international association of marine and shipping ... – 19 august 2019.… · would have cost the...
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International Association of Marine and Shipping Professionls
NEWS BULLETIN 12 – 18 Aug 2019
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
17/08/2019
Poor countries find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle
In East Africa millions of people are suffering from a prolonged drought. Deadly typhoons are wreaking
havoc in Vietnam. Honduran coffee-farmers are seeing their crops wither in the heat. Poor countries have
less capacity than rich ones to adapt to changing weather patterns, and tend to be closer to the equator, where
weather patterns are becoming most volatile. As the world heats up, they will suffer most.
By 2030 poor countries will need to spend $140bn-300bn each year on adaptive measures, such as coastal
defences, if they want to avoid the harm caused by climate change. That estimate, from the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP), assumes that global temperatures will be only 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the
end of the century, which seems unlikely. Adding to the costs, research suggests that these countries face
higher interest rates than similar countries less exposed to climate risks. This raises the prospect of a vicious
cycle, in which the most vulnerable countries pay more to borrow, making adaptation harder and them even
more exposed.
The research focuses on the V20, a group founded by 20 vulnerable countries whose membership has since
grown to 48. The members are mostly poor, together accounting for less than 5% of global gdp. They include
low-lying atolls, such as the Marshall Islands, and economies dominated by agriculture, such as Kenya.
V20 countries
Source: UNEP, SOAS, Imperial College Business School: Climate Change and the Cost of Capital in Developing Countries [Sep 2018]
The researchers, led by Ulrich Volz of SOAS University of London and Bob Buhr of Imperial College
Business School, examined sovereign-bond yields between 1996 and 2016 for 46 countries, 25 of them in the
V20. After controlling for non-climate factors, such as income per person and levels of public debt, they
estimate that V20 countries must pay interest rates 1.2 percentage points higher than comparable countries.
INTERNATIONAL news
Costing the earth: Countries most exposed to climate change face higher costs of capital
That raises the v20‘s borrowing costs by about 10%, equivalent to an extra $4bn each year in interest
payments.
Companies may also be charged more for loans if they are perceived as more exposed to climate-related
risks. In a new paper, researchers at SOAS looked at the cost of corporate debt for more than 60,000 firms in
80 countries. A fifth of the companies, holding about 3% of the total debt, were in the countries most
vulnerable to climate change. They were charged interest rates on average 0.83 percentage points
higher—again roughly a 10% premium.
High interest rates largely reflect a greater risk of default. So credit-rating agencies are looking at climate
risks, too. Undiversified economies that are reliant on agriculture are particularly susceptible, says Marie
Diron of Moody‘s. In the 37 countries that the firm thinks are most vulnerable, farming accounts for 44% of
employment on average. (Together they have issued
$2.8trn of sovereign debt, about 4% of the world‘s total.) Those relying on tourism could also be in trouble.
And climate-exposed countries often have weak institutions, says Ms Diron. They struggle to plan for and
respond to disasters.
Some of the smaller vulnerable countries have been attempting to build climate resilience by pooling
insurance risk to make premiums more affordable. The first such attempt was the Caribbean Catastrophe
Risk Insurance Facility, which has paid out $139m since it was founded in 2007. The payouts help alleviate
cashflow problems after disasters, reassuring investors and credit-rating agencies. In the past five years
similar insurance schemes have popped up in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and the Pacific.
Others are seeking to reduce the interest-rate premium with ―blended finance‖, whereby multilateral
institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank bear part of the risk for mitigation and
climate-resilience projects. In April the v20 launched such a programme. Officials plan to apply to use
$500m from the un‘s Green Climate Fund in the v20. Such schemes will help, but only a bit. In truth,
climate-vulnerable countries can do little to offset the rise in the cost of capital.
[The Economist]
17/08/2019
How to prepare for rising sea-levels.
Credit: The Economist / Eyevine Credit: The Economist / Eye
Oceans: A world without beaches - one way or another the deluge is coming
Credit: The Economist / Eyevine
The ocean covers 70.8% of the Earth‘s surface. That share is creeping up. Averaged across the globe, sea levels are 20cm higher
today than they were before people began suffusing the atmosphere with greenhouse gases in the late 1800s. They are expected to rise
by a further half-metre or so in the next 80 years; in some places, they could go up by twice as much—and more when amplified by
storm surges like the one that Hurricane Sandy propelled into New York in 2012.
Coastal flood plains are expected to grow by 12-20%, or 70,000-100,000 square kilometres, this century. That area, roughly the size
of Austria or Maine, is home to masses of people and capital in booming sea-facing metropolises. One in seven of Earth‘s 7.5bn
people already lives less than ten metres above sea level; by 2050, 1.4bn will. Low-lying atolls like Kiribati may be permanently
submerged. Assets worth trillions of dollars—including China‘s vast manufacturing cluster in the Pearl river delta and innumerable
military bases—have been built in places that could often find themselves underwater.
The physics of the sea level is not mysterious. Seawater expands when heated and rises more when topped up by meltwater from
sweating glaciers and ice caps. True, scientists debate just how high the seas can rise and how quickly and politicians and economists
are at odds over how best to deal with the consequences—flooding, erosion, the poisoning of farmland by brine. Yet argument is no
excuse for inaction. The need to adapt to higher seas is now a fact of life.
Owing to the inexorable nature of sea-swelling, its effects will be felt even if carbon emissions fall. In 30 years the damage to coastal
cities could reach $1trn a year. By 2100, if the Paris agreement‘s preferred target to keep warming below 1.5°C relative to
preindustrial levels were met, sea levels would rise by 50cm from today, causing worldwide damage to property
equivalent to 1.8% of global gdp a year. Failure to enact meaningful emissions reductions would push the seas up by another
30-40cm, and cause extra damage worth 2.5% of gdp.
In theory minimising the damage should be simple:
construct the hardware (floodwalls), install the
software (governance and public awareness) and, when
all else fails, retreat out of harm’s way. This does not
happen. The menace falls beyond most people’s time
horizons. For investors and the firms they finance,
whose physical assets seldom last longer than 20 years,
that is probably inevitable— though even businesses
should acquaint themselves with their holdings’
nearer-term risks (which few in fact do). For local and
national governments, inaction is a dereliction of duty
to future generations. When they do recognise the
problem, they tend to favour multibillion-dollar
structures that take years to plan, longer to erect, and
often prove inadequate because the science and
warming have moved on.
As with all climate-related risks, governments and businesses have little incentive to work out how susceptible they are. Some highly
exposed firms are worried that, if they disclose their vulnerabilities, they will be punished by investors. Governments, notably
America‘s, make things worse by encouraging vulnerable households to stay in harm‘s way by offering cheap flood insurance. More
foolish still, some only reimburse rebuilding to old standards, not new flood-proof ones.
However, there are ways to hold back the deluge. Simple things include building codes that reserve ground levels of flood-prone
buildings for car parks and encourage ―wet-proofing‖ of walls and floors with tiles so as to limit the clean-up once floodwaters
recede. Mains water, which is desirable in its own right, may stop people without access to it from draining aquifers, which causes
land to subside; parts of Jakarta are sinking by 25cm a year, much faster than its sea is swelling. If more ambitious projects are needed
to protect dense urban centres, they ought to be built not for the likeliest scenario but for the worst case, and engineered to be capable
of being scaled up as needed. The New York region has funnelled $1bn out of a reconstruction budget of $60bn to such experiments
in Sandy‘s wake.
Authorities must also stop pretending that entire coastlines can be defended. Unless you are Monaco or Singapore, they cannot.
Elsewhere, people may need to move to higher ground. Bangladesh, for instance, is displacing 250,000 households.
All this requires co-ordination between different levels of government, individuals and companies, not least to prevent one man‘s
levee from diverting water to a defenceless neighbour. Market signals need strengthening. Credit-raters, lenders and insurers are only
beginning to take stock of climate risks. Making the disclosure of risks mandatory would hasten the process. And poor, vulnerable
places need support. Just $70bn a year of the $100bn in pledged climate aid to help them tackle the causes and impact of global
warming has materialised. Less than one-tenth of it goes to adaptation. This must change.
Open the floodgates
Actuaries calculate that governments investing $1 in climate resilience today will save $5 in losses tomorrow. That is a good return on
public investment. Rich countries would be foolhardy to forgo it, but can probably afford to. Many developing countries, by contrast,
cannot. All the while, the water is coming.
[The Economist]
16/08/2019
By Mike Schuler
Pirates kidnapped eight crew members from a German general cargo ship at the anchorage of the port of
Douala in Cameroon.
MarConsult Schiffahrt, the vessel‘s Hamburg-based owner, confirmed the incident in a statement posted to
its website. The company said its vessel Marmalaita was attacked Thursday, August 14, between 23.00h
and 24.00h local time at the Douala anchorage in Cameroon. Pirates boarded the ship and kidnapped 8 of
the vessel‘s 12 crewmembers.
―We have assembled our emergency response team and are doing utmost to deal with the
case, in cooperation with all relevant authorities and crew managers,‖ the statement said.
―Our thoughts reach out to the concerned families, and we will take all efforts to support and assist them
until their seafarers safely return back home. All respective authorities have been informed accordingly and
we will fully cooperate with them until the case is resolved,‖ the statement added.
Piracy Cameroon: Eight crew members kidnapped from German vessel at Douala anchorage
The 10,603 dwt Marmalaita is registered under the flag of convenience (FOC) of Antigua & Barbuda. AIS
ship tracking data shows the vessel arrived at the Douala anchorage on Wednesday.
[gCaptian / Equasis]
16/08/2019
By Sam Chambers
Lawyers are set to be one of the main early beneficiaries from the start of the global sulphur cap with Splash
receiving multiple reports from across the world of shipyards falling far behind in their scrubber retrofitting
schedules.
The retrofits have taken longer than anticipated with many owners and managers confiding that they have
experienced unforeseen technical glitches as they get their exhaust gas cleaning systems installed ahead of the
January 1 start of the sulphur cap.
―This is a relatively new technique, so it seems that the size of task was underestimated,‖ one
Singapore-based shipping consultant told Splash today. What was marketed as taking less
than a month off-hire is now regularly seeing ships in Chinese yards waiting for up to 60 days to get the new
funnel equipment installed.
In its latest weekly report Alphatanker, part of AXS Marine, noted: ―The past few weeks have seen a number of
tonnage owners release statements indicating that their scrubber retrofitting programs were falling behind
schedule. Notably, Diamond S Shipping has revealed that scrubbers on 3 of its Suezmaxes will not be fitted
until 1Q20, from the original estimate of 4Q19. Meanwhile a number of non-publicly listed companies have
revealed to Alphatanker that certain Chinese yards are running behind schedule due to the longer-than-expected
installation time of scrubbers.‖
With installations entering their peak phase for the coming three months, delays are expected to worsen. The
scrubber delays were predicted earlier this year by Greek brokers Intermodal who noted in a May report that
almost all the shipyards worldwide were close to their maximum capacity. Of concern for owners, Intermodal
warned some shipyards have committed to accept more scrubber retrofits than they can actually accommodate,
which will most probably result in greater delays.
Last month, Alfa Laval, one of the main scrubber manufacturers, predicted more than 5,000 ships would end up
going in for scrubber retrofits.
[Splash]
03/08/2019
16/08/2019
By Felicity Landon
Shipping emissions: Delays to scrubber retrofits mounting
Container shipping: What‟s in the box? Not necessarily what you think
Thousands of containers moving around the globe are declared harmless when they actually hold dangerous
cargoes.
What‘s the difference between calcium hypochlorite and ‗water purifying equipment‘? Or between
ammonium nitrate and ‗plant growth regulator‘? Nothing, most likely.
Misdeclaring dangerous cargoes appears to be something of an art for many shippers who are, it is assumed,
anxious to avoid the paperwork, restrictions, regulations and/or costs involved in shipping extremely
hazardous goods. The results can be devastating, as evidenced in an alarming number of container ship fires
– at sea and in port – that have been put down to mis-declared cargoes.
Shipping lines and other stakeholders are attempting to fight back. But while it would seem to be common
sense to take collective action on an issue that threatens safety, lives and
environmental damage, such an approach can be hampered by anti-trust and competition rules.
To put the issue into perspective, using its Cargo Patrol system, set up to scan bookings to detect undeclared
dangerous or suspicious items, Hapag-Lloyd identified 370,000 suspicious bookings in 2018. ―Of these, we
investigated 290,000 in depth and at the end of the day we had 4,000 bookings where we have proof that the
cargo was mis-declared, not declared or wrongly declared,‖ says Ken Rohlmann, the line‘s senior director,
dangerous goods.
That figure means far more than 4,000 containers, as one booking can be for multiple boxes. In the first
quarter of 2019, Hapag-Lloyd‘s investigations identified 900 such mis-declared bookings.
Cargo Patrol scans bookings for 7,000 key words and search terms that give reason for suspicion. ―There are
some chemicals or some chemical formulae or words where you could try to hide the real content of
container – which could be acid or explosive. Some people put the chemical formula and avoid the actual
word for the cargo they are carrying,‖ says Nils Haupt, Hapag-Lloyd senior director, corporate
communications. ―This has been going on for quite a while. There are really thousands of containers that are
mis-declared, either intentionally or by chance.‖
Hapag-Lloyd estimates that 0.06% of containers worldwide are carrying undeclared dangerous goods. ―If
you just look at Singapore, that would amount to 18,000 containers a year,‖ says Mr Haupt.
What happens when the system finds a rogue box or boxes? Mr Rohlmann says, ―We don‘t load them. If we
get an alert from the system, we put the container on hold. We contact the customer and ask why they didn‘t
declare the cargo.‖
But what happens next is hugely frustrating. The shipper can simply book the same ‗harmless‘
container with the next shipping line.
―We do report undeclared shipments that we find to the CINS (Cargo Incident Notification System),‖ he says.
