It will be some time yet before we can know the consequences for certain. Whatever they are, there is little alternative to living with them

War-torn Yemen could soon face environmental degradation of a degree as large as any witnessed in recent decades. Shipping will not be to blame. But collective intervention from shipping is the last best hope of preventing it

The transition to net zero needs the emergence of a Field of Dreams’ factor. If you build methanol-bunkering terminals, will they come?

Seafarers are entitled to as much protection as teenagers on a rite de passage Interrail jaunt or parents relaxing by a swimming pool 

As the recent annual disclosure report establishes, shipping is currently struggling to meet existing lacklustre IMO ambitions on greenhouse gas reduction. Heaven help the industry when it is forced to take on the transition to net zero

The impasse in the Bosporus has reached crisis point. Don’t make P&I clubs the fall guys

If matters degenerate into a crazy free-for-all where each shipowner does the best for themselves individually, the industry seems collectively bound to reach the worst possible outcome, as if trapped in some real-world version of game theory’s famous prisoners’ dilemma

When it comes to climate change, shipping cannot be reduced to the roles of the hapless tramp protagonists of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece. Rather than hanging around in the hope that Godot will turn up, we need to go out and find him

Capturing a tanker is not the maritime equivalent of white triumphantly winning a rook for a bishop

Keeping an innocent crew prisoner is just as much piracy when perpetrated by states instead of pirate gangs, and therefore cannot be an element in any legitimate fight against piracy

Headline commitments to decarbonise shipping are finally being worked into the wider energy transition. The results of this year’s COP may be lower in profile as a result, but more substantive progress can come from aligning government energy transition plans with industry readiness

Shipping has so far done well from the literally killer combination of the most devastating pandemic to hit the world in a century and the most serious war in Europe since 1945. But if something can’t go on forever, it won’t

China’s zero-Covid policy has created an expensive new normal for shipping and President Xi Jinping’s steadfast stance at the policy-defining Communist Party congress suggests there is no respite on the horizon

If the G7 wants to introduce a cap on the price paid for Russian crude, it should make haste slowly. Let it talk to all concerned about potential for things to go wrong, including tanker operators

Sanctions are always a blunt instrument. But even blunt instruments are better than doing a job with no tools at all

Seeing the sector back in the black is positive for insurers — and ultimately for their shipowner clients too — but watch out for what could go wrong

The shipping industry is not on a trajectory to hit net zero by 2050. The only way it will find the pace and scale required to correct this dangerous path is to stop looking at this as a shipping problem

Workforces in the maritime transport sector are becoming increasingly militant. It is incumbent on shipping to engage and negotiate agreements

After a two-year frenzy, the container shipping market is showing signs of normalisation. The question now is, how it will avoid mistakes of the past during a period of slowdown?

Say thank you to the naval personnel who put paid to what was once a major scourge of the industry. And most of all, say thank you to the seafarers at the sharp end

The best solution, of course, would be an end to the war. Failing that, everything possible must be done to make the blue corridor work

From the dockers’ tanner strike of 1889 to the Pentonville Five dispute of 1972, stoppages on the waterfront have literally changed the course of British history. Let them stay in the history books

The container segment has been in a mess for the past two years, and an additional one-week hiccup in August may look like no big deal. But there are broader issues at stake

Do it because you clients want it and because your bankers demand it. And most of all, because it’s the right thing to do

Agreement to resume shipments is good news from a commercial standpoint, and even better news for the tens of millions who are one subsidised loaf away from an empty stomach

Many will remember the third world debt crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. We hope that what faces Sri Lanka next will be easier on its population than what came next in Argentina

In a multipolar world, the rest don’t have to follow the demands of the west. Shipping is a case in point

There are difficult conversations to be had in shipping, but having them behind closed doors in order to avoid scrutiny is a retrograde step. It is also at odds with the demands of wider society and their customers

Russia’s isolation has redrawn maritime trade lanes, but China’s coronavirus-fuelled supply chain crunch offers a glimpse of what any potential decoupling may bring in the future. If there is a single lesson of the past few years it is that reliance on a single source of supplies is never a good idea

Tanker recovery or decarbonisation play? You pays your money and you takes your choice

Whether a slimmed-down IG would meet the textbook definition of oligopoly is a matter of taste, but six entities with 90% of a market between them is never a good look

While Greece, Cyprus and Malta seek to have EU sanctions on the lifting of Russian crude watered down, European solidarity with Ukraine is more important than making money from shipping