Although the Marshall Islands is the first country to pass legislation of this kind, the new bill was conceived as an initiative applicable to all vessel registries, and is the product of a working group of the Marine Finance Committee of the Maritime Law Association of the United States (“MLA”).

The legislation amends the Marshall Islands Maritime Law to enable equipment lessors who provide lease financing of vessels the same security in collateral enjoyed by finance lessors of non-maritime property. A lessor under a financing charter filed pursuant to this amendment will enjoy the same priority as a mortgagee currently enjoys under a preferred mortgage. A title holder may now perfect its security interest in a leased vessel in a manner similar to how lessors of other property may perfect security interests under the Uniform Commercial Code, as well as 49 U.S.C. Sections 11301 (as to rolling stock and appurtenances) and 44107 (as to aircraft and appurtenances). The new law is also consistent with the provisions and rationale underlying the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (Capetown, November, 2001) with respect to aircraft, railcars and space vehicles.

For purposes of the legislation, a “financing charter” is considered to be any “contract in the form of a demise or bareboat charter” covering a vessel which is “agreed by the parties to be or is determined in judicial or arbitral proceedings to create in favor of the documented owner a security interest in the vessel granted by the finance charterer.” The new legislation provides for filing requirements for a financing charter that are consistent with filing requirements for more traditional Marshall Islands preferred mortgages, including that the financing charter be signed and acknowledged by the parties and contain recitals on the amount secured, vessel particulars and full names and addresses of the parties. It is important to note that the agreement between owner and charterer, that a charter constitutes a “financing charter,” is not binding on third parties. In this way, the new provision allows parties the flexibility of precautionary filings where there is a risk of recharacterization by a court that a charter is, in fact, a security agreement.

Source:  worldmaritimenews.com

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It’s the world’s most heavily trafficked man-made shipping lane, but since Wednesday few ships have been seen on the 100-kilometer (62-mile) long Kiel Canal, which cuts through the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein to form a roughly 450-kilometer shortcut between the North and Baltic Seas, reports Spiegel Online International.

Although the canal is under the jurisdiction of the federal government, it has been the subject of financial disputes for years between Berlin and the state. Last year, the German government even reduced the money available for maintaining the canal from €60 million ($78 million) to just €11 million.

The Kiel Canal is also of enormous importance to Hamburg, Europe’s second-largest port behind Rotterdam. One out of three container ships that is processed in the city travels through the Kiel Canal as it continues on to the Baltic states and Russia.

Officials hope to reopen the canal to larger ships again in two weeks. In the meantime, large container ships, the heart of the local economy in Hamburg, will have to make an expensive, 450-kilometer detour through Skagerak, Denmark.
Source:  http://www.marinelink.com

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has launched its latest ‘Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table’ which can be downloaded from the homepage of the ICS website.

ICS Director External Relations, Simon Bennett explained: “Our table is intended to encourage shipowners to maintain a dialogue with their flag administrations to effect any improvements that might be necessary in the interests of safety, the environment and decent working conditions.”

This year’s ICS table includes some new flag states which seem to be increasingly popular with some shipowners, such as Moldova and Sierra Leone, which join the ranks of flags such as Bolivia, Cambodia and Mongolia in being revealed by the table to have a somewhat patchy performance.

ICS stresses that the table includes what should be regarded only as potential positive indicators. There may be good reason why a flag is lacking one or two of these, especially if it has had too few port calls to gain a place on certain port state control ‘white lists’ or has not yet ratified one or two recently adopted international Conventions.

Mr Bennett remarked: “The absence of a couple of positive indicators is probably not very important. But if a flag is lacking a large number of positive indicators then shipowners may want to ask serious questions.”

ICS is keen to emphasise that, in today’s modern global industry, distinctions between so called traditional flags and open registers are increasingly meaningless and actually unhelpful. The ICS table shows that many open registers like Liberia and the Bahamas are amongst the very top performers alongside several European registers, or flags such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, that might be expected to perform well.

In the same way that, through mechanisms such as the ISM Code, the shipping industry is committed to the concept of continuous improvement and transparency with respect to its performance, ICS believes that the same principles apply to the performance of flag administrations. ICS has therefore reiterated its support for the decision by IMO to make its Member State Audit Scheme mandatory.

The ICS Table uses information derived from the public domain as at June 2012.

‘Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table’

Source:      www.worldmaritimenews.com

Инфографика по теме:

Судоходство стран Балтики

Источник – Центр Транспортных Стратегий

“The merger rests on a strong strategic rationale, and responds to challenges of increased globalisation, rapid technological change and the need for sustainable development. Our customers will benefit from an increased service offering and global competence base as well as one of the densest networks,” says DNV’s Group CEO, Henrik O. Madsen, who will be the CEO of the combined new company. “The merger with DNV supports our long-term goal of being recognized as one of the most respected technical assurance and advisory companies in the world”, adds GL Group CEO, Erik van der Noordaa.

By combining the two international organisations, the new company will be one of the world’s leading independent technical service providers with state-of-the-art technological expertise and strong capabilities for innovation. With more than 17.000 employees and an extensive global network of offices, DNV GL Group is positioned to meet increased international competition and even better serve the needs of the customers.