―But unfortunately, we are not legally allowed to name and blame. We can only describe the cargo, port of
loading and planned port of discharge. At that state we don‘t necessarily have a container number and we are
not allowed to name the problem shipper.‖
This is down to multinational anti-trust restrictions, he explains: ―But if we have proof that someone has
cheated on us and is putting our people at risk and risking damage to the environment, we should be allowed
to talk about this.‖
Mistakes can be made, of course, but it‘s the deliberate cases that really scare him. ―They deliver manipulated
documents and manipulated safety data. This represents a risk for everyone dealing with the box – truckers,
inspection officers, those securing cargo, with all assuming it is a harmless cargo when it is toxic. If you don‘t
know what is in the box, it is a potential risk. For example, if there was a fire on the terminal, there are some
chemical
commodities for which contact with water is dangerous.‖
He would like to see structured industry cargo screening where all the lines exchange key words and data on
fraudulent shippers and are allowed to blacklist shippers that continuously make fraudulent bookings.
The TT Club has been working with ICHCA International, the Global Shippers‘ Forum, World Shipping
Council, CINS and others on a range of aspects around dangerous goods and declaration.
―Roughly two-thirds of cargo-related incidents relate to the poor packing process in its entirety, i.e. securing,
load distribution and declaration,‖ says TT Club risk management director Peregrine Storrs-Fox. ―We are
seeing cargoes of a much wider range being put into containers and higher volumes of cargo being loaded on
single ships, i.e. an adjacency risk. One package in one container can cause a hazard when it is next to a
number of other containers, whether in the ship‘s hold or awaiting/post shipment on the berth.‖
There are often commonalities to be found, of shippers who habitually get packing processes wrong or
declaring cargo incorrectly also being involved in customs fraud or other security- type issues, says Mr
Storrs-Fox. A big issue is insufficient enforcement by cash-strapped governments. Enforcement is difficult to
push up the agenda.
There is also a mismatch between transport modes: ―Those involved in maritime enforcement may not have
that much contact or leverage with those involved in road or rail enforcement. There are jurisdiction and
communication and the legal frameworks are not in place.‖ But above all, he says, the anti-trust issues restrict
lines‘ ability to share information. ―Shipping lines have reason to be concerned that they could fall foul of
commercial/anti-trust rules.‖
Shipping line A may have words with a shipper and decide not to carry a cargo but that shipment is almost
definitely still going to move, either with a competing carrier or even on one of line A‘s own ships because
the other carrier is in the same alliance.
As Mr Storrs-Fox points out, while a line gets as much information as it requires when dealing directly with
a shipper, it receives only minimal information when dealing with an alliance partner‘s cargo, to prevent it
from pinching cargo. Hence it can end up shipping the very container it rejected.
More than 130 people ended up in hospital after an explosion and fire onboard a containership in Laem
Chabang port in May, thought to have been caused by mis-declared cargoes of calcium hypochlorite and
chlorinated paraffin wax.
―This illustrates the risk that stevedores take these days. They are in a similar position to the partner line in
that they will have limited information around each container coming into the terminal,‖ says Mr Storrs-Fox.
―They will do what they can to put the container in the right part of the yard, connecting to power and/or
monitoring if needed, but unless they are told this, they will deal with it as a normal box. We have seen
explosions and fires related to the condition of the cargo at a number of terminals.‖
From his own calculations, he believes there are more than 150,000 containers a year that represent ‗ticking
time bombs‘ in the supply chain. Could something like Cargo Patrol be made standard across the industry?
The debate is fraught and full of complexity, he says. ―A shipping line will have anti-trust lawyers sitting on
their back saying they should not be talking about anything like this to their competitors.‖
[Port Strategy]
15/08/2019
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 down by 0.5% to $1,456.34 per 40ft container.
Two-year spot freight rate trend for the World Container Index:
Our detailed assessment for 15 Aug 2019
• The composite index decreased 0.5% this week and also 17.2% down as compared with same period of
2018.
• The average composite index of the WCI, assessed by Drewry for year-to-date, is US
$1,448 per 40ft container, which is $13 higher than the five-year average of $1,435 per 40ft container.
• Drewry‘s composite World Container Index (WCI) decreased 0.5% to $1,456.34 for a 40ft container.
Freight rates on Shanghai-Los Angeles dropped 12.4% or $206 to
$1,456 for a 40ft container. Similarly, rates on Shanghai-New York plummeted 5% or
$140 to reach $2,645 per feu. Conversely, freight rates on Shanghai-Genoa increased
$198 to $1,750 for a 40ft on the back of GRIs. Drewry expects the rates to stabilize next week.
Container shipping: World Container Index - 15 Aug 2019
Our latest freight rate assessments on eight major East-West trades:
Spot freight rates by route - assessed by Drewry
Source: Drewry Supply Chain Advisors
[Drewry]
15/08/2019
Midstream giant Kinder Morgan announced Thursday that it is investing $170 million in its Pasadena
Terminal, one of the biggest product storage facilities in Texas.
The 340-acre Pasadena Terminal sits on the busy Houston Ship Channel, the hub of Texas' oil refining and
petchem industry. Together with the nearby Galena Park terminal, the Pasadena
complex can store more than 40 million barrels of product, and it is connected to nearly three dozen inbound
and outbound pipelines. It has ten docks for barges and ships, and it can handle product tankers of up to
Panamax size.
Kinder Morgan says that the new investments will enable increased flow rates on inbound pipeline
connections and outbound dock lines, significantly reducing vessel load times and expanding the effective
dock capacity. Kinder Morgan is also expanding the Pasadena terminals MTBE handling capacity, including
a new dedicated cross-channel MTBE line serving vessel loading at the terminal's north docks.
Kinder Morgan is the largest independent terminal operator in the U.S., with interests in both liquid and dry
bulk cargo handling. It also operates 16 Jones Act vessels in U.S. coastwise trade.
[The Maritime Executive]
Oil shipping U.S.: Kinder Morgan invests $170 million in Houston Ship Channel terminal
15/08/2019
Gibraltar's Supreme Court has ordered the release of the Iranian-controlled tanker Grace 1, despite a
last-minute request from the United States to seize the ship.
British Royal Marines seized the VLCC Grace 1 on July 4 based on suspicions that the vessel was intending
to carry oil to Syria, a violation of EU sanctions on the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. An
investigation revealed that the ship's crew had plotted a full course to the oil port of Baniyas, Syria, according
to investigators. However, on Thursday Gibraltar's government said that it no longer wishes to detain the
vessel and has received a promise from Iran that the Grace 1 will not deliver her cargo to Syria.
"We have only released the vessel . . . when we have been convinced that the vessel is not now going to
Syria," Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo said in an interview with CNN Thursday.
The U.S. Justice Department asked Gibraltar to extend the Grace 1's seizure, but the request did not affect
Thursday's court decision. Picardo said that his administration is still looking at the U.S. request and could
act on it before the Grace 1 departs.
As of Thursday night, the tanker was still anchored off Gibraltar. Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian ambassador
to Britain, said in a social media post that preparations for her departure were under way.
Under the terms of its constitution, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar ultimately relies upon the
United Kingdom for decisions regarding its defense and foreign policy. In what was
widely viewed as a retaliatory measure for the seizure of the Grace 1, Iranian commandos captured the
British-flagged tanker Stena Impero on July 19. Despite repeated appeals by her Swedish owner, Stena Bulk,
the Stena Impero and her crew remain in detention at an anchorage off Bandar Abbas.
On Wednesday, Stena Bulk president and CEO Erik Hanell appealed to Indian prime minister Narendra
Modi for help in securing the release of the 18 Indian seafarers aboard the Stena Impero. India's foreign
ministry has asked the Iranian government to allow the crew to be repatriated, but without success. In a
statement, Stena Bulk said that Hanell has also made similar appeals to the leaders and foreign ministers of
Russia, Latvia and the Philippines to aid in the release of their citizen seafarers aboard the tanker. No British
nationals are among the Stena Impero's crew.
[The Maritime Executive] [The Maritime Executive]
15/08/2019
Russian giant Gazprom saw the highest production growth over the last five years, followed by shale gas
players in the US and China, while BP dominates among the majors, according to Rystad Energy. Onshore
resources – whether conventional or unconventional – are a major driver of growth.
Oil shipping: Gibraltar's Supreme Court allows seized Iranian tanker to depart
Oil & gas exploration: Gazprom leads oil and gas growth worldwide
Rystad Energy has analyzed the production of all global E&P companies and ranked them according to their
production growth from 2014 through 2018.
―Gazprom, the clear leader in production growth, is the only company with a total growth of more than 1
million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) over the last five years. The growth comes primarily from
conventional assets, with gas being the key contributor to the spectacular development,‖ says Espen
Erlingsen, head of upstream research at Rystad Energy.
Production growth is a key performance indicator for E&P companies. This metric is commonly used by
upstream players to demonstrate to investors that their portfolios are poised for growth as opposed to
stagnated production.
Runner-up to Gazprom is PetroChina, with a total growth of around 730,000 boepd, also driven by
conventional onshore gas production as well as splashes of shale gas growth. The third company to make the
podium is shale-focused EQT, the largest producer of natural gas in the US, boasting equity production
growth of close to 600,000 boepd, or 340% growth over the last five years.
―Behind the state behemoths in Russia and China, majors and shale companies are some of the
fastest-growing companies over the last five years. Rystad Energy expects this rise in output among the
majors and shale companies to continue,‖ Erlingsen said.
Among the majors, BP posted the largest production increase since 2014, seeing total production grow almost
500,000 boepd in the last five years. Much of the production uptick can be credited with the company‘s
operations in the Middle East, with significant production additions from the Rumaila field in Iraq, and in
North America, where shale and US deepwater are driving most of the changes.
Five of the majors – BP, Shell, Total, Chevron and Eni – have made Rystad Energy‘s list of the 15
fastest-growing E&P companies. Absent from the list are ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
Equity production is strong not only among the majors, but also among five companies that are primarily
focused on US shale and tight oil: EQT, Antero, EOG, Ascent Resources and Range Resources.
Our benchmark analysis evaluates the companies‘ total production growth for the five-year period, looking at
both organic growth (increased field-level production in assets the company already owns) and inorganic
growth (increased production due to mergers or acquisitions). All calculations have been made using each
company‘s equity, or working interest, across its upstream assets. National oil companies, defined as national
companies with activities only in their home country, are excluded.
[Rystad Energy]
15/08/2019
El Gobierno de Brasil recaudó un total de US$37,15 millones por la subasta de tres concesiones portuarias.
Se trata de dos en el puerto de Santos, en el estado de Sao Paulo (sureste), y una en el puerto de Paranaguá, en
el estado sureño de Paraná, según consignó Agencia Brasil.
La primera área en Santos fue cedida a Hidrovias do Brasil por US$28,14 millones. La empresa se adjudicó
el derecho de explorar durante 25 años tres almacenes interconectados por cintas transportadoras hasta el
muelle en un área total de 29,3 mil m2 para el manejo de sal y fertilizantes. Por esa concesión, el Gobierno
espera que el nuevo concesionario aporte inversiones por US$ 54,87 millones.
La disputa por dicha concesión fue dura. La oferta original de Hidrovias do Brasil había sido de US$16,26
millones, pero fue incrementada para competir con las nuevas ofertas de Aba Infraestrutura y del Consorcio
TRH.
Mientras que la segunda área en Santos fue adjudicada a Aba Infraestrutura por US$ 8,75 millones. A su vez
se presentó como competidor la Empresa Brasileira de Terminais, la que fue descalificada por tener otros
activos en la misma porción del puerto, por lo que la única oferta válida fue la de Aba.
Dicha área cuenta con 38.000 m2 y está destinada al transporte de productos químicos líquidos, etanol y
productos derivados del petróleo. El gobierno estima que las inversiones en la mejora de las instalaciones
sumarán US$27,69 millones.
En el caso del puerto de Paranaguá por US$250.000, Kablin se adjudicó un área de 27,5 mil m2 para el
transporte de cargas. Para dicha concesión, el gobierno proyecta inversiones por US$21,76 millones.
[MundoMaritimo]
15/08/2019
The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) will work with the Port of Montreal to support the development of the
planned C$750 million ($570 million) Contrecoeur terminal.
The Wednesday announcement solidifies the development of the project and promises funding, as an
acceleration of container volume growth within the last three years pushes the largest Eastern Canadian port
toward full capacity.
Through a partnership with the Montreal Port Authority, CIB — mandated to invest C$35 billion in federal
funding — will work on a financing structure for the project, which calls for the development of a 400-acre
site on which 3.5 million TEU in annual terminal capacity could be built. With container volume growth
Operadores de terminales Brasil: Gobierno adjudicó dos concesiones portuarias en Santos y otra en
Paranaguá
Terminal operators Canada: Infrastructure bank backs
Montreal‟s Contrecoeur container terminal project
having surged 9 percent last year and up nearly 6 percent year-to-date in 2019, according to port authority
figures, Montreal has sped up it timeline for the construction of the Contrecoeur terminal by a year, aiming to
finish by 2023.
The port‘s two container terminal operators — Montreal Gateway Terminals Partnership (MGTP) and
Termont Montréal Inc. — have both expressed interest in running Contrecoeur and are in discussion with the
Montreal Port Authority on running the new facility terminal independently or jointly, said Tony Boemi, vice
president of growth and development at the port authority. While it‘s rare globally that two operators jointly
run a single terminal, Boemi told JOC.com that MGTP and Termont both handle calls from the same
trans-Atlantic service, suggesting that a potential joint operation arrangement isn‘t so far afield.
The port ended last year with about 1.7 million TEU in annual container handling capacity, and the
completion of the second phase of the Viau terminal next year will add about 250,000 TEU of capacity,
bringing the port‘s total capacity to about 2.1 million TEU. The port is nearing insufficient capacity,
however, given that it handled 1.7 million TEU handled last year, but cargo flows are uneven, so nominal
capacity is flexible. Ports typically like to have a ―buffer zone‖ of 15 to 20 percent of capacity that is not
routinely used to enable it to cope with volume surges and operate efficiently.
