At a full-day meeting of principal stakeholders in London on 25th June, representatives from BIMCO, INTERTANKO, Intercargo, ICS/ISF, OCIMF, the IMO and the European Commission, plus various industry interest groups, debated InterManager’s KPI project aims. 

Dimitrios Theologitis, head of unit for Maritime Transport & Ports Policy, Maritime Security, at the European Commission’s DGTREN, praised InterManager’s KPI project describing it as “brilliant” claiming that “it goes straight down the path we have been thinking.” 

He added: “In January, we brought out our maritime strategy for the next 10 years, so we have regulated a lot and created one of the best regulatory environments in the world in terms of safety and environment. It is now the time to capitalise and look forward. This is why we want to ensure there are actions such as the KPI programme, which go beyond the regulations.” 

InterManager has also signed an agreement, which will see intellectual ownership of the KPI project move from Wilh Wilhelmsen to the shipmanagement association. 

Phase one of the project, which took three years to complete, resulted in the production of a range of measureable KPIs which InterManager now aims to further develop for use throughout the shipping industry. 

Phase two of the KPI project, which is jointly funded by InterManager and the Norwegian Research Council, now begins and leading members of the association have committed some 1,100 hours of their staff time to input data for comparison and benchmarking. 

Roberto Giorgi, InterManager’s president, said: “What was important about the meeting was the unequivocal support the KPI project received from the shipping industry at large. It is now up to the stakeholders to finalise the project whereby the 35 chosen KPIs will be available to owners and managers to ensure they manage and operate their ships to the highest standards.”

InterManager says it has won widespread support for its proposed raft of around 30 key performance indicators designed to be applicable across the board for all sectors of shipping, following a meeting in London last week attended by many other trade associations, writes David Osler.

Among those at Thursday’s gathering were BIMCO, Intertanko, Intercargo, the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Shipping Federation, the Oil Companies’ International Marine Forum, the International Maritime Organization and the European Commission.

Guy Morel, general secretary of Intermanager, which represents third-party and in-house shipmanagers, said that the KPIs have cost around $8m to develop, albeit with much of the funding provided by research foundations rather than Intermanager itself.

“The goal is to create a set of key performance indicators for shipping that will become standard for the industry. What we have done for the last few years is work on a set of KPIs that well represent the shipping industry, covering all aspects of performance in shipping operations,” he told Lloyd’s List.

Intermanager had taken up the task, which some might see as more appropriately the work of other organisations, “simply because someone has to do it”, Mr Morel said. The proposals have now been presented to other stakeholders and met with widespread approbation, despite fears that each individual sector might consider its specific interests better served by going it alone. Intermanager stressed that its KPIs have expressly been designed to be broad, which brought a number of advantages.

“If you have your own KPI, you can measure your own performance internally and you can measure the improvement of your performance over the months and year in you own company,” he said.

“However, if you want to compare the performance of your ships against the rest of the industry or if you want to be measured by a third party, for instance an insurance company, on the performance of your ships, you have to come up with a set of KPIs that are accepted as standard.” The scope of the Intermanager KPIs ranges from operational performance and environmental issues to the retention rate of seastaff.

Another useful indicator is the average number of deficiencies discovered per port state control inspection, and operators will be able to judge themselves against this benchmark.

At the moment, adherence to the KPIs is purely voluntary, but Mr Morel is optimistic that one day they could form the basis of regulation.

“We do believe that one day they will no longer be voluntary. We had in the room people like the commission. We had the IMO, we had the regulators, in addition to all the other associations. All these people were very enthusiastic about our progress.”

Once widespread acceptance had been established on the grounds, it would only be a matter of time before standards were imposed externally, he said.

“One day, each ship will have to have its scorecard, with all its list of KPIs and we will always be able to compare ship number one with ship number 27,” he said.

“This is the idea: to create the cement in the industry so that everyone can work in the same language when it comes to measurement of performance.”

Phase two of the KPI project, which will be jointly funded by Intermanager and the Norwegian Research Council, is now beginning, and leading members of Intermanager have committed some 1,100 hours of their staff time to input data for comparison and benchmarking.

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The massive support given to the master and chief officer of the Hebei Spirit may persuade younger people to choose a career at sea, says Roberto Giorgi, president of manager V Ships.

