Machinery Underwriters News

International accountant and shipping adviser BDO said total operating costs in the shipping industry are expected to rise by 2.5% in 2019 and by 2.7% in 2020.Responses to the firm’s latest annual Future Operating Costs Survey revealed that insurance is the cost category likely to increase most significantly in both 2019 and 2020. In the case of protection and indemnity insurance, the predicted increase is 2.0% for each of the years under review, while hull and machinery insurance…

Diana Shipping, a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry bulk vessels,  announced that it has signed, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, a Memorandum of Agreement to sell to an unaffiliated third party, the 2004-built vessel “Melite” for demolition, on an “as is where is” basis, with delivery due to the Buyers by October 30, 2017, for a sale price of approximately US$2.52 million before commissions. The Owners of “Melite” have submitted a Notice of Abandonment to their Hull and Machinery Underwriters, who have not, as of today’s date, accepted this Notice, but have agreed to the sale of the vessel on the terms outlined in the above mentioned  Memorandum of Agreement.

BIMCO has expressed concern by the recent revelations indicating that the explosion on board the supertanker Limburg was caused by an act of terrorism, the first attack on an innocent merchant vessel since the Achille Lauro incident in 1985. The French tanker, owned by BIMCO members CMB, was en route to Yemen when she was apparently rammed by a motorboat packed with explosives in a way similar to the attack on the US naval ship Cole at Aden on October 12, 2000. The Limburg incident illustrates well the dire consequences created by acts of terrorism, placing the lives of seafarers in grave danger with fatal consequences, causing severe material damage and, not least, causing significant environmental harm.