Download - TANKER OPERATOR MAGAZINE Aug/Sept 2008

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Features:KGs attract overseas investorsShipmanagement consolidationHybrid gas carrierScience of tank cleaningEquipment – fit for purpose?Discharge requirements examined

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ShipmanagementNew BSM set up explainedInterManager wants pay riseKristen and the environmentGL and Ulysses offer software

CharteringCargo contamination in spot light

Technology43 Ship description

New gas hybrid47 Gas detection

Ensuring it’s fit for purpose52 Chemical tanker discharge

- should be made easier55 Tank gauging

- a new name emerges57 Tank cleaning

- the Achilles Heal?

SMM Preview This year’s exhibition is set tobreak records

August/September 2008 TANKEROperator 01

Vol 7 No 8Tanker Operator

Magazine Ltd213 Marsh Wall

London E14 9FJ, UKwww.tankeroperator.com

PUBLISHER/EVENTS/SUBSCRIPTIONS

Karl JefferyTel: +44 (0)20 7510 4935

[email protected]

EDITORIan Cochran

Tel: +44 (0)20 7510 [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALESDavid Jeffries

Only Media LtdTel: +44 (0)20 8674 9444

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PRODUCTIONVivian Chee

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TANKEROperator ContentsMarketsSale and leasebackopportunitiesSpot or timecharter?

UKHO profile ENCs will be in place on time

German ShippingReview

KG schemes face lack of bank fundingTanker owners still expandingGermany attracts overseas playersGL and DNV expand academies in HamburgTraining centres re-emergeGL and Lindenau research the breaking point

04

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11

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Front cover photo Blenheim Shipping's Aframax StarLady seen recently at Fos. She isone of four sisters, which theLondon-based company outsourcesthe technical management to

Scinicariello. Another Aframax and twoSuezmaxes are currently under construction.The company also owns drybulk carriers.

Printed by FISCHER Poligrafiaul. Dabrówki 1040-081 Katowice

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60

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1028

The bi-ennual fun of rushing headlong throughexhibition halls knocking countless people out ofthe way to make an appointment is nearly upon us.This, as if it would need any introduction, willshortly be SMM week."Bigger, better, more visitors, more stands, more halls" - appear onevery press release. And indeed, ever since your Editor first attendedthe show, which was longer then he cares to remember, it has indeedbecome bigger and better.

Fed by the gigantic world orderbook, the equipment suppliers havenever had it so good. In fact, the only worry seems to be how tomanufacture and deliver that piece of equipment on time and within budget.

'Where will it all end?' the cynics ask. Will the economic situationcause a slowdown in vessel ordering? But, with most yards hanging the'full up' sign outside until 2011-2012, the suppliers are still sitting pretty.

Many have also signed lucrative after sales deals. One manufacturertold TANKEROperator a couple of years ago, that after sales andservice etc accounted for more than 50% of the company's turnover.

With all the various rules and recommendations from the manyregulators on the horizon, the equipment industry will doubtlesscontinue to reap the rewards of retrofitting and installing newequipment on newbuildings - ballast water treatment plants being theprime example just now.

Like the Greeks highlighted in our June issue, the Germans havebeen major investors in new tonnage, but mainly in box ships.However, the various KG funds have now opened up to other types ofvessels, including tankers.

All is not rosy, however, as in what could turn out to be the shape ofthings to come, the German banks have almost ceased lending to KGfund investors, leaving the shipping companies who rely on KG type

funding bereft of investment for their projects. Without the proper finance for these projects, the shipyards will

slowly run out of orders, which in turn will have a knock-on effect onthe equipment suppliers. However, this is the 'worst case' scenario. Wedo not appear to have reached such a low point thus far, although themoney men (and women) are warning of 'doom and gloom' next year.

There are many problems facing the shipping industry, most notablyoperating costs. Most of them if not all will be discussed at SMM andsolutions found, but havn't we been talking about similar problems formany years to varying degrees?

I admit to being old enough to remember slow steaming in the 1970sand 1980s when the price of fuel rocketed, resulting in the NorwegianFjords being awash with VLCCs and ULCCs. It was difficult to getfinance in those days, due to low earnings, leading to negative equity.

At the time, some even blamed to banks for the shipping crisis forbeing too free with their money and not undertaking proper creditchecks. We can't accuse them of that in today's credit crunch aftermath.

Two problems stand out above all- the perceived lack of experiencedseafarers and the environment. In Germany, positive steps are beingtaken to recruit and train not only seafarers, but also office staff in themaritime field.

Environmental issues are also being addressed, mainly by thoseseeking to reduce emissions and the polluting of the oceans, althoughlike many things, opinions vary not necessarily for the right reasons.

Will we be in time to address these issues for the better of theshipping industry and even more important- for mankind? Time alonewill tell.

The atmosphere at this year's SMM could be rather strange as on theone hand there is still a state of euphoria over the shipping industry'srecent strength and on the other apprehension over what the next year or so will bring.

COMMENT

Will SMM be the turning point, or will it be business as usual?

TO

TANKEROperator August/September 200802

Product tankers in demandIt would seem the consolidation bug has struckthe product tanker industry yet again.Following relatively closely on TORM/OSG's buyout of OMI,Moller-Maersk has shaken the industry with an agreed bid forBroström.

Interestingly, the offer was formally made through a companycalled Maersk Product Tankers AB, a wholly owned subsidiary ofAP Møller - Mærsk.

"The scale of the combined operation will enable us to offer asuperior worldwide service through a large, modern andhomogeneous fleet. We need scale to ensure our organisation is costeffective and for customers to have easy access to chartering officesglobally.

"Combining Maersk Tankers and Broström's scale with skilled anddedicated employees will further enhance our competitive positionand create the world's leading product tanker company", Søren Skou,Maersk Tankers' ceo said when announcing the deal.

Until this announcement, the No 1 position in product tankers washeld by TORM, following the OMI buyout, but with more than 130vessels both owned and long term chartered, the new combinedoperation will claim that title.

Maersk also said that the demand for energy transportation was

expected to continue to grow, which together with the IMO's phaseout of single hull tankers by 2010, underlined the positive businessenvironment for the tanker market. It was in this light that AP Møller- Maersk had previously stated its intention to invest in MaerskTankers as one of the growth areas within the group.

Of course, the regulation authorities will have a look at the dealbefore it is allowed to go through, but this will probably be aformality.

Once it is rubber stamped, Maersk said it would evaluate how thevarious partnerships and agreements could be integrated into thebusiness structure.

One partnership was with Hamburg-based Offen Tankschiffreederei,which was to put eight Hyundai Mipo type 37,000 dwt producttankers into Broström's fleet, adding to the eight already operated bythe Gothenburg-based concern.

Both companies are in favour of operating in poolingarrangements and this move will no doubt considerably strengthenMaersk Tankers' Handytankers pool.

Other pool partners also operate the now standard Hyundai Mipo37,000 dwt type tankers, most notably another Copenhagen-basedoperation, Norient Product Pool, managed jointly by Interorient and Norden.

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Stand No. 150, Hall B4

INDUSTRY - MARKETS


As anybody in the shipping industry can attest, prices for shipping assets have been experiencing their highest levels in recent memory.

Sale & leaseback as afinancial tool in freight &

credit markets - part 1By Basil M Karatzas*

Asset appreciation has been moreaccentuated in the last four years,as Graph 1 depicts for five-year-old tankers - VLCCs, Aframaxes

and MRs. The data is provided by the BalticExchange Sale & Purchase Assessment Index(BSPA) for which Compass Maritime Servicesis a panel member.

Although the asset appreciation is welcomeby shipowners who have had the good fortuneand perspicacity to acquire assets in time, thereis always the strategic consideration of how theshipowner should be utilising the current stateof the markets by unlocking and deploying thecapital appreciation and optimally positioningthe company for the future.

The selective sale of assets (older vintage,lower quality vessels, etc) is one obviousanswer. However, for tonnage built in theearly 1990's, the consideration is ofmaintaining control of the (still modern) assetsin a strong freight market, and keeping accessto tonnage in order to serve strategic accounts(charterers with their own cargoes) andgenerate operating profits.

One such approach of unlocking capitalgains that has been successfully employed byseveral shipowners is the sale & leasebacktransaction (SLB), whereas the shipownersells a vessel (a tanker for the purposes of thisarticle) at today's prevailing market rates andsimultaneously taking back the vessel onemployment for a certain period of the time.In such transactions, the shipowner frees up

capital which can deployed in any way theowner sees suitable, optimally by placingorders to renew and replace the fleet, while atthe same time retaining commercial andoperational control of the tanker for a periodof time in a robust freight market.

In order for such a transaction to becomefeasible, several parameters are important andnegotiable between the shipowner and thelessee, terms such as the period (short termversus long term) and type of employment(bareboat versus timecharter employment),purchase options, if any, and of course thedaily rate that the shipowner will be paying tothe new owner and lessor. Several otherparameters indirectly affect the transactionsuch as the credit markets and cost of finance(for leveraged leases), type of asset class andassessment of residual risk of the vessel at endof lease, and finally the credit rating of theshipowner (an ex-owner and charterer of thevessel once the transaction has beenconsummated).

What type of financial concerns would beinterested in acquiring vessels on such terms?Leasing companies and investment funds thatspecialise in leases due to tax reasons (theycan use depreciation for accounting purposesversus a tax-free shipowner in most cases), forresidual value reasons (in a market movinghigher vessels can have a market value abovebook value and thus offer to the financialowner an attractive return on investment),fixed income reasons (low risk, low reward

return) above cost of finance for a creditworthy lessor.

From a financial and tax point of view inthe US, leases are categorised as either -a) Capital or finance leases - long-term

leases covering more that 75% of the vessel's economic life, with the present value of the lease rental payments constituting 90% of the vessel's fair market value, and whereas the lessee automatically acquires the asset or has the option to acquire the asset at a bargain price.

b) Operating leases - which are all non-capital leases (usually short-term leases where the lessee does not have an interest in the vessel after the termination of the lease).

There is also the distinction of 'wet lease'versus 'dry lease' [in the former, the lessorprovides crewing (timecharter in shippingterms), in the latter the lessor provides thevessel alone (bareboat charter)]. A couplemore leasing terms to keep in mind are the'net lease' where all costs associated withinsurance, taxes, maintenance are paid by thelessee/charterer, and the 'leveraged lease'where the lessor arranges financing through along-term creditor.

Commercial applicationsHaving covered the basic terminology, it'stime to turn to the commercial applications ofleasing in shipping.

When negotiating the terms of a sale &

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leaseback transaction, the purchase price and the daily rate are usuallythe most contested points. The higher the purchase price the happierthe owner/seller, and the higher the daily rate the happier the lessee.While most asset prices in shipping are quoted basis 'prompt, charter-free delivery', in a sale & leaseback transaction the purchase price issome sort of a function of the daily rate.

Usually, the higher the purchase price, the higher the required dailyrate, all else being equal. In other words, the transaction can take place'at market levels', 'below market' or 'above market.'

An 'at market levels' transaction is when the purchase price of theasset reflects the sale & purchase market on a 'prompt, charter-freedelivery' basis, and the daily rate is based on the purchase price. A'below market' transaction is when the shipowner sells the vessel atbelow market levels in exchange of a below market daily rate that willallow generation of higher operating profit during the period of thecharter. An 'above market' transaction is when the shipowner sells thevessel at above market levels while the daily rate will be higher thanotherwise (think of this type of transaction as the owner using thevessel as an ATM machine, whereas the sale allows a few milliondollars above market, which of course have to replenished during theperiod of the charter in the form of higher daily rate).

An early generation double-hull Aframax built in 1993-1994 ofabout 95,000 dwt was contracted back then for about $40 mill. Intoday's market, 14 years later, such a vessel has a fair market value ona prompt, charter-free basis of about $43 mill. In a sale & leasebacktransaction for such vintage vessel based on such purchase price,originated in 2007, the daily rental rate (bareboat charter to thefinancial owner) was around $15,000 - $16,000 for a decent credit(lowest investment credit) for a five-year term. Assuming the technicalmanagement cost of $8,000 per day, the daily vessel operating expensewas around $23,000 - $24,000. In today's market, while the purchaseprice of such vessel is still within the same range, the required dailyrate is in the region of $18,000 per day to reflect the tighter creditcriteria and higher lending costs in the current financial markets. Thedaily vessel operating expense based on such a sale & leaseback netquote adds up to about $26,000 - $27,000.

In Graph 2, we show the charter rates in the last eight years, onbareboat basis, for an Aframax of such vintage. The data was obtainedfrom Clarkson Research Services on a timecharter basis, and adjustedfor the daily operating expense and the utilisation rate to 100%. Wehave shown the one-year and the three-year firm contract daily rate andthe spot rate against the pre- and post-credit crunch average daily ratethat would have been secured for a typical transaction.

It is no surprise that in the strong freight markets of this period, withthe exception of an overall anemic 2002 and a couple more short-lived

INDUSTRY - MARKETS


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Tanker Asset Prices (5yr-old Vessels)

$0.00

$20.00$40.00

$60.00

$80.00$100.00

$120.00

$140.00$160.00

$180.00

16-S

ep-03

16-A

pr-04

16-N

ov-04

16-Ju

n-05

16-Ja

n-06

16-A

ug-06

16-M

ar-07

16-O

ct-07

16-M

ay-08

Ass

et P

rice

(USD

mil)

VLCC - 5yr oldAFRAMAX - 5yr oldMR PRODUCTS TANKER - 5yr old

Graph 1

INDUSTRY - MARKETS


soft freight market windows, theshipowner/lessee would had the opportunity totrade the vessel profitably on the spot marketand on one and three year firm contracts andwould had made an operating profit. Ofcourse, the shipowner/lessee would have beenexposed to the market risk of either renewingthe short-term firm employment contract untilfully covering the leaseback term, or risk thespot market. However, in such strong markets

conducive to leasing transactions, there wasthe case in early 2007 when an Aframaxtanker of such vintage could be sold to aleasing company, bareboated back for fiveyears and immediately 'flipped' to a third partyalso for five years (no market exposure) at asmall profit ($1,000 - $2,000 per day).

For this article, we have primarily focusedon early vintage double hull Aframaxes, sincethey have been offering the best perspectives

for such transactions. A post-2000 builtAframax with a purchase price materially inexcess of $60 mill would require a daily rentalrate of around $30,000 for five years, whichwould have made the project unfeasible froman economic/commercial point of view. Ofcourse, the period of the lease can be extendedto more than eight years, among other factors,in order to become workable.

The term of the lease and the rest of theparameters will be covered in future articles inthis series, examining the variables and termsaffecting a sale & leaseback transaction.

*Basil M Karatzas is managing directorfor projects & finance with CompassMaritime Services, based in New Jersey,US. He has executed projects in the sale& purchase (S&P) sector of the shippingbusiness and has acted extensively onbehalf of operating and financial ownersin originating shipping transactions(sale & leaseback transactions, raisingequity and debt, advisory services onshipping transactions and vesselarrests). He can be contacted [email protected], +201-585-9999, or www.CompassMar.com.

Historical Aframax Rates (on bareboat basis)

$0

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

$40,000

$50,000

$60,000

$70,000

$80,000

2000

-01

2001

-01

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-01

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-01

2004

-01

2005

-01

2006

-01

2007

-01

2008

-01

Dai

ly R

ate

(Bar

eboa

t Bas

is, U

SD /

d)

Post-Credit Crunch

1YR BBC Equivalent DailyRate

3YR BBC Equivalent DailyRate

BBC Equivalent DailyAverage Spot Rate

Pre-Credit Crunch TO

Graph 2


INDUSTRY - MARKETS

The old argument as to whether to opt for long term charters or play the spot markethas concentrated some of the finest minds in the shipping industry, usually to no avail.

Spot or timecharteryour asset?

Upon analysing many fleets'charter exposure it soonbecomes clear that differentmixes of spot and period charters

are used. The ideal fleet mix will gain the bestresults if the peaks of both spot and period aretaken advantage of.

However, traditional market spikes arebecoming more uncertain and short termmarket hikes more common, making the jobof shipping planners more complicated andmaking it more difficult to predict marketbehaviour at any given time.

US consultancy McQuilling Services has

tried to analyse the period charter market. Byplacing a vessel on period charter an ownerwill be protected from the current high bunkercosts, while at the same time provide a steadyincome.

On the other hand, period charters preventan owner from maximising potential earningsby taking advantage of a strong spot marketand triangulating opportunities.

McQuilling said that its analysis showedthat the timecharter market is at timesdriven by the spot market, but is also has its own driving factors. For example,when the spot market is on the rise, the

period market tends to follow and the spotmarket earnings stimulate an increase inperiod rates.

When the spot market is falling, theperiod market will only fall to a certainbenchmark and it will not sink any further,regardless of what the spot market does.During this phenomenon, the period market rates will remain higher than theweak spot market earning for over a year at a time.

McQuilling found that a VLCC fixed for 12months in December 2006 would havegenerated higher earnings than if left on the

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INDUSTRY - MARKETS


spot market for the same period. Owners are attracted to the spotmarket by VLCC rates that could result in over $250,000 per day in TCE earnings.

The consultant said that it had noticed spikes in a non-traditional time

of the year, which is making the spot market an even more attractiveoption. If owners are able to take advantage of these spikes, then thespot market would be a much more lucrative proposition than theperiod market. However, not all owners will have vessels in place atthe right time.

The decision on whether to opt for the period or spot market isalso dependent on financing structure, company policy, marketlevels, among many other factors. In a simple observation ofhistorical market earnings, some conclusions may be drawn.McQuilling said.

For example, in the Suezmax market, earnings have been clearlyhigher in the spot market compared with the one year timechartermarket since January 2005. Furthermore, if triangulated, thesevessels earned even more.

In the smaller tanker sector, the immediate picture lookedsomewhat different. In the MR sector, the market had favoured 12months timecharters for the last two years. However, twoobservations should be noted - the Singapore/Japan 30,000 tonnelifting drags down the average spot earnings and triangulation wasnot taken into account, despite being an essential part of MRoperation. Notwithstanding this, the 12 months charter rate has beenabove $20,000 per day for the last two years and thereby providedhealthy earnings for most of that period.

Turning to longer period, McQuilling said that placing a vessel ina three year or longer charter is becoming even more complex. Therewere simply too many future unknowns that are almost impossible topredict.

For example, the operating costs were expected to increase withinthe general line of inflation including commodities, labour andadministrative costs. However, the cost of the shrinking number ofseafarers was forecast to increase at a much higher rate, thus drivingthe operating costs upward.

Even if owners are increasingly trying to regulate escalation costsinto their calculations for period charter earnings, future operatingcosts remain an enigma and therefore diminish the attraction of longterm charters, McQuilling warned.

The 12 month MRcharter rate has beenabove $20,000 per dayfor the past two yearsaccording toMcQuilling Services.

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INDUSTRY - UKHO PROFILE


HOs confident of having official ENCs in placeFollowing the official launch of theAdmiralty Vector Chart Service(AVCS) earlier this year, the UKHO'schief executive Mike Robinson saidthat the organisation was “verycomfortable” with its progress.

"The sales have exceeded our expectations"Robinson said. The UKHO is continuing withits policy of offering three-month triallicensing periods and thus far about 30 vesselshad taken advantage of the offer. Feedbackhas been positive but like any new initiative,there have been some teething troublesrequiring some fine tuning of the service.

Negotiations are still underway with Chinaand other countries with a view to having asmany electronic navigational charts (ENCs)available as possible by the end of this year ina bid to cover most of the world's largest ports(see TANKEROperator, May, page 36).

While inconsistencies in chart informationare the same whether an ENC or a paper chartis being used, in the case of ENCs it becomesmuch more apparent to the mariner because onECDIS adjacent ENCs are displayed togetheron screen, whereas paper charts are normallyused one at a time. The problem is highlightedwhere ENCs overlap due to sensitive politicalboundary type issues, this affects ENCs in anumber of areas around the world, although itsimpact on the mariner depends to some extenton which ECDIS is fitted.

Another difficulty in producing a trulyharmonised ENC dataset is that underlyinghydrographic data could have come fromsurveys of different eras resulting indiscontinuities at survey boundaries -especially where there is a mobile seabed.

The UKHO said that it is determined toreduce the problems that inconsistency causesthe mariner by working closely with otherhydrographic offices (HOs) and by appropriateapplication of its compilation expertise.

The organisation stated that the ENCs hadto be at least as good as the paper chartscurrently used, "Users have come to expectaccurate data from the UKHO", Robinsonsaid. The UKHO is working with other (HOs)to ensure that the information issued by theTaunton-based organisation meets rigorousstandards for accuracy and provides themariner with the most appropriatenavigational picture.

Regarding the recent IMO NAV54recommendations; a consensus was reached ona mandatory carriage requirement for ECDISstarting in 2012; this will be put to the nextMaritime Safety Committee (MSC) meeting.

