Workable Solution News

Heavy lift shipping and offshore transport and installation contractor Jumbo Offshore reports it has executed the transport and installation of a torpedo pile mooring system, including mooring for flexible risers, umbilical for the Libra Consortium's Guanabara floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO). While this type of installation previously required the mobilization of up to three anchor handling tugs, Jumbo carried out the entire contract using only its J-class offshore installation vessel Fairplayer…

Sir Michael Bibby was elected President of the UK Chamber of Shipping at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting in London. He becomes the Chamber’s 132nd president in its 140th year. John Denholm, chairman of J&J Denholm, was elected Vice-President at the meeting, which was attended by over 100 people from the Chamber’s member companies. Sir Michael is planning to step back from his position as Managing Director of Bibby Line Group during 2018 to allow him to better focus his time on external work interests, including his involvement with the UK Chamber. He used his inaugural speech as President to praise the Chamber’s rising political and media influence, and its success with the SMarT Plus campaign, a joint proposal with Nautilus that became Government policy in February.

The European Commission released its report on the viability of a financial incentive for sustainable ship recycling under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation this week. Whilst it acknowledges the benefits for clean and safe ship recycling such an incentive would bring, the European Commission has decided to wait with its introduction. NGOs urge the EU to take action now as it is well documented that ship owners will with ease be able to circumvent the EU Ship Recycling Regulation by simply swapping the flag of their vessel to that of a non-EU State. The report of the European Commission is based on the study which was conducted by Ecorys, DNV-GL and the University of Rotterdam/Erasmus, and published at the end of 2016.

For more than 15 years Christina Desimone has driven Future Care to be a transcendent maritime medical care enterprise. While the company fully embraces technology and the advent of telemedicine, it ventures far beyond traditional maritime medical solution providers, managing the logistics of effective and efficient mariner care from the beginning of the incident to its medical conclusion. As many global maritime sectors struggle to regain profitable footing, medical care for crews at sea is not exactly on top of the list discussion…

Interferry has unveiled a strategic plan promising to put safety issues at the heart of its work as the voice of the worldwide ferry industry. The pledge came at the global trade association’s 41st annual conference in Manila – a venue chosen to spotlight the challenges of domestic ferry safety in developing nations. According to Interferry, the plan signals its overriding ambition to help lift ferry safety in all parts of the world to the very high standard already in place in North America and Europe, where casualties in recent decades have been extremely rare.

2015 saw further growth in total Group entered tonnage, which increased from 1,047 billion GT as at August 2014 to 1,088 billion GT as at August 2015, says annual review of International Group P&I Clubs (IGP&I) published by Gard on July 14, 2016. The global order book has fallen 12% by vessel numbers and 8% by GT since the beginning of 2016. World fleet growth over the past year has remained broadly static and, according to Clarksons in 2015, it was just under 4%, down from the highs of between 7% and 9% annual growth in the 2000s. In addition, new building deliveries over the past year show a marked reduction in all vessel sectors. After a significant decline in demolition activity in the second half of 2015, scrapping has now resumed to around same levels as it was a year ago.

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) presented its new brochure on the merits of short sea shipping during  a high level meeting organised by the Dutch Presidency of the Council. The intention behind this new initiative is to revitalise the EU’s short sea policy, which has unfortunately been neglected in the past years. “Short Sea Shipping has been on the EU’s agenda for a long time” said Niels Smedegaard, ECSA President. “Despite many good initiatives, a number of long-standing problems have not been resolved, the market share of short sea shipping has stagnated, and worse still, declined in recent years. "Moving goods and people by sea around Europe instead of using other modes will decongest land-based transport networks…

In an initiative led by trade association Interferry, a special correspondence group has been formed to recommend sector-specific metrics for ro-pax vessels under pending implementation rules for European Union (EU) legislation on the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide emissions. From January 1, 2018 the legislation – designed to gauge the energy efficiency of a ship’s ‘transport work’ – will require all vessels of more than 5,000gt operating to or from EU ports to document and report their fuel consumption on an annual basis.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that expanded oil drilling in federal waters could be included in a broader energy bill if advocates can prove its effectiveness as a solution to 's energy problems. In a television interview yesterday, Pelosi said the oil industry and its allies in Congress also would have to agree to pay royalties on oil profits to fund the development of renewable energy resources. The California Democrat, has previously expressed outright opposition to expanded offshore drilling. Yesterday she said offshore drilling should be discussed but she does not believe it is a workable solution in the short run. Source:  AP

INTERTANKO commends the agreement between the members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) that the new Common Structural Rules for tankers and for bulk carriers will be adopted by all IACS members. More than five years ago, INTERTANKO played a major role in calling for such rules, and has since been actively involved with the class societies, and with the Tripartite talks between shipowners, shipbuilders and class, to help transform these important changes from theory into reality. When this association called earlier this year for good rules and common rules as quickly as possible, its Chairman Stephen Van Dyck added that the speed of completion should be achieved without sacrificing their quality and efficiency.