Lloyd's List: The Shipping Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Lloyd’s List is the world’s leading source of news, analysis and data for shipping businesses and professionals. We help our customers make sound business decisions by highlighting key risks and opportunities via accurate and timely insights into their markets.
IN 1956 the SS Ideal X sailed from New Jersey to Houston with 58 containers on board, marking the birth of modern commercial container shipping.Malcom McClean’s vision of unitized, efficient and relatively cheap global freight has evolved into a global network, criss-crossing the world’s oceans to connect businesses with consumers across continents.Has there been a more important innovation in global trade? What would Malcom McClean say if he walked into a modern container terminal? And is the everyday consumer aware of just how much their lives have been changed by the development of the shipping container?Joining Joshua on the Lloyd’s List podcast are:Joe Kramek, chief executive, World Shipping Council Henning Morgen, group historian, Maersk
SHIPPING is attempting to navigate three distinct, but increasingly overlapping conflicts at present.The resumption of Houthi violence in the Red Sea can be added to the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war in the Black Sea.This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast brings you highlights from our weekly webinar, chaired by editor-in-chief Richard Meade, in which we discussed whether the Houthis really have the power or capability to attack ships en masse again, plus our senior reporter Greg Miller gives a comprehensive overview of how the tanker market is responding to the crises.Joining Richard on the podcast are:Bridget Diakun, maritime intelligence and research director, Lloyd’s ListGreg Miller, senior reporter, Lloyd’s ListIan Ralby, founder, IR Consilium
IT’S been years of waiting and lobbying, but we finally have Europe’s proposals for how the EU Emissions Trading System will look beyond 2030. The European Commission has released its long list of proposals for how to reform the cap-and-trade scheme, including how much shipping pays, and how much of the proceeds it gets back.Shipowners, like most European businesses, have to buy and surrender credits called allowances for each tonne of carbon they emit. The industry reckons it will pay about 90 billion euros into the scheme between 2030 and 2040, and it wants that money reinvested in decarbonisation.To remedy that, the European Commission wants to include earmarking 110 million allowances in a mechanism called Sustainable Maritime Alternative Propulsion, or SMAP, to subsidise low and zero-emission fuels. That’s about ten billion euros, give or take.It will crack down on evasive port calls by including some 20 more neighbouring non-EU ports in the schem. And it will also cover smaller vessels, with the minimum gross tonnage limit lowered from 5000 to just 400. Are the revisions fair? Has shipping got what it’s asked for? To find out, Lloyd’s List senior editor Declan Bush is joined by: Sotiris Raptis, secretary general of European ShipownersSimon Bergulf, vice president for environment and climate, World Shipping CouncilDelphine Kaczorowski, EU advocacy manager, Opportunity Green
SHIPPING has another hotspot to worry about, and it’s a familiar one. Reports that the Houthis were preparing to attack commercial shipping were proven correct after at least one Saudi-linked vessel was attacked in the Red Sea yesterday. This week’s podcast comes from Lloyd’s List’s weekly webinar, which usually focusses on the Strait of Hormuz, but this time also looks at the impact of violence resuming in the Red Sea and where vessels that have already been diverted once would go to then. Joining Joshua on this week’s episode are: Bridget Diakun, maritime intelligence and research director, Lloyd’s List Matthew Rajendra, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List Crystal Chan, principal analyst, InfospectrumListen to this week's webinar here: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5431828/8E1ADBE115D62A0FD8046D6F13A32E5A
LESS than a month after its introduction, the US revoked General License X, the waiver allowing the sale and transport of Iranian oil granted in the wake of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries. Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade and maritime risk analyst Tomer Raanan speak to several sanctions experts to find out if the short-lived waiver benefitted anyone, and why it will take more than just a stroke of the pen to undo decades of legislation aimed at crippling the Iranian economy. Joining the podcast this week are: •Claire O'Neill McCleskey, co-founder, Clarity Consultancy•Claire Grunewald, co-founder, Clarity Consultancy•Leigh Hansson, partner, Reed Smith
To mark 2026’s Day of the Seafarer, this edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast asks what shipping has learned from the Strait of Hormuz crisis from a seafarer perspective. Perhaps most importantly, he asks experts whether crews feel empowered to exercise their right to refuse to transit if they feel unsafe, and learns more about how associations and unions are seeking to improve welfare and mental health support during crises. Joining Matt on this week’s podcast are: Helio Vicente, employment affairs director, International Chamber of ShippingAnil Devli, chief executive, Indian National Shipowners AssociationCaptain Sundeep Sequeria, chair, seafarers’ factors workgroup, Singapore Shipping AssociationPeter Rouch, secretary general, The Mission to SeafarersLearn more about Lloyd's List Intelligence at https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/
It is a seller’s market at the moment in the ship recycling sector, thanks to a shortage of tonnage. But Hitesh Vyas of the Singapore-based cash buyer Wirana says in this first of six podcasts that this could change, depending on the outcome of the situation in the Gulf.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brough to you by Veson. Visit www.veson.com for more informationOpen, closed, and now open again? Optimism that traffic might return to something resembling normality fairly quickly turned to uncertainty again as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard proclaimed the Strait of Hormuz closed on Saturday. It accused the US of not following its agreement and cited Israeli strikes on Lebanon as rationale for closing the strait again. How, as a shipowner, do you begin to decide whether to transit the strait or return to the Middle East Gulf? Will you have to pay a toll? What are investors making of the uncertainty? To answer those questions, Lloyd’s List senior reporter Joshua Minchin was joined by: •Richard Meade, editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List •Cichen Shen, Asia Pacific editor, Lloyd’s List •Tomer Raanan, maritime risk analyst, Lloyd’s List
Trusted data is essential for shipping to get the best from the AI revolution, argues Russ Hubbard, Chief Commercial Officer of Veson Nautical. In this podcast, he explains why that is the case and considers the future impact of further AI implementation on maritime companies and their personnel.
IT’S now been two years since the EU Emissions Trading System was extended to shipping. But it hasn’t always been a happy relationship.Shipowners are not necessarily keen paying extra taxes, especially the green variety. Meanwhile operators in Asia are not fond of having to create accounts in EU countries to report and pay their emissions bills, without seeing any of the revenue.On the other side, greens don’t like the ETS because the extra cost per tonne — about €70 to €80 ($81 to $93) over the past year — isn’t enough to make switching to greener fuels worthwhile.Shipping’s share of ETS credits is about sixty to eighty million a year – less than 10% of the market, so the price of those allowances is outside the industry’s control.It’s considered a good regulation for emissions on land, but a poor one for emissions at sea.But now, an opportunity for change is on the horizon.To find out what changes shipping wants, Lloyd’s List senior reporter Declan Bush spoke to World Shipping Council vice president of environment and climate, Simon Bergulf.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brought to you by Veson. Visit www.veson.com for more informationEVERY year, seafarers are held for months on end on suspicion of crimes that ultimately, there is little evidence they had anything to do with.Whether its pollution events or, as is increasingly common, suspected drug smuggling, crew are often the only potential perpetrators investigators can lay their hands on.So is there a lot the industry can do to stop this? Once seafarers do land themselves on the wrong side of the law, how can flag states intercede on their behalf?Joining Joshua on the podcast this week are:Ben Bailey, director of programme, Mission to SeafarersKiran Khosla, principal legal director, International Chamber of Shipping Eleni Antoniadou, lawyer, GardLeo Bolivar, country manager, Marshall Islands Registry
ATTEND any one of the multiple receptions and parties thrown in Athens this week and you would not walk away necessarily thinking anyone in shipping is remotely worried. A packed exhibition with the whole spectrum of industry stakeholders demonstrated shipping’s diversity and vibrance, but quietly, over coffees in corners, there was tangible concern. Markets are good at the moment, ask any tanker owner, but the undercurrent of caution was palpable. On this week’s episode of the podcast are: •Joshua Minchin, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List •Linton Nightingale, deputy editor, Lloyd’s List •Declan Bush, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast is brought to you by Veson SHIPPING is resilient, and many will tell you it thrives on volatility, but the number of and frequency of crises is taking its toll.It’s also preventing the industry from having honest conversations about other, equally meaningful and perhaps even more treacherous problems coming down the track.Are we going to run out of seafarers? Do we really understand AI? Do regulators listen to shipowners and how long can we expect what some are calling the next supercycle to last?Joining Joshua on this week’s podcast from Capital Link are:Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Costas Delaportas, chief executive, Drydel ShippingCristina Saenz de Santa Maria, chief executive maritime, DNVAndy McKeran, chief growth officer, Lloyd's Register Joshua Divin, senior vice president maritime business development, American Bureau of Shipping Polys Hajioannou, chief executive officer, Safe BulkersSotiris Raptis, secretary general, European Shipowners
Speak to a shipowner about bunker supply at the moment, and you’ll find a spectrum of responses. Some are remarkably calm: nothing to worry about, supply is healthy despite the still closed Strait of Hormuz. Yes you might have to pay a bit more, but that’s shipping and you can still operate effectively.Others are decidedly less optimistic. For them, the Strait of Hormuz represents a real threat to bunker supply in major hubs around the world, and spiraling pricing could make some voyages unprofitable altogether. So what’s the reality? Should you be worried about supply? Is quality suffering as a result of scarcity? And how has this latest geopolitical crisis affected how bunkering works as a sector? Joining Joshua on the podcast are: •Alexander Prokopakis, executive director, International Bunker Industry Association•Kenneth Dam, executive director, TFG•Peter Grünwaldt, head of bunkering, Hafnia•Matthew Rajendra, senior reporter, Lloyd's ListLearn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/
You can throw almost every outlook or prediction made for the tanker market in 2026 in the garbage, says Lloyd’s List senior reporter Greg Miller.After all, the US-Iran war and ensuing Strait of Hormuz crisis is perhaps the black swan to end all black swans for the market.More than two months later, the chokepoint remains closed: so what happens to tanker stocks now?To find out, Greg spoke to Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Robertson, who ran through the year so far for tanker stocks and offered some insight as to what might be in store if the crisis continues into late 2026.
THIS week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast looks at the longer-term impacts of the Strait of Hormuz crisis.How much damage to the energy market is already priced in? When are Asian companies expecting the strait to be reopened? And will other nations, such as Indonesia, look at chokepoints in their own waters and wonder whether they can turn them to their advantage?To find out the answers to these questions and more, catch the full webinar on-demand here:https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5348668/FDDE3719FFE364EEDA017BE4BAB3C4CCJoining Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade on the podcast are:Cichen Shen, Asia-Pacific editor, Lloyd’s ListIan Ralby, chief executive, IR Consilium
LAST week, delegates once again met in London for the International maritime Organization’s marine environment protection committee. The two editions in 2025, MEPC 83 in April and the extraordinary session in October, generated some of the biggest stories in shipping. To the surprise of many, the net zero framework agreed in April’s meeting was not adopted in October, thanks to stiff opposition from the US and several oil-producing states. Instead, a one-year postponement was agreed, and shipping’s green deal was left perhaps not dead, but certainly not healthy either. So back we are again, this time at MEPC84, and what has changed? Lloyd’s List senior reporter Declan Bush, who covers decarbonization for Lloyd’s List and attended every day of MEPC84, sat down to explain what happened last week and whether it gets shipping any closer to a decision on a net zero framework or not. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/.
This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd's RegisterDECARBONISATION, changing trade lanes and concerns of seafarer shortages – there is no shortage of reasons for why shipping executives might be losing sleep.But add to that the Strait of Hormuz crisis and the job of running a shipping company has become even more difficult.Our outlook forums are usually a chance to hear from experts from within the shipping industry on what they think are the most important challenges the sector is likely to face over the next few years.But before we get to the crisis in the strait and the fallout from it, Richard started by asking all of our guests a now-familiar question: what keeps you up at night?Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are:Nick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd’s RegisterJoe Kramek, chief executive, World Shipping CouncilAdam Kent, managing director, MSIGaby Bornheim, president, German Shipowners’ AssociationCaptain Raja Subramaniam, chief executive, Fleet ManagementMartina Bozadzhieva, managing director macro forecasting, Oxford Economics
This episode is brought to you by Wirana ShippingDOES shipping get a good deal when it comes to ship finance? Is Europe still remotely important anymore as a finance hub? Or has the centre of gravity moved eastwards? And how on earth do you make decisions about multidecade financing with so much uncertainty around decarbonisation regulation?That’s just a taste of the questions we tackle this week, as we try to answer as many as possible surrounding ship finance in 30 minutes. Joining senior reporter Joshua Minchin, and law and insurance editor David Osler on this week’s episode are:Guillaume Branco, managing director – asset-based finance, EurazeoNitin Mathur, managing director – commercial shipping, Al Seer MarineTien Tai, partner, HFW
JAN-ERIK Räsänen has been on a personal journey that has led him to some new understandings about how to power both future and existing ships towards decarbonisation, he tells listeners to this podcast.He is chief technology officer of the Finnish ship design and engineering company Foreship, which has been part of the consulting engineering inspection and certification group RINA since June 2025. Foreship’s specialism is the passengership sector, but his views are applicable to all ship types and to both newbuildings and existing ships.Alongside all the alternative fuels now being developed, such as biofuels, e-fuels and even nuclear power, he ranks batteries as a significant technology to help fulfil global and regional decarbonisation goals.It is a view that he attributes to a conversion experience, thanks to a chance meeting in 2011 with the CTO of a battery company during a ship inspection in Vancouver. At the time, he was sceptical that batteries were viable for ships. “My immediate thoughts were that this guy must be crazy,” he recalls. But that meeting was soon followed by a contract to explore whether two ferries could operate solely on batteries, which led to the largest battery retrofits ever done on ferries at that time.With installed battery capacity across the global fleet now standing at about 1,900 MWh, he concedes that “my first impressions of batteries on board ships were completely wrong” and says in this podcast that he now has a mantra: “electrify what can be electrified”.He provides details in the podcast of a number of battery-related passengership “firsts” with which Foreship has since been involved, including the largest battery conversion on a cruiseship and a ferry conversion that features both NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) and LFP (lithium-iron phosphate) batteries on board.Installations such as these allow the generating engines to run at their optimal output, increasing efficiency compared with non-battery power plants, he says.He acknowledges that a variety of solutions will be needed for all ship types and sizes to meet the emissions — and therefore efficiency — goals implied by the IMO and other regulations and ambitions, so he maintains what he calls an open-minded approach to technology choices.For example, as well as his enthusiasm for batteries, he says in the podcast how alternative fuels can help align reality and requirements, but only if they are green fuels, such as bio-methanol, e-methanol or e-diesel. He is less keen on ammonia, especially for passengerships, because of safety concerns.He also discusses LNG — which is a significant fuel in the passenger sector — but is concerned about its associated methane slip, especially at low loads, which brings him back to his core message: “the easiest way to reduce the methane slip from an engine is to install batteries” so that they can operate at their optimum load.
How do you actually transit through the Strait of Hormuz at the moment? Are masters worried when they are making the trip? Is it organised or chaotic? Chief executive of the Indian Shipowners’ Association Anil Devli revealed what he has heard from masters that have made the trip at our India Outlook held in Mumbai last week. Chaired by Lloyd’s List’s senior reporter Matthew Rajendra, the panel discussed the procedure involved in making the trip, the plight of seafarers trapped in the Middle East Gulf and the wider impact that the crisis might have on Indian trade and maritime strategy in the longer term. Joining Matthew on this week’s episode are: Anil Devli, chief executive, Indian Shipowners’ Association P. K Mishra, managing director, Indian Register of Shipping Kiran Prasad Susarla, national head, YES Bank
Discussion about decarbonisation have moved from technical departments within shipping companies into their commercial and financial teams, the president and chief operating officer of Veson Nautical, Sean Riley, says in this Lloyd’s List podcast.While there is uncertainty around the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework, regional requirements — especially those being implemented by the EU — provide a certainty that cannot be ignored. The continuously evolving and expanding nature of regulations in shipping means that decarbonisation is now “both a commercial and operational reality”, he says.Speaking in early March, Riley reflected on the first year of the EU’s decarbonisation scheme, the FuelEU Maritime Regulation, which ended on January 31. By the end of March, shipping companies will have heard from their verifier about the compliance status of each of their ships based on that first year’s data and those results might lead to “some interesting decision-making challenges or dilemmas”, he says.In the podcast, Riley explains why he views FuelEU in particular as an especially impactful regulation to ship operations. He says its “choice driven” options have both positive and negative implications for shipowners and operators, while adding a level of complexity that must be addressed by companies’ systems and processes.He anticipates that the outcome will see companies shift their focus away from strict compliance towards optimising the financial benefits of compliance, creating a trading strategy based around FuelEU-related decision-making.However, Riley also emphasises that it’s ultimately not about optimising for any one regulation in particular, but rather proactively building decarbonisation into daily decisions in a way that leaves room for inevitable change.He explains in the podcast why this commercial response to a change in the regulatory landscape is different from previous environment-inspired changes, such as the sulphur limits imposed on fuel. He contrasts how the impact of low-sulphur fuel was mainly restricted to operating costs, while decarbonisation requirements today are reaching further, across fixing, operating and trading strategies.The flexibility around how to comply provides the industry choice but has also resulted in a lack of clarity about setting commercial priorities and knowing exactly what conditions to optimise for. Instead, these will vary depending on a ship’s location, so “you’ve got to invest in systems and processes that can absorb change easily”, he says.Riley considers whether some industry sectors are responding differently from others and refers to the potential of AI to resolve some of the uncertainties companies face. “There will certainly be more regulations,” he says, and emphasises: “for our clients, pretending that this is not a commercial reality is no longer an option”.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast is brought to you by Veson. Find out more at www.veson.com/decarb-guideTHE accusations of piracy and unlawful interference with freedom of navigation have been coming thick and fast for a while now, but tactics that generate accusations of piracy one day can’t simply be rebranded as “law enforcement” or “counter-narcoterrorism” the next.The fact that governments are currently accusing each other of undermining the basic principle of freedom of navigation is arguably good news. This cornerstone of international law, guaranteeing ships of all nations can sail, trade, and operate freely on the high seas and through international straits, as enshrined in UNCLOS, is under threat. But if governments are still pointing fingers, then there is, at least, a legal principle still in play to defend. The immediate geopolitical and security threats to maritime trade are self-evident right now from the Strait of Hormuz to the Baltic, to the South China Sea. But the long-term consequences of eroding the rights of innocent passage carry a potentially bigger risk to the global economy.Have these consequences been properly thought through by those that threaten to upend the principle of freedom of navigation? Joining Richard on the podcast are: Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security, The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Kristina Siig, professor of maritime law and law of the Sea, University of Southern DenmarkCharlie Brown, senior analyst, United Against Nuclear IranRobert Beckman, emeritus professor, ocean law and policy programme, National University of SingaporeIan Ralby, founder, IR Consilium
SHORTLY before IMO’s 21st Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships and its 84th Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting, two leading environmental researchers warn that those meetings’ expected focus on biofuels will not solve shipping’s carbon emissions problems.As Comer explains, decisions on which fuels will qualify under any IMO climate policy are being developed now, along with their corresponding lifecycle assessment guidelines. Any mistake in drafting those guidelines will take decades to fix, he predicts but, as they stand, they do not account for the emissions that correspond to the ‘indirect land use change’ emissions linked to biofuel production, he says.Menezes underlines in the podcast the importance of considering the social and economic sustainability aspects of biofuels and explains why she believes that, if IMO ignores these impacts of biofuels, “we risk a transition that might look green on paper, but creates significant negative impacts on health, pollution and local economies”.Both speakers explain that biofuel might appear attractive to regulators because of its cost, but they say that, if shipping adopts biofuel, global demand for it will triple by 2035, leading to significant impacts on other food prices and availability and to environmental damage caused as more land is turned over to its production.In their podcast, they also raise a range of other concerns; for example, making biofuels from waste products might perversely encourage fraud and the creation of more waste, Menezes says. She is also concerned about biomethane, which poses the same climate risks as its conventional counterpart as a result of methane slip — which is 80 times more potent than CO2.To produce biofuels in a sustainable way requires “really strong protections”, Comer says, for example to prevent fraud during its production and to protect human rights, water quality and other environmental aspects.Such models already exist, he says, citing the International Civil Aviation Organization and the FuelEU Maritime regulation. He goes on to say that e-fuels made using green hydrogen are the best zero-carbon fuels, rather than biofuels.And Menezes reminds listeners that net zero fuels are not the only way to reduce shipping’s emissions. The starting point, she says, should be “the prioritisation of speed reduction and wind propulsion. These are some of the most effective tools we have”.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast is brought to you by Veson. Find out more at www.veson.com/decarb-guideFREEDOM of navigation — the legal principle that states ships from any country have the right to sail freely in international waters — is under attack.It has been for some time.Long before the Strait of Hormuz became the latest global chokepoint to be weaponised a confluence of geopolitical shifts, security threats and an accelerating frequency of legal assaults have been eroding this fundamental principle.And this is not some arcane point of law. This is the legal principle upon which globalised trade is built.Without maritime security, there can be no global security. Without Freedom of navigation there can be no globalised trade.For the first time since the Cold War, maritime trade lanes have become contested zones and the rules-based order that shipping has previously relied on to protect it has started to disintegrate.The once unthinkable, but entirely predictable closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has alerted the world once again to the fragility of global supply chains.But this is no anomaly.From the Red and Black Seas to the Baltic and the Taiwan Strait: shipping’s access to trade lanes is increasingly coming under fire while a political and legal war is being waged in the background to redefine what is and is not acceptable under the law of the sea.Just over a year ago when we first raised this question about the future of freedom of navigation in this podcast, our assembled experts were concerned about what happens next. Maritime security has taken a nosedive since then and trade is increasingly being geopolitically conditioned – so over the next two editions of this podcast, Lloyd’s List will again ask whether the concept of concept of freedom of navigation is under threat…Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are: Sal Mercogliano, founder, What’s Going on With Shipping? Ian Ralby, founder, IR Consilium Caroline Tuckett, associate fellow, Royal United Services Institute
AS the conflict in the Middle East continues, the full effects on global shipping markets are beginning to become clearer. This week’s episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast once again come to you from our weekly briefing on the Middle East crisis, featuring our journalists and analysts. There’s a focus on the container market and shadow fleet impact, as well as an update on the volume of traffic and operability of ports in the region. Featuring in this week’s episode are: Richard Meade, editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s Lis Bridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst, Lloyd’s List Cichen Shen, APAC editor, Lloyd’s List Neil Dekker, senior analyst, Infospectrum Watch the full briefing here:https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5273976/D81639300040BBFB6B5988BC9F28135E
COLLECTING data to meet emissions regulations is good for business, two guests from 90POE tell listeners to this latest Lloyd’s List Intelligence podcast.Dhara Patel, Head of Product Performance at the maritime technology provider, 90POE — a name that reflects shipping’s role in transporting 90% of everything — and its Senior Advisor for Performance, Dimitris Argyros, argue that the data that must be collected and reported to meet IMO and regional regulators can also give shipowners and operators significant commercial advantages.Mr Argyros refers to a number of regulations that rely on fuel consumption — and thus emissions — data, in particular for IMO’s Data Collection System (DCS) and the EU’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Regulation. Complying with the latter effectively provides a licence to operate, he says.Ms Patel also acknowledges the operational significance of these regulatory requirements, saying that when talking to fleet managers, it is “really striking... how quickly the conversation is shifting from a compliance conversation to a... financial budgeting conversation.”Those discussions find a particular focus around the need for a “clear strategy around emissions” to avoid the penalties for non-compliance with, in particular, the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). For a large fleet, these could amount to millions of euros per year, she says.At least with the EU ETS and its FuelEU Maritime regulation, their application is clear, Mr Argyros says. Based on factors including a carbon price coupled with compliance penalties or surpluses, “it’s quite easy to quantify [their] impact,” he says.But when it comes to the IMO’s annual Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII), “it gets a bit more interesting”, because vessels with lower ratings are less attractive in the market, he says, with charter parties often requiring a ship to be returned with the same CII rating as when it was delivered.Ms Patel offers some comments in the podcast based on feedback from compliance managers who are “having to deal with multiple reporting frameworks simultaneously” while managing emissions, planning voyages and optimising their commercial planning, which “leads to an increased demand in having the right data near real time”.She believes that this is where platforms such as 90 POE’s OpenOcean STUDIO can simplify management of multiple systems, each generating their own data that might be stored in separate siloes. By making all this accessible, she says that the data that has been collected for compliance can be used to discern “real time actionable insights.”This approach will be especially significant in the future, Mr Argyros suggests, as new fuels come into use and if IMO tightens its CII thresholds. Looking ahead, he is not hopeful of IMO and EU emissions requirements becoming aligned, “and that’s the real challenge,” he concludes.
THE conflict in the Middle East is entering its second full week, and shipping continues to find itself on the frontlines.Vessels have been attacked and seafarers have paid with their lives, as missiles are exchanged back and forth over the Middle East Gulf.The Strait of Hormuz is at the very centre of this conflict’s consequences. The narrow chokepoint is critical to global energy supply, and traffic through it has slowed to a trickle.So is the strait itself effectively closed to shipping? Will owners take the risk to secure huge charter rates? How is the insurance sector providing cover for those that do want to transit the strait?Listen to the episode and register for the webinar on demand to get the answers to these questions and many more.Joining Richard on this week’s podcast areBridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst, Lloyd’s ListCichen Shen, APAC editor, Lloyd’s ListTomer Raanan, maritime risk analyst, Lloyd’s ListDavid Osler, law and marine insurance editor, Lloyd’s ListRegister for Lloyd’s List’s briefing on the Strait of Hormuz here: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5264575/E998B50EC5FF87C27028010CCA885055This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast is brought to you by Veson. Find out more at www.veson.com/decarb-guide
The shadow fleet has started the year under pressure. Millions of barrels of unsold Iranian and Russian crude have accumulated in storage due to buyers switching to unsanctioned barrels at reasonable prices.But as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine looms, a step change in sanctions enforcement has the potential to disrupt shadow fleet trades much more dramatically.The US is rumoured to be looking at more shadow fleet targets to intercept and usher off into the scrapyards.Meanwhile, there is a crackdown looming in Europe, and this time they are serious.The EU’s long-trailed shift to a full maritime services ban still have hit a few political hurdles, but the immediate direction of EU policy promises to significantly ratchet up the sanctions imposed on Russian oil.This increased pressure coincides with an influx of shadow fleet tonnage back into the Russian flag, a lot of which switched following US intervention in Venezuela.That Moscow is keeping a closer eye on its fleet may be evidence that Europe’s pressure (not to mention US boardings) is working and the shadow fleet is beginning to feel the heat.Speaking on this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast: Bridget Diakun, Senior Risk and Compliance AnalystTomer Raanan, Maritime Risk AnalystRichard Meade, Editor-in-Chief
Synmax chief executive officer Eric Anderson joins Lloyd’s List Intelligence global head of compliance and regulatory affairs Eric Orsini to discuss how satellite-derived intelligence is becoming essential in offering ‘ground truth’ evidence for illicit activities being conducted in the maritime space.
THE electronic bill of lading has been one of the most talked-about innovations in container shipping for years now. Advocates say it can slash costs, cut fraud, and ultimately unlock an entirely new world of digital trade finance. Sceptics say we've been hearing that promise for a decade — and paper still dominates.The latest DCSA figures put global EBL adoption at around eleven percent. That's growing, but it's a long way from the one-hundred-percent target that container shipping carriers have set themselves for 2030.So where do we actually stand? To find out, APAC editor Cichen Shen sat down with two people at the centre of the shift: George Guo, the chief executive of IQAX, one of the two largest EBL providers in the world by volume; and Peter Hartz, Maersk's head of ocean surcharges, value-added services and energy products.
In the last episode in our series preparing you for the year ahead, we turn our attention to the dry bulk and shipbuilding sector. Senior reporter Greg Miller and markets editor Robert Willmington assess how each market fared in 2025 before laying out what you should be across in 2026, including an increased focus on tonne miles for the dry bulk sector and the continuing interest shown by national governments in shipbuilding as a strategic business. Will China continue importing record amounts of iron ore? Does it matter if volumes drop off if voyage length increases? Will we see more tankers and bulkers being built or will yards continue to fixate on containership orders? Listen to find out the answers to these questions and more and ensure you’re prepared for what the rest of 2026 has to throw at shipping. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-list
SHIPPING’S road to net zero was made longer and more complicated in 2025, a year which was supposed to clear up a lot of the uncertainty hanging over shipowners looking to make investment decisions for years to come. But events at the International Maritime Organization in October’s extraordinary meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee mean shipowners must again wait and see if a global carbon price can be agreed, and if so what it means for the future of their fleets. Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade and senior reporter Declan Bush help answer a few of the outstanding questions, or at least narrow down the ones to ask, and make sure you’re prepared for the year ahead when it comes to decarbonisation policy and technology. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-list
AS we continue our series to prepare you for the year ahead, attention turn to the container market, which is dominated by one big question: will carriers return to the Red Sea this year or not? Some have already signalled a gradual return, while other have kept their counsel. Lloyd’s List deputy editor Linton Nightingale and Infospectrum senior analyst Neil Dekker explain why a return to the Red Sea could spell a rate hike initially, but will ultimately be bad news for carriers. Plus, Linton explains why the demise of the workhorse of the container market could be bad news for some ports. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-list
It's been an exciting start to the year. That somewhat of an understatement comes from Lloyd’s List senior reporter Greg Miller, who in this week’s episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast tries to make sense of the crazy start to 2026 and how geopolitical events might affect tanker markets. Trump’s intervention in Venezuela has changed the game completely, but it follows historically high crude tanker rates in 2025, reaching the six-figure mark at some points, before trending downwards towards the end of the year. Greg talks us through the market outlook for both crude and product tankers in the wake of such instability and gives you a big picture of the year ahead for one of shipping’s most exciting sectors. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-list
As events in 2026 continue to move at considerable pace, ensuring compliance and assessing risk as a shipping company is only becoming more difficult. Help is at hand though, as Lloyd’s List senior risk and compliance analyst Bridget Diakun and maritime risk analyst Tomer Raanan point out some key trends to keep an eye on in the year ahead. They explain how the shadow fleet is evolving and why an end to Russian sanctions doesn’t necessarily mean an end to the shadow fleet too. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-list
REGIME change in Venezuela, shifting shadow fleets and the small matter of how to decarbonise one of the world’s most critical industries. Who’d be a shipowner in 2026? To kick off the new year, Lloyd’s List is bringing you a series of shorter podcast episodes highlighting key issues to watch out for in each of our key topics, including the tanker, container and dry bulk markets, risk and compliance plus the ongoing decarbonisation saga. But to start with, editor-in-chief Richard Meade and APAC editor Cichen Shen give you a broader, overall picture of the most pressing issues facing shipping. And the list is a long one. Learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/lloyds-list
P needs.For a while that worked, especially because the Asian lenders were politically mandated to keep domestic shipyard orderbooks as full as possible.But even that arrangement has been under strain in the last 12 months, thanks to tariff and port fee tensions between Washington and Beijing.So what happens now? If you need to borrow money next year, who is going to lend it to you and how much will you be expected to pay?Joining David on the podcast this week are:Stephen Fewster, global head of shipping finance, ING BankPankaj Khanna, chief executive, Heidmar Maritime HoldingsDimitris Karamacheras, partner, Hill Dickinson
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast is brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org for more information.LAST week, Lloyd’s List held its Annual Outlook Forum at the beautiful Trinity House in London, sponsored by Lloyd’s Register. Having gathered a baseline of crowdsourced knowledge from Lloyd’s List readers, we invited a star-studded line-up of shipping’s sharpest minds to join us for a discussion of the opportunities and threats that will be shaping shipping next year and beyond.In a year dominated by tariffs, port fees, continuing security concerns in the Red and Black Seas, and the faltering of shipping’s decarbonisation drive, our panel reveal what keeps them awake at night and discuss shipping’s incredible resilience in the face of increasingly challenging conditions.Joining editor-in-chief Richard Meade on this episode are:Cargill Ocean Transportation president, Jan DielemanHanwha Ocean Europe chief executive, Claire WrightLloyd’s Register chief executive, Nick BrownZodiac Maritime head of regulatory affairs, Katy WareSky news economics editor, Ed ConwayDownload our Key Takeaways document from this event, including our Outlook Survey 2025 results, here: https://info.lloydslistintelligence.com/london-outlook-forum-key-takeaways
PRESIDENT Trump tops this year’s Top 100 People list and ranks as the most influential person in the shipping industry.But why? Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade and deputy editor Linton Nightingale discuss why there was only ever one decision to be made for the top spot and point out some other high-profile entries in this year’s rankings.The full list is available to subscribers via the link below:https://www.lloydslist.com/one-hundred-edition-sixteenSubscribe to Lloyd’s List here or learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence here.
In this candid podcast, Bureau Veritas Marine and Offshore’s cyber security technical leader Panagiotis Anastasiou outlines his concerns about what he views as shipping’s limited approach to cyber security and a need for increased awareness of its importance.His career-long knowledge and experience of cyber security arrangements in the aerospace sector — particularly with satellite technology — gives him an authoritative overview of cyber security and, for an industry that has autonomous vessels in development, he had expected to find shipping to be very advanced in its cyber security implementation and attitudes. Instead, he found that was not the case.His remarks include an example of a recent incident in which a service provider’s systems were compromised, affecting at least 120 ships. The breach was subsequently repaired but the full story prompts Anastasiou to observe that “we fall in the same hole again and again”.He says this is because of limited efforts to prepare for cyber security difficulties. In contrast to shipping’s approach, cyber security is the starting point when satellite systems are designed, he says. Controls, procedures and governance are built on that foundation, with ground infrastructure and component design following on. This approach should be common to all industries, including marine, he says.He acknowledges that maritime regulations now apply to cyber security which make it mandatory to take precautions, but he believes that shipowners and their system suppliers should go further.Attitudes must changeSo, he explains in the podcast that attitudes must change and he outlines some ideas about how cyber security awareness could be strengthened by better – and repeated – education and cyber drills that are backed up by companies’ tested policies on how to respond to cyber security incidents.He goes on to describe how a cyber attack on a vessel might be triggered by an attack on shoreside systems, given the growing connectivity between ship and shore and vice versa. Not only that, but the implications of a maritime cyber attack can extend far beyond the company itself, since any resulting operational delay could have an impact on an entire supply chain.Class societies have addressed cyber security concerns by developing two Unified Requirements — UR 26 and UR 27 — and Anastasiou was a member of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) Cyber Systems Panel that developed them.But he suggests in the podcast that these should be viewed as starting points for class societies to evolve requirements to match the pace of change in technology. As a response to his remarks, he encourages listeners to conduct internal assessments of their own cyber security and to reach out to their class societies for guidance to improve their resilience.
More than two years has passed since the hijacking of car carrier Galaxy Leader by the Houthis, which signalled the advent of a campaign of terror from the Yemeni rebel group on international shipping.In that time, several vessels have been sunk and many seafarers have unfortunately lost their lives.The impact on global shipping has of course been sizeable, with most key container carriers deciding to reroute services via the Cape of Good Hope instead.But Houthi activity has quelled in recent weeks, with no vessels attacked since Eternity C. in July, after a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hamas; the Houthis’ purported aim is to support the people of Gaza.Whispers of a return have grown into murmurs, with comments from Maersk suggesting a return to the Red Sea may be sooner rather than later.The Danish giant said it would “take steps” to return to the Suez Canal and Red Sea “as soon as conditions allow” after a meeting with the Suez Canal Authority.So, should we expect a return to the Red Sea imminently then? Joining Joshua on the podcast this week are: Ian Ralby, founder and chief executive, IR Consilium Jakob Larsen, chief security and safety officer, BIMCOBridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst, Lloyd’s ListTake the Outlook survey here: https://lloydslist.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1X5A55mVBKM156m
CLIMATE diplomacy is not dead, but it’s not looking too healthy right now.A month after the International Maritime Organization’s Net-Zero Framework was put on life support for a year in the hope that a cure could be found, many of the same politicians, negotiators, non-governmental organisations, claques and hacks still reeling from that setback headed to Brazil for this year’s COP climate summit.A push by more than 80 countries for plans to quit fossil fuels ultimately failed, but states did manage a less ambitious agreement to keep the wheels from falling off.So where does that leave shipping?“Not dead yet” is hardly the rallying cry that will spur a generation of bold zero-carbon innovation and investment.We gathered insights from people who were in the thick of the COP negotiations for shipping, and where the IMO discussions leave us and what happens next.Joining Richard on the podcast this week are:Ellie Besley-Gould, chief executive of the Sustainable Shipping InitiativeKatharine Palmer, shipping lead at the UN High-Level Climate Champions teamChristiaan De Beukelaer, senior lecturer in culture and climate at the University of Melbourne and author of ‘Trade Winds’Beatriz Martinez Romera, associate professor of environmental and climate change law at the University of CopenhagenSubscribe to Lloyd's List: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-listLearn more about Lloyd's List Intelligence: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/
TALK long enough about green shipping scenarios and sooner or later all roads lead to Africa. Africa’s renewable energy potential, particularly in solar and wind, is vast and largely untapped, which explains why green energy investment in Africa is booming.Imports of solar panels, largely from China, are up 60% in the past 12 months alone. While that is from a relatively low base, the investments are coming thick and fast when it comes to clean fuel production.Given the collapse of the Net-Zero Framework at the International Maritime Organization and the context of a somewhat lacklustre COP out in Brazil, you may well be asking yourself: “why am I listening to yet another decarbonisation diatribe?”Regardless of the headline political headwinds, the business case for green shipping projects continues to be relevant. And if you’re looking for some optimism to get you through some admittedly uncertain times when it comes to shipping’s decarbonisation agenda, Africa is good place to start.This week’s episode of the podcast travels to Namibia and South Africa, via a green corridor into Europe, to understand why Africa could hold the key to shipping’s decarbonisation.Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are:Alexander Saverys, chief executive, CMB.Tech Jesse Fahnestock, decarbonisation director, Global Maritime ForumJames Mnyupe, senior vice-president sub-Saharan Africa, ThyssenkruppSubscribe to Lloyd's List: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/…oyds-listLearn more about Lloyd's List Intelligence: www.lloydslistintelligence.com/
OVER the past few months, our team of analysts has been quietly at work, giving our shadow fleet* watchlist a huge revamp.For those not in the know, the list identifies vessels that fit a specified set of criteria making them likely candidates for the shadow fleets serving Russia, Iran and Venezuela.As the sanction campaigns from the UK, US and EU intensify, the behaviour and identifying characteristics of these vessels has changed — telltale giveaways in 2023 are not the same in 2025 at all.With that in mind, we thought we’d bring on our two in-house shadow fleet experts to explain what’s changed and why you should take notice.Lloyd’s List reporter Joshua Minchin sat down with Lloyd’s List senior risk and compliance analyst Bridget Diakun and maritime risk analyst Tomer Raanan to understand how things have changed.Subscribe to Lloyd’s List here, or learn more about Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
Spencer and the Co-op.Many big players in the maritime industries have also been on the receiving end, from boxship giants Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM to ports giant DP World and top broker Clarksons.A recent report from IBM, which examined data breaches experienced by about 600 organisations worldwide, put the average cost of an incident at $4.4m (or £3.3m).What is clear is that cyber risk is a growing threat, as hackers becoming increasingly more sophisticated.This special joint Insurance Day/Lloyd’s List podcast will look at how insurance can at least mitigate the worst impacts for companies in both the maritime and wider business sectors.Joining Insurance Day reporter Queenie Shaikh are:Robert Dorey, chief executive, AstaaraWilliam Altman, director, CyberCubeStephen Wares, head of international underwriting, CoalitionSubscribe to Lloyd's List: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/lloyds-listLearn more about Lloyd's List Intelligence: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.SHIPPING has a serious efficiency problem.There is the obvious uncertainty and chaos within the International Maritime Organization-led decarbonisation plans.But this is not just a carbon efficiency problem — the current direction of geopolitical drivers generally are making shipping, and global trade, significantly less efficient.US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s latest tit-for-tat trade showdown is just the latest in a long list of frictional forces making seaborne trade more costly, more complicated and less efficient.
One week on from the extraordinary meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee at the IMO, and many in shipping are still asking themselves the same question: what on earth happens next?Here at Lloyd’s List we’ve been busy gathering the thoughts of as many people as possible from across the sector to help answer that question.Earlier this week, Declan Bush explained what actually went down on a crazy Friday afternoon last week at the Albert Embankment, giving a blow by blow account of how the US and Saudi Arabia were able to successfully postpone the vote on the Net-Zero Framework for an entire year.But now we’re looking at what comes next. Can the IMO come back around the table next year and get consensus on the world’s first carbon price? Or are the divisions simply too great to heal?Joining Joshua on the podcast are:Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Tristan Smith, professor of energy and transport, UCLEmma Scheiris, deputy director of environment, INTERTANKO Stuart Neil, director of strategy and communications, International Chamber of ShippingFor more information on how Lloyd's List Intelligence can help you navigate the emissions reporting landscape, follow this link: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/products/seasearcher/emissions
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.Arguably the most important week in the history of the International Maritime Organization ended in stalemate after an extraordinary meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee voted to adjourn proceedings for a whole year.Last week was supposed to be the week shipping ratified the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework and in doing so become the first industry to adopt a global carbon price.Despite confidence that the yes side “had the numbers”, efforts to thwart the framework by the US and Saudi Arabia were partially successful.Lloyd’s List senior reporter and decarbonisation expert Declan Bush takes you inside the IMO and details a turbulent four days that could define the UN body and its ability to lead on climate change.
IN today’s episode, we're diving into one of the most significant transformations in modern shipping: how geopolitical tensions and supply chain realignments are altering maritime trade routes.From the implementation of tit-for-tat port fees between the US and China to the rise of Southeast Asia as a manufacturing powerhouse, the shipping industry is navigating uncharted waters. Today, we'll hear from three industry leaders who are at the forefront of these changes.In an era where regulations increasingly link vessel nationality to cargo access, shipping’s hard‑won resilience is being tested as never before.But for those who can successfully navigate these changes, the question isn't whether they're temporary or permanent—it's whether they can adapt fast enough to turn chaos into opportunity.Joining APAC editor Cichen Shen on the podcast are:SK Lim, managing director Pacific, G2 OceanJayendu Krishna, head of Maritime Advisory, DrewryWilliam Khoury, vice president of ports and terminals Southeast Asia, DP World
IN THIS episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast, Synergy chief executive Jesper Kristensen considers two significant and timely questions: where is maritime leadership heading and who will define it?He tackles them from both an individual and an industry standpoint before discussing whether attitudes outside shipping are now influencing the sector’s direction.In the current climate of global regulatory and trade changes, the shipping industry is extremely volatile, requiring its leaders to be rapid adapters; “we need to be capable of accepting that tomorrow is most probably not going to be like yesterday”, he says in this podcast.
In this podcast, Veson Nautical’s Chief Operating Officer Sean Riley shares his thoughts on current pressures on market volatility. It is not necessarily a bad thing, he says, especially if data is used properly to understand its causes and effects
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.In just over a week’s time the International maritime Organization will take what could be one of the most consequential votes shipping’s history. At an extraordinary meeting of the Marine Environment protection Committee, IMO member states will vote on whether to formally adopt the net zero framework agreed at MEPC83 in April. A yes would see shipping adopt the world’s first legally binding carbon price. A no would undo years and years and work and dump the industry back where it started. Lloyd’s List senior reporter Declan Bush explains what will actually be voted on next weekand outlines the consequences of a yes vote, and perhaps more pertinently, what happens if the answer is no.
FIGURES from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime suggest the annual global value of laundered money is between $800bn and $2trn, representing between 2% and 5% of global GDP.Much of this money is cleaned through trade-based money laundering, where criminals disguise the proceeds of crime through trade transactions to legitimise their origin.When that money hits a bank account, its links to say a smuggling ring or drug cartel will be masked, and anyone that looks will instead be presented with a legitimate transaction, say for the sale of commodities.With 90% of global trade transported by sea, shipping companies find themselves in an unwanted position of vulnerability.It’s of course impossible to check every container and grain hold, but due diligence still has to be performed.If not, the consequences can be severe, from a loss of reputation to even legal ramifications.
Singapore literally would not exist without the shipping industry. In 1819 the East India Company reached agreement with the local ruler to use it as a waystation for vessels carrying opium to China. Five years later, it bought the entire country for cash.Two hundred years later, it would not be much of a stretch to describe it as a powerhouse port with a small southeast Asian city-state attached.But until last month, the International Union of Marine Insurance conference had not taken place there since 2004.Even then, Singapore’s standing in the maritime industries was undeniable. But at that point it remained an emerging market in marine insurance terms.As the 600-plus delegates who assembled for this year’s event were told, that is clearly no longer the case.It is now the fourth-largest hull market in the world. Its share of the global hull book now stands at 7.9%, leaving it just a fraction of a percentage point behind the once-almighty Lloyd’s.Nor is it the only Asian nation to see its marine insurance presence take a great leap forward. China is now writing around 12% of world hull premiums and must now be counted as a core market for H&M.It also writes 17% of cargo business, which is more than Lloyd’s and the London companies markets put together.The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping - who died in 1997 - argued that the twenty-first century would be the Asian century. If marine insurance is anything to go by, he may have had a point.Joining David on the podcast are:Veith Huesmann, chief analyst, IUMI Sean Dalton, head of marine underwriting North America, Munich Re Alicia Leong, head of marine liabilities Asia, MarkelJun Lin, vice president, Gard
Why is the shadow fleet growing? Why do Chinese owners continue to sail their vessels through the Red Sea? And what happens if the International Maritime Organization does not adopt the Net-Zero Framework next month?In an age where uncertainty is simply part of doing business, Lloyd’s List gathered some of its expert analysts and journalists to brief selected guests on the key issues of the day during London International Shipping Week.Listen to the highlights of the event in this edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast. If you want to learn more, you can download the slides produced by our expert panel, featuring Lloyd’s List Intelligence data and figures.Featuring on this episode are:Richard Meade, editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List Bridget Diakun, senior maritime risk analyst, Lloyd’s List Cichen Shen, APAC editor, Lloyd’s List Declan Bush, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List
On the final day of London International Shipping Week, Lloyd’s List reporter Joshua Minchin brings you the key takeaways from the week, alongside senior maritime reporter Greg Miller, maritime risk analyst Tomer Raanan and senior reporter Declan Bush. The three ask whether shipping could suffer from too much inefficiency, or at least the wrong kind anyway, and reflect on the policy uncertainty coming out of Washington at present. Plus, Declan offers his final take of the week on how the net zero framework will fare at next month’s extraordinary MEPC meeting. Will the US’ threats make any material difference at all?
Does shipping whinge too much? That’s the question Lloyd’s List senior reporter Joshua Minchin is asking on this edition of the daily reaction from London International Shipping Week, joined by editor-in-chief Richard Meade, APAC editor Cichen Shen, and senior risk and compliance analyst Bridget Diakun.Governments around the world, but particularly in the UK, are often criticised for being uninformed and unenthusiastic about the maritime industry.But former shipping minister and Core Power vice-president Baroness Vere argues the shipping industry doesn’t sell itself in the right way, and instead comes to politicians with complaints, rather than solutions.Elsewhere, Cichen reflects on conversations he’s had with the Cosco delegation in London this week, while Bridget explains why there is a feeling of helplessness surrounding the shadow fleet in the industry at the moment.
Day three of London International Shipping Week sees the circus descend on the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization, which is playing host to the week’s headline conference.Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade, who moderated a session on decarbonisation, and senior reporters Joshua Minchin and Declan Bush were joined by Cargill Ocean Transportation president and chair of the Global Maritime Forum Jan Dieleman to reflect on the day’s discussions and ask whether next month’s crucial Net-Zero Framework vote would go through.Plus, Joshua asks whether shipping is suitably reassured by the several, passionate promises by military leaders this week that their forces are determined to protect shipping.
As London International Shipping Week gets off to a frantic start, Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade and reporter Joshua Minchin bring you their highlights from the first two days of the event.Richard assesses London’s role in the shipping industry as the week kicks off, and asks what the UK needs to do to stay relevant in an industry that has moved away from it as the centre of gravity it was for centuries.Joshua reflects on a fascinating session on data sharing held on Tuesday September 16 with a star-studded panel, and comes to the conclusion that actually shipping might not want to share its toys. Can regulators find a big enough stick to make them?And then there were the nukes. Long-heralded as the potential silver bullet, and dismissed as too expensive and too dangerous, Richard explains why he is optimistic about nuclear power in shipping, but not in the manner you might expect.Stay tuned for our daily roundup every day of London International Shipping week – but don’t forget you can listen to every episode ever of the Lloyd’s List podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, as well as the Lloyd’s List app.
