TRICKS OF BUNKER SUPPLY

Most of BLT Chembulk Group bunkering is taking place in Singapore. Singapore is the one of the most active and convenient port for bunker supply. In recent year Singapore bunker industry has been improving so much in term of quality and quantity compare to the old day. It is because of Singapore MPA’s effort and hard work to improve their bunker industry. The MPA has tightened the bunkering procedure; they have CP 60 as well as other regulation to ensure proper bunkering in Singapore. However, even though the procedure has been tightened, we may see some bunker tanker are still trying to play their tricks, therefore it is very important for Chief Engineer and vessel’s crew to know well their tricks.

Below are the Tricks of Bunker Supply, trust that most of our Chief Engineers might known the trick very well, or even know more other tricks. Hopefully by knowing these tricks we can do some prevention, counteract or countermeasure to protect our interest:

1. Manipulating the sounding result:
It is very easy for the bunker barge operator to manipulate the sounding result.

Counteract/Countermeasure: Chief Engineer or bunker surveyor appointed should sound the bunker barge tanks himself

How To Stay Healthy At Office

Lifestyle of modern society today, brings us to an unhealthy lifestyle, such as work pressure, indiscriminate eating habits, and don’t do sports. Minimum of ten hours we were in the office, not to mention the added time we spend on the road. This certainly brings a series of problems for us and also for the office where we work: fatigue and lack of fitness, obesity, incidence of various diseases and many more. It certainly will affect our work productivity.

Here are some simple tips that we can do together in the office to maintain our health.
1. Make your own lunch
Fast food, instant food, flavor, preservatives, food full of fat, and his friends are nice to be enjoyed, but the food was bad impact for our bodies. There are some things we can do to keep our food, among others, is to prepare your lunch in the morning, do not need luxury. Try to bring fruit, a sandwich of rye bread and some vegetables. You only need five minutes to make lunch and it was the same as you do the saving.

For more info about prepare healthy food, readers can check below E-Book:

Click Here!

2. Eat balanced meals every day (including breakfast and healthy snacks)
Many people are tempted to not eat breakfast because it takes a long time for breakfast or in effort to lose weight. It has been proven that people who have breakfast are healthier and are more likely to get a stable weight.
Good nutrition is the foundation for any healthy lifestyle and is not difficult to apply to work life. Try to make better decisions about your eating in the workplace and make sure you get a quality multi-vitamins than any of our food. Provide a healthy snack: snack of wheat, dried fruit, nuts, etc

SERVICE EXCELLENT

Lucky Charm Faucet
One day the boss of Mercedes Benz has a problem with the water faucet in his home. On the recommendation of his friend, he called a plumber to fix his faucet. When contracted, the plumber did not know that the caller is the boss’s biggest car company owners in Germany.

On the agreed day, the plumber came to the house boss Mercedes Benz to repair the damaged valve. After repair, the plumber came home and received the payment for his services.

About two weeks after that, the plumber called Mercedes Benz boss to ask whether the valves are already repaired have really good or is damaged. After a few months later, the boss’s Mercedes Benz is recruiting for a plumber working in his company, and the plumber is a Christopher L.Jr. Currently he is General Manager of Customer Satisfaction and Public Relation in Mercedez Benz.

TROUBLESHOOTING BLACKBERRY

1. Push Email service is subscribed to a sudden problem, emails are often not coming
There are three actions you can do to normalize the re-application performance
• Action new HRT (Host Routing Table)
This is a solution to re-register to the server RIM’s BlackBerry service. It is sometimes necessary at the time of service browsing, chat, to e-mail that does not run properly.
How, go to the [Option] from the main menu. Select the [Advanced Options] > [Host Routing Table]. Click the menu button [Blackberry] to bring up the options menu. Select [Register Now]

• Resend service book
This action allows you to resubmit or update the Blackberry services are used on your device
The trick is to select the menu [Setup] > [Email Settings]. After that the handheld will have access to RIM’s servers. Make a login with username and password from your Blackberry service. Click the [Blackberry] > [Service Book] > [Send Service Book], wait until the confirmation process [Done]

• Removing and replacing the battery
This method is the final act where if problems still occur. By removing and then replacing it, you do Hot Reboot, where the devise will be in re-start again from scratch. Before the pair took off again, make sure the Blackberry device is switched off.

