Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 04/10/2018
1. Rallying Around Green Cause
Thirty-four CEOs and industry leaders have signed up to a call for action on the decarbonisation of shipping. The 34 top executives signed the call for action at the Global Maritime Forum in Hong Kong and support the IMO’s strategy to reduce shipping’s CO2 emissions by at least 50% by 2050. To achieved the goal of decarbonising shipping the CEOs believe the maritime industry needs to accelerate both technological and business model innovation, further improve operational and technical energy efficiency, and transition to zero-carbon fuels and new propulsion systems.
http://bit.ly/2Rtbtb8
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2. Stop Criticising Shipping
Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS) president, Theodore Veniamis has attacked the “intense negativism” towards ocean-going shipping by some sectors, which he also says display a “hypocritical” stance on the issue of environmental protection regarding shipping. Addressing the 4th annual Naftemporiki shipping conference, 3 October, Veniamis said regarding the looming 2020 global emissions cap and the need for the industry to use low-sulphur bunkering fuel, an “unfair position, as well as hypocrisy at the international level, has been adopted by legislators against the shipping industry”.
http://bit.ly/2IIsz17
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3. Sunken Ship Warning
A small general cargo ship belonging to Taiwan’s Elite Marine Transportation sank yesterday off the southwest of the island and authorities are warning ships in the area to look out for floating containers south of the Penghu archipelago. The ship, Ying Hai, developed a heavy starboard list on Tuesday after a number of containers moved on its deck. All crew evacuated after attempts to tow it failed.
http://bit.ly/2PbrGAe
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4. Pressure to Start Spending
Executives at the world’s biggest oil and gas companies are under growing pressure to loosen the purse strings to replenish reserves, halt output declines and take advantage of a crude price rally after years of austerity. With oil at a four-year high of $85 a barrel, exploration departments are urging company boards to drill more, wages are creeping higher, service companies say rates will have to rise and some investors say Big Oil must start growing again soon. Oil majors who have pledged to stick to lower spending after slashing budgets by as much as 50 percent since 2014, the pressure may become hard to resist.
http://bit.ly/2xYxs1w
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5. Tightening Bunker Rules
Singapore authorities are looking to apply stricter control measures across the marine fuels sector supply chain, a spokeswoman for the government agency Enterprise Singapore said on Thursday, to boost transparency and accountability in a notoriously opaque industry. The Technical Committee for Bunkering has submitted a proposal to the national standards body, Enterprise Singapore, for a new standard on quantity, measurement and sampling requirements for transfer of bunker fuel from oil terminals to bunker tankers using mass flow metering, the spokeswoman said.
http://bit.ly/2Nm00XW
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6. New LNG Fuel Vision
Dutch shipbuilding group Damen has announced receiving contract from the Estonian natural gas company Eesti Gaas for the construction of the first short-sea LNG bunkering vessels to operate in the Baltic Sea. The vessel, which is scheduled for delivery in September 2020, will be used to provide ship-to-ship LNG bunkering services to vessels, particularly in the passenger, RoRo and RoPax sectors that require fast turnaround times. Its construction is also expected to help accelerate the wider adoption of LNG as a clean-burning alternative fuel in the North-east Baltic Sea.
http://bit.ly/2yeVDZb
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7. What Will Less Ice Mean?
Glimmering aurora have returned to light up northern night skies, meaning that summer is drawing to a close. With these seasonal changes, Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent for the year. At 1.77 million square miles, the amount of ocean covered by ice was the sixth-lowest ever, tying 2008 and 2010. Sea ice extent has recovered slightly since reaching a record low in September 2012, which was 44 percent below average. But overall, the trend is still depressingly downward. Ice at the Earth’s poles has melted away, but what will that mean to the cruise industry?
http://bit.ly/2IB4tVI
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8. Trade Tensions Mean Downgrade
Amid a gloomier world economic outlook and rising trade tensions, the forecast for container demand was downgraded for the next five years, shipping consultancy Drewry said. Previously, the global supply-demand index was expected to take incremental steps upwards through 2022, by which time the industry would at long last be close to equilibrium. However, the new forecasts suggest that the industry now faces being stuck with the current over-supplied situation for several more years.
http://bit.ly/2O2f2Hv
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9. New Blockchain Plan
Singapore shipping company Pacific International Lines (PIL) plans to collaborate with IBM Singapore (IBM) in another blockchain trial to design and create an electronic bill of lading which is expected to enhance the documentation process in supply chain management. The PIL-IBM collaboration is supported by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Singapore Shipping Association, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Singapore Customs (National TradePlatform), and Bank of China Limited Singapore Branch (BOC).
http://bit.ly/2y02uX3
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10. Philippines Claims Compliance
According to a statement made to the IMO, the Philippines is complying with the observations of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to attain world-class standard for its seafarers. The assertion was made by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade to IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim. Next month, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) will make a presentation to the EMSA regarding its compliance to audit findings made in 2017 about the country’s certification system with the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) for Seafarers.
http://bit.ly/2NrhjXG
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