THREE hundred years ago, when Lloyd’s List was still a list of ships pinned to a coffee shop wall, London was the epicentre of global trade. It was the hub where the shipowning, the insurance, the finance, the technology and the workforce got business done.And that was the case for centuries. But London is not the epicentre of global trade any more – far from it. As the shipping industry descends upon the UK capital once again for London International Shipping Week – we ask what shipping needs from a maritime hub.London is good. But how do we make London great again?Joining Richard on the podcast this week are: Tanuj Luthra, chief operating officer, Zodiac Maritime Jos Standerwick, chief executive officer, Maritime LondonGihan Ismail, director, Marine Capital Peter Aylott, director of policy, UK Chamber of Shipping
Shore leave is a fundamental part of life at sea. It has been for centuries.The modern seafarer can spend up to 11 months on board a vessel during a contract, so getting on to dry land whenever possible can be an important form of rest and recuperation.But this custom is under threat.A recent report by the ITF Seafarers’ Trust showed that a quarter of seafarers surveyed said they did not get any shore leave during the entirety of their contract. For those that did manage to get ashore, nearly half said they spend less than three hours ashore.From visa requirements, a simple lack of time, or even the prohibitive cost of a ride to the port gate, seafarers face many barriers to getting shore when one of the very limited opportunities presents itself.Can anything be done to halt the extinction process?Joining Joshua on this week’s podcast are:Tim Hill, chief executive, Stella MarisBen Bailey, director of programme, Mission to SeafarersSeveral serving seafarers aboard vessels across the world
Every year, Lloyd’s List publishes a list of the world’s Top 100 container ports.And to mark the release of this year’s ranking, we’re taking a deep dive in this week’s episode to understand the key trends seen across the container sector last year, and work out what the rest of the year has in store.In a year defined by disruption, the world’s leading container ports still managed to increase their throughput by 8% - a sharp turnaround from some of the sluggish growth we’ve become accustomed to in recent years.The geopolitical upheaval shipping has had to deal with in the last 18 months has clearly created some winners, as well as some losers that continue to suffer at the hands of Red Sea rerouting and tariff wars.To download the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Ports report, visit www.lloydslist.com/one-hundred-container-ports-2025, where you can see the full list of rankings as well access the data behind it, including regional and country-level analysis.Joining Joshua on this week's podcast are: Linton Nightingale, deputy editor, Lloyd's List Eleanor Hadland, senior ports and terminals analyst, Drewry
Low Earth orbit connectivity doesn’t occupy the same number of column inches as say Houthi terror in the Red Sea, or the climate regulatory tussles at the IMO, but it has arguably changed shipping just as much, if not more.Vessels that have long relied on dependable, but relatively slow internet connectivity now have access to the kind of upload and download speeds used to create this very podcast, thanks in no small part to Elon Musk’s Starlink system, which uses its own constellation of satellites.There’s no doubt this has opened endless doors for both shipowners and seafarers. Data collection and analysis is possible on a scale unimaginable at sea just a decade ago. Crew can now video-call family or stream live sports despite being hundreds of miles from land.But, in a microcosm of society as a whole, this advent of instant connectivity brings with it negatives too, potentially opening the door to would-be hackers who are starting to see shipping as a rich target.Joining Joshua on this week’s podcast are:Daniel Ng, chief executive, CyberOwlTore Morten Olsen, president of maritime, MarlinkBen Palmer, president, Inmarsat Maritime
WHEN an oil tanker can trade internationally and switch between fictional flags and take on digital identities of ghost ships that were scrapped years ago, there is a problem.Not a fictional problem. A real life, tangible problem that relates to a real ship performing really dangerous operations with zero accountability and, apparently, no means to stop it.In the first edition of this podcast, we detailed how a growing black market of fraudulent ship registers, created by linked networks of international scammers have sprung up.This edition will focus on why these fake flags are just a symptom of a much wider problem.The system is broken.Fixing that system, however, is going to require a root-and-branch reappraisal of how we ensure compliance and oversight in global trade, and it’s going to require governments to be genuinely accountable for the ships they flag.Let’s start with the basics. We know what a fraudulent ship register looks like and what it doesn’t do, but what should a flag be doing? Why does the flag a ship is flying matter?Joining Richard this week are:Bridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance analyst, Lloyd’s ListChristian Panto, independent open-source intelligence analystAlfonso Castillero, chief executive, Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry
Until fairly recently the government of Malawi were blissfully unaware of the fact that they inadvertently stumbled into a tense political stand-off between Nato and Russia.Ministers in the landlocked capital Lilongwe were understandably surprised to find that they had been enthusiastically registering sanctioned shadow fleet tankers and fixing them up with new identities.They were, initially at least, perplexed by questions regarding a fleet of tankers being used to load crude out of the Baltic, then escorted by Russian naval ships and tracked by the combined surveillance capacity of NATO’s forces.And that’s because they had no idea until Lloyd’s List told them.In this special two-part podcast, Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade explains how the system of ship registration has corrupted to the point that governments are unable to tell the difference between real and fake ship identities; and looks at what it will take to fix that broken system.Joining Richard on this week’s episode are: Polina Ivanova, foreign correspondent, Financial TimesChristian Panto, independent open-source intelligence analyst
The EU’s two big green regulations on shipping have had many consequences, whether intended or otherwise. But their original purpose was as a threat.Four years ago the International Maritime Organization had been dragging its feet on agreeing any kind of meaningful limits on CO2 from ships. So Brussels effectively told the regulator: reduce your emissions, or we will.The European Commission extended its emissions trading system to cover half of emissions from voyages to and from the EU. It also pitched a green fuel standard called FuelEU Maritime, which fines companies unless they phase in greener fuels over time.The ETS started at the beginning of 2024 and the first credits are due to be handed over by September 30. FuelEU is being phased in too, with its own set of deadlines in the coming years. Shipping has been preparing ever since.But now the EU could be close to getting its original wish.A global net zero framework for cutting emissions is on its way from the IMO, though it needs to be formally adopted in October.So, now we have a global regime on the horizon, shouldn’t Europe fall into line?The commission has said will consider changing its ways – if it considers the IMO system ambitious enough for the planet. So, what will it do?Joining Declan on this week's podcast are: Magda Kopczyńska, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission Simon Bennett, Deputy Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.MOST end-of-life ships usually meet their demise on the beaches of the Indian subcontinent or Aliaga in Türkiye, with the ship recycling industry not being known for a culture of safety or environmental consciousness.But the long-term efforts of NGOs, regulators, flag states, shipowners and the recycling industry have done much to improve things in recent years. This culminated in the landmark Hong Kong Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships entering into force on June 26 this year.Lloyd’s List markets editor Rob Willmington spoke to recycling industry stakeholders to find out why the Hong Kong Convention is so significant and what its implementation means for shipowners. At the same time, we asked following three years of negligible ship recycling because of strong shipping markets, when will the sale of old ships finally start to pick up again?Joining Rob on this week’s episode are:Anil Sharma, chief executive, GMSTone Knudsen Fiskeseth, principal consultant, Environment Advisory, DNVNikos Mikelis, chairperson, Ship Recycling AllianceHitesh Vyas, vice-president Middle East and green recycling coordinator, Wirana
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.Moored off Yemen’s coast, the FSO Safer is a decaying supertanker that could have spilled more than a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. The result would have been an environmental, humanitarian and economic catastrophe.But the UN raised over $50 million to buy a replacement tanker and transfer the oil, only to then see the Houthis take control of both tankers and start using the replacement tanker as a platform to store sanctioned Russian oil.This is part two of the FSO Safer story, in which Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade looks at the bigger picture of Houthi power in the Red Sea. Should we have seen this situation coming? And why does the world continue to underestimate the Houthis, despite repeated warnings from inside Yemen about their capabilities? Joining Richard on this week’s podcast are: Nadwha Al-Dawsari, non-resident fellow at the Middle East InstituteIan Ralby, chief executive, IR Consilium
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.This is a story about a ship that has been used as a floating bomb, as political leverage, as an environmental threat.It’s a story about how the international community was convinced into raising $50m to buy a group designated by the US government as terrorists, a ship, and how that ship is being used today to store sanctioned Russian cargoes.And it’s a story about how an Islamist political organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s, that barely registered on even regional risk lists a few years ago, has been allowed to rapidly evolve into a powerful military organisation apparently able to defy the combined naval protection capabilities of the Western world.And it’s a story about why that transformation is far from over — and why the threat to shipping is growing.Joining Richard Meade to tell the FSO Safer story are: •Ian Ralby, chief executive, IR Consilium•Tomer Raanan, risk analyst, Lloyd’s List Read the original article by Tomer Raanan here: https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1154126/Exclusive-How-a-UN-purchased-tanker-became-a-Houthi-floating-storage-facility-for-Russian-oil
Amid all of the seemingly endless ups and downs that have dominated 2025 so far, dry bulk, as it always does, just keeps on going, moving some of the world’s most important commodities across our oceans.At the end of last year, the almost unanimous prediction for 2025 was that the dry bulk market wasn’t set for its best year ever. Market fundamentals looked pretty weak, especially from China, which accounts for so much of bulk demand.Have things changed drastically since those predictions were made more than six months ago? So much has happened since the turn of the year after all, with the speed of policy from the White House in the early months of the year almost unprecedented.Joining editor-in-chief Richard Meade this week are:Joshua Minchin, senior reporter, Lloyd’s ListGreg Miller, senior reporter, Lloyd’s List
This episode of The Shipping Podcast is brought to you by VesonAI can provide valuable decision-making support in maritime supply chain management and it is not just a dry academic exercise: in this podcast we hear that we should play with it and have some fun along the way Eric Christofferson is Chief Product Officer at Veson Nautical, which is a provider of maritime data and freight management solutions to support global commerce. His experience with AI outside maritime reveal interesting insights in how to approach AI and get the most from it. Eric Christofferson shares his perspective on AI’s role in the maritime industry coming from the fintech industry. There are some interesting differences between them, in particular its management of data standards and information. In this podcast, he discusses how shipping relies heavily on what he calls traditional tools, such as emails and messaging services, saying that managers have to “mine that information and … structure the unstructured data.”In fintech, data is more organised. Algorithms can execute trades based on such parameters as price points and market movements but shipping has not yet reached a level of standardisation that would allow AI to make equivalent decisions. “In this industry, I haven’t seen a clean enough data set for that type of guidance to be given,” Mr Christofferson says.But in this podcast, he is confident that solutions that Veson and others provide offer “really compelling workflows and solutions” that can address this situation, bringing together data from disparate and unstructured sources.He explores whether decisions are better if they are supported by AI and believes it can play an important role in decision making.During the podcast, he offers some practical advice on getting the best out of AI-based decisions, saying that it is important to decide where in a workflow they will add value. This is how Veson approaches its work with clients and within its own organisation when introducing AI across its portfolio of solutions.He also shares why it’s important to avoid “trying to ‘AI’ everything”, why not everything is suitable for an AI solution and how to make using AI fun in an organisation. He tells the podcast that it is important to build trust for AI-generated decisions, describing that process in a similar way to developing a human relationship; “you can trust it, but you verify it,” he says. And because it can streamline data input and communication between systems, it enables people to focus on other decision-making priorities and allows them “to connect with each other at a human level” he says.
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com for more information.Every year, Lloyd’s List publishes two sets of market outlooks. One at the end of the year and one mid-way through.Disruption and uncertainty have been synonymous with container shipping in recent years. So far, 2025 has seen more of the same and the only certainty at this stage is that this is unlikely to change through to December.After last week’s episode brought you the outlook for the container market, this week we’re focussing on the tanker sector, with Lloyd’s List senior reporter Greg Miller. Greg reflects on the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and examines their impact on the tanker market, while also offering a warning to those who think disruption can only be a good thing for the sector…
EVERY year, Lloyd’s List publishes two sets of markets outlooks. One at the end of the year and one mid-way through. Disruption and uncertainty have been synonymous with container shipping in recent years. So far, 2025 has seen more of the same — and, well, the only certainty at this stage is that this is unlikely to change through to December.US trade policies under Trump 2.0 have dominated proceedings in the opening months of the year, with the industry, like everyone else, second-guessing the president and his administration’s next move in an unpredictable game of yo-yo tariffs being played out on the global stage.This week’s episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast takes a look at the container sector’s year so far in 2025, and offers some insight into what the next six months might hold for the market amid tariff uncertainty and increasing geopolitical tensions. Joining Joshua Minchin on this week ‘s episode are: Linton Nightingale, Lloyd’s List deputy editor Neil Dekker, Infospectrum senior analyst
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Wirana - visit www.wirana.com/ for more informationTHERE are tens of thousands of shipowners in the world, but only a handful of them can be properly be classified as major players.Much of the content of Lloyd’s List naturally focuses on the MSCs, Frontlines and Maersk’s of this world, whose fleet lists run to the hundreds.When they want to pick up some newbuildings or even to buy one of their rivals, they have few problems finding the finance. Banks refer to them as tier one clients and actively court their business, on preferential terms.But the mean average owner is probably a family-owned businesses with maybe half a dozen ships and the median average operator will have perhaps a few dozen. These kinds of guys are the backbone of our industry.Historically, they didn’t have too hard a time of time it either. Until the early years of this century, many European banks were up to their neck in ship finance and indeed, some were devoted to it entirely.This was the era of what was known as relationship banking. Shipping bankers actually understood shipping, including its cyclical nature.Owners with a sensible business plan, maybe backed by long-term charter employment, and a decent equity stake could usually negotiate a sustainable mortgage.This lost age disappeared with the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, when European banks largely quit the scene. In the following decade, private equity moved in and made a small fortune, but only by starting with a large one. Chinese leasing deals became the preferred option – and sometimes the only option - for many.But their S&P choices face increasing constraints. New environmental regulations are coming in thick and fast, and there is still no agreement on what alternative fuels will be standard, or even available at all, a few years from now.Politics is always the wild card, and Trump’s decision to introduce hefty port fees on tonnage build in China or legally owned by Chinese lessors will have blindsided many.So if your surname is not Aponte or Fredriksen, how the heck do you make rational S&P decisions?Joining law and insurance editor David Osler this week are: Dagfinn Lunde, co-founder eshipfinance.com Kavita Shah, partner, Watson, Farley and Williams Costas Delaportas, chief executive, DryDel Shipping
Who are the winners and losers of shipping’s decarbonised regulatory future? by Lloyd's List
What does China’s unassailable lead in terms of naval power, the wording of recent US statutes and the adaptability of shipping, all have to do with how a chief financial officer eats their breakfast?It’s all about how shipping perceives risk and uncertainty right now. Uncertainty has dominated the shipping industry in the past months.But this narrative that shipowners are paralysed by the geopolitical volatility is only part of the story.The global economy is at a crossroads. We are entering an era of superpower rivalry between the US and China that will fundamentally upend established trading assumptions and fragment shipping down geopolitical lines.Now, depending on who you are talking to, the response to that uncertainty results in either a barely concealed fist-bump of joy as they mentally run through the profitable opportunities ahead, or near term paralysis as they conclude that there is no value in strategic investment in the face of such unknowable odds.And that’s because this isn’t just the long -term disintegration of a rules-based order that we are talking about, although that is part of it. Near term that uncertainty is created by the fact that it is now security not economics that is driving the bus when it comes to US decision making, and that’s confusing everyone. Agility is the new currency for shipping. We have to adapt to all these challenges – shipping’s bullish elite told us.Volatility is the lifeblood of profitable shipping and certainty has never been a prerequisite for making decisions. So, why complain about exogenous shocks now?On stage, the message was defiant: shipowners paralysed by the geopolitical swings risk losing out. Off stage, their commitment to specific questions of progress and investment was generally more hesitant.But they still need to make decisions – and that’s the focus of this week’s podcast. Joining Richard this week on the podcast are: Øystein Tunsjø, Professor of International Relations, Head of Security in Asia Program, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Norwegian Defence University CollegeBrian Maloney, Partner, Seward & KisselAnnicken Kildahl, CFO, Grieg Maritime GroupHing Chao, Executive Chairman, Wah Kwong Maritime Transport
Efficiency is good business.Forget any lofty notions of environmental altruism for the moment. Burning less fuel, emitting less CO2 that just makes sense financially speaking. Except, that in shipping, inefficiency can often bring opportunity. Arbitrage and trading optionality is often a bigger, more profitable pull away from strict notions of carbon reduction.Emissions regulation is about compliance not profit. And that has generally speaking been the attitude in shipping while we have been talking conceptually.But carbon pricing is no longer a distant regulatory threat — it’s already impacting shipping and trading, even if the majority of shipping is either not ready or in the case of 60% of you missed the first regulatory hurdle of submitting verified emissions reports.The European Union is leading the charge, with the EU Emission Trading System and FuelEU Maritime adding an estimated $6.1bn to industry costs in 2025 alone.The IMO’s Greenhouse Gas Fuel Intensity (GFI) measure is set to join the mix from 2028, driving up costs even further.Shipowners and charterers could be staring down a combined carbon bill approaching $50bn by 2030 in a business-as-usual scenario.These surging costs will ripple through supply chains, driving up freight rates, influencing fuel choices, and potentially reshaping global trade patterns.Carbon pricing has moved from a regulatory abstraction to an immediate financial reality and that’s what we are talking about in this edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast. We have two speakers who offer an instructive view on what is, and isn’t, happening right now. Sigmund Kyvik is the CEO of Siglar Carbon – a data-led business that offers emissions insights that cut carbon and costs.Robert Hvide Macleod is a former chief executive of tanker giant Frontline, but he’s also an active investor in Siglar and is someone who has spotted the financial opportunity in managing carbon efficiency.
The global shipping fleet is getting older, but it is also getting more dangerous. As freight rates surged in a tonne-miles driven market, many shipowners delayed scrapping older vessels, which put seafarers, cargo and the environment at greater risk. The industry must now act decisively to improve safety standards amid an ageing fleet, argues the class society DNV who have used Lloyd’s List Intelligence casualty data to analyse the trends.Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade sat down with Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime, on the sidelines of the Nor-Shipping event being held in Oslo this week to discuss what this means and what can be done about it
IN a market where free trade is under threat and geopolitical tensions are escalating, decisions get deferred, investment gets scaled back and doing nothing starts being passed off as pragmatic stewardship.There’s no value in making long-term decisions right now.Or is there?For this week’s podcast we want you to put your cynicism on hold and let our editor-in-chief Richard Meade pitch you the optimist’s view.While other industries’ green zeal has withered, shipping has found itself in the unexpected, and slightly uncomfortable position of being a climate leader, rather than a laggard.Even with some of the key details (reward factors, green classifications) still far off, there is an optimist case to assert that shipping actually now has a clear direction of travel when it comes to decarbonisation investment. If the IMO’s target of a 65% cut in fuel GHG intensity by 2040 is to be achieved, a fuel revolution is the only option.The rules don’t yet tell us how to do that. But cutting carbon intensity by that much is only really possible with a few ways, which brings us to synthetic, green e-fuels. A longer, slower transition leaves time to solve practical problems, and to explore technologies like nuclear.Shipowners have time to work out with some degree of confidence how far they can move ahead with what they have now.They know LNG-fuelled vessels look good in the early years, but ammonia-fuelled orders look better beyond 2028.They know they’ll have to wait longer for that fuel, since MEPC83 did a poor job of incentivising its production. But that’s where the optimism and faith in a long horizon comes in.The necessary greenwashing backlash injected some realism into shipping’s sustainability debate and MEPC83 offered the beginnings of some tangible certainties, with the promise of more to come.There is much yet to be clarified, but the case for optimism is worth listening to – and that’s what we are offering this week with the resolutely rosey thinkers at the Global Maritime Forum.On this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast you will hear:•Johannah Christensen, CEO, Global Maritime Forum•Jesse Fahnestock, Director of Decarbonisation, Global Maritime Forum•Stephen Fewster, Treasurer, Poseidon Principles and Global Lead Shipping Finance at ING Bank
In 2021, the International Maritime Organisation, together with the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association, launched a survey to collect some hard data on female representation in the global maritime industry. The second edition of the survey was published last week to coincide with International Day for Women in Maritime 2025 (which was celebrated on May 18th). But the results were hardly cause for celebration. Because while some progress has been made in terms of gender diversity in the maritime industry, the data in the 2024 edition suggests shipping is going backwards. The results of the 2024 edition showed 176,820 women working in maritime across both private and public sectors, an increase of 14% from the 151,979 recorded in 2021.But the global maritime workforce has grown considerably since the last survey, which means women now account for just under 19% of the workforce sampled, versus 26% in 2021. Female employees make up just over 16% of the workforce in the private sector, compared to the 29% recorded in 2021, and a drop was also seen in female representation in mid-management positions, declining to just 20% in 2024 from 39% in 2021.Lloyd’s List reporter Joshua Minchin spoke to three female leaders in the shipping industry, including Wista president Elpi Petraki, to get their reaction to the survey results and ask whether in a time where DEI programmes are coming increasingly under threat, shipping needs to rethink its own diversity strategy.Joining Joshua on the podcast this week are: Elpi Petraki, president of Wista International Louise Proctor, deputy director, sub-division for planning and programming, Technical Cooperation and Implementation Division, IMOHeidi Heseltine, chief executive, Diversity Study Group
Last year, both Belgium and the Netherlands, home to the key ports of Antwerp-Bruges and Rotterdam, reported a dramatic decline in the volume of cocaine seized. As the traditional gateways into Europe for legal as well as illegal cargo, this is surely cause for celebration, or at the very least a pat on the back. The only problem? Seizures in Portugal, Italy, Greece and other southern European countries increased. Which begs the question, how on earth do you stop smuggling? Lloyd’s List reporter Joshua Minchin again speaks to four experts at the very frontline in the fight against smuggling to understand how public-private cooperation can identify high-risk containers and push back against what can seem like an incessant tide. Plus, UNODC’s Bob van den Berghe explains how work in source countries can prevent illegal cargo ever getting on board a commercial vessel and strengthen relationships between law enforcement agencies at opposite sides of an ocean. Joining Joshua on the podcast are: •Joe Kramek, chief executive, World Shipping Council•Bob Van den Berghe, deputy head PCCP, UN Office on Drugs and Crime•Niels Vanlaer, harbour master at the port of Antwerp-Bruges•Robert Campbell, programme director, United for Wildlife
Think of a product carried by sea, and the most likely things to come to mind are consumer goods, iron ore, coal, or perhaps even bauxite.But billions of dollars’ worth of illegal narcotics and thousands of species of animal are carried on cargo and containerships every year and smuggled through the world’s biggest ports, particularly in Europe.Before analysing how shipping can get a grip on this secret trade, Lloyd’s List reporter Joshua Minchin spoke to several experts leading the fight against smuggling to get an idea of just how big of a problem smuggling is in our industry.Hear how cartels smuggle consignments of rhino horn by the container load and even threaten crew to force them into transporting kilos of cocaine.Joining Joshua on the podcast are:Joe Kramek, chief executive, World Shipping Council Bob Van den Berghe, deputy head PCCP, UN Office on Drugs and CrimeNiels Vanlaer, harbourmaster at the Port of Antwerp-BrugesRobert Campbell, programme director, United for Wildlife
Earlier this month, the International Maritime Organization agreed its net zero framework at the 83rd meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee. If you’re not sure what was agreed or the impact it will have on shipping, make sure you listen to our MEPC post-mortem episode of the podcast, which is available here. A lot of shipping’s decarbonisation chips have been placed on e-fuels. This is where an electrolyser is used to split hydrogen from water and combine that so-called green hydrogen with nitrogen to make ammonia, or CO2 to make synthetic methane or methanol. E-fuels are by far the most expensive option, but they're also seen as the best way to decarbonise the industry in the long term, but not by everyone.So are we placing far too much stock in e-fuels? Or can they live up to their salvatory status and deliver shipping to net zero in time? Joining Declan on the podcast this week are: Michael Liebreich, Bloomber New Energy Finance founderDr Tristan Smith, University College London associate professor in energy and transport
Philosophers have for over two millennia debated the irresistible force paradox, usually formulated as ‘What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?’ Variants of the problem date back as far as China in the third century BCE and ancient Greece.The world got one answer to the question on March 26, 2024, when a Singapore-flagged boxship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge that spanned Baltimore harbour in the US. The vessel was inevitably damaged, the bridge collapsed, and six people from a maintenance crew working on the bridge at the time were killed.Within days, the owners and managers of Dali filed for limitation of liability. If their suit is successful, Grace Ocean, Synergy Marine and their insurers will pay out no more than $44m.In this edition of the podcast, Lloyd’s List insurance and law editor David Osler unpacks what happens next in what could turn out to be one of the costliest marine casualties of all time.
On Friday, some 20 years of decarbonisation work at the International Maritime Organization culminated in a historic agreement, with countries voting 63-16 in favour of an emissions fuel standard with a built-in carbon price.If it Is formally adopted in October, this will be the first binding global carbon price on any industry; a genuinely momentous achievement that will change the future of shipping.What they’ve come up with is highly complex and is going to take the industry a while to fully digest.But fear not, we have three brave experts willing to help make sense of it and tell us, hopefully, what comes next.Marie Fricaudet is a senior research fellow at the UCL Energy InstituteAoife O’Leary is a lawyer, economist, and the chief executive of Opportunity GreenAnd Rico Luman, a senior sector economist at ING Bank
Richard Buckley named his company 90 Percent of Everything to reflect shipping’s vital role in transporting the vast majority of everything that is traded worldwide. He is convinced that we’re on the threshold of a new way of looking at ship management, based on his experience of developing software to support what he calls ‘Management by Exception’ (MbE)
Even before Donald Trump pronounced the end of gloablisation, the shipping industry was effectively operating in a self-induced state of paralysis.Uncertainty over a looming trade war, the regulatory cost of carbon and just how long the global current disruption can hide a fundamentally unbalanced shipping market had led executives across the industry to conclude that doing nothing for the moment is likely to be the safest bet they could make.That pause is now a hard stop.What occurred last week was not just the US starting a global trade war, or sparking a rout in stock markets. It was the world's hyper power firmly turning its back on the globalisation process it had championed, and from which it handsomely profited in recent decades.What is president Trump going to do next? What can Europe realistically do in response? Are we going to have peace in the Middle East and is the Red Sea opening anytime soon? Does Russia somehow come in from the cold?It’s not just clarity from the International Maritime Organization shipowners are searching for now…Joining Richard on the podcast this week are:Chris Wiernicki, chief executive of American Bureau of ShippingKnut Orbeck Nielsen, chief executive of DNV MaritimeEman Abdalla, global operations director at Cargill Ocean TransportationNick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd's RegisterAdam Kent, managing director at Maritime Strategies International
WITH geopolitical risk changing seemingly by the day and policy from the world’s biggest economy updated on a weekly (and sometimes hourly) basis, it might seem impossible for the shipping industry to plan long-term. While this is a sector which thrives on volatility, when assets have 20-year lifespans, some degree of certainty is essential to make prudent long-term decisions. So how can shipowners decide where to put their money when the ground they shift on is always moving? Richard Meade led an assembled panel of some of the brightest minds in the industry at Singapore Maritime Week for the latest Lloyd’s List Outlook forum, and in this week’s episode of the podcast we’re bringing you the best bits. Joining Richard in Singapore were: Janeyndu Krishna, head of maritime advisors at DrewryNick Brown, chief executive at Lloyd’s Register Eman Abdallah, global operations director at Cargill Ocean TransportationMikel Skov, chief executive at HafniaCaptain Rajesh Unni, founder and chief executive of Synergy Group
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Wirana - visit www.wirana.com/ for more informationGREEN ship finance arrived a few years ago to much fanfare and hope. But times have changed.Lenders face many of the same hurdles as the rest of shipping: Uncertain regulation and technology, plus a lack of clear standards for what is and isn't green. But they also have another challenge. Cashed-up shipowners are sitting on piles of pandemic profits and paying back their loans. This means even holding on to a shipping portfolio is a challenge. Fierce competition among lenders has thinned margins, making it harder to offer borrowers much of a discount for greener goals.President Trump is back in; ESG investing is out. Or is it?Joining Declan on the podcast this week are: Jan-Henrik Huebner, global head of shipping advisory practice, DNV Maritime Tobias Backer, executive director, Pelagic Capital
AI “might be the salvation to humankind, or the opposite, as some fear”, says Lars Riisberg, CEO of RINA Digital Solutions, in this Lloyd’s List podcast.Today, with large language models such as ChatGPT giving the general public some understanding of AI’s capabilities, he says that AI “will surely change the way we work dramatically”. During his career devoted to data and its application that goes back to his university thesis in 1989, which looked at using AI in the automation industry, Riisberg has developed a positive outlook about AI.He is confident that, for shipping, it will have a positive effect on many current objectives, including decarbonisation, compliance and safety.In his opinion, digitalisation and the use of AI will help shipping’s decarbonisation agenda and general operational efficiency. In particular, “the establishment, verification and use of management systems are spot on for use of AI,” he says.Yet all these benefits rely on data and one of his podcast themes revolves around how AI itself can be used to ensure that data is gathered in reliable ways. He listed some key data sources and acknowledged that “they all have their challenges when it comes to quality.”In his podcast, Riisberg mentions some practical instances where he believes AI can make a positive change, for example by using it to guide crew in how they carry out and report tasks. At an operational scale, he said that AI is already being used to establish reference performance standards in different sea states and to highlight deviations in fuel consumption compared to those standards and alert the crew.He also provided examples of where AI can be applied to management tasks but said that RINA's experience has given some insights into the pitfalls of AI. “AI is generally very ‘polite’ and will try to come up with an answer… even when there is no good answer to a question,” he said, so “you will still have to be able to evaluate the answers and take your own personal judgement of the correctness of the answers.”Looking ahead, he predicted that it will become possible to interrogate data and written material by speaking to it through an AI interface and concluded “being able to ask questions about technically structured data… will be a new focus area for AI in the coming years.”
If Chinese shipyards are feeling uneasy right now, it’s perfectly understandable. Last month, in an effort to revive its nearly non-existent domestic shipbuilding industry, the United States Trade Representative’s office unleashed its most potent tax weapon yet against Chinese ships.The US plans to levy exorbitant port fees — in some cases, over a million dollars — for every US port call by Chinese operators, China-built ships, all operators that have any ships on order at Chinese yards, and according to one interpretation of the proposal, based on a presidential draft order obtained by Lloyd’s List, all operators with any China-built ships in their fleets.If the goal is to revive the US commercial shipbuilding sector, these port fees may have a very limited impact, at least in the short term. Historically, overly aggressive reforms often fail due to a lack of execution or a systemic collapse caused by excessive shock. However, if the aim is to undermine China’s dominance in the global shipbuilding industry, the effects may become apparent much more quickly.Brokers have already reported that China-built ships are losing their appeal in the long-term charter market, simply because of the possibility that they may not be able to visit the US in the future. This also highlights the fact that the problem faced by China-built ships isn’t as simple as avoiding the US market and turning to other destinations.Losing the ability to go to the US means that these ships, especially those used for tramp trade, have reduced applicability in the charter market, which will inevitably be reflected in their charter rates. And if charter rates are discounted relative to more widely applicable Japanese and South Korean-built vessels, that discount will also inevitably be passed on to the value of newbuildings.In a nutshell, the products of Chinese shipyards will depreciate due to a loss of competitiveness. And the worst-case scenario is that they will have to give up at least some of their market share to their foreign competitors. It’s fair to say that those from South Korea and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest shipbuilding nations respectively, are probably eagerly awaiting this opportunity.The US port fees could be a “game changer” in reshaping market dynamics for the global shipbuilding industry.This edition of the podcast features:•SM Kim, Executive Director of Korea Equity Research, JP Morgan•Dimitris Roumeliotis, Head of Research, Xclusiv Shipbrokers•Rob Willmington, Markets Editor, Lloyd’s List
For years the shipping industry lamented sea blindness among the global political elite. Particularly in Europe, where shipping was more often than not ignored unless it became a pollution problem. Now, amid unprecedented geopolitical challenges, shipping is finally visible and the great powers are scrambling to bolster national interests.Shipping is once again recognised as a strategic sector. Donald Trump says that it is shipbuilding will make America Great Again. For the EU, shipping is now intrinsically linked to energy and trade security. And as byproduct of its resurgent status as a critical industry it is being namechecked in the slew of policies being pushed to light a fire under Europe’s industrial competitiveness in the face of increasingly hostile challenges from US and China,But political plans are easy enough to produce — action, and the financing to enact it, less so.So is all this political attention a window of opportunity for the industry to capitalise on and secure the conditions it needs to prosper, or is the existential crisis at the heart of Europe going to sink shipping’s prospects inside the world’s largest trading bloc?
February comes with several notable dates for the calendar, but in marine insurance the end of the month means one thing: P&I renewals. Renewals for the International Group of P&I clubs are due on February 20th every year. This was traditionally the first date the Baltic ports were free of ice, and while shipping doesn’t halt for the seasons in the same way it once did, the date has stuck. Lloyd’s List insurance editor David Osler has once again gathered executives of major P&I clubs and brokers to ask them how their renewal season went, whether they think clubs should be handing back more cash to owners and perhaps most importantly, whether the 170-year-old system can cope with an ever-more volatile industry and some hefty recent claims. Joining David this week are:Jonathan Andrews, chief executive of Steamship Mutual Tom Bowsher, chief executive of West of England Thya Kathiravel, chief underwriting officer at NorthStandardStephen Hawke, managing director at P&I broker Lockton Ferrari
In 2020, 85 vessels were reported abandoned. In 2023, that number was 142 — a worrying increase, but nothing compared to what was to come.Because in 2024, some 310 vessels were reported as abandoned.That is a 118% increase in just 12 months, and gives 2024 the unwanted record as the worst year for seafarer abandonment, which incidentally it takes from 2023.Abandonment is not a new phenomenon by any stretch, but there has been an alarming spike in cases in the last couple of years.What are the regulatory processes when an abandonment case is reported? What happens if flag states don’t do what is required of them under the Maritime Labour Convention? And what other options are available to the industry to drive down a seemingly persistent problem for thr shipping industry?Joining Josh on the podcast this week are:Steve Trowsdale, global inspectorate co-ordinator, ITF Dr Dorota Lost-Sieminska, director of legal affairs and external relations, IMO
MONDAY February 17 kicks off the first of a crucial series of climate talks at the International Maritime Organization.There are just two intersessional working group meetings, and one Marine Environment Protection Committee left to approve regulations to bring shipping to net zero by or around 2050.Hundreds of negotiators will be working day and night to agree on some combination of a carbon price tool and a greenhouse gas fuel standard.The rules have to close the price gap between fossil and green fuels, kickstart investment in renewable supply chains, and also help poorer countries and low-lying islands cope with the costs of climate change.This has been talked about this for many years now, but 2025 is different. The IMO’s 2023 GHG Strategy requires it to approve its mid-term measures in April and adopt them in October, to then come into force by 2027.So, what can we expect? ISW-GHG is not open to the press, but it’s where much of the real political horse-trading takes place. The IMO’s 176 member states are split roughly between those in favour of a carbon levy per tonne of CO2 equivalent, combined with a green fuel standard, and those who only want a fuel standard alone.Declan Bush takes you behind the doors of the IMO ahead of an important week for the shipping industry. Joining Declan on this week’s episode are: Guy Platten, secretary general, International Chamber of Shipping Jesse Fahnestock, decarbonisation director, Global Maritime Forum
Freedom of navigation — the legal principle that states ships from any country have the right to sail freely in international waters — is under attack.It has been for some time.But a confluence of geopolitical shifts, security threats and an accelerating frequency of legal assaults are finally starting to erode a fundamental principle of the law of the sea and a pillar of modern international law.For the first time since the Cold War, maritime trade lanes have become contested zones and the rules-based order that shipping has previously relied on to protect it has started to disintegrate.And that threat is coming from multiple different vectors.A good starting point for that is what’s happening in the Baltic right now. What Denmark and the Nordic-Baltic states have said is that they would take “coordinated steps to disrupt and deter Russia’s shadow fleet”. While the language is deliberately vague, this amounts to politely requesting details of suspect ships’ insurance. If they don’t comply they risk being sanctioned, but so far none of the states are suggesting they will go further than that. For now.Geopolitical tensions are deepening and global maritime trade is being caught in the crossfire, both literally and figuratively. Trade lanes on the oceans are contested zones for the first time since the Cold War.The question is whether there is sufficient energy left amongst those backing the crumbling rules-based order to defend it.
The world economy is still globalised, at least for the moment. But superpower rivalry and the decay of global rules and norms mean that geopolitical tensions are deepening and global maritime trade is being caught in the crossfire, both literally and figuratively.Some of this is happening in plain sight. In the Red Sea, the Houthis redirected maritime trade and the combined naval forces of Europe, the US, UK and Israel were unable to convince the majority of global shipping that freedom of navigation had been maintained.In the Baltic, coastal states are publicly threatening to detain ships considered to be an environmental or security threat as a shadow-war of pipeline and cable sabotage plays out beneath the waves.Strategic choke points from the Arctic to the Panama Canal are subject to daily diplomatic spats, and harassment of merchant shipping in the Taiwan Strait, the Black Sea and the South China Sea is now considered so routine that incidents are barely reported. Behind closed doors, meanwhile, a legal and diplomatic war is being waged to redefine the very concept of international rules that allow ships to trade internationally. Trade lanes on the oceans are a contested zone for the first time since the Cold War.The very concept of freedom of navigation — a legal principle that states that ships from any country have the right to sail freely in international waters — is under attack. Over the course of a special two-part podcast Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade takes a wider look at what this means for shipping. Is freedom of navigation, a fundamental principle of the law of the sea and a pillar of modern international law, something we have just quietly given up on?Featuring: Dominick Donald, geopolitical risk analyst and adviser to the joint war risks committee at Lloyd’s Ian Ralby, chief executive of consultancy IR ConsiliumKristina Siig, Professor of Maritime Law and Law of the Sea, University of Southern Denmark. Professor II of Maritime Law, Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo, Norway
Decarbonisation is perhaps the biggest issue shipping faces, and it’s unique in that it affects everyone, whatever your politics. The question we, and much of the shipping industry asks, is not whether future fuels will become viable one day, but rather which of them will win the race. Of course, we’re often told things like “we see a multi-fuel future” or “we are fuel agnostic”. But besides looking for that crystal ball we so regrettably lack, it helps to look at what’s out there today. And judging on data released by Norwegian class society DNV, what’s out there is LNG.Orders for vessels that were at least dual-fuel LNG doubled in 2024, with 264 orders placed. That’s 100 more than the next most popular alternative, methanol.LNG ships represent nearly 10% of ships on order and 26% of gross tonnage on order, about double methanol’s share.So why is LNG so far in front in the alternative fuel race? Joining Declan on the podcast are: Jason Stefanatos, global decarbonisation director, DNVPeter Keller, chairman, Sea-LNG
Over the last few weeks, we’ve brought you several episodes from our experts here at Lloyd’s List briefing you on what to expect in each respective sector in 2025. Insurance editor David Osler is rounding that series off with a look at what the marine insurance market can expect over the next 12 months. The sector was thrust into the limelight in March last year, when containership Dali allided with the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, which tragically resulted in the deaths of six construction workers. That casualty could wind up being the costliest in maritime history by the time it’s run its course though the US judicial system, and the International Group of P&I clubs is already on the hook for some serious cash. David explains how that case will affect P&I insurance moving forwards, as well as highlighting the extra capacity hitting the hull and machinery market which could drive down prices for shipowners. To listen to the rest of out ‘What to look out for series’, head to Soundcloud, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to every episode of the podcast on the Lloyd’s List app.
THE geopolitical landscape changed seemingly by the hour in 2024, and 2025 has started in a similar vein. Cable cutting, new tranches of sanctions from the outgoing Biden administration and Chinese shipping giant Cosco being placed on a US Department of Defense sanctions for links to the Chinese military – all of that has happened in the first 10 days of 2025. But before all of that though, our risk and compliance experts gathered to discuss what they would be looking out for in 2025 and what you should be expecting from the year ahead. They discussed how sanctions handed down by multiple governments are attempting to control the trade of a growing dark fleet, the increase in Automated Identification System manipulation, plus they debate whether shipping will return to the Red Sea in 2025. Joining reporter Joshua Minchin on this episode are: •Michelle Wiese Bockmann, principal analyst, Lloyd’s List •Tomer Raanan, senior maritime reporter, Lloyd’s List •Bridget Diakun, maritime risk analyst, Lloyd’s List Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.
Decarbonisation is one of the most written-about topics in Lloyd’s List. Read our daily briefing on any given day and it will more than likely contain at least one story dedicated to the industry’s journey towards net zero. And there’s good reason for that too. It dominates shipping headlines and touches every corner of our industry and 2025 could be a pivotal year in shipping’s long history. Not only are there major changes to the European Union’s FuelEU and Emissions Trading System about to come into force, but many believe the world’s first international carbon levy could be agreed at the International Maritime Organization during meetings of its Marine Environment Protection Committee later this year. So, how likely is it that shipping gets a firm agreement from the IMO that carries some weight? And, if nothing is agreed, then what does the future of the regulator look like? To talk you through what could be a momentous year in securing shipping’s future, here’s multimedia editor and former sustainability editor Declan Bush, and Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief, Richard Meade.
Reading the runes of this industry is often a futile and thankless task – predictions are regularly wiped out just hours after they are made. Despite that, our markets team assembled to make sure you are as prepared as you can be in our unpredictable sector for the year ahead. Senior maritime reporter Greg Miller discusses tankers and dry bulk, asking why the year started off so well for both before reaching a disappointing climax. Containers editor James Baker joins Greg to ask whether the box sector gravy train will ever end, and finally markets editor Robert Willmington takes a look at the shipbuilding market and makes some predictions about recycling and sale and purchase in 2025. There is plenty more to come from the rest of the Lloyd’s List team in the New Year to make sure you’re briefed for the year ahead. But if you want to listen to any of our episodes from 2024, you can find them all on Spotify, Soundcloud, as well as the Lloyd’s List app.
Another year over, a new one just begun. As the clock ticks down on 2024 and 2025 begins, shipping is braced for another unpredictable year. Reading the runes of this industry is often a futile and thankless task – predictions are regularly wiped out just hours after they are made. But nevertheless, to prepare you for the New Year the Lloyd’s List editorial team is going to be bringing you several mini episodes of the podcast over the next couple of weeks, in which they will discuss the things they are looking out for in 2025. We’ll be talking about decarbonisation, risk and compliance, the container, tanker and dry bulk markets, as well as the marine insurance sector too.But to kick things off, editor-in chief Richard Meade and our Asia Pacific editor Cichen Shen sat down to take a bird’s eye view of the industry, and reveal what they will be waiting for in 2025.
The volume and frequency of sanctions being targeted against shipping has never higher, or more visible, Sanctions are now a daily part of the Lloyd’s List news agenda, so it’s sometimes difficult to see how and how fast things are changing. But the risk and compliance landscape has noticeably changed this year – we’re seeing more targeted sanctions, and in response we’re seeing an ever-evolving shift of circumvention tactics, from an ever growing dark fleet that is looking more and more dangerous by the day.And the politics are also shifting.Much of Donald Trump’s sanctions strategy remains unclear, and on past experience, unpredictable.It’s a fair bet that Tehran can expect to be under more pressure post January 20 next year. But what happens with Russia – that’s the big question. And what does that mean for the rest of shipping that has been left to navigate its way around not just an increasingly hefty compliance burden, but what is essentially a tiered trading system where one part of the industry is jumping through hoops to apply regulation and decarbonise and pay for carbon burned…While another section sails without basic adherence to safety regulations, no insurance, no legitimate flag – they are outside of the rules based order and they are earning a premium for it.So when Lloyd’s List hosted its annual Outlook Forum in London earlier this month, this was the context to our discussions around sanctions risk and compliance.If you haven’t already listened to the previous edition of the podcast where we brought you highlights of the first panel from our outlook event, then now would be a good time to hit pause and go back to listen to that one first.For the rest of you though, this is the second and final part of our edited highlight series that you’re going to be listening to today.Joining Richard on the panel were:Michelle Linderman, partner, Van Bael & BellisDaniel Martin, partner, HFWMichelle Wiese Bockmann, principal analyst, Lloyd’s ListBridget Diakun, maritime risk analyst, Lloyd’s List
Each year, Lloyd’s List likes to gather a group of industry leaders, lock them in a room and not let them leave until they have divined the fate and fortunes of the shipping industry for the year to come.And that’s what we did earlier this month in London at the annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum, sponsored by Lloyd’s Register. Having gathered a baseline of crowdsourced knowledge from Lloyd’s List readers, we invited an all star line up of shipping’s sharpest minds to join us for a discussion of the opportunities and threats that will be shaping shipping next year and beyond.Understanding the tipping points that will determine the future of the industry is absolutely critical, and you can learn what to look out for in 2025 in this week’s episode, which brings you highlights from the event in London. ••Nick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd’s Register•Karrie Trauth, senior vice-president and head of shipping and maritime, Shell•Tanuj Luthra, chief operating officer, Zodiac Maritime•Andrea Olivi, global head of shipping, Trafigura•Michael Parker, Citi global shipping, logistics and offshore chairman and chair of the Poseidon PrinciplesWant more insight? Download our Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum: 2025 and beyond Summary and Key Takeaways document, including the results from our Outlook survey and key quotes and charts from the event here: https://info.lloydslistintelligence.com/lloyds-list-outlook-forum-2025-and-beyond
EVER wanted to know what it’s like to operate ships where half the crew are women? Well, this week’s podcast is going to tell you. Lloyd’s List’s principal analyst, Michelle Wiese Bockmann, spoke to Hafnia, the New York and Oslo listed shipowner about a trailblazing initiative that has seen them crew five product tankers with 50% women. But I also want to highlight some of the positive steps being taken to integrate women to a seafaring career and international maritime industry generally.But there’s also an important piece of history to mark. Michelle catches up with the two women who founded the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association at the very same pub in London where its first meeting was held 50 years ago.It’s important to highlight and recognise the treatment women receive at sea. But it’s also important to highlight some of the positive steps being taken to integrate women to a seafaring career and international maritime industry generally.
After enduring social unrest, geopolitical tensions and the Covid-19 pandemic, this Asian financial and shipping hub — long seen by many as in decline — has finally found an opportunity to stage a comeback.The Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering and accompanying incentive scheme unveiled a few weeks ago is seen by the local shipping community as a step by the Hong Kong government in the right direction — but only a step.The ambition is big, because behind it is not just a Hong Kong story, but a China story. Here, promoting renewables and ensuring energy security are closely intertwined, and its massive scale and cost advantage in this sector has led people to believe that the country will become the world’s largest supplier of low-emission fuels, such as green methanol and ammonia.Hong Kong, a former British colony and the most outward-looking and free trading part of Chinese territory, despite Beijing’s tightening grip over the past decade, should become one of the most important exporters, or a trading hub for these fuels to reach the world, some argue.In the words of Hong Kong Chamber of Shipping chairman Hing Chao, the vision is to “provide a Chinese solution to global maritime decarbonisation¨ through Hong Kong.Can this vision succeed? What more does Hong Kong need to do? For example, does it need to implement its own carbon pricing mechanism with neighbouring Chinese ports, say those in the Hong Kong-Macao-Guangdong Greater Bay Area, or GBA, before the International Maritime Organization’s mid-term measures roll out?More importantly, can China fulfil its ambition to become the “world’s factory” for green fuels? What challenges need to be overcome?Also, will geopolitics, which is accelerating the reconfiguration of global trade and supply chains, and arguably also affecting the pace of global decarbonisation, hinder the realisation of this ambition?Joining Cichen on this week’s episode are: Hing Chao, chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Shipping and Wah Kwong Maritime TransportRoberto Giannetta, chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping AssociationSanjay Kuttan, chief strategy officer of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd’s Register and Columbia Shipmanagement Sign up for the Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum here: https://info.lloydslistintelligence.com/lloyds-list-outlook-forum-rsvpThe maritime industry is evolving faster than we often realise. Just a few years ago, high-frequency data collection was groundbreaking. Today, cloud-to-cloud connectivity and AI-powered optimisation platforms are a normal part of operations. Advanced vessel connectivity is scaling rapidly, and generative AI and machine learning are poised to accelerate those changes dramatically.If you missed the previous edition of this podcast, go back and listen to the experts explain what has happened, is happening and will happen, because there is progress there - the industry innovating faster than we often recognise. You can find it here. But it’s important to not just focus on the tech, the widgets, the data and the artificial intelligence. The bit often missed in all this is the human intelligence. And to me that’s the more interesting part of the story. It’s where the greatest opportunities lie, but it’s also the biggest risk.
