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75 Issue (Nov 2017) Monthly Newsletter NiuSwire

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Page 1: NiuSwire - About Us · PDF fileM UST W IN B ATTLES 7 N EWS F LASH 6 CNCo’s sustainable ship recycling efforts win Swire awards CNCo and Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) were big winners

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75Issue

(Nov 2017)

Monthly Newsletter

NiuSwire

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A WORDFROM OUR MANAGING DIRECTOR

The BridgeDear Colleagues One of CNCo’s General Purpose ratings double fractured his left forearm in November when he tried to block the fall of a stack of steel plates. This incident was similar to a previous lost time injury involving the handling of steel plates. This is a high risk activity and we need to take the learnings (page 20) seriously.

2017 was a busy year for all of us at CNCo. In the face of continued challenges, we’ve been through many developments and have also achieved a huge amount. I thank you for all your great work.

Through everyone’s support and commitment, the overall safety and quality performance across CNCo has improved. There is increased safety awareness at all levels both at sea and ashore. Our goal is to keep up this momentum, entrench safety excellence as part of our culture and be recognised as the industry leader – the safest in the business.

I’m pleased to inform that CNCo was a big winner at the annual Swire Sustainable Development (SD) Forum held in Hong Kong. Our sustainable ship recycling efforts beat all the sustainability projects within the Swire group to clinch both the Best and the Most Impactful SD awards. You will read more about how we achieved this on pages 18 and 19 as we interview this month’s Safety Champion, Simon Bennett, GM Sustainable Development. Simon has been working with various stakeholders to build capacity and to improve the safety, health, social and environmental conditions at ship recycling facilities in Alang, India. While there is much work to do, we end the year stronger and better able to serve customers. 2017 has been a tough year for Swire Shipping as competition and markets remain challenging, particularly in Papua

02 View from the Bridge

03 News Flash

07 Must Win Battles

13 Updates

16 People Matters

18 Health & Safety

24 Backpage

WHAT’S INSIDE

New Guinea. We continue to focus on bringing quality service to our customers by opening our own Apia and Fiji branches. With the more favourable Baltic Handysize Index (BHSI), Swire Bulk has recorded a profitable second half and has grown its fleet size and customer base. Pacifica, our New Zealand coastal shipping service has delivered good profits all year and MV Aotearoa Chief is now operating smoothly for Golden Bay Cement. I would like to thank all the departments across the company for doing their part to achieve efficiency and operational excellence. As our people are our greatest asset, we have expanded the HR team to ensure that we attract the right talent into the business and provide challenging and rewarding careers to the almost 850 staff ashore. 2018 will bring its own mix of successes and challenges, but our direction is clear and we know what we must do. Our job is to continue to focus on our priorities: to maintain the highest level of safety excellence, to build a high-performing team and be a financially sustainable company that put our customers at the heart of everything we do. I would like to thank all of you for navigating CNCo through a challenging 2017. I look forward to a safe and successful 2018!

Best regards

James Woodrow

Fostering a rewarding partnership

After officially becoming a CNCo branch in May 2017, the team in Fiji has been working hard to grow brand awareness and to show Swire Shipping as a liner business instead of just an agency. We also want to strengthen our relationships with our customers by showing our commitment to being their Partner of Choice.

In November 2017, the CNCo Fiji office held its first customer vessel tour. The tour was hosted on MV Papuan Chief in Suva, during her southbound voyage on the PNA service.

We were delighted to invite FMF Foods as the first customer to take part in our maiden vessel tour. FMF is a key customer in Fiji. They import raw materials such as rice, wheat and paper, and export manufactured food products, mainly into the Pacific Islands. Our partnership with FMF spans more than 40 years, going back to when they were founded in 1973.

The tour of Papuan Chief began with a safety briefing and a meet and greet with Captain Aleksandar Radovic. We were taken for a walk around the deck and got to see cargo operations in action. It was great for everyone to observe cargo handling, to get a better understanding of the size and scale of the vessels and to see the other side of what we do outside the office.

After touring the deck, we made our way up to the bridge where we were able to enjoy the view of the ship and the surroundings. Captain Radovic gave us an overview of what happens on the bridge, the duties of the Officer on Watch and an explanation of all the controls.

We were then treated to lunch in the Officer’s mess. As well as giving some insight into the day-to-day lives of our sea staff, this was a great opportunity for Swire and FMF staff to sit down and chat outside of the usual office environment.

by Liam Morrison, Assistant Commercial Manager, Pacific Islands

After lunch, we were given a tour of the engine room. Despite the noise and the heat, our group of 12 people had thousands of questions for the engineers.

After almost three hours, the tour came to a close. Both the FMF and Swire staff thoroughly enjoyed the experience, which gave everyone an invaluable insight into the operational side of liner shipping. It was an experience new to both parties.

