become “sort of a reality of our current situation that part of any kind of investigation or inspection is going to have to take a look at the computer, the cyber — you know, the informational warfare aspect — of our business".
goo.gl/kfVEwa
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4. Seafarers Saved from Sinking
Twenty crew were saved on Sunday after their cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman. Authorities in Oman said that the ship was loaded with construction material, consisting of steel bars and sand. Police and Oman’s Transportation and Communications Ministry said that the boat sank off the coast of Lakabi, a town some 620 kilometers (385 miles) southwest of the sultanate’s capital, Muscat. The ministry in a statement carried by the state-run Oman News Agency said seawater poured into the ship through a leak, sinking it. A nearby fisherman saved the seafarers.
Twenty crew were saved on Sunday after their cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman. Authorities in Oman said that the ship was loaded with construction material, consisting of steel bars and sand. Police and Oman’s Transportation and Communications Ministry said that the boat sank off the coast of Lakabi, a town some 620 kilometers (385 miles) southwest of the sultanate’s capital, Muscat. The ministry in a statement carried by the state-run Oman News Agency said seawater poured into the ship through a leak, sinking it. A nearby fisherman saved the seafarers.
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5. UK Praises Nigeria
The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary, Mr. Boris Johnson yesterday in Lagos commended the role Nigeria was playing in tackling piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, pointing out that a lot of the UK’s oil came from the Nigerian Waters. The Foreign Secretary said this during his visit to the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Unity at Naval Dockyard Limited in Victoria Island, Lagos. Boris said: “I congratulate the Nigerian Navy for what it is doing to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. We in the U.K are very proud to offer assistance to the navy to become even better in tackling piracy.
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6. Suffering from Marine Pollution
Coastal areas around Southeast Asia suffer the most from pollution caused by ship traffic, according to a global study that estimates shipping emissions based on real-time, local activity for the first time. The study, published in Atmospheric Environment, sheds light on forces at play in a region where shipping pollution is believed to cause up to 24,000 deaths a year. The researchers put together a detailed picture of the emissions of around 300,000 commercial vessels for the year 2015. They found that three of the six most polluted harbours – Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai – are in Asia.
goo.gl/QFGKCC
goo.gl/QFGKCC
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7. Shipping Has Bright Future
Shipping financier Danish Ship Finance said this week that the shipping industry is marching into a more prosperous future. However, it also said that major shipping banks are still focusing on stronger ship owners, as Asian financing is still pretty competitive. In its note, it said that “there are some bright spots on the horizon for the shipping industry. First of all, the global order book as a percentage of the operating fleet has dropped to below 10%. In some segments, the order book remains very high, including large container vessels, but overall the situation has improved.
goo.gl/r9wU4L
goo.gl/r9wU4L
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8. OOCL Massive Record Breaker
The OOCL Hong Kong has officially been recorded as the world’s biggest container ship at 21,413 TEU by Guinness World Records. The vessel was the first container ship in the world to exceed the 21,000 TEU mark. This is a second record for OOCL, with OOCL Shenzhen claiming the title for largest container ship at 8,063 TEUs in April 2003. On Friday, OOCL named the third in its line of six 21,413 TEU class container ships OOCL Japan at Samsung Heavy Industries. Like OOCL Hong Kong, OOCL Japan will serve the Asia-Europe trade lane on the LL1 service.
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9. Funding Needed for Training
The shipping industry is calling on the Government to double the funding it puts towards helping train seafarers to £30m in a bid to protect UK maritime jobs as the country gets closer to Brexit. The UK Chamber of Shipping said it had proposed an extension to the Government’s existing Support for Maritime Training scheme, known as SMarT, whereby its members would agree to employ the newly-qualified officers they trained for a sufficient period to enable them to attain higher qualifications. Guy Platten, chief executive of the trade body, warned the UK maritime industry was facing competition from other shipping hubs.
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10. Immigration Ruling Aids Owners
A decision by the UK government to extend an immigration ruling concerning seafarers joining vessels in the offshore wind industry has been welcomed by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA). In a recent statement, the government said the home secretary had introduced a concession to the immigration rules to allow the employment of non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals joining vessels engaged in the construction and maintenance of offshore wind projects in UK territorial waters.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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