The Vanuatu Maritime Safety Authority team has arrived at the site of a ship fire to investigate the cause of the blaze onboard the LC Western Star.
The LC Western Star caught fire during a trip to offload fuel at a depot in Wintua on the island of Malekula. Photo: Supplied
The authority’s commissioner, Less Napuati, said other relevant government institutions such as the environment department were due to fly to Malekula to assess the ship, and how it would affect the people and marine resources of the area.
Eight crew members fled the vessel on Wednesday and by early Thursday local time fire-fighters had extinguished the blaze.
One crew member was injured and flown to Luganville hospital.
The vessel’s trip was to offload fuel at the fuel depot stationed at Wintua. Benzine had been offloaded and the crew were in the process of offloading mazut when the unfortunate incident occurred.
Villagers near the scene are threatening to sue the fuel company and the ship owner if there is a fuel leak into the surrounding reefs.
Chief Alben Reuben, a former field worker from the Vanuatu Cultural Center, said there were taboo reefs in the area of Wintua and Lawa, where it was prohibited to fish and swim.
Reuben is from Lawa village, which is near Wintua in the west of Malekula Island.
He said only chiefs could swim in those areas after pig killing ceremonies to appoint a new chief or promote an existing one.
Reuben said if there was fuel leakage it would be catastrophic for the area’s marine resources and local traditions.
Teams from Fugro and the Ocean Industries Concept Lab (OICL) at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design are working together on a research project exploring how best to harmonise maritime design by integrating standardised open-source elements into workplaces for remote operations.
Fugro and OICL have been exploring the application of user interface design elements from the open-source OpenBridge library for applications at sea and on land, to improve user experience when dealing with systems that require the integration of multiple types of hardware and software from different suppliers.
With the expanding pool of assets being utilised from Fugro’s remote operations centres this standardised interface will ensure consistency and promote safe and efficient operations, the partners note, enhancing training, removing the potential for error and enabling operators to perform successfully.
“The collaboration with Fugro has allowed us to accelerate the expansion of the OpenBridge platform to new maritime applications,” said OICL Professor Kjetil Nordby.
“In addition, we have a strategy of supporting all ocean industries’ workplaces at sea and on land, and direct collaboration with industry leaders such as Fugro helps us accelerate OpenBridge growth.”
While inbound container growth appears to be flattening for now, the long-term outlook spells trouble for U.S. ports.
Liner industry veteran John McCown, founder of Blue Alpha Capital, is out with his July report on the top ten U.S. ports, showing another month of gains in July even as U.S. consumers’ pandemic-fueled spending is starting to cool.
McCown’s report shows the ten largest ports in the United States registered a 0.7% increase in inbound container volumes in July compared to the same month last year.
There’s been much debate about when the U.S. import growth would flatten or turn negative. The time appears to be now.
McCown’s report shows year over year gains have fallen considerably since last August following many months of double digit growth. This flattening was inevitable, considering ports are already operating at or near capacity. Looking towards the rest of the year, growth is expected to remain flat or likely turn negative during some months. This can be attributed to more difficult comparisons to last year and wider port congestion, McCown says in his report.
West to East Cargo Shift
Speaking of congestion, McCown points out that the situation has changed more in its composition rather than total impact. While West Coast ports, particularly in Southern California, have made some progress in reducing backlogs, congestion has spread elsewhere, with places like New York, Savannah and Houston seeing high numbers of ships waiting for berths. Even smaller ports are seeing record volumes.
According to McCown, the West Coast represented two-thirds of containerships waiting for berths in January, but it now represents less than on-third as congestion has shifted eastward as ports there struggle under the weight of heightened imports (and empties, in some cases).
McCown has been talking about this West to East cargo shift for months now. Shippers and ocean carriers facing long wait times on the West Coast have shifted cargoes and capacity to East and Gulf coast ports in hopes of finding greener pastures. Meanwhile, the possiblity of challenges resulting from ongoing labor talks between West Coast dockworkers represented by the ILWU and port employers has further contributed to this shift.
“This whack-a-mole effect where relief of waiting times on the West Coast resulting from deployment changes led to moving some of that congestion to East/Gulf Coast ports is yet another example of network effects within container shipping systems that have been evident throughout the pandemic,” McCown writes.
