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Thursday, August 28, 2014

SAFETY
LOADING GUIDELINES ON
SELF-HEATING COAL CARGOES
The West of England P&I Club has issued
Loss Prevention Bulletin on the monitoring of
self- heating coal cargoes from Indonesia prior
to loading. Indonesian coal cargoes can be
particularly challenging to carry, with the
possibility of methane production, oxygen
depletion and the corrosion of metal
structures.
The Bulletin provides guidance on the
factors that may trigger or promote
self-heating and includes precautionary
measures that should be taken to help identify
and reject coal arriving by barge that has
already begun to self-heat.
If a vessel loads such a cargo without
recognising the warning signs, it may
experience significant delay, while attempting
to deal with the situation due to the remote
location of coal ports in Indonesia.
Although cargo interests will almost certainly
be aware of the propensity for many grades of
Indonesian coal to self-heat due to its
geological and chemical nature, cargo
declarations often fail to mention this.
As a precaution, all Indonesian coal should
be considered to be self-heating regardless of
what is stated on the cargo declaration.
When a coal barge arrives alongside, the
temperature of the cargo declared to the
vessel, will usually be an average figure.
However, even though the average figure
may be less than 55C, it is possible that the
temperature of the cargo may be higher than
this in places.
If so, it cannot be loaded as to do so would
contravene the requirements of the IMSBC
Code.
Source: West of England P&I Club

Storm surge halts vessel

operations at Long Beach
Two cargo terminals at the Port of Long Beach
suspended day long vessel operations on August
27 because 10- to 15-foot high wave surges,
powered by Pacific Hurricane Marie, raises
longshore workers' safety concerns.
However, all other terminals at the Port of
Long Beach remain open for vessel operations.
The powerful surges forced two barges broke
loose from their anchorage on Tuesday night.
Later on, both the barges were towed and
docked at berths. A pleasure craft also had to be
towed to safety.
No injuries have been reported.

AMSA bans repeat offender

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority
(AMSA) has issued a direction to a container
ship that prohibits the ship from entering or
using any Australian port. The decision was
taken due to repeated breaches, by the vessel,
relating to seafarer welfare and maintenance
issues.
According to a press release, the
Liberian-flagged containership had been
detained by AMSA on three occasions since
July 25, 2013 with repeated concerns for the
welfare of the crew including improper payment
of wages, inadequate living and working
conditions and inadequate maintenance resulting
in an unseaworthy and substandard vessel.
General Manager of AMSA's Ship Safety
Division Allan Schwartz said that vessels
entering Australian ports must ensure they meet
minimum international standards.
"Vessels that do not meet such standards,
including standards for the welfare and

treatment of crew, pose an increased risk to

seafarers, safe operations and the marine
environment," he said.
"Seafarer welfare is just as important as the
proper maintenance of ship equipment and an
integral part of safe operations. A failure in
either system could lead to serious accidents,"
he added.
Australia is a signatory to the Maritime
Labour Convention 2006 and AMSA takes its
responsibilities for ensuring compliance with all
international safety conventions seriously.
"Seafarers live a tough life under even the best
of circumstances, spending many months at sea
away from family and friends," said Schwartz.
Those minimum standards are applicable to
the 1.4 million seafarers who live and work on
international ships.
The direction will remain in place for three
months.

EU to beef up border agency to

deal with migrants

Stricken product tanker arrives

in San Francisco for repairs

The EC agreed on Wednesday to Italian

demands to replace Rome's politically unpopular
emergency operation for rescuing would-be
refugees crossing the Mediterranean with an
EU-wide project.
The European Commissioner for Home
Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, announced plans to
beef up the European border patrol agency at a
news conference in Brussels alongside Italy's
interior minister. She urged all EU member
states to contribute planes, ships and personnel
to the "Frontex Plus" operation she hopes to
launch by November.
Italy began its EUR 9.5 million a month
"Mare Nostrum" operation last October after
360 migrants drowned off the Sicilian island of
Lampedusa.
Refugee numbers have since swelled as
thousands of people have fled conflicts in Syria,
Iraq and across the Mideast and Africa, boarding
unsafe smugglers' boats in Libya bound for
Europe. So far, nearly 110,000 people have been
rescued since January, but at least 1,889 others
have died making the perilous crossing, the UN
refugee agency said.
Italy has demanded the EU do more to help
out, arguing that it shouldn't bear the burden
alone since most migrants want to settle in
northern Europe, not Italy. (AP)

