International Association of Marine and Shipping Professionals

NEWS BULLETIN 16 – 22 July 2018

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The International Association of Marine and Shipping Professionals (IAMSP) is the

professional body for Marine and Shipping professionals world-wide, formed in 2015. The

association is an independent, non-political organization aims to:

Contribute to the promotion and protection of maritime activities of the shipping industry,

the study of their development opportunities and more generally everything concerning these

activities.

Promote the development of occupations related to maritime and shipping; serve as a point of

contact and effective term for the business relationship with the shipping industry (charter

brokers, traders, shipping agents, Marine surveyors, ship inspectors, ship-managers, sailors,

and stevedores etc.).

Ensuring the representation of its members to the institutions, national and

international organizations as well as with governments, communities and professional

groups while promoting the exchange of information, skills and the exchange of experience.

Develop the partnership relations sponsorship, collaboration between IAMSP and other

associations, companies, national and international organizations involved in activities

related to Maritimes and shipping.

Contribute to the update and improvement of professional knowledge of its members and

raise their skill levels to international standards.

Progress towards a comprehensive and integrated view of all marine areas and the

activities and resources related to the sea.

About I.A.M.S.P

Laws & regulations: EU questions independence of Ireland’s marine investigations body

Port development West Africa: China's ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ arrives

INTERNATIONAL news

20/07/2018

The European Commission has referred Ireland to the EU Court of Justice for failing to uphold EU law on

“impartial” investigations of marine incidents.

The EU says that it has a “number of concerns” about the independence of members of the Marine Casualty

Investigation Board (MCIB), the State’s lead investigating body for serious incidents at sea.

The presence of the Department of Transport’s secretary general or nominee, and the Marine Survey

Office’s chief surveyor on the five-person board could represent a conflict to interest, according to the

European Commission. It says the board “lacks the necessary independence” from the Department of

Transport and the Marine Survey Office (MSO).

The MCIB was established in June 2002 under section 7 of the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine

Casualties) Act, 2000. It is currently handling 13 inquiries, dating back to early 2016, including the

investigation into the death of Irish Coast Guard Doolin volunteer Caitríona Lucas off the Clare coast in

September, 2016.

The board is chaired by barrister Cliona Cassidy and includes chief surveyor Brian Hogan.

The MCIB website states that it complies with the International Maritime Organisation’s casualty

investigation code and a 2009 EU directive on investigating “accidents in the maritime transport sector”.

However, the European Commission says Ireland has failed to “correctly implement” the 2009 directive.

The directive requires that each member state establishes an “impartial permanent investigative body,

which should be independent in its organisation, legal structure and decision-making of any party whose

interests could conflict with the task entrusted to it”.

The EU notes that the MSO has “regulatory, administrative and enforcement functions with regard to ships,

their equipment as well as seafarers’ competence”. The MSO is responsible for certifying vessels which

may be subsequently involved in incidents at sea. “As for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport,

it is responsible, inter alia, for maritime safety policy,” the commission says.

The Department of Transport said in response that it “noted” the decision by the European Commission to

refer Ireland to the Court of Justice and said “the matter is now subject to further consideration”. It was

unable to state if the EU move would affect continuing investigations.

[The Irish Times]

20/07/2018

By Cornelia Treman

Xi Jinping’s choice of Senegal for a state visit on 20–21 July, his first visit to West Africa, en route to the

BRICS summit in South Africa, suggests that China seeks to deepen cooperation in a region that has seen

comparatively less Chinese engagements than elsewhere in Africa.

In using Senegal as a springboard, China seeks to advance strategic goals: bringing West Africa into the

“Belt and Road” orbit and consolidating influence in a historically French-dominated region.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been targeted at rail, road, and port developments in Eastern Africa,

but its focus is increasingly turning towards West Africa. During his visit to Beijing in June, Senegal’s

Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba underlined that: “the Belt and Road Initiative … will bring opportunities for

the development of all countries in the world. Senegal is willing to take an active role in it.”

In addition to having significant infrastructure plans for Senegal, including a trans-African highway

running from Dakar to Djibouti, China recently concluded a range of deals in other West African countries:

the Dakar-Bamako rail line under rehabilitation formed part of a larger set of deals signed between Mali

and China, including an $8 billion railway link between landlocked Mali and the Guinean port of Conakry;

and China is also building major dams in Guinea and Ivory Coast, the latter of which recently received a

$7.5 billion Chinese commitment to invest in infrastructure.

As China’s regional footprint grows, France’s is arguably waning. This is exhibited by debates over the

continued use of the West African Franc (CFA) as the currency for Francophone countries, the loss of

business contracts to Chinese companies, and France’s recent overtures to Anglophone countries such as

Ghana. Meanwhile, in May Burkina Faso switched recognition from Taiwan to China. It is the last

francophone African country to do so, and the second-to-last African country.

Were China to succeed in rivalling France for influence in francophone West Africa, the breadth and depth

of its economic and political engagements in Africa will truly be unmatched.

But why Senegal? China chose Senegal for four key reasons.

First, China seeks to solidify its relationship with a historically unsteady partner. After independence in

1960, Senegal recognised Taiwan over China, before switching course in 1971. In 1995 it re-established

relations with Taiwan. This lasted until 2005, when it reverted back to China.

Since then, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the total volume of China–Senegal trade

increased from $196.7 million in 2005 to $2.3 billion in 2015, when China became Senegal’s second

largest trading partner, second only to the European Union (where the relationship is dominated by trade

with France).

China’s top imports from Senegal include raw materials, such as ground nuts and their by-products, and

titanium ore, while Senegal’s primary imports from China include technology and infrastructure-related

products. China initially began investing in Senegal’s agricultural sector, but its economic engagements

have diversified into telecommunications, agriculture, energy, and transport infrastructure.

Second, Senegal is economically and politically stable. At 7.2%, the country is tracking the second-highest

economic growth rate in West Africa, behind Ivory Coast, according to the International Monetary Fund. In

contrast to the Ivory Coast, Senegal has no history of acute political upheavals and is considered a model of

good governance in Africa.

“Were China to succeed in competing with France for influence in francophone West Africa, the breadth

and depth of its economic and political engagements in Africa will truly be unmatched.”

Moreover, Senegal is actively looking beyond traditional partners to attract investment for President

Macky Sall’s Plan Sénégal Emergent, the country’s plan to attain middle-income status by 2035. If these

positive trends continue and Senegal manages its newfound oil and gas reserves in a developmental way,

the region’s economic prosperity – and the role that China can play in it – will depend significantly on

developments in Senegal.

Third, China views Senegal as a gateway to the West African region. In June, Chinese Foreign Minister

Wang Yi stressed that China regards Senegal as an important cooperation partner and is ready to build the

bilateral relationship into a “model of friendly relations between China and West African countries”.

Senegal is strategically located at the intersection of Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa, and the Port of Dakar

is the one of the largest and most efficient deepwater seaports along the West African coast. Dakar’s new

airport, opened in December 2017, rivals that of Abidjan and will become a regional transport hub.

Fourth, the development of a Chinese-funded special economic zone (SEZ) outside of Dakar suggests

Chinese ambitions beyond the region. This is the first Chinese-built SEZ to be established in either West

Africa or francophone Africa and will be the first instance of Chinese industry spreading to francophone

West Africa. Since Senegal is a member of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), China will

also be able to export goods manufactured in the SEZ to relatively close markets in the US and Europe

through Senegal.

In so many ways, Senegal is an ideal partner as China seeks to expand its political and economic reach in

Africa. For Senegal, it is an opportunity to direct China’s engagements into those sectors where it has a

comparative advantage, and that will help the country realise its ambitious economic development plan.

[The Interpreter]

Port development India: Tata Steel plans to develop Subarnarekha

20/07/2018

Adani Logistics and NYK Auto Logistics have agreed to form a joint venture specialising in transporting

finished automobiles by rail.

To begin with, the joint venture will run six automobile freight trains but it expects to have 25 running in

three years time. Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), of which Adani Logistics is a

subsidiary, said in a statement that the automobile sector is witnessing rapid growth and that investment in

transporting vehicles by rail would help reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

APSEZ expects that finished vehicles distribution through rail mode will grow faster than the industry’s

growth rate. APSEZ Zone’ CEO Karan Adani said: “Adani Logistics strength lies in rail operations and

having a network of multi-modal Logistics Parks, while working closely with APSEZ having a pan India

port footprint. This formidable association combines the strengths of individual parent companies, putting

the joint venture in a very unique position.”

[Container Management]

20/07/2018

In what could emerge as an important port on India’s East coast, Tata Steel plans to develop the

Subarnarekha port at the northern-most tip of Odisha, where the river Subarnarekha merges with the Bay of

Bengal.

The port, with the ability to manage large-sized ships, will be developed at a cost of ₹4,000-5,000 crore in

three to four years, said an industry source privy to the matter. The precise location in north Odisha will

allow the Subarnarekha port immediate proximity to West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and even Nepal.

The port is likely to have the potential to handle large ships with 180,000 dead weight tonnage capacity with

18-metre draft that will help Tata Steel lower its transport and product costs. Other ports in the vicinity have

lower drafts — Dhamra has a draft of 17.2 m, Haldia 7.5 m and Paradip ports 14.5 m. “To achieve the

required depth, a navigation channel, which will be longer than at Dhamra, will have to be dredged.

However, in comparison to Haldia, which is a riverine port, the siltation in the channel will be negligible

here,” said an industry source requesting anonymity.

The port will also need a rail-link of around 50 km. The rail distance from Subarnarekha to Tata Steel’s

Jamshedpur plant is around 270 km, about 100 km shorter than from Dhamra port, which is 374 km. The

savings in terms of rail freight for imported raw materials will work out in the range of ₹150-250 per tonne.

“During the first phase, the plan is to build 3-4 berths with a handling capacity of 20-25 mt, which can

handle dry bulk cargo like coal, iron ore and limestone, and other general cargo like steel,” the source said.

Vehicle shipping India: Adani and NYK Auto Logistics form railway joint venture

Terminal operators Belgium: CMA CGM takes 10% stake in COSCO Shipping Ports’

Zeebrugge terminal

In subsequent phases, the port can be expanded to handle containers, liquid bulk cargo and LNG/LPG as per

market demand.

The port can also provide closer access to Chittagong port, Bangladesh, in future for transhipment of

containers. Tata Steel, which has already announced plans to buy a majority stake in the port, holds a 7 per

cent stake now.

Cargo handling

As of now, Dhamra port, which is closest to Tata’s Kalinganagar steel plant, the handles majority of its

cargo. Paradip port has been historically handling almost 90 per cent of the cargo for Bhushan Steel, which

has been acquired by Tatas. Paradip and Dhamra also handle cargo for the Jamshedpur plant.

Steel plants require coking coal as an input, which are imported from Australia, South Africa and New

Zealand to ports and then transported by rail to the plants. The output — steel — is moved across the country

largely by rail and road, with some steel being moved along the coastal routes as well.

But handling steel along the river route — through the Subarnarekha, which originates from Ranchi in

Jharkhand and meets the Bay of Bengal in Balasore district of Odisha — requires the development of good

infrastructure.

Tata Steel had announced that it would acquire a majority equity stake in Creative Port Development Pvt Ltd

(CPDPL). Promoted by two IITians, Ramani Ramaswamy and Ramaswamy Rangarajan, CPDPL

specialises in developing ports, and holds the rights to develop the Subarnarekha port on a build-own-

operate-share-and-transfer basis from the Odisha government.

The port development is envisaged through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, called Subarnarekha

Port Pvt Ltd. The port has received all the requisite clearances including a no-objection-certificate from the

Defence Ministry and has been allotted around 700 acres of land by the State government.

[The Hindu Business Line]

20/07/2018

By Chris Dupin

COSCO Shipping Ports (CSP) said that CMA CGM Group has acquired 10% equity interest in CSP

Zeebrugge Terminal through its wholly owned subsidiary, CMA Terminal.

CMA CGM is currently the major client of CSP Zeebrugge, said CSP, and accounted for a third of the total

throughput of the terminal in 2017. CSP said “the strategic partnership with CMA CGM should foster the

development of CSP Zeebrugge into a major hub port in Northwest Europe.”

Port of Zeebrugge reported earlier this week that it handled 19.45 million tons of cargo in the first half of

2018, 6.3% more than in the same period last year. Container traffic was up 6.1% to 7.7 million tons.

Roll-on, roll-off traffic was up 9.3% to 8 million tons, and the port processed 1,456,142 cars, 2% more than

in the first half of the 2017.

Oil & gas shipping: Some USD53 billion to be spent on FLNG projects by 2024

:

The port also saw a 15.1% increase in the amount of fluid bulk cargo it handles to 2.5 million tons. It said

this was mainly due to an increase in LNG cargo.

[American Shipper]

20/07/2018

By Keith Wallis

Among the projects is Tortue offshore of Mauritania and Senegal where Golar LNG, which is working on

the front-end engineering design, is planning to convert existing LNG carriers into floating LNG facilities.

Golar LNG has teamed up with Singapore’s Keppel Corporation and BP on the project.

Golar LNG is seeking to have another LNG carrier, Gandria, converted by Keppel into a FLNG unit for

deployment to the Fortuna project planned by Ophir Energy offshore of Equatorial Guinea.

The new report, World FLNG Market Forecast 2019-2024, follows a survey by Westwood Global Energy

in April that forecast 154 LNG carriers would be ordered as part of a USD236 billion splurge on LNG

projects between 2018 and 2022. They would be among 265 LNG carriers are expected to be delivered up

to 2022.

In its new report Westwood said the peak of investment in FLNG projects will be in 2022 when around

USD11 billion is forecast to be spent, with around USD6 billion of that earmarked in North America.

Investment in floating liquefaction facilities in North America will play a pivotal role in global FLNG

expenditure over the forecast, accounting for 45% of expenditure, as the US ramps up LNG exports. Other

key FLNG markets will be Africa and Asia.

Global expenditure on FLNG facilities by region, 2013-2024

Laws & regulations: DNV GL releases new online reporting tool to speed up and simplify

IMO DCS reporting

“Forecast liquefaction spend in Africa will total USD15.4 billion over 2019-2024, with 34% of this spend

already committed,” Robertson said.

About USD8-9 billion will be spent in Asia, the Westwood figures show. “Gas-to-power projects will

account for a significant proportion of import vessel demand in Africa and Asia,” Robertson said. Overall

global FLNG capital expenditure is projected to total USD52.8 billion over the five years to 2024.

“Following a 22-month hiatus in project sanctioning, the FLNG industry is moving into a ‘second wave’ of

developments, with the market opening up to a greater number of participants,” according to Robertson.

Some 18 countries are expected to have their first floating import vessels installed over the forecast period.

Several factors including an improved economic outlook, cost savings in the supply chain and the

perceived maturity of FLNG technology will support an increase in project sanctioning over the next 24

months, Robertson said.

The new wave of investment is also bringing a change in financing. “The size and technical complexity and

risk of early pioneer developments allowed only the largest national oil companies and independent oil

companies to move forward with projects on a balance-sheet financing basis. As more FLNG units become

operational, we are seeing project structures and financing more akin to the well-established FPSO sector,”

Robertson said.

[Fairplay]

20/07/2018

By Sarah Carter

The pressure is on for the shipping industry to reduce emissions. In the last few years, both the European

Union (EU) and IMO have introduced regulations which require ship operators to gather and report their

vessels’ fuel consumption.

To help make this reporting process simple, speedy, and streamlined, DNV GL has introduced a combined

reporting and verification online tool.

The EU MRV (Monitoring Reporting & Verification) and IMO DCS (Data Collection System) are designed

as the first steps in a process to help the maritime industry reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from

ships. They both require ship owners and operators to gather and submit fuel consumption data, which will

be used to track vessel GHG emissions.

“DNV GL has had a verification tool for the EU MRV in place for some time, as the reporting started 1

January 2018, and this has now been extended to also cover the requirements of the IMO DCS,” says Geir

Dugstad, Director of Ship Classification & Technical Director, at DNV GL – Maritime.

“The advantage of the tool is that DNV GL is able to verify data under both regulations. This means, in

combination with our reporting and verification scheme, that operators can easily transfer data for both DCS

and MRV electronically through on one platform with complete confidence,” says Dugstad.

Environmental hoofprint: The world’s biggest farms pollute more than any oil company

The IMO DCS regulations require that prior to reporting, operators shall provide a “Data Collection Plan”

for approval, the SEEMP Part II. This data collection plan describes the procedures implemented for

recording the vessel’s fuel consumption, voyage details and measures for data quality control.

The SEEMP Part II plan must be attached to the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) already

on board. To make creating the SEEMP Part II hassle-free, DNV GL has set up a web application (app)

where operators can simply fill in the required information to comply with the regulation. IMO DCS

customers can access the app via DNV GL’s Veracity platform.

To ensure that the administrative burden on operators is kept to the minimum, operators will soon also be

able to directly reference their DNV GL approved MRV data collection systems and processes in the

SEEMP Part II app, without having to duplicate the information.

DNV GL acts as an accredited verifier for EU MRV data, while under the IMO DCS, DNV GL acts as a

Recognized Organization (RO) on behalf of the vessel’s flag authority to verify that the reported data are

complete and correct.

[ShipInsight]

20/07/2018

The world’s biggest meat and dairy operations combined pump more greenhouse gas into Earth’s warming

atmosphere than any one of the largest fossil-fuel giants.

The report, Emissions impossible: How big meat and dairy are heating up the planet, published this week by

the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) shows the top five animal agriculture

companies emit more greenhouse gases than Exxon-Mobil, Shell, or BP.

Researchers drew information from JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill, Dairy Farmers of America, and Fonterra.

The number researchers came up with—more than 578 metric tonnes—was conservative, as much of animal

agriculture does not make available data about their environmental footprints, the report states.

An industry that leaves its mark. Credit: Reuters/Jeff Green

The report is a significant at a time when nearly every nation on the planet, with the exception of the United

States, has agreed to keep the global temperature increases to “well below 2 degrees Celsius,” with the goal

of limiting it to 1.5°C. And major animal agriculture companies expect to be doing more business in the near

future, which stands to work against efforts to scale back emissions. The demand for meat is on the rise,

particularly in developing parts of the world such as China, where a rising middle class is eager to spend

more on meat and dairy.

As the researchers point out, massive meat and dairy companies have for years managed to escape much

criticism of their collective environmental impact, unlike petroleum companies such as Exxon-Mobil and

Shell. That’s, in part, because most of them don’t make public data on their greenhouse gas emissions. “We

found the publicly available data on their emissions to be incomplete, not comparable between companies or

years and, in the majority of cases, simply absent,” the report states.

In fact, only four companies—one Japanese and three European—of the 35 largest provided detailed data

that the IATP considered credible. Fourteen companies have announced emission-reduction targets. How

they plan to do that remains unclear.