The HOs believe they will have adequate ENCcoverage and consistency by 2010 and thatpricing levels will have reduced by then. Extratraining within STCW will be needed to ensurethat all navigators have the necessary skills touse ECDIS safely and effectively.

The NAV54 recommendations were basedaround papers submitted by Norway and theUK. After much debate it was agreed tankersof over 3,000 gt and passenger vessels of over500 gt would be the first ship types to befitted with ECDIS starting in 2012 for newhulls, with cargo vessels of over 3000 gtfollowing in 2013. If these recommendations,which include retrofitting of existing tonnageby 2018, are adopted by MSC then this wouldmean around 60% take up of ECDIS acrossthe board, Robinson thought. "ECDIS is thebest method of navigation going forward. Thestarting gun was fired at NAV54," he added.

The onus is now on HOs to produce theENCs and ECDIS manufacturers to producethe systems. The UKHO is also looking toadd layers to the ENCs so that otherinformation that could be integrated into anECDIS to support activities, such as passageplanning and voyage execution. Digitisinginformation, rather than relying on the paperformat would provide greater flexibility in useof the data and was therefore the ultimategoal, the organisation said.

Second phaseThe UKHO is in what it called a second phaseof discussions with OEMs regarding theimplementation of its plans. Given the leadtimes necessary it is hoped to be able todemonstrate 'front of bridge' operationsometime next year.

Also under discussion at the IMO wasENavigation. This new concept could meanthe provision of totally integrated services,including digitised port information runningon the navigators' and masters' workstationsand aimed at 'front end navigation'.

One thing is certain, that when the use ofECDIS becomes mandatory in 2012 or later,depending on its adoption and ratificationperiod, ENCs will have to be provided byGovernment approved HOs, so quite wherethis leaves the commercial vector dataproducers is not yet clear.

However, the capacity to produce ENCscould be a problem in the near future for somenations, and so the UK, along with other statesinvolved in hydrographic work, is offeringassistance and training in producing ENCs,working through bi-lateral agreements and

sharing technical experience.Nations that are signatories to the SOLAS

convention are obliged to ensure provision ofhydrographic services and when ECDIS ismandatory this will include ENCs. TheInternational Hydrographic Organisation(IHO) encourages all states, which havenavigable waters to recognise thisresponsibility. Nations can meet theirobligations either by developing their owncapability, or through agreement with anotherstate to provide these services on their behalf.

The IHO said recently that its goal was toimprove the level of hydrographic servicesthroughout the world by capacity building, atheme supported by the UKHO. The IHOdefined three phases in the development of anational hydrographic capability as the core tothis strategy. 1) Focus on the need to recognise their

national responsibilities for the provision of hydrographic services and to initiate the collection and dissemination of marine safety information. The first stage is essential in order to maintain existing charts and publications to enable safe navigation.

2) The provision of advice and training assistance to support the creation of basic hydrographic surveying capability.

3) Support further development of a national hydrographic service, including such capabilities as paper chart production, ENCs and nautical publications.

Underpinning the IHO initiative is a four-stepprocess - awareness, assessment, analysis andaction. The organisation said that byproceeding in such a co-ordinated manner, thecapacity building strategy will over time helpHOs worldwide to develop appropriate levelsof hydrographic capability.

UKHO ceo Mike Robinson.

TO

Germany's seemingly insatiableappetite for newbuildingscontinues, especially in the moretraditional German liner sector.

Despite spiralling newbuilding costs, theinterest continues to be fuelled by the 'KG'fund schemes, whose liquidity shows no signof abating.

However, the more traditional Germanfinance houses will no longer look atspeculative deals, but rather seek a shippingproject with a charter attached for cash flowreasons resulting in some of the KG fundinvestors finding finance harder to come by.

During the past few years, the KG fundmanagers have looked at other projects awayfrom the traditional containerships and haverecently endorsed almost all types of tankers,including gas carriers; offshore support vesselsand even a drilling rig. This has attracted moreoversees players to Germany, either in jointventures with established German players, orby setting up shop on their own.

To take advantage of KG type finance, acompany must have an operational base inGermany and more contentiously, if theGerman flag is being considered, then the

vessel owner/operator must employ a masterwho is fluent in German marine law.

A successful German tonnage tax regimewas introduced in 1999 and to keep it goingfor the foreseeable future, the authorities haveasked that German-based owners ensure that500 vessels will be under the German flag bythe end of this year. This means an extra 70-100 ships will need to register in the comingmonths, a fact not lost on the GermanShipowners Association (VDR), or itsmembers.

The attraction of Germany and in particularHamburg, as well as other centres, such asLeer and Bremen, is that maritime clustershave been built up that clearly work.

According to figures produced by theHamburg Metropolitan Region, in Germanythere are 440 shipping companies operatingaround 3,300 vessels totalling around 67 millgt. Of the owning companies, more than 200are based in the Hamburg area. There are alsomany overseas company subsidiaries locatedin the German coastal cities.

Within the next three years, according tofigures produced by the VDR, there will beanother 1,300 vessels delivered into the

German-controlled fleet, which will put astrain on crewing resources and training. At arecent German Maritime Conference adecision was made to support the nauticaltraining locations in the coastal states byexpanding their capacity.

Greek interestsOne example of an overseas concern settingup shop in Hamburg is Hellespont. Theleading Greek-based tanker owner andmanager relocated part of its operations,including the shipmanagement to Hamburg ina joint venture to take advantage of the KGfinance system.

As a result, Hellespont Hammonia GmbH& Co KG was formed, which is 50% ownedby Hellespont, 25% by shipowner PeterDoehle and 25% by KG emission house HCI Capital.

Apart from full day-to-dayshipmanagement, the Hamburg office isresponsible for manning, insurance, repair &maintenance, purchasing, operations,husbandry, accounting and chartering.

Since the German arm first commencedoperations out of Peter Doehle's offices,

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Hellespont has built up a considerablepresence, both in terms of ships and of people.Today, the company has six crude tankers(five Suezmaxes and one Aframax), six LR1coated product tankers and three recentlypurchased IMO II chemical tankers.

Not stopping there, the company orderedanother eight IMO II chemical tankers and sixplatform supply vessels for delivery betweenthe end of this year and the middle of 2010.All have been ordered through KG financingschemes.

The company's ceo Christian Freiherr vonOldershausen said that Hellespont hadearmarked its eight 17,000 dwt IMO II epoxycoated newbuilding chemical carriers for apool operation. "It (a pool) creates a certainstability of earnings and the KG fundinvestors now understand this concept," he said.

Despite the 'credit crunch', vonOldershausen said that there was still anappetite among investors for shippingprojects, but the trick was to find the rightproject. "Investors’ appetite for shippingequity has not diminished. The problem isfinding a project that yields an acceptablereturn as newbuilding prices have gone uptremendously," von Oldershausen said.

The escalating cost of newbuildings hassqueezed margins. In addition, the Germanfinance houses that lend to the KG investorshave become more discerning as have theinvestors themselves.

From Hamburg, Hellespont technicallymanages all of the fleet under new managingdirector Captain Matthias Imrecke. CaptainAndrew Lidgard was also recently recruited tomanage the offshore fleet, also operating outof the Hamburg office. For crewing purposes,Hellespont has a small stake in Manila

Shipmanagement & Manning Inc.Hellespont hopes to employ its first cadets

in August of this year as due to the number ofnewbuildings, the company needed to grow itsseafarer pool. The company is alreadyachieving 92-93% seafarer retention andclaimed to have a large officer pool.

The company recently moved out of partnerPeter Doehle's offices on the Elbchaussee to amore central location as more space wasneeded. Another reason was to be near themajor banks, broking houses, laywers etc thatabound in the centre of Hamburg, vonOldershausen explained.

To cope with the fleet expansion, four teamshave been set up in the office to look after thecrude, product, chemical and offshore sectors.Von Oldershausen admitted that the chemicalcarriers required more attention due to theirspecialist nature. A dedicated health and safetyofficer will be appointed soon.

Around the same time that Imrecke wasrecruited to head up the technical managementteam, former head Spyros Vlassopoulos whohad spearheaded Hellespont's start in Germanywent back to Piraeus to take charge of thecompany's commercial activities, to strengthen

the relationship with charterers and sub-charterers.

As for the current fleet, two of the three13,100 dwt chemical tankers in the fleet areworking the spot market, while the third islong term chartered to Vitol trading in Asia.Von Oldershausen described the chemicalcarrier market as "disappointing" in the firstquarter of this year. However, it picked upslightly in the 2Q08.

He expected a "rough period" until the endof next year when, "…..in line withexpectations of market participants thingsshould pick up again. In the meantime thereare a lot of newbuildings coming on stream,"he said.

The six Panamax LR1s are timechartered toSanko for seven years and are operating in theproduct market sector. Four of the fiveSuezmaxes and the Aframax are also longterm chartered to the Japanese operator.

The remaining Suezmax -Hellespont Trust -is chartered to Heidmar and is operating in itsSuezmax tanker pool. Sister HellespontTrader is also operating in Heidmar'sSuezmax pool having been sub-let fromSanko.

Hellespont ceo ChristianFreiherr vonOldershausen receives acommemorative plaquefrom Father Apostolos onthe occasion of theblessing of Hellespont’snew Hamburg premises.

“Investors’ appetite for shipping equity hasnot diminished. The problem is finding a projectthat yields an acceptable return as newbuilding

prices have gone up tremendously.”

Christian Freiherr von Oldershausen, CEO,Hellespont Hammonia GmbH & Co KG

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Although not ruling out the use of theGerman flag for some of the vessels in thenear future, von Oldershausen explained thatif the three 13,100 dwt chemical tankers wereput under the national flag, then the companywould need to employ around 15 Germanofficers, which in today's climate would beextremely difficult.

Dutch interestsLast year, Amsterdam-based SeaarlandShipping Management expanded its growingglobal network into Germany by setting up ajoint venture with Hamburg-based TBMarine-Hamburg GmbH.

The same year, Seaarland and TB andPartners' jointly ordered four IMO II shallowdraft 29,000 dwt product carriers, plus twocoated LR1s from China's Zhejiang HongguanShipbuilding for delivery in 2011 and thelatter from New Century Shipbuilding fordelivery August and September 2008.

To manage the ships and to provide accessto the German equity market in July last year,Seaarland and TB Marine set up SeaarlandShipmanagement (Hamburg) GmbH & CoKG, which now operates under the watchfuleyes of managing directors Andreas Sand andClaus Bethke.

The joint venture originally started with thedelivery of a secondhand handysize IMO IIIproduct tanker - 36,000 dwt Alia - on 19thDecember 2007 while three more handysizetankers were purchased from Teekay fordelivery this year, plus a newbuilding, whichis due for delivery next January. These werethe first vessel to be technically managed fromHamburg by Seaarland.

At the time of the agreement, Seaarland'shead Antonio Zacchello said; "We now have astrong foothold in the Mediterranean, in NorthEurope in both Amsterdam and Hamburg, andin Asia, through our Singapore and Indiancompanies. This German initiative with strongpartners follows our strategic growth plan,always working with good partners tomaximise our mutual strengths and deliver toour charterers the powerful combination of aglobal shipping company with strong localknowledge."

TB Marine-Hamburg GmbH was foundedon 1st July 2005 by Stephan Bracker andSteffen Thate to initiate, finance, own andmanage newbuildings and secondhand shipsfor both private and public investors in theGerman KG market.

It has strong relations with Chineseshipyards and a Chinese investment group via

Aquarius Marine Consulting (AMC),Hamburg. Thorsten Schablinski, sole partnerand managing director of AMC, providestechnical consultancy, plan approval andnewbuilding supervision for TB's projects.

TB Marine and its partners now have 30tanker newbuildings on order. In a recentinvestor presentation, TB Marine said thatvessel Nos 1-24 will be employed under longterm charters and pool arrangements withleading European pool operators in the sizerange of up to 20,000 dwt. For example, eightof the Ice Class 1A chemical/productnewbuildings were fixed long term to MaerskTankers and another eight to the ClipperGroup. The final eight in the 16,500 dwt-19,000 dwt range are intended to go into theSwift Tankers pool.

Four 29,000 dwt tankers will join theHandytankers pool while two LR1s are alsoon order and will join the Global Tanker Pool.Other vessels planned include three 92,500dwt bulk carriers and the latest ventureinvolving the financing of eight vehiclecarriers (PCTS), which are being built forLaeisz management.

Amsterdam-based Seaarland ShippingManagement is a commercialshipmanagement company and part of the

Zacchello Group, which also includes Venice-based Motia Compagnia di Navigazione, asone of the shipowning arms and the technicalmanagement arm for the group's fleet.

The group controls a fleet of 25 modernproduct and Aframax tankers with 15newbuildings to come, plus three Panamaxbulkers with another seven Panamaxes andminicapes to come.

At the end of its newbuilding programme,the Zacchello Group will control about 85ships, including a fleet of 30 medium to long-term timechartered ships. In addition, thegroup has a 50% ownership of 10 Naples-based SynerGas Ethylene/LPG carriers andhas offices in Venice, Naples, Amsterdam,Singapore and Hamburg.

TB Marine's Steffen Thate toldTANKEROperator that initially, the jointventure was set up to focus on newbuilding

projects. During the past three years, TBMarine has been responsible for 42newbuildings and four secondhand vessels andhas built up a pool of private investors withinthe KG scheme.

The loan facilities have been arrangedthrough the world's largest ship financingbank HSH Nordbank and also with DeutscheBank, Hamburg and NorddeutscheLandesbank, based in Hannover.

"We are now benefiting from the Seaarlandhandysize, Aframax, LR1 and Suezmax tankerpools, which in turn benefit from the Germanmarket, including the KG funding schemes,"Thate said.

TB Marine/Seaarland Shipmanagementgained its ISM certificate from ABS in October2007 and now employs around 25 persons inHamburg. Thate explained that Seaarland has aglobal network of crewing outlets.

As for the future, "By about 2011, we willhave around 35 chemical/product tankersunder full management owned by Zacchelloand his partners," Thate said.

It is Thate's intention to put around three tofive vessels under the German flag whileanother 10 are flying the Italian flag underMotia's control. Other major flag states havealso set up shop in Hamburg, including Liberiaand the Marshall Islands, which employGerman speaking auditors and surveyors.

Oil majors are being focused on by thegroup as there is more external control beingexercised today through various schemes,most notably TMSA.

Frequent safety, security and other meetingsare held between TB Marine, Seaarland andthe pool/charterers. Thate said that thecompany was also co-operating very closelywith ABS.



Zacchello Group ProfileZacchello's shipping interestsoriginated in 1948 when AntonioZacchello and some partnerspurchased a 10,700 dwt 'Liberty'ship - Rialto.He subsequently bought his partners out andcontinued to build his shipping empire onhis own.

Today, this consists of Seaarland ShippingManagement BV (Amsterdam), MotiaCompagnia di Navigazione SpA (Venice),Seaarland Shipmanagement (Hamburg)GmbH & Co KG, Seaarland ManagementServices (Singapore) Pte Ltd, SeaarlandManagement Services Pvt (India) andSeaarland Management Services (Geneva)SA.

Basically, the companies' operations aresplit as follows:

Seaarland Shipping Management (Amsterdam) acts as commercial manager of the ships owned by the group's Dutch companies and for the third party owned vessels.Seaarland Management Services (Singapore) is responsible for the day-to-day operations east of Suez. The office is growing as Zacchello puts more emphasis on the developing Persian Gulf/Asian markets.Motia carries out commercial and technical management for its owned vessels and is responsible for the technical management of the vessels owned by the Dutch-based companies, as

well as third party owned vessels. Seaarland Management Services Pvt is responsible for the group's Indian seagoing crew requirements.Seaarland Shipmanagement (Hamburg) is jointly owned with TB Marine-Hamburg and manages the co-owned vessels with German investors and provides a gateway to the major German market.Seaarland Management Services (Geneva) is responsible for advisory and the execution of FFAs on behalf of the group and its clients.

Seaarland Hamburg will handle anadditional 24 product/chemical tankers inthe range 16,500 dwt to 19,000 dwt, whichtogether with four out of eight car carriers,have been financed by German investors.

Venice-based Motia has 12 vessels underfull management and expects to takedelivery of another four newbuildings.Motia also operates four ships ontimecharter.

Technical management of the wholeZacchello group is handled by Motia andSeaarland Hamburg.

As at June of this year, the total numberof vessels controlled by Seaarland andMotia was 116. These include 62 currentlyin operation, 37 newbuildings and 17timechartered vessels yet to be delivered.

Zacchello has placed some of the vesselsin pools, such as Suezmax International,Aframax International, Handytankers andBaumarine. Other vessels are timechartered

to operators such as Trafigura, STX PanOcean, TotalFinaElf (Italia), ST Shipping,ENI, Cargill and Armada. The group alsooperates on the spot market.

The group also holds a 50% stake inSynergas SrL through a Dutch concerncalled Julia Finance, which was set upspecifically for this purpose. The other 50%is owned by Ca.Fi.Ma, the holding companyof the Cafiero Mattioli Group.

Synergas was formed in November 2005to purchase the fleet of 10 LPG carriers of4,000 cu m to 9,000 cu m capacity fromNavigazione Montanari, which was dulycompleted a month later.

Antonio Zacchello.



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As for AMC, this concern offers thirdparty technical newbuilding supervision andonly puts its own people in the shipyards,rather than relying on third partynewbuilding surveyors. For example, ACMnewbuilding standby chief engineers willmove into the office as engineersuperintendents, once the newbuildingsupervision period has ended.

Seaarland Shipmanagement only employsex seafarers and a cadet scheme is run in ajoint venture with ASP Ship ManagementScandinavia based in Mariehamn, Finland.

KG expertiseThe German KG (Kommanditgesellschaft)equity syndicating system is perhaps notsuffering as badly as other forms of raisingfinance in today's economic gloom and doom.

Whereas some would be investors inshipping equity will still rely on the debtfinancing to purchase shares in vessels, otherprivate shareholders do not.

KGs were originally designed to help theGerman shipyards and shipping industry. Ageneral partner (GmbH) is usually required.Individuals participate with fixed equity

portions on a non-recourse basis.To qualify for syndication, vessels must in

compliance with international class societystandards, while both the commercial andtechnical management of the vessels must beundertaken in Germany and the vessels mustbe registered in Germany, although aninternationally accepted flag is also possible.

Once the domain of smaller container andmultipurpose vessels, all types are now beingconsidered providing they have a long termtimecharter attached, but not a bareboat, ordemise charter contract.

The change in the German tonnage tax of1st January 2007, bought no substantialdifference to equity finance deals. Basically,the tax is based on the gt of a vessel and notthe profit/loss performance (see page 18).

However, Tobias Koenig founder of Koenig& Cie GmbH said that the syndicationmarket, which is most important in Germanyfor larger projects, is almost totally disruptedby the current financial crisis. "The KG fundsare not lenders. They are syndicating equityand combine it with debt financing to buyships, which they operate and charter out," he explained.

Koenig said that despite this, the companyhad managed to realise new products. Hecriticised HSH Nordbank, the world's largestship financier, saying that the default rate inthe vessel mortgage loan sector is zero percent. "Their caution with the granting ofloans does not always seem reasonable tous," he said.

Koenig was founded in 1999 and in 2006established Marenave Schiffahrts with HSHNordbank. It is claimed to be the first Germanshipping trust set up legally as a public listedcompany. The objective was to provideinstitutional investors with the possibility ofinvesting in the shipping market on a longterm basis, creating a new asset class forbetter investment portfolio diversification.

He said the most KG investors wereexperienced and many of them invest 'anti-cyclically' and "...were in it for the long run."Due to their cyclical nature, the volatilemarkets have led to diversification beinghighly valued. For example, besides shipping,Koenig is now established in real estate,private equity, renewable energy, secondarymarket of UK life insurance policies andinfrastructure.



A joint venture - Scorship - was alsoformed with Monaco-based Scorpio, which isinvolved in the running of two tanker pools, inwhich Koenig is participating. "To have ajoint venture, such as Scorship, seemed to belogical as Scorpio was seeking access to theGerman market and we had been looking for a partner to invest in Panamax tankers,"Koenig explained.

"Therefore, our Panamax and handymaxproduct tankers had been managed by ScorpioShip Management, Monaco. Later on ScorshipTankers GmbH was formed by the twopartners, which has now taken up themanagement of these vessels," he said.

"There is a lot of interest outside Germanyto find a local partner. And this is the reasonothers have formed partnerships and willprobably continue to do so in the future," headded.

Last June, Scorship Tankers GmbHchristened two further double hull tankers atNew Times Shipbuilding, located on theYangtze River.

The tankers were the last two in a series ofsix sister ships. They were christened KingDaniel and King Douglas. The latter washanded over to the charterer ST Shipping andTransport, Singapore and King Daniel will bedelivered in September. The six double hullcrude oil/product tankers were ordered in2005 for delivery in 2007 and 2008. Theywere Panamax class LR1 product tankers.

