Latest news with #Caspian
Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Turkmenistan's Avaza hosts UN conference on landlocked countries
Turkmenistan's Avaza National Tourist Zone is hosting the third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries from August 4 to 8. The conference focuses on structural challenges faced by the world's 32 landlocked developing countries, which are home to over 600 million people. The conference was opened by Turkmenistan's National Leader and Chairman of the People's Council Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, together with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the 79th UN General Assembly session Philemon Yang, and representatives from international organizations and participating countries. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Guterres underlined the urgency of reducing global inequalities. 'These inequalities are not inevitable. This conference is not about obstacles — it is about solutions,' Guterres said. 'It is about launching a new decade of ambition — through the Avaza Program of Action — and fully unlocking the development potential of landlocked developing countries.' The UN chief called for bold action to support landlocked economies. 'Despite representing 7 percent of the world's population, LLDCs account for just over 1 percent of the global economy and trade — a stark example of deep inequalities that perpetuate marginalization," according to UN Secretary-General Guterres. UN officials aim to resolve this disparity through stronger partnerships and infrastructure investments. Located on the Caspian Sea coast near the port city of Turkmenbashi in western Turkmenistan, Avaza serves as a growing hub for wellness, leisure, and ecological tourism. Turkmenistan says the site shows its commitment to linking international diplomacy with regional development, with tourism as a key driver of the nation's socio-economic progress. Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdimuhamedov cited the historic conference on the shores of the Caspian and noted it as symbolic to promote peace, development and global cooperation in the International Year of Peace and Trust, a UN initiative proposed by Turkmenistan. Berdimuhamedov also said that the gathering shows unity with the goals of peace, progress and well-being. Meanwhile, Berdimuhamedov met with Guterres to reaffirm Turkmenistan's support for sustainable development and global integration on the sidelines of the event.
Hindustan Times
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
After massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Kamchatka, fears rise over strategic Russian base
Days after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake shook Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula area, concerns have grown over the state of one of Russia's most strategically significant military sites, which hosts some of the country's most advanced submarines. An aerial view shows Russian warships and submarines during major naval drills, which are conducted by the Russian Navy in the Pacific and Arctic oceans and in the Baltic and Caspian seas. (For representation/REUTERS) After the strong tremors hit near the Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, tsunami warnings were issued for far countries, including the United States and Japan. The Rybachiy nuclear submarine base, which is home to Russian President Vladimir Putin's deadliest military vessels, was located alarmingly close to the earthquake's epicentre, The Metro reported. Also Read: Russia earthquake: Scary videos show buildings shaking as quake hits Kamchatka The Rybachiy base in Avacha Bay is home to some of the Russian Navy's most strategic nuclear submarines and remains vital to the country's defense operations. It was located only around 120 kilometres from the earthquake epicentre. The proximity to one of the worst earthquakes in recent history has alarmed military experts and analysts, triggering speculation of the impact the tremors had on the facility. Radiation leak or accident launches? The closely guarded Rybachiy base in eastern Russia is believed to host the Russian Pacific fleet, including the 'Alexander Nevsky', 'Vladimir Monomakh', and K-44 Ryazan submarines. While the first two vessels are armed with 16 Bulava missiles, the Ryazan is a nuclear-powered submarine. Also Read: India's state refiners halt Russian oil purchases: Report The eastern base in Russia is one of the most militarily significant and closely guarded facilities. Apart from docking advanced submarines, the facility also has separate missile loading and shipyard facilities. Ever since the 8.8 magnitude quake struck off Russia's Far East, there have been growing speculations over the fate of the eastern base. The Metro report said that any structural damage to the facility, especially to nuclear reactors, could result in severe consequences. In a worst-case scenario, the earthquake-induced damages could inflict massive damage to the facility, resulting in a possible radiation leaks. It could also lead to accidental missile launches or even total loss of containment over nuclear assets, the report added. However, the Russian Ministry of Defence has not issued a public statement regarding the operational status of Rybachiy and the vessels hosted in the facility. Though its unclear which submarines were present in the Avacha Bay when the strong earthquake struck the area, military analysts are studying satellite images of the region to get a better perspective, according to The War Zone. Despite being one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history, the strong tremors only damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote region. However, the authorities in the Kamchatka Peninsula have not reported any fatalities or serious injuries.
