Maritime Safety News Archives - Page 30 of 260 - SHIP IP LTD

PEARL HARBOR — The Pacific and Indian Oceans Shipping Working Group (PACIOSWG) conducted Exercise Bell Buoy 2022 at Pearl Harbor, June 27 to July 1. This RIMPAC is the largest deployment of NCAGs personnel from multiple partner nations.

U.S. 3rd Fleet and the U.S. Fleet Forces Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) team hosted 11 member nations and more than 44 participants.

The command and control of the multi-national Shipping Coordination Center in Hawaii, and multi-location shipping control teams, spanned the globe with participants from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, U.S., and the non-nation participant, NATO Shipping Center.

“We are extremely pleased with the Bell Buoy 2022 outcomes, especially the global integration and synchronization of maritime operations over 17 time zones– leveraging the talents, experience and collective capabilities of this multinational team for the benefit and protection of shipping,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Michael E. Boyle, commander of the RIMPAC 2022 Combined Task Force and commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet.

The aim of Bell Buoy is to develop respective NCAGS and maritime trade operations (MTO) capabilities and foster interoperability of PACIOSWG member nations in the protection of seaborne trade. Using established doctrine and published procedures, the exercise refreshed the practice for maritime trade protection.

“The Bell Buoy exercise series anchors member nations and allies in the practice of NCAGS, to unlock maritime trade operations training opportunities and realize greater interoperability through partnership and collaboration,” said Boyle.

The major themes for training involved harassment of shipping issues and piracy, and a vessel visit and briefing on NCAGS at Honolulu Harbor.

“Bell Buoy offers participants the ability to apply tactical, operational and strategic level advice on civil shipping and maritime trade protection matters while acquiring knowledge of the maritime environment, to include patterns of life and engagement with maritime industry at various levels,” said U.S. Navy Capt. John Bellissimo, the Bell Buoy exercise director.

For the first time at RIMPAC, an NCAGS Symposium was held July 1 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hawaii’s Ford Island. The event include NCAGS and MTO thought leaders from the France, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. Designed to collaborate, develop and share readiness best practices for maritime domain awareness and information sharing, the event also included NCAGS focus area presentations and a panel discussion with NCAGS and maritime industry experts, covering a broad range of current maritime industry security issues and trends.

“The globally integrated NCAGS and MTO practices confront multi-national maritime problems with multi-national maritime solutions,” said Capt. Alex Soukhanov, a U.S. Navy Strategic Sealift Officer and active U.S. Coast Guard licensed master mariner and harbor pilot.

“Successful naval operations require cooperation and communication with the concerned regional commercial maritime stakeholders” said Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rob Drake.

French Navy Cmdr. Eric Jaslin presented on the Maritime Information Coalition Awareness Center (MICA) and its worldwide network of information centers.

While an expert on MTS Security and Cyber with U.S. Coast Guard discussed the 2020 U.S. National Maritime Cyber Strategy for building cyber-resilience across the Maritime Transportation System.

“Global health, safety, and well-being are inextricably linked to the maritime enabled flow of goods and services” said Leigh Cotterell on the U.S. Coast Guard.

Over 60 personnel from 14 different partner and ally navies participated at the inaugural NCAGS Symposium, in an effort to further build capable and adaptive partners.

The German Navy deployed four NCAGS officers to support RIMPAC 2022. The afloat elements actively engage the bridge watch teams and other crew to provide information on NCAGS procedures, which help prepare mariners for operating in contested maritime environments or other shipping risk areas.

Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participated in RIMPAC from June 29 to Aug. 4 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

Source: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/426518/bell-buoy-brings-11-partner-nations-together-rimpac-2022


KYIV/ISTANBUL, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Four more ships carrying almost 170,000 tonnes of corn and other foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday under a deal to unblock the country’s exports after Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the agreement last month after warnings that the halt in grain shipments caused by the conflict could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said there were plans to step up shipments still further.

We are gradually moving on to larger volumes of work. We plan to ensure the ability of the ports to handle at least 100 vessels per month in the near future,” he added.

Ukraine would soon also start exporting grain from its Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, an expansion that would let it send out a total of at least 3 million tonnes of goods a month, the minister said on Facebook.

Before Russia started what it calls its “special military operation,” Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. In peacetime, Ukraine exported up to 6 million tonnes of grain from its Black and Azov seaports every month.

