***IMO’s Container-Weighing Proposal Pits Carriers Against Shippers
It sounds pretty straightforward and uncontroversial, but few issues have divided the shipping industry more deeply than the International Maritime Organization’s proposal for a legal requirement to verify the weight of containers prior to loading on a ship.
The draft proposal, a key plank of the U.N. maritime agency’s effort to improve safety at sea, traces its origin to the investigation into the dramatic breakup of the MSC Napoli in the English Channel and its subsequent beaching on the southern U.K. coast in January 2007.
The report into the high-profile incident found that of the 660 containers that did not take in water, 137 varied by more than three metric tons from their declared weight, and one was 20 tons heavier. All told, the 137 boxes contained 312 tons more than the weight listed on the cargo manifests.
The United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch concluded that misdeclared container weights contributed to the structural failure of the hull skin of the MSC Napoli, which had a nominal capacity of 4,400 20-foot-equivalent units.
The resulting six years of negotiations over mandatory weighing of containers by the IMO Subcommittee on Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers attracted scant interest, even in the broader shipping industry. There were a few accidents blamed on overweight containers, including the partial capsizing of the Deneb, a 500-TEU feeder ship, in the Spanish port of Algeciras in June 2011, but nothing to compare with the MSC Napoli.
Until this past June, that is, when the 5-year-old, 8,100-TEU MOL Comfort suffered a fatal crack amidships and snapped in two during a raging storm in the Indian Ocean, some 200 miles off the coast of Yemen, while en route from Singapore to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
MOL, the vessel’s Japanese owner, immediately pulled its six sister ships from the Asia-Europe service with a view to strengthening their hulls.
The investigation into the incident is in its early stage, but most attention is focusing on overweight or misdeclared containers, and/or incorrect stowing.
The MOL Comfort accident helped to refocus the industry’s attention on container weights just as the IMO subcommittee was preparing to vote to amend its Safety of Life at Sea regulations to make weight verification mandatory.
“Misdeclared container weights present safety hazards for ships, their crews, other cargo onboard, workers in the port facilities handling containers, and on roads. Incorrectly declared weights lead to incorrect ship stowage and accidents,” BIMCO, the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Ports and Harbours Association and the World Shipping Council, said in a joint statement.
The graphic pictures of a large, modern Japanese-built container ship operated by one of the world’s largest ocean carriers breaking up and catching fire likely smoothed the IMO subcommittee’s path to the compromise deal struck in early September that will make it illegal for a container to be loaded on a ship without a verified weight certificate.
Shippers have two options: weigh the loaded container or weigh all packages and cargo items and then add the tare of the empty box. An exemption should apply when containers carried on chassis or trailers are driven on or off ro-ro ships engaged in short international voyages, the subcommittee proposed.
Mandatory verification will have an impact on the global supply chain — and potentially on safety — considering some 130 million containers move by ship every year, of which as many as one-third are believed to be overweight.
The subcommittee’s proposal, to be voted on at meeting of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee in May 2014, has sparked a slew of questions: Can it work? How will it be put into practice? How much will it cost? Who will oversee verification across the globe, particularly in developing nations in Africa and South America?
The debate over container weights is occurring against a backdrop of mounting concern over the safety of container ships following a recent spate of accidents, including fires on the Eugen Maersk, Hansa Brandenberg, the Maersk Kampala and the MSC Flaminia. The potential impact of accidents aboard ever-larger container ships is only heightening these concerns.
The IMO proposal is drawing praise and rage in equal measure from the shipping industry with scores of organizations — from the high-profile BIMCO and International Chamber of Shipping to sector-specific groups such as Fonasba, the federation of international ship brokers and agents — rushing out statements.
The opposition camp includes the powerful European and Asian Shippers’ Councils, which claim to speak for 75 percent of the global container trade; CLECAT, the European Freight Forwarders body; FIATA, the international freight forwarders association; and FEPORT, the European maritime terminals and stevedores group.
The pro-camp includes industry heavyweights such as the World Shipping Council, whose members control approximately 90 percent of ocean container capacity, and the International Ports and Harbours Association, whose members handle some 80 percent of the world’s ocean container traffic.