A disabled mixed-products tanker has arrived in

San Francisco for repairs. Escorted by the Coast
Guard Cutter Pike and the crew of a Coast
Guard Station San Francisco 45-foot Response
medium boat, commercial tugs towed the ship
safely into the Port of San Francisco.
The ship had experienced a fire in the engine
room on August 13 while the vessel was in
North Pacific en route from Los Angeles to
South Korea. The vessel was adrift for several
days before a commercial tug arrived on scene
and towed the vessel to port.
The fire, which occurred earlier this month,
resulted in the death of one crewmember and left
the 12.105gt ship without power or propulsion.
The fire was extinguished by the shipboard
firefighting system.
According to a report from the Associated
Press, the vessel was carrying a cargo of
propylene tetramer, but the cargo area was not
damaged in the fire.
According to the USCG, there are no reports
of damage to the ship's cargo fuel tanks or hull.
The Bahamas-flagged tanker had a crew of 22
people.

PAGE 2 - Thursday, August 28, 2014

SHIPPING DATA

BALTIC EXCHANGE
Market snapshot: 11:30 GMT
Dry Index
BDI
1063
Capesize Index
BCI
2366
Panamax Index
BPI
811
Supramax Index
BSI
952
Handysize Index
BHSI
427

-7
-64
+3
+8
+7

EXCHANGE RATES
New York (Wed Cls)
Fgn Currency
in USD
Britain (Pound)
1.6580
Canada (Dollar)
0.9225
China (Yuan)
0.1628
Euro
1.3196
India (Rupee)
0.0166
Indonesia (Rupiah) 0.000086
Japan (Yen)
0.009626
Norway (Krone)
0.1618
Philippines (Peso)
0.0229
Poland (Zloty)
0.3143
Russia (Ruble)
0.0276
Singapore (Dollar)
0.8020
Ukraine (Hryvnia)
0.0720

USD in Fgn
Currency
0.6031
1.0840
6.1435
0.7578
60.3500
11685.00
103.8800
6.1800
43.6400
3.1800
36.1886
1.2468
13.8955

BIMCO launches survey on

biofouling treatment
BIMCO has launched a survey to find out
methods that ship owners and operators use for
the treatment of biofouling. The survey will also
highlight facts on the performance of various
methods on different ships and over varying
time periods.
A lack of collective knowledge on biofouling
management and treatment practices in the
shipping industry has inspired the service
providers to initiate the study.
According to Chief Marine Technical Officer
at BIMCO Aron Sorensen, BIMCO would like
to build a clearer picture of practice and
performance for biofouling management and
how current antifouling technologies are
performing on various shiptypes.
Sorensen, who is leading the study, said: "We
will use and share the outcome to work on the
industry's behalf to highlight any issues of
concern. Once analysed, the survey result could
form the basis for a BIMCO submission to the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO)."

ENVIRONMENT

NGO applauds Hapag-Lloyd

ship recycling policy
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has hailed
Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd's new, progressive
ship recycling policy.
Issuing a statement, a Hapag-Lloyd
spokesperson said: "While previously our
second-hand ships were used for a longer time
by their new owners after we had sold them, we
recently had to realise that buyers had passed on
the ships more and more rapidly for demolition,
in particular to ship breakers who use the
beaching method. As this method of
ship-breaking does not fulfil Hapag-Lloyd's
strict criteria for workers' safety and
environmental protection, we ourselves will in
the future monitor and supervise the
professional recycling of ships in a certified
facility following the requirements of the Hong
Kong Convention."