A big thank you to Captain Aleksandar Radovic and all his crew and everyone who helped organise this event. It was certainly a big success and will no doubt be the first of many more vessel visits to come.

*Cover photo: John Dean and Jamie Gordon getting a taste of life at sea onboard MV Soochow (page 16).

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Opening of the new Lapetasi Terminal in Port Vila

CNCo participated in the opening ceremony of the Lapetsai Terminal in Port Vila on 25 November. The new container terminal was officially opened by Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai who put the first line on the bollard for CNCo multipurpose vessel, Micronesian Chief, to berth at the new facility. With a CNCo flatrack as the stage, speeches were made by the PM, Deputy PM, Minister for Infrastructure, Chairman and GM of Ifira, the Port Vila stevedores and lease holders of the terminal.

The new terminal is an excellent facility and will allow liner shipping to move away from the delays due to sharing a berth with the increasing number of passenger ship calls to Port Vila.

Denis Speyer, Regional Pacific Manager Offices and Agencies, CNCo, delivering a congratulatory message to the port.

Ceremonial plaque exchanged between the Prime Minister and Captain Oleksii, and Ifira and CNCo.

Customer profile: NGIP Agmark Limited

NGIP Agmark, one of Swire Shipping’s biggest customers, is a diversified agri-business based in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

The company was first set up by John N. Nightingale in 1988 specialising in cocoa exporting business and later ventured into plantation management, sales and marketing of agricultural equipment and chemical supplies.

Agmark’s subsidiary companies Rabtrans (Rabaul Transport) and Rabweld (Rabaul Welding) supported the business which expanded into coastal shipping, shipping agency and more recently into stevedoring and container depot operations.

The company also holds a Coffee Exporting Licence operating from the Eastern Highlands and Jiwaka Provinces as well as in the Morobe Province.

Headquartered in Kokopo, East New Britain Province, the company has offices in Kieta, Madang, Wewak, Lae, Buka, Oro Bay, Kimbe and Maprik.

Agmark today is the leading cocoa exporter in PNG, exporting cocoa, and coffee mainly to the European and South East Asian markets, and supporting Swire Shipping with 100% of their cocoa exports.

PNG Country Manager, Randy Selvaratnam presenting a ship’s model to John N. Nightingale in November.

About John N. Nightingale, Managing Director, NGIP Agmark Limited

John N. Nightingale arrived in Papua New Guinea early 1971. He was employed by ICI Dulux Lae selling agricultural and chemical supplies until 1973 before transferring to Rabaul to manage New Guinea Cocoa, the cocoa exporting business of ICI Dulux. This would be John’s first direct contact with CNCo and the old Bank Line (Andrew Weir) in exporting of cocoa.

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CNCo’s sustainable ship recycling efforts win Swire awards

CNCo and Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) were big winners at the annual Swire Sustainable Development (SD) Forum held in Hong Kong in November.

Our sustainable ship recycling efforts beat all the sustainability projects within the Swire group to clinch both the Best and the Most Impactful SD awards.

Simon Bennett, GM Sustainable Development, has been working with various stakeholders to build capacity and to improve the safety, health, social and environmental conditions at ship recycling facilities in Alang, India. CNCo has ensured the successful sustainable recycling of three vessels, MV Changsha, MV Chengtu and MV Chenan, at the RL Kalthia and JRD ship recycling facilities.

The result was that RL Kalthia and JRD were able to complete all three ship recycling contracts for CNCo in 95,500 man-hours without any time lost due to injury, fatality or incidences of environmental pollution, in other words, signifying a paradigm shift in elevating the ship recycling standards in India.

Congratulations to the SD team for winning this much deserved accolade.

Read more about our sustainable ship recycling achievements in the Safety Champion interview with Simon on pages 18 and 19.

L to R: Simon Bennett, GM Sustainable Development (SD); Carmen Chan, management trainee (MT); Chloe Chua, MT; Henrik Bisbo, GM Crewing Operations, Safety and Training; Lydia Pavlova, Manager SD and Kent Heng, MT.

CNCo Must Win Battles

MUST WIN BATTLES

ZERO HARM

Putting Safety First, Making Safety Last

VALUEEXCELLENCE

Getting the mostfrom every dollar

CustomerExperience

Partner of Choice,Making a Difference

PeopleJourney

Right People, Right Place,Everyone Engaged

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ZERO HARM “Putting safety first, making safety last”The Zero Harm Must Win Battle objectives are to ensure that every CNCo employee and stakeholder remains out of harm’s way and that each of us goes home safely to our families. Following a very poor safety performance in the fleet in 2016, the priority has been to build a better safety culture on our ships.

The four main Zero Harm workstreams in 2017 have been completed.

Improving seafarer recruitment process - completed.

Enhancing safety training - completed.

Refining the performance evaluation process - completed.

Overhauling the entire safety management system - completed.

