Tag: India

It contains toxic materials and poisonous residues Toxic-laden and decommissioned Korean-built ship Gulf Safwa was impounded by the Guajarat Maritime Board on Thursday near Bhavnager while sneakily heading to the Alang ship-breaking yard in India.An official of the Pollution Control Board for Gujarat told the Khaleej Times that customers officers would conduct an examination of the 14,584-tonne bulk carrier, as well as an inspection by Delhi bosses.They confirmed that the Gulf Safwa does contain toxic materials and poisonous residues, and can be housing asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints, fuel and chemical residues, etc. according to reports.The impounding of the vessel was in response of a letter to Ministries of Environment & Forests from the Toxic Watch Alliance last Wednesday alerting of a hazardous vessel in Indian waters. The vessel, however, in question of the letter is called the Gulf Jash.The Gujarat Maritime Board has said that they have not received any communication from the Jash. Officials are still not certain whether the Safwa could possibly be the ship mentioned in the letter.The seized Gulf Safwa is believed to have been purchased by the Alangs Tagif Ship Breaking Company. The ship breakers of Alang responded by saying that this is another false ...

The ship contains many tonnes of hazardous asbestos, toxic paints and fuel residues After being banned in Bangladesh, a toxic-laden ship, Probo Koala, is headed towards Indian shores for dismantling, a global group of activists called 'NGO Shipbreaking Platform' has warned.The ship, a 1989-built oil carrier cargo vessel weighing 31,255 tonnes now named Gulf Jash, was banned from entering Bangladesh waters recently after environmentalists in neighbouring countries warned the government about it.The ship has been in the thick of controversy in Africa and Europe. Its previous owner, a company called Trafigura, tried to offload its on-board toxic material in Amsterdam. It was detected in time and when the authorities imposed heavy charges for proper disposal, the company decided to instead send the ship to Africa.After trying its luck in Nigeria, the company finally found a dealer in Ivory Coast to dump the chemicals off board. Hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals were poured into the country's largest city, Abidjan. NGO Shipbreaking Platform said the toxic dumps lead to the death of 16 people and thousands of people falling ill.The company had to reportedly settle cases out of court by paying out 30 million pounds to the victims and nearly 100 ...

Containers between India and the Middle East region Maersk Line announced a piracy risk surcharge on containers shipped between India and the Middle East region.Effective June 1, the surcharge is $70 per 40-foot equivalent unit.As a result of the increased piracy activity, and in light of our continuous efforts to prevent piracy attacks and to protect our crew and cargo in the intra-Gulf region, we will introduce an emergency risk surcharge to mitigate the expenses incurred on securing and maintaining reliable and safe services, the Danish carrier said in a trade notice Wednesday.The intra-Gulf region primarily includes ports in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.Source: Journal of Commerce

In 2010, the economic cost of piracy estimated $7-12 billion In 2010, the economic cost of maritime piracy on the supply chain was estimated to be $7-12 billion, said the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) quoting the One Earth Foundation. Piracy is a concern to any industry having to navigate through the Gulf of Aden to deliver goods by water, said the ICC, a global representative body that speaks on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world.For India, piracy is a serious issue as a large number of Indian seafarers work on board foreign ships that pass through the Somalia coast every day. In January, India voiced its concern on the increasing piracy at the United Nations, and proposed a five-point plan, including tracking the trail of ransom money, to curb piracy.The Union Minister of Shipping, Mr G.K. Vasan, at the Maritime Summit 2011 at Oslo on Tuesday too highlighted India's concerns about increasing incidents of piracy and the need for concerted unified action under the UN. Ministers from 10 other countries also participated in the Summit.Increasing attacksThe past year has witnessed an escalation in both violence and the number of attacks on ships and ...

Crusial decision as piracy incidents increase The Indian Government has decided to allow deployment of armed guards preferably retired naval officers on board Indian cargo vessels sailing on the pirate-infested waters of the Indian Ocean, a top government official told Business Line.Detailed guidelines on the number of guards that each vessel can have will be issued shortly, he said. In the wake of rising incidents of piracy on the high seas, Indian shipping lines have been seeking government permission to deploy armed guards on board their ships.The plan is to give preference to retired naval officers, said the official who has just returned from the meeting of the Intentional Maritime Organisation (IMO) which discussed the guidelines on allowing armed guard on board the merchant ships. The Maritime Safety Committee of IMO has endorsed the use of armed guards.Draft guidelinesIn India, the proposal under consideration is to seek retired navy officers from the pool maintained by the Directorate of Resettlement under the Ministry of Defence. Each vessel can have a group of five armed personnel one officer and four others. The shipping companies have to bear the cost of hiring the guards.A draft guidelines prepared by the director general of shipping ...

