GENERAL Archives - SHIP IP LTD

Washington, D.C.—A federal watchdog agency told Congress the Maritime Administration (MarAd) should develop regulations to enforce cargo preference requirements intended to support the U.S.-flag shipping industry.

Those requirements are to ensure the industry has sufficient vessels and mariners to supplement the cargo-carrying capacity of military ships during times of war and national emergencies, said Andrew Von Ah, director of Physical Infrastructure, Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Appearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Von Ah based his testimony on GAO’s newly released report on enhancing cargo preference oversight.

GAO reported MarAd has never taken enforcement action on potential violations even though it has notified federal agencies and contractors of the potential violations. In its report, the agency blamed MarAd’s lack of enforcement action in part on its failure to develop regulations.

GAO also recommended that MarAd publicly report cargo preference data it receives.

Testifying on behalf of USA Maritime, Eric Ebeling, president and CEO of American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group, expressed hope the GAO report will demonstrate robust support for enforcement of cargo preference laws.

“U.S. cargo preference laws are crucial to the continued existence of the active, commercially viable, privately-owned U.S.-flag commercial shipping fleet, the most cost-effective sealift capability available to the U.S. government,” Ebeling said.

In her testimony to the panel, MarAd Administrator Ann Phillips, a retired Navy rear admiral, spoke of the importance of the Jones Act, the Maritime Security Program and cargo preference programs.

Phillips also testified about a future rulemaking effort, cited the Biden administration’s proposal to eliminate a three-year waiting period to attract new vessels and told the House panel of a summit with industry and labor on mariner recruitment and retention.

For some, however, those efforts would be doomed to fail.

“I believe we need a new law,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said, citing the lack of progress made by Phillips’ predecessors.   

Permitting Reform

Despite stout opposition from fellow Democrats and others, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicted success for his plan to place permitting reform legislation in a must-pass continuing resolution (CR) to keep federal agencies funded.

“I’m going to add it to the CR, and it will pass,” Schumer said.

He explained his agreement on moving permitting reform with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was part of an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act whose passage continues to be celebrated by President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, described the plan to attach Manchin’s fossil fuel “side deal” to the CR as an outrage.

“We must take on the greed of Big Oil & reject this dirty deal,” Sanders tweeted.

Over on the House side, more than 70 members have signed letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opposing putting a permitting rider in the CR.

Led by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, one letter described the language cited in media reports as “destructive provisions” that would allow polluting projects to be rushed through before those impacted would even be aware of them.

CG Reauthorization

A key Senate committee advanced a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the Coast Guard and providing funding to help keep the maritime economy moving and the ports and waterways safe.

Passed by a voice vote, S.4802 now goes to the full Senate.

In addition to the core mission, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said the bill also helps the Coast Guard crack down on illegal fishing, improve oil spill response and bolster the nation’s presence in the Arctic.

Cantwell also cited language she worked on with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to help members of the military become merchant mariners.

She was joined in introducing the bill by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the panel’s ranking member, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), chair of Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change and Manufacturing.

BWMS Updates

The Coast Guard has provided two clarifications on a Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) concerning a Type Approval Certificate’s expiration date and on the use of existing type approval data in BWMS type approval for viability.

According to an update posted on the Marine Safety Center’s website, a BWMS Type Approval Certificate (TAC) expiration date indicates the dates between which a BWMS must be manufactured.

A type-approved BWMS manufactured within the TAC applicability dates remains in compliance for the lifetime of the system, assuming it is operated and maintained according to the Operation, Maintenance and Safety Manual. Stored onboard, the TAC is replaced only upon modification of the BWMS to comply with a revised TAC.

The other clarification concerns the Coast Guard’s position regarding consideration of existing testing data in type approving a BWMS using a viability testing method, should the Coast Guard accept such a testing method.

Source: https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/2022/09/16/gao-maritime-administration-should-develop-cargo-preference-requirements/

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel says that he hopes to win the approval from maritime stakeholders for new data transparency standards organized under the proposed Maritime Transportation Data Initiative (MTDI).

He hopes MTDI will mitigate any future supply chain congestion crisis such as the one the nation experienced between 2020 and 2022.

Bentzel made a presentation of his findings at the Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA) Intermodal Safety Committee on September 12th during the IANA Intermodal Expo at Long Beach, California.

Bentzel was nominated by President Trump on June 12, 2019 to a term expiring on June 30, 2024. Prior to his appointment at the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), Commissioner Bentzel created and established a consulting services company where he represented clients on regulatory and legislative issues within the areas of transportation, energy, and other areas of federal regulatory oversight.