Long-Term Challenge
Bigger picture… the fact that containerships are now waiting on all three U.S. coasts, particulary now during a period a flat growth, is a “tangible reminder” that many U.S. ports are operating at or near capacity and not equipped to handle foreseable future growth.
Even if the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for inbound containers comes in at a conservative 2.8%, as estimated by DNV (which is half of the 5.6% CAGR witnessed from 1995-2026), the number of inbound containers to U.S. ports will be twice as much in 25 years and four times as much in 50 years, according to McCown.
“The present U.S. port system is not in the position to accommodate the geometric growth in container volume that is on the foreseable horizon. To handle that growth, something more than just marginal improvements to capacity are needed,” McCown writes. “Among other things, new container terminals and even entirely new container ports will be needed to efficiently handle container volume over the ensuing decades. This will require significant infrastructure investment… Without meaningful steps taken, such disruption will be more episodic in the future as volume grows over time.”
According to McCown’s calculations, disruptions related to congestion is costing the U.S. economy $82 billion annually in additional container shipping costs, based on Q2 2022 numbers. While infrastructure investments may be costly, the cost of doing nothing is likely to be much, much greater.
The Nation reported the arrest of a supertanker by the Central African country after it fled from the AKPO oilfield in Nigeria when its notorious activities were unveiled by the operatives belonging to the Nigerian Navy.
Confirming the arrest on Wednesday, Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, mentioned that the feat indicated renewed collaboration among the Gulf of Guinea nations.
Image for representation purpose only
Ayo-Vaughan confirmed that the supertanker with International Maritime Organization (IMO) reportedly raised a fake alarm that it had come under the attacks of pirates when ‘NNS GONGOLA’ ordered the vessel to head out for Bonny Fairway Buoy for extensive interrogation.
He said the regional centre for Maritime Security for West Africa (CRESMAO) in Abidjan also agreed that the vessel raised a fake alarm regarding an attempted boarding between 10 to 15 NM of Akpo oil field located in Nigeria to the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC), International Maritime Bureau (IMB), as well as other international platforms.
On 7 August this year, the Nigerian Navy personnel on a routine patrol reported the unexpected presence of the MT HEROIC IDUN at the Akpo Oil Field. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) is a 336-meter tanker that boasts a capacity of 299,995 MT. Its owner is Hunter Tankers AS. The vessel is reportedly domiciled in Scandinavia. However, Trafigura Maritime Logistics, located in the Netherlands, operates it.
Failing to share NNPC clearance papers for loading, MT HEROIC IDUN was prevented from proceeding by the Nigerian Navy Ship named GONGOLA.
The Captain of MT HEROIC IDUN revealed that the vessel’s agent commanded him, Messrs Inchcape Shipping, strictly not to follow any directives provided by the Nigerian Navy. The VLCC also resisted arrest when it was reportedly ordered by NNS GONGOLA to stop, and the supertanker escaped toward the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone Area.
Rear Admiral Istifanus Albarra, the Head of CRESMAO, also confirmed that the tanker captain refused to cooperate and altered the course toward Sao-Tome and Principe. Later on, he deliberately raised false alarms to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) that she was under a pirate attack. The IMB broadcasted the information to relevant international stakeholders and authorities.
Per Ayo-Vaughan, the admiral observed that it is imperative that incidences of piracy reported by vessels must be crosschecked with authorities (especially the Yaounde Architecture) to authenticate the veracity or otherwise before the broadcast.
Ayo-Vaughan added that this is to prevent raising false alarms, particularly during this time when the maritime domain of the Gulf of Guinea has been recording a significant reduction in maritime incidences compared to what was happening two years back. IMB is implored to cancel the alert broadcast, coordinate with authorities, and put out the correct information.
As a demonstration and proof of renewed cooperation among Gulf of Guinea nations, the Nigerian Navy welcomed MT HEROIC IDUN’s arrest. The seizure was facilitated by the Equatorial-Guinean Navy on 12 August, just about four days after the supertanker mistakenly assumed that she had successfully evaded an arrest by the Nigerian Navy and raised a fake alarm of a robbery/pirate attack that did not happen in reality.
