BOW WAVE 458

Bow Wave Issue 458--Veteran's Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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(c)2008 WavyLine.com	Issue No 458 01 Sep 08
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Oil Again
3. Alang loses out to Bangladesh
4. Where is All This Leading?
5. Full Circle in the News
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love-- I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes! -- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

New Readers this week include:-

Paul Dixon
Adam Sharp of the Carnival Group in the UK
Dave Watkins of China Navigation in HK

News of Readers

We have recently learned with great regret of the death on Tuesday 29th July 2008 of Mr Arthur
Sparks, noted steel expert and the author of the
book 'Steel - Carriage By Sea'.

Insurance specialist Carolien van Weering has joined the Shipping, Trade and Insurance team of the Dutch law firm AKD Prinsen Van Wijmen.

Roger Smart is leaving the Global Shipping Group of ING Bank. He is hoping to remain in shipping in some way as it has been his life for the last 30 years and he plans to stay in Singapore for the time being.

Contact him at:-

rasmart@gmail.com

John O'Brien has left the fair shores of Australia for the excitements of Dubai where he is looking after the marine interests of the RSA in the Middle East.

Contact him at:-

John.OBrien@ame.rsagroup.com

Readers Write

From Roger Holt, Secretary General of INTERCARGO

May I just reinforce what Leonidas Los said last week in Bow Wave Issue 457 about Ron Gross. He was a great bloke and he did a great job representing INTERCARGO members in Australia for many years. I saw him in February in Sydney for the last time and he was as chipper as ever although he knew that his days were numbered. Even at that stage in his life he was full of ideas and enthusiasm and I could only marvel at his mental strength and tenacity. He was a truly remarkable person.

Contact him at:-

Roger.Holt@intercargo.org

Note from the Editor

Greetings from a wet weekend spent on the Isle of Wight coming to terms with being called a veteran--See item 5. And here we were with the firm conviction that any Young Turk expects to enjoy his or her calling over a lifetime.

Enjoy!

2. Oil Again

The latest edition (no 39) of the Unctad Transport Newsletter which we receive courtesy of Jan Hoffman has an important leading article dealing with rising oil prices and their impact on fuel prices and transport costs. The writers and analysts are concerned about the potential implications for global trade growth and changing trade patterns; some of the key issues are discussed in an article on "Fuel prices, transport costs and the geography of trade". To obtain a copy drop Jan an e-mail or subscribe to the mailing list.

jan.hoffmann@unctad.org

http://extranet.unctad.org/transportnews

3. Alang loses out to Bangladesh

This item appears in the Piet Sinke's daily Clippings e-zine

Alang in India's Gujarat province for so long the leading scrapper of ships in the world has seen its position slip as a rival in Bangladesh goes all out to snare any passing ageing ship. 30,000 men work around the clock on a 10-kilometre (six-mile) stretch of coastline in Sitakundu, Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Ship Breakers' Association (BSBA) Sitakundu has outstripped Alang in the first half of the year. The association says demand for steel is booming in Bangladesh, due to six percent annual growth over the past four years, the biggest boom period in the country's history. Sitakundu's 22 ship-breaking yards demolished one million tonnes of steel in the year ended June 30, according to the BSBA. Once removed from the old ships, steel plates are melted down by Bangladesh's 200 small re-rolling mills and turned into steel rods.

Yard owner Alhaj Mohamed Yusuf told AFP earlier this month Sitakundu's frequent tides and low wages have made it the best place in the world to break ships. "Due to frequent tides we can beach the ship just two hundred yards (metres) from the coast," he said. "It saves us thousands of dollars for every ship we break, whereas in Alang and China they beach ships two or three kilometres out into the sea." To capitalise on the boom, he is planning to open a steel mill by the end of the year.

Unlike neighbouring India, Bangladesh has no iron ore and is dependent on imported steel -- either from scrap or more expensive billets. Meanwhile, Alang Ship Breaking Yard, on Gujarat's Bhavnagar coast, which until 2004 could boast of being one of the biggest employers of migrant labour, has lost its men to other clusters as it lost business to Bangladesh. Over a period of four years, numbers have dwindled from 40,000 to about 5,000 migrant labourers.

Elsewhere in south Asia, the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan, Pakistan has adversely affected ship breaking activity at Gadani where the number of ships brought for scrapping during the last three months plummeted to four. Currently only one ship is being scrapped.

The situation turned ugly when Pakistan Ship Breakers Association chairman Mr Azam Malik was assassinated at Hub on May 21 this year on his way back home from his ship breaking yard at Gadani. There are 15 ship breaking yards having around 140 plots at the Gadani area but presently, it has a deserted look.

Last year, Gadani ship breaking industry scrapped about 4 4 vessels with a total 188,242 light displacement tonnage. However, after the May 21st 2008 tragedy buyers stopped visiting Gadani for purchasing ship plates and other scrap material. According to a PSBA spokesman there had been no import of ships and all the four vessels, which reached the Gadani yard for scrapping, were contracted prior to the killing. Source : Seatrade Asia

4. Where is All This Leading?

Your editor's eye for the absurdities of our industry was caught by the sign off on an short e-mail sent from someone working for a leading insurance giant. We have changed some details to protect the guilty but Readers may ask, what is all this for, who is it intended to protect and when is sense going to return to this industry?