More ports planned in India than the country actually needs There are more ports planned in India than the country actually needs.There seems to be a herd race for developing ports. The cumulative capacity of all port projects being discussed if added could surpass current global trade.Government is certain that some will be realized and in 2020 the capacity will be 2.2 bn tones, roughly 3 times current traffic and about 25% of current global trade.Is there something seriously wrong with Indian Ports Sector? AnalysisIn financial year 2010, Indian seaports handled 850 mn tonnes of cargo, about 9% of the global trade. Shipping Ministry is planning to augment the capacity of port to 2,200 mn tonnes by 2020, which is roughly 25% of current global trade. Is it not too much knowing India's trade pattern which is dominated by raw materials, export iron ore and import coal and crude oil.Take Gujarat for example, the fastest growing industrial state in India. With well developed infrastructure it is in a better position to cater to land locked North & Central India which houses India's roughly 50% of population.It has more than 41 ports (including Kandla) and is ever ready to declare a ...

Marine insurers should stop charging a war risk premium, already many insurance costs India wants marine insurers to stop charging a war risk premium on cargo ships plying the Indian Ocean that increases freight costs, and is lobbying the global maritime regulator for help in the matter.A joint war committee comprising underwriters from the Lloyds Market Association and International Underwriting Association on 8 January expanded large parts of northern Indian Ocean as a conflict zone, the eastern border of which extends to the west coast of India.This has raised insurance costs of cargo reaching or going out of the countrys western ports.Indias exporters and importers will also have to bear higher costs for transporting goods because of restricted availability of ships as many fleet owners may avoid using this route instead of paying higher premium, according to T.V. Shanbhag, group adviser to Indias biggest ship-broking firm, Mumbai-based Transocean Shipping Agency Pvt LtdConsidering that there have been no (pirate) attacks reported for the last two months within 500 nautical miles (926km) from the Indian coast, after the Indian Navy has taken remedial measures, it is imperative that the eastern boundary of the war zone be reduced to an appropriate longitude, M.M. ...

A major player on the Baltic Exchange As a leading global trader, India should be a major player on the Baltic Exchange's central trading platform to be launched in May covering forward freight agreements (FFA), a hedging tool for shippers, shipping companies and trade financiers, a senior official in the exchange has said."We see Indian global traders having a significantly higher role in the FFA trade," said Philip Williams, manager for Asia Pacific in the exchange's Singapore representative office.India-based companies were already using the Exchange's daily freight indices and assessments on coal and iron ore trade movements between India, Indonesia, Australia and China, Williams told PTI.The exchange produces around 50 specific route-based reports daily providing freight rate assessments that are widely used by traders as benchmarks in booking ships and cargo space on both the dry cargo and tanker markets.It began producing such information as long ago as 1985."Going by Indian demand for our FFA information, we are confident of seeing more and more Indian companies hedging exposure to freight market risk through the trading of specific time charter and voyage rates for forward positions," stressed Williams, who set up the exchange's Singapore office in 2007 to cover Asia Pacific ...

Government plans to acquire four training ships Aiming to increase the global share of Indian merchant navy officers to 9% by 2015 in the wake of shortage of personnel, the government plans to acquire four training ships at a cost of Rs 500 crore.India is the fifth largest supplier of officers globally at present having a share of 6.3% out of 5,50,000 officers."The acquisitions will be made through state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and each dedicated training vessel is likely to carry 400 trainees. The cost for four vessels to be acquired is estimated at Rs 500 crore," a Shipping Ministry official told PTI.There is acute shortage of trained manpower in the space in view of increasing fleet size and the number of officers globally is likely to swell to 6,60,000 by 2015, he said."Shortage of officers is likely to be become acute by 2013 and India can very well aspire to increase its market share to 9%, the official said adding it will have to supply 65,000 additional officers by 2015.In this regard, the Ministry is planning to increase the on board training slots from 4,000 at present to 16,000 in the next few years.Also, the Ministry plans ...

The global recovery may be jeopardized by a sustained rise in oil prices India Saturday warned that the global recovery from the worst financial crisis in decades may be jeopardised by a sustained rise in oil prices and speculative movements in commodity derivative markets."The global recovery may be jeopardized by a sustained rise in oil prices," Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said participating in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meetings here."Speculative movements in commodity derivative markets are also causing volatility in prices," he said.Special Drawing Rights or SDRs cannot be a reserve currency in the international payment system as it does not meet the necessary conditions to play this role, Subbarao said."The SDR has to be accepted as a liability at the IMF, has to be automatically acceptable as a medium of payment in cross-border transactions, be freely tradable and its price has to be determined by forces of demand and supply," he said."As the SDR does not satisfy these conditions, it cannot be a reserve currency in the international payment system.""Going by the recent initiatives, if at all there is a move to alter the composition of the SDR basket, we could consider ...