Following the sinking of the Palau-flagged freight ship Arvin, a new video captured from onboard cameras shows how the cargo vessel broke in two after a huge wave off Turkey’s Black Sea.

Following the Wakashio grounding on 25th July 2020, Japanese shipowner MOL stated that the probable cause of the incident was the crew's unsafe behaviors due to overconfidence that stems from complacency, while issued safety measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) joined the blockchain ‘TradeLens’ platform in an effort to modernize the shipping processes and create greater transparency within the operations. In fact, this collaboration boosts the country's effort to promote trading and economic stability by facilitating ease of doing business. By adopting TradeLens, we hope it will enable us to fulfill our mission to facilitate legitimate trade, help combat smuggling and modernize the national logistics systems in support of Malaysia’s digital economy aspirations. ....Dato’ Sri Abdul Latif bin Abdul Kadir, Director-General of Royal Malaysian Customs Department, stated. In addition, TradeLens from its side, will provide RMCD with an automatic and immutable tracking tool, which will lead to a more highly secure, transparent, efficient and simpler workflow, with near real-time information sharing from a diverse network of ecosystem members. To remind, the TradeLens platform, jointly developed by A.P. Moller – Maersk and IBM, digitizes the voluminous, time consuming paper-based shipping processes. In fact, through the platform, authorities will be able to receive shipping data as soon as containers leave the port of origin. By joining TradeLens, we aim to boost the efficiency, transparency and collaboration across supply chains. TradeLens will help us bring further visibility in...

The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) recently listed all the countries that restrict the use of open loop scrubbers in their ports.

In its recently published Safety Flashes, IMCA descirbes a near miss incident of an uncontrolled movement of very heavy mooring chain during chain laying operations.

During the years it is observed that the nature of work in every job field, is somehow changing, due to the emerging technologies such as the artificial intelligence, digitalization, automation, cyber security etc. As a result, the skills that employers and companies value and depend on are also transforming, creating a "skills gap". To make it clear, skills gap is the difference among the techniques required for a job and the skills that an employee actually performs. Therefore, because of the skills gap issue, a potential employee may not be able to completely operate the tasks of the job. However, when it comes to the shipping industry, technological advances have also contributed to skills gap issues within the sector, as crews are required to have skills beyond their mandatory maritime qualifications. The present and future challenges faced by the maritime industry will create significant pressure on the present model of manning the maritime industry, both on ships and ashore. Namely, with smart ships dynamically enter into service, there is an increasing demand for a new generation of competent, highly skilled maritime professionals. There are strong indications that new technologies and the resulting social interactions will significantly affect the required core...

The Baltic Exchange, the world's independent source of maritime market data, has issued its reports for the last week, 2-6 November 2020, to provide information of the tanker and bulk market performance. The information is used by shipbrokers, owners & operators, traders, financiers and charterers as a reliable and independent view of the dry and tanker markets. Tankers -VLCC In the Middle East, 280,000mt to USG via the Cape/Cape routing remained at a fraction above WS15, while 270,000mt to China continued to achieve WS26. In the Atlantic, rates for 260,000mt West Africa to China held around the WS29 level and $4.55m region for 270,000mt USG to China. -Suezmax Rates for 135,000mt Black Sea/Med were maintained at around WS45, while for 130,000mt Nigeria to UK Continent saw a modest two-point gain to between WS32.5 and WS35. In the Middle East market, rates for 140,000mt Basrah/Med improved by about four points to around WS20-22.5 level, with Turkish and Greek charterers fixing at WS20 and a US oil major reported to be replacing a failed WS20 fixture at WS22.5 on an ex drydock vessel. -Aframax  Rates for 80,000mt Ceyhan/Lavera fell back about three points to just over WS61. In Northern Europe rates weakened...

Following the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maritime NZ issued a guidance on how seafarers can stay protected onboard international vessels amid the outbreak.

Port of Rotterdam is about to launch a new campaign focused on litter, in an effort to raise awareness among visitors to the port, of the impact pollution can have on shipping, nature and the overall surroundings. According to the port, every year there are collected over 1,300 tonnes of waste from sites on land, equivalent to some 43 trucks filled to capacity. In fact, nearly a quarter of this volume is litter. In addition, the Port Authority retrieves another 100 tonnes of waste from the water. Litter causes a lot of damage. Not only to nature and the environment, but also to shipping. Garbage wraps itself around ships’ propellers and animals get tangled up in it. Birds and marine animals that live in the port – seals, for example – mistake floating refuse for food, which means it ends up in their stomachs. ...Port of Rotterdam stated. In light of the above, the port authority goals to encourage people to discard their waste in the public bins that have been set up for this purpose. The "Clean port, clean ocean" campaign is in line with the Port Authority’s policy focused on the sustainable development of Rotterdam’s port and industrial...

Technical skills or in other words hard skills aren’t necessarily hard to acquire. They can be easily taught, and can be learned and improved over time. But non-technical skills known as “soft skills,” such as teamwork, effective communication, leadership, time management, and flexibility are highly valued in the modern workplace. In comparison to hard skills’, soft skills are more challenging to develop, since they have little to do with knowledge or expertise. According to a report issued by Deloitte in 2017, in the following 10 years, 2/3 of all the jobs would be soft-skills intensive. And shipping makes no exception.