New Ebola Safety Video For Mariners


KVH Industries, Inc. is offering Videotel’s new video about Ebola safety free to all mariners worldwide in an effort to increase awareness of the vitally important prevention measures that can keep seafarers safe. Ebola, a severe and often fatal illness for which there is no vaccine or cure, has been ravaging parts of West Africa since March in the largest outbreak ever known. The World Health Organization has declared the current outbreak a public health emergency, and it is critically important that anyone working in the global maritime industry understand the steps they can take to prevent the further spread of the disease.
KVH has created a website for all mariners to download the free video and an accompanying workbook. In addition, KVH delivered the entire video program today to its IP-MobileCast customers on vessels across the globe, who will automatically receive the video for immediate viewing onboard. “This is a perfect example of why it is sometimes necessary to send out urgent training updates without delay and not wait for the annual update process,” says Nigel Cleave,Videotel chief executive officer.
“The Ebola epidemic is a crisis of worldwide proportions and one where commercial ships and seafarers are at risk given the global nature of their jobs,” says Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH chief executive officer. “Distributing the free video by digital means enables us to get the information to all mariners quickly, especially seafarers who may be in or near a port in the affected region, where it is unsafe to go ashore.”
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“Ebola – Staying Safe” is a 15-minute training program produced by maritime e-Learning leader Videotel, a KVH company, in association with Steamship Mutual P&I Club and a panel of medical and subject matter experts. The video, which includes footage from West Africa and was produced in the last eight weeks to ensure the most up-to-date information, explains what Ebola is, what its symptoms are, and how the virus spreads. It outlines the ways in which crew members can protect themselves, and also what steps masters, ship owners, and ship managers can take to keep crew members safe from harm.
“The Ebola training film covers matters of life and death, much like many of our other programs in our 900-course training library,” says Videotel’s Nigel Cleave. “It has to be accurate, engaging, and well designed from a didactic point of view so that mariners of all cultures and backgrounds understand it. Our ship owner and ship manager clients are facing Ebola-related decisions every day as their ships approach and leave affected ports and at Videotel our first instinct is to support them.”KVH’s initiative to distribute the video to seafarers around the globe is company-wide: Videotel is providing the video free as part of the regular updates for its training program subscribers on more than 11,000 vessels; KVH Media Group, a leading provider of commercially licensed news, music, TV, and movie entertainment content for the maritime industry, is directing its customers to the download site; and Crewtoo, KVH’s online seafarer network, is informing its 100,000+ seafarer members via social media.
KVH is being aided in its video distribution efforts by seafarer agencies, including the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), which is promoting the video to some 450 seafarer centers around the world.
KVH provides maritime broadband connectivity to vessels worldwide through its TracPhone V-IP series satellite communications antenna systems and mini-VSAT Broadband service. Earlier this year, KVH launched the IP-MobileCast content delivery service, which utilizes multicasting technology to affordably deliver news, entertainment, and operations content to vessels at sea.
Get the Free training package from here.


Ebola Turns Up the Heat on West Africa Trade


Ebola Turns Up the Pressure on West Africa Trade

West Africa trade continues to acutely feel the pressure of the Ebola outbreak with export trade estimated to be down by as much as 30% since the start of the outbreak, UK’s shipping consultant Drewry said in its weekly container insight.

Capacity dipped 4.9% dip to 207,000 teu in October, albeit this is still up 31,000 teu since the start of the year. Meanwhile, utilisation on the Asia-West Africa fronthaul leg in September dropped 3 percent points month-on-month dragging freight rates down with it.
The estimated average all-in rate charged by forwarders for spot cargo from Asia to West Africa (Lagos) decreased 2% from USD 3,596/40ft in September to USD 3,541/40ft in October.
“While the Ebola outbreak is having an impact on current trade, carriers remain committed to long term development in West Africa, placing their faith in containment of the disease followed by a rapid re-establishment of double digit growth in traffic,” Drewry said.
The economic impact of this decline is anticipated to be significant, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reducing its growth projections for the region from 5.5% to 5%.
The World Bank also voiced its concerns and has similarly revised its growth estimates for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The decline puts the cost of the outbreak to the West African economy at USD 32 billion in 2015, if the disease is not successfully contained. Already, estimates show that the Liberian economy has declined by USD 113 million as a result of the outbreak; Sierra Leone by USD 95m; and Guinea by USD 120m.
Container traffic volumes illustrate the concerns with fronthaul volumes down 4,000 teu in September which, while up 5.4% year-on-year, fall short of the trade’s expected growth potential.
Southbound traffic continues to show an upward trend and year-on-year percentage changes that remain in excess of 5% despite the current crisis and this trend is what  keeps carriers resolutely committed to the region, Drewry explains.
Drewry cited MSC’s move to a hub and spoke set up in West Africa as proof of the longer term view carriers are taking of the Asia-West Africa trade.
“Just six months after its launch, MSC is revising its Africa Express service on the back of the planned development of a 2 million teu capacity terminal in Togo’s Lomé Container Terminal, being developed by subsidiary Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) and China Merchant Holdings International. 
Commissioned in October, the terminal is expected to be fully completed by 2017. MSC is dropping its current West Africa calls in favour of one call at Lomé and utilising ten feeders to connect to Abidjan, Cotonou, Douala, Freetown, Lagos (TinCan), Libreville, Monrovia, Takoradi and Tema,” Drewry said.
In making the move, MSC will move up from the 4,100 teu ships currently used on the service to ten 6,000 teu ships from mid-November. The removal of the other West Africa ports will allow MSC to reduce the rotation from 11 to 10 weeks.
Maersk and CMA CGM still dominate the Asia-West Africa trade – accounting for over half of the available capacity – but MSC’s Lomé ambitions could challenge that position somewhat by 2017.
Lomé is proving a popular choice for a West African hub; Bolloré‐operated Togo Terminal’s 300,000 teu capacity is being expanded to 1.2m teu. Elsewhere, planned investments in existing ports in Abidjan, Tema and Pointe Noire and in the greenfield ports of CMA CGM’s Lekki and APM Terminal’s Badagry in Nigeria will further boost handling capabilities in West Africa.
Within 24 months ships of up to 9,000 teu could be a reality in this trade, Drewry estimates, adding that this move could be likened to the rapid growth in containership sizes serving the East Coast of South America since the start of the decade.
“Already a fifth of all containerships serving the Asia-West Africa trade are gearless, highlighting the evolution in shore-side handling facilities,” the weekly insight concludes.
Source: Drewry; Image: WHO


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