Parker, Barry
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BREAKBULK SHIPPING: Breakbulk Breaks the Mold
In the cargo shipping world, there’s the bulk sector, the container segment, and then, there is “everything else.”When it comes to ‘everything else,’ breakbulk is the cargo that resides in between, comprising much of that remainder, including forest products (lumber, baled pulp) and steel. Breakbulk may, at times, share space on multipurpose vessels that also handle heavylift and project cargo, but can also be transported on vessels that handle drybulk.
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SHORTSEA SHIPPING: All the Right Moves (Finally)
Marine Highways Gain Traction in the Intermodal Supply Chain.In the United States, landside infrastructure is at a crisis point. Congestion at the big hub ports, exacerbated by imperfect intermodal interfaces with surface transport serving cargo hinterlands is at the heart of the matter. As politicians bicker over a possible infrastructure package, the Highway Trust Fund, funded by taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, has continued its downward journey towards further deficits (now $144 billion).
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Cruising: Small is Beautiful
Cruise shipping, at the intersection of maritime and hospitality industries, continues to be vibrant. The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s major trade association, forecasts that the ocean cruise segment will draw 30 million passengers in 2019, up from 28.2 million in 2018. At the start of the decade, in 2010, the comparable count was 19.1 million passengers. CLIA members will have 272 vessels operating in 2019- with 18 ocean going vessels set to begin service.
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Shipping Ponders the Ultimate Cost of ‘Green’
Low sulphur fuels, scrubbers, LNG and other solutions are all part of the mix. Handicapping the impact of any of these options for the bottom line is anything but easy. Getting greener is not the problem; determining the best way to get there is quite another.By any measure, the business of running vessels will not be the same after January 1, 2020, when the present 3.5% limit on sulfur content will ratchet downward to 0.5%.
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The Digitalization of Tanker Logistics
The tanker business carefully dips its toes into the digital chartering, analytics and big (data) pond. It is a work in progress.Like every other business, raw materials, refined products and petrochemicals, are undergoing unprecedented waves of digitalization. However, shipping is one linkage, albeit an important one, within the much bigger supply chains for crude oil and products. But cargo is king…
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Boxships Buffeted by Competing Calamities
Overcapacity, Fleet Supply, Weakened Earnings, Consolidation – and now – fears of trade wars fuel further uncertainties for an already unsteady boxship climate. MLPro’s Barry Parker digs in to get to the bottom of all of it.The report season for 2018 Q1 corporate results saw an “earnings miss” (reported earnings below consensus forecasts of analysts) for the bellwether of listed container equities, A.P. Moller (APM), with its largest portfolio holding being Maersk Line.
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Bulk Shipping: Economics 101
Supply and Demand in the bulk transport sectors will define the course line ahead. Less ships and more cargo will be the key.The drybulk sector – where iron ore, coal, grain and other raw materials dominate – is still wrestling with a decade-long hangover that began with the financial collapse of 2008. A recovery ensued in 2010 and 2011, but, following the time honored trade pattern, the brighter outlook brought about an avalanche of new build orders and another drop in rates ensued.
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The Cruise Industry Business Model Evolves
Shifting populations, desirable destinations and yes – economics – drive the cruise industry of tomorrow. Unlike the cargo side of shipping, the cruise business has seen a steadily upward trajectory, with steady growth over decades. The 2018 annual “State of the Cruise Industry” report from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) was projecting a count of 27.2 million passengers for 2018, showing a steady rise from the 19.1 million…
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Green Shipping: Cargo Carriers Clutch at Compliance
LNG looms as the bridge to a ‘zero emissions’ future for shipping. The advent of industry wide tightening of allowable sulfur emissions is getting nearer. Suddenly, with the deadline now just one year away, the countdown clock will very soon be ticking much louder. Simply stated, the cap on allowable sulfur content in marine fuels, presently at 3.5 percent in many geographical regions, will be reduced to 0.5 percent in January 2020.