The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul where Russian,Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel are working.

The first cargo ship left Ukraine under the agreement on Monday last week, and another three followed on Friday.

The JCC said late on Saturday it had authorized five new vessels to pass through the Black Sea corridor: four vessels outbound from Ukraine’s Chornomorsk and Odesa ports, carrying 161,084 metric tonnes of foodstuffs, and one heading into Ukraine to pick up grain.

CORN, MEAL, SUNFLOWER OIL

The ships that left Ukrainian ports included Glory, with a cargo of 66,000 tonnes of corn bound for Istanbul, and Riva Wind, loaded with 44,000 tonnes of corn, heading for Turkey’s Iskenderun, the Turkish defense ministry said.

It said the other two vessels that left Ukraine were Star Helena, with a cargo of 45,000 tonnes of meal heading to China, and Mustafa Necati, carrying 6,000 tonnes of sunflower oil and heading for Italy.

Later on Sunday, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said the bulk carrier Fulmar S, which had reached the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk on Saturday – the first foreign-flagged ship to arrive in Ukraine since the conflict – was ready for loading.

The JCC said it had nearly finished drafting procedures to implement the grain deal and they would be published in days.

It added that it had also authorized the movement, pending inspection, of Osprey S, inbound for Chornomorsk. That ship is currently at anchorage northwest of Istanbul.

The Turkish Defence Ministry said the JCC had completed inspections of the ship Rojen carrying 13,000 tonnes of corn to Britain, Polarnet which is taking 12,000 tonnes of corn to a Turkish port and Osprey S, which is heading toUkraine.

On Saturday, the JCC completed its inspection of Navistar, the other one of three vessels that left Ukrainian ports on Friday.

The first ship to leave a Ukrainian port under the deal will not arrive in Lebanon on Sunday as planned, the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon said. The Razoni left Odesa on Monday carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn.

The embassy told Reuters the ship was “having a delay” and “not arriving today,” with no details on a new arrival date or the cause of the delay. Refinitiv Eikon data showed the Razoni off the Turkish coast on Sunday morning.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, Maya Gebeily in Beirut;Writing by Daren Butler;Editing by Frances Kerry, Susan Fenton and Andrew Heavens)

Source:https://gcaptain.com/four-more-cargo-ships-sail-from-ukraine/


In spring, a little more than 400 years after the original Mayflower set sail across the Atlantic Ocean with roughly thirty crew members and one hundred pilgrims, the historic ship’s successor launched westward from Plymouth, England. This modern voyage involved fewer passengers. Zero, in fact.

When the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, propelled primarily by renewable sources, reached the shore of North America roughly six weeks after setting off, it became the first fully autonomous commercial vessel to complete a transatlantic crossing. “If anything, the Mayflower shows there is still space for exploration,” says Brett Phaneuf, whose marine research nonprofit, ProMare, managed the initiative, with support from IBM. Instead of a weathered captain, it was a complex system of sensors, cameras, and artificial-intelligence commands that navigated the 50-foot-long trimaran. And where crew members might have slept, eaten, and used the facilities, a cargo bay housed 1,500 pounds of scientific gear. The venture represents a full reimagining of how a ship functions, propels itself through the water, and stores freight.

“Studies show that human error is responsible for around 70 percent of maritime accidents.”

Across the world, the autonomous revolution has taken to the high seas, quietly surpassing better-known efforts on land. Along the Gulf Coast, remote-controlled tugboats are pushing oil barges. In Norway, the world’s first fully electric self-propelled container ship will soon be transporting fertilizer through the fjords with only a skeleton crew (and eventually none at all). A Japanese freight company recently sent a 313-foot uncrewed vessel through 236 miles of crowded coastal waters. The Mikage even docked itself, with the aid of drones, at its final destination. Digitization is revolutionizing maritime operations, creating new opportunities for both transoceanic and domestic shipping that could reduce human risk, environmental harm, and logistical inefficiencies. Perhaps even more significant, experts say, these developments are prompting companies and governments to rethink how they transport goods and deliver services. “We’re changing how we interact with and benefit from our waterways,” says Moran David, chief commercial officer of Boston-based Sea Machines, which is building autonomous command-and-control technology as well as long-range computer-vision programs.

