By Andrew Guest

Attempts to reduce the amount of paperwork weighing down shipping have so far had limited success, but a new survey of seafarers suggests there are good reasons why efforts should not be abandoned. Dealing with the administrative burdens of both regulations and companies’ quality management systems (QMS) can now occupy a fifth of an officer’s working day and put them in danger of breaching working-time rules.

The Eurozone crisis is on burst with Spain’s borrowing costs soaring to unsustainable levels and euro sliding to its lowest level in more than two years against dollar and the lowest in more than eleven years against yen. Finance ministers of France and Spain called for common eurozone bank supervisions to be implemented as worries grow over soaring borrowing costs in Spain. French President Francois Hollande said  that  measures decided at a European Union summit late last month are needed to be implemented quickly as Spain battles with the rise in borrowing cost.

Greek activity has been very limited this week and registered only in the secondhand market. The vessels that were acquired were a Handymax bulkcarrier at $ 3.7 million built 1983 and a 15 year old 2442teu container vessel at $ 7 million, the latest market report compiled by Golden Destiny notes.

It was not that long ago that China replaced South Korea as the world’s largest shipbuilding nation. For some time prior to this, China had harboured aspirations to climb into the premier spot with aggressive pricing and massive development of green field sites – in hindsight a policy which the authorities may regret. Today the picture is very different and it is reported that as many as half of China’s shipbuilders are likely to go out of business over the next two to three years. Currently China’s slice of the global tanker orderbook represents 38%, still some way behind South Korea with 47%.

If you go to any container terminal and you know your way around, in a corner of the terminal, usually away from public view, is to be found the “graveyard”. Here are found the containers that have come to grief. It will usually present a sorry sight of mangled steel and crushed cargo, to be kept while the insurance company surveyors do their work.

A predictable open-ended outcome at the latest technical meeting in Istanbul between Iran and 6 world powers has only reinforced the perception that Iran is trying to buy time. The implementation of the US and EU sanctions has to date led to a record decline in crude oil production and exports from Iran. 

This week ended with Greek investors showing their interest only in the newbuilding arena. In the newbuilding sector 47% of the reported orders were contracted from Greek interests. In total 8 orders were placed, from which six were in the capesize and kamsarmax sector and two in the car carrier sector of units with a carrying capacity of 3500cars. The total invested capital remains unknown since only for the capesize order we have released data.

Under the adverse worldwide economic scene, shipping investments haven’t lost their momentum with owners being eager in the purchase of secondhand vessels, skeptical on the placement of newbuilding contracts and more than willing to dispose their over-aged vessels, even at lower scrap price levels, says Golden Destiny in an Overall outlook of shipping investments during the first half of the year “2012”  report.

Financially sound owners appear to be driving some hard bargains in the containership newbuilding market. The cost of a wide-beam 4,800 teu vessel has fallen by more than $10m since the end of last year, according to Clarksons, or almost 18%. That is way down from historic highs touched in late 2008 when a ship of that specification would have cost more than $80m.

Described as "the seafarers' Bill of Rights", the Maritime Labour Convention is expected to come into force in the next couple of years, provided the required numbers of acceptances have been lodged with its "parent"- the International Labour Organisation. The effectiveness of any international convention rests with its implementation - the way in which it is put into practice - and that of the MLC is not a simple matter, as it affects every one of the tens of thousands of ships at sea, flying so many different flags.