This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd's Register and Columbia Shipmanagement Sign up for the Lloyd's List Outlook Forum here: https://info.lloydslistintelligence.com/lloyds-list-outlook-forum-rsvpThe wave of techno-optimism that began to spread in the wake of pandemic-related breakthroughs should be visible by now.Forced to embrace digitisation out of remote working necessity, firms outlined juicy research-and-development plans and governments promised to spend big on science.While it would be a stretch to say that the pandemic fuelled optimism, it certainly catalysed investment in technology research across sectors, and crucially coincided with an innovation arms race that was already escalating between China and the US.The principal project of the era, decarbonisation, spawned hundreds of funded technology projects, with as many again in the pipeline.And then of course there is AI. If some in the sector were to be believed, AI should have revolutionised shipping and everything else by now.All things considered, we should be living through a golden age of innovation.And yet it is often hard to see the evidence for that in shipping.Where are the breakthroughs? What do the great leap forwards looks like? There is no single unifying answer here and that’s part of the problem, but it’s also a huge opportunity.Joining Richard on the podcast this week are:Alexander Saverys, chief executive CMB.TechSøren Meyer, chief executive of ZeroNorthRichard Buckley, chief executive of Ninety Percent of EverythingEman Abdalla, global operations director at Cargill Ocean TransportationSaskia Mureau, digital director at the Port of Rotterdam AuthorityChakib Abi-Saab, chief technology officer at Lloyd's Register
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com/decision-advantage for more information.Ten years or so ago, when the University of Plymouth ran their first cybersecurity symposium, the number attendees barely made double figures. This week, held in the main hall of the International Maritime Organization on London’s Albert Embankment, the same event attracted more than 300, from shipping companies in almost every sector. Clearly, the topic has gained attention and traction, partly down to the repeated warnings of horror stories the industry continues to receive, right the way up to hackers being able to remotely control very large crude carriers. There have been several high-profile cyber incidents in shipping since the devastating NotPetya attack which cost Maersk more than $250m in 2017. The Port of Seattle, the Port of Lisbon and class society DNV can all count themselves of cyber attacks in the last two years. But the apocalyptic vision that has been painted for the industry time and time again hasn’t materialised yet.So, how worried should we really be about cybersecurity in shipping?Joining Joshua on the podcast this week are: Kevin Jones, professor of computer science and director of the Maritime Cyber Threats Research Group, University of PlymouthDaniel Ng, chief executive of CyberowlSvante Einarsson, head of cybersecurity maritime for EMEA and APAC, DNV Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, maritime chief executive, DNV
When the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) issued a paper in September setting out its position on the human element, its implications were clearly going to be far reaching. Its publication followed an IACS presentation in June to the Human Element Industry Group, which is made up of a number of maritime NGOs and it says that IACS’ aims “to highlight and emphasise the importance of … human element aspects when developing new IACS requirements applicable to the ship and ship systems.” RINA’s Secretary General Roberto Cazzulo currently chairs IACS’ Council, giving the Italian organisation a particular significance in any discussion about its implications and, in this podcast, RINA’s North Europe Region Senior Director for RINA’s marine activities Fiorenzo Spadoni, puts IACS’ approach into context, saying that it reflected significant industry changes driven by digitalisation, decarbonisation and increasingly complex ship systems.He also discussed whether these developments can help move the industry closer to net-zero emissions. “One critical factor in achieving net zero is the role of the human workforce” and by providing seafarers with skills and motivation to manage these technologies, “we are accelerating their adoption and the path toward net-zero,” he said.
The global climate circus heads to Baku, Azerbaijan this weekend for the start of the annual COP confab. That’s the Conference of the Parties, meaning signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP 29. Shipping will be there, but don’t expect much in the way of headline conclusions this year. If there is going to be any progress from this meeting, it’s going to focus on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. So why are we talking about COP this week? The reality is that COPs have never really been about shipping, but what happens inside COP has a direct bearing on what happens next in terms of shipping’s long term regulatory future. This year specifically COP is taking place just six months before the International Maritime Organization sits down agree the economic and technical measures to hit the industry’s 2050 net zero targets.What happens in COP has at least some bearing on what happens in the IMO and perhaps more importantly, shipping’s ability to make connections across the energy departments out in Azerbaijan over the next two weeks are going to be crucial to the process that follows whatever comes out of the IMO.Shipping may not be a huge part of COP, but COP matters hugely to shipping.Joining Richard on the podcast this week are: Dr Tristan Smith, University College LondonKatharine Palmer, Shipping Lead, UNFCC Climate Champions
Once a year, an industry alliance of first-movers and green investors gather in a room for shipping’s answer to Davos, the annual Global Maritime Forum.And it’s always an interesting conversation. These are shipping’s optimists. The progressive cohort of industry leaders who have collectively invested billions of dollars in decarbonisation projects and spawned voluntary projects advancing everything from transparent green finance and insurance to diversity programmes and climate-aligned chartering.But it’s not easy being an optimist in shipping right now. There are the obvious geopolitical headwinds blowing in of course, but there is also a growing sense that the industry in wait and see mode. Shipping’s green first-movers are increasingly unlikely to move further without a sufficiently robust regulatory framework from the International Maritime Organization next year. Scratch below the surface of the conversations about progress and innovation, and it’s apparent that we’re not yet at a stage where, even without the regulation, the industry is yet aligned on who ends up footing the bill for what is going to be a very expensive transition to green fuels and even basic efficiency investments. And yet, despite all that, when the GMF gathered in Tokyo earlier this month there was a palpable sense of optimism in the room and genuine evidence that progress is not just possible, it is now inevitable. So, has the shipping industry really moved from laggard to leader in the race to decarbonise?Joining Richard on this week's episode are: Eman Abdalla, global operations director ocean transportation division, Cargill Laure Baratgin, head of commercial operations, Rio TintoMatthieu de Tugny, head of marine and offshore, Bureau VeritasNick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd’s Register Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general, IMOJohanna Christensen, chief executive, Global Maritime Forum
There have been shipowners listed on Wall Street going back to the 1980s, but it was only in the mid-2000s – with the China trade boom – that the shipping industry really came to the US public markets in a major way.In the two decades since then, there have been some controversies with these listed shipowners. These controversies have involved conflicts of interest: self-dealing by private sponsors and management to the detriment of common shareholders.There have been cases of public owners buying ships from their private sponsors at prices that are – shall we say – advantageous to the related-party sponsors. There have been fees paid by the public companies to their own sponsors for technical and commercial management at levels that have unduly enriched those sponsors. There have been public company managements that have conducted highly dilutive equity sales, wiping out over 90% of their own share value to raise money to buy ships from their own private companies.And there have been insiders that have had attractive offers to buy the public company – offers that would have enriched the common shareholders – but offers that were blocked because it was not in the interest of the insiders.When it comes to corporate governance – the good, the bad and the ugly – there is one person who is considered the expert on this subject, equity analyst Michael Webber. He started his own firm, Webber Research, in 2019 and before that was the shipping analyst at Wells Fargo.Every year, Webber puts out a scorecard that ranks shipping companies based upon their corporate governance and ESG practices. It is very closely watched – and this year’s rankings have just been released.Webber joins Lloyd’s List senior reporter Greg Miller on this week’s episode to talk about the scorecard and what it tells us about shipping industry behaviour.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage for more information.Some shipowners warn that crew supply is only set to get worse due to a lack of young people wanting a career at sea. Others are concerned about the need to upskill existing crews to handle increasing digitalisation and multiple fuel types. This comes during a period of growth in the merchant vessel fleet due to a new shipbuilding cycle and limited vessel recycling.Most industry insiders agree that the talent shortage is already becoming a serious problem for the industry. Meanwhile, the switch to recruiting shipboard personnel chiefly from the Indian sub-continent and East Asia since the 1980s means there are fewer people able to fill numerous western shore-based roles requiring previous seafaring experience.As competition for crew has increased, more shipowners are taking action to increase the attractiveness of a seafaring career. These include improved crew accommodation, better internet connectivity and more flexible, or shorter working contracts. All of these can be effective ways to reduce attrition.So what more needs to be done to ensure a continued supply of skilled seafarers and attract young people to the industry to operate the global vessel fleet?Joining Rob Wilmington on this week’s episode are: Julia Anastasiou, chief crew management officer at OSM ThomeRaal Harris, chief creative officer, Ocean Technologies
THERE is a hint of clickbait about this week’s title – we at Lloyd’s List are of course very passionate about diversity in shipping.But as the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association celebrates its 50th birthday at its annual meeting in Cyprus – the question of why shipping still hasn’t achieved gender parity loomed large.Female representation in board rooms is a societal problem, but shipping is lagging behind even those modest numbers.The statistics are damning, wherever you get them from, but the accepted number is 15% of women occupy executive leadership roles and just 2% of seafarers are female.This episode is not to preach about the importance of diversity. Frankly that isn’t up for debate anymore. Instead, it will ask why our sector is so far behind others in this matter and identify some actual, tangible tasks that we can all do to make a difference today.Progress has undoubtedly been made, but it is slow and the going heavy. The exhaustion and frustration could be heard in many of the women’s voices at the conference, even if their words reflected continued optimism.So why is shipping failing, and what actions can be taken now to right course.Speaking on this week’s edition: WISTA International President Elpi Petraki IMO Secretary General Arsenio DominguezInternational Chamber of Shipping Secretary General Guy Platten
This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage/ for more information.There is a very detailed series of policy discussions happening right now inside the walls of the International Maritime Organization.The question of whether the IMO can stick to its timetable and agree the basic architecture of shipping’s energy transition via a fuel standard and some kind of levy is of course important. It’s important in terms of demand signals to fuels producers, regulatory certainty for an industry in limbo, but it’s also going to determine whether we continue to have global regulation for shipping.If what the IMO agrees is not ambitious enough, shipping still faces the likely proliferation of national and regional bloc legislations to come.But what gets agreed inside the Marine Environment Protection Committee, is not the final step of shipping’s decarbonisation journey. It’s not even the starter.There’s a long list of practical and political factors for shipping to consider beyond an IMO discussion, and the industry needs to be preparing itself for a gruelling series of changes over several years.The bigger picture is that shipping is still not yet fully on the radar of the wider energy transition discussions like the Global African Hydrogen Summit that took place in Namibia last month.There are still a lot of dots to be joined between government, ports, fuel suppliers and shipping as one of many industries in the queue for green fuels.The industry is entering a phase that requires different approaches to its understanding of fuels supply and procurement and the coming regulation.The cliché “it’s a marathon not a sprint” is overused.But shipping is facing a decarbonisation ultra-marathon, and it needs to start training now.
Eric Christofferson is chief product officer at Veson Nautical, which is a provider of maritime data and freight management solutions to support global commerce. In this sponsored edition of the podcast, he comments on how data is reshaping how shipping contracts and compliance are managed.
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more informationLaw and insurance editor David Osler assembles a star-studded line-up at the International Union of Marine Insurance annual conference in Berlin to assess the strength of the market in 2024
In the long run, ‘doing good is good for business’, believes Natalie Sallaum, chief relationship officer at the vehicle carrier Sallaum Lines. In this edition of the Shipping Podcast, she draws on the company’s extensive experience of supporting community environmental initiatives to set out the benefits of being proactive about CSR and ESG
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more informationTHE multi-fuel future of shipping is looking more limited than it was a year ago. We know what the three major molecules are – methane, methanol and ammonia. But this isn’t a question of picking a fuel and supporting it as if it were a sports team to be followed blindly. Shipowners are largely agnostic and very pragmatic when it comes to options of the table.This is not just about the fuel ,or the availability of technology and engines, or the regulation, or the carbon pricing, or the offtake agreements and demand signals, or the fact that shipping is in a long queue of other sectors competing for the same supply of molecules – it’s about all of these competing dynamics and the fact that owners have to balance decisions that need to be taken now against the uncertain outcome of all of these factors. And in the midst of all that uncertainty the pragmatic view of the immediate choices available to shipping appears to be coalescing around LNG.Now that’s still a controversial view in some quarters –methane slip, a greenhouse gas 82 times more potent than carbon dioxide – remains a cause for concern. But LNG is a fuel in transition, rather than a transitional fuel, runs the argument. When you consider bio-LNG and synthetic LNG, and the ability to combine LNG with carbon capture there is a compelling case for the industry to now converge on LNG as the most pragmatic available pathway right now.Joining Richard on the podcast this week:Melissa Williams, president of Shell MarineBud Darr, executive vice president of maritime policy and government affairs at Mediterranean Shipping CompanyStelios Troulis, Angelicoussis Group energy transition and sustainability director
This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information.Should you wish to list all of the various risks, road blocks, unresolved problems and known challenges ahead for the shipping industry you will need a long piece of paper and ideally some medical assistance on standby. This is not a task for the faint of heart or those of a nervous disposition. You might start with some of the old favourites - supply chain instability, barriers to trade and administrative burdens on an industry ill-equipped to deal with them are all still bubbling away raising the sector’s blood pressure. Cyber risk, protectionism, the rise of the dark fleet, seafarer training and recruitment, autonomy…. the list just goes on and on.But, given the geopolitical upheaval that now threatens to blow up, on a daily basis, the risk hotlist is looking spicier than usual this year.How do we deal with this growing ‘to do’ list from hell? How is it possible for such a fragmented industry do tackle decarbonisation and digitalisation amid a fracturing geopolitical framework, on top of the business-as-usual risk list that threatens to scupper the best laid plans of those who carry global trade on a daily basis? Shipping’s post-Covid, post-Ever Given public profile has never been greater, but more importantly, the industry’s political capital is at an all-time high.This week, Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade talks to the European Community Shipowners’ Association, the Singapore Shipowners’ Association and international Chamber of Shipping about what’s on their agenda and where they see the greatest challenges, and solutions for shipping.Joining Richard are: Guy Platten, secretary general, International Chamber of ShippingCaroline Yang, president, Singapore Shipowners’ AssociationSotiris Raptis, secretary general, European Community Shipowners’ Association
This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information.In China, shipyards that were distressed assets just years ago are now highly sought after. And if you happened to buy into some back then, congratulations; you likely stand to make a windfall profit.Shanghai-headquartered DCL Investments made one such shrewd play more than two years ago. It invested in restructuring bankrupt Yangzhou Guoyu Shipbuilding at bargain prices, becoming the yard's controlling shareholder in July 2024.Now this facility, with over 300 acres of land, 2 km of Yangtze river frontage, and four slipways able to produce up to 18 merchant ships annually, is generating positive cashflow by leasing to other shipbuilders. It could also bring DCL Investments a hefty return if snapped up by the next buyer.Behind this story is the unfolding of the latest shipbuilding cycle: orderbooks swell, ship prices surge, yards’ profits rebound, and capacity expands.But spectres of the past haunt: will rampant overordering end in yet another devastating crash? Those who lived through the order bubble prior to the 2008 financial crisis can’t help but worry about history repeating itself.Sanguine voices, however, counter history won’t simply repeat. This cycle still has room to run, optimists say, fuelled by fleet renewal demand amid massive levels of aging tonnage and tightening emissions rules absent in the frenzied 2000s.Meanwhile, the industry outlook is intertwined with various uncertainties. Can vessel earnings justify the rising ship prices? Can shipyards resolve labour shortages? Is the International Maritime Organization able to accomplish its green ambitions? And, will excess capacity expansion re-emerge in China, the world’s largest shipbuilding nation and, disrupt markets?Discussing shipbuilding prospects on the podcast this week:Wang Linyu, managing director of DCL InvestmentsJohn Cotzias, founder of XclusivDimitris Roumeliotis, research analyst of XclusivRob Willmington, markets editor of Lloyd’s List
What do I build? Where do I build it? How much does it cost? And when can I get it? That’s the checklist of shipowner’s questions right now as they consider newbuildings. If you asked a shipowner what they would be looking for a decade ago the answer to those questions would be pretty standard. If money was no object they would plump for the quality of Japanese yards, they would know exactly which engine was the most efficient for their requirements and the list optional specifications would largely be a question of cost and strategy.As we have reported in previous editions of the podcast, the shipping industry’s decarbonisation strategy is largely built on a fuel mix for which availability is low, energy density is low, capital requirements are high, prices are at record levels, consumer signals are weak, and the ownership structure is fragmented with no clear market leader to drive the new market offering. And yet orders have to be placed – regardless of the regulatory uncertainty, lack of supply, scalability of availability of technology or fuels, the fleet news renewing. Decisions have to be taken and inevitably the interplay between flexibility, efficiency, and yes cost, make for a complex process, that more often then not ends up looking like a series of bets more than a strategy.So this week I want to explore how the industry is thinking about these decisions. What’s the best ship you could theoretically build today? If money were no object and you could get on a plane and find yourself in a shipyard office withal the available specs in front of you – what do you go for?Joining Richard on the podcast this week are: Claire Wright, head of Hanwha Ocean EuropeNikos Tsatsaros, construction director at Lloyd’s Register
THE headline takeaway from the 2024 edition of the top 100 container port was a second successive year of muted volume growth during 2023 for the biggest container ports. The total tally of just over 690m teu handled by the top 100 ports represented a 0.8% rise on the previous year, continuing the trend of the ‘tepid 20s’ post-Covid with volume growth only marginal.Lloyd’s List deputy editor Linton Nightingale spoke to Drewry senior ports and terminals analyst Eleanor Hadland to look back on how the container port sector fared last year and how it has kicked off 2024. They discussed the factors that could upset the applecart, disrupt the sector and pose a problem for volume trajectory, including potential dock strikes and the result of the upcoming US presidential election…
Strict but fair. That’s the description of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority from retiring chief executive Mick Kinley. Some of the world's biggest shipping companies have been named and shamed by the regulator in recent years and their vessels banned from entering ports over sub-standard conditions or not paying crew.Speaking with characteristic Australian candour and colour, Kinley reflects on the progress made by the regulator he has led for the past 10 years and offers some advice to the International Maritime Organization where he has been a key figure for some time. As Kinley sails off over the horizon after 30 years with AMSA, Lloyd’s List sits down with him to talk about his role, changes in the Australian maritime industry over the past three decades and some of the global achievements the authority has had as it seeks to protect seafarers and maintain standards in shipping.
Concerns around security and geopolitics intensified at the end of last year as the Houthis began targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden under the cover of a show of support for Hamas. Adding to the deteriorating situation was the resurgence in Somali piracy as some actors sought to take advantage of the chaos.Since November we’ve seen nearly 90 incidents related to the Red Sea crisis and multiple piracy incidents including hijackings in the Somali basin, and an uptick in events that could potentially become piracy attacks.This is all happening with various naval operations working around the clock to defend merchant shipping and uphold the freedom of navigation.Significant resources have been deployed in response to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, yet, transits through the Bab el Mandeb are consistently down 60% on normal volumes and ships are repeatedly coming under fire.But it’s not just physical protection. For shipping to be able to conduct threat and risks assessments and make security related decisions they need accurate information and insight.So this week on the Lloyd’s List podcast we ask: can navies protect shipping? Joining Lloyd’s List maritime risk analyst are:Commander Knut Evensen, Royal Norwegian NavyMike Plunkett, senior naval platforms analyst, JanesAntonio Martorell Dominguez, Spanish Navy
A few hours after the containership Dali (IMO: 9697428) destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, there were media reports suggesting investigators would look into ‘bad bunkers’ as a potential cause of the accident.The National Transportation Safety Board ruled out that possibility after its initial investigation. But this incident alone gives us a good idea about the perception of the bunker sector in wider shipping circles.To some, the negative image of the bunker sector isn’t surprising, as some of the court cases arising from the past couple of years’ contamination issues continued until very recently.The highest profile contamination incident occurred in Singapore in 2022, when around 80 ships reported issues with their fuel pumps and engines after receiving contaminated fuel oil at the world’s biggest bunkering hub.Bunker industry executives believe there is still room for improvement as suppliers must adopt the strictest quality standards, but they also argue that shipping companies must play their part and demand such standards to accelerate the process.Joining Lloyd’s List sustainability editor Enes Tunagur this week:Constantinos Capetanakis, chair of the International Bunker Industry AssociationChris Turner, bunker quality and claims manager at Integr8 Fuels
In a market where unpredictability has become predictably common, the whole concept of accurate earnings guidance from the lines fell overboard several quarterly reports ago. Forecasts are couched in ever more provisional language as volatility and black swans continue to demand near constant expectation management amid yo-yoing sentiment. While US retailers were baulking at the return of $10,000 container shipping rates for a forty foot box from Shanghai to New York a few weeks back, the lines were more concerned about the looming long winter to follow the unexpectedly early peak season. But port congestion is easing and there’s been a rates correction, so does that mean the market is heading for some semblance of balance? Any feelings of relief may be short-lived as more and more economies get embroiled in a trade war and tariffs become a hot-button issue in the upcoming US election. There’s the Red Sea to consider, the looming union contract negotiations in the US, the Panama canal, potentially more reshuffling in the alliances… the list goes on.So what happens next?Featured on this week’s edition of the podcast:Sanne Manders, president of Flexport Chantal McRoberts, director of Drewry’s supply chain advisory team Tan Hua Joo, co-founder of Linerlytica
THE prospect of a dominant Trump presidency is significantly more like than it was only a week ago. But what does that mean for shipping?Will the anticipated “Trump trade” really result in more inflation, higher interest rates and sweeping tariffs? Will the inevitable bonfire of Biden’s environmental rules put the brakes on shipping’s already hesitant energy transition? And what about the all important trading relationships with the EU and China? Are we entering an accelerated period of protectionism?Political risk is difficult for markets to price and if this week has taught us anything it is that there are few certainties when it comes to US politics generally right now and Donald trump specifically. But with Trump 2.0 now looking increasingly like the base-case scenario for business to plan for we taking a deep dive on the podcast this week into what a second term of Trump would look like for the maritime markets.Our senior US reporter Greg Miller takes the podcast reigns this week and talks to Jason Miller, a freight economist and professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.
The explosion of sanctions have demanded a compliance sea change from the marine insurance sector. But despite the rapid pace of investment to keep up, P&I Clubs have found themselves struggling to enforce an increasingly unenforceable regime.The flawed nature of the oil price cap regime is hardly news. But while the rest of the industry get to criticise from the sidelines it is the P&I Clubs who have been left to walk a precarious regulatory tightrope.The clubs have been politely telling government and industry for some time now that it is not for them to determine what should or should not be considered a lawful trade. And yet government and industry are increasingly looking to them for answers and enforcement they cannot provide.This is not just a problem for the P&I Clubs to deal with alone. The main catalyst for the growth of the dark fleet is not so much ships removed from International Group Clubs then moving to less reputable insurers, though clearly that does happen. Rather it is because of the oil price cap regime that new operators are specifically establishing themselves with a corporate structure which does not rely on G7 Coalition service providers at all and thus puts them, perfectly legitimately, beyond the scope of the oil price cap sanctions.That also typically means the use of low-quality flags and class plus insurance that is probably illusory in the event of an incident.Discussing the unintended consequences of sanctions on the podcast this week:Tony Paulson, head of Asia & corporate director at the West of England P&I ClubDaniel Tadros, chief operating officer at the American ClubCapt. Rahul Khanna, global head marine risk consulting, Allianz
The threat posed by Houthi missiles and uncrewed surface vessels sits at the lower end of the risk spectrum for shipping. Things could be worse. A lot worse. That was the rather worrying assessment this week from the latest in a series of Geopolitical risk webinars we’ve been running here at Lloyd’s List and for this week’s podcast we are bringing you a few highlights from the discussion. The Red and Black Sea risks inevitably came up, but more generally we were looking at the risks that should be higher up the shipping industry’s agenda right now. And there are many such threats on the horizon. For all their haphazard half truths and fictional claims, the Houthis have managed to prove how exposed maritime trade is now to even the most basic attacks on choke points. And, for all its lauded adaptability, seaborne trade is highly vulnerable and bad actors do not need a high level of sophistication to cause widespread disruption. They don’t even need a huge amount of successful attacks – there mere threat is sufficient in some cases to divert globalisation. Today it’s the Bab el Mandeb – tomorrow, what the Taiwan Strait?And what about the less visible threats to shipping security. It’s not just Joe Biden who is worried about Chinese spy cranes. China’s evolving trading relationships with US and Russia requires a risk assessment certainly, but the increasingly blurred lines between Chinese commercial and state-controlled entities is being flagged as a major concern by companies, particularly in relation to the data access and intelligence gathering abilities it affords the Chinese state.Featured on this week’s edition of the podcast:Nissa Felton - Senior Manager, Geoeconomic Influence & Threat Intelligence - JanesMike Plunkett - Senior Naval Platforms Analyst - JanesBridget Diakun - Maritime Risk Analyst - Lloyd's List IntelligenceMichelle Wiese Bockmann - Principal Analyst - Lloyd's List Intelligence
As unpalatable as it may be to say out loud, global turmoil is pretty good for business. Shipping CEOs are as happy as shipping CEOs generally get to be.[Sidebar#LL1149672]They are after all a pretty philosophical bunch at heart and they understand that all this has been seen before and will be seen again.They know that unexpected good fortune tends to come with a flipside. What comes up must come down, and every action has an equal and opposite reaction — it’s just a question of being able to calculate the Newtonian market forces to know when you are about to get clobbered.All of which is by way of context to the conversation at the heart of this week’s edition of the podcast with Stena Bulk president and chief executive Erik Hånell.Hånell talks through his view about the immediate market prospects, but the conversation is about how to deal with uncertainty. As a business leader he needs to take strategic decisions now despite not knowing what lies ahead when it comes to fuels, technology or geopolitical risk. That presents a complex series of challenges.
When we talk about green shipping, are we always talking about actions that have a net benefit in terms of reduction of greenhouse gases? Are the commercial choices we make today about reducing absolute emissions, or just the most pragmatic financial options on the table? And are the regulations we are negotiating genuinely addressing the problem of climate change, or just part of a wider exercise in climate finance revenue raising? It’s not always a clear cut as we might like.Having agreed the ambitious 2050 net zero targets last year, we are about to ramp up into the difficult detail of how we get there and the details increasingly mater. This week’s edition of the podcast argues that we are at an inflection point. The detail of what gets agreed at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) over the next 12 months will come with consequences for shipping, but also the pace of investment into new fuels like green hydrogen.The various combinations of measures proposed at the IMO all entail a degree of revenue generation. The scale of revenues expected is unclear, as is the destination for the revenue. Are we ploughing that money into shipping’s decarbonisation efforts - bridging the cost differential to green fuels - or will we see that cash disappear into coffers of the poorest and climate most vulnerable States with little direct impact on shipping’s energy transition?Will the IMO agreements help or hinder shipping’s chances to get ahead in the queue for green hydrogen.Discussing these question on this week’s edition:John Butler, President and CEO of the World Shipping CouncilRasmus Bach Nielsen, Trafigura’s Global Head of Fuel DecarbonisationBud Darr, Executive Vice President, Maritime Policy and Government Affairs, MSC Group
There is a growing body of opinion across shipping that is routinely referring to nuclear, alongside carbon capture technology, as the only real options on the table that will allow shipping to fully decarbonise by 2050. Has the previously fringe option of nuclear powered ships now become sufficiently mainstream for the industry to genuinely consider leapfrogging ammonia and hydrogen as a more pragmatic solution?Featuring Myrto Tripathi, chief executive of the NGO Voices of NuclearMikal Bøe, chairman and CEO of Core PowerMatthieu de Tugny, president, Marine & Offshore, Bureau Veritas
Pragmatism seems to be the new buzzword sweeping through the shipping executive lexicon. What that means though requires a bit of decoding. Those of you who have been schlepping round the conference circuit at Posidonia in Athens this week will have no doubt noticed that it comes up quite a lot when talking about decisions that have not been made. A lot has happened in the past few years, we need to factor in energy security as well as energy transition. The technology is there, the regulation is coming, but realistically the fuel supply is not. We need to focus on efficiency this decade, and, by the way 2050 net zero now seems pretty unlikely now. We need to be pragmatic. Is this outbreak of pragmatism a genuine shift towards a more realistic conversation? Is it a resetting after the greenwashed ambitions that never really had any substance? Or are we starting to feel the ESG backlash playing out and pulling back on the difficult substance of what lies ahead in terms of the energy transition?There has certainly been a shift. Given that this push for pragmatism is coming, not from the environmental laggards, but from many of the most progressive voices who previously argued with conviction for ambition when it came to shipping’s energy transition and all that entails, the podcast this week reports from Posidonia. Joining Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade around Athens this week to discuss what this all means:Jan Dieleman, President of Cargill Ocean TransportationKnut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV – Maritime Matthieu de Tugny. President, Marine & Offshore, Bureau Veritas.Bud Darr, Executive Vice President, Maritime Policy and Government Affairs, MSC GroupChristopher J. Wiernicki, CEO of ABS
Shipowners are not having to woo bankers right now. They don’t need to. If anything it’s the bankers’ turn to buy the drinks at Posidonia this year and start talking up ways to deploy capital, because shipowners are paying down loans while they can and bank loan deal flows have slowed to a trickle.So there is limited appetite right now to engage with green finance which, for now, comes with little incentive beyond its availability in a market awash with options.But that is a situation that is going to change much quicker than many realise and there is a strong argument that the industry should start talking about that shift sooner rather than later.Capital has already started to become more selective around sustainability criteria and that trend is only set to continue in one direction. Ultimately, it is a trend that will change how shipping operates and arguably determine the future direction of the industry.Discussing the implications of green finance in shipping on the podcast this week are:Nina Ahlstrand, global head of sustainable finance DNB MarketsAnastassia Tcherneva, head of shipping clients at ABN Amro BankAlexander Saverys, chief executive of Euronav and CMBMichael Parker, global industry head of shipping & logistics at Citi and chair of the Poseidon Principles
This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more information.THE US refrained from imposing new sanctions on Iran’s shipping sector for most of last year and was said to be lax in its enforcement of existing sanctions as it was eyeing a prisoner exchange deal with Tehran that took place over the summer.That appears to have changed after October 7. Iran’s backing of regional proxies like Hamas, who perpetrated the October 7 massacre, and the Houthis, who have been terrorising the Red Sea, have led the US government and congress to renew their interest in Iran’s oil and shipping sectors.On April 24, US President Joe Biden signed into law a national security spending package that included substantial changes to the administration’s authorities to impose sanctions and to investigate violations.One of the big-ticket items for shipping is the Stop Harbouring Iranian Petroleum Act, AKA the Ship Act, which instructs the president to impose sanctions on foreign ports, refineries, vessels and shipping companies that knowingly process or carry Iranian oil and products, expanding sanctions risk for maritime supply chain actors.The broader legislation also included provision expanding sanctions threat to Chinese financial institutions that process “significant financial transactions” involving Iranian oil or drones, and extended the statute of limitations for sanctions of violations from five to 10 years.However, whether these any measures will have an impact will hinge to a large extent — surprise — on enforcement.In this week’s podcast, our guests Brian Maloney, partner in Seward & Kissel’s litigation and investigation group, and Claire Jungman, chief of staff at advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, will walk through the nuances of the new bill, how it fits in with the existing alphabet soup of US sanctions authorities, and how it could impact maritime supply chains, especially in China, to where most of Iran’s oil is exported.
“You have to be a cold bitch or an easy lay”. Those words of advice were given nearly 50 years ago by the boss of a London-based shipping company to a young woman starting out her maritime career.That young woman went on to become one of the three founders of Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association, known as Wista. The story was recounted at a Wista event in London back in 2019 to celebrate the progress made across the industry in diversity and inclusion.Since then, May 18 has been assigned as the International Day for Women in Maritime by the International Maritime Organisation.Women represent a large pool of talent that’s been overlooked, according to Karine Langlois from the IMO.“Even just with my own observation, being at IMO for well over a decade now, the parity in the delegations that come to the IMO meetings have far more women in them,” she said. “We used sometimes to see and even for more technical meetings, we used to see men-only delegations, and now you see sometimes even entire delegations represented by women, so that is definitely a positive change even for us here at the IMO.”Anna Robinson, partner at London law firm Watson Farley & Williams said women are well represented in maritime law, and diversity differs when comparing offshore and onshore roles.“When you look at the targets, which the International Chamber of Shipping advocates, they're very conservative, which I think highlights the scale of the problem,” she said.“In three years, they're looking at 12%, in 20 years, we're still only looking at 25% (of the workforce).“I think it's right that they are realistic targets. And I think it's right to recognise there is no silver bullet. This is a long term issue. But the important point is that it needs to stay on the agenda for change. It can't just be a fashionable topic, across three or five years, we've got to keep the conversation going, which is why it's brilliant that we're having this discussion today.”
BATTING centres are an iconic part of Japan's baseball-loving culture and found everywhere in the country as entertainment facilities.For Takaya Soga, the president and chief executive of NYK Line, the past year has felt like being in one of these venues every day, tirelessly swinging at an endless stream of baseballs coming his way.Like most top decision-makers in our industry today, he feels his energy is being consumed by dealing with a constant stream of emergencies, with the rest spent puzzling out an increasingly elusive future.And one of the key questions the shipping veteran faces: is his company, which aims to become a frontrunner in the green transition, betting too much on that path amid all the uncertainties surrounding decarbonisation?
The dry cargo market had a strong start to the year as more bulk carriers rerouted away from the Suez Canal, port congestion in China increased and higher than expected Brazilian iron ore exports all pushed up tonne-mile demand.And of course the lowest level of bulk carrier fleet growth for almost a decade has also been a pretty significant contributing factor in tightening vessel supply, all of which is making for an interesting market right now for those in the dry bulk space.In this edition of our mini-series of market outlook podcasts, Lloyd’s List’s market’s editor Rob Willmington talks to Bimco’s chief shipping analyst Niels Rasmussen about the dry cargo market prospects for the rest of the year and beyond.
The Container lines have begun reporting their first-quarter results, and there are strong improvements on the previous quarter. But that ground has been gained on the back of disruptions to sailings through the Red Sea, which has soaked up capacity and forced rates up, improving earnings but increasing costs for shipping lines.For now, that looks set to continue but with a glut of new capacity still coming out of the yards, concerns remain that even rerouting won’t absorb it all.The Red Sea rerouting has favoured the bold in the sense that those playing the spot market have reaped the full scale benefits on offer. Spot market rates jumped by 200% in the first quarter, but the longer term contracts are not reflecting the “crazy” market.Right now though, everyone is preparing themselves for the high season and the big question is what the third quarter will bring. We have seen a record high filling factor, so if the fleet is really that fully utilised, how many more ships do we need? Will we see a continued drop in spot rates not reflected in long terms and how will the power dynamics of the market play out over the coming weeks and months?To guide you through the current state of affairs in the market and the outlook for the quarters ahead, Lloyd’s List’s containers editor James Baker leads this edition of the outlook podcast series, joined by Xeneta chief analyst Peter Sand
Geopolitical disruptions, wars, sanctions, OPEC+ production cuts and even the weather have all added tonne-mile demand at a point when fleet growth is at a record low. We are living through something of a golden age of tankers right now and certainly nobody is expecting anything particularly untoward to hit the positive sentiment until at least 2026. Beyond that though things get interesting and what’s happening now in terms of tanker orders flooding in will ultimate determine whether 2027 is a downward swing or a crash. Because, while things are admittedly looking pretty rosy right now for the energy shipping markets, the risks are far from removed.If the fleet supply inefficiencies caused by the redirection of Russian oil exports away from Europe, primarily east of Suez, were to suddenly evaporate we would be looking at a very different picture. The wider market remains delicately poised with positive and negative drivers so far largely offsetting one anotherAnd let’s not forget OPEC. The cartel has installed production cuts since November 2022 to artificially buoy oil prices. Analysts estimate Opec+ has about 6mn b/d of spare capacity it can unleash on to global markets to lower prices if they spike into the triple digits to prevent demand destruction.To guide you through the current state of affairs in the tanker sector Andrew Wilson, Head of Research and Consultancy Services at BRS shipbrokers talks to Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade.
This podcast is brought to you in association with LISCR, the Liberian International Ship and Corporate RegistryPORT state control (PSC) has reduced accidents and improved safety on board ships, but there is a lot of room for improvement in how PSC inspections are carried out and their outcomes reported, believes Alfonso Castillero, CEO of the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR).In this podcast, he says there is a lack of uniformity in the qualifications and performance of PSC inspectors across the globe and expresses concern that “there is no clarity” over how vessels are inspected. He is also critical of how defects are recorded and dealt with, causing adverse impacts on shipowners and other stakeholders associated with a ship.During the podcast, he stresses that LISCR has good cooperation with PSC regimes around the world and says that there are many excellent PSC officers but, nonetheless, he finds that there are “different interpretations of the rules” in the various port state control areas that a vessel might visit during a voyage. “There is a lot of room for improvement,” he said, and he believes that many others share his concerns but that they “prefer to stay quiet” to avoid “friction points with port state control”.He took the opportunity to explain why a single ship might receive different outcomes in different PSC regimes, with factors including the background, experience and qualifications of individual inspectors, leading to different deficiencies being found and differing interpretations of the seriousness of those deficiencies.In particular, he highlighted differences between how deficiencies that require action to be taken are categorised. IMO’s publication Procedures for Port State Control identifies a number of ‘code’ numbers that can be noted on an inspection report as shorthand to indicate the required response, and Mr Castillero is particularly vocal about two of them: ‘Code 17’, which identifies deficiencies that need to be addressed before a ship can depart from a port, and ‘Code 30’, which highlights deficiencies that require a ship to be detained.Both have the same effect in practice, he said, but a Code 30 detention creates an adverse record not only for the ship, but also its owner, flag, class society and others, he says in the podcast.He goes on to suggest some solutions to the problems he has identified, setting out some proposals about how the international cooperation that would be required could be coordinated. The benefits would be significant, he believes, not least for crews who have to navigate the various PSC regimes and their inspection procedures.He also believes that LISCR’s size puts it in a position “to initiate a conversation with port state and flag state control to find a possible point of understanding” to start the discussion that would be needed to achieve this cooperation. “The Liberian registry has been globally recognised for taking the initiative,” he said.
In this pivotal year of global elections where the power blocs are squaring up to each other over trade, macroeconomic circumstance has thrust shipping into the limelight.Shipping has a window of opportunity to insert itself at the heart of the big political discussions by reminding politicians of the central role that national fleets and maritime sectors play in keeping economies and trade afloat.From supply chain vulnerabilities to energy security, government and the general public at large have never been more aware of the intrinsic role that shipping plays in its daily lives. Trade is still coupled with economic growth in Europe and the influence of European shipping on the supply chain needs to be taken into account.There is an opportunity to position shipping more centrally in whatever flavour of European politics emerges triumphant this summer.But is this industry ready and prepared to capitalise on its visibility by having a grown-up conversation with policymakers and regulators?The jury is out.Joining Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief this week to discuss whether we are having the right conversations in European shipping are: •Magda Kopczyńska the director general for the European Commission’s DG Move – the directorate of Mobility and Transport •Sotiris Raptis, secretary general of the European Community Shipowners’ association
Shipping is getting increasingly more complex and more expensive. On balance, that could be a good thing in that it forces the hand of an industry that has been too cheap for too long and the direction of regulatory travel now at least favours the progressives over the laggards. But we don’t know the detail. We don’t know what fuel availability or costs looks like. We don’t know the detail of what market based mechanism or fuel standard will emerge – or even if it will. We don’t know when ships ordered today are realistically going to be filling their duel-fuelled tanks with which fuels at what price. And that makes decisions today about newbuildings difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. It is possible to make the least worst decisions and factor in sufficient flexibility to be reasonably sure that the order you place today is not going to be a stranded asset in the next decade. And yet large swathes of the industry seem to be using the energy transition as an excuse for inaction. So this week’s edition of the podcast offers all the hesitant fence sitters out there a much needed dose of persuasive expertise advocating for fully risk-assessed progressive change. James Frew is a Business Consultancy Director at Lloyd's Register who has spent a lot of time advising clients on how to make the decision that comes with least regrets when it comes to newbuilding and optimisation.In this week’s edition Frew sits down with Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade to discuss:•How newbuilding and retrofit decisions can be optimised with sufficient flexibility to sail through regulatory and fuel uncertainties while avoiding the risk of stranded assets•Why increasing complexities around fuel procurement will not favour the smaller tramp owners•Why e-fuels are an inevitable part of shipping’s transition and many ships will have to factor in multiple fuel choices over the coming years
LAST July Ukraine’s deep sea maritime trade dried up with the collapse of the Black Sea Initiative.Within days Ukraine put forward a proposal to the UN detailing a route that would see ships sailing through Romanian waters to reach the greater Odesa ports. In August Ukraine announced the opening of a “humanitarian” corridor, pitching the route as a way to evacuate stranded ships.The initial departures were indeed stuck ships, but in September the first vessels started to arrive from foreign markets and this so-called “new” Black Sea corridor was officially open for business.Since then over 1000 ships have exported nearly 30m tonnes from Ukraine, helping to fuel the country’s wartime economy and getting large quantities of desperately needed grain back on the market.In February NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attributed the opening of the corridor to Ukraine’s armed forces who have been remarkably successful at pushing Russia’s Black Sea fleet further away from its coasts. “Few believed this was possible just a few months ago”, he said. “But now actually, the export of grain from Ukraine takes place even without an agreement with Russia. So this shows the skills and the competence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reinforced the importance of the country’s military in the functioning of the corridor and has warned that Ukraine will struggle to defend the route without additional military aid from the US.While the US announced an additional package for Ukraine worth up to $300m earlier this week, the Department of Defense’s supplemental request which includes roughly $60 billion in military aid is still yet to be passed by congress.Talking on the podcast this week: I.R. Consilium CEO, Ian RalbyHead of sanctions advisory at Lloyd's of London, Chris Po-Ba Bosphorus Observer's geopolitical analyst, Yörük IşikSenior associate at Black Sea Associates, Callum Thomson
On International Women’s Day, Stephanie Zank tells Lloyd’s List her story about being a trailblazer in the world of shippingAs a girl growing up in Australian in the 1980s Stephanie Zank hated office jobs and loved taking things apart and putting them back together.When she first stepped on board a ship, she knew that this was the career she wanted.But her story isn’t one that we’re normally being told on International Women’s Day.Stephanie Zank battled prejudice and abuse from her cadetship and throughout her maritime career that ended in 2014 when she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.Her story is one that’s normally stays untold or swept under the carpet but occasionally it bubbles to the surface, like the story of Hope Hicks, better known as midshipman X, in 2022.“A lot of crew members would make comments, such as ‘you're stealing men's jobs’, which was a fairly common one or ‘I hate you because you're a woman taking a man's job’, but more importantly, I hate you because you're small,” she told Lloyd’s List.She recounted two incidents when she was sexually harassed and sexually assaulted and the lack of support and policies in place to deal with such events.It’s right that Stephanie’s story is told on International Women’s Day, so that despite the platitudes from many in the maritime world about the progress that’s been made, we remember how far we have yet to go to ensure an equitable and fair workplace exists for all.
TUESDAY this week marked P&I renewal day. That’s the name given to the annual hard deadline for the 90% of the world fleet by tonnage entered with International Group P&I clubs to renew their liability insurance for the following year. Historically, the date was considered the first on which Baltic ports were sufficiently ice free to be navigable. That looks rather quaint in these days of global warning. But 20 February is now hallowed by tradition, and doing things on 1 January like everybody else would just be boring.So this week, as is now tradition, we are dedicating the podcast to examining the fallout from the annual P&I renewals. In 2024, things have been rather quiet by previous standards, as it goes. No major fleets are thought to have changed hands in search of better insurance deals.The number of owners opting to do so has been in decline for some time. Clubs actively disincentivise such behaviour with a mechanism known as release calls. In plain English, that’s a penalty imposed for switching.Premium increases were modest. Clubs were officially looking for general or target increases in the 5% to 7.5% range. But those headline rate hikes should be seen as opening bids in negotiations with brokers. In practice, most deals were settled at about two-thirds of that.We recorded this podcast on the afternoon of Thursday 22nd February, by which point several clubs had made preliminary announcements about how well they have done. Five said that had gained tonnage. To name check them, they were Gard, NorthStandard, Skuld, West of England and Steamship Mutual.As subscribers know, Lloyd’s List offers readers easily the best marine insurance coverage available anywhere, and naturally we asked insurance editor David Osler to round up a cross-selection of the P&I people to discuss the latest developments.Speaking on this year’s P&I round up:Alex Vullo, to divisional director of Gallagher’s P&I practiceAnna Vourgos, a director of Cyprus-based Aphentrica, William Beveridge, chief underwriting officer of the UK Club.
THE shipping industry has a problem that it doesn’t like to talk about. A dark secret.Safety standards, by and large, have been steadily improving over recent decades. Ship casualties and incidents reached an all-time low, in spite of a global pandemic and a steady tightening of regulatory standards have raised the bar across the board. But there is a significant and growing fleet of ships to which none of this applies. An unprecedented deluge of sanctions has divided the industry between those operating within the established rules-based order of safety conventions, class, insurance and international oversight, versus a worryingly large section of the fleet that has disappeared off the radar.The serious and significant safety threat that the dark fleet poses has been well documented, not least by Lloyd’s List. But the ships themselves are only part of the problem. There is a whole infrastructure that is supporting this return to opacity at the bottom of the industry. This is not simply another sanctions story. Fraudulently flagged ships are hopping effortlessly between registries unable or unwilling to tackle their lawless flouting of the established rules-based order. These are vessels that in some cases make the Dark Fleet look like law abiding citizens by comparison - often with no flag, no insurance and an impenetrable nexus of state-sponsored opacity readily supporting their illicit movements behind the scenes.These ships do not operate in isolation – they only exist and are able to trade because they are able to operate with a combination of direct support and tacit complicity from companies, institutions and governments willing to turn a blind eye. The support networks are complex and opaque, but at the top of it all there are governments failing to provide meaningful oversight of ships flying their flag. And that’s where the podcast this focussed its attention. The Safety standards at the top of the industry have largely improved, but the worst bits of shipping are getting worse, and that is a serious problem for everyone. Talking on the podcast this week:•RightShip chief executive chief executive, Steen Brodsgaard Lund •International Chamber of Shipping secretary general, Guy Platten
Why has the marine insurance industry forgotten about Cynthia Mockett? That is the question at the heart of this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast. The widow of a UK marine surveyor and consultant murdered in Yemen 13 years ago in one of the biggest marine insurance frauds in Lloyd’s of London history is still fighting for compensation, as well as payment for the work that led to his death.Cynthia Mockett, based in Plymouth, England, was the wife of Capt David Mockett, based in Aden, Yemen, until his death in July 2011, when a bomb placed in his car exploded.Days earlier, Capt Mockett had inspected the 1992--built suezmax Brillante Virtuoso (IMO: 9014822), owned by Marios Iliopoulos, in waters outside Aden, after the suezmax tanker was set ablaze in a fake piracy attack.The financially troubled owner owed $80m in loans taken out against the vessel which was worth $13.5m, court evidence showed.Capt Mockett had raised doubts the fire was caused by pirates, with a UK coroner later finding his death was unlawful with evidence from a UK diplomat that the bombing was related to the insurance fraud.London-based Noble Denton, on behalf of Talbot AIS, the lead hull underwriter, contracted Capt Mockett.Ms Mockett told Lloyd’s List Noble Denton never got in touch after her husband’s death nor paid for his work on the Brillante Virtuoso. Talbot contacted her for the first time this month, nearly 13 years later, to apologise, and send condolences.A high-profile High Court case found in 2019 that the shipowner orchestrated a complex conspiracy along with crew, the Aden-based salvor and Yemen coast guard to fraudulently organize a fake piracy attack, then claim for the vessel’s loss. The probable murder of Capt Mockett was part of conspiracy, the judge found. Previous correspondence to Talblot AIS from Mrs Mockett went unanswered and she did not hear back from anybody until last week, when the company’s chief executive Chris Rash called.“The longest conversation I've had with Talbots has been in the last few days when Chris Rash has phoned me up,” said Mrs Mockett. “Nobody came to see me (at the time) and nobody has phoned me up and nobody has mentioned compensation, nothing. “When David died, everything died with him and his paypacket, and his pension disappeared. I've had nothing.”Mrs Mockett’s local MP, Sir Gary Streeter is one of a small group of people who has helped for nearly a decade in her fight for compensation and justice. There have been no charges laid against any of those involved in the Brillante Virtuoso case.The High Court judgement on the Brillante Virtuoso case can be read here: https://7kbw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BRILLANTE-VIRTUOSO-High-Court-Judgment.pdf
Between Black Sea disruption and two key canals choking under the pressure of climate and war, a triple whammy of blocked arteries threatens world trade. The impacts on the wider global economy could be profound. So what happened to all that talk of supply chain resilience?We have drafted in a couple experts this week to help me make sense of it all:Ryan Petersen, the founder and CEO of digital freight forwarder FlexportJan Hoffmann, Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Trade Facilitation SectionFor More information about Lloyd’s list Intelligence’s Predictive Fleet Analytics, follow this link: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/predictive-fleet-analytics?utm_source=Lloyd%27s_List__Podcast_Referal&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=PFA_Red_Sea_Crisis&utm_id=PFA_Pursuit_Team
A tipping point has been reached in the Red Sea. The industry is now divided between those who have called the Middle East security risk as a mid-term diversion to be managed, and those who are prepared to run the gauntlet of near daily attacks on the basis that the Houthis will only target ships with an Israeli, US or UK nexus.While containerships have been diverting away from the Suez Canal since mid-December, tankers and bulkers finally started making the call to follow them last week as US and UK airstrikes against the Houthis failed to stem attacks and insurance rates spiked in response.We’re already seeing the impact of that as product tanker rates rallied and the fallout will continue to be felt this week as we see who is and is not prepared to sail past Yemen. A total of 43 tankers have diverted from the Red Sea since the US-led air strikes began on January 12 – the wait and see period for shipping is well and truly over.This week on the podcast We are going to be talking about: •The differing approaches to this risk and why an increasing amount of China-linked vessels are venturing where their western counterparts are not.•We discuss the evolving nature of the security threat in the Red Sea and, a month into the coalition naval operation to protect shipping, where the industry stands given the apparent failure of air strikes to stem the Houthi threat. •We reveal the vessel tracking analysis the reveals just how much traffic is diverting and what impact that is having.•And we explain why understanding the incentives to re-route is key to understanding why we have not seen a more universal re-routing around the Cape of Good Hope. Speaking on this week’s edition of the podcast: •Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Lloyd’s List Intelligence principal analyst•Bridget Diakun, Lloyd’s List data analyst•Cichen Shen, Lloyd’s List Asia editor•Nigel Lowry, Lloyd’s List Greece correspondent•Martin Kelly, head of advisory, EOS Risk GroupFor More information about Lloyd’s list Intelligence’s Predictive Fleet Analytics, follow this link: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/predictive-fleet-analytics?utm_source=Lloyd%27s_List__Podcast_Referal&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=PFA_Red_Sea_Crisis&utm_id=PFA_Pursuit_Team
It seems that 27 was the magic number in the end. That was how many attacks the Houthi’s landed on international shipping before the inevitable military response was triggered. On January 12th America and Britain responded with more than 60 sea and air attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in an attempt to restore open passage, expanding the scope of the Middle East conflict. As we recorded this week’s extended edition of the Lloyd’s list Podcast on Friday we had to insert the significant and inevitable caveat that by the time you listen to this one the details will have changed – the risk assessments that were being conducted day by day are now being reassessed on a hour to hour timeline. President Joe Biden threatened further military action and said America would not allow “hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes”.The immediate impact is clear – we had already seen the boxshops diverting around the cape of good hope, but in the aftermath of the air strikes on Yemen we’re seeing an increasing amount of tankers and bulk carrier follow suit. This matters in terms of the immediate market implications, but it also matters on geo-political level. The vulnerability of supply chains to shocks is well understood, but just how much protection can navies offer shipping today?Today we’re looking at the Red Sea, but what about the Taiwan strait? The Black Sea, the Arctic? Freedom to trade is not a given and the naval response to this latest threat is being carefully watched by everyone.Speaking on this week’s edition of the podcast we have: •Lloyd’s List Intelligence principle analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann•Sal Mercogliano the renowned American maritime historian and professor•Lars Jensen, containers analyst and chief executive of Vespucci Maritime•David Wech, chief economist at VortexaFor More information about Lloyd’s list Intelligence’s Predictive Fleet Analytics, follow this link: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/predictive-fleet-analytics?utm_source=Lloyd%27s_List__Podcast_Referal&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=PFA_Red_Sea_Crisis&utm_id=PFA_Pursuit_Team
This sponsored edition of the podcast is produced in association with ExxonMobilIn July, MEPC 80 agreed a new GHG strategy with a destination of net-zero GHG emissions by, or around, 2050. But will the fuels be ready and what does ‘net-zero’ actually mean?In this podcast, Christophe Pouts and Ken Kar of ExxonMobil address the challenge of reaching net-zero GHG emissions in maritime transportation and call for industry collaboration to make it happen.
The new International Maritime Organization secretary general Arsenio Dominguez joins the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week to discuss the challenges ahead, his leadership style and just how much influence the 'SG' really has in setting the industry’s agenda.Happy new year to all Lloyd's List Podcast listeners
Each year, Lloyd’s List likes to gather a group of industry leaders, lock them in a room and not let them leave until they have divined the fate and fortunes of the shipping industry for the year to come. And that’s what we did this week in London at the annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum. Having gathered a baseline of crowdsourced knowledge from the ever insightful Lloyd’s List readers we invited an all star line up of industry leaders and guests to join us for a discussion of the opportunities and threats that will be shaping shipping next year and beyond. Now we do that because, well frankly it’s entertaining. But there is a real value in these conversations because as anyone who has been listening to this podcast will know, the industry is changing, radically in parts, less so in others, but the business of shipping is having to adapt. Understanding the tipping points that will determine the future of the industry is important. The forces that are determining the course of shipping’s zero-carbon transition — and, with it, the future of the commercial architecture of the industry – that’s all playing out in front us right now. There has been a step change in the industry conversation this year.It's messy.Not all regulation is fit for purpose; not all companies are doing what they have pledged; and the industry is still off track from where it needs to be.And yet the maritime conversation has finally shifted from aspiration to action.•Dr Alexandra Ebbinghaus, GM Decarbonisation, Shell•Eman Abdalla, Global Operations Director for Cargill Ocean Transportation•Nikolaus H. Schües, President of BIMCO and CEO and owner of Reederei F. Laeisz•Michael Parker, Citi global shipping, logistics and offshore chairman and chair of the Poseidon Principles
Three of the five International Group affiliates that have announced strategies for the 2024 renewal have included sweeteners totalling more than $80m. But are the payouts as generous as they look? This week’s edition of the podcast offers a deep dive into the P&I landscape at the halfway point in renewal season. Lloyd's list Insurance Editor David Osler take the lead this week, talking to: Jonathan Andrews, chief executive of Steamship Mutual, who was in dialogue with Alex Vullo, a director of leading broker Gallagher; Tom Bowsher, chief executive of West of England; and Thya Kathiravel, chief underwriting officer of Britain’s biggest P&I club, the recently merged NorthStandard.
Two of the shipping industry’s leading academics, Professor Siri Pettersen Strandenes and Dr Martin Stopford join the podcast this week to discuss everything from the shifting nature of shipping economics to the digital and logistic solutions they would urge the industry consider in response. To hear more about the topics discussed in this week’s edition make sure you join us next week for a very special Lloyd’s List live webinar on Thursday 16th at 2pm UK time. We will be discussing whether shipping’s zero carbon transition is on track. Register now here: https://lnkd.in/erSdy42R
On pretty much every metric you care to think about right now, the industry does not have sufficient pace behind the transitions required. But you knew that already, so we are exploring the reasons why in a little more depth in this week’s edition of the podcast. Like last week’s edition these conversations all stem from around the recent Global Maritime Forum held in Athens, but they are part of a wider series of conversations with industry leaders about the tipping points in the industry and how the sector is evolving. This week, Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade is talking to:•Saskia Mureau, Digital director at the Port of Rotterdam Authority•Johannah Christensen, Managing Director, Head of Projects & Programmes, of the Global Maritime Forum•Paul Taylor, Managing Director, Global Head of Shipping and Offshore, Societe Generale•Steen Lund, Chief Executive RightShip•Rajesh Unni, Founder & CEO - Synergy Marine Group
The zero emission capable ships may be coming, but they are not coming quickly enough. But even if we squint and avoid the question of how environmentally friendly a theoretically environmentally friendly ship really is, the ships aren’t really the biggest problem right now.It’s the lack of zero carbon fuels coming down the pipeline that’s keeping most industry executives awake at night.The scale of the challenge to produce green fuels is being vastly underestimated and all the imagined green corridors in the world are not going to scale up demand at a pace that is needed.For shipping to progress towards the next phase of this fuel transition, and in order for it to be in line with the ambitions set out at MEPC 80, there needs to be a fundamental shift in terms of policy, investment, public private partnerships and let’s face it, a leap of faith by investors on all sides.The Lloyd’s List Podcast comes from Athens this week, specifically from inside the Global Maritime Forum. And this edition focusses specifically on a few of the key conversations about progress towards shipping’s zero carbon future. The theme of this year’s GMF was moving from ambition to action - and that’s important because we’re at the point now where we are in danger of stalling and we need to see those pilot projects and agreements in principle start to scale into something more tangible. Speaking on today’s podcast you will hear: •Jan Dieleman is the President of Cargill Ocean Transportation, Chair of the Global Maritime Forum•Michael Parker, Citi global shipping, logistics and offshore chairman and chair of the Poseidon Principles•Katharine Palmer. Shipping Lead at the UN Climate Champions teamDr Tristan Smith, Associate Professor in Energy and Transport at UCL and Director of consultancy UMAS
In a world rife with cascading crises – macro-economic fragmentation, retreating development, multilateralism under attack and of course the defining challenge of the age - climate change – maritime trade serves as a stabilizing anchor, holding fast against the turbulent currents of disruption.But it is changing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shifted trade lanes – in terms of grain obviously, but it has increased the distances travelled by tankers as the Russian Federation sought new export markets for its cargo and Europe looked for alternative energy suppliers.The death of deglobalization may have been overstated, but it is changing. There are now shifts visible in the data towards various forms of de-risking or supply chain resilience measures. Goods continue to be produced through complex supply chains, but the extent of these chains may have plateaued, at least in the short run. Friend shoring, near-shoring, reshoring – however you label it, changes in trade lanes are afoot. The bigger consequences to all this will be a continued fragmentation of global trade norms and a long term challenge to the multilateralism that has defined the rules based order that oversaw globalised trade to this point.A rise in protectionist policy and regional bloc trade facilitation agreements promises increased fragmentation, uncertainty and complexities.As with watch with well founded fear at the events happening in the middle east this week, it is easy enough to see where the tipping points of immediate change lie, But the longer term developments are more complex and slower to show themselves. In this week’s podcast we start a conversation around these theses with two experts who offer a compelling view on the challenges ahead. The first is an old friend of the Podcast - Jan Hoffmann, Head of the Trade Logistics Branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. And he is joined this week by Shamika Sirimanne, who leads UNCTAD's trade logistics programme.
TWO years ago Federal Maritime Commission chairman Daniel Maffei sat in front of the Lloyd’s List microphone and bluntly told the container carriers to buck up their public relations.They needed to do a better job of explaining the economics of container shipping and the industry’s essential role in supporting commerce, was his basic beef. Well, a lot has happened since then so when Maffei was in town recently we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drag him once again into a small office and insist that answer another stream of questions from our team.You can hear the combined forces of our containers editor James Baker, our US correspondent Tomer Raanan and Janet Porter, chair of the Lloyd’s list editorial board throwing the questions his way as we discuss everything from the image of the industry to alliances and vexatious complaints from shippers.
A LLOYD’S LIST SPONSORED PODCAST LNG is a fossil fuel: the groundswell of opinion says it’s the answer to the wrong question. But some nevertheless believe it has significant advantages over alternative fuels and it is a useful steppingstone to the next level.In this podcast, RINA technical director Antonios Trakakis, who is responsible for leading maritime sustainability initiatives at the Italian classification society, takes a ship engineer’s view of LNG. He argues it is safe and affordable, unlike the more exotic alternatives. All class societies must work with the full range of fuel solutions to accelerate the transition to a low carbon future, and Trakakis is happy to explore the options. For him LNG offers an immediate reduction in carbon emissions while reducing or avoiding altogether issues such as cat fines, carbon deposits, and the need to change fuels when crossing into an ECA zone. Greek ship owners, he says, are “very concerned” about the health and safety implications of ammonia and methanol; they are disinclined to invest in a fuel solution that will leave them high and dry when the ultimate choice is made.“Owners want to remain competitive, and they want shipping to remain competitive. That’s why they have carried out many investigations into whether moving away from fossil fuel would work.“So far,” Trakakis warns, “it seems that it doesn’t really work, not only from their side but those from the charterer side.”Charterers are not committed to supporting very expensive alternative fuel, he argues.He is as yet uncertain about which fuel option will be the next step after LNG, but RINA is excited by the possibilities LNG offers for the production of hydrogen onboard.Ship owners need to see the business case for the alternatives. “In shipping we always try to find the solution that can meet the target with the minimum extra cost,” he concludes, and warns that the green premium won’t be an insignificant consideration.
AS anybody looking to renew a fixed-rate mortgage right now will tell you, these are tough times for those seeking to borrow money.The decade and more in which the outlook for interest rates were “lower for longer”, as central bankers sought to encourage economic activity in the wake of the global financial crisis, are just a memory.The new enemy is inflation, which has jumped dramatically in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Policy rates in most major economies have risen sharply, and while the forward yield curves suggest they are expected to moderate in the next year or two, we are living through interesting times.For shipowners looking to bankroll expansion, the market seems bifurcated.Those that raked it in during the post-pandemic boxship boom or are benefiting from current tanker rates, or can point to charter backing, may be finding it easier than for some time.But that isn’t most shipowners.Smaller operators are having to pay high single-digit and even low double-digit percentage point interest rates, which by historic standards represents expensive money.Increasingly they are turning to Asian leasing companies because European bankers no longer have their backs in the way that was common until the 2000s.So, for this edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast, we are lifting the lid on what’s happening in ship finance.We convened a special panel discussion for this one.Our guests were industry veteran Dagfinn Lunde, a high-profile figure who built his career at DVB, Det Norske Bank and Intertanko, who how runs the online ship finance platform eShipfinance.com; Andreas Povlsen, a Breakwater Capital alumni who now heads the maritime team at alternative asset manager Hayfin; and star lawyer Kavita Shah, a partner in the asset finance group at Watson Farley & Williams, who puts together the contracts that make the deals happen.Moderating the panel is Lloyd’s List’s very own insurance and finance editor, David Osler.
The International Union of Marine Insurance conference is the annual health check for the shipping industry’s risk cover and as such offers an important, if not at time impenetrably complex view of the sector as a whole. This week’s podcast offers up a clear explanation of everything you need to know about marine insurance from the people who understand it best. Consider this week’s edition your best, and perhaps only opportunity to learn the marine insurance sector in under 25 minutesxFOR some, it’s Glastonbury or Coachella, others have Glyndebourne or Last Night of the Proms. In the world of marine risk, it’s the annual International Union of Marine Insurance conference, and this year’s insurance festival comes from Edinburgh with added bagpipes and ill-advised kilts worn by men with homeopathic claims to Scottish heritage.The fact that global marine premiums jumped 8.3% in the past year is, granted, a niche headline announcement, but to those gathered in Scotland this week, it’s a case of turning the excitement factor up to 11.Insurance-speak can sometimes make even shipping jargon sound comprehensible, but the plain English explanation is startlingly simple. More ships are being insured at higher prices, fewer of them are sinking, and everybody goes home happy.Hull & machinery insurance has certainly witnessed something of a turnaround in the last five years. H&M underwriters - who up until that point had been losing money in the aggregate for around 20 years – are actually making some for a change.Likewise, P&I clubs are currently publishing combined ratios of below 100% for the first time since the late 2010s. If you don’t know what we are talking about, keep listening and you will be expert by the end of the show.Finally, it’s worth noting that Europe is holding its own even though London continues to cede ground to Asian insurers, and still has over half the market.Our man Dave Osler is now on his ninth IUMI conference, and has been up in Edinburgh with the microphone talking to some of the main movers and shakers for this week’s edition.Speaking on this week’s edition: Chair of IUMI’s hull committee and chief executive and chief underwriter at American Club affiliate American Hellenic Hull Insurance company – Ilias TsakirisChair of the International Group of P&I Clubs - Nick ShawIUMI vice chair of the Facts and Figures Committee and analyst/actuary of the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor) - Astrid Seltmann
Shipping does like to talk. And this week we have talked our way through sanctions, geo-political risk, diversity, digitalization and of course the big green elephant in the room at every event – decarbonisation.So as London International Shipping Week puts the champagne flutes in the dishwasher and sweeps up the last crumbs of canapes from the floor, the Lloyd’s List team have gathered around the podcast microphone for a short reflection on what we have learned this week. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this final edition of the week:Our senior analyst and dark fleet botherer in chief Michele Wiese BockmannOur data queen Bridget DiakunOur resident sustainability guru Enes TunagurOur multi media editor Declan BushOur chief correspondent Richard ClaytonOur insurance editor David OslerAnd our US correspondent Tomer Raanan.
Shipping’s decarbonization dialogue is starting to sound a little schizophrenic. For the first half of the year all we heard was that the IMO was not going far or fast enough and everyone was lobbying for a 1.5 degree alignment in terms of the 2050 decarbonisation targets with some stringent 2030 and 2040 waypoints. We didn’t quite get there, but we weren’t far off. So was that enough to catalyse the final investment decisions needed to get green fuel supplies off the ground? Well, no is the short answer. And as for the industry’s efforts to accelerate efficiencies in the short term – it seems nobody is convinced that those 2030 targets that everyone was pushing for, are in any way achievable now. It’s just too much, too soon – we’re never going to make it.The point is that not everyone’s pointing in the same direction. Now that we can’t blame the IMO for our collective inertia, how do we justify the fact that green shipping is not very green?In today’s edition we tackle a few related issues of green fuel supply, not least the current topic du jour Methanol as the Maersk marketing machine cranks into action for the launch of the genuinely ground breaking Laura Maersk. But we start with a bit of necessary context by revisiting those IMO decisions from MEPC80 – because it seems that the industry has been thinking about this on the beach over the summer and may be misremembering what has actually happened. Speaking on today’s edition of the podcast:Jan Dieleman President of Cargill Ocean TransportationDr Tristan Smith, Director of UMASAoife O'Leary founder and CEO of Opportunity Green
Forecasts are difficult, especially about the future. But shipping’s focus for a while now has been squarely on 2050 when, let’s face it, the majority of those making bold pledges about the industry’s transformation are not going to be around to observe the accuracy of their optimism. Setting out what’s achievable by 2030 is more difficult, arguably impossible. Reports setting out the likelihood of future scenarios for shipping’s zero carbon transition have become a regular waypoint in helping us assess where we are, but the latest reports are much more circumspect about what’s possible in the immediate future and they are all stressing importance of what’s happening in the next few years. In case it had passed you by, we are in a decisive decade for shipping. That’s certainly the message that is being trumpeted this week at London International Shipping Week in the latest round of scenario setting reports by the class societies, who have now become our default forecasters. And that matters because the actions being taken, or more precisely not being taken now, are obviously going to affect whether we hit the now massively accelerated decarbonisation targets set out by the IMO earlier this summer. But it does also affect the likely long term scenarios as well, because again the investment decisions being taken, or deferred now, directly link to the 2040 and 2050 targets. The next two to three years are absolutely crucial. Both DNV and Lloyd’s Register have outlook reports out this week and the podcast today offers some insights from those behind the reports.
Speaking on today’s podcast:
Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen CEO of DNV Maritime Ruth Boumphrey Chief Executive of Lloyd's Register Foundation Eirik Ovrum, Principal Consultant in Maritime Environmental Technology, DNV Claudene Sharp-Patel, Technical Director at Lloyd's Register
EIGHTEEN months in, it’s perhaps not a shocker to hear that the shipping industry is still struggling with the complexities of the ever-evolving sanctions compliance regime they find themselves navigating. But the geopolitical realities of the situation that lies ahead are now starting to hit home. Shipping is trading in an increasingly bi-polar political environment and while no risk analyst worth talking to is going to target their crystal ball settings beyond a five year horizon, there was a general consensus yesterday inside the Lloyds building during London International Shipping Week discussions, that Russia-focussed sanctions are here for the next 5-10 years minimum. The genie is not going back in the bottle on this one. Shipping can only expect the compliance complexities to increase from here on. So in today’s edition of the podcast we are exploring what that really means. When we say we’re entering a bi-polar political world does that genuinely mean that shipping is going to have to take sides in where it is prepared to trade? We’re talking about sanctions here of course, but this is more than simply looking at what trades you can and can’t do. Sanctions are a foreign policy weapon and the financial and technical services that underpin shipping have been politicised certainly, arguably weaponised. That process has reduced the markets that insurers, lawyers and banker can offer services to. It has reduced the parts that ships can access and the safety and maintenance service required to keep the global fleet afloat. And it’s also see a significant number of traders move away from the mainstream scrutiny of those well established bodies and rules that the industry has fought so hard to establish over the past 30-40 years. This is not just about sanctions – this is about the global rules based order that shipping relies on crumbling before our eyes.
Speaking on today’s edition: • Mike Salthouse, Head of external affairs, NorthStandard P&I • Dr Dominick Donald, Senior advisor, Herminius • Eleanor Midwinter, Partner Wikborg Rein • Cathrine Lagerberg, Risk Advisory Senior Manager, Deloitte
It seems we find ourselves in an era of “cascading crises”. The de-risked, de-coupled, low growth, fractious trading environment that the industry is navigating today is laden with uncertainty. China’s growth engine is sputtering. The consequences of sanctions and regional bloc economics is creating a bi-polar political and trading environment and inflation is starting to bite. And then there’s the existing twin track revolution of decarbonisation and digitalisation to deal with. For those of you returning to the Lloyd’s List Podcast after our short summer hiatus – don’t worry – we haven’t run out of topics to talk about.This week the great and the good of the shipping industry are descending on Lloyd’s List’s doorstep for London International Shipping Week and, not wishing to disappoint our guests we’re going to be running a daily podcast for the duration of the discussions. We are starting a week of LISW podcasts with a whistlestop tour of the issues keeping industry executives awake at night.Today’s edition features:•Nikolaus H. Schües, BIMCO President and CEO and owner of Reederei F. Laeisz•Sarah Treseder, UK Chamber of Shipping. Chief Executive•Guy Platten, secretary general, International Chamber of Shipping•Michael Parker, Chairman, Global Shipping, Logistics & Offshore at Citi and one of the architects of the Poseidon Principles
THE world economy is slowing down. Last month China reported that its economy grew by a mere 0.8% in the second quarter compared with the prior three months. The much anticipated post Covid pick up has seen the Middle Kingdom return with a whimper rather than the hoped for roar after the government finally abandoned its “zero-covid” policy in December. Global manufacturing has suffered as consumers came out of lockdowns and began eating out more and buying less home-office equipment. And, although America grew strongly in the first half of the year, most forecasters expect the economy soon to slow. But if recent history has taught us anything it is that nothing in geopolitics or macro economics for that matter, is forever—and trends which look inexorable come to an end. So before the Lloyd’s List Podcast takes a short summer vacation we thought we would leave you with a little long term perspective to mull over on the beach. The renowned economist, author and historian Marc Levinson has been on the podcast before talking about the next phase of globalisation, but that was nearly two years ago and a lot has happened since then, so we asked him if he wouldn’t mind coming back for a catch up. Trade wars, de-coupling, military conflicts, recessions, and warnings of global trade collapse are not in short supply these days, so I wanted to get a view on the long-term perspective Speaking to Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade, Marc talks about: • The reality of near-shoring and friend-shoring – both are in the news but both seem to be misrepresented. • How the long-term trend that trade in manufactured goods is likely to grow more slowly than the world economy in the years ahead, and what that ultimately means for shipping which has based business models around growth expectations. • The need for regional trade pacts, partly as a result of the disintegration of the WTO rules-based order and why the future looks more fragmented and regionalized as a result.
As ever, if you want to get in touch with your ideas and feedback on the podcast we love to hear from listeners, especially the nice ones. You can find Richard on Twitter via @Lloydslisted, on LinkedIn – just search Richard Meade, but the easiest route is the direct one: Richard.meade@lloydslistintelligence.com
THIS IS A SPONSORED PODCAST IN ASSOCIATION WITH EAGLESTAR
In this podast, Eaglestar managing director Capt Peter Liew discusses how to future-proof the ship manager at a time of change, and how to position the business to be competitive.
For most of its life, Eaglestar was the in-house manager for Malaysia’s MISC. Now fully independent, it has found new opportunities for business in the world of sustainability.
Is ship management an art or a science? Can a third-party manager that began life as the in-house manager of a major international group ever be considered fully independent? How does a new manager position itself as regards cost? And what about the sharing of data if it helps others to reduce their carbon footprint? There is no better time to be in shipping, given the focus on sustainability, efficiency, performance metrics, and fuels. Eaglestar has left the fold at MISC, the Malaysian energy shipping business, and is finding its way in the exciting, yet intensely competitive world of third-party management. In this podcast, Managing Director and CEO Capt Peter Liew Guan Hock discusses Eaglestar’s journey to independence, its aspirations, and the importance of training seafarers to handle the new fuels. He emphasises the importance of future-proofing all aspects of the business as well as the employees because the only constant in shipping is change itself. The rapid advance of new technologies is often seen as a challenge, he says, although he sees new opportunities. Eaglestar wants to be seen as a one-stop-shop in energy ship management, working with its partners in design, construction, delivery, and operation of some of the most advanced vessels afloat. Capt Liew and his team are pushing boundaries at a time when those boundaries are still being defined by regulators and governments, technology leaders, environmentalists and indeed by society at large. Data is key; collaboration will be critical; people – including seafarers – will be paramount.
The immediate disruptions of the pandemic may have eased, but has the industry learned sufficient lessons to prevent the same chaos next time around? Shippers need to plan ahead for both known and unknown disruptions according to the panel of experts we gathered for this week’s edition of the podcast. Discussing how to build supply chain resilience with Lloyd’s List’s very own containers editor James Baker:
• Peter Sand, Xeneta • Alex Horsham, Zencargo • James Hookham, Global Shippers’ Forum • Cichen Shen, Lloyd’s List
We now know what shipping needs to do by 2050. We have a pretty good idea of what 2040 and even 2030 looks like on paper. But after the big political showdown in the IMO earlier this month we’re now looking at the difficult detail of what follows. This is something of a recurring theme for the Lloyd’s List podcast, so as regular listeners will well understand we’re not talking about a shipping issue here – we’re talking about a global energy transition. Working out where shipping fits into that is not just a case of setting targets and sending demand signal and creating policy. It requires a more holistic approach that considers the entire energy value chain. It’s about scaling up low carbon fuel production, but that doesn’t work if you can’t integrate the ports, the logics and of course the shipping and get both public and private sector by in. Which is why energy ministers converged on the India beach resort of Goa this week to discuss how they can scale up low carbon fuel production. Amongst them sheltering from the monsoon rain was a crack squadron of shipping industry leaders helping to ensure that the maritime element was not just in the mix, but in many ways leading the conversation. Joining the podcast this week to report live from within the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting this week we have:
• Patrick Verhoeven, Managing Director, The International Association of Ports and Harbors • Prof. Lynn Loo, CEO, Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation • Bud Darr, Executive VP Maritime Policy and Government Affairs, MSC Group • Stuart Neil, Director of strategy and communications, International Chamber of Shipping
Moin Ahmed is one of two candidates nominated for the position of secretary general with a seafaring background.(The other candidate is from Türkiye).
After 10 years at sea Ahmed came ashore to work at Bangladesh’s national shipping line, but his journey to the International Maritime Organisation began when he was posted to the UK as the company’s European regional representative more than 25 year ago.
From there, he began representing his country at the UN agency and has used his marine technical expertise by serving as chair in key working groups.
This included a period as chair of the technical cooperation committee, chair of the working group on the implementation of The International Conventionon Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.
Moin also chaired the ship recycling working group at the IMO. The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships only recently entered into force.
Ahmed is one of seven nominated for the position of secretary-general with the International Maritime Organization. They are: Bangladesh (Moin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiaojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka).
The 40 member states of the IMO council will be eligible to vote in the election on Tuesday, July 18, which incudes those from the three different categories.
They include 10 countries with the largest interest in international shipping (Category A), 10 with the largest interest in international trade (Category B), and 20 with special interests in maritime transport or navigation that represent all major geographic areas of the world (Category C).
These are: (A) China, Greece, Italy, Japan, Norway, Panama, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States; (B) Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates; and (B) Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Vanuatu.
Few people in shipping can claim to be a best-selling author but the book published in 1985 by Dominica’s candidate, Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, The Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Sea, is a text that thousands in international maritime law will be familiar with.
Doumbia-Henry concluded her eight-year term as president of Sweden’s World Maritime University last month, the latest post in a trailblazing career that has included time in The Hague working with the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, and the International Labour Organisation in Switzerland where she was responsible for developing the ILO Maritime Labour Convention.
She is one of three women nominated for the position of secretary general with the International Maritime Organisation, which includes seven candidates. They are: Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka).
Doumbia-Henry said she was inspired to embark on a maritime career and in particular develop labour standards for the shipping sector because she grew up on a small island, with many fishermen in her village and among her family.
Her work protecting the rights of seafarers led her to many interagency collaborations between the ILO and the IMO.
Voting to elect the next secretary general begins at 9.30am on Tuesday July 18. Research shows that none of the seven candidates appear to have sustained a majority to win the vote outright, which means a second round or a third round is likely.
Suat Hayri Aka, Turkiye’s candidate for the secretary general’s position at the International Maritime Organization, has probably the most diverse curriculum vitae of all seven candidates standing for election on Tuesday.
He began his career as a deck officer, and after time at sea went ashore to work in shipmangement and other maritime businesses. In addition to seafaring and commercial experience, Aka’s government roles include head of Turkiye’s maritime authority, and secretary, deputy undersecretary, and undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs.
There, he became involved in the regulation of the country’s aviation sector, which led to his appointment as the country’s delegate at the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the United Nation’s equivalent of the IMO.
None of the other candidates have experience at this UN regulator, which Aka said was ahead of the IMO when it came to developing greenhouse gas emissions strategies.
The secretary general’s four-year appointment begins on January 1, with the winner to succeed the incumbent over the past eight years, South Korea’s Kitack Lim.
Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka) all put forward their nominations for the position, which for the first time includes three women.
As most secretary-generals are normally re-elected for a second term, the successful candidate will take the IMO through key climate change regulations in shipping and other challenges, such as autonomous shipping, a looming seafarer shortfall, as well as digitalisation and other internal reorganisations.
Well-known Zhang Xiajojie has run a low-key public campaign for the position of secretary general but the former head of delegation for China at the International Maritime Organisation is confident he is in with a decent chance.
He began his career in the Ministry of Transport in 1994 and has travelled as part of the Chinese IMO delegation to London for 30 years, he told Lloyd’s List.
In 2017 he was elected as chair of the IMO council. At the beginning of 2020, Xiajojie left Beijing and moved to London to take up the job as director of the secretariat’s technical cooperation division.
China was a last-minute surprise entrant into the secretary general race, waiting right until the deadline to reveal their nomination, a decision which may split the vote between some countries who may have previously supported others from developing countries.
The candidates are: Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka) all put forward their nominations for the position, which for the first time includes three women.
The secretary-general will not only set the tone at the secretariat, but as the public face of the IMO, must bridge divisions and steer a course that will keep the IMO relevant and respected.
As most secretary-generals are re-elected for a second term, the successful candidate will take the IMO through key climate change regulations in shipping and other challenges, such as autonomous shipping, a looming seafarer shortfall, as well as digitalisation and other internal reorganisations.
From a little girl in rural Kenya who listened to the sounds of the sea from cowrie shells to candidate for the top job at the International Maritime Organisation – Nancy Karigitu’s long maritime voyage may end with her becoming the first African and first woman secretary general in its 70-year history if she is elected next Tuesday.
Karigitu was among the first of the seven candidates to flag her interest for the secretary general’s position which begins on January 1, with the winner succeeding the incumbent over the past eight years, South Korea’s Kitack Lim.
She is currently the special envoy and advisor on Maritime and blue economy at the executive office of the president in Kenya, after a long career representing her country at the IMO and developing technical cooperation programs in Africa on its behalf.
Among her lengthy achievements, Karigitu was the director general of Kenya’s maritime authority and chairperson of the IMO’s technical cooperation committee
Her interest in a maritime career began aged five when a visiting overseas teacher taught her to make paper boats and brought cowrie shells, telling young Nanc that if she put one to her ear, she would hear the sea. She was brought up 750km from the sea and was fascinated by the ocean when she saw it for the first time when she visited Mombasa.
Karigitu was an early favourite but with the high number of candidates has likely diluted her vote, especially with the late, surprise entry of China, for whom many of the African countries would be also encouraged to support. Her candidate information is here: https://www.nancykarigithu.com
The candidates are: Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka) all put forward their nominations for the position, which for the first time includes three women.
The IMO must take critical decisions over the next four years, amid heavy criticism that the pace of decarbonisation regulation will compromise the United Nations agency’s role as an international regulator.
The secretary-general will not only set the tone at the secretariat, but as the public face of the IMO, the personality must bridge divisions and steer a course that will keep the IMO relevant and respected.
As most secretary-generals are re-elected for a second term, the successful candidate will take the IMO through key climate change regulations in shipping and other challenges, such as autonomous shipping, a looming seafarer shortfall, as well as digitalisation and other internal reorganisations.
Last time the council elected the secretary-general, there were multiple rounds of voting before the eventual candidate emerged.
MINNA Kivimäki is the second candidate for the position of secretary general of International Maritime Organization featured in the Lloyd’s List podcast ahead of voting next Tuesday for the top diplomatic job in shipping.The four-year appointment begins on January 1, with the winner to succeed the incumbent over the past eight years, South Korea’s Kitack Lim.
Lloyd’s List has interviewed all the candidates, asking them to explain why they nominated and their plans for the IMO should they be successful. Today we talk to Kimivaki, who along with Panama’s candidate, Arsenio Dominguez, is one of several favourites for the job. Her candidate brochure can be found here - Minna Kivimäki candidate brochure
The current permanent secretary for Finland’s ministry of transport and communications is no stranger to the IMO in London, nor Brussels. This makes her an attractive candidate for many of the European member states where the 27-country block is developing its own regional regulation on climate change for shipping alongside the IMO’s global approach.
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While nothing can be taken for granted despite this late stage of the campaign, Finland’s candidature had the clear support of many of the European countries, with the exception of Greece, which declared its support for the Turkish candidate early in the peace.
The candidates are: Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Türkiye (Suat Hayri Aka) all put forward their nominations for the position, which for the first time includes three women.
The IMO must take critical decisions over the next four years, amid heavy criticism that the pace of decarbonisation regulation will compromise the United Nations agency’s role as an international regulator.
The secretary-general will not only set the tone at the secretariat, but as the public face of the IMO, the personality must bridge divisions and steer a course that will keep the IMO relevant and respected.
As most secretary-generals are re-elected for a second term, the successful candidate will take the IMO through key climate change regulations in shipping and other challenges, such as autonomous shipping, a looming seafarer shortfall, as well as digitalisation and other internal reorganisations.
Last time the council elected the secretary-general, there were multiple rounds of voting before the eventual candidate emerged.
THE International Maritime Organisation votes next Tuesday to replace its secretary general and seven countries are fielding candidates for the top diplomatic job in shipping. The four-year appointment begins on January 1, with the winner to succeed incumbent over the past eight years, South Korea’s Kitack Lim. Bangladesh (Moin Uddin Ahmed), China (Zhang Xiajojie), Dominica (Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry), Finland (Minna Kivimäki), Kenya (Nancy Karigithu), Panama (Arsenio Dominguez) and Turkey (Suat Hayri Aka) all put forward their nominations for the position, which for the first time includes three women. The IMO must take critical decisions over the next four years, amid heavy criticism that the pace of decarbonisation regulation will compromise the United Nation agency’s role as an international regulator. The Secretary General will not only set the tone at the secretariat, but as the public face of the IMO must bridge divisions and steer a course that will keep the IMO relevant and respected. As most secretarys general are re-elected for a second term, the successful candidate will take the IMO through key climate change regulations in shipping and other challenges such as autonomous shipping, a looming seafarer shortfall as well as digitalisation and other internal reorganisations. Lloyd’s List has interviewed all candidates, asking them to explain why they nominated, and their plans for the IMO should they be successful. First up is Panama candidate, Arsenio Dominguez, one of several favourites for the job, and known for his diplomacy and attention to detail as the director of the marine environment division at the IMO. His website and manifesto is here: http://www.ad4sg.com. The diplomatic horse-trading for the top job is well underway at the IMO but no single candidate has emerged as a frontrunner so far, although rumours abound and few countries have made their position public. Last time the council elected the secretary general there were multiple rounds of voting before the eventual candidate emerged.
The Lloyd’s List traditional mid-year health check on shipping’s core sectors highlighted a few underlying conditions in box and bulk but found tankers feeling much better after a period of prolonged depression. Join our resident specialists for a thorough examination of all that ails the maritime markets this week.
Our traditional mid-year health check on shipping’s core sectors has flagged a few underlying health conditions that are in need of treatment. Inflationary pressures, the eurozone's tepid consumer recovery, flatlining real incomes in the UK, and a potential recession in the US are all weighing heavily on consumer spending and therefore demand in advanced economies. In dry bulk, China reopened with a whimper, not a bang. But the dry bulk sector, unlike their peers in containers who lack the same self-control, have been looking after themselves and have avoided indulging in over ordering – so they are to some extent managing their condition. Tankers are a different story. After a long bout of depression, the drugs have finally kicked in and they are feeling much more optimistic, possibly even borderline manic, which is something we’re going to have to keep a close eye on. The cash is rolling in as the Russia-led dislocation and recalibration of global oil trades aligns with the lowest fleet-to-orderbook ratio in a generation. On this week’s podcast we are taking the core shipping markets through their mid-year year health check with the help of Lloyd’s List’s dedicated team of specialists.
The shipping industry can decarbonize. If the political stars align and the right demand signals can be emitted, even the most ambitious zero carbon scenarios are no longer limited by the technology. Or commercial readiness of zero-carbon fuels, or infrastructure or yards. At least they are according to the slew of papers and studies being pumped out as the world’s governments sit down next week to consider the crucial question of just how quickly shipping can decarbonise. The industry, however, remains uncertain and unconvinced. There is still a massive gap between the rhetoric and reality in shipping. Shipping is awash with zero-carbon commitments, coalitions, pilot projects, green corridors and studies, all charting the industry’s alignment to the 1.5°C temperature increase goal of the Paris Agreement. But a fraction of them have actually committed solid science based targets to action those promises. Green corridors are currently a paper exercise and dual fuel capability is essentially a hedge bet on the part of owners. A vessel theoretically capable of burning a sustainable fuel will not generate any value — environmental or commercial — from that capability until those fuels are produced in a genuinely sustainable form and become widely available, with an acceptable mechanism to bridge the inevitable cost differential against conventional fossil fuels. And yet, that’s not the whole picture. Because real progress is being made. Shipping tonne-miles have increased 40% in the past 15 years and yet total CO2 emissions from shipping have decreased 14% over the same period. In all other transport sectors, the opposite has happened. Even without access to sustainable fuels, a carbon price or anything approaching regulatory clarity, the shipping industry has quietly pulled off a minor miracle of efficiency. So, as the governments of the International Maritime Organization sit down to map out how shipping realistically decarbonises itself between now and 2050, we are bringing you a special progress report in this extended edition of the podcast, looking at how the industry is changing and where the key blockers to shipping’s zero carbon future remain. Featuring insights from shipowners, but also the likes of Shell, the World Bank and class societies, the podcast this week considers the progress achieved, but also the blockers still preventing action. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor-in-Chief Richard Meade for this special progress report on shipping’s zero carbon revolution are:
• Andy McKeran, maritime performance services hub director at Lloyd's Register • Simon Bergulf, head of energy transition & operations at Maersk • Alexander Saverys, chief executive of CMB • Dr Alexandra Ebbinghaus, general manager decarbonization at Shell Marine • Isabelle Rojon and Rico Salgmann, transport specialists at the World Bank
We tend to talk a lot about what the future of shipping will look like in 2050. What the fuels will be, what the ships need to do and how trade lanes and business models are going to need to rapidly adapt. But we don’t talk enough about the people at the heart of this revolution - the seafarers. Without a skilled, agile and well-trained work force, the clean energy transformation of shipping will be stifled, and the rapid and smooth conduct of global trade put at risk. The powers that be are gathering in Manilla next week to consider the elements required for a successful transformation of seafarers’ roles to meet the needs of shipping in the future. It is an appropriate venue and timing for the meeting because the Philippines is home to 14% of the global seafarer workforce and according to a new report due to be published next week seafarer remittances accounted for 1.8% of the nation’s GDP. That’s an important figure when it comes to negotiating the position of seafarers in a society that too often overlooks the economic value the seafarers and shipping provides. So we’re talking on the podcast this week about the transformation, investments and changes that will need to be made to ensure that sufficient numbers of skilled seafarers are available to fulfil the requirements of shipping in 2050.
Joining the discussion this week:
• Gerardo (Dito) A. Borromeo: CEO Philippine Transmarine Carriers, The Philippines and Board Member Maritime Just Transition Task Force
• Leonardo Beltran, Former Deputy Secretary for Planning and Energy Transition, Mexico; Board Member, UN Sustainable Energy for All
The Lloyd’s List Podcast moves to Japan this week, where MOL chairman Junichiro Ikeda shares his insights about what he considers to be biggest risks facing shipping and why MOL is looking to transform into a social infrastructure company
Mitsui OSK Lines chairman Junichiro Ikeda has worked at the Japanese shipping giant for more than 40 years and has witnessed numerous testing periods in the shipping industry. Just two years after he joined the company in 1979, dry bulkers entered one of the worst historical downturns amid a global recession. And the market trough persisted until the second half of 1987, partly due to the order binge led by compatriot company Sanko Steamship, an event that was too painful to be forgotten by many within the sector. Mr Ikeda also recalls the great threat posed by the 2008 global financial meltdown, and the rat race among container shipping carriers that followed when he was heading MOL’s liner division. Today, shipping is struggling to overcome being hit by multiple challenges at once. The two largest of them are arguably perils associated with the current rebalancing of geopolitical power and uncertainties arising from the industry’s battle against climate change. Talking to Lloyd’s List’s Asia editor Cichen Shen for the podcast this week, Mr Ikeda shares his insights into what he considers as the biggest risks facing shipping and how MOL is responding to the significant unpredictability lying ahead. Every shipping company, of course, has its own response tactics, depending on factors such as the size of business, the markets it operates in, or the thoughts of its leadership. However, the wisdom shared by the chairman of one of the world’s largest and oldest shipping firms should provide valuable reference.
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MEDIA headlines earlier this year called for a pause in the development of artificial intelligence because of fears that it will “tear humanity apart”.
The most tech-savvy minds on the planet, having unleashed the beast, are having second thoughts.
What’s the reality for AI and machine learning as they apply to the shipping and logistics business? What is their past, who is using these processes today, and where will AI be most effective in future?
Although the transportation sector is only on the cusp of implantation with the technology, there are plenty of instances where AI is not only needed but essential.
In this podcast, Jaison Augustine, head of shipping and logistics business unit at WNS, and Thomas Heydorn, global head of operations and process transformation at ECU Worldwide, lift the lid on AI and identify where it is most likely to be used.
Not surprisingly, they argue that AI won’t replace human contributions to the workplace — or even tear the workplace apart — but by managing information super-effectively, it will equip people better to make well-informed decisions.
Take the monster that drives every business in every town and city on the planet: emails. For the largest logistics business, it’s not uncommon to generate more than a million emails a month on a plethora of topics from shipping instructions to amendment requests via invoice disputes, claims and complaints.
That’s the playground for AI to create recognisable patterns and direct traffic to the correct workstreams. It would transform the working lives of thousands of employees struggling to respond to and meet customer expectations.
In maritime, AI will become an integral part of autonomous shipping, predictive analytics and information management. This will require a flow of clean data, new tech skills and a willingness to throw out legacy business processes in favour of new thinking.
AI is not without its challenges, Augustine and Heydorn agree. However, as shipping and logistics become even more complex amid geopolitical and climate crisises, and as workplace skills shift and shape, the case for information management on a scale not seen before becomes overwhelming.
AI is divisive even before most people in shipping and logistics know what it is capable of doing. Opting to continue struggling with emails as customers demand greater engagement might not be the best plan. Perhaps AI is the answer.
Find out the latest thinking on AI for shipping and logistics on this Lloyd’s List podcast.
Decarbonisation dominated the debate at this year’s NorShipping, but in between hot air and emissions there was time to take the temperature of an industry in flux. The Lloyd’s List team out in Oslo reflect on their key takeaways from four days of conversations and canapes
Talking on today’s edition:
• Richard Meade, Editor-in-Chief • Linton Nightingale, Deputy Editor • Bridget Diakun, Lloyd’s List Data Analyst • Enes Tunagur, Sustainability Editor
It is day three of Norshipping out in Oslo and the Lloyd’s List team are finally penetrating the pre-prepared headline pushes and have started to find a more nuanced debate about the real progress being made in shipping amongst the front runners, the followers and the laggards. Today’s chat is with Cargill’s head of ocean transportation and the president of the Global Maritime Forum, Jan Dieleman.
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THE Lloyd’s List team out n Nor-Shipping have been getting a bit heat this week for calling out the gap between the industry’s front runners who are pushing a progressive agenda and their followers and then the laggards. The good the bad and the ugly if you will. But as we touched on in yesterday’s edition of this daily podcast live from Norshipping, that’s quite a reductive view of what is realistically not a linear shift across a single industry, but a messy and difficult series of transitions across a supply chain that is still very fragmented. So, in search of a more balanced view from the frontrunners Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade hopped on an e-scooter to visit podcast regular Jan Dieleman. Most listeners will know Jan from previous editions, but for those who are not familiar he is the head of the shipping division at commodities giant Cargill. He is also the chairman of the Global Maritime Forum – the non-profit aimed at bringing voices from across the industry to chart a sustainable future. He is therefore well versed in both what the best of the industry are not just capable of and all too familiar with the gaps between the rhetoric on show and the reality of chartering decisions in an industry that needs to closely monitor the bottom line. Jan talks about why the industry can’t move in unison and why we do need regulation to close the gap between the front runner and the laggards. He also discusses collaboration and the need for a more holistic conversation across sectors and government. And we even talked a little about carbon capture. But the conversations starts by tackling what Jan sees as the elephant in the room – the fact that shipping may not be able to get what it wants when it come to a sustainable future of fuels, because shipping may not be the most important industry out there.
There is a visible gap between what the industry is saying it is doing about decarbonisation and what it is actually doing. But that oversimplifies the pace of a complex set of transitions underway and the significant strides already taken by the front runners pushing a progressive agenda, argue those behind the industry’s leading hubs for decarbonisation. Today’s edition of the podcast live from Norway challenges the naysayers and offers a compelling case for positivity.
Featuring:
• Johannah Christensen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Global Maritime Forum • Prof. Lynn Loo, Chief Executive Officer, Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation • Bo Cerup-Simonsen, Chief Executive Officer, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping • Charles Haskell, Director, Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub
There has been an outbreak of optimism as the industry converges on Oslo this week to discuss the tectonic shifts of decarbonisation and digitalisation. The first in a daily series of podcasts live from NorShipping hears how DNV Maritime’s chief Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen wants to fuel progress with collaboration and why MSC’s head of maritime policy and government affairs Bud Darr is brimming with hopeOut in NorShipping? Get in touch via @Lloydslisted or richard.meade@lloydslistintelligence.com
We are approaching the anniversary of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 enactment, which one head of a US shippers association said "changed what the Federal Maritime Commission is all about"The bill was signed in the midst of the supply chain crises that saw carriers' profits surge – much to their great surprise - while shippers were encumbered with skyrocketing rates and piles of per-diem fees, often levied indifferently and for circumstances beyond their control.In the run up and aftermath of Its signing, OSRA had rare bipartisan support. US importers and exporters struggled with fees, rates, and capacity, and carriers, flush with more money than they ever expected, were portrayed as price-gouging villains.While carriers probably didn't do themselves any favours when it came to per diem charges, the FMC came out in the midst of the supply chain crises and said that there is robust competition in the ocean shipping industry. Commissioner Rebecca Dye reiterated that view this week, saying that the pandemic did not lead to anti-competitive behaviour.But if liners thought that congress' interest in ocean shipping will fade after OSRA's enactment and with the winding down of supply chain congestion, US lawmakers had other ideas.A flurry of US legislation introduced over the last few months shows that when it comes to ocean shipping, and China, US lawmakers are able to see past their usual partisan bickering.These bills are in preliminary stages but given their potential impact on container shipping, they're certainly worth a look at.The proposed legislations cover a wide range of topics, from banning the use of Chinese-made software in US ports, to cancelling ocean carriers' antitrust exemptions in the US, complaints against the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, limitations on "foreign made" – i.e Chinese - port equipment and software, and more.This week, our US correspondent Tomer Raanan, spoke with Lauren Beagen, a former FMC attorney and founder of maritime consulting and legal solutions firm Squall Strategies to recap the year since OSRA's enactment and to explore what's in these new proposals
A sponsored podcast from RivertraceRivertrace, the UK-based water quality monitoring specialist, has evolved as the maritime industry developed away from analogue systems to digital technology. Digital monitoring has become not only an accepted but also an essential part of modern shipping.In this podcast, the company’s owner and executive chairman Mike Coomber shares his thoughts on monitoring, fuels, new technologies, automation, and crewing. He concludes that the only way to achieve decarbonisation goals is to make better use of human resources and assets operated onboard.He agrees the future will see a range of fuels, with ship owners and operators choosing the best fuel for the trade their vessels are on. However, he cautions that initial decisions are likely to change as the industry moves closer to decarbonisation goals. Meanwhile seafarers trained in an analogue age must be trained for the digital ship, and for these new fuels. He advocates bringing back an apprenticeship scheme, so seafarers can earn as they learn. From the perspective of a developer of maritime technology, the world of fuels is not quite as clear as it might look through regulators’ or charterers’ eyes. Mr Coomber offers an alternative view that challenges as well as affirms.
On paper the industry is pushing ahead with a twin track project of near term efficiency gains while politicians agree a clear regulatory timeline that unlocks the investment, scales low-emission fuels, and addresses ongoing concerns about future supply and demand. In reality the distant prospect of any meaningful political agreement is being routinely used as a pretext for widespread inaction, or worse, outright greenwashing as companies attempt to keep up the pretence of progress amid growing uncertainty and the likelihood of an expensive delayed zero carbon transition regulated by a fragmented patchwork of national regimes. And yet, this week the Lloyd’s List Podcast is offering you a case for optimism and an argument that progress is possible. Because it seems the industry is not sold. The International Chamber of Shipping’s recent survey of executives published this week made it clear that green fuel availability and infrastructure remain the top concerns for those holding off on investment beyond a hedge bet on bridging fuels like LNG. This hesitance to divest away from fossil fuels is a problem for shipping’s ability to reduce emissions in a meaningful way. But there is another view – a convincing view backed up by solid research commissioned by the IMO that tells us that achieving a more ambitious decarbonization pathway is not limited by the technical and commercial readiness of fuels and technologies, nor infrastructure and shipyard readiness.While fuels are and will be more expensive than currently used fuels, this is not a barrier to their uptake for the shipping industry if the demand signal is clear.That’s a view very much aligned to another report that’s about to come out, this one being published by Trafigura who will argue next week that there is potential to produce largevolumes of so-called electrofuels in Africa, Asia and South America, to meet future demand from the shipping industry and provide countries in these regions with the chance to develop new export industries and create thousands of skilled jobs.The Global south provides the supply, industry provides the demand and we get that equitable transition of a zero carbon economy we all want but until now have assumed to be out of reach. Easy really. Well inevitably, there’s a catch - it relies on progress being made inside the IMO this summer at the pivotal Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting. Is that possible? We asked one of the lead authors of the report, Trafigura’s head of energy transition research, Margaux Moore to join the discussion this week along with podcast regular Tristan Smith, Associate Professor in Energy and Transport at UCL and co-founder of hugely respected climate research body UMAS.
