A 30-year masterplan for Dublin Port was unveiled today (Wednesday), showing an investment of over €600 million to develop the port and double its throughput.

The Masterplan for Dublin Port sets out the framework for the long-term development of Ireland’s largest and most important port and follows a year-long consultation with business, community, industry and government stakeholders.

Dublin Port Company will finance the plan and has already committed to investing €110m over the first five years, starting this year. In economic terms, it will mean Dublin Port Company will be able to handle 60 million tonnes of goods by 2040, double its current throughput, based on a modest assumed growth of 2.5% per year.

The Masterplan, launched by Ireland’s Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, TD, has been founded on three principles – maximising the use of existing land, reintegrating the port with the city and developing the port to the highest environmental standards.

Among the first projects identified is the building of a dedicated car storage compound to free up valuable quay-side space. Another major initiative is the construction of a new cruise facility accommodating over 135,000 passengers and nearly 90 cruise liners each season and Dublin Port Company has formed Cruise Dublin, a joint scheme with Dublin’s City Council and Chamber of Commerce to further develop the cruise trade in the city.

The Masterplan has also indentified the potential for rail freight to grow over the next 30 years using Dublin Port’s direct rail connections to all major train stations in Ireland.  There are also plans for a visitor centre to show Dubliners the history of the port and to provide an insight into its workings.

Mr Varadkar said at the launch: “This is a comprehensive plan for the long-term development of Dublin Port on its current site. As Ireland’s most important port, Dublin Port is a vital part of our national infrastructure. It has a significant role to play in growing exports, growing jobs, and also in growing tourism, with 87 cruise ships calling last year. This Masterplan follows a detailed consultation process and will ensure that Dublin Port continues to make a real contribution to the local economy and to our export-led recovery.”

Lucy McCaffrey, Chairwoman of Dublin Port Company, said: “While the impetus for producing this Masterplan has been to provide Dublin Port Company and all its stakeholders with a clear view as to how Dublin Port will develop over the next 30 years, we have endeavoured to strike a balance between the economic needs of the city and improving the aesthetics of the port and better integrating it with the city.”

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The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) – the principal international trade association for ship owners representing all sectors and trades and over 80% of the world merchant fleet – has responded to the outcome of the intergovernmental conference on Somalia hosted by the UK on 23 February.

The shipping industry welcomes the commitments made to try to restore government and civil society in Somalia – the absence of a functioning state being one of the underlying causes of violent Somali pirate attacks against international shipping, which have so far led to more than 60 seafarers losing their lives and 4,000 seafarers being taken hostage. However, addressing these issues will take years if not decades.

The international shipping industry notes with some concern that the Conference outcomes do not appear to include any firm political commitment or new actions to eliminate or significantly reduce the scourge of Somali piracy in the immediate future.

Governments must task their military forces to take the attack to the pirates and ensure that the military assets required to do this are maintained so they can continue to defend merchant ships in the best way possible. Little mention seems to be have been made to the obligations of governments under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to protect merchant ships and their crews from piracy, and the industry fears that the current level of pirate attacks is something which the governments may be willing to continue to tolerate because ships are out of sight and out of mind, even though they transport about 90% of world trade.

Abdicating responsibility to private armed guards to whom, in the absence of adequate military protection, shipping companies are now resorting in increasing numbers, is not a viable long term solution for eliminating piracy. Recent press reports might give the impression that the level of piracy off Somalia is decreasing, but the capability of the pirates is actually higher than it has ever been.

The shipping industry strongly supports the Conference’s focus on the need for apprehended pirates to be arrested, taken to a court of law and, if found guilty, be imprisoned, including the announcement to establish a new Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecutions Intelligence Co-ordination Centre based in the Seychelles.

The shipping industry also welcomes the determination of governments to break the financial chain through legal action against criminal financiers investing in piracy wherever in the world they are identified. With respect to the latter, ICS notes the commitment to establish an ‘international task force on pirate ransoms in order to understand the ransom business cycle and how to break it.’

However, the shipping industry would be deeply concerned by any suggestion that the payment of ransoms to pirates, in order to secure the release of seafarers being held hostage, should be prohibited or criminalised.

