New port at London Gateway

Dubai-based international port operator DP World has signed GBP400m contract to build the first phase of a new port at London Gateway, the most technically advanced container port in the world, integrated with Europe’s largest logistics park. This is the first major contract to be awarded in the GBP1.5bn project, due to be built over the next 10 to 15 years.

The contract is over five years, and will see the construction of the first phase of the port’s quay providing three berths and over 1.2 kilometres of quay in a joint venture between Laing O’Rourke and Dredging International.

The new port will eventually handle 3.5milion TEU, providing a much needed increase in capacity for the UK’s container terminals. The South Essex project is currently set to be the largest creator of new jobs in the UK, delivering over 12,000 in the coming years, and is the largest investment in the South East of England.

Chief executive of London Gateway, Simon Moore, said: “This contract is a major milestone in constructing the port. In an economic climate where the building industry is experiencing a sharp slow down, this is great news for Essex and the UK in general. “London Gateway is vitally important for today’s UK economy. It will deliver the most efficient and technologically advanced port in the world and much needed deep sea capacity for the UK.”

London Gateway is the UK’s first deep sea container port for over 25 years and will change the way millions of consumer goods are transported around the country. By integrating the new container port with a logistics park, many everyday goods will be sent to the nation’s shops without having to be hauled on a truck to a distribution centre often situated inland hundreds of miles away from a container port. Instead, goods will go straight into London Gateway’s own logistics park to be sorted and then sent direct to shops.

The London P&I Club has warned that bins and flat- racks used to stow container twistlocks on board vessels are occasionally found to be in an unsafe condition because of corrosion or physical damage. It says that the structural failure of this equipment as it is lifted could create a severe personal injury risk.

In the latest issue of its StopLoss Bulletin, the Club notes, “Standard container operation in many terminals involves the ship’s semi- or fully automatic twistlocks being fitted to or removed from containers by stevedores on the quayside. These twistlocks are often stored in steel ‘gear bins’ which are themselves stowed on flat racks that are lifted off and on the ship by shore cranes.”

It notes: “The flat racks are landed ashore just before discharge commences and the bins are filled with the twistlocks removed from the containers as they are discharged. As containers are loaded, twistlocks are then removed from the bins and fitted into those containers. On completion of cargo work, the bins, which will contain any unused twistlocks, are placed back on the flat racks and then lifted on board, where they are routinely stowed on top of stacks in positions that are inaccessible to the crew.”

“In one recent incident,” the club says, “a port safety officer allowed flat racks to be returned onboard only on condition that the bins were first emptied of twistlocks. In some cases it is thought the equipment falls outside the inspection regimes of flag state, class or port state control and, due to its often remote stowage position, an ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ philosophy can develop on board. Accordingly, owners should ensure that the equipment is incorporated into a planned maintenance system and, if necessary, be the subject of regular third-party inspections.”

The UK shipping industry has welcomed the move by Japan to start eco-labelling food and other products.

A Chamber of Shipping statement says: “Such a move across the UK would help to de-bug the two “food miles” myths – that the distance a product is transported provides a guide to its carbon footprint and that imported food is commonly transported by air.” The Chamber notes that Japan is to carry carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products in an ambitious scheme to persuade companies and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

It asserts: “Almost all imported foods (and other goods) on supermarket shelves have been brought in by sea. Shipping carries 92% of British trade by volume. Transporting a product by sea produces about 1% of the carbon dioxide that would be produced by carrying the same item the same distance by air – so 100 “food miles” by ship is the equivalent in CO2 output of only one “food-mile” by air or 10 “food-miles” by road. Clearly to compare “food-miles” is completely ludicrous as a way of estimating a product’s impact on global-warming.”

Retreating icecap

The 'New Maritime Arctic' will come under the lecture spotlight on 8 September when Dr Lawson Brigham, Chair, Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) and deputy director of the US Arctic Research Commission delivers the next Stanley Gray Lecture at the London headquarters of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST).

Dr Brigham will explore how a reduction in Arctic sea ice during the melt season and rapid technological advances have already combined, leading to rapid development in the circumpolar region and will provide an informative overview of the achievements of the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (2005-2008).

He will introduce the social, economic and environmental impacts of shipping in the Arctic today. He will also take a look into the future of shipping in this rapidly changing region of the Earth. The opportunities and challenges these changes in marine activities represent for governments and local Arctic communities will be discussed alongside a debate of the risks, both to human safety and the environment, of operating in this pristine and demanding region.

