Tag: Torm

21 man Indian crew and the four British armed guards are safe Danish tanker group Torm said Friday its clean tanker Torm Republican successfully deterred a pirate attack in the Southern Arabian Sea."The Indian Master, his 21 man Indian crew and the four British armed guards are safe and suffered no injuries as they showed great skill in deterring the attack. No pirates were hurt either," the company said.The Danish-flagged MR tanker, with approximately 47,000 dwt, was en route to Taiwan on Thursday afternoon after loading naphtha at Port Suez when six pirates in a skiff "approached the vessel and opened fire," the company said. The four guards onboard "fired a number of warning shots into the water. This procedure followed closely Torm's Rules of Engagement. Following this the pirates abandoned their attack," the company said.The vessel and the cargo did not suffer any damages and the tanker continues its voyage, the company said.In a separate incident on Wednesday, a EU NAVFOR warship stopped and boarded a suspicious group of two small boats, a whaler and skiff off Somalia, the EU's antipiracy naval force said."Before the boats could be boarded by teams from FGS KOLN, the crew of the boats ...

Its seafarers requested this desicion Leading Danish tanker and drybulk owner TORM has confirmed that it is using armed guards on board its vessels.The guards are being employed on all of the company's vessels transiting the high risk area off the Horn of Africa, as defined by the 'best management practice (BMP)'.TORM said that this decision was based upon requests from its seafarers who were coming under increasing threat of pirate attacks.The company said that intelligence reports had shown that thus far, no vessels with armed guards on board had come under attack.To provide the security needed, TORM contracted Protection Vessels International (PVI) to supply the armed guards.TORM admitted that there were numerous legal issues to be addressed and the company had worked with many advisors to ensure any issues were resolved before the contract was signed.PVI customers were also consulted to perform a reality check on the services provided.A number of guards had already been employed on the MR 'Torm Alice' and TORM said that the feedback from the master was "extremely good".A TORM spokesman told TANKEROperator that the Danish Shipowners' Association had been very supportive and that the company was well treated by the Danish Ministry of Justice, ...

By cutting its count of seafarers and reducing vessels flying its home flag Jacob Meldgaard tells TradeWinds the plan, which will kick in from 2012, comes on the back of a $50m saving each year since the onset of the financial crisis.Speaking after the Danish owner wheeled out a fisrt quarter loss Meldgaard said: We have seafarers from Indian, the Filipinos and various EU countries including Denmark. Up to 50 or 60 Danes will be substituted over time by predominantly Filipino and Indian crew.We have very good crews on all of our ships and we will do this over time in order to get the benefit on the cost.Torm, which today revealed it has delayed two newbuildings to make it "more resilient" in the present weak market, has around 75% of its fleet registered in Denmark.We will be looking to see if we can get it more in line with the other major shipping companies in Denmark where it is more 50/50 on average, Meldgaard said.Further costs will be stripped out by a review of how much Torm pays for various services and goods, the CEO adds.Copenhagen-listed Torm plunged $45m into the red in the first three months of the ...