BOW WAVE 143

Summertime Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 143 19 Aug 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Should Airline Pilots Carry Guns?
3. Storage Site
4. Southern China Port Statistics
5. Consolidation News
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

New Readers this week include:

Insurance lawyer Bruce Virgo of Barry & Nilsson in Brisbane Logistics manager Wolfgang Steiniger of Intels Nigeria in Port Harcourt US East Coast Admiralty Lawyer William H. Hagendorn Gordon Crutcher of consultants Towers Perrin
The firm of Marine Law in Newcastle in England
Anthonie Fung-Marine Manager for Willis China (Hong Kong) Limited

News of Readers

Canadian insurance litigator Roderic C. McLauchlan of Nicholl Paskell-Mede s.e.n.c.
in Montreal is relocating to London for personal reasons. Any reader who might
know of an opportunity for him in the market should contact him at:

RMCLAUC@npm.ca

Our listings of broker readers produced two responses from firms not mentioned.

Bow Wave is also read in the offices of

Stuart Alexander Ltd (per David Frugniet) (03 Readers) Trans Mar Assurances (McLean Group) (04 Readers)

Bow Wave is read throughout the P&I and marine mutual world. A recent trawl through
our database revealed the following breakdown of identifiable readers in the industry.

CTC 86 Readers
West of England 26 Readers
Thomas Miller 21 Readers
North of England 20 Readers
Steamship Mutual 18 Readers
A Bilbrough 11 Readers
Gard 09 Readers
Raets Club 09 Readers
British Marine 07 Readers
SOP 07 Readers
Swedish Club 06 Readers
American Club 04 Readers
Skuld Club 04 Readers
Michael Else 03 Readers
Tindall Riley 02 Readers
Sunderland Marine 01 Reader

PhD candidate Lindsay Oliver Black writes:

I am currently completing an MA in International Political Economy at the University of Sheffield, following a BA Honours Degree in Japanese/Japanese
History from Durham University. From October, I intend to commence reading for a PhD, the focus of which will be Maritime Security and Piracy. I feel that my BA and MA, plus my language skills (fluency in Japanese and French and a working knowledge of German) stand me in good stead to tackle this complex and important issue.

I would appreciate any feedback on problems concerning Maritime Security and Piracy from people in the marine insurance industry and the maritime industry in general in order to ascertain and understand the key issues and areas of concern. I intend that my project will not only be of academic interest but will also be of practical benefit to the maritime industry as a whole.

In order to undertake three years of study in this field, I am currently pursuing various avenues for funding. I would therefore be interested in any support the readers of Bow Wave magazine might provide or in any advice
they might be able to offer concerning applications for funding.

Contact him at:

lynzb@angelfire.com

Reader Louise Barrington writes:

I wonder if your Readers could give me any insights on the use of ADR (alternate dispute resolution) especially mediation, in the insurance and reinsurance industries?

I am a member of the Hong Kong Mediation Council. ADR does not yet have the profile here that it has in America, Canada and some parts of Europe, but we are hoping to promote it in the interest of saving time, legal costs and
hassles in a number of industries. The government is interested. Insurance
and transport/logistics are two of our target industries.

If anyone has any stories of how ADR/mediation has been used in a particular
case, and whether it was successful, I'd be very grateful to hear of them

Contact her at:

louiseb@netvigator.com

Professor Peter Swisher of the University of Richmond Law School has sent in some references:

There are two recent articles that may be of interest to your Readers:

(1) Charles Measter & Peter Skoufalos, "The Increasing Role of Mediation in Resolving Shipping Disputes" in 26 Tulane Maritime Law Journal 515-561 (2002); and

(2) Eun Lee, "The Changing Liability System of Sea Carriers and Marine Insurance: Focusing on the Enforcement of the Hamburg Rules" in 15 Transnational Lawyer 241-255 (2002).

This edition comes as an agreeable interlude in your editor's absorption in summertime. Many thanks to the Readers who have been kind enough to send in items of interest.

Enjoy.

2. Should Airline Pilots Carry Guns?

A perceptive article on the issue appears in this month's Crypto-gram, a monthly e-zine devoted to on-line security and cryptography written by Bruce Schneier.

His conclusion:

"Personally, I don't think pilots should be armed. But even if I thought they did, I still wouldn't give them guns. Guns aren't designed to be used in the cramped spaces you find in airplane cockpits. They have too high a risk of doing unwanted damage if they miss. And there's too much risk involved in putting thousands of guns in airports, storing them, getting them on and off airplanes, and keeping them in cockpits. If you want to arm pilots, it would be much smarter to give them billy clubs or tasers. At least those weapons make sense for the situation."

