COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 6 May 2022

The Port of Prince Rupert is adding 16 new vessel calls to its upcoming cruise schedule that has the potential to bring upwards of 46,000 additional cruise passengers – about a 330% increase from the previously published schedule – to the community this spring and summer. The Ruby Princess, operated by Princess Cruises, will make her inaugural call on Prince Rupert on Tuesday May 17th and will include the Port as a regular stop on the ship’s Alaska itinerary approximately every 10 days. With a capacity of 4,180 passengers and crew, the Ruby Princess will significantly increase cruise visitor and vessel call volumes to Prince Rupert this year. The Port of Prince Rupert now expects 43 cruise vessel calls and approximately 60,622 passengers in total to visit Prince Rupert between now and September 30th.

Canadian Pacific (CP) has just published its 2021 corporate sustainability data supplement covering sustainability metrics and performance in the areas of safety, operational excellence, and social impact. As part of its Climate Strategy aimed at science-based emissions reduction targets, in 2021 CP achieved a 44 percent improvement in locomotive fuel efficiency compared to 1990.  Last April CP began generating renewable electricity from a newly constructed solar energy farm at its Calgary headquarters, producing 4,378 MWh of electricity in 2021, and just this week selected ATCO Group to build two hydrogen production and refuelling stations in Alberta as part of its Hydrogen Locomotive Program to create North America's first line-haul hydrogen locomotive.

The Chamber of Shipping was pleased to sponsor the Vancouver Maritime Centre for Climate's first anniversary yesterday hosted by co-founders Elisabeth Charmley and Bryan Buggey.  Joining the celebration was BC Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, Hon. Ravi Kahlon along with ship owners, port and terminal operators, energy providers, local and international blue-tech suppliers, and innovators. This week VMCC's Operation Flagship launched its Blue BC Challenge which provides funding for five distinct challenges covering electric power, port efficiency and ship performance improvements.  Applications are will be accepted until June 3rd.

The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced proposed amendments to the Transportation Information Regulations to collect new freight rail information to enhance the transparency and competitiveness of the freight rail system. The amendments would require class 1 rail carriers to report to Transport Canada on waybill, traffic, and service and performance information, for the benefit of all rail users. A 60-day public consultation period follows the publication of the proposed amendments in Canada Gazette, Part I.

From May 5th monitoring for Southern Resident Killer Whales will begin in the southern Gulf Islands. Similar to last year, salmon fishing closures in the southern Gulf Islands (a key foraging area for Southern Resident Killer Whales) will close once Southern Resident Killer Whales are confirmed in the area. Once detected, recreational and commercial salmon fishing (areas in yellow in map) will be triggered closed until October 31, 2022.

Information on the implementation of these closures will be communicated to fishers through a Fishery Notice. This fishing closure protocol has begun one month earlier compared to 2021 and is part of the 2022 Southern Resident Killer Whale management measures.

The three global ocean carrier alliances (2M, OCEAN, and THE) and each of their member companies will now be required to provide enhanced pricing and capacity information, providing the Federal Maritime Commission with uniform data to use in assessing ocean carrier behavior and marketplace competitiveness. The newly mandated information will provide the Commission’s Bureau of Trade Analysis (BTA) with insight into the pricing of individual trade lanes and by container and service type. It will also provide more immediate information regarding capacity management decisions of ocean carriers and alliances.  Carriers participating in an alliance will need to submit pricing information on cargo moved on the major trade lanes, and both carriers and alliances will be mandated to submit comprehensive information related to capacity management.

One of the key responsibilities of the Commission, through BTA, is to continuously monitor compliance with agreement authorities and to determine if agreements have an anticompetitive impact on the marketplace. The Commission will assess its reporting requirements continuously and adjust the information it requires ocean carriers and alliances to file as circumstances and business practices change. Additional changes to requirements will be issued as warranted.

This week Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) released its study on "Terminal Automation in Southern California: Implications for Growth, Jobs, and the Future Competitiveness of West Coast Ports." The timing of the release ahead of contract negotiations between dockworkers and employers on the US west coast scheduled to start on May 12th has been criticized by the ILWU.  The study finds that container throughput per acre at the two automated terminals of the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex was 44% higher than at the 11 non-automated box facilities at the twin ports. Furthermore, the report finds that automation increased ILWU jobs and work opportunities and that paid hours grew more than twice the level at the non-automated terminals and that the overall workforce at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports grew more than at the other 27 West Coast ports.

Enbridge and Humble plan to develop a utility-scale ultra-low carbon production facility, capable of supplying both low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia. The facility will be located at the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC) near Corpus Christi, Texas. Moreover, up to 95 percent of the CO2 from the production process will be sequestered in a new carbon capture infrastructure. This will include facilities owned and operated by Enbridge. Therefore, this will be a fully integrated low-carbon solution. This follows a recent announcement of similar developments announced recently in Japan and Portugal opening the door for green shipping corridors in the near future.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) advises that 500 seafarers remain onboard 109 vessels stranded in Ukraine ports or nearby seas and calls for the preservation of humanitarian corridors.  Approximately 1,500 seafarers have been evacuated from stranded vessels via humanitarian corridors that included flights and buses from ports, organized by maritime labour supply states of those affected.  Some of the evacuees are still awaiting further transfer from shore locations in Ukraine.  The International Labour Organization (ILO), the IMO, UNHCR and humanitarian organizations have coordinated deliveries of food, water, and medicines to the remaining crew. While some supplies have reached the intended recipients, delivering aid continues to be extremely difficult, particularly in high-risk areas.  The affected crew are largely from the Philippines and India, while other nationalities include Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese, Danish, Greek and Turkish.

India is planning to reopen more than 100 coal mines previously considered financially unsustainable. India is facing its worst power crisis in over six years, and officials have been scrambling to arrange supply for power plants whose pre-summer inventories are at over nine-year lows with power demand set to rise at the fastest pace in at least 38 years.

Over 43% of the plants fired by imported coal, which have a total capacity of 17.6 gigawatts (GW) and account for 8.6% of India’s total coal power capacity, are currently idle. Financially stressed idle plants will be able to restructure debt, while a government committee will facilitate passing on higher costs of generation to customers, the government said in an order.

The Nippon Foundation has successfully deployed the Suzaku, a 95-meter, 749 metric ton container ship on a 790-kilometer round-trip autonomous voyage between Tokyo Bay and Matsusaka port in the city of Tsu, Mie.  The Suzaku successfully automatically departed from Tokyo Bay on February 26 and crossed to a stretch of water out from the port of Matsusaka, a 20-hour one-way journey, before returning to Tokyo Bay on the morning of March 1. While the crew did engage manual override on a few occasions, the automated collision avoidance system activated 97.4% of the time on the outbound journey and 99.7% of the time on the return journey.

One significant feature of the trial was the utilization of a ground support station in Chiba. Described as being “like an airport control tower” and “an essential element in making autonomous shipping a commercial reality,” the station gathers meteorological and marine data, as well information on traffic volumes, and monitors operational status and engine room status, enabling control of the ship to be overridden remotely in an emergency. This was a truly comprehensive trial, complete with sea-to-ground communication links.

Around 500 ships traverse Tokyo Bay every day, making it 50% busier than the Singapore Strait and 10 times busier than the Panama Canal.