Issue No. 353 19 June 2008

Truckers’ Strike Hits Korean Ports
Lloyd’s List reports that Pusan North Port, South Korea’s busiest port, is struggling to deal with a national truckers’ strike which is now in its second week. Both Pusan North Port and Pusan New Port are reported to still have capacity, but it has nevertheless been decided to temporarily halt discharge operations. Smaller ports in Gamman and Shingamman have already exceeded full capacity and are completely closed to marine cargoes. At Incheon the situation appears to be less serious, with no reports of ships being delayed in their discharge operations as emergency measures are put in place to extend capacity in the container yards.

Piracy Alert
A report was received last week from the Singapore Shipping Association about a recent pirate attack in the area. The Philippines-registered livestock carrier, Hereford Express, departed Philippines on 6 Jun 2008 for Australia. At 1454 hrs on 07 June 2008, the carrier was at 03° 53.96’ N, 124°33. 3´ E in the Celebes Sea when she was fired upon by unknown elements. The carrier managed to evade the attack and return to the Philippines after two hours but suffered heavy damages to its communication antenna, radar, INMARSAT etc. as a result of the firing. No crew were injured. Since March 2008, this is the second incident which has been reported in the proximity of this area. The first incident was an attempted case reported on board the Indian-registered bulk carrier, Murshidabad on 4 March 2008 at 03° 17.2’ N, 124°18. 40´ E. Both incidents occurred when the ships were steaming in the area during daylight hours. They had successfully avoided boarding by robbers due to the adoption of good anti-piracy measures. Further details can be obtained from the following website:www.recaap.org/incident/pdf/incident/2008/Incident%20Alert%207%20June%2008%20(Hereford%20Express).pdf

Tanker Management and Self Assessment Programme – new improved version
Four years after it was introduced as a quality tool for the tanker industry, an improved version of the Tanker Management and Self Assessment programme is to be launched by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum next week. The programme, designed to promote best practice in tanker management and to complement the SIRE ship inspection and reporting programme on the quality of ships, has been credited with the improvement of management practices throughout the tanker operating sector. The best practice guide has also been bought by non-tanker operators, with both bulk carrier operators and owners in the liner trades employing it to assess their own safety systems. TMSA2 has been considerably improved, with an updated software package that is more user-friendly and can be more easily understood by operators of coastal and inland craft. The updated version of the programme also ensures consistency with international conventions and industry best practice. It covers management, leadership and accountability, the way in which shore positions are recruited and managed, cargo, ballast and mooring operations, management of change, incident investigation and analysis, safety and environmental management, emergency preparedness and contingency planning and the means of measuring and assessing improvement. The new publication will be available next week, while the database will be accessible from June 19. The existing TMSA database will remain open for three months.

Panama Canal Backlog
Lloyd’s List reports that the chronic congestion on the Panama Canal that has been going on for about three months has now began to ease, with the backlog of vessels last week down to 36. At the peak of the congestion, there were 130 vessels waiting to transit with a delay of more than 10 days. Transit times have also been reduced from an average of 53 hours in March to less than 20 hours in recent days. The authorities have not been able to provide as reason for the delays, but it is thought that there had been an industrial dispute between the authorities and the canal’s 274 pilots. Local agents have been saying that pilots were deliberately “going slow” a claim which has been difficult to prove and has always been denied by the canal authorities.

Kuwait Dust Storms
The Association has received advice from local correspondents in Kuwait that port operations in Kuwait are currently suffering serious disruption as a result of dust storms. On certain days last week the port was only able to work for about three hours a day, and many vessels are experiencing considerable delays. The authorities in Kuwait advise that this situation is likely to continue until the end of July and Members should be aware of possible delays in Kuwaiti ports.