GET BACK YOUR LOST DATA

Lost data…? Do not worry, I’ll try to give you a solution for data loss. Data loss can be caused by electrical short circuit, the permanent removal of the Shift + Delete, and reformat your hard drive. If your partition accidentally deleted, do not rush to make another partition, let alone first. Likewise if you delete the files in the Recycle Bin, but later you realize that you delete the wrong file, do not store any files on the drive.

You need to know that in fact does not necessarily data or lost partitions from the hard drive erased once you give the command delete. When you delete a file, the system actually only marked a few points in the hard disk to be ready to be rewritten. Only when the system needs a place to store data, the points marked the location of the file to be deleted as this will be overwritten with new data. If this happens, you are in trouble.

This rule also applies to the partition, because partition only present the information to the operating system how to access the storage space available in the hard disk. If you delete a partition, all data in it will be lost because there is no information about the partition. There is no any data deleted by the operating system. Your data remains in the disk operating system but just can not see it so the data is not readable.

Well, here’s where the importance of programs, Restore My Files. This program is able to see the data ‘hidden’ this sort by scanning your hard disk physical platter. Which is best done when you lose your data is to ensure that no new data is written to the hard drive is. Addition of new data increase the loss of data due to overwriting the new files on the old files stored position.

VESSEL TRACKING

Vessel is the most valuable tangible asset for every shipping company. Frequent monitoring and accurate information regarding location / condition of the vessel during voyage is very essential to ensure smooth voyage and timely delivery of the cargo.

Daily report from ship side conveyed through email and communication through satellite phone between ship and shore staff. Shore staff basically will rely upon daily report from vessel side.

But, what if all communication line down due to hardware problem (ship radar broken due to rough weather) or poor signal? How to know the exact location of the ship? How far it is from the port of destination?
In emergency case, what safety measure or emergency response to be done?

About AIS, LRIT and VT service
To answer above questions, starting in 2002 all new commercial ships over 300 gross tons, and all new passenger vessels, are required to include AIS transponders. The requirement for existing ships has been gradually phased in.

The AIS System transmits information encoded on two VHF channels, at 161.975 Mhz, 162.025 Mhz. Typical range is between 20 and 50 nautical miles.
The AIS transponder receives information from the ship’s other navigational instruments. Position, course, and speed over ground information is typically provided by a GPS receiver.

Ships that are moored or at anchor are required to transmit their position information at least every 3 minutes. Ships moving at up to 14 kts must transmit their position every 10 seconds; at up to 23 kts, every 6 seconds; and at faster speeds, every 2 seconds.

TOXIC HAZARD OF CAR AIR CONDITIONER

Jakarta is a metropolitan city that has a high population and mobility. No need to wonder, if many vehicles passing by on the street causing Jakarta filled with pollution. Car is one of the transportation choices that make possible to avoid direct contact with that pollution. Equipped with AC (Air Conditioner), those four-wheeled vehicles make us feel comfortable, even as the air temperature outside the car is very oppressive.

But today, we often hear news about people died of poisoning by car air conditioner. Maybe it makes us wonder about why and sometimes we even worried whether the car air conditioner can endanger human life.

Whether The Car Air Conditioner Dangerous?
It turned out in the car does not guarantee us free from pollution because the air conditioner kept hidden dangers that can be life threatening the car driver and passengers, namely carbon monoxide poisoning (CO). Major cause of poisoning in a car most of the discharge gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) on the disposal system that does not function well because of the waste pipe leaking untreated. In big cities, from 9 to 14 ppm (parts per million / parts per million) of CO were detected in a moving car. For comparison, the ambient air quality standards for RI are 20 ppm CO/8 hours. This means that exhaust fumes had contributed about half the limit of permissible CO levels. There is very little toxicity in the car caused by substances found in car furnished. When someone turn on the AC in a long time as the car was silent and closed his condition will make the air circulation is not running.

