In order to fulfill its commitment to providing customers with high-quality, efficient and safe LNG ship management services, COSCO SHIPPING Energy fulfilled the responsibility of a large fleet. On the basis of the successful operation of two joint venture LNG ship management companies, it made full use of the regional advantages of Hong Kong's shipping internationalization and made every effort to overcome the difficulties affected by the epidemic, devoted every effort to prepare for the establishment of COSCO Shipping LNG (Hong Kong) Ship Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hong Kong Ship Management"), a wholly-owned LNG ship management company of COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai), further improved the construction of the whole chain management capacity of LNG transportation business, helped seize the opportunities of LNG transportation market, continued to consolidate the second development curve of the company, and laid a solid safety bottom line for maintaining the safety of national energy transportation.
Fighting the “epidemic” while moving forward and full-speed production is both a task and a commitment. As early as the end of November last year, four expatriate cadres of COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai) officially entered Hong Kong as an advance team, trying to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the difficulties of home office work, and launched the on-site preparation work of Hong Kong Ship Management. Facing the heavy task of taking over the delivery of many new ships, the advance team responded timely, quickly formulated the epidemic prevention and control and work deployment emergency plan, and while taking epidemic prevention measures such as home office, put the intensive series preparation work on the "cloud", and adopt the remote mode to reduce the impact of the epidemic and improve work efficiency. Recently, Hong Kong Ship Management has successfully settled in the new office building, officially opening a new chapter of LNG independent ship management.
Gathering Talents and Strong Momentum
The goal and the pursuit are to build a LNG ship management company with high requirements, high standards, high starting points, high quality and internationalization. Under the careful guidance of the energy company and COSCO SHIPPING LNG Investment (Shanghai), Hong Kong Ship Management adheres to the shore-based team preparation principle of "based on itself and international operation", and rapidly promotes the international "high-level talent introduction" of key positions. In key positions involving maritime affairs, technology and safety management majors to ensure the safety of ship operation and the practical interests of ship owners and charterers, global selection is implemented, powerful leaders and skillful employees are allocated, and many international high-end practical talents are introduced; At the same time, taking team formation as an opportunity and team training as a starting point, accelerate team integration and quickly transform into a world-class LNG ship management platform.
Establishing A Solid Foundation for the System
The safety management system is the basis for the operation of the ship management company. As early as the initial stage of the company's preparation, the preparatory group of Hong Kong Ship Management established the system positioning of "high starting point and high standard", adopted the working policy of responsibility to people and work to post, and combined with the requirements of ISO and ISM, compiled a comprehensive safety management system involving quality, environment, health, safety, ship navigation, cargo operation, technical management, etc. After sorting out item by item, the company system has successfully obtained ABS temporary DOC certification.
At that time, there was still no sign of containment of the epidemic in Hong Kong, and all staff still had to work at home, which also posed a challenge to the integration of the company's newly established international shore-based management team and safety management system. In order to accelerate the integration and form a joint force as soon as possible, the Hong Kong Ship Management resolutely adopted the "cloud discussion" mode, regularly exchanged and discussed the existing system every week, adhered to the PDCA cycle improvement, and on the basis of learning from the excellent ship management practice of COSCO Shipping, fully absorbed the series of good practices of world-class LNG ship management companies, and finally determined the scientific IMS integrated management system for LNG ship safety, with the main colors - red and blue of COSCO Shipping, which was officially launched in April 2022.
Strong Core of Crew Training
Building a high-quality LNG crew is the core task of the company at this stage, and it is also a forward-looking move for the expansion of the company's business scale during the "14th five-year plan". In order to strengthen the safety of ship navigation and operation and ensure the efficiency of ship owners and charterers, according to the characteristics of the project and route, the Hong Kong Ship Management adopted an optimized staffing combination of experienced European officers and motivated Chinese crew, which not only ensured the safety of ship navigation and operation, but also improved the communication efficiency between ships as a mobile hub of LNG trade and all parties.
At the time of the global epidemic, Hong Kong Ship Management overcame the adverse effects, maintained close communication with Chinese and foreign crew allocation units, and accelerated the warehousing progress of project crew on the basis of strict evaluation. Especially during the Shanghai epidemic, Hong Kong Ship Management and COSCO Shipping crew company worked together to overcome the impact of the epidemic, set up a "cloud" channel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, maintained the pace of work, completed the evaluation and warehousing of many batches of excellent Chinese LNG crew, and the crew system training plan was launched on schedule. In the curriculum of crew training, the company focused on the core themes such as international norms, cargo operation, equipment technology and safety accident warning, so as to effectively improve the quality of crew and consolidate their professional ability. Up to now, the full set of Manning and a series of training programs for the first ship of the project have been refined and finalized, and the implementation progress of the overall manning of the project has progressed steadily beyond the plan. In the future, Hong Kong Ship Management will continue to rely on the strong talent advantages of COSCO Shipping to provide strong staffing support for shipowners and Charterers.
Project Promotion and Strong Management
The smooth takeover of the first ship of China National Petroleum Corporation LNG transportation project is undoubtedly the primary task of Hong Kong Ship Management in 2022. According to the construction progress of the new ship of the project, the company has long been communicating with all parties around the epidemic entry policy, crew entry and training, ship delivery (cargo) status and route planning, ship insurance, shipping agency and other key issues, implementing them one by one, and formulating a detailed comprehensive plan for the takeover of new ships, continuing to refine and improve based on the progress of the project, while reserving space for dynamic adjustment. In view of the uncertainty of the global epidemic, the company has made continuous and dynamic adjustments to the docking plan, adjusted the crew entry and training plan, and formulated plan B for the differences and risks of overseas epidemic prevention and control policies to ensure that the new ship takeover is safe.
With the arrival of liner ships organized by COSCO Shipping Group, a large number of anti-epidemic and living materials from the mainland continue to rush to help, and the COVID-19 crisis in Hong Kong has gradually subsided. After hard work in the early stage, the Hong Kong ship management shore-based management team has assembled and set out. In the future, Hong Kong ship management will work hard to control and reduce the cost of ship management scientifically, increase the training and quality improvement of ship and shore personnel, constantly improve the performance of safety management, and make unremitting efforts to provide safe and reliable all-round ship management services for ship owners and Charterers! We are ready!
