Prisilla Nadar

The socio-economic crises around the world have risen due to pandemic that had adverse effect on several industry especially maritime industry. Maritime industry faced several challenges namely crew change, restrictions at different countries etc. Other than pandemic there are several issues that had an impact Maritime industry.  Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) Asia Pacific on 27th July organized a webinar on ‘Impact of Maritime Crises- Coping and Prevention.’

Experts in different sectors of Maritime industry were invited by WISTA to spread awareness about the Maritime crises that can arise due to different reasons.

Moderator Randima Krishnaratne, Country sales- Manager, AP Moller Maersk, Srilanka invited the ace panelists Ms Belinda Koh, Regional Logistics Risk Manager, Nacora Insurance Agency Pte Ltd; Mr Andrew Meadow, Vice President, Head of FDD at Skuld; Mads Skov-Hansen, Head of Operations, West and Central Asia, AP Moller Maersk and Mrs Dharshani Lahandapura, Chairman, Marine Environment Protection agency, Sri Lanka.

Ms Koh, spoke on Container Ship Casualties- Freight Forwarder’s role. Every freight forwarder has a major role in transportation of goods naturally it becomes their duty to avoid any incidents that can be caused by containers. She listed down major reasons for Containership casualties such as cargo shift, collision, fire or explosion, flooding, grounding etc. “Freight forwarder may have important role in cases, which are attributable to cargo onboard,” said Ms Koh. She mentioned that, it is his responsibility to check even a minor detail of the container.

The ship-owners perspective on Global convention that covers maritime accidents and incidents was covered by Mr Meadow, who stressed on crew safety and creating awareness among the general masses about , what happens in the ocean, that keeps the world going.

“We learn through incidents,” said Mr Hansen. He spoke on the importance of safety culture that a company needs to follow to make logistics safe. Mr Hansen through his speech made the audience aware about the importance of logistics.

The major maritime accident that shook the maritime world was a cargo ship MV X-Press Vessel carrying chemicals caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka which left an environmental disaster that the island will likely have to live with for decades. Mrs Lahandapura explained in detail the damaged caused due to fire and chemicals that spilled in the ocean. According to her, more than 6000 families have got affected, which turned this incident has economic and socio-political issue. She also described it has largest plastic hurdles spill ever happened in the world.

The session highlighted the factors other than the pandemic that caused maritime crises recently. Several questions and suggestions came up during the panel discussion to reduce maritime incidents.

“This topic is need of the hour,” said Ms Debbie Jones, Vice President of WISTA, Sri Lanka while delivering her conclusion speech. She thanked the panelists for sharing their knowledge and their valuable suggestions.

Marex Media