House Bill of Lading HBL and Master Bill of Lading MBL

House Bill of Lading HBL and Master Bill of Lading MBL
A bill of lading issued by a freight forwarder or NVOCC (Non vessel operating companies) or groupage operator is known as a HBL ie. House Bill of Lading. Once after receiving cargo from shipper after necessary customs formalities, the freight forwarder releases House Bill of Lading HBL to the shipper. House Bill of Lading also is a negotiable document and accepted similar to MBL Master Bill of Lading. Normally HBL House Bill of Lading is issued as per the terms and conditions of Multi modal Transport Document Act. The shipper in House Bill of Lading is the exporter or shipper who delivers goods to freight forwarder and the importer or consignee, the party to whom the cargo has to be delivered by the said freight forwarder.

The freight forwarder after receiving goods from shipper, re-book the same cargo to main carriers who are vessel owners. The main carriers, once cargo received, issues Bill of Lading to whom the cargo booked with him. This is called MBL - Master Bill of Lading. In a master bill of lading, the shipper will be the freight forwarder who delivers the cargo to main carrier and the consignee, the overseas counterpart party of the freight forwarder who receives the goods from final shipper.

MARINE RELATED STUDY CAREERS NOW IN KENYA UNIVERSITIES

Quote

 

"Hi all

 

Rewarding and premium sea careers available. Marine Engineering and Nautical. Just to update you that after a successful work by Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) to get Kenya approved by the International Maritime Organisation (KMA) as a seafarers training nation, marine seafaring courses are now available at Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture (JKUAT). Interested students can talk to these universities directly or visit/enquire from KMA (www.kma.go.ke) for more details

 

Silvester M. Kututa

Chairman

========================================

Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers

Eastern Africa Branch (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti)"

Unquotes

WAR ON PIRACY: Panama Maritime Authority Approves AdvanFort Counter-Piracy Operations

Pirates may have to face the musics as

Panama Maritime Authority Approves AdvanFort Counter-Piracy Operations

The AdvanFort Company, a world leader in providing comprehensive maritime security solutions for the commercial shipping industry, was officially approved last week by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) to conduct counter-piracy operations aboard vessels flying the Panama flag.

"We at AdvanFort are very pleased that the world's largest flag state has vetted our company and approved our highly-trained operators to protect their ships from piracy attack," said Captain William H. Watson, president of AdvanFort.

"I want to personally thank Alfonso Castillero, Panama's General Director of the Merchant Marine, for the professional manner in which this approval was handled."

To facilitate the process, Mr. Watson travelled to Panama to meet with Mr. Castillero and with Mrs. Nyxkhari Ardilla, of the PMA's Maritime Ships Security Department.

The Resolution (Number 106-26-DGMM) is dated 4 February 2013 and was later signed by the general director, following an extensive review by the PMA's Technical Committee and Legal Department.

The Republic of Panama is the largest ship registry in the world, with more than 5,700 ships flying the Panamanian flag.

AdvanFort recently emphasized its continuing dedication to quality management by announcing that it is currently undergoing International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 certification.
In addition, this week a number of AdvanFort vessel security officers are participating in a first-ever counter-piracy training program for corporations working in the merchant marine environment.

Offered by the National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy and supported by the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS), the NMLEA's efforts are a big step forward in meeting growing international demands for standardizing (and professionalizing) counter-piracy security teams around the world.

The new NMLEA and MITAGS training program teaches those "best practices" that have been identified to date, with a special emphasis on the effective integration of security forces with vessel captains and crews.

Robert M. Wells, NMLEA director of training, pointed to the company's leading role in the private maritime security world, singling out the fact that the company was just last week officially approved by the Panama Maritime Authority.

"The program," Wells said, "is designed to assist companies like AdvanFort to maintain and highlight their highest level of professional security officers possible."

Source: AdvanFort Company

DNV, PSE Report on Carbon Capture & Storage

DNV, PSE Report on Carbon Capture & Storage

Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a leading classification society, and Process Systems Enterprise Ltd. (PSE), a global provider of advanced process modelling technology, today have released the results of the Maritime CCS (carbon capture and storage) research and development project. The project has successfully developed a concept design for on-board chemical CO2 capture.

