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BOW WAVE 133Maritime Security Editionnews and views on trade, insurance and riskBow Wave homepage
In this issue:1. Welcome Charles de Trenck of Solomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong is the container shipping analyst who so often seems to catch the eye when the industry is up for discussion. A recent communication from him offered a nomenclature to describe the financial curve of shipping: Regular Economy Recovery shapes: U = slow V = rapid W = double dip Shipping recovery shapes: M = double dip down N = Sell off with no recovery Readers can contact him at: charles.detrenck@citigroup.com New Readers this week include: Kenyan Forwarder M Greenwood News of Readers Chris Beesley of Ince & Co remains fully and in certain eyes gainfully employed by Incite Claims Management Ltd. In his view the market would like to move away from slavishly applying hourly rates. Incite offers (according to a forthcoming brochure) 'Commercially astute problem resolution at a price that will neither surprise nor offend' Contact him at Michael F Bruce offers a highly specialised Translation Service : He writes: After nearly 40 years representing London and New York insurance brokers in the Americas and Europe, covering all branches, including Marine H&M and P&I, I have since "retirement" in 1992 conducted this specialised service, mainly but not exclusively translating (myself) from Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese into English, and vice versa in collaboration Contact him at: We have learned from Readers that the Compuserve 2000 service is indeed being retired by its owners AOL, who are encouraging customers with the cs.com domains to migrate over to funnily enough AOL. Of the 7200 Readers of Bow Wave, only 16 had such an address at the start of June and three have already changed over. We hope the other 13 will also find their way back to us. Item 5 is on a subject which will occupy many people in the industry in 2002 and many more perhaps thereafter. Enjoy. 2. Ports and Liners China 2002 Conference The organisers of this have kindly asked your editor to speak on port insurance in China. The Conference is being held in Shanghai on 19th-21 June 2002 and will deal with all the preoccupations of the rising container industry in China. We are particularly interested to hear of the prospects of the river trades and supply chain management in China. Details of the conference are available at: http://www.ibc-asia.com/ports-liners.htm We can still remember Shanghai Port before it became one of the fastest growing container centres on the planet. It was rather old fashioned and moved at an old fashioned pace. There are many analysts who are today cautious about the prospects of the Chinese economy. The author of The China Dream, Joe Studwell who also edits the China Economic Quarterly, points out that the 20 per cent per annum growth in the Chinese market for cars last year produced sales numbers only slightly in excess of those for Australia, a country of only 19 million souls. But it is much more difficult to produce this kind of argument in relation to the production and international trade results of the place. China moves over 35 million TEUs in and out of the country up and down its rivers and roads using transport infrastructure which long ago would have been overloaded were it not for the ingenuity displayed in the industries of collection and delivery. 3. The Future of the Motor Car We receive regular letters from the Knowledge Management Team at the Centre for Future Studies here in the UK. Your editor has a bit of a weakness for futurist studies even though sensing what is coming and being able to persuade others of what the future may well hold are two very different things. Andy Berthusen of the Centre writes : On the 17th of May, 2002, The Royal Automobile Club released a report entitled Motoring towards 2050 (RAC Foundation for Motoring, 2002) that represents the culmination of eighteen months of research into the future of motoring in Britain to the year 2050. Will the RAC and its squadron of intellectuals and experts be correct in their predictions? If they're wrong, the hard facts indicate that few of them will be around in 2050 to blame. However, despite the fact that their focus is well into the unknown future, their research does indeed provoke a good deal of thought. The conservative nature of their forward- looking predictions lends credibility and feasibility to a report that, in many ways, could have been just another prediction of flying machines and monorails. http://www.futurestudies.co.uk/communications/infocus/ 4. Portal for Bulk Materials Handling Dr. Reinhard H. Wohlbier runs the The Powder/Bulk Portal a seriously specialised site dedicated to the materials handling industry. He has just announced the appearance of the TIVAR 88 Case History Book. TIVAR 88 is a low friction lining material which promotes the flow of bulk materials. To find out what this is all about see the site and click on the picture at: 5. New Maritime Security Code--Coming to a Ship or Port near You It can come as no surprise to many people in the maritime and transport worlds that there is now a great deal of determination visible to produce a more security minded industry. At IMO a working party formed during the 75th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) to consider maritime security issues. This so called intersessional working group is due to meet in September before there are final discussions at in December of MSC and a Diplomatic Conference to adopt measures. Of what are these measures likely to consist? An amended Chapter XI of SOLAS to read "Special Measures to enhance maritime safety and security". The chapter itself will be divided into two sections one dealing with safety, the other with security. Also under development is a new code, the International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) Code, aimed at all passenger and cargo ships of 500 gt and above and engaged in international voyages. These will have to comply with the rules of the revised Chapter XI of Solas and with Part A of the ISPS Code. Part B will contain the rules on compliance. What looks likely are rules requiring security officers and plans as well as a system of certification. All of this looks quite similar to the way the ISM Code was brought into being. The requirments will be on companies, ports and ships. It will be interesting how the parties will deal with the intermodal dimension of shipping where so often cargos are vanned and devanned anywhere in the world except in ships or ports. We will cover this story as it unfolds over the next weeks and months. Coming soon--more details on the draft regulations. Many thanks to Reader Jeff Blum who remembered to send in these fine things. You don't have to be mad to edit an e-zine but it helps: ETERNAL TRUTHS: Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it. BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7200 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries. Thanks for reading BOW WAVE | Sponsors: Links: | |||||||||||||||||
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