Providing more short-term help, the Canadian government awarded the port C$18.5 million to help onboard
drayage drivers faster, speed truck turn times, and give operators a better sense of when marine terminal gates
will be busiest.
The Montreal expansion comes as several other proposals — among them the creation of a new container
terminal in the Port of Quebec and plans for two separate ports in Nova Scotia
— wait in the wings, although all three lack the key element of an ocean carrier committed to calling.
[JOC.com]
15/08/2019
By Sam Chambers
PSA International‘s latest investment is inland – at a river terminal in Bangkok. The Singapore terminal
operator has teamed up with Thailand‘s SCG Logistics Management to develop the Thai Prosperity Terminal
and rebrand it Thai Connectivity Terminal (TCT).
Sited along Thailand‘s Chao Phraya River in Bangkok and in close proximity to Bangkok‘s city centre and
industrial estates, TCT is a well-established river terminal in Thailand that directly serves the hinterland in
and around the capital city. TCT is also well connected to the deep- sea port at Laem Chabang, allowing it to
cater to the varied needs of local and regional cargo owners.
Ong Kim Pong, regional CEO Southeast Asia, PSA International, commented, ―Capitalising on TCT‘s
strategic location, PSA is committed to growing this critical node as part of our greater transport and cargo
solutions network, and to open up more avenues of opportunity for the movement of goods and materials
throughout the region.‖
[Splash]
Terminal operators Thailand: PSA International buys into Bangkok river terminal
Container port development U.S.: $870 million rail project at port of Long Beach
15/08/2019
Nebraska architecture and engineering firm HDR has been is to work on a $870m rail project at the
Californian port of Long Beach, which has the second-busiest container terminal in the U.S.
The development will allow the loading of shipping containers onto rail cars rather than trucks, reducing
traffic bottlenecks and eliminating thousands of truck trips. HDR will act as lead designer for the project, as
well as undertaking site investigations, traffic studies, programme sequencing and structural and lighting
analyses. Other companies involved include consulting engineer Moffatt & Nichol.
Mario Cordero, the port‘s executive director, said: ―This is visionary. The delivery of containers to and from
ships by train is the most sustainable and efficient way to move cargo in and out of the port. Each train
eliminates as many as 750 truck trips, speeding the flow of goods and cutting traffic on roadways.‖
[Global Construction Review]
15/08/2019
By Alex Hughes
There are many container ports in the Black Sea region and while few attract larger vessels, infrastructure
investment is continuing to compete for volumes.
Source: StockCargo
Investment in infrastructure continues, or is planned, throughout the Black Sea region, driven by a
combination of demand but also political will. However, it is not just for containers that facilities are
expanding, with grain also being catered for moving forward.
Istanbul is the major container port serving the Black Sea, handling 60% of all volumes, says Nishal
Sooredoo, analyst at Ocean Shipping Consultants. Constanta (a 12% share) and Novorossiysk (with 8%
share) are the two other main ones, with Poti, Odessa and Varna each making smaller contributions.
―Ports such as Novorossiysk, Odessa and Varna have built their businesses to serve local markets. For this
Container port development Black Sea: Ongoing investment in infrastructure
type of traffic, each port has a direct competitive advantage, since serving these markets from a foreign port
would involve additional administration for border crossing and less efficient inland connections to the end
destinations,‖ he says.
Nevertheless, other ports, such as Poti, have also partly developed demand on the back of transit cargo
(mainly to Azerbaijan). ―This is also the case for Constanta, which acts as the point of entry for transit cargo
by barge on the Danube River to Central European countries,‖ adds Mr Sooredoo.
Nevertheless, Istanbul remains the main transshipment port for the Black Sea region. This is largely because
of the physical limitation of the Bosphorus Strait, which doesn't allow the transit of ships larger than 10,000
TEU. As a result, Istanbul has developed into a transshipment point for large vessels coming from Asia and
North Europe, with 2,000 TEU feeders then serving ports inside the Black Sea.
Transshipment, however, remains volatile and highly price sensitive, driven by port tariffs. ―Shipping lines
often move volumes from one terminal or port to another, but these volumes do remain in the same region.
So, for the Black Sea region, for example, while transshipment
volumes could move between Constanta, Istanbul and Piraeus, they do nevertheless remain in the (East Med)
region,‖ says Mr Sooredoo.
There is lot of investment in the Black Sea region, such as the development of Anaklia and Poti in Georgia, as
well as expansion plans in both the Ukraine and Bulgaria. Some of this development is to provide much
needed additional capacity, but Georgia is a good example of a project driven by politics rather than
economics.
―There is a need for additional capacity in the country, but if Anaklia is built, the new development for Poti
would not be required. If Poti is expanded, there is no need for Anaklia. Currently, both developments are
being pushed but only one is really required,‖ he says, noting that there are already private operators in all
ports and there are not a lot of opportunities left for private investment left in this region (unless a new port
like Anaklia is built).
―The overall dynamic in the Black Sea region will not change significantly because all ports are now mainly
focusing on their captive market,‖ says Mr Sooredoo.
Although vessel sizes cannot exceed 10,000TEU, there is already one service from Asia with ships of that
size that makes weekly calls at Istanbul, Constanta and Odessa. Ports on the Eastern side (i.e. Georgian ports)
have draft restrictions and cannot take vessels of more than about 3,000 TEU. For this reason, the Georgian
government wants to build a new port at Anaklia. However, what remains is that it is the size of the local
market that determines the size of ships that come to ports.
Another factor impacting the container business in the Black Sea has been the war in eastern Ukraine, which
started in March 2014. Odessa was initially badly affected, seeing volumes drop by 26% between 2013 and
2015. Yet by 2017 these had recovered to pre-war levels and grew strongly by 15% in 2018, thanks in part to
the fragile cease fire holding.
Inland connections from ports in Bulgaria and Romania are generally good. Constanta, for example, benefits
from access to the Danube River, with barge connections to the rest of Europe and this has clearly helped it to
develop. In Georgia, connections are being upgraded to help with capturing more transit traffic to Azerbaijan
and beyond.
However, Mr Sooredoo notes that there are no real alternatives to using Russian ports for Russian cargo, so
this has not really impeded their development. ―In the case of Ukraine, the war has made it very difficult and
dangerous to serve landlocked regions like Belarus and Moldova via Ukrainian ports. The large drop in
volumes in 2014 and 2015 was partly attributed to these transit markets and this situation remains the case
now,‖ he says.
In August 2019, a radical shake up of the Black Sea container handling market is due to take place. This will
be the result of the inauguration of NUTEP's new deep water Berth 38, which will be able to receive 10,000
TEU vessels at its Novorossiysk terminal. The new 389-metre long berth, which will eventually absorb
investment of around $125 million, has water depth
alongside of 15 metres. In the short term, the largest vessels expected to berth there will be of 8,000 TEU,
later increasing to 10,000 TEU. This is a significant addition, since it is the first such deep water berth
available at any of Russia's southern ports. The berth area itself covers an area of 4ha and can store up to
3,080 TEU in the yard.
NUTEP Container Terminal, which is part of DeloPorts - the stevedoring arm of the Delo Group
- is also investing in associated storage facilities, totalling $10.76 million. This will add an extra 150,000TEU
per annum of storage capacity, although the full berth development will eventually double that, allowing
NUTEP to handle somewhere in the region of 700,000TEU per annum.
―The development of the terminal is being synchronised with the growth in cargo, so the second part of the
development programme may take several years to implement,‖ notes Chief Executive Officer of NUTEP
Container Terminal Yury Matvienko.
In terms of equipment, in April 2019 ZPMC delivered three ship-to-shore gantry cranes and a further four
RTGs. In addition to containers, DeloPorts is also a major grain handler. Indeed, its KSK grain terminal
handled 4.8 million tonnes in 2018, volumes rising by 14% compared to 2017. The company candidly
attributes rise this to a good harvest and strong demand.
As with all agribulk traffic, future predictions are hard to make, given so many factors influence demand.
Nevertheless, the company is working on expanding its grain throughput capacity at the KSK terminal to 6
million tonnes by 2021. ―Existing terminal capacity at the port is sufficient to absorb current annual increases
in traffic across both grain and containers. Furthermore, after the launch of berth 38 at NUTEP, our terminal
storage capacity will increase two-fold, depending on how we see traffic evolving,‖ says Mr Matvienko.
According to Mr Matvienko, on a geographic basis NUTEP has the most cost effective connections to both
highways and railways at the Port of Novorossiysk. Railway operations are undertaken at a dedicated
six-track fan, where a locomotive is permanently stationed to roster trains. As a result, the overall share of
freight transported by rail transport through NUTEP is growing annually.
[Port Strategy]
14/08/2019
By Sam Chambers
The board at Evergreen Marine, Taiwan‘s largest shipping line, has approved plans to bring in its largest
ships, orders that could see the Chang family-controlled line leapfrog Ocean Network Express (ONE) and
Hapag-Lloyd into fifth spot in the global liner rankings.
Container shipping: Evergreen commits to eleven new 23,000 teu ships
Evergreen said it is looking to add eleven 23,000 teu ships, five or six of which it will order and the remainder
will be chartered in. The company has set aside $1.76bn for this significant fleet addition.
The new ships will add to Evergreen‘s existing 1.3m teu fleet. No yards have yet been mentioned although
tradition would suggest Japan‘s Imabari is in poll for a good portion of the new tonnage.
As far as Evergreen‘s existing owned tonnage goes, its largest ships are in the 12,000 teu range, but it also has
a slew of much larger ships in the 20,000 teu bracket that have delivered in the last couple of years.
[Splash]
20/06/2019
14/08/2019
Danish ferry operator Scandlines announced Wednesday that it will be installing a rotor sail on the hybrid
ferry Copenhagen, putting the vessel among the ranks of the lowest-emission passenger ships in the Baltic.
Illustration of the planned rotor sail aboard the Copenhagen. Source: Scandlines
The competition in this category is fierce. New "green" ferries in the region include the Color Hybrid, the
world's biggest plug-in hybrid ferry, and the powerful all-electric car ferry Ellen, which has the largest
battery pack installed on any vessel today. The Copenhagen's new upper-deck rotor sail will complement the
efficency of her hybrid drive system, and the novel structure will set her appearance apart from the crowd.
Norsepower Oy will supply Scandlines with its modernized version of the Flettner rotor – a spinning cylinder
that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power and generate thrust. Norsepower says that its design is the
first verified and commercially operational auxiliary wind propulsion technology for the maritime industry
(though the similar ECO FLETTNER rotor
may soon enter the market). The installation aboard the Copenhagen will be Norsepower's fourth.
The Flettner rotor doesn't generate enough thrust to move the ship on its own, but it provides a boost to
supplement the ship's engines. When wind conditions are favorable, it lets the bridge team throttle back while
maintaining the same speed, saving fuel. Its utility for a particular application varies by vessel type and by the
prevailing winds on the vessel's route. Air draft and deck layout are also considerations for some
installations.
Propulsion: Scandlines to install Flettner rotor on hybrid ferry
The Copenhagen operates on a north-south route between Gedser, Denmark and Rostock, Germany. This
route is almost perpendicular to the prevailing wind from the west, giving Scandlines favorable conditions
for using rotor sails on the ferry crossing. ―By installing a rotor sail, we can reduce CO2 emissions on the
Rostock-Gedser route by four to five per cent,‖ said Scandlines CEO Søren Poulsgaard Jensen.
NABU, the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, said that Scandline's decision to install a
rotor sail sets an example that other companies should follow. "With rotors besides hybrid drives, the
company sets new standards in terms of integrating different technical solutions to mitigate especially
climate and air pollution emissions," said NABU head of environmental policy Malte Siegert.
[Maritime Executive]
14/08/2019
By Peregrine Storrs-Fox
TT Club continually seeks to understand the risks faced in the transport and logistics industry, providing
relevant and targeted loss prevention advice to operators as appropriate. This article focuses on the findings
of recent analysis into the risks faced by container terminals.
TT Club provides insurance to port authorities, terminals and stevedores in almost half of the world‘s top 100
ports globally. As a result, it is well placed to analyse incident data, providing commentary and advice on
trends and loss prevention actions.
This particular analysis focuses on the top 10 risks in container terminals, based on experience over the
period 2014 to 2018. The analysis of these top 10 risks account for 78% of the cost of container terminal
insurance claims, covering both assets and liabilities. It is sobering that many incidents are preventable with
better training, systems and procedures and/or technologies.
This article looks at each risk in descending value order.
Top 10 risks categories by insurance claim cost for container terminal operators
Terminal operators: Review of top 10 risks for container terminals
# 1 risk - incidents related to quay cranes
Inevitably, in container operations, the crane that is usually positioned near the edge of the quay is both a key
asset and hugely vulnerable. It has remained for a number of years the single most costly insurance claim,
with all-too-frequent incidents involving boom collisions, gantry collisions or stack collisions. Due to their
importance it may be surprising that currently economically viable technologies are not more widely
adopted. Such incident experience has educated TT Club‘s joint initiative with ICHCA and PEMA to
develop the Recommended Minimum Safety Specifications for Quay Container Cranes.
# 2 risk - rain & flood damage
It may be difficult to avoid the path of a storm, but much can be done to mitigate the potential and resultant
damage. While it is critical to secure and tie assets, such as cranes, or revise container stacks in the yard, a
key risk remains storm surge and floods in general. Marine terminals are necessarily low-lying, so
positioning more valuable equipment or goods to higher ground mitigates the risks. Further guidance in
relation to storm risks can be found in TT Club‘s handbook, produced with ICHCA, Windstorm II: Practical
risk management guidance for marine & inland terminals.
# 3 risk - straddle carriers
Manual straddle collisions and overturns, besides causing damage, usually result in serious bodily injuries.