SPONSORED PODCAST in association with RightshipLet’s face it, shipping is no longer data-poor; in fact, it’s in danger of being overloaded with data. The problem is rather that data resides in inaccessible silos, in a range of formats, and when you do access it, it’s at an unaffordable cost. Yet data is seen as the foundation of the industry’s push towards decarbonisation.Other business sectors, such as FinTech, have addressed the data conundrum over the past decade. That wasn’t without its stresses and strains. Now the digital disruption that transformed finance looks set to do the same for maritime. Once again, those who do not embrace it risk falling behind.There are already plenty of data-led technologies building a presence in shipping. Many are variants of current voyage optimisation or performance monitoring technologies, but the data remains expensive to access and daunting to interrogate.On this podcast, Rightship’s Chief Technology Officer, Marlon Grech, explains the benefits of an innovative e-commerce platform that everyone can afford that will, he claims “democratise maritime data.”RightSTORE is a pay-per-use model that promotes and encourages access to standardised data on the grounds that it will help the entire industry make better-informed decisions. That’s good for operational efficiency, he suggests, but also for the push for sustainability and social responsibility.Further, Mr Grech is opening RightSTORE to Rightship’s partners.“We are not alone in having zero-harm products or data, so we are inviting all our partners to join this initiative. We will enable them to host their own data on RightSTORE, making it a one-stop-shop for all zero-harm maritime data.”RightSTORE is not in itself ground-breaking. It's replicating something that has already revolutionised the way we buy consumer goods but maritime is not good at looking at other industries for innovation. This model turns the traditional subscription package into a pay-to-use platform, which makes it much more accessible.Also on this podcast, Mr Grech is asked whether the headlong rush towards AI is mad, bad, or just plain scary.In his view, artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionise the maritime industry by enabling us to make more informed decisions, however he is aware of the risks associated with its implementation.Knowing what’s safe and what’s not is the first step to ethical and responsible use of what is, at the end of the day, a tool.“It's crucial to remember that AI is only as good as the data it is fed,” he advises, “so we must ensure that the data we use to train our AI models is unbiased and accurate.”AI has the potential to be a game changer for the maritime industry, but still it must be approached with caution. By doing so, the benefits of this powerful technology can be enjoyed while minimising the risks.
SANCTIONS against Russia are about to be tightened once again and this time shipping is very much the focus from regulators both in the US and EU.US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been in Japan this week ahead of forthcoming G7 talks, where she is talking up Washington’s intention to crack down on Russia’s ability to skirt sanctions.Meanwhile, over in Kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been ramping up the rhetoric and promising that the forthcoming 11th package of sanctions measures will also target those companies and countries circumventing measures. Of course much of this has been on the cards for some time. Lloyd’s List subscribers knew about the Commission’s plans to target ships repeatedly turning off AIS signals and engaging in ship-to-ship transfers as part of a programme of sanctions skirting a full two weeks before the mainstream press started reporting it this week. But the Lloyd’s List Podcast is focusing on this latest regulator crack down this week because the details of what both the EU and US are about to agree is likely to have significant impact on shipping. Lloyd’s List understands that the draft plan is to use the existing EU port ban wording as the mechanism, which effectively means enforcement would fall to the ports. But the detailed wording and guidance is going to be crucial. Senior industry sources are very concerned about how this is going play out because there are so many ways this could get very complicated for the industry (particularly for the ports).To help host Richard Meade interpret the political signals and explain the practical consequences of what this all means for shipping, Lloyd’s list’s resident queen of sanctions and uncoverer in chief of deceptive and dodgy shipping practices, Michelle Wiese Bockmann joins the podcast this week.
SOMETHING ground-breaking has happened in shipping. Navigator Gas, best known for owning and operating the world’s largest fleet of handysize gas tankers, this month revealed that they had done something no other shipowner has done before. The US-listed LPG carrier have taken out the industry’s first ever gender diversity-linked loan. In another words, they’ve drawn down on a $200 million loan facility agreement that has its interest rate based on whether the company meets targets to increase the number of women they have in leadership roles.One of the key performance indicators is linked to environmental sustainability and the other to getting 35% of women in the company in leadership roles in the next five years.Given that none of the company’s current C-suite roles are held by women, and only one of the seven board members is female, this represents a bold move on the part of Navigator management. So the Lloyd’s List Podcast invited Navigator Gas chief executive Mads Peter Zacho to talk to markets editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann this week to discuss the challenge he has set himself and why he believes it is important to change working culture and address shipping’s gender diversity gap.
ONE chief executive Jeremy Nixon says carriers need to stay ‘lean and agile’ to deal with long term geopolitical shifts including widening divisions between the US and China that are changing container shipping trade flowsJeremy joins the podcast this week to expand on his thoughts about evolving trade lanes, but he also discussed the more immediate concerns ahead for the box sector starting with the immediate rates outlook and the question of looming overcapacity on the horizon as owners struggle with their ship addictions and the sizeable wad of cash burning a hole in their pockets.
Despite an unprecedented proliferation of sanctions over the past 12 months, high profile enforcement cases have been notably absent in shipping, but that is about to change and much of the industry is still woefully unprepared for what is about to follow. Last year was about installing an unparalleled network of sanctions restricting trade. The remainder of 2023 is going to be defined by an increasingly aggressive enforcement regime as Western governments seek to close off the loopholes and make examples of those who have continued to skirt restrictions.So as the EU sets about considering its 11th package of sanctions against Russia that will further target shipping, this week’s edition of the podcast offers a selection of expert views on what the industry needs to do about enhancing its due diligence operations. Industry experts joining the recent Lloyd’s List Risk and Compliance webinar all agreed - the shipping industry is still not taking sanctions compliance seriously enough and too many companies lack the tools and expertise to dig deep enough into deceptive practices to satisfy regulatory scrutinySpeaking on this week’s edition of the podcast: •Amalie Korning Wedege, Global Head of Sanctions and Head of Financial Crime Compliance at Danske Bank•Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Markets editor and sanctions analyst, Lloyd’s List Intelligence•Claire Jungman, Chief of Staff of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)•Dan Tadros, Chief Operating Officer, Shipowners Claims Bureau, Inc.•Claire McCleskey, Assistant Director, Sanctions Compliance and Evaluation, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (featured courtesy of Capital Link)Listen to the full edition of the Lloyd’s List Risk and Compliance webinar here: https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/knowledge-hub/focused-webinars/how-to-navigate-shippings-evolving-sanctions-riskFor further information about Lloyd’s List Intelligence advanced risk and compliance solutions head here: bit.ly/3oCD2E7 Listen to the full Capital Link webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2Mh4Ljv1U
Scale through a merger is a useful tool to better tackle new emission rules, increasing sanctions risks, among other market uncertainties facing shipowners even in the most fragmented segments today. But you’ll have to get the right chemistry between people first. Cetus Maritime chief executive Mark Young joins our Asia editor Cichen Shen for this week's edition of the podcast to discuss is it a good time for a dry bulk shipping merger...
Episode 5 of a special six-part series of Lloyd’s List Podcasts examining how the war in Ukraine has had a lasting impact on different aspects of the shipping industry.This fifth edition of the podcast looks the knock-on effect that Russia’s war in Ukraine has had on trade in the Black Sea.To listen to the full series go to: http://bit.ly/3KbnQpSThe headline creation of the grain corridor, allowing safe transport of grain out of Ukraine, rightly gathered headlines. It was an extraordinary and unprecedented agreement between enemy combatants. And the fact that it has seen over 25m tonnes exported to date has, quite literally, been a matter of life and death as well as a minor diplomatic miracle.But the initiative is deeply flawed and survives despite its status as a political bargaining chip and routine threats from Russia to shut it down.It is also only part of the story of Ukraine’s Black Sea trades. Ukraine’s seaports were effectively blockaded at the onset of the invasion, cutting off the country’s major supply routes and rattling global markets. The government, in war mode, had to move quickly to keep goods flowing out to the foreign markets that rely on its key commodities, and establish alternative logistics chains so imports could reach the Ukrainian people. A handful of very small government-run ports along the Danube River emerged as critical hubs for wartime trade. The ports of Reni, Izmail and Kiliia, were the country’s only operational ports up until the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and they continue to be the only ports where trade can flow unrestricted. These small river ports significantly boosted capacity throughout the first months of the war and have received heavy investment over the last year to improve operational efficiency.In this edition of the podcast Lloyd’s List data analyst Bridget Diakun leads an expert analysis of the lasting impact the war has had on Ukraine’s seaborne trade and the significance of the grain corridorFeatured on today’s edition of the podcast: •Katerina Kononenko, a port agent at Avalon Shipping, a shipping agency that specialises in the transit of vessels through the Sulina channel to ports in Romania and Ukraine, explains the significant role that Danube traffic has played in re-routing exports.•Yuliia Matalinets, surveyor at Odesa-based Lloyd’s agents Eurogal talks about the rerouting of logistics lines through neighbouring countries. •Daniil Melnychenko a data analyst at Informall Business Group based in Odesa, walks us through the evolution of boxship trade in the Black Sea over the past year.
Episode 4 of a special six-part series of Lloyd’s List Podcasts examining how the war in Ukraine has had a lasting impact on different aspects of the shipping industry.This episode looks at why one of the lasting effects of the Ukraine was is going to be a significantly elevated series of risk factors for shipping.To listen to the full series go to: http://bit.ly/3KbnQpSPrevious episodes examined why the evolving minutiae of various compliance regimes means that the business of shipping is getting more complicated, but there is a bigger picture here as well. The macro economic and geopolitical risk factors that determine long term strategic thinking in an industry that necessarily needs to look at least 20 years into the future on any given asset deal, is getting more complex.Disruptions are of course part and parcel of shipping and in many ways shipping has often thrived, financially speaking, in times of war. But today’s edition of the podcast proposes that there has been a shift. The wider series of tipping points that a shipowner has to consider are now much more complex than they ever have been before, and the impact of the past 12 months has forced shipping businesses to start mapping out risks that they have never previously even thought of considering. On today’s edition of the podcast:•Cormac McGarry, associate director at Control Risks, talks about the changing risks for shipping as a result of war in Ukraine.
Episode 3 of a special six-part series of Lloyd’s List Podcasts examining how the war in Ukraine has had a lasting impact on different aspects of the shipping industry.This episode examines the impact on shipping markets.To listen to the full series go to: http://bit.ly/3KbnQpSAfter three years of pandemic shutdowns, reopening booms, war, clogged supply chains and nascent inflation, it’s hard to remember what a normal market looked like, if ever such a thing has ever existed. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a profound impact on global trade. As we recorded this special edition of the podcast economic growth forecasts for 2023 were once again being revised downwards, partly due to high interest rates and inflation in many economies, but much of the current global macro picture stems directly from the negative global economic spill overs from the war in Ukraine.But the war has also acted as a powerful catalyst for a rapid and often chaotic shift in oil flows, sending tanker rates, and tonne-miles, soaring to previously unseen levels. Featuring on this edition of the podcast:•Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO, offers a view on the overall impact that the war in Ukraine has had on the shipping markets.•Peter Sands, chief analyst at Xeneta, talks about the knock on impact that the war has had on container trades.
Welcome to the second edition of a special Lloyd’s List Podcast series examining how the situation in Ukraine has had a lasting impact on different aspects of the shipping industryChapter 2: The hostilities in Ukraine have left hundreds of seafarers held hostage, several dead and fundamentally affected the global supply of crew, but there are also longer term implications for the safety and security of crew that needs to be considered. Today’s edition of this special podcast series features Guy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping.To listen to the full series go to: http://bit.ly/3KbnQpSThe shipping industry has had to adapt rapidly since Vladimir Putin ordered his tanks across the Ukrainian frontier a year ago. Entire trade lanes have been re-routed, the most extensive set of sanctions in living memory has been hastily constructed and a super-charged “dark fleet” of opaque operations has sprung up, forcing shipping to navigate an increasingly complex risk-and-compliance landscape.In this special podcast series, Lloyd’s List’s editorial team are joined by a cast of industry experts as they examine the lasting implications of the conflict in Ukraine for shipping.In this second edition of the podcast, we examine the last implications for seafarers. The hostilities in Ukraine have left hundreds of seafarers held hostage. Some have even died. Moreover, the invasion has significantly disrupted shipping, with international maritime law routinely ignored in the name of special military operations.The too often overlooked implications of the war for seafarers, cannot be overlooked in any assessment of the impact of the war. Some 10% of seafarers come from Russia and 4% come from Ukraine, leaving a significant dent in the global supply of crew. For well over a year now seafarers have been caught up in a crisis far beyond their control. And the fact that follows directly from the Crew Change Crisis that saw tens of thousands of seafarers stranded at sea throughout the Covid pandemic has left many in the industry concerned about the lasting effects of this war on seafarers. Guy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, joins today’s edition of this special podcast series to offer his assessment of the lasting impact that the war has had on seafarers and shipping in general.
Welcome to the first edition of a special series of Lloyd’s List Podcasts examining how the war in Ukraine has had a lasting impact on different aspects of the shipping industry.In this first edition, we examine the rise of the dark fleet and look at why Russia’s increasingly sophisticated sanctions evasion tactics present a lasting risk for the wider shipping industry. To listen to the full series go to: http://bit.ly/3KbnQpSThe shipping industry has had to adapt rapidly since Vladimir Putin ordered his tanks across the Ukrainian frontier a year ago. Entire trade lanes have been re-routed, the most extensive set of sanctions in living memory has been hastily constructed and a super-charged ‘dark fleet’ of opaque operations has sprung up, forcing shipping to navigate an increasingly complex risk and compliance landscape. In this special podcast series, Lloyd’s List’s editorial team are joined by a cast of industry experts as they examine the lasting implications of the war in Ukraine for shipping.Today’s opening edition looks at the rise of the so-called ‘dark fleet’ as one of the major side-effects of the war in Ukraine and concludes that Russia’s sanctions-dodging is only getting more advanced.Lloyd’s list Intelligence has been tracking the development of the dark fleet from the start and according to our latest analysis the size of the dark fleet has more than doubled in the past two years to now cover about 10% of global tankers trading internationally.In addition to safety implications of effectively removing such a large fleet from mainstream scrutiny in terms of class, insurance and reputable flag state oversight, there are longer term issues for shipping in terms of the complexity of the risk and compliance landscape that is rapidly evolving in the way of this rising subterfuge fleet.Featuring in today’s edition: •Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Lloyd’s List’s markets editor and analyst walks us through the growing role that the so-called ‘dark fleet’ is playing in shipping and why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has supercharged deceptive shipping practices. •Daniel Martin, a partner at the law firm HFW, offers his expert analysis of the evolving complexities related to sanctions risk that has sprung up in the wake of the war.
The podcast is stateside this week, coming to you live from the annual Connecticut Maritime Association event in Stamford. Our first interview this week is with Mark O’Neil, chief executive of Columbia Shipmanagement, which manages about 400 ships worldwide and regarded as one of the top performing companies in the sector.He stirred the pot at the CMA at one of the forums by promoting the continuing role of fossil fuels and carbon capture and storage.Our second is a very chirpy Lois Zabrocky, chief executive and president of International Seaways, a New York listed owner of a fleet 77 product and crude tankers that reported $380 million in profits last year.You will find out why Lois is so happy in the second half of this week’s edition, but spoiler alert - most of it relates to tanker owners supply discipline. Despite earning so much money – and no end in sight to the cash machine running out-- they’re not going out and spoiling by ordering new tonnage at shipyards. Box listeners take heed!
EUROPE launched its much anticipated response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) this week and while it is not a shipping specific move there are significant implications for shipping.The Net Zero Industry Act essentially sets out plans to turbocharge the production of clean energy technologies across the EU, while enticing more green investment to the bloc, and reducing member states' reliance on imports from China and other nations.The Act sets out measures to speed up the permits process and boost power grid infrastructure and it includes domestic production targets for eight industries, including solar, wind, batteries and electrolysers. But not shipping. However there are important considerations for shipping, not least the fact that it aims to accelerate the use of CO2 capture and storage and improve conditions for investment in net-zero technologies.The headline target of the proposed regulation is a goal for 40 per cent of the bloc's demand for a raft of "strategic" clean technologies to be met with products, services, and materials sourced within the region by 2030.So this is about Europe competing with the US and China. Brussels’ response to the IRA has involved loosening subsidy rules to keep companies in the region. It also wants to curb its dependence on China for much of its green industry supply chain and create jobs domestically.On the podcast this week, Sotiris Raptis, the secretary general of the European Community Shipowners’ Association joins Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade to discuss what all this means for shipping and why we should care about how the final details are worded.
SPONSORED CONTENT - in association with RightshipHOW easy is it to collaborate with competitors, people who want to take our business away from us? Who should we collaborate with, and to what purpose?These are the key questions addressed by Tarun Mehrotra, chief strategy officer, at RightShip, on this podcast. While acknowledging that working together for a greater good will demand rethinking how businesses operate, he insists the shipping industry must take heed of the expectations of society at large.Shipping does not work in isolation. The industry exists to serve world trade, and customers are demanding that each element in the supply chain does its best to become a zero-harm business. That means stakeholders collaborating, said Mr Mehrotra.A clear example of where sharing best practice works for all parties is maritime safety. It is a space where there should be no question about working together.“Safety performance cannot be a competitive advantage — one life lost is one life too many.”Collaboration is also being driven by the needs of decarbonisation, which involves every business. In a multi-fuel future, ship owners, managers, and charterers can share many lessons about testing new technologies on board. Not all trials are successful and there’s little value in repeating a failed experiment over and over. It is expensive. Knowledge must be shared across the value chain.“We have to sort out the framework for collaboration on data exchange standards; on who owns what data, and what we can do with it,” Mr Mehrotra says, “and there are technological solutions around how we can do that.”Like so many companies in shipping, Rightship is in transition. It is shifting from a vetting-focused business to one with a vision firmly centred around zero harm and finding ways to make it come to life. Transition is the perfect time to consider the possibilities that open up through collaboration, partnership and association.He argues the case for going back to the metaphorical drawing board to brainstorm a whole new business model for maritime, rethinking commercial contracts to unlock efficiency gains, collaborating across the business model to attract and empower new skills and talent.Decarbonisation will galvanise the industry into collaboration, he concludes, and the opportunities are endless.
THE container sector is no stranger to irrational exuberance. The last time we had an overcapacity market from 2016 to 2019, we saw nine off the top 20 carriers disappear in the space of two and a half years – a period that saw the carriers losing money on nearly every box they were moving. And as one of guests on this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast points out, that was scary. But the only thing scarier than shipping lines with no money is shipping lines with money.The box sector is going through something of a reset at the moment.Freight rates have fallen sharply as demand has slumped. A flood of new tonnage is joining the global fleet at a time when carriers are being encouraged to remove capacity from the market, putting further pressure on both rates and reliability.It’s no surprise then several of the lines are warning that earnings this year are set to fall sharply, but this feels to be more than just a cyclical downturn. There are very few certainties and some wildly different strategic approaches being set out to deal with what happens next.When the container set gathered for their annual conflab at TPM last week it was notable that the keynote speaker was not one of the big beasts of box boardrooms, but retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus, who issued a stark warning that the era of “benign globalisation” was over and that the expectation that shipping could see the same levels of steady growth it was used to was irrational in the context of a changing world.There was lots of talk about how tensions in the Asia-Pacific region threatens to overturn the “logic of globalisation”.Container shipping is looking increasingly nervously at the big macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties that will ultimately decide their fate. So, in the wake of TPM we are taking a quick top level look this week at how the container sector is faring against the backdrop of a post-pandemic slowdown and some longer-term questions about the future of globalisation. Speaking on the podcast this week•James Baker, Lloyd’s List Containers Editor•Tomer Raanan, Lloyd’s List US Correspondent•Alan Murphy, chief executive and founder of Sea-Intelligence
Every study and every ounce of common sense points to the fact that for any organisation that relies on its people, it should be a strategic priority to broaden your talent pool, enlist a diverse range of skills and perspectives, and make the most of their potential. Just as Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth. Companies with more women leaders perform better.Shipping has a global talent shortage. We know that.The structural long-term challenges in the maritime industry requires much better collaboration, it requires new talent and at the heart of that lies an immediate need to make improvements on diversity, equity, and inclusion. So why is DEI not at the top of the ESG agenda? And why in 2023 is it still the case that women represent only 1.2% percent of the global seafarer workforce.That’s the figure from the last BIMCO/ICS Seafarer Workforce Report by the way, which depressingly enough was actually a 45.8% increase compared with the 2015 report figure.In shipping’s boardrooms, the picture is perhaps less pronounced, but no less concerning. Women account for just 29% of the overall industry workforce and the last edition of the Diversity Study Group’s annual report showed clear evidence that there is still a significant lack of ethnic diversity and female representation in senior roles, although representation at lower-level roles was improving. But we are still not getting even some of basics right. According to the Diversity Study Group’s last survey which covered a good global sample of shipping companies across the sector, 35.8% of women responded that they do not feel that they can raise discrimination concerns at work or declared they would “prefer not to say”. That suggests there is still reluctance among women to ‘rock the boat’ if they face discrimination.At sea the issue is even more extreme. The "shocking" extent of discrimination on board vessels was revealed in a study last year that saw 60% of all female seafarers reporting instances of sexual harassment and bullying.So this week, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8th, Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade spoke to two experts in the field of DEI to look at some of progress made but also ask why the industry is still not taking DEI issues seriously enough.Joining Richard this week are Elpi Petraki who was elected president of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association in October last year. And Heidi Heseltine, Founder of the Diversity Study Group, which was formed in 2018 and is the first organisation dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace across the global shipping and maritime sectors. The DSG are the knowledge partners of the Global Maritime Forum’s All Aboard alliance.
The lack of transparency and substance being attached to ESG announcements in shipping has become a pretty consistent theme of the Lloyd’s List Podcast over the last few years. We have paraded a long queue of earnest environmentalists and eager executives in front of you, all saying the same thing - that change is afoot. But what does that actually look like in terms of boardroom decisions, and are decision really being made or just talked about?There’s no shortage of press releases touting ESG credentials, but as one of the more honest shipowners we spoke to this week explained frankly: “we don’t have the balance sheet to save the world”.The reality is that many, if not most climate policies triumphantly announced by companies (and arguably governments) lack depth, detail and credible intermediate targets if you are measuring them against strict science-based targets aligned to the Paris 1.5 degree goals. Creating credible ESG strategies is difficult. Quite apart from the lack of regulatory or pricing certainty, the corporate overhauls required to genuinely change processes and future-proof company initiatives for tomorrow is a step above what most small companies struggling to keep up with today’s compliance challenges can deliver right now. And that’s a problem, because while the large corporates are racing ahead with sustainability initiatives chasing a competitive advantage today, tomorrow that same sustainability requirement becomes more about having a licence to operate. What is voluntary right now, will become mandatory requirements for companies and will be important when they seek to raise capital.Shipping has fallen behind other industries on ESG commitment. Those that have made progress are mainly large, global companies, representing only part of the world fleet.Thousands of vessels, millions of seafarers and gigatonnes of CO2 are currently not covered by ESG ambitions. This is not about deliberate greenwashing, this is about the sheer scale of change required from companies over the next few years and the fact the reality that many shipping companies are struggling. Joining regular podcast host Richard Meade this week to discuss these issues are:Tanja Dalgaard is Chief Strategy & Operations Officer and part of the Leadership Team at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero CarbonPeter Jameson is the global topic lead for sustainability and climate within Boston Consulting Group's Infrastructure, Cities & Transport team. Dr Jean-Marc Bonello is a principal consultant at UMAS International, a lead author of the Sea Cargo Charter and co-author of the Fourth IMO GHG Study.
Lloyd's List Sponsored content in association with Argus MediaBiofuels do not get the media coverage enjoyed by ammonia or hydrogen, but expertise is growing.Bunker suppliers and shipowners are working with fuels specialists to assess the potential as the shipping industry moves towards its 2030 targets.The term biofuels is broad. It covers a range of energy sources such as bioethanol and biodiesel.Biodiesel itself is used interchangeably with FAME (fatty acid methyl ester), a generic chemical term for a bio-based component from renewable sources like soya oil, used cooking oils, and animal fats/tallow.What makes this energy source worth exploring is the fact that biofuels can be fully renewable and almost 100% CO2 neutral. Transportation, storage, and handling are simple as biofuels can be dropped into conventional fuels, and they must therefore be regarded as an attractive contribution to the sustainability discussion.Are biofuels significant for shipping’s sustainability or merely a minor element for certain vessels operating in restricted waterways?Can claims about zero harm be justified? What’s the difference between a B20 blend and a B30 blend, and should we care?In this podcast, two marine fuels experts from Argus Media, which provides commodity and energy price benchmarks, argue there’s a good case is to be made for following the progress of biofuels as a global option.Sammy Six and Catherine Caulfield — respectively deputy editor, Marine Fuels, and business development manager, Marine Fuels, Bitumen, and Base Oils — explore industry demand, biofuels availability and likely cost, regional variation of blends, and Argus’ own market-assessed pricing.As Ms Caulfield observes, biofuels are currently available for bunkering while other alternative fuels such as methanol are still under development.Container and cruiseship owners are assessing the benefits because their customers are driving demand for lower-carbon solutions and are willing to pay the higher costs associated with greener solutions.That’s biofuels: sustainable, available, and compliant with International Maritime Organization and customer requirements.
Our Victorian shipping forebears designated twelve noon on 20 February each year as the notional time and date at which Baltic ports became ice free, and that has given birth to one of the great traditions of marine insurance.Two centuries later, midday on 20 February still marks the hard cut-off point by which the vast majority of shipowners must have in place cover for liability in everything from collisions and spills to seafarer injuries and deaths.Without protection and indemnity policies, ships cannot trade. No state wants uninsured vessels transiting its territorial waters and no port will admit them without the guarantee that costs will be met if things go badly wrong.For around 90% of the world fleet, P&I cover is provided by one of 13 P&I clubs, as these not-for-profit mutual monoline insurers are known.Through their trade association the International Group, and an elaborate scheme of retentions, pooling, captives and reinsurance almost beyond mortal ken, ensures that cover can run as high as $2bn and beyond in the worst cases, for very modest cost.The workload of renewing policies cannot be evenly spread throughout the year, even for the sake of an easy life. But even so, each contract has to be concluded within the established time limit.That leaves us with the renewal round. While a few straightforward deals get signed off towards the back end of each calendar year, things only really get going after everybody has recovered from the Christmas and new year break. Sometimes negotiations go right to the wire.This year the process has seen multiple complications, as we shall hear in this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List shipping podcast. Progress has been unusually tardy, for reasons that we’re going to discuss.Clubs have had to contend with booked but unrealised investment losses thanks to turbulence on the financial markets, which has led to downgrades from ratings agencies.Then there is the sensitive matter of pricing. P&I clubs are not for profit, but they do have to bring in sufficient premiums to keep the show on the road. 2023 marks the fourth successive year of substantial premium hikes, with a 10% going rate. Unsurprisingly, some owners have been reluctant to cough up.To add to the complexities, two of the 13 International Group affiliates, North and Standard, are due to merge. When? Well, noon on 20 February. That has seen some big boxship players split their fleet to avoid over-reliance on the combined entity.Lloyd’s List prides itself on the best marine insurance coverage anywhere, and our insurance editor David Osler has been busy talking to some of the key players in the sector.Our podcast guests today are two brokers and two club chief executives. The former are Stephen Hawke, managing director of PL Ferrari & Co, and Alex Vullo, executive director of Gallagher.The latter are Andrew Cutler of Britannia and Jonathan Andrews of Steamship, who takes over from his predecessor Stephen Martin on … you’ve guessed it … 20 February.
Lloyd's List Sponsored content in association with Orbit MIWEATHER has always mattered for shipping; it will matter even more as the climate changes.The 2021 report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that it is “unequivocal” that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.Disruptive weather events impact all sectors of the supply chain. For shipping, it is becoming imperative to understand what lies over the horizon weather-wise, and to leverage that information to make smart decisions.There has been a tremendous improvement in the accuracy of weather forecasts over the past decade, progress that has run in parallel with the functionality of maritime software.The need now is for operational data and weather data to combine to inform decision-making at every level of maritime business — especially in pursuit of decarbonisation and safety goals.Industries and businesses embrace digital technology at different speeds, however all software providers are looking to present complex information in a way that's easily understandable and makes a significant and valuable impact, whatever the customer’s specific need.Towards the end of 2022, OrbitMI, the vessel performance software specialists, launched an integration with weather analytics experts DTN to upgrade weather-optimised voyage routeing.The Orbit Weather+ digital solution, powered by DTN marine weather APIs, has been implemented fleet-wide by Stena Bulk, with several pilots underway at other companies.The solution aims to find the smartest, safest, and most fuel-efficient route using AI-based machine learning to analyse constantly updated weather data fed into the Orbit VPM system through DTN APIs.Renny Vandewege is a meteorologist now focusing his attention on the impact of weather events on businesses across agriculture, aviation, utilities, and maritime. As vice-president, global commercial at DTN, he understands why shipping has been slow to merge weather data into the broader suite of cloud-based software.“Weather is just there; you feel you can't control it — which is unfortunately true. But we are learning that as we get more data sets, we can see both weather and the ocean impacts of weather more clearly,” Mr Vandewege tells Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton on this podcast.David Levy, chief marketing officer at OrbitMI, says the top request from customers has been for weather data to be incorporated into optimisation software.“The question is how can we take advantage of all the weather data that’s out there?” Mr Levy asks. “There are many services and there’s no shortage of weather data. We had to augment what we already have in our platform, and that’s how we started to work with DTN.”This podcast addresses the reasons why weather should no longer remain in its silo, why weather data must be seen as an integral element in smart maritime decision-making, and how an understanding of climate change-influenced rougher seas, changing wave periods, more precipitation events, and more powerful hurricanes will impact shipping’s decarbonisation journey.
The public debate in the west about whether sanctions levelled against Russia are working is inevitably complex, but ultimately is immaterial to most companies struggling to comply with them. The point is that sanctions are growing in volume and complexity and, given their political popularity, they are not going to be disappearing any time soon.This week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast takes a look at how the operational requirement to stay on the right side of an increasingly complex compliance landscape is reshaping the way that shipping businesses operate.Because shipping is struggling. While the finance sector may have invested billions of dollars on sanctions compliance capabilities over the past decade, large swathes of the shipping industry has not kept pace. And with Russian sanctions now reaching across the corporate spectrum like never before, a compliance crisis looms for many.Helping us navigate our way across the minefield of sanctions and understand what’s driving these changes, we are joined this week by two leading experts:Leigh Hansson is a partner in the Global Regulatory Enforcement group and a leading lawyer in our International Trade & National Security team.Agathe Demarais is the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). She was previously a senior policy adviser for the French Treasury in Russia and Lebanon, working directly on sanctions and other economic and financial issues. She has recent published Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against US Interestshttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Backfire-Sanctions-Reshape-Against-Interests-ebook/dp/B09YMXPWVR
The ships of the future will be more efficient. But the global fleet currently carrying the 11bn tonnes of seaborne trade annually will be operational into the 2030s and so keeping the existing ships running longer more efficiently is part of the overall balance required to green shipping’s energy transition. There is an entire industry out there with proven technology that can make existing ships up to 20% more efficient with relatively attractive payback periods promised, at least on paper. But it is inevitably more complex than that. Most shipowners have assessed technical options for retrofits and operational efficiency improvements for existing vessels. However, lack of clarity on technical performance, financial accessibility and who stands to benefit from any investment has too often hampered uptake. Until there is clarity, investment decisions are likely to remain challenging.This week’s edition of the podcast explores the barriers and potential solutions to more widespread retrofitting of the existing fleet.Featuring expert insights from:•Michael Parker, Chairman of the Poseidon Principles•Charles Haskell, LR's Decarbonisation Programme Manager,•Tony Foster, Chief executive Marine Capital•Tuomas Riski, CEO of Norsepower
xxxBefore you listen to this week’s edition of the podcast, register for the Lloyd’s List webinar on February 15 at 2pm UK time: Digitalisation - a game changer for decarbonisation?Join our webinar to explore the world of Digitalisation as a Service (DaaS). Our panel of experts will review its potential as a game-changer for decarbonisation and improved operational efficiency.Register now: https://bit.ly/3H5gJwpxxxThis year is going to be pivotal in the race to decarbonise shipping. Come July, the International Maritime Organization is expected to adopt a revised Strategy for Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships. Now that may not sound particularly seismic, but what is, or is not, agreed in July is going to determine the regulatory landscape of the shipping industry for decades to come. An agreement that is aligned to the 1.5 degree Paris agreements targets, that is well-to-wake (rather than tank to wake) and wrapped up with the right detail about pathways to 2030, 2040 as well as the headline 2050 goal, and on top of that has all the right language inserted to ensure an equitable transition – well that is the target. That’s the gold standard that aligns with the climate science and will keep shipping on track. What we actually end up getting is going to be the multi trillion dollar question. The further away from this ideal target, the more complex, fragmented and costly it will become for shipping businesses from here on out. The more ambiguity we have the harder it will be to attract investment and all of the difficult conversations yet to come about market based mechanisms, carbon pricing and fuels – well that becomes more and more difficult the more move away from that targets. Investment decisions get pushed back because the demand signals are not there and yet again the industry has lost another five years waiting for the next policy review to correct the last sets fudges and so the can gets kicked down the road and several key member states start disappearing underwater.Speaking on this week’s edition: •Katharine Palmer - Shipping Lead, UN Climate Champions team•Susan Ruffo - Senior ocean and climate advisor at un foundation•Aoife O'Leary - Head of Opportunity Green, a non-profit using law & economics to solve international climate issues
Sponsored content: Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore group president Matthieu de Tugny talks to Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade about why class societies have a critical role to play in ensuring shipping remain safe and reliable as we look to rapidly adopt new technologies, new fuels and new cargoes.
Shipping’s persistent piracy problem has all but disappeared off the radar of late. Attacks are still happening of course, but according to the International Maritime Bureau’s latest annual report maritime piracy and armed robbery attacks have reached their lowest recorded levels in 30 years.Last year there were five attempted hijacks of ships recorded, only two of them were successful and only one of them saw pirates fire weapons. Compare that to the relative recent heyday of the Somali piracy scourge where hijacks attempts were happening daily and in 2011 alone the 237 attacks cost the industry $8.3bn in ransom and insurance costs – it seems the piracy risk has subsided. So, have the pirates hung up their Kalshnikovs for good?Well, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, the epicentre of today’s most significant security hotspot, has clearly been on a downward trend in the past few years, but illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism is at an all-time high. And while the hijack business model may have been broken, armed robbery against ships, particularly in domestic waters, is also not going away. So, this week on the podcast we are looking at what the recent lull in piracy activity means for maritime security and whether it really has disappeared. We look at the regulatory crackdowns and also explore whether the current lull in piracy is really just a rebranding statistics and rampant underreporting.Feature expert insights from •Cyrus Mody, the deputy director of the International Maritime Bureau•Martin Kelly, Lead Intelligence Analyst at EOS Risk Group•Jakob Larsen, Head of Maritime security, BIMCO•Stephen Askins, Partner at Tatham & Co
THE deal to allow the safe transport of grain out of Ukraine by sea was an extraordinary and unprecedented agreement between enemy combatants. And the fact that it has seen 17 m tonnes exported to dates has, quite literally been a matter of life and death as well as a minor diplomatic miracle. But the initiative is deeply flawed and survives despite its status as a political bargaining chip and routine threats from Russia to shut it down. Despite its drawbacks and limitations it is our view that the deal will likely survive 2023, but there are few guarantees and several risks factors which could yet scuttle this essential lifeline.So, we’re taking a deep dive into the Ukraine grain corridor this week on the podcast, bringing you insights from three of the world’s leading experts as we examine how sustainable the grain corridor is and the role it plays in wartime economics, policy and diplomacy. Despite the flaws in the system, what has become clear is that the corridor has gone some way towards easing bottlenecks and business operationsLloyd’s List’s data analysts Bridget Diakun has been following the evolution of the Ukraine corridor since its inception and leads the discussion in this week’s edition featuring three of the world’s leading experts on the topic:Stanislav Zinchenko is the CEO at GMK Centre, Ukrainian consulting focusing on European steel marketsYoruk Isik, a geopolitical analyst from the Istanbul-based consultancy Bosphorus ObserverCormac Mc Garry, associate director at Control Risks
A sponsored podcast in association with RightshipMaritime is in transition in many ways – from analogue to digital, from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources, and from a focus on the skills available within the industry to the skills we need to bring in from outside shipping.However, industries do not transform themselves. They are transformed by leaders who understand the critical need to keep their businesses relevant to their customers.Transformation is never easy. Sometimes it fails, but for those leaders who recognise the challenges and plan for transition, it can be the catalyst for sustained growth.RightShip is a company in transition from a vetting organisation led by major charterers to a digitally focused due diligence business.It grew out of Australia’s ‘Ships of Shame’ enquiry and launched with safety at its heart, however over the past two decades it has added the pillars of sustainability and social responsibility.That has meant bringing in expertise from outside the business, often with no knowledge of shipping or the traditional ways of the maritime world.Marrying maritime with financial or technology expertise isn’t easy. But in this Lloyd’s List podcast, RightShip’s chief technology officer Marlon Grech and chief product officer Christopher Saunders confirm that it can be done effectively.Mr Grech and Capt Saunders reveal how both maritime and non-maritime expertise have learnt the value of working alongside one another in a common project, tapping into the passion both parties have for what they do.They discuss the importance of a technology culture within a transforming business, and the willingness to think outside the traditional maritime box. They share ways of working together and suggest technology solutions that have already made a difference outside maritime.“It was clear very early on that Marlon and his team were super-passionate about making a difference,” Christopher Saunders concludes. “That has led us on a journey, innovating, asking why and finding new ways to solve problems together.”This podcast has answers to key questions for maritime’s new age of innovation.
It's a tough gig making predictions, especially about the future – but it’s that time of year where bold editorials types like to breathe deep the festive spirits, polish their crystal balls, embrace their inner Pythian oracle to offer their predictions for the year ahead. As is now traditional, the Lloyd’s List editorial team have gathered around the microphone this week for their annual forecasting session, guided by regular Lloyd’s List Podcast host and editor, Richard Meade. This year’s outlook edition features predictions on the swing factors in tankers, the pivotal role of China and Ukraine, the state of the orderbook, union battles and of course the ever sexy world of marine insurance.This year’s edition features the dulcet tones of:•Michelle Wiese Bockmann, our markets editor•Richard Clayton, our chief correspondent•Nigel Lowry, our Greece correspondent•Rob Wilmington, our data and fleet specialist•Tomer Raanan, our man in the US•Cichen Shen, our Asia editor in Hong Kong•Bridget Diakun, our data Queen and Ukraine expert•And David Osler, our law and insurance editor
WHEN Soren Skou outlined his vision for the future of Maersk in 2016, he said he thought it would take about six years to achieve.Well, almost six years to the day from when he detailed those plans at Maersk’s Capital Markets Day he announced that he was stepping down having transformed Maersk from a shipping and energy conglomerate to a global logistics group.So as he prepares to hand over to Vincent Clerc at the end of the year we thought it would be a good opportunity to invite onto the podcast to have a chat about the highs and lows of life at Maersk and what it takes to be a good CEO in shipping these days. And who else could we ask to do the interview than Lloyd’s List’s very own queens of containers, and chair of our editorial board, Janet Porter.
The annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum offered the last word on the forces shaping shipping right now, but the common theme among discussions ranging from decarbonisation to safety and regulatory risk was that the industry is just mot moving ahead with enough pace. This week’s edition of the podcast offers a few edited highlights from this year’s event, but you can listen to the full Forum on demand by visiting Lloydslist.com and following the banner at the top of the page. The podcast features:•Magda Kopczynska, director, DG for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission•Karrie Trauth, head of shipping at Shell•Rasmus Bach Nielsen, global head of fuel decarbonisation at Trafigura•Christopher J. Wiernicki, Chairman, President and CEO ABS
This week’s edition of the podcast features a very special guest - Soren Toft - the CEO of world’s largest liner operator, MSC. He talks to Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade about of the challenges facing shipping and where he sees the industry heading. Before you listen to this week’s episode though, please register for this year’s Outlook Webinar on December 8 at 9am UK time. You can go to Lloydslist.com and follow the banner at the top of the home page, or go direct to: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1143038/Register-now-for-the-Lloyds-List-Outlook-Forum-2023-and-beyond
COP27 failed to deliver much in the way of progress but for shipping the next steps in the IMO is where we will determine the trajectory of what happens next. Fail to agree the detail and a complex, costly future awaits. There are positive signs that shipping is at least now having the right conversations, but is this too little too late? This week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast explores the impact of climate talks on shipping and what happens next.To help explain the significance of the developments we have drafted in a super-sized team of international experts to offer analysis this week including:Faïg Abbasov, shipping programme director at the non-governmental organisation Transport & Environment.Simon Bergulf, Director for Regulatory Affairs at A.P. Møller-Maersk Katharine Palmer, Shipping lead UN High-Level Champions for Climate Action Johannah Christensen, chief executive of the Global Maritime Forum Professor Alice Larkin, Head of the School of Engineering and a Professor in Climate Science & Energy Policy as part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate ChangeGuy Platten, secretary general of the International Chamber of shippingTristan Smith, associate professor in energy and transport at University College London
The annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum returns on December 8 bringing together the expertise of Lloyd’s List and Lloyd’s List Intelligence with the industry’s key decision makers to directly answer the most critical questions shaping maritime markets in 2023 and beyondRegister for free here: https://bit.ly/3tufIYfThis week's edition of the podcast features Christopher Rex, head of innovation and research at Danish Ship FinanceThe introduction of greener fuels at scale is some years ahead of us, but the race to zero it is already shaping the strategic outlook of companies. We have made the argument several times over on previous podcast editions that shipping’s traditional business models are not necessarily going to survive this transition and that’s because they simply bring too little volume to the table. Only the largest shipowners with strong balance sheets seem to be battle-ready for an energy systems shift.Digitalisation, standardisation and economies of scale – these are all well established topics for this podcast. But they imply long term changes for the industry that are perhaps not being though about in terms of strategically changing business models.One person who has been thinking about these changes for some time is an old friend of the podcast, Christopher Rex who is the head of innovation and research at Danish Ship Finance. What started as a thought experiment around the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how that might affect the business of shipping and future trade patterns, has evolved over the years into a much more considered view of what happens next. The latest Danish Ship Finance report came out earlier this week and given the context of COP27 we thought it would be an opportune moment to get Christopher back on to the podcast to explain why he thinks that many shipowners are not going to be winning the industry’s race to zero
Head to Lloydslist.com and register for this year’s Outlook Webinar on December 8th at 9am UK time. This is the big one – it’s our annual look at the forces shaping shipping and I’ll be joined by Karrie Trauth, the head of shipping for Shell, Michael Parker president of transportation at Citi and chair of the Poseidon Principles, and Rasmus Back Nielsen, global head of Fuel Decarbonisation at Trafigura. And there’s more guests to be announced next week. I promise you it’s the one hour of 2022 that is going to set you up for the whole of 2023.So register, for free, today and make sure you don’t miss out.XxxxOn this week’s edition of the podcast we are talking COP27 with:Sturla Henriksen, Special Advisor, Ocean, to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)Charles Haskell, Decarbonisation Program Manager at Lloyd's Register
Recent litigation in vessel pollution cases resurfaces the dillemas faced by companies and the seafarers they employ.Under US law, crewmembers who bring forward information that leads to a successful prosecution in a vessel pollution case are entitled to up to half of the fine levied on the guilty parties.The US has awarded tens of millions of dollars to whistleblowers throughout the years, while also collecting more than a quarter billion dollars from polluters.Perhaps the most famous of these cases in recent times was Prince Cruise Lines' sentence of $40m.More recently, former chief engineer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for deliberately discharging oily waste off Louisiana’s shores and taking actions to obfuscate the discharge. He also retaliated against the whistleblower who alerted the coast guard. To shed more light on this nuanced issue that surely keeps some shipmanagers up at night, Tomer Raanan, our senior reporter in New York, spoke with two legal experts, who you could say have diverging opinions on the matter. Stephen Kohn is one of the leading whistleblowing attorneys in the US, a partner in the Washington DC law firm of Kohn Kohn and Colapinto, and the founder of the National Whistleblower Center.George Chalos is a principal and founding member of maritime law firm Chalos & Co. He has extensive experience in maritime, admiralty and insurance law.
The podcast this week features highlights from our live innovation webinar hosted by Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on Thursday 27 October. The full recording of the webinar is available on demand, just register here: https://bit.ly/3zkdtueThe webinar features:-Leslie Dang, Managing Director, Singapore at Nautilus Labs-Osku Kälkäjä, Head of Digital Business at ABB Marine & Ports-Gary Noonan, Head of Transition Technologies at Ardmore Shipping CorporationInnovation webinar key takeaways:•Shipping is some way off reaching an innovation tipping pointInnovation in shipping continues to be limited to siloed pockets of early adopters. For innovation to spread across the industry a tipping point is required, from there change will accelerate. Innovators and early adopters will help the industry reach the tipping point, but small private owners may ultimately benefit from the economies of scale driven by the early majority. The risk of expensive failure is high and most owners are in a race to be second when it comes to R&D. •Scalability matters, but size is not a blocker to innovationTechnology is not a major concern - the major breakthroughs shipping is waiting for are around scalability and availability. But companies need to be set up for change. Larger companies are leading innovation and are better equipped to adapt. Smaller companies in general tend to struggle more, but can adapt to the evolution of owner/charterer relationships with more data transparency and collaborative decision making.•A misalignment of incentives is hampering innovation Shipping’s traditional contractual structures limit the industry’s effort to reduce emissions, embrace collaboration and transparency and improve efficiency. However, CII and emissions trading will shift the conversation between owners and charterers and opens up the potential better incentivize a more innovative sharing of data and efficiency improvements,•Companies and people need to change. The technology is ready.Digital Transformation is 10% digital and 90% transformation - it comes down to change management. You can’t expect shipping businesses to now change the way they’ve operated for centuries – but you can walk the path with them.•Lack of standardization must be worked around The lack of standardization makes it more difficult, sometimes impossible, to use the best data possible to drive decisions because the best possible data is not consolidated and available for use. Rather than focusing on closing this data standardization gap, the focus should be on availability and usability. Are the companies that claim to drive data awareness and insights in the industry partnering with each other? Is one of their primary initiatives to make sure data is available and usable for clients and partners? Every shipping business operates differently so there is no one size fits all solution for any problem.
UNSAFE shipping is not the clarion call of the environmental pirate, gleefully operating leaky ships with impunity risking the lives of crew for the hell of it. Safety is the problem that happens when nobody is paying attention. Which is why is perhaps concerning that safety has until relatively recently not figured as a particularly high profile part of the decarbonisation discussions. It’s mentioned, of course it is, but we are collectively willing to enter into detailed debates and consider highly technical studies examining the energy density of every shade of zero carbon fuel alternatives, and yet the safety risks are too often mentioned as an engineering afterthought. And this is not just a concern about the toxicity of ammonia or the flammability of hydrogen. The industry is effectively planning a project that sees the entire infrastructure, fuel type, and systems in place that we have established hard won standards and protocol around over many decades, effectively being reinvented within the space of a few years.Moving to a multi-fuel future with multiple fuel infrastructures and supply chains is going to require a wholesale reappraisal of risk and safety standards across multiple industries, and that’s before we even start thinking about the training implications at sea and on land. The question for this week’s edition of the podcast is whether this has been foremost in our minds during the unending discussions about the politics, pricing and availability of a zero carbon future.Two people who have been thinking about this at the top of their agenda are Nick Brown, Chief Executive of Lloyd’s Register Group and Dr. Ruth Boumphrey, Chief Executive of Lloyd's Register Foundation, who join the conversation with Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade this week to get some much needed perspective on this issue.
Shipping is too small. The inefficiency of shipping’s fragmented approach to ownership and operations has been holding back innovation and operational efficiency. That much is obvious, but for all the promise of inevitable consolidation, it hasn’t happened. Not in a meaningful way. But Maersk Tankers wants to change that. Having completed a pretty radical series of asset sales and spin offs, the simplified restructured Maersk Tanker wants to achieve what others have only talked about - efficiency and optimisation of the tanker sector through a scaled operation that applies digital tools to not only deliver better financial results, but also take a long step forward towards decarbonisation. Now that sounds idealistic, but over a series of conversations, first with Maersk Tankers chief executive Christian Ingerslev in London and earlier in New York with chief commercial officer Eva Birgitte Bisgaard, we found the arguments to be compelling. Certainly compelling enough to warrant putting out a brief mid-week edition of the podcast to accompany an interview which has been published on Lloydslist.com – you can find it here: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1142641/Efficient-shipping-requires-scale-says-Maersk-TankersThe usual Friday edition of the podcast will still be coming out, but we hope this mid-week interruption offers you some food for thought.
