COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 1 October 2021

The Chamber of Shipping celebrates the International Maritime Organization's World Maritime Day this year by taking action for seafarers, who are facing unprecedented hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite their vital role as key workers for global supply chains.  The World Maritime Theme for 2021, "Seafarers: at the core of shipping’s future" seeks to increase the visibility of seafarers by drawing attention to the invaluable role they play now and will continue to play in the future. Throughout the year, the World Maritime Theme will also put the spotlight on other issues related to the human element of shipping, including the safety and security of life on board ships, seafarers' well-being, and the importance of ensuring an appropriately trained and qualified workforce, ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of digitalization and automation. Our Communications and Events Coordinator, Lais Gomes, has put together a video for this year's World Maritime Day showcasing some of the work being done in British Columbia to vaccinate seafarers. View the video on YouTube.

The Chamber of Shipping recognized the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada on September 30th by highlighting some of the association's recent involvement through initiatives under the Oceans Protection Plan and co-authoring an article with the Council of the Haida Nation, showcasing the Voluntary Protection Zone Pilot Project off the West Coast of Haida Gwaii. The article appears in a special edition of the Hill Times.

Ocean Group has announced the acquisition of Samson Tugboats Inc., a BC company specializing in ship-docking services in the Fraser River since 2011. With the acquisition of Samson Tugboats and its two tugs, Ocean Group will now have six harbour tugs in the region and the benefits of the business relationships established by the management team of Samson Tugboats.

Despite Canada’s position as one of the world’s top oil producers with one of the largest global oil reserves, crude oil imports into Canada have become a significant part of the country’s energy mix, particularly since 2000.  According to the Canadian Energy Centre, between 1988 and 2020, Canada imported nearly nine billion barrels of crude oil from other countries, an average of over 745,000 barrels per day over the period. Crude oil imports into Canada more than doubled between 1988 and 2008, increasing from 148 million barrels to nearly 329 million barrels annually. Since 2008, crude oil imports to Canada have fallen by about 37 per cent, yet at over 206 million barrels in 2020, they remain nearly 39 per cent above the 1988 level.

PSAC-CIU members in the Border Services (FB) bargaining unit have voted overwhelmingly to ratify the agreement with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The FB group represents over 8,500 CBSA employees who have been on the front lines of the pandemic since day one, protecting our borders and keeping Canadians safe. The new contract is a four-year agreement from 2018-2022 with a total increase in wages of over 8%. The deal includes better protections against excessive discipline in the workplace, a commitment to tackle workplace culture problems, and improvements to leave and other allowances.

South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Start-ups is to work with domestic carrier HMM and Korea Post to provide multimodal logistical support for small and mid-sized exporters to the mid-west and eastern US. In a combination of shipping and trucking logistics, HMM will ship the goods from Gwangyang, Korea’s second-busiest container port, to Long Beach, from where the containers will be trucked to Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Little Ferry, using Korea Post’s network.  The service has started with the ministry allocating 20 TEU of the shipping slots reserved for small and mid-sized shippers for the trucking arrangement.

Seaspan Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp. announced that it has entered into an agreement with a major shipyard for ten 7,000 TEU modern newbuild containerships with deliveries anticipated in the second quarter and through to the fourth quarter of 2024. With the addition of these vessels, Seaspan will continue to expand its fleet within core strategic size segments. Since December 2020 and including this announcement, Seaspan has announced 70 newbuild orders with a total capacity of 839,000 TEU. This portfolio includes two 24,000 TEU ULCVs, but mostly comprises the smaller sizes, featuring 25 ships of 7,000 TEU, with 15 dual-fuelled LNG-powered.

Built in 2021, the CS Hunan Venture is one of the most advanced and energy-efficient VLCCs ever built in China.  The China Classification Society (CCS) found that CS Hunan Venture’s innovative design exceeds the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) baseline by more than 20pc.

The 307,000 DWT ‘CS Hunan Venture is an energy-saving and environmentally-friendly VLCC product tailor-made for China Shipbuilding Brokerage and Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings Ltd. Compared with the previous generation of products, this ship is significantly optimized and improved in terms of ship design and construction technology. It is the latest VLCC product developed by Dalian Shipbuilding industry, and its comprehensive performance indicators have reached the world's first-class level.

CCS President Mo Jianhui said another major VLCC related project CCS is working on with DSIC is an order for an LNG dual-fuel VLCC, which, will be the first LNG dual-fuel VLCC in the world and will be delivered around the end of 2021.