Maritime Board News

After it last month said it would recycle its FPSO BW Cidade de São Vicente, FPSO owner BW Offshore has now agreed to sell another FPSO for scrap, this time the FPSO Umuroa.The company said Monday it had signed an agreement to recycle the FPSO Umuroa in compliance with the Hong Kong International Convention at Baijnath Melaram (‘the Yard’) in India. "The sale will generate USD 13.5 million in net liquidity. The yard is certified to ISO standards and has been issued with a Statement…

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that there were a total of 193 ships broken in the second quarter of 2019 and the 146 of these were sold to South Asian scrapping beaches. South Asian working conditions are known to be dire and breaking practices cause irreparable damage to the coastal environment, it added.Between April and June, Platform sources recorded three accidents that killed at least five workers on the beach of Chittagong, Bangladesh, bringing the total death-toll of the shipbreaking industry this year to at least eight workers.In the early morning of 15 May, a loud blast shook the Chittagong shipbreaking area. A fire broke out on board the vessel BUNGA KELANA 4 (IMO 9178343)…

The Government of India signed a loan deal worth USD 76 million with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), for a project to upgrade the environment management plan at Alang-Sosiya ship recycling yards. The total cost of the project will be $ 111 million, out of which $76 million will be provided as soft loan from JICA. Out of the remaining amount, $25 million as taxes and fees will be borne by Government of Gujarat and the balance $10 million will be shared by Ministry of Shipping & Government of Gujarat. The project will be executed by Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) and is likely to be completed by 2022. This project will help the Alang-Sosia ship-recycling yards to comply with international safety & environmental regulations.

All the hazardous waste generated in ship recycling at Alang are being disposed off in safe and environmentally sound manner in Gujarat Pollution Control Board authorized Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) site operated by Gujarat Maritime Board. Landfills are constructed as per the Guidelines of Central Pollution Control Board and provided with liner system in bottom which prevents leachate to percolate to the sub-soil. Monitoring of environmental parameters is done by Gujarat Pollution Control Board regularly. Regular health checkup for the workers is also conducted by GMB. Environmental Impact Assessment is carried out whenever creation of new yards or expansion and upgradation of existing yards is taken up.

As part of its Coastal Community Development Program under Sagarmala, the Ministry of Shipping has sanctioned Rupees 10 Crore ($1.5 mln) as part of the first instalment to the Gujarat Maritime Board for capacity building and safety training of 20,000 workers involved in the ship recycling activities at Alanag- Sosiya recycling yard in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat. The total project cost is estimated to be Rupees 30 Crore over a period of 3 years. The initiative has been identified in the National Perspective Plan (NPP) of Sagarmala for the upliftment of the coastal community and aims to provide health and safety training to the skilled and semi-skilled workers which is required while performing their work at ship recycling yards.

Around 200 seafarers with Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), the country's largest shipping company, are on a hunger strike (industrial action) since Saturday over wages and arrears. According to a Press Trust of India report, these seafarers, deployed on 15 vessels owned and operated by the Centre, launched their strike demanding revised wages in accordance with the clauses of National Maritime Board Indias agreement. These seafarers have also approached the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) for its intervention. "SCI was meant to have increased seafarer wages by 30% as agreed in March last year," says the Union. “The arrears haven’t been given for over a year now.

Ship recycling practices in Alang, India, are gradually improving. The European Commission should acknowledge this positive development under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Adopting an overly restrictive approach will discourage first movers and further delay the entry into force of the IMO Hong Kong Convention. These are the main messages that ECSA took home from a fact-finding visit held last week in Alang, India. The visit was organised in cooperation with the Indian government, the Gujarat Maritime Board and the Ship Recycling Industry Association (SRIA) of India. Next to European shipowners, the delegation visiting the yards included representatives from EU Member States, the European Commission (DG Environment) as well as the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

Essar Bulk Terminal Limited, Hazira, a subsidiary of Essar Ports Limited, which is a part of Essar, has received an approval from Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to handle 15 million tonnes of merchant cargo over three years. Based on this approval, the Hazira Terminal, in keeping with its design and capabilities, will be able to handle a range of cargo for merchant customers, including dry bulk, liquid bulk, containers and so on. The approval was granted under GMB’s captive port policy where jetties built on captive licenses can handle third-party cargo up to a maximum of 50 percent of the total cargo handled. This approval stands to benefit the local industry who will now have access to a modern port facility.

