The Rotterdam Rules on carrier liability will have a far-reaching impact across the whole of maritime commerce, according to an article written by Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) partner Craig Neame. The article, which appeared in the both the July issue of Britannia News and HFW's Shipping and Logistics says that “there will barely be an untouched area”.

It warns that owners need to keep a close eye on who is signing and ratifying. If the US ratifies, the UK follows and China shows a renewed enthusiasm, there is a very good chance the Rules will achieve widespread adoption. Owners who are ahead of the game will probably steal a competitive advantage, while avoiding the extra costs that last minute solutions always bring.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which supports the ratification of the Rules as providing a modern legal framework liability, also see US ratification as key. The ICS's general manager (legal) Kiran Khosla told London Matters that the crucial point was that the Rules will provide a global solution and avoid a patchwork of competing regulations.

Mr Neame in his article notes the opposing views on whether rules should be ratified but says that the aim his article is not to say which view is right and which is wrong but, instead, to consider some of the potential ‘real world’ impact that the Rules will have on shipowners if they come into force. He notes that the Rules can no longer be changed, which means that they must either be adopted ‘as is’ or rejected in full. The Rules present both strategic threats and opportunities and it is essential that owners start planning for their possible introduction as soon as possible.

The Rules will require owners to undertake a review of all their contractual arrangements and operating procedures to ensure compliance. Where necessary, commercial, operational, insurance and legal staff will have to be given extensive training. The Rules will also have an impact on day to day cargo claims handling by shipowners and P&I Clubs.

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Publication of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch's (MAIB) widely distributed and respected Safety Digest have been halted after daily maritime newspaper Lloyd's List identified vessels it believed to have been involved in case referred to in the June issue of the Digest.

In a statement the MAIB says that for eight years there has been an understanding by which the media has respected the need not to identify individuals or organisations “in a spirit of mutual co-operation on safety matters”.

The MAIB notes that the editor justified his actions by saying that the press's role is to shed light where public officials are unable or unwilling to do so.

He added: “Having put the facts into public record, you cannot in a free society control how the press pursues the exposure of those facts.”

The MAIB says that it now has to assume that anyone written about in a Safety Digest could in future be named in the press.

“We apologise for the loss of this invaluable safety tool, but are attempting to find a way to resolve this predicament,” the MAIB says. However the legal complexities of the situation could mean the Digest will not be published in future.

The case in question is the subject of a current MAIB investigation which means the findings will be published, including details of the vessels involved, when the investigation is complete.

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Major London-based shipbroker Simpson Spence and Young (SSY) has chosen derivatives benchmark and multi-asset front office solution SuperDerivatives (SD) process the alpha returns of its new proprietary hedge fund, The Bluewave Shipping Fund.

SSY is the world’s largest independent shipbroker and specialises in the freight market. The company set up Bluewave to generate absolute returns from the freight market, a sector often characterised by high volatility and at times limited liquidity.

Mark Richardson, CEO of Bluewave, explains: "We had a short time to produce a strong and scalable hedge fund model that would appeal to investors, but as brokers did not have many of the in-house IT structures that a fund manager would take for granted. SD’s consultative approach and SaaS model meant that they quickly identified our requirements and got us up and running in no time. Bluewave needed to be able to manipulate data received from market sources in order to generate indicative pricing and perform stress testing, while retaining the ability to quickly and easily track its books against the Baltic Exchange, which publishes settlement prices every day. The fund also had to ensure it had an efficient and transparent portfolio management system to demonstrate to external parties sound operational and financial risk control in a very opaque and volatile market."

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Specialist shipping industry recruitment agency and Maritime London member Spinnaker reports that it is seeing a very active market and great successes in all three of its divisions – commercial, professional services and technical. The agency notes that, when freight rates collapsed in September 2008, it looked like being a long hard winter and while 2009 was a tough year for maritime recruitment, particularly in the commercial market, “2010 couldn’t be more different”.

The professional services division is, Spinnaker says, very busy with legal, claims and sales roles, although unsurprisingly ship finance and banking have yet to pick up to a great extent. However it is seeing more activity and vacancies in the P&I underwriting market. The commercial division “is as busy as it has ever been”. The current emphasis is however on recruitment around physical trading rather than the derivatives and FFA market. The general increase in trading CIF as opposed to FOB has meant the number of employers with a need for chartering/freight trading and operations staff has increased. Competitive ship broking firms are also actively recruiting, in direct contrast to a year ago.

The technical division, which never crashed like the commercial market, is “pretty much back to 2008 levels”.

Interestingly however the firm notes: “One difference we are seeing at Spinnaker is that whereas in 2008 a lot of recruitment was happening after the first interview, in 2010 a lot of companies are being more careful about their recruiting and we are seeing a lot more second and third interviews. Or, again(!), perhaps it’s just the summer holidays and people are having to go back to meet the people they couldn’t meet the first time around.”

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Confined space advice

Steamship Mutual P&I club has issued two Risk Alerts, one on enclosed spaces and the other on ship-to ship transfers. The club says its managers’ review of major claims incurred in 2009 shows that as in previous years the greatest number of these concerned crew. The majority of crew claims involved either loss of life or personal injury, and most frequently occurred when work was being undertaken in confined spaces.

Before outlining in some detail precautions to be taken before entering confined spaces the club notes: “The risks associated with such operations should be well known since much has been written about the dangers. To control the risks, pursuant to the ISM Code, Safety Management Systems contain detailed procedures on the subject of entry to confined spaces. Yet, despite these measures lives continue to be lost unnecessarily and so there is clearly need for continued loss prevention focus on this issue.”

