COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 29 April 2022

Swire Shipping Pte Ltd, a leading operator of liner shipping services in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe,  announced that its affiliate, SSPL US Inc., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Westwood Shipping Lines Inc., from J-WeSco Ltd, a subsidiary of The Sumitomo Warehouse Co. Ltd. The acquisition complements Swire Shipping’s growth strategy to widen its liner network while also vertically integrating many of its shipping services with first- and last-mile land services. Swire Shipping currently owns a multi-purpose fleet providing a wide range of specialist customer solutions for containerised, project, heavy lift, breakbulk and mini-bulk cargoes.

Founded in 1980, Westwood services the Transpacific trade as a first- class multipurpose operator dedicated to Japan, Korea and China markets to and from Pacific Northwest. It is headquartered in Puyallup, WA. Jeremy Sutton, Chief Operating Officer, Swire Shipping, said after the closing of the acquisition, Westwood will continue to provide its current services with its strong team of professionals in Japan, USA, Canada, Korea, and China. Senwa Maritime Agency, Ltd., will also continue to serve as Westwood’s general agent in Japan, along also with Hyop Woon International Co., Ltd., its long-term agent in Korea. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Ridley Terminals is rebranding to a new name and identity to reflect the company's transformation that began in late 2021.  The new name, Trigon Pacific Terminals Limited (Trigon) is inspired by Coast Tsimshian artistic traditions and Indigenous ownership and reflects the significant recent and future planned changes at the terminal, and its accelerating progression towards a more diversified and sustainable future. Formerly a Crown corporation, the terminal is now privately-held by AMCI Group, Riverside Holdings and the Lax Kw'alaams Band and Metlakatla First Nation.

The three-pointed "trigon" that will now be the visual identifier of the terminal is a design element drawn from the cultural context of the company's Indigenous co-owners that is frequently seen within Indigenous art. The "trigon" is known to represent the concepts of transition and upward movement, and speaks to Trigon's ownership, connection to the community and vision for the future.

Canadian Pacific and Hapag-Lloyd AG will be adding a call into Port Saint John, N.B., via a seasonal extra loader in another step forward for the growing Atlantic Canada port. This additional call follows their inaugural service call into Port Saint John in May 2021, connecting via CP rail service to inland markets in Canada and the United States. CP regained access to Port Saint John in June 2020 with the strategic acquisition of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway, which has connections with the Eastern Maine and New Brunswick Southern railways. This vital link to Port Saint John provides the shortest route between Atlantic Canada and North American inland markets, including a 269-mile advantage over our competition to Montreal, Toronto and Chicago, creating value for shippers across North America. Port Saint John has embarked on an enhanced modernization program that will increase container capacity to 800,000 TEUs and provide additional on-dock rail capacity in the coming months and years.

On March 17, 2022, the Government of Canada issued a call to all employers who wish to support Ukrainians with offers of employment to register these offers on Job Bank's Jobs for Ukraine webpage. On Jobs for Ukraine, employers can create a job posting and let Job Bank know it is for Ukraine. These jobs will be open to all persons legally entitled to work in Canada and marketed to Canadian newcomers including Ukrainian newcomers via a dedicated channel. Already, close to 1 500 employers have advertised over 12,000 job vacancies.  These jobs have been viewed over 47,000 times. We encourage you to register with ESDC’s Job Bank to support Ukrainians coming to Canada.  The Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel (CUAET) allows Ukrainians and their immediate family members to stay in Canada for up to 3 years and to work in Canada during this time.  However, in the marine sector seafarers do not have to reside in Canada to work onboard Canadian vessels.

Also as circulated previously SSB No.: 08/2022: Ukrainian seafarers can now seek Canadian recognition of their STCW certificates addresses the nuances regarding the reciprocal arrangement process specifically for Ukrainian seafarers, and you can refer to the SSB for next steps re: endorsing seafarer certification. If you have any further questions regarding the application process to endorse Ukrainian seafarers please contact RecognitionofCertificates-Reconnaissancedesbrevets@tc.gc.ca.

Transport Canada has updated the Ship Safety Bulletin No. 17/21 : Measures for Persons (other than passengers) on Canadian Vessels and Foreign Passenger Vessels Operation in Canadian Waters to Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19 (modified April 26, 2022) and Updates to Ship Safety Bulletin No. 18/21: Measures to Support Safe Cruise Travel in Canada (modified April 26, 2022).

