Container Shipping Security Conference
– Antwerp Sept 9-10, 2003
http://www.thedigitalship.com/virtualbox2003.htm
Digital Ship 2003 – November 4-6,
London
Check out our plans so far and see if you want to contribute
http://www.thedigitalship.com/digitalship2003.htm
A P Møller
uses Manpower Crew Manning software
Rightship
says ship safety system could be involved in vetting
Tribon and
Class NK promote XML standard for shipbuilding CAD data exchange
New modules
for Glomaris
Seafarers
can buy personal items using ShipServ
P&O Ferries
digitises its shipboard regulatory documents
Problems
receiving DGPS data by ships on Panama Canal
Teekay Shipping
buys Autoship’s Autoload Tanker
Sperry Marine
endorsed by Software Engineering Institute
Xerox manages
shipments using GT Nexus
Baltic to
focus on electronic distribution of freight data
DD Shipping
installs ShipNet chartering and operations system over VPN
Nile Dutch
Africa Line buys Autoship's stowage software
Nordana Line
uses FWL software to manage ro-ro shipments
EuroShip
buys BASS software
Horizon Mobile
offers Fleet purchasers $1,500 credit discount on Fleet terminal
Clearance
for shipboard VSAT by ITU
Telaurus
expands technical support team with ex-Easylink staff
Horizon Mobile
opens in Hong Kong and the US
ChartCo wins
Cypriot flag state approval
P&O Ocean
Village gets new telephone system
Telenor installs
VSAT on Fugro survey vessels
Maritime
Training releases ISPS code video
DNV issues
Bergesen LNG tanker first ISPS certificate
US Coast
Guard posts model port security officer course online
Turkey opens
Lockheed Martin vessel traffic system
Tai Ping
pilot didn't know how to navigate using instruments
Color Line
upgrades automation systems with Kongsberg
Color Line
buys Sperry navigation and communication system
Transas appoints
Henry Nel as US shore based sales manager
ISO9001 for
Radio Holland Greece
http://www.manpowersoftware.com
A P Møller (Maersk), the largest liner shipping company in the world, has awarded Manpower Software a contract for its MAPS crew manning software.
The software will be used for crew scheduling, travel and recruitment. It will be used to manage all training and personnel information, including skills and competences, contract information, leave calculations, flag state certificate requirements and crew companion IDs.
Manpower is particularly excited about this as its first software installation in the broader shipping market; it builds on its success in the cruise shipping industry, where clients include Carnival, Royal Caribbean and P&O Princess.
The software will be eventually installed by AP Møller worldwide, starting with its main crewing centre in Copenhagen. Its own software company Maersk Data Transport, a business unit of Maersk Data, will interface the existing systems with MAPs.
"A. P. Møller is a company respected throughout the shipping industry for its organisation, systems and crew. After one of the most stringent qualification processes in which we have ever participated, we are delighted that MAPS has been chosen as A P Møller’s new crew manning system,” says Manpower Software.
RightShip, which provides online assessments about the quality of 31,000 ships and their owners and managers, says that in future, the ship vetting process could take data directly out of a shipping company’s fleet safety management database.
RightShip currently assesses a ship on the basis of 42 different factors, including structural integrity and the competence of management and crew. Data includes yard, owner, operator/manager, vessel age, casualty history, port state control history, flag, conditions of class and class changes, trading patterns and cargo history.
On this basis it makes a recommendation to a potential charterer about whether a vessel is OK to charter, or should be subjected to further checks.
Warwick Norman, RightShip’s CEO, says that in future data from the shipping company’s fleet safety management database, including certificate dates, could be used to provide the vetting assessment.
Many people in the maritime industry are keen to see reform in the ships vetting process; seafarers are currently subjected to up to 30 inspections per year.
There are many other ways charterers can assess the quality of a ship operation, for example looking at its insurance records, its costs, or examine the process superintendents go through to make decisions.
With most of this data already available on a shipping company’s safety management system, the vetting would be more accurate and efficient if charterers and vetting companies were allowed direct access to this data rather than make tedious and expensive manual inspections.
Tribon Solutions is promoting an XML standard for data exchange in shipbuilding of computer aided design (CAD) drawings.
Tribon has been working together with Japanese class society Class NK to develop XML-based schemas.
Most different CAD systems currently have their own data formats, which makes it hard to move drawings from one system to another. There are formats based on geometry information, including IGES and DXF, but these are not good enough to handle ship models.
The problem is particularly bad in Japan, where several shipyards have made investments in their own large CAD systems.
The development is supported by the Japanese Technology Development Fund of the Ship and Ocean Foundation. This is funded by donations from the Nippon Foundation, derived from revenues from motorboat racing.
