Singapore (Platts)--23Mar2011/634 am EDT/1034 GMT
Normal shipping activities can be carried out at major Japanese ports that were not damaged by the recent earthquake and tsunami, the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, along with other United Nation's agencies said early this week. "International flight and maritime operations can continue normally into and out of Japan's major airports and sea ports, excluding those damaged by the tsunami," the IMO, the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization said Monday in a joint statement. The IMO is the UN agency that is responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships. "While there is currently no medical basis for imposing restrictions, the United Nations organizations are monitoring the situation closely and will advise of any changes." In recent days, there were reports of a few non-Japanese shipowners unwilling to send their tankers to Japan over fears of exposing their crews to radiation after explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. "Currently available information indicates that increased levels have been detected at some airports, but these do not represent any health risk," the statement added. Earlier this week, a chartering source with a Japanese refiner, which was looking to hire vessels to move clean products, told Platts that a few shipowners were not willing to call at Japanese ports fear exposure to radiation. A bunker source with a Japanese trading house noted that not many vessels were coming into Tokyo Bay, where the ports of Tokyo, Chiba, Kawasaki, Yokohama and Yokosuka are located "If there are firefighters at the [nuclear] plant dealing with it, it seems a bit churlish of owners to refuse to call there. [It's a] knee jerk reaction and petty if you ask me," a chartering source with a Western trading house said Wednesday.--Pradeep Rajan, pradeep_rajan@platts.com--Atsuko Kawasaki, atsuko_kawasaki@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://bit.ly/OilgramNews