The world’s biggest farming companies contribute to emissions in three ways. Some are direct emissions

from their facilities, machinery, and even methane that literally comes from the digestive systems of grazing

cows. Then there are indirect emissions, such as the power it takes to generate enough energy to keep the

facilities up and running. Finally there’s the larger supply chain—the emissions that come from shipping

animals, meats, and milk, as well the energy it takes to grow and transport the food that feeds the animals.

Estimated global greenhouse gas emission (GHG) targets to keep within a 1.5°C rise in temperature

compared to emissions from global meat and dairy production based on business-as-usual growth

projections.

Source: IATP: Emissions impossible: How big meat and dairy are heating up the planet [Jul 2018]

A large portion of the emissions are from a small handful of countries. The report calls out the United States,

Canada, the European Union, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. Together, they account for 43% of animal

agriculture’s global greenhouse gas emissions.

[Quartz]

The town already has oil and gas loading terminals, built since 2013, that feed pipelines transporting the fuel

directly to YunnaSnupprpovlyinccehaininWsebstaesrnedChoinnam. AodraeilrnlinsklaisveplraynnmeadytorecoancnhecitntthoetchoentWaineesrtport.

19/07/2018

By Alex Longley and Irene García Pérez

One of the world’s most polluting fuels may have some life left in it yet.

Demand for high sulfur fuel oil is expected to crater in 2020 when the International Maritime Organization

introduces a cap on sulfur. But companies that build exhaust cleaning systems for ships, which enable the

vessels to keep burning the fuel, reported bumper orders this week. Shares of one, Alfa Laval AB, rose to a

record after saying it was nearly sold out for next year.

Weakness in the fuel oil market has been one of the biggest impacts of the IMO’s impending 2020 sulfur

cap. Fitting ships with exhaust cleaning systems — known as scrubbers — is still expected to be a relatively

marginal solution for vessels and demand for the fuel will still drop sharply in 2020. But with companies

now reporting surging orders, some think that the fuel oil market may have overshot.

“Ships have to go offline to get scrubbers fitted, so the economics have to be telling,” said Richard Fullarton,

founder of London-based oil hedge fund Matilda Capital Management. Fuel oil cracks, or its price relative

to crude oil, “may have gone too far and if more scrubbers are fitted, demand will be stronger than people

expect.”

Officials at Wartsila Oyj said in an interview Thursday that they’d seen an increase in orders for scrubbers

from the first quarter to the second this year, aided by a 170 million euro ($197 million) contract with a

major European container shipping company. Shares of Alfa Laval, also a big supplier of scrubbers, jumped

this week after its earnings were buoyed by surging orders. Although the company didn’t detail an exact

order pipeline, one analyst on the company’s post-earnings call said he believed demand had tripled since

the first quarter.

Alfa Laval previously said that it expects to see 5,000 ships fitted with scrubbers. That estimate may

increase, CEO Tom Erixon said on a call with reporters after earnings this week. The merchant fleet

numbered about 94,000 ships at the end of 2017, according to data from Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a

unit of the world’s largest shipbroker.

[Bloomberg]

19/07/2018

Many goods enjoyed in rich countries may have murky origins.

Shipping emissions: Death of dirty fuel oil may be exaggerated as ships fit scrubbers

In theory slavery was completely abolished in 1981, when Mauritania became the last country to outlaw

forced labour. In practice, however, it persists in many forms, some of them surprisingly blatant. In

November CNN broadcast a grainy video depicting the auction of 12 migrant Nigerian men for farm work.

When human trafficking and less extreme forms of coercion are included, slavery-like practices remain

disturbingly common.

Modern slavery is often seen as a problem that is limited to poor countries. However, forced labour in the

developing world feeds into supply chains that lead to the West. In its 2018 report on global slavery, the

Walk Free Foundation, a campaign group, examined supply chains in the G20 group of large economies. Its

aim was to work out which countries use which policies against exploitation. The G20 accounts for three-

quarters of global trade. However, only seven of its members have rules to lower the risk that goods and

services are sourced from forced labour.

To work out which supply chains are most at risk of abuse, the report’s authors trawled through an official

American list of goods produced by forced labour. They also scoured data from NGOs, academic papers and

government agencies in order to catalogue the source of “at-risk” goods from countries supplying the G20.

In terms of import value, the industries most affected are computers and mobile phones, clothing, fishing,

cocoa and sugarcane.

Many countries present clear-cut illustrations of modern slavery. China imports $1bn-worth of coal a year

from North Korea, dug out by miners who toil because of an inherited-worker status rather than out of choice

(a tenth of North Korea’s population is thought to be forced to work for the state). The cotton industry in

Central Asia depends on migrant labourers; in Turkmenistan tens of thousands of people are forced to pick

Casualties: South Korean court holds government accountable for 2014 Sewol ferry sinking

cotton to fulfil state production quotas. India’s huge brickmaking industry in Andhra Pradesh relies on

families working in bonded labour.

The United States has done the most to curb modern slavery in its supply chains. Executive orders ensure

that government contractors take measures to eliminate abuses. Brazil has a “dirty list”, which publicises

firms found to be using forms of modern slavery and blacklists them from public tenders. The European

Union promotes socially responsible public procurement, and encourages member countries agreeing to

government procurement deals in foreign countries to take local social conditions into account.

Nonetheless, such policies only work if they are enforced. And there is good reason to think that more

stringent controls are needed. A survey in 2017 by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply found

that only 6% of managers at British firms were certain their supply chains are untainted by modern slavery.

[The Economist]

19/07/2018

By Hyonhee Shin

A South Korean court on Thursday acknowledged for the first time the government’s liability for the 2014

sinking of the Sewol ferry, which killed 304 people, mainly school children, and ordered it to compensate

victims’ families.

The sunken ferry Sewol sits on a semi-submersible ship during its salvage operations at the sea off Jindo,

South Korea, March 26, 2017. Credit: Yonhap via REUTERS

Oil & gas shipping: Chinese refiner makes 60-ship tanker debut

A botched rescue and the toll of children in one of Asia’s most technically advanced economies shocked and

angered South Koreans, and the administration of former President Park Geun-hye was the focus of much of

the ire. The ferry was structurally unsound, overloaded and traveling too fast on a turn when it capsized off

the southwest coast on April 16, 2014, investigators have said, casting the nation into deep grief for months.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered that every family receive 200 million won ($177,000) for each

victim, and additional compensation ranging from 5 million ($4,400) to 80 million won ($70,000) for each

family member. “The victims died while waiting for rescue within the ship, without knowing about the

detailed situation,” Judge Lee Sang-hyun said in a court document. But after more than four years, the

dispute is still going on over who is responsible for the sinking and compensation.” It was not immediately

clear if the government and the ferry operator would appeal against the decision.

A group of 354 members of the bereaved families of 118 students had filed a lawsuit in 2015 against the

government and the ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine, after rejecting a compensation deal that closed off

the option of legal action. Chonghaejin Marine overloaded the Sewol and its crew abandoned the stricken

ferry after telling passengers to remain in their cabins, the court document said. The Coast Guard also failed

to maintain control of the ship and rescue the passengers, it added.

More than two-thirds of the 476 passengers on board the Sewol were students on a school trip, many of

whom died trapped in the vessel following the crew’s directive.

Thursday’s verdict was “only the beginning” of the families’ fight for the truth, said Jeon Myung-sun, who

leads an association of victims’ families. “We’re not satisfied,” Jeon told Reuters. “The court did not accept

our argument that the presidential office violated the law, as the control tower for national disasters. We will

raise it again in an appeal.”

Yoo Kyung-keun, another member of the group, struggled to hold back tears in contrasting the ferry

victims’ treatment with that of a young Thai soccer team and their coach rescued last week from a cave

where they had been trapped for days.

“It was the first time when I envied the Thai people and I will continue to envy them,” Yoo told reporters

outside the court after the ruling, saying he wished he were a Thai national. “I was so glad everyone was

alive and safe.”

Park, who is serving a 24-year jail term on corruption charges, denied accusations that she failed to respond

promptly and properly to the debacle. But last March, a prosecution investigation showed she stayed in her

bedroom after the ferry capsized, and met Choi Soon-sil, a longtime friend now also in prison on charges of

having colluded with her to receive millions of dollars from major South Korean conglomerates.

The ferry captain was found guilty of homicide in 2015 and jailed for life. More than a dozen other crew

received shorter terms.

[Reuters]

19/07/2016

By Jason Jiang

Oil & gas shipping: New Texas crude export terminal planned

China’s independent refiner Baota Petrochemical Group is making its debut into the tanker market,

announcing plans to form a tanker fleet by bareboat chartering up to 60 tankers.

Baota plans to bareboat charter the 60 product tankers from a number of international tanker owners

including Maersk Tankers, Hafnia Tankers, Scorpio Tankers, Valt and Golden Energy Management. The

chartering periods of the vessels range from four years to ten years.

Baota also entered into an agreement with Mare Maritime Singapore to collaborate on the major ship

chartering project. Under the agreement, Mare Maritime Singapore will act as one of the ship management

service providers for the chartered ships. Mare Maritime operates from both Athens and Singapore, the

company currently manages a fleet of chemical tankers operating both on time charter and on the spot

market. Shipbroking firm McQuilling is also a partner for the deal.

When contacted by Splash, Morten Vind, a senior shipbroker at McQuilling, who attended the signing

ceremony for the agreement, declined to comment on the deal. Maersk Tankers confirmed to Splash that it

is in negotiations for a major ship deal but no final agreement has been signed yet.

“We can confirm that we are in dialogue with various potential partners concerning a possible sale of a

number of vessels, which includes a subsequent commercial management agreement with Maersk Tankers.

As no final agreement is in place we are unable to comment further at this point in time,” a spokesperson at

Maersk Tankers told Splash.

An official at Baota Petrchemical said to Splash the company is still in negotiations with the relevant

parties regarding the ship chartering deals and cannot reveal more at this stage. Baota Petrochemical

Group, headquartered in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, operates refinery bases in

Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Guandong, with total annual refining capacity of around 15m tons.

This month, China has issued a second batch of oil import quotas for independent refiners and trading

companies with a total volume of 11.91m tonnes. Baota Petrochemical was granted a large share of 1.08m

tonnes in the quota.

[Splash247.com]

19/07/2018

Enterprise Products Partners is planning to develop an offshore crude oil export terminal off the Texas Gulf

Coast.

The terminal would be capable of fully loading VLCCs, which have capacities of approximately two

million barrels. This would provide the most efficient and cost-effective solution to export crude oil to the

largest international markets in Asia and Europe, said the company in a statement.

Enterprise has started front-end engineering and design (FEED) and preparing applications for regulatory

permitting. Based on initial designs, the project could include approximately 80 miles of 42-inch diameter

pipeline to an offshore terminal capable of loading and exporting crude oil at approximately 85,000 barrels

per hour.

This week, Enterprise completed the second partial loading of a VLCC tanker at its jointly owned Seaway

marine terminal in Texas City. The Eagle Victoria loaded approximately 1.1 million barrels of crude oil at

the Texas City facility.

Container shipping Nigeria: Maersk Line cries foul over Lagos port suspension

“On the heels of our second successful loading of a VLCC at the Texas City terminal, we are now planning

to expand our capabilities to load crude oil faster and more cost efficiently without the need for lightering

vessels,” said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner. “Given the long-

term outlook for growing supplies of U.S. crude oil production, increasing global demand requiring super

tankers, and the future limitations of Gulf Coast port and lightering capacities, we are confident this

project will be embraced and supported by both domestic and international customers.”

Enterprise’s crude oil supply aggregation capabilities of over four million barrels per day, including from

the Permian, Cushing, Eagle Ford and numerous third party connections, provide unmatched

diversification, supply and quality options for international markets, says Teague.

Output from Permian resources are expected to grow with new pipelines to port planned. The combined

output of the Permian and Eagle Ford is expected to rise from just 2.5 million barrels per day in 2014 to 5.6

million barrels per day in 2019, according to HSBC. This is more than the 4.8 million barrels output from

Iraq and three million barrels output from Iran. If it were a country, Texas would be the world's third

highest oil producer, behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Capital and infrastructure to support the new terminal project is to be provided by private capital. A final

investment decision is yet to be taken.

[Maritime Executive]

19/07/2016

Maersk Line has reacted to being suspended for 10 days at the Lagos ports on accusations of not providing

container holding facilities.

Describing the Nigerian Ports Authority claims as misguided, Maersk said that it has available storage

facilities for 8,150 containers in four separate holding bays. This was after the NPA penalised Maersk,

COSCO, APS and Lansall Shipping for having not provided sufficient holding bays and having thus

contributed to the chronic congestion at Apapa and Tin Can Island.

The congestion resulted in Nigerian truckers blocking all access roads by dropping their container loads

across the roads. The authorities reacted by sending in the Nigerian Navy to clear the streets, which in

tuned led to accusations of extreme brutality being levelled against them.

On Monday Maersk issued a statement to its customers and other stakeholders. “It is misguiding for the

Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to suspend Maersk Nigeria Limited for failing to acquire and operate

holding bays for empty containers as Maersk Nigeria Limited operates 4 holding bays within the Lagos

environ with a storage capacity of 8,150 TEUs which is more than 50% of the discharge average.

“Maersk Nigeria Limited have complied fully with this directive and have followed the Call-Up protocol

for use of the holding bays stipulated by the Nigerian Ports Authority,” it read.

“Nigeria as an import dependent nation will certainly see imported containers discharged in the country in

volumes and in line with the tenet of international trade. With limited infrastructure and other alternatives

for evacuation of imports, return of empties, and return of full exports, it is challenging for these containers

to be adequately handled which results in the congestion of the access roads,” the company said.

Maersk said it was having discussions with the relevant authorities and expected that it would be able to

Container shipping: Costly fuel dims profit outlook for carriers

Container shipping: World Container Index - 19 Jul 2018

reassure the NPA of its storage capacity.

[Africa PORTS & SHIPS Maritime News]

19/07/2018

By Kyunghee Park

Container-shipping companies worldwide face a $7 billion increase in total fuel costs this year as oil prices

climb, said Nilesh Tiwary, an analyst at Drewry Maritime Financial Research.

Drewry now predicts a best-case scenario of box carriers breaking even in 2018, compared with a previous

expectation for about $5 billion in operating profit. Hapag-Lloyd AG cut its full-year profit forecast in June

because of higher operational costs, after A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S posted an unexpected first-quarter loss

due to increased expenses at its container line, the world’s biggest.

[Bloomberg]

19/07/2018

The World Container Index assessed by Drewry, a composite of container freight rates on 8 major routes

to/from the US, Europe and Asia, is up by 3.3% to $1487 /40ft container.

Two-year spot freight rate trend for the World Container Index:

Our detailed assessment for Thursday, 19 July 2018

The composite index is up by 3.3% this week, 4.6% up as compared with same period of 2017.

• The average composite index of the WCI, assessed by Drewry for year-to-date, is US $1,381/40ft

container, which is $146 lower than the five-year average of $1,527/40ft container.

• The composite index, as calculated by Drewry, increased by 3.3% to $1487 per feu. Asia-Europe

headhaul and Transpacific rates pulled down the index.

• Increase in transpacific rates has pulled up the composite index. Rate from Shanghai to Los Angeles

increased by $159 to reach $1,631 for a 40ft box; also rate from Shanghai to New York reached $2,677 for

a 40ft box, an increase of $106. Whereas, backhaul rates decreased marginally. Rate from Rotterdam to

Shanghai is down by $6 to reach $820 for a 40ft box. Similarly, rates from Los Angeles to Shanghai slipped

$2 to reach $486 per feu. Drewry expects rates continue to grow next week.

Our latest freight rate assessments on eight major East-West trades:

Spot freight rates by route - assessed by Drewry

Terminal operators UAE: DP World and Chines partner set up ‘Traders Market’ at Jebel Ali

Port development Canada: Montreal creates $100 million fund to boost logistics

Source: Drewry Supply Chain Advisors

[Drewry]

07/2018

With China as Dubai's main trading partner last year, and in the light of the Asian country's Belt and Road

initiative which the government is pushing hard, port and logistics group DP World has signed an

agreement with the Zhejiang China Commodities City Group for the construction of a 'Traders Market'

within the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area located in Jafza South next to the Dubai Expo 2020 site.

The Chinese outfit develops, manages, and services commodities trading platforms in China across a host

of industries, including logistics and the new market will include clusters of traders from all over the world,

offering a wide range of products at one site. They will be divided by sector, ranging from household

goods, building materials and food and beverages, to cosmetics and healthcare, energy and power,

engineering and technology.

The partners believe that the strategic location will enable trade within the GCC, MEA and Indian

subcontinent, widening market reach for goods and serving as a platform to trade at competitive prices.

The new deal follows from the agreement that was signed earlier this year between DP World and the

Zhejiang Seaport Investment and Operation Group (ZPG) for a ‘Straight-through Warehouse’ project in

Yiwu, China, which is the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities, for a warehouse that

will hold cargo destined for Dubai and the Middle East.

Both projects aim to boost trade between the UAE and China by offering Chinese businesses DP World’s

integrated logistics and trading solutions, including cargo handling at their terminals in China and Jebel Ali

Port in Dubai, warehousing facilities in the neighbouring Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), plus one-stop

customs clearance facilities and trade licences.

With trade equating to AED 176.5 billion between China and Dubai in 2017 the Jebel Ali Port and Free

Zone opens an access point to a local and regional market of more than 2 billion people, supplemented by

DP World’s global network of 78 marine and inland terminals, which enable trade in countries that account

for over 50% of the world’s GDP.

“The new ‘Traders Market’ will provide an ideal platform for traders to showcase and sell goods in Dubai

to local and international businesses. We look forward to working with the Zhejiang China Commodities

City Group and will continue to support China's Belt and Road initiative and innovate for mutually

beneficial development.”

[The Handy Shipping Guide]

19/07/2018

Teaming up with Quebec investment fund the Fonds, the Montreal Port Authority is looking to invest $100

million in development projects connected to the ports logistics chain.

Port development Horn of Africa: DP world is scrambling to control ports

The Montreal Port Authority (the MPA) and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ (the Fonds) have announced an

agreement to create the “Partenariat de financement logistique Fonds de solidarité FTQ - Port de Montréal”

(the Fonds de solidarité FTQ - Port of Montreal logistics financing partnership), making $100 million

available to companies with a development project in Greater Montreal connected with the Port’s logistics

chain.

The amount will be made available to companies through the Fonds in the form of share capital or an

unsecured loan, and companies that want to submit a project have been invited to contact the Fonds or the

MPA. The Fonds is a well-known Quebec institution, created by Quebec’s largest labour body to invest in

local businesses to advance employment and economic growth in the province. It has assets totalling nearly

C$12 billion.