As in many other areas of society, the last few years have hit fast-forward on advancements in maritime enterprise. Market-research firm Thetius forecasts that the global maritime digital-technology industry will be worth $345 billion by the end of the decade. Demand for innovation is largely a response to supply-chain vulnerabilities and labor shortages due to the pandemic, war in Europe, and recent climate-related disasters. During lockdowns, crews have  sometimes been stuck at sea for up to a year, with ports unable to process freight when workers became ill. Meanwhile, the pool of qualified seafarers has been shrinking rapidly. The solutions to each of these issues are multifaceted, but relying more on water transportation and automation will be key to building supply-chain resiliency and efficiency.

“Experts say it will also open a new market, as freight haulers migrate from land to water.”

Of course, with new technology comes new risks—and new regulations. “Autonomous shipping is not about technology anymore; it’s a matter of willingness,” says Phaneuf. Just as self-driving cars have faced many setbacks, self-driving seaborne craft are likely to encounter their own snags. For instance, how do you resolve gaps in satellite connectivity in the middle of the ocean? Who is liable in the event of an accident? Will piracy migrate from attacks on the open seas to hacking? The biggest threat is the water itself. Unlike roadways, which are highly structured grids, the ocean is inherently corrosive and always changing in unpredictable ways. For autonomous shipping to expand from limited applications to ubiquity will require significant political and commercial investment.

Experts say the immediate future of shipping innovation will likely follow a trajectory similar to that of vehicles. First, there will be driver-assisted applications. Then remote-controlled coastal uses, followed by remote-controlled ocean crossings, and, eventually, fully autonomous ocean crossings. “It’s going to be a very, very slow adoption pathway,” says Ken Bloom, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Global Infrastructure Construction and Services practice. “We’ll start by supplying oil rigs with bananas and picking up their dirty laundry. Slowly, the use cases will broaden and get riskier and more complex. Right now, we’re at the end of the beginning.”

Like cars and airplanes, most ships already have some form of autopilot that can be relied upon when it’s smooth sailing. Instead of activating the brakes, these systems serve as alerts. And for the near term, even outfits with the capability to be fully autonomous will mostly continue relying on skeleton crews. Bloom predicts the technology will first be deployed in workboats and smaller vessels before spreading to large merchant ships, which are more complex to maneuver.

So what will these robot ships of the future look like? They will be steered by onboard weather stations that collect real-time meteorological data, sensors that observe the movement of waves, radar that scans the horizon, and collision-avoidance systems that rely on algorithms based on the International Maritime Organization’s guidelines for preventing crashes. All this information will help Captain AI make decisions, be it how to navigate a hurricane or avoid hitting a kayaker. Should any of these onboard systems fail, the craft can be remotely controlled or an onboard officer can hit the manual-override button.

The maritime industry is among the most dangerous of all industries, with seafarer death rates more than 20 times higher than those of onshore workers. Sailors are often required to undertake high-risk tasks, from oil-spill cleanup to search-and-rescue operations to underwater hull inspections. AI can take over such perilous jobs, and even make the mundane ones safer. Studies show that human error is responsible for around 70 percent of maritime accidents. “Automation doesn’t get tired, or drunk, or emotional,” says Pia Meling, vice president of sales and marketing at Massterly, a full-service autonomous-shipping venture. In this new construct, humans will essentially back up computers.

While captains do spend some time scanning the horizon from the bridge, much of their time is spent doing office work and analyzing weather, fuel, and other reports to make real-time decisions. With a hybrid approach, captains will oversee operations from shore, allowing them to delegate certain tasks and manage multiple vessels at one time. That has the added benefit of allowing for more inclusivity in the labor force. Parents or those with physical disabilities would no longer be excluded from doing the job. At the same time, the small crew that is onboard will be able to focus on a new variety of tasks. “Autonomous solutions are a tool for the mariner,” says David at Sea Machines. “It’s offering a reprieve from doing the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks and allowing the mariner to focus on more important tasks that can only be done by humans.”

The seafarer’s life is not an easy one, and the industry is facing a recruitment crisis. In Japan, for instance, roughly 40 percent of the nation’s domestic-tanker workforce is 55 years or older, according to a recent survey. As one generation retires, the next has not stepped up to replace it. Developing the skills needed to safely navigate the open waters can take decades. Automation allows engineers to encode the wisdom and expertise of veterans, while creating the technological jobs that appeal to younger generations. Shipping academies are already reimagining their training programs for an automated future.

