Japan’S Mitsui OSK Lines has opened a safety operation support centre within its shipmanagement division in Tokyo as part of a company-wide effort to improve ship safety, writes Keith Wallis in Hong Kong.
The centre is expected to provide information to ships so they can respond to anything that threatens the safety of vessel operations including abnormal climate conditions and the threat of global terrorism.
Among the centre’s tasks will be to continually track vessel movements with periodic position polling using the International Maritime Satellite Organisation’s satellite.
The centre will also use Weathernews’ risk assessments to observe hydrographic and atmospheric phenomena and send any relevant information to vessels, shipmanagement and ship allocation companies.