The Fonds will manage the investment process, and a committee composed of members appointed by the

MPA and the Fonds will be set up to promote the initiative, chaired by Sylvie Vachon, President and CEO

of the MPA.

It seems the initiative is aimed more at attracting companies that generate actual freight, rather than digital

services. “The $100 million package announced by the Fonds and the MPA will make it possible to attract

Canadian and foreign companies that want to set up near the Port’s facilities in Montreal and Contrecoeur.

It will also enable already existing companies that want to benefit more from the efficiency of the Port’s

supply chain to develop their activities, in turn boosting the volume of freight traffic,” the MPA stated.

[World Cargo News]

19/07/2018

It seemed an irrational decision 20 years ago. DP World is one of the world’s largest maritime firms. From

a squat office overlooking Dubai’s bustling Jebel Ali port, it directs operations in 40 countries. Most are in

busy shipping hubs such as London and Rotterdam. But in the 1990s it started making surprisingly big

investments in the Horn of Africa.

It built a large port in Djibouti and is now working on another in Somaliland (see map). The combined

GDP of the two African entities is smaller than that of Moldova. Yet the firm sees the region as a land of

opportunity.

So do the rulers of United Arab Emirates (UAE),

one of whose components, Dubai, owns a

majority stake in DP World. It is one of several

Gulf states trying to gain a strategic foothold in

east Africa through ports. Controlling these

offers commercial and military advantages but

risks exacerbating tensions in the region.

Executives at DP World argue that Africa needs

many more ports—especially in the Horn, where

conflict has stifled trade. Ethiopia, populous and

fast-growing, lost its coastline when Eritrea

broke away in 1991. Its 105m people rely on

Djibouti for 95% of their trade. Farther inland,

countries such as South Sudan, Uganda and

Rwanda struggle to reach markets. DP World

thinks the region from Sudan to Somalia needs

10-12 ports. It has just half that. “The whole

Horn of Africa is short of ports. It’s stifling,”

says one executive.

The firm’s first foray was on Djibouti’s coast. When DP World won its first concessions there in the 1990s,

the Emiratis were among the few investors interested in the small and poor former French colony. DP

World built and operated a new container terminal, Doraleh, and helped finance roads and other

infrastructure. Doraleh is now the country’s largest employer and the government’s biggest source of

revenue. It runs at nearly full capacity, handling 800,000 containers a year. Much of its cargo travels along

a Chinese-built railway from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.

Djibouti’s profile rose further after the terrorist attacks on America of September 11th, 2001, when

America opened a military base there. France and China also have bases; other navies patrol off its coast to

deter Somali pirates. But when the Emiratis wanted to open their own naval base they were rebuffed, partly

because of their close ties to Djibouti’s rival, Eritrea (the two states had a bloody border dispute in 2008).

In 2015 the UAE started building a naval base in Assab, in southern Eritrea. The base has been used in the

Saudi-led war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. It would be the jumping-off point for a mooted amphibious

assault on Hodeida, Yemen’s main port, now the focus of heavy fighting. The UAE also helped mediate

Eritrea’s peace deal with Ethiopia signed on July 9th, ending decades of hot and cold war. If it holds, the

truce could end UN sanctions and open Eritrea to investment. Assab and another port, Massawa, could be

expanded.

In 2016 DP World won a 30-year concession to operate the port of Berbera in Somaliland, which declared

independence in 1991 (though no foreign government recognises it). Critics said the deal would hasten the

break-up of Somalia. Djibouti was upset for different reasons. With a planned capacity of 1.25m

containers, Berbera would erode Djibouti’s monopoly on Ethiopian cargo. Indeed, Ethiopia acquired a

19% stake in the port earlier this year. All this could cost Djibouti hundreds of millions in annual transit

fees.

It would also cement the UAE’s place in a strategic region. Uniquely among Arab states, it tries to project

military power far beyond its borders. The Horn ports all sit near the Bab al-Mandab strait, a vital choke-

point at the mouth of the Red Sea: 4.8m barrels of oil passed through it every day in 2016.

Competition is getting fierce, though. Qatar and its ally, Turkey, are building ports in Sudan. Saudi Arabia

Sudan's Minister of State for Transport, Roads and Bridges, Ibrahim Yousef Banj, has praised Qatar's role

in developing Sudan's Red Sea ports in the east of the country through the strategic partnership between

the two countries, making Sudan a vital anchor for the global economy.

In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Banj said that Qatar is implementing large development

projects worth $4bn to modernise the port of Sawakin. He added that this vital project will enable Khartoum

to make optimum use of the preferential features enjoyed by the Sudanese ports on the Red Sea.

The Qatari project includes an integrated vision of container and passenger ports and the link with

neighbouring countries, as well as providing job opportunities. He pointed out that Sudan has benefited

greatly from Qatar's advanced experiences in this field and will benefit more from the modernisation of the

Red Sea coastal region, especially as Sudan borders Chad, Central Africa, Ethiopia and South Sudan, which

are landlocked and do not have ports. The Qatari project is expected to transform Sudanese ports into a

global economic outlet for all vessels in the Red Sea.

Port development Horn of Africa: In deep water – Djibouti risks relying on Chinese cash

is in talks to set up a naval base in Djibouti. All three Gulf states are trying to snap up farmland in east

Africa, part of a broader effort to secure food supplies for their arid countries. Emirati-built ports could one

day export crops from Emirati-owned farms.

Source: Sudan lauds Qatar's role in Red Sea port development [Gulf Times, 21 Jul 2018]

As the Gulf states move in, however, they bring their own conflicts to a troubled region. Qatar helped to

end the clashes between Djibouti and Eritrea and kept peacekeepers there for almost a decade. Then came

the bust-up of 2017, when four Arab states, including the UAE, imposed an embargo on Qatar. Both

Djibouti and Eritrea sided with the blockading states. Qatar pulled out its troops, and Eritrea soon seized

the disputed territory from Djibouti.

Gulf states could also find themselves in competition with China. The UAE hopes to be part of China’s

Belt and Road Initiative, a scheme to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure such as roads

and ports. Jebel Ali is the busiest port outside Asia, and already acts as a hub for trade with Africa. But

China may want to cut out the middleman. In 2014 Djibouti tried to toss out DP World. It accused the firm

of paying bribes to secure its Doraleh concession. Arbitrators in London found the claim meritless.

In February Djibouti dropped the legal niceties: it simply seized the port. The government says DP World

failed to expand the port as quickly as promised. Shippers believe it took Doraleh as a sop to China, to

which it is heavily indebted (see article). In July Djibouti opened the first phase of a new $3.5bn free-trade

zone, set to be the largest in Africa when it is finished. Built mostly by state-owned Chinese firms, it sits

next to Doraleh. DP World says the project violates the terms of its concession and is threatening to sue.

The UAE helped to put Djibouti on the map. Now, ironically, it may find itself frozen out.

[The Economist]

19/07/2018

China is remaking one of Africa’s tiniest countries with billions of dollars in loans.

Djibouti was the last of Europe’s African colonies. France clung to this sliver of Red Sea coast until 1977;

even today it occasionally resembles occupied territory. In the black lava desert stands a hilltop garrison of

the Foreign Legion. French tanks trundle along the narrow road to Ethiopia. This whiff of colonialism

Port development Horn of Africa: The politics of war, peace and Red Sea rivalries

helps explain why many Djiboutians fret about their independence.

China is the country’s biggest investor. It plans to remake Djibouti as a staging post on President Xi

Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative. In the past two years Beijing has lent Djibouti some $1.4bn,

more than 75% of its GDP. In 2015 the country was Africa’s fifth-biggest recipient of Chinese credit,

despite having barely 1m citizens, one of the continent’s smallest populations.

Djibouti’s experience shows how Chinese cash can transform even the smallest country. “None of this

would have been possible without China,” says Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the foreign minister. He sniffs at

warnings, most recently from Rex Tillerson, a former American secretary of state, that Chinese deals could

undermine sovereignty.

At the end of 2016 China owned 82% of Djibouti’s external debt. The Chinese ambassador to Djibouti has

told diplomats privately that China expects to be repaid in cash or in kind. Many see the experience of Sri

Lanka, whose indebted government last year handed over one of its ports to China, as a troubling

precedent, though Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, the finance minister, insists that a debt-for-equity swap of this

kind would not apply to Djibouti. “Our sovereignty is non-negotiable,” he says.

But some fret that the dependency of an earlier era has been replaced by a more subtle kind. “We would

really like to have more than one big partner,” admits Mr Youssouf. Rents from ports and military bases

have helped keep President Ismael Omar Guelleh in power for almost 20 years. Opponents say Chinese

largesse has further cemented his position. “It’s a relationship with the regime,” says Daher Ahmed Farah,

an opposition leader. “Not the country.”

[The Economist]

18/07/2018

By David Styan, Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London

How national, regional and international competition over ports is shaping political alliances and enmities

across the Red Sea zone.

For over 25 years, maritime strategy and port development in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden appeared

relatively static. Eritrea looked inwards, neglecting its coast. Djibouti flourished, lucratively embracing

Ethiopia’s trade, overseas investors and foreign military bases. Somalia’s shores became synonymous with

piracy, prompting Western and Asian naval manoeuvres, quietly ensuring free passage to the Suez Canal.

But now things may be changing. Ports in the Horn of Africa and Gulf of Aden are suddenly in the

spotlight.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has repeatedly emphasised port developments on his whistle-stop

tour of neighbouring countries, including Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti. The rapprochement between

Ethiopia and Eritrea raises the possibility that the mothballed Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa could

be rehabilitated. And just 25km across the Bab al-Mandab straits, the war in Yemen has given nearby

African ports new geostrategic significance; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been using its base in

Eritrea’s port of Assab to besiege and bomb Yemen’s crucial port of Hodeida since mid-June

These developments beg three key questions. Firstly, why are countries in the Horn of Africa developing

so many new ports? Secondly, who will finance these projects? And finally, how do control of ports in the

Horn relate to the war in Yemen?

Why so many new ports?

The first question is the most straightforward. The Horn needs improved ports and infrastructure to handle

the current pace of Ethiopia’s economic growth, on which broader regional integration and prosperity

relies. This is why ports have been one of Prime Minister Abiy’s priorities on his foreign visits.

In Djibouti, he called for joint investment in the tiny nation’s ports. In Sudan, he and President Omar al-

Bashir presented plans to modernise Port Sudan together. And in Somalia, he announced that Ethiopia

would work with Mogadishu to upgrade four Somali ports.

Land-locked Ethiopia is clearly looking to break its heavy dependence on Djibouti, which has handled

90% of its foreign trade since the border war with Eritrea was triggered in 1998. However, it is crucial to

understand that Addis is only seeking to diversify its access to the sea – and drive-down freight costs via

increased competition – rather than reduce its use of Djibouti. In fact, these trade volumes will continue to

grow as Ethiopian, Chinese and Djiboutian authorities have invested heavily in upgrading and enhancing

infrastructure capacity along the Djibouti corridor.

Earlier this year, the centrepiece of this strategy – the 750km railway linking Addis Ababa to Djibouti –

began full operations. The $3.4 billion project – financed, constructed and managed by China – has

drastically cut the time and cost of shuttling containers between Ethiopia’s capital, its nascent

manufacturing export zones, and Djibouti’s ports. The development of prospective oil and gas projects in

Ethiopian Ogaden and neighbouring Somali states, which would also be exported via Djibouti, reaffirms

the port nation’s ongoing centrality to regional growth and integration.

This relationship is as crucial to Djibouti as it is to Ethiopia. Port transit fees are the mainstay of Djibouti’s

exchequer and it has invested substantially in further developing this infrastructure. It constructed vast new

container and cargo facilities in the form of the $590 million Multi-Purpose Port (MPP) at Doraleh.

Meanwhile, it has begun developing smaller ports too. Tadjourah, is designed to handle Ethiopia’s potash;

Damerjog will have facilities to export livestock and liquid natural gas (LNG).

Djibouti’s ambitious “Vision 2035” blueprint for national development sees its harbours as a hub for Asian

transhipments, servicing the entire region. As it develops ports and extensive Free Trade Zones with its

Chinese partners, the entrepôt nation will remain critical for Ethiopia and prospects of regional economic

integration, irrespective of developments in Eritrea or Somalia. It also seeks to maintain its competitively

vis-à-vis Kenya’s LAPSSET corridor, which aims to link its coast at Lamu to South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Who’s paying?

The second question this raises is who is paying for all this.

For Ethiopia and Djibouti, the key actor is China.

Djibouti’s major infrastructure initiatives are being financed and spearheaded by Chinese companies.

Djibouti’s new multi-million MPP facility at Doraleh, for example, is managed and part-owned by China

Merchants Group (CMG). Since 2013, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate has owned 23.5% of Djibouti’s

Port and Free Zone Authority (DPFZA) and, in early 2017, bought a minority stake in Ethiopia’s state-

owned shipping line, whose home port is Djibouti.

CMG is a leading commercial actor in numerous ports along China’s Maritime Silk Road, which links

shipping lanes along Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative. As Thierry Pairault has highlighted, CMG’s

role in Djibouti mirrors Chinese involvement in ports and logistics elsewhere in Africa. However, Djibouti

is unique in two ways: firstly, it is a telecommunications hub where several key transcontinental submarine

fibre-optic cables meet; and secondly, it has been home to China’s first permanent overseas naval base

since 2017, when it opened next to the MPP, barely 12km from the US AFRICOM base at Camp

Lemonnier.

Chinese companies also have significant stakes in Ethiopia’s oil and gas fields in the Ogaden region. In

November 2017, they agreed to construct a 650km oil pipeline to Djibouti and proposed building a LNG

refinery at Damerjog.

The other key actor is the UAE. Until the opening of the China-run MPP in Djibouti last year, all of

Ethiopia’s container traffic was channelled through the adjacent Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT). This

facility had been managed and part-owned by the Dubai-based company DP World since 2008, but this

February, Djibouti unilaterally terminated its contract and nationalised its 33% shareholding. This was the

culmination of a fractious six-year legal battle.

Source: Oxford Analytica

DP World is seeking compensation for its lost assets, and until the case is resolved in a London court, the

Djiboutian government will have difficulty selling the sequestered shares legally. However, given Abiy’s

surprise proposal that Ethiopia and Djibouti hold stakes in each other’s ports and telecommunications, it is

possible that Ethiopia may obtain a minority shareholding in Doraleh Container Terminal. This could

plausibly be part of a deal involving Chinese loans that could also see CMG gain a bigger slice of DPFZA

equity.

While this spat has seen UAE’s long-standing involvement in Djibouti diminish, DP World is

simultaneously increasing its footprint in neighbouring ports. In May 2016, the company signed a 30-year

deal worth $440 million to develop Berbera port in the self-declared state of Somaliland. In March 2018,

DP World scaled back its proposed investment, but announced that Ethiopia would take a 19% stake in the

project, alongside its own 51% share and the Somaliland government’s 30%.

The company is also investing in building a highway to link the port to Ethiopia’s border. Meanwhile, the

deal has allowed the UAE, which is playing an increasingly central role in the war in Yemen, to develop a

naval base alongside Berbera.

The DP World deal is the first large international contract signed by the autonomous government of

Somaliland. This has angered the Federal Government of Somalia, which doesn’t recognise the Somaliland

government’s sovereignty over Berbera. This has, in turn, fuelled a spat between Somalia and the UAE,

leading the latter to withdraw military supplies and advisors and close the hospital it was funding in

Mogadishu. The row also compounded allegations that the Somali government is being manipulated by

Qatar and its ally Turkey.

Qatar reportedly helped finance President Mohamed “Farmaajo’s” election campaign, while Turkey is the

Somali government’s leading economic partner.

What are the UAE’s plans for Yemen and the Horn?

The fact that the UAE’s involvement in Berbera has enabled it to set up a naval base there leads us to our

third question: how is competition over new container and cargo ports linked to the war in Yemen?

Port development Madagascar: Call for expressions of interest for Manakra feasibility study

This is the most difficult to answer, but it is clear that as the UAE’s prosecution of the war against the

Houthis has intensified, so has their engagement in the Horn of Africa. Since 2015, the UAE has massed

military and naval hardware alongside covert training and detention facilities in the Eritrean port of Assab.

Its armed forces are also now present in Berbera in Somaliland (as well as on Socotra island and Yemen’s

southern coast).

Is the war in Yemen also the reason that UAE authorities now appear to be investing energetically in

diplomatic overtures to both Ethiopia and Eritrea? In May, Prime Minister Abiy visited the UAE. In June,

Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi (MBZ) returned the favour. During

this visit, the UAE’s de facto ruler announced a $1 billion emergency loan to ease Ethiopia’s acute forex

shortage and promised further foreign direct investment.

It was then an Emirates plane that ferried the Eritrean delegation to Addis on 26 June. Furthermore,

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki was subsequently welcomed to Abu Dhabi prior to Abiy’s arrival and

effusive proclamation of peace in Asmara on 8 July.

There are also recent hints from Saudi Arabia and UAE suggesting they may back Ethio-Eritrean

rapprochement with substantial funds. Some analysts claim these would be used firstly to rehabilitate

Eritrea’s ports of Assab and Massawa. They would then help finance infrastructure linking Assab to Addis

Ababa and, far more ambitiously, Massawa to Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

This may be wishful thinking and/or hubris. Nevertheless, Ethiopia has ambitious, fully-costed long-term

infrastructure plans, involving rail, road, air, and sea routes. Encouraging rival Arab and Chinese investors

to compete for a share of the profits generated by integrating Eritrea’s ports back into Addis’s long-term

infrastructure plans should be relatively straightforward. However, it is far less certain whether Eritrea’s

dilapidated authorities can undertake domestic economic reforms and facilitate competitive tendering for

new port and maritime services while fulfilling short-term pledges to the UAE.

It is unclear how realistic the suggestion of Arab finance behind the peace-deal is. It is also impossible to

tell whether the UAE’s recent diplomatic activism reflects a medium-term political strategy or whether it is

simply an opportunistic response to changes in the Horn and a tactical stop-gap in the bloody stalemate in

Yemen.

Does the UAE have a concerted plan in the Horn of Africa? Does it foresee that its military lease of Assab

could be transferred to DP World once Yemen’s Houthis have been bombarded or starved into submission?

It is too early to tell, but what is clear is that the ports in the Horn of Africa are proving to be of increasing

interest to rival Arab and Chinese investors and that the politics of ports have become central in shaping

political alliances and enmities across the region.

[African Arguments]

18/07/2018

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has issued a call for expressions of interest for a consultant

to carry out a feasibility study for a port PPP in Madagascar.

