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Risk is the "new normal" for the global ocean shipping industry that handles 80% of global trade as pressure from geopolitical tensions, rising protectionism and climate change mounts."There are going to be global tensions ... and I think global dangers, at a level we haven't seen since the end of World War II," former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at the opening of S&P Global's TPM24 container shipping conference in Long Beach, California, on Monday.Houthi missile and drone attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are top of mind…

The maritime industry accounts for more than 90% of global trade and employs over 3 million people in the United States, and like other modes of transportation, our industry encounters unique risks. Waterfront workers are exposed to various hazards such as heavy machinery, hazardous substances, extreme weather and long hours. If not properly managed, these hazards can result in serious injuries, illnesses and even fatalities. That is why ensuring the safety of waterfront workers is a top priority for all of us who work in the maritime industry.

A new safety alert issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urges vessel owners and operators to provide each crewmember with a personal locator device. These devices improve a mariner’s chance of rescue during an emergency.During an emergency at sea, a mariner’s chance of survival decreases if search and rescue cannot quickly and accurately identify their location. Personal locator devices, such as personal locator beacons (PLB) or satellite emergency notification devices (SEND), can accurately pinpoint a person’s location.

Offshore installation services firm Jan De Nul said Wednesday it had recently rescued 15 people drifting on a sloop in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Algeria."During a sea journey from Turkey to Belgium, Jan De Nul crew on board the offshore installation vessel Simon Stevin noticed a sloop with 15 refugees on Thursday evening, November 10. Eight men, two women, and five children had been drifting for several days on the Mediterranean Sea, some 75 km off the coast of Algeria," Jan De Nul said."The crew took the refugees on board. All 15 were in good health, but weakened and hypothermic.

More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port, Felixstowe, have begun eight days of strike action that will cause disruption to trade and supply chains.The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis. read moreBelow is a look at Felixstowe's operations and the possible impact from the strike:How big is the port?About 48% of all containers brought into the UK are transported through the Felixstowe port…

Shipping group Maersk expects global container demand to fall this year as sales of durable goods come to a "standstill", leaving flat-screen TVs and furniture piling up in warehouses, the company said on Wednesday.A surge in consumer demand and pandemic-related logjams holding up containers in key ports had boosted freight rates and profits in the shipping industry in recent quarters, yet the cost of living crisis has reversed that trend.Maersk, one of the world's biggest container shippers with a market share of around 17%…

Firefighters battled for a third day on Monday to control a huge fire that killed dozens when it triggered explosions at a Bangladesh container depot, as officials warned of the risk of further blasts if the flames spread to chemicals stored nearby.Drone footage from the BM Container Depot at Sitakunda, 40 km (25 miles) from the southeastern port city of Chittagong, showed thick columns of smoke still rising from burnt-out containers some 46 hours after the blaze broke out.With the country's poor record on industrial accidents under the spotlight…

Ineos' new ethane carrier, said to be the world's largest and first with IMO type-B tanks, was named Pacific Ineos Belstaff at a ceremony in Houston.The 230-meter-long, 99,000-cubic-meter-capacity very large ethane carrier (VLEC) was built by China's Jiangnan Shipyard and will be operated by Pacific Gas, primarily for the transport of U.S. ethane to China and Europe. The ABS-classed ship, which is the first in the world to feature newly designed IMO type-B tanks that fit closely to the external shape of the vessel for optimized vessel capacity…

President Joe Biden said U.S. actions to eliminate supply-chain snarls have staved off a pre-Christmas crisis, ahead of a meeting with U.S. officials and private-sector companies, including FedEx, on Wednesday.Biden created a task force in June to address high prices and shortages of consumer goods and crucial components, thanks to pandemic-related labor and demand issues.After pushing for round-the-clock port operations, new transport rules and enlisting the help of big retailers including Walmart Inc.

Much like the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic disruption that it has caused, a global shipping crisis looks set to go on delaying goods traffic and fueling inflation well into 2023.Shipping rarely figures in economists' inflation and GDP calculations, and companies tend to fret more about raw materials and labor costs than transportation. But that might be changing.The cost of shipping a 40-foot container (FEU) unit has eased some 15% from record highs above $11,000 touched in September, according to the Freightos FBX index.

More than 100 containers have been lost from a fire-stricken containership off British Columbia, well above original estimates, the Canadian Coast Guard said.Initial reports indicated that the Malta-flagged Zim Kingston lost roughly 40 boxes near the Strait of Juan de Fuca, on October 22, after heavy weather caused the vessel to list 35 degrees while traveling from Busan, South Korea to Vancouver, Canada.A fire that broke out on board on October 23 led to the loss of additional containers, and by Wednesday the Canadian Coast Guard said the number of lost boxes has risen to 109.

