Managers of The Strike Club, which offers delay insurance for the marine trades, were able to give an upbeat report to the club’s directors when they met in Istanbul.

Ongoing increased demand for the club’s various insurance covers has resulted in strong growth and a very positive renewal in February for the 2012/13 year. Further, free reserves rose by $2.5m. during the latest financial year, and the club has maintained its S&P rating at BBB+ with a stable outlook.

The mutual renewal was stamped by a 92% retention rate despite the extremely tough trading conditions faced by many members and the club’s prior warning that the 2010/11 policy year had experienced heavy claims.

A circular to members after the board meeting said: “It was particularly encouraging…that a number of members made substantial increases in their entered tonnage, across all three mutual classes, thus covering both shore-related and ship-related risks.” The club’s traditional mutual insurance covers a wide variety of marine trade delays which can hit owners and charterers.

In November, members approved rule changes for 2012/13 to widen the scope of the mutual cover still further so as to offer optional cover for additional war, civil war and piracy perils across all three classes. The aggregate total tonnage entered in the mutual classes during the 2011/12 year was 145m dwt, a significant increase on the 135m dwt the year before.

Meanwhile, there is strong demand both from owners and charterers for the club’s fixed-premium war risks insurance that offers cover to a limit of $200m, “partly because of the club’s excellent reputation for first-class service but also because the club offers a one-stop shop war risks insurance to combine traditional hull and machinery risks with tailored extensions as required; for example, loss of hire due to piracy even in the absence of a hull/machinery incident, or charterers’ loss of bunkers resulting from a hijacking etc.”

The club continues to provide loss of earnings cover, using standard market wordings, for periods up to 180 days. In addition, the club is now able to offer bespoke fixed-premium cover for other delay risks in excess of or outside the mutual rules, such as delays of up to 180 days, plus expenses, caused by discovery of drugs or contraband cargo on board.

Overall, fixed-premium income is up by 24% to a total of $25m.

For Classes I and II, the 2010/11 year was marked by an unprecedented number of major natural disasters, combined with some of the worst labour disputes for many years, particularly in Europe.

However, after an initial flood of claims, the situation continued to improve. Moreover, because the fixed-premium business has made a significant and positive contribution to the overall result, the directors have levied a closing call of 20%, instead of a much higher rate that was contemplated early in the year to reflect the heavy claims seen then.

Release calls of 30% have been applied to the 2011/12 year (developing in line with expectations) and to the 2012/13 year (which has started as expected).

For Class III, a closing call of 20% applies to 2010/11, and a release call of 30% for the 2011/12 and 2012/13 years.

Bill Milligan, chief executive of SC Management, said: “Political and economic uncertainty continues to impact on ship owners, especially in their forward planning, while the industrial landscape is marred by strikes and many other delay incidents which can rarely be anticipated.

“At sea, navigation errors continue to plague shipping operations. Casualty statistics released recently by the marine insurance industry show that, after explosion and fire, grounding, collision and contact rank second as the cause of all claims. Such incidents can result in very expensive delays and downtime for owners and charterers.

“But Strike Club members realise that financial protection is essential to cover or offset delays in the transport chain. Members have all the benefits of mutuality that the P&I system provides, and at a very modest cost.”

The club is now in its 55^th year of operation. Europe continues to represent the largest proportion of the club’s membership, at around 30%.

DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability is setting up its Asia Pacific Headquarters for services towards the transmission and cleaner energy sectors in Beijing.

The new headquarters will be headed by Bjorn Tore Markussen, Chief Operating Officer, and has ongoing operations in Korea, Australia, India, Singapore, Malaysia and China. Mr Markussen comes from the position as Managing Director of DNV’s Clean Technology Center in Singapore.

“DNV is committed to help China develop a safer, more efficient and reliable energy supply system with improved fossil and renewable power generation to support China’s growth ambitions and development towards a low carbon economy,” said DNV’s Group Chief Executive Officer Henrik O. Madsen at a press conference in Beijing.

