This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit veson.com/decision-advantage for more information. Ten years or so ago, when the University of Plymouth ran their first cybersecurity symposium, the number attendees barely made double figures. This week, held in the main hall of the International Maritime Organization on London’s Albert Embankment, the same event attracted more than 300, from shipping companies in almost every sector. Clearly, the topic has...

When the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) issued a paper in September setting out its position on the human element, its implications were clearly going to be far reaching. Its publication followed an IACS presentation in June to the Human Element Industry Group, which is made up of a number of maritime NGOs and it says that IACS’ aims “to highlight and emphasise the importance of … human element aspects when developing new IACS requirements applicable to the ship...

The global climate circus heads to Baku, Azerbaijan this weekend for the start of the annual COP confab. That’s the Conference of the Parties, meaning signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP 29. Shipping will be there, but don’t expect much in the way of headline conclusions this year. If there is going to be any progress from this meeting, it’s going to focus on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. So why are we talking about...

Once a year, an industry alliance of first-movers and green investors gather in a room for shipping’s answer to Davos, the annual Global Maritime Forum. And it’s always an interesting conversation. These are shipping’s optimists. The progressive cohort of industry leaders who have collectively invested billions of dollars in decarbonisation projects and spawned voluntary projects advancing everything from transparent green finance and insurance to diversity programmes and climate-aligned...

There have been shipowners listed on Wall Street going back to the 1980s, but it was only in the mid-2000s – with the China trade boom – that the shipping industry really came to the US public markets in a major way. In the two decades since then, there have been some controversies with these listed shipowners. These controversies have involved conflicts of interest: self-dealing by private sponsors and management to the detriment of common shareholders. There have been cases of public...

This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage for more information. Some shipowners warn that crew supply is only set to get worse due to a lack of young people wanting a career at sea. Others are concerned about the need to upskill existing crews to handle increasing digitalisation and multiple fuel types. This comes during a period of growth in the merchant vessel fleet due to a new shipbuilding cycle and limited vessel...

THERE is a hint of clickbait about this week’s title – we at Lloyd’s List are of course very passionate about diversity in shipping. But as the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association celebrates its 50th birthday at its annual meeting in Cyprus – the question of why shipping still hasn’t achieved gender parity loomed large. Female representation in board rooms is a societal problem, but shipping is lagging behind even those modest numbers. The statistics are damning, wherever...

This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage/ for more information. There is a very detailed series of policy discussions happening right now inside the walls of the International Maritime Organization. The question of whether the IMO can stick to its timetable and agree the basic architecture of shipping’s energy transition via a fuel standard and some kind of levy is of course important. It’s important in terms of demand...

Eric Christofferson is chief product officer at Veson Nautical, which is a provider of maritime data and freight management solutions to support global commerce. In this sponsored edition of the podcast, he comments on how data is reshaping how shipping contracts and compliance are managed.

This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more information Law and insurance editor David Osler assembles a star-studded line-up at the International Union of Marine Insurance annual conference in Berlin to assess the strength of the market in 2024

In the long run, ‘doing good is good for business’, believes Natalie Sallaum, chief relationship officer at the vehicle carrier Sallaum Lines. In this edition of the Shipping Podcast, she draws on the company’s extensive experience of supporting community environmental initiatives to set out the benefits of being proactive about CSR and ESG

This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more information THE multi-fuel future of shipping is looking more limited than it was a year ago. We know what the three major molecules are – methane, methanol and ammonia. But this isn’t a question of picking a fuel and supporting it as if it were a sports team to be followed blindly. Shipowners are largely agnostic and very pragmatic when it comes to options of the table. This is...

This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information. Should you wish to list all of the various risks, road blocks, unresolved problems and known challenges ahead for the shipping industry you will need a long piece of paper and ideally some medical assistance on standby. This is not a task for the faint of heart or those of a nervous disposition. You might start with some of the old favourites - supply chain...