Even as this changing of the guard takes place, recent environmental initiatives have compelled the industry to reduce emissions. Huge container ships are testing alternative fuel types which require significant financial investment in new systems and worker training. The hybrid-crew model allows companies to save money on labor and better use highly specialized workers, such as engineers, by keeping them docked on land. And because autonomous ships can be redesigned with more space for cargo instead of humans, “they’re intrinsically green things,” Phaneuf says. “Saving 10 percent [of emissions] from container ships is like erasing cities from earth.”

Robo-shipping is a matter of optimization. In order to control costs, emissions, and logistics, more and more cargo owners are opting to become shipowners. Eventually that will lead to economies of scale at fleet and company levels. Experts say it will also open a new market, as freight haulers migrate from land to water.

Traditionally, domestic transportation has been dominated by trucking, which is cheaper but also has drawbacks, such as traffic, crumbling road infrastructure, and a skill shortage. In Norway, it’s not only the fertilizer company that’s moving its operations to the water: soon the country’s largest grocer will begin delivering 16 electric supply trucks from a warehouse on one side of Oslo’s main fjord to a distribution site on the other. “If we design different vessels with more cargo room and reduced operating costs, then all of a sudden those vessels become competitive to trucks,” Meling says. Nearby, in the Netherlands, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is collaborating with local teams to produce a fleet of autonomous vessels that will be outfitted for household waste removal, logistics movement, and ferry operations.

These are all limited domestic case studies, however. It remains to be seen how the industry will approach oversight globally. The rules of the seas, some of which were written back in the 1800s, are based on having humans at the helm. While the International Maritime Organization is working on its guidelines, different countries and regulatory bodies are likely to issue their own conflicting regulations. One country might allow certain technologies and ban others; another might do the opposite. These potential conflicts are causing some companies to be wary of making significant investments. In some ways, the situation is similar to the quagmire that has kept self-driving cars in permanent beta mode.

Most, if not all, of the experts working to bring autonomous shipping to fruition agree that the greatest impediments are no longer technological; they’re human. But the unanswered questions and unforeseeable obstacles pale in comparison to the possibilities. “We’re seeing a revolution in how humans interact with our waterways that we haven’t seen since we started to cross oceans,” David says. “Autonomy is not a revolution of the future; it’s here.”

source: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/briefings-magazine/issue-55/aye-aye-ai-captain


Carmakers like Tesla brought semi-autonomous electric vehicles to the mainstream, and now a local company wants to do the same for recreational boating.

Grapevine-based Alloy wants to build an electric boat that’s capable of avoiding other boats, docking and even driving itself from place to place under ideal conditions. The company has developed a software prototype and hopes to bring a product to the market in 2024.

“The center for us is smarter, safer boats,” said CEO Brandon Cotter, an entrepreneur who worked on 11 other startups before co-founding Alloy.

Cotter grew up boating, and the idea for Alloy came to him as he and his significant other sat in the back of a boat. They’d been reading about the move toward electric and autonomous cars, and Cotter realized it was only a matter of time before someone capitalized on the same trend in the marine industry.

He founded the company with software engineer Powell Kinney and former MasterCraft Boats CEO John Dorton. The founders assembled a 10-person team that spans the world, from Dallas to Lille, France.

Alloy is currently wrapping up a $2.5 million fundraising round from Texas-based angel investors. The company says it aims to raise $10 million this year.

Like Tesla, Alloy places software at the center of its design process, aiming to reimagine the experience of driving a boat. The company started off by building a software prototype, which a demo video shows driving a boat while navigating around another craft.

“That boat is drivable from an iPad,” Cotter said.

The final product’s level of autonomy will vary based on water conditions. On a clear day with few other boats on the water, the boat will be able to drive itself from place to place. On a windy day with more obstacles, the software may be limited to keeping the driver aware of what’s happening around the boat.

The software is running on a Nautique craft right now, but Cotter hopes Alloy can build its own prototype boat by the end of the year. The startup is partnering with another company to build the electric engine and battery packs.

The biggest challenge for electric boats is energy storage, said John-Michael Donahue, vice president for North American public affairs at the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Batteries are much less energy dense than gasoline, and pushing a boat through water takes more power than propelling a car down the road.