The last two both make up the ProductTanker Fund IV, which had been open to

Koenig & Cie investors since the end ofMarch 2008. The fund concept is acombination of fixed charter and poolearnings, with one vessel benefiting from thestability of the former and the other vesselfrom the variable earnings of the latter (thisvessel will be deployed in a leadingtanker pool).

Koenig uses what it perceives as the bestpartners available to technically manage thevessels, for example, ColumbiaShipmanagement (CSM), Thien & Heyengaand V Ships. For example, all of the Marenavevessels are managed by CSM Hamburg.

The issuing house invests in containerships,bulk carriers and product tankers. But thus farthe different ship types have not been includedin one fund.

For tankers, Koenig thought that initially,this had proved more difficult. However,today Koenig & Cie is a successful tankercompany with…."an unparalleled network inthe tanker markets. We offer investmentopportunities that are hard to match, which isgiving us a competitive advantage over otherGerman issuing houses," Koenig concluded.

In another move, Jens Mahnke recentlyjoined Koenig & Cie GmbH as a managingpartner to take on responsibility for allshipping matters.

Prior to this, Mahnke worked with theNordcapital Group, where he was managingpartner for shipping project development forthe last six years.

From 1st June, the shareholder structure of

Koenig & Cie GmbH was Tobias Koenigholding 86%, Klaus Fickert and Jörn Meyereach holding 5% and Johannes Bitter-Suermann and Jens Mahnke each holding 2%.

Since TANKEROperator's visit, ScorpioTankers GmbH & Co KG and ScorpioShipping Company, Monaco have said thatthey are set to broaden the business scope andas a result have been renamed ScorshipNavigation. As part of the expansion plan, thecompany will soon manage drybulk carriers aswell as tankers. Jens Mahnke was named ceoon 1st August.

Essberger expandsJohn T Essberger is expanding its tankerfleet by ordering a series of newbuildingsfrom China and Turkey. The company has alsoextended its shipmanagement portfolio bywinning a management contract for a series ofSwedish product tankers newbuildings.

The Chinese order involves two 8,500 dwtIce Class 1A chemical tankers fitted with 16stainless steel tanks, plus another two options.The first vessel will be delivered at the end of2010 and the second in February 2011.

Essberger chose Dingheng (Jiangsu)Shipbuilding, which Captain Stefan Buelow,managing director John T. Essberger ShipManagement described to TANKEROperatoras a new yard specialising in LPG andchemical tankers. The vessels will be built inco-operation with the Dutch-based VolhardingShipyards and were designed by a Norwegianconcern. They will be powered by MAN

The 5,771 dwt chemical tankerGeorg Essberger seen in the Kiel Canal.

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Earlier, Essberger had selected the new Turkish shipyard of Eregli toconstruct an 8,400 dwt and three 5,300 dwt vessels. The larger vesselis an IMO II type 124 m long, oil and chemical tanker fitted withMarineLine coated tanks. Construction began on 26th November lastyear under the supervision of Essberger and Bureau Veritas and thevessel is due to be delivered in January 2009.

The three Ice Class 1A 5,300 dwt tankers will be fitted withstainless steel cargo tanks and all will feature MAN prime movers.They are due for delivery in September, December 2009 and April2010 respectively.

As for the management contracts, these were for Svithoid Tankers'three 3,400 dwt and two 4,500 dwt tankers. Essberger inspectorstravelled to an Estonian shipyard in Tallinn to take over the first vesselfor Svithoid. One 3,400 dwt tanker - Vedrey Thor - was chartered toFisher Everard, while the larger units will operate for Herning under along term charter.

Buelow explained that Essberger's philosophy was to continue tooperate specialist tankers of up to 10,000 dwt in partnership with theoil and chemical majors on a mixture of timecharter and spot businessbasis. The vessels normally operate in northern Europe, Baltic andMediterranean/Black Sea regions.

In 2004, Essberger bought Dutch chemical tanker operator Broerefrom the Vopak group and formed the Broere/Essberger chemicaltanker pool. In April of this year, the operation was brought under thebanner of Essberger Tankers. The new vessels and all Essbergervessels will be gradually renamed taking the Essberger suffix.

At the beginning of this year, Hugo Finlay was recruited to runEssberger Tankers as managing director. He has had more than 40years' experience in the tanker business having been employed atsenior level by Stolt Nielsen and Jo Tankers among others.

At present, the fleet flies the Dutch flag (Broere vessels), Germanand Madeira flags - the latter as a European flag. As for seafarertraining, Essberger uses various establishments in Poland, China, thePhilippines and in-house seminars are regularly held. On boardtraining will be continued, Buelow said. The company employsEuropean masters on its tankers, mainly from Holland, Germany,Poland and the Baltic States.

The seafarers are employed on a two month on, two month offrotation, which helps to ensure a good retention rate, Buelow believed.Being a family owned company, it was easier to bring the seafarersinto a family type working atmosphere, he thought.

In Europe, Essberger has its own crewing agency in Gdynia, whilein Singapore, the company owns the crewing agency -Transocean ShipManagement and has a partnership in a Manila-based training centre,which is equipped with modern simulators, including bridges. Thesecan be attached to engine control rooms and a small engine. The Asianfacilities are mainly used for the bulk and cement carriers managed byEssberger, as well as for ratings on tankers (Filipinos).

Essberger has set up a safety and vetting department in Hamburgand Buelow said that he was "quite happy" with the TMSA audits.Similar to the vessels, Essberger has bought the shipmanagementactivities closer to home by dispensing with the old shipmanagementcompany Transocean to better reflect the Essberger brand.

Buelow explained that the shipmanagement arm will only look atthird party management business for special projects, such asnewbuildings. It was not Essberger's intention to become a fullyfledged third party shipmanagement concern.

He is an active member of BIMCO, IPTA, the VDR and sits on the



technical advisory board of GermanischerLloyd.

Explaining this involvement, he said; "It isvital to be in the front line with all the rulescoming up. We have to join together topresent a good image and have to beproactive. We cannot just lean back and forgetabout what is happening. Everybody has toparticipate. If something comes up, don't fightit, but discuss it, otherwise we will loosecredibility," he added.

To ensure adequate repair and maintenance iscarried out, Essberger has a repair shop inDordrecht, Holland, which came with the Broerebuyout. The company also uses the Hamburgshipyard Norderwerft among others for its tankerfleet. Buelow said that he did not believe inoutsourcing too many activities, but rather keepthem in-house to better monitor costs.

GTS opts for Lindenau tankersAnother major German tanker player isBremen-based German Tanker Shipping(GTS), which now controls 12 producttankers averaging 3.5 years old with onenewbuilding still to come.

Eight of the earlier product tankers are ofthe Kiel-based Lindenau 32,000 dwt class,while the newer four are of 40,600 dwt.Another vessel due for delivery in March ofnext year will be slightly larger at 43,000dwt, but still built to the Lindenau design.

All the vessels were built by LindenauShipyard. Ten are in the KG system while theother two are wholly-financed by thecompany. All the activities connected withthe ships are handled in-house by just 18 people.

The vessels fly the German flag and are

classed by GL. Managing partner FrankJungmann described the flag as "of verygood quality", but said the process ofregistration could do with improvement as at present several different authoritiesbecome involved.

"We need a central department in Germanyfor registration and a simple, efficientadministration," he said. Other Germancompanies spoken with by TANKEROperatorvoiced the same opinion.

Being under the German flag, all GTS'officers are German, while the ratings arefrom the Philippines. Jungmann agreed with other German owners requiring German officers that for the future, the potwas empty.

GTS' vessels normally trade in the spotmarket, however, there a few charters

One of the Lindenau class32,000 dwt product tankers,managed by German TankerShipping.

German tonnage tax explainedIntroduced in 1999, the Germantonnage tax scheme has beenby and large welcomed by theGerman shipping community.So much so, that moves are afoot to reachthe target of 500 vessels under the Germanflag by the end of this year, otherwise itcould be scrapped or amended, according tothe German authorities.

If the target is reached then the tonnagetax stays in place for the foreseeablefuture, and all the signs are that this willhappen as the German shipownersinterviewed by TANKEROperator wereconsidering putting at least some of theirvessels under German flag.

Basically, the scheme allows companiesto elect to have their taxable profits from

shipping activities determined at fixed rateswith reference to their ship sizes for 10years at a time, hence the call for moretonnage by the beginning of next year tostart the next decade of fixed rates.

Graduated TariffUp to 1,000 nt = Eur0.92 per 100 nt

per day1,000 - 10,000 nt = Eur0.69 per 100 nt

per day10,000 - 25,000 nt = Eur0.46 per nt per

dayMore than 25,000 nt = Eur0.23 per nt per

dayAs an example given by the HamburgMetropolitan Region, a graduated tariff isimposed on the net tonnes, which is then

multiplied by the number of days a vesselis in operation.

In the case of a 40,000 nt vessel, thecalculation is based on an assumed profitof Eur174.80 per day. For 365 days ofoperation, this is calculated at Eur63,802,on the basis of which taxes will becharged independently of the actual annualprofit.

Assuming the equity capital totalsEur21.6 mill, the calculated profit is 0.3%of the equity capital per annum, which isclaimed to be of minor relevance. Inaccordance with the current Income TaxAct, the amount - assuming that theeconomic development of the vesseloperations will be positive - indicates alargely tax free capital gain.

German Tanker Shipping GmbH & Co. KG

Hans-Böckler-Str. 50

28217 Bremen

Phone +49 421 387638

Fax +49 421 3876390

e-mail [email protected]

GERMAN TANKER SHIPPING



concluded on coa terms. The company wasformed in 1998 by former Carl Buettnerexecutives. It originally owned seven vesselsup to about 23,000 dwt, but has sinceconcentrated on the larger size ranges,leaving Buettner to compete in the smallermarket sector. The six 24,000 dwt tankersbuilt in Croatia are today Buettner's largest vessels.

Jungmann described the 40,000 dwt to43,000 dwt size as being in the middle of theSouth Korean designed 37,000 dwt and47,000 dwt types with good draughtcapabilities of about 11 m on maximum dwtcargo capacity (dwcc).

The Lindenau-built vessels are fitted withMAN Diesel 4-stroke 8-cylinder mediumspeed diesel engines from the manufacturer'sAugsburg works connected to a CP propellerthrough a reduction gear. Becker rudders havealso been fitted on the larger vessels for extramanoeuvrability.

Being fitted with the same engines results incontinuity of spares enabling the use of thesame maintenance and other systems usedacross the entire fleet.

Classed with GL, the vessels are IceClass E3, or E2, equivalent toFinnish/Swedish Ice Class 1A, or 2A. Eight are 1A and the other four have the E2 (2A) notation.

Today GTS operates with six partners andtwo managing partners. Jungmann explainedthat the company's policy is to operate thevessels in Europe or transatlantic and sellthem when they reach their second or thirdsurveys (10-15 years old). "They will stillbe in excellent condition," he said.

When operating in Europe, the averagevoyage time is only around 4.5 days,including loading and discharge operations.The normal economic service speed is 13.5knots, although the vessels can steam at15.5 knots if needed. They each carry 18crew on board.

As for the pumping systems, the smallervessels have been fitted with FramoDeepwell hydraulic pump systems, whilethe larger vessels have HamworthySvanehoj electro-pump systems fitted. Eachtank is coated and the vessels are fitted withcargo heating systems.

Offen up and runningThe first four of CP Offen's eight HyundaiMipo 37,000 dwt MRs have recently joinedBroström's fleet.

Ordered and technically managed byrecently formed Offen subsidiary CP OffenTankschiffreederei, the eight will becommercially managed by Bröstrom followingthe signing of a long term partnershipagreement with the Hamburg-based companylast year.

Before the first four were delivered,Broström was already operating eight 37,000dwt MRs in the Europeanmarket transporting refined petroleum oil products.

All the new vessels were scheduled fordelivery by the end of this year from SouthKorea. The first four picked up a cargo ofvegetable oil from Asia to reposition toEurope. They will all fly the UK flag.

*Since this update, it has been announcedthat Broström is to be taken over by Maersk.Where this leaves CP Offen Tankschiffreederei’sjoint venture agreement is thus far unknown(see page 2). TO

GL academies provesuccessful

Last year, Germanischer Lloyd (GL) held 276 seminars worldwide, attracting 4,086 participants, compared with 220 in 2006, which pulled in 3,950 people.



GL has developed what it calls a'Modular System for FurtherEducation in Shipping', which issplit into 11 distinct subjects.

Both public and private seminars are held, andtailor-made in-house tutorials are also offered.

GL Academy's Susanne Schreeck toldTANKEROperator that it was not the intentionto compete with seafarer training schools oruniversities, but rather join forces if possible.

Seminars and tutorials are held worldwidein English, although local languages can alsobe used, for example to train surveyors inoverseas locations.

Most maritime subjects are covered, frombasic shipping knowledge to high technology,including a series aimed at 'training thetrainers'.

The UAE and India are areas of obviouspotential, GL said. An academy will beopened in Dubai this October, which will beused by the other Gulf States and the classsociety is also in talks with Dubai MaritimeCity about a co-operative partnership. Anotherpartnership is also in place with the IndianInstitute of Marine Engineers based inMumbai.

Other co-operative training ventures are

based in countries such as Vietnam and earlierthis year, GL recently opened GL AcademyHellas, which is run from Piraeus. The classsociety is also one of 12 partners in the soonto be opened MTC Maritime Training CenterHamburg (see page 23).

GL has found that the more popularseminars are the ones that cover generaltopics, such as basic shipping and technology,for example for bank staff involved in themaritime sector. Some of the courses willinclude exercises involving individual andgroup work and interactive sessions. "We donot only show overheads," Schreeckexplained.

One of the more specific training coursescovers the 'Certified Coating Inspector'. Thiscourse will be held between 16-22 Novemberand is already fully booked with 15participants. The seminar has been puttogether by GL in co-operation withMuehlhan, which specialises in marine surfaceprotection.

As for GL's class portfolio, over 6,300vessels totalling 70 mill gt are now underregular technical supervision of GL.

In the space of 12 months, GL's fleet hasgrown by 10 mill gt. "This is a milestone in

the history of the classification society," saidDr Hermann Klein, member of GL's executiveboard, at the classification society's Hellascommittee meeting in Piraeus at the beginningof June.

"Based on the incoming orders we expect asustained growth rate again," he said.

To cope with the extra tonnage, GL hasincreased its staff level particularly in EastAsia. In 2006 alone, a total of 312 employeeswere hired worldwide. Since the beginning ofthis year more than 300 international positionswere filled. Today the workforce totals over4,100 worldwide.

In another move, GL has been authorised toparticipate in the US Coast Guard's (USCG)alternate compliance program (ACP).

As a result, US shipowners can select GL astheir recognised organisation, acting on behalfof USCG. GL is one of only three non-USclassification societies to have a USCG ACPauthorisation.

ACP is a voluntary alternate process for aUS registered vessel to obtain a USCGcertificate of inspection by complying with thestandards of a delegated classification society,including its ACP Supplement andInternational Conventions.

In the space of 12 months, GL’s fleet has grown by 10 mill gt. “This is a milestone in the history

of the classification society...based on the incoming orders we expect a sustained growth rate again ”

- Dr Hermann Klein, member, Germanischer Lloyd Executive Board

“

”

TO



On 1st June, 2005, DNV moved itsEuropean headquarters fromLondon to Hamburg. The Germanoffices cover northern Europe andAfrica.At the time, DNV said that Hamburg was anincreasingly important international maritimecentre for shipowners, managementcompanies, financial institutions as well asshipyards, reflected by the steadily growingnumber of vessels managed or owned byGerman companies, in particularcontainerships.

"The decision to move the regional office toHamburg is underlining our strategy tobecome the number-one class alternative inGermany and shall give a clear signal to themarket that we see increasing potential forgrowth of DNV services. At the same time,we recognise the ongoing importance of theUK maritime market by continuing our goodwork in the London market," said DNVMaritime coo Tor Svensen, speaking at thetime of the move.

Regional manager Joerg Beiler and countrymanager Joerg Langkabel said duringTANKEROperator's recent visit to Hamburgthat competition among class societies willincrease the focus on the service level and willtrigger the introduction of new services for themarket. However, competition would not leadto reduced focus on quality.

Last year, DNV moved into larger premiseslocated in the centre of Hamburg, close to theflag administration. Langkabel explained thatthe German flag authorities have nowextended the scope to carry out statutorysurveys etc on German flag ships by otherclass societies.

DNV now claims the No 2 spot in terms ofGerman-controlled tonnage entered behindGL. Although the high number ofcontainerships controlled by German interestsunder GL class is attracting much of the otherclass society interest, DNV claimed more than38% of the tankers in German management interms of gt. DNV also boasted 1.3 mill gt ofGerman newbuildings by the middle of thisyear, compared with 1.85 mill gt ofnewbuildings entered for the whole of 2007.

The class society has appointed a localcustomer service manager whose job it is tovisit the owners and listen to their needs,Langkabel explained. Thus, the concept of aHamburg service centre had been expanded.For example, a tailor-made service is offeredon fuel savings - a very pertinent exampletoday when the cost of IFO 380 cSt had hitthe $700 per tonne mark recently. Anotherexample of the service concept is that advicecan be given on TMSA and SafetyManagement Systems.

At the beginning of this year, DNVemployed 70 people in Hamburg and the

satellite offices around Germany. By the end of 2008, this number will have risen to90. An office has also been opened inBremen.

DNV has a huge database containing whatit calls 'knowledge management'. Forexample, some German owners and managersneed to know about potential propellerdamage in routes through ice. The informationheld on propeller damage could help theowners and managers decide upon the need tocarry a spare propeller.

Certification of marine equipment and sub-suppliers is another strong area withinGermany as many suppliers, such as MANand MTU among others, have full orderbooksdue to the massive vessel ordering spreeduring the past few years.

Several vessel types, includingcontainerships, cruiseships and ro-ros arebeing built in German shipyards to DNVclass. Also included are four LPG carriers atMeyer Werft for Harpain Shipping. Germanports are among the busiest in Europe and therepair yards are experiencing better times oflate, creating more work for class surveyorsin general.

Similar to GL, DNV has set up an academyin Hamburg, which takes up one floor of thesix-storey building. Three rooms are availablein an open type landscape, the largest ofwhich can accommodate up to 60 persons.

Both seminars and courses are heldfocusing on operations and technical topics,including technical courses aimed at non-technical personnel, which are provingpopular.

DNV has been holding seminars andcourses in Germany since 1995 and welcomedmore than 1,200 participants last year, whichencouraged the society to open its owndedicated facility.

Seminars and courses are split intocategories, such as ship types, whichinclude containerships, oil and producttanker, chemical tanker and gas tankerupdates plus design, equipment and cargooperations.

Another series covers maritime technologyin all its forms from hull inspection tomanaging complex electronic systemsintegration. Four courses are offered onmaritime rules and classification issues and alarger selection of courses cover managementsystems. General shipping business is alsocovered aimed at the office newcomer.

All the listed seminars and courses are heldin English.

DNV claims second spot in German vessels classed

DNV has opened its own dedicated academy in Hamburg.TO



One initiative underway in whichGL is a stakeholder is theMaritime Training Center (MTC)Hamburg, which is due to openits doors next February.Hamburg has been without a major trainingfacility since many nautical colleges closeddown during the shipping downturnexperienced during the 1980s, which left ahuge gap in training. Hamburg also lost the'SUSAN' simulator training facility to Leer,which is now home to a largeshipmanagement fraternity.

MTC will be located at Harburg, a suburbof Hamburg, built in an old dock area.Illustrating Hamburg's maritime clustermentality, MTC is a joint venture betweenshipping companies Rickmers Reederei, OrionBulkers and Marlow Navigation who acts as acrew manager.

Apart from GL, other stakeholders includeMAN Diesel, the River Elbe, Port of Hamburgand Kiel Canal Pilots' Associations, port andlogistics training concern ma-co maritimescompetenzcentrum (formerly known as FZH),

and private investors. SAM Electronics isacting as a co-ordinating partner whileBremen-based Rheinmetall DefenceElectronics will supply the shiphandling,radar/ECDIS, GMDSS, liquid cargo handlingand ships engine simulators.

Furthermore, hands on training will beprovided for the operation and maintenance ofmarine diesel engines and their componentsthrough a MAN Diesel workshop. PreviousFZH fire fighting and rescue boat courses willalso be included.

MTC managing director Heinz Kuhlmannexplained that by integrating the pilot groups,ma-co specialists and the GL Academy, MTCwill be able to offer quality and professionalknowhow at the highest level in mostdisciplines.

Kuhlmann said that marketing the centrewould start in earnest this September whenbookings will be taken. He also claimed thathe already had verbal promises from someshipowners to use the facilities. All thetraining courses, seminars etc, plus thedocumentation will be in English to attract

international clients. Once MTC is fully operational, it will have

a training capacity of 14,300 man hours,making it one of the largest training centres inEurope.

The equipment and operation alone is costingEur6.5 mill and the City of Hamburg isdonating Eur900,000 towards the project. Apartfrom Harburg, another simulator centre isplanned in Hamburg for a 2010 start up.

