Tag: shipping industry

According to BIMCO, the dry bulk shipping industry is still on the road to recovery, as demand continues to be more that the fleet growth. In the mean time, scrapping and ordering remain low. The improved situation during 2017 is seen in the freight rate levels during the first four months of 2018.

MOL announced that on Saturday, May 12, along with the Japanese Shipowners' Association, it assigned its women officers to conduct a round-table discussion for about 30 students at Seisho Senior High School in Nara Prefecture, in an effort to encourage young people in Japan to consider a career at the maritime industry.

Panagiotis Kouroumplis, noted that EU has to find new ways to make shipping industry more attractive. From his side, the Maltese transport minister, Ian Borg, mentioned that there is work happening to examine today's EU directives that create the administrative burden. Natasa Pilides, Cyprus's Deputy Minister for Shipping Natasa Pilides, informed that the three discussed about possible measures to enhance cooperation.

The European Commission adopted a proposal to optimize ship reporting requirements when calling at ports within the EU. 13 EU Member States called the EU Commission to present a proposal for the revision of the Reporting Formalities Directive. The aim is to reduce the administrative burdens on shipping.

WWF-Canada released a new guide designed to help mariners in the eastern Arctic identify and avoid marine mammals. The guide recommends what to do in Arctic waters in order not to affect the animals, as well as maps of the most concerning areas. Passing ships can often drive marine mammals away from their usual habitat.

One of the issues that the shipping industry has been criticized is for allowing vessels to be broken up on beaches. Campaigners say that this method risks workers' safety and is the sea. Now, the industry's financial backers are also criticizing it, as many of them are reconsidering their investments over ethical and green considerations.

The Transport Minister of Ghana launched the Ghana Chamber of Shipping, a new trade association in the country. The new association will try to win the interest of the shipping industry and gather the main stakeholders in the industry from both the demand and supply side. The Ministry of Transport will cooperate with the Ghana Chamber of Shipping to find solutions for maritime problems.

During his presentation at GREEN4SEA Conference, Mr. Aleksey Nikulin, Chief Technology Officer, Humble Energy, noted that a greener and cheaper fuel alternative is available to the shipping industry using current technology. Humble Energy’s initiative builds on their extensive Energy from Waste expertise and research into solid fuel propulsion systems that use Solid Recovered Fuel Energy Pellets.

Stelios Koroneos, CEO at Soldecom, talks about the effects of digitisation in the shipping industry, highlighting that shipping has gone through a number of disruptions since the past, which required changes to the way that the whole sector is operating. Digitisation is now the new trend, but it requires vessels to be extensively retrofitted to comply with regulations, or else they will be scrapped.

Søren Skou, CEO of Maersk urged governments to end their financial support for shipping lines’ subsidies. He explained that subsidies result in overcapacity and reduced profit in the shipping sector. Mr. Skou noted that there are cases where companies are building vessels that are not needed, for companies who don’t have decent profit.