crime against ships and crew in Asia declines in 2021
Singapore Strait is one area of concern reporting the only increase in crime in 2021 (file photo)

PUBLISHED AUG 13, 2021 6:41 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

The number of incidents against ships in Asia declined significantly in the first half of 2021 falling to the second-lowest level in the past fourteen years. The six-month report on piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia released by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) highlights the decline in serious crime while reporting five incidents, including one where a crew member was threatened with “an improvised gun,” in July.

“The total number of incidents of armed robbery against ships in Asia reported during January-July 2021 has deceased compared to 2020,” ReCAAP reports. “However, of concern is the persistent occurrence of incidents in the Singapore Strait and the continued threat of abduction of crew in the Sulu-Celebes Seas and the waters off Eastern Sabah (Indonesia).”

On the five incidents reported to ReCAAP last month, one however included a higher level of violence. It happened on July 17 in the anchorage in Manila. The duty watcher aboard the Maersk Nussfjord containership encountered an unidentified person at the forecastle of the vessel who pointed “an improvised gun at the back of the duty watcher’s head.” During the incident, the perpetrator took the watchman’s two-way radio and tied him to the railing of the ship. Seven other unidentified persons then boarded the ship, broke the padlock of the boatswain mate locker, and took away one roll of new spare rope mooring line. After they left, the watchman untied himself from the railings and reported the incident.

The other reports in July included two further boardings both in the eastbound lane of the Singapore Strait, which is a continuing area of concern for ReCAAP with a total of 22 reports in the first six months of the year. In one case, five people armed with knives were seen aboard a bulk carrier but left without stealing anything, and another sighting was of a single individual also armed with a knife who was discovered and left without taking anything. There were also two other incidents where equipment was stolen ranging from fire hose couplings to power tools and a welding machine in anchorages in Manila and Indonesia.

Despite these reports, overall incidents in Asia were down by a third in the first half of 2021 versus 2020. According to ReCAAP, it is the second-lowest level between January to July from 2007 to 2021. They further reported that there were no incidents of piracy and no crew were abducted in 2021. Currently, ReCAAP is not aware of any cases where crew members are being held in captivity in Asia.

Beyond the increase in incidents in the Singapore Strait, ReCAAP says the majority of reports were from the Philippines and Indonesia. There were only three reports in Indian and two in Vietnam, while there were none in Bangladesh, the South China Sea, or the Sulu-Celebes Seas in the first half of 2021.

Of the 41 total incidents reported this year, in nearly two-thirds the perpetrators were not armed, often fled when they were discovered, and no crew was harmed.

ReCAAP credits the ongoing patrols and law enforcement efforts as well as reporting. They however cautioned that until the perpetrators are arrested incidents are likely to continue and that heightened vigilance must be maintained.

 

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/incidents-against-ships-declined-significantly-in-asia-in-2021


pack ice
Merchant vessels under way in ice on an Arctic convoy run (Lt. J.A. Hampton / Royal Navy)

PUBLISHED AUG 16, 2021 10:55 PM BY ROYAL NAVY NEWS

 

Eighty years to the day that sailors left Liverpool on “the worst journey in the world,” wartime allies paid tribute to the merchant mariners of the WWII Arctic convoys.

Representatives from the UK, United States, Canada and Russia gathered in St Nicholas’ Parish Church to remember nearly 3,000 sailors who sacrificed their lives to deliver vital aid to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945.

They ran the gauntlet of Nazi sea and air power and faced horrendous weather conditions – snow, ice, sub-zero temperatures, weeks of perpetual darkness in winter and little hope of rescue if they went in the water – to reach the ports of Murmansk and Archangel.

The mission – which began on August 12 1941 with the first convoy, Operation Dervish, sailing from the Mersey – was dubbed “the worst journey in the world” by Winston Churchill.

The heavily-guarded Dervish convoy reached northern Russia without incident – it caught the Germans by surprise and they made no efforts to attack it. But they did attack many of the subsequent 77 convoys which came within range of U-boats and German bombers based in occupied Norway.

Sixteen Royal Navy warships were lost and 1,944 Senior Service personnel were killed, while 85 of the 1,400 merchant ships which took part in the Arctic runs were sunk, a loss rate 17 times higher than in the Atlantic campaign. More than 800 merchant sailors died.