Forbes
29-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Is Finally Tackling America's Unclaimed Duty Crisis
In international trade, one of the best-kept secrets is also the most expensive: over $10 billion in refundable tariffs goes unclaimed each year. Despite being legally entitled to recover these funds, companies fail to file duty drawback claims on an estimated 78% to 85% of eligible transactions. Enter a new wave of AI-powered trade management companies that have collectively raised tens of millions in venture capital over the past eighteen months. The latest of these is Caspian, which just emerged from stealth with $5.4 million in seed funding led by Primary Venture Partners. The San Francisco-based company, founded by ex-Flexport engineers Justin Sherlock and Matt Ebeweber, focuses specifically on duty drawback—the process of reclaiming tariffs paid on imported goods that are later re-exported. Caspian founders: Justin Sherlock and Matt Ebeweber This follows a surge of venture-backed players in the broader supply chain space, suggesting investors see significant opportunity across the trade technology spectrum as tariffs dominate international headlines. London-based bagged $2.2 million in seed funding last year from Fuel Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures for its AI compliance platform. And Altana raised a splashy $200 million Series C to address global value chains. Market Forces Fueling Growth The numbers tell a compelling story about both opportunity and market growth. Estimates vary, but the global trade management software market is expected to exceed $2.2B by 2032, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of roughly 8.4%. Despite this expanding market, the duty drawback opportunity remains largely untapped. In 2017, the total amount claimed was about $838 million, but by 2023, this figure had increased to an estimated $3.9 billion. This trajectory suggests businesses are becoming more aware of drawback opportunities, but it also underscores how much money has historically been left on the table. The venture-backed players entering this space face an interesting dynamic: They're not just competing for market share in an existing software category, but essentially creating demand for a service many businesses don't realize they need. "After working for over a decade in trade with brands and manufacturers struggling to navigate this overly complex process, we thought there had to be a better solution for businesses to manage tariff exposure,' said Justin Sherlock, founder and CEO of Caspian. 'Over 90% of eligible businesses are leaving cash on the table because claiming duty refunds is so painful. We built Caspian to leverage AI alongside our expert staff to make organizations' trade data usable, making claims more compliant and refunds easier to recover.' Trade Technology Market Positioning The Hidden Cost of Complexity Billions of dollars are left unclaimed every year. Many businesses pay duties on imports without realizing they could get that money back. The reasons are telling: duty drawback involves navigating a maze of regulations, matching import and export records across years of transactions, and filing paperwork with U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a process that can take months using traditional methods. This complexity has created a peculiar market dynamic. Most existing solutions focus on compliance and risk management, rather than financial recovery. The established competitive landscape includes several categories of players. Software-centric companies like OCR Inc.'s EASE Enterprise Suite offer web-based automation with ERP integration, while full-service providers like J.M. Rodgers Co. (JMR) claim high recovery rates of up to 99% with their CBP-approved proprietary software. Logistics giants like DHL Global Forwarding and Flexport offer drawback services as part of broader trade solutions, while specialized consultants like TecEx and Tradewin focus on specific segments or geographic markets. Alliance Drawback Services and Livingston International represent the traditional consulting model, offering expertise-heavy approaches that promise high recovery rates but require significant manual oversight. Meanwhile, e-commerce focused players like Swap Commerce target high-volume returns using SKU and inventory tracking. The New Guard: AI-First Approaches to Trade Tech The current funding environment reflects broader investor enthusiasm for AI applications in traditionally manual sectors. AI startups received fifty-three percent of all global venture capital dollars invested in the first half of 2025, with trade technology representing a small but growing slice. The competitive dynamics are revealing. New entrants are targeting different stages of the trade process: Caspian focuses on financial recovery, on compliance, and others like Revenir AI on workflow automation. Together, they may challenge incumbents like OCR and J.M. Rodgers by offering faster, more streamlined alternatives to legacy systems.. This division of labor suggests the market is large enough to support multiple approaches, but also highlights the complexity of trade operations that no single solution can fully address. The duty