- As Carnival Confirms Five More Cruise Ships with Fincantieri
The nation’s acquisition of scraps in the name of ships may soon end, as the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) in Nigeria has finally decided to ensure that only certified sea-worthy ships come into Nigeria.
The AMES President, Engr. Charles Uwadia and a chieftain of the body, Engr Olu Akinsoji who stated this in an interview in Lagos with newsmen, vowed to use the association as platform to rescue Nigeria, from being turned, into a graveyard for aged and obsolete ships.
Engr Olu Akinsoji
Already, the body has initiated a Maritime Technical Summit with the theme: ‘Challenges of Maritime Transport Industry in Nigeria,’ on April 11 at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, targeted at brainstorming and evolving modalities for protecting the country.
Uwadia observed that policy makers were adequately and consistently exposed to the demands or requirements needed, but which must be complied with in ship acquisition as obtainable world-wide; and lamented the large number of ships presently abandoned at the bar due to failure to meet prescribed standards for operational purposes.
“We want to use this summit to advise stakeholders, particularly the government on how to maintain their vessels to eliminate sub-standard vessels on our waters”, indicated the AMES Arrowhead, highlighting the importance of compliance and verification in sustainable maritime practice.
“Right at the outside bar, you will be surprised at the number of vessels that cannot move or those that are sub-standard because they cannot meet the minimum standard required for a vessel to be operational” , he noted further, calling on relevant regulatory authorities to be alive to their responsibility so as to ensure minimum standards are met, in a bid to avoid down time in the course of operations at sea.
Uwadia said it was important that Nigeria upheld the professional practice of engaging competent marine engineers and ship surveyors for survey reports before any ship would be allowed into the country, stressing that Ghana as a country actually recorded excellence, by ensuring a mandatory report by a professional marine engineer or surveyor from the country’s marine engineers’ body.
“In any civilised country, the first thing should be to get a competent marine engineer or a good ship surveyor to go and inspect the vessel and give a honest report before it is purchased.
“It should not be the case of getting the seller to give you a surveyor for the job, who will give a report to ensure that the owner sells his ware, as it has always been.
“Such practises, when not checked, make people buy vessels that cannot even leave the port because they are scraps,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Engr. Olu Akinsoji, assured the summit would address issues in human capacity development for the sub-sector as the present crop of marine engineers are aging and would require competent replacement; in addition to the need to have professionals drive the policies for the sub-sector, for technical input to make it useful to its purpose.
“We hardly have input into policy formulation. All the professionals, our colleagues who were in the ministry have all left; even the inland waterways have left the ministry.
“The ministry only has administrative officers. So, when they are formulating policies, it comes out in form of laws before we even know something is going on”, he concluded, explaining that AMES, for this reason, would also deliver papers to educate stakeholders on the importance of having marine engineers play key roles in the executing agencies, as well as equipment maintenance.
In the meantime, Carnival Corporation & plc has finalized contracts with the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri S.p.A. to build five new cruise ships as part of a memorandum of agreement signed in 2015.
The five new ships include two that will be built for Costa Asia for deployment in China, two ships for Princess Cruises and one designated for P&O Cruises Australia, with deliveries expected in 2019 and 2020.
Including the five new ship orders with Fincantieri, Carnival Corporation has a total of 16 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2016 and 2020.
The new ships for both Costa Asia and P&O Cruises Australia are expected to be 135,500-ton vessels with the capacity to carry 4,200 passengers.
The 143,700-ton, 3,560-passenger ships for Princess Cruises will be the brand’s fourth and fifth Royal-class vessels, featuring the design platform used on Royal Princess, Regal Princess and the new Majestic Princess coming in 2017.
The five new ships across three brands will be built at Fincantieri’s shipyards in Monfalcone and Marghera, Italy.
The contracts were formalized on April 2 as part of the official handover ceremony for Holland America Line’s ms Koningsdam at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera, Italy.
Besides the ms Koningsdam, Carnival has taken delivery of another new vessel so far in 2016, namely the AIDAprima, which joined AIDA Cruises on March 14.
Additional report from World Maritime News