The system consists of a chemical absorption plant that separates CO2 from flue gases, a liquefaction unit where the captured CO2 is compressed and condensed using a refrigerant and two storage tanks where the liquid CO2 product is temporarily stored until discharge into transmission and storage infrastructures at the next suitable port. The results show that the concept is technically feasible and capable of reducing ship CO2 emissions by up to 65%. For a VLCC tanker, this could correspond to capturing more than 70,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, transforming them from emissions to a tradable product.

“In response to more stringent environmental regulations and complex market conditions, we see an increased demand for innovative solutions towards higher efficiency and greener operations,” says Dr. Nikolaos Kakalis, Head of DNV Research & Innovation Greece. “Our R&D activities, such as the carbon capture initiative which is completely new in the field of maritime transportation, pave the future towards next-generation solutions for achieving more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable maritime transportation”.

Prof. Costas Pantelides, Managing Director of PSE, says “This has been a challenging design problem with tight constraints. Applying a model-based engineering approach has been key to exploring the process decision space rapidly and effectively, and developing technically feasible and economically viable solutions.”

Maritime CO2 emissions are estimated at over 1000 million tonnes per year, or 3% of total emissions, and are expected to reach 2000 to 3000m tonnes by 2050. The UK government has included maritime emissions in the reduction targets set by the Climate Change Bill, and the International Maritime Organisation is expected to drive a reduction in emissions from international shipping. Because ship emissions are concentrated – unlike other forms of transport – the potential to capture CO2 at source has been the key focus of the project.

The Maritime CCS project was jointly financed by the two partners, the UK’s Technology Strategy Board and the Research Council of Norway under the EUROSTARS initiative. The project took into account the unique challenges posed by the maritime environment – constant movement, limited space and access to utilities, stringent safety requirements and the need for energy efficiency.

Source: DNV

THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS FEDERATION - ITF

Any person who's been following union activities in their own countries and throughout the world will bear witness this organizations are very strong and tends to influence way things are done in areas of involvement. The international labour organization is the pioneer of workers rights and its related to many trade unions worldwide. One such organization which has had a big impact in shipping industry is ITF- International Transport workers Federation. Below is a write up and some of its developments:

THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS FEDERATION - ITF

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896.

The ITF's headquarters is located in London and it has offices in Amman, Brussels, Georgetown (Guyana), Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, Ouagadougou, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

In 2009 the ITF had 654 member organizations in 148 countries, representing a combined membership of 4.5 million workers worldwide.

The ITF is allied with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Any independent trade union with members in the transport industry is eligible for membership of the organization.

The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies such as:

-           The International Labour Organization (ILO),

-           The International Maritime Organization (IMO)

-          The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The organization also:

-           Informs and advises unions about developments in the transport industry in other countries or regions of the world,

-          Organize international solidarity actions when member unions in one country are in conflict with employers or government.

The ITF executive is highly concerned about:

-          The effects of globalization,

-          The increased concentration of ownership of international transport companies,

-          Global warming,

-          Public service improvement

-          The privatization of large formerly state-run transport enterprises.

It notes that the World Trade Organization (WTO) plays a central role in this process and considers it necessary for unions to exert what pressure they can on the WTO to respect social and labour standards in its agreements.

It is particularly concerned about the effect that the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) could have on transport workers by breaking down national transport regulations.

It considers it important to oppose the inclusion of transport-related services in the GATS. It considers that the major international finance organizations, including the World Bank and regional development banks, have had a "serious negative impact both on the quality of transport services and on the employment and working conditions of transport workers."

It also sees the neoliberal economic policies being promoted by regional blocks including the EU, MERCOSUR, ASEAN, NAFTA, and SADC as being generally injurious to transport workers.

It believes it is necessary to create solidarity networks between trade unions, and to improve the coordination between ITF sections, so that effective responses can be made to large multinational business entities which span several regions and many sectors of workers.

The ITF holds a congress every four years in accordance with the ITF Constitution, Rule IV. The congress has supreme authority within the ITF.

Global Mariner history

In the late 1990s, the ITF operated a floating museum, the mV Global Mariner, which sailed around the world to promote awareness of flags of convenience and slave-like conditions at sea.

 The vessel was originally built in England in 1979 as the mV Ruddbank, and sank in 2000 off the Venezuelan coast after colliding with a container ship.