The establishment of this second clean technology headquarters for Asia Pacific follows DNV’s acquisition of 74.3% of KEMA shares in February 2012, resulting in a new company called DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability. DNV KEMA, now consisting of 2,300 energy experts from KEMA and DNV, is one of the three companies within the DNV Group. The new company makes up a world-leading energy consulting, testing and certification company that can drive the worldwide transition towards a safer, reliable, efficient, and cleaner energy future.

Before joining the DNV Group, KEMA acquired a majority interest in Sinopower, a China based energy consultancy firm. “The combined knowledge of DNV, KEMA and Sinopower is a good basis for providing expert services to the Chinese energy market,” said Madsen. “It puts the DNV Group in a better position to provide a broader portfolio of services to the whole Chinese energy value chain.”

“The fact that a considerable amount of the wind power generated electricity in China faces transmission grid congestions, represents a great challenge for China, and demonstrates the need for expert services that constitute the core competence of DNV KEMA’s 2,300 experts,” said Mr Madsen. A report made by the Wind Energy Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society (CRES) estimates that China lost nearly 10 billion kWh of wind power generated electricity in 2011 due to the limited access to the power grid.

Accident investigation is a painstaking and often painful process and, more often than not, the outcome is a raft of new policies and measures to avoid reoccurrence. Yet, if well thought out and established company procedures are followed in the first place, tragic consequences can be avoided.

In response to the renewed focus on training in this area Videotel has launched a new training series, Leadership and Team Working Skills, which takes as its foundation the importance of good resource management and how it can be achieved.

“With continuing improvements in technology, human factors feature more and more frequently in the causal chain,” explained Nigel Cleave, CEO, Videotel Marine International. “Forty years ago, the average cargo ship was manned by 40-50 crew – nowadays, even on VLCCs, we are seeing crews numbering in the low twenties. Individuals are required to operate ever more efficiently adding further pressure on board. This series addresses many of the key issues defined by the STCW and SOLAS conventions, which provide a framework for safe and effective working practices.”

Produced in conjunction with The Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association (Bermuda) Ltd  Leadership and Team Working Skills is aimed at all sea-going personnel, having special relevance to the work of the watchkeeping officers in both deck and engineering departments, and is available on DVD and Interactive CD-ROM.

Topics include The Voyage Plan; both Bridge and Engine Room Watchkeeping; Working with Pilots; and Resource Management and Accident Prevention.  There is also a module featuring case studies of five incidents where the bridge team failed to keep the ship out of danger as a result of poor resource management. Incidents are re-created using actors and showing the data available to the bridge team. The audience are invited to view each incident and then to stop and analyse what went wrong and discuss how things could have been done better.

Four more companies have passed through the initial stage of the Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI) international private maritime security company  (PMSC) accreditation programme.

Ambrey Risk, Control Risks, Solace Global Maritime and Special Tactical Services all underwent a stringent due diligence check during Stage 1 of the programme in line with guidelines issued by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ensure legal, compliance and quality issues have been adequately addressed.

Peter Cook, Director of SAMI, which now has over 150 members, said: “The fact that companies are now accredited vindicates the work in setting the standard and the mechanism, and will increasingly provide ship owners with the reassurance they need when contracting with a security provider.”

The SAMI programme has been developed to provide systematic and strict checks on private maritime security companies and is broken down into three stages. Stage 2 involves a site visit to the company’s headquarters to audit the systems in place and Stage 3 is an operational assessment of company personnel deployed on ships.

A 12-week public consultation to review passenger ship safety has been launched by the European Commission today. The proposals are based on more than two years of intensive work and outline the Commission’s priority actions to safeguard passenger safety on domestic and international crossings.

The three pronged approach targets promoting industry voluntary measures, enforcing existing rules and adopting new legislation where necessary. Such as updating rules for roll-on-roll-off ferries to improve stability if they incur damage.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, Vice-President Kallas said: “Tragic accidents, from the Titanic to the Costa Concordia, put ship safety in the spotlight. There are always lessons to learn from such disasters, but we are not just waiting for the next accident to happen. It would be foolhardy merely to respond after the event. The EU has the toughest ship safety rules in the world and this is the result of a process of continuous improvements, proactive and preventative measures to raise maritime safety standards.”

