Suez Canal blocked

Some are saddled with the "burden of knowledge". I'm recently retired from 45 years within the industry and I find incidents like this interesting. More from a correcting the mis-information (I'm being kind here) by enthusiastic junior journalists and sh!t newspapers than that put forward by experts. That said, the BBC have a local go-to rentaquote expert from a local university who must live on a different planet to everyone else.

It's a big subject for me personally and that's why I like to bang on about it. There's so much about shipping that never gets heard until it hits the fan. :)

I investigate Incidents on board Tankers. Thankfully nothing on this level of shitstorm....
 


Some are saddled with the "burden of knowledge". I'm recently retired from 45 years within the industry and I find incidents like this interesting. More from a correcting the mis-information (I'm being kind here) by enthusiastic junior journalists and sh!t newspapers than that put forward by experts. That said, the BBC have a local go-to rentaquote expert from a local university who must live on a different planet to everyone else.

It's a big subject for me personally and that's why I like to bang on about it. There's so much about shipping that never gets heard until it hits the fan. :)
I feel like that every time you see or read something you know a lot about, how inaccurate the reporting is... Makes you question everything else
 
As the investigation into the grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal begins, the vessel’s Japanese owner, Shoe Kisen, this morning declared General Average.

And a customer circular from Evergreen, confirms that Shoe Kisen this morning appointed Richard Hogg Lindley as adjustor.

For the vessel, now at anchor at the Bitter Lakes area undergoing technical inspections, a possible date of departure to ports of discharge has yet to be set.

And while there is no reported damage to the cargo, and that to the vessel appeared to be minimal, the cost of the salvage operation, which ultimately required 11 tugs and two dredgers, as well as possible compensation claims from a variety of interests such as the Suez Canal Authority or shipping companies caught up in the backlog, could amount to a sizeable bill.

In addition, it remains unclear whether there will be a separate salvage claim from the vessel’s salvors.

General Average is a principle of maritime law that requires that the shipowner and its customers share a proportionate amount of the costs associated with saving a vessel after a major casualty. When General Average is declared, cargo owners are required to contribute to a GA fund before cargo can be released.
While the backlog of vessels waiting to transit Suez is now expected to be cleared over the next couple of days, shippers and freight forwarders with cargo on the Ever Given could be in for a long wait for it to be released.

The problem for cargo interests, according to insurance sources, is that the cost of the casualty to its owners is likely to take some time to determine, if it involves claims from other parties, which means the adjustors will remain unable to fix the level of the general average and salvage securities.

General Average was declared following the 2018 fire on board the Maersk Honam. After declaring GA, the adjustor fixed the salvage security at 42.5% of cargo value and 11.5% as a GA deposit – this meant a shipper with a cargo worth $100,000 needed to pay a combined deposit of $54,000 to get its cargo released.

This leaves shippers with uninsured cargo highly vulnerable to losing it, as the owner can hold the goods under lien until the deposit is paid. Shippers with insured goods will have those deposits covered by their insurers.

According to panellists on a recent webinar on container casualties, held by the London Shipping Law Centre, GA is only declared in incidents which have incurred an extraordinary loss – the general rule of thumb being a loss of over £10m on a ship of 15,000 teu or bigger.
 
Read they had about three billion quid of stuff on that ship, but they've basically impounded it until they get paid for the inconvenience.

Ouch!
 

The lull before the 'post-Suez storm' of vessel arrivals at North Europe ports​


The main container ports in North Europe were eerily quiet at the weekend, due to the almost week-long blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given.

But now, an armada of late-running ULCVs is enroute from the Mediterranean, providing an intense challenge for vessel operators to turn ships around as quickly as possible and return them, as well as desperately needed empty equipment, back to Asia.

For example, the 19,273 teu Cosco Shipping Scorpio cleared the canal on 1 April and, with around 60 other containerships is steaming towards the port of Rotterdam.

The fully-laden vessel, deployed on an Asia-North Europe loop by the Ocean Alliance was stemmed to arrive on Saturday. However, according to the latest VesselsValue data, it is making a slow-steaming speed of 14 knots and a revised eta of 10am on 13 April.
Some vessels will be asked to reduce speed to avoid unnecessary fuel consumption if obliged to wait for a berth and others asked to speed up to meet a berthing window, and the alliances will be obliged to juggle the rotations of the ships in their loops in order to mitigate the impact of vessel bunching at ports.

For their part, terminal operators are warning carriers that there is a limit to their capacity.

Both Antwerp and Rotterdam are taking a harder line than normal on requests to discharge UK cargo at their hubs, fearing terminals will become overwhelmed with boxes on the quayside awaiting relay or feeder connections.

Discharging a forward port’s cargo also brings the problem of targeted containers being over-stowed, obliging the terminal operator to dig out and re-stow containers and thus extend the time in port, delaying the berthing of subsequent vessels.

The port of Rotterdam said it was “important to keep capacity levels at the terminals at a manageable level”.

It added: “Since the port expects an exceptionally high influx of vessels and freight, it is important to work towards swift circulation, as well as an optimal balance between import and export flows.”

The port said it would look to restrict “premature” export deliveries.

“Since the terminals won’t be able to help everyone at the same time, we are calling on all parties in the logistics chain to check whether they have any opportunities to adapt their processes in the interim,” it added.

According to Alan Murphy, chief executive of SeaIntelligence, there will be a sharp drop in export capacity from North Europe to Asia as a consequence of the Suez Canal disruption.

“Exporters are facing an imminent drop in export capacity of almost 80%, followed by two weeks of much higher than usual outbound capacity,” he said. “But an imminent sharp drop in export capacity will most certainly leave a significant amount of European export cargo in Europe for a week or two until it can be moved,” he added.
 
The cargo ship has been impounded until the Japanese owners pay compensation of near on a billion dollars.
I know time is of the essence with cargo ships but that seems a lot.
Source : news on radio.
 
It is considering they make not much more than 5 billion a year from the canal..
I think some is for the other ships because they were delayed, and some is for the rescue mission.
I bet the people/companies with cargo on the ship aren't best pleased as the Japanese owners don't want to pay .
 

Back
Top