India will soon get its second maritime university, Gujarat Maritime University (GMB), which will primarily be focusing on the commercial maritime courses. According to sources, the first course likely to be rolled out in 2018. The government of Gujarat has already given an in-principle approval for the establishment of the university. The new Gujarat Maritime University will focus on commercial maritime courses instead of technical programmes that are being offered in over 130 Indian training institutes and the existing Indian Maritime University, say sources. A report in DNA quoted AK Rakesh, chairman and chief executive officer of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) as saying: "At present, the Indian maritime institutes offer pre-sea and post-sea training programmes.

The first ever Maritime India Summit in Mumbai has resulted in attracting investments worth Rs 82,905 crores ($12.5 billion), says the Ministry of Shipping. A total of 141 MoUs and Business Agreements were signed by various players in maritime sector including Major Ports, State Maritime Boards and PSUs like Shipping Corporation of India, Cochin Shipyard Limited, Inland Waterways Authority of India etc. Some of the major Indian companies who have signed agreements include the Adanis, Jindal, Vedanta, ESSAR, and Shapoorji Pallonji Company. One significant MOU signed relates to establishment of a greenfield port at Vadhavan, Maharashtra. Phase I of the project is estimated to cost around Rs 9167 crores.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Transport and Environment (T&E) have criticized Maersk Group’s decision to beach their end-of-life vessels in Alang, India. But, Four of the 167 ship recycling yards have won compliance status with a global regime that seeks to ensure that redundant ships are disposed of safely and in an environmentally sound manner, says a report in the Livemint. The recycling yards are located on the coast of Alang-Sosiya in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, the world’s largest stretch of ship-breaking beaches. The NGO denounced Maersk Group’s decision to beach their end-of-life vessels in India. The world’s leading container…

The Maharashtra state government has given approval to its comprehensive Maharashtra Port Development Policy for creating better facilities around 720 km coastal region of the state. A decision to constitute the Maharashtra Port Connectivity Corporation has been taken for development of ports and related projects. The New Port Development Policy 2015 has been planned to synchronise with ‘Make in Maharashtra’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ policies. Policy covers greenfield ports, jetties, coastal shipping and inland waterways, shipyards, coastal economic zones and facilitation for maritime projects. The state government has announced sops including concession on VAT, stamp duty, electricity duty, port tax and tariff.

Hong Kong is to establish a new government body - Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board - this year that oversees the local maritime sector, in a bid to enhance the city’s shipping sector. Hong Kong's chief executive Leung Chun-ying in his annual policy address for this year announced that the government will merge the existing Maritime Industry Council (MIC) and the Port Development Council (PDC) to form a new Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board. The board, to be chaired by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, will promote manpower development, marketing and research on all fronts to develop a high value-added maritime services sector, he said.

The Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) visited ship recycling yards in Alang, India this week and took the opportunity to hold dialogue with SRIA, following the first meeting in March this year in Singapore, to exchange views on future actions to be jointly implemented. Purpose of this visit was to get the first-hand look at current status of Indian ship recycling facilities and to confirm actions that should be taken next for achieving green ship recycling. Throughout the visit, the ASF was convinced that advanced recyclers, some of which had recently obtained Hong Kong Convention Statements of Compliance issued by ClassNK, operated their services with close attention given to ensure the safety of workers and environmental protection in accordance with the Hong Kong Convention.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fdnvis has said that the state's proposed port in terms of traffic in Palghar Dahanu district will compete with the port in Gujarat Mundda, reports PTI. "There is natural draught of 20 metres to receive bigger ships. A feasibility study for a satellite port has been completed internally. At present, there is only one big port in Maharashtra — JNPT. The new port will be an alternative to JNPT to decongest ship movement," Fadnavis said. The Dahanu port is being positioned as a multi-cargo port and aimed at decongesting the country's largest container port Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). State-owned JNPT and the Maharashtra Maritime Board had earlier signed an agreement to build the port, which will have a capacity of up to 100 million tonnes.