Compared with cars, “it’s going to be a little more challenging, take a little longer for the entire recreational boat fleet to transition to electrification,” Donahue said.

Alloy’s boats will be as lightweight as possible to make them more energy efficient, Cotter said. They’ll also be aimed at people who take their boats out during the day and bring them back to the dock at night to charge.

Although there’s no official count, electric vessels probably make up less than 1% of the 12 million boats registered in the U.S., Donahue said.

But selling even 10,000 to 20,000 boats would introduce a lot of people to electric boating, Cotter said.

“Our mission is to get a million new people on the water safely over the next 10 years,” he said.

Alloy has retrofitted a Nautique vessel with self-driving technology that allows it to be...
Alloy has retrofitted a Nautique vessel with self-driving technology that allows it to be controlled remotely with Alloy’s software.(Mike Reyher)
Source: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/2022/08/04/dallas-area-company-aims-to-build-autonomous-electric-boats/

BEIJING — China on Friday said it is canceling or suspending dialogue with the United States on a range of issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation for a visit this week to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The measures, which come amid cratering relations between Beijing and Washington, are the latest in a promised series of steps intended to punish the U.S. for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. China on Thursday launched threatening military exercises in six zones just off Taiwan’s coasts that it says will run through Sunday.

Missiles have also been fired over Taiwan, defense officials told state media. China routinely opposes the self-governing island having its own contacts with foreign governments, but its response to the Pelosi visit has been unusually vociferous.

The Foreign Ministry said dialogue between U.S. and Chinese regional commanders and defense department heads would be canceled, along with talks on military maritime safety.

Cooperation on returning illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change will be suspended, the ministry said.

The actions were taken because Pelosi visited Taiwan “in disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations,” the ministry said in a statement.

China has accused the Biden administration of an attack on Chinese sovereignty, although Pelosi is head of the legislative branch of government and Biden had no authority to prevent her visit.

China’s actions come ahead of a key congress of the ruling Communist Party later this year at which President Xi Jinping is expected to obtain a third five-year term as party leader. With the economy stumbling, the party has stoked nationalism and issued near-daily attacks on the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which refuses to recognize Taiwan as part of China, in order to solidify its support among the public.

China said Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships have taken part in the live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan over the past two days, while announcing mainly symbolic sanctions against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family over her visit to Taiwan earlier this week.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockage operations.”

The military’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “with precision.”

The Rocket Force also fired projectiles over Taiwan into the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major ratcheting up of China’s threats to attack and invade the island.

The drills, which Xinhua described as being held on an “unprecedented scale,” are China’s most strident response to Pelosi’s visit. The speaker is the highest-ranking U.S. politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

Dialogue and exchanges between China and the U.S., particularly on military matters and economic exchanges, have generally been halting at best. Climate change and fighting trade in illegal drugs such as fentanyl were, however, areas where they had found common cause, and Beijing’s suspension of cooperation could have significant implications for efforts to achieve progress in those issues.

China and the United States are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 climate polluters, together producing nearly 40% of all fossil-fuel emissions. Their top climate diplomats, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, maintained a cordial relationship that dated back to the Paris climate accord, which was made possible by a breakthrough negotiated among the two and others

China under Kerry’s prodding committed at last year’s U.N. global climate summit in Glasgow to working with the U.S. “with urgency” to cut climate-wrecking emissions, but Kerry was unable to persuade it to significantly speed up China’s move away from coal.

On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area.

Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot in Fujian province.

Pelosi’s visit stirred emotions among the Chinese public, and the government’s response “makes us feel our motherland is very powerful and gives us confidence that the return of Taiwan is the irresistible trend,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang province.

China is a “powerful country and it will not allow anyone to offend its own territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student visiting the island.

His mother, Zheng Zhidan, was somewhat more circumspect.

“We are compatriots and we hope to live in peace,” Zheng said. “We should live peacefully with each other.”

China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to bring it under its control have featured highly in ruling Communist Party propaganda, the education system and the entirely state-controlled media for more than seven decades since the sides were divided amid civil war in 1949.

Taiwan residents overwhelmingly favor maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands that the island unify with the mainland under Communist control.

On Friday morning, China sent military ships and war planes across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said, crossing what had for decades been an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan.

Five of the missiles fired by China since the military exercises began Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”

Japan’s Defense Ministry later said they believe four other missiles fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian flew over Taiwan.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China’s actions were in line with “international law and international practices,” though she provided no evidence.