Shore operational areas

CNCo’s Operational teams have worked with stakeholders to improve stevedoring operations for liner and bulk vessels. This has brought about improvements in safety compliance in all the liner ports and also for the less frequented bulk ports.

Shore-based employees

The Office Safety and Standards Committees in all regions have made progress in improving safety awareness of shore-based employees and ensuring that our workplaces are safe. In addition, office and shore operational safety workshops have been conducted by a Fleet Safety and Training Manager in all the main CNCo offices.

Going forward

Our safety performance has improved in 2017. In order to take safety to a higher level, we engaged safety behavioural experts, Green Jakobsen, to conduct a safety maturity assessment among the fleet. The results of the assessment will be presented to CNCo in January along with areas identified for improvement. These findings will influence the decisions for the 2018 Zero Harm workstreams to be agreed upon at the annual strategic conference in January 2018.

“Partner of choice, making a difference”We live in a fast changing market place where competitors consolidate and increasingly compete in our markets. To maximise our competitive advantage, we require a marketing strategy to deliver our message, understand the value we can add to our customers and to retain and grow existing market share.

Customer Experience

The Customer experience MWB in 2017 was based on three principles:

How we go to market

How we go to market primarily focussed on our common message “One Flag. Multiple solutions”. Our message is being transformed from what we have and where we have been, into what we can do for our 5,000 customers. The corporate marketing deck and message are being refined and crafted.

Customer experienceWe need to modernise the way we engage with customers, leveraging on modern technology so that CNCo’s solutions are visible to and can be felt by the customers.

Sharing information The Commodity Champion initiative will be rolled out in early 2018.

Going forward

The original tasks at the start of 2017 have morphed together across other MWB themes such as Digital Plan 2020 and Marketing & Advertising, and needed realignment. The primarily MWB “Customer experience” theme will remain in 2018 but be expanded upon to include the method and structure of engagement within CNCo for both internal and external customers. Dedicated resource allocations will be an important ingredient for success of this MWB in 2018.

People Journey Key areas for People Journey in 2017

Recruitment & On-boarding

A key component to achieving our People objective is to ensure that we hire the right people. This means that we first need to establish a clear philosophy, policy and recruitment strategy. Today we are able to use standard data, offer clear roles and provide useful tools to support a more robust recruitment decision making process.

Supporting new employees for a successful transition into the company means that they are able to contribute as effectively and as quickly as possible. A comprehensive global on-boarding programme for new employees is now in place.

Driving performance

CNCo prides itself on ensuring it supports, encourages and enables staff to ‘be the best they can be’ in their role. The driving performance and developing potential framework aims to support both our people and our business by creating a culture of high performance, led by leaders. This framework is now in place and a key part of our annual performance review and goal setting process. (*Refer to page 11 for more information on driving performance.)

Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

An EVP describing the mix of characteristics, benefits and ways of working in CNCo has been developed. Being able to describe theses characteristics and illustrating the DNA of the Company can differentiate CNCo from our competitors.

“Right people, right place, everyone engaged”

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As we can expect continuing price pressure across divisions, we need to generate more value and reduce waste in the business to protect our bottom line. We need to build a strong Value Excellence culture where all employees constantly look for ways to find efficiencies, reduce waste and avoid non-value added cost and activities as standard practice.

Value Excellence “Getting the most from every dollar”

Key Areas for Value Excellence in 2017:

Improve Data Quality and Analysis

An MBA intern with a strong analytical and data design background was hired in the middle of the year to work across functional teams to map data across the organisation. His work revealed extensive gaps in the quality and quantity of data. The need to separate Data Governance & Management and Advanced analytics was evident as well. A data committee has been formed to ensure continuity and we are now in the process of hiring a Data Governance Manager to ensure completion of this workstream.

Reduce Waste

Several projects across CNCo to reduce waste were:- Improving the management, storage and inventory process of spares and stores on all CNCo vessels. - Revamping of the Safety Management System (SMS) and ensuring that every crew follows the same standard processes to ensure efficiency.- CNCo NZ reviewed key areas where cost improvement can be achieved. This included consolidation of resource, local IT platform improvements and travel and hotel arrangements. The initial stage of the project has secured some significant savings of NZ$113,000.- Encouraging colleagues residing in Singapore to use the “019” service when placing international phone calls from Singapore or the *121* service if overseas to greatly save on phone bills.- Through the implementation of a negotiation strategy, the Logistics team has saved USD1m on various contracts and allowed us to generate higher value. (*Refer to page 12 for this story.)

Improvement Projects

Earlier this year, Swire Shipping’s Trade and Commercial teams undertook to automate the reporting of revenue vs customer specific budgets. This was completed in Q2 and is now functioning well. The IT, Finance and Trade teams are refreshing the look, feel and substance of the trade P&L financial reports to allow a greater level of analytical information and standardisation.

The Finance team has also embarked on a journey to develop finance polices and key processes whether it is invoices issued, payments made, compliance to statutory and regulatory requirements and financial performance reporting.

