IN THIS ISSUE
1. Hanjin Crisis – Welcome to the Hanjin California
2. Fiata Launches E-Books
3. EU Passenger Liability Regulation 2009
4. Webinar: Iran – Focusing on the Uncertainties
5. The OED
6. People and Places
The Maritime Advocate–A Growing Concern
This publication, nicknamed "the Avo" passed
a milestone this summer. It has passed the 20 000 subscriber mark, the
highest total since its foundation in 2001. As a result of hand-ons
and internal republications within firms, it is fair to assume a total
readership of around 60 000 located in 120 countries. This gives the
Avo a very wide footprint in the maritime world. If you have a message,
service or product to promote or circulate, the Avo can promise to get
the word out at affordable rates. Give us a try. Meanwhile we send out
our thanks to all our advertisers and supporters who have helped to
keep us a more or less going concern these many years.
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1. Hanjin Crisis – Welcome to the Hanjin California
Frazer Hunt of Mills Oakley in Sydney writes –
September 19 2016 –
As we enter the third week following Hanjin Shipping filing for receivership,
let’s review how the various stakeholders handled the fallout following
arrest of MV “Hanjin California” in Sydney and whether there
are any lessons to be learned before further containers are discharged
from MV “Hanjin Milano” which remains anchored off Melbourne
awaiting advice from Korea.
"So I called up the Captain…"
“Hanjin California” was arrested by unpaid bunker suppliers
earlier this month after it berthed at SICT. The terminal discharged
some of the containers and since Hanjin would not be paying any of the
charges, exercised a lien over the containers for the stevedoring costs
and administration charges. Consignees who had already paid freight
were also required to pay these charges to obtain release of their containers.
Still, if you wanted your container….
Then it got a lot more complicated: to secure return of container to
the depot, Hanjin also required a deposit, bond or a solicitors letter
of undertaking that the deposit would be paid on demand.
For a short period, the terminal ALSO required security for the return
of the container. Consignees were then faced with the dilemma that if
they returned the container to Hanjin’s depot, they would lose
their security to the terminal but if they returned the container to
the terminal, then they would lose the security provided to Hanjin.
Fortunately, common sense quickly prevailed and the terminal withdrew
their parallel demand.
"What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)… bring your alibis…"
THEN the port authority got in on the act and asked the consignees
to pay the wharfage costs that would have otherwise been paid by the
vessel.
"There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say..
Welcome to the Hanjin California…"
OH, your container holds dangerous goods? While grappling with the
delays associated with the procedures referred to above and getting
Hanjin to answer the phone, you are then served with a notice from the
port authority to remove the container and threatened with penalties
if it is not removed immediately. The notice then continued “You
are invited to present information on any difficulties encountered in
complying with the permitted time periods on the terminal which may
be taken into account by the port authority when making a determination
for the above alleged offence”.
"Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice…"
OK, so you have finally paid the stevedoring charges, wharfage costs
and provided security for the return of the container and then picked
up the container having also paid multiple fees for missed slots. Great,
you now have your goods BUT: Hanjin’s container depots refused
to accept re-delivery of Hanjin containers, presumably fearing that
they would never be collected. You are asked to hold onto the container
until further notice, presumably without further container demurrage
accruing….hopefully….
"…Plenty of room at the Hanjin California"
In one sense, the consignees who got their containers out of the terminal
were lucky – you have to feel sorry for the owners of goods in
the Hanjin containers which were bundled up at the terminal and loaded
on “Hanjin California” which remains under arrest at Glebe
Island terminal that does not have facilities to load and unload containers
with no appearance from the owners of the vessel in the arrest proceedings
at this stage. Consignees who wish to have their containers discharged
from “Hanjin California” will have to wait or apply to court
to have their containers unloaded. Whether the costs associated with
moving the vessel again for that purpose will be economically viable
is another matter.
“Relax,” said the night man, “we are programmed to receive.
you can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!”
Meanwhile, the residents near Glebe Island Terminal are not happy –
it is most inconvenient for them to have to pull the shades down on
their windows.
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light….
Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up!
Hopefully, the service providers at other ports will learn from our
experience and that procedures for the release of the remaining Hanjin
containers will be more streamlined and with less angst.
