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.
The Port of Baku along the Austrian ÖBB Rail Cargo Group and Cabooter Group (NL), came together and inked an MoU in order to boost and spread the freight traffic from the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor) passing from Europe to Central Asia and China.
Norway is playing an active role in the oil sector as more Norwegian oil from Johan Sverdrup is arriving in Asia, being a challenge to similar crudes coming from Africa and South America. If Johan Sverdrup continues attracting refiners, there is a high possibility that it will jeopardise exports of its rival grades to the world’s top crude-consuming region.
The last 3 decades have seen an increase in plastic drink bottles, as they are the fastest growing form of pollution, in comparison to all debris types on remote Inaccessible Island; A newly-launched report notes that the rapid growth in Asian debris, mainly from China, coupled with the recent manufacture of these items, indicates that ships are responsible for most of the bottles floating in the central South Atlantic Ocean
Asia’s hydrogen gas demand will increase as its oil refineries use the gas to produce low-sulphur fuel to comply with new environmental regulations. Asian countries have tightened their fuel standards by decreasing the amount of allowed sulphur, thus pushing refiners to upgrade facilities, in order to produce compliant diesel and gasoline supplies.
In collaboration with the Kontinentalist, Stable Seas have released ‘Troubled waters: piracy and maritime security in Southeast Asia’. This is an interactive experience on how piracy and armed robbery affect the safety of waterways.
During 13 – 19 August 2019, four CAT 41 incidents of armed robbery against ship were reported to the ReCAAP ISC. The four incidents took place on 31 July 19 at Belawan Anchorage, Indonesia; 9 August 19 northeast of Pulau Bintan, Indonesia; 12 August 19 at Phuoc Long Mooring Buoy No 3, Vietnam; and 15 August 19 southeast of Tanjung Piai, Johor, Malaysia.
Cruise Lines International Association released the 2019 Asia Cruise Deployment and Capacity Report. In the report, the organization details Asia’s planned cruise activity in 2019, providing stakeholders with information to keep pace with the dynamic cruise industry in this area.
Port of Tanjung Pelepas became the first port in Southeast Asia to welcome Mediterranean Shipping Company latest and largest container vessel as part of its maiden voyage in the South East Asia region. PTP also became the first port in the world to achieve back to back record for highest utilisation of a container vessel when the ship left the port with the record load of 19,574 TEUs.
Reuters reports that Taiwanese and South Korean refineries are testing the market for fuels, that are compliant with IMO’s sulphur cap, starting next year, by exporting cargoes of very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO). For the time being, refiners have a hard time deciding on which fuel to produce due to the fact that shipowners are able to choose between LSFO or MGO to comply with IMO’s 2020 sulphur regulations.
