Top 10 Transport Headlines from Europe The latest news from Holman Fenwick Willan relating to Shipping & Logistics. There is currently an ongoing battle between various sectors of the shipping industry about the Rotterdam Rules which are due to be signed in September 2009. With the global credit crunch and the ensuing contraction in international trade, many container terminal operators are seeing a dramatic decline in volume and revenue figures. A top London maritime lawyer has warned of the "theoretical threat" that the UK may lose some claims work due to the Rotterdam Rules liability convention, but added that traders, liner operators and ship owners will still elect to keep London as their "preferred base of resolving disputes". Gibraltar, a British overseas territory in the southernmost tip of Spain, situated between two continents at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, benefits from a constantly growing marine sector. Since the Liner Conferences Block Exemption expired on 18 October 2008, Regulation 823/2000, the Consortia Block Exemption has been the only block exemption regulation applicable to the transport sector, and it will expire in April 2010. There have been frequent attacks by pirates during this past September and with the monsoons abating, it does not take a soothsayer to predict an increase in the intensity of those attacks over the next few weeks. Port operators who have received increasing requests from users for extended credit lines (informally or formally) are exposing themselves to greater credit risks by retaining customers and market share in very competitive markets - when they might not otherwise have done so. In recent years, environmental regulatory requirements have dictated that marine fuels should be low in sulphur, a major pollutant, largely responsible for “acid rain”. aa | 
