World Maritime News
WMNF 04/09/2024
Shanghai on track to breach 50m teu barrier
The world’s largest container port, Shanghai, is on the cusp of becoming the first to surpass the 50m teu annual throughput figure as one of nearly all of the big box hubs to report robust volume growth through the first half of 2024. Singapore, the world’s second-largest box hub, improved its first-half performance by 6.4%, with more than 20m teu handled, putting it on course to achieve its landmark of eclipsing 40m teu for the first time in its history. Figures published by the South Korean government show Busan with a jump of 5.6% to 12.2m teu, closing the gap on Guangzhou, which sits sixth in the global rankings. Dubai holds the crown as the only Middle East port in the top 10 after it continued its growth trend through the first six months of 2024, while Malaysian mega hub Port Klang looks set to make its entry among the elite box facilities. Port Klang’s inclusion comes at the expense of a notable absentee in Hong Kong, where volumes dropped by a further 8.6% in the first half of the year as the port continues to lose business to Chinese rivals. Hong Kong slips out of the top 10, where it had remained since the early 1980s, having been the world’s largest port 20 years ago.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Containership data signals very strong August for Los Angeles-Long Beach
Spot rates in the Asia-US west coast lane have fallen since July, but containership traffic to Los Angeles and Long Beach is not following the same downward trajectory. The two San Pedro Bay ports posted combined imports of 936,362 teu in July, the highest tally since May 2022, when the country was still grappling with the pandemic-era supply chain crisis. The latest data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California (MXSOCAL) implies August numbers should come in similarly strong. Despite elevated cargo traffic, the situation in San Pedro Bay is now starkly different from during the pandemic. There is no ship queue, and there are minimal portside disruptions.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Drug traffickers are diversifying maritime targets, but not slowing trade
A coordinated drug crackdown inside Europe’s major cocaine port hubs in the Netherlands and Belgium appears to have accelerated diversification efforts by the drug traffickers who are now routinely using smaller ports in southern and northern Europe. Increasing seizures in Portugal, Italy and Greece in the south of Europe and, new routes into Sweden and Denmark, expanding transshipment hubs in Türkiye and some smaller Balkan ports indicate that any initial enforcement successes in the large ports are being more than offset by new illicit trade lanes.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Maersk to ‘balance the bet’ with LNG backtrack on future fuels
Maersk is “hedging its bets” by ordering the container line’s first LNG-fuelled boxships, attributing high levels of uncertainty on regulation and the future availability of greener fuels and their costs for backtracking on its methanol-only stance seen for the past four years. “The future of fuel in shipping is going to be with a lot of different technologies living side by side at the same time,” said Maersk Line chief executive Vincent Clerc on the company’s second-quarter investor call.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Maersk adds nuclear power to its growing list of new fuel potentials
Maersk has joined a regulatory study into the potential for nuclear-powered container ships to operate feeder services in Europe, adding yet another low-to-zero emissions technology to its growing list of possible fuels of the future. Classification society Lloyd’s Register and nuclear power solutions provider Core Power have launched a joint study into the updated safety rules and improved operational and regulatory understanding needed for the application of nuclear power in container shipping. Maersk has agreed to be part of the study.
Read more: JOC
When it comes to the Red Sea diversions, the world is moving on
As months go by with no sign that ships transiting the Red Sea will become safe from attack, a realization is taking hold that could portend an open-ended new reality for the container shipping industry: Compared with other geopolitical and military issues confronting the United States and other western governments, the Suez diversions are a declining priority. Not only are several scenarios being confronted with much larger stakes, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the possibility of escalation in the Middle East, but economists say there is little in the Red Sea diversions that cause serious economic concern.