Fire erupted in the fore part of general cargo ship HAPPY ROVER early in the morning Aug 21, dry docked at Schiedam, Rotterdam, and undergoing repairs, including fire works. The ship arrived at Rotterdam on Aug 8, from Canada. Fire engines responded, at one time ship’s horn self-switched and woke up local residents, until it was switched off. As of 0600 UTC Aug 21, fire most probably, is still raging, officials said fire fighting might stretch on into the day.
The Port of Dakar in Senegal has said it is too busy to rescue a cargo ship at its anchorage which has been without electricity and sidelights for months, putting its seafarers and those on passing ships in grave danger – especially at night.
The MVOnda (IMO 8912467) was declared abandoned in December 2021 and has now been at Dakar for more than five months. Its engine has broken down meaning that it has no power and so cannot be lit to warn passing vessels of its presence.
The risk of a collision with the unlit vessel is high due of the anchorage’s proximity to a crowded seaway, warns the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).
“Dakar’s anchorage has ships coming and going all the time. It sits a few kilometres from West Africa’s main shipping lanes,” said Steve Trowsdale, Inspectorate Coordinator at the ITF. “An unlit vessel positioned there at night puts the lives of the Onda’s seafarers in immediate danger as well as those on any ship passing by. There has already been one near miss. If an oil tanker crashes through the Onda, there will be an environmental as well as human disaster.”
The MV Onda is at anchorage just kilometres from one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, making the risk of collision ‘high’ says the ITF. I (Credit: MarineTraffic.com, with ITF labels)
The ITF has contacted authorities at Dakar asking that the Onda is towed into port so that repairs can be made to the engine to make it safe. Their response was that the port is already too busy.
“That’s unacceptable,” said Trowsdale. “Effectively, they are prioritising the business of the port over the safety of seafarers. I hope the people who have made this decision can be persuaded to change their minds before there is a catastrophe and they have the lives of seafarers on their consciences.”
Without a working engine, crew aboard the abandoned MV Onda have no electricity for cookers, refrigeration of food, or to power the warning lights needed at night to avoid collision with passing vessels. | (Credit: ITF)
Owners are nowhere to be seen
The four seafarers from Cameroon, Lebanon, Nigeria and Syria have been left without pay or sufficient provisions by the Onda’s owners and operators for months. The ship is operated by AMJ Marine Services of Honduras. It is owned by the Amin Ship Company SA, also of Honduras. They have been providing the crew with some provisions but not nearly enough to survive.
The ITF has stepped in to ensure they receive full provisions and drinking water for as long as they remain at anchor.
The crew are owed each between five- and nine-month’s pay, estimated at over USD $59,000. All four seafarers have requested repatriation, at the cost of the owner, as is their right under the Maritime Labour Convention. This is unlikely to happen until the ship is allowed into the main port at Dakar.
The four seafarers are doing the best they can without electricity aboard the Onda. The ITF warns that their lives are in danger the longer the Port of Dakar authorities deny them help. | (Credit: ITF)
This is the second time a crew on the Onda has been abandoned by its owners Amin Ship Company. In 2020, the company claimed that the ship was laid up in Douala, Cameroon with only watch keepers on board, even though four crew members had paperwork showing they were fully fledged seafarers. Crew were owed several months’ wages. They were tricked into taking some wages as cash with a promise that they would receive the rest after a month. But once they left the vessel they never received anything.
This time around, the Onda’s owners and operators did not respond to the ITF when the federation asked them to explain why the ship has been left in the dangerous situation or when the crew will be paid.
Vessels typically rely on their engines to power the sidelights that make them and their crew visible to other traffic. The Onda has been without an engine for months, and the crew are in life and death danger. | (Credit: boatingvalley.com)
‘Chaotic’ Flag of Convenience system failing seafarers
The situation is made more complex by the Onda’s uncertain flag status. It was previously registered in Togo, but that country says that registration was transferred to Guyana in July 2021. Indeed, the ship was picked up broadcasting a Guyanese call sign on its automated identification system as recently as April this year. However, the Guyana register has no record of the ship and suspects it is operating illegally under a ‘false flag’.
