COS Weekly Newsletter - Friday, 22 July 2022

The Financial Post article this week, "Maritime shipping tries to reduce emissions, but key obstacles remain in its lane," provides a good outline of the challenges facing the shipping industry's efforts to decarbonize.  While technology is evolving to support lower emissions, the lack of clarity on the availability of low-emission fuels and shore power needed to support the industy's target is still unknown and evolving internationally, leaving many shipowners in limbo.

The British Columbia Ferry Services Board has appointed Jill Sharland as Interim President and CEO of BC Ferries, effective today following the dismissal of Mark Collins.  The announcement comes from the newly appointed chair, Joy MacPhail who states, "Like many organizations, BC Ferries has faced recent staffing shortages, service interruptions and COVID-related challenges. There are no quick fixes to these systemic challenges but as a board, we believe it is time for renewal, fresh ideas and a renewed commitment to the highest standards of customer service, safety and affordability."  Ms. Sharland is a senior finance and operations executive who is currently Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at BC Ferries. She will continue to fulfill her duties as CFO as she leads the company in the delivery of safe, reliable and affordable ferry service to coastal British Columbia. A robust and professional search to select the company’s permanent CEO will soon be launched.

Denien Ford, our Director of Policy and Senior Advisor for Intermodal retired from the Chamber at the end of June after 8 years with our organization. She joined the Chamber after serving as a member of our Liner Committee for many years, and while she was instrumental in supporting many of our committees, she is probably most recognized for her on-going support of the ECHO program. We miss her, but wish her the very best in her retirement in Kelowna, BC.

This week on Bowen Island, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with the Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra, and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard, Joyce Murray, announced that the Government of Canada is committing another $2 billion to continue and expand the work under the Oceans Protection Plan for another 9 years.  While the announcement stated that there are 15 new initiatives, details are expected to be announced later this month.  However, OPP 2.0 is expected to focus on improving efficiency, safety and sustainability of Canada's "marine supply chains" and mitigate their impacts on the environment.  We expect investment in better tools to manage marine traffic and navigation off the coasts and an initiative focused on proactive emergency response measures.

Canada, along with Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, has signed a joint statement at the 2022 Supply Chain Ministerial Forum to work together to further strengthen supply chains, to work to reduce and end near-term disruptions, and to build long-term resilience. The global supply chain principles include transparency, diversification, security, and sustainability.  The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, signed the statement on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Truck protests, originally intended to last a few days, have swelled since they began Monday, bringing cargo movements at the Port of Oakland almost to a standstill. Truckers say they are prepared to block the West Coast’s third-busiest container port until California Gov. Gavin Newsom listens to concerns about a new state law that will make it harder for them to operate as the state is tightening its definitions of non-employee drivers, upending decades-long practices that have allowed truckers to work as independent contractors. The California law, known as AB5, will force many of the estimated 70,000 independent owner-operators to seek work as employee-drivers or pay more for insurance and permits to remain independent. Container yards are full and already challenged in managing efficient loading and unloading of container vessels.  Port officials said 15 container ships were waiting for berth space by the docks on Wednesday.

Last Friday President Biden signed an Executive Order ahead of a deadline to intervene in labour negotiations between freight rail carriers and their unions.  The Order triggers a "cooling-off" period and establishes a Presidential Emergency Board to help resolve the ongoing dispute. The Board will provide a structure for workers and management to resolve their disagreements and deliver a report recommending how the dispute should be resolved within 30 days of its establishment.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements today with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for 22 million of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain exports — as well as Russian grain and fertilizer — ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe. The plan, known as the “Black Sea Initiative,” would open a path for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea: Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.  The deal makes provisions for the safe passage of ships. A control center will be established in Istanbul, staffed by U.N., Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian officials, to run and coordinate the process. Ships would undergo inspections to ensure they are not carrying weapons.

Globally, less than 2% of world trade is carried on electronic bills of lading. This is partly due to lack of open standards and interoperability. To help increase adoption of digital trade documents in shipping, BIMCO has published an electronic bill of lading standard. The BIMCO electronic bill of lading standard is a structured dataset consisting of 20 predefined data fields that are common to bulk shipping bills of lading. Find more information and documentation for the new standard.  BIMCO is a founding member of the FIT (Future International Trade) Alliance, a cross-industry coalition of organisations working together to produce open standards for electronic trade documents. BIMCO’s eBL Standard is aligned with the UN/CEFACT Multimodal Transport Reference Data Model as well as the standards produced by FIT Alliance members. The members of the FIT Alliance are: BIMCO, DCSA, FIATA, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and SWIFT.

Last week the Happy Dover, a heavy load carrier departed Seaspan’s Vancouver Drydock after a quick clean up that included removal of marine growth, painting the underwater hull and hull sides, ballast tank inspections and replacing the seals on the propeller blades and stern tube.

The 157m long vessel features two large holds, which can accommodate anything from shipping containers to smaller vessels. The aft hold alone measures in at about half the length of the vessel and can accommodate up to seven large shipping containers.

After a 14-day docking period in #NorthVan, the Happy Dover is headed across the Pacific Ocean to return to its regularly scheduled mission of transporting heavy loads all over the world. It’s not every day we get to see a bright yellow vessel at the Drydock. Great job and photos from the VDC crew.