In an interview with AJOT, Bentzel said: “I think the proposed Maritime Transportation Data Initiative (MTDI) will mitigate this from happening again because you will have the information earlier in the process. Right now, no steps can be taken to mitigate because the information usually comes after the event. This will provide a network of information that will give the possibility of trying to adjust … including repositioning the equipment. So yes, I think this will mitigate the impacts of severe alterations … However, that said, supply and demand or natural events can overcome even information. So, I think it will help because we’ll be getting real time information about equipment incidents.”

He said the genesis for the MTDI came as congestion problems mounted in 2020: “We were in contact with port authorities during the early part of the congestion. In July of 2020, we started to assess what was happening at the ports. We started to hear that there were backups of cargo at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. At that time, I was in contact with the port authorities about the causes of the congestion. It was clear that the information flow was at least contributing to the challenges. Shippers were getting ETAs from the carriers that were being revised continually.”

The feedback from maritime stakeholders has been mostly positive: “The feedback that we have been receiving from maritime stakeholders is that they have information, and it would perhaps require some adjustment to how they provide the information. But they can do this… We are not getting cargo information per se. And we’re allowing that to be closed. And that’s what they tell us is proprietary. What I’m requiring to be open … (is what) … you can see with your eyes. That’s something we might request further harmonization and further specificity. But these are not issues that are proprietary, they are common knowledge. Open information is public information that the public should have access to related to the transportation and real time operations related to the status of operations and for the ancillary facilities that service the ports. So, this would include a terminal when they are open and (when) they are closing it to empty returns and policies that govern access to that facility. Closed is information with parties that are legally entitled to receive the information with appropriate encryption … We’re not changing that at all.”

Railroads

He said railroads will have to provide some information, but they are not directly under the jurisdiction of the Federal Maritime Commission: “We don’t have direct jurisdiction over the railroads. We have jurisdiction over the practices of ocean carriers and marine terminals under a through bill of lading. The only way that I can enforce it is to go after a regulated entity and say you can’t, in your intermodal practices, have a carrier that’s not compliant with these same standards.”

China’s Container & Chassis Dominance

Finally, Bentzel recently published a report warning about China’s dominance of container and chassis manufacturing markets entitled: “Assessment of P.R.C. Control of Container and Intermodal Chassis Manufacturing.”

Bentzel noted that the three largest Chinese manufacturers control over 86% of the world’s supply of intermodal chassis and those same companies manufacture over 95% of the world’s market in containers, including “U.S. domestic train and truck intermodal containers.”

He further noted that the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined that “Chinese container and chassis manufacturers are state-owned and controlled and are recipients of large government subsidies.”

Bentzel’s report concluded: “… the global supply chain is too interdependent not to have broad access and manufacturing capabilities for intermodal operational equipment. The United States should assess whether given (China’s) market dominance that further trade action be contemplated and whether to invest more aggressively in next generation container manufacturing technology.”

Source: https://ajot.com/insights/full/ai-fmcs-bentzel-explains-proposed-maritime-transportation-data-initiative

Offshore installation specialist Jan De Nul Group said Thursday that the shipyard in China where its flagship jack-up installation vessel Voltaire is being built, was hit by typhoon Muifa in China during the night of 14 to 15 September 2022.

“The eye of the typhoon passed over the shipyard, causing the vessel to come loose from its moorings. Fortunately, no one was injured. Voltaire is now safely moored back in the shipyard and first sight assessments show limited damage to certain parts of the crane and the helideck. Further assessments are ongoing,” Jan De Nul said.

The vessel, being built for offshore wind and decommissioning work, was recently launched at the COSCO Shipping Shipyard in Nantong, China.

Jan De Nul said in March that the Voltaire had been fitted with what it said was the world’s largest leg encircling crane.

The Voltaire has been designed to install the offshore wind turbines of the future, with turbines over 270 meters high and blades 120 meters long.

The vessel will transport, hoist and install offshore wind turbines, transition pieces, and foundations.

For these lifting works, the vessel was equipped with a main crane of more than 3,000 tonnes.

Upon delivery, the jack-up will mobilize to the United Kingdom for the construction of the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, transporting and installing in total 277 GE Haliade-X turbines up to 14MW.

The delivery had been scheduled for the “second half of 2022.” Offshore Engineer has reached out to Jan De Nul to see if the typhoon incident would delay the delivery date.

A Jan De Nul spokesperson confirmed the incident had happened but said that “more info can’t be given at this stage.”

Reuters reported Wednesday that the Typhoon Muifa landed around 8:30 p.m. local time as a strong typhoon, the second-highest in China’s tropical cyclone classification system, with the maximum wind speed near its center reaching 151 km per hour (94 miles per hour), “powerful enough to damage homes, topple trees and down power lines.”

The news agency said Thursday that the typhoon had been downgraded to a strong tropical storm but that it would bring heavy rains and flash flooding across several provinces as it moved north across populated coastal provinces.

Source: https://www.marinelink.com/news/jan-de-nuls-newbuild-jackup-voltaire-499521