Like most incidents, these are commonly due to human error. While these are
top-heavy items, with inevitable blind-spots, there are monitoring technologies available to ensure
mechanical performance and also support user behaviour and training.
# 4 risk - lift trucks
This classification includes fork lifts, empty handlers, top picks, side picks, reach stackers etc. While risks
are various, one that stands out is injuries to pedestrians. Keeping people away from machines is a simple
mantra; where unavoidable procedures and technologies need to protect those at risk.
# 5 risk - truck and vehicles
Other smaller vehicles, including internal transfer vehicles, third party trucks and all other vehicle on the
terminal require good traffic management procedures and enforcement. Collisions and overturns remain all
too common.
# 6 risk - ship in port
While a most welcome visitor to a port, ships are sadly prone to collide with the berth and on many occasions
the crane as well. This has happened at least twice in the last month! The terminal may have little control,
although clear procedures and communications between all stakeholders (ship, port, terminal, pilot, tug etc)
may reduce the likelihood of such incidents.
# 7 risk - yard crane
The main risk with yard cranes is stack collisions – the spreader or a container under the spreader colliding
with another container in the stack. This can result in stack collapses causing crane, container and cargo
damage. However, the greatest concern is the injuries often resulting when a container falls on a waiting
truck. The analysis indicates that the introduction of technologies associated with automated stacking cranes
may prevent such incidents; the same technology can also be installed on manual yard cranes.
# 8 risk – fire
Fires can be devastating and have various causes. Notably, some 44% of the fire cost in container terminals
arises amongst lift trucks; these need detection and suppression systems in the engine compartments, as well
as assiduous attention to proper maintenance (see TT Club‘s The Importance of Maintenance - a handbook
for non-engineers). Cargo related fires may be difficult to prevent on the limited information commonly
available, but careful fire- fighting is critical in minimising the potential damage.
# 9 risk – theft
TT Club and BSI recently published their annual theft report; while generic, this highlighted
the ‗insider‘ risk, which is particularly prevalent in the terminal environment. Furthermore, the
Club has previously highlighted the increasing use of cybercrime to aid physical theft. Physical and system
security is clearly paramount, alongside continuing awareness training and thorough checks for those
allowed on site.
# 10 risk - bad handling
Cargo in the custody of the terminal may become damaged – such as an overturn where out of gauge cargo is
moved without use of the requisite low loader. However, terminals also need to maintain robust records in
order to defend claims that may be asserted erroneously for which evidence of condition at entry and exit is
required.
Inevitably there are occasions where incidents are fortuitous and unavoidable – and that is the key reason for
buying insurance. However, TT Club continues to focus its attention with individual facilities and across the
membership on ways to improve safety and strengthen risk management practices. It saves lives and
improves operational profitability.
[TT Club]
13/08/2019
Cosco, the operator of Piraeus port, plans to build a $200m fourth terminal at Greece‘s leading
port.
A new port masterplan will be submitted for approval next week, including the blueprint for the new 2.8m teu
facility at the Mediterranean‘s fastest growing boxport. The new terminal would give Piraeus an annual
capacity of more than 10m teu.
Container traffic at Piraeus port reached 4.9m teu in 2018, 18.4 percent higher than the previous year. In
2019, traffic is estimated to rise to 5.5m teu.
The master plan will be submitted to the Port Design and Development Committee, a body made up of
high-ranking official from several ministries. This is the same committee that had rejected a large part of
Terminal operators Greece: Cosco plans fourth terminal at Piraeus
Cosco‘s investment plans, ostensibly for environmental and archaeological reasons, but really because the
government wanted to protect several groups opposed to Cosco‘s expansion.
These include shopkeepers opposed to Cosco‘s building a shopping center at the cruise liner terminal and
private individuals and associations that want to develop city properties and who are opposed to Cosco plans
to build four hotels in the port. There has also been opposition from logistics operators to Cosco building
warehouses.
[ekathimerini.com]
13/082019
Trelleborg‘s marine and infrastructure operation has been awarded a contract to install its rope-free
automated mooring system, AutoMoor, at the Old City Harbor at the Port of Tallinn, which is the biggest
harbor in Estonia and one of the busiest passenger harbors in the world.
Credit: Trelleborg
In first quarter of 2020, Trelleborg will install six units of its AutoMoor T40 Twin Arm at the Old City
Harbor‘s Berth 13 cruise ferry wharf to facilitate faster berthing processes and improve safety levels within
the port environment. Using vacuum technology to rapidly attach to and secure a vessel at berth, AutoMoor
reduces vessel motions and continuously monitors all mooring loads acting on the vessel at berth. This
provides live data to the operator to optimize day-to-day port and terminal operations. It also minimizes
personnel involvement to reduce human error and improve safety.
Trelleborg‘s AutoMoor T40 Twin Arm has two mooring arms that can operate in synch or independently to
provide flexible mooring of vessels with varying hull profiles, enabling ports to accept a greater range of
vessel types. The AutoMoor T40 Twin Arm also has a compact footprint allowing for installation in limited
spaces including between gantry rails and the wharf edge.
AutoMoor will be installed as part of the TWIN-PORT 3 project and are being co-financed by the EU
Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a collaboration between Tallink, Viking Line and Eckerö Line, the ports
of Tallinn and Helsinki and the City of Helsinki. As part of the project‘s total budget of 61.2 million EUR, the
Port development Estonia: Trelleborg to install automatic mooring system at the Port of Tallinn
Port of Tallinn is investing a total of $17.2 million.
[MarineLink]
17/10/2018
By Jack Wittels, Bloomberg
13/082019
The Port of Montreal will benefit from a Can$37-million investment in the name of increasing efficiency,
capacity and security, with the promise of reducing wait times and bottlenecks when moving containers.
The investment will be equally split between the port and federal government. Government funding will be
invested into projects including an IT system that will allow drivers to pre- register for port terminals;
building a railway bridge outside the truck entrance in the name of improving truck traffic; deploying
electronic signs that provide real-time traffic information for truck drivers; and establishing an intelligent
communications network to reduce truck traffic around the port.
―Close to 1.7 million containers transited through the port‘s container terminals in 2018, an increase of 9%
compared to 2017,‖ said Patrick Turcotte, a member of the Canadian Trucking Alliance board and recent past
chairman of the Quebec Trucking Association.
―Today‘s investment will ensure that our vehicles operating in the Port of Montreal are maximizing their
allowable driving hours in a productive way,‖ he said. ―An efficient port process could lead to greater
economic growth in the area and perhaps less trucks needed to serve the Port despite economic expansion,
which is a win for the industry, the economy and the environment.‖
[Truck News]
13/08/2019
El Gobierno de Argentina propone construir un canal navegable entre Córdoba y Bahía Blanca, se trata de un
proyecto que cuenta con una serie de estudios que fueron financiados por el Gobierno de Holanda.
De esa forma, la iniciativa se inicia en río Segundo, más precisamente en Arroyito, con la construcción de un
canal de 635 kilómetros que finaliza en Catriló (La Pampa).En esa localidad se piensa desarrollar un nodo
intermodal o puerto seco donde las cargas que arriben a bordo de barcazas serán embarcadas en trenes hasta
el puerto de Bahía Blanca, unos 300 kilómetros al sur.
Respecto a sus características, el canal tendrá un ancho de fondo de 23 metros, una profundidad mínima de 4
metros y una máxima de 5, permitiendo la circulación de convoyes de dos barcazas con un remolcador, uno
en cada sentido, siendo esto equivalente a 2.260 toneladas de porte neto por convoy.
De esa forma, cada barcaza tendrá unos 52 metros de largo por 8 de ancho y podrá transportar una carga
equivalente a la de 42 camiones, según informó La Nueva.
Port development Canada: Can$37 million upgrade of Montreal
Transporte fluvial Argentina: Argentina: Proponen construir canal navegable entre Córdoba y Bahía
Blanca
Esta iniciativa será abordada este 14 de agosto, en un seminario denominado ―Canal Continental: una
estrategia de desarrollo para la Argentina‖, que se efectuará en el Puerto de Bahía Blanca y que será liderado
por el secretario de Infraestructura y Política Hídrica de la Nación, Pablo Bereciartua.
En la actividad se tratará el proyecto y se analizará la visión 2040 del Puerto en relación con la hidrovía
continental.
Obras complementarias
Según el gobierno nacional la primera etapa entre Córdoba y Catriló puede ser llevada adelante en tres o
cuatro años, lo que ya alcanzaría para despachar parte de la producción por una vía navegable alternativa al
Paraná.
También se construirán dos reservorios de llanura para acumular los excesos de agua y generar riego.
En la traza del canal se previeron dos obras de toma: una sobre el río Segundo (Arroyito, Córdoba) y otra
sobre el Tercero (Bell Ville, Córdoba). También incluye dos puentes canal sobre río Tercero y sobre el río
Cuarto (La Carlota, Córdoba), tres puentes internos, en Arroyito (Córdoba), Realicó y Catriló (La Pampa).
Incluso trascendió que se deberán realizar obras debido a las interferencias viales y ferroviarias (18 puentes
de ferrocarril, 28 con rutas provinciales y nacionales y 112 caminos terciarios), mientras que en el trazado se
cruzan dos gasoductos, dos poliductos y ocho líneas de alta tensión.
Monto de inversión
El secretario de Infraestructura y Política Hídrica del Gobierno de Argentina, Pablo Bereciartua señaló el año
pasado que las obras demandarían una inversión de US$3.000 millones, es decir, la mitad del impacto directo
que tuvo la sequía años atrás.
Además de abrir un nuevo canal logístico, esta hidrovía continental tiene como principal objetivo ―disminuir
la vulnerabilidad del centro del territorio argentino al cambio climático‖. La región Centro tiene un
problema: en el norte de la provincia de San Fe llueve demasiado y en el oeste de la provincia de Santa Fe
llueve demasiado.
En ese sentido, con la hidrovía se ―crean mecanismos que asistan en la regulación de las
consecuencias de la variabilidad y los extremos climáticos‖.
Para evitar las inundaciones de una rica zona se pensó en una traza norte-sur que corte la escorrentía oeste–
este y el canal no tendrá esclusas, sino que su traza iría por la cota de 135 metros sobre el nivel del mar, de
forma de abaratar costos de construcción y mantenimiento.
Cabe señalar que la problemática hídrica de la zona central de la Argentina, con precipitaciones medias
anuales en el rango aproximado de 600 a 900 mm, muestra un comportamiento heterogéneo y discontinuo,
agudizado por el cambio climático.
Volumen de agua
A su vez, el canal tendrá un volumen de agua de 34,98 hm3 a nivel mínimo y 75,58 hm3 a nivel máximo, lo
que constituye un volumen de regulación de 40,60 hm3. Aún más mediante la sistematización de bajos
interconectados cuenta con un volumen efectivo de regulación de 2100 hm3.De esta forma es posible drenar
171.000 hectáreas de forma directa beneficiando
950.00
hectáreas de manera indirecta, mientras que el beneficio económico se encontraría entre 160 y 790 millones
de dólares por campaña.
[MundoMaritimo]
13/08/2019
By Meilan Solly
The so-called Panama disease targets bananas‘ vascular systems to prevent fruit from growing.
Since the 1990s, a fungus called Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), or the Panama disease, has devastated
banana plants across Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East, inflicting millions of dollars in damages
and threatening the welfare of nations where the fruit serves as a key source of nutrition.
Until recently, TR4 had never been detected in the Americas, but as the Colombian Agricultural Institute
(ICA) announced during an August 8 press conference, the deadly fungus has finally reached South
American shores.
Per an ICA statement, laboratory tests revealed TR4‘s presence in a 175-hectare area of Colombia‘s Guajira
Peninsula. Although authorities have since cleared 168.5 of these affected hectares, the state-run agency has
declared a national emergency in hopes of expediting containment efforts.
As Sabine Galvis reports for Science magazine, ICA will take preventative measures including upping
sanitary control at ports, airports and border entry points; increasing funding for small-
and medium-size banana exporters working to introduce biosecurity measures such as disinfecting
machinery, shipping containers and shoes; and closely monitoring the situation through surveillance flights
and on-the-ground inspections.
It remains to be seen whether these steps will be enough to stop TR4, a fungus that targets bananas‘ vascular
systems to stop the plants from bearing fruit. According to Science magazine‘s Erik Stokstad, TR4 spores
persist in surrounding soil for decades on end, making it impossible to contain the fungus without destroying
all infected plants, removing the farm from production, and blocking spores‘ escape via runoff. To date, no
known fungicides or biocontrol measures have proven effective against TR4.
―As far as I know, ICA and the farms are doing a good job in terms of containment, but eradication is almost
impossible,‖ Fernando García-Bastidas, a Colombian phytopathologist who organized the laboratory
analysis, tells National Geographic‘s Myles Karp.
Fruit shipping: A banana-destroying fungus has arrived in the Americas
Gert Kema, a phytopathologist at the Netherlands‘ Wageningen University, adds, ―Once you see [TR4], it is
too late, and it has likely already spread outside that zone without recognition.‖
Karp writes that the fungus‘ arrival in South America could prove devastating to the banana- reliant region,
which houses four of the world‘s top five banana exporters and all ten of the United States‘ top exporters. In
addition to wreaking financial havoc, TR4 may spell disaster for the millions of Latin America, Africa and
Asia residents who rely on bananas as a primary food source. (U.S. consumers will likely experience rising
prices and lower stock, but as Karp notes, ―They‘ll survive.‖)
Scientists have long feared TR4‘s introduction into the Americas. Still, Stuart Thompson explains for the
Conversation, the infectious outbreak is not wholly unprecedented: During the mid-20th century, a related
strain of Fusarium wilt destroyed plantations across Latin America, paving the way for a shift from the
predominant ―Gros Michel‖ banana variety to the ―Cavendish‖ version commonly seen today.
