2nd February 2016

Vessel has been refloated and damages assessed.

No further updates will be given

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Gearbulk is proud to support this charity which is instituting new programmes, including a ground-breaking initiative to provide housing for seafarers’ families and communities left homeless by Typhoon Yolanda (also known as Haiyan) that swept across the archipelago in November 2013.

This furthers the society’s extraordinary efforts in the wake of the catastrophe. Its Haiyan Emergency Appeal raised about $380,000 in its initial stages. A year on from the storm, it had completed rebuilding projects on the islands of Bohol and Bantayan, providing typhoon resilient housing for seafarers’ families and community centres. The group is underway with a large rebuilding project in Tacolban, where the storm first landed, and has appointed a project co-ordinator.

David Kirley, Sailors’ Society Ambassador and head of Gearbulk Manila, helped to coordinate the gala dinner and also doubled up as the evening’s master of ceremonies, commented “The evening, representing the first social footprint of the Sailors’ Society — Manila Chapter, brought together the maritime community, unified in our desire to improve the lives of seafarers.” The event boasted 18 sponsors, 50 raffle prizes plus both silent and live auctions and raised USD37,000 to aid seafarers in need.

Gearbulk also sponsored a table at the event and invited Gearbulk officers to attend, with some being lucky enough to win some raffle prizes!

Home aid and stability

The Society’s focus on home aid and stability for seafarers is a departure for maritime charitable organisations Helping individual workers on board ships, as valuable as this is, becomes significantly more effective when aid and support is extended to the families and communities standing behind them.

The society has also provided fishing boats to seafarers’ families that lost the vessels during typhoon Yolanda, collaborating with the Homer Foundation, a charitable group founded by Magsaysay Maritime Corp. The society has extended financial grants and employed a family outreach worker to support families rebuilding their lives.

Other recent drives include a global campaign to promote Wellness at Sea, focusing on the morale and mental health of seafarers. The group recently opened a crisis response centre in Durban, providing rapid response trauma care and counselling service for survivors of piracy attacks as well as disasters at sea.

To find out more about Sailors’ Society or becoming a Sailors’ Society Ambassador, visit www.sailors-society.org

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As all our efforts have gone into the search and rescue operation and to support the families left behind together with Magsaysay we acknowledge that there are many questions unanswered and a need for more information both onboard and in the shore organisation.

Although the Vietnamese MRCC has scaled down their search activities Gearbulk will continue to allocate vessels transiting the area in the weeks to come to search through the projected drift pattern any debris or remains would have been expected to follow. This drift pattern has now extended well into Malaysian waters, and an area with a number of offshore installations and offshore support vessels. Malaysian MRCC has been kindly requested by Gearbulk to notify installations/vessels in the area to maintain a sharp lookout. Nothing further has been found to this date, and how hard it may seem we have to accept that time is working against us. Should any findings be made we will share this information with you.

Three persons were found some 8-9 hours after the sinking took place, only one survivor. Identification of the two bodies have now been completed by the Vietnamese authorities. One body is confirmed to be C/O Renner Karl Resos Abogadie. The other body is confirmed to be Captain Ronel Acueza Andrin.

The surviving Chief cook has been repatriated to the Philippines. He has been through medical check ups in Vietnam and in the Philippines, and he is now with his family in llollo.

Bahamas Maritime Authority will launch an investigation of the sinking. The Philippines and Vietnam have been invited to join. Gearbulk will also have a representative in this investigation. Gearbulk has established a group that will investigate all aspects of the sinking.

Much of the discussions internally and externally are, as must be expected, focusing on how this tragic accident has happened. We must stress that it is still early days, there is a lot of work to be done, and caution must be exercised not to prematurely arrive at conclusions. What we do know is based on the statement made by the cook. It happened very fast. From the general alarm sounding in the early morning hours of January 2nd, and abandon ship was heard on the intercom, it took only minutes before the vessel had developed a heavy list to starboard. The cook made his way starboard and jumped overboard. The vessel sank shortly thereafter.

The vessel had loaded a cargo of bauxite in Kuantan, Malaysia. The cargo was declared as group C cargo. Under the IMSBC Code the cargo in category “C” is described as neither prone to liquefaction nor possessing a chemical hazard. Gearbulk together with NHC (H&M) and Britannia (P&I) have contracted external experts to investigate the cargo properties vs the cargo manifest, and the corresponding liquefaction risk. Until the report is at hand Gearbulk has stopped taking bauxite cargo.

The vessel was built in 2006 and she was docked in May 2014. The initial review of technical documentation, maintenance records and inspection reports do not indicate any technical issues with the vessel. She was in good technical condition and in the hands of an experienced Gearbulk crew.

There are many questions still to be answered, and we can assure you that Gearbulk will leave no stone unturned to find the root cause(s). In such tragic times we would ask that support is given to those that may have lost former shipmates or classmates, friends, neighbours, or family.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the Bulk Jupiter crew.

The post Bulk Jupiter Update 14 January 2015 appeared first on Gearbulk.

Sustainability continues to be an important priority for us and it is embedded into our vision and long term strategic plans. We believe that our enduring commitment to sustainability is becoming a key differentiator in the supplier selection process and it is our aim to be the supplier of choice in our markets.

We strive to create a safe, healthy and productive working environment for all our employees, visitors and contractors. Thanks to enhanced focus on safety during the year, we saw a magnificent drop in personnel injuries in 2014.

The training of our people is also crucial to our vision as a sustainable business. We maintained sharp focus on the importance of delivering our services with integrity; all of our staff have completed training on global anti-bribery regulations and we have introduced further modules on ethical behaviour.

Gearbulk entered the world of big data this year; better measurement and performance analysis leads to better decision making. Consequently, we optimised our operations further in 2014. By having more detailed tracking of our operations we were able to assess trends such as speed loss and take appropriate measures in each case.

Furthermore, thanks to investment in new technology, operational changes and fleet renewal, we have reduced our carbon emissions by 16% compared to 2010 levels.

We hope that this report will give you an understanding of Gearbulk’s commitment to making a positive social contribution wherever we operate, to minimise our environmental impact and in so doing demonstrate our determination to contribute to a more sustainable shipping industry.

https://issuu.com/fdk_publishing/docs/gearbulk_sustainability_report_2014

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