Here it is:-

Massive Co (Europe) Limited ("MCE") (No. 123123) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Massive Global Underwriting Limited (MGU)( "MGU") (No. 1231234) is a managing agent for Syndicates at Lloyd’s and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. MGE Underwriting Services (UK) Limited (No. 123123) is an appointed representative of MCE and MGU and MCE Underwriting Services Limited (No.123123) is an appointed representative of MGU. MGU (Clark) Limited "CSL" (No. 123123) and Coach & Feathers Limited (CFC) (No. 1231233) are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. MGE Management Services (UK) Limited (No. 123123) is a service company and MGE International Holdings (UK) PLC (No. 1231234) is the holding company for MGE European Operations, a division of the MGE Insurance Group. The above companies are registered in England and Wales at Plaintiff Place, Rue de Regret, London EC3M 3AB. MCE Reinsurance (Europe) Limited (No. 12312) and the service company, MCE Management (Ireland) Limited (No. 12312), are registered in the Republic of Ireland at Georgian Mansion, Prosperity Heights, Dublin 2,Ireland.

Dear oh dear.

5. Full Circle in the News

The following item written by Jim Mulrenan appeared in the most recent editon of Tradewinds.

Insurance Man Turns Full Circle

Marine veteran Sam Ignarski is targeting ports and boxship owners with his latest venture.

A new marine insurance venture is being set up by Sam Ignarski and a team that was previously involved with providing intermodal and professional negligence cover at British Marine

Full Circle Marine and Transport will provide cover underwritten by Mistsui Sumitomo Insurance syndicate 3120 in the Lloyd's of London market.

The new agency will compete with British Marine, Wavelength, a facility that Ignarski set up for Charles Taylor, managers of protection-and-indemnity (P&I) mutual the Standard Club and the market-leading mutuals run by Thomas Miller, the Through Transport Mutual Insurance Association (TT CLub) and International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC).

Full Circle brings together Ignarski, Humphrey Hill, Zareena Hussain and Vincent Egon who were originally all with Miller. Also involved are Paul Koronka and Andrew Wallace, who set up various non-marine mutuals for Charles Taylor before founding last year their own business, Regis Mutual Management, which runs insurance clubs for news agents, motor traders and the City Livery Companies.

Ignarski says Full Circle will target the fact that only ten cents in the dollar of every freight transaction goes to the ship with the rest spent on other elements in the transport chain.

He says Full Circle has "moderately ambitious targets" but is not disclosing the figures. It is a joint venture with Regis to take advantage of its regulatory approvals.

Ignarski tell Tradewinds that Full Circle is ready to start business as soon as it get approval as a cover holder from Lloyd's (it is currently placing business via a binding facility). It will target smaller ports and terminals and owners with a modest number of container ships, as well as provide errors and omissions cover for shipping professionals such as brokers, surveyors and agents.

Cover will typically be focused on liability risks up to $5m and $10m but Ignarski says it would be
possible to provide cover for larger property risks if necessary.

"But we do not want to lock horns with anyone on the bigger risks", he added.

Ignarski has been involved in a succession of ventures of this type by he says he has never left red ink behind when he has moved on. "I just love the business. I can't keep away," he added.

6. And Finally...

Rather an edgy one this week from Paul Dixon's Joke of the Day zine:-

Sinners

Every time Peter's mother invited her lover to their home, she put Peter in the closet. One day her husband came home early, so her lover quickly hid in the closet with the boy.

"Hey, mister," Peter said, "it's kinda dark in here, isn't it?"

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact it is."

"Hey, you wouldn't want to buy my old baseball, would you? My dad just bought me a new one."

"No, you don't really need baseballs in my line of work."

"If you don't buy my baseball," Peter said, "I'll tell my dad where you are."

"All right, all right," the lover groaned, "I'll buy your damn baseball. How much is it?"

"Fifty dollars."

The man didn't want to pay fifty dollars for a baseball, but he decided he had no other choice. The boy figured he was on a roll, so he asked, "Hey, mister, you want to buy my glove?"

The lover didn't even bother arguing: "How much?"

"A hundred dollars!" The man had just finished paying up when the woman opened the door and said the coast was clear.

The next Sunday, the boy went to confession because he felt guilty for having conned his mother's lover out of a hundred and fifty bucks. "Hey, mister," he said, climbing into the confessional, "it's kinda dark in here, isn't it?"

The voice groaned, "Not you again!"

P.S.

This item appeared in The Cargo Letter, the monthly ezine from our good friends Countryman and McDaniel, attornies in LA:-

A new movie from Academy Award-nominated director Brett Morgen explores what it really means to be a long-haul trucker today -- tough hours, time awway from home, but most importantly: the pride & joy that make up a life on the road. See the trailer:-

http://www.internationaltrucks.com/film

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