Following the tanker attacks on Thursday, 13 June in the Gulf of Oman, the IMO Secretary General, the International Chamber of Shipping and INTERTANKO expressed their concerns, noting that this is an intolerable situation threatening the lives of seafarers, the environment and the world economy.
Economic growth around the world is decreasing, and various governments, including Germany, China and South Korea, have announced stimulus packages to boost their economies. In fact, the International Monetary Fund expects global GDP growth to slow from 3.6% in 2018 to 3.3% in 2019, before returning to 3.6% in 2020.
ASBATANKVOY, one of the most widely used tanker charter parties in the world, will create the basis when BIMCO and the Association of Ship Brokers & Agents Inc. (ASBA) start to jointly develop a charter party especially for use in the gas tanker trade.
Turning the tide of piracy and attacks is not a difficult operation in terms of military and law enforcement, but the will to act and get both local and international involvement and cooperation may be, said Jakob P. Larsen, BIMCO Head of Maritime Security.
BIMCO and Intertanko have jointly published Q&As addressing the contractual implications owners and charterers consider when chartering ships fitted with scrubbers. The Q&As highlight the key charter party clauses and concepts which should be analyzed for both time and voyage charter parties.
BIMCO launched a new standard Cyber Security Clause that requires the parties to implement cyber security procedures and systems, to help reduce the risk of an incident and limit the consequences in the possibility of a security breach occurring.
As BIMCO informs, the Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) 74 agreed to task its sub-committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) to look into the discharge from open-looped scrubbers, and especially the environmental impact of the washwater. During the meeting, a number of delegations expressed some concerns regarding whether a scrubber system could be a more favourable treatment of ships equipped with a scrubber system.
BIMCO’s Documentary Committee has approved an international standard contract for offshore decommissioning projects, to provide a balanced set of terms and conditions to both parties in the process. The contract is to be released at the end of June.
BIMCO announced that it elected Şadan Kaptanoğlu, managing director of HI Kaptanoglu Shipping, as its new President on May 14, at its General Meeting in Athens. Mrs Kaptanoğlu takes over after a two-year period as President Designate and will be the first female President of BIMCO.
As Skuld Club informs, whether operators purchase bunkers as an owner or charterer of a vessel, sometimes the standard terms and conditions of the relevant bunker supplier can be slanted in favour of the bunker supplier. Joanna Meadows, Vice President, Claims, Solicitor at Skuld Club, notes that operators many times have a little time for making a claim, in case the bunkers are not of the agreed quantity or quality.
