Sea Views: DNV moves to review maritime security

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has initiated a project to thoroughly analyse maritime security, with the aim of certifying the security of ships, ports and terminals, with particular emphasis on cruise liners and other passenger ships.

In a statement, DNV says that the events of September 11 emphasised the vulnerability of life and property to terrorist attacks and no one will be able to guarantee that future attacks by suicide terrorists will not take place.

However, DNV is committed to help minimise this threat within the business areas in which it participates.

The society has, therefore, undertaken an analysis of cruise liners and passenger ships as possible terrorist targets, since cruise traffic is primarily intended for the affluent.

Furthermore, cruise liners clearly represent financial targets - and would also attract spectacular publicity.

In its risk assessment, DNV has based its criteria both on the ship's movements at sea and its stay in port, with different factors coming into play. In particular, the focus on guards and security, when the ship is alongside, is very important.

The statement goes on to say that cruise liner operators have made great efforts to ensure the safety of their passengers and ships, and their focus has been further strengthened following the events of last autumn. Port authorities have also intensified their work in this field.

Bakri and MISC in joint venture: Saudi Arabia's Bakri Navigation Co. (BNC) and the Malaysia International Shipping Corp (MISC) have signed a deal to establish a joint venture. According to a statement from MISC, the deal involves ownership, management, marketing and operation of maritime transportation and shipping related business.

BNC has a fleet of 16 chemical and petroleum production vessels, while MISC is the world's largest carrier of LNG.

P&O container volumes up 13 per cent: First quarter figures announced by P&O's ports show a 13 per cent growth in container volumes with its ferry businesses showing a significant increase in numbers of passengers and vehicles.

The company's port operations demonstrated an overall growth of 9 per cent, with Asian volumes increasing from 986,000 TEUs to more than 1.2 million TEUs compared with the same quarter in 2001. Strong growth was registered at Mumbai, Laem Chabang, and Qingdao.

Australasian and European volumes rose moderately, but in the Americas they fell due to the U.S. economic slowdown and Argentina operations.

A statement from P&O said that progress in Asia has been encouraging and was also promising for the second half of the year and it also said that the ferry business had a reasonable first quarter with freight drops offset by improved passenger numbers and a slight rate recovery.

The company subsidiaries, Stena Line carried 15 per cent more passengers year on year and 12 per cent more tourist vehicles, while P&O Ferries saw similar rises, and stable freight figures.

Weak German demand caused P&O's Trans European Logistics business to slow down during the first part of the quarter but this did show some improvement towards the end, helped by an upturn in the UK and France, and the winning of several chemical and consumer electronics distribution contracts.

The fortunes of P&O's cold logistics business were mixed, with the trends experienced in fourth quarter 2001 continuing in 2002 - down in the U.S. and Argentina, but with strong and stable growth coming through in Australasia.

Australasia was boosted by productivity gains, new and extended contracts and the integration of Eskimo Logistics Group.

SCI in deal with Ceylon Pet-roleum and Petronas: A report by Exim News Service says that the Shipping Corp of India (SCI) is on the verge of signing agreements for transportation of crude with Ceylon Petroleum and Malaysia-based Petronas.

This is the first time that SCI has ventured outside of India following the dismantling of the administered price mechanism (APM) along with the scrapping of the nodal agency status earlier this year. Previously, the deployment of the fleet was restricted exclusively to Indian oil companies.

A top SCI official said that, initially, the deal would involve deployment of one vessel each on voyage basis and the plan was to extend this arrangement on a long-term basis. The requirements of Petronas compared to Ceylon Petroleum are, however, markedly different with the former being huge.

On the charter rates, the official said that it would be more or less comparable with those earned in India, though the intention would be to optimise the revenue by gainfully deploying SCI's tankers.

The SCI is also holding talks with Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) for crude transportation on cost of affreightment (COA) basis.

Meanwhile, the SCI has informed the Mumbai Stock Exchange that a meeting of its board will be held on April 30, for declaration of interim dividend for 2001-02 with May 15 set as the date for the payment of dividend. SCI has been under government pressure to pay out dividend by June, before the company is privatised, for which the process is now well under way.

Rina reports strong growth in 2001: Italian classification society RINA, has reported strong growth for the last financial year. The consolidated revenues of the group were almost 94 million euros, which is up ten per cent from last year's 85.2 million euros.

The pre-tax operating margin was equivalent to 8.5 per cent of the total revenues. Net profit after extraordinary expenses and investment in research and development, and information technology, was 1.5 million euros.

The shipping sector, which is the traditional core business of RINA, accounted for 60.6 million euros, sixty-six per cent of the total revenues, the same as the previous year.

With the entry in class of the new cruise ships and cruise ferries, RINA has performed particularly well in an area of high added value, where the society has a high profile. The total classed tonnage now stands at some 15.7 million GRT.

Meanwhile, RINA has created a scholarship to honour the memory of Giuliano Pattofatto, technical director of RINA and former chairman of IMO's Maritime Safety Committee, who died last year.

The scholarship will be awarded annually to a final year student in Naval Architecture at the University of Genoa. It will fund an internship at the International Maritime Organisation, to allow the student to understand the processes of international ship safety regulation.

Frank Kennedy is a marine consultant based in Dubai.