Maritime Minister Robert Courts has announced government funding for 3 organizations to support projects developing seafarers’ wellbeing and maritime skills, diversity and careers.

Announcing the news at the Mersey Maritime Exchange in Liverpool, the minister also outlined how the funding will support a review of ‘ratings’ training. This will include roles such as deck, engine room, hospitality and catering in the maritime industry. It will be carried out by the Maritime Skills Commission.

£2.4 million will help to support green skills, alleviate seafarer mental health issues and work towards the maritime 2050 ambition to widen the diversity of the sector.

The funding aims to support the maritime sector to create a highly-skilled, well-supported workforce that people from all backgrounds want to join.

As recognized in the government’s Maritime 2050 report and brought into sharp focus during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, seafarers’ welfare and mental health remains a serious issue. These challenges have exposed a need to better understand welfare issues for seafarers and the paucity of facilities and other support available when needed.

Maritime Minister Robert Courts said:

Seafarer wellbeing is at the heart of our Maritime 2050 agenda and we know that mental health difficulties at sea affect thousands of seafarers. We are committed to tackling this and building a diverse, highly skilled and exciting sector across the board – from shipbuilders to bosuns.

This funding will help us tackle this problem by supporting the excellent work being done by charities and social organisations and fostering new programmes.

I am also pleased to be launching our recovery route map, which will help to build a resilient, innovative and future-facing maritime sector for generations to come.”

A package of 9 seafarer protection measures, announced in March, has already set out plans to establish a new framework to improve the long-term working conditions of seafarers, developed in consultation with industry and unions.

The UK has continued to be a leading voice in recognizing existing rights and working with industry and seafarer welfare organizations. In addition, the industry has developed mental health awareness training which is delivered to every new seafarer as part of their mandatory training. This funding aims to raise the profile and enhance delivery of successful programs – small, large, new and existing – to champion seafarer rights.

Also launched today (23 June 2022) is the government’s Maritime recovery route map. This brings together the government’s plans to help the sector recover from the impact of the pandemic while supercharging delivery of Maritime 2050. The report was developed jointly with industry. It follows the key Maritime 2050 themes including how we will support our outstanding workforce, stay competitive and drive green growth by delivering innovation and new technology.

Stuart Rivers, Chief Executive Officer of the Merchant Navy Welfare Board, said:

This significant investment in the maritime charity sector is both timely and extremely welcome. The maritime charities sector has been supporting seafarers through multiple crises over the past 2 years, despite the difficult fundraising conditions. Department for Transport’s funding will provide a real boost to seafarers’ welfare and enable improvements in skills and diversity for the wider sector.

The funding will support maritime skills, diversity, careers and seafarer wellbeing, with £230,000 of the funding allotted to Maritime UK to support green skills, a ratings review and drive forward careers and diversity plans and a further £140,000 to Ormiston Maritime Academy to promote maritime in schools in key target areas for regional growth.”

Ben Murray, Chief Executive Officer of Maritime UK, said:

To realize the vision that we have for the UK maritime sector in 2050, we need the best people from all backgrounds to offer new thinking on the big issues of our age. That means being an inclusive sector, one that invests in its people and prepares for the future.

Maritime UK is delighted that people and skills are at the heart of the government’s maritime recovery route map and the industry is determined to accelerate its work on priorities like diversity and green skills.”

Rachel Kitley, Principal of Cowes Enterprise College, which is part of Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), said:

Our Maritime Futures initiative fulfils the educational aspirations of the government’s Maritime 2050 strategy. It seamlessly integrates robust disciplinary knowledge with hands-on maritime projects, raises awareness of the maritime sector and provides students with meaningful encounters with maritime employers.

We are thrilled that funding from Department for Transport will enable us to disseminate this model at pace, particularly in coastal communities. Simultaneously, Maritime Futures will contribute to raising attainment for students in disadvantaged areas and raise the profile of the maritime industry.”

With the rest of the world returning to the pre-pandemic levels of normality, China has maintained a strict zero-COVID policy. Lockdowns and rapid mass testing are still commonplace in Chinese cities. Unfortunately, for foreign businesses that depend on China to boost their global revenues, the cost of operation is becoming burdensome.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China was the first to sound the alarm based on findings of a flash survey it conducted in April. It involved 372 European companies primarily based in Shanghai. For nuance, the results were contrasted with an earlier Business Confidence Survey (BCS) that the European Chamber in partnership with Roland Berger conducted in mid- February.

Overall, China’s current COVID-19 containment policy is creating an uncertain business environment. 75 percent of the respondents reported a negative impact on overall operations, with businesses not knowing if their premises will be suddenly shut down or get enough staff to maintain operations.

The main impacts have been felt in logistics and warehousing, where 94 percent of the respondents said that they are negatively affected.