Cavendish bananas—currently constituting 99 percent of exported bananas and almost half of total
worldwide production—are largely immune to this earlier form of Panama disease. TR4, however, impacts
not only Gros Michel bananas, but the Cavendish and up to 80 percent of other cultivated varieties.
As National Geographic‘s Karp reports, no new banana variety is equipped to replace the Cavendish
similarly to how the now-dominant strain replaced the Gros Michel. Although sientists have experimented
with TR4-resistant versions and genetically modified Cavendish bananas, the public has been reluctant to
embrace these alternatives.
―I‘m not saying we have a standby Cavendish to replace the current Cavendish, but there are other varieties
with other colors, and other shapes, and other yields, which will survive TR4,‖ Rony Swennen, a researcher
at Belgium‘s University of Leuven who oversees a collection of
more than 1,500 banana varieties, concludes to Karp. ―The question is, will the industry accept it, and are the
customers ready to change to another taste?‖
[Smithsonian.com]
13/08/2019
By Liz Lee
Malaysia on Tuesday said the Johor Port Authority was working to develop a 2 billion ringgit ($477 million)
oil storage and ship refueling site in the country‘s south.
That marks the latest step in a push to turn Malaysia‘s southern peninsular state of Johor into an oil and gas
hub that could one day rival Singapore, currently Asia‘s main oil centre. The ―Bunker Island Development‖
is set to have the capacity to store about 1.2 million cubic metres of various oil and gas products, the transport
ministry said. It will be used for storage, blending and redistribution.
Bunkering Malaysia: Johor Port Authority to develop $480 million oil storage and bunkering facility
The ministry added that the project would also be used to promote cleaner marine fuel in accordance with
International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules that will require lower sulphur content in shipping fuel
from 2020.
Johor is where state energy firm Petronas has begun operating its oil refinery and petrochemical project
known as Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PrefChem). The transport ministry said in its statement
that Johor Port Authority had signed a sublease agreement with Smart Crest Sdn Bhd, which is funding the
development.
[Reuters]
13/082019
By Terje Solsvik and Victoria Klesty
Commodities trader Trafigura is joining forces with shipping firms Frontline and Golden Ocean to supply
marine fuel ahead of a shakeup in regulation which could disrupt delivery and cause prices to spike.
The three companies said on Tuesday the joint venture is expected to start operating in the third quarter,
subject to agreement on final terms.
From Jan. 1, International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules will bar ships from using marine, or bunker,
fuel with a sulphur content above 0.50% and instead will require them to run on compliant diesel or very
low-sulphur fuel oil. The shift will be seismic for the oil industry, affecting the entire chain from refiners to
oil producers as light, sweet crude will be favored over sour grades that contain more sulphur.
Frontline and Golden Ocean will acquire 15% and 10% interests in the joint venture respectively, while
commodity trader Trafigura will contribute its existing physical bunkering activities and own the remaining
75%. The Geneva-based trading firm is already the largest bunker fuel supplier in Africa, providing more
than 1 million tons per year.
Vessels with exhaust cleaning systems, known as scrubbers, can continue to use high-sulphur fuels, but
logistics become more complex when multiple bunker standards co-exist, shipping companies say.
Major trading firms have looked at ways to cash in by adding scrubber-fitted vessels to their fleets or by
expanding their fuel oil desks. Trafigura has already invested in 35 scrubber-fitted vessels that started being
delivered this year, while Geneva-based competitor Mercuria Energy Group acquired bankrupt Aegean
Marine Petroleum Network, a marine fuel logistics firm, in preparation for the IMO change.
Dry bulk operator Golden Ocean and oil tanker firm Frontline are both controlled by Hemen Holding, the
investment vehicle of Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen. While many Fredriksen ships have
installed scrubbers, the majority of his fleet of more than 200 ships will need the scarcer compliant fuels.
"Our participation in the joint venture will ensure our ability to source and acquire marine fuels at
competitive prices on a continuous basis," the two shipping firms said. While the deal aims to secure
compliant fuels for the whole Fredriksen system, the shipping companies also clearly see a business
opportunity from the joint venture, said Pareto Securities analyst Wilhelm Flinder.
Bunkering: Trafigura in ship fuel venture with Frontline and Golden Ocean
[Reuters]
13/08/2019
The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has changed plans for the retro-fitting scrubbers on its ships in order
to comply with an impending IMO rule, which aims to reduce emissions from ships. It will now use low
sulphur fuel oil instead of installing exhaust gas cleaning systems or scrubbers from 1 January 2020.
SCI chairman and managing director Anoop Kumar Sharma said: ―We are not putting in any scrubbers
whatsoever. In the beginning, we were thinking of installing scrubbers on our VLCCs and Suezmaxes, but
then, the more we studied, we realised that we will not have a pay-back period. So, we will go for the low
sulphur fuel. As of now, we are buying high sulphur fuel, but come October, we‘ll start buying low sulphur
fuel.‖
Under impending IMO rules, ships will have to use fuel with a maximum 0.5% sulphur content, down from
the current 3.5%. The sulphur content cap can be met by using low-sulphur compliant fuel oil or equipping
ships with scrubbers to remove the sulphur from the vessel‘s emissions.
India‘s biggest ocean carrier decided to change its earlier plan of fitting scrubbers on its bigger ships due to
the narrowing price difference between low sulphur and high sulphur bunker fuel. In recent months, the price
difference has fallen from nearly $300 a tonne to $60.
SCI decided to change course after conducting an in-depth study. It is estimated that installing a scrubber
would have cost the Indian shipping company between $3m to $5m per ship. It operates a fleet of 63 ships.
[Ship Technology]
13/08/2019
The global market for floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) is headed for a major
renaissance with as many as 24 FPSO awards expected by 2020, driven to a great degree by Brazil.
South America leads the pack with 12 sanctioned FPSO projects planned by the end of next year, followed by
Asia with four, Europe and Africa with three each, and two more in Australia, according to Rystad Energy.
Brazil – currently witnessing an influx of international E&P companies – is set to award seven more FPSO
awards in 2020, thereby bringing the country‘s tally to more than one-third of the awards anticipated globally
in 2019 and 2020.
The seven projects already confirmed this year collectively represent production capacities of over 700,000
barrels per day of oil and around 60 million cubic meters per day of gas.
Shipping emissions: Shipping Corporation of India to use low sulphur fuel oil instead of installing
scrubbers
Oil & gas exploration: FPSO market is booming with Brazil fueling demand
―The ongoing upswing in newly sanctioned FPSO projects points to a brighter future for the FPSO market.
Offshore operators are finding their footing again after the downturn of 2014, as a robust rise in free cash
flow has fueled a significant uptick in deepwater investments,‖ says Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield
services research at Rystad Energy.
The FPSO boom in South America is mainly the result of large investments in deepwater exploration and
field development. Another important factor has been Brazil‘s recent relaxation of local content regulations,
which has attracted new international players to the table.
―Brazil‘s greater competitiveness on a global scale is a driver behind such huge FPSO awards, along with the
region‘s recovery from the Car Wash corruption scandal, Petrobras‘ debt reduction, substantial pre-salt
discoveries and healthier oil prices,‖ Martinsen noted. ―These positive factors also add greater certainty to
project timelines, and we no longer believe Petrobras‘ developments will be subject to lengthy delays.‖
FPSOs, traditionally used by oil companies for large-scale deepwater projects, are increasingly favored for a
wide range of fields in more shallow waters. FPSO projects are in many cases more practical than alternative
platform solutions, primarily due to the installation costs and decommissioning challenges associated with
fixed platforms. The built-in storage capacity of FPSOs has also proven to be especially advantageous for
remote offshore locations, where pipeline infrastructure is not economically feasible.
―With improved economic viability resulting from ongoing standardization measures, coupled with growing
deepwater investments, FPSOs are likely to continue to emerge as an attractive development option for many
fields in all corners of the world, in both deep and shallow water,‖ Martinsen added.‖
The FPSO contractors Yinson and Modec are particularly well-positioned to benefit from this
upswing through the next wave of contract awards, according to Rystad Energy‘s projections. [Rystad
Energy]
13/08/2019
Baltic Exchange starts tracking shipping emissions
Oil shipping: World‟s biggest oil tanker sails for fuel-storage zone
By Jack Wittels and Timothy Abington
The world‘s biggest oil tanker has begun a 12,400-mile voyage to a fuel-storage zone in Asia, the latest
movement of a vessel that‘s intrigued the shipping market and fuel traders for months.
More than 1,200 feet long, 16 years old, and able to hold roughly a day of France‘s and Britain‘s combined oil
consumption, Oceania will arrive at Sungai Linggi in Malaysia at the end of September, according to recent
signals from the vessel. Its depth in the water and previous movements indicate the so-called ultra-large crude
carrier, owned by Antwerp-based Euronav NV, has cargo on board.
Oceania, currently sailing past West Africa, has been accumulating cargoes in the Mediterranean Sea since
about March. Euronav‘s original plan was to use a supertanker to store fuel to help its fleet meet rules known
as IMO 2020, which will force merchant ships to cut sulfur emissions. The company has declined to comment
further on the matter multiple times. The vessel is Oceania, according to tanker-tracking data from Vortexa.
When the ship arrives in East Asia, it will join an armada of carriers also storing products that will meet the
regulations.
―This is unusual and certainly an interesting way of dealing with the IMO 2020 story,‖ said Eirik Haavaldsen,
a shipping analyst at Pareto Securities AS in Oslo. ―It is not without risk. But it‘s interesting, and it‘s also a bit
more sophisticated than the rest of the shipping companies.‖
IMO 2020 strategy
It‘s hard to gauge Euronav‘s exposure to price fluctuations since the company may have locked in future
prices for the fuel, Haavaldsen said. The tanker owner said during an earnings call last week that it has
borrowed an additional $100 million in relation to its IMO 2020 fueling strategy, adding that there would be
a further briefing on Sept. 5.
Starting in January, the vast majority of ships will have to consume fuel containing less sulfur under the rules
mandated by the International Maritime Organization in London.
IMO-compliant fuels will probably cost significantly more than the type that ships mostly use today,
prompting some owners to invest billions of dollars in equipment allowing them to keep burning the current
product. A majority though -- including Euronav -- have opted to switch to low-sulfur fuels.
The new rules will require vessels to limit sulfur content to 0.5%, down from 3.5% in most parts of the world
today. The pollutant is blamed for causing acid rain and contributing to human health conditions such as
asthma and even lung cancer.
Fuel storage
By storing compliant fuel on its giant ship, Euronav could be able to ensure its own requirements are covered
when the new rules kick in. Alongside its sister ship, the Europe -- currently off the coast of Malaysia --
Oceania has a bigger cargo capacity than any other vessel in the world, IHS Maritime data compiled by
Bloomberg show.
Some of the world‘s top trading houses earlier this year began to gather a fleet of tankers in southeast Asia to
receive, store and resell millions of barrels of products such as low-sulfur fuel oil, diesel and light-cycle oil in
what would effectively be a mini supply-and-distribution hub out at sea.
More conventional sea-storage trades normally happen when oil markets are weak, driving down immediate
prices below future ones. When that price gap grows so wide that it exceeds the cost of hiring a tanker, traders
can park cargoes at sea and sell them later at fixed profit.
It‘s harder to say how easily Euronav would be able to lock in any profit on Oceania because the exact
specification of fuel on board remains unclear. Not everything on Oceania is an oil product, either. The most
recent cargo loaded onto the ship was low-sulfur crude from a field in the North Sea. It‘s unclear how that fits
in with the fuel the vessel previously loaded.
―With this IMO stuff everyone is going into uncharted territory, and I mean everyone,‖ said
Steve Sawyer, director of refining at Facts Global Energy.
[Bloomberg]
13/08/2019
By Anna Shiryaevskaya and Naureen S. Malik
Liquefied natural gas tankers are taking longer-than-usual journeys to deliver cargoes and spending more
time idling at sea in a sign some traders are starting to use vessels for storage.
There may be other reasons for keeping the cargoes on the water, including logistical or weather issues, such
as a monsoon in India. But with spot prices near their lowest since April 2016, sellers may be betting that they
will rise as the northern hemisphere heating season approaches.
―It is saying one thing for sure: people are not too worried about shipping length,‖ said Jean- Christian Heintz,
head of LNG broking at SCB Brokers SA in Nyon, Switzerland. ―Whether they are waiting for a logistical or
trading or pricing issue they do not worry about the time they spend at sea, meaning that there is no hurry in
going back and loading the next cargo.‖
The use of floating storage this long before the heating season is unusual because of the costs of keeping
natural gas in its liquid form and indicates how trading in LNG, the fastest- expanding fossil fuel commodity,
is becoming more like the bigger crude oil market. It is also partly thanks to the shale boom that transformed
the U.S. into the third-largest exporter, increased spot trading, linked prices increasingly to gas hubs rather
than oil and spurred a global drive for more flexible contracts.
LNG tanker owners GasLog Ltd. and Flex LNG have said that they are seeing increased inquiries from
traders to use ships as floating storage. That will likely intensify in September and beyond to hold fuel before
the heating season officially begins in October.
Gas shipping: Idling LNG tankers hint at increasing appeal of floating storage
―Does it make sense to float from the end of August to the end of September?‖ Heintz said. ―We haven‘t seen
that happen too often. That would be also interesting to see if we see cargoes floating for more than one
month.‖
Cheniere Energy Inc., the biggest U.S. LNG exporter, said last week it sees a premium in winter prices
encouraging floating storage, especially considering the premium of longer-term prices to short-term ones,
known as a contango. Lower spot shipping rates also encourage the longer use of vessels.
―The market does as a whole look at the contango in the forward curve and assess if there is a floating storage
possibility,‖ Jonathan Westby, co-managing director of Centrica Plc‘s energy marketing and trading unit,
said last month in an interview. ―If you look at the shape of the curve now for that period of time in the
autumn, there is the possibility of people taking floating storage.‖
The use of floating storage is a risky business because anticipated heating demand may be softer, as happened
last winter, and charter rates may shoot up to new records, as already forecast by the shipowners.
