Good day Mariners

“The Nautical Institute Receives the 2010 Samuel Plimsoll Award for Outstanding Service”

The editors of Professional Mariner have announced the 2010 winners of the Samuel Plimsoll Awards for Outstanding Service.

The winner for Outstanding Service by an Organization is the London-based Nautical Institute. It was honored for its support of the professional development of mariners and for its promotion of safety in the maritime industry.

The awards are named after Samuel Plimsoll, a British Member of Parliament who strove to end the dangerous practice of overloading vessels. His efforts culminated in legislation passed in 1876 requiring load lines, or Plimsoll marks, to be visible on the hulls of seagoing ships. The awards honor those who, in the spirit of Samuel Plimsoll, make the world a better and safer place for mariners.

The Nautical Institute demonstrably embodies that spirit in its work. Founded by a group of master mariners in 1971, the institute has striven to help mariners improve their performance by raising training standards and disseminating information crucial to greater operational efficiency and safety.

For example, 20 years ago, the Institute recognized that no operational standards existed for what was then a new technology, dynamic positioning systems. In response, the institute developed a code of practice and a curriculum for training and certifying DP operators. Today schools around the world accredited by The Nautical Institute provide the certification training, while The Nautical Institute itself administers the logbook program that verifies the mariner’s progress on the path to DP certification.

One of the organization’s most notable contributions to improved safety is the program makes it possible for the industry to learn from dangerous incidents and implement changes to avoid accidents in the future. The system encourages mariners to report near misses in which they were involved without having their identities publicly revealed. Those reports are then analyzed by The Nautical Institute and disseminated in its Seaways magazine.

This approach allows mariners to make the reports without fear of recriminations and permits the industry to recognize and correct problems before they culminate in disaster.

For these and other activities to assist and protect mariners, Professional Mariner has named The Nautical Institute winner of the 2010 Samuel Plimsoll Award for Outstanding Service by an Organization.

The award was presented on March 23 at the Connecticut Maritime Association’s Shipping 2010 conference in Stamford, Conn.

The Nautical Institute’s Chief Executive, Philip Wake, said:

‘We are delighted that our work to improve the safety and efficiency of shipping services through professional standards and development has been recognised by this prestigious Award. It is further encouragement for our members and staff to continue their dedicated efforts for the industry and the protection of the marine environment.’

” China Maritime 2010″

Following its previous highly successful stagings in 2006 and 2008, China Maritime returns to Hong Kong for a third time from March 16 – 18, 2010.

Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading maritime centres. It has an enormous port – Asia’s number one cargo and container hub. It lies at the epicentre of the busiest maritime region in the world. There is, in the surrounding region, intense activity in ship-owning, ship-building, ship-repair, naval architecture, port operations, tugs, ferries, commercial fishing, naval, police, coast guard, tourism, work boats, pollution control and much more.

Many internationally renowned ship owners operate their ships from Hong Kong, which currently controls or manages about ten percent of the world’s total tonnage. Plus, many Chinese and Japanese ship owners are moving their headquarters to Hong Kong because they enjoy a more favourable corporate environment there.

China Maritime 2010 will again bring together the cream of the international maritime industry to create an efficient, effective and truly international marine market place. This event will provide the perfect opportunity to meet new suppliers and customers and to renew old acquaintances. The Hong Kong location provides an effective and enjoyable bridge between East and West.

China Maritime 2010 features an extensive exhibition with product presentation seminars, two significant maritime forums, and a series of social events facilitating unrivalled networking possibilities at a time of unprecedented opportunity.

o be held for the third time in Hong Kong from March 16-18, 2010, this show is “the” proven, high quality maritime exhibition for the vital South China/Pearl River market.

China Maritime 2010 offers exhibitors a first class medium for local and international exhibitors alike to promote their products or services to a high quality international audience.

This exciting event attracts large numbers of high quality vessel owners, operators, builders, designers, government personnel and maritime equipment suppliers for all types of ships and work boats.

If you are looking to further strengthen your company’s position in this region in these difficult times, then mark this event in your exhibiting calendar now!

The last China Maritime, in March 2008 – the second event to be staged in Hong Kong – launched with a Chinese lion dance and was described by organiser Neil Baird as the “biggest and best China Maritime yet.”

The show attracted 10 percent more exhibitors than its first staging, with more than 33 percent of visitors being owners and operators of vessels. Almost all of the exhibitors expressed complete satisfaction with the quality and quantity of visitors – so much so that more than 30 percent of the available space for China Maritime 2010 was immediately sold to exhibitors eager to repeat their success.

“Hyundai falls short of 2009 orderbook target ”

Hyundai Heavy Industries missed its US$7.5 billion target for newbuild orders in 2009 by a long shot, inking only US$444 million of orders instead.

A securities filing showed that Hyundai only received US$41 million of new orders in the last quarter of 2009.

London’s Clarkson Research Services data showed that this consisted of three tankers, two 180,000DWT bulkers and one FPSO. This order included two contract alterations to existing orders.

“China and Korea fight for top spot”

Chinese shipbuilders beat Korea for the first time in Chinese shipbuilding history in terms of volume of shipbuilding orders placed in 2009.
London-based researcher Clarkson stated that Chinese yards won 44.4 percent compared with 40.1 percent of orders placed at Korean yards.