The Republic of Madagascar has received funding from the AfDB to cover the cost of the Investment

Promotion Support Project and intends to use part of the funding under this loan to finance the recruitment

Great Lakes: Over $15 billion in cargo moved on St. Lawrence Seaway

of a consultant to carry out the feasibility study for a port in Manakara.

The statement on AfDB’s website confirmed: “The purpose of this mission is to provide the public entity

with all the necessary elements for design and sizing of the project, as well as the assessment of the

feasibility of the investment defined as follows: rehabilitation of the infrastructures of the port of Manakara

with a view to estimated estimated traffic.

Opportunities are available for national and international companies, according to the statement. The

application period closes on 31 July. The call for interest follows the General Procurement Notice

published in Development Business and on the Bank’s website dated 23 May 2016.

[Port Strategy]

18/07/2018

The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation has released its 2018 study of the economic

impacts of shipping in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region highlighting that cargo moved in 2017 totaled

143.5 million tons and was valued at $15.2 billion (C$19.8 billion).

Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System

Source: Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation: Economic impacts of maritime shipping in the

Great Lakes - St. Lawrence region [Jul 2018]

The study, Economic impacts of maritime shipping in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence region, shows that

waterborne commerce supported 237,868 U.S. and Canadian jobs and generated $35 billion (C$45.4

billion) in economic activity, $14.2 billion (C$18.5 billion) in total personal wage and salary income and

local consumption expenditures, $8 billion (C$6.6 billion) in local purchases and $6.6 billion (C$8.6

billion) in federal, state/provincial and local tax revenue.

Commerce transiting the binational St. Lawrence Seaway waterway and lock system supported 92,661

U.S. and Canadian jobs and $12.9 billion (C$16.8 billion) in economic activity. The Soo Locks, which

connect Lake Superior with the lower four Great Lakes, supported 123,172 jobs in the U.S. and Canada

and $22.6 billion (C$29.3 billion) in economic activity.

First released in 2011, the study at that time found that maritime commerce along this waterway supported

227,000 jobs; contributed $14.1 billion in annual personal income, $33.5 billion in business revenue, $6.4

billion in local purchases and added $4.6 billion to federal, state/provincial, and local tax revenues.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway (comprised of the five Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron,

Erie and Ontario – their connecting channels and the St. Lawrence River) serves the industrial and

agricultural heartland of the US and Canada. If the region was its own country, it would be the 3rd largest

economy in the world with a combined GDP of more than $6 trillion dollars. The St. Lawrence Seaway is

also the longest deep draft navigation system in the world, extending 2,300 miles from its westernmost

point in Duluth, Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Seaway extends from Montreal to Lake Erie and is composed of a series of 15 consecutive locks that

connect the Great Lakes to the lower St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean. The Welland Canal

section consists of eight Canadian locks that enable ships to pass between Lakes Erie and Ontario,

bypassing the Niagara Falls. The Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the Seaway consists of seven locks —

five located in Canada and two in the U.S. These locks enable ships to pass between Lake Ontario and the

lower St. Lawrence River.

Three classes of ship serve the waterway: U.S. domestic carriers (U.S. Lakers) transporting cargo between

ports on the Great Lakes, Canadian domestic carriers (Canadian Lakers) operating between ports on the

Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and Canadian coastal waters, and ocean-going vessel operators

(Salties), which operate between the region’s ports and overseas destinations.

Maritime Silk Road: Critical routes in maritime channels

Source: Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation: Economic impacts of maritime shipping in the

Great Lakes - St. Lawrence region [Jul 2018]

These carriers serve more than 110 system ports located in each of the eight Great Lakes states and the

provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Cargoes include iron ore, coal, steel, aluminum, machinery, stone,

cement, grain, sugar, fertilizers, road salt, petroleum products and containerized goods.

Over the last 200 years, navigation improvements in both the U.S. and Canada have enhanced the

waterway. The resulting deep-draft inland navigation system is the longest in the world, extending 3,700

kilometers (2,300 miles) into the North American heartland.

[Maritime Executive]

18/07/2018

Since the initial proposal of the “21st-Century Maritime Silk Road” global concept by China in October

2013, it has received positive responses from many countries around the world;

Xinhua and The Baltic Exchange argue in their Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre

Development Index Report 2018 that a route network for the maritime silk road has become more

distinct.

Comparative analysis of critical routes in maritime channels

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report 2018

• The China - Middle East, North Africa route and Mediterranean route have relatively wide coverage

with a higher number of main calling ports and more countries along the routes.

• On the other hand, the China - Southeast Asia route and China - South Asia route comprise of a smaller

number of shipping routes and relatively lower growth in trade volumes compared to other regions.

According to statistics on shipping routes of various liner companies, the nine major liner companies

have opened up more shipping routes between Asia - Southeast Asia and South Asia. There is a huge

potential for development of the China - Southeast Asia and China -South Asia routes in the future.

Number of shipping routes along the Maritime Silk Road by nine major liner companies

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report 2018

Environmental analysis for shipping along the Maritime Silk Road

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report 2018

• The quality of port infrastructure is used to measure the perceptions of corporate executives about their

port facilities.

• The data was derived from Executive Opinion Surveys conducted over the past 30 years by the World

Economic Forum and its 150 partner research institutes

• The 2009 survey involved more than 13,000 respondents from 133 countries.

• The sample surveys adhered to a two-tier model that is based on the size of the company and the

industry in which it operates.

• Data was collected via online surveys or face-to-face interviews.

• The survey responses were aggregated using industry-weighted averages.

• The most recent year data is combined with the previous year to create a two-year moving average.

• The score ranges from 1 (extremely undeveloped port infrastructure) to 7 (Highly developed and

efficient port infrastructure that is of international standard).

• Respondents from landlocked countries were asked about the availability of port facilities (1 = very

poor availability; 7 = highly available).

• On the whole, quality of port infrastructure of sampled ports of countries (or regions) along the

Maritime Silk Road has been relatively stable.

• The quality of port cities in China, Arab Republic of Egypt, India and Russia has been improving

continuously.

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report 2018

• On the whole, there was improvement in efficiency of customs clearance for ports along the Maritime

Silk Road.

• Customs procedures in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates have been relatively

efficient, and they have maintained at a relatively high level of above 5.5.

• The efficiency of customs clearance in port cities in Russia, China and India has been improving; the

upward trend was evident.

• In recent years, various port cities have continuously exploited deep integration of intelligent

technologies with port businesses in order to simplify custom clearance procedures and complex logistic

problems. Such effort has laid a solid foundation for significant improvement in customs clearance

efficiency.

Accelerated development in Asia-Pacific Shipping was one of the five key global trends considered in the

report, as increasing trading and rising economic strength of the Asia-Pacific region are the driving forces

in shifting the international shipping centre eastward, with shipping resources further concentrated in

Asia.

[SAFETY4SEA / Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index Report 2018]

Shipping emissions: 2020 sulfur cap may augur an oil shock

18/07/2018

Researchers Yewen Gu, Stein W. Wallace and Xin Wang of the Norwegian School of Economics and the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology have published the paper Can an Emission Trading

Scheme really reduce CO2 emissions in the short term? Evidence from a maritime fleet composition and

deployment model.

Abstract

Global warming has become one of the most popular topics on this planet in the past decades, since it is the

challenge that needs the efforts from the whole mankind.

Maritime transportation, which carries more than 90% of the global trade, plays a critical role in the

contribution of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission. Unfortunately, the GHGs emitted by the global fleet still

falls outside the emission reduction scheme established by the Kyoto Protocol. Alternative solutions are

therefore strongly desired. Several market- based measures are proposed and submitted to IMO for

discussion and evaluation. In this paper, we choose to focus on one of these measures, namely Maritime

Emissions Trading Scheme (METS). An optimization model integrating the classical fleet composition and

deployment problem with the application of ETS (global or regional) is proposed.

This model is used as a tool to study the actual impact of METS on fleet operation and corresponding CO2

emission. The results of the computational study suggest that in the short term the implementation of METS

may not guarantee further emission reduction in certain scenarios. However, in other scenarios with low

bunker price, high allowance cost or global METS coverage, a more significant CO2 decrease in the short

term can be expected.

[Global Maritime Hub / Norwegian School of Economics]

18/07/2018

By David Fickling

What’s the most important element in global commodity markets right now? Carbon? Copper? Gold?

Wrong on all three counts. Sulfur — the yellow, infernal substance that gives rotten eggs their smell and

hardens the rubber in car tires — is quietly roiling the energy industry. The disruptions could reshape

everything from Australian coal, to the diesel and gasoline in your car, to petcoke, a coal-like residue of oil

refining burned in Indian power stations.

If oil prices rise from their current levels of $74 a barrel to $400 or more in 2020 — a situation predicted by

analyst Philip Verleger that would almost certainly trigger a global recession — you’ll have sulfur to thank.

The reason sulfur is important isn’t that the world is running short. Quite the opposite: There’s enough locked

away in the world’s fossil fuel deposits to feed current levels of demand for more than 7,000 years. The

problem is that there’s too much of it.

Shipping emissions: Can an emission trading scheme really reduce CO2 emissions in the

short term?

The proximate issue centers on the world’s shipping fleet. Atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide have been

falling since the early 1980s, when fears around acid rain, asthma and heart disease saw coal-fired power

plants install scrubbers to remove the pollutant from their smokestacks. The maritime industry, however, has

been stuck in the past.

For years, cargo ships have been powered by about 4 million barrels a day of the dirtiest, bottom-of-the-

barrel fraction of crude, a tarry substance known as bunker fuel or residual fuel oil. That’s set to change in

less than 18 months, after the International Maritime Organization adopted rules that would keep the sulfur

content of the bunker fuel on standard ships below 0.5 percent from Jan. 1, 2020.

That’s a problem, because almost two-thirds of the world’s crude oil production is in medium sour and sour

grades that are at least 0.5 percent sulfur (the “sweet” grades like the Brent and West Texas Intermediate

benchmarks are so called because of their lower sulfur content). Bunker fuel and petcoke have traditionally

been where refiners have dumped the sulfur that’s already banned from lighter distillates such as jet fuel,

gasoline and diesel. The new rules present them with a waste-disposal problem.

The new IMO rules won’t make bunker fuel production dry up altogether. The likelier outcome is that

refiners will blend each barrel with about three of lower-sulfur fractions — principally gasoil or middle

distillate, essentially the same stuff as automotive diesel — to get the proportion down from 2015’s average

of 2.45 percent. But that, of course, will require an additional 2 million barrels a day or so of lower-sulfur

fuel, and it’s not clear that the world’s refiners can shift so fast.

What would the result be? One possibility is that the rules are simply ignored by the shipping industry, but

the IMO’s rules on the issue don’t leave a lot of wiggle-room for cheats.

Another would be for shipowners to install their own scrubbers allowing them to use higher-sulfur fuel — but

while that’s a potentially cost-effective option, it’s looking unlikely. There simply isn’t the capacity for more

than a fraction of the 60,000-strong global fleet to be fully retrofitted in time to meet the deadline, and with

that knowledge and a backdrop of chronic overcapacity and low margins, shipping companies have passed

the buck to refiners.

The decisive issue will be how they deal with it. Those set up to consume sour crudes and produce large

fractions of higher-sulfur fuel oils may find themselves struggling, as the sudden shrinkage of an end-use

market eats into the economics of their operations and they have to rejig to stay in business.

Those with the capacity to process sweeter grades will do better — but they’ll also need more raw materials.

As we wrote recently, the world’s most abundant supplies of sweet crude are currently locked away from

global markets in the U.S. oil patch, and it’s touch and go whether new pipeline developments will clear that

bottleneck in time.

There may even be potential to process sour crudes into sweeter end-products by using cokers to turn the

residual fractions into petcoke — but that model may be under threat too, as we’ll explore in a subsequent

column.

That, and the widening discount of January 2020 fuel oil over Brent, gives weight to a more pessimistic

analysis: Shortages in the heaviest fractions of the barrel will drive up the prices of gasoil, jet fuel and

gasoline, boosting the cost of crude itself until the market rebalances.

If refiners make the wrong adjustments, that could play out in unpredictable ways. The last time we saw this

sort of disruption in the oil-products market was arguably in 2008, when prices topped out at $150 a barrel.

The world may already be seeing the early signs of an oil shock. How it deals with this tiny impurity could

decide whether recent price rises turn into an all-out frenzy.

[Bloomberg]

18/07/2018

Fridays are the days to look forward to, but not if you’re a sailor. Freaky Fridays, the new Bermuda Triangle,

the unluckiest ship and a lot more is on the radar in the AGCS Safety & Shipping Review 2018.

Credit: China Daily via Reuters

For most of us, Fridays are usually good days. The work week is inching to an end and weekend vibes are

getting stronger. But for sailors, Friday can be a particularly precarious time. Turns out it’s the most

dangerous day of the week at sea –175 of 1,129 reported total losses in shipping over the past decade

occurred on this day. Superstitions aside, Friday the 13th was especially unlucky in 2012. Three ships were

lost on this day in that year, including the Costa Concordia, the largest-ever marine insurance loss.

Allianz Safety & Shipping Review 2018: Freaky Fridays

Source: AGCS: Safety & Shipping Review 2018 [Jul 2018]

Overall, however, the seas seem to have become safer. Large shipping losses have declined by 38 percent

overall in the past decade, according to the Safety & Shipping Review 2018 by Allianz Global Corporate &

Specialty (AGCS).

Source: AGCS: Safety & Shipping Review 2018 [Jul 2018]

Further, the number of total losses declined by 4 percent to 94 last year, the second lowest number in a

decade.

“Insurance claims have been relatively benign,

reflecting improved ship design and the positive

effects of risk management policy and safety

regulation over time,” says Baptiste Ossena,

Global Product Leader Hull & Marine

Liabilities, AGCS.

Sinking was the most common cause of the loss

of a vessel, with 61 foundering events recorded

for 2017. Wrecked or stranded vessels were the

second major cause, followed by machinery

damage or failure, shows the report.

“However, as the use of new technologies on

board vessels grows, we expect to see changes in

the maritime loss environment in future. The

number of more technical claims will grow –

such as cyber incidents or technological defects –

in addition to traditional losses, such as collisions

or groundings,” Ossena says.

The new Bermuda Triangle?

Over decades, the Bermuda Triangle, a loosely-defined patch in the North Atlantic Ocean, has mysteriously

swallowed up hundreds of ships and even planes.

Now, Asia seems to have its own version of the Bermuda Triangle, according to some media commentators.

Nearly a third of the worldwide shipping losses reported for 2017 were in the South China, Indochina,

Indonesia and Philippines maritime region, according to the AGCS report.

Not that there was anything mysterious about this 25 percent annual rise in shipping losses in Asia. Busy

seas, lower safety standards on some domestic routes and Typhoon Damrey in November 2017 were clearly

to blame.

Sailor's curse

Whether lightning strikes at the same place more than once or not is debatable. But a ship can experience a

series of unfortunate events.

The unluckiest ship of 2017 is a passenger ferry operating in the East Mediterranean and Black Sea region –

it was involved in seven accidents in 12 months.

Which were the main accident spots for shipping in 2017? What is the biggest driver of losses? What

emerging risks are facing the industry? Find the answers in the AGCS Safety & Shipping Review 2018!

Container shipping: Tariffs are poised to wreck Christmas for container carriers

Source: AGCS: Safety & Shipping Review 2018 [Jul 2018]

[Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty]

18/07/2018

By Kyunghee Park

• World container traffic may fall 1% in worst case, Drewry says

• U.S. is proposing more duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods

Christmas is looking a little less bright for container-shipping companies.

As the industry enters what’s typically its busiest quarter before the year-end holidays, an escalating trade

row between China and the U.S. may lead to higher prices for China-made goods from Christmas lights to

cooking stoves. With about 90 percent of global trade carried by sea, that could mean a big dent on

shipments.

The U.S. has proposed another $200 billion of Chinese goods that could face higher levies after increasing

duties by 25 percent on some imports this month. The list is open for comments, with a hearing scheduled for

August. In a worst-case scenario, world traffic could be reduced by almost 1 percent, or as many as 1.8

million 20-foot containers, due to the intensifying trade dispute, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants

Ltd.

“The trade tensions and uncertainty on the economic outlook is limiting restocking demand as businesses

have turned more cautious,” said Corrine Png, chief executive officer of Crucial Perspective Pte., a

Singapore-based research firm focused on transportation. “The U.S.-China tariff war will dampen trans-

Pacific trade volume and freight rates, global trade flows and supply chains will shift.”

Coupled with higher fuel costs as oil prices in New York have risen around 10 percent this year, boxship

operators may only break even at best after posting profits in 2017, according to Drewry. The charts below

show the challenges in store for the container-shipping industry this year.

1. Trade uncertainty

China’s new export orders fell in June to the lowest since February. This contrasts with growth in exports that

could indicate companies shipped goods early to beat the first tariff increase, which took effect July 6. For the

container-shipping industry, the best of volume growth for this year is likely over, Bloomberg Intelligence

analyst Rahul Kapoor said.

2. Inflating Costs

Shipping firms worldwide face a $7 billion increase in total fuel costs in 2018 as oil prices climbed close to

$80 this year, said Nilesh Tiwary, a Drewry analyst. Drewry now predicts a best-case scenario of box carriers

breaking even this year, compared with a previous expectation for about $5 billion in operating profit. The

increase in fuel prices is outpacing a recovery in freight rates.

Source: Bloomberg, Shanghai Shipping Exchange

3. Overcapacity

Container shipping lines have been struggling with overcapacity since the global financial crisis, which led to

lower freight rates and the collapse of Hanjin Shipping Co. in 2016. While capacity will still exceed demand

this year, the situation will be more balanced in 2019 as boxship operators have refrained from ordering new

vessels.

Bump Ahead

Increase in boxship capacity set to outpace demand as more big ships enter service

Source: Crucial Perspective

[Bloomberg]

Research & development: New approach assesses structure durability of aged ships

18/07/2018

By Gavin van Marle

Container shipping lines on the transpacific trade this week continued to announce capacity cuts in response

to the US-China trade war.

Following last week’s news that both the 2M and The Alliance groupings would suspend a service each this

summer, the latter announced this week it would also withdraw its PSW4 loop at the end of August.

The service deploys six COSCO vessels with an average of 10,000 teu capacity and has a port rotation of

Lianyungang-Shanghai-Ningbo-Long Beach-Seattle-Lianyungang. In combination with the withdrawal of

the 2M’s TP-1/Eagle service from 29 June and THE Alliance’s PS8 on 31 July, total capacity on the trade

will be reduced by some 31,300 teu a week, or 6.7%, according to Alphaliner.

However, it warned capacity would likely increase again due to planned upgrades to APL’s premium

services. “These capacity reductions will be partly offset by the launch of APL’s new Eagle Express X in

August and the upgrade of the carrier’s Eagle Express 1, which will add some 6,600 teu of nominal weekly

capacity to the route,” it said.

