Green Group Asks Cosco to Avoid HFO in Arctic
Clean Arctic Alliance has sent its second letter to Cosco, in which the NGOs urge the Chinese liner company to make public what fuel types its vessels use in the Arctic.Responding to reports that the 190m-long COSCO-owned cargo vessel Tian’en is due to arrive in the Swedish port of Gävle on August 18, having traversed the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route between the Pacific and the Atlantic, Clean Arctic Alliance Lead Advisor Sian Prior said: “Earlier this year, the Clean Arctic Alliance wrote to COSCO requesting it make public the nature of the fuel that the Tian’en, and other COSCO vessels planning on transiting the Northern Sea Route, will be using and carrying through Arctic waters.
Maersk Explores Arctic Shipping Route with Russia
Shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Friday it is in talks with Russia's state-owned icebreaker operator to send more goods via the Arctic, which is becoming more accessible as climate change reduces the sea ice.Russia has made developing the so-called northern sea route (NSR) - which requires new ports and heavy icebreakers to move goods - a priority, with supporters dubbing the route the northern Suez Canal.Last summer, Maersk carried out what it said was a one-off trial…
North P&I Club Confirms 2011 Strategy
The ‘A’ rated 125 million GT North P&I club has confirmed its strategy for the start of its next 150 years will remain focused on service, strength and quality. According to joint managing director Paul Jennings, ‘Our strategic aims for the foreseeable future are still based on three principles: maintaining our financial and service strength, expanding our product range and increasing owned tonnage. We continue to make significant progress in each of these three areas’. The club has maintained its ‘A’ stable rating from Standard and Poor’s for the sixth consecutive year. In March 2011 it will move into a newly enlarged headquarters on Newcastle Quayside and total entered tonnage has grown 12% since the February 2010 renewal, recorded at 31 August 2010.
LNG Shipping: A New Game of Risk?
The rapidly changing environment of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market is leading to a whole new game of risk for P&I clubs, according to the ‘A’ rated, 75 million GT North of England P&I club. Salthouse says ownership of the world’s rapidly growing fleet of LNG vessels has diversified significantly recently to meet the anticipated global growth in gas use, and the new players are planning to operate the ships quite differently. ‘The LNG industry used to revolve around capital-intensive projects, with shipping playing a relatively minor part ‒ all that the vessels were required to do was go backwards and forward between two set terminals for which they had been specifically designed and built,’ he says.
