U.S. SHIP MANAGEMENT PROTESTS MAERSK LINE LTD. REQUEST TO MARAD

U.S. SHIP MANAGEMENT PROTESTS MAERSK LINE LTD. REQUEST TO MARAD    U.S. Ship Management, an operator of 15 U.S.-flag vessels enrolled in the federal government’s Maritime Security Program, protests Maersk Line Ltd.’s recent move to bring those ships under its direct control.
   On Nov. 7, Maersk Line Ltd., the U.S.-flag vessel operator of A.P. Moller/Maersk, asked the Maritime Administration to confirm its eligibility as an MSP provider to bring the U.S. Ship Management under its management. Maersk Line Ltd. currently operates four vessel in MSP.
   A.P. Moller/Maersk executives also asked U.S. lawmakers for the change during a summer House Armed Services MSP reauthorization hearing.
   U.S. Ship Management, a section 2 citizen corporation, was formed when A.P. Moller/Maersk took over 15 MSP vessels from the former Sea-Land Service.
   Under its 1999 MarAd-approved operating contracts, Maersk Line Ltd. claimed that U.S. Ship Management had agreed to transfer direct operation of the 15 vessel to Maersk when Maersk Line Ltd. elected to become the MSP contractor.
   “Maersk Line Limited having spent the past two and one half years in a futile effort to convince the Congress to adopt special purpose legislation that would allow a foreign controlled company to hijack the Maritime Security Program has now apparently claimed that they were only fooling and that the legislation isn’t really necessary,” said Joseph Keegan, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Ship Management.
   “Maersk apparently thinks that they have some contractual slight of hand that would allow them to take this unprecedented action at this time,” Keegan said. “They are clearly mistaken.”