AND I was thinking to myself, “This could be Heaven or this could
be Hell”
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2. Fiata Launches E-Books
Barbara Wieser over at the FIATA Secretariate in Switzerland writes:-
The FIATA Logistics Academy has proudly announced the a donation by
Chairperson Mr Issa Baluch, who has made two of his books Transport
Logistics: Past, Present, Predictions and Transport Logistics: The Wheel
of Commerce available for free in e-format.
Transport Logistics: The Wheel of Commerce was published in
2010. It examines the impact of the 2008 recession on the industry,
and argues that the industry itself serves as a harbinger of both up
and down turns in the economy. The book also discusses the status of
transport logistics planning and preparation in 11 countries: Canada,
Chile, India, Singapore
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), plus six in Africa—Burundi,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,Rwanda and Tanzania. Through remarkable case
studies of these countries, the book also highlights public and private
sector ingenuity in problem solving, and shows how lessons learned in
one part of the world can be applied to challenges elsewhere.
The second book, Transport Logistics: Past, Present and Predictions
was published in 2005, is available in four languages and has sold over
30,000 copies worldwide. This book first presents ten case studies of
historical projects that demanded careful transport logistics management.
It surveys a wide variety of projects, some of them successes and some
of them failures. Whether these projects were related to construction,
engineering, military actions, or humanitarian relief, they all required
transport logistics and placed great demands on logistics managers.
The second part of the book examines various aspects of today’s
dynamic freight logistics industry, including the changing role of the
freight forwarder. With
the development of IT-based supply chain integration and value-added
service offerings, the freight forwarder is being forced to evolve,
or else risk extinction. In addition, ensuring cargo security has become
an irreversible part of the forwarder’s responsibility to customers
and other supply chain partners.
To obtain access to these e-books click on the link below:-
http://www.transportlogistics.com/get-your-complimentary-transport-logistics-ebook/
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3. EU Passenger Liability Regulation 2009
Our friends at PL Ferrari have written in with this timely reminder:-
We have already reported ) the terms of EU Passenger Liability Regulation
392/2009(PLR) which entered into force on 31.12.2012 in all States of
the European Union. We said:-
“The PLR will apply in all European Union (EU) and European Economic
Area (EEA) Member States from 31 December 2012. The Regulation gives
effect to the key provisions of the Athens Convention Relating to the
Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea, 1974 as amended by
the 2002 Protocol (the “Convention”), together with the 2006
IMO Reservation and Guidelines for Implementation of the Convention
covering war and terrorism risks (the “Guidelines”).
A significant feature of the PLR is that it extends the provisions
of the Convention to certain categories of passenger ships engaged in
domestic sea going voyages, unless the Member State or EEA State takes
steps to defer application of the Regulation to such voyages, as allowed
under the provision of the Regulation.”
To the best of our knowledge and as at the time of writing , we understand
that the following European countries have taken the decision that the
PLR would not be applied to domestic carriage until 31.12.2016 for Class
A vessels and 31.12.2018 for Class B vessels;
Croatia
Cyprus
Estonia
Germany
Greece
Ireland (although no Class A vessels on their registry at present therefore
Class B 2018)
Italy
Latvia
Portugal
UK
Source: Based on information provided to the Commission by Member States
, updated on 16 September 2013.
Read the circular in full here:-
http://www.plferrari.com/public/file/circulars/2016/4_PLF_circulars_28-9.pdf
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Henry.Hill@worldwidecurrencies.com…………………….+44 (0)20
3326 4514
4. Webinar: Iran – Focusing on the Uncertainties
Jasamin Fichte has written from Dubai with details of a forthcoming
event hosted by her firm:-
Fichte Legal Consultants are hosting Ms Atousa Mahmoudpour for a webinar
presentation on "Iran – Focusing on the Uncertainties" on
Monday, October 17th at 17:00 (GST).
Ms Mahmoudpour is the Head of Iran Desk at Fichte & Co. and she
advises regional and multinational companies on viable investment vehicles
and structures in relation to Iran’s emerging market. Her practice is
commercially focused on all aspects of cross border trade and transactional
laws, drawing extensively from her private sector and government-related
networks in Iran and across region.
The interest to conduct business in Iran has had an immense international
interest, with confusions and unanswered questions. The purpose of this
free interactive webinar is to take steps towards clarifying the gray
areas.
