Seacurus Daily: Top Ten Maritime News Stories 05/12/2018
1. Tariffs Blow Up Again
Just days after President Donald Trump announced a temporary ceasefire in his administration’s trade war with China, he suggested that he is a “Tariff Man” and warned the U.S would impose new trade measures they cannot reach an agreement. “China is supposed to start buying agricultural product [sic] and more immediately. President Xi and I want this deal to happen, and it probably will. But if not remember, I am a Tariff Man,” Trump wrote. “We are either going to have a real deal with China, or no deal at all – at which point we will be charging major tariffs against Chinese product being shipped into the US.”
http://bit.ly/2AWk3I2
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2. Maersk Future Vision
Maersk has set out to become carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, it has said carbon neutral vessels must be commercially viable by 2030, and an acceleration in new innovations and adaption of new technology is required. In a promo video issued by the Danish carrier, the box giant showed a concept vessel design of the future. Maersk´s claims its relative CO2 emissions have been reduced by 46% from 2007 levels, which it maintains is approximately 9% more than the industry average.
http://bit.ly/2rnOPFj
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3. Rolls-Royce Doubling Down
Marine propulsion solution provider Rolls-Royce has set a target of before the year 2030 for autonomous deepsea cargo ships to become reality. The company, in collaboration with Finnish state-owned ferry operator Finferries, demonstrated a fully autonomous ferry in the archipelago south of the city of Turku.
Apparently the company is in talks with a number of shipowners and the interest in the technology is coming from different ship sectors. “Our intention is definitely to go into deepsea shipping eventually. We have already seen clear demand from both shipowners and cargo owners,” the company said.
http://bit.ly/2QfOzr2
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4. What a Maritime City Needs
Andreas Sohmen-Pao, the head of the BW Group and chairman of the Singapore Maritime Foundation, has been looking at what it will take to remain a vibrant shipping hub in the future. Singapore has grand ambitions when it comes to building on the legacy as a maritime nation. The new Tuas mega port, earmarked as the centrepiece of Singapore’s Next Generation Port vision, is being built to achieve a large increase in capacity together with the latest technology: automated yard cranes and port equipment, drones to deliver goods and inspect equipment, and a host of other productivity innovations.
http://bit.ly/2SpAiVc
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5. EU Vessel Reporting
Every time a ship stops at a port, it needs to fulfil a number of reporting obligations. The Council reached a general approach on a proposal to bring together all reporting formalities associated with a port call, under a system called a European maritime single window. A single reporting window for ships will significantly reduce the administrative burden on maritime transport. We are creating conditions for increased application of the once-only principle, so that ships would only need to report once per port call and the same information would be reused for subsequent port calls within the EU.
http://bit.ly/2RAVEPo
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6. Ports Must Do Better
Global major terminal operators maintained a throughput of 41.69m teus in Q3 2018, but the “growth rate of the global terminal operators fell further to 5.8%, the lowest in the past two years,” a new report shows. The ‘Global Port Development Report of Q3 2018′ found global terminal operators had a “mediocre” performance in Q3 and Chinese and US ports suffered as a result of the US-China trade war. The report confirms that “the escalating Sino-US trade war and shipping alliances’ trim or shutdown of liners and control on shipping space hindered the growth of the container shipping market.”
http://bit.ly/2ATpaJj
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7. Seafarer Making Recovery
A Filipino seafarer is recovering in hospital after fracturing his spine falling from a ladder on November 14. Adriano Gicos, 55, was descending into the ship’s hold when he slipped and fell four meters, while voyaging from Singapore to Brazil. His colleagues had to use a crane to get him back to his cabin, where they administered basic first aid. As a result of the fall, Gicos, a chief officer, suffered serious spinal injuries, which have required surgery to enable him to walk again. He is recovering in Meridional Hospital in the Brazilian city of Vitória.
http://bit.ly/2AQUoAD
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8. Grain Shipments Resume
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had resumed grain shipments from the Azov Sea, blocked for around 10 days after a military standoff with Russia in the Kerch Strait off Crimea. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews on Nov. 25 after opening fire on them, accusing them of illegally entering its territorial waters. Ukraine denied its ships had done anything wrong and accused Russia of military aggression. Its president, Petro Poroshenko, imposed martial law on Nov. 26 in parts of the country deemed most vulnerable to Russian attack.
http://bit.ly/2SvT3pV
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9. Scrubber Ban is a Boon
Last week’s announcement by the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) that it would ban open-loop scrubbers from its port waters from 1 January 2020 when IMO’s 0.5% global sulphur cap comes into force has set the cat among the pigeons for a growing number of owners opting to for exhaust gas cleaning for compliance with the regulation. Taken at face value what Singapore does in terms of allowing or not allowing open-loop scrubbers is insignificant – the port waters of the city state are a miniscule fraction of the world’s oceans. But it has opened up the debate which is now raging on.
http://bit.ly/2GcDsuv
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10. HMM Eyes Exit
South Korean liner company Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) hasn’t made a final decision on the potential departure from its alliance with 2M carriers, Maersk Line and MSC, the company said. The three containership companies inked a strategic cooperation deal in March 2017, which has a length of three years with an extension option. The deal includes a series of slot exchanges and slot purchases on East-West routes, as well as Maersk Line and MSC taking over a number of charters and operations of vessels currently chartered to HMM.
http://bit.ly/2Qxh0QA
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Daily news feed from Seacurus Ltd – providers of MLC crew insurance solutions www.seacurus.com