Hypertension and Its Prevention

In the mushrooming of the fast foods which contain fat and life style change for some of the urban people, thus diseases that become the effect from the life style change will appear more often. One of the diseases is hypertension.

Maybe many of us still don’t know what is meant by hypertension. In general, hypertension is a state of situation where somebody experiences blood pressure increase above normal indicated by systolic number (upper number) and diastolic (lower number) at the blood tension check using the blood pressure meter either by quicksilver (sphygmomanometer) or other digital devices.

The normal blood pressure is 120/80 (systolic pressure is 120 mmHg and diastolic pressure is 80 mmHG). However, that blood pressure value doesn’t have a standard value. That depends on the physical and emotional activity of the person.

Hypertension is a disorder that is difficult to be known by our own body. The only way to find out hypertension is by measuring our own blood pressure regularly. It is known that 9 out of 10 people suffering from hypertension can’t be identified their cause of illness. Hypertension can actually be inherited from the parents to their children. If one of the parents gets hypertension, thus the tendency for a child to get hypertension is bigger compare to those who do not have parents with hypertension.

SMALL THINGS MEAN BIG

People sometimes think that doing big things is more important because it will gain something big. This is normal. However, in reality there are big things which are very important and still become the subject of debate until today were originated from something simple and small. Examples are given below:
a. Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Gravity. He found out about it while he saw an apple fell from its tree.

b. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The theory is still a topic which was discussed until today were originated from a observation to small differences to an animal (a sparrow’s beak) and plants (different colors of tree).
This article will not discuss more about the above inventions, but will try to see its connection with vessel operation in the department I work at. This article will also try to give idea on what possibility we can have by paying attention to things that some people might consider simple or small.

1. Duty of Operation Department
Based on my observation, there are some definitions about the duty of operation department. I think the duty of vessel operator is: “to make sure that all supporting tools (excluded technical and crew matters) of vessel operation in the optimal condition so that cargo operation can be done with efficient cost and time”

Made From Unique Material and They Sailed

“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts” – Larry Ellison (entrepreneur)

Fresh ideas and spirit to try some new thing is the fuel for them to create a floating device that capable to carried weight and move above water. With this unique and unthinkable by other peoples, they can proofed that Archimedes Law can be applied to other ship with different material, others than stainless steel.

Bittersweet Journey of a Chocolate Ship

George Larnicol, a 55 year old chef from France successfully make and sail with a 3.5 meter long boat made from chocolate. This is the second attempt from George to make a chocolate ship, after the previous is end up in pieces after a sailing test.

Undeterred by his failure, George’s try to make a ship again named Bateau Chocolat II. This 1.2 ton weighted ship is constructed by a frame made from sugar, as for the rest of them is made by pure chocolate. George and his team working 8 hours a day and spend a total of 400 hours to finished Bateau Chocolat II.
And finally, on last September, George accompanied by one of his friend manage to sail with a chocolate ship from Concarneau Port, France. An electrical motor that was attached make Bateau Chocolat II reach a maximum speed of 15 km/h. Succeed with a Bateau Chocolat II, there was news that George has a plan to build a 12 meter cruise ship, with 2 mast that made from 6-8 ton of chocolate. The target is, this chocolate cruise ship will be finish on the year of 2012.

SHIP INSPECTIONS AND VETTING GUIDELINES

1. Preparing for the Vetting Inspection
The onboard inspection can only be successful if the tanker is prepared for the inspection. The inspector who is to carry out the inspection will start to collect impressions from even before the time he takes his first step onto the gangway and will continue to do so until he takes the last step off the gangway when leaving the tanker after completing the inspection.

Almost all inspectors are former seafarers who from both deck and engine room experience are able to assess a tanker. Most likely the first impression formed from the time the tanker is sighted until the inspector’s arrival at the Master’s cabin will be the strongest, although it will be subjective at this point. The inspectors will undertake the inspection of the tanker looking for objective criteria by which to judge the tanker. It is a fact of life that, however subconscious the urge may be, the inspector will look for objective evidence to support his initial subjective opinion. Thus the importance of the route from ship side to Master’s cabin should not be underestimated. Remember you do not get a second chance to make a first impression.