Read more: JOC
Now that Panama Canal drought is over, it’s time to prepare for next drought
There will likely be another drought before the Panama Canal secures a new long-term water source. When it happens, the waterway will be better prepared than in 2023-2024. That was the promise from Ricaurte Vasquez, administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), during a roundtable discussion with journalists. The proposed $2bn Rio Indio Reservoir project, the “most efficient” long-term solution for water availability, will take five years to complete and has not been approved yet. The plan is controversial, requiring relocation of residents who live in the project site. Even in the best-case scenario for the project, the Panama Canal will probably suffer another drought before the new reservoir comes online.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
Onboard carbon capture no more than a ‘transitory’ fix
Onboard carbon capture and storage of CO2 is only a temporary fix for shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Global Maritime Forum’s decarbonization director. Jesse Fahnestock pointed to a recent DNV feasibility study that found CO2 reductions from OCCS of 11%-38% from an LNG carrier, depending on the technology used. He said it was difficult to reconcile the cost of OCCS with the lower estimated capture rate. The study suggested OCCS would cost about the same as using biofuels per tonne of CO2 decreased, making it cheaper than using e-fuels (the most expensive, zero-carbon type made from renewable electricity). However, trapping a ship’s CO2 emissions on board is energy-intensive, and this “energy penalty” worsens the more carbon you capture. DNV’s modeling of a 174,000 cu m LNG carrier starting service in 2025 showed that capturing 70% of the carbon had an energy penalty of 30%, voiding its business case.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
LNG and biofuels could shoulder 90% of FuelEU compliance, new report says
LNG and bio-diesel will be able to meet 90% of required emission reductions under FuelEU Maritime in 2025, according to the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping. The fleet falling under FuelEU rules will need to cut emissions by 2.4m tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025 on an entire lifecycle basis, assuming all vessels sail on heavy fuel oil, according to estimates by the center. It estimated the total cost of abating 2.4m tonnes of CO2 to be $350m in 2025, then growing to $1.7bn by 2030. Estimates are based on the fact that LNG does not have a cost premium against fuel oil and that bio-diesel prices align with estimates from consultancy Umas and class society Lloyd’s Register. The center’s analysis pointed to a potential difficulty in securing supply for the 600,000 tonnes of bio-diesel demand in 2025 because of demand from other industries, noting that this could be alleviated by an increase in bio-diesel bunkering at ports such as Singapore.
Read more: Lloyd’s List
What’s holding back e-fuels?
The sizeable dual-fuel methanol fleet could face a bigger green fuel shortfall than previously expected, as most e-fuel projects have been facing delays, and advanced ones continue to fall through because of high costs and lack of demand. Concerns over e-fuel availability have increased recently, as Denmark-based renewables firm Ørsted halted FlagshipONE, Europe’s biggest e-methanol project, citing slower-than-expected development in the European e-fuel market. Ørsted’s 50,000 tonnes per annum project lacked off-takers despite the ever-growing number of dual-fuel vessels on the orderbook. That could point to the high prices demanded by the firm, as shipping’s methanol first mover Maersk did sign binding supply agreements with other firms such as European Energy and China’s Goldwind. High project costs in Europe could be another reason behind Ørsted’s decision. Europe is expected to import most of its alternative fuel needs in the coming years because of lower costs and better project economics in other regions, such as Africa and the Middle East.
Read more: Lloyd’s List | JOC
EU-27 and Japan table $100 IMO carbon price
All 27 EU countries and Japan have proposed a carbon price to the International Maritime Organization starting at $100 per tonne of CO2 equivalent in 2027, integrated with a fuel standard. The move marks consensus among a broader bloc of countries backing a levy ahead of crucial talks next month, the Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 82nd meeting. The joint EU-Japan proposal could be seen as an effort to find a middle ground between the China-led bloc and some Pacific Islands.
China has slightly revised its mid-term measure proposal to the International Maritime Organization by adding a new methodology to consider entire lifecycle (well-to-wake) greenhouse gas emissions. Angola and Ecuador have become the newest countries co-sponsoring the Chinese measure, joining Argentina, Brazil, Norway, South Africa, the UAE and Uruguay.
Read more: Lloyd’s List1 | Lloyd’s List2