RINA Hellenic Committee hosted several leaders within the Greek shipping community on the 8th of November, to discussed important industry issues.

Spyridon Zolotas, RINA’s Area Manager for Greece and Cyprus, in his introduction thanked the Members for their valuable support and outlined the company’s new plans to strengthen its presence in the Greek Shipping market through the introduction of an extensive new range of customer services.

Committee chairman George Youroukos, Owner of Technomar Shipping Inc., addressed the assembly highlighting the classification success and growth experienced in 2016. But with success come challenges which have required RINA to further enhance its customer services. Mr Youroukos explained, to the distinguished audience, that RINA is already strengthening the highly acclaimed Piraeus Marine Technical Support Centre and is now focusing on a customer service improvement programme.

Mr. Youroukos together with other committee members emphasized the benefits of RINA Class Decision Support System called InfoSHIP EGO. This software is designed specifically for today’s modern vessels and optimizes the performance of a vessel while providing real time performance data and reporting.

Ugo Salerno, Chairman & CEO of the RINA Group presented to the members of the Committee the latest news from the company, this included details of some significant acquisitions which were concluded earlier this year.  In addition, he gave an overview of the market related to oil and gas prices, providing substantial “food for thought” which stimulated some interesting discussions among committee members.

Michele Francioni, CEO of RINA Services, updated those present detailing, within a global context, the most important issues facing the Marine Industry today. He outlined the pressures and opportunities that the industry is facing on a global scale, triggered by the developments related to MARPOL, BWMC and the Hong Kong Convention. In addition, Mr Francioni looked as the industry’s midterm prospects particularly relating to Big Data, Cyber Security, Additive Manufacturing and E-Navigation.

Paolo Moretti, General Manager Marine RINA Services, emphasized the catalyst role that RINA is playing in encouraging innovative technologies, namely the classification of 4 new LNG fuelled 183.200GT Cruise Ships. Furthermore, Mr. Moretti explained how RINA is focusing its investment according to the needs of its customers. A great example of this strategy being the further development of the performance optimizing platform, InfoShip EGO.

Considering the recent IMO MEPC 70th Session results, it was an appropriate time to inform members and focus on the BWM Convention and Ballast Water Treatment Systems.

In that respect, Michael Markogiannis, Manager of RINA Piraeus Plan Approval & Technical Support Center, elaborated on those relevant issues from a Classification point of view, while three different BWTS system manufacturers (Alfa Laval, Wartsila and Erma First) presented their own systems and perspective.

 

RINA Services S.p.A. is the RINA company active in classification, certification, inspection and testing services.

RINA is a multi-national Group which delivers verification, certification, conformity assessment, marine classification, environmental enhancement, product testing, site supervision & vendor inspection, training and engineering consultancy across a wide range of industries and services. RINA operates through a network of companies covering Energy, Marine, Infrastructure & Construction, Transport & Logistics, Food & Agriculture, Environment & Sustainability, Finance & Public Institutions and Business Governance. With a turnover of over 378 million Euros in 2015, over 3,000 employees, and 163 offices in 60 countries worldwide, RINA is recognised as an authoritative member of key international organizations and an important contributor to the development of new legislative standards.

DryShips Inc., an international owner of drybulk carriers and offshore support vessels, announced today that on November 22, 2016, it has successfully delivered the 2004 built Panamax bulk carrier M/V Sorrento to an unaffiliated third party buyer for a gross price of $6.7 million.

Following this delivery the Company has now completed all of the five vessel sales previously announced on October 31, 2016.

About DryShips Inc.
The Company is an owner of drybulk carriers and offshore support vessels that operate worldwide.  The Company owns a fleet of 13 Panamax drybulk carriers with a combined deadweight tonnage of approximately 1.0 million tons, and 6 offshore supply vessels, comprising 2 platform supply and 4 oil spill recovery vessels.

The Company’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market where it trades under the symbol “DRYS.”

The meeting was held on 21-25 November 2016, at the IMO headquarters in London. This briefing summarises subjects under discussion which are relevant to the work of Lloyd's Register.

The LR Summary Report for the IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 97)

Carnival Corp. will no longer have a dedicated ship sailing under its socially conscious Fathom brand.

The world’s largest cruise operator will instead offer passengers the chance to do volunteer work in the Dominican Republic and Cuba on Fathom voyages aboard ships sailing under other brands such Carnival and Princess Cruises, spokesman Roger Frizzell said Wednesday in an interview.

Carnival introduced the brand last year as a way to capture what it said was a growing market for customers who wanted to do good deeds while on vacation, such as teaching English or working in an artisanal chocolate cooperative. The Miami-based company dedicated its 704-passenger MV Adonia ship to the new line, but response for the Dominican Republic itinerary in particular was weaker than expected and Carnival slashed prices on that route to as low as $249 for weeklong trips earlier this year.

 
“When you just have one ship it’s very difficult to market,” Frizzell said.

