Felixstowe port workers strike to compound supply chain woes
Some 1,900 port workers have gone on strike from 21 – 28 August at the Port of Felixstowe over proposed pay increases offered by the Hutchison Ports run terminal. Members of Unite the Union voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action at the end of July.
As the UK’s largest container port Felixstowe handles around 4m teu annually or roughly 48 percent of the country’s containerised volumes and is a regular port of call on mainline Asia – Europe services.
Phil Reuben, Executive Director of supply chain and logistics consultancy SCALA, pointed out that by the time the strike was announced ships sailing from China, and other Asian ports, with UK imports had already set sail.
Ningbo-Zhoushan port sea-rail container volume soars
As of mid-August, Chuanshangang station posted a container volume of 334,500 teu.
Monthly and daily sea-rail container handling volume at Chuanshangang station both hit a new high this year. The throughput in April surpassed 50,000teu for the first time, was the highest single-month volume since the station put into operation.
To improve service capacity especially for peak season, Chuanshangang station has extended daily container inspection working hour and increased the volume to above 650 units per day.
Singapore puts automated port development front and centre
In his nationally broadcast speech PM Lee noted that the country’s seaport and airport played a “critical role” in putting the city state on the global stage.
A decade ago Singapore took the decision to consolidate the existing container terminals at Tanjong Pagar, Brani, Keppel and Pasir Panjang, that make up the world’s second largest boxport, into a single new facility located in Tuas in the far west of the island, indeed on land which was yet to be reclaimed.
The first two berths of Tuas Port started operations in December last year and PM Lee credited the country’s forward planning and investment in port infrastructure enabling it to handle the demand surges associated with the Covid pandemic.
“Because we had planned ahead, our port was able to handle extra volumes during the pandemic,” the Prime Minister stated.
“While ports in other countries experienced closures, severe congestion and long delays, but PSA, our port remained open 24/7 throughout. This reinforced Singapore’s position as the “catch-up port” where vessels made up time for delays elsewhere,” he added.
Newbuild orders at Chinese yards plunge 43.1pc in first seven months
Shipbuilding output was 20.85m dwt, dropping 13.8 percent. As the end of July, orders on hand were 103.66m dwt, an increase of 15.6 percent.
Shipbuilding export volume was 17.95m dwt, dropping 20.8 percent; newly-received export shipbuilding orders were 23.59m dwt,declining 41.5 percent; export orders on hand were 92.15m dwt, growing 16.4 percent, accounting for 86.1 percent, 91.7 percent and 88.9 percent of national volume, respectively.
China’s shipbuilding output, newly received orders and orders on hand accounted for 44.4 percent, 51.1 percent and 48.1 percent in global shipbuilding market.
During the first seven months, 15 main ship repair yards had repaired 1,859 vessels, declined 0.8 percent year-on-year.
Affected by high temperatures this summer, production capacity at some yards in South China was reduced comparing with the same period of last year, however, the profitability of major shipyards improved. 75 major Chinese yards’ profits were RMB1.67bn for the first seven months, soared 94.2 percent year-on-year.
No large tanker newbuilds ordered in over a year
According to New York broker, Poten & Partners, the last VLCC contract was placed in June 2021, followed a month later by the last Suezmax order. No new panamax tankers or LR1 tonnage have been ordered since April 2020 and only six Aframax/LR2s and seven MRs have been ordered so far this year, the broker said.
The tanker market is fraught with uncertainty. Not only do owners face prices up by close to 20-30 percent on first-half 2021 prices, but there is uncertainty on propulsion type and, of course, bigger questions about the future of tanker shipping generally as the world’s decarbonisation drive becomes more urgent.
“There is the general expectation that global oil demand (and its transportation) will likely peak within the nest 10-20 years,” Poten said in its most recent weekly Tanker Opinion.
For a shipowner, that is not a strong incentive to invest in an asset that has a 20-year life. Especially, if (in the case of a VLCC) it is 28 percent more expensive than last year and you won’t get it delivered for at least another two years.”
Containership 2050: when the box becomes the customer
What could a sophisticated data- and analytics-driven supply chain in the container segment look like? Jan-Olaf Probst, Business Director – Containerships at DNV, shares a possible future of a fully digitalized and decarbonized market and what it will take to get there. Let’s imagine that one afternoon in 2050, a young woman opens her front door. A couple of minutes earlier, she received an alert that her recent order was about to arrive. She steps out and watches an autonomous electric delivery vehicle pull up. She uses the fingerprint reader to confirm receipt of her parcel and heads back inside.
Is extending the life of a ship bad for the environment?
The maritime industry contributes nearly 940 million tons of CO2 emissions annually which accounts for nearly 2.5 percent of the world’s total CO2 emissions. But in less than 120 days from now, the IMO’s two new regulations – Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI) and Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) – will apply to existing ships of 400 gt and above. IMO’s intention is for these new regulations is to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions from shipping operations by 50 percent by 2050 (against its 2008 emission levels) and carbon intensity of all ships by 40 percent by 2030.