The views of the Publishers do not necessarily correspond to the views of Lambos Maritime Overseas Ltd. Republished by kind permission of: A&A Thorpe, 131a Furtherwick Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7AT Tel: +44 (0) 1268 511300 Fax: +44 (0) 1268 510467 shipaat@aol.com The first branded marine coatings to feature the breakthrough anti-fouling ingredient Selektope have been launched by coatings major Chugoku Marine Paints (CMP). Developed by I-TECH AB, Selektope’s pharmaco-logical action is unique in the marine anti-fouling application. It repels barnacle settlement on ships hulls by temporarily stimulating the barnacle larvae’s swimming behaviour. CMPs new generation Seaflo Neo range of anti-foulings make the Selektope solution available as a high performance product for mainstream operations, under two separate brands – Seaflo Neo CF Premium, and SeafloNeo-S Premium. Seaflo Neo CF Premium is based on zinc polymer technology and is a coating with an in-service life exceeding five years, ideal for oceangoing vessels operating worldwide. It has already been applied in full coats to vessels owned by shipping companies based in Sweden, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. Seaflo Neo-S Premium, is based on silyl polymer technology, and specifically targets low activity vessels. It has kept hulls free from barnacles, even when ships have been static during outfitting in the harsh fouling conditions in South Korean shipyards, according to CMP. “These new Seaflo Neo anti-foulings will meet the demands of today’s shipping market,” says Masaya Hata, CMP General Sales Manager. “Seaflo Neo CF Premium is particularly effective for owners seeking optimised vessel efficiency in high fouling areas, while Seaflo Neo-S Premium comes into its own when ships spend more of their time at rest.” High levels of biofouling on a ship’s hull increase drag, reduce vessel performance and increase fuel consumption significantly. Selektope is “proving to be spectacularly effective in the prevention of barnacle attachment and is confirming itself capable of unsurpassed anti-fouling performance, even when a ship is at anchorage for months,” CMP says. The Seaflo Neo range has been developed over a decade of trials and performance data gathering by CMP. Due to the low concentration needed, Selektope does not compromise the chemical structure, colour or other cooperative biocides of a marine coating. Philip Chaabane, Chief Executive I-TECH,...
Read MoreEstaleiro Jurong Aracruz, Sembcorp Marine’s wholly-owned new integrated shipyard in Brazil, is located on an 82.5-hectare site with a long 1.6 km coastline in the municipal of Aracruz in the state of Espirito Santo, about 80 km by road north of the capital of Vitoria. Jurong Aracruz has top notch facilities with deep draft of 9 to 16 metres, 1 km berth, floating crane, finger piers, ancillary piping and steel fabrication workshop. Yard’s specialities are ship repairs, modification, Vessel Conversion and Integration and New Built projects and also can undertake construction of drillships, semi-submersible and jackup rigs, platforms and supply vessels, FPSO integration and topside modules fabrication, in addition to the traditional activities of drilling rig repairs, ship repairs and modification works. In brief Yard has following facilities: – Floating Dock 320m X 90m X 26m – Deep water entry channel: -16m – Thruster pit at South Quay Extension: -19m – Large lifting capacity: 3600 t Floating Crane – Floating Crane auxiliary lift capacity: 400t @ 170m high – Steel and pipe fabrication shops at advanced commissioning...
Read MoreThe views of the Publishers do not necessarily correspond to the views of Lambos Maritime Overseas Ltd. Republished by kind permission of: A&A Thorpe, 131a Furtherwick Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7AT Tel: +44 (0) 1268 511300 Fax: +44 (0) 1268 510467 shipaat@aol.com Accurate performance monitoring is an increasingly key component in effective ship operation and SEEMP plans on board. And for owners who have opted to retrofit their vessels with fuel-saving devices, accurate before and after figures are important both for their own analyses and in negotiations with potential charterers. There are many systems on the market but some are more useful than others. There are two main types of systems. Some measure real-time data including wind, waves, speed and fuel consumption and provide a basis for ship operators to fine-tune certain variables to improve performance. However, these systems only provide guidance based on the prevailing conditions and they rely on shipboard sensors which are prone to error, as well as the ability of ships’ crews to interpret data and respond correctly. The systems themselves are responsive and cannot predict the likely outcome of a particular course of action. Furthermore, some systems merely record the data and then send it ashore for subsequent analysis. This may be relevant for the gauging of long-term trends such as the build-up of marine fouling, for example, but are of little help in optimising immediate ship operation. For this, ship operators need to know what-if’s – the result of a certain action – as well as the actual performance of a certain parameter, such as fuel consumption, in real-time. The second set of performance monitoring systems predict the results of changing a parameter before the move is made. Such a system, many operators believe, is significantly more useful for seafarers and it has been noted that certain “rules of thumb” believed to be virtual certainties by some ship masters have been shown to be invalid in certain circumstances. The launch this week of FutureShip’s latest Eco-Assistant, with a range of enhanced features, falls into the second set of systems and therefore provides a prediction relating to a certain course of action. The Germanischer Lloyd subsidiary has already sold more than 600 Eco-Assistant...
