Daily Briefing July 21 2020
Free to read: Crew crisis is shipping’s ‘most acute problem’ in 50 years | Posidonia 2020 cancelled | UK detains vessels as seafarer contracts expire
Good morning. Here’s our quick view of everything you need to know today.
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What to watch | Analysis | Opinion | Markets | In other news
What to watch
Posidonia, the biennial international exhibition that draws the world’s maritime industries to Greece, has been cancelled this year after weeks of soul-searching by organisers.
The tens of thousands of seafarers left in limbo on board vessels because of port state restrictions provoked by the coronavirus pandemic has presented shipping with its worst crisis in the half-century, when one of Greece’s most prominent shipowners launched his career.
UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency detained five vessels in June for failing port state control inspections.
Analysis
Product-driven maritime companies are struggling to shift across to a focus on customers. Those who fail to see winds of change blowing in shipping are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Just-in-time guidelines work well for container shipping and cruiseships. But bulk commodities would benefit more from better communications between inland logistics and vessel operators.
Opinion
Lloyd’s List Podcast: Beacon, the Jeff Bezos-backed digital freight disrupter has all the hallmarks of another AI-fuelled flight of fancy, promising to revolutionise the analogue inefficiencies of our archaic maritime logistics sector. But as Beacon’s CEO Fraser Robinson reveals in this week’s podcast, he’s not here foretell the death of freight forwarding — far from it — he thinks the sector has a bright future. There will, however, be collateral damage along the way.
Markets
The slowing rate of announcements of additional blanked sailings indicates that carriers have now reached a point where they believe sufficient capacity has been removed from the market, according Sea-Intelligence.
In other news
Dutch liquefied natural gas supplier Titan LNG is expanding its operations with funding from the European Union.
The crew of an abandoned gas carrier stranded in Manila Bay have been paid after a four-month standoff with a shipowner.
Crew of a Liberian-flagged product tanker have been taken hostage in the furthest offshore act of piracy recorded in the Gulf of Guinea, according to Dryad Global.
A claim for compensation by the family of a man killed while working on the breaking of a very large crude carrier is “particularly weak” and has almost no chance of success, according to a barrister linked to the case.
Euronav is buying back more stock as it seeks to create value in the absence of support by the public markets.
Right to Reply: Julian Longson, Pole Star CEO / Managing Director.