Maritime Casualty Forum Held in Singapore

 

The two-day conference, hosted by global marine and engineering consultancy London Offshore Consultants (LOC), highlighted some of the vital issues in salvage and vessel wreck removal and in particular rising costs, technological challenges and the need for the parties involved in major casualties to work more closely together.

 

The industry has been challenged in recent times by such high profile shipping casualties as the Costa Concordia and the Rena.

 

Andrew Squire, LOC chief executive officer, said, “We decided to take the lead on hosting this event for the industry because many of the issues we now face have become critical. We believe the industry must now tackle the issues of rising cost as well as new technological and operational challenges.”

 

The gathering covered a range of topics including the current standard salvage and wreck removal contracts, technical innovations, casualty management, places of refuge and dispute resolution.

 

Delegates included salvors, ship owners, underwriters, senior representatives from the International Group of Protection & Indemnity (P&I) clubs, lawyers, flag state representatives, classification societies, ship registries, brokers, consultants and surveyors.

 

Several key initiatives were progressed during the two day meeting including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Maritime New Zealand, the maritime authority of NZ, and the International Group of P&I Clubs as part of the Clubs’ Outreach Project.

 

The forum’s keynote speaker and guest of honor was Tan Beng Tee, assistant chief executive (Development), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

 

Tan noted it was Singapore’s ambition to be a leading centre of maritime casualty handling expertise.

 

She said, “our advantage in Singapore as a maritime hub is that with more than 5,000 maritime establishments located here, companies are able to tap on a whole eco- system of maritime services and professionals.

 

“Recognizing this, key players integral to good marine casualty management have continued to set up operations in Singapore. For example, we have seen the entrance of Gard and the Japan P&I club over the past two years, bringing the number of International Group P&I Clubs with operations in Singapore to seven.

 

“As Singapore grows as a center for maritime salvage operations, we hope that industry players will also come together and discuss ideas to improve this complex and yet vital industry of marine casualty management.”

 

In another development, Hugh Shaw, the U.K. Secretary of State’s Representative, told delegates that he hoped a set of European Union guidelines on Ports of Refuge would be published by the end of the year.

 

The organizers hope another marine casualty forum on the same format will be arranged in Singapore again in 2017.