Welcoming this progressive policy, the

Platform strongly encourages other ship owners
to follow Hapag-Lloyd's example to use modern
ship recycling facilities.
"We hope that Hapag-Lloyd will be an
inspiring example for more German ship owners
and other leading companies in the maritime
industry in Europe and beyond," said Patrizia
Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform.

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TECHNOLOGY

UAS makes successful landing at

USCG icebreaker
The US Coast Guard (USCG) and National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
researchers have reported the successful landing
of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) on the
flight deck of USCG Cutter 'Healy'.
This was the first time, the Puma AE, a UAS,
has completed a take-off and landing aboard a
Coast Guard icebreaker.
The operators made several unsuccessful
attempts to land the Puma AE on the
icebreaker's flight deck.
The UAS is equipped with an electro-optical
and infra-red camera plus illuminator on a
lightweight mechanical gimbaled payload
allowing its operator to keep constant watch
over the device's target.
The researchers and crew aboard the Healy
left Seward, Alaska, on August 8 to conduct
testing of UAS and other technologies for use as
oil spill tracking tools.

SECURITY

'USCG fires in self-defence'

A USCG vessel fired in self-defence on an
Iranian boat in the Persian Gulf, the Navy said
on Wednesday, an encounter that could
exacerbate tensions between the two countries as
they work to hammer out a lasting deal over
Iran's nuclear programme.
Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the
US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said
personnel on a small boat dispatched from the
USCG patrol boat fired a single shot when it
saw crew on a nearby Iranian dhow training one
of its two .50-caliber machine guns on them and
preparing to fire.
"This action by the dhow's crew demonstrated
hostile intent which resulted in the defensive fire
by the Coast Guardsmen," he said.
Dhows are traditional wooden boats common
to the region that are typically used for trade.
No Americans were wounded in the
encounter, which happened in international
waters around 11:30am local time on Tuesday,
Stephens said.
The Monomoy was operating on "a routine
maritime security operation" when it contacted
the dhow's bridge. After initial contact, the
Iranian vessel stopped communicating and the
Coast Guard ship deployed small boat to
investigate, Stephens said. (AP)

WORLD TRAVEL
MYSTERIOUS LOCATIONS
It's easy saying that since man has
conquered the Moon, perhaps there's
nothing left on our planet to perplex the
human mind anymore, right up to the
moment when you look at some of these
places on Earth that will make you ponder
upon nature's complexity:
Magnetic Hill, Moncton, Canada
Drive to this hill, turn off the ignition,
release the brakes and the vehicle will roll
backward uphill! There are speculations
that it could be a magnetic force from within
the Earth or an optical illusion, however the
spot still remains a puzzle.
Racetrack Playa, California
It was first discovered in 1915, when a
couple noticed tracks made on the dry
surface of the valley, which indicated that
the stones had somehow travelled across
the valley floor, sketching lines in the mud.
According to physicists, ice around the
rocks help them 'sail' around in the valley.
Eternal Flame Falls, New York
Behind a curtain of falling water, at the
Shale Creek Preserve section of Chestnut
Ridge Park in New York, is a live fire that
never dies. The flickering golden flame
lives on what geologists call a macroseep
of natural gas from the within the Earth. It
extinguishes at times due to the waterfall,
but some or the other passing by hiker
lights it up and keeps it going.
Blood Falls, Antarctica
As the name suggests, it is a blood-red
water fall. What makes it more prominent is
that it is surrounded by snow, making the
sight all the more arresting on white
background. Glaciologists and
microbiologists have long sought to find out
why, and concluded that the source is a
subterranean lake rich in the iron that gives
the water its red hue.
Relampago del Catatumbo, Venezuela
The southwestern corner of Lake
Maracaibo in Venezuela is known for the
world's highest frequency of lightning
activity (250 flashes per square kilometre
per year). The lake sometimes sees 25 or
more flashes per minute. To put that in
perspective - the weather boffins classify
anything over 12 strikes per minute as
"excessive".