The Procurement team promoted best practices to support the business effectively and achieved significant results in the areas of future contracts, consolidating travel agents, improving corporate purchasing, bunker procurement and new vendor on-boarding processes.

Driving performance and developing potential framework

CNCo prides itself on ensuring it supports, encourages and enables all employees to ‘be the best they can be’ in their roles. Robust staff performance and development processes are critical in ensuring a good level of understanding on how employees can contribute to the overall business objectives, how they can reach their full potential and have a long and rewarding career with the Company.

ObjectivesThe driving performance and developing potential framework aims to support both our people and our business by:

• Creating a culture of high performance, led by our leaders.

• Developing the capability of our managers to inspire and drive high performance and manage poor performance.

• Developing the capability of our team members to ensure they have the skills and behaviours to proactively develop themselves for now and the future.

• Improving our performance policies and processes to deliver value to all employees.

Roles and responsibilitiesA culture of high performance can only be achieved if employees at all levels are actively engaged.

• Senior Leaders - To set expectations, act as role models for positive behaviours and embrace the best practices that inspire and drive high performance.

• Managers and Team Leaders - To implement the practices and manage their teams in line with the expectations, focusing on assisting employees to develop skills and behaviors as required.

• Employees - To deliver the agreed performance expectations, taking ownership and responsibility to develop areas that are relevant for their roles.

Tools and resourcesA three-tiered framework has been developed to support managers in driving performance: Developing

Performance (Basic level); Performing (Intermediate level); and High Performance (Advanced level).

The set of comprehensive tools and resources captured within this framework will provide further opportunity to create a common language and cultural levers across the business, reinforce selected skills, business and leadership models and provide a link to a number of key HR practices.

The materials will be developed and rolled out in phases with the first set of materials available during January. Further communications will take place as and when new materials are available.

Managers can also attend the upcoming workshops organised by the respective HR Business Partners to go through the framework.

Please contact your local HR business partner for more information.

People Journey

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Value Excellence

The “25-10-10” campaign

The Logistics team rolled out the “25-10-10” campaign to drive better return from our spending.

The 25-10-10 campaign aims to secure a 10% cost reduction from 10 out of the top 25 vendors. A target of USD1m saving was set for 2017 and the team managed to hit the target one month ahead of deadline.

This campaign was implemented across 50 different locations, 12 managers and their respective teams, ranging from one-off storage cost reductions below USD1,000 to those as high as USD100,000.

The key take away from this campaign was that the team improved their approach to spend that was considered routine and engaged actively with vendors for better value. As some clear gaps were seen in the data that was available for analysis, the project team, led by Paramesh Prasad, General Manager, Network & Optimisation, engaged a software vendor to develop a ‘Container Cost Platform’ that among other things brings a lot more visibility to our costs.

Zero tolerance transits

One of the challenges that CNCo, like many other shipping companies globally, faces is the expectation in some ports and canals for “benefits” for the processing of work that should be undertaken as a matter of course. CNCo has Zero tolerance towards corruption and has been a member of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) since 2015 to contribute towards the maritime industry’s vision and aim of being free of corruption. CNCo has been working hard for over two years now to support our senior seafarers and to eliminate demands for “facilitation payments” completely and is now seeing material success.

On International Anti-Corruption Day 2017, the MACN shared significant progress on tackling corruption in the Suez Canal thanks to a two-year collective action.

Approximately ten percent of all global seaborne trade currently moves through the Suez Canal, and with the expansion of the

Canal, trade volumes will likely increase. However, the Suez Canal has also been a consistent hot-spot for corruption, with Captains and crew facing regular demands for “facilitation payments” for passage or for routine services. Incident data from MACN’s incident reporting mechanism also showed that demands in the Suez Canal can be accompanied by threats of retaliation to the Captain and ship if cigarettes are not provided to the authorities. Refusal of pilots to cooperate has led to heavy delays, making timely passage difficult.

To tackle challenges like this - and in particular, to reduce threats to the safety of crews - MACN launched a “Say No” campaign for the Suez Canal on International Anti-Corruption Day 2015. Since the launch in 2015, MACN has assessed the impact of the campaign by surveying members and by collecting incident data. Following its collective action in the Suez Canal, MACN sees:

Less Frequent Demands• Facilitation payment demands have significantly decreased or have even been eliminated.

Improved Operating Environment • Easier to avoid situations of duress and threats onboard.• No health and safety incidents reported by any of the participating companies. • The campaign has directly improved the operating environment for frontline staff.

Easier to say “No”• Captains report that it has become easier to reject demands and to avoid situations of duress and threats onboard.• Pilots are less aggressive and more forthcoming• Both large and small companies with few transits are successful in saying “No”.

