American merchant mariners protested outside Marathon Petroleum’s Garyville refinery in Louisiana on 9 July over the use of the Chinese-flagged tanker Jin Zhou Wan in US domestic asphalt trades under a temporary Jones Act waiver, according to the Seafarers International Union.
SIU members and officials gathered near MPLX Garyville Dock No. 1 as the vessel was expected to discharge asphalt shipped from Baltimore to Garyville. The union said US-flag vessels and American crews were available to carry the cargo.
“Louisiana’s mariners should not have to stand by on the dock while a Chinese state-owned shipping company takes over work,” said Chris Westbrook, SIU vice-president for the Gulf Coast.
The Jin Zhou Wan, IMO 9802580, is listed with COSCO Shipping Asphalt (Hai Nan) Co Ltd and Singapore-based Clearlake Shipping Pte Ltd as owner and operator. The tanker loaded 71,411.35 barrels of Performance Grade 64-22 asphalt at the Paulsboro refinery in New Jersey on 29 June and discharged the cargo at a Sunoco facility in Baltimore on 30 June.
The SIU said the subsequent Baltimore-to-Garyville movement was at least the vessel’s third US coastwise voyage under the waiver. An earlier voyage involved 72,842.95 barrels of Bitumen PG 64/22 carried from Harvey, Louisiana, to New Haven, Connecticut.
The union said the wider waiver programme had enabled more than 130 domestic sailings by foreign-owned, foreign-built and foreign-crewed vessels. The temporary exemption began with a 60-day waiver on 17 March and was extended for another 90 days from 18 May through 16 August.
The Jones Act generally reserves cargo movements between US ports for US-built, US-owned and US-flagged vessels crewed mainly by American mariners.