Make sure that the inspection is scheduled at a convenient time for the vessel, so it does not conflict with other inspections or similar matters. This could easily be arranged through the port agent.

SAFE NAVIGATION IN KANMON KAIKYO PASSAGE

Where is Kanmon Kaikyo Port?
Kanmon Kaikyo is a strait between Honshu and Kyushu island or between Shimonoseki & Yamaguchi City and Kitakyushu & Fukuoka City in west of Japan. With length distance: 22 NM; Average Breadth: 0.8 NM and Depth of water range: 11.6 – 19.7 meter, it is short passage from Korea to Japan or from Japan to Korea.

Here are the procedures entering Kanmon Passage:
1. Report to Local Agent
One day before passing Kanmon, inform to local agent from last port to next port:
a. Date and time departure from last port
b. Distance to go from last port to Kanmon MN line or SH line
c. Steaming time from last port to Kanmon MN line or SH line
d. ETA Kanmon MN line or SH line
Note: For example last port is Shimotsu. Next port is Yosu Shimotsu 03-01-2011/1900lt, DTG to Kanmon SH line 274 NM, Steaming time 22.83 hr, ETA 04-01-2011/1750 LT

REMOVING CHLORIDE

Quality standards of bulk chemical cargoes have increased dramatically over the past 5 years. It is reflected in the increasingly demanding inspection, loading and unloading quality control specification. In line with the above some of our charterers require more strict wall wash standard requirement,e.g:
1. Nil hydro carbon
2. Max 0.2 ppm of chloride
3. Pass visual inspection of all lines and connection
4. Suspended matter 12-16 spec

As we can see on the above chloride requirement, 0.2 ppm. It has increased from the previous requirement, 2-5 ppm. It is not so easy to achieve such a very low limit of chloride but of course it is achievable. Recently we have experienced many wwt failed due to chloride. Having a lot discussion with experienced Supercargo / Inspector and also some our chief officer. All agred that to meet above wall wash standard vessel has to conduct more intensive, effective, timely and proper tank cleaning.

ON / OFF HIRE STATEMENT

Documents are very important in a company. As company archives, some of the documents also legally binding, like the On / Off Hire Statement as one of the commercial document. Basically, this document is a letter of notification and agreement of both parties (BLT Chembulk as a vessel owner with a third party which in this context is the charterer or the party who had rented our boat).

What is On / Off Hire Statement?
On-hire statement is a letter of agreement between both parties (owner and charterer), which contains detailed description of Remain Of Board Bunkers (ROB) MFO, MDO, MGO, Lubes Oil and another important thing is the actual data (date and hour).

LEARN FROM MISTAKES AT OPERATIONAL MATTERS

The implementation of the Asean China Free Trade Agreement (AC-FTA) and also cabotage principle in Indonesia requires us, as one of actor in the shipping industry to improve the quality of human resources for the improvement of service quality. But in the process, there are various technical and non-technically faults will be happen, such as vessel operation, hiring boats, charter vessels, shipping agency, even on the ship.

These errors may have occurred because of human negligence, lack of knowledge and competencies of human resources, and limitations of supporting facilities, including the theory books about sailing.

HISTORY OF SHIP BUILDING

The easiest way to transport large quantities of goods is by sea. Way back in the Stone Age, mankind has built boats to transport goods that neither he nor his domestic animals could carry. From that day to this, men always do the improvement to optimizing the shape, function and also the deadweight tonnage of them.
Let’s check out the history of shipbuilding

1. Floating Trunk
Needs for fishing and crossing rivers were the main reasons for men to use trunks

2. Raft
Floating trunk was not very stable so the men have learned to makes rafts using several trunks tied up together. That enabled them to carry heavier cargo and to navigate much easier.

COST CONSCIOUSNESS

Cost consciousness is one of important concept to be aware of and to be understood by all the persons in any company carrying out any economic activity and with an aim to improving productivity and profitability. This concept is also included in BLT Chembulk Group culture.

