BIMCO BoD Held Meeting on Ballast Water and Greenhouse Gases Issues (France)

The Board of Directors (BoD) met on Monday 27 May following the preceding day’s brief Executive Committee (EC) Meeting. This was the first assembly of the entire BOD since the Singapore General Meeting and a broad agenda had been prepared for its consideration.

Mr. Yudhishthir Khatau, President of BIMCO, chaired the Meeting of the BOD. As is customary, the agenda covered all the critical Industry issues as well as contemporary BIMCO policy and strategy issues. Piracy, armed robbery, kidnapping, torture and murder at sea continue to be some of the issues of most concern facing ship owners today, despite the apparent decrease in the number of successful attacks in the North West Indian Ocean.

The BoD sanctioned the warnings that BIMCO has expressed many times that this should not reduce the level of alertness and preparedness exercised by all while transiting the area. The BoD expressed special concern at the increase in hostile activity off the coast of West Africa and welcomed the initiatives taken by the Secretariat to assist members with ships trading in that area.

Ballast water

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2004 Ballast Water Convention remained high on the BIMCO agenda, with several aspects in need of rectification before industry support could be expressed. The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee agreed to a draft Assembly Resolution text, to be adopted later this year, intended for IMO member states to enforce the Convention in a smoother manner once coming into force. Subject to the IMO Assembly’s adoption of the Resolution, BIMCO can then support further ratification of the Convention to bring it into force. The BoD restated its concerns regarding increasing unilateralism, with the US fast-tracking its own Ballast Water Treatment requirements with more stringent equipment standards compared to the IMO type approval standard.

Greenhouse gas issues

The IMO had finally agreed to a MEPC Resolution on Transfer of Technology to support the application of the new MARPOL Chapter 4 on EEDI for new ships. Work on further GHG measures for shipping in IMO had been made contingent on adoption of such resolution by a number of IMO member states. Although this major roadblock has now been removed and some progress may be expected at future MEPC meetings, BIMCO remained sceptical as to how much more IMO could agree without necessary progress in the UNFCCC on the general GHG agenda. The BOD confirmed the BIMCO position that no Market Based Measure (MBM) was needed for the shipping industry and that the price of fuel was the driver that would continue to deliver substantial energy efficiency gains for ships.

One of the expected new GHG initiatives to be taken by the IMO was the elevation of the EU initiative on Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of CO2 emissions from ships. BIMCO’s view was that any such scheme should be as simple as possible to reduce the administrative burden on crew and companies. The BoD confirmed that BIMCO supported MRV in principle and emphasized that work on MRV should not be linked to discussions on a potential MBM for shipping.

 Documentary matters

The Chairman of the BIMCO Documentary Committee (DC), Mr. Karel Stes, gave a comprehensive report on the progress on the diverse documentary agenda from the DC meeting held the previous day. Of significant importance was the adoption of the WINDTIME standard Offshore Wind Farm Transfer Vessel Time Charter Party as well as much needed clauses on Virtual Arrival, MLC 2006, Hull Fouling, IG Oil Pollution Indemnity, HME Hold Cleaning, War Risk, Piracy and US Anti-Drug. The DC was congratulated for the productive and timely execution of its tasks and the BOD thanked the Chairman of the DC for his effective leadership.

The BoD also discussed whether the time had come for BIMCO to consider the development of a standard ship financing agreement. It was agreed that initial research should be made by the BIMCO Secretariat with different parties engaged in ship financing, to explore if there was general interest in the market for the development of such a document. Subsequent to which reports would be made to the EC and also the DC on 6-7 November 2013 in Copenhagen. On the basis of the findings by the Secretariat a final decision may be made as regards to whether BIMCO should engage further in this matter.

 BIMCO Marine Committee

The Chairman of the BIMCO Marine Committee (MC), Mr. Philip Embiricos, reported on the issues of importance from the technical and nautical agenda. It was highlighted that the Marine Committee had now developed and adopted a set of procedures to guide both its work towards IMO as well as the criteria for proposing and approving members of the committee. The Chairman was thanked for his contributions to enhancing the MC’s method of work and for his continued contributions to BIMCO.

 Maritime Security Committee

The Chairman of the BIMCO Maritime Security Committee (BMSC), Mr. Michael Bohlman, highlighted the main points from the meeting of the BMSC the previous day. Of special interest was the continued effort in the field of piracy as well as work with Customs Organisations aimed at signing Memoranda of Understanding which should, inter alia, serve to protect ship owners if their ships fall victim of drug smuggling. This meeting of the BMSC was Mr. Bohlman’s last meeting as Chairman and member of the EC and BOD. The President extended his gratitude to Mr. Bohlman for his long and productive contribution to BIMCO.

 Next meeting

The BoD approved the Audited Financial Report 2012 and Budget 2013 for presentation to the wider membership at the AGM the following day.

The next meeting of the BoD will take place in Dubai in connection with the AGM in Spring 2014.

[mappress]
BIMCO, June 18, 2013