The primary concern of the industry is humanitarian, and shipowners have a duty of care to their crews and their families. In the event that seafarers are taken hostage, the inability of the international community to eliminate piracy or rescue hostages means that shipowners have no option but to pay ransoms. The alternative would be for shipowners to abandon their crews to months if not years of appalling treatment – including torture and murder, which has already been the result when ransoms have not been paid.

In the event that ransom payments were prohibited or criminalised, many seafarers and shipping companies would understandably refuse to sail in the affected danger area, with significant implications for the large proportion of world trade, including about 40% of world oil shipments, which are transported via the Western Indian Ocean.

ICS strongly believes that effective compliance with Best Management Practices (preventive measures) by shipping companies, and recent military intervention with a more aggressive stance, has reduced the pirates’ rate of success. However, the current situation remains totally unacceptable, with about 200 seafarers still being held hostage in the most terrible conditions, with thousands more still having to transit the danger area in constant fear of their lives.

ICS will continue to work to ensure that the problem of piracy retains sufficient political and public attention so that the crisis might be properly and decisively addressed in the immediate future.

The UK is to fund the construction of a new anti-piracy regional intelligence centre in the Seychelles, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced yesterday (Tuesday).

The announcement came just two days ahead of the London Conference on Somalia, which will bring together over 50 countries and international organisations to agree a programme of practical support for the lawless country including measures to tackle piracy and its root causes.

The Regional Anti-Piracy Prosecutions Intelligence Co-ordination Centre (RAPPICC), costing £550,000 to build, will co-ordinate and analyse intelligence to inform tactical law enforcement options, including the turning of intelligence into usable evidence for prosecutions in both the region and further afield.

Mr Hague also pledged a further £150,000 to support the United Nations Political Office for Somalia in creating a pilot maritime security co-ordination office in a stable region within Somalia to ensure greater counter-piracy activity on the ground.

He said: “Following intensive consultation with key international partners, I am delighted to announce a co-ordinated set of initiatives to disrupt pirate activity, and provide seafarers and the industry with improved tools to avoid and counter pirate attacks.

“The establishment of a new intelligence co-ordination centre will allow the international community to target the king-pins of piracy and ensure piracy does not pay. For too long, the international community has focused its efforts on the young, desperate men who are sent out to sea, without seeking to hold to account those who finance and enable huge pirate operations.”

Mr Hague added: “I am pleased that the UK is able to provide the first Director and £550,000 to fund the construction of the RAPPICC, which will be operational in time for the seasonal increase in pirate activity.”

The Seychelles and Dutch governments, as well as INTERPOL, have committed their support to the centre and Mr Hague hoped others would follow their lead.

He said of tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) conference: “We particularly want to see an end to pirates being captured and then released because there is nowhere to prosecute and imprison them,” added the Foreign Secretary.

“We hope that conference participants will agree a commitment to do more to increase judicial capacity in Somalia and the wider region.”

Offshore Ship Designers has sealed 10 new design contracts for large diesel-electric Platform Supply Vessels for two major offshore operators building at three shipyards in Brazil, Japan and Spain.

Swire Pacific Offshore Operations (Pte) Limited has ordered four IMT-997 Platform Supply Vessels to be built by Universal Shipbuilding Corporation in Japan and four sister vessels to be built at the EISA shipyard in Brazil. The 97 m LOA 5,000 dwt vessels will be classed with DP2 capability and have diesel-electric propulsion systems with azimuth propulsion units. The vessels will be delivered progressively from early 2014.

Craig Group’s Northstar Shipping has ordered two IMT-982 PSVs to be built at Balenciaga in Spain. The 83 m LOA vessels have diesel-electric propulsion systems offering greater fuel economy and efficiency. The vessels have an initial operating deadweight of 2,550 dwt, a useable deck area of 912 square metres and are powered by four MAK 9M20 1450 kW generator sets driving two Steerprop 1900 kWe Azimuths. The vessels are specially designed to operate at less than 5,000 tonnes displacement to work with older North Sea Structures where vessel size and weight restrictions apply and will be also classed with DP2 capability.