Supply chains have also taken a pounding, both upstream and downstream, affecting 92 percent of the respondents. The main challenges include access to raw materials or components needed for production, struggling to transport raw materials or delivery of finished products within China, and to the rest of the world.

However, in the face of these problems, it begs the question whether the companies are pondering to exit China. The survey found that the majority plan to stay, with only 11 percent of the businesses reporting plans to downsize their operations in China. This demonstrates that most European companies are committed to China in the long-term and prepared to weather any storm for now.

“The rewards of staying the course and navigating the storm are plain to see. With a market of 1.4 billion consumers, some of the world’s best manufacturing clusters and, in more recent years, a vibrant innovation ecosystem, European companies view it as imperative to be part of China’s growth story,” said Joerg Wuttke, the President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.

However, the Chinese market has lost a considerable amount of allure for many companies, with 78 percent indicating that China’s COVID-19 measures have made it less attractive destination for investment.

Some of the hard-hit sectors – fashion and textiles – are important to container shipping, an early indicator of a possible supply-chain shift in Asia.

“The main impact currently is the disruption of logistics to and from Europe, with 65 percent of the companies affected. Businesses have to adapt to new conditions, with rail freight between China and Europe no longer an option. Ships and trucks are also paying more for gas and oil due to rising material and energy costs,” notes the EU Chamber report.

Meanwhile, although the war in Ukraine is not an immediate concern for European businesses in China, a third of companies revealed the war is also a factor affecting China’s attractiveness as an investment destination. With China increasingly trading with Russia, and seemingly appearing as an ally, companies are concerned by geopolitical tensions, in particular the prospect of a deterioration in EU- China relations.

The Navy will move to monthly reporting of COVID-19 vaccine separations, the sea service announced in its now formerly weekly update.

The move comes after two weeks of active-duty separations in the single digits. Over the past two weeks, the Navy separated two active-duty sailors and 25 reservists, according to the update.

The latest separations bring the total to 998 active-duty and 209 reservists.

There are 3,371 active-duty sailors and 3,448 reservists who are not fully vaccinated, as mandated by the Department of Defense. This includes sailors with granted or pending exemptions as well as those who have submitted a religious accommodation request.

The Navy cannot currently separate anyone who submitted a religious exemption against the COVID-19 vaccine due to a legal ruling in the Fifth Circuit.

The lack of approved religious exemptions was debated in the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday as congressional members went through the proposed National Defense Authorization Act.

The Navy has approved 45 active-duty requests for religious exemptions, although it is unclear how many of the exemptions were for people who planned to retire or leave the service instead of getting vaccinated.

Among the amendments proposed before HASC was one extending the honorable or general discharge characterization for separations. HASC approved the amendment.

Natural immunity as an alternative has been used in multiple lawsuits against the military branches, including the Navy. It was cited in the case brought against the Navy by Navy SEALs and by a commanding officer who is unvaccinated.

Recently, lawsuits have begun mentioning the idea that the FDA-approved Pfizer vaccine, which is marked under brand name Comirnaty, is a different formula than the version of the Pfizer vaccine, which received emergency use authorization.

This was also the reasoning given in a recent board case for Lt. Bill Moseley, whose lawyer wrote in a statement that the Navy found that the two versions were different and that Moseley was only offered the EUA version.

The Navy could not comment on the specifics of the board, but did confirm that Moseley was retained by the Navy.

According to the FDA, Comirnaty and the EUA-version of Pfizer given to those older than 16 are the same. The formula is different for the EUA-version given to those under 16.

“The FDA-approved Comirnaty (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and the two EUA-authorized formulations of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 12 years of age and older, when prepared according to their respective instructions for use, can be used interchangeably,” according to the FDA.

The cost of shipping goods has surged 25-30% since the start of the pandemic due to array of inflationary pressures that are “unlikely to abate in the short term,” world No. 1 container shipping company Maersk told Reuters on Wednesday.

Maersk is viewed as a bellwether for global trade as it transports goods for retailers and consumer companies from Walmart and Nike to Unilever.

Higher supply chain costs have rocked the retail and packaged goods industries since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly over the past year as economies have started to recover, with logjams at key ports holding up containers of everything from food and health products to toys.

“I think some more inflation (will) come through in the years to come,” Vincent Clerc, chief executive of Ocean and Logistics at Maersk said in an interview during the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Summit conference in Dublin.

“Logistics is very energy and labor intensive, and those are two of the areas of the economy that are subject to significant inflationary pressure.”

Clerc said that while congestion is improving in some parts of the world, it is becoming worse in others—for instance, the East Coast of the United States and in Northern Europe.

“We’re talking here about the availability of truck drivers, the availability of capacity to move the goods through to the inland infrastructure,” he said.

Clerc also said that since the start of “trade tensions” with China, global companies have been increasingly cutting the proportion of materials and goods they export from the country, hoping to diversify away.

“We see a tendency, certainly, towards more even distribution and a reduced reliance on one or two specific areas.”