Analysts are however, quick to point out that though China was contracted to build 53.2 million CGT compared with Korea’s 52.8 million CGT in 2009, South Korea still had seven shipyards listed among the world’s top ten shipbuilders.

The main thing that draws ship owners to Chinese yards is the price. According to the China Research Institute of Shipbuilding, the value of orders placed at yards in Korea in 2009 was over US$9 billion, roughly double that of China.

How natural disaster ripped an island apart????????

Distraught, covered in dust and desperate, the people of Haiti appear barely able to comprehend the tragedy that has overtaken them.

Many spent the desolate hours after the earthquake milling around in the streets or constructing the most rudimentary of shelters where they could cower for the night.

The quake itself measured 7.0 on the Richter scale- but some of the 30 aftershocks were almost as strong, leaving the shanty-towns of Port-au-Prince echoing with the heartrending sound of screams and sobs.

Courtesy : Liz Hazelton

Some clustered together for comfort. Others lay prostrate in the street, unable to pick themselves up.

It is still difficult to assess the sheer scale of the devastation. When the earthquake came, buildings crumpled like paper and whole towns were swept down hillsides.

The wretchedly poor country of Haiti simply cannot afford to construct robust buildings to withstand such natural disasters – which is why the death toll is likely to number tens of thousands.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1242929/Haiti-earthquake-pictures-How-natural-disaster-ripped-island-apart.html#ixzz0cy54KZFd

“2010 to the world’s 1.5 million seafarers says UN Maritime Agency”

With the increasing peril of pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia, the United Nations agency entrusted with setting comprehensive regulations for shipping is dedicating next year to the 1.5 million seafarers who serving the daily needs of more than 6.5 billion citizens of Planet Earth.

“Our intention is to pay tribute to you, the world’s 1.5 million seafarers – men and women from all over the globe – for the unique, and all too often over-looked, contribution you make to the well being of all of us,” UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said in a message announcing the decision.

“We will do so with deep appreciation, in recognition of the extraordinary service you render every day of your professional life, frequently under dangerous circumstances, in delivering, to the more than 6.5 billion people of the world, the wheat that makes our daily bread, the gas and oil that warms our homes or moves our vehicles and the gifts we will share and enjoy with our families and friends over this Festive Season.”

He stressed the important role seafarers play in helping to achieve safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans and reassured them “at the ‘sharp end’ of the industry, that we, who are responsible for the international regulatory regime and who serve shipping from ashore, do understand the extreme pressures that you face and that, as a result, we approach our own tasks with a genuine sympathy for the work that you carry out.”

He underscored the efforts IMO makes to ensure that “you are fairly treated when ships on which you serve become involved in accidents; are looked after when you are abandoned in ports; are not refused shore leave for security purposes; are protected when your work takes you into piracy-infested areas; and are not left unaided when you are in distress at sea…

1.5 million seafarers serving the daily needs of more than 6.5 billion citizens of the world! It is a fact that goes unnoticed or is taken for granted by most, but one that should be trumpeted loud and clear,” he concluded.

“For seafarers the world over deserve our respect, recognition and gratitude and, during 2010, we at IMO are resolved to ensure that the world does take notice of your exceptional role and contribution and of the special debt that all of us owe to you.”

Bollywood goes underwater and comes up a winner. Blue is fresh and fulsome, boasting of some great deep sea shots ( by Pete Zuccarini, cinematographer, Pirates of the Caribbean fame), stunning above sea level action sequences, a crackling background music score and sound design by India’s two Oscar winners (AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty), a short and engaging reel length that keeps the proceedings pithy, two hot girls (Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif too in a glam guest role) and a whole lot of guy stuff….Like, bare-bodied Akshay swimming with the sharks and stingrays, lean and mean Zayed blasting away on designer bikes, Sanjay Dutt, sadly with a paunch, sparring with Akshay in the boxing ring and the threesome donning their diving gear to discover a hidden treasure in picture postcard Bahamas.

The future is bright for kochi port with projects lined up for commissioning and the organisers of the volvo ocean race expressing their interest to have a stopover in the city for their 2011 race., the chairman of the cochin port trust, N. Ramachandran said.
” The projects are nearing completion as per schedule and we hope to record a steep rise in revenue once they are over. Apart, from the Vallarpadam container transhipment project, the prominent cash- generating projects include the LNG terminal and bunkering terminal. This has thrown open opportunities in areas like tourism, bulk-handling of cargo and the opening of cultural and commercial establishments in Willingdon Island,”said the Cochin Port Trust Chairman, while apeaking at panel discussion on Cochin Port Trust-the way ahead, organisede jointly by the Kerala Management Association and the Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Malaysia first submarine, which is in its maiden voyage home to the naval base in Sepanggar bay in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, has made a port call at the Indian Naval Dockyard.
The Scorpene-claa KD Tunka Abdul Rahman, which began its voyage from Toulon in France on July 9, transited at Jeddah and Djibouti, before reaching Cochin in the south east Indian state of Kerala on Tuesday
After three days in Cochin, the diesel powered submarine will depart for Lumutr and Port Klang on peninsular Malaysia’s west coast before heading for Sepanggar in september
The submarine commanded by commander Zulhelmy Ithnain, is sailing with 35 crew, It is named after Malaysia’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman