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Shipping
CASA embarks on educating ships' agency personnel
Ceylon Ship Agent's Association (CASA) has identified the need to
educate Ships' Agency Personnel in various subjects in the industry,
particularly considering the development of Hambantota Port, Colombo
South Expansion Project, Oluvil Port Construction and the Galle Port
Expansion Project, where it is anticipated that these developments will
have the potential for youngsters with a sound knowledge of the shipping
industry, employment opportunities in Shipping Agency Companies and new
Ports due to commence operation in the months ahead.
The CASA Committee on Training and Development of Ships' Agency
Personnel having pursued the Executive Committee observation embarked on
a project to conduct series of Lectures related to the Ships' Agents
Functions.
The series of lectures are being conducted in the Auditorium of the
CASA Secretariat at Ward Place, Colombo 7 are titled 'Finance for Non
Financial Personnel with Emphasis on Shipping Agency Related Work',
'Bills of Lading Clauses and Relevant Issues', 'Incoterms' and 'Sri
Lanka Customs Procedures and Law with regard to Ships Agents Functions'.
The panel of resource personnel were identified by the Committee on
Training and Development of Ships Agency Personnel, convener of which
Nimal Perera (Ex-Co member) and its Chairman Jayantha Ratnayake.
The resource person for 'Finance for Non Financial Personnel with
Emphasis on Shipping Agency Related Work' is Sulochana Ganeshwaran and
'Bills of Lading Clauses and Relevant Issues' by Anoma Ranasinghe. 'Incoterms'
was conducted by Ananda Ranasinghe, an ex-Banker with wide experience in
International Trade while 'Sri Lanka Customs Procedures and Law with
regard to Ships Agents Functions' was conducted by Sudath Silva, an
Assistant Superintendent of Sri Lanka Customs attached to the Human
Resources division of Customs.
This lecture was repeated several times due to its demand from the
Management of Ships Agency Companies.
There has been a tremendous interest shown by members of CASA,
evidence by participation in large numbers, according to CASA Secretary
General Dhammika Walgampaya.
The next lecture in the series is on 'Effective Claims Handling by
Ships Agents and PandI Consideration' will be held in late February
2010, which the resource person is Walter Rodrigo (EX-Co Member).
CASA Training Course for Ships' Agency Personnel - 17th course in
sequence in collaboration with CINEC Maritime Campus where the Group
Managing Director is Capt. Ajith Peiris, who is the Immediate Past
Chairman of CASA, continues mainly for its membership while open to the
public.
Also very recently CASA entered in to an agreement with the Colombo
University for the first time in the history of University Education to
conduct a course on specialization in Transport Economics and Commercial
Shipping. At a recent meeting held at the University of Colombo between
CASA and Dr. Athula Ranasinghe, Head/Department of Economics and Dr.
Guna Ruwan, it was mentioned that there is a tremendous enthusiasm shown
by the under graduate students to follow this course. - SJ
Oceanographers study Indian Ocean's marine world
Oceanographers carrying out vital studies of the Indian Ocean's
marine world have been idle for a year, left stranded ashore by
Somalia's marauding pirates and the global armada combating them.
The flotilla deployed in late 2008 by the world's naval powers to
stem piracy in the Gulf of Aden has driven the sea bandits further out
in the Indian Ocean, notably towards the Seychelles.
A string of hijackings last year meant that the archipelago's boats -
from tourist yachts to the locally-based French and Spanish tuna-fishing
fleets - were stranded for months.
Some of them have gone back to sea with the deployment of soldiers or
private security guards on board but a multitude of scientists from
France, Belgium, South Africa and elsewhere have seen their missions
aborted.
Since April 2009, five scientific campaigns have been cancelled and
are being relocated to pirate-free areas, either further south in the
Mozambican Channel or halfway across the globe in the Atlantic.
A European Union-financed study of tropical tuna and the ecological
effects tuna fishing has on turtles and sharks often entangled in
fishing gear had to be delayed.
"For security reasons, we cannot conduct the deep-sea oceanographic
research we had planned in the usual areas to study tuna or shark
behaviour," said Laurent Dagorn, from France's Institute for Research
and Development (IRD).
"Normally we have researchers on board fishing boats to keep an eye
on what is being caught, especially the by-catches. Now we can no longer
have people on board because there is no space," Dagorn explained.
Michel Goujon, the director of Orthongel, the organisation
representing French frozen tuna producers and boat owners, acknowledged
that piracy had forced a number of scientific mission to the back
burner.
"It is a negative consequence of piracy," Goujon said, pointing out
however that "even before... no scientific institution wanted to risk
having researchers on board a tuna fishing boat."
The risk to scientific expeditions became clear in March last year
when Somali pirates prowling the Seychelles waters hijacked the Indian
Ocean Explorer - a scientific research boat which had been regularly
used by the IRD - and its seven crew members.
The sea bandits freed the crew months later in unclear circumstances
but the Indian Ocean Explorer was apparently destroyed by the pirates
off the coast of Somalia. AFP
Clearing and Forwarding Agents elect new office bearers
The Association of Clearing and forwarding agents, held their 24th
annual general meeting on January 22, at the JAIC Hilton Residencies.
An august gathering, consisting of representatives of major
organizations involved in the Clearing and Forwarding trade were
represented at the meeting. The new committee consisting of 13 office
bearers and members was elected.
The General Manager of VV Karunaratne & Co. Anton Emmanuel was
elected President for the current fiscal year.
This association which consists of more than 70 high profile 'customs
broking' organizations was established in 1985, and is on the threshold
of its 25th year.
The new president in his address outlined his program for the year,
emphasizing that he would be working on a three point program, which
would not only resolve some of the major problems which adversely affect
the trade, but would also give a fillip to the image of the association.
He indicated that a solid platform had been set by his predecessors
and his main objective was to build on this platform with a view to
gaining recognition locally and internationally.
The commercial impact of piracy on the shipping industry has been
massive with more than $80 million (Dh293.8m) paid as ransom worldwide
in 2009 alone, a senior industry official said.
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A ship
surrounded by pirates |
Assistant General Manager at Sharaf Shipping, Farhad Patel said
insurance premium for the Gulf of Eden alone has increased 10-fold and
continues to increase. He was speaking at the Maritime Piracy and
Security Conference organised by ACI in Dubai.
"Every ship operator has to re-route its voyages through the Cape of
Good Hope. It eventually increases the cost for the cargo movement. This
also affects the delivery of commodities worldwide," Patel said.
According to him, the financial burden of ransom goes into millions
of dollars paid to the hijackers, and to the hired security team and to
those who ensure that you deliver the ransom safely. "It is a lengthy
process of negotiation which takes about six to 12 nerve wracking weeks
at an average," Patel said. In 2008, the industry witnessed about 111
attempted hijackings, of which about 42 were successful. About $35m in
ransom was paid during the year. The industry also lost 11 seafarers to
pirate attacks, he said.
"In 2009, the industry suffered 217 attempted hijackings, 47
hijackings and an estimated $80m of paid ransom. The number may cross
the $100m mark.
"About 867 seafarers have been detained by pirates and we have had
four seafarers dead," said Patel.
The shipping industry on the whole has been badly affected and
international authorities and governments should take an aggressive
approach to end the pirate menace, he said.
"The re-routing of the voyages around the Cape itself is a demanding
one. What normally takes 41 days now takes 67 days. It is a dramatic
rise in costs and every shipment is delayed because of this," Patel
said. Emirates Business
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The members of the ACFA (Seated left):
T.P. Moorthy (Treasurer), Uvaiz Samsudeen (Secretary), Anton
Emmanuel (President) Nujith Samarawickrema (Imm. Past
President) Ghouse Arifin (Vice president), Shanil Fernando
(Vice President). Standing (From left): Rohan Ratnayake (Exco.
member), Nalin Dharmapriya (Asst. Secretary), Mahesh
Karunaratne (Exco Member), Irshaard Haq (Exco Member), Y.
Jeyaraj (Exco Member), M.K. Amath (Assistant Treasurer). |
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