Daily Briefing September 21 2020
Free to read: Shipping must see through arguments against transparency | Timing is key as Maersk restructuring puts spotlight on jobs | The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Sustainability goes digital | Shipping’s niche operators offered 100% finance
Good morning. Here’s our quick view of everything you need to know today.
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What to watch | Analysis | Markets | In other news
What to watch
Now that data analytics allows vessel movements to be traced in a manner that can frequently expose wrongdoing, why keep the names of the miscreants secret?
Maersk has never been squeamish about job cuts. Whereas most leading container shipping companies like to make a point of retaining staff even when times are bad, the Danish line has fairly frequent culls. That is why so many former Maersk employees can now be found working for, or running, other maritime companies around the world.
Niche vessel operators are being offered 100% finance via a London-based asset investor ready to pump equity of up to 30% into sale-and-leaseback deals.
Analysis
The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Johannah Christensen of the Global Maritime Forum gives us insight into how one of the industry's leading actors in the decarbonisation space sees the efforts made elsewhere in the business and what it hopes to tackle during its most important meeting of the year next month.
California’s ports continue to record increasing containerised throughput volumes.
Markets
Spot market freight rates on the transpacific trade made little change last week as carriers refrained from forcing through another round of general rate increases.
While the coronavirus pandemic hit seaborne trade elsewhere, Southeast Asia’s imports of dry bulk goods grew by more than 15% year on year during the first eight months of this year, according to a report by Braemar ACM.
In other news
Foresight Group, a London-based shipping and oil-drilling business, has received approval to develop a compressed natural gas terminal at the Bhavnagar port in Gujarat, India.
Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container terminal, is facing criticism from shippers and forwarders after announcing it would no longer accept empty containers due to congestion.
Regulation would help engine makers reduce methane slip pollution from gas-powered ships, according to Swiss-headquartered engine developer Winterthur Gas & Diesel.
The drive towards decarbonisation must be collaborative while any regulatory or levy-based solutions must be predictable and equitable, a panel at the Future of Shipping: Decarbonisation webinar jointly organised by the International Maritime Organization and Singapore said.