THIS week’s edition of the podcast is delivered from Cyprus, from where our markets editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann attended the Cyprus Maritime 2022 conference.More than 900 delegates from 35 countries gathered at one of Europe’s most important maritime clusters to discuss the three Cs – crises, challenges and competitiveness.Cyprus shipping deputy minister Vassilios Demetriades is our guest this week and he talks us through the challenges in making sure that the island republic punches above its weight when it comes to the very important issues facing European shipping right now. As well as decarbonisation, Cyprus is also talking with G7 countries and the EU about the implementation of sanctions on Russian exports and a proposed oil price cap.But first Michelle caught up with Capt Lasota, a Polish master with 52 years of experience at sea.He moved many at the conference to tears after he finished his speech detailing his experience of a wrongful, 20-month stint in a Mexican jail. His resilience, courage, and strength through what was a traumatic ordeal for his family is quite remarkable.Capt Lasota attended the conference as a special guest of the Cyprus shipping deputy ministry who wanted to showcase the issue of seafarer criminalisation in the most powerful way possible. Capt Lasota’s crew on their Cyprus-flagged ship found 240kg of cocaine in the hold at a port in Mexico in July 2019. He correctly reported the discovery to authorities and correctly followed all procedures.Heavily armed guards arrived at the ship after a five-day investigation and took him to jail and then wrongly detained him, triggered the 20-month campaign for his freedom.
SHIPPING is not decarbonising in isolation. Perhaps that’s an obvious point to be making in 2022, but it’s a point that needs to be talked about more inside the shipping industry.The process by which we eliminate fossil fuels from seaborne trade is no longer a shipping problem. It never has been. The industry needs to start realising that it cannot achieve progress in silos. There are important conversations still to be had about efficiency and innovation costs inside the industry, but the more important and urgent conversations are about shipping’s position and visibility within the wider global energy transition. As energy ministers prepare for next month’s COP27 climate discussions in Egypt, the industry should be aligning itself to those conversations and looking for opportunities. Joining up the decarbonisation efforts from ports, shipping companies, and energy firms is partly about cross-sector collaboration, but it’s also about engaging energy ministers as much transport departments. We know all about the future fuels conundrum.Energy producers won’t invest without offtakers and shipowners don’t know where to invest if they can’t be sure of fuel supplies. But we’re still too often looking at this as a shipping issue.The solutions are going to be multi sectoral and we need to have a much stronger collaboration with energy producers and the entire maritime value chain if we are to break the logjam. So as part of some wider conversations that we have been having recently, this week’s edition of the podcast offers another installment in our recent series of progress reports on shipping’s path to zero carbon.This week’s edition features:Christopher Wiernicki, Chairman, President and CEO of ABSRasmus Bach Nielsen, Global Head of Fuel Decarbonisation at Trafigura.Katharine Palmer, Shipping Lead at the UNFCCC High Level Climate ChampionsBud Darr, Executive Vice President, Maritime Policy and Government Affairs, MSC Group
The annual marine insurance confab, IUMI, was held in Chicago this year. So Lloyd’s List selflessly hopped on a flight with microphones in hand to gather insights from the sector’s most influential figures for this week’s edition of the podcast.
Featuring: • Rama Chandan of QBE Singapore, outgoing chair of IUMI’s ocean hull committee. • P&I, and International Group chief executive Nick Shaw • Richard Neylon, a partner with law firm HFW • IUMI president, war risk underwriter Frederic Denefle • Richard Turner - International Head of Marine at Victor Insurance, former President of the International Union of Marine Insurance
THE great and the good of the shipping industry steamed towards US shores this week, lured in by a pretty pivotal series of energy transition events. New York played host to UN Climate Week, the UN General Assembly and the Global Maritime Forum while the Clean Energy Forum in Pittsburgh ensured that diplomats and delegates clocked up a few extra airmiles in the race to cut emissions. These meetings are more than hot air – they act as a progress report on the industry’s energy transition. So we have been doing the rounds with the Lloyd’s List microphone in hand talking to dozens of industry leaders about where we are in that energy transition and we have got a lot to tell you about – more than we can squeeze into a single podcast. So, over the coming weeks we will be bringing you a series of special reports featuring some of the industry’s most senior leaders offering insights into shipping’s zero carbon revolution. Because the inconvenient truth is that the shipping industry is not on a trajectory to hit net zero by 2050. Not even close. 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. Stop trying to tackle the issue in silos as a singular issue, and to start engaging with the rest of the energy value chain
For this week’s edition we bring you a short taster of the conversations from inside the climate debates, with the promise of much more to come soon. This week’s edition features: • Karrie Trauth (Shell) • Jan Dieleman (Cargill) • Michael Parker (Citi) • Alex Saverys (CMB) • Rasmus Bach Nielsen (Trafigura)
After a two-year frenzy, the container shipping market is showing signs of normalisation. How it will avoid mistakes of the past during a period of slowdown? How does it manage the risk of supply chain resilience? How will it find the efficiencies to steam through near term regulation and long term decarbonisation and how will it address the lingering safety concerns of cargo fires? All the questions and more are discussed in this week’s edition of the podcast with Ocean Network Express chief executive Jeremy Nixon
Shipowners appear to be feeling pretty sanguine about the introduction of new carbon ratings from January 2023. Yes, there might be some slowing down and some retrofitting, but the initial implications are pretty limited. Or are they? Has the industry genuinely understood the implications of CII? Or are the owners suffering from boiled frog syndrome? Roger Strevens, Head of sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen and BIMCO deputy secretary general Lars Robert Pedersen assess whether shipping is really ready for the highly technical and widely misunderstood Carbon Intensity Indicator.
WHEN people talk about shipping being driven by strong characters, they tend to mean people like Robert Bugbee. The bullish president of Scorpio Tankers is a divisive figure on Wall Street, but he is always engaging. How many other shipping executives can lay claim to having their own parody account on Twitter? While Lloyd’s List consistently took a negative view of the tanker recovery, Mr Bugbee was the cheerleader in chief. And, of course, he has ultimately, eventually been proved right The good times for tanker markets that Mr Bugbee confidently asserted were just around the corner at nearly every quarterly investor call since at least 2017 have finally arrived. Clarksons securities this week somewhat incredulously claimed that if all the stars aligned, as any good optimist would naturally expect in shipping, LR2 earnings might theoretically reach $250,000/day. So it was inevitably time to hit the hotline to man himself and get the Robert Bugbee view on life the universe and everything… and why he would need a lobotomy before getting serious about ordering alternative fuels. I was joined for this week’s conversation by our resident tankers supremo and shipping executive botherer in chief Michelle Wiese Bockmann – and if you didn’t get round to reading her interview with the man himself last month, make sure you follow this link – it’s well worth your time. https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1141803/ But not before you’ve listened to his conversation. So what exactly is it that keeps one of the industry’s most bullish optimists awake at night?
SPONSORED CONTENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH RINA:
Classification is deep into its transition to strategic partnership with clients. Indeed, it’s probable that no other sector has changed quite so thoroughly in its vision and mission than class.
What we thought of as certification and verification services have evolved into professional transformation advisors, client sustainability partners, and regulatory experts for an uncertain commercial world.
As is the nature of these things, those who fail to read the writing on the wall early enough will always be a step or two – here, a stage or two in the transition – behind their competitors.
Larger class societies have spent the past five years rethinking their role. These are further along the transition pathway than others – or at least they say they are. There has been a flurry of mergers and acquisitions, as they scrabble to bring onboard a body of expertise they never needed in the conventional confines of class.
Meanwhile, internally, chief execs are making sure every division is aligned with the new vision for the business. Those no longer ‘core’ are found a new home where they can grow and thrive.
One class society currently going through such a transformation is RINA.
Solidly Italian but keen to strengthen its ties in key markets in Europe and Asia; traditionally maritime yet breaking down barriers with energy, industry, and transportation to provide clients with a broader expertise.
RINA Services Chief Executive Paolo Moretti is leading the transformation to strategic partnership.
Mr Moretti graduated as a naval architect and marine engineer from the University of Genoa and has been with RINA since 1997, with assignments to South Korea to oversee the construction of oil and chemical tankers, and to Italy and France for cruise ship and LPG vessel projects.
He led RINA’s marine business between 2011 and 2016, when he was promoted to chief commercial officer.
In this Lloyd’s List podcast, Paolo Moretti explains the reason for diversification into new businesses and the decarbonisation goals that drive change.
He comments on the importance of the marine division collaborating with the energy, industry, and transportation divisions to ensure you learn from each other; and he develops the geographical spread of RINA Services and the two or three countries where investment will be most targeted in future.
RINA’s recent growth has been impressive, although the fanfare of trumpets is noticeably lacking.
Mr Moretti digs into the reasons for this expansion and the platform it offers for future growth. And he tackles one of the most significant challenges facing shipping: how to find talented people with the skills and competencies needed for tasks that haven’t yet been identified.
This podcast offers RINA’s perspective on decarbonisation, digitalisation and diversification – and reveals that transformation has left RINA stronger, agile, and proactive.
What has the Apollo astronaut programme got to do with ageing Japanese seafarers and funding for autonomous shipping? Listen to this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast to find out!
On the podcast this week; Naoto Nakagawa, the former head of the Japanese delegation to MEPC, currently in charge of the Nippon Foundation’s project to create fully autonomous shipping, “MEGURI 2040”. Also featuring a brief snippet from the excellent Global Maritime Forum talk given by renowned economist, Mariana Mazzucato. You can find the full presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9T1ZlDlxsI
THE wave of carbon compliance acronyms heading towards shipping companies should not be news to listeners of this podcast. EEXI, CII, EU ETS – these should all be familiar terms as the industry prepares for a generational shift towards a net zero emissions industry.
And yet, the detail of what these acronyms mean in terms of business practice and charter party changes is still not widely understood.
Now that’s partly because in the case of the EU’s Emissions Trading System we still don’t know much of the detail, but that doesn’t make it any less urgent as a problem.
The way in which shipowners and charterers negotiate charter party contracts needs and urgent review off the back of these regulations, not just in terms of the legal detail but the overall approach towards transparency and dialogue.
The good news here is that there is the opportunity for a genuine step change in the way that the industry approaches these things. The bad news is that its going to be a difficult and probably quite expensive process of adjustment.
So we have drafted in a lawyer to help. Helen Barden is one of the best in the business. As the senior FD&D specialist at North P&I she is well aware of the looming problems that need to be overcome.
We wanted her view on the risks that need to be considered in preparing for an EU Emissions Trading Scheme that has not yet been finalised in the detail applicable to shipping. But the podcast starts with a more general view on what we need to be concerning ourselves with in terms of charter party changes, because although most owners feel they are prepared for EEXI and CII, there’s a lot of detail there that is likely going to result in a slew of legal challenges when things go wrong.
Be prepared isn’t just a motto for the boy scouts you know!
Imagine pulling up to the petrol pump in your car and being confronted with 20 pumps, each offering different blends of different fuels. Now imagine a scenario where at each petrol station you visit next, that choice of different fuels is going to be entirely different. Welcome to the future of shipping.
We talk in broad terms about a multi-fuel future coming for shipping, but there is still such little clarity over what that means in practical terms and it’s about to get more complex before it gets easier. LCA or lifecycle analysis is another acronym that everyone will to have to get familiar with shortly because the consideration of the carbon impact of the fuel choices shipping will make in the future is going to be factored into regulation, and it’s coming soon. LCA will need to be considered in the context of ordering decisions that have already been taken and likely will be taken over the next year or so. Dual fuel engines are now effectively standard in many asset classes and it’s looking likely that the flexible hybrid option is going to dominate for some time to come as owners pay through the nose for flexibility amid uncertainty. So this week the Lloyd’s List Podcast brings you two experts with important points to make on this topic. Martin Wold is a naval architect and consultant working in DNV’s knowledge hub on alternative fuels and spends a lot of his time working out which fuels will fit which ships. I caught up with him this week as he put out his latest snapshot of which engine types are being ordered where. But first we catch up with Edwin Pang – also a naval architect, and the founder of consultancy Arcsilea. Edwin is one of the key movers and shakers inside the current regulatory discussion defining lifecycle analysis, so we started talking about factors that are affecting ordering decisions today and why that process is about to get more complicated.
Martin Wold, Senior Consultant Environment Advisory at DNV Edwin Pang, founder and principal consultant of Arcsilea
The deal to allow the safe transport of grain out of the Ukraine by sea is an unprecedented agreement between enemy combatants, but it is still a work in progress and the list of potential risks that could yet scupper it are long. This week we talk to war risk expert and head of marine and aviation at the Lloyd’s Market Association, Neil Roberts about the insurance hurdles yet to be overcome. And we talk to Anna Biliuga, an agent for Eurogal Services which acts as Lloyds agents inside Odesa for a personal take on how the grain deal will play out on the dockside.
The debate about how we build a generation of green ships is ubiquitous and everyone wants in on it. The question of how we get rid of the current fleet is less popular. Whichever way you look at it global recycling volumes are going to grow significantly, doubling by 2028 to 14 million light displacement tonnes and near quadrupling by 2033. That means more, bigger recycling facilities set up to deal with more and bigger ships. Now that may seem odd given that ship recycling levels are at a 10 year low right now unlikely to recover in the short term But as discussed a few weeks ago on the podcast, the concept of the circular economy is a long term planning process where we need to build in sustainability to every stage of the shipping lifecycle. So now is exactly the time we should be talking about the impact of decarbonisation regulation and how it will be dealt with in terms of ship recycling. With that in mind, the Lloyd’s List Podcast drafted in Anil Sharma this week – he’s the president and chief executive of Global Marketing Systems, GMS to most of us. They are the ‘world’s largest buyer of ships and offshore assets for recycling and Anil has spearheaded a number of key initiatives aimed at making ship recycling cleaner, greener and more sustainable over the years. He has also got a very pragmatic, business based view on what that means in reality so Podcast host Richard Meade talks to Anil about the regulatory pressures coming down the line for recycling, the consequences of EEXI, CII and the raft of costly acronyms headed everyone’s way. They also talk about the circular economy and how the industry can move towards a more collaborative approach to shipping lifecycles. But first of all they talk about what’s not happening in ship recycling yards. Why is nobody scrapping right now?
THE Lloyd’s List Podcast is taking a temporary detour into the true crime genre this week. Our guest Kit Chellel is one of the writers behind the book that everyone in shipping should be taking to the beach with them this summer – Dead in the Water. The book tells the remarkable tale of the suezmax Brillante Virtuoso which was apparently attacked by pirates in 2011 and set her ablaze. But when David Mockett, a maritime surveyor working for Lloyd’s inspected the damaged vessel, he was left with more questions than answers. Soon after his inspection, he was murdered. The book, which was the result of a forensic investigation by two journalists from Bloomberg Businessweek, offers a compelling expose of a $100m fraudulent insurance claim Lloyd’s List readers will already be familiar with the ensuing court case which produced a judgment nearly 80,000 words long which concluded that the “orchestrator” of the events that led to the ship’s loss was Marios Iliopoulos, the Athens-based ultimate owner of the vessel. Mr Iliopoulos, the judge wrote, had a motive to want the vessel to suffer a fire to solve the “serious financial difficulties” his companies were facing. But as Kit Chellel explains, the case is about far more than how the vessel came to catch fire.
SHIPPING has about eight years to set its course for success or failure on the path to decarbonisation. It may be the defining challenge of the next half-century, but the decisions taken now are the ones that matter. And that’s why we have seen a slew of commitments, declarations, and pledges being hastily pumped out of the industry with some urgency. But how do you set a strategy amid so much uncertainty? The fuels, the infrastructure, the regulations, even the demand is ultimately a matter of guesswork for shipowners right now. When the Maersk McKinney Moller Centre for Zero Carbon shipping did a study of shipowners actual commitments last month they found that only 35% had clearly expressed an emissions target to either be net zero by 2050 or had committed to IMO targets. That’s not because shipowners are a bunch of reckless environmental pirates. It is because they exist in a grey area right now where decision making is extremely risky. The ambitions being set by coalitions of public and private actors are an important first step to initiate policy changes and guide corporate transitions. However, ambitions must be followed by immediate action to achieve global climate goals. The ultimate test of the impact of global pledges is how they play out within shipping companies themselves. So this week we invited onto the podcast someone who has been tasked with making those difficult decisions to understand how a shipping company sets an ambitious strategy for decarbonising while not knowing so many of the factors that will determine the outcome of their decisions. Susana Germino is the head of Decarbonisation and Environmental Compliance at Swire Shipping. She is setting the agenda for a significant fleet at both Swire Shippings container operations and Swire Bulk, two very different operations. She is leading projects around methanol, she looks at partnerships, investments, collaboration, green corridors – all of those practical and extremely difficult commercial decisions that stem from the desire to decarbonise a company that like the rest of us exists within a grey area right now. So why it is so difficult to be an ambitious shipowners when it comes to making decisions about decarbonisation – a process we all know has to happen and happen quickly?
Shipping has focussed on fuels as the one factor it can control in the push to decarbonise, but the creation of a truly sustainable industry will require a more holistic ‘lifecycle’ approach. The concept of a circular economy requiring us to reduce, reuse, refurbish and recycle should be a sustainability slam dunk, but it requires cross sectoral collaboration, global regulation and business model innovation – all challenges this industry has traditionally struggled to overcome. So how do we close the loop on the circular economy for shipping?
Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade this week:
Samantha Bramley, Executive Director, Environmental and Social Risk Management, Standard Chartered Bank
Ginger Garte, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Environmental & Sustainability Director, Americas
Capt. Prashant S. Widge. Head of Responsible Ship Recycling at Maersk
Andrew Stephens, Executive Director, The Sustainable Shipping Initiative
“The world is changing, and shipping must change with it, says Emanuele Grimaldi, Managing Director of the Grimaldi Group who took over chair of the International Chamber of Shipping this week. Mr Grimaldi joins the podcast this week to discuss his agenda, seafarers, decarbonization and why he is confident that shipping will remain a force for good on the international stage
President Biden claims to be “viscerally angry” about the container lines who he blames for inflation, soaring freight rates, supply chain congestion and much in between. The political theatre of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act was on show in the US this week, but to help explain what it really means for shipping this week’s Lloyd’s List Podcast features two people who really know what’s going on: Federal Maritime Commissioner chairman Daniel Maffei President and CEO of the World Shipping Council John Butler.
The Lloyd’s List team have been out and about in Athens this week selflessly digesting canapés, gossip and debate to bring you the comprehensive view of a week at Posidonia in under23 minutes.
After a Covid-induced hiatus, the industry descended upon Athens this week to schmooze, gossip, test the water and in some cases actually do some business in between canapes and sweaty taxi rides. While the headlines from the events reinforced well aired views rather than setting the agenda, it was interesting to see how those owners at the coal face of the industry’s biggest issues were fully focussed on the immediate, pragmatic decisions ahead of them rather than worrying too much about the looking carbon revolution of 2050 and beyond. The fact that Posidonia fell in a week where the IMO was debating greenhouse gases was instructive in assessing the reality of shipping’s decarbonisation plans up close and in the flesh. Posidonia is a party but it’s also about business and a few drinks tends to strip away the veneer of the more polished greenwash that has been spun over the past few years. It was also interesting to see Greece at the centre of the other big theme of the moment – namely sanctions risk. The inimitable Greek shipowner George Prokopiou used his platform this week to call on politicians to at least be clearer when it comes to imposing sanctions, which he described as generally being useless or counterproductive. The fact that two of his ships have been caught up in a sanctions stand-off while two other Greek tankers have been seized by the Iranians in a related incident, has generally meant that the Greek shipping community’s preferred position as apolitical global taxi driver was a difficult line to be pushing this week. So to discuss all this and more we drafted in two people who were in the thick of tit this week. Wide -eyed Posidonia first timer Declan Bush, our suitability editor and the old master of Posidonia’s going back through the ages to a time before record began - the voice of experience from our man in Athens Mr Nigel Lowry. We also have a small cameo appearance from George Pateras, President of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping.
WE all know shipping needs to decarbonise, now the industry is confronting the detail. Countries meeting at the IMO next week now have five plans for carbon price policies in front of them. Island states and the International Chamber of Shipping are for carbon levies. Norway and European Union members prefer a cap-and-trade scheme, while China and Japan have proposed more complex rebates. This is a huge change from the IMO’s usual technical fare, and the pressure on it has never been greater. The sluggish, secretive IMO is set to tackle fundamental questions, including how to measure emissions cuts, and how steep the curve to zero-emissions shipping should be. But while states are sure to argue over the best approach, and about how much to spend on helping developing countries, the work is in many ways just beginning. Joining us this week to are:
Tristan Smith, the director of University Maritime Advisory Services Edmund Hughes, a consultant and former IMO emissions chief And Mads Peter Zacho, head of industry transition at the Maersk McKinney Moller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping
The landscape of sanctions and political risk has made the business of shipping significantly more complex, but not everyone is set up to deal with that complexity. This week’s podcast pulls in the sanctions experts to discuss how shipping is navigating the new world order of Russian sanctions and what the industry needs to understand about regulatory enforcement appetites and increasingly forensic surveilence of subterfuge shipping practices.
THIS week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast comes to you via New York where markets editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann has been speaking with with three key maritime and shipping leaders in their field that each provide a unique financial and investment perspective on our industry. Svein Engh is senior managing director and portfolio manager of Entrust Global. The lending business has raised nearly three billion dollars since founding in 2016, the vast majority of that during the pandemic. John Kartsonas is founder and managing partner of Breakwater Advisors. He started the exchange-traded fund BDRY, based on dry bulk freight futures, opening up shipping to retail and institutional investors. The ETF trades between five and ten million dollars, volumes that rival many of the mostly illiquid small-cap shipping stocks on the New York Stock exchange. Michael Webber, managing partner of Webber Advisory, is a long-time researcher of public shipping markets, well known for his work looking ESG, or Environmental, Social and Governance, in this space.
THE world is supposedly in the middle of an artificial-intelligence and machine-learning revolution Not that you would necessarily know that looking at the shipping industry. While there are some interesting projects out there and you will find AI liberally peppered across marketing documents, the reality is that we are barely scratching the surface of what’s possible with some imaginative application of technology. We've seen a lot of enthusiasm and for those able to sit through the futurists forecasts of the art of the possible there’s a lot to look forward to, but as with the rest of the digitization revolution the industry is currently in a more practical, pragmatic phase of development where the conversation is about cost, data quality, systems and of course complexity. So this week on the podcast we’re looking at whether the AI revolution really is changing shipping and why the answer to that question is less a story about technology and more a revealing snapshot about the mentality and willingness of the industry to engage in real change. It’s about how the industry is slowly but surely dividing into a tiered economy of haves and have nots.
Speaking on the podcast this week: Nick Chubb, the founder the maritime innovation consultancy Thetius Roberto Coustas, ceo of DeepSea Technologies Elena Prekopova, Director, Digital Innovation Lloyd’s Register Deanna MacDoanld, Co-founder and Managing Partner of BunkerTrace
Economic measures to cut Russia off from the world’s financial arteries are the most extensive seen since the Second World War and the impact is starting to be felt. This week’ episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast examines what that means for shipping companies trying to navigate the morass of rapidly evolving financial trade restrictions.
For more detail check out our special report examining risk and compliance in shipping at: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/special-reports/2022/Risk-and-compliance
Lloyd’s List’s latest quarterly outlook for shipping examines the trends across all shipping sectors, so for this week’s edition of the podcast the editorial team have gathered around the microphone to offer their view of what happens next in containers, tankers, dry bulk, the orderbook and regulation.
There is a disconnect between the increasing risk to maritime businesses posed by Cyber attacks and the defences being erected in response. So as UK president Joe Biden was declaring it a "patriotic obligation" for businesses to bridge that gap, Lloyd’s List and Insurance Day were busy this week gathering the industry’s leading experts for a frank discussion of the evolving threat to shipping and how standardisation, transparency and a significant uptick in funding are required to avert a looming crisis.
This week Lloyd’s List teamed up with our colleagues and friends at Insurance Day for a timely webinar looking at the cyber threat to maritime and the insurance industry's response. This week’s edition of the podcast offers some highlights from the live event, but a full recording of the webinar is available, for free. Register at Lloydslist.com or Insuranceday.com and listen at your leisure.
Speakers on this week’s edition include:
Julian Clark, Global Senior Partner at Ince Päivi Brunou, Head of Cyber Security Technology at Wärtsilä Voyage. Bill Egerton – Chief Cyber Officer, Astaara Simon Meech, Cyber practice leader, cyber and technology division, BMS Kelly Malynn, Senior Risk Manager, Beazley
Amid the chaos, sanctions and global trade disruption, the long term implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are starting to become clearer and the implications for seaborne trade are inevitably complex. To help unravel the uncertainties and offer an independent expert eye on what this all means for the global shipping industry, Lloyd’s List has once again gathered it’s leading analysts to offer expert insights on the forces shaping shipping. Listen to the latest edition of the Lloyd’s List’s weekly podcast — your free weekly briefing on the stories shaping shipping
Four weeks in to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine we are starting to see what the long term implications of this war looks like for trade. Sanctions by the US and allies on Russia's financial system have been tightening daily and while there is still a lot not covered by the restrictions, they have already set in motion a backlash against Russian crude from banks, buyers and shippers. So while we can look at the numbers, we also have to be aware that a new factor is now shaping shipping markets: the force of public opinion is directly determining what is and isn’t tradable. It is now abundantly clear to everyone - Unplugging Russia from the world economy is going to result in lasting disruption across all sectors, so for this week’s edition of the podcast I am once again pulling in the collective expertise of Lloyd’s List’s leading analysts to offer their insight into how the markets are holding up in the face of war. The key areas of concern are of course the two fundamental “Fs” of commodity markets: food and fuels. It’s not just the headline concerns about oil and gas we should be worried about, the Russian Federation and Ukraine are global players in agrifood markets. Together, the countries represent 53 per cent of the share of global trade in sunflower oil and seeds, and 27 per cent of the share of global trade in wheat. Russia is also a major global supplier of chemical products – including fertilizers, as well as metals and wood products. And on Lloyd’s List Intelligence we have been verifying all maritime links to Russian affiliated entities to ensure that subscribers are able to screen counterparties and verify compliance. You can find out more by following the links at the top of Lloydslist.com Speaking on the podcast this week: • Michele Wiese Bockmann, Lloyd’s List Markets editor • James Baker, Lloyd’s List Containers Editor • David Osler, Lloyd’s List Law and Insurance Editor, • Nidaa Bakhsh, Lloyd’s List Senior Reporter • Bridget Diakun, Lloyd’s List Data Reporter
Several ships have been hit, seafarers have been killed and injured and seafarers of all nationalities are trapped on ships as a result of the war in Ukraine. Quite apart from the immediate security fears, the impact of Russia’s invasion is likely to spark a crewing crisis with a lasting impact on global supply chains. International Chamber of Shipping secretary General Guy Platten joins the podcast this week to analyse the latest developments.
As shipping markets adapt to the new realities of global trade in an era of high-risk economic warfare, analysts from across the Lloyd’s List and Lloyd’s List Intelligence team assess the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact on global shipping markets and businesses.
EARLIER this month Lloyd's List conducted an industry survey to reveal the true extent of cyber-attacks across the maritime sector and how companies are dealing with the growing risk.
The results will be published next week. But ahead of these being revealed we brought in a trio of cyber experts to discuss some of the key takeaways and headline figures.
In short, the industry is still not doing enough to spread awareness of the cyber-security according to survey respondents. But just as alarming is how a significant number of individuals are unaware of company process in light of an attack and are concerned around a lack of preparedness. These sentiments are shared by this week's podcast guests, warning against complacency of an issue that must be high on shipping's agenda.
The issue too is even more poignant with at the time of recording an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, with Russia beginning its invasion of its southern neighbour in the early hours of Thursday morning.
With the west announcing a new tranche of sanctions in response, there is a myriad of possible scenarios of Russian retaliation one of which could be a cyber-attack in which shipping could find itself in the crossfire either directly or indirectly.
This week's podcast also discusses the ramifications of cyber warfare as a consequence of the conflict.
Joining Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade for this edition are:
Bill Egerton, Chief Cyber Officer at Astaara
Daniel Ng, Chief Executive at CyberOwl
Lars Jensen, Chief Executive at Vespucci Maritime
As the annual P&I renewal deadline approaches this week’s podcast offers you an expert insiders’ guide to how the rates hikes are shaping up and who is and who is out. Everything you ever wanted to know about P&I renewals, but were afraid to ask in under 20 minutes. Featuring: Alex Vullo, division director at broker Arthur J Gallagher Tom Bowsher, chief executive of the West of England club Bjornar Andresen, chief underwriting officer at Gard Joe Hughes, chief executive of the American Club
SPONSORED CONTENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH ABS:
In this podcast, Evan Gooch and Smarty Mathew John from ABS discuss progress towards the development of digital applications for ship and fleet management, and feedback from clients
Promising decarbonisation is easier than delivering it, so as the high profile pledges and projects that were born out of last year’s climate climax get underway were looking at the distance between rhetoric and reality this week on the podcast. Shell Shipping’s Claire Wright joins the discussion covering everything from future fuels and innovation to investment and second guessing political progress.
Maritime safety has plateaued. The overall number of incidents and fatalities has stagnated, with little improvement in recent years. So while we can argue that safety standards have never been better – we should also point that there is still a lot of room for improvement. This week’s podcast explores what it is going to take to continue improving safety standards and asks whether we have a Covid-fuelled safety disaster waiting in the wings. Joining the podcast this week: Grahaeme Henderson from Together in Safety coalition, Katy Ware from the UK MCA and Phillip Belcher from Intertanko.
SPONSORED PODCAST from Lloyd's List in association with Orbit MI
Data is widely regarded as the new crude oil. Like crude oil, data in its raw form has little intrinsic value. All data is noise until you discern what’s interesting. Only when you apply technologies and processes to transform it into actionable intelligence does data become the basis for improved safety, sustainability, and profitability. This podcast explores the process and sees the future of maritime digitalisation.
David Levy, from OrbitMI, offers concrete examples of how actionable intelligence can be used to improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions, and argues that SaaS solutions can give smaller shipping companies an edge over their larger competitors.
The era of the long-distance value chain was waning long before Trump, Brexit, and COVID-19 and the current congestion and supply crunch has only further exposed the fragility of the just in time threads that hold the global economic together. What happens next will define shipping trade lanes and the industry itself. The renowned historian, economist and author Marc Levinson joins the podcast this week to discuss the supply chain crunch and the future of shipping.
IF the Ever Given’s parking prang in the Suez canal last year was the artery blockage that gave capitalism a minor heart attack, then the ensuing diagnosis and treatment from governments has been focussed on all that ails global trade. Supply chain resilience is going to be the phrase of 2022. The pandemic has forced a fundamental shift in global trade policies as governments increasingly focus on supply-chain resilience and while the limited options to unwind the past 40 years of globalised trade will likely produce more rhetoric than action, the industry should brace for the fact that Supply chain scrutiny is going to be taking up a lot of everyone’s time. It’s a nebulous topic with many angles, so we will be coming back to this as a theme over several podcasts in the coming months, but we start the 2022 series of weekly podcasts by taking a look at how long it will take to unwind the current supply chain crunch. We of course know the story - a perfect storm of global issues have combined to break the just-in-time supply chains that keep the world going. But what is the prevailing wisdom in terms of the tipping points that we should be looking out for? And is there such a thing as a return to normal on the horizon? Answering these questions and many more beside this week are Xeneta’s chief analyst Peter Sand and Jan Hoffmann, Chief of UNCTAD's Trade Facilitation Section.
In the final edition of the podcast for 2021, the Lloyd’s List editorial team take a look forward to 2022 and offer up their predictions for the stories that will be shaping the shipping markets next year covering everything from the core box, bulk and tanker markets to our view of regulatory inertia and marine insurance.
THAT depressingly familiar feeling of déjà vu as Covid restrictions are once again tightened has already been felt across the world’s 1.6m seafarers. The latest Omicron variant has delivered the world a rude reminder that the virus’s path to becoming an endemic disease will not be smooth. But for shipping there is a real and legitimate fear that unless coordinated action is taken by world leaders we will see a return to the peak of the crew-change crisis in 2020 where more than 400,000 seafarers were impacted by unnecessarily harsh travel restrictions. Vaccinations for crew are running slightly ahead of the global average, but that has not been sufficient to stop border restrictions being re-imposed and new measures are once again appearing daily with many of the port level rules changing on an hourly basis as governments struggle to coordinate policy and practicalities. Much of this week’s edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast was recorded on International Human Rights Day – a reminder to everyone that seafarers’ rights are still being routinely tossed aside and the workers who have kept global supply chains moving over the pandemic remain too far down the list of priorities. With that in mind, this week’s edition offers a short status update on seafarers rights, courtesy of the latest report from the NGO Human Rights at Sea, but it starts with an expert view on the latest restrictions and the impact that Omicron is already having on the industry. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this week’s edition of the podcast: • International Chamber of Shipping secretary-general, Guy Platten • International Transport Workers' Federation general secretary, Stephen Cotton • Intermanager president and chief executive of Colombia Shipmanagement, Mark O’Neil • Human Rights at Sea Chief Executive, David Hammond
The annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum and industry poll is a reliably insightful gauge of issues keeping businesses leaders awake at night and this year regulatory uncertainty, looming overcapacity, a workforces skills crisis and supply chain disruption emerged as the hot topics causing sleepless nights. The podcast this week offers a view from the Outlook Forum panellists, explaining why business leaders need to juggle short- and long-term risk management.
The pre-COP26 optimism that climate politics may finally being starting to move at pace has ended in a depressingly predictable cop-out inside the IMO this week. This week’s podcast looks at what happened, what didn’t happen and why multilateral negotiations are necessarily slow to deliver results, even amid a climate emergency
THE dry bulk derivatives market has nearly doubled in two years to become twice as large as the underlying physical market on which it is based. This week’s Lloyd’s List podcast examines this extraordinary and little-known evolution in commodities freight trading underway in the global shipping sector. John Banaszkiewicz, chair of the Baltic Exchange’s FFA Brokers’ Association and founder of Freight Investor Services, one of the biggest brokers of freight futures, gives an update on this often overlooked trade. Funds that speculated on freight futures made returns of 100%, he says as algorithmic and so-called black box or algo-trading are also helping to boost liquidity. “It’s just like buying stocks and shares,” Banaszkiewicz tells Lloyd’s List. You won’t find a more comprehensive and easy-to-understand overview of the dry bulk FFAs anywhere else.
SPONSORED CONTENT from Wärtsilä Voyage, in association with Lloyd’s List
Five years ago, it all sounded pretty easy. Create a connected digital ecosystem onboard, gather a steady stream of data from sensors, send the required data via satellite to the operations centre ashore, enable ship to work with shore to optimise performance. Job done.
But reality has kicked in. Apparently, shipping is a little more complex than we had thought. Some maritime businesses have invested in advanced technology – and in the specialist talent needed to get the technology to work efficiently and reliably. But others continue to regard smart shipping as a fantasy. Not quite smoke and mirrors, perhaps mist and reflections.
Tech businesses are now much more aware of the need to do two things: listen to their customers’ expectations; and educate them about whether or not those expectations can be accommodated.
Wärtsilä Voyage President Sean Fernback has responded to the industry’s slow journey to decarbonisation by going back to basics. The buzz words have been pushed aside, the focus has shifted from the innovation itself to the customer, and the dots are being connected between the ship, automation, navigation, and propulsion.
In this podcast, which looks at the future of technology in maritime, Mr Fernback discusses why Wärtsilä has chosen to work in partnership with some players, while seeking opportunities to collaborate with others. He acknowledges that the business can’t build the entire ecosystem alone, so will likely focus on core expertise.
He explains why the relatively limited number of ships, and limited amount of data available, will encourage tech businesses to share their resources in spite of the prevailing competitive spirit. And he addresses the tussle for tech talent in which shipping is losing the battle of the pay checks.
“Marine is at the bottom of the digitalisation curve,” compared to other industries,” he says, and is likely to stay behind in the race for tech talent – with the shining exceptions of cruise shipping and the larger container lines – until the next generation of digital natives replaces the digital laggards.
Finally, Mr Fernback reveals new thinking about the future. “We are moving away from the ideal that Asia has to align with Europe – probably the other way round.” Not before time, some would say.
A fascinating insight into the potential and pitfalls in the rapidly evolving world of maritime tech.
Those representing shipping at the COP26 climate talks have left broadly optimistic about some progress amid the hot air and greenwashing, but the litmus test will be what happens when the IMO begins its discussions on climate once the circus has moved on from Glasgow. Dissecting what COP26 has meant for shipping and what this means for IMO talks we have shipping’s Climate Champion within the COP26 talks Katharine Palmer and chief executive of the Global Maritime Forum Johannah Christensen joining the podcast this week.
SPONSORED CONTENT from I-Tech, in association with Lloyd's List
Research into the level of vessel idling globally between 2009 and 2020 has shown a linear trend in the wrong direction. And as trade between developing countries grows, these ships are idling in biofouling hotspots. This is more than academically interesting, it has a significant impact on the amount of fuel being consumed, and therefore on the environment and on companies’ own bottom lines. Understanding the link between cleaner hulls and environmental protection, and between fouled hulls and emissions, is becoming business critical, says I-Tech Chief Executive Philip Chaabane in this sposnored edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast. Antifouling must be regarded as an investment, he says. “A coating that resists biofouling becomes an investment opportunity because the better it works, the more you save; the worse it works, the more terrible the fuel consumption will be.” Failure to invest in advanced hull coating technology will essentially negate much of the good work achieved in investing in other smart technologies. The Japanese take a longer-term view of vessel ownership and operations. There, ship owners running in domestic waters have long understood the benefits of spending more on hull coatings. That is becoming accepted around the world, says Mr Chaabane, with owners beginning to link coatings technology with emissions reduction, lower fuel consumption, and cost saving. Shipping should get over the hurdle of investing in a technology that’s unlikely to pay off in six months but will certainly pay dividends in the medium- and long-term. Mr Chaabane reminds shipping leaders focusing their attention on the COP26 gathering in Glasgow that there’s a lot of technology available today. “When combined, these technologies can make a big difference in achieving the future targets of CO2 emissions.” It is a complex challenge because all the world’s oceans have different biological characteristics, they are constantly changing, and shipping operates across them all. But the science has become compelling, and soon the economics will be just as convincing. The best coatings have the potential to save between 5% and 25% of a ship’s CO2 emissions, he advises. The industry must avoid painting itself into a corner.
With major cargo interests rejecting LNG tonnage and the World Bank taking its case to stop building additional LNG bunkering infrastructure to the IMO, the decarbonising credentials of Liquefied natural gas have taken something of a battering of late. This week’s edition offers the counterpoint to that criticism via Peter Keller, chairman of the pro-LNG lobby group SEA-LNG.
Why does COP26 matter to shipping and what does the difference between a good COP and a bad COP look like for the industry? This week’s Lloyd’s List podcast explains why progress at COP26 will directly inform the pace of change inside the IMO and why failure will slow investment, undermine the IMO and amplify financial risk for the entire sector. Our expert panel of guests this week includes Felipe Calderón the former president of Mexico, Nick Mabey, who heads up the leading environmental thinktank E3G and the Shipping Lead on the Climate Champions team, Katharine Palmer
On this week’s podcast we are assessing the outlook for general increases, or GIs to those in the know, at the next P&I renewal round. The last two renewal rounds have seen most clubs ask for mid to high single digit rises and early indications suggest we should brace for more, but significantly, a handful have explicitly rejected the notion of GIs altogether. We get the expert analysis from Mark Cracknell, head of cargo and marine at megabroker Marsh JLT Specialty, Stephen Hawke, managing director of Lockton’s P&I broker affiliate PL Ferrari and West of England’s chief executive Tom Bowsher.
As scrutiny of the subterfuge shipping fleet skirting sanctions to deliver blocked cargoes has intensified, the tactics being deployed by the murkier end of the maritime sector have rapidly evolved. This week’s edition of the podcast peers behind the increasingly complex network of opaque tactic and institutions being set up to obfuscate sanctions evasion at sea. Featuring insights from: BIMCO, Lloyd’s List Intelligence, sanctions expert Michelle Wiese Bockmann and C4ADS, a non-profit group that investigates how data impacts security and international conflicts.
This edition of the podcast is sponsored by Wärtsilä Voyage
It has proved hard to take seafarer training away from the classroom. Although e-learning has been with us for more than 20 years, still seafarers have been making their way by land, sea, or air to a training academy to receive teaching in the age-old way.
Maritime training was falling behind even before Covid-19. The pandemic forced a change of thinking as classrooms were closed, technology came to the fore, and reskilling for the future of shipping rose up the agenda.
The key requirements of safety, competence, and environmental awareness remain, but the way in which they are accessed — by whom, where, when, and how — is evolving.
In February this year, two companies with similar visions for maritime training, yet who came at it from different directions, formed a strategic partnership to provide shipping companies, training institutes, manning agencies, and seafarers with a learning platform that brings all stakeholders into one ecosystem.
The companies involved are Wärtsilä Voyage, which is busy creating a Smart Marine Ecosystem, and Ocean Technologies Group, equally busy empowering seafarers for a changing industry. Now, only six months after the partnership was formed, Wärtsilä Voyage’s Cloud Simulation capability has been made available on OTG’s Ocean Learning Platform.
What does this mean for the seafarer? How will shipping companies benefit? Won’t easier access to cloud simulation shake the foundations of training institutes?
In this fascinating podcast, Neil Bennett, Business Development Director for Global Simulation at Wärtsilä Voyage, and James Lee, Digital Learning Solutions manager, also at Wärtsilä Voyage, look at the changing landscape of maritime training, and discuss the concept of ‘learning in the flow of work’.
They unpack the opportunities provide by simulation and show how adaptive learning puts training back into the hands of seafarers.
They conclude that training the next generation of mariners will require next-generation training, which can play a significant role in enabling shipping to reach its decarbonisation goals.
Join the conversation about the future of maritime training here.
Ask most people how they found themselves enjoying a career in shipping and they’ll likely tell you they fell into shipping by accident. Yet the maritime sector contributes £14.5 billion and employs some 1.1 million people in the UK, and it’s one of the most invisible and under-appreciated sectors. The UK government released its Maritime 2050 plan back in 2019 which aimed to look at how to future-proof the sector but there appears to have been little progress in workforce research and projecting the skills needed. A Maritime Skills Commission convened for two years back in July 2020 has yet to deliver any substantive conclusions, at a time when the industry has seen two shipping ministers come and go, and a third still finding his sea legs. Lloyd’s List attended a maritime careers fair last month during London International Shipping Week held on board the HQS Wellington. It was organised by Maritime UK, and aimed to educate children and young adults about what a future career in the maritime sector would look like. Markets Editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann examines why more future employees need to be found by design, not by accident, and what jobs are waiting for them.
It’s a special World Maritime Day edition of the podcast this week and International Maritime Organization secretary general Mr Kitack Lim joins us to offer his view, not just on the future vision for seafarers, but the immediate problems that industry, institutions and governments have seemingly been unable to resolve.
Carriers may be following the letter of the law, but not necessarily the spirit of it, and are not always behaving like good corporate citizens, according to our guest this week. Daniel Maffei is the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission – the Washington agency responsible for regulating the US ocean shipping trades so when he tells liner bosses to ‘put on their commonsense caps’ they should probably listen.
Head to Lloydslist.com for regular analysis of the container trades and you can subscribe here: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/ftp-sub-journey
In this Lloyd’s List Podcast this week, we dissect the key takeaways from London International Shipping Week and IUMI, covering everything from the environmental debates as industry and politicians jostle for position in advance of COP 26, the rising dominance of Chinese marine insurance, and why the UK shipping minister may need to offer more than tales of his teenage bedroom wall to win round the shipping industry.
In the latest edition of this special bonus run of podcasts for London International Shipping Week we are looking at why shipping is telling the wrong story. How can the industry build a better reputation, and who should be responsible for reframing the conversation? Those are the questions on the table today at LISW so we are offering you an exclusive early insight into one of the key debates of the week.
Welcome to day three of this run of bonus edition Lloyd’s List Podcasts bringing you voices from inside London International Shipping Week. While we hope those of you out and about in thick of it this week are enjoying getting back to face to face to meetings, we know many podcast regulars are not able to attend, so consider this your window into what’s happening around the conferences. This being London Shipping week we have been besieged by bullish statements championing the UK’s leadership position in the maritime sector. At the launch of the UK Department for Transport ‘s Biennial Maritime report yesterday shipping minister Robert Courts essentially confirmed that the UK was on track with it’s flagship Maritime 2050 strategy, adding a flourish of post Brexit autonomy and lashing’s of Boris flavoured economic decarbonisation sprinkles on top. We are building back greener and better, we are at the forefront of technological innovation and of course the strength of the UK maritime cluster remains the epicentre of excellence in global maritime services, or so goes the party line from DfT officials. We’ll allow a certain degree of latitude for the patriotic drum beating this week, but it does feel like there is at least now clarity in the direction of post-Brexit UK shipping So we are delighted to be joined today for this special London Shipping week edition of the podcast by someone who should probably be credited with steering the UK maritime sector back on course, at least in part. Katy Ware – director of UK Maritime Services and the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and permanent representative of the UK to the IMO joins the podcast today discussing the current status of the UK Ship Register, post Brexit direction and challenges, dealing with decarbonisation as a solo nation and her goals before next London Shipping Week.
In the second of our special London International Shipping Week daily editions of the Lloyd’s List Podcast we talk to the outgoing UK Chamber of Shipping chief executive Bob Sanguinetti about the state of British shipping, Brexit, cyclical government support for shipping and the vexed question of decarbonising the global supply chain.
IT’S London International Shipping Week so we will be producing a short bonus edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast each day this week. To start the week we are focussing on the unsung heroes of shipping in advance of a special awards ceremony on Tuesday. The impact of the pandemic has been felt by us all. But the 1.6m men and women who crew the world fleet have had their lives turned upside down like no other group of workers. This is of course a story that will not be news to the listeners of the Lloyd’s List Podcast – the crewing crisis has topped the industry agenda, but it’s fair to say that efforts to seek a resolution have stumbled and despite the best efforts of many, shipping, and the plight of seafarers have struggled to make it up the priority list for governments globally. So the Lloyd’s List team were very pleased that, amid the many important discussions happening this week during London International Shipping Week, one of the most high profile events will be the Unsung Heroes Awards. The awards will celebrate the companies, master mariners and seafarers who have made outstanding contributions during the pandemic
And we are delighted to be joined for the first of these daily London shipping week podcasts by two of the driving forces behind the awards - Ince’s global senior partner Julian Clarke and director of the national maritime museum Paddy Rodgers.
Taylor Maritime founder Ed Buttery started planning his moves in 2013 while working for Nordea, hoping for the best, but well aware of the blows that shipping markets tend to deliver optimists. Eight years on and he has positioned himself inside a market highpoint with a successful IPO in London. Luck comes to those who are best prepared, he argues. Speaking on the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week he talks about London as a centre for maritime business, why older vessels run well make sense financially and environmentally, and what’s next for Taylor Maritime.
Perhaps the biggest conundrum in shipping is how ship owners can order new ships when they don’t know which fuel will be specified as environmentally sound, safe for the crew, and widely available. Moreover, how can they comply with regulations that won’t be in place until 2030 or 2040? The answer, says DNV in its Maritime Forecast 2050, is to work with class and other partners on a step-by-step approach to ensure compliance at each stage. This Lloyd’s List Podcast explains how this week as Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV Maritime, joins Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to unpack some of the elements in the Maritime Forecast.
Spoiler alert – the container crunch is going to get worse before it gets better. With the seasonal surge in demand only adding to the existing chaos there is no immediate end in sight to the supply chain disruption that has generated one of the most extraordinary container markets ever witnessed. The Lloyd’s List Podcast takes a step back this week to consider the state of container shipping, what happens next and why rates are unlikely to return to previous market norms.
Methanol is the focus for this week’s podcast. Specifically, green Methanol and how the industry can scale the limited production of truly carbon neutral supply and move to a more transparent accounting of fuel choices via a ‘well-to-wake’ assessment of lifecycle emissions. Featuring in the discussions this week are: Berit Hinnemann, head of decarbonisation business development at A. P. Moller Maersk and Chris Chatterton, COO of the Methanol Institute
The consensus findings of the world’s leading climate scientists were issued this week as a “code red for humanity”. We are already too late to avert dangerous climate change and can only now manage the amount by which we overshoot our stated target, argues our guest on this week’s podcast, the leading climate expert of low carbon shipping Dr Tristan Smith. He joins Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss the IPCC report, what it means for shipping, why LNG is going to get more expensive and whether there is any optimism he can offer as we consider shipping’s difficult transition to zero carbon.
P&I premiums for shipowners could cost half as much again in four years’ time. In this week’s Podcast we talk to Alex Vullo, the Gallagher analyst who’s forecast this week predicted a 50% hike and North Group’s chief underwriting officer Thya Kathiravel about why some clubs are better placed than others.
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In the second of this two-part special edition of the Lloyd's List Shipping Podcast, our sustainability editor Anastassios Adamopoulos spoke at length with Faig Abbasov of the Brussels-based NGO Transport and Environment and Sotiris Raptis, of the European Community Shipowners’ Association, on the European Commission’s new environmental proposals for shipping.
Listen to Part One of this podcast here: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1137657/The-Lloyds-List-Podcast-Dissecting-the-EUs-climate-offensive-on-shipping
Get all the latest news on shipping's path to decarbonisation via our Sustainability Hub: https://bit.ly/3jaeCgw
William Winters, managing director of Wärtsilä Underwater Services, joins Lloyd’s List chief correspondent Richard Clayton to look below the surface at vessel maintenance and monitoring, and says divers’ own expertise is an integral part of the sustainability journey in this sponsored edition of the Lloyd’s List Shipping Podcast.
