Currents

Currents ….

PENSIONS PRAISED: the Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund has won the coveted DB Scheme of the Year Award at the 2017 Pensions Age ceremony in London. The award recognises the work carried out by Ensign Pensions to modernise the scheme through the creation of the Ensign Retirement Plan, a defined contribution, low-cost, quality pension scheme open to all maritime industry employees. MNOPF chair Rory Murphy said the fund had bucked the trend of many UK pension funds, increasing the funding level and saving employers an estimated £300m in deficit contributions over the last three years.

REEF WRECKED: Indonesia has lodged diplomatic protests with the UK after a British-owned cruiseship damaged more than 13,500 sq m of a coral reef after running aground in the West Papua province last month. Authorities said they would be seeking damages and filing lawsuits against the owners and captain of the Bahamas-flagged Caledonian Sky on charges of violating fisheries and environmental legislation. Each law carries jail terms of up to three years for negligence leading to destruction.

PAY PROTEST: the UK is in danger of suffering one of the worst pay squeezes anywhere in the world, the TUC has warned. A report on global wages published last month ranked the UK at 103 out of 112 countries for pay growth since the financial crisis began. TUC general secretary said workers are ‘facing the double whammy of rising prices and slower pay growth’.

QUEEN RISK: the former Cunard liner Queen Mary, which is now a floating hotel in Long Beach, in the United States— needs almost US$300m to prevent structural collapse, a new report has revealed. Experts commissioned by the port authority where the ship has been moored since 1967 said the condition is ‘approaching the point of no return’.

IMO APPEAL: the International Maritime Organisation is being urged to improve the way it records cases of seafarer abandonment. The International Chamber of Shipping said changes to the database would help to improve knowledge about the extent of the problem and help to make the Maritime Labour Convention more effective.

CARGO CALL: marine insurers have called for the use of independent marine warranty surveyors to supervise high-risk marine construction and transportation projects. The recommendation came from the London P&I Club after an increase in the number of cases involving deck cargoes shifting in heavy weather.

FERRY RAISED: South Korea has begun work on raising the wreck of the ro-ro ferry Sewol, which sank in 2014 with the death of more than 300 passengers and crew. Relatives of those who died have been campaigning for an inquiry to establish the causes of the disaster.

CRUISE RECORD: a record 1.9m people from the UK and Ireland took a holiday on cruise ships last year, operators have revealed. Figures published by the Cruise Lines International Association last month also showed an 11% increase in the numbers taking river cruises.

GROUNDING ALARM: Norwegian authorities have blamed contaminated oil as the cause of propulsion failure which almost resulted in the grounding of a Comoros-flagged barge carrier off the country’s coast last month.

CERTIFICATE ALERT: authorities in Nigeria have complained about the proliferation of fake certificates being used by foreign seafarers serving on ships operating in the country’s cabotage trades.

BUNKER FIRST: the Belgian port of Zeebrugge has taken delivery of the world’s first purpose-built LNG bunkering vessel, the 5,000 cu m capacity Koreanbuilt Engie.

FUGRO FALL: the Dutch operator Fugro says it expects a further significant decline in revenue in the first half of 2017, although it believes the decline will be less severe than in 2016 and will bottom out towards the latter part of the year. The company said it had reduced its employee head count by 1,430 last year and slashed operational costs by 27%.

FARSTAD MERGER: a three-way merger which will create the largest company in the high-end global OSV industry has begun. The deal will see Farstad Shipping join forces with Solstad Off shore and Deep Sea Supply and members have been told that ‘working groups with representatives from all companies’ have been established.

BOURBON SLUMP: French off shore operator Bourbon said it had put almost a third of its fleet into lay-up over the past year, warning that the marine services industry is going through the most acute crisis of the last 40 years. The company says it has cut its operating costs by 19% since 2015.

DELIVERIES DUE: a record total of 465 off shore support vessels are due to be delivered this year, according to a new report. The study, by VesselsValue, says 205 are set to go to owners in Malaysia and Singapore, with a further 36 ordered by Chinese operators.

SMIT VIEWS: Nautilus is seeking the views of members employed by Smit International (Scotland) ahead of the upcoming pay and conditions review. Feedback will be used by the Union to formulate the pay claim and needed to be submitted by Monday 27 March.

LEGACY DEAL: a new recognition and procedural agreement has been signed by Nautilus and Legacy Acergy. The agreement gives Nautilus negotiating powers for members on 24 of the company’s vessels and covers members employed by Legacy Subsea 7.

SUBSEA CONTRACT: BP has awarded a major contract to Subsea 7 as part of the Mad Dog 2 deepwater development some 190 miles south of New Orleans.

MAERSK MONITORS: the French Atlantic seaboard maritime authority has told Maersk Supply Service to set up a three-year programme to monitor the risk of pollution from two of its vessels which sank off Brittany in December last year. Maersk Searcher and Maersk Shipper sank some 60nm off the French coast while being towed by the Danish-flagged AHTS Maersk Battler to a scrapyard in Turkey. Although Maersk said that both ships had been emptied of fuel and lubricants, French authorities are concerned about the risk of pollution from hydrocarbon residues. The monitoring plan requires an analysis of the contents of the tanks on both vessels and checks of the state of the wrecks.

FINNISH PROTEST: seafaring unions in Finland have slammed a decision to use a mixed nationality crew onboard a Finnish Border Guard vessel during a six-month deployment to support EU patrols in the Mediterranean. The unions dispute claims there are not enough Finnish crew to operate the ship and argue that foreign seafarers should not be allowed to serve on a vessel with strategic functions.