“The Flag of Convenience system is chaotic,” said Trowsdale, “and leaves ample room for unscrupulous shipowners to dodge and weave their way out of their obligations. Governments have allowed a morally bankrupt system to develop where it’s commonplace to see a ship change register on paper four or five times over its service life, switching between flags to avoid tax, evade environmental regulations, and duck their responsibilities to crew.”
ITF Inspectorate Coordinator Steve Trowsdale| (Credit: ITF)
While owners like Amin can so easily avoid their obligations, often it falls to port authorities like those in Dakar to step in and save the lives of seafarers.
“There is no doubt the owners and operators have shown neglect in their treatment of their crew over a number of years,” said Trowsdale.
“However, I have little confidence that they can be persuaded to sort this situation out. In the meantime, the crew remains in great danger and our only hope is that the authorities at Dakar or higher up in the Senegalese government take the action needed,” he concluded.
Last year, union ship inspectors recovered more than USD $37 million in unpaid wages owed to seafarers, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has revealed in figures published today.
The ITF’s 125 inspectors and coordinators completed 7,265 inspections in 2021 to support thousands of seafarers with wage claims and repatriation cases, despite Covid-19 restrictions preventing inspectors’ ability to board ships for much of the year.
ITF Inspectors get their name because they board and ‘inspect’ ships. They educate seafarers about their rights and support crew to enforce these rights. The officials cover more than 100 ports across 50 countries.
Los Angeles-based ITF Inspector Stefan Mueller-Dombois boards a vessel and speaks with crew. On this visit, Stefan is joined by new recruit RyanBrazeau. Covid restrictions in ports and harbours made it impossible for many inspectors to board ships for much of last year. | (Credit: Ryan Brazeau)
Inspectors are trained to look for exploitation, overwork – even for signs of forced labour and modern slavery. On many vessels, Inspectors have the right to examine wage accounts, employment contracts, and to review recorded hours of work and rest.
“It’s not uncommon for crew to be paid the at the wrong rate by a shipowner, or less than the rate set out in the employment agreement covering the ship,” said Steve Trowsdale, the ITF’s Inspectorate Coordinator.
“Crew can generally work out when they’re being underpaid. And that’s when they contact us. ITF inspectors help seafarers recover what’s owed to them.”
Altogether, the ITF clawed back USD $37,591,331 in unpaid wages and entitlements from shipowners in 2021.
Trowsdale said the makeup of seafarers’ wage claims was changing: “Concerningly, we’re seeing a rise in the number of seafarers reporting non-payment of wages for periods of two months or longer, which actually meets the ILO’s definition of abandonment.”
“Seafarers might think it’s normal to go unpaid for a couple of months, waiting for a shipowner to sort out financing, but they need to be aware that non-payment can also be a sign that a shipowner is about to cut them loose and leave them abandoned.”
An ITF inspector watches carefully as a ship’s master counts out wages owed but yet unpaid to crew. Most seafarers working internationally are paid in US dollars. | (Credit: ITF)
The ITF reported 85 cases of abandonment to the International Labour Organization (ILO) last year, an historic high. In many of those cases, abandoned crew had already been waiting on several weeks’ or months’ of unpaid wages – including those aboard the storm-hit MV Lidia.
ITF inspector based in Hong Kong, Jason Lam, helped eight Burmese seafarers who were crewing the MV Lidia recover almost USD $30,000 in unpaid wages after they ran aground in October 2021, thanks to a typhoon that left them close to shipwrecked. The shipowner refused to pay the two months’ wages he owed them, abandoning them and ruling out any assistance to get them home.
Weeks of campaigning by Lam on behalf of the seafarers had an impact, and on 2 November 2021, the crew flew home – full wages in hand.
Burmese seafarers who were left near shipwrecked after a typhoon are pictured on their way home from Hong Kong, after ITF Inspector Jason Lam helped them recover almost $300 in unpaid wages. | (Credit: ITF)
Amidst crew change crisis, ITF inspectors got thousands of seafarers home
Trowsdale said Inspectors did not let Covid-19 barriers stop them from supporting seafarers in need, instead adapting and finding new ways of working.
“I’m extremely proud of the work of our inspectors have done to support seafarers in the last year, often working in the face of incredibly difficult circumstances,” he said. “It’s always been incredibly important for our team to be able to physically get to seafarers – to board ships and educate crew on their rights. So, when Covid-19 restrictions presented a challenge to inspectors to board vessels, there was a real question: ‘What will happen to the seafarers who need us?’”