Large training centre nears completion

An impression of the full mission bridgesimulator.

www.mtc-simulation.com

MTC will open it’s doors beginning of 2009 in Hamburg and provides a wide range of maritime training courses for navigation, technical operations,

maintenance, GMDSS, safety and tanker operations.

For more information and course catalogue 2009 contact: [email protected]

Marine Training Center - Hamburg

TO



By providing tankers with pre-determined breaking points intheir double hull, Lindenaubelieves it can enhance tanker

safety. While mandatory double hulls offersignificantly better protection against thethreat from a collision than single hull vessels,pollution may still occur if both the outer andinner hulls are punctured.

If the inner tank shell was designed topartially disconnect from the supportingstructure in a lateral collision, it would deformmore easily, bulging inwards to produce alarge dent at the point of impact, rather thanrupturing. This would require an inner hull

made from a highly ductile, extensiblematerial. These ideas inspired the concept of aso called 'crumple zone' for tankers.

To turn this idea into an actual project,Lindenau got in touch with Hamburg-HarburgTechnical University (TUHH) andGermanischer Lloyd (GL) to arrange for abasic initial research programme.

It was thought that an austenite with highductile yield might prove suitable materialfor the inner tank shell. Under tensileloading, these kind of austenites resistfailure for a much longer period thanstandard steel types. While shipbuildingsteel has a ductile yield of between 16% and

22%, austenitic steel can be extended to 30%to 35% before failing.

However, a tensile shell in itself will notsuffice. To bulge inward across a large enougharea, the shell must be allowed to separatefrom its supporting structure. To illustrate theproblem, Lindenau's project head in charge ofdeveloping the design - Ingo Tautz - used animage of a balloon inflated inside a wire cageand glued to the bars.

"Pushing the balloon downwards will causeit to burst. But if you don't glue it to the bars,it will be free to move so you can push itinwards to quite an extent before it will burst,"Tautz explained.

A hull with abreaking point

Kiel-based Lindenau Shipyard is further enhancing tanker safety by designing vessels with a pre-determined breaking point.*

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On any ship you will find the cage'sequivalent. It is formed by longitudinalstringers and vertical frames. Stringers andframes make up the skeleton that supports theouter and inner hulls of the ship and which arespaced about 2 m apart. The critical questionis how to enable the inner shell to separatefrom this supporting cage, thereby enlargingthis space.

As far as the longitudinal stringers areconcerned, the solution is straightforwardenough- the stringers are welded only to theouter hull and have no contract with the innerhull. A more complicated matter is the case ofthe vertical frames. A series of holes, knownas perforated pre-determined breaking points,are made in the sections closest to the innershell. In a collision, the frames are intended torupture at these locations, thus releasing theinner shell. The larger number of breakingframes, the better.

This design concept was first developed byLindenau partner and former managingdirector Guenter Stehn, who estimated thatframes may break over a length of 20 m along

a ship's body, allowing the austenitic innershell to bulge inwards by several metreswithout rupturing. To ensure that this works,tanks may not be fully loaded and must befitted with burst plates designed to break onimpact. The cargo then flows into aneighbouring tank or ballast tank.

What made Stehn's approach appealing wasits simplicity. The vessel's inner shell deformswithout causing an oil spill. But how far canthis be taken before the ship's structurebecomes unstable? As it is, sailing in roughseas is a punishing experience for a tanker,exposing it to incessant assaults from differentload combinations, a constant interplay ofcompressive and tensile stresses.

This relentless strain is particularlyaggressive around cut outs and holes wherecracks may form. Perforated pre-determinedbreaking points are not exempt from thisthreat. The critical question is, how should theperforations be designed so the frames onlyfail in a collision as intended whilesafeguarding the structural integrity of thevessel during normal operations?

In his dissertation completed under thesupervision of TUHH's Professor EikeLehmann, Tautz analysed the hidden pitfallsof calculation methods that simulate theplanned failure of pre-determined breakingpoints. The ductile yield of austenitic steel,while known, does not help in determining thehighly important parameter of time of failurewhen calculating collision simulations.Knowing the time of failure is critical. If atank shell separation from the frames is toolate, the striking vessel might penetrate it.

No matter how many calculations areperformed, there is no substitute for physicalmeasurements and practical tests. Toaccommodate this, Lindenau has requestedresearch funding from the German FederalMinistry of Economic Affairs. The researchproject aims at clarifying important aspects ofoperational and collision safety.

Operational safety measurements havealready begun on a ship section builtaccording to the new design concept andinstalled on the 44,700 dwt product tankerSeychelles Patriot.

Predetermined breaking point. In a collision, the malleable inner hull of the tanker will bulge inwards without causing an oil spill.(Graphics – Lindenau)

Seychelles Patriot. One sidesection was built with integratedpredetermined breaking points.(Photo – Lindenau)



This 189 m long double hull tanker was delivered by the Kiel yardlast February. A three-frame side section of this vessel was builtaccording to Stehn's design, featuring perforated pre-determinedbreaking points. GL is conducting long term measurements on one ofthe frames to verify the results of the structural durability calculationsperformed thus far.

These measurements were taken using strain gauges attached to theperforations. These strain gauges consist of plastic strips with etched-on copper leads. When the material expands, the copper's electricalresistance will change accordingly. The resistance readings are thenconverted into units of tensile force, providing a means to assess thestatic and dynamic stresses occurring around the measurement points.

Three perforation holes have been fitted with six strain gauges each."Measurements will continue around the clock for an entire year," saidPeter Wania, GL's metrology engineer. "This should provide us withenough data to answer the question as to whether this design providesadequate structural durability."

These measurements provide clarity regarding the operational safetyof the design under normal operating loads. "What we cannot do withthese measurements is verify what will happen in a case of collision,"Tautz conceded.

Therefore, Lindenau will run a series of crash tests, some of whichwill involve a scale model of a ship's side, complete with pre-determined breaking points, which will be rammed by a bow-likeelement. "We will not be able to substantiate the precise functionalbehaviour of our design until we complete the entire research project,"said Tautz. A three-year window has been assigned for the project.

All parties involved are aware that the new concept will fail in aworse-case collision scenario, a high speed, right angle impact. "Whena ship collides at a 90 deg angle at high speed, it will cut right throughto the centre of the struck vessel. There is no way to prevent that," saidStehn. But ships generally heave to when a collision is imminent, sothe impact occurs at an oblique angle. Five to six frames might breakin the process, Stehn estimated, producing an inner-shell dent two tothree metres deep.

The concept of a crumpling zone for tankers may not be ready to beput into practice immediately. But conceivably, it will shape the wayoil and chemical tankers will be built at Lindenau during the comingdecades. Stehn himself was open to the idea that the patented designconcept of perforated pre-determined breaking points may become aninternational requirement at some point in the future.

*This article first appeared in GL’s magazine ‘nonstop’by whose kind permission this article was reproduced.

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Celebrating 50 years of service

Put to the test. A side section for Seychelles Patriot featuringperforations. (Photo – Lindenau)

TO


INDUSTRY - SHIPMANAGEMENT

BSM comes of ageWith the ink barely dry on the regrouping programme undertaken by the BernhardSchulte Shipmanagement Group (BSM), TANKEROperator spoke with ceo Andreas J

Droussiotis about the coming together of the group’s diverse shipmanagement concerns.

BSM is in the big league and currentlymanages a fleet of 648 vessels; 285fully managed and 363 crewmanaged and 44 confirmed until the

end of 2008. Furthermore, the group employs over17,000 personnel on board and onshore.

Droussiotis explained that the wholepurpose of the merger was to protect thebusiness and invest in a stronger future. "Aswith any unification, the systematisation ofthe group is taking time with close co-operation, and a lot of hard work.Organisations have used acquisitions to reachnew markets and acquire new customers. Weprefer to expand gradually, keeping alloperations under control", he said.

The decision to merge the various companieswas taken by the group as a whole. Themanagement teams of each concern consideredthis as the best solution for the future.

"Merging a group of companies and diversecultures under one banner is a challenge, inaddition to a great opportunity. Situations likethis are never easy to deal with. You suddenlyrecognise the need to put in place moreeffective standards and policies. In order toachieve this, effective leadership andteamwork have to be reached on all levels.

"Both the challenge and the opportunity arethere, and by unifying the group of companies,Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement plans onrepresenting just what the power of unity can

mean in the shipping industry. The result? Beingbetter for the clients, for the employees and forthe shareholders", Droussiotis said.

Droussiotis explained that the company plans tomanage costs within the integrated group to profitfrom opportunities in the shipping industry, whilecontinuing to provide quality shipmanagement."Ultimately, there will be savings; however, weexpect the usage of concentrated power to yieldpositive results", he said.

"BSM has a strong management team, withan established reputation for success. Workingunder one banner, the new structure will onlyreinforce our efforts to further develop theopportunities throughout our organisation," hesaid talking of the integration of seniormanagement. New roles have been assumed bymembers of the management team, and newroles were also being made available to copewith the expansion of the group and the shift inmanagement roles. "Everyone has taken uptheir new roles and they will work fully for thesuccess of the group", he explained.

All ship management units, which werepreviously under the control of the separatemain companies will become fully fledged andprovide all the services to clients directly. Dueto the fleet separation, which was organised forvarious reasons, they will report to the groupfleet directors for the different vessels who willbe responsible for their operations.

As a result of the coming together, BSM'sclients' fleet are now managed by strategicallylocated service delivery centres (SDCs)around the globe. "These have the specialistknowledge, the experience, the up-to-datesystems and certifications in place to manageall types of vessel and fleet currently inservice with maximum efficiency", he said.

He said that from containerships,conventional bulkers, gravity-fed self-unloadingbulk carriers, through Panamax, post-Panamax,Handysize, ro-ros, pure car carriers, crude,chemical, LNG, or LPG tankers, to heavy-liftvessels, semi-submersibles and FPSOs - the onboard and onshore specialists are highlyexperienced in managing vessels and fleets ofevery type and age.

Basically, the fleet has been divided intothree categories - dry, tanker, gas/LNG andeach category is managed by a team headed

by a group managing director. Droussiotis said that the most important

issue for BSM was nothing else but thecontinuous training and upgrading of its ownpeople. The majority of people in BSM'spresent training facilities/schools come fromthe Philippines, Cyprus, India, and to a lesserextent, the ex Soviet states.

"Our foundations stand by the principle toown the agencies we recruit from. We havethe company's policies, philosophy, mentalityand recruiting standards within these agencies,as well as the training we conduct in theseareas", he explained.

He said that building relationship andprofessional networks were just some of theelements that keep the shipping industry on itstoes. Leadership, collaboration,communication; these are aspects that areneeded to keep the human factor fromgrowing stagnant. It is the human factor issuesthat are capable of acting as catalysts indeveloping technologies, expansion rates, andso on. "However, with strict follow-up of thepolicies, we are able to cope with theimmense problem, as well as with theunreasonable escalation of wages, which wetry hard to cope with", he said.

As for specialist vessels, Droussiotis saidthat over the years, the group has managed alarge number of gas and chemical vessels.The shipmanagement units are capable ofproviding experienced crews for these vesselsfrom the BSM pool with the guidance andcontrol of the group managing directors.

"We have a number of our seafarers, bothofficers and ratings, who have been with us forover 10 years; a good number who have beenwith us over 15-20 years. Dependable seafarersare harder to come by today; which is exactlywhy we work harder to keep them. We have agood number of senior officers who started asratings with us, meaning we have been satisfiedwith their performance and they have beenpleased with us as employers", he said.

As for Hamburg, Droussiotis said thatBernhard Schulte's role in the group today is likein the past- that is the role of the shareholders.There is close co-operation and an informationflow, but the company is not involved in BSMoperations at all, he stressed.Andreas Droussiotis TO

“Shipowners must realisethat shipmanagement feesneed to increase otherwisethe majority of

professional managers will become reluctantto take on more ships", warned Ole Stene,InterManager president.

Claiming that shipowners still had torecognise the valuable role that third partymanagers play in today's shipping industry,Stene complained that owners still "did notwant to pay the fees that managers' deservefor taking care of their assets"

He added: "I have not seen muchimprovement in the management fee structuresince it first started to be debated in the mediaand when you see how the shipping market hasimproved coupled with the concerns we have onrecruiting and manning and taking care of theasset value of the ships, we are surprisedowners are not prepared to share their fortunewith us in taking care of their ships."

Despite this reticence on the part of theowners, Stene claimed it was inevitable thatfees would rise and that owners would start torealise they have not only to invest inmanning but also in paying for themanagement services that they are receiving.

"It is becoming more difficult forshipowners themselves to recruit the rightshipmanagement resource. In a way it is thethird party managers who control those peoplewho will be eventually employed assuperintendents ashore. If a shipowner,particularly the asset players, goes out into themarket to try and hire superintendents or crewmanagers, he will find he has a huge problemattracting the right people," he added.

InterManager has also reiterated its stanceon the continuing detention in South Korea ofthe Hebei Spirit's master and chief officer.

"Yet again we see our highly professionaland valued seafarers singled out for appallingtreatment," said Stene. "How can weencourage young people to take up a career inshipping when they see experienced andinnocent crew criminalised in this way. Would

the airline industry accept this - I think not!" The 1993-built single hull VLCC was at

anchor waiting for a berth to discharge whena crane barge broke its tow in stormyweather and smashed into her side, holingthree cargo tanks.

About 10,500 tonnes of oil spilled into thesea, causing the country's largest ever oil spill.

Two South Korean tug masters were jailedfor their part in the incident, but the tanker'stwo officers, Indian nationals Capt JaspritChawla and Syam Chetan, were cleared of allcharges on 23rd June.

However, they have since been preventedfrom leaving South Korea pending a retrialthat is not expected to take place until earlynext year. Under South Korean law,prosecutors have appealed to the country'shigh court against the decision by a districtcourt in the Daejeon area of South Korea thatexonerated the men of blame.

Depending on the outcome of the high courttrial, prosecutors may appeal to South Korea's

Supreme Court, which would result in anotherretrial which might not take place until themiddle of next year.

The two men have received support not justfrom their employer, V Ships, but also fromother seafarers in messages and telephone calls.

Capt Chawla, who has 17 years of exemplaryseafaring service, said in a recent interview thathe felt he had done nothing wrong and that hewas reluctant to return to sea, fearing that anyfuture decisions he took at the helm would becoloured by this experience.

Stene added: "This criminalisation ofseafarers is having a seriously detrimentaleffect on recruitment. Seafarers spend manymonths away from their families doing anessential job for global trade. It is horrific tothen confine these men many miles away fromtheir homes and their loved ones, particularlywhen they have already proved they have donenothing wrong. We are very concerned that thistype of incident is deterring young men frompursuing a worthwhile career at sea."



InterManager speaksout for a pay rise

One of the major problems facing third party shipmanagement concerns todayis remuneration, especially when basic costs are escalating.

InterManager president Ole Stene.

TO

Managing director StavrosHatzigrigoris explained thatthis initiative was undertakento make the company "more

organised" and that it enabled him to "measurewhat we are doing".

One of the major topics at present is thecontrol of the various emissions, such as SOx,NOx and particulate matter (PM).Hatzigrigoris thought that logical steps shouldbe taken to control emissions and said that heapplauded the recent MEPC findings. "It iswise and workable", he said.

He warned that NOx and CO2 emissionsproblems don't go together as any fuelconsumption increase needed to control NOxemissions would create more CO2. Forexample, ballast water exchange wouldincrease fuel consumption to cope with themore power needed to run the operation. For aVLCC, Hatzigrigoris estimated that 800 kWof extra power would be required to run sucha system.

"We need time to look at everythingincluding the reduction of CO2 and NOx.However, this energy problem is not (only) forthe shipowners, as it needs to be discussed atIMO level," he said. "We need a safety cultureand an energy culture," he added.

Kristen has listed the initiatives beingundertaken by the company both ashore andafloat to control energy consumption. Forexample, three VLCCs have been fitted withMAN Diesel electronically-controlled mainengines. These engines have no camshaft butinstead to provide power for fuel injection andexhaust valve lifting, they use a hydraulic oilloop with fine filtered oil from the mainengine's lubricating system at about 200 bar pressure.

The loop for heavy fuel oil is maintained ason mechanically-controlled engines, that isindividual plunger type fuel pumps withhydraulic activation. Hence, no fuel oil willenter the precision fast-acting control valvesin the hydraulic oil control loop. This systemenables the adjustment of fuel pump and

exhaust valve timing for optimum economyand NOx reduction.

Kristen said that this was producing lowerpart load fuel consumption, lower emissionsand particularly smoother and better low loadoperation. Switching to low emission modesmeans that the NOx exhaust emission will bebelow the IMO limits, and if desirable belowlocal emission regulations.

Recognising that prevention is always betterthan mitigation, the company said that it optedfor an upstream solution, that is, trying toreduce the formation of NOx, rather than justcleaning the exhaust fumes.

To reduce NOx emissions, new sliding typefuel valves were developed by MAN Diesel,which have been installed on all of Kristen'snewbuildings since 2003. In addition, sevenout of 19 tankers built prior to this havebeen retrofitted.

Slide valves are designed to reduce the fuelvolume remaining in the fuel injection nozzlewhen the valve is closed. They are alsoequipped with a specially designed injectionnozzle that optimises the distribution of fuelthroughout the combustion process. The aim isto avoid high temperature peaks and thusreducing the NOx build up.

In addition, these valves optimise the fuel'scombustion ensuring a cleaner engine. Theconsequential reduction of the HC emissionsand also of PM results in less smokeformation, Kristen said. Furthermore, theengine benefits from reduced piston foulingand exhaust gas boiler fouling resulting in theexhaust valve duct being in excellentcondition.

The new VLCCs from Daewoo will befitted with asymmetric fins to improvepropeller flow and therefore enhance thepropeller's efficiency. Kristen estimated thatfuel savings of up to 4% can be achieved, butthis was to be confirmed following the trialsof the first vessel, which were due to takeplace in June.

Energy auditEnergy efficiency is controlled primarilythrough careful ship operation andmanagement. With the view to enhancing itsenergy efficiency, Kristen organised an 'energyaudit' on board one of its VLCCs to assess theenergy performance of the vessel and itsmajor machinery and operational managementpractices. Among the main objectives were:-

Identifying energy saving opportunities and the assessment of their technical and economic feasibility.Setting up of energy conservation programmes for existing vessels.Developing design considerations aiming at higher efficiency levels for newbuildings.Establishing 'best practice' for on board energy management to be implemented by the crew during their everyday working life on board.

Another initiative Kristen regularly undertakeswhen necessary is propeller polishing. Thishas been estimated to increase the propeller'sefficiency by between 2-4% resulting insignificant fuel savings and thereforeemissions. Kristen now carries out propellerpolishing on all its managed VLCCs on aregular six month cycle as a company policy.



A company’s take onthe environment

Athens-based Kristen Navigation, part of the Angelicoussis group of companies, hasestablished an environmental management system in accordance with ISO 14001:2004.

Kristen Navigation currentlyhas 34 tankers on its books,plus another 15 on order.

These are - VLCCs = 23, plus four newbuilding.Suezmaxes = Five, plus seven newbuilding.Aframaxes = Six, plus four newbuilding.Seven of the VLCCs currently in service are bareboat chartered to ChevronTexaco.



Kristen regularly uses low sulphur fuel oilwhen entering an ECA, or other SOxcontrolled areas established by national orregional legislation. In addition, by regularlycarrying out independent fuel oil analysis, thecompany is able to closely monitor thesulphur content of bunkers lifted to ensurecompliance with the various regulations onsulphur limits.

All the fleet have been supplied withrefrigerant recovery units to deal withrefrigerant gases. Kristen only useshydrochlorofluocarbons (HCFCs) andhydrofluocarbons (HFCs), which are deemedto be less harmful to the ozone layer. Theirconsumption is closely monitored.

Kristen has also set up a Transport EnergyEfficiency Index expressed as grams per hfoper tonne/mile and as well as a CO2 index.These are monitored regularly forbenchmarking and for identifying instanceswhere corrective action is needed to improveenvironmental performance.

The company is also one of the partners inthe EU-funded integrated R&D projectHercules. This initiative was set up to designcleaner and more energy efficient marineengines by developing and testing newtechnologies to reduce emissions and increaseefficiency and reliability, thereby reducingfuel consumption, CO2 emissions and enginelifecycle costs.

Kristen said that the specific objectives

were to reduce related NOx emissions by60% by 2020 and other emissions, such asPM by 40%. This is to be achieved through avariety of new developments inthermodynamics and mechanics of 'extremeparameter' engines by addressing advancedcombustion concepts, multistage intelligentturbocharging and 'hot' engines with energyrecovery and compounding. In addition, newinternal emission reduction methods, aftertreatment techniques and new sensors arebeing developed.

