The West of England Club conducted an analysis on claims involving seafarers who have deserted their vessel, concerning the past ten years. Although these claims are not common and are not much of an expense to shipping companies, they can disrupt the operation of a vessel and take up management time to rectify. Sometimes, the deserter returns shortly, and other times they disappear for a considerable period of time.
The West of England Club announced that it kept on receiving frequent shortage claims involving bagged food cargoes, mostly rice and sugar, being discharged in West African ports. Food is attractive to pilferers as it can easily be removed from a vessel either for consumption, for gifting to others or for sale.
West of England Club highlights the importance of safely securing cargo, in order to avoid any incidents. The Club continues to receive claims in respect of cargo shifting due to inadequate securing where roll trailers have been used. This can either be inadequate securing of the load to the trailer or inadequate securing of the trailer to the vessel, or a combination of both.
The International Group has recently published some further revised FAQs on the Maritime Labour Convention (2006). These FAQs reflect the experiences that Clubs have experienced in dealing with MLC matters. The entry into force of the 2014 amendments to MLC on 18 January 2017 raised a number of questions. These FAQs aim to provide help operators comply with the amendments.
Three robbers armed with knives boarded a crude oil tanker which was anchored at Jose Terminal Anchorage, Venezuela, in the early morning hours of Thursday, 21st March, according to data provided by the IMB Piracy reporting centre.
West of England P&I Club informs about fines that the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) has imposed in light of alleged pollution from waste waters discharge. The fines are based on IMO’s sewage treatment systems under MARPOL Annex IV Regulation 11.1.2, where the treatment systems are required to discharge effluent with no visible floating solids and not cause discoloration of the surrounding water.
California’s ballast water management regulations are included in the Marine Invasive Species Act, which can be found within the California Public Resources Code and title 2 California Code of Regulations. These regulations are implemented by the California State Lands Commission, the West P&I Club says. Fines for breaching these regulations are based on a ‘per tank’ basis and can be significant.
The West of England P&I Club informed that it continues to regularly receive notifications of customs fines being imposed in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, due to discrepancies between items listed in the customs declaration submitted by the Master, and the actual quantity of goods onboard.
As the West of England P&I Club informs, in a recent case, the Amity, charterers successfully set aside an arbitration award on the basis that owners had not effectively served their notice of arbitration upon charterers since the person to whom owners had sent their arbitration notice did not have actual or implied authority to accept service of proceedings on behalf of charterers.
US OFAC has notified Congress of their intention to remove Rusal and associated companies from the US SDN list by 18 January 2019, following significant changes made to the company’s structure. OFAC decision means that ships will be able to trade freely with Rusal. However, the current partial shutdown of the US Government may be impacting implementation of the changes.
