I got a headache reading it! I particularly like the first sentence...

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INTERVIEW-HK shipping industry prepared for Y2K 09:20 p.m Nov 18, 1999 Eastern By Carrie Lee

HONG KONG, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's shipping industry is well prepared for a smooth transition to 2000, but local operators cannot guarantee their vessels are Y2K compliant, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association said.

Chances of millennium accidents have also been reduced because most ships will either be moored in port or out at sea when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, the association's director Arthur Bowring told Reuters in an interview this week.

``We're very well prepared. We've been working on this problem now for a couple of years,'' he said of the Y2K issue. ``Because of contingency plans, any problem will be solved quickly.''

The Y2K bug arises from an early programming practice of using only two digits to denote the year. Unremedied computers could mistake 2000 for 1900 and crash at the start of next year.

Bowring said engineers would be able to solve any problems, and manual navigational methods could replace electronic equipment in case of malfunction.

``Even if we had a ship where there is a total breakdown and they can't fix it, there are always ways to bring the ship back.''

The association comprises Hong Kong's major owners, operators and managers of cargo and passenger ships. They command a total of 1,118 ships, about six percent of the world's fleet.

Y2K COMPLIANCE CANNOT BE GUARANTEED FOR SHIPS

Bowring said local shipowners realised there was no way to find out whether their ships were Y2K compliant.

``A lot of the (ship) manufacturers cannot guarantee compliance because...they have no idea whether the chips they were buying were Y2K complaint or not,'' he said.

The chips used in a ship might come from a number of suppliers and the manufacturers were unable to trace the source for any particular piece of chip in a ship, Bowring said.

``It's impossible to check everything. You can't replace everything,'' he said.

Bowring said most shipowners would be reluctant to have their ships in high-risk areas at the New Year, when the date shifts to 2000.

``I think most owners will probably try and find a way to make sure their ship is at sea, in the high seas -- way away from land and way away from other ships -- or sitting in a port, tied up alongside a safe position,'' he said.

``Probably the thing they don't want is being in the middle of a very busy strait like Singapore or the English Channel in the middle of fog,'' he added.

He said a vessel in the midst of fog with a lot of ships around would need to rely heavily on radar, communications equipment and onshore traffic control, which could go wrong.

He noted the cargo operations of local shipowners might stop over the New Year anyway when the staff would be taking holiday.

``Certainly we feel that the Y2K problem will not produce any more accidents than we normally have,'' he said.

``And because we have concerns about the rollover days, the critical days, we will probably have less accidents because people will be more aware and they will be more on the lookout for other ships,'' he said.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), November 19, 1999

Answers

got tea?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 19, 1999.

"Hong Kong's shipping industry is well prepared for a smooth transition to 2000, but local operators cannot guarantee their vessels are Y2K compliant, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association said."

Someone should pass along to the HKSA the information that the shipping industry uses ships. Of course, this organization MAY already know this, in which case they must be lying about the shipping industry being ready. Take your pick - incompetent or lying.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), November 19, 1999.

"GOT RICE"

-- Marli (can'tget@it.duh), November 19, 1999.

But Roland...it's 'news'...it's not supposed to be taken literally (grin).

Take care,

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), November 19, 1999.

>> "GOT RICE" <<

Luckily, for those who live in the USA, we are net exporter of rice. We grow more than we consume. Louisiana and California are big rice growers, so we get ouor rice by train and truck, not by ship.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), November 19, 1999.

Shipping is critical (especially to those of us in Hawai'i). Some shippers have checked their vessels...Standard Oil, for example, went through each of its tankers and fixed problems. As I remember, remediation took approximately 9 days of downtime for each tanker. This was non-trivial...and involved considerable pre-planning.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 19, 1999.