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About 28,500 workers at Norwegian shipyards, oil industry fabrication plants, and other manufacturers will go on strike from April 1, unless labor unions and employers reach a new wage deal, a state-appointed mediator said on Monday.Firms that stand to be affected are suppliers to the oil and gas industry, such as Aker Solutions, where 736 workers may strike; Aibel, with 661 employees, and Kaefer Energy, with 405 employees, the unions said.A strike would affect construction of ships…

The queues of container ships outside major Chinese ports are lengthening by the day as COVID-19 outbreaks in manufacturing export hubs threaten to unleash a fresh wave of global supply chain shocks, ship owners, logistics firms and analysts say.China is experiencing its biggest spike in COVID-19 infections since an initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan was contained in early 2020.The spread of the highly-infectious Omicron variant this month has led to movement controls across China…

Supply constraints thwarting global economic growth could still get worse, keeping inflation elevated longer, even if the current spike in prices is still likely to remain temporary, the world’s top central bankers warned on Wednesday.The disruptions to the global economy during the pandemic have upset supply chains across continents, leaving the world short of a plethora of goods and services from car parts and microchips to container vessels that transport goods across the seas.“It’s ...

Container shipping rates from China to the United States have scaled fresh highs above $20,000 per 40-foot box as rising retailer orders ahead of the peak U.S. shopping season add strain to global supply chains.The acceleration in Delta-variant COVID-19 outbreaks in several counties has slowed global container turnaround rates.Typhoons off China's busy southern coast in late July and this week have also contributed to the crisis gripping the world's most important method for moving…

Thyssenkrupp is exploring several strategic options for its warship unit, ranging from combining it with Italy’s Fincantieri to creating a national champion with German peers, a person familiar with the matter said.The talks are aimed at creating economies of scale for the division, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which builds submarines and surface ships and operates in a highly fragmented sector driven by political decisions, the source said.As part of the deliberations…

German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp is in talks about possibly merging its subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) with a domestic rival to create a national champion.The Thyssenkrupp board member in charge of the marine systems unit, Oliver Burkhard, tweeted earlier that the company was in talks as an alliance could make sense in the current European market environment, with the creation of a national champion one possible outcome.The tweet followed a report by public sector…

Japan's exports slumped the most in nearly four years in March as U.S.-bound shipments, including cars, fell at the fastest rate since 2011, highlighting the damage the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on global trade.Monday's bleak data underscored the challenges Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government faces in dealing with a collapse in activity that is expected to send the global economy into its deepest slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.After a jump in virus cases…

French shipping company has embarked on a series of 'dry runs' - mock voyages - between the UK and France to ensure it is ready for any “no-deal” Brexit mayhem.The Cross-Channel ferry operator has already staged one rehearsal, with lorries travelling from Portsmouth overnight to Caen in France on September 11.Altogether 15 rehearsals are planned between now and mid-October. These will take place in eight Brittany Ferries ports: Portsmouth, Poole, and Plymouth in the UK, and Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff in France. Five Brittany Ferries ships are also involved: Mont St Michel, Armorique, Étretat, Barfleur, and Bretagne.Last week’s trial involved around 100 freight vehicles travelling from the UK to France carrying a wide variety of loads including furniture…

France's Naval Group would consider buying Thyssenkrupp's marine division if the German steel-to-submarines conglomerate were to offer the unit for sale, a German newspaper cited a source close to the French group as saying."We will look at the marine business of ThyssenKrupp if it is put on sale," Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper cited the source as saying.A spokesman for Naval Group said the company had no comment to make on the report. Thyssenkrupp also declined to comment.Thyssenkrupp last week abandoned a plan to spin off its capital goods business - car parts, plant engineering and elevators - following a collapse in its share price since it announced the scheme in September.The group is now pursuing an initial public offering of its elevator business.

Trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, mostly originated in China, has risen steadily, posing a major challenge in an innovation-driven global economy, revealed a new study.Trade in counterfeit and pirated goods has risen steadily in the last few years – even as overall trade volumes stagnated – and now stands at 3.3% of global trade, according to a new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office.Trends in Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods puts the value of imported fake goods worldwide based on 2016 customs seizure data at USD 509 billion, up from USD 461 billion in 2013 (2.5% of world trade).For the European Union, counterfeit trade represented 6.8% of imports from non-EU countries, up from 5% in 2013.

Dutch authorities will hold Swiss shipping line MSC liable for the cost of cleaning up debris from more than 270 cargo containers that fell off one of its vessels and washed up on shore, officials said on Friday.The Dutch coastguard said a criminal investigation had been launched by prosecutors into the incident, one of the largest of its kind off the coast of the Netherlands.The containers, some holding hazardous chemicals, fell off one of the world's largest container ships…

Germany's Thyssenkrupp called a landmark joint venture thrashed out with India's Tata Steel "fair" on Monday, although the updated terms disappointed some shareholders.After two years of at times fraught talks, the two steel firms finally signed a deal on Saturday to create Europe's No.2 steelmaker with 17 billion euros ($20 billion) in sales, marking the sector's biggest tie-up in more than a decade.Thyssenkrupp boss Heinrich Hiesinger had come under pressure from activist shareholders Cevian and Elliott to seek a better deal, who argued that a recent weakness in Tata Steel's European business meant terms needed to be changed in Thyssen's favour.That resulting value gap…

