Pic left to right James North (Senior Programme Manager); Peter Millett (British High Commissioner); Lord Mayor; Doug Barrow (Maritime London); Peter Ahlås (HSBC); Enrico Bertagna ( Lloyd's - Regional Manager Europe) Marianna Papadakis (Lloyd's - Operations Manager, International Markets). Opposite Capt Dirk Fry - President Cyprus Chamber of Shipping

A delegation of Maritime London members accompanied the Lord Mayor of London to Cyprus last week, meeting members of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber and attending an HSBC Insurance Brokers hosted maritime lunch. The trip was the first in a series of promotional events planned for 2009 to help boost the UK’s maritime services sector.

Maritime London chief executive Doug Barrow said: “The UK and Cypriot shipping communities enjoy strong links and we were warmly welcomed. Reaffirming these links is key for the UK’s professional maritime services sector and we look forward to accompanying the Lord Mayor of London to Turkey 17-20 March. Our visit to Turkey will include a maritime seminar in Istanbul on 19 March.”

Maritime London is inviting members to participate on trips to Shanghai and Hong Kong in May and India in October.

For further details contact Doug Barrow.
T: 020 7929 4999
E: dbarrow@maritimelondon.com

Government policies or lack of action have led over the past year to two companies belonging to the Chamber of Shipping abandoning their intention to flag a total of 70 vessels in the UK, according to the Chamber's president. Martin Watson, speaking at last week's Chamber Annual Dinner, said that changes over the last year to the business environment for UK-based shipping - both actual and threatened - have given rise to instability and uncertainty that has led to a major slowing of growth in the UK-based fleet.

Transport minister Geoff Hoon was among a number of prominent politicians of all parties who listened to Mr Watson explain:

“Some of these changes are home-grown, some originate in Brussels.”

He listed:
- new rules for capital allowances for vessels in the next few years;
- the impact of the radical changes 18 months ago to finance leasing rules;
- proposals to alter employment legislation specific to seafarers; as well as an EU re-notification process that threatened – until recently – to bar significant fleets from tonnage tax eligibility.

However, on the last point, Mr Watson noted that the UK shipping industry was “very grateful for the actions of the Treasury and the Department of Transport, which led to the withdrawal of a number of proposed changes from last year’s Finance Bill.”

He added: “We are equally grateful that the European Commission reviewed its position in the light of our representations.”

“However,” he continued, “for two inward-investing Chamber member companies the inconsistency of Government policy has meant that 70 – yes, 70 - large ships – which they planned to bring into UK ownership – went elsewhere. Some of these ships could still join the UK-fleet if a belief in stability can be restored. Without that, other future opportunities may also be lost, or others may go further and leave.”

Intertanko’s Documentary Committee has responded to the need for a model piracy clause. The association says the clause was produced in December for both voyage and time charters and is being well received and widely used and accepted by brokers and charterers.

Intertanko says that many current charter parties will not have anticipated the possibility of the vessel being hijacked. Owners should therefore check the terms of their existing charters and bills of lading before, for example, taking any decision to re-route the ship. Re-routing may expose an owner to claims for breach of charter - for example a failure to prosecute the voyage with ‘due’ or ‘utmost despatch’, and also to claims under the bill of lading – for example for deviation and late delivery. Owners should also check their war risk clauses, some of which permit a deviation in appropriate circumstances.

For new fixtures, Intertanko's Documentary Committee has produced clauses which address the main issues involved in transiting the Gulf of Aden and/or re-routing the ship.

Maersk Line UK & Ireland is to move from London to Liverpool later this year. Maersk Line UK & Ireland managing director Doug Bannister said: “It is an exciting opportunity for our business as well as the local community, and we are looking forward to establishing our head office in Liverpool, particularly given the city’s long maritime history.”

Maersk’s decision to relocate from London is partly due to competitive costs involved in locating and operating in London, a press release said. It has expanded in Liverpool with the assistance of inward investment agency The Mersey Partnership.

The company operates key container services from the city’s port, as well as passenger and freight links through its Norfolkline services.

Meeting in London late last month, the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) warned that the marine insurance industry is facing one of the most crucial periods it has ever met. IUMI president Deirdre Littlefield cautioned that, given the devastating fall in volumes and values in global trade, would have to “run hard to stay in place” over the next 18 to 24 months.

At its annual winter meeting the IUMI president noted that slowing demand, collapsing freight rates and a surge of new ship deliveries, despite ongoing newbuild cancellations and deferments, meant that shipowners and charterers were scrambling to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

Marine insurers could not expect to escape the consequences of this maritime maelstrom as owners strove desperately to cut operational costs wherever possible. “Unfortunately,” she said, “this pressure on pricing and conditions comes when underwriters are making equally desperate efforts to stabilise premium rates, and raise prices where the claims record justifies it, to compensate for the relentless increase in hull and cargo claims over the last few years. It has been a period, too, when owners benefited from soft premium rates.