Cost Consciousness Behavioral Norms

This article focuses on the third value, cost consciousness. To refresh and fine tune our understanding let us take a look at the implementation of this value in our daily activity at the office

·Use office equipment, facilities and utilities wisely (do not waste resources)

We sometimes still consciously or unconsciously use the company’s resources and facilities inappropriately. Our desk computer, for example, we forget to turn it off when we go out for a lunch break or go out of the office for a couple of hours. Another example is the office telephone usage for unimportant purposes.

CARGO TANK COATING

A chemical tanker defined as a tanker which carries liquid cargoes in bulk. There is a wide variety of cargoes carries by these ships, not only chemical products but also commodities (vegetable oil, fats, wine) and inorganic substances (sulfuric acids, phosphoric acid, and caustic soda).

About 30% of liquid trading cargoes (chemical and chemical products) are carried by chemical tankers. Due to the remarkable growth of chemical industry, shipping industry carries more than 50,000 different chemical substances. Accordingly the demand for more sophisticated and efficient chemical tankers shall be increased too.

About Cargo Tank Coating

The chemical tanker is a very special type of ship due to the complexity and the particularity of the cargo. So most of the times, much attention is given to the cargo tanks and to their ability to ensure the quality and purity of the cargo throughout the voyage.

Cargo tank coating has two main roles, first to create a separation barrier to avoid direct contact between the mild steel (tank construction) and the corrosive cargo substance. Secondly, it must have smooth/slippery surface to provide easy tank cleaning operation.

CABOTAGE

What is cabotage?

Cabotage is a term universally adopted by the international maritime community to protect registered or licensed ships to trade between ports in the country concerned. The word is French in origin meaning coastal sailing. Similar policies exist throughout the world in regard to domestic transport each country for local shipping protections.

Nearly every country in the world with a coast of its own regards coastal shipping as an integral part of its domestic transport system. For some countries it is not a big issue where there is a short coastline with one or two ports. For others with very large coastline opening up domestic transport sectors to foreign competition is something they have persistently regarded as non-negotiable.

BUNKER FUEL

About Bunker

Fuel Oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. The term “Bunker Fuel” refers to any type of fuel oil used aboard ships. Presently, fuel cost remains as one of the largest item in the overall operating cost of a merchant ship. The great increases in the price of the oil fuel have caused ship owners to increase their efforts to obtain improved and better quality of bunker.

Beside related to efficient operational cost, cargo carrying capacity of a vessel also could be optimized by strategic bunkering arrangements.

SHIP’S DOCUMENTS AND CERTIFICATES

One of the main requirements for tanker operation is ship’s documents. Throughout this article, we will discover further regarding the mandatory documents certificate. Below items are the supporting component that must not be forgotten by every ship owner.

Below are the documents:

1.Certificate of Registry: shows the nationality of a ship (issued by Sea Communication).

To obtain a Certificate of Registry, the owner of the ship must enter his ship to the official registration of the Flag state. The flag state of a commercial vessel  is the state under whose laws the vessel is registered or licensed. The flag state has the authority and responsibility to enforce regulations over vessels registered under it’s flag, including those relating to inspection, certification, and issuance of safety and pollution prevention documents. As a ship operates under the laws of its flag state, these laws are used if the ship is involved in an admiralty case.

2.International Tonnage Certificate (ITC) 1969: gives detail of gross and net tonnage of a ship (issued by Sea Communication).

ITC determined in accordance with the 1969. ITC valid permanently, except in case of alteration or upon transfer of the ship to other flag of state.

OUR CARGO PRIOR LOADING

 

Because of hazardous nature of the cargoes likely to be carried on chemical, oil tankers or gas tankers the planning, preparation and execution of all cargo related functions are to be viewed as critical operations.

In addition to the shipping documents, a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) must be present and available to all persons. The MSDS contain all information regarding the product in question and should be posted in public areas, so that all crew members have access to the necessary information.

In order to lift a cargo, as a minimum requirement, the following must be known:

·         Name of product, technical and trade name

·         Product list in vessel’s Certificate of Fitness (COF)

·         Compatibility Group and exceptions

·         Coating compatibility

·         Marpol category

·         Reactive/inhibited or not

·         Melting point

·         Heating requirements

·         Nitrogent requirements