Following the Costa Concordia cruise ship accident in January of this year, some issues have been raised specifically addressing larger passenger ships. Therefore the Commission is seeking feedback from the maritime field in particular on the current arrangements.

The London P&I Club has reported a growing incidence of shortcomings with regard to the condition of manhole cover gaskets on board ships.

In the latest issue of its StopLoss Bulletin, the club says that feedback from its Ship Inspection Programme indicates that an increasing number of inspectors are reporting issues in this respect.

The club says it is standard practice for enclosed onboard spaces such as ballast tanks, cofferdams and void spaces to be inspected as part of a prescribed schedule to ensure that the structural condition of the ship in such difficult-to-reach locations remains acceptable. During such inspections, the condition of coatings, sounding pipes, striker plates and other structures within the tanks is usually documented, but the club says that P&I inspections have revealed that the condition of the gaskets at the manhole entrance to tanks is sometimes inadvertently overlooked.

Pointing out the potential adverse consequences for safety, stability and costly cargo damage claims resulting from the ingress of water into cargo holds, the club says: “Owners must ensure that gaskets and associated securing arrangements are considered part of routine tank inspections. Whenever manhole covers are removed, crew should check that they are replaced correctly with gaskets in good condition and tested for integrity where possible.”

Accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens has warned that some shipping companies are not adequately prepared to conduct successful negotiations with their banks which are likely to occur with increasing frequency.

Paul Edwards, a Moore Stephens corporate finance director, said: “Shipping is experiencing tough times. An increasing number of companies are unable to repay or, in some cases, even service their debts. That could mean an uncomfortable meeting with the bank. But too many companies are not properly prepared for such an encounter.

“Businesses must be able to produce properly documented and timely financial information for their stakeholders, which should include a view of the future. In good times, when charter rates exceeded operating expenses, little attention needed to be paid to future cash flows and debt service. But today, it is essential to be able to anticipate, to the extent that it is possible, future cash flows and pinch points.

“It is essential to provide banks with detailed information in the event that it becomes clear that a company may default on the terms of a loan. It is better still if this can be done before any covenants are breached or payments missed. In these difficult times, the key is for businesses to help banks to help them, by anticipating defaults or breaches and presenting a solution, rather than waiting for the default. This cannot be achieved without a proper financial model.

“Clearly, a model is not a panacea for difficult trading conditions, but working with a bank to present its credit committee with a potential solution, rather than with a problem, is more likely to engender a positive attitude to any restructuring.”

Financial modelling is a key component of any renegotiation of facilities. A viable model, typically including integrated balance sheet, profit and loss account and cash flow statement, can help to support a restructuring proposal, by demonstrating the impact of changes on future cash flow. Paul Edwards added: “Financial modelling doesn’t change the economic fundamentals of a business. But it is a tool with which to identify ways to manage the impact of a volatile market. A good quality financial model is also an invaluable, ongoing management tool. It can be used to make longer-term strategic decisions and to determine the nature and structure of future investments and the potential returns on investment.”

A worrying indictment of the plight of seafarers has been delivered by a far-reaching survey of the experiences of seafarers facing criminal charges with seafarers complaining of unfair treatment, intimidation and a lack of legal representation and interpretation services.

The survey, by international legal research centre Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI), questioned 3,480 seafarers in the 12 months to the end of February 2012 and was conducted in eight languages, with responses returned from 18 countries and 68 different nationalities of seafarers.

Of the seafarers surveyed, 8% had faced criminal charges; 4% had been witnesses in criminal prosecutions, while 33% knew of colleagues who had faced criminal charges. Almost 24% of masters in the survey had faced criminal charges.

