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While
tanker shipping continues to deliver
ever-improving performance, the tanker industry
is definitely not complacent and is wedded to
maintaining its aims to develop and adopt best
practices in shipping through its commitment to
continuous improvement, said INTERTANKO’s
Managing Director Dr Peter Swift.
Against a backdrop of reduced demand for most
ship types coming at a time of rapid growth in
fleet supply, and consequentially lowered
freight rates, the challenges for tanker owners
today are particularly pressing, he told the
IMarEST/RINA joint branch on the Isle of Man.
Additionally, the developing surplus in world
shipbuilding capacity, besides being a headache
for shipbuilders and creating its own problems,
also contributes to the present and longer-term
uncertainties for ship owners and their bankers.
Dr Swift said, that as an international
industry, tanker owners seek consistency in
international regulations and standards, with
global governance for a global industry, while
providing safe, secure, reliable, cost effective
and environmentally sound maritime
transportation.
The environmental challenges are themselves wide
ranging from managing toxic air and GHG
emissions to biofouling, waste management and
recycling, and also embracing emerging issues
such as the avoidance of whale strikes and the
minimisation of radiated noise.
He added that the already challenging quantity
and quality issues associated with the future
manning of ships are frequently compounded by
the failure to accord fair treatment principles
to ships’ crews, and by the growing tendency to
unjustifiably criminalise seafarers after marine
accidents.
In his concluding remarks, Swift suggested that
the maritime industries also collectively suffer
from their failure to develop appropriate
mechanisms for incident reporting, accident
investigations and information sharing. While
feedback and lesson-learning procedures are
still generally relatively weak, the shipping
community is nevertheless becoming more aware of
the value of cooperation and partnership as
necessary processes to deliver on their
continuous improvement programmes.
Source: Ship Management International
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