ReCAAP ISC launched its Q1 2020 report concerning piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia, reporting a three-fold increase of the incidents that took place between January-March 2020, in comparison to the same months last year.
Cargill, Rainmaking and more than 10 industry partners will join their forces to launch a program in Singapore, focused on the decarbonization issue. In fact, the program will be the first of its kind based in Asia and goals to develop new solutions related to CO2 emissions reduce.
Following the significant rise of COVID-19 cases, Indonesia decided to ban the entry and transit of foreigners from the most affected countries outside China, Iran, Italy and South Korea. In fact, Indonesia will not allow the entrance of travelers coming from countries’ top 10 regions hardest hit by the disease.
In light of the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese liquefied petroleum gas demand is likely to drop by 3% in the following two months, causing cut in the LPG shipments and affecting the freight rates.
According to the Strait Times, following the coronavirus outbreak and with several ports in Asia ceasing their operations, major cruise lines decided to reroute or even cancel their sailings over ports in the region.
In fact, a new deep-sea port will constitute the core of a new economic partnership between China and Myanmar after the two countries reach a series of infrastructure deals as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
It is said that a set of predictions in late 2019 informed that the rising sea levels could threaten triple the number of what was previously thought. Wärtsilä now highlights that port cities are due to “bear the brunt of these effects.” Even if all the commitments are met as planned, it won’t stop sea levels from rising over the next two centuries.
Port of Shanghai marked another high record container throughput during 2019, handling 43.3 million TEUs. Namely, the port noted a 3% increase in its cargo throughput, in comparison with the 42.01 million TEUs of 2018. This is the 10th year in a row that the port maintains its top position as the busiest container port in the world.
During the last SAFETY4SEA Singapore Forum, Mr. Masafumi Kuroki, Executive Director, ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC), discusses about the maritime crime situation in Asia. As he says, ReCAAP ISC aims to accurately inform about maritime crimes in Asia, while noting that such incidents are declining. Nevertheless, there are still areas of concern in which the situation must improve.
The investment management firm, Circulate Capital, recently announced the first close of the US$106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), world’s first investment fund dedicated to preventing ocean plastic in South and Southeast Asia and one of the ten largest ASEAN-based Venture Capital Funds in the market.
