STOCK markets may
be collapsing around our ears, with the oil price following suit, but the
business of moving things from one place to another on ships goes on.
Overcapacity in the container sector gets a strong look in this week, along
with a stirring giant at the IMO, a union tussle down under and an expected
sentence in long running case of the Seaman Guard Ohio.
Too
big, too late
Recent
ratifications of the Ballast Water Management Convention has brought the total
percentage of the world fleet represented by signatories so close to the entry
into force trigger of 35% that the IMO has had to go away and check its
numbers. While the IMO checks on fractions of percentages here and there, the
world’s largest ship registry is stirring, and may well place its 330m dwt mass
behind the BWMC. Craig Eason has the details in Panama plans ratification of
ballast water and ship recycling conventions.
Sentencing
surprise
The crew of the
Seaman Guard Ohio have endured a series of highs and lows since their vessel
was intercepted in October 2013, and the 35 men on board were arrested. At one
stage hope shone in the form of a judge quashing charges against the crew,
leaving them free to return home. The crew remained tangled in the local Indian
politics of the case though, as local police refused to return travel documents
to them while an appeal was brought, a move seen as a breach of the individual human
rights of the men by Human Rights at Sea. Gary Howard ‘s Five years' hard
labour for Seaman Guard Ohio crew details the latest court decision affecting
the crew, the reactions of the charities and authorities involved, and the next
move in securing the release of the crew.
Tools
down Down Under
Australia’s
maritime unions have a history of conflict, and a move by Svitzer Australia to
combine the three separate Enterprise Agreements covering the masters,
engineers and deckhands on its tugs into one document threatens a return to
tension. Australian ports hit by Svitzer tug strike action is a piece first
published on Lloyd’s List Australia by Jim Wilson and has the where, when and
why on the industrial action. Both Lloyd’s List and Lloyd’s List Australia have
subsequent updates on the story, and more are sure to follow.
Bigger
losses...
Last week we opened
the year with news that box lines will have to idle record numbers of vessels
to revive rates, and this year Katherine Espina has the jolly news that
Container industry losses to widen to over $5bn in 2016, Drewry estimates.
...
on fewer boxes
Janet Porter takes
the final spot in the list, with even more data on the new realities for
container shipping. No respite for Asia-Europe trades as volume decline
continues is a look at the main global routes and indices with information on
the ups and downs of both volumes and freight rates, and what lies ahead as new
vessels continue to enter the fleet.
Source: Lloyds
list. 15 January 2016
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