Maritime Transport Council
Minutes of the meeting, 28 November 2016, Barcelona
Minutes of past meeting
Minutes of previous meeting have been agreed.
Conclusions of the year 2016 and forecast for 2017
The working plan for 2016 as well as achievements have been reminded to participants and
can be found in appendix 1 to these minutes.
Roadmap for 2017 can also be found in these appendix as well as below.
Areas
Internal mobility
Issues
Comments
Weighing of containers
Implementation at European level
and law enforcement
2017 is the shortsea year at European
Shortsea traffics, motorways of
level, we should also have a look at
the seas
digitalisation
TEN-T
development
infrastructure Supply chain as a full scope should be
looked at.
Alliances & consortia
Competition
Sustainability
Service level
transport
in
Work at International level
container
Sentiment survey focus
Surcharges
Work at International level
Port services, port state aids
Docker topic?
CO2 emissions measurement
Actions are carried to achieve a
and reporting, Nox, and low
reduction
sulphur fuels
Infrastructure and
costs charging
external Ferrobonus
and
validated in Italy
Marebonus
Weighing of containers
In Spain, the Royal Decree is being written and should be published in 2017. It will be a copy
paste from the ports resolution (with the Balearian Island included).
Spanish Shippers’ Council have written a letter to terminal operators about the business
opportunity and the use of this regulation to charge shippers. It appears that one terminal in
Barcelona will perhaps allow to “gate in” even without VGM.
In Belgium, the legislation came too late but it appears that it has not hindered the trade.
From the 1st of October, first check has been organised. In the beginning, it will be
administrative check onboard ships.
In the UK, the ownership of ports is little different from mainland Europe, however, it appears
that no major problem has been noticed. Some shippers have been accredited for method 2
but are not using it
In Sweden, the regulation implementation is working well.
In France, the second transitory period has been validated and will end beginning of February.
One not planned problem has been experienced during the first month of implementation.
Shippers declaring the VGM to carrier in time but then the transfer of information to the
terminal operator was not done soon enough and it implies cost to the logistic chain. The
French text has been modified to oblige the carriers to declare the VGM from the shipper to
the terminal as soon as it is received.
At European level, the need to ensure, as shippers’ organisation, that the physical flow must
be ensured without extra cost. Furthermore, continuous monitoring will be made during the
first half of 2017 by shippers’ organisation in order to assess the new market development
and see how the legislative framework is translated in operational terms. If needed, a common
approach will be organised at European level with other organisation to see how method 2
can be harmonised.
Alliances and competition
Position of ESC / GSF
Few days before the meeting, ESC made a public statement saying that ESC is now (again)
member of GSF and that the two organisations will collaborate on the topic of competition.
Indeed, since two or three years, we have witnessed an acceleration of the market
modification going towards more and more consolidation.
The different meetings between representatives of the two associations have led to a
common position about alliances and mega-ships. It has been translated into a policy
statement as well as press releases (document can be found in appendix to these minutes).
The shippers’ organisation position is to request changes in approach of the different
regulatory bodies (DG COMP, MOFCOM, FMC) because the market has changed, VSA need to
be assessed such as mergers and acquisition. Then, the review of the BER from EC should also
be organised because it has been deviated from its original aim. In the end, a continuous
market monitoring must be organised.
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In the short term, a meeting will be held with DG COMP to present our policy statement.
Report of this meeting will be made during the next MTC online seminar (11th of January). It
will be followed by a meeting with ECSA.
A common ESC – GSF action plan relying on two pillars (review of the BER and monitoring of
the market, along with analysis of market data) will be drafted.
Sentiment survey
The questionnaire has been disseminated before the meeting by emails and modifications
have been included during debates.
The final version has been sent to Drewry and it will be created and launched on the market
from the 16th of February. From this date, all national council should promote this
questionnaire as much as possible to make their members answer.
It is a question of credibility of the results to have many answers.
Recent discussions at IMO about environment
During the past IMO meeting (MEPC 68), several topics about environment have been tackled.
The MEPC continued its work on further developing guidelines to assist in the implementation
of the mandatory energy-efficiency regulations for international shipping. It adopted
amendments to update the 2014 guidelines on survey and certification of the Energy
Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) and endorsed their application from 1 September 2015, at the
same time encouraging earlier application.
The MEPC agreed text for its further development for the data collection system for fuel
consumption of ships, which can be readily used for (voluntary or mandatory) application of
the system. In this regard, it has been noted that a purpose of the data collection system was
to analyse energy efficiency and for this analysis to be effective some transport work data
needs to be included, but at this stage the appropriate parameters have not been identified
(weight of the cargo will not be included).
