Tag: ICS

Mediterranean crisis continues The global shipping industry, represented by a wide cross section of international shipowners' associations and seafarers' unions, has collectively updated the industry's Guidelines on Large Scale Rescue Operations at Sea.This is in response to the continuing crisis in the Mediterranean, in which merchant ships and their civilian crews have so far assisted in the rescue of over 50,000 people. But the Guidelines are also applicable to other regions where ships may have to assist with rescue operations involving large numbers migrants or refugees, including South East Asia.The new Guidelines update those originally produced by the International Chamber of Shipping at the end of 2014, but now take account of the considerable recent experience gained by shipping companies and their crews.The Guidelines are now supported by a wide range of maritime industry organisations, including the European Community Shipowners' Associations, the Asian Shipowners' Forum, the International Transport Workers' Federation, the European Transport Workers' Federation, Intercargo, Intertanko, IPTA, and InterManager.An important aspect of the revised Guidelines is the additional attention given to ensuring that rescued people are looked after safely once they have been embarked on board commercial ships, whilst also ensuring the safety, security and welfare of the seafarers ...

Final program for ICS Conference in September announced

An inbound vessel in a tidal river was boarded by two pilots

Industry concerned by protectionist US approach to energy exports

The ICS held its Annual General Meeting in Rotterdam

ClassNK issues Technical Information regarding the STS Operation Plan provided on Marshall Islands flag ships

Reviewing latest maritime policy developments The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has published its latest Annual Review of maritime policy developments in advance of its Annual General Meeting and to coincide with the meeting of the IMO Maritime Safety Committee. Key issues covered in this year's ICS Annual Review include the impact of the rescue at sea crisis in the Mediterranean on the shipping industry; the status of IMO environmental regulations on low sulphur fuel and ballast water management; the shipping industry's efforts to deliver further CO2 emissions reductions; and an ongoing ICS initiative to encourage a new approach to the development of future IMO regulation.The ICS Annual Review also provides updates on the wide-ranging scope of ICS's activities as the principal global trade association for shipowners and operators, including safety and operations, labour affairs, manning and training, maritime law and insurance, and shipping and trade policy.In the introduction to the Review, ICS Chairman, Masamichi Morooka, observes: "In December 2015, the attention of the world will be focused on the critical United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. ICS will be representing the industry in order explain the impressive performance of international shipping, which reduced its total CO2 emissions by ...

The updated and revised Rescue at Sea: A guide to principles and practice as applied to refugees and migrants is now available

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has welcomed the progress made, in London last week, by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) on several important environmental issues.   Progress on Ballast Water Implementation Problems (partially undermined by US) The IMO Ballast Water Convention has still not entered into force. While the progress made by IMO to address various implementation problems identified by ICS should help bring the Convention into force sooner rather than later, ICS fears that the unilateral stance taken at the meeting by the United States may actually have the opposite effect. As requested by the shipping industry in a further submission, IMO Member States built on the progress already made at the previous MEPC in October. ICS believes that shipowners can now have increased confidence that, when the Convention enters into force, ships which have installed ‘first generation’ equipment in accordance with existing IMO approval Guidelines will not be unfairly penalised. ICS is also increasingly confident that the future IMO type-approval process, for the expensive new treatment systems required, will be more robust as a result of the new IMO Guidelines which are now being developed. Speaking from Korea (where ICS is attending the AGM of its ...

Raising awareness of potential hazards at sea Image: Example provided for the Safety on the Bridge pictureIn an initiative to raise awareness of potential hazards at sea, The Standard Club and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have joined forces to launch a Spot the Hazard competition open to any seafarer worldwide. With USD$10,000 of prize money, the competition has been designed to help those working at sea identify hazards and to promote the critical importance of accident prevention. Seafarers entering the competition will be asked to identify hazards shown on a series of images depicting typical scenes on board ship. Seafarers are also invited to submit a safety idea relevant to the image1 that can be shared throughout the industry. In order to ensure that seafarers from all ship departments and of all ranks can enter the competition, it features five separate images: the bridge, engine room, main-deck, galley and a port terminal scene. (These have been developed with the kind assistance of Witherby Publishing Group.)The instructions for entry into the competition have also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Hindi and Mandarin. Seafarers can submit entries for as many of the five images as they wish, with the ...