“In a war of national survival, the operational and logistical challenges for the Arctic Convoys were tremendous and we should all admire the courage of both the Merchant Fleet and the Armed Forces as they faced the harshest conditions imaginable,” said Lieutenant Colonel Guy Balmer RM, the RN’s Deputy Regional Commander.

The Royal Navy’s senior engineer Rear Admiral Jim Higham, Defence Minister Baroness Goldie, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Minister Wendy Morton, and military representatives from Russia, the USA and Canada took part in the ceremony. After the service wreaths were laid at the Arctic Convoys Memorial in the church grounds before participants moved to the nearby Western Approaches Museum, from where the battle against the U-boat was directed for most of World War 2. Commemorations concluded at Liverpool’s town hall with a reception for 150 people, with two Arctic veterans the guests of honour.

“Those who sailed on the convoy displayed exceptional bravery in some of the most challenging circumstances in World War 2,” said Minister Morton. “Today, on the 80th anniversary of the first convoy’s departure from Liverpool, we honor all those who served and pay tribute to their heroism and sacrifice. They played a major role in the shared history between the UK and Russia – and the ultimate Allied victory.”

Their sacrifice was not in vain. Over four years, they delivered four million tonnes of supplies to the Soviet war effort – about one quarter of the total aid they provided to the USSR between 1941 and 1945. The 7,000 aircraft and 5,000 tanks, plus trucks, cars, fuel, medicines, metals and other raw materials helped the Soviets to defeat the Germans on the Eastern Front

 

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/royal-navy-pays-tribute-to-wwii-arctic-convoys-on-80th-anniversary


ussc
Image courtesy USSC

PUBLISHED AUG 16, 2021 5:07 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Seacor Holdings, a Florida-based shipping conglomerate owned by American Industrial Partners, has purchased competitor U.S. Shipping Corporation (USSC). U.S. Shipping is a privately-held Jones Act product tanker owner, and it operates primarily on the U.S. East Coast, Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico trade lanes.

USSC’s two tankers and four ATBs will be folded into Seacor’s tanker division, Seabulk. The transaction leaves Seabulk with 15 vessels of between 150,000-330,000 barrels of capacity.

“Combining these two fleets and operating teams will provide our respective customers with enhanced flexibility, best-in-class equipment, and excellent service well into the future,” said Seabulk CEO Dan Thorogood in a statement.

The move follows just four months after Seacor Holdings went private in a transaction with American Industrial Partners (AIP), a private equity firm based in New York. With the acquisition of Seacor and (through Seacor) the purchase of U.S. Shipping Corp., AIP is building a major presence in the Jones Act market.

AIP has been expanding in the U.S. coastwise sector for several years, especially in the Great Lakes. In 2018, AIP bought the Great Lakes shipping firm Rand Logistics out of bankruptcy. Two years later, acting through Rand Logistics as a subsidiary, AIP bought American Steamship Company – the largest operator of U.S.-flagged vessels on the Great Lakes. It integrated ASC into Rand, and it now operates a fleet of 24 vessels along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, including domestic voyages both within Canada and within the U.S.

In February, Oaktree Capital Management acquired a “significant” minority stake in Rand; AIP retains majority ownership.

 

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/aip-expands-again-with-seacor-s-purchase-of-ussc


rcm sar 27
Image courtesy RCM SAR 27

PUBLISHED AUG 16, 2021 9:43 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

On Sunday, the Canadian Coast Guard and the B.C. Ferries car ferry Queen of Alberni helped save 14 people from a sinking vessel off Nanaimo, Vancouver Island.

The Canadian Armed Forces’ Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria received a distress call from a vessel at a position off Gabriola Island at about 1345 hours. A small charter boat with 14 people on board had begun taking on water near Pilot Bay, and its passengers needed evacuation.

Multiple vessels responded to the distress call, a spokesperson for the coordination center told the Vancouver Sun, including the Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft Siyay; the Queen of Alberni; nearby commercial and private boats; and response boats from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station in Nanaimo. The Alberni launched her fast rescue boat, but the survivors were already rescued by other responders by the time it arrived on scene.

