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Med ports' fermentation continues, but is it enough to make them gateways to Europe?
The Med Ports trade show 2017 in Barcelona last October turned out to be more significant than even its organisers from Genoa's Medi Telegraph imagined given the ferment occasioned by the Catalan independence plebiscite and aftermath.
What might have taken a broad look at pan-European shipping instead closely focused on the historically lacklustre performance of Mediterranean ports as they continue to see serious tonnage pass them by to circle the Iberian Peninsula and bestow their cargo on ports from Le Havre to Hamburg.
As crowds outside Barcelona's waterfront World Trade Centre seethed, demanding a fundamental change in the relations of Catalonia and the Castillian Spain, so too were shipping delegates demanding fundamental change between Med ports and the Asia-Europe trade lane that so ignores what they have to offer.
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World shipping appears to benefit from China's rivalry with India and Japan
There is an awareness in shipping today of growing rivalry among regional rivals in Asia, with an important input from the United States.
Allied with the US are India and Japan, both of which are wary of China and have formed economic and even military alliances with America just as China has made similar arrangements with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
This presents challenges and opportunities to world shipping - challenges if a flash point should flare up to disrupt trade flows while offering opportunities as each goes to great lengths to outproduce the other, creating fresh demand for shipping.
First among China's rivals, and the one with the greatest immediate potential is India, especially with its new laissez-faire government so bent on making India a modernised urban state.
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From Med to Black Sea - industry titans keep an eye out for the near future
Black Sea people form cultural melange divided by their different beliefs, yet share a salt water expanse which Greeks say Jason and the Argonauts crossed in search of the Golden Fleece in 1450 BC, which would bestow riches and kingly power.
Two thousand years later, Italian merchant-adventurer Marco Polo crossed the sea again to create the Silk Road to China - a route that is today revived by China as the Belt and Road initiative.
Given this, the Black Sea deserves a fresh look, as its citizen now enjoy economic revival after a long slump. GDP is once again on rise. In Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, though Georgia is having a bearish time, while its neighbours are enjoying a bull run.
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China's footprint in Africa builds news opportunities for 'Belt and Roaders'
Whatever humanitarian concerns have prompted the Chinese to improve the fortunes of sub-Saharan Africa, self-interest has certainly played a role since China became the continent's main trading partner in 2009, surpassing the US.
Admittedly, Chinese activities have raised eyebrows if not alarms despite Beijing's stated policy of non-interference in the internal affairs in countries in which it has growing business interests.
Bejing's mega investment have not only spawned massive infrastructure growth, but have also won advantageous trade deals, facilitating Chinese diversification into manufacturing, telecommunications and agriculture - in ways that might well win the admiration of the East India Company that took over the Indian subcontinent for the British.
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Mediterranean & Africa
Trade Specialists |
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