The post Towards a European vision on strategic assets? appeared first on Shipping today blog. The French government decided last Friday to temporarily nationalise the French shipyard STX. What does it mean and does it signal a willingness to intervene in other sectors, like container shipping? Nationalisation? Bruno Le Maire, French economy minister, has wilfully avoided to use the word nationalisation. In his terms, this is the deployment of preemption rights to temporarily take 100% control of the shipyard, just before a deal negotiated by the previous Hollande government would become activ ..read more

The post The geopolitics of container shipping alliances appeared first on Shipping today blog. What is the future of container shipping? Will industry consolidation continue and, if so, who will still exist in 2020? All highly relevant questions constituting a fairly amusing – yet nerdy – game at supply chain conferences. This often comes with the predictable disclaimer: nobody really knows. However, there are three “facts” that make predicting the future of the container shipping industry relatively easy. One wild card remains. 1. More consolidation is “needed” Almost all businesses in the l ..read more

The post Towards a sharing economy of port terminals? appeared first on Shipping today blog. There is a lot of excitement about what is called the “sharing economy”. Its genius: money is made by intelligently mutualising assets. The advantage for companies: less need for investments in assets. Its prime example: Uber. Shipping is not usually associated with such cool things. Quite the contrary. At almost every shipping conference, people talk about that mysterious Uber of shipping that will come and disrupt nearly everything. Many of us seem to be waiting for sexy sharing economy to finally me ..read more

The post Time for a new shipping narrative appeared first on Shipping today blog. Gustave Flaubert wrote a magnificent little book called “A dictionary of platitudes” a century ago. If someone would dare to write a similar dictionary on platitudes in the contemporary shipping world, the phrase “level playing field” would definitely need to be in it, probably on the same page as “global rules for a global industry”. Both phrases – used inter-changeably – are easy to understand and have proven to be very powerful ways to stop any debate that might lead to more stringent regulation for shipping ..read more

The post The new political divide and how shipping could bridge it appeared first on Shipping today blog. We already knew this, but the outcome of the first round of the French presidential elections has made one thing very clear: we have a new political divide. It is globalism versus nationalism, or: open versus closed that defines main political differences, no longer the traditional left-right dichotomy. The major enablers of economic globalisation – port-cities and maritime transport – play a key role in understanding and bridging that divide. All kinds of analysts have tried to give meani ..read more

The post Towards a port tax for automated terminals? appeared first on Shipping today blog. One of the biggest political issues of the coming decades is the future of work. Technological advances are such that more than half of the existing jobs could be automated. Automation might create new jobs, but these will very likely not offset the lost jobs. This has far reaching consequences: uncorrected, automation will erode tax income, welfare state and lead to very unequal income distribution. Curiously enough, these issues are mostly absent from current political debate. Could ports move that de ..read more

The post Disruption in shipping; regulators wake up! appeared first on Shipping today blog. What could disruptive innovation in container shipping look like? Surely a timely question. We have only started, but 2017 is already full of all kinds of disruptions; why would container shipping remain unaffected? There are obviously different approaches to this question; mine is the interplay of business strategy and government policy. The dominant business strategy in container shipping is economies of scale. Or: big is beautiful. The average capacity of a containership has quadrupled in two decades ..read more

The post EU maritime year: window for strategic reorientation? appeared first on Shipping today blog. 2017 will be a special year, in case you have not noticed. Each day brings the news of new political surprises that could potentially disrupt the global world order. If the last month is any indicator, 2017 promises to be the year in which everything needs to be reconsidered and nothing can be taken for granted. It could be a year of destruction; the challenge is to make this a creative destruction. By some lucky coincidence, 2017 is also the EU maritime year. Will Europeans use the opportunit ..read more

The post Shipping and emissions trading: in or out? appeared first on Shipping today blog. Tomorrow the European Parliament will vote in a plenary session on the possible inclusion of shipping into the EU-ETS. For some MEPs this may sound like a technical issue, best resolved in close cooperation with industry lobbyists. However, what is at stake is something more fundamental: the social responsibility of a corporatist economic system. Put differently: a moral test of what should be expected from firms supported by the public sector. Europe is hugely generous towards shipping. It allows countr ..read more

The post The sad story of a small island state appeared first on Shipping today blog. This is the story of a small island state. Think pristine beaches, massive unemployment and very high thyroid cancer rates. A country you might have never heard of were it not for its ship registry, one of the largest in the world. An international registry that is successful and well-respected, yet all but acts as an engine for local development. Our story is part of a larger geopolitical story. The registry is closely linked to an agreement with the US, under which the US guarantees military cover for the i ..read more