In this special midweek edition of the Lloyd's List Shipping podcast, editor Richard Meade discusses the new ICS/BIMCO Seafarer Workforce Report with International Chamber of Shipping secretary-general Guy Platten.
Every five years, the report measures the supply and demand of officers and crew and provides an opportunity for the industry, at least in theory, to adapt it's training and recruitment policies to fit.
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In the first of this two-part special edition of the Lloyd's List Podcast, our sustainability editor Anastassios Adamopoulos spoke at length with Faig Abbasov of the Brussels-based NGO Transport and Environment and Sotiris Raptis, of the European Community Shipowners' Association, on the European Commission's new environmental proposals for shipping
For more information check out Lloyd’s List’s Shipping Sustainability Hub: https://bit.ly/3jaeCgw
Our sustainability editor Anastassios Adamopoulos caught up with Johannah Christensen, the new chief executive of the Global Maritime Forum this week. They discuss where she sees the international NGO heading, why the global crewing crisis is likely to worsen and how this sector is still doing so little to decarbonise.
Access the new standard in sanctions compliance risk analysis. Seasearcher Advanced Risk & Compliance gives you insight previously unattainable, enabling you to save time and effort completing sanctions compliance checks, investigations and monitoring vessels for illicit activity. https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/advanced-risk-and-compliance?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=productsite_lloydslist
Don’t mistake the anticipated lifting of Iranian sanctions for an easing of compliance risk. For those banks and insurers seeking to apply transparency to the opaquest end of seaborne trade, many are only just realising how far they still need to go in order to mitigate the risk that the Trump era in some way helped expose. For shipping that means more investment in due diligence and surveillance. Talking to Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade on this week’s edition about how shipping can navigate the murky waters of sanctions risk and compliance are: Amalie Korning Wedege, head of sanctions compliance at Danske Bank and Leigh Hannson, a partner at the law firm Reed Smith specializing in sanctions compliance for shipping
Access the new standard in sanctions compliance risk analysis. Seasearcher Advanced Risk & Compliance gives you insight previously unattainable, enabling you to save time and effort completing sanctions compliance checks, investigations and monitoring vessels for illicit activity. https://www.lloydslistintelligence.com/services/data-and-analytics/advanced-risk-and-compliance?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=productsite_lloydslist
Container shipping is not going to return to normal, according to Otto Schacht, the head of sea logistics at Kuehne+Nagel. The lines have a unique opportunity to permanently end the boom and bust cycles that have destroyed so much shareholder value over the years, and create an industry able to make decent money in bad times as well as good. Speaking of what happens next, the Lloyd’s List mid-year Markets Outlook finds shipowners in a better place than they anticipated 12 months ago. While tankers will have to wait for a meaningful vaccine-led recovery, box and bulk are booming, with prospects of earnings stretching well into 2022. Our exclusive report examines all key sectors plus the regulation, insurance and finance outlook. Required reading for everyone in shipping! Check it out here: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/special-reports/2021/Special-report-Half-year-outlook-2021
IMO secretary general Kitack Lim joins the podcast this week to reflect on why the industry has struggled to resolve the crew change crisis that has left seafarers globally dealing with overly harsh, inappropriate, even unlawful restrictions on seafarers’ freedom of movement. He also talks openly about the growing problem of crew abandonment, missing casualty investigations and responds to public mage concerns raised in recent media coverage.
While we have your attention, can we also urge all podcast listeners to register for our next FREE webinar. As part of our Future of Shipping Series we are turning our attention to the question of how to innovate in shipping. We will be discussing how best to overcome the blockers and siloes preventing entrepreneurial ideas reach their full potential in the maritime space with industry leaders from Eastern Pacific Shipping, MSC, Lloyd’s Register and Rainmaking. Register now and get your questions for the experts ready.
Sign up here: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/lloyds-list-fos-innovation-webinar
Shipping’s image problem is not a new issue, but the pandemic has exposed the industry’s invisible status at a political level and the lack of understanding among the general public and mainstream media. That is a problem, but it is one of the industry’s own making having opted to operate in the shadows for years. Joining the podcast this week is Sabrina Chao, the new president of BIMCO, who has pledged that the task of making shipping’s voice better heard by the outside world will be at the top of her agenda over the next two years. While we have your attention, can we also urge all podcast listeners to register for our next FREE webinar. As part of our Future of Shipping Series we are turning our attention to the question of how to innovate in shipping. We will be discussing how best to overcome the blockers and siloes preventing entrepreneurial ideas reach their full potential in the maritime space with industry leaders from Eastern Pacific Shipping, MSC, Lloyd’s Register and Rainmaking. Register now and get your questions for the experts ready.
Sign up here: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/lloyds-list-fos-innovation-webinar
Shipping experts are call for serious commitment on sustainability ‘NOW’ before it’s too late. What’s holding us back? Is the answer only to be found in zero carbon fuels, in which case how many years will it be until the right fuel or fuels have been trialled and tested under all conditions? What can be done while all this is going on, to reduce if not eliminate harmful emissions? And what has shipping discovered from several years of digitalisation to move us in the right direction? Roger Strevens, VP Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, explains why reducing carbon intensity by one-third since 2008 is not enough.
While you’re here make sure you sign up to our forthcoming webinar – How to Innovate Shipping on July 14 at 9am UK time. https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/lloyds-list-fos-innovation-webinar
The IMO's environmental negotiators meet next week with a priority to finalise short term emissions measures. But their meeting is also the likely beginning of bigger and more difficult discussions for shipping's future. Environmental Defense Fund Europe international climate director Aoife O'Leary talks to Lloyd's List about what we should expect for the rest of this year and how a market based measure should come in
‘How shipping pollutes the planet, avoids taxes, dodges regulations, & gets away with it’ – is the eye-catching strapline to the recent documentary Black Trail which has caused a stir in shipping circles. The film may not have taught us anything new about emissions, policy-making or the business of shipping, but seeing the outsider’ view of shipping on display offers a revealing, and worrying, insight into how the industry is being portrayed. This week’s podcast features the two lead journalists behind the film Zeynep Sentek, and Craig Shaw
We are joined on the podcast this week by the chief executive of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network Cecilia Müller Torbrand. The ethical case against corruption is too obvious to need spelling out, and yet until relatively recently foreign bribery was essentially considered a tax-deductible reality of daily shipping operations. The fact that ships routinely carried an additional cargo of dollar bills, Marlboro Red cartons and Jonny Walker Black label in order to smooth out the vessel’s passage through certain port calls and canal transits, well that was just a reality of international trade. But despite its reputation for opaque business practice, the shipping industry has, over the past decade, been going through a quietly effective anti-corruption revolution. When the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network was created in 2011, it started to tackle the issue of corruption on an industry-wide collaborative basis, instead of leaving companies working in silos against systemic issues of graft and dodgy dealings. It has been a quiet success story that has received little attention, but the impact has been dramatic. MACN today represents over 50% of the worlds tonnage, giving the shipping industry significant leverage when engaging in dialogue with governments ad institutions to stamp out corruption.
This edition of the Lloyd's List Podcast is sponsored by Class NK.
ClassNK experts Yukihito Fujinami and Tomoaki Yamada join the Lloyd’s List Podcast to discuss what the key elements are for designing the safety requirements for autonomous ships, what progress is being made, and how the organisation itself aims to contribute to the industry’s automation efforts
Autonomous shipping is seen by many an inevitable path towards a safer, smarter, and even cleaner maritime transport. It is an exciting yet long journey that requires innovative thinking as well as step-by-step efforts. As we remain at an early stage in the process today, classification societies are facing the necessity to help set up a new standards and safety regime required to frame and facilitate the development of technologies. It’s both a big role to play and a challenging task to fulfill. The safety requirements for autonomous ships must be strict enough to be effective but also, at the same time, flexible enough to be practical. How to establish that sense of balance requires careful orchestration of various factors, including understanding the difference between the approaches aimed at “human support” and “human substitution”. Mr Yukihito Fujinami and Tomoaki Yamada from the Research Institute of ClassNK will discuss what the key elements are for designing the safety requirements, what progress is being made, and how the organisation itself aims to contribute to the industry’s automation efforts. Many of these issues will also be expanded in the ClassNK Technical Journal to be published in June of the year.
Opting for a generation of LNG-fuelled ships today will delay climate action in shipping by 20 years, according to Maersk and those dismissing the current trend towards dual-fuelled tonnage as little more than ‘greenwashing’. Pragmatic commercial opportunity? Perhaps. But is gas a viable climate strategy for shipping? This week’s podcast sucks the hot air out of shipping’s most important debate and looks at why there is a schism developing in the industry. Any podcast listers looking for the On Demand replay of this week’s webinar should head to Lloydslist.com or direct via this link: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/lloyds-list-fos-decarbonisation-webinar
In this special edition of the podcast, sponsored by Marlink, Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton is joined by Tore Morten Olsen, President of Marlink’s maritime division, to discuss the future of remote operations for maritime.
It’s good to talk. Shipping and its technology partners have worked hard during the coronavirus pandemic to keep seafarers connected. But connectivity between ship and shore will be cascaded to the next level when the industry emerges from Covid-19. Digitally driven shipping is no longer a dream; it is becoming a reality. Discovering what is commercially viable in the short term is the key to data-led shipping. One of the harder nuts to crack is remote operations. This has been discussed at length over the past five years and technologists are getting closer to delivering software and systems that ship owners, operators, and managers can use. Tore Morten Olsen, President of Marlink’s Maritime division, has been working on a Remotely Operated Service at Sea (ROSS) project with SeaOwl, a French offshore services operator. This project involved a collaboration of stakeholders working with a common purpose. In this Lloyd’s List podcast, Mr Olsen outlines the five ‘R’s of remote operations– remote voyage support, remote software installation, remote compliance – training of crew and enabling inspections, remote medical aid, and remote operations. He tackles the issue of whether it will be possible to control vessels with a master and navigation team ashore, saying Covid-19 has “accelerated the maturity of the client-base to think in this way”. Mr Olsen discusses whether shipping is ready for remote operations; what is needed from regulators, class societies, and from ship owners themselves; and how the industry can use digitalisation to improve efficiency and save money. Remote operations is unlikely to be suitable for all ships on all trades but, he argues, in certain segments it will make a significant commercial difference. That’s why the industry should watch developments such as the ROSS project. “With SeaOwl, requirements of regulation, safety, and cyber security are much higher than vessels operating between two ports,” he says. There are already elements of remote operations that can be leveraged today, so companies can already benefit from elements used in this project. The potential of autonomous shipping has been on shipping’s agenda for many years, now the viability of remote operations is very much in the spotlight.
The crewing crisis never went away, the industry just worked around the problems, but with India now engulfed with a new Covid strain, Myanmar seafarers locked out due to sanctions at home and existing logjams getting worse, there is a very real possibility that shipping has a global crew shortage coming in the post. Joining the podcast this week to discuss the current crew changeover constraints and looming disaster scenarios is the International Chamber of Shipping secretary general, Guy Platten.
In this special edition of the podcast sponsored by Qatar Airways we look at the crew change crisis from the perspective of those who tasked with moving seafarers around the world amid a global pandemic. Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton hears from Qatar Airways Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori that the Gulf state’s blockade experience was turned to the good for mariners.
Lloyd’s List is team up with its sister publication Insurance Day this week for our first joint edition of the Podcast looking at the insurance implication and scenarios in the wake of the Ever Given casualty in the Suez Canal. Jonathan Humm, who leads the marine hull team at Aegis London, and Stephen Hawke, managing director of PL Ferrari, the P&I specialist broker join the discussions this week as we examine the marine insurance fallout from shipping biggest traffic jam
Governments and industry are jostling for position this week in the run up to a series of important decarbonisations meetings where shipping will be called to account, and likely a target. But amid the greenwashing and spin, companies are having to take real risks, incur some serious costs and make decisions based on very few certainties. Joining the podcast this week is Stena Chief executive Erik Hånell who talks us through the reality of what it takes to make a green stand and plan a pathway to 2050 without knowing enough about the detail of how to get there.
THE shipping industry lost one of its most influential people with the passing of John Angelicoussis.
Mr Angelicoussis died at 72 on April 10 in Athens, after suffering a heart attack three weeks earlier.
Considered by many the biggest Greek shipowner, in terms of both fleet size and stature, his career in shipping spanned almost five decades, during which he grew the family business into the 150 ship-empire that it is today. His group, that covers three major vessel segments, is believed to own the largest purely private shipping fleet in the world.
His foray into the LNG sector in the early 2000s was a catalyst for the entry of Greek shipowners into a market where they are among the leaders.
Mr Angelicoussis, a discreet personality who avoided the spotlight, was also known for his strong support of the Greek flag, and for the country’s wider maritime industry.
His daughter, Maria Angelicoussis takes over as chief executive of the Angelicoussis group of companies.
Our Greek correspondent Nigel Lowry and Citi chairman of Global Shipping, Logistics and Offshore, Michael Parker discuss who John Angelicoussis was, what made him so significant, and what his death means both for the business he leaves behind and the wider industry.
The transition to zero carbon shipping is riddled with uncertainties, most outside of the control of shipping companies and the industry itself, so why do so many shipping executives seem so certain about timelines and fuel strategy? “This is not a challenge where success is measured by the best soundbite or the best aspirational goal or date you set yourself,” counters Bud Darr, MSC’s executive vice president of maritime policy and government affairs in this week’s podcast.
Fenna van de Merwe, principal consultant at DNV, joins Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to look at digitalisation, decarbonisation and the need for a reassessment of the safety risks they pose in this special edition of the Lloyd’s List podcast
For several years there have been warnings that the ballooning size of boxships have been outpacing the industry’s ability to deal with the growing risk of such large assets. This week we ask whether the Suez crisis might just be the wake-up call that shipping needs to reassess it’s readiness when it comes to dealing with super-sized casualties. Joining the podcast is global head of marine risk consulting at Allianz, Capt. Rahul Khanna.
Sustainability is about more than carbon reduction, but we are currently evaluating the shift to new fuels on the basis of price, availability and technical feasibility. The ability to provide transportation infrastructure and services that are safe, socially inclusive, accessible, reliable, affordable, fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly, low-carbon and resilient to shocks and disruptions including those caused by climate change and natural disasters – that’s a much bigger conversation. Are we as an industry genuinely looking for real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or is this simply a question of tick box accounting? This week’s podcast looks for a more holistic discussion on shipping’s sustainability challenge with an international panel of experts: Katharine Palmer, Global Sustainability Manager at Lloyd’s Register • Mark Lutes, Senior Advisor on Global Climate Policy at WWF’s Climate and Energy Practice • Simon Bennett, General Manager for Sustainable Development at The China Navigation Company
On the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week: ITOPF managing director Dr Karen Purnell tells us why oil spills from tankers have declined so much and what impact all those containers that are lost at sea could really have
Nuclear power is back on the agenda in shipping. The atomic evangelists behind the new generation of molten salt reactor (MSR) technology believe it can kick-start a second atomic era, where climate change is the main driver of powerful, inexpensive and safe new energy solutions. On the podcast this week we talk to Mikal Boe, founder and chief executive of London-based Core-Power, about why nuclear now needs to move from the fringes of the environmental debate to become a serious part of shipping’s decarbonisation strategy
As part of our continuing quest to assess the options for shipping carbon free future we’re looking at the case for Ammonia this week. Joining our sustainability editor Anastassios Adamopoulos to discuss why NH3 should be at the heart of any shipowners’ strategy is Milton Bevington and Stephen Crolius of Carbon Neutral Consulting
Ahead of the P&I renewals deadline we have been speaking to both sides of the annual battle. Clubs are seeking sharp increases in prices, while shipowners are trying their best not to end up paying more, sending their insurance brokers into bat to keep those rate hikes down. So who’s winning? This week we talk to: David Mahoney of Aon, Stephen Hawke of Ferrari, Gard’s chief underwriting officer Bjornar Andresen and Skuld’s executive vice president Gregory Thomas.
By 2050, Africa’s 1.1 billion person population is slated to double, with 80% of this growth happening in cities, By 2025 more than 100 cities in Africa will contain over a million people. With this breakneck pace of urbanization comes many unprecedented economic opportunities and with it a renewed interest for shipping following the trade. But Africa’s potential is hardly new news – China has been pumping investment into African infrastructure for years under the one Belt one Road initiative and despite periodic enthusiasm from port operators trying to ensure they get their foothold in the inevitable emerging markets, Africa is still seen as a risk to be managed for the long-term rather than a near-term tangible revenue driver. But could that be finally changing? The exit of Trump and President Joe Biden’s initial enthusiasm to re-engage in multilateral institutions is worth noting. The US is increasingly looking like it wants to pivot to Africa – Biden wans to strike up free trade with African states and the US sees Africa as a place where they will strategically compete with China. Africa becoming a place of strategic competition changes the game when it comes to trade and for shipping the mid-term opportunities might just be about to become more interesting. So with that in mind we invited Podcast regular Mark Williams, managing director of Shipping Strategy to offer us a few thoughts on why Africa needs to be higher up the industry’s agenda right now.
Despite significant efforts by international organizations, unions, companies and some governments to sort this, we are now starting to see the situation getting worse as governments bring in more travel bans in response to the new strains of the Covid-19 virus. On the podcast this week to discuss the implications is Graham Westgarth, chairman of V.Group. As a key figure behind the Neptune Declaration and chairman of one of the largest shipmanagement agencies he is painfully aware of the restrictions, and while he is positive that Neptune is starting to have some impact, he is also realistic about the how quickly things will change and warns that the crewing crisis yet to emerge will hit when seafarers decide not to return to work.
As part of a Lloyd’s List special report on digitalisation in shipping we are looking at shipping’s progress towards efficiency and integration on the podcast this week. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is Sean Fernback, President of Wärtsilä Voyage who is a relative newcomer to the sector and offers an outsider’s perspective on the challenges and opportunities that shipping has yet to face.
With the help of Bimco’s chief shipping analyst Peter Sand we’re taking a quick run through the key tipping points that will shape the shipping markets in 2021 on this podcast this week. Peter and Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade cast their eyes over box market buoyancy, tanker troubles and the bulk market’s optimistic expectations for the year that inevitably all hinge on China. The next 12 months of shipping markets - all in under 25 minutes!
Joining the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week, David Hammond, the founder and chief executive of Human Rights at Sea explains why the crewing crisis has helped highlight wider abuses in the maritime sector and why we can’t let that attention fade along with Covid once the vaccination programme kicks in.
On the podcast this week we examine whether shippers’ complaints that box lines are profiteering hold any water. We then turn to the results of the Lloyd’s List Decarbonisation Survey that we conducted late last year in search of some much-needed clarity regarding carbon reduction.
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ARE container lines profiteering? Well the short answer of course is if they are then they’re really not very good at it historically speaking. Nevertheless, shippers are not a happy bunch right now with Asia-Europe rates in excess of $4,000 per TEU. Complaints raised in China, Europe and the US have again raised questions over the performance and practices of container lines, so this week we deploy our own container kingpins – James Baker and Janet Porter to discuss whether sky high freight rates and congestion justify shippers’ ire. We follow that with a look at whether we have sufficient clarity over the details of decarbonisation. To borrow a favorite phrase from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, shipping’s zero carbon project is still riddled with too many ‘known unknowns’ Which is why Lloyd’s list teamed up with classification society Lloyd’s Register to launch a regular Decarbonisation Survey late last year. And the results are in. We are joined this week by our very our climate change consultant to the industry, Anastassios Adamopoulos and the head of Lloyd’s Register’s recently launched Decarbonisation Hub, Charles Haskell to discuss the survey results and what they tell us about the industry’s readiness to invest in a cleaner future.
A low orderbook never saved a market – you need demand to recover. Oil needs to return to pre-pandemic levels before you can recalibrate the supply demand of the fleet and think about a more sustainable upturn, so says veteran equity analyst Jonathan Chappell from Evercore. He talks tankers with Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade this week, and sets out his forecast to 2022.
IT’S that most wonderful time of the year. The Lloyd’s List editorial team have been making a list, they’ve checked it twice they’ve been very busy finding out who’s been naughty or nice this year. The Lloyd’s List Top 100 annual ranking of the most influential people in shipping is finally here. This is the eleventh edition of the list that makes no bones of its subjective assessment of the real influencers in shipping. And the stories and personalities shaping shipping have in many ways changed completely over that period, but the rationale remains resolute. Each year the editorial team, over the period of several months, enter into an often tense debate and these brave truth seekers fight it out amongst themselves, arguing their cases to ultimately produce the most important list of the year. We have said since the start that influence in shipping is not just a question of size, money or number of ships; it is about people and the decisions that they make. And that remains the case. As subjective as this list obviously is, taken in its entirety, the stories of these 100 figures, and the sub-lists of top 10s in individual sectors, is the real story of shipping. It reflects the dynamics and tipping points in the market each year that are directing the industry and read as such it is, in my humble opinion, a very worthwhile project and a rip-roaring read to boot. But before you delve into the list which is available in its entirety online now, we thought we would bring you some of the editorial voices behind the list to explain our rationale and the story behind shipping’s most eagerly anticipated publication. We start the podcast this week with the Top 100’s editor Linton Nightingale and chair of our editorial board, Janet Porter. We also have the view from Asia with our China Editor Cichen Shen and quick word on the big-ticket regulatory influencers from our professional IMO botherer, Anastassios Adamopoulos.
To read this year’s list head straight to Lloydslist.com/Top 100
Before you listen to the podcast this week register for the Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum on December 1. Go to Lloydslist.com and follow the banner or copy this link to go direct to the registration page: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/2021ShippingOutlook
Despite all the positive examples of innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration, shipping still struggles to move from siloed projects to scale because standardisation across such a fragmented sector is notoriously difficult. It’s just one of many issues on the agenda this week as we take a sneak preview of what’s to come at next week’s Lloyd’s List Outlook Forum with Founder and CEO innovation hub and accelerator Optima-X Angelica Kemene.
Go to Lloydslist.com to complete our Decarbonisation Survey and register for free to attend the Outlook Forum on December 1
BW has pioneered dual-fuelled LPG engines and recently announced a world first with a VLGC voyage on full LPG propulsion across the Pacific. It’s a voyage expected to produce 20% less greenhouse gas emissions and use 10% less fuel. Given the chorus of pro LNG duel fuel zealots out there right now, it’s perhaps surprising that LPG hasn’t managed work it’s way higher up the agenda. BW’s technology and operations chief Pontus Berg joins our reporter Inderpreet Walia this week to offer a fresh look at LPG
IF entrepreneurs form companies to solve a problem and capitalise on a gap in the market, then it seems shipping’s problems are growing exponentially. The recent proliferation of accelerators, incubators and established maritime players all doggedly chasing start-ups as a testing ground for viable, and scalable, new business models – all suggests something of an entrepreneurial explosion. This week the venture development firm Rainmaking launched a maritime innovation advisory network for Southeast Asia, so we invited the company’s director for trade and transport Tarun Mehrotra, to come on the podcast and discuss why shipping needs this disruptive kick up the supply chain to get new, innovative ideas moving. We talk about whether shipping really is as conservative as the would-be disruptors would have us believe and why there is still a resistance to change and reluctance to adopt new technological solutions.
Enjoy the Lloyd’s List Podcast and remember you can now subscribe via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
THE hot topic of cargo related fires on board containerships refuses to be extinguished, despite a recent flurry of industry efforts to snuff out the problem. We’ve not seen a Yantian Express, Maersk Honam or an MSC Flaminia reach the headlines in recent months, but there has been a persistent series of smaller fires that have gone un-noticed. And the numbers are not going down. According to the P&I Club Gard, on average there has been roughly one fire every two weeks so far in 2020. Joining Lloyd’s List Editr Richard Meade this week to discuss the persistent problem of burning boxes we have panel blazing with expertise: • Are Solum, Senior Claims Executive, Lawyer, Gard • Peregrine Storrs-Fox, TT Club risk management director • Capt. Rahul Khanna, Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting at Allianz
Listen to the third of three special edition podcasts produced in association with DNV GL examining the tectonic shift shaping shipping’s future: decarbonisation, alternative fuels and digitalisation.
Stener Stenersen, DNV GL’s Head of Technical Support Norway, and Bjorn-Johan Vartdal, Digital Director for Maritime, join Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to discuss the next steps in the journey to digital solutions in this special edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast
On our podcast this week, senior reporter and editor of the Lloyd's List magazine Linton Nightingale is joined by the chair of our editorial board Janet Porter and Container Trades Statistics chief executive Peter Webber. The trio chew the fat over the history of CTS and how it came to be, while analysing the latest container trade volume data which points to an unlikely peak season as the industry recovers from the initial impact of Covid-19
The Greek shipping community have always been wilfully contrary bunch in their attitude and outlook – it’s still the case that where the Greeks lead in countercyclical plays others follow and even in these capital constrained times it’s a brave analyst who bets against the Greek owner’s ability to turn a global crisis into an opportunity. That said, there are fault lines emerging in shipping right now and the sustainability of the Greek traditional business models is being tested. The tectonic shifts of decarbonisation and digitalisation and enforced transparency, be it the political, regulatory or financially enforced variety, are all to some degree at odds with the staunchly private, some might argue opaque nature of the Greek model that has powered them through so many other challenges to date. So in advance of our Posidonia Forum on October 26 (register for free via https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/PosidoniaDigitalForum) Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is joined by our very own Greek oracle, the Pythia of Pireaus, our Greece correspondent Nigel Lowry to discuss the current status of Greek shipping sector.
This special edition is brought to you by Hyde Marine. Christopher Todd, executive director of Hyde Marine and Calgon Carbon UV, joins Lloyd’s List news reporter Anastassios Adamopoulos to discuss the state of the ballast water treatment system market, the effects of the pandemic on manufacturers and shipowners and what is in store for the sector.
THE global health crisis has exposed known flaws within shipping. The fragmented response to the crewing crisis is only the latest fault line in an industry that has struggled to speak with unity on fundamental issues of safety, decarbonisation and digitalisation. One of the key voices to emerge from the current crisis is that of Synergy Group founder and chief executive Rajesh Unni, who joins Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade for an in-depth discussion covering everything from collaboration and coronavirus to the twin tectonic shifts of digitalisation and decarbonisation. Shipping needs to find a political voice that travels beyond the ports and the high seas, one that reaches the decision makers who are currently determining our collective fates, argues Mr Unni in this wide-ranging interview. It is time to reform, he suggests, and find ways to create a more transparent industry where collaboration across the supply chain is embraced, sustainability is baked into new business models and technology is used to catalyse innovation and find efficiencies.
ABS chief Chris Wiernicki is our return guest on the podcast this week, covering decarbonisation pathways, shipbuilding decisions, the threat of regionalism in climate change policy and why a rapid mindset shift is required from the shipping industry to keep up with the pace and scope of changes afoot.
Christos Chryssakis, Business Development Manager at DNV GL, and Narve Mjøs, Director of DNV GL’s Green Shipping Programme, join Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to discuss the next steps in the journey to carbon-neutral fuels in this special edition of the Lloyd's List Podcast
Commodities trader Trafigura is calling for "drastic" measures to speed up the decarbonisation of shipping through a bunker levy charge as well as pushing for measures including enforced slow steaming. Without urgent action the industry risks costly regional confusion, slow update of zero emissions fuels and the inevitably of having decisions forced upon them. A level plays playing field is essential argues this week’s podcast guest Trafigura’s Global Head of Fuel Decarbonisation, Rasmus Bach Nielsen – the industry can’t afford not to take action
THE International Union of Marine Insurance conference is the highlight of the marine insurance year. But, thanks to the pandemic, what was supposed to have been a four-day physical gathering in Stockholm has metamorphosed into a two-week virtual event. Nevertheless, attendance was substantially up and the standard of the online presentations has been as high as ever. So we’re delighted to have the influential trade association’s secretary general, Lars Lange, as our guest on the Podcast this week.
The Global Maritime Forum, the organisation behind some of the leading sustainability initiatives in the industry, including the Poseidon Principles and the Getting to Zero Coalition, is founded on the idea that progress happens when people from all parts of a system – in this case the global maritime industry – come together to discuss challenges and work together on finding new solutions.
So, the fact that the GMF’s annual summit, dubbed shipping’s own mini-Davos, is not happening in London next month for obvious reasons, could have been a problem.
But our guest this week seems confident that the work is progressing very nicely in a digital format and actually might be better in some respects. Johannah Christensen is the Managing Director and Head of Projects & Programmes at GMF, and in this week’s podcast she talks to our reporter Anastassios Adamopoulos about how virtual brainstorming and coordination actually works pretty well. They also discuss how the maritime sector has responded to the decarbonisation challenge and why even the most progressive thinkers probably need to adjust their expectations when it comes to the speed of change heading our way as an industry.
ON August 5, the tanker Maersk Etienne rescued 27 people, including a child and a pregnant woman, from a small boat at the behest of Maltese authorities. But since then the vessel, it’s crew and the rescued migrants on board have become something of a political football kicked from port to port as nation states argue the toss over whose responsibility it is to disembark those rescued at sea. The moral obligation to save life at sea is simple and straightforward; inevitably, the legal and political position is not On this week’s podcast we talk to Maria Skipper Schwenn, Danish Shipping's executive director for security, environment and maritime research, who has called for a reform of international conventions related to rescues at sea in the wake of the political stand-off. She also points out that ships are now shutting off their radio in strategic locations across the Mediterranean to avoid being called in to help migrants and potentially get caught up in a costly political storm. Meanwhile, with anger growing within the maritime community about the treatment of the Maersk Etienne crew, and the migrants they rescued more than a month ago, Lloyd’s List regulars Janet Porter and David Osler join the podcast to discuss the legal context and what’s been happening behind the scenes as shipping struggles to resolve yet another poltical problem well beyond it’s sphere of limited influence.
This is the first of three special edition podcasts produced in association with DNVGL examining the tectonic shift shaping shipping's future: decarbonisation, alternative fuels and digitalization In this first edition Eirik Nyhus, DNVGL's director of environment and Tore Longva, principal consultant at DNV GL, join Lloyd’s List Chief Correspondent Richard Clayton to assess shipping’s position on the road to decarbonization. It’s time to take stock of our position on the journey, to recognise the progress we have already made, and to identify the obstacles that lie in the way ahead.
Energy efficiency is all well and good, say Eirik Nyhus and Tore Longva, but we will still need energy to propel a ship – and that energy needs to come from somewhere. All the fuels under test and trial have advantages and drawbacks.
It’s a balance between running for one solution and risk falling short or spending too much time on finding the perfect solution. We cannot allow the best to become the enemy of the good.
How has the discussion shifted as the industry deepens its understanding of the actual environmental footprint of each of the fuels? What will be the impact of transporting these fuels, distributing them, storing them?
Further, is pressure from regional and local interests helping the industry’s global insight or confusing it? And is the industry right to focus on CO2 or should it reassess the danger of black carbon and methane?
The Panama Canal is arguably the most difficult engineering project humanity has ever undertaken, and it’s so large, you can see it from space.
More than a million vessels have used it as a shortcut between the Atlantic and the Pacific since it was opened in 1914, and canal dues raise $2bn a year, making it the economic mainstay of an entire country.
Ilya Marotta, was appointed as Deputy Administrator of the Panama Canal earlier this year having served as the chief engineer on the multi-billion dollar canal expansion project that completed in 2016.
She has been breaking barriers since she began her career at the Panama Canal in 1985 as the sole female engineer at the shipyard and is today a vocal advocate of engineering as a career route that can make a real difference in the world.
In this week’s edition of the podcast, Ilya talks to Lloyd’s List’s David Osler about the impact of coronavirus on this key waterway, her career in engineering so far, why more work is needed to regulate water levels, and why she decided to make a pink hard hat her professional trademark.
James Marshall is the chief executive of Berge Bulk and he has a plan to get their 75 vessels to become a net zero fleet by 2025. In this week’s podcast he talks to Lloyd’s list Editor Richard Meade about how he plans to get there, why existing technology can get you nearer than you think and why nuclear reactors on board vessels should be back on the table as an industry option.
When we set up this podcast one of the stated aims was to tell the story of interesting and important people doing interesting and important things within the shipping industry, so this week I’m handing over the reigns to our insurance and law editor David Osler who has been out and about talking to just such a pair of people. Lindsay Malen-Habib is a senior sales director at Resolve Marine Group, but she is also the new president of the American Salvage Association. She talks to Dave about both of her jobs, and gives us an update on the recent Hoegh Xiamen car carrier casualty in Jacksonville. Then we have Drewry’s Susan Oatway is the first woman chair of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. Susan explains why she believes the ICS, as shipping’s professional body, is just as important now as it was when it got its royal charter in 1920.
In this week’s podcast we reveal the full story of the Moldovan-flag bulk carrier, The Rhosus, which in 2013 arrived in Lebanon carrying 2,750 ammonium nitrate. The story of a botched loading, crew abandonment that followed left a tomb bomb inside the heart of Beirut and the Rhosus rusting under the breakwater of the port. We explore what happened and ask whether the devastating explosion will be a wake up call to the rest of the supply chain to take dangerous good handling more seriously.
Nobu Su, the former billionaire shipowner jailed in London over a long-running dispute about money owed in failed freight futures deals, told Lloyd’s List he has filed for personal insolvency and wants to leave the UK.
Three months after his early release from HM Prison Pentonville, where he was serving a 21-month civil sentence related to contempt of court, Mr Su explained he was still determined to reveal the truth in order to clear his name in an exclusive interview with Lloyd’s List.
In the interview, recorded in London on July 29 for the Lloyd’s List podcast, the Taiwanese shipowner told of his time at Pentonville and how the experience changed his life.
Beacon, the Jeff Bezos backed digital freight disrupter led by ex-Uber and Amazon execs has all the hallmarks of another AI-fueled 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.
Governments have this week pledged to speed up efforts to get hundreds of thousands of stranded merchant sailors home, but this comes after months of similar rhetoric and limited action. So can we expect things to change? International Maritime Organization secretary general Kitack lim – our guest on this week’s podcast – says yes. We are, he argues, in a wartime situation with the pandemic. Government responses have required time to heart up, but they are have now reached boiling point and the recent pledges are more than just promises.
When Şadan Kaptanoğlu was elected President of BIMCO – the world’s largest shipping association – back in May 2019, she knew that the tectonic shifts in shipping would mean a busy agenda. A year into her tenure grappling with shipping’s response to the environment, security and digitalization, she now has the added burden of how to lead through a global pandemic that’s wiped over a billion tonnes of trade off the forecasts and created a crewing crisis with tens of thousands of seafarers being left stranded at sea as governments struggle to stabilize in the wake of an economic and social tsunami. Sadan talks to Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade about shipping’s new normal, how shipping can better communicate both internally and externally and what the global economic turbulence means for shipping over the coming years.
Our podcast guest this week is a return guest, Emanuele Grimaldi, one of the co-owners of Italy’s Grimaldi Group, which operates a significant fleet of car carriers and roro ferries. As he put it in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal – “We are waiting for the World to restart” – a sentiment no doubt shared by many of his peers. In this week’s interview we talk about his expectations for a recovery, but we also explore why he has felt it necessary to launch antitrust complaints against the governments he feels are distorting the marketplace by bailing out weak shipping lines at the expense of those operating in the same trades that are well capitalised. We also touch on the subject of roro safety in the wake of yet another care deck fire, this time aboard Grimaldi’s ro-Pax vessel Cruise Bonaria. Although the incident was not a serious one, a recent spate of fires has raised safety concerns and reignited Mr Grimaldi’s long standing concerns regarding safety rules, cargo misdeclaration and electrical issues that responsible for the vast majority of fires board these types of vessels.
Euronav chief executive Hugo De Stoop joins the podcast this week to talk us through his experience of the continuing bureaucratic logjam that has stranded tens of thousands of seafarers at sea and is fast becoming a humanitarian crisis. Despite unified industry intervention and even some divine intervention from the Pope this week supporting seafarers, nothing seems to be able to get the problems resolved and, as ever, seafarers are the ones left suffering as we wait for political solutions.
We are talking ship recycling on the podcast this week. Specifically we’re looking at how we drive positive change in ship recycling and move this conversation on beyond the finger pointing politics that has dominated the scrapping debate in shipping for many years. It’s an extended special edition this week because we needed a panel of experts to get to the heart of the matter. Talking to Lloyd’s list Editor Richard Meade this week: Andrew Stephens, Executive Director at The Sustainable Shipping Initiative and the ship recycling transparency initiative, Jennifer Riley James, Senior Ship Recycling Specialist, Lloyd's Register, Roger Charles, Executive Director, Environmental and Social Risk Management at Standard Chartered Bank and Kristina Kunigenas, Sustainability Manager, NORDEN.
Times are tough across the industry right now, but there is a silver linings playbook for those prepared to look beyond the obvious and immediate crises in front of us and embrace a collaborative future with new eyes. That’s the view of our guest this week - DNVGL’s chief executive of maritime Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, who believes that we are headed into a maritime renaissance. Things that we have traditionally done for years simply will not hold up, he argues, the tectonic shift transforming the maritime world will spur international solutions, turbo-charging digitalization and forcing innovation that will fuel a revolution in shipping. While we have you thinking about innovation we are also calling for your feedback on the podcast and how we could improve, possibly with a regular ‘Ask the Analyst’ slot. Our editor is looking for your suggestions, questions and recommendations and is happy to take e-mails direct via Richard.meade@informa.com or if you’re on Twitter you can find him via @Lloydslisted. Mark your e-mails Podcast feedback please. Enjoy the podcast and don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
It’s a special edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week, featuring an extended debate on shipping’s decarbonization prospects taking in everything from state support, future fuel options fake zeros and the overwhelming need for clarity and standard definitions when it comes to ambitions
Debating shipping’s decarbonization pathways on this week’s podcast: Peter Boyd from Yale University, Matthieu de Tugny from Bureau Veritas, Tristan Smith from University College London’s Energy Institute and Adrian Tolson from Blue Insight.
The Trump administration released long-awaited global industry guidance last week that detailed best practices to detect deceptive shipping. What is not being said is almost as important as what is, but the takeaway here is that the international maritime industry will remain in the crosshairs of US sanctions enforcement no matter who wins the presidential election in November. On the podcast this week to dissect the implications for shipping are: Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade, our markets editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann and our resident tiger at the throat of the insurance industry - David Osler.
Don’t forget to sign up to Lloyd’s List Ask the Analysts webinar on May 28. In the second of our monthly Ask the Analyst webinar series, the focus turns to the outlook for markets in Asia and our view on mounting credit risk.
Following on from last month’s webinar where we offered the shipping industry the opportunity to ask our experts any questions on any aspect of the industry’s currently turbulent agenda, the team will be back on Thursday 28 May at 16:00 Singapore time / 9am UK to answer more of your questions. Register for free and submit your questions in advance here: https://pages.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL-AMA-May
Shipping’s new normal of remote working may turn out to be more efficient than the air-mile eating customs of old. Could coronavirus spark a renaissance in shipping, turbo charging digital developments and cultivating collaboration and data standardization along the way? This week the podcast focuses on maritime innovation and entrepreneurship, featuring insights from Roger Holm, president of Wartsila’s marine power business and Matt Heider, ceo of Nautilus Labs, one of the industry’s new wave of technology firms that specialises in ocean commerce artificial intelligence.
The shipping industry’s 12-step plan to facilitate crew change was released this week and is expected to expedite a more effective government response to the crew change crisis that has seen thousands of seafarers stuck at sea for months. But it also highlights that the industry is bracing for a long period of disruption than many had been hoping for. It’s a wartime situation, says Columbia Shipmanagement president Mark O’Neil who joins the podcast this week, along with International Chamber secretary general Guy Platten. The whole industry needs to accept that there are no quick fixes and we should all be steeling ourselves for an extended campaign, argue Mr O’Neil.
This week’s podcast homes in on the container market and the storm that awaits at the hands of the coronavirus pandemic. The Lloyd’s List box team convene to assess which of the major carriers are best and worst prepared for the storm that awaits, as a precursor to this month’s Lloyd’s List magazine. Joining the podcast this week too is Sea-Intelligence’s Lars Jensen, who looks even further forward to how the industry may look come this time next year and beyond.
We should have been in Singapore this week, setting the agenda for digitalization and decarbonization. But in the absence of a Singapore Maritime Week this year we’ve drafted in guests from the heart of Maritime’s Lion City to offer up a view of how the sector is coping with the coronavirus challenges, whether we can expect the current disruption to catalyse innovation and why we should expect more disruption to come. Joining this week are Esben Poulsson, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping and Punit Oza, who’s supremely Singaporean CV includes positions at Klaveness Asia, the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration, Institute of Chartered shipbrokers and Singapore Management University.
The doom-laden forecasts have been coming thick and fast this week warning of the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, a lost decade of growth in Latin America and a shrinking Chinese economy for the first time since 1992. To help put these figures into context and explain what the coronavirus economic fallout means for trade demand we have this week drafted in Tom Rogers, head of macroeconomic consulting for Asia at Oxford Economics as well as our own China editor Cichen Shen.
With shipping companies continuing to postpone crew exchange and extend employment contracts as the only way of overcoming the coronavirus travel and quarantine restrictions, the industry has a ticking time bomb on its hands. Make no mistake - fatigue among seafarers will inevitably result in more accidents at sea. This is a safety issue and it’s a mental health issue. Several voices join the podcast this week to discuss the implications for seafarers including: V.Group chief executive Graham Westgarth, Professor Helen Sampson, who led a recent study into mental health issues at sea, Liz Baugh, the Lead Medical Consultant at Red Square Medical which provides medicial assistance to maritime businesses, Caitlin Vaughan from the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN) and Sandra Welch Chief, operating officer of the Sailors’ Society.
West African pirates clearly didn’t get the memo on social distancing. Undeterred by the global coronavirus pandemic, piracy is still rife and insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea in particular continues to blight the lives of seafarers working in the region. As the industry seeks to strength security measures with the latest publication of ‘Best Management Practice’ focused on the Gulf of Guinea hot-spot, the Podcast this week explores how seafarers are having to deal with yet another layer of risk. Joining the podcast this week we have Bimco’s head of safety and security Jakob Larsen and Stephen Askins, Partner at Tatham & Co - Maritime Solicitors
However horrific the disruption looks right now at a consumer level, we have to believe that Coronavirus is not going to structurally change the shipping markets. Can we hope for a V shaped recovery, or should we brace for a misshapen U? God forbid we even consider the prospect of an L shaped non-recovery. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade this week to discuss the shape of things to come is Shipping Strategy Managing Director and returning podcast pundit, Mark Williams.
The coronavirus pandemic has left seafarers around the world in a precarious position, but as the focus shifts to European government responses the industry is pulling together to ensure that shipping, and seafarers, can keep world trade afloat. This week’s edition discusses concerns facing crew amid the Covid-19 restrictions and features maritime trade union Nautilus’ general secretary Mark Dickinson.
In this special episode of the Lloyd’s List Shipping Podcast, Editor Richard Meade discusses the forthcoming Lloyd’s List Awards series, answering many of the questions that come up as companies and individuals are preparing their submissions, and setting listeners on the path to success with some sound advice.
Panic buying seems to be the trend of the moment, whether you’re stockpiling bathroom essentials amid coronavirus concerns, or making a grab for tanker tonnage amid an increasingly volatile oil price war – it’s all the same sentiment spooking markets. This week’s Podcast looks behind the inflated earnings of VLCCs and then examines the impact of a plummeting oil price on marine fuel spread strategies and scrubber economics. If you’re trying to make sense of a crazy, confusing week in shipping, you’ve found the right podcast.
The impact of coronavirus continues to ripple through the shipping industry and the wider global supply chain, so to help make sense of the increasingly complex picture we have once again sought a diverse range of industry insight for this week’s edition. Guy Platen, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, discusses the latest advice being issued to the industry after consultation with the World Health Organziation and the International Maritime Orgainsation; Ray Lei, commercial director at Landbridge Holdings - a Chinese operator of six VLCCS - offers us his first-hand account of how business is being impacted on a daily basis; and Fleet Management’s head of business Captain Vikas Grewal talks us through the reality of crew changeovers, fuel supply problems and how managers are trying to navigate the increasing complexities of a coronavirus constrained global economy.
With Qatar’s National Vision 2030 clearly in mind, this Maritime and Logistics Summit looked beyond liquefied natural gas to a diversified maritime cluster. The new Hamad port with its next-generation terminals and free zone form the foundation of a maritime cluster that draws on best practice elsewhere. This Summit heard from speakers from major Qatar and foreign companies and associations. It’s rare for such expertise to be gathered in a new location and, as our podcast speakers show, the future for the Qatar cluster is exciting.
We have a climate emergency, we can’t wait for the IMO, says Jutta Paulus, the European Parliament’s maritime emissions rapporteur. In this week’s Podcast Anastassios Adamopoulos sits down with the controversial MEP in Brussels to discuss her proposal that would effectively force ships to operate under an emissions cap and trade system, increase their carbon intensity performance and contribute to a European maritime decarbonisation fund. Shipping lobbies have criticised the proposal as damaging international decarbonisation progress and lacking understanding, bit as she explains to Anastassios, “if you wait for consensus you’ll never get anywhere. We need ambitious influencers”.
SHIPPING lobbies have criticised a European Union proposal for the regulation of shipping emissions as damaging international decarbonisation progress and lacking understanding.
The proposed rules, which will require legislative and political scrutiny before approval, would apply to those ships of 5,000 tonnes and above that use EU ports, regardless of their flag, and would affect almost 12,000 vessels.
Lloyd’s List’s regulatory expert Anastassios Adamopoulos joins Editor Richard Meade on the podcast this week to analyse the potential fallout from this latest political move from Brussels and question whether the industry is taking this development seriously enough.
Meanwhile, the UK government’s plans to create up to 10 freeports to ‘Turbocharge’ trade in the wake of Britain leaving the European Union have received a mixed response from industry figures who warn that the freeport model is not the silver bullet being trumpeted by some.
But after a 10-week consultation on the issue was officially announced last week, after months of being trailed in the media, several of the UK’s largest ports are expected to pitch their plans.
Joining the podcast this week to dissect the latest developments and unravel the political spin, we have not one, but two UK Ports powerhouses - Richard Ballantyne, chief executive, British Ports Association and Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group.
When China sneezes, we all catch the flu, but shipping seems to have initially underestimated quite how significant the impact of the coronavirus outbreak was going to be. It is now painfully clear that the extended shutdown of China will temporarily cripple the shipping markets and hit hard on freight rates well beyond the current schedule disruption and yard delays. In this week’s podcast we get the latest market analysis from BIMCO’s chief analyst Peter Sand, we talk to Andrew Rigden Green, a leading shipping lawyer from Stephenson Harwood about charterparty risk and we get the inside track on the latest market disruption direct from our China editor Cichen Shen.
LNG may not be the silver bullet to shipping’s decarbonization dilemma, but there plenty of owners betting billions of dollars that it offers a safe bet on the right pathway to a greener future. So the emergence of a new report this week challenging the received wisdom that LNG provides a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and might actually more environmentally damaging than conventional fuel options, is a serious development that requires attention. Joining the Podcast this week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade and Markets Editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann, is one of the authors of the report Bryan Comer, a senior researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
Next month Doha will play host to the Qatar Maritime and Logistics Summit, an event that promises to be one not to miss on the maritime calendar. Previewing the Summit we have even chair Richard Clayton, Mwani Qatar head of marketing Shammi Mohan, and Lloyd’s List’s Intelligence head of consulting Chris Pålsson. Linton Nightingale takes over from Richard Meade in the hot seat Registration details for the Summit can be found at: 2020.theQatarSummit.com
The Lloyd’s List Intelligence Executive Meeting is an annual Gothenburg gathering of shipping leaders and analysts who share views on how best to navigate the turbulent waters that lie ahead. While this is generally a pretty exclusive affair the podcast team were granted an access all areas pass and headed off to Gothenburg in search of insight. Featuring on this week’s edition with our Markets Editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann we have: LLI’s lead analyst Christopher Palsson talking tanker numbers, ABB’s marine and ports head Jorgen Karlsoon talking tech and Stena Bulk chief Erik Hanell talking security and Stena Impero.
Shipping has once again been left with the threat of getting caught in the crossfire of escalating tensions in the wake of the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Joining the Podcast this week to discuss the risk assessment for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are Bimco’s head of safety and security Jakob Larsen and Senior Maritime Analyst at Control Risks, Cormac Mc Garry
It’s that time of year when we start to reflect on the achievements of the past 12 months, look forward to what next year holds in store, then hurry to the Lloyd’s List local for a festive round of drinks. The questions on the table for this week’s Podcast are simple: What was your story of 2019 and what is your prediction for 2020? Gathered around the Lloyd’s List microphone with Editor Richard Meade this week are: Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Anastaassios Adamopoulos, James Baker and Richard Clayton. The Lloyd’s List Podcast will be taking a break over the festive period, but we will be back in January with more audio insights. For now though, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our listeners.
Lloyd’s List has been polling the industry on everything from AI to zero carbon fuels over the past months and the results formed the backbone of the discussions at our annual Outlook Forum in London last week, with a panel of experts offering the analysis and context. This week’s podcast offers you a few highlights from the events including views from Citi, Shell and Intertanko on: the greatest challenge to the future efficiency of operations in shipping, the greatest threat to the shipping industry over the next five years and the question of which fuel is going to propel shipping into a zero carbon future.