―People are sophisticated enough to know that if they are going to entertain that proposition that they need to
do appropriate risk management,‖ Westby said. ―We would certainly look. If the market is telling us to delay
the deliveries and make them later in the year then we will respond to that accordingly.‖
Floating vessels
The following vessels may be engaged in floating storage, according to Nathalie Leconte, an analyst at cargo
tracer Kpler SAS:
•BP Plc‘s British Partner off Cyprus.
•Bushu Maru in the Philippine Sea.
•Diamond Gas Orchid off Japan.
•Adnoc‘s Shahamah off India‘s west coast.
•LNG Juno was floating off Sri Lanka but is now en route to the United Arab Emirates.
BP didn‘t immediately reply to requests for comments. Adnoc didn‘t respond to a request for comment during
a public holiday in the United Arab Emirates. The owners of the other ships couldn‘t immediately be reached.
Other unusual moves:
•Maran Gas Alexandria waited outside Bahia, Brazil, for 10 days then unloaded what appears to be a partial
cargo, according to ship-tracking data on Bloomberg.
•SK Audace last month made a month-long journey around South America from Cheniere‘s Sabine Pass
production plant in Louisiana to Manzanillo, Mexico. The Panama Canal authority confirmed the vessel
didn‘t ask to go through the canal, which would have made the journey much shorter.
[Bloomberg]
13/082019
Gas shipping Australia: $590 million gas terminal proposed for Newcastle Port
The NSW government is considering a proposal for a $590 million liquified gas import terminal in the Port of
Newcastle, with the project given critical state significance.
Under the prosposal, the terminal will be built at Kooragang Island in Newcastle Port and promises to supply
NSW with up to 80 per cent of its gas requirements. The terminal, connected to the existing NSW gas
network, would be operational by 2022/23.
Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the project was Critical State Significant Infrastructure, deeming it
essential for economic, social and environmental reasons. ―NSW currently relies on interstate sources for 95
per cent of our gas supply and experts predict a shortfall in supply from existing sources in the coming years,‖
Mr Stokes said.
The proponent Newcastle GasDock Company will have to prepare an environmental impact statement for the
project, which will go on public exhibition. The terminal would increase locally available gas supply by 110
petajoules, according to the government.
[Sidney Morning Herald]Source: Drewry Supply Chain Advisors
[Drewry]
13/082019
By Greg Knowler
Amid a rash of container ship fires and stiffer penalties for misdeclared cargo, smart container technology is
being proposed as a better way to detect hazardous cargo that hasn‘t been properly declared by shippers and
forwarders.
In March 2018, the container ship Maersk Honam suffered a major container fire. Source: Maritime Post
Can new smart technology be leveraged to enable a container to detect the presence of hazardous cargo
packed inside and issue an alert to the carrier on which it is loaded? Perhaps, but it will take far more sensor
adoption and even ―smarter‖ sensors to make that a reality.
Container shipping: Can „smart containers‟ prevent ship fires?and “big seven” premier league of
operators emerges
Peregrine Storrs-Fox, risk management director for insurer TT Club and a leading voice in the fight to
prevent ship fires and reduce the misdeclaration of cargo, said it‘s inevitable that Internet of Things (IoT)
devices would emerge as a way to support ship operations.
―Loggers have long been used within cargo, but are passive,‖ he told JOC.com. ―What has been developed
over the last decade for container-sited devices has the potential to be far more powerful, monitoring various
aspects of condition, such as heat, humidity, movement, etc., and then having the capability to communicate
to any control center, whether ship bridge or remotely on land.‖
SeaIntelligence CEO Alan Murphy asked in his most recent weekly Sunday Spotlight newsletter if there was
a way to combine smart-tracking technology in containers with new technology to detect the presence of
dangerous chemicals.
Track-and-trace providers argue that their services can help carriers flag suspicious containers by matching
the readings of equipment characteristics with declarations on the manifest. However, not only will there
need to be far wider adoption of sensors, as they account for no more than 1 percent of the global container
fleet, but not all sensors are sophisticated enough to be anything more than a GPS tracker. And generally,
shippers that pony up for track-and- trace services aren‘t the type to cut corners and not declare hazardous
cargo.
Carriers‟ patience growing thin
The issue is front and center again after a blaze on container carrier APL Le Havre in India last weekend
came just days after carriers announced stiffer fees for misdeclaration and stronger inspection processes. The
vessel was sailing from Karachi to Mumbai when a fire broke out and quickly consumed six containers. No
crew members were injured in the blaze and the vessel was towed to an anchorage off Mundra.
Insurer TT Club has warned that fires on board large container ships are being reported every two months,
and according to the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS), a quarter of all serious incidents onboard
container vessels were due to misdeclared hazardous cargo.
APL Le Havre was the fifth major ship fire this year — four container ships and one roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro)
vessel — and carriers are running out of patience. To prevent the intentional or irresponsible misdeclaration
of dangerous goods cargo, carriers have announced heavy new fines for shippers not following established
hazardous cargo guidelines.
Steeper fines and closer inspections
Evergreen has warned shippers and their service providers that if it finds concealed or misdeclared dangerous
cargo it will levy fines of $35,000 per container. Hapag-Lloyd has announced it will implement a penalty of
$15,000 per container from Sept. 15 onwards, and HMM has imposed a similar fine largely aimed at Chinese
exporters.
Murphy expressed skepticism that an unscrupulous shipper, who was already deliberately shipping
dangerous goods declared as something benign, would be more honest in declaring their cargo out of the fear
of a fine. Instead, he proposed the combined smart tech-hazardous cargo detection technology approach.
While Murphy acknowledged the technology might not yet fully exist, he asked whether container trackers
could be made ―dangerously smart‖ by incorporating a sensor to detect the most common hazardous
compounds that are misdeclared.
―This way, the container would automatically alert the carrier of the presence of dangerous
cargo, and the problem could be significantly reduced,‖ he said.
―Technical advances have been made, including overcoming the Faraday Cage effect on board [a screen that
blocks electromagnetic fields that hamper the data transmission] and extending battery life,‖ Storrs-Fox said.
―Adoption remains in early stages but has been ramping up in
recent months — still, installation on a significant proportion of the global container fleet is
some way off.‖
He said the spate of fires has served as the catalyst for several actions in the industry, including the new fines
announced by carriers, and they should all be viewed in the scope of a wider cargo integrity initiative.
Storrs-Fox said some carriers have said they would step up actions to identify poor practices, specifically
inspections, with more energy going toward implementing checks and screening at the point of cargo
booking. ―It is worth pointing out these initiatives can be as much identifying opportunities to support
shippers in developing better practices as simply penalizing non-compliance,‖ he said.
Storrs-Fox pointed out that the mechanisms to levy and collect the penalties were normally well-established
in bill of lading conditions, and the amounts collected could be used to fund more extensive inspection
programs. But he said the increased collaboration across the industry was ―fundamental to re-writing the
current narrative,‖ and appeared to be gaining traction.
―CINS, recently joined by Cosco Shipping, now represents an overwhelming majority of slot capacity,‖ he
said ―Further, there is more deliberate interaction between different modes and with indirect stakeholders in
order to identify and tackle common problems.‖
[JOC.com]
13/08/2019
By Charles H. Greene
Global outrage should focus on North American fishing and shipping industries as well.
In July, Japan resumed commercial whaling after a three-decade hiatus. Many Western nations and
organizations condemned the move. Although I would personally prefer that no nation engage in commercial
whaling, I find it hypocritical that many Americans and Canadians criticize the Japanese while turning a blind
eye to the more pernicious practices of their own countries.
Japan has withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whaling in
1986. It now joins Norway and Iceland as the only countries that continue to harvest whales commercially.
On the positive side, Japan has agreed to abide by the Antarctic Treaty, which regulates the commercial
exploitation of living resources in the waters surrounding Antarctica, and has said that it will discontinue
―scientific‖ whaling in the Southern
Ocean. The nation also says it intends to only exploit species whose populations are in relatively good shape
Oceans: Japanese whaling is not the greatest threat to whale conservation
and to only do so in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. Despite the international outcry, a
properly managed whaling industry in Japan is unlikely to have a major impact on the world‘s most
threatened whale populations.
Underwater photo of humpback whale with line wrapped around tail flukes. Credit: Scott Benson
In contrast, let‘s look at what is happening in North America. On the East Coast, neither Americans nor
Canadians have been engaged in commercial whaling for decades, yet our fishing and shipping industries
pose existential threats to one of the most highly endangered great whale species, the North Atlantic right
whale.
Right whale females and their calves undertake a long seasonal migration each year from the protection of
the South Atlantic Bight, where calving occurs, to the food-rich waters off New England and the Canadian
Maritimes, where most feeding occurs. The two primary sources of death are entanglement in fishing gear
and ship strikes, and these occur most frequently at the northern end of the migration. Despite these dangers,
the North Atlantic right whale population had been recovering gradually for the three decades leading up to
2010. Since then, however, an ocean heat wave has been relentlessly warming the Gulf of Maine and
impaired feeding conditions there, causing right whales to abandon some of their traditional summer feeding
grounds. Instead many of them are migrating even farther north during the summer in search of better feeding
grounds in Canada‘s Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
In the Gulf of Maine, some protections have been in place for years to reduce gear entanglement and ship
strikes. Crustacean fisheries, mostly involving lobsters and crabs, pose the largest entanglement threat
because of the many vertical lines that run throughout the water column—from traps on the bottom to buoys
on the surface. Estimates indicate that up to 80 percent of right whales become entangled and potentially
compromised at some point during their life. The Maine lobster industry is grudgingly considering a staged
transition to breakaway and ropeless gear that could greatly reduce entanglements. With the added nutritional
stresses imposed by climate warming, however, the aftereffects of entanglement are getting worse. The
federal government must mandate a more rapid transition to breakaway and ropeless gear. Timing is critical:
such a mandate could make the difference between the North Atlantic right whale‘s eventual recovery and its
extinction.
In Canadian waters, the whales‘ plight has taken a drastic turn for the worse during the past three years. The
Canadian fishing and shipping industries, as well as the federal government, were unprepared for the arrival
of right whales looking for food. Without any protections in place during the summer of 2017, nearly 3
percent of the population was killed during a two- month period. Learning its lessons quickly, the
government strongly regulated the fishing and shipping industries in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence during the
summer of 2018—for example, by altering the dates of the snow crab fishing season and slowing down
vessel speeds when right whales were present. No right whale mortalities occurred there during 2018.
Unfortunately, because of a combination of overconfidence from that success and increasing pressure from
the powerful fishing and shipping industries, the government became more complacent in its protection
efforts during 2019. By the end of July, at least eight right whales had died in Canadian waters. At the current
rate, the death toll in 2019 could exceed that of 2017.
The right whale story is not unique. In the Pacific Northwest, a near-decade-long ocean heat wave has
induced the decline of Chinook salmon, which has suppressed reproduction of the highly endangered
southern resident orca population in the Salish Sea. In response, Washington State governor Jay Inslee signed
five bills in May offering unprecedented protections in his state‘s waters. But a month later, after intense
lobbying from the oil-and- gas industry, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau approved an expansion of
the Trans Mountain pipeline, which carries tar sands from Alberta to shipping ports in British Columbia. The
expansion will lead to a sevenfold increase in tanker traffic through the Salish Sea, raising the risk of ship
strikes, oil spills and noise in critical habitat for southern resident orcas. The Canadian federal government‘s
approval came despite a determination from the country‘s National Energy Board that the project would
cause ―significant adverse environmental effects‖ on the southern resident population. British Columbia,
Washington State, and most First Nations and Native American tribes in the region oppose the pipeline
expansion.
My point is this: The U.S. and Canada have the means to promote the conservation of highly endangered
whales. For example, without the deaths caused by the fishing and shipping industries, the North Atlantic
right whale population could potentially double in less than a quarter-century. But until the federal
governments of those countries resist the pressures of industries to relax environmental regulations,
Americans and Canadians should perhaps
redirect some of their outrage away from the Japanese and toward the governments most threatening to whale
conservation: their own.
[Scientific American]
19/06/2019
13/082019
Over the recent decade, total human impacts to the world's oceans have, on average, nearly doubled and
could double again in the next decade without adequate action.
That's according to a new study by researchers from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and
Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara: Recent pace of change in human impact on the
world‘s ocean.
Oceans: Human impacts nearly doubled in recent decade
Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study assessed for the first time where the combined impacts
that humans are having on oceans -- from nutrient pollution to overfishing
-- are changing and how quickly. In nearly 60% of the ocean, the cumulative impacts are increasing
significantly and, in many places, at a pace that appears to be accelerating.
"That creates even more urgency to solve these problems," said lead author Ben Halpern, director of NCEAS
and a professor at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.
Climate change is a key factor driving the increase across the world, as seas warm, acidify and rise. On top of
that, commercial fishing, runoff from land-based pollution and shipping are intensifying progressively each
year in many areas of the ocean.
"It's a multifactor problem that we need to solve. We can't just fix one thing if we want to slow and eventually
stop the rate of increase in cumulative impacts," said Halpern.
The study also projected the impacts one decade into the future, based on the rate of change in the recent past,
finding that they could double again if the pace of change continues unchecked. The assessment provides a
holistic perspective of where and how much human activities shape ocean change -- for better or worse --
which is essential to policy and planning.
"If you don't pay attention to the big picture, you miss the actual story," said Halpern. "The bigger picture is
critical if you want to make smart management decisions -- where are you going to get your biggest bang for
your buck."
Regions of particular concern include Australia, Western Africa, the Eastern Caribbean islands and the
Middle East, among others. Coastal habitats such as mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses are among the
hardest-hit ecosystems.
There is an upside to the story, however. The authors did find "success stories" around every continent, areas
where impacts have declined, such as the seas of South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom and Denmark, all
of which have seen significant decreases in commercial fishing and pollution.
