Lloyd's List: The Shipping Podcast

The global climate circus heads to Baku, Azerbaijan this weekend for the start of the annual COP confab. That’s the Conference of the Parties, meaning signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP 29. Shipping will be there, but don’t expect much in the way of headline conclusions this year. If there is going to be any progress from this meeting, it’s going to f...

Once a year, an industry alliance of first-movers and green investors gather in a room for shipping’s answer to Davos, the annual Global Maritime Forum. And it’s always an interesting conversation. These are shipping’s optimists. The progressive cohort of industry leaders who have collectively invested billions of dollars in decarbonisation projects and spawned voluntary projects advancing everyth...

There have been shipowners listed on Wall Street going back to the 1980s, but it was only in the mid-2000s – with the China trade boom – that the shipping industry really came to the US public markets in a major way. In the two decades since then, there have been some controversies with these listed shipowners. These controversies have involved conflicts of interest: self-dealing by private sponso...

This episode of the Lloyd’s List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage for more information. Some shipowners warn that crew supply is only set to get worse due to a lack of young people wanting a career at sea. Others are concerned about the need to upskill existing crews to handle increasing digitalisation and multiple fuel types. This comes during a peri...

THERE is a hint of clickbait about this week’s title – we at Lloyd’s List are of course very passionate about diversity in shipping. But as the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association celebrates its 50th birthday at its annual meeting in Cyprus – the question of why shipping still hasn’t achieved gender parity loomed large. Female representation in board rooms is a societal problem, b...

This episode of the Lloyd's List Podcast was brought to you by Veson. Visit https://veson.com/decision-advantage/ for more information. There is a very detailed series of policy discussions happening right now inside the walls of the International Maritime Organization. The question of whether the IMO can stick to its timetable and agree the basic architecture of shipping’s energy transition via a...

Eric Christofferson is chief product officer at Veson Nautical, which is a provider of maritime data and freight management solutions to support global commerce. In this sponsored edition of the podcast, he comments on how data is reshaping how shipping contracts and compliance are managed.

This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast is brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more information Law and insurance editor David Osler assembles a star-studded line-up at the International Union of Marine Insurance annual conference in Berlin to assess the strength of the market in 2024

In the long run, ‘doing good is good for business’, believes Natalie Sallaum, chief relationship officer at the vehicle carrier Sallaum Lines. In this edition of the Shipping Podcast, she draws on the company’s extensive experience of supporting community environmental initiatives to set out the benefits of being proactive about CSR and ESG

This episode of the Lloyd’s List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd’s Register — visit www.lr.org/en for more information THE multi-fuel future of shipping is looking more limited than it was a year ago. We know what the three major molecules are – methane, methanol and ammonia. But this isn’t a question of picking a fuel and supporting it as if it were a sports team to be followed blindly. Shipo...

This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information. Should you wish to list all of the various risks, road blocks, unresolved problems and known challenges ahead for the shipping industry you will need a long piece of paper and ideally some medical assistance on standby. This is not a task for the faint of heart or those of a...

This episode of the Lloyd's List podcast was brought to you by Lloyd's Register - visit www.lr.org/en/ for more information. In China, shipyards that were distressed assets just years ago are now highly sought after. And if you happened to buy into some back then, congratulations; you likely stand to make a windfall profit. Shanghai-headquartered DCL Investments made one such shrewd play more than...

What do I build? Where do I build it? How much does it cost? And when can I get it? That’s the checklist of shipowner’s questions right now as they consider newbuildings. If you asked a shipowner what they would be looking for a decade ago the answer to those questions would be pretty standard. If money was no object they would plump for the quality of Japanese yards, they would know exactly which...

THE headline takeaway from the 2024 edition of the top 100 container port was a second successive year of muted volume growth during 2023 for the biggest container ports. The total tally of just over 690m teu handled by the top 100 ports represented a 0.8% rise on the previous year, continuing the trend of the ‘tepid 20s’ post-Covid with volume growth only marginal. Lloyd’s List deputy editor Lint...

Strict but fair. That’s the description of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority from retiring chief executive Mick Kinley. Some of the world's biggest shipping companies have been named and shamed by the regulator in recent years and their vessels banned from entering ports over sub-standard conditions or not paying crew. Speaking with characteristic Australian candour and colour, Kinley refle...

Concerns around security and geopolitics intensified at the end of last year as the Houthis began targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden under the cover of a show of support for Hamas. Adding to the deteriorating situation was the resurgence in Somali piracy as some actors sought to take advantage of the chaos. Since November we’ve seen nearly 90 incidents related to the Red Sea crisis...

A few hours after the containership Dali (IMO: 9697428) destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, there were media reports suggesting investigators would look into ‘bad bunkers’ as a potential cause of the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled out that possibility after its initial investigation. But this incident alone gives us a good idea about the perception of the...

In a market where unpredictability has become predictably common, the whole concept of accurate earnings guidance from the lines fell overboard several quarterly reports ago. Forecasts are couched in ever more provisional language as volatility and black swans continue to demand near constant expectation management amid yo-yoing sentiment. While US retailers were baulking at the return of $10,000...

THE prospect of a dominant Trump presidency is significantly more like than it was only a week ago. But what does that mean for shipping? Will the anticipated “Trump trade” really result in more inflation, higher interest rates and sweeping tariffs? Will the inevitable bonfire of Biden’s environmental rules put the brakes on shipping’s already hesitant energy transition? And what about the all imp...

The explosion of sanctions have demanded a compliance sea change from the marine insurance sector. But despite the rapid pace of investment to keep up, P&I Clubs have found themselves struggling to enforce an increasingly unenforceable regime. The flawed nature of the oil price cap regime is hardly news. But while the rest of the industry get to criticise from the sidelines it is the P&I Clubs who...

The threat posed by Houthi missiles and uncrewed surface vessels sits at the lower end of the risk spectrum for shipping. Things could be worse. A lot worse. That was the rather worrying assessment this week from the latest in a series of Geopolitical risk webinars we’ve been running here at Lloyd’s List and for this week’s podcast we are bringing you a few highlights from the discussion. The Red...

As unpalatable as it may be to say out loud, global turmoil is pretty good for business. Shipping CEOs are as happy as shipping CEOs generally get to be.[Sidebar#LL1149672] They are after all a pretty philosophical bunch at heart and they understand that all this has been seen before and will be seen again. They know that unexpected good fortune tends to come with a flipside. What comes up must co...

When we talk about green shipping, are we always talking about actions that have a net benefit in terms of reduction of greenhouse gases? Are the commercial choices we make today about reducing absolute emissions, or just the most pragmatic financial options on the table? And are the regulations we are negotiating genuinely addressing the problem of climate change, or just part of a wider exercise...

There is a growing body of opinion across shipping that is routinely referring to nuclear, alongside carbon capture technology, as the only real options on the table that will allow shipping to fully decarbonise by 2050. Has the previously fringe option of nuclear powered ships now become sufficiently mainstream for the industry to genuinely consider leapfrogging ammonia and hydrogen as a more pra...

Pragmatism seems to be the new buzzword sweeping through the shipping executive lexicon. What that means though requires a bit of decoding. Those of you who have been schlepping round the conference circuit at Posidonia in Athens this week will have no doubt noticed that it comes up quite a lot when talking about decisions that have not been made. A lot has happened in the past few years, we need...