If there is a standard for ship designs, this data could ultimately be made available to shipping companies who use the ship, rather than them having to reconstruct the ship model from scratch. It would also be easier for shipyards to exchange ship designs with each other.
Glomaris, the web hosted maritime software set up by Danish shipping company Clipper Group, has developed a module for shipbrokers to handle their activities and commission income, with access to a calculation module, laytime, client register, vessel register.
Other new modules include a futures register, to futures contracts such as swap deals and Biffex contracts; a Bunker hedge register, and a Claims register. Modules under construction include a pool accounting module and risk management module. The software integrates with Microsoft Business Solutions accounting system.
Customers include DS Norden in Copenhagen, Baltimore and Singapore, using the dry and tank modules for 50 users, and Atlas Shipping of Copenhagen, involved in dry cargo with over 30 vessels.
Online ship supply management portal ShipServ is making steps towards a service to enable seafarers to buy personal items from onboard the vessel and arrange for them to be delivered to the vessel at the next port.
Buying personal items is becoming a major headache for seafarers, who have to face the pressure of multiple inspections during port calls, complex visa systems to establish security and expensive taxi rides to the shops. It would be great if items could be delivered directly to the ship.
Many ship chandlers already supply personal items to seafarers; they sometimes incur losses doing so but win much more favour with the seafarers at the same time.
The personal items are often included in ship chandler’s catalogues. If the catalogue is issued in the ShipCat format, supported by ISSA, they can be ordered directly through ShipServ.
"In the future I see the seafarers order directly from
their web-connected PC in their cabin from either dedicated suppliers or any
suppliers," says Kim Skaarup, operations director of ShipServ.
"They pay by credit card, the goods are delivered to an open/public delivery
point in a port, where they can pick-up their goods when they reach port.
"They will be able to check on-line if the goods have been delivered. There
will be arrangements for refunding if the ship is redirected or goods do not
reach ship in time."
Browsing using shipboard internet connections is normally very expensive, but the cost can be reduced through using the Inmarsat Fleet MPDS service with special light sites, or using a port wi-fi network.
http://www.thinkingvirtual.com
P&O Ferries of the UK is installing a shipboard electronic document management system, put together by Thinking Virtual, a UK company.
All fleet regulation information will be digitised and reorganised so shipping companies can access and search it easily.
The system replaces P&O Ferries' traditional fleet regulation folders, which was up to 6 copies of 7 files per ship.
The system supports many different formats, including Word documents, excel, audio, CAD documents. There are hyperlinks between the different systems.
The system can run directly from the computer's CD player, with no software being installed on the computer at all.
Certain areas of the regulations are made secure, so for example only the master can see them. With other areas, access can be controlled, so it is possible to note who logged into read them, ensuring that crew read updates to the regulations whenever they are circulated or read certain sections when they join the ship for the first time.
The Panama Canal, which requires all ships to carry AIS systems, reports that it is encountering problems with vessels fitted with older, non-type approved systems which are unable to receive the DGPS correction signals the canal transmits on AIS message 17.
This means that the ship position, transmitted out from the ship using the GPS inside the AIS box, is not corrected by the DGPS and is not accurate enough.
With several vessels going through the canal with clearances of just 2m on either side, it is vital that they can transmit their positions using DGPS and this is a problem the canal would like shipping companies to be aware of.
Teekay Shipping has bought Autoload Tanker, a ship loading software developed by Autoship, for its vessel Columbia Spirit. The software will be certified by DNV as loading instrument software.
Sperry Marine has been endorsed by the Software Engineering Institute, receiving a “significant Process Maturity Level rating” in its assessment, looking at its software engineering process for integrated navigation systems and ship machinery control systems.
The Software Engineering Institute is a government funded research and development centre sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. Its mission is to provide leadership in advancing the practice of software engineering to improve the quality of systems that depend on software.
Xerox Corporation is managing its shipments using GT Nexus, the online container shipping backed logistics management tool.
"Driving down inbound logistics costs, reducing inventory and improving product availability for our customers are primary imperatives for our business," says Denny Wyckoff, vice president, North American supply chain business process Optimisation for Xerox.
The Baltic Exchange is saying that its main focus is on electronic distribution of freight market information.
At its Annual General Meeting, it reported a loss for the year of almost £3.5m, of which £2.6m is due to loss on its investments.
Part of the loss relates to the reduction in services offered by balticexchange.com. The Baltic abandoned its services to match ships and cargoes, due to its lack of popularity, deciding instead to focus just on providing freight market data.
"We consider that the e-platform will have a key role to play in distributing our unique range of freight market information - which we plan to develop further - and we shall be promoting its use to our world-wide membership,” said the Baltic.