Read MoreThe views of the Publishers do not necessarily correspond to the views of Lambos Maritime Overseas Ltd. Republished by kind permission of: A&A Thorpe, 131a Furtherwick Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7AT Tel: +44 (0) 1268 511300 Fax: +44 (0) 1268 510467 shipaat@aol.com Although experts had predicted that the IMO’s Ballast Water Convention might well have been ratified by the end of the year and would therefore come into force 12 months later, this is now very unlikely. Some experts are even suggesting that it may not enter force until 2014, resulting in a mad scramble as owners try to meet the requirement that existing ships have appropriate installations at their next intermediate or special survey after 2014. Many believe now that the IMO timetable is completely unachievable. Estimates vary widely as to how many installations will ultimately be required. Figures range from 35,000 at the bottom end to as many as 70,000 – a pretty wide margin of error. This is partly because owners of older tonnage could well decide that the investment required to equip their ships to continue trading is just not worth it. Analysts point out that ballast water compliance is only one of a range of new regulatory requirements that could well cripple some owners – burning low-sulphur fuel in Emission Control Areas will transform the operating economics for many ferry operators, for example, whilst scrubber technologies could well prove too expensive to install on many older vessels with a relatively short payback period. Experts in the ballast water field, however, suggest that there is no room for complacency. However much owners may wish the transfer of invasive species in ballast water to be an issue that goes away, the experts insist this will not happen. The IMO’s Convention will inevitably come into force, and sooner rather than later, many believe. So, despite the challenges of operating in markets where many ships are barely breaking even, a proactive approach, rather than a head in the sand, is to be recommended. Those closely involved in fraught negotiations at the IMO concede that the Convention has a range of shortcomings. But they insist that these are being dealt with. Some point out amendments to an existing...
Read MoreSouth Korea and China may still be slugging it out for top position in today’s tough shipbuilding rankings but experts believe that once the present crisis is over, China will have emerged with a significant lead and could even become the “shipbuilding nation of choice”. Before that happens, however, the country’s shipbuilding sector will have to undergo a painful period of bankruptcies, takeovers, modernisation, consolidation and closures to streamline a business that today comprises more than 4,000 shipbuilding firms. Sean Wang, chief financial officer of Rongsheng Heavy Industries, was addressing delegates at Seatrade’s China Money & Ships earlier this week. He predicted that Chinese shipbuilding is currently poised on the brink of a period of widespread consolidation in which thousands of small builders face likely closure, with only a relatively small number of lucky ones absorbed by larger entities. China overtook South Korea in 2010 and became the world’s number one builder in terms of contracts, orderbook and deliveries, only to lose its position to South Korea again in 2011 when new contracting plunged. Wang outlined what he described as the “concentration gap” between China and South Korea: in China, 60% of delivered ships are built by the top ten shipyards, leaving some 4,000 other facilities scrambling to win small contracts of relatively low value. In contrast, he said, 80% of South Korean-built ships are delivered by the country’s top four yards, but there are only around 70 shipbuilding entities in South Korea in total. Chinese yards win contracts typically worth less than a fifth of those in South Korea, he told the conference, and many Chinese builders remained low in competitiveness, low in concentration, small in scale, dispersed in R&D efforts and rare in resource sharing. However, set against this uncertain backdrop, Wang pointed to a range of positive points which, once the present order famine is finished, will leave surviving Chinese yards in a relatively strong competitive position. Some of these stem from the fact that China has become the world’s principal manufacturing factory. Many companies have transferred industrial production to China; there is a vast pool of manufacturing talent there; and there is also a growing preparedness to adopt new and green technology, a key requirement...
Read MoreThe views of the Publishers do not necessarily correspond to the views of Lambos Maritime Overseas Ltd. Republished by kind permission of: A&A Thorpe, 131a Furtherwick Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7AT Tel: +44 (0) 1268 511300 Fax: +44 (0) 1268 510467 shipaat@aol.com Serious shortcomings in the IMO’s Ballast Water Convention are compounding shipowners’ natural reluctance to invest in new technology which offers them a big round zero in terms of return on capital employed. But experts are warning that uncertainty relating even to type-approved system performance – two such systems have been withdrawn from the market in the last few weeks – is making a ship operator’s choice of strategy even more challenging. For repair yards, the issues could become commercially critical over the next five years. Estimates vary, but sources believe that around 1,000 ballast water treatment systems have been purchased and installed so far, with 1-2,000 ordered but not yet fitted. Depending on whose statistics you choose to believe, that could leave around another 55,000 installations of various shapes and sizes to be made over the next five years or so. For repair facilities aligned with proven system manufacturers offering technology that works, there could be a bonanza ahead. However, a key concern relates to filtration technology: there is only a handful of filter manufacturers supplying this market and their filtration designs are widely deployed as key components in many of the systems currently available. But withdrawal from the market of the two systems so far is understood to relate to non-performing filter technology. Sources highlight a series of other issues which cloud the ballast water picture, even for those ship operators who choose to adopt a proactive approach. Many owners and their representative bodies are hoping that these uncertainties will deter some flag states from signing the Convention which has now reached the required number of signatories but still needs more ships to meet the tonnage requirement. Amongst the issues which are causing sleepless nights are: • Type approval: scientists believe the guidelines, as drafted, are wholly inadequate. The process requires testing in sea water of two salinity levels; tests do not need to be carried out in fresh water where many systems fail to...
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