Reservations to this free event can be made online at www.imarest.org/events/stangray, calling +44 (0)20 7382 2655 or at events@imarest.org

Lloyd's Register subsidiary, LR EMEA, has signed heads of terms to acquire 100% of the share capital of Scandpower.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum will be the largest the Lloyd’s Register Group has ever conducted. Scandpower has approximately 250 staff that specialise in the provision of risk management services to the nuclear, oil and gas, and transportation industries. In the nuclear field, the company’s services are entirely focused upon civil power generation. Within the oil and gas sector, Scandpower’s services are focused upon exploration, production, refining and transport. Activities in the transportation sector are focused on the railway and aviation industries.

Approximately 65% of staff are headquartered in Norway and 25% in Sweden. The remaining staff are evenly split between Houston and Beijing.

Iain Light, Lloyd's Register's oil & gas director said of the agreement, "Lloyd's Register has a clear strategy to become the leading provider of compliance, integrity and specialised consultancy services to clients throughout all sectors of the transportation and energy sectors. The acquisition of Scandpower AS will be a major step towards achieving that goal."

Bjørn Inge Bakken, president and CEO of Scandpower AS said: "We are experiencing an unprecedented level of demand for our services and we are keen to expand geographically and increase our market share in the nuclear and oil and gas sectors. To achieve this, we need to be capable of handling substantial and rapid growth, both operationally and administratively. The Lloyd's Register Group is an ideal partner with similar values and an infrastructure that can be leveraged to support our growth plans."

David Christie

Maritime London member Steamship Mutual has appointed David Christie as a partner of its management company, Steamship Insurance Management.

Mr Christie, who will continue in his current role as head of claims for the Club’s Eastern syndicate, joins the partnership having worked at Steamship Mutual for over 25 years.

Despite an increasingly difficult claims environment in the P&I market, Steamship Mutual recently posted record financial results achieving an overall operating surplus of USD27.6 million and the Club’s free reserves increasing by 17.5% to their highest ever level, at USD185.8 million.

London-based firms Braemar Seascope and Tullett Prebon have set up TP Braemar, a joint venture for broking forward freight agreements (FFAs). The TP Braemar team is based at Braemar’s offices in London and employs four FFA brokers to work on the wet FFA market.

Denis Petropoulos, joint managing director of Braemar said: “This is an initial step to building a presence in the rapidly growing FFA market. Tullett Prebon’s wide experience in this and other derivatives markets will be invaluable to achieving this goal. We expect to expand the activity to cover other areas of the FFA market, including the dry markets in due course.”

Andrew Polydor, head of EMEA energy at Tullett Prebon, commented: “We already have the team in place and believe we can significantly increase our market presence with the assistance of Braemar’s shipbroking expertise. There is a growing market appetite for FFAs and we intend to be a major player in the market place.”

The past year has been far from easy for the West of England P&I Club according to its chairman Matthew Los. In the club's annual report he says: “Although early indications suggest that claims levels for both the Club’s Members and for claims involving the Pool may not be as high as for 2006, which appears the most expensive year on record so far, there seems little reason to believe that the adverse claims cycle which started in 2003 is likely to moderate.”

The club says its policy has been to concentrate on improved underwriting performance by aiming to achieve a break-even underwriting result as soon as reasonably practicable, even if that has resulted in an overall reduction in entered business. However, the reduction has, the club notes, been small. Entered mutual tonnage following the renewal at 20 February 2008 was largely unchanged at 53.8m gt compared with 54.4m gt a year a year previously.

The club adds that although its free reserve has also reduced to $173.6 million, partly because of an increase in the cost of prior year claims and partly because initial projections of the outcome for policy year 2007 still indicate an underwriting deficit, the positive effects of a smaller membership compared with 62 million GT in 2006 are now beginning to emerge.

It notes: “It is encouraging that the estimated value of outstanding claims as at the balance sheet date has reduced by nearly 10% and that over the last twelve months the number of new claims reported has reduced by 15%.”

Technical underwriting results to the end of 2007 continue to show a deficit before allocation of investment income. Although the free reserve has reduced by USD31.1 million over the course of the year, the club points out that net outstanding claims have also reduced to USD411.8m million compared with USD454.1 million a year ago so that the ratio of free reserves to outstanding claims has reduced only marginally from 45% to 42%.

Maritime Education & Training Limited (METL) provide 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 15 September.

Anyone interested in enrolling should contact METL via email to rita@metl.info or visit www.metl.info.

London is not only home to more shipping related companies than anywhere else, it is also now home to Europe’s first ever hotel made of modified shipping containers. Travelodge has opened a new hotel in Uxbridge, London constructed from 86 steel containers.

According to Travelodge, the containers were modified and fitted with hotel room fixtures and fittings in Shenzen, China, shipped to the UK and then fitted together in a framework to form the building.

Travelodge plans to build a 307-room hotel at Heathrow using the same technique.