“As for the Exclusive Economic Zone, China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in relevant waters, so there is no such thing as an EEZ of Japan,” Hua told reporters at a daily briefing.

In Tokyo, where Pelosi is winding up her Asia trip, she said China cannot stop U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan. Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”

China said it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union criticizing the Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

Its Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li made “solemn representations” over what he called “wanton interference in China’s internal affairs.”

Deng said China would “prevent the country from splitting with the strongest determination, using all means and at any cost.”

The ministry said the meeting was held Thursday night but gave no information on which countries participated. Earlier Thursday, China canceled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest the G-7 statement that there was no justification for the exercises.

Both ministers were attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.

China has promoted the overseas support it has received for its response to Pelosi’s visit, mainly from fellow authoritarian states such as Russia, Syria and North Korea.

China had earlier summoned U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting Tsai and holding other public events. She traveled on to South Korea and then Japan. Both countries host U.S. military bases and could be drawn into a conflict involving Taiwan.

The Chinese exercises involve troops from the navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force and logistic support force, according to Xinhua.

They are believed to be the largest held near Taiwan in geographical terms and the closest in proximity — within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the island.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called the drills a “significant escalation” and said he has urged Beijing to back down.

U.S. law requires the government to treat threats to Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “grave concern.”

The drills are an echo of the last major Chinese military drills aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters in 1995 and 1996.

Taiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defense drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been canceled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid the Chinese drills.

In the northern port of Keelung, Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning swim Thursday, saying he wasn’t worried.

“Everyone should want money, not bullets,” Lu said.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-summons-european-diplomats-statement-taiwan-87981101


The NSW Government has committed a one-off $2 million funding program to support maintenance and repair works to boating infrastructure as part of a $28 million Boating Now Program.

Minister for Transport and Veterans David Elliott said the NSW Government allocated the additional funds to help boating infrastructure owners across NSW undertake maintenance works to boat ramps, pontoons, wharves, jetties, boat ramps and car and trailer parks.

“NSW boasts some of the best waterways in the world which are not only enjoyed by recreational water users but vital for local tourist operators and commercial vessels, therefore it is important to ensure boating communities have easy access to modern maritime facilities,” Mr Elliott said.

“We understand the challenges of maintaining boating facilities and recognise that repairs can be costly for asset owners and managers.

“We’ve listened to feedback from boating stakeholders and as a result we’ve made up to $2 million available as part of Round Four of the Boating Now Program to help owners return boating assets to their optimal operational condition,” Mr Elliott said.

Applications are now open for the Boating Asset maintenance sub-program, which will fund up to $30,000 per asset and up to a maximum of $60,000 per applicant for multiple assets.

To be eligible, the boating asset must be available for general boating public use and provide direct benefits to recreational boaters. The asset must also be included in an existing annual maintenance schedule or have its own asset maintenance plan in place at the time of application.

Source: https://www.marinebusinessnews.com.au/2022/08/nsw-government-provides-2-million-to-improve-boating-infrastructure/


The Waypoint programme is dedicated to improving the commercialisation of revolutionary safety and risk management technologies in the marine industry.

Throughout the 12-week process, ShipIn will collaborate with experienced mentors to refine its market positioning, expand customer reach and receive support for piloting the use of its FleetVision platform with a broad range of vessels to gain valuable feedback from owners and operators.

FleetVision uses visual analytics to improve ship-to-shore collaboration for maritime fleets by alerting shipowners, managers and seafarers to onboard events in real-time, reducing losses by 40 per cent and increasing efficiency by 8 per cent. The technology taps into a vessel’s live camera footage and overlays it with analytics powered by machine learning to reduce the risk of incidents and improve cargo operations across the global international shipping fleet.

The platform provides insights into operations including navigation, security, cargo handling and maintenance, enabling vessels owners, managers and crew to collaborate and make smarter decisions to improve fleet safety, efficiency and profitability.

“The sharing of real-time operational data between ship and shore is one of the latest tech developments that will help deliver a safer and lower-risk marine professional environment,” said Osher Perry, co-founder and CEO of ShipIn Systems.

Perry added: “We are thrilled to be working with like-minded tech and maritime experts who share our passion for making safer shipping operationally and commercially attractive, and look forward to fast-tracking our significant growth plans.”

