Russian President Vladimir Putin has been urged to approve the ambitious Northern Sea Transport Corridor project in order to open up the Northern Sea Route that Russia has been aggressively promoting as an alternate sea route. Russian authorities content that the route can save critical time for shipments between Northern Europe and Asia.
Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told Putin in a meeting at the Kremlin that the containerized shipping industry is increasingly expressing interest in the Northern Sea Route following the events in the Suez Canal and growth in world trade.
“We would like, with your consent, to start developing a large container transport logistics corridor on the basis of our Northern Sea Route project,” said Likhachev.
He added that developing the route for the commercial shipping industry will open a completely new level of business and economic positioning not only for the state corporation but also for Russia with the wider objective being to benefit the world economy.
The project involves the development of two terminal hubs, a fleet of icebreakers, port infrastructures that include communication and navigation systems among others.
According to Likhachev, Rosatom is implementing projects designed to open the route to commercial shipping with focus being on conducting additional analysis on the needs for icebreaking support for medium and long term operations.
The company reckons it might need three to six new powerful icebreakers to keep the entire Northern Sea Route open for daily shipments throughout the year and has embarked on plans to build the first batch of icebreakers powered by liquified natural gas (LNG).
“All projects on the Northern Sea Route are developing, perhaps even at a higher pace than we planned. In this regard, we are conducting an additional analysis of the needs for icebreaking support after 2024, after 2030,” said Likhachev.
Opening the Northern Sea Route is emerging as a strategic economic front for Russia as they aggressively promote it as an alternative route to Asia and Europe following the blockage of the Suez Canal in March. They also highlight the significant surge in global trade after the disruptions in 2020 linked to the pandemic.
Rusatom Cargo, a subsidiary of Rosatom, contends that transit cargo flow along the Northern Sea Route can reach 80 million tons per year by 2024, up from 33 million last year. Last month, Rosatom signed an agreement with DP World establishing a joint venture that will invest in, build and operate transport and logistics capacity along the northern transit corridor.
“DP World supports Russia’s efforts to diversify trade flows between Asia and Europe. The Northern Transit Corridor holds out the prospect of shorter transit times between East and West,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World CEO. He added the Northern route cuts up to 19 days from the journey time between South East Asia and North West Europe owing to the fact that it is shorter, faster, less congested and more efficient.
The North Sea Route has been highly controversial with many environmental groups protesting opening the sensitive Arctic region to increases in shipping and the dangers of emissions in the region.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have launched an initiative to protect the rights and welfare of seafarers, a development that comes amidst global concerns that the plights of seafarers have largely been ignored.
The UAE government said the initiative dubbed ‘Supporting our Blue Army’ is designed to improve the quality of life for seafarers by protecting their rights with shipowners and operating companies, as well as helping them overcome the challenges they face due to COVID-19 disruptions.
“We’ve launched the ‘Supporting our Blue Army’ initiative to be one of the first countries to recognize and appreciate marine crews and put them on an equal footing with priority categories such as medical personnel, especially in such circumstances where seafarers played a key role in mitigating the devastating effects on the global economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Suhail Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.
He added that owing to the fact that the UAE is a logistical hub, the country wants to be on the forefront of protecting seafarers and will not tolerate any shipowner or operating company that fails to perform its duties towards seafarers or abandons them on board ships on the UAE shores.
In that respect, the country intends to bar ships that violate the rights of seafarers from entering the UAE waters besides taking proactive measures to ensure that the marine system in the country does not allow such violations of the rights of seafarers and crews.
The move by the UAE to protect the welfare of seafarers comes at a time when the world maritime community is grappling with sensitive issues affecting seafarers including vaccination, crew change, labor rights, safety at sea among others.
The Vatican, among other organizations, has repeatedly accused governments, shipping companies, crew agencies and international organizations of failure to uphold seafarers’ safety, labor and human rights amidst significant suffering due to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions.
Cases of seafarers being stranded at sea due to COVID-19 restrictions has been on the rise, a situation that has exacerbated their mental and physical anguish, pushing many to commit suicide.
Through the ‘Supporting our Blue Army’ initiative, the UAE will provide material and moral support to seafarers, provide them with free treatment and COVID-19 vaccines and allow crew replacement.