“We were asked to assist with a vessel in distress near Entrance Island yesterday afternoon,” BC Ferries spokesperson Astrid Chang told local media. “The Queen of Alberni was travelling from Duke Point to Tsawwassen at the time and we launched our rescue boat, but we didn’t take anyone on board as we were stood down.”

The Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft took all of the rescuees on board and delivered them safely to Richmond, BC. Meanwhile, a small-craft tow operator managed to keep the sinking boat afloat with a salvage pump, then brought it safely back to a nearby marina for repairs, according to local media.

 

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https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/bc-ferries-good-samaritans-rescue-14-from-sinking-boat-off-vancouver


Nasdaq-listed Greek boxship owner Euroseas has sealed a new charter for 1998-built 2,008 teu boxship Diamantis P.

The charter, with an unnamed client, is for a period of 36 to 40 months at a daily rate of $27,000 which represents a 315% increase on the current charter at $6,500 per day. Commencement of the new charter is scheduled for between October 5 and October 15, after the vessel completes a drydocking.

Euroseas announced the deal while releasing its latest set of results, where it posted a quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $10.3m.

Aristides Pittas, chairman and CEO of Euroseas, commented: “Containership markets, both charter rates and secondhand prices, have continued unabated their upward path that started in the fall of last year reaching all time highs in all size segments. Selected short term fill-the-gap charters have been reported in extremely high levels while long term charters of two to five years are widely offered by charterers for the various types and ages of vessels. There is no doubt that part of the near term increase in demand for vessels is fueled by the inefficiencies brought about by the effects of the Covid pandemic in the transportation system, in addition to rebounding trade growth. However, the strong demand for securing capacity for the medium and longer term can only come from expectations that vessel capacity will be in short supply in view of the expected demand. We believe that the favorable market fundamentals will continue as incremental regulatory requirements coming in 2023 will further restrict the effective supply of vessels and assist in absorbing increased new deliveries starting from the latter part of 2023 onwards as a result of recently placed newbuilding orders.

“Chartering-wise, we have pursued to-date a staggered expiration strategy which has allowed us to follow the upward path of the market having charters coming due for renewal on a rolling basis. Today, we announced the three-year long charter of our vessel, Diamantis P, at a rate of $27,000 per day which will provide us with more than $28.5 million of contracted revenues and $21 million EBITDA during the term of the charter. As the containership markets keep their present levels or continue to rise, we expect our profitability to rise as well, in addition to providing increased visibility of our earnings which now extends into next year and in 2023.”

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Euroseas achieves 315% rate increase on new boxship charter


Having learnt lessons from the closure of Yantian Port earlier in the summer, a number of carriers are not hanging around waiting for Ningbo Meishan Island Container Terminal to open anytime soon, with several ships opting to skip Ningbo this week.

One port worker at the terminal was found to have contracted Covid-19 yesterday, resulting in the terminal being closed. Tests on the port’s workforce are underway, and the terminal is being decontaminated. For all other Ningbo terminals, the gate-in of export containers is now limited to two days of a vessel’s expected time of arrival.

“It seems the whole Meishan terminal is closed until further notice. All the shipping agents are running around trying to change to Shanghai,” one well placed source told Splash today.

There has been no official announcement yet on how long the terminal will be closed. The outbreak at Yantian in eastern Shenzhen in late May resulted in a partial lockdown lasting four weeks.

All the shipping agents are running around trying to change to Shanghai

The sheer enormity of Ningbo-Zhoushan port, the world’s largest port in tonnage terms, appears to have helped prevent a wider total port lockdown.

Meishan Island is approximately 30 km away from Ningbo’s major container terminal at Beilun, and 60 km away from Ningbo downtown.

Meishan accounts for approximately 20% of the near 30m teu that pass through the port each year. There are currently a total of 41 container services calling Meishan, eight into North America, six for Europe, and two for the Red Sea. The Meishan closure mainly impacts the Ocean Alliance, a grouping made up of Cosco, OOCL, CMA CGM and Evergreen.

Cosco and CMA CGM have already indicated that a number of ships will skip Ningbo this week.

“With this sudden suspension, we expect a delay in planned sailings,” Hapag-Lloyd stated in a note to clients yesterday.