The DNV Foundation will hold 63.5 %, while GL’s owner Mayfair SE will hold 36.5 % of the shares. The new company, with a combined turnover of some EUR 2.5 billion, will be headquartered and registered in Norway.

“We see this as a good strategic match. The two companies have a common set of values and complementary strengths. Both have strong brands and solid market positions as well as a reputation for high quality and strong integrity. There were negotiations between DNV and GL both in 1999/2000 and in 2006 about closer cooperation. I am very pleased that timing now seems to be right,” says Leif-Arne Langøy, the Chairman of DNV’s Board of Directors.

“DNV is the partner of choice for GL. Besides DNV’s clear commitment to Hamburg our decision for this partnership is based on the complementary fit of DNV and GL as well as the joint ambition for innovation and quality of both companies. As a long-term oriented shareholder we consider this partnership to be the continuation of our successful investment in Germanischer Lloyd,” says Guenter Herz, Chairman of Mayfair SE.

DNV GL Group will strengthen its foothold in several areas of expertise, including the maritime segment and across the entire oil & gas value chains. The Group will be one of the global leaders in pipeline verification and asset integrity services as well as in renewable energy certification and advisory services. Moreover, it will be a strong player within power transmission and distribution as well as testing and certification services. To enhance its service offering the DNV GL Group will strengthen its focus on R&D and innovation.

DNV GL Group will operate in the business segments Maritime, Oil & Gas, Energy and Business Assurance. Its global headquarters will be at Høvik outside of Oslo.

The maritime business unit will be headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, while maintaining its commitment to the Norwegian maritime cluster. Oil & Gas will be headquartered at Høvik, Norway, while Energy will be headquartered in Arnhem, the Netherlands and Business Assurance in Milan, Italy. DNV GL Group will be organised as a Norwegian limited company (AS). The transaction requires approval from competition authorities.

Source:  www.worldmaritimenews.com

Gazprom successfully completes world’s first LNG supply via Northern Sea Route in the ‘Ob River’ carrier.

The carrier left the Port of Hammerfest (Norway) to arrive at the regasification terminal in the Port of Tobata (Japan) delivering a Gazprom Group-owned LNG cargo to Japanese consumers.

The Ob River LNG carrier was escorted by Atomflot-owned atomic icebreakers led by two ice masters. During the first half of the voyage, between the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea, there was not much ice in the waters, but during the second half of the passage, from the Vilkitski Strait to the Bering Strait, the LNG carrier was headed through young ice with the thickness reaching 30 centimeters.

The voyage was accomplished safely and fully in accordance with schedule. The ultimate success was assured by professionalism of the Ob River’s crew and high-level support of ice masters, captains and crews of the ice breakers “50 Years of Victory”, “Russia” and “Vaygach” as well as offshore personnel of Atomflot and the NSR Administration under the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation).

This time the LNG carrier was loaded – after the no-load trip from Japan to Europe made earlier in October this year. Two return passages of the Ob River via the NSR confirmed technical and economic feasibility of the Northern Sea Route for international LNG shipments from Russian gas liquefaction projects in the Arctic region.

Source:  www.maritimelink.com

U.S. based Liquid Robotics’ ‘Wave Glider’ completes the first ever Trans-Pacific voyage by a wave-powered autonomous robot vessel.

The first Pacific Crossing (PacX ) Wave Glider, Papa Mau, completes its 9,000 nautical mile (16,668 kilometers) scientific journey across the Pacific Ocean to set a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle.

Throughout his journey, Papa Mau navigated along a prescribed route under autonomous control collecting and transmitting unprecedented amounts of high-resolution ocean data never before available over these vast distances or timeframes. The Company is providing open access to this data as part of its PacX Challenge, a global competition seeking new ocean applications and research using the PacX data set.

During Papa Mau’s journey, he weathered gale force storms, fended off sharks, spent more than 365 days at sea, skirted around the Great Barrier Reef, and finally battled and surfed the East Australian Current (EAC) to reach his final destination in Hervey Bay near Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia.

“To say we are excited and proud of Papa Mau reaching his final destination is an understatement,” said Bill Vass, CEO of Liquid Robotics. “We set off on the PacX journey to demonstrate that Wave Glider technology could not only survive the high seas and a journey of this length, but more importantly, collect and transmit ocean data in real-time from the most remote portions of the Pacific Ocean. We’ve demonstrated delivery of ocean data services through the most challenging ocean conditions. Mission accomplished.”

Source:  www.marinelink.com

In cooperation with Greece, Panama and the UK companies Moldova Government will perform an audit of 400 merchant vessels presently registered under the flag of Moldova. All vessels for which it is determined to be in violation of the international laws and regulations will be deprived of the flag.

This seems a logical step in the effort of improving the reputation of Moldova, which is striving to become an EU member state, even though the Moldovan flag (State Ship Register) is well known as a flag of convenience.

The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship’s owners, and flying that state’s civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owner’s country. The closely related term open registry is used to describe an organization that will register ships owned by foreign entities.

Moldova is a member of the International Maritime Organization and also a party to multiple basic international conventions in the field of sea navigation, including, among others, SOLAS, STCW, MARPOL and other conventions.

Source:  www.worldmaritimenews.com