How do the Greek shipowners feel this year has gone and what’s keeping them up at night when they look to 2020? The podcast lands in Athens this week for the annual sequined festival of camp showbiz excess and shipping excellence that is the Greek Shipping Awards. Joining Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade to dissect for the fortunes of shipping’s most vibrant of markets are our two resident Greeks, Athens correspondent Nigel Lowry and London-based reporter Anastassios Adamopoulos
This week we’re crunching the numbers and offering up a market forecast with Lloyd’s List Intelligence’s analytical oracle Christopher Pålsson and our own Editor and regular Podcast host Richard Meade. The pair talk through everything from growth trends to regulatory risk in their consideration of the dynamic trends that will be shaping shipping markets in 2020.
The Lloyd’s List team have continued their world tour this week hosting events in the Middle East and Asia. In this week’s audio dispatch our chief correspondent Richard Clayton offers up his view from Dubai where he has been talking smart ports, while our China Editor Cichen Shen and Asia news editor Vincent Wee give us the insider’s view from Hong Kong maritime week and more importantly the Lloyd’s List’s eagerly anticipated Innovation Forum
The campaign for mandatory speed limits for shipping suffered a blow during technical talks at IMO this week. For some that is crucial mistake and a missed opportunity. For others it is an effective strategy to reduce emissions. In this week's podcast we get the view from both sides: Danish Shipping director Maria Skipper Schwenn and Transport & Environment shipping analyst Faig Abbasov explain what the future is for decarbonisation
The Lloyd’s List Podcast is in Shanghai this week where China’s President Xi Jinping has been leading the discussions around trade policy and Chinese shipping giant Cosco has been talking up the value of a multi-lateral, value-added approach to supply chains. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss everything from trade policy and Trump bashing to Chinese leasing and why cargo interests are leapfrogging shipowners in news deals are China Editor Cichen Shen and special guest Bill Guo, executive director of the Chinese leasing giant ICBC.
Environmental protection is ultimately going to trump trade, according to our Podcast guest this week - the IMO’s head of air pollution and energy efficiency, Edmund Hughes. Speaking to Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade and reporter Anastassios Adamopoulos in this week’s edition he talks us through his confidence around 2020 implementation, the lessons learned there about what happens next in the decarbonisation debate, and the role of the IMO amid rapidly changing political dynamics that it has limited agency in controlling.
The Podcast is in Naples this week as our law and insurance expert David Osler talks over the legal challenges of autonomy, Brexit and 2020 sulphur rules with some of the shipping industry’s finest legal minds. Featuring this week are: Mans Jacobsson, the now-retired former director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation funds; Tiejha Smyth, a solicitor who now works as deputy director of freight, demurrage and defence at North Group, James Leabeater QC and Hamish Macrae, one of Britain’s best-known economics journalists.
The Podcast comes from Singapore this week where Lloyd’s List hosted the Asia Trade Outlook Forum, casting a critical eye over the market trends shaping shipping business decisions in the next 12 months. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss the key takeaways from the forum are the Asia editorial team: Cichen Shen. Vincent Wee, Hwee Hwee Tan and Inderpreet Walia.
In this week’s review of the stories shaping shipping our containers kingpins James Baker and Linton Nightingale discuss the peak season that never was and why flexibility trumps size, our chief correspondent Richard Clayton offers up the key lessons he’s learned from talking to the leading shipmanagment executives and Nida Bakhsh explains why governments are considering their options when it comes to casualty reporting. For further details of all the Lloyd’s List Events mentioned at the top of this week’s edition, head to Lloydslist.com
THE LPG sector has not traditionally been a headline grabber, unlike its certainly cooler, arguably sexier cousin, LNG. But in this week’s Podcast we argue that it’s one of the most interesting markets you’ve never paid enough attention to and there’s some interesting lessons to be drawn from a quick deep dive into the dynamics shaping the market right now. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss gas trends and the challenges of leading a company through short-term challenges and long-term shifts, is Epic Gas chief executive officer Charles Maltby.
Shipping’s first major far-reaching moonshot initiative is here. The Getting to Zero coalition has set its eyes on delivering commercially viable zero-emission vessels by 2030. On the podcast this week to explain what the coalition is all about are the Environmental Defense Fund’s Baroness Bryony Worthington and Tristan Smith from the University College London Energy Institute and University Maritime Advisory Services
The annual marine insurance bun-fight that is IUMI may not be everyone’s idea of a party, but there was a palpable undercurrent of optimism rippling through the actuaries and analysts this year. Our crack squad of risky reporters managed to grab a few words with such luminaries as Nick Shaw, chief executive of the International Group of P&I Club, Astrid Seltmann of Cefor and Lars Lange, IUMI’s Hamburg-based secretary general.
The Lloyd’s List team have squeezed into their finest formal attire, popped a cork and gathered round the microphone to give you a prosecco-fuelled reflection on the blur that was London International Shipping Week. From zero carbon politics and 2050 targets to training and of course Brexit - we’re not short of an opinion or five on the biggest issues of the day. Consider this the digestif after the full fiver course tasting menu we’ve been serving you up all week in audio form.
As we near the final mile of the London International Shipping Week marathon, we join two of the race leaders to reflect on the major themes of the week’s debate, including: political backing for shipping, financing the fourth industrial revolution and the benefit of robust debate, along with a little hirsute finance leadership. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade from the LISW conference today are Harry Theochari, global head of transport at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and chair of Maritime UK, and Michael Parker, chairman of Citi’s shipping and logistics business.
How do we fund zero carbon shipping and accelerate it beyond the current IMO targets? Double freight rates and use the IMO seems to be message from today’s panel. Joining us on today’s edition from around London International Shipping Week we have a stellar panel of experts: businessman, academic and former chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, Lord Adair Turner, Director of the Environmental Defence fund (and former podcast guest) Baroness Bryony Worthington and Grimaldi Group managing director Emanuele Grimaldi.
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Keep up to date with all the latest news and analysis from London International Shipping Week with the help of this special daily Lloyd’s List Podcast
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When the businessman, academic and former chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, Lord Adair Turner told the International Chamber of Shipping Conference on Wednesday that shipping should expect a doubling of freight rates to fund zero carbon emissions and accelerate progress well beyond current IMO targets, there were a few audible gasps from the audience.
Coming at the directly after a harrowing lecture on climate science brimming with figures to chill the blood of even hardened climate change sceptics it was a rough morning for the assembled ranks of London International Shipping Week.
Not wishing the rest of the Lloyd’s List family to miss out on the experience we pulled together a senior panel of experts for this edition of the podcast to break the news gently to you. Joining Lord Turner in discussing just how shipping funds this difficult transition you can hear the Director of the Environmental Defence fund (and former podcast guest) Baroness Bryony Worthington and Grimaldi Group managing director Emanuele Grimaldi chiming in on the need for quick collective action and innovation.
Keep up to speed on all the latest news and views from London International Shipping Week here.
You can listen to all our podcasts for free on Lloydslist.com, or better still, subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And while you’re there make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing email.
ABS chief Chris Wiernicki is in the studio with Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade for today’s podcast and they are talking about the path from here to 2050 and why software safety must be integrated into the industry’s planning now. It’s not going to be the structure or equipment that will cause the next major accident – it’s the software that we don’t see that is shipping’s greatest risk factor.
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Keep up to date with all the latest news and analysis from London International Shipping Week with the help of this special daily Lloyd’s List Podcast
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“Safety in shipping today is focussed on what we see - the structure and the equipment, but safety tomorrow is going to be focussed on all the things we don’t see – the software, the data, the analytics that drive the decisions we’re making,” says ABS chairman and president Chris Wiernicki on today’s podcast. Getting the industry from here to 2030 is perfectly achievable, he argued. But in the revolutionary march towards the digitalised, decarbonised industry of 2050 there are many unknown challenges to come and safety needs to be foremost in our minds as we make the daily decisions that will lead us there. In a wide-ranging conversation about the future challenges facing shipping, Mr Wiernicki talks, digitisation, decabonisation and focusses on the safety issues that must unpin innovation. He argues that the International Safety Management Code is set to become the compliance framework upon which many future regulations are based. In order to deal with the complexity and pace of technological development, it is, he argues, the best framework the industry has and is set to become much more significant than a mere compliance framework. “Software is the next generation safety system that we need to focus on - it’s the software that we don’t see that is shipping’s greatest risk factor,” he said.
In the first of a daily series of London International Shipping Week Podcasts, Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade dissects the current sanctions risk facing shipping with the help of Lloyd’s list’s tanker tracker in chief Michelle Wiese Bockmann and input from the panel of experts pulled together to talk at Lloyd’s List’s Transparency in Shipping Forum
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Shipping is still an opaque business, but the forensic attention of state actors seeking to sanction the activities of Iran, Syria and North Korea to name but a few of the current crop of targets, means that is changing, whether we like it or not. The premise of the Lloyd’s List Transparency forum was that shipping’s corporate veil is being pierced by ever more stringent financial and regulatory compliance requirements. Today’s podcast – the first of a daily series of specials from London International Shipping Week – examines the implications for shipping when it comes to sanctions, featuring the expert analysis of our speakers, particularly from the insurance perspective. According to Neil Roberts, head of marine underwriting at Lloyd’s Market Association, marine insurers are doing everything they can to adhere to sanctions and follow the law, however ambiguity around which entities are engaged in sanctions is a serious problem. Whilst it is an issue that is being foisted on industry, no amount of compliance expense is going to stop criminal behaviour, he argues, pointing out that insurance has no constabulary powers. More data is all very well but only a fraction of the data tide is useful or used. The US regulators are deliberately vague and this sets up a tension with insurers who are based on law which is binary. It is unrealistic to expect a supporting industry to solve an issue that a state wants to solve but lacks one or more of the means, will, or confidence to do militarily. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor to dissect the day’s debate and offer her own forthright views on the matter before she jets off to Toronto next week to address the annual IUMI conference is Michelle Wiese Bockmann. You can listen to all our podcasts for free on Lloydslist.com, or better still, subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And while you’re there make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Paddy Rodgers, the former Euronav CEO and current director of Royal Museums Greenwich looks ahead to the London International Shipping Week agenda with Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade, considering everything from the domestic focus on Brexit to the global challenges that face the whole industry.
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London International Shipping Week is upon us, and while that inevitably means a heavy UK agenda with Brexit topping the domestic programme there is a sufficiently international focus to the week’s events to warrant attention from the entire industry. On Thursday, former Euronav chief Paddy Rodgers will lead the debate at the centre piece of the LISW agenda, so he is perfectly positioned to join the podcast this week and deliver an exclusive insider’s guide to week. And get ready for a series of London International Shipping Week special editions. The Lloyd’s List team will be out and about armed with microphones next week and we will be producing a daily edition of the Lloyds List podcast from the sidelines of the events, starting on Monday with our own Transparency in Shipping Forum (register via Lloydslist.com).
You can listen to all our podcasts for free on Lloydslist.com, or better still, subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And while you’re there make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Lloydslist.com/LISW
As London International Shipping Week approaches, along with the increasing likelihood of a no-deal Brexit, we are joined by UK Major Ports Group Chief Executive Tim Morris on this week’s Podcast to discuss what lies beyond Brexit for the UK port sector and how to build a ‘strong port’, indeed a strong maritime sector, sufficiently resilient to withstand the mega trends from here to 2050.
While we have you thinking about London Shipping Week, don’t forget to sign up to Lloyd’s List’s Transparency in Shipping Forum being held on September 9 at 8am. Attendance is free but places are limited so register in advance via the Lloydslist.com homepage.
The Lloyd's List Podcast: Iranian sanctions prove complicated for shipping...again by Lloyd's List
CMB’s chief executive Alexander Saverys believes that hydrogen offers shipping’s best bet to reach a zero carbon future and he is investing heavily to that end. But even he concedes that things are moving too slowly, and greater collaboration and partnerships will be required before the technological challenges can be overcome. He joins Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade on this week’s podcast to discuss the industry’s green investment conundrum and why a collective effort is going to be required to hit the industry’s 2050 emissions goals.
We are talking pensions on this week’s podcast with Roy Murphy who is chair of two maritime industry pension schemes, the MNOPF and the Ensign Retirement Plan. We’re also giving you an early heads up on our ‘Transparency in Shipping’ forum coming up at London International Shipping Week (Sign up: Lloydslist.com/Londonforum).
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail
On this week’s podcast we’re taking another look at the latest developments for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and examining Lloyd’s list’s latest analysis of the Top 100 box ports. British tankers may no longer subject to price discrimination on war risk insurance for trips to the Gulf, provided they are under naval escort when transiting the Strait of Hormuz, but that suggests a level of stability in the region that doesn’t yet exist. Despite the increasingly undiplomatic diplomacy shipping still looks to be caught in the middle of a macro turf war with few good options left open
Dry bulk spot markets are verging upon the strongest levels witnessed in a deacde, while capesize bulker earnings have soared to the highest level in 14 years. But how long can this last? Joining the Lloyd’s List podcast this week to discuss the outlook for dry bulk markets is John Michael Radziwill, the chairman and chief executive at C Transport Maritime. He thinks this is a market that could last for the next 18-24 months. “You’ve been waiting for this and this is your time,” he tells fellow dry bulk owners. “Grab every cent out of every cargo, and whatever you do - don’t order any newbuilds”.
UK Shipping is very much in the spotlight this week, dealing with direct threats from Iran’s leadership amid rising tension in the Strait of Hormuz. Nearer to home, Brexit is never far from anyone’s minds, but you wouldn’t know it from this week’s UK maritime cheer-leading sessions which have focused resolutely on 2050, ignoring the imminent sea change in the British government and accompanying concerns over stability for the shipping sector. Joining us to deliberate the immediate threats and the longer-term opportunities for the UK maritime sector this week is a return guest to the podcast - Bob Sanguinetti, chief executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping
Guy Platten, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping joins the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week to talk us through the industry’s ever-growing agenda. The immediate issues of 2020, shipping security and training are just the tip of the iceberg – the big macro headwinds of digitisation, decarbonisation, regulatory and financially enforced transparency all require urgent attention from those seeking to represent shipping on the global stage.
We are talking sanctions busting, transparency and data integrity on this week’s podcast. In the wake of the latest tanker being caught carrying sanctioned cargo, we examine how deceptive patterns of behaviour are being tracked, why shipping’s grey areas are increasingly under scrutiny and what questions we should all be asking when it comes to data transparency and trustworthiness.
Michael Webber, Wells Fargo’s superstar shipping and LNG research analyst, makes a welcome return to the podcast this week to offer his outlook on the second half of the year and talk LNG, industry leadership and why he’s not overly concerned about the recent exodus of equity analysts from Wall St banks.
LNG was burning bright long before the US-China trade war re-shuffled the opportunity-risk balance for several stakeholders, but there are now supply concerns to contend with as well. Incremental LNG demand during the next five years will have been met by new capacities already under construction but there’s much more in the pipeline waiting for more a favourable political climate. So, is supply developing too fast and far ahead of demand? Joining Lloyd’s list Editor Richard Meade on this week’s edition of the podcast to discuss the latest LNG trends is our resident LNG expert and Singapore senior reporter, Hwee Hwee Tan. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Shipping’s major bank lenders have launched a unique collective climate programme called the Poseidon Principles, promising to transparently measure the climate impact of their portfolios and integrate climate considerations into lending decisions. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss the implication of this major new initiative is one of the founding architects of the principles, Citi’s global head of shipping and logistics Michael Parker.
The Iranian threat is real and we are about as close to armed conflict as we can get, explains Bimco’s head of security Jakob Larsen on this week’s podcast. Regardless of who carried out the latest attacks in the Middle East, tanker owners now face a serious threat to the safety of crew operating in the region and further disruption could yet scupper markets and ultimately spark a full blown conflict with shipping stuck in the middle.
After a week of being bombarded with disruption, decarbonisation, digitalisation and the occasional drinks reception, what have our team of editorial explorers taken away from Oslo this year as their highlights? Richard Clayton, Linton Nightingale and Anastassios Adamopoulos digest the week’s events on the side-lines of Nor-Shipping 2019
The Nor-Shipping conference has inevitably been dominated by discussion of decarbonisation, but amid the tech-led innovation proposals and puff a growing consensus of industry leaders are finally talking about cross-sectorial collaboration being the key to clean shipping. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor this week to discuss what it will take to create a tipping point in shipping is Katherine Palmer, the global head of sustainability for Lloyd’s Register’s Marine and Offshore business.
“WE’RE looking for solutions,” explains Baroness Bryony Worthington, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund in this week’s podcast. “We’re not here to beat the industry up or point fingers, we’re looking for what’s possible”. The EDF believes that International shipping can meet its target of at least halving its emissions by 2050, and can unleash trillions of dollars of investment opportunities in sustainable industrial infrastructure – particularly in developing countries – by using clean fuel such as “green” ammonia, as long as the fuel is produced using untapped renewable potential without increasing fossil fuel use. The EDF’s new report, Sailing on Solar, identifies green ammonia, a fossil fuel substitute that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions when used by ships, as one of the most promising of several potential shipping fuels that produce zero emissions. But speaking on the podcast Baroness Worthington examines the wider issues around shipping’s decarbonisation project and sets out a number of pragmatic policy directions that could help accelerate the required innovation to meet the generational targets.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
The Lloyd’s List team are back in London this week reflecting on another busy week of market-shaping stories. Expect insights into why Robert Yildirim was so angry about losing his bid to buy Long Beach Container Terminal, what’s keeping the container industry power brokers awake at night and why the IMO is struggling to keep up with the regulatory agenda.
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Janet Porter, our former chief correspondent and current chair of the Lloyd’s list Editorial board reflects on here recent conversations with the ambitious Turkish ports tycoon Robert Yildirim. A plain speaker who is not afraid to vent his anger in public, Mr Yildirim has made it clear to Janet that he is very upset about the way the Long Beach Container Terminal sale was handled, and how unfairly he thinks he was treated. James Baker, our containers editor, returned from Hamburg’s Global Liner Shipping event with a laptop filled with insightful reflections on the box sector, but it is still digitalisation and decarbonisation that are dominating the thoughts of the industry’s elite. Anastassios Adamopoulos, our regulatory reporter, left the International maritime Organization last week with the overwhelming feeling that the 2050 decarbonisation targets might need a little more space in a very crowded agenda if real progress is going to be made within the very tight timeliness set out for the UN body.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
THIS week’s Lloyd’s List Podcast from the Global Liner Shipping Conference in Hamburg, Germany, with our resident container shipping specialist Linton Nightingale chewing the fat with industry guru’s Lars Jensen and Allan Murphy from SeaIntelligence Consulting. The trio talk on the main points of discussions stemming from the annual conference, where, naturally, the impending sulphur cap and its repercussions dominated proceedings. Liner service reliability, or indeed lack of it, also draws focus in this week’s podcast edition. This is in addition to initial thoughts on the launch of the Digital Container Shipping Association, aiming to get to grips with the host of new technologies available to the industry to speed and ease the flow of trade through standardisation. Mr Jensen and Mr Murphy have some strong opinions on how this collaboration will pan out. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
On the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week, Editor Richard Meade has gathered of crack squadron of our finest editorial troops to bring you the inside track on the stories shaping shipping.
Starting with a quick view of next week’s International Maritime Organization Marine Environmental Protection Committee, the team take a quick tour of scrubber economics and the Clean Shipping Alliance agenda, through to tanker market prospects and finally offer a few thoughts in advance of the rapidly approaching Nor-Shipping event out in Oslo.
If you haven’t already signed up for the Lloyd’s List Nor-Shipping Innovation Forum, we suggest you do so immediately via the Lloyd's list homepage.
Speaking on the podcast this week: • Our legislation lieutenant - Anastasios Adamopoulos • Our Markets Master, Michelle Bockmann • And our seasoned Sea Lord, Richard Clayton
GOVERNMENTS and lobbyists alike are gearing up for another fortnight of decarbonisation negotiations at the IMO starting next week. But with industry eyes still set squarely on the looming 2020 sulphur reduction targets there is a growing feeling that the ambition to at least halve carbon emissions from shipping by 2050 may be stuck somewhere at the bottom of the industry’s to do list. For this week’s podcast we caught up with Peter Thomson – he is the Fijian diplomat who United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed as his Special Envoy for the Ocean with a mandate to galvanise marine efforts around the UN’s sustainable development goals. His view is broadly speaking optimistic, but his agenda is clear. “I would like to see every element of shipping in the world chipping in on this and that’s easily enough done by some kind of tariff on every company that is involved in shipping. And why shouldn't’ they all be part of the solution. They are all part of the problem,” he told the Podcast this week. Make no mistake – this is a man with the ear of the global political elite, so when he says he wants to see 100% emissions reduction from shipping and wants the industry to pay its fair share via tariffs, then it’s time for shipping to pay attention to the wider debate around blue ocean economics.
The shipping industry has been a set a generational challenge – cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. But how? Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this week’s podcast is the esteemed maritime economist Martin Stopford who has a few ideas on how to decarbonise seaborne trade in under 30 years. Spoiler alert – it’s not going to be easy.
Lloyd's List discusses some of the more long-term trends and uncertainties facing the industry. The US is standing firm on its sanctions against Venezuela, but is there a clear process for penalising businesses? Governments are under the microscope again for their casualty investigation reports, or lack thereof, just as companies may be finding it harder to retain younger talent with potential.
In the final edition of our daily podcast from the Lion City, Editor Richard Meade catches up with our Singapore based Senior Reporter, Hwee Hwee Tan to reflect on the week’s events and talk about why there is a clear digital divide starting to show across the industry. Singapore may have put on s stellar showcase of future facing ambition, but the reality of maritime operations is that not all players are equal when it comes to the digitalisation project.
In the second of our daily updates live from Singapore Maritime Week, our Asia team reflect on another busy day of digital deliberations, report back on the Lloyd’s List Smart Ports Forum and offer their thoughts on what needs to happen next. The technology discussion may finally be morphing into a pragmatic conversation about the realities of the industry as it is, rather than what the tech providers would like it to be xxxx THE Lloyd’s List team are out in force in Singapore this week covering the Maritime Week events, hosting a Lloyd’s List Forum and generally unearthing the stories shaping the industry right now. Each evening they will be gathering their thoughts on the events of the past 24 hours and offering a quick view of the big themes of the day. In today’s edition, Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade is joined by China editor Cichen Shen and Asia news editor Vincent Wee to discuss yet more digitalisation initiatives. In between the marketing puff the team think they might have found the first signs of something a little more substantive. Picking up on the discussions from the Lloyd’s list Smart Ports forum the team also discuss why technology should be looked at as something that unlocks potential, turning a caterpillar into a butterfly, rather than just creating a faster caterpillar
Join Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade and our China Editor Cichen Shen for the first in a special series of evening reflections from the sidelines of Singapore Maritime Week. Today our dynamic duo are discussing why digitalisation doesn’t seem to have moved on since last SMW and why scrubbers are still the hot topic. If you’re not already signed up to attend our Smart Ports Forum, you might just about be able to secure a place by registering here: bit.ly/SGLL2019. We kick off at 2:30 pm in the Marina Bay Sands, Orchard Junior Ballroom on Wednesday 10 and it would be lovely to meet a few podcast listeners while we are there, so do come along.
We’re talking Smart Ports on the podcast this week in advance of the Lloyd’s list Singapore Maritime Week Forum where we will be examining why ports are the critical interface in the overall digitalisation of shipping. Joining editor Richard Meade, Capt. Rajesh Unni, Founder & Group CEO of Synergy Marine Group and Lloyd’s List’s own king of containers James Baker explore why data alone will not get us anywhere near smart ports or indeed smart shipping – data needs context, it needs to be standardised and most of all it needs smart people to use it. If you’re not already signed up to attend the Lloyd's List Forum, you might just about be able to secure a place by registering here: http://bit.ly/SGLL2019 We kick off at 2:30 pm in the Marina Bay Sands, Orchard Junior Ballroom on April 10 and it would be lovely to meet a few podcast listeners while we are there, so do come along.
We are now nine months away from the 2020 low sulphur fuel regulations coming into effect and there are still a few stakeholders feeling a little nervous.
We’re not quite a Brexit levels of last-minute panic just yet but it’s fair to say that there are still some pretty significant questions being raised about availability, quality and of course pricing.
The fuel suppliers have smelled the fear and most are currently touring their core customer bases to assuage any lingering concerns.
We caught up with Total Marine Fuels managing director Jerome Leprince-Ringuet and Total Lubrifants manager Robert Joore for this week’s podcast as they embarked on the second leg of Total’s world tour touting their 2020 fuel offerings and talked through industry concerns, why fuel management still needs work and why no shipowner can now ignore the LNG-fuel option when considering a newbuilding.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
The shipping industry needs to take a more holistic view when looking to improve safety, environmental performance and operational efficiency, says DNVGL’s maritime chief executive Knut Orbeck-Nilssen, because right now the environmental agenda has overtaken safety concerns and that is worrying. Joining Lloyd’s List this week, Mr Orbeck-Nilssen and DNVGL’s environment director, Eirik Nyhus, discuss how better informed decisions are needed and why greater consideration should be given to scientific and technical evidence when it comes to global and national regulation.
Brian Johnson, the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s new chief executive has taken over one of the toughest regulatory jobs in shipping just as the UK is teetering on the edge of Brexit, the UK flag is wilting under the political pressure and the fearsome pace of regulatory and technological change is disrupting established norms. Speaking to Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on his inaugural podcast appearance, Mr Johnson sets out his stall and discusses the challenges that lie ahead.
This week Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade is joined by the other Richard, Lloyd’s List’s Chief Correspondent, Richard Clayton to discuss the stories they think are shaping the shipping markets this week. On the table for discussion: container consolidation, fuel costs, yet more digitalisation and the urgent need to focus on the human element.
This podcast is part of a special mini-series gathering the collected views of the international Lloyd’s List editorial team on what stories are going to be shaping the shipping markets in the coming months. Today’s edition features the US team talking about US LNG opportunities and the problem of port congestion.
In this edition it was the turn of our US team to lead the agenda.
Mark Fuechec, our man on the east coast, has been busy looking into US LNG export capacity, which is set to double over the course of this year as new terminals come online. Growing global gas demand gives long-haulers reason to rejoice, and meeting that demand will require continued investment in LNG infrastructure, he argues.
Eric Watkins, our man on the West Coast, meanwhile is more concerned with port development and trade lane prospects, He’s out at the JOC’s TPM event this week with our containers Editor James Baker.
And finally, after 15 years at Lloyd’s List, our Europe Editor-in-Chief Helen Kelly signed off for the final time last week. We took the opportunity to get one last appearance on the podcast and you can hear her reflections on the changes that have happened and what’s yet to come.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This podcast is part of a special mini-series gathering the collected views of the international Lloyd’s List editorial team on what stories are going to be shaping the shipping markets in the coming months. Today’s edition features the Asia team talking about bunkering, LNG, trade tariffs and digitalisation.
In this edition it was the turn of our Asia team to lead the agenda.
Hwee Hwee Tan, our senior reporter based in Singapore is fully focussed on bunkering right now. Given the looming regulatory shift, Singapore is abuzz with sulphur stories right now, but in between 2020 coverage Hwee Hwee is looking much more seriously at the prospects for increased LNG bunkering in Asia.
Cichen Shen, our China Editor, is based in Hong Kong but is in and out of the mainland more regularly than a Shanghai feeder operation. The US-China trade war is inevitably keeping him fully focussed on trade stories right now and his basic conclusion is that shipping should expect political complexities to be the new normal – a warning that implies planning for shipping operations is going to become a lot more difficult than anyone anticipated. On a more optimistic note he also sees opportunities emerging on the trade finance side where some ports have been taking advantage of data insights to find new value to offer the market.
Vincent Wee, our Hong Kong-based News Editor argues that it is digitalisation driving so many of the stories that we’re covering right now and that’s true across all sectors. Given that Asia is leading in much of the technology development and adoption, he’s well positioned to offer a view on where the opportunities and threats lie.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This week’s podcast is part of a special mini-series gathering the collected views of the international Lloyd’s List editorial team on what stories are going to be shaping the shipping markets in the coming months. Today’s edition features the European editorial team. Look out next week for the US and Asia editions.
Joining the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week is the International Energy Agency’s head of oil markets, Neil Atkinson. While 2020 still looks challenging, he thinks the situation is far more manageable for shipping and refineries than previous forecasts suggested. Looking ahead to the IP Week debates starting Monday, Neil talks to Lloyd’s list editor Richard Meade about the OPEC outlooks, oil price and why US exports could be the defining factor in future oil trade patterns.
On this week’s podcast we sit down with the International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Kitack Lim as he reflects on the considerable challenges that lie ahead for the industry and his position at the top of the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Most Influential People in Shipping ranking.
The International Union of Marine Insurance held its winter meeting in London earlier this week, and David Osler caught up with a trio of the trade association’s leading lights. Richard Turner, Helle Hammer and Lars Lange reveal what they think the year ahead holds in store, and look forward to the organisation’s conference in Toronto in September. xx Key players in the International Union of Marine Insurance set out their perspectives for 2019 in this week’s Lloyd’s List podcast, recorded after the organisation’s winter meetingin London earlier this week. According to IUMI president Richard Turner, the trade association’s priorities for the year ahead are membership services, education, lobbying and digitalisation. As a consequence of Brexit, Mr Turner has recently upped sticks from London to Luxembourg to head up RSA’s specialty business, and he also discusses his move to the Grand Duchy. Oslo-based Helle Hammer, who is managing director of the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers, known as Cefor, offers some thoughts on contaminated bunkers and the insurance implications of the impending International Maritime Organization sulphur cap. And finally, IUMI secretary general Lars Lange – who commutes into Hamburg – discusses his expanded role as IUMI’s delegate to the IMO, which will take him to London more often. Finally, all three look forward to this year’s IUMI conference, which takes place in Toronto in September. The common theme will be ‘confronting the chaos for a sustainable future. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
On this week's podcast our senior reporters consider what the deadly collapse of a dam around one of Vale's iron ore mines and sanctions against Venenzuela's oil business mean for the maritime industry.
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A tumultuous week in South America saw a fatal dam collapse in Brazil and a struggle for power with international involvement in Venezuela.
Iron more behemoth Vale found itself at the center of yet another physical disaster in Brazil, after the dam that held mud and water form its Feijao mine burst. According to international news reports, more than 100 people have died from the collapse and hundreds are missing.
Vale subsequently decided to stop iron ore production in other mines to dismantle 10 dams, translating into a drop of 40m tonnes of iron ore annually.
Meanwhile, in Venezuela, Juan Guaido’s decision to name himself interim president of the country in the face of contested legitimacy of current president Nicolas Maduro set off a chain of events.
After throwing their support behind Mr Guaido, the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-run oil producer Petróleos De Venezuela.
This week the Lloyd’s List Podcast looked at the impact of these events on the maritime sector and what we can expect they could bring for it in near future.
Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade this week in the hot seat is Inmarsat Maritime president, Ronald Spithout. ….. The shipping industry is experiencing a period of accelerated digital change For those at the vanguard of this brave new digital world these changes have the potential to add value and enhance efficiency across an increasingly integrated global supply chain. And yet most of the innovation we have seen over the past five years is about optimising current business models, rather than disrupting the status quo with new ones. That’s now changing and nowhere has that inflection point been more visible than in the satellite communications sector where the shift from simply selling data and communication access, to finding new efficiencies and potentially new business models is very much the order of the day. For this week’s podcast we visited the London HQ of Sat Comms giant Inmarsat and spoke to their maritime president, Ronald Spithout about the pace of change in digitalisation and why the conversations he is having with his clients has now fundamentally changed.
The enhanced efficiencies promised by the introduction of new technologies and a fully integrated supply chain will need to overcome the practical problems of a traditional industry that continues to operate in silos. For some, this is about technology, for others, digitalisation offers a new way of engaging with customers, but ultimately we are often talking about entirely new ways of doing business. Digitalisation is only partly about the hardware – the more significant part of this epoch shift is about how companies from management to crew find a new way of doing things. This week the Lloyd’s List Podcast dropped in on a round table session where industry leaders were considering the practical issues of how a connected industry, where partnerships are a crucial part of a business strategy, really works. Joining Lloyd’s List Editor at the Immediasea event held in London were:
Martin Stopford, President, Clarksons Research Services Magnus Lande, Commercial Director Maritime, Veracity at DNVGL Richard Westgarth, Head of Campaigns, BMT Silje Barekseten, Head of Sustainability and Technology, Nor-Shipping
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
The Gulf of Guinea has been a persistent problem when it comes to maritime security and there is good reason to be concerned that 2019 is only going to get worse. This week’s podcast examines the security situation for shipping talking to Bimco’s head of security Jakob Larsen and Senior Maritime Analyst at Control Risks, Cormac Mc Garry.
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This year promises to be an interesting one for the maritime industry, so before we get back into the regular weekly podcast we thought we would offer you a view from our correspondents on the stories they think will be shaping the year ahead in shipping. Many of the ideas discussed here are explored in more detail in our annual Lloyd’s List Outlook Report, which subscribers will have seen some of already. If, however, you don’t have a subscription but want to benefit from this essential view of the market you can buy a copy here:
https://transportationstore.informa.com/product/lloyds-list-outlook-2019
The Lloyd’s List Outlook is unique in its scope and the way it applies market-leading data and forecasting with editorial expertise in all the core markets, including insurance, regulation, law and finance. Covering each of the core shipping sectors with an in-depth view of the competing dynamics at play, the Outlook offers an insider’s view of market expectations from Lloyd’s List’s global team of analysts and editorial staff and combines it with Lloyd’s List Intelligence’s fleet supply forecast data and trends analysis. The result is an invaluable take on the key drivers and challenges across the maritime market and should be considered required reading for anyone looking for an authoritative view on near-term market trends that will define business opportunities and risk in 2019 and beyond.
This week’s podcast is a special edition and slightly longer than usual. It showcases the highlights from Lloyd’s List’s annual Top 100 People, which identifies and ranks the most influential people in the global maritime industry. Lloyd’s List Europe Editor-in-Chief Helen Kelly talks to fellow journalists and editors involved in the project about game-changing environmental regulation and how new technologies and new players will transform the maritime industry in years to come. Subscribers can now dive a little deeper into the forces shaping shipping with the series of market Outlooks and the full Lloyd’s List 2019 Outlook report is now available to buy via our e-commerce store. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This week’s podcast offers a short taster of our live 2019 Outlook Business Briefing that we held in London on December 11th. Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade is joined on stage by six of the sharpest shipping minds in the business to discuss the key challenges and opportunities that shipping will face over the next 18 months.
The maritime industry faces a year of uncertainty in 2019, underpinned by political, technological and regulatory disruption. But despite the risks, there are opportunities to be had, according to the experts we gathered to discuss the 2019 outlook for shipping at our Business Briefing earlier this week in London.
Joining Editor Richard Meade on stage were:
• Michael Parker, Global Industry Head for the Shipping, Logistics and Offshore Industries, Citigroup • Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, Chief Executive Officer, Tototheo Maritime President of WISTA International • Roger Strevens, VP, Global Sustainability, Wallenius Wilhelmsen • Capt. Rahul Khanna, Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting, Allianz • Mark Williams, Managing Director, Shipping Strategy • Jörgen Strandberg, General Manager Advanced Technology, Wärtsilä Voyage Solutions
The podcast chat is only a short snippet of the full debate which included discussions around what the best investment opportunity for shipping will be next year, what is the greatest challenge to efficiency and what’s the biggest risk to shipping over the next five years. We also got into whether shipping has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to safety; whether shipping will ever recover its cost of capital; and, aside from fuel efficiency technology, what will be the most significant driver of change over the next five years? It was a genuinely fascinating debate and Lloyd’s List subscribers are going to be able to listen to the full hour half recording or watch the video next week. Subscribers can also dive a little deeper with the series of market Outlooks and the full Lloyd’s List 2019 Outlook report is now available to buy via our e-commerce store. Consider it a perfect stocking filler that relatively who always cherishes an authoritative forecast on the key drivers shaping the shipping markets over the next 18 months.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade talks to International Salvage Union president Charo Coll and Global Head of Marine Risk Consulting Allianz Capt. Rahul Khanna as they consider the future of salvage, the future of risk and why Friday the 13th is more than just a superstition when it comes to maritime safety.
THOSE in the salvage sector are the unsung heroes of shipping. But could that be a problem?
“We haven’t shouted loudly enough about our contribution to environmental protection,” International Salvage Union president Charo Coll explained in her keynote address to the sector’s biggest annual get-together in London earlier this week.
Pressure in the shape of intense competition, a reduced number of jobs, and generally lower income, has become acute.
There is an increasing resort to alternative contracts not intended for emergency situations requiring immediate response, and the erosion of the long-established but increasingly endangered looking species — the Lloyd’s Open Form system, which is being threatened by the use of side agreements.
Meanwhile, increasingly large and expensive vessels have shifted the perceptions of the insurance sector when it comes to salvage.
All that spells the need for change, and while salvors are a generally conservative bunch, not prone to revolutionary thoughts, there is a growing realisation that the salvage sector must evolve, quickly.
Diversification and consolidation has already started, but there’s more to come.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
The UK’s Brexit deal may not be pretty, but it just about works for shipping in that the prospect of simply crashing out of the EU next March looks much worse. But is the maritime sector being listened to by a government that is apparently struggling to work out the significance of one of its own major ports? Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade sits down with UK Chamber of Shipping chief executive Bob Sanguinetti this week to discuss why he has urged MPs to think very carefully before attempting to halt the progress of the only deal on offer. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Artificial intelligence will help the shipping industry make better decisions, argues Signal Group's Ioannis Martinos, but the technology has not yet reach a tipping point where there is sufficient trust from the users. The Greek ship manager and shipping AI pioneer joins Lloyd’s List reporter Anastassios Adamopoulos in London to talk about how technology can help shipping manoeuvre through the 2020 sulphur cap and why he is not a threat to brokers.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Why Paddy Rodgers believes the solution to pollution is not dilution by Lloyd's List
The annual convention of the International Bunkering Industry Association is perhaps not traditionally the highest profile event in the industry’s calendar, but with the sulphur cap on everyone’s horizon this year’s shindig has attracted a bit more interest, so we sent our chief correspondent Richard Clayton and our man with 2020 vision Anastassios Adamopoulos to Copenhagen this week to find out what all the fuss was about.
Meanwhile, over in the US it’s the LNG sector that is keeping everyone excited right now. With freight rates heading to potentially unprecedented peaks, it will be no surprise if a rash of contracting gives the shipyards something to celebrate come Lunar New Year 2019. But on the demand-side the US is increasingly interesting when it comes to gas. Our US editorial team, Eric Watkins in Los Angeles and Mark Fuechec in Boston, join Lloyd’s List editor and podcast host, Richard Meade, to discuss the view of the market from a US perspective.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this week’s Lloyd’s List podcast is Olaf Merk who heads the OECD’s influential inter-governmental think tank – the International Transport Forum. He’s just dropped a bombshell into the European Commission’s review of competition rules for liner shipping arguing that current block exemption regulation should be allowed to expire in April 2020.
Wells Fargo lead analyst Michael Webber has for the fourth straight year been named shipping’s top equity analyst by Institutional Investor magazine. He joins Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade on this week’s podcast to talk LNG and why the market is looking positive for another few years at least; the IMO 2020 game changer and why corporate governance in shipping is improving, albeit slower than we would like.
On this week’s podcast we’re in London looking ahead to next week’s pivotal IMO meeting on 2020 sulphur enforcement and greenhouse gas strategy, then we’re off to Italy to talk to a Greek shipowner about why the well-publicised woes of German shipping have made it harder for companies from other nations to secure finance.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
Joining Lloyd’s list Editor Richard Meade on the podcast this week is former Affinity Research, now independent shipping consultant, Mark Williams. The two of them talk trade outlook, Chinese-fuelled optimism and why 2020 is much like ordering a decaf macchiato.
Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is in Singapore taking the temperature of Asia’s shipping market. On the agenda: why the reshoring and near-shoring effect of the trade war is bad news for container shipping; how the box sector BAF battle is shaping up and why the looming 2020 deadline is dominating pretty much every discussion we’re having in Asia right now.
Amid a flurry of conferences and industry round tables this week in Singapore, talk has inevitably focussed on the risk posed to the transpacific container trade and the potential threat to intra-Asia markets. The latest tranche of tariffs in the escalating Sino-US trade war will target $200bn of Chinese imports, hitting the container industry exactly where it hurts. But as worrying as that might be, it is the big bunker questions that are currently fuelling the sleepless nights for Asia’s shipping executives (well, that and the endless circuit of parties and receptions). All roads lead to 2020 and the looming question how to pay for the low sulphur switch. Joining Richard on the podcast this week live from Lloyd’s List towers in Singapore we have our China editor Cichen Shen, containers editor James Baker and a podcast debut for our new Asia news editor Vincent Wee. Don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is joined by Lars Robert Pedersen, deputy secretary-general of BIMCO as they examine problems with the looming sulphur regulations and discuss why the controversial move by industry associations and major flags to avert enforcement issues does not amount to a delay.
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is joined by our jet-setting journalist David Osler, who has been in Rotterdam talking no-deal Brexit implications before heading off to Cape Town for the annual marine insurance pow wow with IUMI.
Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade talks technology ambitions and reality with Anastassios Adamopoulos who joins the podcast live from the SMM 2018 event in Hamburg this week.
Lloyd’s List Europe editor-in-chief Helen Kelly unveils the Top 100 Container Ports with editor Linton Nightingale. They are joined by BIMCO chief analyst Peter Sand and Drewry senior analyst Neil Davidson
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is examining the growing crisis surrounding bunker fuel contamination. He is joined by Dragos Rauta, technical director of the tanker industry body Intertanko and the chief executive of the International Bunker Industry Association, Justin Murphy
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is joined by Lloyd’s List containers kingpins James Baker and Cichen Shen to discuss DP World's pricey move into shipowning via Unifeeder, OOCL’s big box ambitions and the proliferation of profit warnings. Meanwhile the legal eagles from Watson Farley & Williams guide us through the regulatory minefield created by US sanctions against Iran and Europe’s fiendishly complicated ‘blacking statute’.
This week David Osler stands in for Richard Meade and talks to CEO and co-founder Michel Löwy of SC Lowy about Italian shipping debt transaction and speaks with Menelaus Kouzoupis of Stephenson Harwood on cyber security, ransoms and making a ship one kilometre in diameter
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is pulling in international help to decipher what the apparent ceasefire between the US and EU over trade tariffs means for soyabeans and LNG, and talking cyber security in the wake of a ransomware attack on Chinese box giant Cosco.
Trade trouble and regulatory reform
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is crossing continents bringing you the view from China via a conversation in Hong Kong with China Editor Cichen Shen and then he’s back to London for a chat with outgoing International Chamber of Shipping secretarygeneral Peter Hinchliffe.
Listen to the latest edition of Lloyd’s List’s weekly podcast — your weekly briefing on the stories shaping shipping in the week ahead.
Earlier this week Europe Editor-in-Chief Helen Kelly spoke with Dr Karen Purnell, managing director of ITOPF - A not for profit scientific organisation based in London.
ITOPF has been providing technical advice on the clean-up of oil spills at sea for 50 years.
It has worked with industry to bring major tanker accidents down from one every two weeks in the 1970s to one or two per year today. Dr Purnell talked about how ITOPF is evolving to include other types of pollution at sea, and why flag states should file accident investigation reports much more quickly.
This week Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade is joined by Bimco’s chief analyst Peter Sand and Lloyd’s List markets editor to discuss the outlook for markets and the shipping implications of a trade war.
This week the UK Chamber of Shipping and Mission to Seafarers talk to us about seafarer mental health and wellbeing, as part of Seafarers Awareness Week and 2018 Day of the Seafarer
On this week's podcast we are joined by Sue Terpilowski OBE, at the Braemar Shipbroking offices in central London, host to the Women in Maritime Taskforce group set up with Maritime UK and the Department for Transport. As chair of the group Sue tells us why we still haven't got the gender balance right in UK maritime and what can be done about it
On this week's podcast: a diplomatic row erupted earlier this week over Italy and Malta's refusal to take a rescue vessel carrying 629 people. As the vessel heads towards Spain we talk to International Chamber of Shipping secretary-general Peter Hinchliffe about the moral obligations of EU member states to help people in distress and the potential fallout for merchant shipping in the Mediterranean
On today’s podcast we are joined by some of the industry’s leading analysts from BIMCO, NS Lemos and DVB Bank
On today’s podcast we are joined by another special guest — Stephen Gordon, managing director of Clarksons Research Services
On today’s podcast we are joined by a special guest - Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, chief executive of DNVGL’s maritime division and outgoing chair of IACS.
On today’s podcast: The Lloyd’s List Business Briefing and why Silicon Valley has decamped to Pireaus.
In the first of a special series of Lloyd’s List podcasts live from Athens, the editorial team reflect on day one of Posidonia and discuss key takeaways from the Lloyd’s List Business Briefing.
THE Lloyd’s List editorial team have packed their sunglasses, notepads and aspirin and are preparing for a busy week out in Athens. Before the newshounds headed off we managed to pin some of them down long enough to gather their thoughts on what to expect and offer a little insight into the stories they are chasing this week.
The podcast is a little shorter this week but we will be bringing you regular audio updates live from Athens throughout the week, so watch this space.
The elite unit of editorial commandos this year include:
Richard Meade - @Lloydslisted Helen Kelly - @HelenKelly_LL Richard Clayton - @rjbclayton Anastassios Adamopoulos - @Anastassios_LL Lambros Papaeconomou - @lpapaeconomou Nige Lowry - nigel@lowry.gr
Feel free to flag them down if you see them around Athens, or alternatively send all feedback and story suggestions to editorial@lloydslist.com
A COMBINATION of rapidly evolving technologies are converging on shipping, challenging the traditional operating models of shipping, and with it, the role of class. It is no longer sufficient for a classification society to simply ensure that the technology works together the way that it is supposed to – they are simultaneously leading a rapid pace of innovation while balancing the complex questions of how to ensure safety, efficiency and regulatory compliance for an industry in flux. In advance of his star turn next week at the Lloyd’s List Business Briefing in Posidonia, Lloyds Register’s head of Marine and Offshore Nick Brown joins us to discuss the shifting requirements of an industry dealing with disruption on several fronts. Spoiler alert - for all the talk of accelerated digital change, Nick believes this is not an overnight transition and concurs with Lloyd’s List’s view that efficiency in shipping cannot be reduced to a single silver bullet of technology.
Also on this week’s podcast: · Welcome to the GDPRty: Companies worldwide have been scrambling to prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation, enforced by the EU, and shipping, like everyone else, now faces much tougher rules on data privacy. Among the new rules, companies must reveal data breaches to regulators within 72 hours, tell users how their information is being used, and provide stored personal data to users on request. Joining us to discuss the implications for shipping companies this week is Philippe Ruttley, head of EU and competition law at the international law firm Ince and Co. · We are also joined once again by Lloyd’s List’s very own law and insurance expert, David Osler who explains why the discovery of three bags of cocaine strapped to the hull of a ship in 2007 has finally resulted in an important ruling from the Supreme court that has implications for the rest of the industry.
For those of you asking when we will be available on iTunes, the wait is nearly over – details to follow in next week’s edition. In the meantime, all feedback and story suggestions are welcome and should be directed to editorial@lloydslist.com
WHEN Maersk chief executive Søren Skou declared his company’s latest results “unsatisfactory” this week, he no doubt garnered a sympathetic sigh of solidarity from his peers.
The container lines may have a strategic eye on their digital future where their value as part of an integrated, efficient global supply chain is recognised both in terms of rates and utilisation, but they are certainly not there yet.
The immediate concerns of high oil prices, rising geopolitical risks and ratcheting trade tensions are all testing the lines.
And judging by the flurry of quarterly figures we have seen this week, Mr Skou is unlikely to be the only executive worried about the more immediate future right now.
Also on this week’s edition:
The received wisdom from the tech crowd is that blockchain offers a panacea to all ills. The proliferation of high-profile trials from Maersk and IBM to Cargill and HSBC has seen some blue-chip names put their bitcoin where their mouth is and sketch out an approach to technology that will accelerate more efficient trade flows while increasing security and eradicating all manner of corruption along the way. So why was Hapag-Lloyd’s chief exec Rolf Habben Jansen telling his peers this week that blockchain is “a money burning disaster”?
When the tanker Sanchi collided with the bulk carrier CF Crystal in January, 32 crew lost their lives in the explosion and fire that followed. China has this week published the accident investigation report and while there are still remaining disagreements over the cause of the casualty, the fact that the publication exists and has been produced in record time is itself an important development. According to an investigation under way by Lloyd’s List nearly half of all casualty reports that should have been made public in the past four years are yet to materialise. So why are governments failing to file accident investigation reports?
This podcast is now a weekly production from Lloyd’s List and we are keen to hear your thoughts on where you think we should be focusing our attention.
All feedback and story suggestions are welcome and should be directed to editorial@lloydslist.com
On this week’s podcast HFW legal eagle Anthony Woolich joins Lloyd’s List editor Richard Meade to discuss how shipping should mitigate risk from Iranian sanctions. We also look at what’s happened to shipping’s toxic debt and get the inside track on the agenda for Hamburg’s box bonanza this week – the global liner shipping conference
Listen to the first edition of Lloyd’s List’s new weekly podcast — your weekly briefing on the stories shaping shipping in the week ahead.
Richard Meade presents: Next steps in cutting carbon | Plugging shipping’s gender pay gap | Container line’s digital ambitions vs shipper’s reality