Read it for yourself at:

http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html

3. Storage Site

"Many businesses have storage capacity to spare because of seasonal influences or temporary drops in turnover, but are unable to easily let this spare capacity out for hire. StorageCapacity.net allows these businesses to advertise their spare capacity.
The companies using this service consist not just of transport companies or other logistical businesses. In fact, storagecapacity.net explicitly also focuses on non-logistical businesses who have storage space to spare or need storage capacity."

Check out the service at:

http://www.storagecapacity.net

4. Southern China Port Statistics

Just in from Charles de Trenck, the Hong Kong-based container industry analyst at Salomon Smith Barney:

"HK port trade volumes, though not stellar for a 'growth phase' have continued to do pretty well in July with 7% volume growth, despite talk of a levelling of trade because the US economy will turn down.
The market expects 4% volume growth for core HK port, while our extremely positive view of Shenzhen ports continues to be seen as conservative. Shenzhen growth YTD is 52% versus HK 2% YTD.

Our data shows the following for July -- COSCO-HIT was only terminal with volume acceleration, seeing growth at +22.5%
HK Kwaichung +7% (June +9% & YTD 2%)
HIT +6% (June +11% & YTD 5%)
MTL +4% (June +6% & YTD -6%)
COSCO-HIT +23% (June +19% & YTD +10%)

****

Shenzhen +56% (June +62% & YTD +52%)
Yantian +56% (June +64% & YTD56%)
China Merchants terminals in West Shenzhen continue to see wide variances, with Chiwan and CCT above 100% growth and Shekow +33% and SCT +11% Total HK+Shenzhen +22% compared to 25% in June and 16% YTD"

For further information contact him at:

charles.detrenck@ssmb.com

5. Consolidation News

According to consumerist ratings house Weiss Ratings in the United States in five hurricane-prone states, only eight large property and casualty insurers are exposed to 66.8 per cent of the home insurance risk.

In 2001, eight carriers commanded 83.1 percent in Texas, 66.7 percent in South Carolina, 64.9 percent in Louisiana, 60.0 percent in North Carolina, and 51.3 percent of the market in Florida. Those eight companies are:

State Farm Group
Allstate Insurance Group
Zurich Financial Services Group
Nationwide Corp.
USAA Group
Citigroup, Inc.
Chubb & Son, Inc
Hartford Fire and Casualty Group

Whatever happened to the idea of the risks of the few being spread amongst the many?

See the statistics at:

http://www.weissratings.com/

6. And Finally....

Taken from Michael Quinion's World Wide Words--an excellent e-zine on the meanings and origins of words which often includes terms of interest in the areas covered in Bow Wave:

"Turns of Phrase: Asian Brown Cloud

As though we didn't have enough to worry about weather-wise, what with global warming, the ozone hole, and the new El Niño season, UN scientists have now identified this new threat to the world's climate. It is a cloud of smog three kilometres deep, enveloping the whole of southern Asia - a soup of industrial pollutants, carbon monoxide from vehicle exhausts and particles of soot from burning forests and millions of rural cooking fires. It blocks 15% of sunlight, which reduces crop yields. It also creates acid rain, leads to respiratory illnesses, reduces rainfall and causes extreme weather events. Because the cloud is capable of being dispersed rapidly around the world, it may affect a much wider area than just Asia. The term "Asian Brown Cloud" seems to have been around for a couple of years in scientific circles, but came to prominence this week in a report prepared by a team of international climatologists at the UN Environment Programme in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg next week. The good news, they say, is that unlike other causes of pollution and climate change, this one is curable if Asians can shift to more efficient ways of burning fuels.

The "Asian Brown Cloud," a 2-mile-thick blanket of pollution over South Asia, may be causing the premature deaths of half a million people in India each year, deadly flooding in some areas and drought in others, a new U.N.-sponsored study indicates. ["Los Angeles Times", Aug. 2002]

A UN-backed study released on Friday said the "Asian Brown Cloud" - a vast haze of pollution stretching across South Asia - is damaging agriculture, modifying rainfall patterns and endangering the population.
["Agence France Presse", Aug. 2002]"

To subscribe go to;

http://www.worldwidewords.org

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7300 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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