SHIP CLASSIFICATION / CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES

Many individual still confuses ship registration with ship classification. It becomes even confusing where some international ship registers offer the services of classification as well as ship registration. Below write up will help clearly understand classification societies together with their role in shipping:

SHIP CLASSIFICATION / CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES

A classification society is a Non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of Ships and offshore structures.

The society is also responsible for certification and validating that construction is according to set standards and carries out regular surveys to ensure compliance with the standards. 

Classification surveyors inspect ships to make sure that the ship, its components and machinery are built and maintained according to the standards required for their particular class

The best know class of ship to this day is class 100A1 

Today a ship either meets the relevant class society’s rules or it does not.  

To avoid liability, classification societies explicitly take no responsibility for the safety, fitness for purpose, or seaworthiness of the ship. In other words, classification societies do not issue statements or certifications that a vessel is 'fit to sail' or 'unfit to sail', but qualify that the vessel is in compliance with the required codes. This is in part related to legal liability of the classification society. 

ROLES OF CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES:

·         Classification societies set technical rules for vessel construction

·         Confirm that designs and calculations meet these rules,

·         Survey ships and structures during the process of construction and commissioning, and

·         Periodically survey vessels to ensure that they continue to meet the rules.

·         They are responsible for classing oil platforms, other offshore structures, and submarines. This survey process covers diesel engines, important shipboard pumps and other vital machinery.

·         They employ ship surveyors, material engineers, piping engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers and electrical engineers, often located at ports and office buildings around the world.

·         The larger societies also conduct research at their own research facilities in order to improve the effectiveness of their rules and to investigate the safety of new innovations in shipbuilding.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CLASSIFICATION SOCIETY

The advent of open registers, or flags of convenience who also had interest in ship classification, led to competition between classification societies and to a relaxation of their standards.

They have lower standards for vessel, equipment, and crew than traditional maritime countries and often have classification societies certify and inspect the vessels in their registry, instead of by their own shipping authority.

This made it attractive for ship owners to change flag, whereby the ship lost the economic link and the country of registry. This made it easier to change class and introduced a new phenomenon; class hopping.

A ship owner that is dissatisfied with class can change to a different class relatively easily. This has led to more competition between classes and a relaxation of the standards.

This has led to the shipping industry losing confidence in the classification societies

The major classification Societies quickly came together and formed the international association of classification society. This association came up with guidelines, procedures, rules and policies to govern the classification of ships. This included establishment of TOCA (Transfer of Class Agreement). This provided guidelines that were to be adhered to for change of class.

MAJOR CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES

Today there are more than 50 classification societies, the most known of which are:

1.        Det Norske Veritas (DNV)

2.       Lloyd's Register  (LR)

3.       Bureau Veritas (BV)

4.       Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NKK)

5.       American Bureau of Shipping (AB)

6.       Registro Italiano Navale (RINA)

7.       Germanischer Lloyd (GL)

8.       China Classification Society (CSS)

9.       Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS)

10.    Korean Register of Shipping (KRS)

INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU

MOST STUDENTS HAVE BEEN CONSTANTLY FLOWING QUESTIONS AND SEEKING MY EXPLANATION FOR INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU. MORE CERTAIN IS THAT THEY HAVE WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL MARITIME BUREAU AND PIRACY REPORTING CENTRE. PLEASE READ THROUGH MY BELOW WRITE UP FOR CLARITY AND UNDERSTANDING

International Maritime Bureau

The ICC- International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is a specialised division of the International Chamber Of Commerce (ICC).

The IMB is a non-profit making organisation, established in 1981 to act as a focal point in the fight against all types of maritime crime and malpractice.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in it’s resolution A 504 (XII) (5) and (9) adopted on 20 November 1981, has inter alia, urged governments, all interests and organisations to cooperate and exchange information with each other and the IMB with a view to maintaining and developing a co-ordinated action in combating maritime fraud.

The IMB has a MOU with the World Customs Organization (WCO) and has observer status with Interpol (ICPO).

IMB’s main task is to protect the integrity of international trade by seeking out fraud and malpractice. For over 25 years, it has used industry knowledge, experience and access to a large number of well-placed contacts around the world to do this: identifying and investigating frauds, spotting new criminal methods and trends, and highlighting other threats to trade.

The information gathered from sources and during investigations is provided to members in the form of timely advice via a number of different communication routes.

It lists the threats and explains how members can reduce their vulnerability to them.

