World Maritime News
WMNF 12/07/2023
Ports of Los Angeles and Nagoya agree on green shipping corridor
Los Angeles and Nagoya ports have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to broaden their collaboration on sustainability and operational efficiency initiatives, including a new green shipping corridor. In addition to the green shipping corridor, the ports will collaborate on initiatives such as digital supply chain information sharing and zero-emissions vehicle and equipment testing. According to the statement, they will continue to work on environmental initiatives focused on terminal operations, ships in port, and drayage trucks.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Singapore port body joins cross-industry decarbonization alliance
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has joined the cross-industry Silk Alliance initiative to expand green shipping corridors and enable zero-emission shipping through Asia and across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Singapore’s status as a bunkering and transshipment hub will focus on accelerating regional decarbonization efforts driven by the Silk Alliance, launched in May 2022 by Lloyd’s Register Group and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Read more: JOC
European hub ports invest in terminal automation, digitization
Europe’s two largest container shipping gateways invest in capacity and technology to prepare the ports for increasing volumes in a more digitalized and automated future. The Dutch port of Rotterdam announced that one of its main terminals would be expanding its fully automated capacity and hinterland connectivity, while the nearby Belgian hub of Antwerp-Bruges has launched an extensive digital radar and camera network to manage its huge volume of shipping traffic. Antwerp-Bruges handled 13.5 million TEUs last year; with its terminals maxed out, the port will add 7.2 million TEUs in capacity by the decade’s end. Rotterdam’s volume was 14.45 million TEUs in 2022, and the port has estimated that an additional 8 million TEUs of capacity will be required by 2035.
Read more: JOC
Japan’s largest port Nagoya gradually resumes operation after hacker attack
A ransomware attack on 4 July, purportedly from Russian hacker group LockBit, left the port unable to load or unload containers. A two-day operational halt due to the attack has caused significant congestion in and around the container terminals and the port. Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest carmaker, which uses the port as a hub for imports and exports, planned to suspend operations at a packaging line for export-bound components on 7 July and will resume operations based on the port’s operational status, media reports said.
Read more: Lloyd’s List | JOC
Maersk adds six ships to expanding methanol order book
Maersk has stretched its methanol-capable order book to 25 vessels, saying on 26 June, it placed a new order for six dual-fuel 9,000-TEU ships that will join its fleet in 2026 and 2027. The smaller vessels will replace ships in a similar-size segment and are expected to reduce Maersk’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 450,000 tons of CO2 per year on a fuel lifecycle basis when operating on green methanol, the carrier said in a statement. Last year, Maersk ordered 19 dual-fuel methanol-capable megaships of 17,000-TEU capacity to be delivered in 2024 and afterward. However, the carrier opted for the smaller vessels that would be more flexible in deployment across trade lanes.
Read more: JOC
IMO’s revised GHG strategy sparks mixed reactions
The revision of the International Maritime Organization’s greenhouse gas strategy triggered an immediate deluge of statements broadly divided by industry officials welcoming a “historic compromise” and environmental lobby groups lamenting the “lack of ambition.” While the agreement was hailed as a significant achievement by most of the delegates inside the IMO, green groups complained the revised targets were both non-committal in the language and failed to align with the 1.5°C detail set out by the Paris Agreement. According to carrier groups, the revised greenhouse gas emissions strategy gives the shipping industry a clear timeline for a global fuel standard and a market-based measure to be rolled out in 2027.
Read more: Lloyd’s List1 | JOC1 | JOC2 | JOC3 | Lloyd’s List2
ETS will require monitoring to prevent cargo diversion
Terminal operators in Europe remain concerned about the risk of cargo diversion when the emissions trading system enters force. The Federation of European Private Port Operators (Feport) fears that the geographical scope of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System and FuelEU could harm the competitive position of the bloc’s terminals. But members have welcomed the political agreement on ETS requires the European Commission to monitor cargo diversion-related effects and propose measures if any impact is found.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Ocean carriers in Europe facing a multi-billion-dollar emissions price tag
According to calculations by Hecla Emissions Management, the maritime industry’s cost of compliance with Europe’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) will top $3.2 billion in 2024 and rise to $9.1 billion in 2026. Using information from European Union’s Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification dataset covering shipping’s CO2 emissions in 2022, Hecla found total ETS-applicable emissions for the maritime industry amounted to 83.4 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022, virtually flat compared with 2021. At the current market value of €90 per EU emission allowance (EUA), shipping emissions totaled €7.5 billion for the year. But taking into account the ETS phase-in period covering 40% of emissions in 2024, 70% in 2025, and 100% in 2026, and utilizing the forward curve in EUAs, Hecla’s estimates indicate the shipping industry could be liable for €3.1 billion in 2024, €5.7 billion in 2025 and €8.4 billion in 2026.
Read more: JOC
USDOT awards $40M to boost port emissions reduction, surface projects
The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded nearly $40 million in federal dollars to US ports to fund emissions projects, rail enhancements, and trucking facilities to improve cargo flow and reduce environmental impacts. The 2023 fiscal year funding came from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program, which has invested more than $2.2 billion this fiscal year to improve infrastructure throughout the nation’s supply chain, USDOT said in a statement on 30 June.
Read more: JOC
Ocean carriers guarding their digital gates as visibility requests increase
Ocean carriers are aggressively preventing software vendors and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) from scraping container milestone data from their websites as demand for visibility grows. Many visibility and shipment management software vendors told the Journal of Commerce that carriers are seeking to make it harder for those vendors to web scrape for status information, forcing vendors to create direct feeds with carriers or use carriers’ application programming interfaces (APIs).
Read more: JOC
Congressman adds ban of China shipping data platform to Defense budget
A US congressman behind draft legislation seeking to curtail China’s involvement in US maritime activities heavily is adding an amendment to the US defense budget to ban US ports’ use of a Chinese shipping data platform. Rep. Dusty Johnson, a Republican from South Dakota, sponsors a pending update to the Ocean Shipping Reform Act 2022 (OSRA-22). Part of that legislation, which has yet to be formally introduced, would prevent US port authorities from receiving federal funding if they use the China-sponsored National Transportation Logistics Public Information Platform or LOGINK.
Read more: JOC