Vessels going into layup will add to financial pressures on insurers

“There is no doubt that the all-time historic profits made by owners during the halcyon period marked by the last five years were helped in no small measure by driving ships and crews as hard as possible.

Inevitably, such a strategy impacts heavily on claims, and we expect that many ship repairs and onboard unit replacements, which have been deferred or ignored during the sky-high profit years, will start to surface, along with the results of skimped maintenance, leading to a further escalation of claims. And adding to the financial pressure on insurers, we will see spiralling requests for return of premiums applying to ships going into ‘cold’ or long-term lay-up.”

She added: “However, there are some positives in this deteriorating situation. We should see a sharp increase in the number of older vessels going to the breakers, thus greatly reducing the curse of substandard tonnage which should not be afloat. Also, with far fewer ships in service as the downturn bites deeper, it should ease the problem of finding sufficient numbers of trained and experienced seafarers, although recruitment going forward remains a huge problem when seen against the threats of piracy and the criminalisation of mariners.”

Ms Littlefield said it was clear that insurance and reinsurance companies’ senior management would look to underwriting, not investments, as the key to profitability in the future, and would allocate scarce capital to those lines that promised above average returns. To attract corporate capital, insurers would need to be focused, highly selective and disciplined in their underwriting and pricing of business this year and next.

She also urged underwriters in facing the current turmoil to build a strong working relationship with their major clients. The more underwriters knew about their clients’ business and the challenges and opportunities ahead, the better equipped they would be to design products and services to meet the changing and emerging needs.

Marine engineers, seafarers, scientists and technologists involved in all aspects of the maritime industry from subsea to above-water and from both the civil and defence industries, will assemble in London on 13 March for the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) 106th annual dinner which is being held jointly with the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT).

"We are looking forward to a highly enjoyable and interesting evening, meeting old friends and making new ones and also celebrating the 120th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute" says Keith Read CBE, chief executive of IMarEST.

For booking details contact Christine Martin
T: +44(0)20 7382 2636
E:christine.martin@imarest.org

Maritime London member the UK P&I Club, in conjunction with BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys has proposed published a document with recommendations for lay-up arrangements. The Club believes that if followed, the recommendations will help minimise P&I claims, including personal injury, wreck removal and pollution, particularly oil leakage, antifouling and other contamination of the local environment.

The guidelines have been drafted to assist the Club’s shipowners in the preparation of their vessels for a period of lay-up and to provide recommendations for maintaining the ships in a safe and effective condition.

A range of free shipping market audio commentaries are now available on www.shippingpodcasts.com.

Covering a range of topics including the tanker, gas, dry cargo markets; shipping law, marine insurance, ports and terminals and P&I, the service is supplied by specialist maritime eLearning provider Coracle.

The commentary is provided by the Baltic Exchange, Braemar-Seascope, Ince & Co, Reed Smith, The London Club and Willis Marine.

London based Japan Ship Centre will be holding a free seminar on 17-18 March looking at energy efficient ship technologies.

The seminar will be delivered by Dr Koichiro Matsumoto of Universal Shipbuilding Corp. and Dr. Yoshiaki Kodama of the National Maritime Research Institute.

The International Shipping Federation (ISF) is celebrating its 100th anniversary throughout this year, having been established as the principal international employers’ organization for shipowners in 1909.

To launch its centenary, ISF has produced a special brochure highlighting the organisation’s achievements and identifying immediate priorities in the year ahead.

These include: the promotion and implementation of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention, expected to enter into force in the next two years; the completion of the current International Maritime Organization (IMO) review of the STCW (seafarers’ training) Convention; as well as measures to increase the worldwide recruitment and training of the next generation of seafarers, in support of IMO’s ‘Go to Sea!’ campaign.

The National Maritime Museum has announced that it has launched a new website for its picture library located at nmmimages.com. The library features more nearly 15,000 images which are available for licensing online which have been selected from the National Maritime Museum’s collection of almost three million items. Publishers and designers will find a variety of historical maritime content including oil paintings, prints, historic photographs and objects from the Museum’s unrivalled maritime collections.

The library has stated plans to expand the range of images offered for licensing online throughout the year.

The museum also offers a membership programme which includes free entry to special exhibitions the planetarium, invitations to exclusive private views of Museum exhibitions and supporter events, as well as discounts in its shops and cafes.

For further information, visit www.nmm.ac.uk/membership or call 020 8312 6678.