Danish company has axed 6,500 of those roles already, with global economic slowdown taking toll
One of the world’s largest shipping companies, Møller-Maersk, is cutting 10,000 jobs because of a drop in demand triggered by the global economic slowdown.
The Danish company said it had already started cutting staff but was planning on “intensifying” cost-saving measures in order to safeguard its financial performance as price forecasts worsened.
Continue reading...Civilian vessel left port of Odesa and travelled down temporary corridor set up after Moscow pulled out of UN-backed Black Sea grain deal
A civilian cargo vessel has left Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa, Kyiv has said, despite warnings from Russia that its navy could target ships using the Black Sea export hubs.
The announcement raises the spectre of a standoff with Russian warships, after Moscow pulled out of a key deal last month brokered by the UN and Turkey, which guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments from three Ukrainian ports.
Continue reading...Number of vessels able to pass through each day limited because lower availability of water
Commercial ships are facing long queues and delays to travel through the Panama Canal as a lengthy drought in the Central American country has led to a cut in the number of vessels able to pass through one of the world’s most important trading routes.
In a fresh demonstration of the impact of the climate crisis on global business and trade, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which manages the waterway, introduced restrictions on the number of transiting vessels as a result of the drought.
Continue reading...Tanker contained four times as much oil as was spilled in 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska
The transfer of more than 1 million barrels of oil from an ageing tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been completed, avoiding an environmental disaster, the UN has said.
In a statement on Friday, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for UN secretary general António Guterres, said the operation had prevented a “monumental environmental and humanitarian catastrophe”.
Continue reading...With Russia blockading Ukraine’s eastern ports, an alternative route to the west is possible but faces serious problems
After failing to conquer Ukraine by conventional means, Russia tried an energy war, trying to hobble the power grid and freeze the nation into submission. Now it has launched a food war.
The mining of the Kakhovka dam in June threatens to turn southern Ukrainian farmland into a dustbowl. Since Moscow pulled out of an UN-brokered deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea last month, it has announced a naval blockade of the country’s ports, and directly targeted food (destroying 220,000 tonnes of cereals awaiting export in silos) on the sea coast but also inland with attacks over the past two weeks on the Danube ports of Reni and Izmail.
Continue reading...If strike were to occur, it would be the largest walkout in US history at a single private employer, costing company $170m a day
The Teamsters and delivery giant UPS look set to return to the negotiating table next week as a strike deadline of 1 August approaches for 340,000 workers represented by the union to walk off the job if a new contract agreement isn’t reached by then.
On 5 July, contract negotiations broke down between the union and UPS as both sides are still apart on issues that include better starting pay for part-time workers, wage increases for full-time workers and more full-time roles.
Continue reading...Findings come as nations gather in London to discuss new carbon levy
Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping could be halved by 2030 without damaging trade, new research has found, as countries prepare to meet to discuss a potential new tax on carbon produced by ships.
Emissions from maritime transportation amount to about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and there are few alternatives to the cheap, heavy and dirty diesel oil used by ships.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ministers facing growing anger from Tory backbenchers over use of hotels in their constituencies
The Home Office is planning to use disused cruise ships to house asylum seekers amid growing anger from Conservative backbenchers over the use of hotels in their constituencies.
Ministers are looking at possible vessels including a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...‘Thrilling’ discovery on Fire Island could have come from a historic steam vessel that ran aground in 1821
A chunk of flotsam that washed up on a New York shoreline after Tropical Storm Ian last year has piqued the interest of experts who say it is likely part of the SS Savannah, which ran aground and broke apart in 1821, two years after becoming the first vessel to cross the Atlantic partly under steam power.
The roughly 13ft (four-meter) square piece of wreckage was spotted in October off Fire Island, a barrier island that hugs Long Island’s southern shore, and is now in the custody of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. It will work with National Park Service officials to identify the wreckage and put it on public display.
Continue reading...Egyptian authority says vessel was towed away for repairs after briefly disrupting traffic in vital waterway
A Norwegian-owned cargo ship briefly ran aground in the Suez canal before being refloated and towed away, according to the Egyptian authority running the vital waterway.
