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China indicated it is willing to maintain communication with relevant parties and to jointly safeguard the security of international submarine infrastructure, its foreign ministry said.Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian made the remarks when asked about a Chinese ship in Danish waters, and Finland and Sweden's investigation into the two severed fiber-optic data telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea. Lin said he was not aware of the details of the ship.The Danish military said on Wednesday that it was staying close to Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 currently sitting idle in a strait between Denmark and Sweden, but did not mention the cable breaches or say why it was staying with the ship.(Reuters)

Container shipping companies like Maersk, CMA CGM and COSCO have ordered hundreds of new vessels in recent years meant to help their industry slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet rising demand from customers and regulators around the globe.Their order books, however, reflect uncertainty over which of a wide array of so-called green fuels will become the standard in the decades to come, and whether supplies will be cheap and abundant enough to keep their fleets in motion.Decarbonizing…

Ships docked at Greek ports, and railway and bus services were disrupted on Wednesday as transport workers, hospital doctors, school teachers and construction workers joined a nationwide strike to protest squeezed living standards and demand higher pay.Many Greeks saw their wages and pensions slashed in return for bailouts worth 280 billion euros ($297 billion) during a 2009-2018 debt crisis which shaved a quarter off Greece's economic output and nearly pushed the country out of the eurozone.With the Greek economy recovering firmly since 2018, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right g

The COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan aim to agree an annual finance target of $1 trillion or more a year to help poorer countries respond to global warming. Some see new taxes as one way to get there. The Global Solidarity Levies Task Force (GSLT), led by France, Barbados and Kenya, is exploring the issue. Below are excerpts from its latest report on the options being discussed -- as it pertains to shipping and fossil fuels -- and estimates about how much could be raised.SHIPPINGThe levy that could be closest to being agreed is for shipping…

New EU and British sanctions are based on false claims of missile transfers to Russia and are "unjustified", Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday.Brussels on Monday added the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its director to its list of sanctions on Iran, which it said were a consequence of Tehran's support of Russia in its war with Ukraine.On the same day, Britain imposed sanctions against Iran's national airline and shipping carrier, measures it said were taken in response to Iran's transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia."Iran considers the i

Turkey suspended shipping traffic in Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait in both directions on Sunday due to a rudder failure on a 114-metre tanker, the Nazann, the Transportation Ministry said.The vessel, en route from Russia to Kocaeli in Turkey, had mechanical problems in the strait and the coast guard deployed tugboats, the ministry said. The Bosphorus connects the Black Sea in the northeast to the Sea of Marmara to the southwest, and beyond to the Mediterranean.(Reuters - Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Canan Sevgili; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Vessel Performance Solutions, a subsidiary of Ascenz Marorka, GTT Group’s smart shipping arm, has announced that Harren Group, a family-run shipping conglomerate, has selected VESPER as its performance management platform for 30 vessels of their fleet.VESPER, Vessel Performance Solutions’ advanced performance management platform, enables comprehensive monitoring through data processing and automated reporting.Under the contract, the VESPER platform will be fully deployed across the designated vessels…

The Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) and RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute) are launching Katalist, a not-for-profit ‘book and claim’ registry designed to accelerate the shipping industry’s decarbonization journey.Regulations to reduce the carbon intensity of the marine industry are being introduced by both the EU and the IMO. Katalist aims to accelerate the process by connecting shipping companies adopting lower emission fuels with cargo owners…

Hapag-Lloyd's CEO said on Thursday he expects continued strength in container shipping volumes, which are driven by global demand for transporting goods and seen as a proxy for trade and a health barometer for the world economy.The volume of twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) containers moved by its 292 ships rose to 9.3 million metric tons in the nine months from January to September, up 5% from 8.9 million in the same period a year ago, the German company said."I don't see much of a change there in the fourth quarter…

China is stepping up pressure on the Philippines to concede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Manila's Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Tuesday after meeting his Australian counterpart in Canberra.The fifth such meeting since August 2023 reflects growing security ties between the countries, which have both voiced concern about Chinese activity in areas of the busy waterway claimed by the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations."What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area…

Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a multi-year shipping contract with an undisclosed automotive manufacturer worth $580 million.The new contract has a duration of three years and three months with commencement on January 1, 2025.The contract has an estimated value of $580 million in total over the contract period, with rates in line with current market levels.“This demonstrates their commitment to securing long-term ocean capacity and will further strengthen our partnership.“We are pleased to announce this multi-year agreement with a long-term customer strengthening our existing partnerships.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest RoRo vessel operator, has ordered two additional 11,700 CEU Shaper class pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) from China Merchants Jingling Shipyard in China.The two declared options are part of the four previously announced outstanding options. Delivery is expected in the first half of 2028.As part of the agreement, Wallenius Wilhelmsen will continue to hold options for two more vessels declarable by the second half of 2025. Wallenius Wilhelmsen also intends to upsize two additional vessels from 9…