These declines suggest that policies and other actions to improve ocean conditions are making a difference --
although, the analysis does not attribute specific actions to those declines. "We can improve things. The
solutions are known and within our grasp. We just need the social and political will to take action," said
Halpern.
To assess the pace of change, the authors leveraged two previous and similar assessments conducted by
several of the same team members and others in 2008 and 2013, which provided first glimpses into the full,
cumulative extent of humanity's impacts on oceans.
"Previously, we had a good measure of the magnitude of human impacts, but not a clear picture of how they
are changing," said co-author Melanie Frazier, a data scientist at NCEAS. Frazier was surprised to see in the
data how dramatically ocean temperatures have increased in a relatively short period of time.
"You don't need fancy statistics to see how rapidly ocean temperature is changing and understand the
magnitude of the problem," said Frazier. "I think this study, along with many others, highlights the
importance of a concerted global effort to control climate change."
[University of California - Santa Barbara / ScienceDaily]
13/082019
The region is losing ice at the fastest rate since 1900.
Scientists know the Arctic has less ice than it than it once did, but precise measurements are limited. Satellite
images of the region, the best source of data available, go back less than 40 years. And even though they are
useful for measuring the area of sea ice, they provide no information about its depth. To fill in the blanks,
researchers have turned to ships‘ logs from the past. Old Weather, a crowdsourcing project, has enlisted the
help of thousands of volunteers to transcribe entries from 20th-century ship logbooks (some written by hand)
to help scientists compile historical climate data to feed into their models.
In a new paper, Arctic Sea Ice Volume Variability over 1901–2010: A Model-Based Reconstruction,
researchers from the University of Washington used these data to reconstruct conditions in the Arctic dating
back to the early twentieth century. They found that an earlier period of Arctic warming, between 1920 and
1940, led to a significant decline in the volume of sea ice, mostly on the Atlantic side of the ice-cap. The
recent decline of Arctic sea ice, largely driven by human activities, has been about six times faster. It has also
affected the entirety of the Arctic ocean, especially the East Siberian Sea. The authors reckon that, between
1979 and 2010, the volume of sea ice in the Arctic in September declined by between 55% and 65%.
Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, led the first successful crossing of the Northwest Passage —
connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific by skirting Canada — in 1903. Today the Arctic is starkly different.
As the sea ice continues to shrink, new shipping routes may open up. A journey that once took Mr Amundsen
three years may soon take as little as a couple of weeks.
Oceans: Shipping logs show how quickly Arctic sea ice is melting
12/08/2019
The German polar research vessel Polarstern left her homeport in Bremerhaven on August 10 on a first
preparatory leg of the one-year Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate
(MOSAic) Expedition.
Polarstern will be prepared for the expedition in the Norwegian port of Tromsø and is expected to depart for
the Central Arctic on September 20. The 118-meter (387-foot) vessel will spend the next year drifting through
the Arctic Ocean, trapped in the ice. 600 people from 17 countries will be supplied by other icebreakers and
aircraft, to participate in the expedition – and several times that number of researchers will subsequently use
the data gathered. The
$150 million project will be led by Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research (AWI).
The vessel will drift towards the North Pole from the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, using the
natural transpolar drift of the sea ice. The plan is to drift roughly seven kilometers per day, ending the trip in
October 2020 near Greenland. By drifting with the ice, MOSAiC scientists will observe the atmospheric and
oceanic processes that affect the sea-ice as it evolves from new first year ice to multi-year ice and eventually
towards the decay stage as the ice approaches the North Atlantic sector. As such, MOSAiC will observe the
full annual cycle of the sea ice.
Data gathered from the MOSAiC mission will be used to update mathematical climate models, and
researchers will focus on understanding the causes and consequences of an evolving and diminished Arctic
sea ice cover:
1.What are the seasonally-varying energy sources, mixing processes, and interfacial fluxes that affect the heat
and momentum budgets of sea ice?
Oceans: Research vessel Polarstern departs Germany to ready for year-long Arctic drift
2.How does sea ice move and deform over its first year of existence?
3.Which processes contribute to the formation, properties, precipitation, and maintenance of Arctic clouds
and their interactions with aerosols and boundary-layer structure?
4.How do inter-facial exchange rates, biology, and chemistry couple to regulate ecosystems and the major
elemental cycles in the high Arctic sea ice?
5.How do ongoing changes in the Arctic ice-ocean-atmosphere system impact larger- scale heat and mass
transfers of importance to climate and ecosystems?
Commissioned in 1982, Polarstern is one of the most advanced and versatile polar research ships in the world.
She operates an average of 310 days a year, typically cruising in the Antarctic from November to March and
pursuing research in the Arctic during the summer months. In the process, she covers around 50,000 nautical
miles every year – the equivalent of two trips around the Equator. Her double hull and 20,000 horsepower
allow her to easily break through 1.5-meter-thick ice; thicker ice can be overcome by ramming. She is
equipped for sustained operations at temperatures down to -50 degrees Celsius.
Early in the voyage, the vessel will sail to the AWI‘s Hausgarten observatory in the Fram Strait, where
experts from various disciplines are investigating all aspects of the ecosystem, from the water‘s surface to the
ocean depths, in order to determine the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in the Arctic. Here 21
permanent stations covering a water depth range of 250 to 5,500 meters (820 to 18,000 feet) are deployed.
Various platforms have been used to take samples from the stations since 1999. At regular intervals, a
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) named Paul is used for targeted sampling, the positioning and servicing
of autonomous measuring instruments and the performance of in situ experiments. A 3,000-meter (9,800-
foot) depth-rated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) allows the sensing and sampling in the water
column as well as large-scale observations at the seafloor.
This year, Paul is slated to dive to the ocean floor. In previous expeditions, it remained in the upper water
layers. Equipped with a camera and side-scan sonar, its task is to map the seafloor in high resolution. At
depths of up to 2,600 meters, Paul will hover five meters above the seafloor, recording its characteristics at a
resolution of around 10 to 15 centimeters (around five inches). These maps will then provide the basis for
determining the sample collection sites for a multicorer, a device that extracts samples from the sediment for
microbiological testing.
For the third time, the AWI‘s crawler Tramper will be used to explore the Arctic seafloor, measuring, for
example, oxygen consumption as an indicator of microbiological activity. Tramper will be supported by a
second crawler named Nomad which was successfully tested at the deep-sea observatory in 2018. This time,
the two robots will be equipped to stay on site for a two-year operation, since Polarstern won‘t be available
for an expedition to the Hausgarten next year as she will still be drifting through the ice.
[Maritime Executive]
12/08/2019
Human Rights at Sea today issues an independent review and briefing note on the current legal and policy
protections for seafarers operating in United Arab Emirates (UAE) waters.
The review is the follow-up of a series of high-profile abandonment cases since late 2018 highlighted by the
Human Rights at Sea issues independent review of UAE legal and policy protections for seafarers
charity‘s case studies and other leading international newspapers such as the Times of India and The
Guardian.
Recent publicly reported events from October 2018 within the territorial waters and international waters
offshore the UAE of the abandonment of seafarers for extended periods, some up to 33 months at the time of
writing, has once again shone a necessary light on the abhorrent practice of abandoned seafarers by unethical
ship owners.
Often with the reality of minimal available direct access and recourse to effective legal and judicial remedies,
unless championed by the flag State, port State authorities, or in the present case having the issue raised
publicly through civil society and maritime welfare organisations, such unacceptable practices will continue
with impunity and unchecked globally.
The Independent Briefing Note on UAE Government Legal & Policy Position Supporting Maritime
Protections for Seafarers is aimed at supportively highlighting legal and policy developments by the UAE
Government in combatting such issues, and protecting seafarers responsible for moving in excess of 90% of
the world‘s goods by sea from such poor working conditions and unacceptable human rights abuses.
While the UAE has not ratified the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, the current facts and evidence
of abandonment in, and offshore UAE waters, suggests that an ongoing government review of this position to
further safeguard international trade in the maritime supply chain is needed, and may well be shortly actioned
through a proposed new maritime law in 2020 updating the extant 1981 law as announced by Dr Abdullah
bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development, on Sunday 7 July 2019.
[Human Rights at Sea]
12/08/2019
By Chris Dupin
Fire comes at a time when a number of shipping lines are cracking down on misdeclared dangerous goods.
India Coast Guard ship Sangram assisted crew of APL Le Havre in fighting container fire. Photo: ProDefence Gujarat
The containership APL Le Havre was diverted to the port of Mundra in India last week after several
containers caught fire. The India Coast Guard said the 26-member crew was safe.
Casualty off India coast: Crew safe after container fire on APL Le Havre
APL Le Havre, a Singapore-flagged containership with capacity to carry 10,106 TEUs, was about 40 miles
southwest of Porbandar, India, en route from Karachi, Pakistan, to Nhava Sheva, India, when the India Coast
Guard received information about the fire at about 7:15
p.m. Friday, August 9, according to the website Connect Gujarat.
The ship‘s crew was able to bring the fire, which involved four to six containers according to various media
reports, under control by Saturday morning. Reportedly, the crew fought the fire overnight by drilling holes
and pouring water into containers. The APL Le Havre is deployed in APL‘s India Pakistan Express 2, or IP2
service, between ports in North Europe, the Middle East and India.
The APL Le Havre blaze is the latest of several containership fires this year and comes at a time when a
number of shipping lines are cracking down on misdeclared dangerous goods. Last week Hapag-Lloyd
announced it will implement a $15,000-per-container penalty for misdeclaration of hazardous cargo prior to
shipment.
Evergreen also has decided to increase penalties for misdeclared cargo. A notice from the Taiwanese carrier
reproduced on the Loadstar news site said a penalty of $35,000 may be imposed if an amendment is ―forced
by Evergreen Line who found in usual checks concealment, omission or misdeclaration of any particular in
description of goods‖ that are hazardous. Evergreen also proposes heavy fines for misdeclared waste
commodities or nonhazardous cargo with special declaration requirements.
Hyundai Merchant Marine and OOCL also have said they will impose penalties for misdeclared cargo,
according to the website Splash. In an August 8 customer advisory, Maersk said it will require shippers of
dangerous goods to confirm using a check box that their cargo has been correctly declared, stuffed safely in
containers and that they are aware their containers may be opened and inspected.
[American Shipper]
19/06/2019
By Sabina Zawadzki
12/08/2019
By Eric Johnson
The impacts of container carrier consolidation and larger vessels plying the Asia-Europe trade are changing
the competitive stakes in the race for Asia transshipment cargo.
Of the JOC 2018 Top 50 Global Container Ports, Singapore (No. 2), Busan (No. 6), and Hong Kong (No. 7)
are all heavily reliant on transshipment, while another primarily transshipment- oriented port, Colombo (No.
25), saw the fastest growth in 2018 of any port in the global top 30.
Because transshipment cargo is a more competitive segment of the container business than origin-destination
cargo and, as a result, more likely to shift from one port to another — ―footloose,‖ as Jonathan Beard, Hong
Kong-based partner in Ernst & Young‘s infrastructure advisory calls it — ports in Asia compete fiercely for
containers shipped from countries that don‘t yet merit direct calls from container lines.
―Transshipment hubs are getting larger and more complex,‖ Beard said at the Colombo International
Logistics Conference in Sri Lanka in early August. ―As vessel sizes increase, cargo comes from a larger
range of lines outside of the vessel operators and it needs to go to more other lines. Transshipment hubs have
to offer a lot of capacity to go after bigger lines. It‘s an advantage if there‘s one operator with contiguous
facilities. Hong Kong, Busan, and Colombo, for instance, are at a disadvantage compared with Singapore.‖
Container shipping Asia: M&A and larger ships ramp-up transshipment competition
Beard‘s comments came at a conference designed to highlight Colombo‘s ambition to be a larger player in
the Asia-Europe, Africa-Asia, and Indian subcontinent trade lanes. The port‘s three terminals handled just
over 7 million TEU combined in 2018, with transshipment accounting for more than 81 percent (5.7 million
TEU) of that total, according to data from the port authority. The port saw 13.5 percent volume growth in
2018, higher than every port above it in JOC‘s Top 50 Global Ports rankings and greater than all but two
ports — Piraeus and Rizhao — in the entire list.
A cooperative model
Colombo is in the midst of a three-phase expansion to grow its annual handling capacity by at least 7 million
TEU — and likely more — through the development of its South Harbor terminals, collectively called
Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT). The first of the three phases in the project, leased to
terminal operator China Merchants, is operational, while a second phase — the East Container Terminal
(ECT) — is partially built but not yet operational. Investors from Japan and India tied up an agreement in
May with the Sri Lanka
Ports Authority (SLPA) to build the remainder of ECT, with projected completion in 2020 or 2021.
The timing of the project is critical, speakers at the event said, as Colombo battles to win cargo from
neighboring India and Bangladesh, instead of losing that transshipment cargo to Singapore or to direct calls
at Indian ports.
―We need to transform Colombo from a regional maritime hub to a global logistics gateway to combat
competition in the region,‖ Sagala Ratnayaka, Sri Lanka‘s minister of ports and shipping, said at the
conference. ―We‘ve developed a habit of waiting until demand occurs before we build to meet that demand.
We have to shift our focus from demand-driven to supply-driven.‖
Terminal operators at existing Colombo terminals said the port can continue to increase productivity at those
facilities until ECT is completed to ensure the port is capturing that demand.
But developments in Hong Kong among competitive terminals that have worked together to smooth
operational issues for shippers serve as both a warning and potential precedent for Colombo. Seven
individual terminals in April formed the Hong Kong Seaport Alliance to cooperate on berth and yard
operations, but also to collectively share revenue and profits in a bid to reverse the port‘s declining volume.