The vessel, which had experienced a sudden technical failure, was being removed by tugboats for repairs, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief, Osama Rabie, said on Monday. Maritime traffic was normal, he added.
Continue reading...Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage
The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.
The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.
Continue reading...Brokers in Monaco told it is ‘strictly prohibited’ to advertise sale of MySky on print or the internet
A superyacht built for an oligarch subjected to sanctions over the supply of weapons to the Russian army is being discreetly offered for sale for £26m, with buyers advised that any viewings will be in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.
Brokers are being warned that the sale of MySky, built for Igor Kesaev, should not be advertised online. The vessel’s latest recorded location was in a marina on a small island four miles south of Malé, the capital island of the Maldives.
Continue reading...Tanker blocked canal for hours, close to where Ever Given container ship became stuck, disrupting supply chains for a week
A tanker getting stuck used to be more the domain of niche business news, but that was before the Ever Given, so all eyes were soon on the Affinity V tanker’s plight in the Suez Canal.
On Wednesday, the 250-metre long Affinity V tanker was bound for Saudi Arabia when it ran aground close to the same spot in the narrow southern section of the canal in Egypt where the Ever Given container ship caused a week-long halt to traffic in March 2021, dominating global headlines and paralysing supply chains.
Continue reading...Sharon Graham, head of Unite, on picket line with Felixstowe dock strikers, says people could rise up again as they did in the 1990s
British workers are at breaking point, with anger over the cost of living crisis reaching a level not seen since the poll tax riots of the 1990s, the head of one of the UK’s most powerful trade unions has said.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said frustration at pay failing to keep pace with soaring inflation was spilling over into a wave of strike action that would extend from a summer of discontent into the winter.
Continue reading...The country would run out within two months of a major disruption. Here are five ways to reduce vulnerability
China’s sabre-rattling about Taiwan underlines the need for Australia to be prepared for conflict in the South China Sea.
With its growing navy and air force, and the bases it has built throughout the area, China is increasingly capable of disrupting shipping lanes crucial to Australia’s exports and imports.
Continue reading...About 1,900 crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores involved in eight-day action
Workers at the UK’s biggest container port have gone on strike for the first time since 1989, with shipping companies and union leaders warning the action could impact supply chains and leave shoppers waiting for goods.
About 1,900 members of Unite at Felixstowe have walked out in a dispute over pay today, in the latest outbreak of industrial action to hit a growing number of sectors of the economy.
Continue reading...German authorities say buildup on river not caused by water levels despite record lows caused by drought
About 20 ships were stuck in traffic along Germany’s Rhine River after a vessel’s engine failure temporarily closed part of the waterway.
A ship with a 1,660-ton load was forced to drop anchor due to an engine failure, closing traffic between Sankt Goar and Oberwesel, river police said.
Continue reading...Owners prioritise multimillion-pound shareholder dividends over paying decent wages, says union
Dockers at Felixstowe are planning eight days of strike action over pay that could cause serious disruption to the UK’s largest container port.
Nearly 1,900 workers plan to stop work for more than a week at the Hong Kong-owned port, starting on Sunday 21 August and ending on Monday 29 August, according to the union Unite. The workers voted 92% in favour of strike action last week.
Continue reading...Fewer than 340 North Atlantic right whales remain and vessel strikes are among the biggest threats to the species
Vessels off the US east coast must slow down more often to help save a vanishing species of whale from extinction, the federal government said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement via new proposed rules designed to prevent ships colliding with North Atlantic right whales.
Continue reading...Vessel off Yemen with more than 1m barrels of oil aboard has been stranded for six years and is close to breaking up
A rare UN appeal to the public to raise $20m is to be launched on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent an environmental catastrophe caused by the potential break-up of an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen.
The money is needed to offload more than 1.14m barrels of oil that have been sitting in the decrepit cargo ship, Safer, for more than six years because of an impasse between Houthi groups and the Saudi-backed government over ownership and responsibility.
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