The brand will continue to be operated as one of the company’s 10 cruise lines and Tara Russell, Fathom’s president, will remain in that role, Frizzell said. The company will market socially conscious land excursions as part of regularly scheduled sailings on other lines to the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The Adonia will sail under the company’s P&O Cruises brand in the U.K. beginning next summer.

source:www.bloomberg.com

A seven-year-old containership has set a new unfortunate record. The 2009-built India Rickmers built in China is being sent for scrap. Owned by Rickmers Shipmanagement, brokers report the 4,250 teu ship managed to get a very firm price of $325 per ldt for its scrapping.

With panamax vessels now worth little more than scrap 2016 has seen record volumes of containerships scrapped. The India Rickmers sets a new record however – the previous youngest ships scrapped were all built in 2006.

In the first 10 months of the year a record 500,000 teu has been scrapped, 4.2 times more teu than the scrapping activity for the same months in 2015, according to Bimco.

With the last three months accounting for more than 41\% of the total demolition in 2016, the activity is picking up and is primarily generated by the panamax container ships. The demolition of panamax containerships in teu accounts for 47\% of the total demolition in 2016.

“This new mentality shows a recognition that market cyclicality will not come to the rescue – restoring the markets requires action on the part of the vessel owners, and gradually that action is now being taken,” Splash regular container commentator, Lars Jensen, said.

splash247.com

The European Commission (EC) has approved the merger Hapag-Lloyd and UASC, with a condition that the latter withdraws from a transatlantic service.

The merger of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC will create the world’s fifth largest container line with 1.47m teu in fleet capacity.

The EC has approved the merger under the condition that UASC withdraws from the NEU1 consortium on the North Europe – North America trade, of which Hapag-Lloyd is also a member. If UASC also remains a member it said the merged company would have faced “insufficient competitive restraint” on the route. With UASC withdrawing from the route the merged company’s position on the trade would be comparable with Hapag-Lloyd’s today.

"European companies rely on container liner shipping services for their transatlantic shipments. It's very important that the markets remain open,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy.

“The commitments offered by Hapag-Lloyd ensure that the takeover will not lead to price increases on the routes between Northern Europe and North America."
 
© Copyright 2016 Seatrade (UBM (UK) Ltd). 

 

Unconfirmed brokers report that the active Korean seller SK Shipping has just offloaded the 55,600 dwt K. Peridot to Strategic Bulk Carriers, the dry bulk arm of Connecticut-headquartered MT Maritime Management( MTM), for $8.40m.

The ship will be the largest bulker owned in Strategic’s fleet which to date has featured handysizes and one supramax.

SK Shipping has been accelerating its bulker disposals in recent weeks. Ten days ago, Splash reported it had sold a supramax, K. Jasper, also to Strategic.

In a landmark decision, BIMCO cemented its move into the domain of ship financing with the Documentary Committee’s approval of a standard term sheet for use in ship financing transactions on 17 November 2016.

BIMCO President Philippe Louis-Dreyfus said:

I am particularly pleased to see BIMCO taking this important step. BIMCO is the world leader in the production of standard contracts and clauses for the maritime industry. It is only natural that its documentary activities also cover ship financing – an issue which has become increasingly important and challenging over the years, not least because of the current financial crisis.

The term sheet has been drafted as a short and simple standard for use in bilateral ship financing transactions concerning term loan facilities. It has been prepared in the well-known BIMCO format and is indicative/non-binding, as this is considered to be the market standard.

A BIMCO standard will be an important tool for shipowners, banks and lawyers when they draw up term sheets as part of ship financing transactions. The standard will be particularly useful for small and medium sized companies, who may not have a lot of experience with such transactions, but it is expected that all parties involved will save time and money.

Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO Søren Larsen said:

For decades it has been BIMCO’s strategy to provide contracts and clauses covering each niche of the shipping market. We have shown once again that we live up to this strategy.

As well as the subcommittee, a sounding board was set up to enable a broader group of stakeholders to comment on the draft. The sounding board consisted of more than 50 representatives of banks, shipowners and lawyers. They received the draft twice during the process and returned a substantial number of comments and drafting proposals.

The chairman of the Documentary Committee Francis Sarre, who is also chairperson of the subcommittee which developed the term sheet, said:

As with the Documentary Committee itself, an important basis for the subcommittee’s work has been to ensure respect for the fundamental principle that BIMCO should provide balanced and clearly worded contracts and clauses that are market and business cycle neutral.

The term sheet has been developed by a subcommittee composed of representatives of the following five banks, five shipping companies and three law firms:

Citibank
Deutsche Bank
HSBC
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
INGEPAR
BW Maritime
Compagnie Maritime Belge
Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN
Klaveness Chartering
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs
Hannaford Turner
Linklaters
Watson Farley & Williams.

The term sheet will be published in early 2017, when the subcommittee has had the opportunity to consider certain issues raised at the meeting and explanatory notes to its individual provisions have been prepared. A series of seminars and a webinar to inform about the new standard will be announced shortly.

The Documentary Committee also approved that a standard term sheet for syndicated loans should be developed. Work to this effect will start in the coming months.
Source: BIMCO

High scheduled deliveries and low demolition prospects will drive unwanted fleet growth of very large gas carriers (VLGC) in 2017 putting additional pressure on freight rates, according to the latest edition of the LPG Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.