Tuesday 24 November 2009

Piracy clauses for Charterparties

If someone is not yet fully aware, BIMCO has recently published three new piracy clauses. The first one is a further revision of the Piracy Clause for Time Charter parties, initially issued in March of 2009. The other two are newly developed piracy clauses, for single voyage Charter Parties, and for consecutive voyage Charterparties and contracts of affreightment (COAs). For short term fixtures, the clause leaves the risks and costs with the owners, while for the longer term COAs and consecutive voyages, the risks and costs are shared between the owners and the charterers.

Thursday 19 November 2009

China : forthcoming requirement to contract with an approved local clean up contractor

Further to our discussion of the new chinese marine pollution regulations, we have to mention the requirement to contract with an approved local cleanup contractor.

The regulations will require the operators (the term "Operators" is not yet defined in the regulations ) to conclude the polution cleanup contract with an approved by MSA (the PRC's Marine Safety Agency) polution response company before calling any PRC port.

For the time being, it is understood that the mentioned clean up contractors will bear responsibility for carrying out clean up operations in case of an incident under the supervision of MSA. There will be more than one contractor in every chinese port.

The contractors have to be approved by MSA as well as the kind of response contracts that will be concluded between the operators and the contractors.

It is known that MSA will try to complete approval of applications of responders within 30 working days, however this may result in a very short period of time within which operators will be able to conclude the contracts before 1 March 2010. An extension may be given, but, since such extension is not forthcomming, every effort should be given to ensure compliance by 1 March 2010.

A breach of regulations may brings fines amounting from RMB 10,000 to 300,000 depending on the breach.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

China introduces regulations for the prevention and control of marine polution

On the 1-st of March, 2010, the shipping community expects the regulations of the People's Republic of China on prevention and control of marine polution from vessels to take effect. The regulation aims to govern polution prevention, response measures and clean up in PRC waters.

The legislation to take effect will include requirements to contract with approved oil spill response companies as well as the requirement to maintain insurance or any financial security to cover liabilities stemming from oil polution.

The regulations include a wide range of issues, e.g. the discharge of oil pollutants, spill response planning, obtaining permissions for dumping and dumping of wastes, clean-up arrangements, reporting, handling and investigating of polution incidents, compensations and penalties for not complying with regulations.

The regulations will introduce compulsary insurance regime for all ships of more than or equal to 1,000 gt carrying non-oil cargoes in order to cover claims stemming from oil polution.

Interestingly, the PRC ratifed the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution damage (also known as 2001 Bunkers Convention) at the end of 2008, and the 1992 International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (1992 CLC) . However, the PRC is not a member to the 1992 International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (1992 IOPC Fund).


The regulations will reserve establishment of a domestic oil pollution compensation fund.

Also, the regulations will mainly reflect the liability provisions contained in the 1992 CLC and the 2001 Bunkers Convention . ( The former concerns liabilities of the owner for pollution stemming from the carriage of persistent oil, while the latter concerns liabilities of the owner for damage due to bunker oil spills ).

Any vessel trading within PRC territorial waters (except those less than 1,000 gt carrying non-oil cargoes) will be obliged to maintain insurance or other financial security to comply with the requirements of the Chinese Maritime Code or the 1992 CLC and 2001 Bunkers Convention .

To maintain awareness, the PRC's Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) will prepair and publish a list of competent insurance providers.

Friday 13 November 2009

Bunker prices review

Bunker price is known to be an indicator of shipping's healthiness. Monitoring of bunker price fluctuations is important for taking decisions regarding bunker programs for ships. This short review aims to set an eye on to this objective.


380
180
MDO
MGO
State as of 28-Mar-11:

Gibraltar
645.00(725.00LS)
675.00(765.00LS)
1020.00
1040.00
Rotterdam
610.00(680.00LS)
630.00(700.00LS)
n/a
980.00
Skaw
617.00(712.00LS)
646.00(742.00LS)
940.00
1020.00
Las Palmas
650.00
665.00
1020.00
1030.00
Fujairah
643.00
668.00
n/a
988.00
Kandla
657.00
729.00
-
1021.00
Singapore
632.00(682.00LS)
645.00
-
985.00
Sydney
730.00
760.00
-
1100.00
New York
650.00
665.00
-
1030.00
Panama
674.00
704.00
-
1030.00


Wednesday 11 November 2009

Laytime calculation examples : helping solutions

There has been a growing interest in the shipping community to speeding-up laytime calculations. A professional doing laytime calcs knows how time consuming it is, especially if the one has to work under time pressure. Often, those limited hours of private life have to be spent on reverting to lengthy time sheets. But, what can be done about that? It would be great to, sometimes, outsource the problem solver .

On the other hand, beginners, having yet little experience, feel a need for support to decide whether to count a particular period or not. Clearly, cost of mistake can be too high, since the size of despatch or demurrage can effect final results to a great extent. So, if someone could provide alternative calculations, then, by comparing final figures, it would become possible to come to a final conclusion.

We therefore decided to launch a service for fast and precise laytime calculations for insignificant fees! Actually, we believe, a solution seeker may decide how much to pay ! Remember we have got a nicely designed laytime calculator previously described in one of the posts. Please kindly e-mail us to : maritimedomain@yahoo.com . And we also invite the problem solvers!

The reader is also referred to our  Laytime Calculation pages for discussions, detailed analysis and review of hard cases.