But it isn’t a straight split between those that will have to verify container weights, led by shippers, and those who won’t, mainly carriers. The Global Shippers Forum, a trade association representing cargo interests in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, enthusiastically backed the IMO proposal as the “best possible outcome” because it provides “a flexible and workable solution, which can be adopted by industry without significant cost or delays in the supply chain.”
But the International Transport Workers Federation, which represents some 700 unions comprising 4,500 transportation workers, called the IMO compromise a copout “that in some countries will put in place a process that is likely to be bedevilled by the obvious questions: who will certify, when, and how?”
The European Shippers’ Council is concerned that debate in the IMO focused on the relatively small risk involved in container weights rather than on more important safety issues such as lashing and stowing of cargo and vessel maintenance. The IMO proposal “will only add to extra costs and administrative burden to shippers around the world with consequences for global supply chains,” it said. The Brussels-based group also attacked the absence of shippers’ representatives in the IMO negotiations.
The Asian Shippers’ Council is sceptical that the rules drawn up at the IMO headquarters in London will work in its regional patch. “There are millions of shippers across Asia, with different levels of maturity and different operational constraints,” Chairman John Lu said. “Before arriving at a key gateway for export, cargoes may have to use multiple modes of transport — trucks, ships and/or rail. Can you imagine trying to implement what is agreed at the IMO in such a challenging environment?”
There are also questions about the practicalities of verifying the weight of tens of millions of containers worldwide. Facilities are lacking even in advanced countries such as the U.K., which has just 200 public weighbridges. Bromma, a Swedish container-handling equipment manufacturer, estimates that up to 1,000 terminals worldwide will have to acquire load-sensing systems to meet the IMO regulation.
Supporters of the IMO’s proposed legislation say its critics are exaggerating the practical problems and costs of implementation. The U.S. has long required all export containers to be weighed, a requirement that hasn’t reduced supply chain efficiency but has improved safety, according to the International Association of Ports and Harbours.
The IMO proposal is scheduled for final adoption in November 2014 and will take effect in July 2016, giving the industry plenty of time to get its act together.
FROM THE TORONTO STAR (CANADA):
***Labour rights get grounded
Rick Westhead Toronto Star
328 words
5 October 2013
The Toronto Star
TOR
ONT
WD3
English
Copyright (c) 2013 The Toronto Star
Flight attendants often make requests of their employers: shift changes, vacation bookings and appeals to work or avoid certain routes.
But one Middle East airline is making waves for its insistence that female employees make an unorthodox request. Qatar Airways demands that its female workers ask for permission to marry.
The airline also insists female employees must tell the company if they become pregnant. If that happens, the worker could be fired, according to a report on Arabianbusiness.com. It hasn’t been a great couple of weeks for Qatar, which is scheduled to host the 2022 World Cup of soccer. The Guardian newspaper also reports that virtual slave labour is being used to build the country’s sports facilities and that dozens of Nepalese migrant workers have died of heat exhaustion.
The airline revelation has stoked outrage at the International Transport Workers‘ Federation, which represents 4.5 million workers in 150 countries.
That union has sent officials to Canada to lobby the International Civil Aviation Organization, Arabbusiness.com said. It’s unclear whether the organization could penalize Qatar Airways for the alleged rights abuse.
Earlier this year, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker blamed unions for the dispute.
“If you did not have unions you wouldn’t have this jobless problem in the western world. . . . It is caused by unions making companies and institutions uncompetitive and bringing them to a position of not being efficient,” Al Baker told Arabian Business. “If you go and ask the politicians in most of the countries in the western world, they would love to have the system we have: where the workers have rights through the law but they do not have rights through striking and undermining successful institutions that provide jobs,” he added.
FROM THE CYPRUS MAIL:
***Shipping at the heart of economic development
1018 words
6 October 2013
Cyprus Mail
CYMAIL
English
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2013. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com Company All Rights Reserved.
By Costas Apostolides, Economist
THE Maritime Cyprus conference opens in Limassol on Sunday at a time when world shipping faces many challenges including repercussions of the international economic and financial crisis, the implications on the volume of trade and shifts in trade to Asia, technological change, environmental regulations, piracy and changes in the earth’s energy balance with the advent of natural gas and fracking. All these issues will be addressed at the conference, with an impressive line-up of speakers from the International Maritime Organization, the European Commission, International Chamber of Shipping, the American Bureau of Shipping, International Transport Workers Federation, Deutsche Bank and other major speakers with international standing. Given that Cyprus is a major shipping nation, the conference attracts international participation and also relates to the emerging situation in Cyprus shipping.
