September 2009
Iamsa Group S.A. opens
a new branch at Port of Santos, Brazil.
A new branch-office has
been opened at the Port of Santos at Brasil by Iamsa Group S.A. The branch
office will open at Av. Presidente Wilson, 165 Office 607, Santos (SP) Brasil.
On the global scale Iamsa
Group operates in four countries world wide, serving several clients offering
maritime services worldwide. "Our company looks for providing quality
services to our customers and reduce cost related with inspections" stated
Mr. Olivier, CEO of the Iamsa Group S.A., emphasizing the very high position
of the Group among the top southamerican´s surveyors.
April 2009
Ing. Abraham B. Oyarce
from Iamsa Argentina attende LISCR ISM/ISPS training course.
During the last week of
March and first week of April our Marine Surveyor Ing. Abraham B. Oyarce attended
the 12 day training course of ISM-ISPS and Casualty Investigation organized
by The Liberian Maritime Administration (LISCR) at Winchester, UK.
September 2008
Iamsa Bureau of Shipping
LLC & Registro Maritimo LLC have just participated for the Regional Expocommex
exhibition at Buenos Aires, Argentina
The show was presented
during the last 24-25 & 26 of September and was sponsored by the Argentinean
Maritime Administration "Prefectura Naval" and several important
marine organizations.
Many visitors got the
opportunity for meeting representatives of commercial offices of the different
Foreign Embassies in Argentina and Bilateral Chambers.The
Marine Administrations of Antigua & Barbuda, Vanuatu, Sierra Leone, Marshall
Islands, Belize, Cook Islands were represented by Registro
Maritimo LLC
Iamsa
Chile Ltd. was represented by the Regional Manager Mrs. Berta Olivier
and The International
Registry of Sierra Loene by The Director Mrs. Leslie Messich.
www.registromaritimo.com
July 2008
Entry into force of
bunkers convention - Update on State Certification Reguirements and issuance
of Blue Cards.
The International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution 2001
(the 'Bunker Convention') will enter into force in State Parties (updated
list below) on 21st November 2008. As already notified, P&I Clubs in the
International Group have agreed to issue the required Bunker Convention 'Blue
Cards' to enable State parties to issue certificates.
State Certification
(i) Ships registered in
State Parties:
Ships registered in a
State Party need only obtain a State certificate from that State. This will
be treated as evidence of insurance when calling at any port or terminal in
any State Party. The State certificate will be issued against the provision
of a Blue Card issued by the Club in the required form (see below). Members
with ships registered in a State Party are recommended to contact the authorities
in that State in order to confirm the application procedures for Bunker Convention
certificates.
(ii) Ships registered
in non-State Parties:
Ships registered in a
State which is not party to the Convention must obtain a State issued certificate
from a State Party to the Convention. The Secretariat of the International
Group and the International Chamber of Shipping have been in contact with
the administrations in a number of State Parties to identify those States
willing to issue certificates for ships which are not registered under their
flag. The International Group has also submitted papers to the March and June
sessions of the IOPC Funds to raise awareness of the need for State Parties
to agree to issue the certificates to ships registered in non-State Parties.
States are, to date, reluctant to agree to issue certificates for ships registered
in non-State Parties unless calling at their ports because of the administrative
burden involved in issuing the necessary, and large, number of certificates
involved.
The International Group
and the International Chamber of Shipping are continuing discussions with
a number of State Parties to seek agreement that they will issue the certificates
to all ships having a gross tonnage greater than 1,000 as soon as possible
irrespective of whether they are calling at their ports after the entry into
force of the Convention. Until these discussions are concluded and a satisfactory
outcome is reached, it will not be possible for the Club to issue Blue Cards
to ships registered in a non-State Party since the Blue Card is required to
be addressed to a State Party that is willing to issue the certificates for
such ships. Members will be kept informed of progress in these discussions.