Over the years, this approach has thwarted many attempted frauds and saved the shipping and trading industry many millions of dollars.

The IMB provides an authentication service for trade finance documentation. It also investigates and reports on a number of other topics, notably documentary credit fraud, charter party fraud, cargo theft, ship deviation and ship finance fraud.

As well as helping to prevent crime, the IMB also has a duty to educate both the shipping community and a wider audience that comprises just about every entity engaged in trade. To this end, the IMB runs a regular series of courses and training programmes that have a wide-ranging syllabus and many proven benefits. It also offers bespoke consultancy services in areas such as ship and port security.

One of the IMB’s principal areas of expertise is in the suppression of piracy. Concerned at the alarming growth in the phenomenon, this led to the creation of the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre in 1992.

The Centre is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It maintains a round-the-clock watch on the world’s shipping lanes, reporting pirate attacks to local law enforcement and issuing warnings about piracy hotspots to shipping.

With its multi-lingual and multi-disciplined staff, experience, unique structure, industry support and well-placed contacts, the IMB can rightly claim to be the world’s premier independent crime-fighting watchdog for international trade.

LINERS / COMMON CARRIERS

Did you know that a Liner Service is a service that operates within a schedule and has fixed port rotation with published dates of calls at the advertised ports..

A liner service generally fulfills the schedule unless in cases where a call at one of the ports has been unduly delayed due to natural or man-mad causes.

Liner carriers are referred to as common carriers.

A common carrier holds itself out to provide service to the general public without discrimination (to meet the needs of the toward the public's interest) for the "public convenience and necessity".

A common carrier must further demonstrate to the regulator that it is "fit, willing, and able" to provide those services for which it is granted authority.

Common carriers typically transport persons or goods according to defined and published routes, time schedules, and rate tables upon the approval of regulators

Liner vessels do not include ferries or other vessels engaged in short-sea trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself, and not transportation, is the prime purpose of the trip. Nor does it include tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers.

Some shipping companies refer to themselves as "lines" and their container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as "liners".

Ocean liners are usually strongly built with a high freeboard to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean.

Additionally, they are often designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships, and have large capacities for fuel, food and other consumables on long voyages.

Example : The UK/NWC continent service of MSC which has a fixed weekly schedule calling the South African ports of Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and carrying cargo to the UK/NWC ports of Felixstowe, Antwerp, Hamburg, Le Havre and Rotterdam..

Summary of major characteristics of liners / liner companies

-         They are common carriers

-         Operate under fixed schedule / timetables

-         Call advertised ports

-         Freight rates are somehow identical for all shippers

-         Liner companies are bigger establishments

-         They issue bill of lading as evidence for the contract

-         Carry general cargo consisting of finished products

A Tramp Service or tramper on the other hand is a ship that has no fixed routing or itinerary or schedule and is available at short notice (or fixture) to load any cargo from any port to any port..

Example : A ship that arrives at Durban from Korea to discharge cargo might carry some other cargo from Durban to the Oakland in the West Coast of USA which in an entirely different direction.. From Oakland say for example it could carry some cargo and go to Bremerhaven..

CMA CGM MARCO POLO - WORLD BIGGEST CONTAINER SHIP

 CMA CGM Marco Polo is a container ship in the Explorer class owned by the CMA CGM group. On 6 November 2012, it became the largest containership in the world measured by capacity, as it can hold 16,020 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit containers).

 The previous largest was Emma Mærsk and her seven sisters of the Mærsk E-class. The capacity is 10,000... TEU if all are fully loaded 14 ton containers, compared to 11,000 for Emma Mærsk. 

 

The Maersk Triple E class, currently under construction, will be even larger than the CMA CGM Marco Polo, to give you an indication of the Maersk Tripple E- Class size, take a NFL stadium, NBA arena and Ice Hockey rink; put them end on end and you have the length of the Triple E. Thats the length the world biggest container ship coming this July

 

 

Nato Shipping Centre: Weekly Piracy Update

During the reporting period of 22 - 29 January 2013 there were no piracy related incidents in the High Risk Area (HRA).Merchant vessels are reminded to remain vigilant while transiting this area and ensure that Self Protection Measures are in place as Pirate Attack Groups (PAGs) may be operating in the area. Although sea states in some parts of the HRA have become more marginal with the onset of the Northeast Monsoon season, small boats are still be able to operate.

