Maritime Industry News

RP part of K-Line's fleet expansion plans

JAPANESE carrier “K” Line is increasing its fleet by 67% in the next four years to accommodate increasing demand and provide more business for its ship management business.
Part of the plan is to deploy more vessels calling in Philippine ports from 10 to 24 by 2010, said “K” Line Ship Management Co. Ltd. executive vice president Satoru Kuboshima at the sidelines of the carrier’s ship management seminar last week.
Kuboshima said “K” Line will add 280 brand new vessels on top of its present fleet of 420 for deployment in major trading routes.
He said the fleet expansion would also be good for the Philippine manning industry, which supplies most of the world’s seafarers.
“About 3,200 Filipino seafarers will also be employed to operate the vessels, about 1,600 officers and another 1,600 ratings. These totals comprise almost half of the estimated 7,000 seafarers to be employed for the additional ships,” Kuboshima added.
The carrier recently invested $11 million into a local training center to provide Filipino seamen as well as those from other countries access to quality maritime education and training.

Marina to Nenaco: Pay supervision fees pronto

THE Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) is demanding immediate payment of annual supervision fees (ASF) owed to it by debt-saddled shipping firm Negros Navigation (Nenaco).
The fees, unpaid since 1998, are not considered debts but taxes and are thus not covered by court protection under a rehabilitation plan obtained by the shipping line 2004, the agency said.
Nenaco, which now owes Marina P39.165 million in ASF, offered to settle the principal of P25.969 million but this was rejected by Marina.
“You can’t restructure taxes,” Marina administrator Vicente Suazo, Jr., said in an interview.
Nenaco owes creditors and suppliers more than P2.4 billion, more than P440 million of which represent unpaid taxes.
Since 2004, Marina has been scrutinizing the books of all domestic shipping lines to ensure they are financially capable of maintaining their operations.

Tanker operators, oil firms adopt wait-and-see attitude on Oil Pollution Act

TANKER operators and oil companies are holding off any action against Republic Act 9483 or the Oil Pollution Compensation Act until its implementing guidelines are released by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
In a forum during last week’s Maritime Week celebration, the Philippine Petroleum Sea Transport Association (Philpesta) said, “It’s premature if we make our move now. We will make the necessary moves, including a court action, once the guidelines are released.”
RA 9483 seeks to implement the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and the 1992 International Oil Pollution Fund (IOPF) Convention. The law requires tanker operators to contribute P0.10 of freight to the oil pollution fund for every liter it delivers. It also obligates oil firms to contribute to the IOPF each time 150,000 tons of oil is delivered to them.
The tanker operators and oil firms are against the law which they describe as poorly crafted. They said it would ultimately increase oil prices, and affect all commodity prices.
Marina will soon forward the RA 9483 implementing rules to the office of Transport Secretary Leandro Mendoza for review.