Iran Sanctions

New sanctions for Iran are implemented. The statement on U.S. Department of the Treasury website states:

On May 8, 2018, the President announced his decision to cease the United States’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and to begin re-imposing the U.S. nuclear-related sanctions that were lifted to effectuate the JCPOA sanctions relief, following a wind-down period. In conjunction with this announcement, the President issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) directing the U.S. Department of the Treasury and other Departments and Agencies to take the actions necessary to implement his decision.

Ballast Water Management System and things you need to know about it

The Ballast Water Management Convention (the Convention), aimed at establishing standards and procedures to prevent the spread of aquatic organisms, enters into force and takes effect on 8 September this year. While it represents a significant environmental milestone for our planet, the Convention also means that the maritime industry has to gear up for a huge operational change.

Under the Convention, ships trading in international waters will need to ensure they are fitted with a ship-specific Ballast Water Management System (BWMS), according to the agreed implementation schedule. The BWMS installed must be approved by the Flag State in accordance with approval process defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

English Supreme Court rules in favour of OW Bunkers

On 11 May 2016 the English Supreme Court delivered its unanimous judgment on the RES COGITANS case in favour of bankrupt marine fuel supplier OW Bunker Malta (“OW Bunkers”) in a dispute over payment liabilities rejecting the further appeal of the ship owners. The outcome was generally expected, as the ship owners had been unsuccessful before the arbitrators, High Court and Court of Appeal.

Check list for Operations dept.

One of the main things to do, when a voyage is fixed and you operate vessel on time charter is drafting a check list for the voyage. Though it's not a very hard question, a check list may hardly be standardized, because it's structure depends on a particular voyage. However we may divide it into blocks and try to make universal rules for these blocks. Here's the example of blocks for an easy usual voyage basis 1/1 without passing channels.

Dry Bulk Rate Recovery Short-Lived?

Shipping rates for vessels transporting commodities such as coal, iron ore and grains racked up impressive gains in the first quarter of 2016 after hitting record lows, but the rally could flatten out into the second half as the macroeconomic outlook remains uncertain, the latest forecasts show from IHS Inc.

It's Now Cheaper To 'Buy' A Dry Bulk Freight Vessel Than A Starbucks Coffee

Just 3 months ago China’s slowing growth has crushed shipping rates to such an extent that hiring a 1,100-foot merchant vessel would set you back less than the price of renting a Ferrari for a day.

Rates for Capesize-class ships plummeted 92 percent since August to $1,563 a day amid slowing growth in China. That’s less than a third of the daily rate of 3,950 pounds ($5,597) to rent a Ferrari F40, the price of which has also fallen slightly in the past few years, according to Nick Hardwick, founder of supercarexperiences.com.

Types of bulk carriers (one more post)

I saw this picture and understood that I cannot avoid posting it. :)

Draft alterations depend on water density

Good day

It happened that I forgot the formula for the calculation of vessel's draft at different water density, though I searched the Internet and found nothing in English. So I decided to translate the article, which I found in Russian.

When the vessel passes from one water basin to another, the salinity (seawater density) changes.  It's very useful to know the way vessel's draft will change. And for the determination of vessel's draft delta we will turn to physics.

Types of bulk carriers - part 2 (briefly)

In our previous post we have learned much about the types of bulk carriers. However in practice all one needs to know is always less, than they write in books. Thus, this article is here to show you all you need to know about classification of bulk carriers according to their size.

Types of bulk carriers

I would like to enlighten the basics, which will understand the whole picture. And another good book will help me out. It's named "Bulk carrier practice" by Captain J Isbester. It was written in 1990's, so the information might be outdated, but the basics are still the same: