At the Chamber of Shipping's Annual General Meeting held on March 24th, we were pleased to welcome two new members to the Board of Directors - Clifford Faliero, North America Senior Operations Manager for Saga Welco AS, and Lorri Stewart, Manager, Ship Assist & Harbour Operations, Seaspan ULC.

Following the AGM, the Board has re-appointed the following officers for 2021: Chair - Garth Mitcham, Regional Director, Commercial, CSL Americas, Vice Chair - Peter Amat, General Manager - Vancouver, Pacific Basin Shipping (Canada) Ltd, and Treasurer - Oscar Pinto, Director of Business Development and Director of Security and Marine, Valles Steamship (Canada) Ltd.

Our 2020 Annual Report is available online at: https://shippingmatters.ca/about-cos/annual-reports/

Canadian Pacific Railway announced that it has entered into a $25B merger agreement to acquire Kansas City Southern to create the first and only continuous rail network connecting Canada, the US and Mexico.  The agreement must satisfy shareholders and a federal review process by the Surface Transportation Board that will assess the merits of the transaction in accordance the applicable merger rules and the "public interest" review criteria.  If all goes well, CP and KCS expects to begin the integration of the two railways in mid-2022.  CP has stated that the merger is intended to support new growth and is not a move towards rationalization.

According to the Montreal daily La presse, the Government of Canada is drafting back-to-work legislation to avoid job action by over 1,100 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal. The news comes after longshoremen, foremen, and maintenance workers voted by an overwhelming 99.7 percent last Sunday to reject the latest concessions-filled contract offer from the Maritime Employers Association (MEA). The workers have been without a contract since December 2018.

The cruise sector was a hot topic in the B.C. Provincial legislature this week as the Tourism Minister was challenged regarding the Province's response to the efforts of Alaskan law makers . The potential impacts of a US legislative effort to amend the US Passenger Vessel Services Services Act would provide a temporary exemption for internationally registered cruise ships to call on two consecutive US port and bypass stops in Canada. While the probability of this legislation passing is low, it signals a growing concern that Canada and BC are not actively developing a cohesive plan that will support any hope that the Minister of Transport will rescind the temporary order prohibiting cruise ships from entering Canadian waters.  The Chamber's President reiterated the need for the Federal Government to lead and accelerate planning for the resumption of cruise traffic to Canada during two recent interviews on CBC radio.

A family-owned construction company based in Odessa, Ontario plans to introduce twice-weekly ship transportation service between Eastern Canada’s Port of Halifax and ports located along the Upper St. Lawrence River and Lower Great Lakes. The newly-founded Doornekamp Lines has chartered a 2007-built 869-TEU containership that will serve as an alternative to rail and truck transport from the east coast to the Ontario market. The line will service heavylift, breakbulk and project cargo in addition to containers. French liner CMA CGM is one of Doornekamp’s first confirmed big customers.

On Monday, Canada Steamship Lines (CSL)'s ship Baie St. Paul was the first to transit St. Lambert Lock, marking the official beginning of the St. Lawrence Seaway's 63rd navigation season.   During the ceremony, Louis Martel, President and CEO of the CSL Group, announced that CSL will be testing second generation biodiesel on half of its fleet over the course of the 2021 navigation season - a first for the Great Lakes shipping industry. CSL has successfully trialed B100 diesel fuel on the main engines of two CSL ships last year.

Groupe Ocean has added a fourth tug to its fleet in Vancouver.  Arriving by cargo ship, the Ocean Georgie Bain, a 24-meter compact tugboat, built in 2009 at Industries Océan Inc., joins the three Québec company tugs already present in the port of Vancouver since March 2020.  The first three tugs have been approved by the Pacific Pilotage Authority for tug escort work through Haro and Boundary Pass and at First and Second Narrows.

This week Transport Canada has issued the following:

MSOB 2021-001– Reporting Requirements concerning Cyber Security Threats, Breaches, Incidents and Voluntary reporting of Cyber-related Suspicious Activity

SSB 04/2021 - Revised Temporary Measures regarding Marine Personnel Certificates, Discharge Books, Marine Medical Certificates & Marine Counter Services for Canadian seafarers and authorized representatives of Canadian flagged vessels.   This replaces Ship Safety Bulletin (SSB) 21/2020 issued in October 2, 2020.

Up to 20,000 cubic meters of sand in the Suez Canal needs to be removed to free the 20,000 TEU Ever Given that has been stuck there since Tuesday when 40-knot winds and a sandstorm creating low visibility and poor navigation caused the ship to run aground.  Canal authorities are hoping that Saturday's high tide might help dislodge the vessel, but failing this, efforts underway may take a few more weeks.  Each day that passes comes at a high cost to companies and countries whose trade has been held up by the gridlock. About 12% of the world trade volume passes through the Suez Canal, and it usually handles about $10 billion a day in cargo. Over 200 ships carrying vital fuel and cargo have been in the queue and some are now weighing the decision to wait or incur an extra 3,800 miles and up to 12 days extra sailing time to divert around Cape Horn.  The International Chamber of Shipping has issued security guidance for vessels diverting around Cape Horn.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has issued a news release seeking prioritizations of seafarers for COVID-19 vaccinations as the lack of access to vaccinations for seafarers is placing shipping in a "legal minefield," leaving global supply chains vulnerable.  As vaccinations could soon be a compulsory requirement for work at sea and a pre-condition for entering ports, reports estimate that developing nations will not achieve mass immunization until 2024, with some 90% of people in 67 low-income countries standing little chance of vaccination in 2021. ICS calculates that 900,000 of the world’s seafarers (well over half the global workforce) are from developing nations.  Delays into ports caused by unvaccinated crew would open up legal liabilities and costs for owners, which would not be recoverable from charterers. Furthermore, while owners would be able to address the need for seafarer vaccines in new contracts, owners attempting to change existing contracts or asking crew to receive a specific vaccine requested by a port could open themselves up to legal liabilities.

The all-new foiling Candela P-30 is expected to be the world’s fastest all-electric passenger ship when it arrives on Stockholm’s waterways in 2022 to shuttle passengers to and from the archipelago above the waves without wakes, noise and CO2 emissions. The Swedish tech company Candela will introduce fast all-electric commuter ferries that soar above the waves on foils, quietly and efficiently carrying passengers at speeds up to 30 knots and will the city’s aging fleet of 60 diesel boats. Computer-controlled hydrofoils which reduce energy consumption by 80 percent at 3 kWh per nautical mile, which is one tenth of a conventional ship and comparable to the energy consumption of a modern electric-hybrid bus.  The P-3o will be able to service even the longest routes because it can travel more than three hours at 20 knot cruise speeds before recharging.

Length:  12 meters
Capacity:  30 passengers
Top speed:  30 knots
Service speed:  20-25 knots
Range:  60+ nautical miles at 20 knots (2 hours run time)
Motor:   2 x 60 kW electric pod drives
Battery:  180 kWh lithium ion