Category Archives: Shipping

Ship operators must work alongside the companies they charge with maintaining engine condition in order to ensure a smooth transition to using alternative fuels. That is the challenge laid down by Lubrizol’s Technical Manager for Marine Engine Oils, Ian Bown, as the company explores how it must adapt lubricants to protect ship engines burning alternative fuels. Shipping’s long-term environmental targets are propelling the industry’s quest for new, cleaner fuels. But while the big target – cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent compared with 2008 levels – is still 29 years away, time is short for the task at hand. Engine technologies for many of the candidate fuels have yet to reach even the pilot stage in commercial shipping, but the lifespan of vessels means that fuel choices will need to be made very soon for newbuilds that will likely still be trading by 2050. The long development cycle for cylinder oils is another challenge. “It is well recognized within the industry that while changes come quite quickly in some areas, lubricant development is sometimes not as fast,” says Bown. “That’s because we have to understand the impact of these fuels when they’re in service.”

For the second consecutive year, Sanjam Sahi Gupta, Founder, Maritime SheEO, and Birgit M Liodden of The Ocean Opportunity Lab co-organized the world’s largest maritime diversity conference on November 25th, 2021. The conference held digitally brought together prominent maritime professionals, government officials, marine lawyers, port captains, pilots, shipowners, business entrepreneurs, seafarers and women professionals in the maritime industry from around the world to celebrate change makers, diversity, and long-term solutions. The event drew an astounding 3500 +attendees from 77 different nations. Speaking at the Maritime SheEO conference, keynote speaker Kitack Lim, IMO Secretary-General, said, “The inclusion of women in the workforce and in leadership roles is fundamental to our global economies resilience”. In his opening speech, Bjornar Selnes Skjaeran, Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Policy Norway remarked “to ensure that the maritime industry can develop further and be part of the solution to end the climate crisis, we have to be able to recruit the best talents, the best hearts, and the brightest mind”.

A global survey published by Container xChange shows that majority of the container logistics industry (75%) is rethinking its logistics strategy in the next year. The survey results indicate that the industry is expecting gloomy times for the container logistics industry. The top challenges for the industry remained finding spot on the vessel and surcharges by carriers. One-way leasing emerged as the most sought-after alternative as compared to getting equipment from the carriers. Container xChange, world’s leading container trading and leasing tech company released the results of the xChange Industry Speak Survey 2021-22. The survey was released to 800 container logistics players globally including shipping lines, container traders, freight forwarding companies, NVOCCs, shippers and procurement companies. The objective of the survey was to study the industry sentiment, key learnings from the year 2021 and outlook for the year 2022 from the players.

Vessels seeking supplies or crew changes in southern Africa have been making contingency plans to call elsewhere as the new strain of the virus, first detected in Botswana and thought to be far more contagious than earlier variants, has spooked many. “We are expecting longer quarantine period, tighter testing regime and restrictions for vessels coming from South Africa and neighbouring countries,” warned Carl Schou, president and CEO of Wilhelmsen Ship Management, with a host of managers already reporting crew change cancellations in South Africa. Guy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, said, “his fears that unless coordinated action is taken by world leaders there could be a return to the peak of the crew change crisis in 2020 where more than 400,000 seafarers were impacted by harsh travel restrictions.”

DP World announced a new weekly Straits India Service (SIS) at its Port Terminals in Nhava Sheva and Mundra. The new service is operated by the global feeder operator Feedertech part of Unifeeder Group, DP World Marine Services. The new weekly service will establish direct connectivity to the Far East with the shortest transit time from DP World terminals in Nhava Sheva and Mundra. This will further boost trade between India and the Far East by providing customers with opportunities to grow their business and offer seamless connections to Malaysia and Singapore as an alternative to transhipping at Colombo Port thereby, improving lead time and reducing cost. The service port rotation is Singapore – Port Kelang – Nhava Sheva – Mundra – Singapore. Ravinder Singh Johal, Regional Head – Commercial Liner Sales (Ports), Subcontinent, DP World, said “We welcome the new service at our terminals in Nhava Sheva and Mundra. It is our constant endeavour to enhance direct connections from our terminals and provide regional connectivity to our customers. This is yet another step in DP World’s endeavour to build an end-to-end logistics capability and integrated services for our end customers and help them grow their business. We will continue to create opportunities in the fast-growing coastal short-sea trade on the Indian Subcontinent.”Hui Khoon, CEO, Feedertech Pte.Ltd, said “We are delighted to announce the launch of our new SIS service which will enrich our network and our footprint in India. We look forward to the continued support from all our valued customers to the successful launch of this service.”

