Armed robbery incidents could vary from robbers boarding with knives or with highly sophisticated weapons.  As of Wednesday night there had been 48 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia reported since the start of the year. Five vessels were hijacked, 102 crew members taken hostage and a further 24 vessels fired upon. Seven ships and 118 crew were still in detention.

The number of vessels that have actually been hijacked has been steadily dropping. While in October last year the ratio of attacks to hijacks was one in three, this ratio has dropped to one in 19 by this month, as a result of the increased presence of naval forces patrolling in the gulf.

The Court also banned end-of-life vessels from coming to

The ruling was unopposed because no industry experts knew the case was going to court. The Bangladeshi Ship Breaker’s Association reacted quickly to the ruling and filed a petition to appeal.

It is predicted that over 1,000 ships would be scrapped this year. If the order was implemented it would mean the end of ship breaking in

It is estimated that around 250,000 people are directly or indirectly employed by the ship breaking industry in

Safety and security are keys points. You must make sure that your crew has received a high level of safe instructions and your ship has no failure before going.

However, all these measures cost a lot of money. According to a leading classification society report, some owners are skimping on maintenance budgets.

Delaying such work is somehow understandable in this period of credit crunch, but it means endangering the life of your crew. If no effort is made on ships’ maintenance, the shipping industry as a whole will stand condemned.

At present, it is estimated that approximately 1,000 vessels are laid-up around the world’s anchorages. According to the Classification society Det Norske Veritas, the overcapacity of vessels could reach 10,000 with some 6,000 laid up by 2013.

However, this is not bad news for everyone. It can be a business opportunity. Indeed, in Southeast Asia, sheltered bays are being marketed as safe havens of unemployed tonnage. Bays in the Philippines are being touted as ideal low-cost locations to park vessels.

Lets discuss and we can forward ideas/comments to him.

“Optimum efficiencyis achieved by collaboratively working to reduce uncertainty, which means improving reliability and responsiveness in the supply chain. Minim ising inventory whilst maximising availability,” Mawer explained.

From 17 October onwards, shipping lines will set their own freight rates based on service levels, internal costs and market conditions. Furthermore, individual lines will be responsible for determining their own surcharges such as THC (Terminal Handling Charges), BAF (Bunker Adjustment Factor) and CAF (Currency Adjustment Factor).

While it is unclear how carriers will react to operating individually, there are certain to be major changes for shippers and a lot more scope for negotiation. Certainly there are significant opportunities for both shipping lines and shippers alike, but there are also dangers. One of the major dangers is poor capacity planning leading to oversupply or undersupply. The lead time of putting a large containership into service from order to delivery is a matter of years, therefore the shipping industry is much less able to react quickly to changing market conditions. Oversupply of tonnage will push rates down and could put some lines out of business. On the other end of the scale, undersupply will push up freight rates and could affect global trade growth. 

Whether for good or bad, life is going to get a lot more complicated for all involved. But the key consideration in the post-conference world is not to base decisions purely on freight rates as these are not the sole cost in a supply chain. Shippers could find that cutting costs on the carrier could end up costing them more elsewhere in the supply chain.