Issue of Blue Cards
To comply with the Bunker
Convention requirements the Blue Card will need to state the name of the ship,
the ship's distinctive number or letters (or call sign), the port of registry,
the IMO number and the name and full address of the principal place of business
of the registered owner. Blue Cards will only be issued in the name of the
owner. They will not be issued in the name of the operators, managers or bareboat
charterers.
Data collection for preparation
of Blue Cards
In view of the large numbers
of certificates that will need to be produced in a short time some P&I
Clubs will be setting up a simple web-based system to expedite the handling
of applications. Work on this is progressing well and we will circulate more
detail on this in the near future.
Certification and Pooling
of Liability under Certificates
Members have also previously
been informed that the P&I Clubs will issue Blue Cards on condition that
the Member agrees that where any payment by the Association under the certificate
is in respect of war risks, the Member shall indemnify the Association to
the extent that such payment is recoverable under the Member's P&I war
risks policy or would have been recoverable if the Member had maintained and
complied with the terms and conditions of a standard P&I war risks insurance
policy, and that there shall be assigned to the Association all the rights
of the Member under such insurance and against any third party. By requesting
a Blue Card the Member will be deemed to have agreed these conditions.
It is therefore necessary
that all Members requesting Blue Cards ensure that they have in place P&I
war risks cover on standard terms with a separate limit for P&I liabilities.
Members should also contact their primary war risks underwriters to notify
them of the assignment of rights/recovery under the policy.
States Party to the Convention
(as at July 2008)
Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Luxembourg,
Marshall Islands, Norway, Poland, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia,
Spain, Tonga and the United Kingdom.
BACK
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May 13th 2008
(ILO Online) –
Indonesia approved for ratification the ILO’s Seafarers’ Identity
Documents Convention, 2003 (Revised), No. 185.
The Convention requires
all ILO member States to recognize the Seafarer Identity Document (SID) thus
facilitating the seafarers’ admission to their territories for temporary
shore leave without visas. Following the September 11, 2001, attacks in New
York and Washington D.C., the United Kingdom and the United States did not
allow seafarers from several countries, including Indonesia, to go on shore
leave in their seaports.
“Allowing seafarers
to have shore leave at seaports means that they can go to hospitals for medical
treatment, mail letters to their families back home and report on any piracy
and smuggling activities to the authorities”, the Indonesian Transportation
Minister, Jusman Safii Djamal recently told the press.
The new identity document
for seafarers allows for the use of a biometric template to turn two fingerprints
of a seafarer into an internationally standardized bar code on the document.
The Indonesian government will soon issue the first new biometric identity
cards for more than 120,000 Indonesian seafarers working on vessels flying
both Indonesian and foreign flags.
Besides Indonesia, Nigeria
and Pakistan who have ratified the Convention and have begun issuing SIDs,
the ILO has so far registered ratifications from 13 countries and one declaration
of provisional application while many others have taken steps towards ratification.
In the Russian Federation,
President Putin has already signed the ratification decision and the issuance
of the new identity documents is expected to start this month. The documents
will be issued to crew members of commercial and fishing vessels, and river-sea
ships.
“We see this as a
major step toward strengthening security measures in the shipping industry”,
says Alexander Korennoy of the Russian federal agency for sea and river transport.
When asked about the reasons of this move, he stresses that it was “equally
important for us to protect the rights and freedoms of our seafarers and facilitate
their mobility in exercising their job”.
The negotiations that
concluded with the adoption of ILO Convention No. 185 were held in response
to the need for greater global security, while guaranteeing the rights of
workers in the shipping fleet, which handles nearly 90 per cent of world trade.
Igor Kovalchuk, first
deputy chairman of the Seafarers Union of Russia fully agrees with his employer
colleague: “We need to protect our workers. We do not want to face a
situation in which Russian seafarers will not be able to compete in the labour
market because of the absence of secure documents. We also want to avoid restrictions
of their freedom of movement – for example, not being allowed to take
shore leave.”
The 400,000 Russian maritime
workers constitute one-third of the 1.2 million global maritime workforce.
