Honest Broker News

America's top container ports Los Angeles and Long Beach are cracking down on ocean carriers whose containers linger on terminals as clogged U.S. seaports struggle to keep up with record box volumes.Under the new policy, developed in coordination with the Biden-Harris Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, U.S. Department of Transportation and multiple supply chain stakeholders, and set to take effect November 1, the ports will charge ocean carriers for each truck-bound container dwelling nine days or more and rail containers that sit for three days or more.

Industry analyst and environmental consultant Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, PhD, takes a hard look at a rapidly shifting operational landscape in the Arctic. Always an honest broker of information, Etkin tells it like it is. Oil spill risk is present anywhere that oil is present in reservoirs, or is transported, consumed, stored, and handled in some way. The Arctic is no exception. Not only are there oil reserves in the Arctic, some of which are being or will soon be considered for exploration and production, there is also oil being transported as cargo or as fuel to Arctic communities.

Energy company Pertamina plans to explore for oil and gas in areas close to Indonesia's maritime border in the South China Sea to assert the country's territorial rights, the upstream director of the state-owned company said. "The government needs to have activities around the borders and one of Pertamina's strategies is to support this," Syamsu Alam told Reuters in an interview on Monday. He said Indonesia had lost sovereignty over two disputed islands in the past because it was not developing those areas. "So, like the South China Sea and the borders in North Kalimantan, we need to have some activities there," he said. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea…

Energy company Pertamina plans to explore for oil and gas in areas close to Indonesia's maritime border in the South China Sea to assert the country's territorial rights, the upstream director of the state-owned company said. "The government needs to have activities around the borders and one of Pertamina's strategies is to support this," Syamsu Alam told Reuters in an interview on Monday. He said Indonesia had lost sovereignty over two disputed islands in the past because it was not developing those areas. "So, like the South China Sea and the borders in North Kalimantan, we need to have some activities there," he said. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea…

About 100 Chinese fishing boats have been detected encroaching in Malaysia's waters in the disputed South China Sea, Malaysia's state news agency and a coastguard official said on Friday. The reported encroachment on Thursday is the latest action by Chinese vessels to raise concern in Southeast Asia, where four countries object to China's claim to virtually the whole of the South China Sea. Malaysia's national security minister Shahidan Kassim said assets from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the navy have been sent to the area near the Luconia Shoals to monitor the situation, the Bernama news agency reported. Shahidan did…

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said China'a claims to the majority of the South China Sea have "no legal foundation in international law," he told Japan's Yomiuri newspaper. "We need peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. It is important to have political and security stability to build up our economic growth," Widodo was quoted as saying. This was the first time Widodo, who took office in October, has taken a position on the South China Sea dispute. China has had occasionally tense confrontations with Japan and Southeast Asian countries - the Philippines and Vietnam in particular - over maritime disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, respectively. "We need peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Seattle Propeller Club announced the winner of the 2013 Puget Sound Maritime Achievement Award as Captain John Veentjer, Puget Sound Marine Exchange Executive Director, aboard Princess Cruises cruise vessel Sapphire Princess while berthed on Pier 66 at the Port of Seattle’s Bell Street Cruise Terminal during the 62nd annual Seattle Maritime Festival Luncheon. The Club also shared news of the selection of Captain John Dwyer, Officer In Charge, Marine Inspection and the Chief of the Inspection Division at U.S. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound, as this year’s recipient of the Seattle Propeller Club’s Public Official of the Year Award.