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Managing the New Panamax Containerships
The explosive growth of international boxships is challenging not only the physical infrastructure of North American ports, but also the very nature of the existing supply chains that they impact. The recent dialogue on container shipping has been all about so-called “mega-ships;” those vessels that with larger capacity than those that are already in service at any point in time. In the container trades…
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Better Times for Box Carriers Ahead?
In the choppy wake of the liner alliance reshuffle, industry consolidation and the (long awaited) boost from expanded Panama Canal traffic, a glimmer of hope appears. The situation for the liner carriers has clearly improved since the doldrums of 2016. Consultants Drewry were estimating that container carriers could book profits of $5 billion in 2017 – coming on the heels of half a decade of losses.
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Ports Ponder Public Private Partnerships
Because any port is only as efficient as its weakest link, so-called P3 funding will be the key to driving the future intermodal equation. Seaport and marine terminal finance draws from a wide range of funding sources, often combined to pay for a particular project. Ports are public goods, and as such, sometimes they also see varying contributions from federal, state, regional and local entities. At its lowest common denominator…
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Murky Waters Persist as Ballast Water Weighs on Shipowners
Ballast Water rules and approvals advanced in 2016. Shipowners, OEM’s and shipyards now have to do the same, as 2017 looks to be even busier. September 2016 was a milestone for the international shipping business. Fully 12 years after the international convention on Ballast Water Treatment (BWT) was agreed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the convention was officially ratified, after Flag States for 35 percent of merchant shipping tonnage voted “yes.” One year later…
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Digging Deep for Good News
Dredging firms look ahead to more business, here and across the big pond. Along the way, Mother Nature and good business planning will both help. In the waning days of 2016, the outlook brightened dramatically for the big U.S. dredging contractors. Just before Congress dispersed for the Holidays, then-President Obama signed a pivotal piece of legislation – the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, S612.
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Happy Holidays from Hanjin
Barry Parker dissects one the most disruptive events ever to impact the intermodal supply chain. There is more pain to come, lessons to be learned – and corrections applied. The Hanjin Shipping debacle, brewing over time and seeing a full blown eruption in late August, is still ongoing. The company voluntarily opted to enter ‘receivership,’ followed by a Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing in the States, shortly after the initial bombshell.
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US Boatbuilding: Exports Buoy Bottom Lines
Market conditions dampen some future prospects, but domestic yards have proven that they can compete overseas, and will do so again when the time is right. These are ‘interesting’ times for U.S. shipbuilders. The tail end of one of the biggest boom cycles seen in the last 50 years also finds some builders at the pointy end of once-fat backorder books and searching for new sources of business. This point in the cycle, however, also provides ample proof that U.S.
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Ship Management and Technology
Technology is central, not merely an add-on, to ship manager brand value. Ship managers who operate vessels on behalf of their owner clients, are the lynchpin of international shipping. As the industry has gone through rounds of relentless cost cutting, at times of increasing regulatory scrutiny, and commercial pressures for high standards, third party managers have filled the need for raising quality, while maintaining tight cost controls.
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The Other Side of the Flange
Looking beyond the dollars and cents in the demise of bunker giant OW Bunker, MarPro contributor Barry Parker examines the unusual human resources aspect of the story. The old cliché in shipping and commodity businesses says that, “When the tide recedes, you can see which vessels have hulls that are battered up, or worse, actually breached.” OW Bunkering, which took on water and foundered in November…
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Powering Ahead with Wind Assist Technologies
Wind assist technologies have come of age for shipping companies. A panel discussion entitled “Accelerating Adoption of Double Digit Fuel Saving Technologies,” at the recent Danish Maritime Days in early October drove this point home nicely. Describing the meeting in Copenhagen, Dr. Tristan Smith, from University College London’s (UCL) Energy Institute, told Maritime Professional last month that “……
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The Human Aspect of the Autonomous Ship
Arguably a long way off, the autonomous ship is likely coming. What that means for labor, the stakeholders that prepare mariners to go to sea and the firms that will operate these futuristic vessels is another thing altogether. According to Dr. Jeremy Rifkin, a Wharton professor who has advised the European Union on Sustainability, among other things, we are in the midst of a ‘Third Industrial Revolution.’…
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