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recycling

According to the World Food Programme, 815 million people – one in nine – go to bed hungry every night. However, roughly one-third of food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – is wasted or lost. We are producing sufficient food, but the world’s supply chains are not flexible and efficient enough to distribute it properly.

On 28 November, CNCo’s Sustainable Development team partnered with Food from the Heart, a non-profit organisation in Singapore striving to alleviate hunger in the country through a food distribution programme, to organise a Lunchtime Takeaway session for over 40 CNCo and SPO employees. Guest speaker, Jeneve Lim, shared the importance of food recycling and ways to reduce food waste.

A Sustainable Development initiative

791 million kilograms of food waste was generated in 2016 in Singapore alone, which is equivalent to 3,148 aeroplanes. Out of this, only 14% was recycled. Some reasons why food is being thrown away are cosmetic filtering (distorted carrots and dented cereal boxes) and business practices (over-production of bread in bakeries that exceeds the demand for the day).

Food waste amounts to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, and labour and capital, which needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change.

In support of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge, the “Think.Eat.Save” campaign was launched to take action on this global concern.

Cybersecurity awareness

Traits of Security Savvy Travelers

They only take what they need. Do you need ALL of those mobile devices when traveling? We

have a lot of personal items to keep track of. Consider bringing only what you need, and leave the rest at home.

They make photocopies of Make photocopies

of passports and other things that prove identity, then print them out or keep a digital version stored on a mobile device

encrypted, of course). This way if your bag or wallet containing your ID is stolen, you still have proof of identity.

They plan ahead. Research and download the apps you need before you travel. Then you won’t

have to worry about extra data charges or accessing personal information on public WiFi. You can also download Google Maps of places you are visiting so that you can still have access without using data. For more tips and tricks on traveling with apps, check out this blog: http://bit.ly/29i7LyQ.

They use protection. Personal VPNs encrypt your data when you’re connected to public WiFi,

preventing cybercriminals from snooping

passwords and account credentials.

They don’t advertise. Don’t broadcast on social media to everyone that you’ll be gone for

days or weeks, and wait until you return to post the thousands of photos you took.

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY It’s a tough scenario to think about and something we hope never happens, but let’s imagine that an accident or sudden health issue leaves you incapacitated and unable to communicate with emergency personnel. How are they going to know whom to contact? How will they know if you have an ongoing medical condition?  In addition to the medical alert bracelets and necklaces many people wear, our smart phones now give us the option to allow quick access to our own personal emergency contact info without the device needing to be unlocked. By selecting “medical ID” on an iPhone, or “emergency call” on an Android, authorities will have access to emergency contacts, medical information such as current medications or allergies, blood type, plus any other information you decide to share. (To set this up on an Apple device, go to your Health app and follow the instructions. For Android, go to contacts and select “My Profile” and edit your information.) Remember: Check with company policy before accessing our data remotely, or implementing emergency contact info and device management software—such as Find My iPhone—on company-issued devices.

Airport Security

So you lost your smartphone. Now  what? There may be nothing more panic-inducing than losing your smartphone or having it stolen, especially while traveling. Thankfully, there are a few safeguards in place to protect our sensitive data (which, of course, include using strong passcodes to lock our devices). Apple devices have a feature called Find My iPhone. When enabled, Find My iPhone gives you the ability to track your device, ping it to ring and/or erase the phone as necessary. One of the strongest features is Lost Mode. You can find everything you need to know about these features on Apple’s website. Newer Androids with an updated OS give users the ability to locate their phones and lock them (or erase them completely) via the Android Device Manager. Simply log in using the Google credentials associated with your phone and you will now have complete control. For more details on what to do when you’ve lost your phone, read this: http://bit.ly/297ZcX7.

Once airport security has done its part, it’s our turn to think about security. Here are five ways to stay safe between flights:

Use a VPN, or virtual private network, when accessing public WiFi.

Keep all devices on your person when not in use.

Good security comes from timely response. Report security incidents immediately!

(Source: KnowBe4)

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A taste of life at sea

In November 2017, we departed Busan on the good ship Soochow to experience life at sea. We sailed down to Lae and Rabaul, and finished in Port Moresby, while avoiding typhoons, racing dolphins and attempting to see the elusive green flash at sunset.

While on board, we shadowed various members of the crew on deck, in the engine room, on the bridge and in the galley. We got our hands dirty chipping and painting the decks and chopped our way through mountains of vegetables. A particular highlight was steering the ship where we proved ourselves to be highly inadequate helmsmen only occasionally directing the ship vaguely towards Port Moresby.

by Swire Management Trainees, John Dean and Jamie Gordon

It was good to see the focus on safety on board. We observed the daily toolbox meetings and monthly safety meetings where the importance of safety above everything else was stressed. It was encouraging to see the messages from the safety courses in Singapore being communicated to all crew on board.