On STS the club notes that the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) recently published a report on its investigation into a collision between two oil tankers off the south-eastern coast of the UK, following a ship to ship (STS) transfer operation. The collision occurred at very slow speed and the resulting damages were slight, one vessel suffering damages to a lifeboat and davit, the other being undamaged. The crews of both ships were uninjured and there was no pollution.

The number of STS operations in this area has increased considerably in 2009 and this incident was the third within six weeks; a further two collisions occurred subsequently. The club says: “Although STS operations world-wide are reported to have a good safety record, and the accidents off Southwold were relatively minor, their frequency has given cause for concern.” Risk Alert draws attention to forthcoming regulatory changes and initiatives concerning STS transfers.

The ICS/OCIMF “Ship to Ship Transfer Guide (Petroleum) 4th Edition” and its checklists are the main references used by the shipping industry’s tanker sector for the conduct of STS operations. This is confirmed by the forthcoming international regulation for the “Prevention of Pollution during Transfer of Oil Cargo between Oil Tankers At Sea” which comes into force on 1st January 2011, by an amendment to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).

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BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys, part of the BMT Group, is beefing up its specialist marine technical consulting capability. It has appointed Simon Burnay as the new director of the company’s marine consultancy support services which are available to shipowners, charterers, maritime lawyers and insurers. He is based in the company’s London office, having transferred from a sister BMT company.

Nigel Clark, managing director of BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys, said: “We have always provided marine consultancy services but now we are expanding this very specialised area of work, and where necessary we can draw on the capability within the wider BMT group. Simon and his colleagues will support our overseas regional directors, the core P&I team and the company as a whole.

Mr Burnay first joined BMT in 1999 and is a naval architect. His areas of expertise include ship performance and efficiency, marine operations, vessel dynamics, forensic engineering and incident investigations. He has experience in a wide range of sectors across the industry, and has provided expert witness analysis and advice in a number of high-profile marine incidents.

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Corte Real

The 13,300 TEU container ship CMA CGM Corte Real is now the largest ship on the UK Ship Register at 150,269 GT. The newbuilding was delivered by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering , South Korea, earlier this month. CMA CGM now has 34 ships registered with the UKSR.

This latest ship registration takes CMA CGM's UK flagged fleet over the 2 million GT mark, which represents almost 12% of the tonnage of the UK fleet.

As at the end of July the UK Ship Register stands at 1,537 ships, and GT now stands at 17,019,635.

Roger Towner, registrar general of shipping and seamen at the MCA said: “We are delighted to welcome the CMA CGM Corte Real to the UK Flag. I am also pleased that CMA CGM continues to support the UK Flag and we look forward to working with them closely in the future.”

The CMA CGM Corte Real features an electronically controlled engine, fuel tanks protected by a double hull and the Fast Oil Recovery System. The vessel also received the new Bureau Veritas environmental classification notation Clean Ship C.

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The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is holding its International Shipping Conference is being held in London on 15 September next month. Topics to be covered include: piracy, the negotiations to reduce CO2 emissions from ships, the availability of low sulphur fuels, the impact on shipping of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, flag state performance, shipbuilding issues, and perceptions of the industry.

The conference will be chaired by Spyros M Polemis, ICS chariman, with a key note speech by the president of DNV, Tor E. Svensen. Other speakers include the recently appointed ICS secretary general, Peter Hinchliffe and the chief of staff of EU NAVFOR, Colonel Richard Spencer.

For the programme and registration form see www.marisec.org/icsconference

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Maritime London member Maritime Education & Training Limited (METL) provides evening classes in central London for the Professional Qualifying Examinations leading to membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

The next new term will start on Monday, 13 September 2010. Anyone interested in enrolling please contact METL via email to admin@metl.info or visit www.metl.info

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Specialist maritime public relations company Navigate PR is once again running its PR for non PR People course (19-20 October).

According to course leader Mike Elsom, many companies cannot justify employing full-time PR people and often the PR function is given to the sales team, business development executives or the boss's PA.

He notes: “Whilst they are probably very capable people, to be truly effective, PR requires careful planning and execution. This course delivers practical skills and first-hand knowledge equipping non PR people with tools they need to add value to their business.”

See www.navigatepr.com for further details.

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London Matters runs a short piece each issue covering a maritime related charity. If you have a charity story or campaign you would like to see highlighted to London Matters' 11,000 + readers, please contact the editor Bill Lines. E: blines@maritimelondon.com

This week the Apostleship of the Sea writes:

When thinking of life on a cruise ship the many entertainments and pleasures are often first to mind. However, with thousands of crew and passengers onboard the difficult moments of life are inevitably present too. At such times, Apostleship of the Sea chaplains are invaluable in helping people cope.

During July AoS's newest port chaplain, Roger Stone, was asked to go on board a cruise ship with some than 800 crew, following the difficult death of a seafarer. Roger was asked to stay onboard over the weekend, whilst the ship sailed, to counsel and comfort the crew. As well as spending much time listening and getting alongside the crew, Roger led a memorial service for some 150 people late in the evening after their shifts had finished. The company were extremley grateful for all that Roger did which greatly helped to complement their own crew welfare practices at this difficult time. AoS provides support for thousands of seafarers each month.

As a registered charity, AoS relies wholly on voluntary contributions to continue it’s work. Please consider making a donation to us either by post to: AoS, Herald House, Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8LE or online at www.apostleshipofthesea.org.uk/cms/donate-to-us

Apostleship of the Sea activity (across Great Britain in July 2010)
653 ship visits
187 occasions of helping seafarers to contact family back home
179 times of providing transport for seafarers (e.g. to shops, seafarers centre)
14 AOS port chaplains (Great Britain)
7 welfare cases (e.g. unpaid wages, bereavement)

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