Training initiativeTo help cope with the lack of qualityseafarers, Kristen has set up its own trainingschool, near its office on the main Athensthoroughfare of Syngrou. Hatzigrigorisclaimed that the company had the largestnumber of cadets in the Greek fleet andexplained that the company's policy was toonly employ Greek officers as the vessels flythe Greek flag.

Kristen's maritime institute has beencertificated by DNV. A Kongsberg Polaris bridge simulator has been installedas has a PC version of an engine roomsimulator. The company uses its owninstructors to run its courses and refreshercourses and including the building, theinvestment in the training centre ran toabout Eur500,000.

Greek nationals tend to stay with Greekshipping companies and to help retention,Kristen is organising a survey among theofficers, which it was hoped would show thelevel of satisfaction in working for thecompany. A Sea Tel satnav has been installedon the vessels and seafarers are able to sendprivate e-mails through the company's servers,Hatzigrigoris explained.

Kristen also manages about 10 tankersowned by sister company Alpha Tankers,including three coated and stainless steel coilfitted LR2s. They have been operating in thenaphtha trades for about 18 months, beforeswitching to dirty trading. TO

TMSA 2 hits the streetsNow that the tanker worldhas digested the contents ofTMSA 2, it has become clearthat some of the anomaliesthat appeared in the originalversion, published in 2004,have been cleared up.One of the major changes is that smallertankers, including bunker barges, arenow included and the text has beenchanged to reflect this, that is the word'tankers' has been changed to 'vessels.'

It was thought that this omission in thefirst version left certain gaps whenTMSA was applied to smaller tankeroperators. ISM expert Dr Phil Andersonwriting in ReportISM said that this moveopened up the TMSA concept to a wideraudience, including those drybulkoperators who have seen the benefits thatcan be gained by adopting TMSA as awhole, or in part.

Some of the key performanceindicators (KPIs) have been re-arrangedinto a more logical sequence. Theanomalies in the text have also beenclarified, particularly on how theprogramme should be used andmonitored.

Basically, the updated version keeps to

the same format as its predecessor,which is aimed at helping tankeroperators measure and improve theirsafety management systems, whileencouraging detailed and continuedassessments of safety management.

TMSA 2 also includes referencesto all of the latest industry regulationsand practices adopted since the original version was published four yearsago, ensuring consistency with the newrules entering force since 2004,Anderson said.

He also said that the guidance onachieving the required improvementsunder the original version has beenenhanced, as has the ability to react andbuild on the experiences and feedbackfrom OCIMF members, vessel operatorsand industry organisations.

Anderson thought that TMSA hadevolved in a major risk assessment tool,which is used to assess whether a vesselshould be accepted to carry a gas oroil cargo.

Almost 730 operators now have accessto the TMSA website with global interestreflecting the tanker ownership. Usersinclude 107 in Greece, 66 in Japan, 62 inthe US and 49 in Singapore.

Greek nationals tend to stay with Greekshipping companies and to help retention,

Kristen is organising a survey among the officers, which it was hoped would show

the level of satisfaction in working for the company.

“

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INDUSTRY - SHIPMANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

New are the modules reportingand analysing plus compliancemanagement. "Ship operatorsand managers have expressed

the need for a more workflow-orientatedsoftware tool in order to overcome theincreasing administrative burdens ofcomplying with industry requirements andregulations", commented Heiko Hofmann,managing director of Ms Logistik SystemeGmbH (MsLS), the GL Group company,which put it together.

Based on the results of a focus groupconsisting of three of Germany's largest shippingcompanies and GL, compliance managementwas designed as a best practice solution forrecording, analysing, acting upon anddocumenting incidents, as well as occurrences.

The incident management tool is a maincomponent of compliance management andfacilitates the implementation of a company'ssafety and quality management systems. Themodule can specify the type of report withdefault categories - accident, complaint,deficiency, hazard, improvement, incident,near miss, non-conformity and risk.

Given this information, incidentmanagement will delegate and manage tasksinvolved in carrying out corrective actions. Ithas an action plan, which also includespreventive action.

The compliance management modulecovers all relevant requirements of the ISMCode, which can be supported by an ITsystem, GL claimed. While documentationmanagement enables easy updating anddissemination of safety and quality manuals,certificate management configures crewprofiles for various ship types in compliancewith relevant regulations.

DynamicGL ShipManager 2 is dynamic. It is not onlyprogrammed for document management, but

also for workflow orientation. Withcompliance management it doesn't have to becommunicated through an external emailsystem like Outlook. It has a messagingfunction, which is integrated in the mask ofthe screen. Furthermore, the messagingfunction has a ranking list, so all the personsinvolved can be contacted.

The reporting and analysing module isintegrated with all other modules in thesystem to collect data on various operationalprocesses and generate reports. It provides atool to analyse, evaluate the efficiency andoptimise costs, as well as processes.Reporting and analysing offers an array ofstandard reports combined with freelydefinable reports and the flexibility of ad-hocreporting. The user is able to create his, orher own reports and analyse key figures on demand.

New licenseIn order to allow customers to implementGL ShipManager within their own financialconstraints, MsLS sells GL ShipManager 2under a new license model. In addition topurchasing the software licenses, a leasingoption with the same software will beavailable. With the upgraded system, thedata handling is claimed to be moreefficient and there is an expansion of interfaces.

There is an increased efficiency andsecurity of data transfer, allowing any type ofattachments to be sent quickly and safely. Inaddition, there is an increased configurabilityof transfer data, which provides a higherdegree of protection.

The enhanced order management has afunction originally designed for a cruise shipcompany. Namely, the integration of theredelivery function as a standard component.It enables efficient processing of transactionsin which goods or equipment are sent back

from ship to shore, for example, in the case ofincorrect delivery, damaged goods, qualitydefect or service.

Each GL ShipManager module can also bepurchased individually. Implemented as acomplete suite, it is an integrated informationsystem that improves and automatesprocesses, resulting in a cost saving potential,a reduction in workload and increasedefficiency, GL claimed.

The system will be continuously upgradedwith another version - 2:1 - due at the end ofthis year. Another upgrade is planned for nextyear, MsLs' head of marketing MichaelBauerhaus told TANKEROperator.

Functions, such as a new comprehensivecrew management system, TMSA, ISM riskmanagement, hull monitoring, riskmanagement and assessment, shipboardrouting assistance (SRA) and condition basedmaintenance will be enhanced, or added.

Bauerhaus explained that GL ShipManagerwas originally designed to be a base system tosupport all the other systems, which hadtended to become isolated.

The system as a whole aimed to cover allprocesses, including GL tools, survey statusand many shipboard functions, includingheavy weather routing, crew functions etc.The monitoring and certification of manycargo and ballast tanks can be accomplishedin a short space of time with the minimum ofresources. Compliance documentation can bespeedily accessed. An incident report systemcan be used with an integratedcommunications system, between ship and shore.

GL and MsLs will give comprehensive 24/7support and training and among the companiesthat have tested the system and providedfeedback are Hamburg-Sud (HSDG),Columbus Shipmanagement, MPC and AIDACruises. HSDG made use of the system's crewmanagement module.

Class society offers integrated

software toolLeading German class society Germanischer Lloyd has released

a second version of its software suite - GL ShipManager.

TO



User friendly systemcontinuously

enhancedLeading software developer Ulysses Systems has continued to develop its fully integrated

system - Task Assistant - for both shipboard and shoreside use.

This system is claimed to be veryuser friendly as it allows the userto access the task to be undertakenand information needed without

scrolling through pages of information, whichmight be irrelevant to what was required atthe time.

There are around 50 plus functionsavailable for each role at present and once theuser has quickly learned how to navigate thesystem, the task to be undertaken can bespeedily accessed, Ulysses claimed.

Task orientation is the key differentiation ofUlysses: Task orientation is an activity basedway to organise information so that it appearsto the user not only when he or she looks forit, but also more when they are involved in atask that might need it.

This is extremely important in making thesystem user friendly and even more importantin rendering a system that helps seafarers withtheir jobs, Ulysses said. People learn whenthey are given information, which they did notknow, that is relevant to what they are doing.

Structuring a system enabling that relevanceto be achieved is the key to usability andvalue of an enterprise software system.

Only those authorised to undertake certaintasks are allowed access to the relevant pages.The delegated persons can have access toeither part or the whole system depending onwhat the requirements are. Once logged on,the system will show the user what he or shehas access to and an audit trail can if neededautomatically track the user's actions.

Also Task Assistant pre-emptively providesthe user with relevant information fromvarious sources within the enterprise thatcould be needed for the task at hand. Since theuser may not be aware of informationcontained in the system that may be neededfor the execution of a task, the task orientationpresents the user with all relevant informationat the right time in the execution of the task.

MaintenanceOne example is maintenance tasks,maintenance schedules and work to be

undertaken can be seen, including specificssuch as sorting by ship by fleet bymachinery including work schedule, sparesorders etc. For a person in an organisation,such as a fleet manager who gets involvedonly when others call him in, a view of thisinformation can be very different from thatof a chief engineer who is involved with thesame ship every day. Ulysses role taskorientation ensures the right configurationfor the right role.

Ulysses had found that the marineindustry has neither the time nor the budgetsto train officers to use unintuitive software.Hence the software has been specificallydeveloped for multi-tasking users with a lotof logical indexing structure tailored to eachrole and task, resulting in the ease ofnavigation of the system which is ofprime importance.

Thus the common requirement thatinformation for a certain user only makessense if combined with other relevantinformation is fully accounted for. A primeexample is a group purchasing manager whoneeds to see spares ordering information insuch a way as to back up his subordinates andensure the vessels were supplied in time, aswell as to check whether pricing criteria hadbeen adhered to.

The problem today is that the number ofqualified seafarers is decreasing while thenumber of tasks, which need to beundertaken on board, is increasing. Thisresults in more risk assessments, KPIs andother tasks, which all involve a certainamount of form filling, including the recentlyrevised TMSA for tankers. This means that alot more information needs to be collected informs for the above tasks, and a lot morerelevant knowhow needs to be provided tousers at the time it is needed to ensure

Task orientation is the key differentiationof Ulysses: Task orientation is an activity based way to organise information so that

it appears to the user not only when he or shelooks for it, but also more when they are

involved in a task that might need it.

“

”



quality and co-ordination."If you had around 100 vessels in your

fleet, you could be collecting and usinginformation on 700 forms per day," directorPanteleimon Pantelis said. So organising this information is clearly a priority. Amaritime system such as Ulysses organisesthe information relevant to role, task and context.

Accident investigationAccident reports can be compared with thecrewing model enabling the shore staff to seewhich seafarers, vessels etc have had themost accidents and analyse the reasons whyto prevent similar situations occurring again.The results can be saved as a 'Word'document, or in an Excel spreadsheet.

Several reports can be compiled using thestored data, such as a list of injuries,accidents, non-compliances, records of chartand publications upkeep, plus seafarersqualifications and certificates, among others.

For example, seafarers' cargo operationexperience can be recorded and ascertainedusing the seafarer audit voyage management

system, which will give all the relevant detailsof his or her records, qualifications andcertificates and even which type of vesselsthey had previously served on.

The non-compliance reports are fullyintegrated with the other tasks. Ulyssesexplained that if they were separated, itwould be extra work to reconcile allactivities relevant to resolving a nonconformance; activities such as maintenance,purchasing, crew management etc, with theunderlying non-compliance. By using anintegrated system, the lifecycle of a noncompliance can be assembled with all therelated activities to help co-ordinate theresolution, ensure process control, enablestatistical analysis, etc. Task Assistant blendsthese tasks with all other corporate processesto create what Ulysses believed was afundamental improvement in the way acompany benefited from information andinformation technology.

"You need to have software that virtuallyenables the user to teach him or herself howto use the system. We tend to train the trainerand this takes around four hours to cover all

the models available in the system," Pantelisexplained.

As mentioned, the biggest problem todayis the shortage of seafarers. The system canhelp as a by-product by keeping a companywell informed of seafarer experience andthus primed for most eventualities.

The system is continuously being updatedand Ulysses has offices worldwide that canoffer support. The company will tailor-makethe content of a system for a new client andship if needed, as it would obviously causemajor problems if a maintenance systemintended for a tanker turns out to be a systemmeant for a containership once installed.

The idea is to start the systemconfiguration from a pre-configuredplatform for as many of the tasks aspossible and ensure that the platform isreadily upgraded as situations, rules andregulations, equipment on board and so on changes.

Ulysses is used by a number of tankeroperating companies who are finding it moreand more essential to control the quality oftheir operations, the company claimed.

Experience the rewards of an integrated TMSA IT Solution

For an on-line demonstration email [email protected] or call Michael Kane +1 856.486.0800

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INDUSTRY - CHARTERING

The Aframax Eos undertook avoyage from Amuay Bay to NewYork with a cargo of 549,087barrels of fuel oil under a Shellvoy

5 charter form. During the voyage, the vessel's heating coils

leaked and an amount of fresh water wasintroduced into the fuel oil. The cargo hadreportedly been purchased with a maximumsediment & water (S&W) of 1%.

The supplier's load port certificate ofanalysis showed S&W of 0.7%. However,upon arrival at New York, the cargo inspectorsfound the S&W to be 1.8%.

Following an initial partial discharge andconsiderable subsequent testing and retesting,the charterer ordered the vessel to move fromthe berth to the anchorage. The vesselremained at anchorage for 18 days before re-berthing and completing her discharge.

As a result, the charterer lodged a claim for$471,435, primarily for blending stockrequired to reduce the S&W content toacceptable limits and related tankage costs.The owner counter-claimed for demurragetotalling $1,117,842, including the 18 daysspent at the anchorage.

The charterer contended that it had proved aprima facie case by establishing that the S&Wwas 0.7% on loading and 1.8% ondischarging. Furthermore, the owner did notdispute that the vessel's heating coils hadleaked fresh water into the cargo and thereforethe ship was unseaworthy at thecommencement of the voyage.

According to the US arbitrator, the ownercontended that the load port analysis of thecargo used by the charterer was at leastsuspect, if not erroneous. Moreover, theamount of fresh water which could haveentered the cargo through the leaking heatingcoils was inconsequential and therefore couldnot and did not cause the considerableincrease in S&W content found at New York.

He said that the first issue was whether theload port analysis used by the charterer as thebasis for its claim fairly represented thecondition of the cargo upon loading. Thecargo was loaded from a massive open pitidentified as open pit 801. Just before the Eosberthed to load her cargo, a vessel loaded fueloil from pit 801 which had an S&W of 1.4%.The Eos' certificate of analysis was preparedby the supplier's laboratory and not by anindependent inspection company. The ownerhad no involvement with the sampling oranalysis of the cargo from pit 801.

Further, if - as the charterer contended - thesole cause of the increase in water contentfrom 0.7% to 1.8% was due to the leaky coils,then there would have been a commensurateincrease in the volume of the liquid in theship's tanks. There was an increase of about1,704 barrels based on the difference betweenship's ullages at load and discharge ports.

No evidenceHowever, to support an increase in the volumebased on a difference of 1.1%, there wouldhave had to be a volumetric increase of about6,050 barrels. There was no evidence tosupport this position, the arbitrator said.

While load port certificates may be primafacie evidence of the cargo quality as betweenbuyer and seller of the product (and indeedthis is often 'final and binding'), the qualitycertificate does not have the same import asbetween a charterer and an owner. The solearbitrator, Jack Berg, concluded that, based onthe credible evidence, the cargo on loadinglikely had a water content of between 1.4%and 1.5% and that the leaky coils added about0.3%. "The overwhelming bulk of theproblem" was the excess water existing in thecargo at loading, for which the owner was notresponsible. The result was that the charterer'sclaim was denied.

The arbitrator then considered the owner's

demurrage and expenses claim of $1,117,842,of which $324,438 was for loading anddischarging operations and $822,066 for timespent at the anchorage.

He had no difficulty awarding the former.With respect to the latter, the charterer arguedthat the high water content caused by theleaky coils made it impossible to discharge thecargo promptly.

However, the arbitrator found that thisposition was not sustained by the evidence.The terminal would have taken the cargo in atany time and ultimately did so. Instead, thearbitrator found that the time spent at theanchorage had less to do with the cargo's S&W content than charterer's decision to use theship as floating storage in a rapidly risingmarket from which it "profited enormously".The full amount of the owner's claim wasawarded.

Each side also claimed legal expenses inexcess of $600,000. With very littlediscussion, the arbitrator awarded the owner,as the prevailing party, $550,000 as beingreasonable in the circumstances.

(Case - Andorra Services Inc and ChemoilCorp as charterer - and Venfleet Ltd, asowner).

The 1993-built 99,440 dwt tanker Eos isowned by Venfleet, a subsidiary of Venezuelanoil concern PDV Marina and managed byBernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. She isentered with the UK P&I Club and classed byBureau Veritas, according to Equasis.

*We are indebted to MaritimeAdvocate for permission toreproduce this article and to the solearbitrator, Jack Berg, and theSociety of Maritime Arbitratorsbased in New York for providing thecase study.

Charterer’s cargocontamination case

not provenThe Society of Maritime Arbitrators, New York, has sent a case note on

a recent arbitration award dealing with liability for cargo contamination*.

TO

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She was launched at the Gdanskshipyard of Remontowa on 7thMay this year and is being built onan owner/supplier basis.

Anthony Veder's managing director JanValkier explained that the company was intotal control of the shipbuilding process, dueto the Coral Methane's complex design. Therewere options attached to the original buildingcontract but these have expired.

The gas plant and tanks were designed anddeveloped by TGE Engineering. TheHamworthy Svanehoj pumps had to beredesigned to cope with LNG and othergasses. Rolls-Royce supplied the completepower and propulsion package, whichincludes Bergen Diesel gas/diesel electricpropulsion unit and a twin Azipull propulsionsystem for ease of manoeuvrability.

Coral Methane is being built to BureauVeritas Ice Class 1B and will fly the Dutchflag. She has been chartered to Gasnor for 15years but will used by other operators whennot engaged in Gasnor's LNG trade, whichwill be mainly confined to the Norwegiancoast. She has been fitted for ship-to-shiptransfers and will also be able to load at mostEuropean gas receiving terminals, includingthe two being built in Rotterdam, acting as a

North European/Norway/Baltic Sea feeder. Valkier admitted that the Coral Methane

had a larger capacity than currently needed inNorway, but was convinced the trade willgrow as several Norwegian controlled coastalvessels, such as ferries and offshore supplyvessels, now use LNG as their main fuelsource.

Anthony Veder technically andcommercially manages 15 LPG/Ethylenecarriers and has another four under purelycommercial management. The companyoperates its own commercial pool in which theother four vessels are included.

Like everywhere else, crewing is a problemas the seafarers need a gas certificate and gasexperience. The company has a pool of Dutch,Ukrainian and Indonesian officers and assalaries have been rising appreciably, Valkierthought that the incentives were in place torecruit proper candidates. Gas courses areavailable in Rotterdam and training is alsoundertaken on board ship.

Anthony Veder operates a cadet programmewhere potential seafarers are taken onannually. Demands have also been put on theshore staff. For example, the safety andquality department used to consist of just oneperson, but now there are three people

employed. In general Valkier thought that thebusiness was more demanding and there wereoccasions where the crew was lessexperienced than would be preferred resultingin more supervision being necessary.

Veder favours the Dutch and Liberian flagsand although most of the vessels trade inEuropean waters, including the Mediterraneanand the Baltic, two vessels have been tradingfor Japanese trading houses in Asia since 2000and another newbuilding will join themshortly.

Three of the vessels have been built toFinnish/Swedish Ice Class 1A thusguaranteeing them winter shipments in theNorthern Baltic, especially Finland.

A few months ago, Veder purchasedBergesen Gas' Ice Class 1A 6,100 cu m BWHelen on the back of a charter from YARA tolift ammonia cargoes.

The ships mainly lift petrochemicals (80%)and the remaining 20% of the cargoes aremade up of LPG. Other projects could be onthe horizon, including the carriage of CO2 andthe question of shipping carbon capturecargoes.

Charterers' vetting procedures tended to bequite strict and Anthony Veder is alsoinvolved with the TMSA process. About 70%

Anthony Veder’s innovative hybrid gas carrier - the 7,500 cu m LNG/LEG/LPG carrierCoral Methane* - is due to enter service in December this year.


TECHNOLOGY - SHIP DESCRIPTION

Hybrid gas carriersets the standard

Once delivered, Coral

Methane will bechartered to Gasnor for 15 years.

of the vessels are on long term contracts, suchas coas. Spot charters are used to optimisesome of the voyages. Normally just one cargois carried as Veder prefers to keep each shipin the same trade for ease of purging,although they are fitted with a nitrogen

generator for purging purposes.As for the petrochemical and LPG markets,

Valkier said that they remained good. Heexplained that the rates in this more specialistmarket tend not to experience the same degreeof extremes as seen in other markets.

*A full ship description of the CoralMethane will appear in the firstissue of TANKEROperator followingher delivery.TO



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Hamburg23-26 September


TECHNOLOGY - GAS DETECTION

Ensure the equipment isfit for purpose

Gas detection equipment is required on board all types of ocean going vessels. The requirement can range from simple enclosed space monitors to multiple portable instruments and multi-point sampling systems*.