The Covid closure comes at a time where both Ningbo and Shanghai had been experiencing severe congestion, the worst in the world, over the past two weeks. Data provided by MarineTraffic today (see map below, dots represent ships at anchor) shows the unprecedented volume of ships waiting for berth space to open up at Ningbo today.

All liners will face indirect ripples from this

“The liner companies organised in the Ocean Alliance are the main users of the Meishan terminal and will be directly affected, but all others will face indirect ripples from this. Important lessons were learned from Yantian, and to some extent the Suez Canal blockage, and they will all be put to work now,” commented Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO.

Sand went on to warn that further Covid-19-related port disruptions in China ought to be expected in the coming month, further sending skyrocketing container freight rates higher.

The World Container Index, published today by Drewry, climbed another $50 higher into record territory. The composite global index shows it now costs $9,421 to move an feu, more than four times the price tracked by Drewry a year ago.

Ningbo is also a large port for oil tankers and dry bulkers discharging in China.

“They could see support to freight rates from increased congestion,” Sand suggested.

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Ships divert from Ningbo with no timeframe given for terminal to reopen


Shippers frantically trying to book container shipments are faced with yet another hurdle in this most tricky of years for those involved in sea logistics, namely arriving at a correct price for a spot shipment.

Container shipping is hampered by having five providers of spot box information, and as the sector has soared to ever higher record territory the disparity in prices from the index providers has widened, adding to the confusion in the supply chain sector.

Analysis carried below by Vespucci Maritime shows the variance between the five indices, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI), the Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) and the Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI) and Platts.

Assessments from August 6 in USD/FFE:

Asia-N.Europe:
SCFI: 14,836
WCI: 13,653
FBX: 13,819
XSI: 13,663
Platts: 17,000

Additionally it appears that individual shipments have seen as much as 28,000 USD/FFE

Asia-USWC:
SCFI: 5,555
WCI: 10,322
FBX: 18,555
XSI: 6,758
Platts: 7,900

Additionally it appears that individual shipments have exceeded 20,000 USD/FFE

Discussing this increasing gap, Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, a Danish liner consultancy, explained via LinkedIn that the different index providers measure different things.

“They do not include the same customer mix, they do not include the same mix of surcharges, they do not include the same definition or inclusions of spot versus short-term contract. This is also to say that just because the indices diverge, it does not mean that one is ‘correct’ and the others are ‘wrong’,” Jensen explained.

The onus is on the shipper to understand which index most closely resembles their own business mix, Jensen advised.

As data providers have had to grapple with the skyrocketing rates, some indices have been found to be less than perfect. For instance, on July 28, Freightos and the Baltic Exchange, who administer the FBX, admitted that some outlier data is now being excluded in order to more accurately reflect market conditions. This resulted in a significant one-time adjustment that removed outliers and substantially increased rates on China/ East Asia-US FBX lanes, which now account for the premium surcharges required for bookings.

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Shippers bamboozled by growing disparity between liner shipping’s five index providers


There is still no indication when operations at a container terminal in the world’s largest port will resume following a single Covid outbreak earlier this week.

The Ningbo Meishan Island Container Terminal, also known as Meishan terminal, suspended operations at 3:30 am local time on Wednesday after a double jabbed, 34-year-old worker came down with the delta variant of Covid-19.

Ningbo, lying to the south of Shanghai, is by some distance the world’s largest port in overall tonnage terms, and ranks third in the world for container throughput with Meishan accounting for roughly one fifth of the approximate 30m teu throughput of the port.

Expect to add another day onto your dwell time for every day Ningbo Meishan terminal is closed

Since Wednesday, the authorities have identified more than 4,000 port staff to go through further Covid tests. There has been no official announcement of any further positive cases being detected.

“This closure has continued … and has the possibility of being closed for up to 14 days,” UK-headquartered logistics outfit World Transport Agency (WTA) warned in an update on the ramifications for global supply chains in the wake of the terminal closure.

There is now more than 200,000 teu worth of boxships anchored off Ningbo, according to Splash estimates. The giant port was already experiencing some of the worst congestion in the world before the Covid case struck thanks to new Covid operating procedures and a recent typhoon.

“While other terminals remain open, they are facing heavy congestion. With a current waiting time of 2-3 days, this time is likely to increase further as carriers change route away from Ningbo Port,” WTA predicted.