So far, more than 214,000 seafarers confined to their ships have been assisted in the replacement process and facilitated to go back to their home countries.
The UAE initiative follows a Cabinet resolution on marine wrecks and violating ships that obliges all UAE flag ships and foreign flag ships in UAE waters or calling at UAE ports to guarantee the rights of seafarers and fulfil their needs.
The UAE is a logistics hub linking global shipping lines and boasts of a significant share of ships calling on the region’s ports, with more than 21,000 ships annually.
Over 20,000 local and international maritime companies operate in the country with over 17 million containers handled at its ports annually.
“These operations add significant economic returns to the national economy. All these achievements cannot be made without the dedication of thousands of seafarers who arrive to the UAE’s waters on board ships from across the world,” noted Al Mazrouei.
U.S. Navy expeditionary sea base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams is in West Africa where it is participating in maritime security training alongside Nigerian and Ghanaian maritime security authorities. The ship is scheduled to participate in a three-day sea training exercise with Nigerian offshore patrol vessels and members of Ghana’s Special Boat Squadron as part of efforts to contain the growing menace of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. USS Hershel “Woody” Williams also becomes is the first warship permanently assigned to the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility.
USS Hershel “Woody” Williams‘ return to the Gulf of Guinea builds upon exercise Obangame Express that continues to demonstrate U.S. commitment to African partnerships and ensures prosperity through maritime security and stability. Both Ghana and Nigeria were among the 32 nations that participated in Obangame Express 2021 that concluded in March and which was the largest multinational maritime exercise in western Africa region that has become the hotspot for piracy.
“Maritime security is not a one nation obligation. It takes cooperative efforts like this to achieve,” said Capt. Chad Graham, Hershel “Woody” Williams’ commanding officer.
The maritime security training exercise is focused on the collective capabilities for countering the trafficking of illegal arms and drugs, human trafficking, illegal migration, piracy and illegal fishing. The U.S. Navy said that it is participating in these ongoing efforts as part of the need to tackle illegal dealings. They consider the Gulf of Guinea’s security crucial to West Africa’s economic development, but note that it requires regional coastal countries to have strong, professional navies, coast guards and law enforcement institutions that can enable maritime trade to flourish.
“The Gulf of Guinea’s size requires a team effort. It takes multiple coastal nations working together for mutual benefit and that’s what we see,” noted Graham.
The Gulf of Guinea continues to be among the most dangerous environment for commercial maritime operations, a development that has ignited calls for international cooperation to address the menace. Last year, 112 seafarers were abducted in 90 incidents along the gulf. In the first five months of this year, 23 piracy-related incidents had already been reported in the region.
Apart from piracy, the region is witnessing rising cases of illegal fishing with reports indicating that West Africa loses roughly 800,000 tons of fish worth over $2 billion in gross revenue annually.
“Ship visits like this one clearly demonstrate the U.S.’s continued dedication to our partners in the Gulf of Guinea as they strive for security of their resources, their economy and their people,” said Claire Pierangelo, U.S. Consul General in Lagos.
The ship, 784 feet long, serves as a mobile sea platform capable of performing large-scale logistics movements, such as the transfer of vehicles and equipment from sea to shore. Homeported at a NATO naval base on the Greek island of Crete, it is designed to reduce the dependency on foreign ports.
After nearly a week of oil leaking for the latest section to be cut free from the Golden Ray, the unified command overseeing the operation reported that they believed they have located the source of the oil and capped it. The leak, which began on July 31 when they began to raise section six has been the most significant oil leak since salvage work began on the wreck of the car carrier in St. Simons Sound.
“Wreck removal personnel capped a venting pipe after it was raised above the waterline during a partial lifting operation of section six of the Golden Ray wreck on August 6,” the St. Simons Sound Incident Unified Command reported in an update statement today. “The submerged vent was very likely the source of the oil discharges during lifting operations which started on July 31.”
The leak had begun after the team completed the cutting for section six and they began to raise the section to prepare it to be moved to the recycling operation. The section is washed to remove sediment and other debris and it was during this operation the that crew discovered the oil. The section was lowered back down but the oily discharge continued to been seen around the vessel and escaping the protection barrier entering the sound. Oiling was observed on beaches and marshland on St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island although no official estimate was given on the amount of oil that escaped.
