World Maritime News
WMNF 19/03/2024
Gemini Cooperation is a closed club, says Habben Jansen
The Gemini Cooperation will create a new network model for box shipping. It will provide better reliability, higher vessel utilization, and lower emissions and costs if it works. Gemini — the twins — emerged from a list of 1,000 names, according to Hapag-Lloyd chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen, and it is clear that there is no intention that the twins ever become triplets. When the Gemini Cooperation launches in 2025, it will bring about a new way of designing container networks. Instead of picking up cargo from as many ports as possible and delivering to a similar number, it will focus on a hub-and-spoke model that sees fewer main lane calls and requires more feeders or shuttle services in the lines’ parlance.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Shippers wary of Gemini reliability promise
One of the common topics of conversation at the TPM conference in Long Beach was whether the Gemini Cooperation’s new network design would take off with customers. On the face of it, there is nothing particularly new about the hub-and-spoke model that Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have used for their new partnership. Airlines have been using it for decades. Every step in a logistics supply chain provides another possibility for disruption and delay. If a cargo has to be transported by a feeder from a satellite port to a hub before being put on a main lane ship for the rest of the voyage and then potentially transported by a feeder again from a destination hub to its final point of delivery, that adds several more pinch points where things could go wrong. Bad weather or congestion at either hub could cause delays, preventing cargo from getting on the designated mothership and losing any benefits of better reliability. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd say that reducing calls at origin and destination can improve schedule reliability from the dismal lows of the past few years to over 90% of ships arriving on time.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Is globalization coming to an end? Not quite, but brace for slower trade growth
According to economist and historian Marc Levinson, globalization is not dead but is shifting into a new phase as international trade growth slows. Speaking at the TPM 2024 conference in Long Beach, Levinson argued that trade flows are changing due to slower population growth, increased consumption of services over goods, weaker GDP growth, and the growing impact of government policies and geopolitical risk.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Former CIA chief says maritime trade under threat from global instability at TPM24
The freedom of seas that enables global trade faces its greatest threat ever as attacks in the Red Sea have brought commercial shipping there to a standstill and China continues its saber-rattling in the South China Sea, the former head of US Central Intelligence Agency said. During a keynote address at the TPM24 conference in Long Beach, Robert Gates added that “global dangers are at a level we haven’t seen since the end of World War 2.” Gates, who also advised eight US presidents, said the many conflicts and rising political nationalism worldwide threaten the types of trade agreements and economic cooperation underpinning the container trade. While the US is tamping down tensions with China and has more levers to thwart Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Gates said that companies need to become more aware of global supply chains’ political risks.
Read more: JOC
Panama Canal expected to be operating at full capacity by September
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is anticipating that transit levels through the Central American waterway will return to “normal” by September as rains return to the region. Speaking in Stamford, Connecticut, at this year’s CMA Shipping conference, Panama Canal Authority deputy administrator Ilya Espino de Marotta said that the hope is when the rainy season starts in late April to early May, the process of gradually increasing transits will begin.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Industry veteran sees little value in ocean carriers integrating logistics services
A long-serving executive at both Hapag-Lloyd and Kuehne+Nagel advised ocean carriers to abandon ambitions of providing all-in-one logistics offerings, saying shippers would rather control their non-ocean transportation services and that forwarders will continue to play a major role in container shipping. Otto Schacht, whose more than 40 years of experience includes leading Kuehne+Nagel’s sea logistics business and managing European and US trade lanes for Hapag-Lloyd, told attendees at the TPM24 conference in Long Beach that forwarders of all sizes will remain an important part of the industry due to the complexity of international trade. He added that forwarders’ high-touch customer service is key to their viability.
Read more: JOC
Rerouting pushing up ETS bill for containership operators
Rerouting containerships around the Cape of Good Hope could see a threefold increase in carbon credit costs under the EU emissions trading system this year, according to an analysis by maritime technology firm OceanScore. OceanScore has estimated the route via the Cape has tripled bunker consumption due to the longer distance and an almost 25% increase in sailing speed from 16 to 20 knots. This was fueling the costs of shipping companies due to higher exposure to EU ETS.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Cargill prototype proves that wind wings could be a win-win, eventually
Wind wings fitted to Cargill’s Pyxis Ocean bulker saved an average of three tons of fuel daily, or around a 14% emissions saving. Capex is still too high for wind technology to be scalable with conventional fuel savings, but for more expensive zero-carbon fuels, the investment is a ‘no regret move,’ says Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill’s ocean transport business. After six months of sailing through the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, and the North and South Atlantic, Cargill finally has the answer to its multi-million dollar question — is wind technology worth the investment? The answer is yes, but only once fuel costs are higher.
Read more: Lloyd’s List