This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information. In China, shipyards that were distressed assets just years ago are now highly sought after. And if you happened to buy into some back then, congratulations; you likely stand to make a windfall profit. Shanghai-headquartered DCL Investments made one such shrewd play more than two years ago. It invested in restructuring bankrupt Yangzhou Guoyu Shipbuilding at bargain...

What do I build? Where do I build it? How much does it cost? And when can I get it? That’s the checklist of shipowner’s questions right now as they consider newbuildings. If you asked a shipowner what they would be looking for a decade ago the answer to those questions would be pretty standard. If money was no object they would plump for the quality of Japanese yards, they would know exactly which engine was the most efficient for their requirements and the list optional specifications...

THE headline takeaway from the 2024 edition of the top 100 container port was a second successive year of muted volume growth during 2023 for the biggest container ports. The total tally of just over 690m teu handled by the top 100 ports represented a 0.8% rise on the previous year, continuing the trend of the ‘tepid 20s’ post-Covid with volume growth only marginal. Lloyd’s List deputy editor Linton Nightingale spoke to Drewry senior ports and terminals analyst Eleanor Hadland to look back...

Strict but fair. That’s the description of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority from retiring chief executive Mick Kinley. Some of the world's biggest shipping companies have been named and shamed by the regulator in recent years and their vessels banned from entering ports over sub-standard conditions or not paying crew. Speaking with characteristic Australian candour and colour, Kinley reflects on the progress made by the regulator he has led for the past 10 years and offers some...

Concerns around security and geopolitics intensified at the end of last year as the Houthis began targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden under the cover of a show of support for Hamas. Adding to the deteriorating situation was the resurgence in Somali piracy as some actors sought to take advantage of the chaos. Since November we’ve seen nearly 90 incidents related to the Red Sea crisis and multiple piracy incidents including hijackings in the Somali basin, and an uptick in events...

A few hours after the containership Dali (IMO: 9697428) destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, there were media reports suggesting investigators would look into ‘bad bunkers’ as a potential cause of the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled out that possibility after its initial investigation. But this incident alone gives us a good idea about the perception of the bunker sector in wider shipping circles. To some, the negative image of the bunker sector...

In a market where unpredictability has become predictably common, the whole concept of accurate earnings guidance from the lines fell overboard several quarterly reports ago. Forecasts are couched in ever more provisional language as volatility and black swans continue to demand near constant expectation management amid yo-yoing sentiment. While US retailers were baulking at the return of $10,000 container shipping rates for a forty foot box from Shanghai to New York a few weeks back, the...

THE prospect of a dominant Trump presidency is significantly more like than it was only a week ago. But what does that mean for shipping? Will the anticipated “Trump trade” really result in more inflation, higher interest rates and sweeping tariffs? Will the inevitable bonfire of Biden’s environmental rules put the brakes on shipping’s already hesitant energy transition? And what about the all important trading relationships with the EU and China? Are we entering an accelerated period of...

The explosion of sanctions have demanded a compliance sea change from the marine insurance sector. But despite the rapid pace of investment to keep up, P&I Clubs have found themselves struggling to enforce an increasingly unenforceable regime. The flawed nature of the oil price cap regime is hardly news. But while the rest of the industry get to criticise from the sidelines it is the P&I Clubs who have been left to walk a precarious regulatory tightrope. The clubs have been politely...

The threat posed by Houthi missiles and uncrewed surface vessels sits at the lower end of the risk spectrum for shipping. Things could be worse. A lot worse. That was the rather worrying assessment this week from the latest in a series of Geopolitical risk webinars we’ve been running here at Lloyd’s List and for this week’s podcast we are bringing you a few highlights from the discussion. The Red and Black Sea risks inevitably came up, but more generally we were looking at the risks...

As unpalatable as it may be to say out loud, global turmoil is pretty good for business. Shipping CEOs are as happy as shipping CEOs generally get to be.[Sidebar#LL1149672] They are after all a pretty philosophical bunch at heart and they understand that all this has been seen before and will be seen again. They know that unexpected good fortune tends to come with a flipside. What comes up must come down, and every action has an equal and opposite reaction — it’s just a question of being...