Nadia Echchihab, head of innovation programmes at Safetytech, commented: “Entry onto the Waypoint programme is highly competitive, which signals a strong tranche of innovation coming into the maritime market. As we work to make operations safer and more sustainable, the potential of ShipIn’s offering stood out due to the tangible impact its insights have already made on improving onboard processes, preventing incidents and finally connecting crew and shore-based teams more closely.”

This article has been posted as is from Source


A new concentrated inspection campaign (CIC) has been announced by the Paris and Tokyo MOUs (Memoranda of Understandings), specifically focusing on STCW compliance.

The campaign will run for three months, from September to November. The CIC inspections will be applicable for all ships and conducted in conjunction with the regular Port State Control inspection. A ship will be subject to only one inspection under this CIC during the campaign period.

The campaign on STCW aims to confirm that the number of seafarers serving onboard and their certificates are in conformity with the relevant provisions of the STCW Convention and Code and the applicable safe manning requirements are as determined by the flag state administration.

All seafarers serving onboard, who are required to be certificated in accordance with the STCW Convention, will be checked to ensure they hold an appropriate certificate or a valid dispensation, or provide documentary proof that an application for an endorsement has been submitted to the flag state administration. Seafarers onboard must also hold a valid medical certificate as required by the STCW Convention. Watchkeeping schedules and hours of rest will also be scrutinised.


The UK Club is a founding member of Together in Safety, which has a core objective to protect seafarers’ lives while delivering improved business efficiency and commercial effectiveness. Together in Safety is a non-regulatory industry consortium connecting the maritime sector with the common purpose of working together to improve safety performance. The Together in Safety Coalition was formed three years ago and has since developed a Framework for any shipping company as the basis for their safety management programme, and comprises three key strategic drivers. A key aspect of Together in Safety is that companies can move quickly to delivery. There is no need to spend time and incur high costs in preparing materials, with the many proven good practices free to use to deliver sustained improved safety and business performance.

The first strategic driver is leadership. Together in Safety includes modules and guidelines that will help improve leadership through developing a vision and plan, leading by example, and improving engagement and collaboration. Importantly, it also requires verification that what you think is happening is actually happening in practice. So often when a major incident occurs, the procedures have been found to be in place, but the application is found wanting.

The second is incident prevention. Together in Safety has undertaken a detailed review of shipping incidents and the conclusion is the same types of incidents keep happening. It is important to note that these are not accidents. Instead, they are repeatable events that could and should have been avoided. Together in Safety focuses on 14 categories of major incident types. For each incident type, a set of ‘Golden Safety Rules’ has been outlined, including guidelines and best practices, training and engagement tools, and checklists of areas that have highlighted major issues.

The third area is well-being and care. Together in Safety believes that ensuring wellbeing and care is fundamental to developing a healthy, happy and high-performing team of seafarers. The Together in Safety imitative includes references to deliver a high-quality wellbeing and care programme and improve seafarer mental health.

With safety incidents increasing, Together in Safety offers an opportunity to reverse this trend by every shipping company being a role model in adopting the Together in Safety programme.

Source: https://www.ukpandi.com/news-and-resources/articles/2022/the-uk-club-is-proud-to-be-a-part-of-together-in-safety/


he latest bullish report comes from Castor Group in the US, who forecasts vessel supply destruction for large crude tankers to be among the largest ever recorded in the coming few years, second only to the period following the re-opening of the Suez Canal in 1976.

“Obsolete tonnage will not be replaced in the foreseeable future by new buildings as the last few years’ skyrocketing costs and the lack of feasible alternative fuel technologies have caused the longest hiatus of newbuilding orders in almost 40 years,” Castor analysts noted.

A structural bull market lasts for a long time and provides for a time tested and profitable investment strategy

Castor data suggests that at the end of 2025, almost 25% of current aframax supply will be lost. Moreover, in only one year’s time, the VLCC sector is expected to shed 6% of its vessel supply, while the Suezmax sector will lose almost 9% of its tonnage capacity.

The Ukrainian war has caused significant changes in trade patterns in all three crude sectors, resulting in large increases in vessel demand. Since early June, volumes in the VLCC sector are ahead 33.3% and actual vessel demand has risen 30%, according to Castor. The fleet has also become significantly more geographically fractured which in conjunction with higher vessel demand, have pushed earnings almost $35,000 per day higher. During the same time, global suezmax vessel demand has jumped 20% with increases recorded in most export regions. Geographical fragmentation of the fleet has also provided support for higher earnings. Aframax vessel demand rose almost 24% during the same time with the vast majority of increases recorded in the West.

