PRIVACY POLICY

SHIPSFOCUS is committed to protecting and respecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy (together with our Terms of Use and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which we will process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting our website, you are accepting and consenting to our practices described in this Privacy Statement.

COLLECTION AND PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA

You can use and browse our website without having to disclose your personal data, except as may be necessary to allow us to respond to your requests or in cases where you contact us directly.

We collect personal data and sensitive personal data only when you provide it to us, through registration, completion of forms, emails, enquiries and requests, and similar situations in which you have chosen to provide the information to us. The information you give us may include, but is not limited to, your name, address and email. If you choose not to provide such information, it may not be possible for us to respond to your request or enquiry.

We will retain control of, and responsibility for, the use of any personal data you disclose to us. Such data shall remain in our possession, or that of data intermediaries acting on our behalf.

PURPOSES OF USE

All personal data and other information collected may be used by SHIPSFOCUS individually or collectively and may be combined with other information for the following purposes:

  • Responding to your enquiries or requests pursuant to your emails, telephone calls, faxes and/or submission of form(s);
  • Responding to your job/internship application or your recruitment queries;
  • Responding to and taking follow-up action on complaints;
  • Performing office and operational administrative matters following your request; or Seeking feedback and comments on SHIPSFOCUS’s business and operational matters.

IP ADDRESSES

When you use our website, we may collect and store information about your computer (including your IP address, operating system and browser type) for system administration. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns. This data could possibly lead to your identification, but we, and our data intermediaries, do not use it to do so unless permitted by law.

COOKIES

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website by generally storing non-personally identifiable information (i.e. session information such as the number of times you visit our website and the location from which you are accessing the website). While some limited information is personally identifiable for the purposes of managing your experience on the website, any other information is anonymized and aggregated to produce statistical reports that enable us to evaluate the use of our website, and to make improvements to, and increase efficiency when you browse our website. If you wish to disable cookies on your computer, you may do so by changing your browser settings. Please note that changing these settings may limit the functionality of some web pages or prevent them from loading properly. Additionally, the major browsers have attempted to implement the draft “Do Not Track” (DNT) standard of the World Wide Web Consortium in their latest releases. As this standard has not been finalized, this website is not compatible with DNT and does not process DNT messages.

THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

To respond to or process your requests to SHIPSFOCUS, we may have to disclose your personal data to any member of our group or to third parties such as our service providers and professional advisors. You hereby authorize us to transfer your personal data to such third parties, who will process your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Statement. Your personal data will not be disclosed to any further parties, unless we have obtained your consent or are legally required to do so.

WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside Singapore. It may also be processed by staff operating outside Singapore who work for us or for one of our service providers.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing. SHIPSFOCUS will take appropriate steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

SECURITY

We use technical and organisational security precautions to protect your data from unauthorised access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal or similar risk. Our security procedures are continuously revised based on new technological developments.

DATA RETENTION

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary for the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was collected or to which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided for by law.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT, REQUEST ACCESS TO,
AND CORRECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

You have the right to withdraw consent, request access to, and correction of personal data that SHIPSFOCUS holds about you in accordance with applicable laws. All requests for the withdrawal of consent, access to, or correction of personal data held by SHIPSFOCUS shall be made in writing via post at:

MARITIME TECHNOLOGIES (R&D) PTE LTD

1, Fusionopolis Way #05-02 Connexis (South Tower) Singapore 138632 Attention: Data Protection Officer

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT

This Privacy Statement may be amended, supplemented, modified and updated from time to time.

CONTACT

Questions, comments, complaints and requests regarding your personal data or this Privacy Statement should be addressed to our Data Protection Officer at admin@shipsfocus.com

INTERVIEW WITH COO, JAMES KIM

What is really unique about Chemical Shipping (vis-à-vis other segments of shipping)?

James: 1) other bulk cargoes like oil, ore, or even container liners move in one direction, chemical cargo has more myriad ways of flows to/fro multiple ports and berths. 2) chemical cargo is not generic: there are hundreds of different types of cargoes and grades by multiple producers, users and traders involved. that leads us to: 3) the hardware: chemical ships have multiple segregations. voyage options and decisions for which cargoes to combine to where and how are much more varied, furthermore 4) while there may be some standardisations, many ships are built for specific needs. with this multiplicity of factors, optimal loadable quantity and performance of a ship can be a BIG VARIANCE. ironically, this also makes for an attraction and a low entry barrier into chemical ship operating as each operator believes in his one-upmanship within that big variance.

How is that uniqueness important in what you and ShipsFocus are doing?

James: maritime shipping faces various issues, like in 1) HR: people with great skills and experience are aging and leaving the industry, while new ones are not catching up fast enough; 2) PR: constraints to improving its image as an industry that has a wide spectrum of jobs ranging from off-shore to land-based; 3) TALENTS: shipping lull in the last decade did not help in attracting talents; 4) 24/7 nature it’s hard to sell ‘work-life balance’; 5) SYSTEMS: experience, know-how and network within a knowledgeable person are not captured systematically over time.

Our role is to fill gaps, bridging 3 major gaps: (1) between the ‘Old’ and ‘New’, (2) more and better use of data (3) optimising the ‘variance’ and efficiency. there are not many people in this unique space, and on such pursuits. to make it work, we have to cater to this uniqueness, using our unique knowhow, experience and network.

Which part of your background is most helpful to what you are doing now?

James: I believe it’s my background as a ship-owner and operator. I was with Hanjin first in VLCC and then Aframax, then to Chemical Tankers. that gave me tremendous opportunities adjusting from one to another. there were so many varieties and details in high frequency I had to know and adjust to. i became sensitive to the uniqueness in Chemical shipping. coincidentally, Hanjin was undertaking a PROCESS INNOVATIONS initiative, and I was required to provide inputs for a chartering and operations system, including on how it should work. unfortunately, users had to work for the system when it was developed, not exactly a system i dreamed of.

What is the biggest challenge in marrying tech and shipping, and what is your specific strength in this respect?

James: mainly it’s people’s fixed mind-set that’s the biggest obstacle. people say they are busy, while tech can help, they are reluctant to adopt such change. it’s a chicken and egg issue. our strength is the ability to cater to the specific and minute details that make chemical shipping unique, and the network we’ve gained trust from previous roles we played as shipbrokers. we get better chances than the tech people to hear the pain points and thus introduce the right solutions.