It believed the effect of capacity cuts on spot rates had been dramatic. “The capacity withdrawals are being

implemented during the traditionally busy summer peak season, and they have triggered a sharp increase in

spot freight rates from the Far East to US west coast. SCFI spot rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles have

risen by 41% over the past three weeks and currently stand at a 12-month high of $1,685 per feu,” it said.

That is despite the fact that, in September, weekly capacity on the trade is likely to stand at 450,000 teu,

compared with 441,700 teu in at the same point last year – an increase of 1.9%.

[The Loadstar]

18/07/2018

The Ship Structure Committee (SSC), an interagency research and development committee for safer ship

structures, published a new report that aims to develop an assessment process for accurately predicting how

possible is a corrosion-degraded ship to survive in specific wave conditions.

Container shipping: Trade war sparks more capacity cuts on transpacific trades

ESB Finite Element Model. [Midbody analysis region in BLUE]. Source: SSC: Structural Assessment of

Aged Ships

The report Structural Assessment of Aged Ships describes the development of an assessment process to

accurately predict the survivability of a corrosion-degraded ship in specific wave conditions. The method

uses a ship-specific 3-D hydrodynamic model to simulate the ship’s rigid body dynamic response to wave

conditions, measuring the resulting ship motions and pressure distribution on the hull.

Pressure and acceleration data from the hydrodynamic model is then put into a 3-D finite element model of

the degraded ship structure where the resulting stresses in stiffeners and plating are assessed against various

failure modes, including buckling modes, which are calculated according to IACS Common Structural Rules.

The results form the basis of a degraded ship strength assessment which can be provided to a ship owner and

operator to make operational and repair decisions.

This ultimately allows operators to understand the risk of and help minimize the probability of structural

failure when operational requirements, budgets or schedule do not permit the full remediation of the

degradation. It may also be useful when assessing when a specific hull needs to be removed from service and

scrapped.

After conducting a limited study of the Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB), a U.S. Navy Auxiliary ship, with

uniform corrosion beyond the typical 25% limit, hull bottom plate buckling coefficients rise dramatically, so

that even in the lower sea states buckling of the hull plating is possible.

A more thorough investigation may reveal other failure locations with less than 25% wastage. Future

research on this topic could consider and evaluate the residual strength of a ship structure with localized

corrosion damage. Localized and nonuniform structural corrosion and pitting are probably more common

than uniform corrosion across the entire hull structure, but is very case-specific.

The approach that the report uses to assess a degraded ship structure can be expanded and used to develop a

safe operating envelope for a ship’s hull structure with various degrees of corrosion. While many

simplifications of scope and assumptions were made for this project, a more thorough assessment of a

degraded ship structure can be accomplished, but would require modeling the ship’s actual corrosion levels,

more seaway conditions, more headings and more ship loading conditions, amplifying loadings to account

for expected exposure times, and investigating more structural components such as internal tank bulkheads

and their internal fluid loadings.

In addition, green seas, whipping, and slamming effects may need to be addressed. This more rigorous

Beyond road vehicles: Survey of zero-emission technology options across the transport

sector

assessment, while possible, would be a costly and time-consuming effort, the report concludes.

[SAFETY4SEA / SSC]

18/07/2018

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has published a working paper that discusses the

potential of zero-emission technologies to reduce emissions from non-road transport, including aviation,

maritime, off-road, and rail.

These modes represent a quarter of transport-

related greenhouse gas emissions and pose

significant local pollution issues, but policy

regulating emissions for these vehicles has been

slow-moving and fragmented. Based on

demonstrations, pilot projects, and available

research literature, this working paper evaluates

the benefits and barriers to the adoption of

various zero-emission technologies in each

sector and discusses policy implications.

We find in our working paper Beyond road

vehicles: Survey of zero-emission technology

options across the transport sector that zero-

emission technologies are coming to the entire

transport sector, but at different rates of

progress. Aviation faces high barriers to

electrification due to safety requirements,

sensitivity to weight, and high-performance

demands.

Until substantial advances are made in the

underlying technologies, zero-emission

technologies within aviation will likely remain in

niche applications such as general aviation, air

taxis, and commuter planes. In the maritime sector, battery electric ships are already becoming viable for

ferry and short sea-shipping applications, but large vessels used in trans-oceanic shipping will require more

novel solutions still under development. For off-road vehicles and equipment, a variety of solutions will be

required to meet a wide range of power needs and jobs, but zero-emission powertrains generally appear

capable of meeting the needs of this sector and have already seen significant uptake in specific applications.

In each of these modes, these technologies have the potential to contribute substantially to climate change

mitigation and air quality benefits. Governments can support this transition by requiring incremental

improvements through standards while simultaneously promoting research and demonstrations to determine

which pathways are most promising for specific applications.

Summary of zero-emission maritime projects

Terminal operators: DP World buys 90% of Indian logistics firm

Source: ICCT: Beyond road vehicles: Survey of zero-emission technology options across the transport sector

[Jul 2018]

[ICCT]

18/07/2018

DP World has completed a 90% purchase of Indian multimodal logistics company Continental Warehousing

Corporation (Nhava Seva) Ltd (CWCNSL).

Inland waterways Europe: Danube port legislation - building a bridge across various

jurisdictions

The purchase, initially agreed in principle March 2018, is the first for Hindustan Infralog Private Limited

(HIPL), a joint DP World and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) US$3 billion investment

vehicle created in January 2018 for logistics sector funding.

CWCNSL’s founders, the Reddy family, will retain the remaining 10% stake and will remain involved in

business operations.

[Port Technology International]

18/07/2018

By Dagmar Hozová and Nina Zafoschnig, Schoenherr Attorneys at Law

The Danube is the longest river in Central Europe, and thus has significant economic potential. However, the

full potential of the Danube as a major transport route has not yet been exploited.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

A reason for this is the fact that the Danube crosses ten countries, and there are, as a result, ten different

applicable port legislations in the Danube region. Therefore, in order to create a more efficient and

comprehensive transport network, the port legislation of all Danube riparian countries needs to be analysed.

In this respect the necessity for a more harmonised approach to the Danube port legislation also needs to be

examined. For this purpose, the DAPhNE project was established.

What is DAPhNE?

The abbreviation DAPhNE stands for Danube Ports Network, a project funded in the framework of the

European Union Danube Transnational Programme. The overall aim of DaPhNE is to facilitate Danube ports

to become key-elements of a more efficient and sustainable transport network.

The activities of the DAPhNE project are linked to the regulatory framework of Danube ports. An improved

regulatory framework would help to eliminate the quality gaps in terms of infra- and superstructure which

exist between Upper and Middle & Lower Danube sections.

Six DAPhNE consortium members have developed national reports covering the port legal aspects applicable

in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. These reports allow a comparison between

the Danube riparian countries and were the basis for the development of a set of recommendations on port

legislation.

The suggested recommendations should provide a guidance document by which the national legislation can

be reviewed and where appropriate adapted. They can further be used as guidance for port operation in

practice.

What are the main differences between the jurisdictions?

As long as the Danube is, as many differences have been identified in the national legislations. A review of

the national reports has shown that most differences exist in the permitting procedures. The review of the

national provisions has led to the conclusion that an effective permitting procedure should include all general

necessary permits, but not overregulate the port construction and operation. An overregulation (e.g. too many

permission steps; too complex application requirements; permission requirements not relevant for port

operation; too many involved authorities; too long permission waiting periods) may cause an economic

stagnation of port development and counteract the target of a unified economic Danube region.

Which main recommendations have been developed?

Among the harmonisation of port fees, port bylaws and safety measures, a particularly important topic was

the reduction of the port eco-footprint. Clear rules on the transport, the operation and storage of dangerous

goods, the modernisation of the fleets, and the use of new technologies to make vessels more environmentally

friendly (e.g. LNG powered vessels), environmentally friendly disposal of sewage water and waste, or the use

of renewable energies in the port have been considered as possibilities for environmental protection.

Environmental protection should further be a general principle ranging through the whole water and port

legislation.

Which harmonisation measures are particularly necessary to create a comprehensive economic area?

From the point of view that Danube ports should not only serve as cargo handling facilities, but also represent

an important trade and logistics hub, the uniform development of the port and the whole port onshore area is

an important aim for all Danube sections. A port should represent an area where companies can establish a

comprehensive economic location. To give companies an incentive to settle in the port area and see this

settlement as a benefit, not only a well-developed port infrastructure and superstructure must be available, but

also a low-impact settlement option.

Infrastructure and superstructure development in this respect should not depend on the type of ownership.

The development of public ports should be carried out due to specific development programmes, which

ensure a high level of the technical standards of the port. Accompanied by infrastructure investments the

authorities should establish sustainable measures to ensure and enhance the maintenance of waterways for

commercial use.

Furthermore, a coordinated transport policy and national transport connections (road, rail and water) should

be present to improve the integration of cargo handling into the overall commodity trade.

Moreover, for the purpose of strategic resource planning regarding the capacity of Danube ports, the Danube

Inland waterways Sweden: Bigger ships set for inland ports

countries should consider implementing administrative and operational centers for the monitoring of ship

traffic.

[Lexology]

17/07/2018

By David Tinsley

Seagoing vessel access to ports on eastern Sweden’s Lake Malaren is due to be substantially improved.

The access is set to be improved by the creation of a larger lock and deeper channel through the Sodertalje

Canal, together with the modification and deepening of the Malaren fairways.

By allowing the passage of larger ships to the lakeside ports of Vasteras and Koping, companies and industries

based in the Malaren region, and potentially also the Stockholm area, should benefit from lower unit transport

costs. The scheme also accords with government endeavours to foster a modal shift, largely on environmental

grounds, and to relieve pressure on the heavily-trafficked road and rail networks.

110-metre, 5,300dwt shortsea cargo vessel navigating the Sodertalje Canal. Credit: Kristin Sjogren /

Sjofartsverket

Image of the new lock for the Sodertalje Canal. Credit: Sweco

Key conduit

Located immediately to the north, and inland, of the port of Sodertalje, and just to the southwest of Stockholm,

the canal is 3.3 nautical miles in length and provides a conduit between the Himmarfjarden sea inlet and Lake

Malaren, effectively linking the Baltic shipping lanes with Sweden’s industrial hub and major consumer

market.

Today, the maximum dimensions for ships negotiating the serpentine fairways of the lake are 124m in length

and 17m beam. The current project, due to be completed by early 2020, will increase the scope to vessels of

160m x 23m.

The development entails the construction of a longer, wider and deeper lock at the canal entrance, the dredging

of the canal, and the deepening and improvement of channels at critical areas on the lake, notably in the

vicinities of Enkoping, Tedaro, Vasteras and Koping, and the narrow bridge passages at Hjulsta and Kvicksund.

Squat and heel

Studies and modelling for the project have been conducted by technical consultancy SSPA Sweden in

Gothenburg. The comprehensive investigations highlighted the effects of the phenomenon of squat in the

shallow waters of the lake and canal, plus the added influence of heel for certain types of vessel, and the vital

need to make due allowances when setting new navigational parameters.

The Swedish Maritime Administration entrusted the EUR 127 million (US$150m) contract for building the new

lock and enlarging the Sodertalje Canal to Zublin Scandinavia, a Swedish subsidiary of the Austrian-

headquartered Strabag Group.

The existing Sodertalje lock is 135m in length and 19.6m in width, with a water depth of 7.8m. Vessel draught

is restricted to 6.8m, while maximum permissible hull dimensions are 124m x 17m, setting the limits for ships

navigating Lake Malaren.

In addition to the construction of the new lock of 190m x 25m, to accommodate an increase in vessel size to

160m x 23m, and the deepening of the canal section north of the lock to 8.2m, the Malaren fairways will be

dredged to 8.4m. The latter depth provides for a nominal clearance of 1.4m to allow for squat, wind, and ship

turn-induced heel angles, such that the future, maximum draught for Malaren navigation will be 7.0m.

SSPA devised a way of calculating the squat effect through an earlier model test study carried out with Swedish

and South Korean partners under a joint industry project called SWaBE(Shallow Water and Bank Effects).

The ports of Vasteras and Koping are managed by a single company, Malarhamnar, which is targeting business

growth on the back of increased vessel size capabilities. Malarhamnar’s traffic is diverse, and includes

chemicals, steel, forestry goods, petroleum products, biofuel, and grain, plus shortsea and feeder container

services.

A notable example of the shipping industry’s response to the opportunities offered by the Malaren project is

reflected in the design of a versatile new generation of oil/chemical product tankers of 150m x 22.8m ordered

by Swedish shipowners represented in the Gothia Tanker Alliance. As embodied by the recently completed lead

vessel, Furetank’s Fure Vinga, which offers 18,200dwt at the maximum, summer draught of 9.4m, the design

can be loaded to 10,600dwt at 7.0m draught for shipments via the expanded Sodertalje Canal and improved

Malaren fairways.

Swedish and Norwegian inland waterways. Credit: The Association of Swedish and Norwegian Canals

[Maritime Journal]

Port development Djibouti: China Merchants to revamp old port

17/07/2018

Malaysia’s Minister of Transport Anthony Loke has said that his country’s new government will undertake a

study to determine the proposed $49.6bn Carey Island port project’s viability.

According to The Edge Markets, Mr Loke said that Port Klang Authority (PKA) will be asked to commission

the study on the need for another port near Port Klang’s Westports and Northport. Speaking at a news

conference, the minister said that Malaysia’s government no longer operates ports and that the private sector

will gain the concession, but the government will drive the feasibility studies.

“Right now, [the project] is actually at a very initial stage,” he explained. “There was no approval given by

the previous government for a third port.” Mr Loke said that if it is approved, the Carey Island port will be

driven by private initiative — but he also noted that no proposal nor quotation from any of the organisations

on the venture had been received.

Meanwhile, PKA general manager Capt Subramaniam Karuppiah was positive about Port Klang’s need to

expand, though the costs, timing and scale will require examination. “We have to move forward.

Development of ports is a long-term initiative,” he said.

Mr Loke additionally said that Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport will commence a separate study to see

whether there is a necessity for a second Digital Free Trade Zone. The minister said that his ministry wishes

to drive the Port Klang Free Zone’s (PKFZ) development and can then explore the viability of extending

PKFZ’s operations to include an area of this kind.

[Port Strategy]

17/07/2018

By Turloch Mooney, Global Ports Editor

China Merchants Group signaled its intention to further develop ties with the government of Djibouti, saying

it would shortly begin redevelopment of the old port in the downtown area of the country’s capital.

The company overseen by Beijing’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission

likened its plans for the east African country to the development of its home base of Shekou and Shenzhen in

southern China, where it has carried out extensive port, industrial, and real estate development.

In a further twist to the high-profile jostle for influence and commercial opportunity in the strategic east

African country, the head of the Djibouti Ports and Free Trade Zones Authority (DPFZA) said the dispute

over the operation of the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) would not be resolved by arbitration. He said

Dubai-based port operator DP World should accept a settlement and go.

DP World’s concession to operate the DCT was unilaterally terminated by the government of Djibouti in

February during a protracted dispute over the operation of the facility going back to 2012. Djibouti is

expected to hand over control of the facility to Chinese companies amid warming ties after the opening of a

Port development Malaysia: Go-ahead for Carey Island feasibility study

Port development Vietnam: Thousands of imported scrap containers stuck at major ports

new Chinese-invested 50 square kilometer Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the country earlier this month.

Djibouti FTZ opening adds to tensions

DP World said in a statement that the opening of the FTZ — which is a joint venture between China

Merchants Group; its port subsidiary, CMPort; and the Djibouti government — violates its exclusive

management rights under the Doraleh concession agreement. It reiterated that the agreement remains in force

and said, “seizure of the terminal doesn’t give the right to any third party to violate the terms of the

concession agreement.”

The July 5 ceremony to launch the FTZ was attended by the presidents of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Rwanda,

Somalia, and Sudan, as well as the chairman of the African Union Commission. CMPort acquired 23.5

percent shares of Djibouti port authority Port De Djibouti S.A. (PDSA) in 2013 for $185 million and invested

in the redevelopment of the port area.

“Djibouti, one of the developing countries along the Belt and Road, has similar infrastructure with Shenzhen

Shekou, when it became the pioneer of China's historic journey of reform and opening up,” CMPort said in a

statement.

The company said it had strong support from the government and would soon commence work to regenerate

the old port in Djibouti’s downtown area. Its presence in the country would bring jobs and industry, and the

FTZ alone would add some $4 billion to the country’s GDP, an amount equal to more than double its entire

GDP in 2017, the statement added. PDSA handled around 4.4 million TEU and 25 tonnes of bulk cargo in the

five years from 2013 to 2017.

DP World described the loss of the ending of the Doraleh concession as an “illegal seizure,” which it said was

carried out as part of a campaign to force it to renegotiate the terms of the concession. It has instigated

proceedings at the London Court of International Arbitration. Financial Times reported at the weekend that

DPFZA chairman Aboubaker Omar Hadi said the country would be willing to pay around half a billion

dollars in settlement to DP World.

The controversy has sparked concern in the United States over its potential to cause a decline in US influence

in the region. Djibouti’s strategic location on the Gulf of Aden makes the area an important military outpost

for several world powers and it is currently the only country in the world to host both US and Chinese naval

bases. It is home to the only permanent US base in Africa, which houses 4,000 military and intelligence

personnel and is a key location for US power projection and operations in the region.

The Port of Djibouti is currently a major regional hub for Ethiopia’s seaborne trade, with about 70 percent of

its total throughput at the port moving to or from Ethiopia. The port handles around one million containers

per year and seven million metric tonnes of cargo. IHS Markit expects Djibouti’s real GDP to expand by 5

percent in 2018, before dropping to about 4 percent from 2019 to 2021.

[Journal of Commerce]

17/07/2018

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MoNRE) is struggling to handle nearly 6,000 of scrap

containers held up at major sea ports around the country, which not only pose environmental concerns but

also hinder the port’s activities.

Maritime safety: New risks arising from Canadian Arctic shipping

The influx of waste took place as China, the world’s largest importer of recyclable waste, stopped accepting

imports of 24 types of foreign waste starting in 2018, forcing many countries – including major economies

such as the US, EU, Japan and Canada – to switch to new destinations such as Thailand and Vietnam, Hoang

Van Thuc, deputy head of the Viet Nam Environment Administration, said at a press conference by MoNRE

on Tuesday.

According to Thuc, a working group from the ministry inspected two key ports in HCM City and Hai Phong

from June 25 to 29.

The Tan Cang Sai Gon port, at the moment of inspection, was holding 4,480 containers of scrap – the highest

amount of waste held among all southern ports, with nearly half (2,100 containers) present for over 90 days.

