Events

18.07.2018

ECSA welcomes the signature of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

The EU and Japan yesterday signed the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement during the 25th EU-Japan summit in Tokyo. The European Shipowners welcome the signing of a highly ambitious trade agreement between two of the world's largest economies. “At a time that unilateralism and protectionism are rising, the EU and Japan are sending a strong message in support of free, fair and rules-based trade”, said ECSA’s Secretary General Martin Dorsman.

The agreement with Japan will remove the vast majority of customs duties that cost EU companies exporting to Japan €1 billion a year and will lead to a substantial increase of the EU exports to Japan. “It also contains obligations to maintain open and non-discriminatory access to international maritime services such as transport and auxiliary services, as well as access to ports and port services,” Dorsman reiterated.

“Shipping needs global trade to exist and global trade cannot exist without an efficient shipping industry. Around 90% of world trade in goods is carried by the international shipping industry and European shipowners control 40% of the world’s merchant fleet and operate shipping services all over the world,” he concluded.

European Shipowners look forward to the quick ratification by the European Parliament and the Japanese Diet and the efficient implementation of this agreement.

Martin Dorsman
Secretary General

16.07.2018

ECSA - THE LATEST FROM BRUSSELS

ECSA met DG ENVI to discuss ship recycling

The ECSA secretariat met with ENVI Director Mr. Sadauskas and two of his staff members to discuss the latest state of play of the ship recycling dossier. ECSA presented its paper of estimates on the recycling capacity needed for EU shipowners. Quite an extensive discussion followed whether EU shipowners could and should make use of existing EU yards. Mr. Sadauskas informed the secretariat that they were making calculations together with EMSA based on actual ship recycling figures. We agreed to be in contact on this. ECSA informed the Commission about the different initiatives the industry is taking – drafting a position paper, the drafting of a joint industry letter to Commissioner Vella and the up-coming visit to Alang. The new visit to Alang was warmly welcomed by the Director. He made reference to very critical reports about the real situation in India by the former case handler and was really interested to see what kind of progress has been made. ECSA also brought forward the question of having Turkish yards on the list. The Commission acknowledged the sensitive question but referred to higher levels within the Commission that are dealing with the EU – Turkey relations. They informed the secretariat that the Cyprus delegation, when relevant to the discussion, has brought forward their concerns and firm position about Turkey in all meetings.  

European Parliament’s Transport (TRAN) Committee discusses the Port Reception Facilities Directive

On the 10^th of July the TRAN Committee discussed the draft report of MEP Gesine Meissner (ALDE, DE) concerning the Port Reception Facilities for the Delivery of Waste from Ships. MEP Meissner provided an overview of the main points included in the draft report. She stressed the need to investigate to what extent Sulphur, extracted from air emissions by open loop scrubber systems, would have a negative impact on the receiving surface water. Whilst many MEPs welcomed the draft, they did raise some issues that required further clarification, such as: the 100 % indirect fee system, the exclusion of small ports, the inclusion of more types of waste, the green ships concept, incentives for fishermen to fish for litter and short sea shipping provisions. MEP Deirdre Clune (EPP, IRL) mentioned the proposal from the Commission (COM) to MEPC 73 on the action plan on marine litter, and the fact that in the proposal the COM proposes the 100% indirect system to the international level, while it has not even been agreed yet at the EU level. The COM thanked the rapporteur and stressed that the proposal only looks at ship-generated waste, reflecting MARPOL provisions. In response to the request by some to add more waste streams to the proposal, the COM recalled that this would go beyond MARPOL and that it would be difficult to enforce too. On short-sea shipping, the Commission supported the objective, but the definition refers to all intra-EU traffic, therefore it would exclude too many ships from the scope of this directive. On the points raised regarding not to oblige vessels leaving EU ports to deliver all waste, the COM said that this could be accepted but that there should be strong guarantees that ports outside the EU can handle this waste. MEP Meissner concluded by saying that she was aware that the Greens wanted to include offshore platforms to the scope of the directive, but that it should be analysed further. ECSA had been in touch with a few MEPs before the discussion and was pleased to see its concerns reflected upon in the meeting.