Nerijus Poskus, vice president of global ocean at logistics platform Flexport, commented: “We don’t know how long this closure will last, but with average wait times currently at two to four days, expect to add another day onto your dwell time for every day Ningbo Meishan terminal is closed. For any cargo already going through that terminal, it’s not a question of if it will be impacted but for how long.”

Poskus’s advice for urgent cargo that isn’t already at Ningbo is for shippers to arrange trucking as long as a special RNA test is not required for drivers to Shanghai and then pay for premium ocean services from there.

Lars Jensen, CEO of Danish liner consultancy Vespucci Maritime, told Splash the Ningbo outage could cause operational disruptions larger than those already experienced in 2021.

“It will not only impact export cargo from the specific terminal but will add pressure on both Ningbo and Shanghai ports, worsen equipment shortages in East China and cause added ripples for reefer slot shortage at terminals in the region and when re-opened it could cause another wave of cargo surge at destinations in North America and Europe,” Jensen warned.

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All eyes on Ningbo as global supply chains await news of terminal’s reopening


The stage is set in Washington DC for a bitter fight between global carriers and politicians.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers, pressed by agricultural exporters, yesterday introduced the Ocean Shipping Reform Act into Congress, a bill which would put in place new minimum requirements for service contracts and give the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) greater powers.

Carriers have responded to this possible clampdown arguing it is unfair and risks making goods in the US more expensive.

American supply chains have been stretched like never before in peacetime this year, while carriers are on course to post record profits.

The control of shipping by a handful of ocean carriers has really eliminated competition

Representative Dusty Johnson, a co-author of the bill, commented: “It makes it clear that there can be no unreasonable refusal to carry freight. Number two, it improves the enforcement, it does things like, allowing the FMC to self initiate investigations. It allows registration and shipping exchanges, it puts into place anti-retaliation safeguards and, critically important, shifts the burden of proof to the carriers. Then finally, this legislation does a lot to increase transparency with quarterly reports and annual reports to Congress.”

California Democrat John Gerimundi, the other co-author, hit out at what he sees as an oligopoly in container shipping.

“The problem was severe, the control of the shipping by a handful or two handfuls of ocean carriers, really eliminated the competition that had been in place for many, many years prior to the increased consolidation,” Gerimundi said.

The Washington DC-based World Shipping Council (WSC), container shipping’s lobby group, said the proposed act was flawed. The WSC said in statement that liners were not solely responsible for the current supply chain congestion, while the legislation was “infused with fundamental unfairness”.

“The supply chain congestion is widespread. Every link in the supply chain—from marine terminals, to truckers, to rail cars and warehouses—is under tremendous strain. It is unrealistic, inequitable, and unproductive to try to address these supply chain-wide challenges by regulating only one class of supply chain participants—ocean carriers,” the WSC argued, suggesting the legislation was designed to tilt the market in favour of shippers in commercial disputes.

The bill is due for further discussion this month, while other parts of Washington DC are also trying to iron out today’s severe supply chain constraints.

Last month president Joe Biden issued an executive order to address competition in shipping, tapping the FMC to take all possible steps to protect American exporters from the high costs imposed by the ocean carriers and to crack down on unjust and unreasonable fees, including detention and demurrage charges.

In June the White House also announced the creation of a Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. Led by the secretaries of commerce, transportation and agriculture, the task force aims to bring together stakeholders “to diagnose problems and surface solutions – large and small, public or private – that could help alleviate bottlenecks and supply constraints”.

Other nations, including China, Vietnam and South Korea, have also looked into tackling high shipping costs over the past year.

 

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Washington debates taking action against global carriers


The deadline to apply for inclusion in Marine News magazine’s annual MN100 awards edition has been extended to September 1.

Each year, the publication profiles 100 of the top firms in the shallow-draft, brown water workboat space. Is your company one of the best? Apply now.

The 100 companies selected will be featured in the largest BPA-audited b-to-b publication in this genre. OEMs, service providers, shipyards, operators and the full gamut of marine-related businesses are eligible. But, only those who apply will be considered.

 

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https://www.marinelink.com/news/mn-application-deadline-extended-489808


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