We also enjoyed socialising with the crew during meals in the messes while perfecting our karaoke routines. Often Western songs competed with Chinese songs which could be more raucous. A great BBQ was held against the spectacular backdrop of the sun setting over a calm sea as we crossed the equator. Fortunately we only had to butcher some karaoke songs to satisfy “Neptune” and gain permission to cross the equator as “Freemen of the Sea”.

We really enjoyed our time on board and it was very useful to learn about operations at sea and gain an insight into the life of the crew. The sea and sky are very big and beautiful and it was fascinating to be at depths of 8000m and see the ocean as calm as a paddling pool.

While we didn’t see the green flash or much of the Milky Way, the shining moon wasn’t too bad either. We disembarked after three weeks at sea having learnt a great deal and sporting highly questionable facial hair (much more evident on one of us!). Many thanks to the Captain and crew of Soochow and all the colleagues whom we met in Busan, Lae, Rabaul and Port Moresby.

James and John

Long Service AwardPresented by Neo Hock Lai, Global

Services & Agency Manager

Tony Hsu, Agency Manager, Swire Shipping Agencies (Taiwan) Limited 25 years

Swire Mates gathering Chris Robertson and Nick Schoepfer represented Swire Shipping at the annual Swire Mates get-together in Tokyo on 10 November. The reunion brought together over 50 former colleagues who had previously been based in Swire Shipping’s Japan offices. This was an opportunity to reconnect and share stories among old friends as well as create many new memories.

The event has been well attended in the past with Managing Director, James Woodrow, joining as a special guest in 2016. This year it fell to Chris Robertson to offer an update on Swire Shipping in 2017 with particular reference to the successful completion of last year’s newbuild programme in Japan and the continued commitment to the Japanese market with the recent arrival of Nick Schoepfer in our Tokyo office.

Chris and Nick hosting the 2017 Swire Mates gathering in Tokyo.

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Simon Bennett, General Manager, Sustainable Development

1. How do sustainability and Zero Harm correlate?

Zero Harm to all people with whom our operations come into contact: employees, suppliers and clients (plus zero harm to our assets and reputation) is an indivisible and crucial part of being a sustainable organisation. Ensuring the highest level of Health & Safety is a formal part of the global Social Responsibility standard - ISO 26000:2010.

2. What are SD’s objectives when it comes to Zero Harm?

Simple: we want EVERYONE to go to work healthy and to return from work to their family and friends just as healthy.

3. How does SD go about achieving these goals? How can everyone play a part?

In all things we do, everyone involved in the task must evaluate the hazardous nature of the task and the risk of being harmed. The successful outcome of the evaluation is to reduce the risk to as low a level as possible. The first approach if there is felt to be a risk, is to see if the task can be avoided altogether. If not, then can it be done in another, less risky way? If the job must be done a certain way, each part of the task should be evaluated to see if the risk can be removed.

Safety Champion=

The very last stage should be to use the correct, certified personal protective equipment (PPE). It is obviously always better to never stand under a swinging load than to wear a safety helmet in case it falls on your head.

4. What are some of the challenges you face?

The two big ones are:

• We work in one of the more hazardous industries. Through the years of experience, training and competence of all our people, we manage to complete 99.9% jobs we do – often very routine jobs that we’ve done over and over again, 99.9% safely. But in the 0.01% jobs where it goes wrong, someone gets hurt and this is ALWAYS avoidable, unnecessary, painful and upsetting. We tend to take a lot of care over the big, unusual jobs, but launch into the frequent or repetitive tasks without the same level of precaution. Both can be equally hurtful when they don’t go as intended. We must take more care over routine tasks, even though we may have done them many, many times.

• We go to a lot of effort as a company to provide a well-designed, safe workspace and have processes and procedures to identify the risks and then lessen them to as low as reasonably practical to avoid all accidents. It is very distressing when someone who maybe thinks that “time is money” and is SO important that it would be better if corners are cut, and worse, good, clear, safety practices totally ignored, in doing a job and someone gets hurt. I know that the management will ALWAYS support our people who adopt and follow “Our work is NEVER so important that we can’t take time to do it safely”.

If anyone at any rank/ position feels they have been pressured unwisely to take short cuts in safety, please use the Confidential Reporting hotline ([email protected]). You have our word these are all taken very seriously and followed up where we have enough information.

5. Led by SD, CNCo is a big advocate of sustainable ship recycling in India. Why India when they are not EU certified?

Ship recycling is an even more risky profession than sailing at sea. There were for many years no safety or social safeguards for the workers who are usually uneducated and certainly untrained. What started with four proactive Ship Recycling Facilities (SRFs) - out of the 150 - in India who were keen that their industry fixed their (deservedly) dire reputation and gave their workers a safe working space has now been followed by nearly 40 more. This has been recognised by one of the top class societies, ClassNK, issuing a “Statement of Compliance with the Hong Kong Convention on Sustainable Recycling”, even before this Convention is in legal force globally.