The Flying Buttress once glided across the oceans carrying vital commodities like grain to all corners of the world.Now it bears a different treasure: Paw Patrol Movie Towers, Batmobile Transformers and Baby Alive Lulu Achoo dolls.The dry bulk cargo ship has been drafted into the service of retail giant Walmart, which is chartering its own vessels in an effort to beat the global supply chain disruptions that threaten to torpedo the retail industry's make-or-break holiday season."Chartering vessels is just one example of investments we've made to move products as quickly as possible," said Joe Metzger, U.S. executive vice president of supply-chain operations at Walmart…

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) on Thursday announced the designation of six new Marine Highway Projects and a new Marine Highway Route as part of the America’s Marine Highway Program (AMHP). The AMHP encourages the use of America’s navigable waterways for the movement of freight and people as an alternative to land-based transportation. Since its inception, the AMHP has designated 46 Marine Highway Projects. A designation makes projects on Marine Highway Routes eligible for grants when AMHP funding is available.

A privately funded mission has found, surveyed and filmed the USS Johnston, the world’s deepest known shipwreck, offshore Samar Island in the Philippines Sea.The expedition was backed by Victor Vescovo, is an entrepreneur, explorer and retired U.S. Navy Commander who personally piloted his submersible DSV Limiting Factor down to the wreck during two separate, eight-hour dives 21,180 feet (6,456 meters) below the ocean's surface. These constituted the deepest wreck dives, manned or unmanned…

The Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern communities that rely heavily on seafood and marine mammals for food.But who would have imagined that the clothes we wear might add to this onslaught? Evidence increasingly shows that tiny synthetic fibers are permeating the Arctic Ocean and finding their way into zooplankton…

The captain and crew of a Hong Kong-flagged containership came to the rescue of a sailboat crew in distress on Sunday amid severe weather and waves during storm Sally, in the Gulf of Mexico, some 130 nautical miles west of Port Tampa Bay, Fla.The COSCO SHIPPING Lines containership COSCO Malaysia was en route from Mobile, Ala. to Port Tampa Bay when it received a distress call from the sailboat Yes Dear at 8:22 a.m. local time and immediately carried out rescue operations under instruction from local U.S.

Container lines have resumed calls to Beirut after last week's explosion, with the terminal having sustained only minor damage, leading companies said on Tuesday.The August 4 blast in Beirut's port, which killed more than 160 people and injured 6,000 more, demolished entire neighborhoods of Lebanon's capital in seconds.Container lines diverted ships to Lebanon’s smaller port of Tripoli to keep vital supply lines running."We are glad to advise that the container terminal suffered only minor damage and it has restarted operations…

Leading container lines are diverting ships to Lebanon's smaller terminal of Tripoli after the devastating explosion at Beirut's port that killed 145 people also paralysed vital trade.Lebanon, which imports almost all it uses, relies on container ships to bring in everything from refrigerated food cargoes to clothing and other consumer goods.There is no firm date for Beirut port to re-open, and this is a strain on supply chains.Data from shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic showed three container ships had arrived in Tripoli in the past 24 hours after being diverted from Beirut…

All summer long, a crimson and white boat moves back and forth through the waters near the Port of Alaska collecting silt, sand and gravel off the seafloor to allow vessels to navigate the harbor in Anchorage. The boat is a dredging vessel called the Westport, operated by Manson Construction of Seattle, Wash., which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District contracted to maintain the mooring areas for the past three years.An estimated 2,400 to 2,600 cargo containers arrive…

The coronavirus pandemic has shutdown much of the U.S. economy for months and even as parts of it reopen, the data is beginning to reveal the extent of the damage that has been done and a slow recovery is taking a tentative shape.The second estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter shows a 5% contraction from the previous quarter, and just 0.2% growth from the first quarter of 2019. With lockdown measures having only come into force in late March, the second quarter of the year will prove even more damaging for the U.S.

Cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles is down 15.5% so far this year as the novel coronavirus upends economies around the globe, Gene Seroka, executive director of the busiest U.S. seaport, said on a webcast on Wednesday.April volume was down 6.5% year-over-year as the financial and human toll of the pandemic come into focus in the United States and around the globe.Consumer demand for non-essential items has fallen off the cliff in the United States - where the pandemic is blamed for more than 71…

The $1 trillion container shipping industry is in a slowdown. Literally.Some shipping lines, whose retail customers are being hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, are reducing sailing speeds and taking longer routes around Africa, avoiding Suez canal passage fees, according to the companies and ship-tracking specialists.Many are also cutting down the number of voyages and providing short-term storage for clients as the industry, which includes heavyweights like Maersk, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd…

Taiwan is complying with international sanctions against North Korea, a senior Taiwanese security official told the United States’ deputy representative for North Korea on Tuesday, having previously been called out for breaking them.Taiwan, claimed by China as its own, is not a member of the United Nations, but says that as a responsible global player it is committed to ensuring sanctions are enforced to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.In 2018, independent U.N. monitors told a U.N.