About 50,000 Russians work on foreign ships, a category of workers that is
obviously most interested in receiving the new documents.
The biometric identity
verification system was created in accordance with the ILO Convention No.
185, which Russia approved for ratification in November 2006. The biometric
feature, the fingerprint, is based upon “global interoperability”,
meaning that it must be possible for the fingerprint information on the SID
issued in one country to be read correctly by equipment used in another.
“Looking back, we
can see how much has been done in the past months, recalls Korennoy. “Budget
allocations were made; amendments to five national laws were introduced; ID
manufacturers were contracted; 23 issuance points created throughout the country;
two federal centers (the main and reserve ones) were established in Moscow;
the biometric verification system was tested in a pilot zone”.
“Throughout the process
we worked closely with our colleagues in Geneva, in order to ensure full conformity
of the Russian-made SIDs with the requirement of global interoperability.
The final corrections to SIDs were made after our experts’ mission to
Geneva in August this year”, says Korennoy.
“We are very satisfied
with our collaboration with the Indonesian and Russian partners on this important
issue. In February last year, I visited Russia and could see for myself all
the elements of the newly established biometric verification system, including
the federal center in Moscow. I visited Indonesia in August last year and
also reviewed the operations of central issuing Office in Jakarta. Russia
and Indonesia may set a good example for other countries in their respective
regions in the implementation of Convention No. 185”, says Cleopatra
Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILO’s International Labour Standards Department.
This process has already
started. In March 2007, a conference was held in St. Petersburg to share Russia’s
experience in issuing SIDs with the neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan
and Ukraine that provide a large number of sea-going maritime personnel.
New biometric documents
will be issued to the Russian seafarers upon the expiry of their old identity
documents. It is estimated that the replacement process will take five years.
Indonesia is expected to begin issuance soon.
“The tragic consequences
of terrorism can be aggravated by security measures resulting in hardship
for the world’s seafarers, including work under detrimental conditions
of loss of jobs, and for world shipping in general. This Convention provides
an unprecedented international system for identification freely agreed to
on behalf of governments, ship owners and seafarers”, concludes Doumbia-Henry.
SOURCE: ILO ON LINE
BACK
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Friday, June
01, 2007
Navantia Delivers Frigate
to Royal Norwegian Navy
Navantia has commissioned on May 21, 2007, in the Ferrol shipyard, the F-311
frigate, Roald Amundsen to the Royal Norwegian Navy, presided by the Norwegian
Chief of Navy, Admiral Jan E. Finseth, and the President of Navantia, Juan
Pedro Gómez Jaén. The delivery protocol has been signed by the
Director of the shipyard, Ángel Recamán, and the Director of
NDLO, General Trond Karlsen. Previous to the start of the ceremony, a minute
of silence has been kept, as honor in memory of 4 workers died on board the
frigate on May 11, 2005, while preparing it for the launching.
After the signature of the protocol and the change of flags, the Chief of
Navy has inspected the crew, and the crew has marched on board. Afterwards
the guests have had the opportunity to go on board the Roald Amundsen. The
F-311 frigate is the second of the five F-310 frigates contracted by the Royal
Norwegian Navy to Navantia.
SOURCE: MARINELINK.COM
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Feb 2007
ELIZABETH MEGGINSON
has been appointed as Chief Councel of Maritime Administration of USA (MARAD)
The U.S. Department of
Transportation announced the appointment of Elizabeth Megginson as the Chief
Counsel of the Maritime Administration on February 19, 2007.
Prior to joining Marad,
Elizabeth served as Majority Chief Counsel to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives for six years beginning
in 2001. She also served for five years as Majority Chief Counsel for the
House Committee on Resources (now the Committee on Natural Resources) and
served as a Senior Counsel as well. From 1990 until 1995, she was the Staff
Director and Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Navigation
of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries which was abolished in 1995.
Its jurisdiction was split between a number of other Committees including
Resources and Transportation.
SOURCE: MARAD
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