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beyond the horizon Shipping, oil, strikes and lockouts BY USA BASED CORRESPONDENT HUGH WARE D uring the three months that ended in February this year, overall confidence in the shipping industry was at its highest levels in two years. There was improved expectation of freight rate increases over the next 12 months, particularly in the dry bulk sector, and greater likelihood of new investment in the industry. The average confidence level was 5.8 on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) versus 5.6 last November. As long as oil stays above $100 a barrel, companies respond worldwide. For instance, activity in the North Sea has picked up and daily rates for the powerful anchor-handling tugs that deploy drill rig anchors soared to $170,000 while rates for platform supply vessels reached about $30,000. Those rates may go higher because many new build rigs will arrive in the coming months and years. For the deep offshore industry, 95 drilling rigs are being built, an all time high and almost one third of the fleet in service. Some 88 jack-up rigs and at least 30 floating production storage offloading vessels are also currently under construction. Labour relations were not placid. The strike by 450 Hong Kong dockworkers ended after 40 days when they accepted a 9.8 percent pay increase. The strike caused a backup of 80,000 to 90,000 containers. THIN PLACES AND HARD KNOCKS Vessels sank: On the Mahakam River in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, the overcrowded ferry Karya Indah sank after the passengers crowded into the bow. While the vessel reportedly was well equipped with life vests, they were not used and only 21 of the 44 mainly female passengers were saved. The victims were all employees of plywood companies. Ships collided and allided: At Genoa, the ro-ro/container ship Jolly Nero, under control of two tugs and a pilot, failed to complete a sweeping turn into a basin and toppled the 177-foothigh port traffic control tower into the harbor. It was shift change time and 13 people were in the tower or its elevator. Four survived. And in the United States, on the Mississippi River at St Louis, 114 barges broke free and 11 sank. When one broke loose, it bumped into another barge and knocked it loose, those barges knocked into other barges, creating a domino effect – as a Brit might say, it was a beautiful demonstration of the knock-on effect. Further south at Vicksburg, other barge accidents and sinkings involving at least 30 barges closed the Mississippi for several days. In Illinois, seven barges allided with the Marseilles Dam closing Illinois River for several weeks. Ships went aground: At Colon City in Panama, six coastersized vessels were driven ashore when a cold front brought high tides and high winds to the port. Two seamen on one ship could not be rescued. In the Philippines, the Supreme Court approved a petition for a writ filed by a multi-sectoral group seeking higher penalties (somewhere between $16.8 million and $27 million) and the criminal prosecution of United States Navy officers for allowing the mine countermeasures vessel USS Guardian to run aground on the Tubbataha Reef in January. The petitioners claim the United States navy cannot invoke immunity under the Visiting Forces Agreement. They also want the Supreme Court to stop military exercises between the Philippine and 34 Professional Skipper July/August 2013 r United States forces. The petitioners include two Catholic Bishops and the navy has already agreed to pay $1.4 million for reef damage. Fires and explosions, of course: While en route from Valencia to Takoma, a fire in the accommodation area on a container ship killed two but the cargo was untouched. At Hamburg, the ro-ro/ container ship Atlantic Cartier had a car-deck fire among 70-80 vehicles bound for the United States. Two fireboats, multiple fire engines, the tugs RT Zoe, Hunte, and Bugsier 9, three police launches, and five volunteer fire departments fought the fire and two problems all night; the 25 tonnes of CO2 ordered by the firemen were not available in Northern Germany and the fireboats' monitors proved to be puny. Next day, the damage was 30 Volvos destroyed, about 40 more severely damaged, and the ship needing far more than band-aids. Some people died: The Port of Tacoma was briefly shut down in memorial after two fatalities in one week. A 48-year-old crane mechanic died atop a crane from blunt force trauma to the head and a 57-year-old refrigeration mechanic fell from a five-foot ladder, perhaps shocked by nearby wiring. The medical examiner said the cause of death here was heart disease. Both men worked for the same company. The capsize of the Swedish America's Cup challenger Artemis at San Francisco fatally trapped the team's tactical strategist underwater for about 10 minutes. GREY FLEETS An influential United States Navy publication noted that the United States Marine Corps is almost as large as the entire British or Japanese militaries, and suggested the Corps might be too big for its own good. For example, at about 200,000 strong, the Corps is larger than the active-duty Israel Defence Forces and the active-duty British Army. Not a grey warship, but possibly part of a nasty conflict, the freighter Venus was suspected to be carrying Iranian arms to Syria. Its cargo was 8,500 tonnes of weapons and ground missiles for the Syrian regime, according to a rebel source. It was scheduled to make a "fuel stop" at a Syrian port where it probably unloaded its cargo. Guinea-Bissau's former navy chief was plucked off a yacht in the east Atlantic and flown to New York to face charges linked to cocaine trafficking. The small West African state is a staging post for Latin American drug-smuggling gangs. Fire on a nuclear submarine is always news, even the minor deck fire on HMS Torbay. It was on top of the outer deck just below the fin, and was put out by a crewmember before the fire service arrived. There was no damage to the submarine. WHITE FLEETS It has not been a happy time for Carnival Cruise Lines. The sudden passage of a cold front brought 70mph winds to Mobile, Alabama that tore the disabled Carnival Triumph from its shipyard moorings. The big ship ravaged the port for five hours, banging into a cargo vessel and other piers before four tugs wrestled it under control. Overall damage was surprisingly light. The Carnival Elation had a precautionary tug escort when it undocked at New Orleans and headed towards the Gulf because www.skipper.co.nz