According to the results of a new study from IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Celonis on supply chain resiliency, Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) recognize the critical role that hybrid cloud, AI, process mining and execution management play in helping them overcome the disruptions they've faced over the last two years. In fact, 72% of CSCOs surveyed expect their processes and workflows to be automated over the next three to five years—and 69% plan to accelerate cloud adoption to enhance real-time data access. The study, The resilient digital supply chain: How intelligent workflows balance efficiency and sustainability, surveyed almost 500 CSCOs across 10 industries including banking, consumer products, manufacturing and automotive. Furthermore, 66% of surveyed CSCOs said sustainability is a core element of overall business value. More than half (51%) of CSCOs surveyed said they would be willing to sacrifice profit—on average 5% to improve sustainability outcomes—equating to $22bn for US Fortune 500 companies in one year.

The US Coast Guard has released its 2021 annual report on Port State Control. Flag Administration performance for 2021 dropped slightly with the overall annual detention rate decreasing from 0.77% to 0.73%.  Additionally, the three-year rolling detention ratio decreased from 1.02% to 0.87%. Barbados, Cook Islands, Liberia, Malta, and the Philippines were removed from the Targeted Flag List this year. In 2021, the Coast Guard issued nearly double the deficiencies for non-compliance with the regulations over the previous year’s numbers. The majority of the deficiencies were issued to vessels with inoperable systems, deficient ballast water management plans, and to those that failed to report mandatory ballast water practices to the National Ballast Water Clearinghouse (NBIC) within specified timeframes. On the positive side, the Coast Guard is seeing a trend of vessels reporting their inoperable systems prior to arrival and a 60% reduction in the number of discharges of non-compliant ballast water into waters of theUnited States.

Hapag-Lloyd will equip its entire container fleet with real-time tracking devices. After successfully introducing real-time monitoring for its reefer container fleet in 2019 with the IoT product Hapag-Lloyd LIVE, the company will start to install newly developed devices to all standard containers of its three million TEU fleet. Hapag-Lloyd continues to further digitalize container shipping and Hapag-Lloyd LIVE will become available for customers of its standard containers during 2023.  The devices will be able to transmit data on a real-time basis from each container and by this make the supply chain more transparent and efficient. They can supply location data based on GPS, measure temperature and monitor any sudden shocks to the container. In future, additional sensors could be added through Bluetooth. To ensure safety for crews, cargo, and vessels the devices are designed and certified to the ATEX Zone 2 explosion proof standard. The company will continue to work together with key customers to develop and expand the product and its features based on their feedback.

China's Covid lockdowns are worsening congestion at Chinese ports, resulting in carriers suspending their services and cancelling bookings for cargo exported to China. Over-the road and intermodal shipments from Shanghai are reported to be down by 41 percent, while deliveries dropped by 72 percent over the last month. Four Kites data shows strong ocean cargo flows at Shenzhen (where lockdown was recently lifted) and Ningbo-Zhoushan ports, however ocean freight in Shanghai has dropped by 23 percent over the last two weeks, and due to the Covid restrictions, the two-week average import time was up to eight days, increasing the ocean dwell time by 144 percent. Imports of refrigerated products have been severely impacted and some lines have stopped booking reefer and dangerous cargo containers to Shanghai. Exports were down by 20 percent.

Ulstein has launched 'Ulstein Thor', a 149m 3R (Replenishment, Research and Rescue) design that will feature a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) to generate vast amounts of clean, safe electricity. This enables the vessel to operate as a mobile power/charging station for a new breed of battery-driven cruise ships. The vessel concept is capable of making the vision of zero-emission cruise operations a reality.

MSRs are safe, efficient and operationally proven solutions that work by dissolving Thorium – an abundant, naturally occurring metal with low radioactivity – in liquid salt. The ensuing chain reaction heats the salt, producing steam to drive a turbine and create electricity. Although developments on land are well documented, its potential for delivering clean maritime power has yet to be incorporated into a vessel design.

‘Thor’s’ charging capacity has been scaled to satisfy the power needs of four expedition cruise ships simultaneously. ‘Thor' itself would never need to refuel. As such, ‘Thor’ is intended to provide a blueprint for entirely self-sufficient vessels of the future.