As with any large market, there area significant number ofequipment suppliers.Unfortunately for those on board

the vessels, decisions can be made withinprocurement departments that do not take keyfactors into consideration; suitability forrequired use, spares availability and technicalback-up. This can and does lead to problemswhen the equipment does not meet therequirements for the application and technicalsupport is required at the next port of call.

Suppliers looking to sell gas detectionequipment to the marine market often viewthis sector as like any other. That being thecase, they meet the regulation or requirementat the lowest cost and the orders will come in.This often results in equipment that wasdesigned for another market being reclassifiedand offered as a solution to the marine market.Within Europe, Marine Equipment Directive(MED) approval is gained and this is the end

of the process - equipment is certified formarine use, make the sales !!

The intensive cost of the research anddevelopment of a new product is such that it isnatural to look for the greatest return possibleon the investment. A new confined spacemonitor, for example, will be designed withthe major land-based opportunities in mind -these being telecommunications, watertreatment, construction andpetrochemical/refinery applications.

The temptation is to get the same equipmentmarine approved and sell into the marinemarket. This is perfectly acceptable whenbeing used as a confined space monitor onboard, as these are numerous such as holdspaces, void spaces and cargo handlingspaces. Dangerous situations can arise,however, when these units are adapted slightlyand sold as gas measuring instruments suitablefor specialist applications, such as themonitoring of inerted cargo tanks.

An instrument being used for monitoringduring inerting operations is required by theInternational Convention for the Safety of Lifeat Sea (SOLAS) Chapter II-2 Reg.16 3.2.1 tomonitor hydrocarbon vapour concentration inthe cargo tank to less than 2% by volume. Asa confined space monitor is designed forsafety monitoring, it typically will not have asuitable resolution or accuracy required tomonitor at low percentage volume levels; thekey measurement with these instruments isLFL (Lower Flammable Limit) or LEL as it iscategorised in land-based applications.

Similarly, ISGOTT 3.2.2 demands that nostatic hazard is introduced to a tank whensampling to monitor gas levels. Specialistmarine equipment manufacturers understandthis requirement and will provide sample linethat is conductive, thus eliminating a possiblesource of ignition. Equipment supplierswithout knowledge of the marine market willsupply adapted confined space monitors withstandard sample line; typical markets on landdo not require conductive sample line,meaning it is not readily available.

Spares critical Another feature of the marine market that isoften overlooked is the availability of sparesand technical support when needed. It isstraightforward when selling to land basedindustries to be able to guarantee sparesavailability and technical support. After all,the end users will be in the same time zone, ifnot the same country as the sales office. Themarine market requires such availability on allof the main shipping routes.

Port authorities and coast guards requirethat gas detection equipment is operationaland within calibration. Failure to satisfy thesechecks can mean that a vessel will not be ableto dock in port or leave the port. This can beextremely costly if the cargo has been sold onthe spot market and is required on a tightshipping schedule thousands of miles away.

It is worth checking with your intendedsupplier of gas detection equipment that theyOnce the European Marine Equipment Directive approval is gained, that tends to be the

end of the matter.



have the necessary infrastructure in place tosupport the equipment. The basics of thisinfrastructure should be authorised repaircentres in place on the majority of vesseltrading routes. It is important to confirm thatthe repair centres are authorised as this willmean they have a direct line of supply to theoriginal equipment manufacturer foravailability of spares and are regularly checkedfor quality of work. When required, the repaircentres will have qualified technicians availableto come on board and assess any problems;repair and putting systems back intocommission where required. The key issue isthat there will be a stock of key sparesavailable, removing the need for the crew ofshipmanagers to chase around looking for asolution to what should be readily available.

Having a network of authorised repair centreswill provide additional benefits. These can besignificant such as a no-hassle warrantyexchange programme, equipment swap-out andcentralised invoicing, if required.

As with any instrumentation, gas detectionequipment can fail due to a number ofconditions. Knowing that such a failure willbe serviced or replaced at the next port of call

without delay is reassuring. The validity of thewarranty claim can be assessed later; the mostimportant aspect is not to delay the vessel.

A direct link and common policy betweenauthorised repair centres and the equipmentmanufacturer increases the flexibility ofservice. When gas detection equipmentrequires a non-standard repair it is oftenpossible for the repair centre to supply atemporary loan instrument that can beswapped out at the next port of call with therepaired instrument. This prevents anyproblems with the vessel not having sufficientoperational units on-board while retaining thefamiliarity of equipment usage by the crew.

Advanced paymentWhen a new customer looks to purchase partsor a service, the terms can often be payment inadvance. This can be impossible to arrange for avessel visiting port one day and leaving thenext. Using an equipment manufacturer withworldwide service centres means that invoicingcan all be passed through a centralised account.Again, this serves to provide the vessel with therequired service without delay.

As has been explained, a procurement

department will often select gas detectionequipment primarily based on price. It ispossible that this equipment can mean that thecrew of the vessel will attempt to use it forapplications that it was not designed for. Infact, it can introduce a dangerous situationthat would not arise if using equipmentdesigned specifically for specialist marine use.

Examples of such are lack of resolution andaccuracy for gas measurement in inerted tanksor the introduction of a static hazard within acargo tank. Also, an often ignored factor is thesupport required to keep equipment operational.The support of authorised repair centres in portswhere they are required with availabletechnicians, spares and technical support canoutweigh the initial cost savings at purchase.

The motto of the story is that if you decideto purchase gas detection equipment based onselling price alone; be prepared to hear backfrom the crew regarding excessive costsrelating to delays or being held in port.

*This article was written by DavidMcLafferty, formerly marketingmanager, Gas MeasurementInstruments Limited (GMI).

Introducing the new range of GasDetection instrumentation from GMIGMI have been providing Gas Detection Equipment to the Shipping Industry for overhalf a century. We manufacture and supply an extensive range of single-gas andmulti-gas, portable and fixed gas detection systems to meet all of the followingrequirements . . . . and more

GMI can provide a completeGas Detection package:

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OIL TANKERSCHEMICAL TANKERSLIQUIFIED GAS CARRIERSBULK CARGO CARRIERSREFRIGERATED CARGOES

Ballast Tank Monitoring

Pump Room MonitoringConfined Space MonitoringVoid Space MonitoringInert Gas MonitoringAccommodation Monitoring

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TO


With a two-year lifespan andguaranteed to be repair-freeduring that time, the newDraeger X-am 1700 is one of

a new generation of one-to-four gas detectorsspecifically designed for personal monitoringapplications.

The new gas detector is claimed to be idealfor use where explosive gases and vapours aswell as O2, CO and H2S may pose a threat to health.

No larger than a mobile phone, thislightweight, ergonomically designedinstrument is easy to use and features thelatest miniaturised XXS generation ofpowerful electrochemical DraegerSensors.

For improved safety when facing unknownhazards, the catalytic Ex sensor, calibrated tomethane, responds quickly to explosive gases.Offering a high level of sensitivity tocombustible organic vapours it also ensuresdependable warnings in the event of explosivehazards, Draeger said.

With a practical two-button control paneland straightforward menu guidance system,

the X-am 1700 benefits from a large liquidcrystal display which provides all readingsat a glance. Fitted with a crocodile clip forsecure attachment to clothing, it alsoincorporates gas inlets on both the top andfront to ensure that, even if it is accidentallyplaced in a jacket pocket, it will stillprovide a reliable warning againstgas hazards.

In alarm situations, the X-am 1700 providesthree different types of warning. These are anaudible multi-tone alarm, a visual 180 degalarm and a built-in vibrational alarm.

Dust and water-resistant to IP67, thisrugged instrument remains fully functionaland ready for use even after being dropped inwater. The integrated rubber protection andshockproof sensors provide additional

resistance to impact and vibration and the unitis also able to withstand electromagneticinterference, Draeger claimed.

The X-am 1700 can be used with either thestandard alkaline or optional NINH batteries.In addition it can be fitted with a T4 batterywhich can be recharged in the workshop or ina vehicle, while still inside the instrument.

Equipped with a data logger as standard,the unit allows data such as alarms, errorsand the results of function tests to betransmitted via infrared interface to a PC.The data can then be analysed using theDraegerGas Vision software. A variety ofoptions are also available.

Meanwhile, the new Draeger X-am gasdetection instrument provides accurate,reliable measurement of one to five gases.Lightweight and as small as a mobile phone, itis completely maintenance free and ensuresfast, reliable monitoring of ambient air.Rugged in design and easy to use, thisinnovative, ATEX approved to zone 0instrument also offers extremely lowoperational costs.


Two hand held gasdetectors launched

Leading gas detectormanufacturer and supplierDraeger has introduced two

new products.

The pocket gas detectors are ideal for potentially hazardous areas, such as machinery spaces.



Incorporating the latest miniaturised XXSgeneration of high performance sensors, theX-am 5000 can be fitted with up to foursensors to detect as many as five gases atonce. For example, by using a catalytic Ex-sensor together with two electrochemicalsensors and a combination, double sensor forCO and H2S, it will provide simultaneousmeasurement of explosive gases and vapoursas well as O2 and other toxic gases.

As well as a wide range of sensors toprotect against CO, H2S, CO2, Cl2, HCN,NH3, NO2, PH3 and SO2, Draeger oxygensensors offer a five-year expected lifetime,and the catalytic Ex sensor, calibrated tomethane, offers exceptional longevity, thecompany said.

Providing improved safety when facingunknown hazards, this Ex sensor respondsquickly to explosive gases (additional

calibrations are available) and offers a high level of sensitivity to combustibleorganic vapours. As a result, it ensuresdependable warnings in the event ofexplosive hazards.

A variety of options are also available suchas an external pump with flexible hose for usein pre-entry/confined space measurementapplications and the Draeger E-Cal automatictest and calibration station.

Inert gas generator from ColdharbourUK based Coldharbour Marine, adivision of Transvac Systemshas added a new type of inertgas generator (IGG) to itsexisting range of products.The new, patented third generation IGGsystem (3gIGG) is claimed to reduce therisk of explosions in cargo tanks and forother applications, such as ballast watertreatment.

Howard Towers, Coldharbour marinedirector said; "Our new third generation SeaGuardian™ IGG represents the result ofseveral years intense research anddevelopment effort by the team here in theUK, and that in turn was based on ourcombined in-house experience of more than50 years in this important sector."

The new technology incorporates severalsignificant advances over traditional IGG

systems, in both burner and quenchscrubber design, resulting in a safer, cleaner,lower maintenance, simpler to operate unit,the company said.

It is fitted with a specially developedVenturi type burner, using axial flow stagedfuel and low NOx atomisation and has beendeveloped from the power generationsector, where the basic technology has awell established history of stable, reliableoperation over long periods.

Coldharbour said that the patentedquench scrubber design is a particularhighlight of the system, offering an end toVenturi/scrubbing towers, spray nozzles anddemister pads.

As a result, the units are more compactthan earlier technologies and this willfacilitate the retrofit market, as well asnewbuildings in the future.

Long term reliability and benchmarkperformance testing was completed in late2007 and the units are currently in the finalstages of receiving appropriate approvalsand certification.

Towers continued; "Our aims were todesign and build the best IGG for thecurrent and all foreseeable future marketrequirements, capable of operating at 0.5%or lower residual O2 levels whilemaintaining zero soot output. We alsowanted to address the typical operating andmaintenance issues associated with theearlier IGG technologies."

Coldharbour Marine is looking to expandits distribution network for the technologyworldwide. It has already receivedindications of interest from Europe, the USand Japan and expects to deliver the firstcustomer units in 2009.

Howard Towers.

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Clean Quick Turnaround in Port Starts with Fast Cleaning

FOUR IN A SERIES on opera t ing chemica l t ankers more pro f i t ab ly

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MarineLine® coating squeezes more profi t from chemical tankers by ensuring quick cleaning, leading to faster port turnaround and more service hours on the high seas.

Often, tank cargos will change between voyages, so effective tank cleaning is essential. MarineLine® coating maintains a very slick and hard surface, i.e. an Ra 0.7 rating (very smooth) vs. Ra 1.8 for Phenol Epoxy. So, the steps of tank washdown, cleaning, drying and desorption move along quickly, with superior tank cleanliness as the ultimate result.

The cross-linked polymer structure of MarineLine® also ensures superior resistance for thousands of chemical cargoes as well as food grades and edible oils, when compared to the limited service and extended cleaning requirements for stainless steel or other coatings.

MarineLine® is the best choice for clean, profi table tanks!

MarineLine® tanks are easily washed and cleaned so they can be quickly readied for the next chemical cargo.

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TECHNOLOGY - CHEMICAL TANKER DISCHARGE

Dischargerequirements should

be simplifiedShould discharge criteria of Annex II cargoes be applied to

carriage of Annex 1 cargoes in chemical tankers?*

Achemical tanker is a type ofvessel designed to transportchemicals in bulk. Ocean-goingchemical tankers generally range

from 5,000 dwt to 40,000 dwt in size, whichis considerably smaller than the average sizesof other oil tankers. Chemical tankersnormally have a series of separate cargo tanks,which are either coated with specialisedcoatings such as phenolic epoxy or zinc paint,or constructed from stainless steel.

Tank cleaning after discharging cargo is avery important aspect of chemical tankeroperations, as tanks which are not properlycleaned of all cargo residues can adverselyaffect the purity of the next cargo loaded.Hence they are fitted with very efficient tankcleaning system.

Since the design requirement of chemicaltankers is more stringent than oil tankers, theyare capable of carrying oil cargoes with somemodification. Most shipowners ensure thattheir chemical tankers are certified to carry oiland chemical cargoes.

The freight earned when lifting cleanpetroleum products (CPP) is low comparedwith chemicals, hence a shipowner will onlycarry oil when a chemical cargo is notavailable.

This happens on average once per year. Another Annex 1 cargo is lubricating oil.

The carriage of lubricating oil requires a

higher degree of cleanliness and care of cargo,thus chemical tankers are the natural choice.Their freight is comparable to that ofchemicals. Hence lubricating oil is carriedexclusively on chemical tankers.

Broadly we can divide Annex 1 (oilcargoes) carried in a chemical tanker intothree categories -.1) Non-persistent clean petroleum products

like Mo gas, Kerosene and Naphtha. They are volatile hence will tend to evaporate in

few hours. They are moderately toxic to the marine environment. However, they are more volatile then chemicals like Xylene and Toluene. When compared to Acrilonitrile, or Benzene they are certainly less harmful to human health and the marine environment.

2) Diesel and light grade lubricating oil (SN 150, SN 600). They are moderately viscous. However, their viscosity is less than 50 MPa.S at 20 deg C and they may

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0

50000000

100000000

150000000

200000000

250000000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Year

CP

P

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

1000000

Lub

Oil CPP

Lub oil

Source:

take up to 12 to 24 hours to evaporate. As far as their adverse effect on environment and on human health is concerned they are certainly less harmful than most of the pure chemicals.

3) Base oil, such as SN 2500. This is persistent oil. If spilled in large quantity, it can have similar of heavy grade fuel oil. However, it is less persistent than many of highly viscous category Ychemicals.

If we compare the properties ofsome chemical and oil cargoeswe will see that tone for toneadverse effect of Annex 1cargoes carried in a chemicaltanker is several times less thanoil cargo. But the moment ashipowner loads CPP orlubricating oil, he has tocomply with followingrequirements.1) Instantaneous rate of

discharge should be less than 30 litres per nautical mile.

2) Vessel should be more than 50 miles off nearest land.

3) Tanker should be en route. 4) Tanker shouldn't be in a

special area.5) Discharge should be through

overboard line. 6) Operational ODCMS.7) Total quantity of oil

discharged should be less than 1/30,000.

While complying with first sixconditions is easy, compliancewith the 7th condition poses anextra burden. The operator hasto keep the slops on board.Since most of the chemicalloading terminals do not haveshore reception facilities, theoperator has to arrange for abarge for slop disposal. Thetotal quantity of wash waterafter settling and discharging asper MARPOL will be too littleto justify the use of barge.

If a vessel is trading inspecial area, there is anotherproblem of huge quantity ofwash water, as most of smallchemical tankers do not haveinert gas fitted on board. Thelayout of piping and pumpsystem is not suitable for

reusing wash water. Hence, they cannot userecycled wash water. Since copious amount ofwater is needed for cleaning to chemicalstandard, a large quantity of tank washingbuilds up. Either he has to keep the slop onboard, which means short loading of the nextcargo, or else arrange for a big barge whichmay be very costly, or may not be available.

Now let us compare the discharge criteria ofAnnex 1 with Annex II cargoes as perMARPOL for category Y for a vessel builtbefore 1st January, 2007.1) The total residue in the tank

should be 150 litres. 2) Vessel should be en route.3) Vessel should be 12 miles off nearest land

in a water depth of more than 25 m.4) Discharge is made below water line. Now take an example of a chemical tankerwith 20 tanks and a deadweight 15,000 dwt.After discharge of the Cat Y chemical, thetotal quantity of chemical discharged will be

20 x 100 = 2,000 litres or 2 cu m.In the case of Annex 1 oil cargo, the totalquantity allowed will be 15,000/30,000 = 0.5 cu m.



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Wherever you require security when blinding:Liquids Oils Solvents Chemicals

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As shown in the drawing thevalves establish a "doublebarrier" closing. Make the valveable to bind off lines with allknown liquids and gases.

Also in the matter of bleedingand take out samples of thepipeline you can use the valvetogether with pressure andvolume measures.

This valve can be delivered inCarbon steel, ST.52.3, instainless: AISI 317L and inDuplex material.

The SUET valve placed inDrain/Outlet Pipes fromtanks/reservoirs prohibit anyaccidental discharges oftoxic/forbidden chemicals to theenvironment. With a seal in thetop Bolt/Nuts it will convince theEnvironmental Authorities andthe Insurance Co. that it will befool proof regarding wrongfulopening of the valve.



If we compare the property and effect ofCPP and lubricating oils with some of the CatY chemicals, we find that larger quantity ofharmful chemicals are allowed to bedischarged compared to less harmful Annex 1cargoes.

When we compare the total quantity ofchemicals transported with the total quantityof CPP, we find that total CPP carried in anyyear is 20 times more than chemical cargoes.Furthermore, the average size of producttankers is 50,000 dwt or more, while theaverage size of parcel chemical tankers is12,000 to 20,000 dwt.

The larger size and greater number of oiltankers mean in real terms that they willdischarge much larger quantities of oilresidue, which calls for very strict measures.While due to the small size and relativelysmall number of chemical tankers, the sumof all the cargo discharged will be much lessthan the total sum of oil residue dischargedat sea. If we compare the total CPP importedin the US with the total lubricating oilimported, we find that on average the totalCPP imported is 170 mill tonnes comparedto only 610,000 tonnes of lubricating oil.(See graph).

Now take the case of CPP and lubricating oilcarried in a chemical tanker. The total quantityof Annex 1 cargo carried is not more than 20%of the total cargo in a year. Hence the total oildischarged at sea will be a fraction of similarchemicals discharged at sea.

If the discharge criteria of Annex IIcargoes, is applied to Annex 1 cargoescarried in modified chemical tankers it willbe of great relief to chemical tanker ownersin the present day scenario of spiralingexpenses.1) Instantaneous rate of discharge should be

less than 30 litres per nautical mile.

2) Vessel should be more than 50 miles off nearest land.

3) Tanker should be en route.4) Discharge should be through overboard

line.5) Operational ODCMS.6) The total residue in the tank should be less

than 150 litres after discharging.7) Vessel should be in water having a depth

of more than 25 m. 8) Total carrying capacity of tanker should

not be more than 20,000 dwt.9) She should not be used exclusively for

carrying Annex 1 cargoes. If it is not possible to extend all the criteria fordischarge of Annex II, at least the parcelchemical tankers of less then 20,000 dwtshould be exempt from "total discharge shouldbe less than 1/30000" requirement of thedischarge criteria.

*This article was written by Capt DKishore who graduated from TSRajendra in 1979. He joinedShipping Corporation of India as adeck cadet. Subsequently, he hasserved in most types of vessels. Hejoined Executive Shipmanagement,Singapore in 2001 as master on achemical tanker and later joinedSamundra Institute of MaritimeStudies (SIMS) in 2004 as a faculty.At SIMS he is lecturing in tanker(oil & chemical) subjects, plus BTMand other safety courses.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1985 1990 1995 2000 2003 2007

Organics Inorganics Triacylglycerols Others

Forecast seaborne trade of liquid chemicals (1982-2007, mill tons)

TO

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TECHNOLOGY - TANK GAUGING

Enraf Holding consisted of sixgroups, which at the time ofwriting are being merged into theHoneywell range of services, a

task which is almost complete. Of specificinterest to the marine sector is Enraf MarineSystems, which is now part of HoneywellMarine Solutions, while its land-baseddivision - Enraf Tanksystems becomesHoneywell Tanksystems.