Twenty per cent of the containers held waste paper, while the remaining 80 per cent were full of plastic waste

and other scrap material.

Ports in the north-eastern city of Hai Phong are holding some 1,200 containers, with the majority being

overdue for more than 90 days.

The environment administration said that within the month, the ports will need to take stock and see how

many of these stagnant containers are ‘abandoned’ (or unclaimed for more than 90 days). The abandoned

containers will then be auctioned among waste treatment companies, if the waste is on the list of legal

imports. Otherwise, the waste will have to be re-exported or disposed of – a costly task.

According to Thuc, the amount of waste arriving in Vietnam increased two-fold compared to 2016, with most

of the waste being plastic, paper and granulated slag. In the first five months of 2018, imports of plastic waste

were double that of 2017, coinciding with intensified global campaigns against plastic pollution, while

according to reports, Vietnam ranks fourth in the list of countries discharging the most plastic debris into the

ocean.

The environment authorities also discovered several cases where import companies were deliberately

importing illegal waste under a false name, with fake licences and incorrect addresses, to earn quick profit

while leaving their trash stuck at shipping terminals.

Environment authorities said Vietnam currently does not have a mechanism to monitor and stop the waste

from entering the country in the first place. Only when the containers of scrap have already arrived at the

ports and declaration has started, are authorities able to inspect the actual contents of the containers.

The environment ministry and concerned agencies have started working to review existing regulations on

scrap imports, including revisions to the list of allowed scrap materials which are now deemed an

environmental risk or domestic output of that waste has met demands, as well as heavier penalties for illegal

scrap importers.

[VietNamNet Bridge]

17/07/2018

By Greg Meckbach

As shrinking Arctic ice opens up of new shipping routes through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, this presents

challenges for risk managers and insurers, Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty suggests in a report

scheduled for release Wednesday.

Oil & gas exploration: Tidewater and GulfMark in $1.25 billion merger to create largest OSV

operator

“Arctic ice has been thinning and retreating over the past 40 years, bringing new opportunities for shipping,

but also serious environmental concerns,” Munich-based AGCS stated in the report, AGCS Safety &

Shipping Review 2018. A NASA article published last month observes that Arctic sea ice has been declining

both during the growing and melting seasons in recent decades.

“Climate change could open up new shipping routes in the Arctic, such as the Northwest Passage,” stated

Volker Dierks, head of marine hull underwriting, AGCS Central and Eastern Europe, referring to the route

through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago.

New shipping routes across Canada and Russia will have both advantages and disadvantages, Dierks wrote in

AGCS’s Safety and Shipping Review. “For example, a collision in remote hostile environment like the Arctic

could prove challenging and would be a long way away from salvage teams.”

Both hull and protection and indemnity insurers have “a host of safety and navigational concerns” about

shipping through arctic routes, noted Marcus Baker, marine practice leader for Marsh Inc., in an earlier

report.

Risks include “the lack of help should a problem occur” because the arctic is so remote, Baker noted in

Shipping: Navigating the Risks and Opportunities.

“Pollution is of great concern,” Baker added in the Marsh report, because oil reacts differently in cold

temperatures. Oil is less reactive with chemical dispersals in colder water and is also likely to become trapped

in or underneath the ice, making it really difficult to locate. Other risks of shipping in arctic waters include the

effect of freezing water on the mechanics of the ship and fog.

Worldwide, total shipping losses numbered 94 in 2017, down from 98 in 2016 and down 17% from 10-year

average of 113, AGCS stated in Safety and Shipping Review.

“Human error continues to be a major driver of incidents,” AGCS warned. “Captains and crews are under

increasing commercial pressure as supply chains are streamlined. Tight schedules can have a detrimental

effect on safety culture and decision-making, leading to the ‘normalization of risk.”

[Canadian Underwriter]

17/07/2018

In another consolidation in the offshore sector US offshore support vessel (OSV) players Tidewater and

GulfMark are to merge in a $1.25bn all-stock transaction.

Source: Tidewater

The merger will create what the companies say will be the largest global OSV operator with a fleet of 245

platform supply vessels (PSVs) and anchor handlers (AHTS), leapfrogging Bourbon with 185 OSVs.

Under the all stock merger GulfMark shareholders would receive 1.1 shares in Tidewater for each GulfMark

share in a transaction that values the combined company at $1.25bn. Following the merger the company

would operate under the Tidewater brand with GulfMark shareholders beneficially owning 27% of the

combined company.

The new company will be led by Tidewater ceo John Rynd with the board of directors expanded to 10 seats

with three filled by directors from GulfMark.

"By combining our fleets and shore-based activities we will be better able to provide customers with access to

modern, high-specification vessels while maintaining a strong commitment to safe operations and superior,

cost-effective customer service. The transaction preserves

Tidewater's strong financial profile and allows the company to fund both organic growth and possible

additional acquisitions,” said Rynd.

The companies are aiming for cost related synergies of $30m by no later than Q4 of 2019. The merger is

targeted to close in Q4 2018 subject to shareholder approval.

[Seatrade Maritime News]

17/07/2018

By Kenji Asada, Nikkei staff writer

Shipbuilders in China, Japan and South Korea are locked in a struggle for survival amid a global supply glut

and shrinking market, as each government digs in its heels to protect these major employers.

Hyundai Heavy Industries' shipyard in Ulsan. It is currently the world's top shipbuilder but is expected to be

overtaken when China's two largest companies merge.

The world's shipbuilding companies are concentrated in the three East Asian countries, which together

control 90% of global market share. Advanced and affordable Japanese shipbuilders beat out European rivals

in the 1950s to lead the world for roughly 40 years. But competitors arose in South Korea in the 1990s and in

China the next decade. Companies from either country have held the top spot since 2010.

Overcapacity has plagued the industry worldwide. Shipbuilding volume soared after 2003 as the Chinese

economy expanded but plummeted following the 2008 financial crisis to 18.84 million gross tons in 2016

from 131.88 million gross tons in 2006.

Order backlogs also continue to thin. Japanese shipyards handled just 2.4 years worth of construction in

March compared to 4.2 years in 2015. South Korean companies also dropped to 1.7 years from 2.7 years,

while Chinese shipbuilders slipped to 2.8 years from 3.5 years.

This shrinking market has also exacerbated price competition. Companies with larger facilities like Hyundai

Heavy Industries have lowered unit prices for big vessels by packaging several orders together into lots.

The South Korean company's' shipyard in Ulsan is the largest in the world, with nine docks capable of

producing 10 300,000-ton supersize tankers in just six months. Park Mu-sung, a managing director, said

Hyundai Heavy has gained customers as a result of its flexible delivery periods, something Japanese

shipbuilders cannot emulate.

Shipbuilding: Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul aid yards as rivalry deepens

Oceans: EU and China ink landmark agreement to protect the marine environment

South Korean shipbuilders were thus able to capture 43% of the market last year, while Japanese companies

fell to a record low 7%.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering also returned to the black after a bailout from the state-owned

Korea Development Bank last year. Although the company has said KDB was only trying to avoid a loss as

the top shareholder, Seoul was likely thinking about protecting employment as well. Japanese shipbuilders,

however, have argued that the bailout runs against fair competition and that Tokyo should file a complaint

against Seoul at the World Trade Organization, which Japan is currently considering.

Despite their confrontational stances, Japan and South Korea also face a common threat: the birth of China's

state-owned shipbuilding behemoth.

Chinese companies were equally vulnerable to overcapacity despite winning 35% of the world's orders last

year. Dalian Shipbuilding Industry's six-dock yard only completed 12 ships in 2017, for example. Beijing

therefore decided to merge the country's top two shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding and China

Shipbuilding Industry, which are both state-owned enterprises with numerous yards.

The new company will own three of the world's biggest shipbuilders, which built a combined 6.38 million

gross tons last year, dwarfing Hyundai Heavy Industries. Beijing's strategy of joining state-owned enterprises

to improve international competitiveness can also be seen in steel and rail cars.

The three nations have tried to discuss a solution to this excessive competition. Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe called for debate on market-distorting government aid as recently as May when he met with

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae- in. But no side has been willing to

greatly reduce capacity, since the industry is a major employer in each country.

Japanese companies are trying to launch a counterattack by moving production to Asian neighbors. Kawasaki

Heavy Industries has tried to cope by closing one of its two docks at a facility in Kagawa Prefecture and

building a new one at a Chinese joint venture. Mitsui E & S Shipbuilding, meanwhile, is partnering with

Tsuneishi Shipbuilding, which has a shipyard in the Philippines.

[Nikkei Asian Review]

17/07/2018

By Jason Holland

A new oceans partnership agreement has been signed by the European Union and China that will see the two

economies work together on strategies such as combating illegal fishing and promoting responsible practices.

According to the European Commission, the alignment contains clear commitments to protect the marine

environment, tackle climate change in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and implement the 2030 Agenda

for Sustainable Development, in particular the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 14 regarding

oceans.

Casualties: Confusion suspends transits in the Suez Canal as vessels collide and others

grounded

“Across the world, I see growing awareness of the need for joint solutions to the challenges facing our oceans

and seas. From cleaning up plastic pollution to tackling overfishing, no one country or continent can shoulder

these colossal tasks on their own. With the partnership signed today, the European Union and China are

stepping up their joint efforts, toward a more sustainable future for our oceans and the millions that make their

living from them,” said E.U. Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs, and Fisheries Karmenu

Vella.

Other general lines for future collaboration are set out in areas such as:

• The conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in the high seas

• The fight against marine pollution including marine plastic litter and microplastics

• The mitigation of and adaption to climate change impacts on oceans, including the Arctic Ocean

• The conservation of Antarctic marine living resources

• The fisheries governance in regional and global fora and the prevention of illegal, unreported, and

unregulated (IUU) fishing

Additionally, the E.U. and China agreed to support the development of a “thriving and sustainable blue

economy” by exploring possibilities to foster closer business-to-business interaction and exchanges of

information between stakeholders such as enterprises, research institutes, financial institutions and industry

associations.

In particular, they will promote the circular economy within the blue economy based on clean technologies

and best available practices. Cooperation will also extend to improving knowledge of the oceans through

better ocean literacy, enhanced ocean observation and open science and data.

The European Commission said the signature of the partnership also “opens the door” for further ocean

partnerships with other key players.

[SeafoodSource.com]

17/07/2018

On Sunday evening, a grounding in the Suez Canal led to a multi-vessel pileup. The container ship Aeneas

reportedly went aground, and three bulkers following her in the convoy collided. The boxship was not

involved in the collision herself, and she was refloated and towed to Suez.

Suez Canal transit Credit: SCA

Research & development: Technology ranks above blockchain as the most significant driver

of change over the next five years

The bulkers involved in the multiple collision were named as the Sakizaya Kalon, Panamax Alexander and

Osios David. After the vessels were cleared and towed away, the northbound container ship NYK Orpheus

had a separate collision with the Panamax Alexander.

Separately, the crude oil tanker Kimolos (IMO 9791145) grounded briefly in the canal on Saturday, before

the collisions. In addition, an unnamed bulker of 39,929 dwt and about 12.2 meters draft went aground on

Monday, according to GAC. According to the Suez Canal Authority, the bulker was refloated the same

evening and arrived at the Great Bitter Lakes by Tuesday morning.

The multiple casualties led to delays for dozens of northbound and southbound vessels, but the waterway is

now ready for resumed transits, according to the SCA. GAC reports that the authority has not yet released a

timeline for transits for all of the affected vessels.

The Aeneas and NYK Orpheus have both continued on their voyages, according to their AIS signals. As of

Tuesday evening, the Kimolos, Sakizaya Kalon and Panamax Alexander remained at anchor near Suez.

[Maritime Executive]

17/07/2018

In a survey conducted by global law firm Reed Smith, industry participants were asked: Which technology

will be the most significant driver of change over the next five years?

Source: Reed Smith

The industry responded that analytics of big data and technology to address environmental issues and

emissions were equally significant, at 40 per cent each, while blockchain was considered the most significant

driver of change by only 20 per cent of respondents.

Dry bulk shipping Oman: New agriculture bulk facility commissioned in Salalah

Broken down by sector, 67 per cent of owners said technology to address environmental issues will be the

most significant driver, whereas 57 per cent of professional services said analytics of big data. Interestingly,

blockchain was considered the most significant driver among 50 per cent of charterers and financiers.

Furthermore, Reed Smith asked industry participants to rate their ‘preparedness’ as well as the ‘urgency’ of

emissions regulations, big data and blockchain for their company.

Sixty-three per cent of the industry said complying with emissions regulations was a high priority for their

business, this rose to 88 per cent among operators and 90 per cent among owners. Among the respondents, 50

per cent said they were ‘very prepared’ and already taking action, while a further 31 per cent said they were

still considering their options.

Predictive analytics of big data, was considered of medium priority for 47 per cent of respondents with 25 per

cent already taking action within their company, while 41 per cent of respondents were still considering their

options.

Only 14 per cent of the respondents deemed blockchain a high priority concern for their company and

therefore only 8 per cent are ‘very prepared’, with the remainder yet to make a decision or still considering

their options.

“Companies are prioritising their responses to the upcoming 2020 Sulphur Cap deadline over other

developments such as blockchain and big data, and while not surprising, those within the industry will need

to keep a closer eye on developments around blockchain – particularly from new market entrants – if they

want to keep their competitive edge”, said Nick Shaw, global head of shipping at Reed Smith.

[Reed Smith]

17/07/2018

Port of Salalah marked another milestone in its ongoing initiative to promote Oman as a logistics hub for the

region with the successful commissioning of a new Agricultural bulk terminal in the port.

The facility has been developed by Arabian Sea Port Services, L.L.C. which is a joint venture of the Spanish

conglomerate Algeposa group, Oasis Development Co. S.A.O.C and Al Thabat Holding, L.L.C.

The Algeposa Group is one of the leading multimodal logistics operator in Spain specialized in the handling

of bulk grains, fertilizers, steel products, forest product etc. with an annual turnover of more than USD 200

Million and has a presence in most Spanish ports and rail terminals and continues to expand globally. The

company is committed to develop the bulk grain logistics in Oman and offer an integrated management

service dedicated to the import and export of Agri-Bulk Commodities such as wheat, corn, soybean, sugar

and rice, as well as general cargo.

The recently commissioned first phase of the project, comprises of a 25,000 sqm facility with a capacity of

storing 60,000 tons of bulk grains and handling equipment capable of handling 15,000 MT of grain per day.

Port development U.S.: Barges are big in New York’s $100 million freight plan

The facility also provides the customers value added services like quality control services, pest control

bagging services etc.

The second phase, which is already in being planned will double the capacity of the facility and is expected to

be able to handle upto 500,000 MT per annum.

[Port of Salalah]

17/07/2016

By Kirk Moore

New York City has a $100 million plan for a new freight distribution system that would build barge terminals

in Brooklyn and at the Hunts Point wholesale food center in the Bronx, to bring food and consumer goods by

water instead of roads.

A tug moving containers by barge. Credit: SUNY Maritime

Some 90% of goods sold in the city now arrive by truck – much of it carried just a few miles on the map, but

take hours to deliver in traffic, from containership ports in New Jersey. That over-the-road freight volume is

forecast to increase 68% by 2045, according to the New York Economic Development Corporation.

Maritime transport is the answer, along with reactivating underutilized rail lines and constructing new

trans-loading facilities and passing lanes within the existing rights of way, EDC officials said Monday in

announcing the plan. Dubbed Freight NYC, the plan includes a new barge terminal at the South Brooklyn

Marine Terminal in Sunset Park and calls for finding a private partner to build a new urban distribution center

of at least 500,000 square feet at the nearby Brooklyn Army Terminal.

Terminal operators Germany: CMA CGM wants to invest in terminal operations in Hamburg

Terminal operators U.S.: Gulftainer gets green light to run and develop Port of Wilmington for

50 years

“A city with our robust waterways and railways shouldn’t be moving 90% of cargo by truck,” said Mark

Chambers, director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. “With smart investment and good, well-

paying jobs, Freight NYC will lift New York City’s economy while lowering traffic and pollution.”

The plan comes at a time when terminal and barge operators are looking at opportunities to expand short-sea

shipping as an intermodal link between ports including Norfolk, Va., Philadelphia, New York and north to

New England. Container-on-barge services are being marketed as a more efficient alternative to shipping by

truck along the crowded I-95 corridor through the Northeast.

[WorkBoat]

17/07/2016

The French carrier has expressed an interest in participating in terminal operations in Hamburg, where it is a

major and long-standing customer of HHLA.

CMA CGM is one of the few major container carriers that has not switched any services to the German

deep-water port JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven. The line failed to acquire Hamburg Süd and its more

recent attempt to take over Hapag-Lloyd, which would have given it a 25.1% stake in HHLA’s CTA terminal,

also foundered.

CMA CM has now expressed their interest in becoming a shareholder in a "possibly dedicated" container

terminal in Hamburg. The terminals in question would be either HHLA’s Tollerort Container Terminal

(CTT) or Burchardkai Container Terminal (CTB), as both are fit to accommodate CMA CGM’s biggest (20,

000 TEU) container vessels, whereas access to CTA is restricted by the Kohlbrand bridge.

HHLA already has similar arrangements with Hapag-Lloyd at CTA (25.1%) and with Grimaldi at the Unikai

terminal (49%). Local observers believe that an arrangement with the world’s third largest container carrier

would be in the interest of the port of Hamburg as it could draw additional volumes to the port.

Earlier this year CMA CGM acquired a 25% stake in CEVA Logistics, a key player in the 3PL market over

the Port of Hamburg.

[World Cargo News]

17/07/2016

US Federal Government completes review of the agreement that grants Gulftainer subsidiary the rights to

operate and develop the Port of Wilmington.

Terminal operators UK: Maersk Line diverting two services to Liverpool from Hutchinson’s

delay hit Felixstowe

UAE-based Gulftainer has announced that the US Federal Government has completed a review of the

agreement that grants the port operator the rights to operate and develop the Port of Wilmington in Delaware

for 50 years.

Currently owned and operated by the Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC), the Port of Wilmington is a

fully serviced deepwater port and marine terminal, located on 308 acres at the confluence of the Delaware and

Christina Rivers.

The milestone announcement follows an earlier preliminary agreement between Gulftainer and the State of

Delaware to grant its subsidiary, GT USA Wilmington, the exclusive concession rights. As part of the deal,

Gulftainer said it is planning significant investments in developing the port’s cargo terminal capabilities to

enhance its overall productivity.

In addition, the deal will include the construction of a new 1.2 million TEU container facility at DuPont’s

former Edgemoor site that DSPC acquired in 2016.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) – a panel comprising military, homeland

security, and federal law enforcement officials, among others – conducted the federal review of the Port of

Wilmington agreement.