Neil Patterson, managing director of OSD-IMT, the UK arm of the OSD group, said: “The key elements of our IMT range of offshore support vessels are fuel efficiency and design for purpose. These leading offshore operators want vessels designed efficiently for specific tasks, and with these new designs we can tailor the hull, cargo systems, power and propulsion systems to the required operating profile. With offshore operators developing oil fields in deeper water and in more exposed environmental conditions, the requirements are for more efficient high capacity support vessels often with special requirements. OSD can design exactly what is needed, through the IMT range of OSV’s and with our extensive experience of diesel-electric systems and regulations such SPS Code, IBC Code and Probabilistic Damage, our designs can built anywhere in the world at the most competitive price.”

Class Society ClassNK has released new guidelines to address safety measures for the use of natural gas as ship fuel.

As regulations curbing atmospheric pollution and greenhouse gas emissions grow stricter amid stronger calls for a greener shipping industry, more attention is turning to the potential of natural gas as a cleaner alternative to liquid fuel oil.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is used widely on vessels designed to transport the commodity and has started to be introduced on other types of ships – around 30 vessels including Norwegian ferries and offshore support ships in the North Sea are now powered by LNG, and this number is expected to increase in the near future.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has developed the International Code of Safety for ships using gases or other low flash point fuels (IGF Code) to govern safety aspects of the application of natural gas for propulsion and auxiliary purposes and in the new ClassNK guidelines, requirements for the design of natural gas fuelled ships have been specified based on the current draft of the IGF Code.

The guidelines provide comprehensive information on key design features including bunkering, hull structure, fire safety, and explosion prevention measures.

“One of our most important missions as a classification society is to help ensure the safety of shipping as the industry looks to ways in which it can reduce its carbon footprint,” said ClassNK Chairman and President Noboru Ueda.

“These new guidelines have been compiled based on our vast array of technical expertise and experience. By releasing these guidelines today, we hope to provide practical guidance for shipyards, manufacturers, owners, managers and operators looking to prepare their fleets for a safer, greener future.”

Thomas Gunn Navigation Services (TGNS) has been awarded an important new contract by Unicom to supply an additional 43 vessels with its outfit management services, meaning TGNS now supplies navigation solutions to 78 vessels, the bulk of the Unicom fleet.

“We value the strong business relationship we have built up with Unicom over a number of years. We are very pleased that their positive experience of that relationship has enabled us to develop our partnership further, and are looking forward to working closely with them in the future,” said Thomas Gunn, founder and Managing Director of Thomas Gunn Navigation Services.

TGNS will supply the Unicom fleet with both Russian Hydrographic Office and UK Hydrographic Office charts and publications, in both digital and paper format, customised to the operating requirements and the vessel specific requirements of Unicom. Serving the mariner in the SOLAS regulated market for over 30 years Thomas Gunn is the world’s largest supplier of digital navigation solutions and paper charts.

Unicom is a member of the Sovcomflot Group, acting as an independent ship management company providing services such as full management, technical management, crew management, commercial management, full operation management including disbursement and freight and hire calculations, marine insurances & claims handling and project and newbuilding supervision.

International accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens has called for stability for European tonnage tax regimes now that the EC has begun its review of EU State Aid Guidelines to Maritime Transport

The start of the EC’s review of the EU State Aid Guidelines to Maritime Transport was announced on 14 February 2012. These guidelines cover European tonnage tax regimes as well as other state aid to the maritime sector. The EC has published a detailed and very comprehensive questionnaire regarding these state aid guidelines, inviting responses from citizens, organisations and public authorities.

The EC says the objective of the consultation is to invite member states, other institutions and stakeholders to provide information on industry developments, feedback on the application of the 2004 Community Guidelines on State Aid to Maritime Transport (due for review within seven years of their date of application) and their effects, as well as any comments and proposals regarding state aid for maritime transport. The Commission will analyse the outcome of the consultation before deciding to what extent changes to the current rules are necessary and, if appropriate, come forward with a proposal for revised guidelines. At this stage, the Commission has not taken a position concerning a possible modification of the existing guidelines.

Moore Stephens tax partner Sue Bill, said: “We hope the EC will bear in mind the importance of stability to European tonnage tax regimes. This is particularly important given the current difficult economic climate, and the fact that EU tonnage tax regimes are competing with other jurisdictions, such as Singapore, which offer very attractive tax breaks to the shipping sector. It will be important for all interested parties in the EU to ensure that they are involved as much as possible in the consultation process.”