The RMS St. Helena, Britain’s last working postal ship, was for nearly three decades the main source of contact between one of humanity’s remotest islands and the outside world.Now the ship, cherished by the 4,500 residents of British-ruled St. Helena, will start a new life as a floating armory, packed with automatic weapons, bullet-proof jackets and night vision goggles, all stored for maritime security operatives.Renamed the MNG Tahiti, the 340-foot ship will undergo some tweaks before sailing to the Gulf of Oman where it will be used to ferry guns and guards to passing vessels navigating stretches of water lurking with pirates, its new operator said on Tuesday.“The ship is good to go with a few adjustments…

The European Commission (EC) said Wednesday that it had fined four maritime car carriers 395 million euros (U.S. $486.5 million). Four shipping companies – CSAV, K Line, NYK and WWL-Eukor – have been fined by the EC for collusion in operating a cartel on the car carrier trades, in breach of EU antitrust rules. All companies acknowledged their involvement in the cartels and agreed to settle the cases. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy said:"The Commission has sanctioned several companies for colluding in the maritime transport of cars and the supply of car parts.The three separate decisions taken today show that we will not tolerate anticompetitive behaviouraffecting European consumers and industries.

Henrique Machado Rabelo, who has for some time already been responsible for commercial and institutional contacts and will now be focusing on the latter, was recently joined by Ricardo Sproesser, who will manage and develop the commercial contacts. Sproesser has over 20 years’ experience in the maritime and logistics sector, and is without any doubt an asset to the Brazilian team. “Brazil is a key trading partner of our port community. In terms of share in the annual maritime traffic destined for Antwerp, Brazil ranks sixth,” says Luc Arnouts, commercial director of the Antwerp Port Authority. “In such strategic regions we work with local representatives to develop a network and generate traffic for Antwerp,” he adds.

The automotive industry developed during the 20th century in Barcelona, Spain's principal industrial city and the center of one of Europe's four key development driving regions. The Port of Barcelona claims a leading role in the development of this sector throughout its history, and today it is one of its main factors of competitiveness, both for finished vehicles and containerized part traffic. When the industry began to develop in Catalonia, with manufacturers like Hispano Suiza and Elizalde…

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd , the maker of Subaru cars, said it would continue flying car parts to its U.S. factory beyond an initial arrangement through the end of February, as a labor dispute at U.S. West Coast ports delays shipments. The Japanese automaker had said earlier it was spending an extra 7 billion yen ($59 million) for one month from the end of January to fly components such as engines and transmissions on chartered cargo flights instead of shipping them. A Fuji Heavy spokesman said arrangements had been made to extend that into March, although he said it was unclear how long that would continue.   Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim

Japanese automakers are being forced to ship some car parts to U.S. plants by expensive air cargo and tweak production processes as a protracted labor dispute at U.S. West Coast ports shows no signs of letting up. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd's Subaru, the fastest-growing brand in the United States, said this week that it now had to shoulder an extra 7 billion yen ($60 million) in costs a month due to air freight, which has seen prices go up with the extra demand. "It looked like the labor talks were going well at one point but in recent days the slowdown has grown quite severe," Fuji Heavy Chief Financial Officer Mitsuru Takahashi said. He said that without the move to chartered cargo flights, the automaker's U.S. production would have come to a halt in mid-February.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The morning scene is increasingly routine for Kenyans. When it's time to start the day, the power is already out. Somewhere nearby, the shell of a wrecked electrical transformer lies on its side underneath the pole where it had been fixed 20 feet off the ground. The culprit is an unusual one: A vandal who is selling the toxic oil, drawn from the transformer, to chefs who use it for frying food in roadside stalls. Five liters of the viscous, PCB-laden liquid sells for $60. It looks like cooking oil, but lasts much longer, users say. Kenyans' appetite for fried food and cheap frying oil is stalling the country's urgent efforts to build a modern electrical grid, even as it sews the seeds of a public health crisis, experts say.

A.P. Moller-Maersk Q1 net profit $1.207 bln vs $1.072 forecast; Raises full-year outlook. Profit at A.P. Moller-Maersk's container shipping business, a bellwether for global trade, more than doubled in the first quarter as demand on the world's busiest route between Asia and Europe picked up and it cut costs. That helped the Danish shipping and oil group beat forecasts for net profit on Wednesday and prompted the company to raise its outlook for the full year. The jump in profit at Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping company, is an early sign the company is starting to recover from several tough years in the industry. Container shipping firms have been struggling with overcapacity and too few goods to transport as a result of a weak global economy. A.P.

Scavengers on the beach in southwest England and carted away motorcycles, wine barrels, car parts and tennis shoes spilling from a container ship damaged in recent storms and listing about a mile off shore. The British cargo ship was deliberately run aground close to the Devonshire resort of Sidmouth, 165 miles southwest of London after it was damaged during a storm Thursday. Its crew of 26 was rescued.French officials said that of the 41,700 tons of merchandise, 1,700 tons were considered dangerous, including battery acid and flammable material. The containers also hold motorcycles, car parts, oak barrels and household possessions being moved to new homes.

A damaged container ship, off the English coast and listing badly, has started to shed some of its load of cargo containers in heavy winds. Coastguards said they were on alert because the vessel could break up. The stricken MSC Napoli was deliberately run aground in waters close to Sidmouth, southwest England, after it was damaged during a storm on Thursday. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has confirmed two of the containers are carrying dangerous materials, including battery acid and perfume, and that oil has also leaked onto the shore. Navy helicopters rescued the vessel's 26 crew members in rough seas, 45 miles off Lizard Point on England's southwest tip.