Legal firm HFW has issued a briefing entitled ‘EU second-hand tanker market March 2024’, co-authored by London partners Gudmund Bernitz, William MacLachlan and Daniel Martin. As the EU continues to take measures to restrict Russia’s ability to trade its crude oil and petroleum products, it has moved to try and introduce greater transparency into the second-hand tanker market. The EU’s 12th package of sanctions against Russia, introduced by Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2878 dated 18 December 2023 (the Amending Regulation) inserted a new Article 3q which made it mandatory for any i) national of ..read more

Together in Safety, a consortium of leading maritime organisations and companies, has launched the Golden Safety Rules to help shipping improve its safety performance. This builds on existing focus areas of Leadership, Incident Prevention, and Wellbeing & Care, with free to use best practices available as part of being the shipping industry’s Virtual Safety Partner, allowing every shipping company to initiate or further develop their safety programme. The Golden Safety Rules were developed by the Together in Safety Coalition following a detailed review of fatal incident reports across all ..read more

NorthStandard has followed up strong renewal results after the first year of operating as a merged entity by announcing an A rating award from S&P Global Ratings. S&P said the A rating, alongside a stable outlook, reflected its expectation for NorthStandard to maintain capital adequacy in line with its 99.99% confidence level and that “its underwriting results will be close to or better than breakeven over the next 12-24 months”. The rating had been based on an assessment of NorthStandard’s “strong competitive position, supported by its sound operating performance relative to peers”, t ..read more

Bureau Veritas (BV), a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, has unveiled the results of new modeling research which confirmed the potential hefty cumulative impact of operational and technical efficiency measures in keeping shipping within its “carbon budget” to 2050. Titled Decarbonization Trajectories, the report examines possible decarbonization pathways for the shipping industry through five distinct scenarios. Each scenario considers several parameters such as socio-economic forecasts for the evolution of demand for maritime transport, the possible speed for the uptake o ..read more

Lloyd’s Register (LR) is pleased to announce that two key senior LR leaders in the Greater China team will be moving into new positions. Sau Weng Tang (pictured left) takes over responsibility for Greater China as President, to support the company’s continued commitment and growth within the country. Meanwhile, Dr Mao-Gen Xue (pictured right), former President of Greater China, will move to a new role as Senior Advisor for Greater China. Dr Mao-Gen Xue joined Lloyd’s Register in 1995 and has served as President of Greater China since 2013, with overall responsibility for the organisation acros ..read more

The UK Chamber of Shipping is delighted to announce the appointment of Rhett Hatcher as its next Chief Executive replacing Sarah Treseder. Rhett (pictured), has recently retired from the Royal Navy. He brings with him a broad wealth of experience. His last role was as the UK National Hydrographer and Deputy Chief Executive at the UK Hydrographic Office. He gained a thorough understanding of Whitehall while in senior appointments at the Ministry of Defence, where he was responsible for global strategy, operations and defence engagement. Commenting on his appointment Rhett Hatcher said: “I am ho ..read more

Martin Penney will succeed Martin Taylor as the next chief executive officer of LR OneOcean, following Taylor’s decision to retire in May. Penney, previously CEO of marine software provider SpecTec, joined Lloyd’s Register on 19 February. He brings over 25 years’ experience in digital solutions, across aviation, maritime, logistics and supply chains. Penney’s engineering background has led to an extensive global career working in executive commercial roles with Eniram, BMT and Marorka. During his more than five years at SpecTec, Penney drove the modernisation of the company’s flagship software ..read more

Gard celebrated a strong and stable P&I renewal, welcoming a notable influx of committed newbuild tonnage from renewing Members. Over the past 12 months, 7 million GT have been added, bringing the club’s mutual tonnage to a total of 284 million GT. 99.4 per cent of the existing tonnage renewed with Gard, reflecting the long-term commitment of the club’s membership. “It has been a very positive and stable renewal, and we are grateful for the clear vote of confidence,” said Gard CEO, Rolf Thore Roppestad. “Gard has never been stronger, and we look forward to continue working with our Memb ..read more

The UK P&I Club has announced the successful completion of the P&I renewal for 2024. The 2024 renewal focus has been on portfolio management, providing strong support to the Club’s high-quality membership and a fair outcome for all Members, in line with Board expectation. The Club’s consistent approach saw positive gains from it’s core Mutual membership and it’s overall year-on-year growth in entered Mutual tonnage is approximately 2m GT. The Club is also encouraged by the excellent volume of newbuilding commitments from current and new Members. The Club’s robust underwriting and focus ..read more

Windward, the leading Maritime AI company, has announced a partnership with INTERPOL, The International Criminal Police Organization, to assist in their mission of facilitating a secure maritime environment. Windward’s Maritime AI will provide valuable intelligence and insights to help identify, track, and prevent criminal activities such as illicit trafficking, human smuggling, and illegal fishing, creating a more secure maritime environment. Sea transport accounts for around 90% of the global movement of goods. However, the vastness of the oceans and the sheer magnitude of vessels and contai ..read more