The massive support given to the master and chief officer of the Hebei Spirit may persuade younger people to choose a career at sea, says Roberto Giorgi, president of manager V Ships.

Giorgi describes the fight for justice in South Korea as being of “David and Goliath” proportions but says he was encouraged by the welcome-home celebrations last week in Mumbai and Chennai for the Hebei Spirit ‘s Jasprit Chawla and Syam Chetan.

Meanwhile, the head of a local maritime college in Chennai has told Giorgi that instead of being frightened away from a life at sea because of the “Hebei Two” detentions, cadets had recognised the support they had received and were encouraged to press ahead with a seafaring career.

Chawla and Chetan returned to India recently after being detained in Korea for 550 days. Korea’s High Court confirmed an April Supreme Court decision that the men were innocent of property destruction.

However, they still carry convictions for causing pollution by not doing enough to prevent Korea’s worst-ever oil spill when in December 2007, the 270,000-dwt VLCC Hebei Spirit (built 1993) was struck by a Samsung Heavy Industries barge in the Yellow Sea.

Giorgi, on returning from the Mumbai and Chennai receptions, used the David and Goliath analogy to describe the might of a big corporation like Samsung pitched against two individuals who had behaved “professionally” throughout.

They had to be defended, whatever the cost, and the “unbelievable and incredible” welcome home that Chawla and Chetan received from the Indian maritime cluster made Giorgi say: “We can do something for our industry.” The next “phase” is to amend international law to prevent future “unfair criminalisation” of seafarers, for which InterManager, spearheaded by V Ships’s Brian Martis, has already set up a committee.

Giorgi says it should be an industry-wide campaign aimed at, among other things, ensuring that seafarers in future can secure bail and return home. The intention is to work through International Maritime Organisation (IMO)/International Labour organisation (ILO) guidelines, with one possibility being a revamp of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC).

Last week in India, representatives of the government, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), classification societies, shipowners – including Shipping Corp of India (SCI) – and even other shipmanagers were “100% united” in preventing a repeat of the seafarers’ criminalisation, says Giorgi.

“They [Chawla and Chetan] did everything by the book – a great job – and I believe we as a company tried to defend their rights,” said the V Ships boss, who also gave credit to others working on their behalf, including law firm Ince & Co and protection-and-indemnity (P&I) club Skuld.

Around 100 people attended the cocktail reception at a top Mumbai hotel, staged also to thank the Indian shipping community for its support. The following evening a similar event was held in Chennai. Wives and families of the Hebei Spirit duo attended.

Giorgi says Chawla now has the task of persuading his family, following the trauma in Korea, that he should return to work. Chetan expects to return within the next three or four months.

“But for both gentlemen there will be a career with V Ships,” pledged Giorgi, who is also president of shipmanagement trade association InterManager.

He says the fight will continue to clear their names, although it seems likely that now legal avenues have been exhausted, this battle will be away from the public eye.

Giorgi says the priority is to make sure that the men will not face restrictions, including problems with visas or the freedom to enter ports worldwide, because of their convictions in Korea.

The shipping industry must use the momentum generated by the return to India of the Hebei Two to push through meaningful reform of seafarers’ rights in the case of casualties, V.Ships president Roberto Giorgi said yesterday, writes John McLaughlin.

Freshly returned from Mumbai and Chennai, where he attended “very emotional, joyful” receptions welcoming back Jasprit Chawla and Syam Chetan, he said the Indian maritime cluster was fully behind reform.

“The impression I had was that shipping people in India, from government bodies to class societies, owners to managers, lawyers to representatives of the ITF and training and nautical institutes, were all saying the same thing.”

He said the international shipping industry should be similarly unified in seeking to ensure that there not more cases like the Hebei Spirit .

“There are three phases in this. The first is to get the guys back, which we have done. The second is to clear their names, which we are working on. And the third is to push as an industry for stronger International Maritime Organization guidelines, through a draft of international law that we can pass to the IMO.” 

Mr Giorgi said any new regulation must look to eliminate unfair detention in the case of casualties, and to reinforce the principle that seafarers too are innocent until proven guilty, and should have access to bail. It should also establish an international legal standard in such cases.