During the past few months there have been continued reports concerning suspicious activity in the HRA. Fishing activity is expected to continue in this area. Fishermen may carry small arms. Masters are reminded to remain vigilant in order to distinguish between fishing vessels and potential pirates.
Counter Piracy Guidance

Continued threat: The threat of piracy against merchant shipping continues throughout the entire HRA . Despite the deterioration in conditions associated with the Northeast Monsoon season, sea states remain conducive to piracy operations. Successful disruptions by naval forces over the past few months, in conjunction with masters’ adherence and implementation of BMP4, have significantly reduced the pirates’ ability to capture vessels. However, pirates are able to act far off the coast of Somalia and are likely in search of vessels of opportunity, such as those who are not employing BMP4 recommended Ship Protection Measures.

Need for continued vigilance and use of BMP: Merchant vessels are advised to remain vigilant throughout the HRA and ensure that Self Protection Measures are implemented as recommended in BMP4. Prudent and timely implementation of all recommended actions and ship hardening measures in BMP4 can make the critical difference of being approached, attacked, or pirated. NSC would like to remind masters that BMP4 highly recommends maintaining best possible vessel speed when transiting the HRA to deter pirate boardings.

Registration and reporting: As per Section 5 of BMP4, early registration with MSCHOA before entering the HRA and initial and regular reporting to UKMTO are highly recommended to ensure military authorities are aware of a vessel’s passage and vulnerabilities.

Reporting of incidents: It has been observed that some Masters are choosing to phone their Company Security Officer (CSO) first in the event of a piracy incident. However, one of the fundamental requirements of BMP4 is that UKMTO is the primary point of contact for merchant vessels during piracy incidents in the HRA. This aims to avoid unnecessary delay and prevent inaccurate or incomplete information from reaching military commanders. CSOs should ensure their ships’ security plans reinforce the BMP4 recommendation that UKMTO be immediately telephoned at +971 50 55 23215 in the event of any piracy activity. UKMTO will then make it a priority to contact the CSO with any information received whilst ensuring the relevant information reaches the military commanders without delay. Masters should provide as much accurate information as possible. This will ensure the incident can be fully assessed and information is quickly provided to other ships in the area for their awareness and vigilance. If Masters are safely able to take pictures and/or video of the suspicious activity, please provide these via email to UKMTO at ukmto@eim.ae, to the NSC (NATO Shipping Centre) at info@shipping.nato.int and to the Maritime Security Centre Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) at postmaster@mschoa.org. This information will be used by Counter Piracy forces to combat piracy activity.

Pirate Tactics: Recently, PAGs have made “soft-approaches” on merchant ships transiting the HRA. A skiff will often approach a vessel in order to probe the reactivity of an embarked security team, if present. If no response, the pirates may proceed with an attack, sometimes accompanied by a second skiff. This practice is likely more economical as pirates avoid needless expenditures of resources, such as ammunition, and personal risk without a significant probability of success.

Other activity: There have been a number of incidents reported to Counter Piracy organisations in the HRA involving small craft approaches to merchant vessels. Although these incidents may appear to be piracy related, the majority actually are not and have been assessed as non-piracy related activity common to the pattern of life in the area. This can include fishing, small vessel trade, smuggling and other local traffic. Please note that, if the NATO Shipping Centre assesses an approach or incident to be piracy, we will issue relevant warnings and alerts, keeping the merchant shipping community fully informed at all times.

Sailing vessels: Sailing yachts should avoid transiting the HRA. Past activity has shown that pirates will attack both large and small yachts passing their way. Despite the fact that attacks on merchant vessels appear to have decreased, the possibility of attacks and the successful pirating of sailing vessels remains likely due to their vulnerability and the reduction of revenue sources from pirated merchant vessels.

As noted above, if an incident occurs, Masters are to report immediately to UKMTO via telephone at +971 50 55 23215 and provide as much accurate information as possible. This will ensure the information is quickly provided to other ships in the area for their awareness and vigilance. If Masters are safely able to take pictures and/or video of the suspicious activity, please provide these via email to UKMTO at ukmto@eim.ae, to the NSC (NATO Shipping Centre) at info@shipping.nato.int and to the Maritime Security Centre Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) at postmaster@mschoa.org. This information will be used by Counter Piracy forces to combat piracy activity.
Source: NATO Shipping Centre