Intense competition between the terminals, primarily controlled by operators Hutchison Ports and Modern
Terminals, has resulted in operational headaches and service complications for carriers and shippers alike,
with boxes arriving by barge or feeder into one terminal and needing to be loaded at another terminal for
mainline service. The alliance essentially breaks the terminals into three gray zones to eliminate
inter-terminal transfers and barges needing to call multiple terminals.
No time to waste
Colombo officials said its three terminals already have begun cooperating operationally to ensure carriers are
served as quickly as possible.
―No one terminal in Colombo can handle the needs of a shipping line on its own,‖ said Ted Muttiah, chief
commercial officer at Colombo‘s South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT), a privately run terminal owned in
part by ocean carriers Maersk Line and Evergreen. ―So maybe we can identify a primary terminal and a
secondary terminal for calls.‖
Muttiah said the existing terminals have capacity for 9 to 9.5 million TEU, although each individual terminal
has already surpassed its nominal design capacity. ―ECT can‘t come soon enough, because the need is for
berths with deep-water draft, not standard draft,‖ he said. CICT terminals are deep enough to accommodate
the largest vessels in operation today, while
SAGT and the government-operated Jaya Container Terminal have shallower drafts. ―But there
is capacity today; there‘s no need to panic.‖
The impetus is clear, however, especially as port officials note that South Asia ports only handled 3.7 percent
of global container volume in 2018, despite the region accounting for nearly a quarter of the world‘s
population. With India‘s largest container port, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (No. 32), also seeing 7.2
percent growth in 2018, it‘s clear that South Asia‘s growth as an axis of container activity is hindered
primarily by infrastructure limitations.
―If you‘re going to compete in these markets, it‘s important to understand what the market is doing, and what
you‘re offering to it, before the demand comes,‖ Beard said.
[JOC.com]
[Dredging and Port Construction]
12/08/2019
By Victoria Zaretskaya
Australia is on track to surpass Qatar as the world‘s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, according
to Australia‘s Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science (DIIS).
Australia already surpasses Qatar in LNG export capacity and exported more LNG than Qatar in November
2018 and April 2019. Within the next year, as Australia‘s newly commissioned projects ramp up and operate
at full capacity, EIA expects Australia to consistently export more LNG than Qatar.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, CEDIGAZ, Global Trade Tracker
Gas shipping: Australia on track to become world‟s largest LNG
exporter
Australia‘s LNG export capacity increased from 2.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2011 to more than
11.4 Bcf/d in 2019. Australia‘s DIIS forecasts that Australian LNG exports will grow to 10.8 Bcf/d by 2020–
21 once the recently commissioned Wheatstone, Ichthys, and Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) projects ramp
up to full production. Prelude FLNG, a barge located offshore in northwestern Australia, was the last of the
eight new LNG export projects that came online in Australia in 2012 through 2018 as part of a major LNG
capacity buildout.
Note: Project‘s online date reflects shipment of the first LNG cargo. North West Shelf Trains 1–2 have been in operation since
1989, Train 3 since 1992, Train 4 since 2004, and Train 5 since 2008.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL),
trade press.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Starting in 2012, five LNG export projects were developed in northwestern Australia: onshore projects Pluto,
Gorgon, Wheatstone, and Ichthys, and the offshore Prelude FLNG. The total
LNG export capacity in northwestern Australia is now 8.1 Bcf/d. In eastern Australia, three LNG export
projects were completed in 2015 and 2016 on Curtis Island in Queensland— Queensland Curtis, Gladstone,
and Australia Pacific—with a combined nameplate capacity of
3.4
Bcf/d. All three projects in eastern Australia use natural gas from coalbed methane as a feedstock to produce
LNG.
Most of Australia‘s LNG is exported under long-term contracts to three countries: Japan, China, and South
Korea. An increasing share of Australia‘s LNG exports in recent years has been sent to China to serve its
growing natural gas demand. The remaining volumes were almost entirely exported to other countries in
Asia, with occasional small volumes exported to destinations outside of Asia.
For several years, Australia‘s natural gas markets in eastern states have been experiencing natural gas
shortages and increasing prices because coal-bed methane production at some LNG export facilities in
Queensland has not been meeting LNG export commitments. During these shortfalls, project developers
have been supplementing their own production with natural gas purchased from the domestic market. The
Australian government implemented several initiatives to address domestic natural gas production shortages
in eastern states.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas
Importers (GIIGNL)
Several private companies proposed to develop LNG import terminals in southeastern Australia. Of the five
proposed LNG import projects, Port Kembla LNG (proposed import capacity of 0.3 Bcf/d) is in the most
advanced stage, having secured the necessary siting permits and an offtake contract with Australian
customers. If built, the Port Kembla project will use the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU)
Höegh Galleon starting in January 2021.
[EIA]
12/08/2019
German industrial conglomerate thyssenkrupp and a consortium of partners are working on a shipboard fuel
cell that can run on either diesel or natural gas. The partnership - known by its project acronym, MultiSchIBZ
- aims to develop and demonstrate a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) suitable for maritime use by 2020-2022.
Prototype solid oxide fuel cell unit for thyssenkrupp. Source: Sunfire
Propulsion: German consortium takes aim at fuel cell power for ships
Solid oxide fuel cells operate at high temperatures without the use of a catalyst, and they are able to
efficiently convert hydrogen or carbon-based gaseous fuels into electrical power. Shoreside fuel cell
manufactuer Altrex Energy has sold more than 600 natural gas or propane- powered SOFCs for remote
power generation, and it recently demonstrated a solid oxide fuel cell generator for the Department of
Defense that can run on jet fuel. Sunfire, one of the consortium partners in the MultiSchIBZ project, makes a
trailerized SOFC power generator and is planning to market a similar unit for home use.
If successful, shipboard SOFC power is expected to reduce emissions by 99 percent for nitrogen oxides, 99
percent for particulate matter and about 25 percent for carbon dioxide when compared to conventional
marine diesel engines. The SOFC technology that the team has developed so far is still at the laboratory
stage, according to project partner Oel-Waerme- Institut (OWI). One of the main challenges is to implement
it in a system that can be used practically aboard vessels. In addition, since the objective is to create a
technology with wide application rather than a single prototype, the team will have to come up with uniform
technical standards for multiple system variants and performance classes.
The project's objectives also include: improving fuel cell efficiency by 50 percent; proving functionality in
continuous use; examining the legal questions surrounding its use in ships; and preparing a pilot application.
The initial design is oriented towards relatively small-scale power systems for passenger vessels.
The long list of project partners for MultiShIBZ includes thyssenkrupp (formerly ThyssenKrupp), the
Oel-Waerme-Institut, DNV GL, SOFC manufacturer Sunfire and Leibniz University. The project is
supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport and the National Organization for Hydrogen and Fuel
Cell Technology.
[Maritime Executive]
12/08/2019
By Shaini
Port congestion creates pressure on cargo owners, shipping lines and in turn on port management.
The port management needs to increase efficiency in handling the ships, expand the infrastructure of the
ports and hire more workers. These factors collectively force the shipping companies to increase operational
costs, as they might lose their credibility to transport goods at the promised time. Congestion also means the
cargo can miss their connecting ships or trucks to different destinations and scheduling problems.
An increasingly dangerous threat that maritime logistics is facing right now is port congestion. It is when
ships arriving at the port cannot load or unload, as the port capacity is already full. The only choice for the
ships it to queue up and wait for their turn to get a spot at the port. The average waiting time at the ports have
gone up, for instance at the German Port of Bremerhaven it has increased from 45 to 55 hours. There is a
chain of problems that lead up to port pongestion, which is then followed by its own set of bad consequences.
How are shipping companies affected by congestion?
Ports are an integral part of international trade. According to UNCTAD, maritime logistics represents 90% of
the entire world supply chain. But what is blocking the efficient execution of activities between ships and
ports is congestion. And this means shipping companies are losing time and consequentially money. Some
Port congestion: A threat to the industry?
major costs apart from time would be, fuel consumption, and at times accidents. Every other cost that could
arise from this is directly proportional to the time that the ship spends on the port waiting. In 2012, the
National Bureau of Economic Research stated that when the ships don‘t unload and are in transit, they pay
0.6% to 2% of the value of the goods every day.
Another impact of port congestion is increased anchorage wait time. Ships usually wait at the anchorage
before they can enter the port. Anchorages are locations where the ships can halt and protect themselves from
bad weather.
Penalties
Demurrage is deeply intertwined with port congestion. Demurrage is charged to the owner of the cargo on the
failure to release the ship back to the shipping line within the agreed time.
Usually, a period of 3-5 free days is given to unload and return the ship. Any extra time beyond the agreed
time is called ‗laytime‘ and a penalty is charged.
While demurrage is a penalty for holding the ships longer, the cargo owner also needs to pay Port Congestion
Surcharge to the shipping lines. There is no one way to calculate the surcharge. It usually involves the cost of
running the ship while waiting, such as fuel expenses. Ships usually try to travel faster in the sea to make up
for the delay in ports. The surcharge may be charged as a percentage of the cargo or a percentage of one TEU.
According to the House Committee on Transportation and the Metro Manila Development Authority,
Philippines lost 2.5 billion Philippine pesos (42 million euros) a day in the year 2014 due to port congestion.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) in India, reports that shipping businesses could lose 80 crore Rupees
(10 million euros) a month because of congestion.
Where does port congestion begin?
Globalization has been a major contributor to the increase in world logistics. The development in technology,
increase in global production has multiplied immensely, leading to the distribution of these goods across the
globe. The competition in the markets makes sellers increase their competitive ability and they try and send
their products to customers in markets far beyond their reach which is enabled by Technology and carried out
by Logistics. This increase in demand has skyrocketed the level of goods being transported in all directions
contributing to port congestion eventually.
Plug Pulled: Port of L.A. terminated the Harbor Performance Enhancement Center
To meet this global demand, the world‘s biggest shipping line Maersk has been constantly increasing its fleet
size. As of July 2019, Maersk has the capacity for 4 million TEU, out of which 2.3 million is owned capacity
and 1.8 million is chartered capacity. 31 of Maersk‘s ships
have a capacity of 18,000 TEU each. Maersk owns 18.5% of the total world merchant container fleet.
While businesses around the world have expanded business capabilities and the shipping lines have
expanded their fleets, the ports haven‘t gone through any transition to managing the incoming demand. The
infrastructure and workforce haven‘t seen significant growth.
Apart from the root cause identified here, we have major port-related blockades that cause Congestion:
•Uncertainty in the quantity of goods: Even though port management do their best to assess the level of goods
that arrive at port, the calculation could differ when the ships arrive at the port. The issue now is that the port
does not have enough space to hold these ships. Which brings us to the next reason
•Lack of labour: The port might not enough workers to help with towing, pilotage, and clearing the ships of
the port. Low wages and mistreatment are some of the reasons workers are known to leave the industry.
Workers also go on strikes demanding better pay, which is work not done on the ships.
•Loading and unloading equipment: Due to the overwhelming ships at the port, there might not be enough
loading/unloading equipment to help all the ships.
•Locks: There might be a set of locks a vessel has to go through before it can dock, and chances are
congestion happens here as many vessels waiting to go through the locks.
•Customs clearance: Customs is another reason for congestion, as sometimes the procedures are very strict,
goods might not be cleared for many reasons. When there are threats of terrorism in place or drug control
measures, it might affect the flow of goods.
•Weather: Weather, which is also an unpredictable phenomenon can cause congestion. For instance, ice
formations in winter.
How can we tackle port congestion?
Congestion is a complicated phenomenon that shipping companies and governments are trying to solve.
Despite the complexity, some attempts have been made to try and ease it:
•One tested method in the Port of Los Angeles is the ‗free-flow‘ container delivery system. Usually, truck
drivers come to pick up specific containers assigned to them and on an average, a minimum of three
containers need to be moved to get the assigned container. But instead, if the first container is assigned to the
next available driver and so on then it has proved to cut the time into half.
•Ports in the US have also been facing heavy congestion. Ports in Oakland have introduced night shifts since
2018 to compensate for the delay and to expedite the clearing of ships from the ports.
•Port expansion and developing the infrastructure in a way to deal with increasing demand will ease things
for many elements that use the port. For instance, chassis availability, building the skills of the port workers,
retaining the workers with proper remuneration.
•Many ports in the world haven‘t taken advantage of digitalization. The digitalization of port operations can
help in crunching port data and can help anticipate any shortcomings.
An alternative solution would be to use SOC Containers instead of COC Containers because they don‘t need
to be returned to the port but instead to the depot of the owner of the container.
This might not eliminate the problem of port congestion; it helps avoid demurrage and detention charges for
the cargo owner.
[Container xChange]
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.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Fellow (FIAMSP)
Full Member (MIAMSP)
Mr. MARTINS Jorge
Brazil
Mr.Andrianombana Lanja Achille
Madagascar
M. Subbiah Thiyagarajah
Malaysia
Affiliate (AFFIAMSP)
Mr.Adolfo omar Cortes
Spain
Mr. Rajendran Sellamuthu
India
Mr. Archisman Lahiri
India
M. Kirton Christopher
Singapore
M. Hubert Louis-philippe
France
Mrs. HELENA ISABEL
CAMPOS LANÇA PALMA
Portugal
LAST MEMBERSHIP
February 2019 GREENTECH IN SHIPPING GLOBAL FORUM
Hamburg, Germany
February 2019 MARITIME RECONNAISSANCE & SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY
Rome, Italy
February 2019
12TH ARCTIC SHIPPING SUMMIT – MONTREAL
Montreal - venue TBC
February 2019 GREENTECH IN SHIPPING GLOBAL FORUM
Hamburg, Germany
April 2019 LNG2019
Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention (SWEECC), Shanghai
April 2019 OCEAN BUSINESS 2019
Southampton UK.
April 2019 SINGAPORE MARITIME WEEK (SMW) 2019
Singapore, Singapore
April 2019
COPENHAGEN SHIPPING SUMMIT
The Øksne Hall Halmtorvet 11 Copenhagen, 1700 Danmark
UPCOMING EVENTS SUMMARY