Intermanager has already set up a seafarer criminalisation committee headed by V.Ships’ Brian Martis, which is combing through national legal statutes to sort and categorise the different legal approaches to casualties.

The organisation hopes to involve other powerful industry groupings that were key players in the Hebei Two campaign. “This is just the beginning,” he said, adding that a swift response was critical, both to take advantage of the momentum generated by the Hebei Two case and to forestall similar cases in the future.

“Not every seafarer has a company that will back him, or a P&I club that responds as eagerly as Skuld or a law firm as enthusiastic as Ince & Co,” Mr Giorgi said.

Lloyd’s List  – Thursday 11 June 2009

THE European Commission has clarified the position of shipmanagers in relation to tonnage tax by issuing new guidance on state aid for shipmanagement companies, writes Steve Matthews .

Roberto Giorgi, president of V.Ships and shipmanagers’ organisation Intermanager, said he was taken by surprise by the timing of the announcement.

He welcomed the new guidelines in general but reserved further comment until he had examined the guidance in more detail.

“At first glance, this looks like a good incentive for managers trying to maximise standards,” he told Lloyd’s List from Nor-Shipping in Oslo, where he was attending a meeting of Intermanager.

The new commission guidance makes it clear that shipmanagers can benefit from tonnage tax even if crewing and technical management are provided separately. Until now, only shipmanagers that provide technical and crewing management jointly for the same ship were eligible to join a tonnage tax scheme, on the basis that these were services that would otherwise be provided directly by the shipowner, which could benefit from entry into tonnage tax regimes.

The main beneficiaries could be those shipmanagement companies that manage ships under tax leases, such as under KG schemes in Germany, the UK and France.

Conditions attached to this concession are that managers must “contribute to the development of the European maritime cluster”, which appears to mean it applies to ship managers in the EU. Ships under management must also be fully compliant with international safety rules.

Crew managers must make a commitment to implement the International Labour Organization Maritime Labour Convention ahead of its entry into force, which is expected in 2011.

Mr Giorgi said Intermanager members were focused on implementing the convention’s provisions ahead of it coming into force.

The new guidance emerged from a review of the 2004 guidelines on state aid to maritime transport and the associated rules applying to shipmanagement companies. They included a commitment to re-examine after three years the eligibility of shipmanagers for tonnage tax.

The review concluded that outsourcing part of a ship’s operation should not be fiscally penalised, and therefore that crew and technical management would be eligible if they were supplied individually.

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Lloyd’s List Tuesday 23 June 2009

THE shipping industry must use the momentum generated by the return to India of the Hebei Two to push through meaningful reform of seafarers’ rights in the case of casualties, V.Ships president Roberto Giorgi said yesterday, writes John McLaughlin.

Freshly returned from Mumbai and Chennai, where he attended “very emotional, joyful” receptions welcoming back Jasprit Chawla and Syam Chetan, he said the Indian maritime cluster was fully behind reform.

“The impression I had was that shipping people in India, from government bodies to class societies, owners to managers, lawyers to representatives of the ITF and training and nautical institutes, were all saying the same thing.”

He said the international shipping industry should be similarly unified in seeking to ensure that there not more cases like the Hebei Spirit .

“There are three phases in this. The first is to get the guys back, which we have done. The second is to clear their names, which we are working on. And the third is to push as an industry for stronger International Maritime Organization guidelines, through a draft of international law that we can pass to the IMO.”

Mr Giorgi said any new regulation must look to eliminate unfair detention in the case of casualties, and to reinforce the principle that seafarers too are innocent until proven guilty, and should have access to bail. It should also establish an international legal standard in such cases.

Intermanager has already set up a seafarer criminalisation committee headed by V.Ships’ Brian Martis, which is combing through national legal statutes to sort and categorise the different legal approaches to casualties.

The organisation hopes to involve other powerful industry groupings that were key players in the Hebei Two campaign. “This is just the beginning,” he said, adding that a swift response was critical, both to take advantage of the momentum generated by the Hebei Two case and to forestall similar cases in the future.

“Not every seafarer has a company that will back him, or a P&I club that responds as eagerly as Skuld or a law firm as enthusiastic as Ince & Co,” Mr Giorgi said.

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