Established in 1976, Gulftainer is a privately owned independent port management and 3PL logistics

company based in Sharjah. In the UAE, Gulftainer operates three main ports on behalf of the Sharjah Port

Authority – the Khorfakkan Container Terminal (KCT), Hamriyah Port and the Sharjah Container Terminal

(SCT).

The company’s international presence spans the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas with projects in Iraq,

Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, Brazil, and the US. In the US, Gulftainer currently operates the

Canaveral Cargo Terminal in Port Canaveral in the state of Florida after winning a 35-year concession in

2015.

[ArabianBusiness.com]

16/07/2018

Maersk Line is diverting one of its transatlantic services with MSC and its COEX service to the Port of

Liverpool for 12 weeks from Felixstowe which has been hit by delays over the last month since operator

Hutchinson Ports installed a new IT system.

“As shared previously, unfortunately Felixstowe terminal is suffering from slow operations caused by IT

system issues. In order to protect our service integrity, we will be moving our 2M TA2 and COEX services

from Felixstowe to Liverpool for a duration of 12 weeks,” Maersk said.

The line has already omitted Felixstowe calls on an adhoc basis on some services due to severe delays at the

British port over the last month since it installed a new terminal operating system. The first call on the COEX

Casualties: Cargo ship sinks off Shanghai, 10 missing

Research & development UK: Polar research ship Sir David Attenborough launched

service at Liverpool will be the Cap Beatrice on 20 July, and the vessels Archimidis on 22 July on the AE2

service.

Hutchison Ports run Felixstowe said earlier this week that productivity at the port had returned to 80% of the

levels before the new IT system went live.

[Seatrade Maritime News]

16/07/2018

Ten people are missing after a cargo ship sank off China's east coast near Shanghai, on Sunday July 15, as

Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Center announced the same day.

The freighter Shunqiang 2, which at the time was carrying 3,000 tonnes of rolled steel, collided with the

chemical tanker Yong An and sank in the Wusongkou anchorage near Shanghai, causing 13 people to fall

overboard. Only three of them have been rescued, Xinhua news agency reported.

Shanghai Maritime Search and Rescue Center deployed 10 coastal patrol vessels, along with two towboats,

and two salvage ships to the site of the accident to assist in the rescue mission after it received the alert.

Search and rescue efforts are currently taking place and will last 72 hours. After this period, the mission will

still continue but not with the current pace.

The vessel was going to Guangzhou, south China, from east China's Nanjing.

[SAFETY4SEA]

16/07/2018

The UK’s polar research ship RRS Sir David Attenborough was launched into the River Mersey on Saturday

July 14.

Credit: Maritime Executive

Once in the river, tugs towed the 129-meter (423-foot) 10,000 ton hull hull to Cammell Laird’s wet basin for

the next stages of construction. The polar research ship is scheduled to commence operation in 2019.

More than 3,000 shipyard workers, engineers, scientists and maritime industry experts gathered with special

guest speakers, including world-renowned broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, to celebrate.

Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (part of U.K. Research and Innovation), built

by Cammell Laird and operated by British Antarctic Survey, this is the biggest shipbuilding contract in

Britain in 30 years.

The RRS Sir David Attenborough is a multi-purpose vessel combining scientific research with Antarctic base

supply duties. Facilities onboard include a 4x4m clear opening moonpool to deploy subsea equipment, 650

square meter deck space and an enclosed science hangar to house containerized laboratories. Designed to

IACS Polar Class PC4 rules, the ship will be able to break on-meter-thick ice at up to three knots. The diesel

/ electric propulsion has been selected to have ultra-low environmental impact including careful management

of all emissions and noise.

The new research ship is part of a Government polar infrastructure investment program which represents the

U.K. Government‘s largest investment in polar science since the 1980s. Keynote speaker the Rt Hon Claire

Perry MP, Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth says: “The Government’s £200 million investment

Archaeology UK: Tudor shipwreck discovered by local group on Kent beach

in polar research will allow us to gain a crucial insight into polar oceans to combat the devastating effects of

climate change, and through our commitment to clean growth, we are putting vital science and innovation to

mitigate global warming at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy.”

Special guest Sir David Attenborough, who turned 92 this year, said: “Britain began exploring the Antarctic

over a century ago when it seemed to be an empty wilderness of little importance to the world as a whole.

Now we recognize that what happens at the Poles is of the greatest importance to everyone, everywhere.”

[Maritime Executive]

16/07/2018

By Maev Kennedy

The government has listed the vessel as the only wreck of its kind in south-east England.

A Tudor shipwreck, discovered by members of a local history group surveying Tankerton beach, near

Whitstable, in Kent for second world war pillboxes, has been given official protection by the government as

the only wreck of its kind in south-east England. Another ship believed to date from the 19th century,

gradually being exposed at low tides at Camber Sands near Rye harbour in East Sussex, is also being listed.

The group in Kent was astonished to spot the outline of a ship at low tide in the mud flats, preserved by silty

sand for more than 300 years. They reported it to Historic England who commissioned Wessex Archaeology

to investigate. Trenches dug along the sides have revealed well preserved curved hull timbers.

Volunteers show the outline of the newly discovered Tankerton shipwreck near Whitstable in Kent.

Photograph: Chris Redgrave/Historic England

Archaeologists are hoping to recover evidence for the cargo and possessions of the crew, but initial results of

dendrochronology and other tests suggest the tree which supplied one oak plank was felled in 1531, and a

possible 16th-century date for other elm, larch and beech timbers.

Vehicle shipping UK: ABP investing $20 million in new terminal at Port of Southampton

The ship is believed to be a single-masted, carvel-built merchant ship of up to 200 tons, precious because the

humble working vessels of shipping history are far less likely to survive than gorgeously carved state barges.

It may have been carrying copperas, also known as green vitriol – hydrated ferrous sulphate – extensively

used as a dye fixative to make ink and known to have been produced around Whitstable from 1565.

Mark Harrison, director of Timescapes, a local history group, said: “Our group of volunteers was looking for

exploded world war two pillboxes along the Kent coast. Adjacent to a lump of exploded concrete, we were

amazed to see the timbers of a ship appearing out of the sand.

“We reported the find to Historic England and are pleased that what turned out to be a medieval wreck has

been given protection and that this excavation could tell us more about its story.”

The Camber Sands wreck was reported by a member of the public who first saw a single stump of timber

showing at low tides, but in autumn 2016 realised the outline of a ship was emerging. It is gradually being

scoured free of the silt which protected the heavily built vessel 47.2 metres long by 9.5 metres wide, lying

parallel to the beach. It is believed to date from the late 18th or early 19th century.

It may be the Avon, built in Nova Scotia in 1843, reported to have “stranded and drifted alongshore to the east

of Rye harbour and received considerable damage” in August 1852, while returning from Le Havre with a

cargo of timber.

Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said the two ships were very different but equally

fascinating. “Many of the ships that Historic England protects are accessible only to divers but when the

sands shift and the tide is right, visitors to these beaches in Kent and Sussex can catch a glimpse of these

incredible wrecks.”

[The Guardian]

16/07/2018

The new terminal is to be built at the Eastern Dock in the southern British port and will provide storage for an

additional 3,000 vehicles. The Port of Southampton handles 1.5m vehicles a year and the new terminal is

expected to be complete in 2019.

Alastair Welch, ABP Southampton director, said: “ABP has already invested more than £32m over the past

five years to support the automotive industry.”

In terms of automotive shipping the port is served by 11 lines undertaking 110 calls to 52 ports in 40 countries

each month.

[Seatrade Maritime News]

16/07/2018

Total has bought Engie’s portfolio of upstream LNG assets for an overall enterprise value of $1.5 billion.

Additional payments of up to $ 550 million could be payable by Total in case of an improvement in the oil

markets in the coming years.

The transaction makes Total the second largest global LNG player among the majors with a worldwide

market share of 10 percent, with the group managing an overall LNG portfolio of around 40 Mt per year by

2020. The portfolio includes participating interests in liquefaction plants, notably the interest in the Cameron

LNG project in the U.S., long term LNG sales and purchase agreements, an LNG tanker fleet as well as access

to regasification capacities in Europe.

“Acquiring Engie’s LNG business is a real step change for Total allowing us to leverage size and flexibility in

the fast growing and increasingly commoditized LNG market. It also helps us to build a position in the US

LNG market, with the 16.6 percent stake in the Cameron LNG project,” commented Patrick Pouyanné,

Chairman and CEO of Total.

Following the transaction, Total takes over the teams in charge of the upstream LNG activities at Engie. By

2020, Total’s LNG portfolio will consist of:

• A total volume of LNG managed of 40Mt / year.

• A liquefaction capacity portfolio of 23 MT/year, well distributed among the major LNG production areas:

Middle East, Australia, Russia and the United States.

• A worldwide LNG trading contracts portfolio of 28 MT/year to supply each LNG market with competitive

and flexible resources.

• A role of a key supplier for the European market with regasification capacities of 18 MT/year.

• A fleet of 18 LNG carriers, of which two are FSRUs

[Maritime Executive]

16/07/2018

A Norwegian union for workers on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs stepped up a six-day strike on Monday

that has slightly hit oil output after employers did not respond to demands for higher wages and pension

benefits.

The union is adding 900 workers to the strike, under a plan announced last week, after failing to win

concessions before a midnight (2200 GMT) deadline since almost 700 workers on the rigs went on strike on

Tuesday. The expanded strike will not have any immediate extra impact on oil or gas production beyond the

closure last week of Shell’s Knarr field, which produces 23,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Oil & gas exploration Norway: Offshore strike expands to more than 1,500 workers

Oil & gas shipping: Total buys Engie’s upstream LNG business for $1.5 billion

International trade: European ports are optimistic but fear trade war could disrupt shipping

and cargo traffic

Both the Safe union and employers in the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association said late on Sunday they had

no contacts or new offers during the weekend. The websites of both sides, which they said would notify

workers of any breakthroughs, had no updates as the deadline passed.

“The escalation takes place from midnight as planned,” Safe union spokesman Roy Aleksandersen said just

before deadline. The workers on the offshore oil and gas rigs went on strike after rejecting a proposed wage

and pension deal.

The employees joining the action work on exploration and production drilling rigs owned by Saipem,

Transocean , Songa Offshore, Odfjell Drilling, Archer and COSL, among others.

[Reuters]

16/07/2018

By Manik Mehta

Despite the optimism generally prevalent among most European ports, which have benefited in the past from

the tailwinds accompanying world trade, representatives of these ports express concern over the possible

impact of the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Trans-Atlantic trade and shipping.

They fear that a trade war, escalated by tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs, could easily disrupt the shipping and

cargo movement on both sides of the Atlantic. These fears were heightened by the just-concluded G-7 summit

meeting in Quebec which did not go according to script for the Europeans who fear that this summit, the

worst in the history of the G-7 nations, could hit shipping and cargo traffic.

The image of U.S. President Donald Trump, sitting with his hands crossed, and German Chancellor Angela

Merkel standing with both her hands on the table and staring at him in a confrontational pose watched by

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pretty much sums up the summit result. This picture of disunity went

viral on social media. The image dramatically depicts the German leader in an assertive pose, planting both

hands firmly on a crisp tablecloth as she addresses President Donald Trump, who is seated before her with his

arms crossed wearing a dispassionate expression.

Beside Trump is his national security adviser, John Bolton, apparently speaking above the locked eyes of the

U.S. and German leaders. A seemingly unimpressed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe gazes at the group.

Trans-Atlantic cooperation?

Officials and businesspeople in Germany, in private conversations with this correspondent, emphasized that

Europeans are not interested in starting a trade war with the U.S; however, they felt the Trump’s

administration’s plan to impose tariffs on European products, starting with steel and aluminum, violated the

“letter and spirit” of trans-Atlantic cooperation, and could cause trade and shipping disruption.

The Europeans want the tariff exemption to continue, failing which they have threatened with retaliatory

tariffs against U.S. products such as whiskey, motor-bikes, jeans, etc.

European ports see these as ominous signs of an imminent trade war that would severely cripple shipping and

cargo traffic. Indeed, Germany based economists, including Dennis Snower, the President of the Kiel

Institute for World Economy, warn against escalation of the trade conflict, and urge the EU to use the

opportunity to present itself in these difficult times as the “voice of reason” and refrain from hitting back with

tariffs. These experts believe that competitive companies and industries would not suffer and, in fact, benefit

in the medium and long term because trade with the EU would continue to grow.

Port of Hamburg

Hamburg port sees the tariffs as “yet another setback” because these will, invariably, affect its trans-Atlantic

cargo traffic. For the port, a trade war with the U.S. will be the second major setback after its shipping was

already hit by EU sanctions imposed in 2014 against Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Another uncertainty

looming for it is the possible impact of Brexit on its cargo traffic.

Hamburg’s economics senator Frank Horch, who criticized U.S. tariffs as a “violation of the prevalent

regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO)”, reminded that Europe, a strong economic region

embracing a 500 million population, is one of the USA’s most important trading partners.

Hamburg port is the export outlet for steel from Salzgitter and aluminum from Trimet Werk shipped to the

U.S.

Matthias Boxberger, chairman of Hamburg’s Industry Association, described the U.S. tariffs as a “rude

setback” for trans-Atlantic trade relations. “Such conflicts harm all (sides), including the USA itself,” he said,

adding that lack of attractiveness of one’s own products cannot be resolved by tariffs against others; unilateral

tariffs are not a remedy for the global over-capacity of basic materials such as aluminum and steel.

Hamburg Port’s total export volume of steel and base iron metal accounted for two million tonnes, of which

exports of steel and base iron metals to the United States accounted for roughly 70,000 tonnes, according to a

spokesman of Hamburg Port Authority. The prospect of tariffs is worrisome for Hamburg port which is

already lagging behind other European ports, and is trying to maximize its ship loads. In the first quarter of

2018, Hamburg port achieved total throughput of 32.7 million tons, down 7.5% over the year-earlier period.

The port is keen to tap its full potential, keeping in mind that mega-ships with larger box capacities are being

deployed. Hamburg port’s 2018 first-quarter results show a stabilization trend (+ 0.7%, 1.9 million TEUs)

contrasting with Antwerp’s 10.7% growth (2.74 million TEUs) and Rotterdam’s 6.1% growth (3.5 million

TEUs).

The Elbe deepening project continues to languish in a state of slow motion, thus precluding the port from

tapping its full capacity. Although a German court in November cleared the Elbe deepening project, it has not

made any headway so far.

Hamburg port also faces another challenge: the empty container movement at the port, which mirrors the

overall trade flow, has recorded an 18% decline year-on-year basis. The port’s joint chief executive Axel

Mattern has been telling the media that a decline in empty container movements was at this point

unavoidable, given that ship operators had changed the way they used the port thanks to the Elbe deepening

project. Besides the declining empty container movement, the port’s services with the east coast of North

America, the Baltic region and the Indian subcontinent had also been declining.

Helsinki summit: Where the world lacks confidence in Trump and Putin

China trade

The “bright spot”, as freight forwarders in Hamburg point out, is that the port’s trade with China, Hamburg’s

biggest trading partner, remained strong with container traffic rising by 4.5% year-on-year. Hamburg port

also posted strong growth of 37.7% in container traffic with Brazil, 38.5% with Sweden and 63.8% with

Israel.

Other European ports such as Rotterdam and Antwerp – these two ports are already bracing to absorb the

impact of Brexit - are also monitoring the Trump administration’s action on steel and aluminum tariffs.

Rotterdam Port, Europe’s largest port, recorded in 2017 a 1.3% growth compared to 2016, with the tonnage

rising from 461 million tonnes to 467 million tonnes.

Rotterdam posted strong growth in container traffic in 2017, with the number of containers at Rotterdam

rising by 10.9% to 13.7 million TEUs. The growth in container handling contrasted sharply with a 2.6%

decline in the case of dry bulk goods and 4.1% decline in the case of bulk liquid.

Allard Castelein, the director general of the Rotterdam port operating agency, stated that the throughput,

driven by container sector, had “so far, been on the highest level”.

Rotterdam port could also increase its market share to 31%, the highest level since the year 2000, thanks to

the growth, particularly, in Asia and South America and imports from North America.

Antwerp port achieved a freight volume of 58,328,678 tonnes in the 2018 first quarter, up 7.1% over the

year-earlier period. This volume is the total sum of all freight categories with the exception of conventional

breakbulk. The main driver was container freight which posted a 10.7% growth over the year-earlier quarter,

rising to 2,744,226 TEUs. Indeed, Antwerp set a new record in March with a container volume of 980,000

TEUs.

There was growth on all sailing routes, both incoming and outgoing. In the first 2018 quarter, a total of 3,531

ships called at Antwerp port, up 0.7% increase over the year-earlier period.

[American Journal of Transportation]

16/07/2018

By Niall McCarthy

Helsinki is the final stop on President Trump's incendiary and controversial trip to Europe. He is meeting

Russia's Vladimir Putin at a summit in the Finnish capital and even though both leaders have met on the

sidelines of multilateral talks before, this is their first official summit.

With the eyes of the world firmly fixed on the meeting, polling by Pew Research suggests that much of the

world has no confidence in either man's leadership.

Whether its Putin's approach towards his opponents or Trump's disruptive brand of diplomacy, the "no

confidence" scores are high in most countries. In Spain for example, 90 percent of those polled said they have

no confidence in either leader doing the right thing regarding world affairs. That figure was similarly high in

both France and the United Kingdom. In Germany which Trump recently labeled "a captive" of Russia, more

people have no confidence in Trump than Putin.

Israel is an interesting case and the country has consistently recorded high approval ratings for Trump. His

image was strengthened further there when he made the controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy

from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 42 percent of Israelis have no confidence in Trump compared to 69 percent

having no confidence in Putin.

[Statista / The Economist]

16/07/2018

Response by carriers to weak profitability will be pivotal to future charter market direction.

Rising charter rates are one of the reasons why Drewry downgraded its 2018 profit outlook for the container

industry. Daily rates have fallen slightly over the past few weeks as carriers have reacted to the red ink by

suspending a number of services, releasing some ships back to the open market, but they remain significantly

higher than a year ago.

Charter rates across all ships sizes in the first quarter of 2018 were on average up by nearly 50% on the same

period last year. They increased further in April and May to approach heights last seen in mid-2015 with daily

prices for Classic Panamax ships (see Figure 1) being fixed for around $13,000 according to broker reports.

Should ship owners be worried that the recent drop in charter market rates is the start of permanent

downwards trend?

Figure 1: Classic Panamax daily charter rates ($/day)

Note: Included wide-beam ships of less than 5,000 teu that could not transit the old Panama locks

Source: Drewry Maritime Research

In the most recent Container Forecaster Drewry cautioned that the financial losses being incurred by ocean

carriers should be a concern to independent owners. The risk of default on a charter contract rises when your

customers are in the red. While we do not envision a repeat of Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy, prolonged

losses do raise the chances of carriers off-hiring chartered ships upon contract expiry.

