Dias Marine Consultants Co Ltd, our correspondents in Odessa, has provided us with the following information
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The present notification is aimed to bring your attention to some problems foreign ships / Shipowners often encounter in Ukrainian ports, especially at Odessa, Yuzhny and Ilyichevsk ports, when discharging the cargoes of palm oil, olein, etc.
These problems can be roughly divided into two groups – problems originating from cargo quality issues and problems arisen out of cargo quantity disputes.
Speaking about cargo quality the following problems shall be borne in mind:
- overheating of the cargo during its carriage by sea due to incorrect cargo-plans drawn up at the port of loading (without taking into consideration “Heating Instructions”);
- loading of the cargo into unfit/unprepared tanks (tanks with residue of the previously carried cargo, previously carried cargo being on the FOSFA list of prohibited previous cargoes, rust scaling, lack of coating over the large areas of the tank, unsuitable coating, etc.);
- use of vessels not intended for carriage of palm oils (lack of heating equipment to maintain the recommended temperature of the cargo);
- additional loading in various ports leading to mixture of the cargoes different in quality.
In cargo quantity problems the following aspects can be marked out:
- very often cargo quantity figures calculated by the Shippers at loading port, by the vessel and by the Receivers at the discharge port differ, probably, because of referring to different cargo density indices during calculation (in their calculations of the cargo quantity Receivers use cargo density index computed by the Terminal laboratory whereas the vessel uses cargo density index declared by the Shippers);
- the cargo is often discharged not only into the shore tanks, but also into the tank-wagons and tank-trucks. That is why it is necessary to check quantity of the discharged cargo at all the above-mentioned tanks (to do ullage calculations in the shore tanks, as well as in tank-wagons and tank-trucks);
- loading and discharge in several ports, as well as the additional loading into the same tanks (accumulating error).
In order to minimize the damage and losses the above-described problems usually cause to the Shipowners we would recommend the Shipowners / the Clubs to notify P&I Correspondents well in advance of their vessels calls at Ukrainian ports for discharge of palm oils, olein, etc. so that the Correspondent could have enough time to appoint a suitable surveyor, and the latter, in his turn, to have sufficient time to get a pass to the Terminal and make necessary measurements in the shore tanks of the Receivers before the discharge (please note that the procedure of getting a permission for the surveyor to visit the Terminal takes some time and usually, after the discharge has been started the surveyor is unable and just not allowed to get to the Receivers’ shore tanks).
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