The presentation will cover:
Challenges in Practice;
International Industries active in Iran – Current update;
Banking Transactions, restrictions, improvements, updates;
Due Diligence and Legal Assistance; and
Q&A
Readers can find out further details below keeping in mind that spaces
are limited:-
http://tinyurl.com/IranWebinar
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5. The OED
We regularly receive a zine called Five Books which is often a very
good read. A recent edition contains a review by lexicographer Peter
Gillive of five booksr which shed light on the great dictionary of English.
He writes:-
In the 1850s, the idea of doing the Oxford English Dictionary English
began with the Philological Society of London. The problem is, this
is the pre-computer age; you can’t just look through databases
to find the earliest example of the word ‘peanut.’ You have
to have lots and lots of people reading lots and lots of books from
the whole history of English, and not just books, but newspapers, manuscripts,
anything that is a dateable piece of evidence.
The appeal went out: ‘Who wants to read for the dictionary?’
So the quotations on which the Oxford English Dictionary is based began
to come in, and continued to come in for about 20 years. The first editor
of the dictionary died very soon after taking up the task. Somebody
else took over, who was very energetic, but very unfocused. His name
was Frederick Furnivall, and then eventually James Murray, the well-known
first editor of the dictionary, took over in the 1870s. The first edition
of the dictionary was completed in 1933 in 13 volumes. We’ve been
– I say ‘we’ because I’ve been working on the dictionary
since the 1980s…
What scale is it on now?
Well, the second edition, which came out in 1989, was not a revised
edition, it was the text to the first edition plus a whole lot of supplementary
material for new words and new meanings that had been researched in
just the same way over the mid-20th century. That became 20 volumes.
Now we are preparing the third edition. To ask the question, ‘How
many volumes is it?’ is immaterial because at the moment, the interim
text of the dictionary, the text we’ve revised so far, is only
available online. When we eventually finish the whole process, revising
everything from A to Z, if there was a market for the printed version
of the dictionary, then I’m sure OUP would print it. But, realistically,
I think people now find works of reference of that size far more useful
in electronic form. So, at the moment, OED3 is electronic.
Read the essay in full here:-
http://fivebooks.com/interview/peter-gilliver-oxford-english-dictionary/
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6. People and Places
Randy Lim in the Calgary office of Braemar Adjusting has been promoted
from Senior Adjuster to Director.
———-
Captain Sanjay Mittal in Singapore has launched a marine consultancy
that aims to provide best-in-class service on a variety of technical
and commercial matters in commercial shipping. He offers expertise in
various maritime claims, particularly in oil and gas shipping and is
also an experienced maritime casualty investigator.
The company’s profile is available at:-
https://www.linkedin.com/company/racon-marine-consultants-pte.-ltd.?trk=biz-companies-cym
———-
Ascot Underwriting has appointed John Lloyd, a founding director of
Lloyd Thompson (now JLT), to its board as an independent non-executive
director.
———-
The new World Ocean Council website has been launched:-
———
The Baltic Exchange Limited (“Baltic Exchange”) has announced
that Mark Jackson, currently Chief Commercial Officer of AM Nomikos
Group and a former Chairman and Director of The Baltic Exchange, will
become its next Chief Executive Officer. He is expected to take up his
appointment early in 2017 and replaces the current CEO Jeremy Penn,
who last year announced his intention to stand down this summer.
Baltic Exchange shareholders haveapproved by an overwhelming majority
the implementation of a Scheme of Arrangement, whereby a wholly owned
subsidiary of Singapore Exchange Limited (“SGX”) will acquire
The Baltic Exchange, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions.
Mr Jackson is expected to play a key part in the development of the
Baltic Exchange under its new owners.
Mr Jackson brings to his new role more than 35 years in shipping. He
has worked as a competitive broker, including a period with EA Gibson
in London, and for the last 16 years has represented AM Nomikos Group.
He was appointed a Director of The Baltic Exchange in 2004 and in 2005
became Chairman of the Freight Indices and Futures Committee. He was
elected Vice Chairman of the Baltic Exchange in 2007 and served as Chairman
from 2009 until 2012.
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From the Avo Archive
The website of this newsletter contains all the editorial material
since the inception of the Maritime Advocate as a print based quarterly
in 1997 under the founding aegis of John Guy, Chris Hewer and Manfred
Arnold. Readers can go to the site and search the database on the home
page in its entirety. If you are looking for an old case, an old controversy
or you would just like to see how many times you and your firm have
featured in our annals feel free to access the archive. It is like this
e-zine, free to Readers and we always appreciate the support of advertisers
and sponsors.