Figure 2: Charter market matrix of top 12 containership lines, July 2018

Container shipping: Charter market on a knife-edge

Note: Maersk includes Maersk Line, Maersk Line Limited, Hamburg Sud, Allianca, CCNI, Safmarine, MCC

Transport, Seago Line, SeaLand; MSC includes MSC, WEC Lines; CMA CGM includes CMA CGM, APL,

ANL, Cheng Lie, Cagema, Feeder Associate System, MacAndrews, Mercosul, Comanav, Sofrana,

Containerships (pending takeover); COSCO includes COSCO, OOCL, Shanghai Puhai Shipping, Golden Sea

Shipping, Shanghai Pan Asia; Evergreen includes Evergreen Marine, Italia Marittima; Zim includes Zim,

Gold Star Line; Wan Hai includes Wan Hai, Interasia Lines.

Source: Drewry Maritime Research

As of last week there were approximately 2,450 ships owned by non-operating owners, which with a

combined capacity of 9.6 million teu accounts for some 44% of the world fleet. However, not all carriers

share the same exposure to the charter market. Figure 2 displays the current owned-chartered fleet mix of

major carriers’ (identified as operating a minimum of 1% of the world fleet) and reveals some very different

strategies when it comes to renting ships.

MSC currently has the largest pool of chartered ships with nearly 400 units aggregating 1.8 million teu,

representing approximately 57% of its total operated fleet. In contrast, PIL only charters seven units, or 6% of

its fleet. Zim (72%) and Yang Ming (64%) have the highest chartered ratio of the leading carriers.

Having a large charter composition is not necessarily a bad thing. Some carriers simply prefer the flexibility

to dip in and out of trades when it suits them, whilst also avoiding the initial capital outlay of purchasing

ships. However, having a greater dependency on hired ships to operate services does mean that those lines are

more exposed when charter rates increase, depending on the rates and fixture periods agreed.

Figure 3: Charter market ratio by trade, June 2018

Note: Based on effective two-way capacity (i.e. after adjustment for wayports)

Source: Drewry Maritime Research

In our view, the future direction of the charter market is heavily tied to carriers’ response to being

unprofitable. While service suspensions are a clear risk to future charter rates as carriers, particularly those

with a higher proportion of chartered units, will inevitably jettison hired tonnage first, another potential

response in the form of slow-steaming, as proposed by MSC, could elevate charter prices.

Slowing ships will help to reduce fuel consumption, but it will require additional units to be added to services

to maintain weekly frequencies and will therefore increase demand for chartered tonnage.

One factor that could protect charter rates from declining too sharply is the fact that trading conditions are

currently more favourable in trades where chartered tonnage is most prevalent. For example, container

shipments in the southbound Asia-Oceania trade, where approximately two-thirds of the 4,000 teu average

units are chartered, increased by 6.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. In contrast, in the westbound Asia-

North Europe trade, home to the Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCV) and in which about the same ratio

are owned units, demand decreased by 1% in the first quarter.

This helps to explain why the charter market recovery wasn’t knocked off course by the influx of ULCVs in

the early months of the year. Because the charter market is more heavily weighted towards smaller and

intermediate size ships, oversupply of bigger units is more isolated to trades where owned ships dominate.

However, the introduction of new mega-ships during the first half does still pose a threat to the charter market

as it intensifies the cascading process (when existing ships make way for newbuilds by transferring to another

trade) with the potential to dilute the supply-demand balance of the more charter-market friendly intermediate

trades.

Shipbreaking Pakistan: Fire at Gadani as tanker scrapping resumes

Marine pollution: Pristine Antarctic fjords contain similar levels of microplastics to open

oceans near big civilizations

We suspect that charter rates have peaked for the time being, but with the overall supply-demand balance

slowly improving, which in turn will lead to higher freight rates and improved carrier income statements, the

motivation for carriers to off-hire ships should lessen.

Our view

The rapid ascent of the charter market is probably over, but we expect daily rates to remain close to their

current levels over the remainder of the year.

[Drewry Container Insight Weekly]

16/07/2018

Three months after authorities gave the green light for tanker beachings to resume at Gadani, Pakistan,

another fire broke out aboard a decomissioned VLCC, trapping several workers inside the burning hull.

Local sources report that the fire broke out during demolition work. 20 laborers were rescued, but four are

believed to be trapped within the vessel. National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) leader Nasir Mansoor said

in a social media update that 100 workers were at the site at the time of the incident.

Gadani's shipbreakers have experienced multiple fires resulting in loss of life in recent years. These incidents

included a fuel tank explosion aboard the FPSO Aces in November 2016, which killed at least 26 workers and

wounded 58, and a second fire aboard the same vessel in November 2017. Separately, a fire broke out on an

unnamed LPG carrier in December 2016, and then a second time in January 2017, with five fatalities and an

unknown number of missing workers during the second incident. The deadly blazes resulted in a temporary

ban on tanker scrapping at Gadani, which was lifted in April 2018.

Labor rights advocates assert that shipbreaking is Pakistan's deadliest industry, with little regulation and

inhumane working conditions. "Even jungles would have some laws, but there are none here," alleged

Mansoor, in comments to Pakistan's Express Tribune.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund recently excluded four shipowners from its portfolio for selling end-of-life

vessels to Pakistani and Bangladeshi shipbreakers, citing a pattern of "severe environmental damage and

serious or systematic violations of human rights." Demolition brokerage GMS contests this characterization

and asserts that the industry is making improvements, especially at yards that are pursuing certification to

Hong Kong Convention ship recycling standards.

[Maritime Executive]

16/07/2018

Authors:

• Alexis Janosik, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of West Florida

• David Barnes, Data Interpretation Ecologist, British Antarctic Survey

• James Scourse, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Exeter

• Katrien Van Landeghem, Senior Lecturer in Marine Geology, Bangor University

In the middle of the last century, mass-produced, disposable plastic waste started washing up on shorelines,

and to be found in the middle of the oceans. This has since become an increasingly serious problem,

spreading globally to even the most remote places on Earth. Just a few decades later, in the 1970s, scientists

found the same problem was occurring at a much less visible, microscopic level, with microplastics.

These particles of plastic are between 0.05mm and 5mm in size. Larger pieces of plastic can be broken down

into microplastics but these tiny bits of plastic also come from deliberate additions to all sorts of products,

from toothpaste to washing power.

Now, with major global sampling efforts, it has become clear that microplastics are dispersing all over the

world – in the water column, sediments, and marine animal diets – even reaching as far south as the pristine

environments of Antarctica.

Glacial retreat

While this plastic problem has become more prevalent, one of the most pristine ecosystems on Earth, the

fjords of the Western Antarctic Peninsula, have been revealed by retreating glaciers.

Tucked between islands and the mainland, the coast along the Western Antarctic Peninsula has long, narrow

inlets created by glaciers. During the last 50 years, these fjords have physically changed, due to reduced sea

ice cover and because nearly 90% of glaciers have retreated in this region. These processes have exposed the

ocean floor of many of the fjords for the first time.

The potential for microplastics to impact this environment and its marine life is huge – and we’re now

working to figure out the depth of the effect that microplastic pollution is having on the newly colonised

habitats. Any microplastics recovered in the Southern Ocean, particularly in newly formed ecosystems, raise

alarm. They not only indicate that the area has been affected, but that plastic pollution is increasingly

ubiquitous too.

New habitats

In November 2017, our multidisciplinary UK-Chile-US-Canada research team – known as ICEBERGS –

joined the RRS James Clark Ross (an ice strengthened research ship) and headed to Antarctica’s

northernmost fjords. Our goal was, and still is, to gain a better understanding of how the environment and

organisms evolve in newly emerging and colonising habitats in Antarctica. We are particularly interested in

the marine ecosystems on the ocean floor, so have been looking at areas such as Marian Cove and Börgen Bay

on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, where communities have only developed in the last few decades – due to

the retreating glaciers.

Thriving marine ecosystems can act as climate regulators. When ice retreats, new, pristine fjordic habitats are

revealed and phytoplankton blooms occur. These help to counteract climate change because they take carbon

dioxide gas out of the atmosphere. New productive seabed habitat also becomes available for the diverse

shallow water fauna that eat these algae and store the carbon long term. Not counteracting climate change,

however, is the fact that new open water absorbs heat faster, in contrast to ice that would have reflected it.

The animals colonising the exposed fjords face challenging conditions. The sediment and fresh water flowing

in the glacier melt runoff make it very difficult for many organisms to survive. And, if exposed to them,

microplastics can be a serious concern for many marine animals, especially filter-feeding organisms (for

example krill, and other zooplankton). As these creatures filter water to obtain food, they may ingest

microplastics which can clog and block their feeding appendages, limiting food intake. Ingested

microplastics may be transferred to the circulatory system too, which can cause an increased immune

response.

Microplastics may also bring in new bacteria and chemical pollutants attached to them too. So, because many

filter-feeding organisms support the entire food web, any impact on them should be expected to have

cascading effects on the ecosystem.

On board the RRS James Clark Ross. Credit: Authors

The top 10 international shipping centres

In newly revealed habitats, creatures are less likely to have been impacted by marine pollutants previously so

they can help us learn about more recent changes in an environment. To our knowledge, microplastics have

not been found in the Antarctic fjords before now, but our preliminary results have already found an

alarmingly high presence – similar to those found in the open water of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, near

big civilisations.

These results came from samples taken directly from the fjords, and we are now looking further at the

evidence of how micro-organisms are being affected by microplastics. During the next two Antarctic

summers, we will be collecting more geophysical, physical oceanographic, sedimentological and biological

data from these pristine sites in the same locations, so we can compare the changes over time in the habitats

that colonise new ocean floor in Antarctic fjords.

Only after such rigorous data collection and analysis will we be able to tell the true impact of microplastics on

pristine environments. Until then, we can all do our bit to cut down on potential pollution and protect what

may very well be the last pristine environments on Earth.

[The Conversation]

16/07/2018

Singapore is considered as the top world's shipping centre for the fifth year in a row, followed by Hong Kong,

London, Shanghai and Dubai. The outcome is based on the International Shipping Centre Development Index

(ISCD) issued by Baltic Exchange and Xinhua news agency.

Top 10 port cities of Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index report [Jul 2018]

The index, which was first introduced in 2014, ranks 43 of the largest global ports and cities revealing the

most important shipping hubs. Namely, the index system includes 3 primary indicators and 18 secondary

indicators.

The Baltic Exchange and Xinhua published the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development

Index report last week to analyze the ranking results supporting that Singapore maintains leading position

thanks to strategic opportunities brought about by the “Belt and Road” initiative while thanks to

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the Hong Kong overtook the second position from

London for the first time in five years.

Framework of indicators for Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index

Source: Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index report [Jul 2018]

Key outcomes

• For 2018, the top ten international shipping centres are Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Dubai,

Rotterdam, Hamburg, New York, Tokyo and Busan respectively.

• Comparing between 2014-2018, the overall evaluation results are relatively stable.

• Emerging shipping centres in Asia-Pacific region still maintain a strong growth trend.

• Singapore maintains its leading position for four consecutive years, thanks to strategic opportunities brought

about by the “Belt and Road” initiative.

• Supported by its rapidly developing modern shipping logistics system and shipping services system, and

coordinated development of its regional shipping counterparts, Shanghai advanced to the fourth place, right

after London.

• Driven by its innovative free-trade zone and improvement in trade environment, Dubai’s ranking was stable

at the fifth place.

• Busan made its return to the top ten by virtue of its strategy of vigorously developing its transhipment ports.

• European and American traditional international shipping centres remain low in ranking.

• Impacted by the overall weak economy in the European region, London’s overall shipping development was

behind that of Hong Kong, while Hamburg has dropped to seventh place.

• Rotterdam has improved its operating efficiency with new technology applications such as Internet of

Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, as well as smart port construction. It has leaped to the sixth place.

The report identifies three tiers which acknowledge the global shipping centres:

1. The traditionally-renowned tier of shipping centres is represented by traditionally well-known

international shipping centres such as Singapore, Hong Kong and London.

2. The innovation-leader tier includes international shipping centres around the Asia-Pacific such as

Shanghai, Dubai, Guangzhou, and Ningbo-Zhoushan

3. The potential-for-development tier of shipping centres includes developing ports such as Newcastle,

Tanjung Pelepas and Port Klang.

Of the top ten shipping centres in the world, six are located in Asia, three in Europe and only one in America.

In this regard, the report mentions that there is rapid development in shipping centres in both Asia and

Europe, but the rising trend of shipping centres in Asia is becoming increasingly evident.

Global shipping services

Although Singapore is considered the top shipping centre, in the evaluation of shipping services it holds the

second position.

Shipping services are generally evaluated in six aspects: namely ship broking service, ship engineering

service, shipping business service, maritime legal service, shipping finance service and ship repair service.

Evaluation of international shipping centres in 2018 shows the top ten port cities with the best shipping

services are, by order of ranking: London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai, Athens, Hamburg, New

York-New Jersey, Tokyo, and Housten.

Of these, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai have been occupying the top four places for four

consecutive years; thus indicating their stability as shipping centres. Houston’s shipping services have gained

significant momentum in development and attained the top ten places for the first time in five years.

Global brokerage services

Shipping brokerage is the link between many facets of shipping transaction. Therefore, it possesses a huge

amount of information related to ship sale transaction and can help in rapid delivery of ships. For a long time,

London, as a traditional shipping centre, still holds a leading position in shipping brokerage services. In

particular, its information resources and the wide network of brokerage companies have exhibited strong

competitiveness.

However, with the eastward shifting of the world’s shipping centres, second-tier shipping services in the

Asian region, led by Singapore have also taken shape and are beginning to close the gap with London in terms

of services.

Trends after Panama Canal expansion

Connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal is one of the most important

shipping channels in the world. With about 6% of the world’s trade transported through the canal each year,

the canal’s usage situation can be regarded as the barometer for global trade. Thus, this year the report

includes an additional chapter analyzing the impact of widening of the Panama Canal, revealing a clear trend

of larger- size ships transiting the Canal.

From the size of ships transiting through the Panama Canal, in terms of dimensions and tonnage, there has

been a clear trend that ships of growing sizes are passing through the canal after the expansion. In 2015, the

average DWT of ship transiting the Panama Canal was 41,538 tons. In 2016, it was 42,900 tons, up 3.28% or

1,362 tons; while in 2017, the increase was even more significant at 49,260 tons, up 14.83% or 6,360 tons.

The report mentions that LNG and LPG vessels benefited most from the expansion of the Panama Canal with

significant increase in vessel trips and total DWT tonnage, which reflected relatively strong market demand.

There was a slight increase in market demand for oil tankers and chemical tankers, but the demand was

generally stable. The container ship vessel type is most affected by the trend of growing ship size, with a

slight increase in market demand. There was rising recovery of market demand for bulk cargo ships.

[SAFETY4SEA]

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

Advance your career by gaining Professional Recognition.Professional recognition is a visible mark of

quality, competence and commitment, and can give you a significant advantage in today’s competitive

environment.

All who have the relevant qualifications and the required level of experience can apply for Professional

Membership of IAMSP.

The organization offers independent validation and integrity. Each grade of membership reflects an

individual’s professional training, experience and qualifications. You can apply for Student Membership as

per following :

Fellow (FIAMSP)

To be elected as a fellow, the candidate must satisfy the council that he/she:

Has held for at least eight (8) years consecutively a high position of responsibility in shipping or related

business.

Has distinguished himself/herself in shipping practice.

Is a principal in a firm or a director of a company in the business or profession.

Members in this grade are entitle to use the initials FIAMSP After their names.

Full Member (MIAMSP)

Individuals holding an internationally recognised marine qualification, or who can prove that they have

practiced on a full time basis for a minimum of five (5) years as a consultant or marine surveyor.

Individuals who, by producing written reports can demonstrate that they have practiced marine surveying or

consultancy for at least five (5) years.

Individuals whose qualifications or experience shall be considered appropriate by the Professional

Assessment Committee.

Members may use the initials FMIAMSP after their names.

Associate Member (AMIAMSP)

Associate Membership shall be open to any person, partnership, company, firm or other corporate that does

not own a Ship but is engaged in ship operating or ship management. Associate Members can nominate one

(1) person to represent them in the Association. Associate Members are entitled to attend General Meetings

and to participate in discussion at such meetings but shall not vote or stand for election to the Board of

Directors.

Technician (TechIAMSP)

Individuals holding a recognised qualification, for example Inspector level 2 or higher (NACE, FROSIO,

ICorr), RMCI and IRMII, NDT Technicians (CSWIP), for example gauging personnel, divers or other

surveyors with at least three years full time practical experience in a marine related field. Technician

Members may use the designation TIAMSP after their names.

Affiliate (AFFIAMSP)

Graduates who do not meet the criteria for Full or Associate Membership and are continuing to train and gain

experience prior to applying for Associate Membership

Student (SIAMSP)

Individuals who are enrolled in training programs related to the maritime or shipping will be appointed as

student members of the Association for the duration of their course.

LAST MEMBERSHIP

Fellow (FIAMSP)

M. Dimopoulos Stylianos

Greece

Mr. SUBBIAH Thiyagarajah

India

Mr. ESNAL Pedro

Spain

Full Member (MIAMSP)

Mr. MARTINS Jorge

Brazil

Capt. Jasim Aqeel

Iraq

M. Subbiah Thiyagarajah

Malaysia

Affiliate (AFFIAMSP)

M. Kirton Christopher

Singapore

M. Hubert Louis-philippe

France

Mrs. HELENA ISABEL

CAMPOS LANÇA PALMA

Portugal

UPCOMING EVENTS SUMMARY

September

OSV CHARTERING CONTRACT MANAGEMENT SEMINAR 13

America Square (Cavendish Venues), London

September

DECODING TRADE CONTROLS, SANCTIONS AND REGULATIONS ON DUAL-USE GOODS

18 The Hatton, London

September

MEETING THE COMMERCIAL, INSURANCE AND LEGAL CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S SALVAGE AND WRECK REMOVAL OPERATIONS

24 Novotel Clarke Quay, Singapore

September

MEETING THE COMMERCIAL, INSURANCE AND LEGAL CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S SALVAGE AND

26 WRECK REMOVAL OPERATIONS

Novotel Clarke Quay, Singapore

September

GLOBAL LINER SHIPPING ASIA

26

Novotel Clarke Quay, Singapore

September ARE YOU READY FOR 2019

27

Bahia Mar Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida

October LIQUEFACTION OF BULK CARGOES SEMINAR

18

America Square (Cavendish Venues), London

February 2019

12th Arctic Shipping Summit – Montreal

21

Montreal - venue TBC