A total of 37 participants attended the 10th CINS Members Meeting in Rotterdam on Tuesday 5 June 2018.The Meeting was generously hosted by NileDutch, who sponsored the Welcome Reception, Dinner and Conference Facilities
The Event commenced with a pre-Conference Welcome Reception on the sundeck on board the SS Rotterdam – the former transatlantic passenger liner ship, followed by Dinner served in the main dining room.
Morning Sessions of the Conference focused on the work that CINS is currently undertaking: the Database of Incidents that are reported by Members; and the Cargo Guidelines that are being published. During the Afternoon, three external speakers gave presentations on subjects relevant to CINS Members.
CINS Chairman Uffe Ernst-Frederiksen (Maersk Line) – who moderated the sessions – opened the Conference with a review of CINS Progress – covering the work undertaken since the last meeting in December. He presented details of the projects and activities agreed at the previous day’s Board Meeting and reported on CINS plans for the second half of 2018.
Uffe confirmed that CINS would be working on a number of projects over the coming months, including: Stowage Guidelines, an RFP for a Standard Cargo Detection System, legal advice on Anti-trust compliance, new CINS Cargo Guidelines, the concept of an “Accredited Maritime Shipper Organisation” – and future co-operation with other NGO’s.
Colin Rubery, Technical Secretary, gave an analysis of the Incident Reporting over recent months, giving details of the average number of incidents per month, the number of CINS members who are reporting and their level of participation. He covered leakage by packing type and issues relating to the reporting of mis-declaration. It was agreed that a simplified method of reporting would be proposed.
Bob Ahlborn (National Cargo Bureau) presented the current programme of container DG inspections carried out for USG and the discrepancies revealed. It was agreed that NCB would provide a recommendation on guidelines for DG inspections.
Peregrine Storrs-Fox (TT Club) updated participants on the Hazcheck Restrictions Portal (HRP), developed by Exis Technologies and supported by the TT Club and the UK P& I Club. The requirement is for terminal/port suppliers to upload and maintain restrictions data; for Operators to upload and maintain their own restrictions data; and to integrate HRP into their business processes.
External presentations made at the CINS Meeting
There were three external presentations in the afternoon.
Lars Lange, Secretary General, International Union of Marine Insurance, gave delegates an introduction to IUMI – its current issues, core tasks and its work as a political forum.
Penelope Cooke (Brookes Bell scientist) provided an insight into the lack of transparency by some shippers to the preparation of Safety Data Sheets; and Dave Myers, also of Brookes Bell gave a presentation on fires on-board ships, analysing the reasons for fires – and the challenges in investigating them.
Finally, William Hillman, from Geollect, gave delegates an insight into the possible future role of geospatial intelligence for making better use of CINS data for tracking and monitoring incidents around the globe.
Members can download presentations made in Rotterdam (and at the meetings last year in June (Marseille) and December (London) by logging into www.cinsnet.org and clicking on “Bulletins”.