QatarEnergy has inaugurated four new conventional-size LNG vessels built in Samsung Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean shipyards in the Republic of Korea as part of its historic fleet expansion program.The four new vessels - Id’asah, Nuaijah, Umm Swayyah, and Lebrethah - are part of 128 total vessels ordered from Korean and Chinese shipyards as part of the largest shipbuilding program in the history of the LNG shipping industry.The naming of the vessels took place in two separate ceremonies in the city of Geoje…

Hapag-Lloyd’s vessel Colorado Express has bunkered a B25 bio marine fuel blend comprised of ExxonMobil’s bio fuel, which is able to deliver an estimated 20.1% greenhouse gas well-to-wake reduction compared with conventional marine fuel formulations on an energy basis.ExxonMobil’s Premium HDME 50 fuel consists 0.10% sulphur Emission Control Area (ECA) fuel, and waste-based fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) derived from used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME).The ‘drop-in’ blend met the requirements of ISO 8217:2017…

Belgian oil tanker company CMB.TECH posted third-quarter profit above market expectations on Thursday, powered by a long-term strategy of decarbonization and diversification of its fleet."From a supply-side perspective, the outlook for the tanker fleet remains generally favorable for Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs)," the group said in a statement.It cautioned about the Suezmax segment, where the order book has grown significantly, with an orderbook-to-fleet (OB/F) ratio of 16.3%, more than double that of VLCCs.The group, formed after last year's Euronav-Compagnie Maritime Belge takeover, ack

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a new project DECARDIS, in partnership with Awake.AI, ABB and Wallenius Marine, to collaborate on a port call optimization solution, which focuses on helping ships cut greenhouse gas emissions by overcoming inefficiencies in the ship-port interaction.Under DECARDIS, short for Decarbonization through the Digitalization in Shipping, the project consortium will work together to develop a sea voyage and port call optimization solution.The…

A.P. Moller-Maersk expects strong demand for shipping goods around the globe to continue in the coming months, though does not expect to resume sailing through the Suez Canal until "well into 2025".Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants have disrupted a shipping route vital to east-west trade, with prolonged re-routing of shipments pushing freight rates higher and causing congestion in Asian and European ports."There are no signs of de-escalation and it is not safe for our vessels or personnel to go there ...

Danish shipping group A.P. Moller - Maersk has entered into a long-term bio-methanol offtake agreement with LONGi Green Energy Technology for its dual-fuel methanol vessels.The agreement will contribute to lowering GHG emissions from Maersk’s growing fleet of dual-fuel methanol container vessels. LONGi will deliver bio-methanol produced at a facility in Xu Chang, Central China.With the addition of the LONGi volumes, Maersk is making progress in securing enough methanol for its owned dual-fuel methanol fleet of which seven vessels are already in operation.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest RoRo vessel operator, has signed a five-year agreement with an agriculture, forestry and roadbuilding equipment manufacturer to provide its shipping and logistics services.The agreement with an unnamed Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s client is valued at approximately $766 million in total, based on expected volumes over the five-year period.Rates are in line with current market levels and the agreement includes a partnership on decarbonization…

“Since September 2024, five merchant ships have been hit by Russian missiles while in Ukrainian ports or waters. These were the first attacks on merchant ships since November 2023 and they could threaten 1% of the world’s dry bulk exports if safety is not improved. The price of war risk insurance has already increased but the impact on exported volumes has so far been limited,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.Throughout 2024 Ukraine has been exporting dry bulk cargoes from its ports in greater Odesa via a corridor close to its coast.

An international study has found whale sharks and ships are more likely to collide by the end of the century due to climate change.The researchers used global climate models and satellite-tracking data of 348 tagged whale sharks from 2005 to 2019 and combined it with shipping traffic models and habitat suitability estimates to predict the risk of interaction.Whale sharks are highly mobile marine megafauna that can travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers annually. The species…

Genoa-based shipping and logistics company, the Fratelli Cosulich Group, has officially started its Empowering Minds project.The post-graduate traineeship, managed by Corporate HR, offers a unique opportunity to the new generation approaching the workplace for the first time. The six selected young graduates have started this week, with lessons led by various internal experts acting as teachers. Over the next six months, these talented young individuals will gain in-depth knowledge of all 15 of the group's business units…

The global shipping industry is not on track to meet its target of having zero-emission fuels account for 5% of all fuels by 2030, according to a new report from the UCL Energy Institute, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and the Getting to Zero Coalition.The third annual progress report, Progress Towards Shipping’s 2030 Breakthrough, warns that the next 12 months are critical to avoid shipping falling irreparably behind its climate goals.The IMO set a goal of ensuring that zero- or near-zero emission fuels make up 5% to 10% of all shipping fuels by 2030.