“We are also conscious of the potential which the platform offers in terms of an important role in the development of freight futures trading and possible support systems.”
Information provided includes a daily fixtures list, dry and wet indices, route rates. It is developing indices for freight futures settlement prices and mark to market pricing for derivatives.
DD Shipping of Vladivostok, Russia, which has a fleet of 9 dry bulk vessels, has taken on the ShipNet chartering and operations software, integrating into ShipNet invoicing, purchasing and accounting systems.
The software will actually be hosted by a company called TeleComputing; DD Shipping will access it directly over a virtual private network rather than host the software itself.
This means that DD Shipping employees will be able to log on to the software anywhere in the world at any time, also their branch office in Greece will be linked directly to the main office in Vladivostok.
Nile Dutch Africa Line of Rotterdam has bought Autoship's Stowage Planning System, for its fleet of 8 ships, four ro-ro and four container ships. The software will be used in head office and in the company's agencies.
Any single change can be checked against the loading plans for every other port. The system can communicate with the booking systems so that stowage planners have all the right information available.
Nordana Line, a ro-ro liner carrier based in Denmark, has purchased the FWL Fulfillment SCE software to manage its shipments.
The system will replace a number of separate standalone software systems Nordana was using. There is a single database for quotations, bookings, transport, documentation and customs clearance data, and authorised users can connect into the software from anywhere using a web browser.
Nordana Line specialises in its ability to accommodate customers' varying needs for cargo handling, reliability, and port calls.
“Nordana Line has managed to stand up to the challenges of adapting to the ever changing needs of the market by continuously providing innovative and individual shipping solutions,” says Nordana.
EuroShip services of Purfleet, UK, has signed an agreement to receive the BASS crew/human resource software CrewNet, as well as its onboard accounting and payroll software PayNet.
It will use the software to manage crewing, payroll and accounting activities on its fleet of 14 ships.
"EuroShip wanted a system that could assist in our ongoing commitment to match the best qualified seafarer with the requirements for each position onboard our managed vessels," says EuroShip.
"Furthermore we wanted to standardize the onboard payroll/accounting systems and retain the flexibility to add further BASS management software if required." said Mr Martin Neale, Purchasing Manager, Euroship Services Limited.
Ship shore communications company Horizon Mobile, together with partners Thrane and Thrane, Xantic and France Telecom, is offering shipowners with $1,500 credit discount on the purchase of a Fleet 77 terminal, either in the form of credit against future hardware purchases or in free airtime.
Users all get reduced usage fee for Horizon’s ship-shore e-mail software HMCmail.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has established a permanent regulatory regime for licensing and use of satellite earth stations on board moving vessels (ESVs).
VSAT company Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN) was instrumental in the decision.
“The results of [the ruling] provide MTN and other ESV operators with the regulatory certainty they have been lacking,” says MTN.
“Now, it will be possible for MTN to obtain permanent licenses for the shipboard ESV systems and frequency clearances for a large number of ports worldwide.”
It demonstrated that ESVs are “operationally equivalent” to land based VSAT platforms, can thus can share the fixed satellite service frequency bands at 6 GHZ and 14 GHz with terrestrial microwave fixed service (FS) without causing interference.
As a result, ESVs can use the FS uplink bands at 6 GHz and 14 GHz.
The regulations place operational limitations on the use of ESVs and their emission levels, in order to minimise potential for harmful interference to FS links as the ship comes into port.
Regulations on the use of VSAT on board ships had been a muddy area with some commentators from rival services saying they contravened international radio regulations being unlicensed.
Ship shore communications company Telaurus has appointed ex Easylink and GN Comtext staff John Julian as project manager, and Ewan Robinson as technical sales support.
Both were previously with Easylink Services in similar roles. John Julian was previously with MCTS and GN Comtext (later Easylink). Ewan Robinson joined GN Comtext in 1999 as a vessel systems engineer
Telaurus recently opened a sales and marketing office in Bristol, UK, where both men are based.
Ship shore communications company Horizon Mobile Communications has opened new offices in Hong Kong and Houston, to add to its head office in Bangkok, and network bases in Singapore, Japan, Australia and Norway.
The company aims to be a single point of contact for all satellite communications hardware, airtime and associated software, serving shipping companies, oil and gas exploration, luxury boat owners, governments, fishing, media and aid agencies. Its turnover grew 100 per cent in 2002.
Marine satellite information broadcaster ChartCo has received Flag State approval from Cyprus. This brings the number of flag states which have formally approved the ChartCo broadcast service to over 20.
Cyprus is strategically important to ChartCo because of the number of ship managers and owners based there, including Navigo and Intership.
Cruise liner P&O Ocean Village has fitted a new shipboard telephone system, put together by Philips Business Communications and Island Telecom Marine.
