Marine Log

ABS has released a new Guide for Ballast Water Treatment to help vessel owners and operators prepare for compliance with the IMO's International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004.

The convention is designed to provide a unified instrument to prevent, minimize and ultimately eliminate the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms via ships' ballast water and sediments. As of November 1, 2011, 30 member States representing 26.44 percent of world merchant shipping tonnage had ratified the convention against a required 30 States representing 35 percent of the world gross tonnage.

With the possibility that the convention may enter into force during the first half of 2013, owners are examining options for newbuilds and retrofits that will give them flexibility in terms of costs and operation, says Kirsi Tikka, ABS Chief Engineer and head of the society's environmental solutions efforts.

"The ballast water management regulations can be confusing for shipowners because they contain many unresolved and complex issues," Dr. Tikka adds. "As a result, some owners with newbuilds have elected to incorporate the installation of a ballast water treatment system, while others have chosen to have their vessel outfitted with the piping, electrical arrangements and space necessary to accommodate a ballast water treatment system in the future."

The newly released ABS guide has been developed to assist owners in understanding the classification requirements relating to the convention. In addition to the installation parameters required for any ABS-classed vessel utilizing an IMO member State type approved ballast water treatment system, the Guide offers owners two optional notations to demonstrate further due diligence in their ballast water management practices.

The tiered notations BWT and BWT+ will bring the ballast water treatment system under survey and the class society will review the system for compliance with the guide, confirm the installation design, conduct a survey during installation, periodically evaluate the onboard ballast water management system and perform shipboard function tests. The BWT+ notation signifies that the installed treatment system has been surveyed by an ABS surveyor at the manufacturing facility.


November 7, 2011

JULY 30, 2012—Fincantieri has been awarded a contract to build a latest generation ferry by Canada's Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ). The 130 m ferry will have a capacity of 800 passengers and 180 cars and will have a dual fuel diesel electric propulsion system able to operate on marine diesel oil or LNG. It will be the first vessel in the STQ fleet not to be built in a Quebec shipyard.

The contract, awarded following a public tender in which major competitors took part, is worth C$148 million, and has been signed by Georges Farrah, STQ Chairman and CEO, and Gabriele Cocco, Executive Senior Vice President Fincantieri Merchant Vessels. The contract has not needed the support of Italian export credit agencies and has benefited from funding allocated to a program of major projects being financed by the Government of Quebec, which controls STQ.

In January 2010, the Quebec Ministry of Transport awarded a contract for naval architecture and engineering services to Deltamarin/Navtec, a Finnish-Canadian consortium, which drew up preliminary plans in preparation for the project's tender. The public tender for the ship's final design and construction took place between January and June 2012.

Over the coming months Fincantieri will work on the detailed design of the new ship, which is scheduled for delivery in Canada in late 2014.

Fincantieri says "the ferry will be a concentration of technology and innovation, adopting the most advanced solutions in terms of energy saving and low environmental impact."

It will have a diesel electric propulsion system and the four diesel power generators will be dual fuel and can run on either gas (Liquid Natural Gas - LNG) or marine diesel oil.

Two electric propulsion engines will operate azimuth thrusters, each equipped with two counter-rotating propellers, which together with transverse propellers, will give the ferry exceptional maneuverability.

These characteristics, combined with a complex and extensive system of ramps and doors at both bow and aft, will allow the vessel to load and unload very quickly.

The ship will be certified in the highest class designated by international classification societies for this type of service and will also be built to Ice class 1 A and propulsion class 1 AS.

The ferry will be used for multiple services on the Matane-Baie-Comeau-Godbout route, which employs 115 people and, with 1,600 sailings a year, allows more than 200,000 passengers and over 116,000 vehicles to travel from shore to shore. It provides year-round links between Gaspé and North Shore.

Georges Farrah, STQ Chairman and CEO, said: "I am very happy with the outcome of the very demanding design and construction process for this new ship due to start service in Matane in three years time. At 130 meters long and with a capacity for 800 passengers and 180 cars, the new ferry will be much larger and better equipped than the Camille-Marcoux that it will replace. Its larger hold capacity will be suitable for all types of vehicles. The crossing will be a more pleasant experience for passengers."

Gabriele Cocco, Executive Senior Vice President Fincantieri Merchant Vessels, commented: "Fincantieri is particularly proud of this success which confirms it at the technical forefront and as leader in the high-tech ferry sector. From today, as well as the Mediterranean, the Baltic and North Sea, we shall also be present in North America with an extremely innovative product, the first to be used in a region with particular sensitivity to environmental conservation, and which will ensure considerable energy savings and a minimum level of pollution."

OCTOBER 8, 2012 — With orders for large bulk carriers and the like few and far between, hungry Chinese shipyards are turning their attention to what once might have seemed safe niche markets for more specialized yards. Evidence of this: Singapore-listed Chinese shipbuilder JES International reports that it has entered into a shipbuilding contract with a new customer based in Norway for a UT 755 LN platform support vessel.

JES says that the contract is the first in its 30 year history for the construction of an offshore support vessel.

"As the shipping industry remains in the doldrums, it is part of the Group's strategy to maximize, enhance, and leverage on our capabilities to explore growth opportunities beyond the commercial shipbuilding industry into the more robust offshore oil and gas sector to enhance shareholders' value," said Mr. Jin Xin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

JES, whose shipyard at Shiwei Port, Jingjiang City, covers an area of 804,000 square meters and can handle ships in the 500,000 dwt capacity, has an estimated annual shipbuilding capacity of 2 million DWT.

May 24, 2012 —Shipowners from all over Asia gathered to form a massive human SOS as a demonstration of their support for the international SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign. The shipowners meetings this week in Australia for the 21st Asian Shipowners Forum (ASF) which had piracy at the top of their agenda.

In the last seven years, 62 seafarers have died as a result of pirate actions, and getting on for 4,000 have been held hostage on some 200 ships hijacked by Somali pirates. "These innocent seafarers, just doing their jobs to keep the world supplied with raw materials and finished goods, get hijacked and suffer extreme mental and physical torture. We call on the world to take note that these people are working and putting themselves on the front line for you," says Alastair Evitt, Chairman of SOS SaveOurSeafarers.
 
Noel Hart, Chairman of the 21st ASF, says, "The operation carried out by EU Naval Forces on May 15, 2012 to disrupt pirate supplies and bases on the Somali shoreline is welcome and has sent a clear signal that piracy cannot be tolerated. Blatant attacks on innocent ships and seafarers must be stopped."

The Seafarers Committee of the ASF expressed its strong concern at the trauma, agony, suffering and lasting psychological and physical effects on seafarers and their families caused by pirate attacks.

Li Shanmin, Chairman of the Seafarers Committee, says, "The situation continues to be a serious crisis, one that deeply affects the mental health of seafarers and their families. The threat cannot be forgotten and we demand that all possible action is taken to alleviate the situation."

SOS SaveOurSeafarers is the biggest ever grouping of the international maritime industry with 31 international organisations joined together to raise awareness of the human and economic cost of piracy via the media and by using approaches to politicians and industrial leaders at the highest level. It started operation in March 2011. Since then, over 118,000 visits to its website have come from 194 countries and over 32,000 letters have been sent to governments worldwide. Its main aims are to raise the profile of Somali piracy in political and media circles, in order to see Somali piracy deterred, defeated and eradicated, and to stop seafarers being tortured and murdered.