Philippe Despagne, managing director ofHoneywell Marine Solutions toldTANKEROperator that the buyout gave theformer company a greater advantageworldwide, especially in the service sector asHoneywell was a well established name withoperations around the globe.

Of particular advantage to the shippingsector is Honeywell’s presence in SouthKorea, Japan, China and the Middle East. Thecompany also has a large research anddevelopment capability. Enraf being a small tomedium size concern did not have all theadvantages that can come by using economiesof scale, he said.

Another advantage is that by having theentire marine portfolio in one division, a 'onestop shop' service can be offered, involvingintegrated systems. Honeywell has alreadygained experience by installing integratedsystems (IAS) on LNG carriers building inSouth Korean yards. Despagne claimed thatthe division already had 60% of the LNGCmarket and it is already installing a similar

integrated system on board a large crudecarrier having developed the software.

Products include tank gauging, portablelevel gauging, fire detection systems,automated integration systems, portabledevices for gas detection in ballast tanks and aportable topping off device. Retrofittingwireless technology on vessels' bridges andalso newbuilding installations is another areaof potential for the company. With 15% of theworld's tanker fleet over 20-25 years of age,the retrofit market was seen as being verymuch "alive and kicking".

Based on the experience of work inrefineries, Honeywell is also introducing theconcept of front end engineering demand(FEED) to both shipowners and shipyards.

Honeywell builds onEnraf purchase

It is just over a year since Honeywell agreed to buy Enraf Holding, a division of the privately held Dutch company - Enraf Instruments.

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TECHNOLOGY - TANK GAUGING

Training is another important aspect, involving both Honeywellemployees and seafarers on board vessels. Last year, the companyintroduced a planned maintenance scheme for its systems whereby thecrew could be trained to the first level of maintenance, thus allowingthe service engineer to gain as much information as possible beforecoming on board and starting a repair or maintenance project.

Despagne claimed that Honeywell was No 1 in the portable levelgauging market with a 60% share and one major competitor andaround 25% of the fixed tank gauging market with three maincompetitors, coming in at No 2. Honeywell also boasted the No 1position in LNGC IAS with 75% of the market. For example, Teekayhas ordered an IAS for one of its newbuildings in South Korea. Over900 tankers have been fitted with tank radars thus far.

He explained that even an 8,000 dwt to 15,000 dwt chemical tankerstill had around 14 tanks plus a slop tank to take into consideration.He also said that the systems needed to be made to suit the product asfor example, the same crude oil gauging system would not work in atank full of vegoils.

As mentioned, the service side of the business is becoming ofincreasing importance and the company thought that today is wasessential for shipbuilders and owners to look for a powerful networkof service stations to provide a seamless and timely service concept.

To market this concept, Honeywell is active in 195 countries andboasts a short response time with spares shipped within 24 hours of a request.

For the future, wireless technology is seen as the way forward. Inaddition, Honeywell is working on the ballast tank gas detectiontechnology with enhanced safety systems built in and a portabletopping off device to measure the level of ullage at the top of a tank.

Taking advantage of the lead in IAS technology is another area tobe exploited and the further development of the 'one stop shopping'policy for both yards and owners resulting in the supply of entireintegrated systems, plus the FEED concept

Today, under the corporate banner of Honeywell International, theAutomation and Control Solutions division under ceo Roger Fradinconsists of Honeywell Marine Solutions, which in turn controlsHoneywell Enraf Tanksystems, Honeywell Enraf TerminalAutomation, Honeywell Enraf Fluid Technology, Honeywell EnrafCalbron Solutions and Honeywell Enraf Contec.

Honeywell Marine Solutions France is responsible for all tank levelmeasurement and control activities and last year recorded $29 mill inrevenue; Tanksystems is based in Switzerland and markets theportable tank level gauging systems and last year posted revenue of$20 mill; Norway is the home of ELTEK fire detection and fightingsystems with a 2007 revenue of $6 mill; the LNG IAS division isbased in South Korea and recorded revenues of $30 mill last year andfinally US-based BW offers portable gas detection equipment andboasted a revenue of $5 mill for 2007.

closed gauging

The HERMetic UTImeter Gtex is a portable electronic level gauge for closed gas tight operation resulting in increased

safety and efficiency.

The unit is used for custody transfer, inventory control measurement and free water detection on marine vessels. Connected to a HERMetic vapour con-trol valve, the UTImeter Gtex avoids any gas release during operation and enables 3, optionally 4 measurements in one single operation, Ullage, Temperature, Oil-water interface level and Innage. By increasing safety and efficiency, Honeywell Enraf Tanksystem helps customers improve business performance.

For more information visit our website www.tanksystem.com or call +41 26 919 15 00

© 2008 Honeywell International, Inc. All rights reserved

TO

With 15% of the world’s tankerfleet over 20-25 years of age, the retrofit market was seen

as being very much “alive and kicking”.

“

”

International trade fairHamburg

Meet us at SMM 2008Stand no. 60, Hall A1


TECHNOLOGY - TANK CLEANING

Certainly it is the rate determiningstep and very often it is the mainreason why a vessel may or maynot load its nominated cargo.

But contrary to what you may hear, tankcleaning is not difficult; it is sometimesconfusing and very often frustrating, but thereis always a reason why something hashappened and identifying this reason will veryoften resolve a problem. The importance ofexperience can of course never be under-estimated, but as a great deal of experience hasalready retired, or is in the process of retiring, ithas to be said that experience is not critical.

It is actually noticeable that the days of thelittle 'black book' containing tank cleaningsecrets are clearly becoming numbered, notjust because the number of individuals withthe experience is decreasing but also becausemany of the most effective tank cleaningsecrets are pre-MARPOL regulations andbased on using tank cleaning materials that arenow prohibited.

The use and availability of tank cleaningmaterials today is far more strictly controlledin terms of marine pollution, but as a directconsequence, the potency of many of tankcleaning materials has diminished, which doeshave an impact on the tank cleaning.

Safety is also a far more significant concernand the tendency is to only use tank cleaningmaterials that are non hazardous, non toxicand non flammable. This too also affects theefficiency of the tank cleaning materials anddoes have a bearing on the tank cleaning,particularly when coated cargo tank surfacesare involved.

When one considers that most tank cleaningmaterials are detergent based and detergentscontain surface active ingredients, it is clearthat the primary role of such products is to'clean the surface of the cargo tanks'. If thecargo tanks are lined/plated/clad with stainlesssteel, these products are completelysatisfactory, but if the cargo tanks are linedwith organic or inorganic based paints thatallow previous cargo residues to become

trapped inside the matrix of the coating, surfaceactive cleaning materials are largely ineffective.

This is mainly common sense, but knowingand understanding this is sometimes difficultto comprehend when there are apparently noother solutions available.

What is tank cleaning?All tank cleaning procedures are a logicalsequence of events that will ultimately lead tothe objective of loading the next nominatedcargo. The precise nature of the cleaningprocess is specifically determined by thechemical and physical properties of the cargobeing cleaned from, the type of lining insidethe cargo tanks, the size and dimension of thecargo tanks and the pre-loading specificationsof the next nominated cargo.

The key to any successful cleaningoperation is very simply knowing how far toclean and determining whether each step ofthe cleaning has been effective.

In practice most tank cleaning procedures arevery similar, because there are not that manydifferent variables available to the vessels:

i) Fixed tank cleaning machines or portables (or both).

ii) Water or solvent for the pre-wash?iii) Reaction of the previous cargo(s) with the

cargo tank coating.iv) Cold water or hot water?v) Tank cleaning materials or not?Determining the correct plan is essential, butthis can usually be gained from the many andvaried tank cleaning guides available on themarket. Of far greater significance andimportance is the monitoring of each step ofthe plan, in order to make sure that it hasactually been carried out.

Tank cleaning guides are useful but they canalso be extremely misleading for the simplereason that inexperienced operators will tend touse the guides as a definitive method for anyparticular tank cleaning. This is a mistake whichcan and does cause problems.

Still today in legal disputes on whether avessel is deemed to have cleaned (or not asthe case may be) with "due diligence" in thepreparation of the cargo tanks prior to loadingthe nominated cargo, legal reference is drawn

A large cargo tank with a deepwell pump, drop line and a cleaning machine.

The Science of CargoTank Cleaning

If you ask any commercial or operational management company of a chemical or petroleum product tanker, they will probably say that tank cleaning

is the Achilles Heel of the entire operation*



as to whether the vessel cleaned within the guidelines stipulated in oneor two of the most commonly used and published tank cleaning guides.

One has to ask the question, "how can the outcome of a legal case beinfluenced on a ‘guideline’?" By definition, this is an indicator and not adefinitive procedure? The answer to this question is quite simply thatthere is no other indicator, apart from experience, which is almostimpossible to quantify.

In the same breath, many chemical cargoes are now only loaded if awall wash inspection is found to be within a set of pre-determinedspecifications. Achieving a wall wash standard (particularly in a coatedcargo tank) is extremely challenging and requires extensive tankcleaning. If a vessel fails to meet the required specifications, it impliesthat the vessel is still dirty, yet in many cases this is just not true.

Wall wash specifications are very often set to the same levels ofmagnitude as the export specification of the cargo being loaded. Forexample:i) Zero hydrocarbons in the wall wash and zero hydrocarbons in the

final loaded cargo.ii) 0.5 ppm inorganic chloride in the wall wash and 0.5 ppm inorganic

chloride in the final loaded cargo.In some cases, the wall wash specifications are actually stricter than theexport specifications of the cargo being loaded.

But we are now moving beyond a tank cleaning issue. How can a cargotank be rejected because an independent load port inspector finds a wallwash sample does not meet a set of pre-determined specifications?Specifications that actually apply to all cargo tanks of all vessels,irrespective of vessel type, volume, shape, coating type and so on.

The wall wash test by definition is random and the sampling technique(which can only be carried out on accessible areas of the cargo tanks whichare furthermore only representative of between 10 and 15% of the internalsurface area of the cargo tank) is impossible to standardise.

Yet the sample is analysed to the highest levels of analytical precisionin the cargo supplier's laboratories and it is these results that ultimatelydetermine whether a vessel is clean or not and of course whether thenominated cargo can be loaded.

This goes against all the laws of science, which suggest that thevalidity of any analytical procedure is directly governed by the qualityof the sample. If the sample is not representative/typical/reproducible/standardised, the analytical procedure is not valid.

It is hardly surprising that tank cleaning is considered to be the weaklink of the operational chain, but realistically the odds appear to bestacked well against the vessels.

Failing a wall wash inspection does not always mean that the tankcleaning plan has been ineffective; similarly it does not mean that thenext nominated cargo cannot be successfully loaded. On the contrary,passing the wall wash inspection does not guarantee that the nextnominated cargo can be loaded without the risk of contamination. Yetstill there is pressure to achieve this standard and without acceptance,the vessel does not load and the competence of the crew is questioned.

This is where monitoring the tank cleaning procedure comes into itsown. Indeed, it is found that the wall wash test is actually a very goodmeans of monitoring the efficiency of any tank cleaning procedure,because in many cases the cargo tanks are visually clean, but still thereare residues inside the tanks that are invisible to the naked eye, that canbe picked up in a wall wash sample.

Confirming the presence of these residues is only half of the solution.Identifying what the residues are and removing them is the key to asuccessful tank cleaning procedure.

The hydrocarbon or water miscibility test is one of the most importantparameters on a standard methanol or acetone wall wash. But the test is



not specific and does not tell the analyst whatthe hydrocarbon is. In terms of monitoringtank cleaning, it is very important to know thenature of the hydrocarbon, because this candirectly impact on the subsequent cleaningsteps. It could be:i) Previous cargo.ii) Tank cleaning chemicals.iii) Old cargo absorbed into coated surfaces.iv) Reaction of the wall wash solvent with the

coating.v) Other - for example hydraulic oil, leaking

adjacent cargo etc.Different hydrocarbon products also havedifferent responses to the hydrocarbon test,depending on the relative solubility of thehydrocarbon in water. The most common

hydrocarbon products to slip under the net ofthe hydrocarbon test are aromatics, becausemany aromatics have a very slight solubilityin water.

For example toluene has a solubility inwater of approximately 0.18%, meaning that ifthe wall wash sample contained for example0.175% toluene, it would pass thehydrocarbon test. Clearly having 1,750 ppm oftoluene in a wall wash sample is not thepreferred objective, yet this is quite possible.

Accurately monitoring tank cleaning goesbeyond just 'passing' a wall wash sample andif done correctly, the cargo tanks will actuallybe much cleaner than passing an independentwall wash inspection.

The responsibility for the tank cleaning is

always on the vessel and in the case of a cargotank rejection or cargo contamination claimthere is no recourse on the choice of tankcleaning guide or the validity of theindependent load port inspection. The vesselhas to know how clean the cargo tanks arebefore any cargo is loaded and withoutmonitoring the tank cleaning process this is impossible.

*This article was written by GuyJohnson, BSc (Hons) MRSC CChemCSci), director L&I Maritime (UK)[email protected]. +44 1909 532 003

Five of eight 5,600 dwt doublehull chemical tankers delivered toBergen-based Mowinckel arefitted with a Norclean superstripping system. The other threeare still under construction.According to Mowinckel Ship Management'sOve Berntzen, the advantage in fitting thesystems is the reduced time and work neededfor tank cleaning. "In many cases there is noneed to gas free the vessel and go down tocollect the remaining liquid", Berntzen said.

"When we are using the super strippingsystem, the remaining liquid is only 0.5-1 litrein each bilge well. If, for instance, theremaining cargo is gasoline, we just run thenitrogen system to clear out the remainingliquid," he explained.

For these types of vessels, the requirementsfor stripping is a maximum of 75 litres

remaining in each tank with the associatedpiping system.

He said that during stripping tests on boardone of the sisterships, the remaining cargo wasfound to be 24-50 litres. "As we comply withthe stripping requirements by the use of'normal' stripping, we do not use the superstripping system during normal unloadingoperations", he explained.

Each ice class tanker has a cargo carryingcapacity at 98% of 6,350 cu m and 138 cu mof slops and has 13 cargo segregations eachwith a double valve. They are fitted witheight 200 cu m per hour, four 150 cu m per hour and one 100 cu m per hourcentrifugal pumps.

They are provided with a cargo stock oneach side and a common line of 200 mm portand starboard for and aft of the manifold.

All the tanks can be discharged through any

of the common lines and/or separately throughthe manifold. A stern line of 200 mm is alsofitted. Each presentation flange from the COTis of DIN standard and 150 mm.

The entire cargo system is constructed ofstainless steel and the vessels are coated withMarineLine. As well being fitted with theNorclean super stripping system, a nitrogensystem was also installed in the tanks forinerting and purging.

Out of the eight DNV classed vessels, theFrosta, Troma, Lycian, Lydian and Ionianhave been delivered, while the remainingthree - Hadra, Hitra and Vinga will followthis year and next. They are all products ofthe Celik Tekne Shipyard in Tuzla, nearIstanbul.

Of the vessels in service, Frosta is charteredto Esso Norge, Troma, Lycian and Lydian toStatoilHydro and the Ionian to Gefo.

Left: The stripping requirement is a maximum of 75 litres for this type of vessel. Right: Troma is long term chartered to StatoilHydro.

Super stripping system fitted on board small chemical tankers

TO

TO

To cope with the number of stands,the floor space has been enlargedfrom two years ago by about10,000 sq m to 87,000 sq m to

cater for the expected 47,000 visitors. SMM's organisers have developed a system

whereby a visitor will be able to obtain anadmission ticket promptly and easily and thusavoid waiting at the cash desk.

With the new online ticketing, a visitor willnow have the opportunity to order anadmission ticket from home via the internet.Tickets can be booked and paid forinstantaneously. Payment is exclusively bycredit card.

A visitor can also take advantage of theconvenience of online ticketing by receivingan invitation ticket from an exhibitor. Printingtickets out at home saves time and ensuresyou can arrive at the SMM without stress, theorganisers said.

Upon arrival, the visitor will be confrontedby 11 halls, seven of which are new. A new'sales lounge' will be built in the CentralEntrance -upper floor. Information will beavailable on SMM Istanbul to be held 21st -23rd January next year in the Turkish city.

SMM 2008 will be opened by GermanFederal Minister of Economics andTechnology Michael Glos at 19.00 on 22ndSeptember. At the opening ceremony new ECvice president in charge of transport AntonioTajani, honorary president of the Communityof European Shipyards Associations (CESA)Corrado Antonini and Hamburg's Mayor Olevon Beust will give addresses.

Several side events are also taking placeincluding Europe INNOVA StandardsNetwork (EUROMIND), which will beorganising an international workshop on'Improving Interoperability in theShipbuilding Supply Chain' to be held on 23rdSeptember at VSM - Verband für Schiffbauund Meerestechnik e.V.

The shipbuilding industry is characterisedby intensive co-operation between differentstakeholders (shipbuilders, suppliers,

classification societies and others) and theincreasing demand of working in highlyflexible networks, with often changing projectarenas. This intensive co-operation is apparentin all phases of shipbuilding projects fromconception, design to production of the shipuntil end of life.

Leading edge shipbuilding production isaimed at the integration of latest developmentsin ICT and logistics in the local anddistributed shipbuilding process. Without theinteroperability of ICT systems, which requirestandards and compatibility betweenstandards, advanced forms of E-business areimpossible. Real progress towards reducingproduction cost and lead time depends on adeeper understanding of the integration ofinternal processes and those of suppliers intoan 'integrated production system'.

The EUROMIND network, a project fundedby the European Commission, defined ageneric highly flexible reference standardthrough a pragmatic bottom-up approach byborrowing and learning from standards thatare best in their field and extending these forthe use in the maritime industry.

The consortium will present its resultsduring a special event, organised by VSM inHamburg. The workshop on 23rd September,will start with a walk-in session andcontinuing with a workshop in the afternoonwith guest speakers from the EuropeanCommission, the industry and Europeanassociations.

Of course, the number of exhibitors are fartoo numerous to be mentioned in thisTANKEROperator preview. However, we haveendeavoured to mention a few together withtheir exhibits in strict alphabetical order.

Advanced Polymer Coatings will beshowing the technology that has persuadedleading shipowners worldwide to specify thecoating- MarineLine®.

Donald Keehan, APC's chairman, thedeveloper and manufacturer of theMarineLine® coating system, said, "The firstship coated with MarineLine® was in 1994. In

2006, we announced in Hamburg at SMM thatthe milestone 100th tanker ship had beencoated with MarineLine®. Just last year, 107tankers were coated with MarineLine®, and in2008 we expect to break that record, and weare doing larger tankers then ever before. AtSMM 2008, this fall, we will present the300th MarineLine-coated ship."

Demand for MarineLine® has ledAdvanced Polymer Coatings to open offices inthe major shipbuilding centres across theworld. Existing offices, including AdvancedPolymer’s headquarters in Avon, Ohio US,MarineLine Europe in the UK, andMarineLine Turkey in Tuzla, have now beenjoined with new offices such as AdvancedPolymer Coatings China in Shanghai,MarineLine Korea in Pusan, MarineLineJapan in Shizuoka, and Advanced PolymerCoatings SEA in Singapore.

At SMM 2008, the company is preparing tolaunch an application company that will offerservices in applying MarineLine® and othercoatings. "With our vast experience gained inthe past 18 years with regard to MarineLine®application, heat curing, and inspection, weknow we can take coating application toanother level, thus ensuring for shipownersand shipyards that their coatings work is doneprofessionally and will meet all the warrantyrequirements."

Alfa Laval will display its PureThinkingsolutions PureBallast and PureVent, as well asthe new S and P Flex range separator moduleand the F-152 fuel oil filter. The focus willalso be on integrated ship support, whichcombines spare parts procurement with othervalue-added services. Similar to Alfa Laval'spreventive maintenance initiative, it providesa way of streamlining and safeguarding asupply chain, enabling faster and smoothercommunication that results in moreeconomical operation.

Alfa Laval will also unveil AQUA - a newfreshwater generator - as well as the newGunclean Toftejorg i65 D tank cleaningmachine.

This month's SMM shipping exhibition, the 23rd to be held in Hamburg will be the largest ever, as the event has already attracted more than

1,800 exhibitors from over 50 countries, 250 of which will be new to SMM.

SMM set to breakrecords


SMM PREVIEW


SMM PREVIEW

Alphatron Marine will be presenting acomprehensive range of marine electronicsincluding -

Alphaminicourse: The Alphaminicourse is a gyro compass range including a fully redundant DNV approved interswitch according to OSV rules.Alphaseapilot: The Alphaseapilot is a series of autopilot systems, ranging from a basic autopilot MFC to the fully extended MFA line. Alphaline MF: The Alphaline MF is a fulltype approved line of marine instruments, combining analogue and digital read-out into one single instrument. This range includes:

wind information systemmeteorological systemrate of turn indicatorgyro repeatershallow water echosounderudder indicator systemengine RPM info centre

Alphabridge: The Alphabridge is a modular bridge console concept for small, medium and large vessels. Alphabridge T: Apart from the "standard" Alphabridge a full network based version

is available, which is produced in close cooperation with Transas and JRC Japan Radio Company.AlphaConnect & AlphaAnnounce: The AlphaConnect telephone exchange and the AlphaAnnounce Public Address system will also be displayed at the exhibition. Alphatron JRC river radar JMA 609: The Alphatron river radar JMA 609 has been designed in close co-operation with JRC, resulting in a very sophisticated river radar targeted for the inland shipping market.