The system includes 1300 telephone extensions, linking to the ship-shore communications system. This provides every cabin with internet, wake up calls, voicemail and a baby listening facility.
Telenor Satellite Services has signed a contract with Fugro Survey Ltd of Aberdeen to fix Sealink high-speed VSAT satellite communications on three of its survey and research vessels.
Telenor will provide Ku-Band service for two of Fugro's site survey vessels, both operating in the North Sea.
Telenor will also install a new combined "quick change" C- and Ku-Band system aboard a third vessel, operating globally.
http://www.maritimetraining.com
Maritime Training Services of Seattle has released a video and DVD to teach seafarers how to follow their requirements under the ISPS code and US Maritime Security Act.
The entire package provides critical guidance to the Ship Security Officer (SSO) and may be used for crew training or SSO reference material.
There are four programs: assessment, the On-Scene Survey, the Security Plan, and from Plan to Action.
DNV has issued Bergesen LNG tanker Berge Boston with the first ever International Ship Security certificate, confirming that it has developed and implemented a ship security plan in accordance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) Code.
The certificate was presented by Sam C. Aase, DNV's principal surveyor, to captain Ernst R.Hansen, the master of the vessel, in the presence of US Coast Guard commanding officer and captain of the Port Boston, Brian M. Salerno.
"This is a new field for all of us, including the flag state, the classification society, the seafarers and the shipowners. Through good cooperation between all parties, we have helped to set a good standard for the ISPS Code implementation process," said Bergesen.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/nmc/imosec/pfso.pdf
The US Coastguard has posted a port facility security officer model course on the web, at the address above. The course was prepared by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York and the Anglo Eastern Training Centre, Mumbai, India.
This course, along with those for Ship Security Officer and Company Security Officer, is currently under review by a Validation Panel, ready for submission to IMO in September.
Turkey has opened a US$22.5m vessel traffic system for the Bosphorous, monitoring vessels between the Black Sea and Aegean Sea, put together by Lockheed Martin.
The Istanbul and Canakkale straits are considered to be among the most challenging waterways in the world to navigate because of the large amount of maritime traffic passing in close proximity to Istanbul, home to 12 million people.
The VTMIS will monitor the movement of 50,000 vessels per year using 16 radar sites and sophisticated video, meteorological, hydrographic and navigational sensors.
A second control centre at Akbas on the Canakkale Straits is separated from the Istanbul centre by the 120-mile-long Marmara Sea.
"Before this system was installed," observed Kemal Danaci, VTMIS program manager for the Under Secretariat for Maritime Affairs, "we had to deploy people all over the waterways who used binoculars and radios to observe the movement of vessel traffic.
Now we will have a much greater ability to monitor traffic, anticipate problems and take advisory action when we see potential danger."
http://www.taic.org.nz/marine/recommend_02-208.html
Bulk carrier Tai Ping, which grounded in thick fog in New Zealand on October 8, 2002, did so because the pilot didn't know how to navigate using instruments, among other reasons, according to the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
The commission recommended that the shipping company use simulators to make sure staff are suitably equipped for any operational eventuality, among other recommendations.
Kongsberg Maritime has won a contract to upgrade automation systems onboard the Color Line ferry, Kronprins Harald. The contract includes alarm installation, monitoring and control and power management.
The company recently simplified its branding, so that Kongsberg Maritime Ship Systems and Kongsberg Simrad both come under the Kongsberg Maritime banner.
Oslo ferry operator Color Line has bought Sperry Marine navigation and communication systems for the world’s largest cruise ferry, currently under construction at Kvaerner-Masa-Yards in Turku, Finland weighing 74,600 gross ton.
It will supply a complete suite of bridge electronics, including a four station navigation system, and type approved electronic chart display and information systems, three BridgeMaster radars, dual fibre optic gyrocompasses, dual autopilots, steering controls, speed log, central alarm manager and communications station.
Sperry will provide support for installation, commissioning, interfacing, training and onboard service.
Transas has appointed Henry Nel as sales manager for shore based systems in the US, covering sales of VTS, coastal surveillance and AIS.
Mr Nel was previously system engineer and area representative for Marine Data Systems, covering UK, Europe and the Middle East. Henry will establish a second Transas office in the US.
http://www.radiohollandgroup.com
Radio Holland Greece has announced that it has been approved by Lloyds Register to meet ISO 9001: 2000, covering sales, installation, integration and servicing of maritime communication and navigation equipment, engine room automation and simulators.
It also covers sales, installation, integration and service of defence & security systems and inspections and surveys of marine communication and navigation equipment.
Digital Ship Ltd, 213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UK
Http://www.thedigitalship.com Tel (+44 207) 510 4935