CNCo has worked over the past few years, with Maersk and other members of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, at quite some cost to ourselves, to support the better SRFs and continue to build up their capability. These first four have all applied for EU Sustainable Recycling certification but the EU is quite behind in getting round to auditing them.

6. How do we ensure that the ship recycling process is safe for the workers and the environment?

We have done this via external auditing by another reputable class society (i.e. not ClassNK as they initially certified them) and myself before, during and post completion of the recycling. We then appointed a Compliance Monitoring Team of a Master, 2/E and Bosun level to be present in the yards over the 4-5 months it takes to demolish a vessel. They have the authority and responsibility to order “Stop Work” for any potential harm to workers or the environment – even

in someone else’s work site and where we no longer own the vessel. This “interference” has been openly welcomed by the yard management AND the workers who now see businesses caring that they get home every evening to their families safely and in one piece.

7. How many vessels have we recycled in India and when? What was the outcome?

We have now sustainably and safely recycled MVs Changsha, Chengtu and Chenan – about 95,000 manhours, (four months each), without a single lost time injury or environmental incident and about 30 Stop Work Orders.

8. What were some lessons learnt?

That the better, more proactive SFRs’s management were as keen as we are to improve their previous dreadful reputation, by spending a significant amount of their own money, for the benefit of their workforce (which is very transient – most of the workers are day-raters who move from yard to yard, often on a daily basis – but now see that an increasing number of yards care about their safety). This was very heartening.

10. What can we do to lead the shipping industry in sustainable ship recycling?

We are actively publicising what is a) possible and b) necessary for all shipowners who really care about the health and safety of all that they come into contact with.

11. What do you work toward in your free time?

I am a Director on the Board of the Singapore Environment Council – and just got back from attending the recent Third United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, on their behalf, and am also a Director on the Board of my church. I am passionate about increasing the Diversity and Inclusivity of work life, social life and society in general.

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of steel platesCNCo had its ninth LTI of the year when a GP rating on one of our multipurpose ships suffered a double fracture of the left forearm while moving steel plates. The incident occurred under circumstances similar to one last year in which a Fitter had the tip of his finger severed while moving steel plates.

Root causeIn this incident, the GP and Fitter were assigned the task of repairing reefer boxes on deck and needed a steel plate for the job. The steel plates were stored on the poop deck, between the funnel and superstructure. The plate they were attempting to take out was the third one in the stack. The duo proceeded to unsecure the plates and the whole stack fell to the side where the GP was standing.

As an instant reaction the GP put his hand out to stop the plates from falling, injuring his left forearm.

The approach to the task was incorrect. In line with good seamanship practice, the correct way of taking steel plates out of a stack is to remove one at a time while keeping all other plates secured. Instead of standing clear on the sides of the stack of plates the GP had positioned himself between the stack and the superstructure bulkhead.

In addition, the crew did not adequately perceive the hazards involved in moving steel plates. The repair of reefer boxes had been ongoing for a few days prior to the incident and the need to use steel plates had not arisen earlier. Therefore the hazards of handling steel plates was neither identified in the risk assessment nor discussed in the toolbox meeting.

Risks involved in handling or moving steel plates on a ship:• Lack of adequate preparation.• Failure of equipment/ tools.

Safety Message:

• Difficulty in controlling the movement of plates.• Inadequate manpower deployed for the task.• Inadequate assessment of risks and inadequate supervision by senior officers.• Lack of situational awareness leading to people standing in close proximity to plates or in an unsafe location. • Proceeding with the job in adverse weather conditions with the ship rolling or pitching heavily.

Long-term preventive measures being put in place:• Heavy steel plates are not to be handled or moved without direct supervision of a senior officer and prior formal risk assessment. • The work plan and risk assessment must encompass all aspects including but not limited to sufficient manpower and use of

proper tools such as chain block. • Plates in a stack are to be moved one by one and all plates barring the one being moved must be kept secured during the job.• A warning sign “Do not move or handle steel plate without approval and supervision of a senior officer” is to be marked at a conspicuous place near each location of steel plate storage. Every vessel is to confirm with the respective Ship Manager together with a photograph when the marking is completed.

It is extremely important that the learnings from this incident must not be forgotten and every seafarer on a CNCo ship must not lose sight of the fact that moving steel plates on a ship is a high-risk activity that can potentially cause grievous injuries which warrants careful planning and considerations.

COLREGs test to enhance navigational safety

As one of the initiatives to ensure safe navigation, Ship Management has introduced an online COLREGs test on 21 December 2017.

COLREGs, or International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, is one of the most important international conventions and sets out the navigation rules to be followed by ships and other vessels at sea to prevent collisions. All CNCo Masters and deck officers will be required to take the test once a year as it is important that they have full knowledge and understanding of COLREGs and are able to apply it to real world situations, ensuring Zero Harm to our crew and others.