Port of Amsterdam signed a Letter of Intent (Lol) with Gujarat Ports Infrastructure & Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Gujarat Maritime Board. The intention is to enhance trade between Gujarat and Amsterdam and intensify existing cooperation. The signing of LoI by AK Rakesh, Chairman of Gujarat Ports Infrastructure & Development Company Limited and CEO and Vice-Chairman of Gujarat Maritime Board and Anthony Van Der Hoest, Commercial Director-Logistics, Port of Amsterdam took place in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India) during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. Attending the summit was part of a trade mission of several Dutch companies. Port of Amsterdam will increase cooperation in the development of ports in Gujarat state.

The working and living conditions at the shipbreaking yards of Alang, India, remain alarmingly poor, argues a new study published in the Economic & Political Weekly, an Indian Social Science journal. The research was commissioned and financed by the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) and was coordinated by Dr. Geetanjoy Sahu from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). TISS’ findings are based on field work in Alang from April 2013 to May 2014 including interviews with 300 shipbreaking workers as well as stakeholders from the industry, trade unions and authorities.

Essar Ports Ltd. (Essar Ports), part of the Essar, today announced its unaudited results for the quarter ended September 2014. *Revenue for the quarter increased by 1% at Rs. 435.3 crore as against Rs. 431.6 crore during previous quarter (Q1 FY15)and  increased by 7% from Rs. *EBITDA for the quarter increased by 4% to Rs. 361.4crore from Rs. 346.8 crore during the previous quarter (Q1 FY15) and increased by 9% from Rs. *Net Profit for the quarter has increased by 4% to Rs. 96.1crore from Rs. 92.2 crore during the previous quarter (Q1 FY15) and reduced by 1% from Rs. *Earnings per Share as at Q2 FY15 were at Rs 2.25. Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, Managing Director, Essar Ports Ltd.

During the south west monsoon, the port conservator/port officer of Bhavnagar Port reserves the right to restrict the number of vessels arriving at Bhavnagar Port for loading/unloading purpose in inner anchorage, keeping in view the adverse weather conditon as well as tidal streams for the safety of the port and the vessel. As of now, during fair weather, maximum three cargo vessels are allowed at inner anchorage. Source: Gujarat Maritime Board

For enhancing the draft in ports or undertaking major dredging projects, India still relies on foreign dredging giants, a situation not likely to change unless the government comes out with a policy encouraging investment in the dredging industry. European dredging giants continue to make a clean sweep of all major Indian dredging projects, a market condition largely attributed to the lack of an environment conducive to encouraging Indian companies into large scale dredging. In short, there are no parallel “protectionist policies” in place like those that exists in several maritime countries. Big players in the India dredging market…

Built in its entirety at the Craftway Engineers boat-building yard, the 23-meter FRP boat is the first of 13 sophisticated composite vessels to be constructed on site in India. At Craftway Engineers, it is all about the customer, the company said. With a blend of creativity, commitment and innovative thinking, the Mumbai-based company specializes in the construction of tailor-made composite vessels, meeting the specific requirements of the customer. A member of the SHM group of companies, Craftway Engineers is rapidly developing the industry of FRP vessels in India.

A steel cutting ceremony held last week at the Singapore shipyard of partner company, ASL Shipyard Pte Ltd. marked the start of construction for the first of three infield support vessels (ISVs) being constructed by Perth-based KT Maritime Services Australia Pty Ltd to support Shell’s Prelude FLNG project near Broome. KT Maritime Services Australia Director, Mark Thomas, said this major contract for the design, construction and operation of the three 42-meter, 100-metric-tonne bollard-pull ISVs at the Prelude site 475km north-north east of Broome was a major milestone for the company.

Guardian Maritime Ltd. announced the appointment of Jean Winfield as its new Marketing Director, strengthening their worldwide management team. Jean has more than 20 years’ experience in public relations and marketing, with the last 15 years being specifically in maritime having been involved with many shipping companies and events across the globe. She joins Guardian Maritime’s board having already worked with the company through her PR and marketing company Jeanius Consulting and is delighted to take on the new additional role.