Questions in the survey specifically asked about the experiences of seafarers who had faced criminal charges.  44% of seafarers reported that they were bodily searched. 87% who faced charges relating to the discharge of their professional duties said that they did not have legal representation; 91% of seafarers who needed interpretation services said that they were not provided with such services; and 89% of seafarers who had faced criminal charges said that they did not have their rights explained to them.

Seafarers were also specifically asked about their perceptions. 80% who had faced criminal charges felt intimidated or threatened. Concerning casualty inquiries and accident investigations, 46% of seafarers who answered the question said that they would be reluctant to cooperate fully and openly with such inquiries.  Reasons expressed included:  “The information that I would provide might be used against me”; “I would fear incriminating myself”; “Anything you say can be used as evidence against you”.

Overall, 81% of seafarers who faced criminal charges did not consider that they had received fair treatment. To gain a broader view of criminal charges faced by seafarers, SRI also carried out a review of all incidents involving criminal charges against seafarers reported in the maritime press, for the 12 year period from 2000-2011.  There were 415 incidents reported in this period, involving 1,580 seafarers. Significantly over the period under review, the numbers of maritime criminal incidents and the numbers of detained seafarers showed a tendency to increase.

“The voices of seafarers are expressing real fears and concerns over criminal charges and it must be in the interests of the whole maritime industry that these are addressed and seafarers adequately protected.  The prospect of criminal charges is daunting for any human being, whether in your own country, or even more so in a foreign country, and so for seafarers entering foreign ports on a daily basis, the risks are high and the consequences can be dire if fair and due process is not followed,” said Deirdre Fitzpatrick, SRI Executive Director.

She added: “We hope that the results of this survey will provide momentum for increased efforts to ensure fair treatment of seafarers, whether innocent or guilty of a criminal charge, and that from this survey, the faces and the voices of the seafarers will be seen clearly and heard loudly”.

The full report of the survey will shortly be available on SRI’s website.

Eniram Limited, a provider of real time decision-support systems for the shipping industry, has opened an office in Singapore to better service its clients in Asia.

The Finland-headquartered company develops onboard applications, performance management and analytics solutions that help fleet owners and captains better operate their ships towards reduced fuel consumption and improved overall vessel efficiency.

Philip Padfield, CEO of Eniram, said: “Singapore was a clear choice for us as it is not only one of the premier global hubs for shipping but has also made clear its intention to be a hub for ‘green’ shipping in the region. This is in line with our corporate strategy to provide ship owners and operators with technology to save fuel and improve their environmental performance.”

Headed by Noël Jelsma, Eniram’s Asia Pacific Regional Director, the Singapore office provides a base for local and regional sales and support services for the whole of the Asia Pacific region. Headquartered in Helsinki, Eniram also has offices in London and Fort Lauderdale in the US.

Eniram offers a range of products designed to maximise vessel efficiency and provides the most accurate analytics and measurement tools to enable ship operators to find out exactly where they are achieving savings. This includes speed management and dynamic trim optimisation, both of which significantly affect the amount of fuel consumed on a ship’s voyage and can each result in measured savings often in excess of 3%.”

Mr Padfield said: “With the prices of marine fuel continuing to soar, we have a lot to offer ship operators in the region who believe that the ability to produce tangible savings is of paramount importance. Our solutions directly target fuel consumption, using techniques such as dynamic trim optimization to fine-tune the way their fleets move through the water. On average this can lead to savings per vessel of up to $300,000 per year on a VLCC or midsize container vessel, and in some cases much more.”

“In addition to the potential fuel savings ship operators stand to achieve with our systems, our software also enables ship operators to assess the value of other fuel efficiency solutions that they may be using,” he added.

Having won Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Finland awards in 2011 for being the fastest growing Greentech company in Finland and placed 14 in the EMEA Fast 500 ranking, Eniram has shown its dedication to steady growth and expansion in order to attain a strong presence that reaches a truly global clientele.

Eniram has also been shortlisted for the Technical Innovation Award at the Seatrade Asia Awards this year.