Alphatechnique: Alphatechnique, asubsidiary company of Alphatron Marine,formerly Progress technique, will also bepresent at the Alphatron booth 334 and will bedisplaying automation and control systemssuch as;

Alphatechnique bulk handling systemAlphatechnique alarm monitoring systemAlphatechnique tank monitoring and control system

Altro Transflor is exhibiting its uniquemaritime flooring, Gallium. It is the onlyfully-approved, non-PVC slip resistantlightweight flooring on the market. Galliumoffers enhanced underfoot slip and high levels

of fire resistance and wear resistance. It is fullcompliant with MED under the guidance ofthe IMO and full USCG approval.

Leading pump manufacturer Bornemannwill demonstrate how its intelligent pumpsolutions are able to meet growing demandsin shipbuilding. Bornemann's flagship productis its screw spindle pump, which comes invarious design and performance sizes and isused depending on the task on hand and therequirements. For special requirements,Bornemann offers individual packagesolutions, including monitoring and control -high-end pumps for special requirements.

The screw spindle pumps are used asloading pumps on tankers, as transfer pumpsfor heavy-duty HFO quantities and aslubricating pumps for supplying the mainengine. Bornemann progressive cavity pumpsare used as sludge pumps, bilge pumps, aspumps to feed oil extractors, and to emptytanks (residue pumps).

Caterpillar Marine Power Systems(CMPS) will showcase a wealth ofadvancements achieved in technology,manufacturing, customer support and financialsolutions.


SMM PREVIEW

Caterpillar has two marine engine brandsCat® and MaK. MaK has been on show sincethe first SMM back in 1960.

The technology display segment willpresent emission reduction solutions likeACERT™ Technology, Caterpillar commonrail (CCR) and flexible camshaft technology(FCT). Also on display will be the mostadvanced MaK low emission enginetechnology (LEE).

Finally, a new version of the MaK DICAREengine diagnosis and monitoring system canbe seen.

Chemring Marine, parent company ofPains Wessex, is exhibiting the Pains WessexMark 8 range of pyrotechnics.

Sales manager Holger Muegge will beavailable throughout the exhibition to meetcustomers and distributors. Both managingdirector Robert Hill and product manager KeithBradford will also be visiting from the UK.

Also exhibiting is Chemring's UKdistributor, Cosalt International.

Çiçek Shipyard's stand will display recentships completed or under construction,

including IMO II chemical tankers ranging insize from 15,000 dwt to 26,000 dwt, some ofwhich were built to ice class 1A standards forNorth European trading; a 1,300-teumultipurpose breakbulk/container vessel; anda 58,000 dwt Supramax bulk carrier, the

largest vessel ever to be built in Turkey. New at SMM will be the yard's 3,150 dwt

coastal tanker design, which offers earlydelivery dates, and its handysize bulk carrier.

The first 3,150 dwt tanker is now underconstruction and is due for completion shortlyas an IMO II chemical tanker. Variousversions are available, including refinedproducts and bunker tanker options.

To be classed by Bureau Veritas andconstructed to meet ice class 1B standards,these ships will be capable of worldwidetrading, transporting oil products, chemicalsand vegetable, animal and fish oils.

MarineLine coatings have been selected byÇiçek to give the ability to carry a wide rangeof cargoes while high manoeuvrability isaided by the choice of twin azimuthingpropellers and a bow thruster.

Furuno Electric will be presenting INSVoyager the Integrated Navigation System(INS) and the new Bridge Alarm System BR-1000. In addition, the Furuno INS trainingcentre (INSTC) will be introduced:

INSTC was established in Copenhagen in

Chemring’s product manager Keith Bradford.

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updated weeklyFor access to theNews just registerby entering youre-mail address inthe box provided.

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2005. The sole aim of the training centre is toeducate the seafarers on the correct operationof the navigation equipment installed on theirvessels - both during ordinary day-to-day

operation and under extreme conditions. Thetraining center offers ECDIS education, bridgemanagement training and product/ systemtraining.

To ensure and maintain a high level ofquality in the ECDIS training, the educationprogramme has been audited and certified byDNV SeaSkill™. This allows Furuno to issueofficial ECDIS certificates in compliance withIMO STCW 95 and course code 1.27, whichare accepted by the maritime authorities.

Also, the new VSAT and FleetBroadbandsystems will be presented.

Hatlapa Marine Equipment will bepresenting its range of steering gear, whichhas been further enlarged to meet therequirements of the newest 13,000-teucontainerships, which have rudder torques upto 10,000 kNm.

After several European company buyouts,Hatlapa now claims to be the only non-Asianmanufacturer of large ram-type steering gears.All its competitors are Japanese makers whooperate mainly as licensors in South Koreaand China.

In addition, Hatlapa has further developedits range of small compact steering gears,starting at rudder torques of 30 kNm ideallysuited for smaller vessel types.

With the start-up of Hatlapa-Korea in early2007, the ability to serve the Asian andespecially the South Korean shipbuildingmarket has been extended still further.

Hatlapa's co-operation with rudder supplierBecker Marine Systems (BMS) represents avaluable addition. The companies are aimingat extending their knowledge range through anintensive exchange of experience, to provide

SMM PREVIEW


Furuno will be introducing its trainingfacility.

Ballast water solutions - one of the highlights of the showMany of today's ballast watersystems will be on show atSMM, due to the new IMOregulations on ballast watermanagement, which havemotivated manufacturers tocome up with a series ofinnovations.Some of these will be presented for the firsttime at the SMM 2008. All new vessels willbe required to filter all ballast water beforetaking it on board and before discharging itagain soon.

Along with the 12 bill tonnes of ballastwater taken on board every year, vessels alsocarry an armada of stowaways to other parts ofthe world - including plankton, invertebrates,fish larvae, plants, and also pathogens.

According to the environment protectionagency World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF), there are more than 4,000 differentspecies being carried in ballast water to newshores, sometimes with disastrousconsequences.

To back the arguments for the IMO ballastwater regulations, the BSH (FederalMaritime and Hydrographic Agency)conducted an analysis as early as 2004showing the costs for fishery, aquaculture,coastal facilities, etc resulting from thistransportation of organisms. For example,the shipworm has caused Eur50 mill worthof damage in the Baltic Sea since 1993, andthe Chinese mitten crab between Eur73.5mill and Eur85 mill.

The 'International Convention for the

Control and Management of Ships' BallastWater and Sediments' put forward by the IMOin 2004 aims to put an end to uncontrolledmigration of organisms to foreign waters.From 1st January 2009, ballast managementwill be introduced on ships, preventinguncontrolled exchange of water.

By 2016 all ships, both new and old, willhave to be fitted with a cleaning system - alucrative market in view of the 44,500 shipsof more than 300 gt trading today, accordingto figures of the ISL (Institute of ShippingEconomics and Logistics, Bremen).

Bremen-based ROW, a member of VeoliaWater Solutions & Technologies, willshowcase its new CleanBallast system atSMM. Following extensive onshore testing,the system has now been delivered to ashipowner for a live application. The systemcomprises DiskFilters and the EctoSys®electrolysis system for disinfection, treatingthe ballast water inline at full flow rate, andguaranteeing compliance with the IMOPerformance Standard D-2.

The northern German concern Hamann, amanufacturer of marine purification systems,will presents its three-part Sedna system.Hamann started to develop this system asearly as 2001 and has IMO final approvaland more recently from the German flagadministration. The system works withcyclones and filters. Any remainingorganisms are killed by means of a chemicalin the third cleaning stage.

Envio Water will show its EnvioMar®system, which kills micro organisms in

ballast water after a hydrocyclone hasremoved the suspended particulates. Thissystem can handle up to 5,000 cu m ofballast water per hour. The results of the on-shore test will be available at SMM.

Mahle NFV will have itsOceanProtectionSystem OPS formechanical/physical ballast water treatmenton the stand. It is another system that will beshow cased for the first time at SMM. Theapproval procedure has just started.

Alfa Laval has a lead in this field - theSwedish company already has IMO approvalfor its new development PureBallast, achemical-free ballast water treatment system,and took the first order for it in August 2007.In total, Alfa Laval already has orders for 20systems. Alfa Laval received its certificationfrom DNV on behalf of the Norwegian flagadministration.

In October 2007, the NEI VenturiOxygen Stripping (VOS) system was issuedwith type approval certification by theLiberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs. Thisincluded a technical review by ABS.

The IMO Convention requires typeapproval certificates from flagadministrations but not class.

Earlier, Alfa Laval and Hamann had IMOG-9 Basic and Final Approval for theiractive substances. However, the IMO G-9Approval process does not apply to VOSbecause it does not use an active substance,according to NEI.

NEI will be exhibiting at SMM with itsGerman agent DVZ-Services.

Endress+Hauser Instruments International AGKaegenstrasse 24153 Reinach/BLSwitzerlandPhone +41 61 715 8100Fax +41 61 715 [email protected]

What makes a

Professional?

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“Hit a hole-in-one with our full range of solutions for upgrades and new grass roots projects, increasing safety and

production effi ciency.”

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Competence in Oil and GasExperience and innovationEndress+Hauser has provided solutions in Oil and Gas for over 50 years. In the areas of exploration, production, refining and logistics, you can rely on innovative technologies for accurate and reliable measurement and automation.

Solutions for any applicationEndress+Hauser offers a full range of instruments, systems and calibration services to meet all your application needs. We cover the areas of level, flow, pressure, temperature, liquid analysis and registration, as well as communication systems, SCADA, tank gauging and inventory control.

Closeness to the customerLocal service and support is a key principle at Endress+Hauser. As an international partner, we pro-vide service and support to every corner of the world, with local agents on site.

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Come visit us at StocExpoin HelsinkiFebruary 26 - 27, 2008


SMM PREVIEW

common rudder systems. The range of vane type steering gears

currently exceeds 1500 kNm. With thisadditional development, Hatlapa claims to bethe only supplier worldwide offering allavailable types of steering gears.

The importance in recent years of frequencyinverter controlled AC motors has meant thatmore than 1,000 winches with this motor typehave been delivered. This development waspatent-protected at an early stage and isdifferentiated by the creation of nominal pulleven at zero speed. This is a key advantage formooring winches in their holding function.The feature is also available as ex-proofdesign for all kinds of tankers and gascarriers.

Holland Marine Equipment organisationwill be putting together the Holland Pavilionat SMM.

Some 37 Dutch maritime suppliers willpresent their latest technologies in thepavilion, located in Hall B2, lower floor. Thepavilion will measure 840 sq m andincorporate a 'superyacht lounge'.

The Imtech Marine Group will beofficially launched at SMM.

It is an independent group of wellestablished Imtech companies who havejoined forces to offer the marine industry awide range of technical solutions.

The group offers tailor made, innovativesolutions (systems and services) inautomation, nav/com, HVAC (heating,ventilation & air condition), fire protection,energy and AV entertainment.

It includes companies such as HDW-Hagenuk Schiffstechnik, Imtech Marine &Offshore, Imtech Schiffbau-/Dockbautechnik,Radio Holland Group and Royal Dirkzwager.

The Minimax Group will be showing its

new Minifog marine XP high-pressure watermist extinguishing system.

Minifog can be deployed in all vessel areas- whether cabins, corridors or in the engineroom - and with one single sprinkler it has anarea of coverage of up to 32 sq m.

Compared with classic sprinkler systems,Minifog requires up to 90% less extinguishingwater in the event of fire. Due to thisextremely low need for water, the system'spiping and water supply are small and easilylaid out. Less need for space for piping in turnsignificantly facilitates retrofitting.

One single Minifog sprinkler achieves cancover an area of up to 32 sq m. In total theMinifog system requires far fewer sprinklersthan before. Consequently, the piping networkhas fewer branches and fewer fittings. As aside effect this not only means a saving insystem costs but also a lower totalextinguishing system weight. Fuel costs canalso be reduced.

Rovsing Dynamics will join together withshipowners, classification societies andmachinery manufacturers at SMM toexchange views and experience with vesselcondition monitoring.

Condition monitoring of critical vesselmachinery is rapidly becoming an industrystandard. To meet the increasing demand,Rovsing, a MAN Diesel approved conditionmonitoring supplier, will provide a forum on24th and 25th September at SMM.

The open seminars are entitled "VesselCondition Monitoring for Condition BasedMaintenance - What to gain and how to getthere."

Shipowners, who have implementedmonitoring solutions together with RovsingDynamics, will share their practicalexperience with monitoring of main enginebearing wear, thrusters and turbochargers.

These include PRISCO (tankers), ReedereiF Laiesz (car carriers) and Scandlines(ferries). DNV, Germanischer Lloyd andLloyd's Register will present their guidelinesfor a successful condition based maintenancestrategy, supplemented by the requirements ofMAN Diesel.

MAN now recommends that shipownerscompletely disregard regular open-upinspections of the crank-train bearings ofcertain engine types with an approved bearingwear monitoring system, among other things.

SAM Electronics, an L-3 Communicationscompany will exhibit a wide range ofequipment at this year's SMM.

The company will display a series of new-generation automation, navigation, powersupply and energy distribution systems, aswell as safety, security and infotainmentsystems, together with equipment from otherL-3 companies.

SAM Electronics will be showing its Ship Control Centre (SCC).

Around 37 Dutch companies will be exhibiting in the Holland Pavilion.


Major exhibits include a complete ShipControl Centre (SCC) bridge assemblyintegrating navigation, communication,propulsion control and alarm monitoringfunctions on ergonomically-designed,standardised consoles via a series of four new23-inch flatscreen monitors.

Realistic visual simulation on three 40-inchmonitors, supplied by Rheinmetall DefenceElectronics will be featured in co-operationwith the newly established Hamburg MarineTraining Center (MTC).

Key sub-assembly components based on theNACOS XX-5 range include new-generationseries 1100 MULTIPILOT, TRACKPILOTand CONNINGPILOT units together with aCHARTRADAR and CHARTPILOT ECDIS.

The navaid systems will be exhibitedalongside the latest high-precision and type-approved Speedlog SATLOG SLS 4120 withintegrated alarm functions and which can beused in all ambient conditions. A newIntegrated Navigational Data Display (INDD)is capable of showing CONNING functions atnumerous on board locations.

Energy and drive activities will also behighlighted. The latest diesel electric

propulsion systems from 1 MW up to 25 MWwill be exhibited, as will a new ecologicalpower connection system, SAMCon, housedin a standard container for interfacing betweenon board 6.6 kV electrical installations andAlternative Maritime Power (AMP) sourceson piers.

Also featured for the first time will be aswitchboard system (ISA) comprisingcomplete process monitoring of the totalnetwork, including visualisation by touch-screen technology and a new network safetyconcept.

Other key exhibits include an integratedand modular high-end automation system(IAS) Damatic from L-3 Valmarine ofNorway, which has modern human machineinterface solutions for crew and maintenancepersonal, of which over 600 systems havebeen sold. The latest version of L-3 MAPPS's,Canada, Safety Management System (ISMS)will be similarly demonstrated in associationwith the IAS assembly.

The latest dynamic positioning systemsfrom L-3 Dynamic Positioning and ControlSystem of the US will be shown, as well asthe latest echo sounders and sonar systems

from L-3 ELAC Nautik of Kiel.Finally, ship operation sensor systems will

be demonstrated by APSS, recently acquiredby SAM, and cost-effective window wipersystems from WG Schulz of Hamburg willalso be exhibited.

Solar Solve Marine's existing ranges ofmarine roller blinds and solar screens will beon display as well as SOLASAFE-SR, thelatest product launched earlier this year.

The exhibition stand will be located in theBritish Pavilion, in partnership with theBritish Marine Equipment Association.

The new SOLASAFE-SR scratch resistantanti glare roller screens are expected togenerate a great deal of interest and the ecobenefits of all the marine products will beemphasised.

Tamrotor Marine Compressors willexhibit its new compressor range for largecapacities, the TMC 240-365 series.

In addition to this, TMC personnel will bepresent to provide information on otherservices, such as the TMC spare part kits thatmakes maintenance of the compressors easierand cheaper.

The energy-saving, award-winning TMC

SMM PREVIEW

See us at stand 135, Hall B6at SMM

Smart Air® frequency controlled marinecompressor will also be exhibited.

The TMC 240-365 series will replace theprevious ML range. It is slightly smaller thanthe ML. However, the actual footprint, interms of installation/fastening points, is thesame. This means that users who have alreadyplanned installation of an ML compressor inthe engine room can install the TMC 240-365without having to change the specifications.

Also, for repeat users, the new TMC 240-365 compressor can be delivered with a kit formaking all attachment points the same as forthe ML series.

All service points are accessible from oneside, which means that placement is flexiblenot only in terms of height but also in terms ofhorizontal space, as it is not necessary to beable to access the compressor from more thanone side. All canopy walls can be removed.

At SMM 2008, Transas said that it willcontinue to demonstrate its ability to provide'total solutions' to the maritime industry.

To illustrate this approach, the stand willfeature the company's Integrated NavigationSystem (INS), a solution for both Shipyardsand crew training. This high-quality,navigation product is designed to provideseafarers with significant advantages in onboard navigation, while an identical systemcan be used as a training tool enabling asimulated training environment to be asrealistic as possible.

The INS is based on the world's only DNVtype-approved INS Class C Hyundai-Transasintelligent bridge system. Incorporating thecompany's type-approved ECDIS, radar andvector conning applications and having beendeveloped in close co-operation with seafarers

and shipyards, Transas INS focuses heavily onuser-friendly and intuitive functionality.

As part of a continued product developmentprogramme, Transas is constantly expandingits range of on board systems to incorporatethe increasing number of bridge functions andsensors needed to the INS such as gyro, echosounder, autopilot, log and many others.

Transas will also be displaying The TransasFull Mission Bridge Simulator operating as afully functioning training tool.

It has been developed in compliance withthe DNV requirements for INS/IBS training.

Westfalia Separator will be unveiling anew generation of mineral oil Separators -eagleclass.

Westfalia Separator Mineraloil Systems hasexpanded the capacity range both up anddown, and has designed the separators to bemore compact, lighter, more energy-efficientand with fewer wear parts.

A new sensor technology system furtherminimises oil losses during de-sludgingoperations. The smallest and largest separatorin this new series will be exhibited at SMM.

Westfalia Separator Mineraloil Systems isalso extending its product line to include anewly developed fresh water generator,providing shipping companies and shipyardswith a further module for the engine roomfrom a single source

This is the SeaWater Distiller, which has acapacity range of 10 to 30 tonnes per day. TheVisco booster unit with a newly designedpump module is claimed to be more compact,lighter and more easily accessible. Themodule also takes up less space.

As from next year, Westfalia Separator willmarket the BilgeMaster system with maximumoil contents of 15 ppm in the bilge water for thecomplete series; without additional adsorptionfilter and without chemicals.

Sewage treatment will be a new addition tothe range of equipment offered by WestfaliaSeparator Mineraloil Systems.

With a combination of a centrifuge forseparating coarse impurities, a buffer tank andan ultrafiltration system for removing fineimpurities, Westfalia is developing a newsewage treatment system which is to belaunched to coincide with the coming intoforce of the new IMO guidelines.

This year, ZF Marine will display a varietyof transmissions, controllable pitch propellersand electronic controls on the stand and alsooutside, where a propulsion shaft-line, withZF W43100 gearbox and CPP, will be shown.

The new transmission ZF W17000,available in reduction (NR) or reverse-reduction versions, is designed for continuousduty, commercial application with enginepowers up to 3,000 kW (4,000 hp) at 1,200rev/min and a ratio range from about 2 to 4.5.Several PTOs and PTIs are available as wellas a 'get home' device and either manual orautomatic trolling for slow-speed operation.

Another new transmission system, the ZF9050, represents ZF Marine's 9000 series,which is available in many differentconfigurations - parallel offset (vertical andhorizontal), down-angle and vee-drive.


SMM PREVIEW

Transas will be exhibiting its Integrated Navigation System (INS).

Tamrotor will be showing its compressor range.

TO

14 mi l l i on tons i sn ’ t a d rop in the bucket

Yes, size matters when trading bunkers. Let’s just say that with sales of 14

million tons annually, we’re big enough to meet your needs worldwide at

competitive prices—direct from our own stores or those of trusted partners.

On the other hand, we haven’t forgotten the importance of friendly service and

flexibility when it comes to doing business. Guess we’re not so big after all.

Physical Supply · Global Trading · Risk Management

www.owbunke r. com

dependentbut hardly minor

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Christmas tree worm, Caribbean Sea. The detailed spirals are the ocean worm’s highly-developed respiratory structures.

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