Tankers, Castor argued, are in the early stages of a structural bull market.

“While no bull market follows a straight linear path higher, a structural bull market lasts for a long time and provides for a time tested and profitable investment strategy; buy dips,” Castor advised.

In a widely read recent report entitled ‘Medium-term tanker fleet fundamentals to support a golden age’, brokers BRS looked at the low tanker orderbook, something it said was down to a combination of a tanker market in the doldrums, technological uncertainty and high shipbuilding prices.

“It is becoming extremely difficult for an owner to today place a tanker order at a shipyard with a proven track record for building tankers, for delivery before 4Q25,” BRS stated, predicting that this should see the VLCC fleet contract by 1-2% per annum over 2024-26.

Joakim Hannisdahl, who oversees the Cleaves Shipping Fund, wrote earlier this week of the start of the long-awaited cyclical expansion in oil tankers.

“We now see a dual positive effect on tanker demand due to implications from the invasion and from a general improvement in global oil supply,” Hannisdahl wrote, going on to discuss the very low orderbook.

Norwegian bank DNB has also turned bullish. In a report issued at the end of last month, DNB stated it saw considerable upside potential for many of the tanker stocks it covers.

“As the earnings inflection point appears to be nearing, we have upgraded most of them to buy,” DNB stated.

“We find all-time low orderbook-to-fleet ratios of 5.1% for crude tankers and 4.7% for product tankers, versus high average fleet ages of 11.3 years and 12.1 years, respectively. Against a tightening regulatory backdrop and higher fuel costs, this should offset part of the already limited deliveries and we forecast 2.9% average supply growth for crude tankers and 3.1% for product for 2022–2025e,” the DNB report forecasted.

DNB’s rate forecasts have been substantially upgraded and now stand at $41,400 a day for 2023, $54,400 a day for 2024 and $60,700 a day for 2025 for VLCCs and $23,600 a day, $26,500 a day and $26,800 a day for modern MRs, respectively.

Based on these rate estimates, DNB sees a 13% upside potential to average secondhand VLCC values one year forward, with a five-year old VLCC valued at $93m versus today’s quote of $82m. For MRs, DNB sees 18% upside potential on average, and values a five-year old at $40m one year forward – 20% above the $33.5m current broker quote.

VLCC newbuilding prices have increased from $88.4m in January 2021, to $119m, an increase of 35%, according to the New York-based tanker broker Poten & Partners. Secondhand prices have shown a similar trend. The last time asset prices increased like that was during the tanker supercycle from 2004 to 2008.

So far, newbuilding prices have increased faster than secondhand values in the current cycle. However, Poten argued in its most recent weekly report that this will likely change if rates continue to recover.

Talking changing tanker prospects yesterday was Hugo De Stoop, the boss of Euronav, one of the world’s largest tanker players. Unveiling Q2 results, De Stoop discussed the ongoing counter-seasonal recovery in the markets

“Recent trading data points – such as China’s return to crude procurement, vessel supply metrics and improved oil supply – have underpinned a recovery in the freight markets which is unusual for the season. Euronav is ideally placed to benefit from the shorter-term cyclical recovery but also the robust medium-term fundamentals of our market,” De Stoop said.

The counter-seasonal run comes despite falling demand in key market, the US.

“Demand destruction is by now a reality in much of the Western world, most visibly witnessed in the US with the Energy Information Administration releasing figures showing implied demand for gasoline plunging by 7% last week to just over 8.5m barrels per day, around 11% under the five-year average for this time of the year, even as prices at the pump are coming off fast,” a markets update from Norwegian broker Lorentzen & Co today stated.

However, there are wide differences between the Western Hemisphere and the European continent, propping up the tanker markets, both for crude and products.

“While the US is seeing plenty of extra crude as a result of refineries accepting lesser volumes amidst higher domestic production and releases of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Europe is more hungry than ever for supplies, not only for crude but also for distillates,” analysts at Lorentzen & Co pointed out.

Oil tanker supply/demand and fleet utilisation

Source: Cleaves Shipping Fund

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