drawback space has long been dominated by traditional customs brokers and consulting firms who charge hefty fees—often 30 to 40 percent of recovered duties—for manual, labor-intensive processes. Established players like Tradewin and larger customs brokerage firms have built businesses around this complexity, but their methods haven't fundamentally changed in decades. On the technology side, Oracle can help businesses check the eligibility of imports for duty drawback and help automate key processes such as document gathering, regulatory compliance, and filing duty drawback requests through its Global Trade Management suite. Similarly, OCR's duty drawback software solution allows for easy access to the data needed to recover duty paid to CBP, while MIC-CUST revolutionizes duty refund management by facilitating refunds of up to ninety-nine percent on duties, taxes, and fees. However, even established players like Flexport are doubling down on AI integration. In February 2025, the logistics giant rolled out a suite of new AI-powered tools, signaling that incumbents aren't ceding ground to startups without a fight. This creates an interesting dynamic where venture-backed specialists must compete not just with traditional brokers like DHL Global Forwarding and Alliance Drawback Services, but with well-funded incumbents rapidly deploying their own AI solutions. What sets the newcomers apart is their AI-first approach and, in e.g. Caspian's case, its rare distinction as both a licensed customs broker and CBP-approved technology vendor—a regulatory combination that allows it to file claims directly with customs authorities, similar to established players like J.M. Rodgers Co. but with modern automation capabilities. The Trump Factor: Tariffs as Business Reality The stakes have never been higher. President Trump's renewed focus on tariffs has dramatically increased the amounts businesses pay in duties, making recovery programs more valuable than ever. New reciprocal tariffs that went into effect earlier this year — with new deals rolling in — add an additional 10 percent ad valorem duty on most imported goods, creating fresh opportunities for drawback claims. This environment has forced businesses to reconsider their trade strategies. 'Centralizing this data and executing these cost savings so quickly is a game-changer for our margins and inventory planning,' said Jim Franz, President, North America at UltiMaker, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of 3D printers that uses Caspian. The AI Promise and Its Limits There is a broader trend toward using artificial intelligence to automate traditionally manual financial processes, while companies like focus on preventing compliance issues through better data classification and documentation, companies like Caspian lean towards AI. Both approaches promise significant time savings—Caspian claims to submit duty drawback claims in days rather than months, while automates customs clearance procedures that traditionally require extensive manual review. This tension between automation and expertise reflects a broader challenge facing the entire venture-backed trade tech sector. Yet they must navigate the same fundamental challenge that has allowed established players like J.M. Rodgers Co. and TecEx to maintain high recovery rates: trade regulations that require nuanced interpretation. The competitive benchmarks are daunting. Traditional providers like J.M. Rodgers and Alliance Drawback Services claim recovery rates of up to 99% of duties, with the ability to file retroactive claims up to three to five years prior. For venture-backed startups to succeed, they must not only match these recovery rates but do so while offering superior user experience and faster processing times. Market Dynamics and Consolidation Pressure The influx of venture capital into trade technology suggests investors believe the market is ripe for disruption. Primary Venture Partners' Emily Man frames it as creating an entirely new software vertical: "tariff management." However, the market faces natural consolidation pressures. Large enterprises often prefer working with established customs brokers who handle their full trade compliance needs rather than point solutions. Meanwhile, smaller businesses that could benefit most from automated duty drawback often lack the trade volume to justify the cost of any solution. This creates a challenging middle market opportunity that challenger companies must navigate carefully. Success will likely depend on demonstrating clear ROI while building the regulatory credibility that only comes with time and successful claim filings. The Regulatory Wild Card Perhaps the biggest unknown is how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will adapt to increased automation in duty drawback filing. CBP completed sixty-seven audits in May that identified one hundred thirty-nine million dollars in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government, suggesting heightened scrutiny of all trade-related filings. While CBP has approved select technology vendors, the agency's capacity to handle a surge in automated claims remains untested. If AI-powered platforms dramatically increase filing volumes, it could create processing bottlenecks or trigger additional regulatory requirements. 