In a separate development, shipowners in the UK tonnage tax regime were recently encouraged by positive remarks made at the UK Chamber of Shipping’s recent annual dinner by Shipping Minister Mike Penning, who said the UK government had no intention of touching the UK tonnage tax regime.

Sue Bill added: “The minister’s remarks referred to HMRC’s reinterpretation of the rules relating to the requirement that strategic and commercial management of the ships is located in the UK. HMRC has published revised, interim guidance which broadly reinstates HMRC’s pre-2009 position. Further consultation with the shipping industry has been promised, although no additional information has been provided regarding the scope and timing of the consultation.

“The minister’s comments are a very encouraging development, but it is not yet the end of the story. It is important that the consultation goes ahead, so that final guidance can be issued, in order to give further reassurance to the shipping industry. The government should take the opportunity to simplify and improve the regime. In addition, HMRC needs to act in a reasonable and consistent manner with regard to all matters relating to the UK tonnage tax regime, not just the strategic and commercial management test.

“As the UK government is required to act within the EU guidelines, the outcome of the EC review will also be important.”

The International Shipping Federation has updated its widely used On Board Training Record Book for Engine Ratings to take into account changes to the IMO STCW Convention which came into force in January.

For the first time, the 2010 amendments make it mandatory for trainee engine ratings to provide evidence of structured onboard training, and the revised ISF book – the second in a series of newly updated training record books – contains structured onboard training tasks formulated around the competence standards stipulated by STCW 2010, including those adopted by the IMO for the new grade of Able Seafarer Engine.

Most Flag States are, in due course, expected to require many existing engine ratings to be certificated as Able Seafarer Engine as part of their minimum safe manning requirements and, as the principal international employers’ organisation for ship operators, representing national shipowners’ associations from 30 countries and about 80% of the world merchant fleet, the ISF wishes to ensure rating trainees make best use of their seagoing service.

ISF Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe explained: “The competence of marine engineers, whether ratings or officers, is critical to safety and environmental protection. The updated ISF book enables trainees and their companies to monitor, record and evaluate their onboard training in a structured manner in accordance with the new STCW Convention requirements.”

European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas has not ruled out taking unilateral action to improve vessel safety following the worst cruise ship disaster for a generation and the continuation of Somali pirate attacks against merchant shipping.

A review of existing passenger ship safety legislation originally put in place after the Estonia disaster, will now include elements such as ship stability after an accident, evacuation procedures as well as language spoken onboard – factors that rose to prominence following the capsizing of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy in mid-January.

The European Commission Vice President also intends to convene a stakeholder conference in April 2012 to discuss the best way forward and will use the findings of the official investigation into the capsizing as important information in deciding the way ahead.

In the area of piracy, Brussels is considering moves to make mandatory the use of Best Management Practices (BMP4) for European ships travelling in pirate waters. Fotis Karamitsos, Director for Logistics, Maritime and Land Transport in the EU Commission (DG MOVE), told SMI: “Consideration will also be given to developing better ship design and looking at ways to better deter piracy.”

He said the use of armed guards would also be discussed and said a conference would be convened in the Spring where the military would be consulted to discuss and address the growing concern of piracy.

The purpose of the Industry Best Management Practices (BMP) is to assist ships to avoid, deter or delay piracy attacks in the high risk area. Experience and data collected by Naval/Military forces.The potential consequences of not following BMP are severe. There have been instances of pirates subjecting their hostages to violence and other ill treatment. The average length of a hijacking of vessel and her crew is over seven months.

Mr Karamitsos said: “Piracy issues are high on the agenda and exchanges of information with EU NAVFOR has helped to convince ship owners and ships’ masters to take advantage of the measures in place to safeguard their transit through the Gulf of Aden.

“The European Maritime Safety Agency supports the operation with EU NAVFOR with the provision of long range tracking data for ships. We would like to invite all ship operators to apply the best management practices to prevent piracy and we are reflecting on the need to make this mandatory for ships sailing in these pirate zones,” he confirmed.