Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 10/11/2017
1. Flag Hits Back
The republic of the Marshall Islands has hit back at claims it is being both inflexible and unrealistic in its stance on shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Marshall Islands has led a clutch of Pacific island nations that are in danger of disappearing off the map thanks to rising seas in calling for the most sweeping shipping emission cuts. ICS has said this week that a 100% cut in shipping emissions by 2035 – as called for by the Marshall Islands – is “not possible”. In a statement issued yesterday by the Marshall Islands’ ministry of foreign affairs, the tiny republic hit back, restating its position.
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2. UN Calls for Piracy Action
The Security Council Tuesday adopted a resolution to condemn the acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia and to call for a comprehensive response to prevent and suppress such acts and tackle their underlying causes. Resolution 2383 underlines the primary responsibility of the Somali authorities in the fight against piracy and armed robbery at sea off the Somali coast. It urges the Somali authorities to continue their work of passing a comprehensive set of anti-piracy and maritime laws and establishing security forces with clear roles and jurisdictions to enforce these laws.
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goo.gl/ndFSbj
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3. ICS Pleased by Progress
Speaking from the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, ICS Director of Policy, Simon Bennett, has commented on the provisional decision by the European Union not to include shipping within the full scope of the regional EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). “We think that this demonstrates confidence within the EU institutions in the current progress being made at the UN IMO to develop an ambitious strategy that will deliver additional CO2 reduction measures, consistent with the shipping industry’s own vision of zero emissions, as soon as possible.”
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4. Sweeping Admin Burden Away
European shipowners (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) call for easing the administrative burden shipping crew and companies are facing today. The Reporting Formalities Directive, that aimed to simplify and rationalise reporting formalities for ships in European ports as of June 2016, has unfortunately not helped in easing the situation. Crews and companies face a worse situation today than before. Rather than having a single European window, diverging national solutions were developed and even at Member States’ level there is very often no single solution in place.
goo.gl/S6HDxb
European shipowners (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) call for easing the administrative burden shipping crew and companies are facing today. The Reporting Formalities Directive, that aimed to simplify and rationalise reporting formalities for ships in European ports as of June 2016, has unfortunately not helped in easing the situation. Crews and companies face a worse situation today than before. Rather than having a single European window, diverging national solutions were developed and even at Member States’ level there is very often no single solution in place.
goo.gl/S6HDxb
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5. Iron Ore Buying Plunge
Iron ore imports by China slumped last month to the lowest in more than a year, sinking from a record of above 100 million tons, as mills prepared for unprecedented state-ordered curbs on steel output over winter. Purchases dropped to 79.49 million tons in October, according to customs data on Wednesday. That’s down from September’s 102.8 million tons, and is the lowest amount since February 2016. Over the first 10 months, imports by the world’s top buyer still expanded 6.3 percent to 896 million tons.
goo.gl/yyYnyY
Iron ore imports by China slumped last month to the lowest in more than a year, sinking from a record of above 100 million tons, as mills prepared for unprecedented state-ordered curbs on steel output over winter. Purchases dropped to 79.49 million tons in October, according to customs data on Wednesday. That’s down from September’s 102.8 million tons, and is the lowest amount since February 2016. Over the first 10 months, imports by the world’s top buyer still expanded 6.3 percent to 896 million tons.
goo.gl/yyYnyY
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6. Shipping Is Unprotected
A recent survey by Futurenautics found that shipping companies are still largely unprotected from potential cyber attacks, even after the recent ransomware attack that left Maersk reeling. Joe Baker examines the current state of preparedness for protecting vessels from cyber threats and finds out what’s being done both from a technological and regulatory point of view. “The connected ship is becoming more of a normality and the use of IT and more importantly OT on ships is starting to take a hold,” says Peter Broadhurst, senior vice-president of safety and security at Inmarsat Maritime.
A recent survey by Futurenautics found that shipping companies are still largely unprotected from potential cyber attacks, even after the recent ransomware attack that left Maersk reeling. Joe Baker examines the current state of preparedness for protecting vessels from cyber threats and finds out what’s being done both from a technological and regulatory point of view. “The connected ship is becoming more of a normality and the use of IT and more importantly OT on ships is starting to take a hold,” says Peter Broadhurst, senior vice-president of safety and security at Inmarsat Maritime.
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7. OSG Losses Reported
Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., a provider of energy transportation services for crude oil and petroleum products in the U.S. Flag markets, reported results for the third quarter 2017. Loss from continuing operations for the third quarter was $6.3 million, or ($0.07) per diluted share, compared to a loss from continuing operations of $52.9 million, or ($0.59) per diluted share, for the third quarter 2016. During the third quarter 2017, we recognized a $7.4 million impairment charge on one of our ATBs which is currently held for sale.
goo.gl/cfwiKF
goo.gl/cfwiKF
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8. Improving Ship Maintenance
Ship maintenance and servicing will be enhanced through a partnership between a global shipbuilding group and an internet of things (IoT) platform builder. Fincantieri Marine Systems has teamed up with Camgian Microsystems Corp to use suites of sensors and a cloud-based IoT software platform. Together, these companies will increase shipping’s capability to efficiently collect and transmit large volumes of disparate sensor data and use this to generate critical operational insight.
Ship maintenance and servicing will be enhanced through a partnership between a global shipbuilding group and an internet of things (IoT) platform builder. Fincantieri Marine Systems has teamed up with Camgian Microsystems Corp to use suites of sensors and a cloud-based IoT software platform. Together, these companies will increase shipping’s capability to efficiently collect and transmit large volumes of disparate sensor data and use this to generate critical operational insight.
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9. Shipowners on Paradise List
Greece’s independent authority on Public Revenue has ordered an investigation into the alleged existence of Greek taxpayers in the ‘Paradise Papers’. The massive leak of 13.4 million secret financial documents has created a stir around the world, with several dignitaries and celebrities allegedly holding fortunes in offshore tax havens. According to the Greek daily Ethnos, more than 130 Greek names appear in the leaked documents which detail how the world’s biggest companies and individuals have sheltered their wealth in secretive tax havens.
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10. Ship Hits the Bank
A general cargo vessel hit the bank of the Kiel Canal in the night from November 6 to 7, 2017, according to a statement released by German police department Itzehoe. The 2,400 dwt "RMS Ruhrort" ran onto the north part of the river embankment in the canal at around 2:00 A.M. local time. The third officer lost steering control already at the canal’s 36th kilometer, which caused the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged ship to drift at the port side in the direction of the south canal bank. Immediately after this, the speed was reduced in order to lower the impact of the allision.
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
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