Over the last few months, CNCo has seen several poor navigational practices in the fleet. Severe navigational near misses occurred when our ships came dangerously close to a fishing vessel on two occasions and to a pleasure craft on one occasion. We also had a vessel violating the Traffic Separation Regulations in the Gulf of Finland.

Incorrect application of COLREGS on the part of the officer of the watch on our vessels was identified as a prominent cause in each of these undesirable events.

Varying degrees of weaknesses in other areas of navigation such as passage planning and monitoring, familiarity with features of ECDIS and application of responsible navigational practices have come to light during internal audits and vessel visits by the management.

A campaign on safety of navigation was initiated to improve the compliance with COLREGS and in general address the areas of concern with regards to safety of navigation. The impression gained out of many of the reports on verification of the effectiveness of the campaign on navigational safety has concluded that, among others, the understanding of COLREGS among our navigating officers is not optimum.

A bespoke Computer Based Training (CBT) module on navigation in association with a leading provider of maritime training material will be produced and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2018.

More details on the test will be communicated to our seafarers and manning partners.

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pipes

by Dave Watkins, DPA/ QA Manager and Captain Marijan Tibljas

CNCo bulk carrier, MV Siangtan, transported a record quantity of pipes from Nantong China to Vancouver Canada.

In this journey, a total of 19 pipes were stowed on the deck of Siangtan with the largest pipes measuring 80m in length and 1.7m diameter and weighing 130 mt each.

The planning for this cargo involved both ship and shore planners working closely with the marine and ship manager.

To ensure that the pipes remained secure for the voyage across the North Pacific in winter time, additional shore supports were welded to the hatch lids and very robust chain and web lashing were

provided to secure the pipes along its length which stretched over the entire length of holds numbers 3 and 4.

Captain Marijan Tibljas and his officers supervised the entire loading operation at Nantong. The Master’s concern was with the reliability of the securing methods and whether it would withstand the forces of nature while the vessel transited the North Pacific.

The Master weather steered the ship deviating many times to create a favourable motion without overstressing the lashings. The crew checked on the lashings twice a day and retightened the lashings as necessary.

The end result was a very professional job by the officers and crew of Siangtan as she safely berthed in Vancouver BC on 5 December 2017 - Well done!

Nov 2017 YTD 2017 2016

Fatalities 0 0 1

Lost Time Injuries (LTI) 1 9 14

Near Miss Reports 150 1493 1711

Fatalities 0 0 2

Injuries 0 3 1

CNCo Port State Control Deficiency/ Paris MOU Tokyo MOUInspection (DpI)

2015 2016 2017 2.32 2.66 (figs as of 2015)

0.89 1.01 0.52 2.35 2.57 (figs for 2016)

Health And Safety Statistics

Fleet Safety

Contractor Safety

Port StateControl

New Zealand crew partakes in Safety Awareness Course

On 6 November, CNCo’s crew from New Zealand coastal ships, Spirit of Canterbury and Aotearoa Chief, and operational staff attended a three-day Safety Awareness Course which was led by Debashis Sen, Safety and Training Manager.

Some of the topics covered in the training workshop included CNCo’s Safety Culture, Hazard Identification

Back row: L-R, Ian Pitts, Tamati Thomson, Ken Ziegler, Norman Beattie, Clarke Fowler, An-drew Ayers, Debashis Sen and Michael Allen.Front row: L-R, Neil Easterbrook, Loyd Kadler, Garth Bishop, Hayley Shepherd and Gary Grenfell.

and Risk Assessment and the Role of the Safety Officer on board our vessels.

The training was designed to raise safety awareness among our seafarers and was well-received by all who attended with active participation and lively discussions. The participants will be able to apply the learnings from the training to their duties on board the vessel.

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As a reminder, the judging criteria are as follows:

• Photos should be humorous or capture something unusual or exceptional• Photos should be of high resolution>3mb

“Alistair Skingley, incoming PNG Country Manager (Santa Claus), delighting children at the Port Moresby office’s family day.”

Submitted by Tay Soo Han, Assistant Manager, Global Agencies.

300 Beach Road, #27-01, The Concourse, Singapore 199555. Phone: +65 6603 9400 Fax: +65 6603 9401 Web: www.swirecnco.com

The

Ba

ck P

ag

e• Picture our staff / our offices / our vessels / our customers• Not to be offensive to anyone

Please send us your entries with a caption to go with it.

We are also calling for any talented artists out there. If you would like us to feature your work (pictures/ cartoons etc) in the NiuSwire, please forward them to us.

Picture of The Month

We hope you found this issue of interest and that it helps to keep you updated about key business developments and social activities around the CNCo group.

Thank you for your enthusiastic response with stories for this issue. The deadline for the December issue is Monday, 8 January 2017.

Please email your contributions to [email protected]’t forget to send us high resolution pictures to accompany your stories.

Thank you!The NiuSwire Editor