The command reported that the crews determined that the venting pipe had connected to two tanks that had fuel removed during fuel lightering operations in October 2019. Since securing the vent, pollution observers report minimal amounts of oil around the section.
Forty-eight hours after locating and capping the vent, the VB-10000 began to again raise the section, and this time they did not observe large oil discharges around the section. The section has again been positioned so that the crews can start the weight-shedding effort during which they remove vehicles and any moveable decks from the section as required to reduce its overall weight. The section will be lifted and stowed onto a dry-dock barge once it is safe to do so. After that, one final cut remains to separate the last two sections of the wreck.
Clean up teams working along the beach (St. Simons Sound Incident Response)
The pollution mitigation teams continue to monitor section six and the area for any potential oil discharges and approximately 30 pollution response vessels remain at the wreck site to monitor for and mitigate any oil.
After the oil was detected, additional personnel were brought in both to manage the recovery as well as a cleanup along the coastline. Wildlife experts from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division and natural resource advisors conducted a survey on August 4 and they reported seeing several birds that had been oiled. Wildlife rehabilitation specialists recovered 20 oiled juvenile Royal terns from Bird Island on August 7 and transported them to a rehabilitation center in South Carolina for treatment. A laughing gull was released near Jekyll Island fishing pier on Sunday after rehabilitation at a wildlife center in South Carolina.
In addition, approximately 80 personnel split into several shoreline clean-up teams are using various clean-up techniques to mitigate oiled shorelines along the southern edge of St. Simons Island and on the northside of Jekyll Island. The teams use a variety of techniques from hand tools and bags to collect oiled sand to sphagnum moss and sorbent pads to treat oiled marsh grasses.
Hong Kong liner OOCL today debuted a landmark new rail-sea service connecting China to the US east coast.
The Cosco subsidiary’s new offering is a combination of the Chang An China-Europe block train service from Xian to Kaliningrad with onward feeder to Bremerhaven, and then with OOCL ocean services from Bremerhaven to various ports on the US east coast.
The service is the first of its kind to be operated by an ocean carrier, connecting China and North America by using the Asia-Europe Land Bridge and the Atlantic Ocean.
“The intention is to provide reliable and timely shipment by seizing the opportunity to avoid the current high levels of traffic seen on routes to the US West Coast and through the Panama Canal,” OOCL stated in an update today.
The first multimodal container service run by OOCL Logistics and OOCL departed Xian on Wednesday.
As reported earlier this week, American furniture manufacturer MCS Industries has filed a $600,000 lawsuit with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) against Cosco and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, claiming that they have repeatedly contravened terms of the US Shipping Act. MCS said the carriers had “unjustly and unreasonably” exploited customers, and had colluded to manipulate the market.
Geneva-based MSC, the world’s second largest carrier, issued a press release yesterday to respond publicly to the claim. The carrier said it “is shocked to learn of the accusations made by MCS,” and emphasized that it had “received no formal complaint by MCS Industries in advance of the filing.” About “subsequent accusations made [by MCS] in the media,” MSC said they are “vague and unsubstantiated and are incorrectly targeted at MSC.”
MSC “does not recognise the alleged shortcomings in booking the cargo allocations provided for this shipper. Furthermore, MSC is not illegitimately selling space allotted to MCS Industries under its service contracts to other shippers.”
The carrier also said it “rejects the accusation of collusion between carriers put forward in the complaint.”
Cosco, the other carrier cited by MCS, has yet to respond publicly to the accusations.
The transformation of A.P. Moller – Maersk under CEO Soren Skou enters a new, important chapter today with the decision to acquire two e-commerce logistics companies, helping the Danish giant build an asset-light business based on e-commerce technology across Europe, US and Asia and further blurring the lines between container carrier and express operator.
On the back of posting all-time record quarterly profits, Maersk announced today the $838m acquisition of Visible Supply Chain Management (Visible SCM), a business-to-consumer (B2C) logistics company focused on B2C parcel delivery and B2C fulfillment services in the US and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. Furthermore, it announced the intention to spend $86m acquiring B2C Europe, a business-to-consumer logistics company focused on B2C parcel delivery services in Europe and based in The Netherlands.