CREW REPATRIATED: 23 Chinese seafarers stranded onboard a flag of convenience general cargoship detained in India for almost two months have been allowed to return home. The St Vincent & Grenadines-registered Union Demeter had been held in the port of Haldia because of bunkering debts. The ship’s crew were owed five months’ wages, amounting to US$218,000.

STENA DEAL: Sweden’s Stena Bulk is set to take full control of the joint venture it operates with Weco Shipping after an agreement to buy the Danish company’s 50% stake. Stena Weco operates a fleet of 65 ships, equally split between owned and chartered tonnage and involved in transporting chemical and edible oils, and clean petroleum products.

DRINK LAW: France is introducing new regulations to lower the alcohol limit for seafarers, aligning the rules with those for motorists and with the STCW Manila Amendments. The measures will apply to all French flagged ships and will include foreign-flagged vessels operating in the country’s territorial waters.

ASBESTOS APPEAL: French seafaring unions are pressing for improved compensation arrangements for members suffering from asbestos-related illness. In 2015, 15% of occupational diseases among seafarers were linked to asbestos, compared with 7.7% across the entire workforce.

MSC BID: the Swiss-Italian shipping firm MSC is seeking to acquire a major stake in the Italian operator Gruppo Messina, which runs a fleet of specialist ro-ro containerships on routes linking the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa.

RUBBISH RULE: China is to abolish a regulation that requires ocean-going vessels to dispose of any sludge and garbage onboard before departure from the country’s ports.

AID ALARM: French unions have expressed alarm about a European court decision ordering France to recover €220m in ‘state subsidies’ given to the ailing Marseilles-based ferry operator SNCM when it was privatised in the mid-1990s. The General Court upheld a European Commission decision of May 2013 that compensation paid to SNCM and to CMN (Compagnie Méridionale de Navigation) for ferry services between Marseille and Corsica from 2007 to 2013 was incompatible state aid and must be repaid.

OFFICER EXTRADITED: an officer serving on a ship involved in a fatal collision with a fishing vessel off the French coast in 2007 has been extradited from Georgia after being held under an international arrest warrant. Aziz Mirzoyev, originally from Azerbaijan, was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, leaving the scene and failing to aid a person in danger after the general cargoship Ocean Jasper collided with the trawler Sokalique.

FEWER FILIPINOS: authorities in the Philippines have reported a 25% decline in the number of Filipino seafarers being deployed in the global shipping industry last year. Figures released by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency last month show that the number of Filipino seafarers working in the international fleet dropped from 406,531 in 2015 to 304,329 last year.

BRITTANY BOOST: the French operator Brittany Ferries has reported ‘strong’ passenger and freight figures for 2016. Passenger numbers were up 3% and freight volumes rose by 6.7%, with turnover increasing by 5.2% to €454.9m. The company said its continued confidence is demonstrated by plans to build its first LNGpowered ferry.

ELBE HOLD-UP: plans to deepen the River Elbe to accommodate ultra-large containerships may be delayed for up to two years following a court ruling in Germany. The federal administrative court approved controversial plans to dredge the busy waterway, on condition that a number of environmental safeguards are met.

FLAG MOVE: the Pacific island of Palau has switched its ship registry’s head office from the United States to the Greek port city of Piraeus as part of an expansion plan. The Palau International Ship Registry was launched in 2010 and now claims to have several hundred vessels on its books.

DELIVERY DELAY: French containership firm CMA CGM has decided to delay the delivery of three new vessels after announcing a $452m loss for 2016. The company said it was encouraged by the recent increase in freight rates and reported that it had made a $45m profit in the fourth quarter.

CRUISESHIP HELD: the US Coast Guard detained Royal Caribbean’s Bahamas-flagged cruiseship Majesty of the Seas in the port of Canaveral after an inspection revealed deficiencies in life-saving equipment.

Containership master convicted of being drunk in charge of his vessel.

Belfast magistrates court heard that Captain Eugenijus Tulauskas, from Lithuania, was up to four times over the alcohol limit when he was arrested in September.

A marine pilot reported the master to police ashore after smelling alcohol on his breath and had to take control of the vessel to ensure its safe passage into harbour, the court was told.

Lawyers for Capt Tulauskas contested the charge, arguing that he was not on duty at the time of the offence.

The court heard that the master had told the authorities he had not consumed any alcohol in the previous four hours.

Capt Tulauskas was fined £1,350, with the district judge stating that she had decided not to impose the maximum penalty because the master was now unemployed after being dismissed by his company. Firm fined for ‘reckless’ vessel move A Cornish fishing company has been fined more than £8,000 after a ‘reckless’ decision to move a new vessel without the appropriate load line certification.

Newlyn-based Rowse Fishing was ordered to pay a total of £8,170 after being prosecuted by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) for towing the vessel from Polruan to Newlyn before it had been surveyed and without the appropriate load line certificate and load line markings on the hull. Truro magistrates heard that the vessel had been shortened during the build process, without new stability calculations being undertaken, and the company had arranged the tow of the vessel before it had been surveyed and before an exemption certificate had been granted. Local MCA operations manager Tony Heslop said the company had made a ‘somewhat reckless decision’ that could have had very serious consequences

(With thanks to the Nautilus Telegraph:  https://www.nautilusint.org)