The proposed text refers to ships of 5,000gt and above collecting data. Data would be
aggregated into an annual figure and reported by the ship-owner/operator to the flag State
which would submit the data to IMO for inclusion in a database.
It appears that this new piece of regulation will not have impact on the shipping market before
ten years. GSF have submitted a proposal during the work. It advocates the European
approach but unfortunately, it has been dismissed. Data collection will only focus on fuel
consumption and not the weight of the cargo. It seems that the implementation will pose
several problems.
Discussions about this topic showed that by doing this, IMO is not following the Kyoto and
successor Protocols
About a potential position from ESC, it has been reminded that as a multi modal topic,
environment should be addressed from a holistic point of view. In any case, as sustainability
and circular economy are increasingly important topics in the debates, ESC should give
positive messages about this. In the end, a meeting with Transport & Environment is to be
organised about their maritime climate fund
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Furthermore, we can take contact (again) with Trident Alliance to better understand behind
the curtains discussions and evolutions.
In the end, it has been evoked what is EU doing and the status of the current MRV scheme (it
appears that LEARN project will be able to answer this questions).
Since the meeting, we know now that maritime has been included in the EU ETS. Article from
Lloyd’s List on this topic can be found below.
Maritime sector included in latest EU emissions trading scheme – 15/12/2016 – Lloyd’s List
The European Union's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee has adopted a
revised version of the existing Emissions Trading System that includes a new chapter on the
maritime sector.
The new text, received overwhelming support from MEPs with 53 votes in favour, 5 against
and 7 abstentions. Following the approval, the Parliament will vote on the regulation.
The regulations concern vessels arriving at, staying in, or departing from ports of EU member
states beginning from January 1, 2021. These vessels will have to report their CO2 emissions
and keep them under specific levels.
Under the proposed regulation, the European Commission will establish the amount of
allowances for additional CO2 emissions and the method of allocation of the allowances for
the maritime sector by August 2, 2018.
MEPs added the maritime sector chapter as they felt that shipping had to contribute to the
2.2% annual decline in carbon emissions from 2021 to 2030 that the revised ETS version
targets.
The committee decided that a maritime climate fund will be created, with the aim of reducing
CO2 emissions from the industry and promoting investments in new technology and energy
efficiency. Ship operators could be paying an annual membership fee depending on their total
emissions, the committee reported.
“The fund shall surrender allowances collectively on behalf of ship operators which are
members of the fund. The contribution per tonne of emissions shall be set by the fund by
February 28 each year, at least at the level of the market price for allowances in the preceding
year,” the committee said.
While the text noted that in the event of an international agreement on the reduction of
greenhouse gases in the maritime sector the European Commission could propose the
alignment of the EU’s regulation with that global framework, the European Community
Shipowners’ Associations criticised the ETS as regional regulation that could undermine current
international efforts.
“The report ignores and undermines the roadmap that was agreed at the International
Maritime Organization at the end of October,” Ecsa secretary-general Patrick Verhoeven said.
The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee 70 agreed in late October to establish a
roadmap for CO2 reduction regulation with an initial strategy set to be adopted in 2018. The
organisation is expected to adopt a final policy in 2023 based on data collected from vessels
between 2019 and 2021.
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ECSA argued that this EU ETS will pressure the IMO into formulating a system that is similar to
the European one beginning in 2021.
General situation of stevedores in Europe.
Following to the juridical action carried out by EC on stevedores, the Spanish government is
forced to engaged a review of the current way of functioning of port workers during the first
quarter of 2017.
Spanish organisations fear that strikes will happen and can spread to other places in Europe.
Currently, it is difficult to see how can ESC move. It has been agreed to wait and see and
prepare to be ready for informing shippers about development of the situation.
Next meetings
MTC meetings and webinars
Next dates of the MTC for 2017 are the followings.
Date
Type of meeting
11/01/2017 MTC webinar
28/03/2017 MTC meeting (Brussels)
09/05/2017 MTC webinar
28/06/2017 MTC meeting (Brussels)
12/09/2017 MTC webinar
28/11/2017 MTC meeting and annual event (place to be confirmed)
Annual MTC day
“Call for proposal” about the organisation of the next MTC annual day has been launched.
Countries willing to organise can express themselves as soon as possible. Some participating
countries have “volunteered”. Feedback will be given during the next MTC webinar.
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