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal said, “India is emerging as a world leader in the maritime sector.” He assured to work for the development of shipping, ports seafarers training,and ultimately emerging as a world leader in the maritime sector, said Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in a statement. Sonowal recalled the vision of the Prime Minister, which has been embodied in the Maritime India Vision 2030 launched by him in March 2021. Sonowal said, “India is one of the largest seafarer supplying nation and our seafarers are in great demand internationally.” He expressed hope that the stakeholders would take appropriate measures to address the issues raised in the report.

APM Terminals Pipavav, has handled the highest volumes on India- -US East Coast (MECL) service. The port safely handled 4,527 TEUs on Maersk Seletar with a record berth productivity of 140 moves per hour on this service. The MECL service connects the India to USEC including ports of Savannah, Norfolk, Newark, Algeciras and Middle East ports of Port Said East, Djibouti, Salalah, Jebel Ali and Port Qasim. Commenting on the achievement, Jakob Friis Sorenson, MD, APM Terminals Pipavav said, “Handling 4527 TEUs on MECL service is a significant achievement. I am also proud to share that we have achieved the 140-mph of berth productivity during the vessel operation. We are grateful to American customers, their representatives, USEC trade stakeholders and shipping lines for their abundant trust in our capabilities. Achieving these milestones are a testimony of our customer centricity, seamless coordination to manage transit sensitive cargoes, skilled staff and infrastructure competences, We strive to provide the highest efficiency at the berth, at the yard and at the gate to our customers.”

The third quarter results recently announced by the largest publicly traded carriers served to highlight the strength of the market. A.P. Moller-Maersk as the parent of the largest publicly-traded container line reported an amazing 355 percent increase in profits to more than $5.9 billion for the quarter. Similarly, Hapag-Lloyd reported a nearly 10 times increase in profits to more than $6.7 billion for the first nine months of the year. CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said it was “extraordinary strong results,” joining with the CEOs of the other major shipping companies to forecast that market conditions would remain similar for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. Reviewing the results reported by the carriers, Alphaliner is forecasting for the full year the 10 largest container carriers remain on track for an EBIT operating profit of between $115 and $120 billion. According to Alphainer it the forecast is “more than six times the amount recorded in 2020 and is a figure that is likely to transform the structure of the industry.”

Shripad Y. Naik, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, and Tourism, Government of India, visited Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), for a comprehensive Port visit. During his visit, the Minister closely observed the Port operations and was apprised about several infrastructural and technological advancements harnessed by the Port, enabling it to offer world-class services to the global maritime and EXIM community. During his visit across the terminals at JNPT, the Minister engaged with the Port stakeholders and explored numerous tech-enabled ‘Smart Port Initiatives’ that are being undertaken to optimize terminal operations in order to further enhance the Port’s efficiency and competence. In addition, the Minister also experienced the RMQC crane simulator, used for training efficient & skilled crane operators, who are an integral and core part of the Port operations.

Hapag-Lloyd has agreed upon a three-month charter commencing in January of the 4,253 teu Synergy Oakland for an eye-watering $130,000 a day from Greek non-operating owner Euroseas. The carrier’s in-house charter desk will no doubt have baulked at a charter rate some $50,000 a day above the current bull market, but was clearly unable to fix an alternative to cover a vital commitment. It will now pay the owner some $11.5m for the duration of the time charter. Putting the Hapag-Lloyd fixture into context of today’s market, Euroseas paid just $10m for the Synergy Oakland in November 2019, as part of an en-bloc purchase and, four years ago, owners of similar panamax ships would have been happy to achieve $8,000 a day for a three-month charter.