ECSA speaks at a Visa code and Humanitarian Visas hearing in the European Parliament

The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) last week organised a hearing on Community Code on Visas (Visa Code). The hearing was chaired by MEP Juan López Aguilar (S&D, Spain) who is also the rapporteur of the file. He expressed his frustration that this file is taking so long time to get anywhere. The process in the Council has been blocked by discussion on security rather than focusing on people who want visas for legitimate purposes. Tim Springett, the chair of ECSA Social Affairs Committee was invited to comment on behalf of ECSA and European Transport Workers Federation (ETF). He made detailed comments on a number of articles and specifically underlined the necessity to ensure multiple-entry visas for seafarers for joining, leaving and taking shore leaver from ships. He reminded that the single-entry visas make it challenging for seafarers to join and disembark from ships when they are in the Schengen area. He welcomed the fact that the application processing time in the new proposal has been suggested to be reduced, and the validity of such visa proposed to be made longer than is currently the case. Both the Austrian Presidency’s representative and the Commission’s representative mentioned the seafarers’ special situation in their interventions, and a few MEPs also acknowledged the challenges. The Austrian Presidency said they are keen to make sufficient progress with the file so that it can be concluded before the EP elections next year. MEP López Aguilar was obviously pleased with this promise. Please find ECSA, ETF and ITF position paper on the matter here.

THE WEEK AHEAD

17.7  - 2^nd Technical workshop on CE Delft study short term measures CO2 emissions reduction - Brussels

ECSA

18.06.2018

IBIA Pointers for Problem Fuels: What Should Ship Owners Do?

A significant number of ships have experienced serious operational problems – chiefly sticking/seizing fuel pumps and in some cases filter blockages – after lifting bunker fuels from the US Gulf region since late March and during April/May. Most cases have reportedly been caused by intermediate fuel oils (IFOs) bunkered in the Houston area, though there are indications that similar problems have been caused by fuels bunkered in Panama.

At this stage there are differing views as to the root cause of this problem and how to mitigate the various risks. Several fuel testing agencies have reported that the fuels met ISO 8217 specifications during routine testing against the standard. It was only when vessels began encountering problems they began forensic-level investigative fuel analysis. Reports from testing agencies have identified certain commonalities between these fuels indicating they contain chemical contaminants from non-petroleum sources. The most commonly reported findings include phenols and Tall Oil but the reports from testing agencies are not conclusive and their investigations are continuing. 

It seems almost certain, however, that the fuels contravene Clause 5 in ISO 8217 and Regulation 18.3 of MARPOL Annex VI which broadly state that fuels shall not contain any material in a concentration that adversely affects the performance of machinery.

Is This New?

Over the past 30 years there have been episodes around the world where ship owners faced a surge in quality issues. Usually, the origin of problem fuels has been limited to a specific geographic area. Unfortunately, the nature of the contamination can often be so obscure that no amount of routine analysis will make the defect apparent until the fuel proves defective in use and the subsequent detailed forensic examination identifies the cause.

In many of these episodes, the source of the contaminant is never adequately identified, but in summary, the root cause was a lack of control of the quality of cutter stock used in the marine pool.

IBIA has published a “Best practice guidance for suppliers for assuring the quality of bunkers delivered to ships” a nd we believe that by following the recommendation in in Chapter 4, in particular 4.2 – Quality control during production of bunkers and 4.3 – Quality control in the supply chain, would improve control of the blend components used and help to prevent such cases.

What Should We Do?

As an industry association we are obliged to address the concerns of our ship owner members. In this instance, a useful question to address for ship owners would be “What should I do to ensure that this doesn’t happen to me?”

It is difficult to answer this precisely when it hasn’t yet been universally agreed what “this”is; however, here are some pointers:

• If you have recently bunkered in the Houston area or Panama, it is strongly recommended to get a solid overview of the quality of the fuel prior to using it.
• If you do use it without going beyond routine ISO 8217 quality tests, pay close attention to fuel oil system components, in particular fuel pumps and filters.
• Consult technical managers/chief engineers within your own company and/or from other technical service providers, including your bunker supplier(s).

Source: International Bunker Industry Association

16.05.2018

III ADRIATIC MARITIME LAW CONFERENCE GRADO, 24-26 May 2018

Preventing pollution from liners and ferries has become a priority for Croatian government and shipping companies involved in the passengers’ transport in the Adriatic.  Paper covers implementation of international legal instruments (like revised Annex VI of MARPOL with reduction of global sulphur limits in fuel oil on board ships by January 2020) and EU law (Regulation 2015/757 on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport). Their application to Croatian passenger fleet, analysis of various aspects of marine and air pollution prevention measures: control of air emissions by types of diesel fuel and possible implementation of scrubber equipment, potential introduction of LNG as fuel in passenger traffic, measures related to ships’ recycling and IHM certification, acceptable use of antifouling coating on passenger ships, cavitation sludge treatment and reception facilities in Croatian ports.

Programe and Registration Form can be obtained here:

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

REGISTRATION FORM

30.03.2018

Happy Easter