Over the period 2002 to 2007 world shipping gained from the growth of international trade, and Cyprus shipping benefitted from the development of the island as a major centre for ship management. Since 2008 the financial crisis and the recessions in Europe and the United States affected world trade negatively, with serious repercussions on shipping, which carries more than 90 per cent of international trade. To make things worse, shipping was affected at a time when the world supply of ships increased, and the combined effect was that pressure was placed on freight charges as freight demand, banks and financial markets worldwide were under pressure.
In order to put shipping into perspective the World Shipping Council estimates that “global seaborne trade” carries over $10 trillion worth of goods a year, with container ships accounting for 52 per cent of that, followed by tankers at 22 per cent, cargo at 20 per cent and dry bulk at six per cent. Consequently shipping is crucial for the world economy, largely because it is the most cost efficient way of transporting goods. Nevertheless shipping is in competition with rail and pipelines mainly across the EuroAsia land mass, as well as with electricity transmission lines for energy transfer. Despite these developments shipping has maintained its dominant position in international trade.
It is particularly significant that Maritime Cyprus includes a session in which experts will analyse the current trends in shipping. At present the situation is somewhat confused, but recently the German state owned HSH Nordbank announced that as a result of the increase in ship capacity faster than demand, “freight and charter rates, together with ship values, remained at a historically low level”. Norbank ruled out a recovery before the end of 2014. Given this situation the analysis of trends at the conference should provide a clearer indication as to what is going on and provide a more reliable basis for planning ahead.
Most of the focus in the media has been on container traffic in consumer and other goods, but not all shipping sectors are affected in the same way. For example oil shipments are expected to be affected by European environmental regulations for reduced emissions from energy systems particularly in electricity production, the promotion of natural gas as a more environmentally friendly alternative fuel, the trend to solar energy and other renewable energy sources, and the expansion of natural gas pipelines and cross border trade in electricity. The most immediate effect could be, however, the anticipated reduction of oil imports to the United States arising from fracking of natural gas, and the development of the United States as an exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas. In August the Economist front page led with oil as “Yesterday’s Fuel”, but admitted that the International Energy Agency still predicts that oil demand will increase largely because of lifestyle changes in China and India as incomes increase. One point of interest to Cyprus given its newfound natural gas resources is that ships could also be powered by natural gas, an issue that is to be considered in the conference. Whatever the case, the demand for LNG tankers and gas pipelines is bound to increase.
The hope in the shipping industry has been that demand in Asia would continue to grow thereby making up for the recession and stagnation in Europe, and the economic uncertainty in the United States. Some uncertainty has also developed with respect to Asia, however, as the Indian economy has slowed down considerably, and in China the growth rate has moderated somewhat, though is still growing at over seven per cent. Despite these uncertainties the shipping rates have stabilised in some sectors, and the Cyprus shipping companies have reported a more stable commercial environment.
Among the challenges facing the shipping sector are the adoption of the IMO’s concept of a “sustainable maritime transportation system” which will be presented at Maritime Cyprus by Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization Koji Sekimizu. On World Maritime Day (September 27) he announced that “it seems inevitable that shipping must be at the heart of sustainable development, and that shipping must ensure its own development is sustainable. The growth of the world’s economy will not be possible without sustainable growth in shipping and the entire maritime sector”. The concept of sustainability in shipping lists the following overall goals or “imperatives”:
1. Safety culture and environmental stewardship
2. Education and training and support for seafarers
3. Energy efficiency and ship-port interface
4. Energy supply for ships
5. Maritime traffic support and advisory systems
6. Technical cooperation
7. New Technology and innovation
8. Improved finance, liability and insurance systems
9. Ocean governance
Measures for improvements in these imperatives in shipping are necessary but they will increase some costs and reduce others (i.e. fuel costs), but the main problem is that they will be more difficult to implement under the present commercial conditions. Regardless of these difficulties, progress has already been made by the recession itself as old ships have been sent to the scrap yards, and there is a higher proportion of new, modern, fuel-efficient ships that have the benefited from the latest technology. So progress is being made even in the midst of an uncertain economic climate.