'Long-term, we see ourselves as a strategic partner in modernizing U.S. trade infrastructure,' Sherlock says. 'We're helping businesses take advantage of export incentives to grow GDP and improve profitability for US-based inventory and manufacturing.' Looking Forward: Promise and Peril The emergence of AI-powered duty drawback solutions reflects a broader transformation in how businesses approach international trade costs. As tariffs become a more permanent feature of the economic landscape, tools that help companies optimize their trade expenses will likely see continued demand. Yet the industry faces fundamental questions about scalability, regulatory adaptation, and whether technology can truly solve problems rooted in policy complexity. Success will depend not just on technical capability, but on building trust with both customers and regulators in a field where mistakes can be costly. The billions of dollars in annual unclaimed duties represents a massive opportunity—but it also reflects the entrenched complexity that has kept money on the table for decades. Whether AI can finally unlock this value remains one of the most intriguing tests of automation's promise in financial services. For businesses struggling with rising tariff costs, the answer can't come soon enough. But in a field where regulatory compliance and financial recovery intersect, the path forward may prove more challenging than the technology alone suggests.
Hindustan Times
27-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Russia cancels annual navy parade citing 'security reasons'
Russia said on Sunday a major annual navy parade had been cancelled for "security reasons", without specifying the threat or concern. The drills, launched earlier this week in the Baltic and Caspian seas as well as in the Arctic and Pacific oceans, involved more than 150 ships and over 15,000 troops, Putin said(Reuters) "It has to do with the general situation. Security reasons are of utmost importance," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies. The parade was meant to be the highlight of Russia's Navy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year and honours the country's sailors. But local authorities in the coastal city of Saint Petersburg, where the warships and submarines were scheduled to pass, said on Friday the parade had been cancelled without giving a reason. Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who re-established Navy Day in 2017, nearly four decades after it was cancelled in Soviet times -- appeared in a video message hailing the "bravery" and "heroism" of Russia's sailors participating in the offensive in Ukraine. "We are celebrating the holiday in a working atmosphere," Putin said later on Sunday, in a video address to Russian forces involved in large-scale naval manoeuvres called "July Storm". The drills, launched earlier this week in the Baltic and Caspian seas as well as in the Arctic and Pacific oceans, involved more than 150 ships and over 15,000 troops, Putin said. "Our main task is to ensure Russia's security and firmly protect the sovereignty and national interests," Putin said in Saint Petersburg, where he was travelling on Sunday, according to the Kremlin. Russia, which launched its military operation on Ukraine in February 2022 with daily bombardments of its neighbour, has faced retaliatory Ukrainian drone strikes on its territory in recent months. The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that 100 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight. At least 10 of them were intercepted not far from Saint Petersburg and a woman was wounded, the governor for the northwestern Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said on Telegram. That drone assault also disrupted operations at Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, delaying dozens of flights, the facility's authorities said.
Business Recorder
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Russia begins major naval drills in the Pacific and Arctic oceans and the Baltic Sea
MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday began major navy drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic oceans and in the Baltic and Caspian seas, the defence ministry said. The so-called 'July Storm' exercise from July 23 to July 27 will test the readiness of the fleet for non-standard operations, the use of long-range weapons and other advanced technology including unmanned systems, the ministry said. 'At sea, the crews of the ships will practice deployment to combat areas, conducting anti-submarine operations, defending areas of deployment and economic activity,' the ministry said. The will also practice 'repelling attacks by air attack weapons, unmanned boats and enemy drones, ensuring the safety of navigation, striking enemy targets and naval groups.' More than 120 aircraft will take part and 10 coastal missile systems, the ministry said. Navy chief, Admiral Alexander Moiseev, will lead the exercise. Russia has the world's third most powerful navy after China and the United States, according to most public rankings, though the navy has suffered a series of high-profile losses in the Ukraine war.