As the crew change crisis worsened in early 2021, a flood of requests filled the ITF’s inboxes from crew desperate to sign off and get home. Covid-related border restrictions were the underlying reason for the crew change crisis, which impacted an estimated 400,000 seafarers at the worst point of the crisis. But on some ships, other more sinister factors were at play in keeping crew from their families.
“There is evidence that some shipowners were using Covid-19 as an excuse to keep seafarers working beyond their initial contracts and in complete violation of those seafarers’ human and labour rights,” said Trowsdale. “Thankfully, our team was wise to what was going on and despite everything we got thousands of seafarers home.”
“Keeping crew onboard while pretending their hands were tied may have saved those employers a few dollars in flight fares, but in today’s society that kind of conduct gets noticed. There are no shadows to hide in anymore when it comes to global supply chain accountability,” he said.
The Misdemeanors and Violations Court in Dubai reportedly imprisoned an Asian ship captain and four other individuals who owned a vessel and shipping firms. This was due to them mistakenly contributing to the burning of properties of others and incurring a massive loss of about Dhs24 million, as containers with several materials were burnt and part of Jebel Ali Port was impaired, besides the damage of unloading and loading machines at the port.
The court sentenced them to jail for one month with a three-year suspension.
During the same session, the court further convicted four shipping firms, one of whom owned the vessel, fined Dhs100, 000 to each firm, and referred the case to a more competent civil court.
The details of the incident date back to 2021 (July), when a massive fire broke out in one of the ships in Jebel Ali based in Dubai.
The civil defence teams immediately rushed to the scene and were able to put out the fire in approximately 40 minutes without death but with minor injuries to the Asian sailors.
The Dubai Government Media Office had declared at that time that the fire caused the burning of a part of the vessel besides causing extensive material damage to the port’s berth. The site of the accident was referred to competent authorities for conducting inspections.
Per the case file and the forensic lab report at Dubai Police, the fire resulted from sheer negligence and incompetence in adhering to the safety protocols, as the cargo shipper did not check the validity and quality of used containers and the validity of transporting dangerous material. They also kept the containers of dangerous materials under the sun for 21 days in Jebel Ali Port at a temperature of about 44°C.
The report suggested that containers were loaded with about 640 barrels of harmful materials, and the vessel owners and cargo shippers failed to coordinate with one another regarding the appropriate time for the container delivery.
Per the report, the ship’s captain, operators, and owners did not register the dangerous materials or separate the containers. They also kept them adjacent to each other; this resulted in the first container exploding.
LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – More than 1,900 workers at Britain’s biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.
The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis.
“Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” said Bobby Morton, the Unite union’s national officer for docks.
“It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so.”
On Friday, Felixstowe’s operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port’s workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.
Unite, which represents mainly dock workers, says the proposal is significantly below the current inflation rate, and followed a below inflation increase last year.
“The port regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains,” a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said.
The port said it would have a contingency plan in place, and was working to minimise disruption during the walkouts which will last until Aug. 29.
Shipping group Maersk MAERSKb.CO, one of the world’s biggest container shippers, has warned the action would have a significant impact, causing operational delays and forcing it to make changes to its vessel line-up.
Figures released on Aug. 17 showed Britain’s consumer price inflation hit 10.1% in July, the highest since February 1982, and some economists forecast it will hit 15% in the first three months of next year amid surging energy and food costs.
The squeeze on household incomes has already led to strikes by the likes of rail and bus workers demanding higher pay rises.
Russian tanker PRIMORYE was arrested by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) on Aug 21 24nm off the coast of Tanjung Sedili, Kota Tinggi District, Johor, Malaysia, Singapore and Singapore Strait outer Anchorage, South China sea. It’s so to say, routine arrest and routine accusation – the ship anchored without obtaining official permission, though nobody so far, explained the necessity of coastal State permission to anchor outside its’ territorial waters. Tanker will be released, judging from countless other arrests of this type, after paying a “fine”. Tanker anchored off Singapore on Aug 19, having a status of “Waiting for Orders”.
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