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Decarbonising world shipping means eliminating fossil fuels - is that what we really want to do?
In weighing the wisdom of the decarbonisation campaign in shipping, one soon discovers that this has become a public debate with only one socially acceptable side.
Try Googling for "opposition to decarbonisation", and up pop articles criticising those with the temerity to oppose decarbonisation. Yet when one digs deeper, the other side surfaces fearfully like a mole emerging from its subterranean lair.
The anti-decarbonisation argument boils down to the huge costs involves for scant return, It also requires the elimination of fossil fuels, with gains in human health being assumed rather than explained.
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The day approaches when Mediterranean ports will siphon off cargo bound for Northern Range
Evidence mounts that greater investment is going to be made in what might be called a Southern Mediterranean Strategy to fundamentally change traditional Asia-Europe trading patterns.
That is to say, a plan to replace, or at least reduce the dominance of Europe's Northern Range ports - from Le Havre to Hamburg - with a set of Mediterranean gateways from Piraeus to Barcelona through which imports and exports will go.
Of interest in this regard is Contship Italia Group, the Italian container terminal and intermodal branch of Eurokai, which has set out initiatives aimed at enhancing its national and international development along these lines.
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Determining the fate of the transpacific China trade now that the Democrats are in the saddle
The United States and the Peoples Republic of China now find themselves on differing yet parallel courses while sharing similar stresses as they find their very different political systems under siege.
The extent of domestic division is evident in the US, and while the depth of such problems in China are apparent, it is clear few want to do business with the totalitarian People's Republic unless necessity dictates otherwise.
While home-shoring or near-shoring has been a popular cry of the Trump administration, it is a policy that has enjoyed only limited success because Asia is where goods can be made cheaply in the quantities the world demands.
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How port choices impact ecommerce and effect changes in ways carriers do business in future
If the Covid crisis, with all its lockdowns, has taught us anything, it was how dependent we have become on the Internet. At sea, ocean shipping has been severely affected with its seafarers becoming virtual prisoners of their ships as carriers became unable to effect crew changes.
Ashore all walks of life have experience virtual contact with colleagues, students have attended virtual classes, and more relevant to this industry, online shopping, the retail aspect of ecommerce has enjoyed a boom as never before.
In this, the ocean carriers play a central, but simpler supporting role, that of delivering the bulk of what's wanted to the seaport that facilitates cross docking with the greatest efficiency at the least expense.
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