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What to watch

Industry leaders are anxious to resolve the crew-change scandal as rapidly as possible, but continuing governmental inertia is maintaining the logjam, writes David Osler.

Seafarers heading to Hong Kong to sign on for work on a cargo ship must now take a virus test before departure.

The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Governments have pledged to speed up efforts to get hundreds of thousands of stranded merchant sailors home. IMO secretary-general Kitack Lim says we are in a wartime situation with the pandemic. Government responses have required time to heat up, but they are have now reached boiling point and the recent pledges are more than just promises.

Malaysia’s MISC Group has been linked with major Chinese charterer Satellite Petrochemical to take over six very large ethane carriers being built in South Korea.

Analysis

The Baltic Exchange has sent a circular to members advising them to be on the alert for any attempts at market coercion.

Week in charts: World in-service containership fleet capacity grew marginally in June compared with the previous month, while the number of very large crude carriers being used for short-term floating storage of crude and petroleum products increased in the past week.

Lines that participate in a vessel-sharing agreement are obliged to make a proper and reliable self-assessment of their liabilities under EU antitrust law. But this requires access to sufficient data, writes August J Braakman, a maritime antitrust law specialist.

Opinion

It’s a good time to consider whether we should return to the office environment after coronavirus. One management consultancy believes we should all take time to rethink work and the workplace, writes Richard Clayton.

Markets

Tanker earnings are seeing improvement during the traditionally weak third quarter as crude oil production and exports are anticipated to recover from record declines in June.

Throughput at North America’s major import container facilities is slowly improving but is expected to remain “significantly below” last year’s levels into this autumn due to continuing impacts of the coronavirus, retail experts say.

In other news

Tsakos Energy Navigation has signed an order with a South Korean yard for up to three new suezmax shuttle tankers as part of a long-term employment deal with a European charterer.

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik, the German terminal operator, has turned to machine learning in an effort to reduce dwell times and improve efficiency at its Altenwerder and Burchardkai terminals.

China Merchants Group has appointed insurance veteran Miu Jianmin as its new chairman.

Bailouts for industries, including shipping and aviation, must help, not hinder, the green energy transition, according to Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations.

Castor Maritime, the Nasdaq-listed dry bulk carrier owner, has pledged to grow its fleet further after acquiring a fourth panamax bulker.

This year's Posidonia event is “cautiously on track” to proceed in October despite the challenges thrown up by the coronavirus pandemic.