Inspired by item 5 above we were not astounded to find a reference
to the OED which appeared in Back Issue – 17 – in January 02
Defying convention
STRANGE, is it not, that the Oxford English Dictionary defines "convention"
as "a custom or customary practice", and yet what is arguably
the most important shipping liability convention of all is anything
but customary throughout the many nations involved in the international
carriage of goods by sea. It is a little spooky, too, to find that the
OED carries a special definition of "convention" as used in
the United States, because getting the US on side with the serious world
majority in its shipping liability legislation is a task which has thus
far proved to be beyond the wit and will of mere mortals.
So it is good to hear that the US State Department has been holding
a series of meetings aimed chiefly at establishing a US negotiating
position for the forthcoming UNCITRAL talks, scheduled for April in
New York, on the draft international carriage of goods by sea convention
put together by the Comite Maritime Internationale. What’s more, it
is reported that US maritime interests are largely in favour of the
document. There is a long way yet to go, but the long-term ardent cogsascente
among our readers might be excused for embarking on the early stages
of a modest dance of unbridled joy.
Consider the facts. The US was comparatively close to uniformity with
the rest of the world when it first enacted COGSA. But, over the years,
decisions handed down by the US courts have resulted in the US drifting
further and further away from too many of the Hague Rules signatories.
And things have just gone from bad to worse.
The US did not ratify the Visby amendments, although it did appear
at least to be at one with the rest of the sensible maritime world in
studiously ignoring the wretched Hamburg Rules. Unable to bring itself
to adopt Hague/Visby, the US soldiered on with its own COGSA – basically
the Hague Rules. For a number of years now, the US Maritime Law Association
has been working manfully to cobble together a consensus on an amended
COGA that would not further isolate the US from the rest of the maritime
world. Now, the CMI/UNCITRAL draft incorporates some of the US COGSA
provisions, includes others in an amended form, and excludes some others
altogether. Importantly, though, it seems that the draft convention
may eventually end up as something the US can live with.
It is little short of scandalous that, in over forty years, the maritime
world has not been able to agree whether limits of liability should
apply to a package or a package within a container, for example, or
to satisfactorily define – or, better still, delete – the word "about"
as used in charter parties and other shipping documents.
Enough. There are still some prickly liability issues to be ironed
out with the CMI draft, but US ratification is no pipedream. Porcine
aviation doesn’t even come close.
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Future Novelists
Courtesy of Paul Dixon come these metaphors and analogies from budding
high school authors:-
Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides
gently compressed by a thigh master.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like
underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
He spoke with wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy
who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those
boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking
about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those
boxes with a pinhole in it.
She grew on him like E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
She had a deep throaty genuine laugh like that sound a dog makes just
before he throws up.
Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.
He was a tall as a six foot three inch tree.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because
of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a
formerly surcharge free ATM.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling
ball wouldn’t.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled
with vegetable soup.
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie
surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy
comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
The hailstones leaped up off the pavement, just like maggots when you
fry them in hot grease.
Long separated by cruel fate, the star crossed lovers raced across
a grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, on having
left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka
at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that
resemble Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had
also never met.
He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the
east river.
Even in his last years, grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only
one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil,
this plan just might work.
Young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for
a while.
"Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like
a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but
a really duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a landmine
or something.
The Ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg
behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids with power
tools.
He was deeply in love when she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as
if she were a garbage truck backing up.
She was as easy as the TV guide crossword.
Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in
any pH cleanser.
She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
Her voice had that tense grating quality, like a generation thermal
paper fax machine that needed a band tightening.
It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it
to the wall.
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Future Quotes from Grandparents
"Hell, I remember when we only had 500 channels of mind-numbing
crap to watch!"
"You call that *dancing*? Shoot! Tell your grandma to bring that
‘Macarena’ CD over here and I’ll show you some REAL dancing."
"When I was your age, we didn’t have surgically implanted telepathy
microchips! When we wanted to talk to our friends, we had to use a CELL
PHONE!"
"Senility, my ass! I’m telling you President Hasselhoff used to
have a talking car!"
"When I was your age, we didn’t admire the grace and beauty of
a tuna swimming in some aquarium tank! No, sirree. We *ate* them right
out of the can!"
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Maritime Advocate Online is a weekly digest of news and views on the
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