FROM NORDJYSKE (DENMARK):
***Qatar Airways kritiseres for forhold for stewardesser
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Qatar Airways er kommet i ilden for sin behandling af stewardesser, der skal have tilladelse til at gifte sig.
Qatar Airways kritiseres for forhold for stewardesser
Det er ikke nok at få accept fra den udkårne.
Er man stewardesse i flyselskabet Qatar Airways, så skal man også have selskabets ja til, at man kan gifte sig.
Desuden skal stewardessen i det øjeblik, hun finder ud af, at hun er gravid, sige det til sin overordnede i selskabet.
Det skriver det arabiske tv-selskab al-Arabiya på sin netavis.
Oplysningerne står ifølge netavisen at læse i en rapport, der er lavet af Det Internationale Transportarbejderforbund (ITF), som kritiserer flyselskabet for at forbryde sig mod grundlæggende arbejdsregler.
Ifølge rapporten forbeholder Qatar Airways sig ret til at fyre stewardesser, der bliver gravide.
ITF skriver, at der i standardkontrakter for kvindelige ansatte i selskabet blandt andet står:
– Arbejdstageren skal informere arbejdsgiveren i tilfælde af graviditet den dag, graviditeten opdages. Arbejdsgiveren har ret til at ophæve kontrakten med arbejdstageren fra den dag, oplysningen om graviditeten gives, hedder det.
Det tilføjes så, at hvis arbejdstageren ikke oplyser om graviditeten, regnes det for kontraktbrud.
Kritikken af arbejdsforholdene kommer samtidig med, at der internationalt også er kritik af forholdene for de tusindvis af gæstearbejdere, der arbejder i det varme Qatar.
Her skal der være VM i fodbold i 2022, og der er et byggeboom i gang. Men avisen The Guardian skrev forleden, at mange gæstearbejdere arbejder under kummerlige og farlige forhold.
Alene i perioden fra 4. juni til 8. august i år døde 44 nepalesiske gæstearbejdere.
Al-Arabiya skriver, at Qatar Airways topchef, Akbar al-Baker, tidligere i år kommenterede den vedvarende kritik af arbejdsforholdene for gæstearbejdere i de rige lande i Golfen.
- Hvis man ikke har fagforeninger, ville man ikke have dette arbejdsløshedsproblem i Vesten. Det skyldes, at fagforeninger betyder, at firmaer og institutioner mister deres konkurrenceevne og bliver ineffektive, sagde han til avisen Arabian Business.
FROM T PORTAL (HUNGARY):
OTKAZ U SLUČAJU TRUDNOĆE
***Zaposlenice Qatar Airwaysa moraju od poslodavca tražiti dozvolu za brak
Qatar Airways našao se pod povećalom javnosti nakon što je optužen za prisiljavanje svojih radnica da zatraže dozvolu od tvrtke kada se odluče udati, javlja Al Arabiya
U izvješću koje je objavila Međunarodna federacija transportnih radnika (ITF) u utorak utvrđeno je također kako ova zrakoplovna tvrtka propisuje da žene svom poslodavcu moraju reći ukoliko ostanu u drugom stanju, prenosi Al Arabiya.
Zrakoplovna tvrtka tada zadržava pravo da ih otpusti, stoji u ITF-ovom izvješću, uz napomenu da se radi o kršenju osnovnih radničkih prava 28.000 zaposlenica Qatar Airwaysa.
Prema ITF-u, standardni ugovor za zapošljavanje tisuća radnica ove zrakoplovne tvrtke glasi: ‘Potrebno vam je dobivanje prethodnog odobrenja tvrtke u slučaju da želite promijeniti svoj bračno stanje i vjenčati se.’
‘Zaposlenica je dužna obavijestiti poslodavca u slučaju trudnoće od dana kada je spoznala da je ostala u drugom stanju. Poslodavac ima pravo raskinuti ugovor o radu od dana obavijesti o trudnoći. Propust zaposlenika da obavijesti poslodavca ili prikrivanje smatra se kršenjem ugovora.’
ITF, koji predstavlja oko 4,5 milijuna prometnih radnika u 150 zemalja svijeta, trenutno je u Kanadi gdje lobira kod Međunarodne civilne zrakoplovne organizacije (ICAO) da poduzme akciju zbog ‘flagrantne zloporabe radničkih prava zrakoplovnih zaposlenika’ od strane prijevoznika sa sjedištem u Kataru i UAE-u.