These acquisitions will make a big difference for customers’ ability to sell across multiple channels effectively
“Fast-changing consumer buying patterns and digital platforms are accelerating online consumption, redefining business models across the globe,” Maersk pointed out in a release today. Many Maersk customers are seeing strong e-commerce sales growth as they roll out digital first strategies and are looking for support of their business-to-consumer supply chain growth.
“The acquisitions will provide Maersk with a strong growth platform in the rapidly evolving field of e-commerce, where our investments in digitalisation and integration will create significant synergies and make a big difference for customers’ ability to sell across multiple channels effectively. Furthermore, they will allow us to have a more comprehensive offering towards small and medium sized customers,” said Maersk Ocean & Logistics CEO Vincent Clerc.
Within e-commerce Logistics, Maersk is building an asset-light, global business focused on two core capabilities: B2C fulfilment and B2C delivery.
Visible SCM enables e-commerce businesses to ship and compete with the biggest brand names out there today. Visible SCM uses a geographical network that places fulfillment centers closer to the consumer, with less distance and faster delivery. Maersk’s customers can tap into Visible SCM’s e-commerce network to deliver goods to 75% of the US population within 24 hours and reaching 95% of the US geography within a two-day delivery window.
B2C Europe, meanwhile, is in parcel delivery services for both retailers and brands as well as for logistics operators, with a focus on cross-border deliveries.
Prices of dry freight shipping containers have doubled over the past year to reach historic highs but will moderate over the next few years, according to Drewry’s recently published Container Census & Leasing Annual Review and Forecast 2021/22 report.
Dry box newbuild prices rallied strongly in 2020 from the lows of the prior year to reach their highest level since 2011 by the fourth quarter, with a year-on-year gain of 75%. Then by Q2 this year 40ft high cube containers breached the $6,500 threshold, more than doubling over the year, to reach their highest value since Drewry started monitoring container equipment prices back as far as 1998.
“Pricing has been driven by soaring demand for newbuild containers as shipping lines and lessors have been seeking to rebuild fleets in the face of chronic equipment availability due to widening disruption across the container supply chain,” said John Fossey, head of container equipment and leasing research at Drewry. “But also increased input costs, particularly for corten steel and flooring materials have also played a part. We expect dry box prices to peak in the third quarter and to soften thereafter, easing further over subsequent years as trade normalises.”
In sharp contrast, reefer and tank container prices changed little over 2020, but rallied in the first six months of 2021, up 6.5% and 40% year-onyear, respectively, in Q2. Prices of these specialist container types have different cost drivers to dry containers and are expected to continue rising although at a moderate pace over the next few years.
Taiwanese feeder boxship operator TS Lines has added to its newbuilding orderbook, having placed an order at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding for the construction of six 1,100 teu containerships.
The 147.9 m long boxships, designed by Shanghai Ship Design and Research Institute (SDARI), are the latest generation of vessels for China-Japan shipping routes.
No price or delivery date has been revealed for this order.
Last month, LT Lines booked four 7,000 teu ships at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and ordered another 1,900 teu boxship at Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding after signing up for a quartet in September last year.
The Waterborne Technology Platform has expanded its membership by welcoming its 100th partner – Maritime & Logistics Innovation Denmark (MARLOG).
MARLOG is Denmark’s official cluster organisation for the maritime and logistics sectors, representing 113 companies, knowledge institutions and organizations from the full value chain including shipowners, shipyards, equipment suppliers, ship designers, service companies, ports and logistic companies among others.
By joining Waterborne Technology Platform, MARLOG aims to contribute to the European maritime transition to green technologies and digitalization.
“Joining the Waterborne Technology Platform gives us an opportunity to strengthen the Danish maritime innovation agenda, through European collaboration and partnerships,” CEO of MARLOG, Sverre V. Lenbroch commented.
“In addition, the expansion of our membership shows the commitment of the sector to develop and deploy solutions for societal challenges. Although the sector is often branded as somewhat old- fashioned and not able to move forward, what we experience today is a full commitment of the sector to transform into a sustainable future,” the Chairman of the Waterborne Technology Platform, Henk Prins added.
Recently, the platform welcomed another member, the UK-based environmental consulting company Ricardo.
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