Shipping has a very short memory when it comes to issues it would rather forget.

Just four months on, it would be easy for an observer not to recall that this year has seen one of the most horrific shipping accidents of recent times and the worst oil tanker spill in over three decades.

It was on 6 January when the 164,000-dwt Sanchi (built 2008) and the 76,000-dwt bulker CF Crystal (built 2011) collided off the coast of China near the mouth of the Yangtze.