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Time of India
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Container shipping needs a new global liability regime
MUMBAI: India must push for a new global regime to govern container shipping liability, safety, and environmental protection in line with evolving maritime risks, a government official has said after two back-to-back incidents involving container ships off the coast of Kerala in a fortnight raise alarm bells. 'The two incidents bring into sharp focus the broader regulatory blind spot surrounding container shipping, which, unlike oil tankers, remains outside the purview of comprehensive global liability frameworks - despite the environmental and infrastructural risks they now regularly present,' the official said. 'Container ships like ' MSC ELSA-3' and ' Wan Hai 503 ' are not covered under compensation regimes equivalent to those for oil tankers, despite carrying hazardous cargo and posing major risks. High-profile incidents such as the 'Ever Given' (Suez Canal) and 'DALI' (Baltimore bridge collapse in the U.S.) underscore the need for a dedicated international liability regime for container shipping,' the official said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo An explosion in one of the cargo containers on Monday triggered a fire that continues to rage, engulfing the Singapore-flagged container ship 'Wan Hai 503', about 44 nautical miles off the coast of Azhikkal in Kerala. While the Indian Coast Guard ships are at the site making valiant efforts to douse the fire, the stricken ship owned by Taiwan's Wan Hai Lines, has started to list (tilt) to one side, with many fearing that the ship may sink, raising the spectre of an environmental hazard due to the presence of dangerous cargo in some of the containers. Live Events Already an unspecified number of containers have fallen overboard following the explosion and fire. 'This isn't just a shipping disaster,' says ex-mariner Sandeep Maurya. 'It's a loud alarm for the entire shipping industry,' he noted. The mishap demands rethinking cargo handling for extreme climates, investing in fail-safe refrigeration and monitoring for hazardous goods and strengthening global safety protocols for dangerous materials at sea. 'The lives of seafarers and the integrity of the global supply chain depend on it,' Maurya added. On May 25, the Liberian-flagged container ship 'MSC ELSA 3', was en route to Kochi from Vizhinjam, carrying over 640 containers, including at least 12 containing hazardous cargo such as calcium carbide, when it capsized and sank off the coast of Kochi.
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
90 Days To Economic Collapse: UN And Experts Sound Alarm Over Security At Sea
20 May 2025 Addressing a high-level debate of the Security Council, António Guterres said that oceans and seas are 'sending a clear SOS,' as maritime spaces face escalating pressure from both traditional threats and new dangers – including piracy, armed robbery, trafficking, terrorism, cyberattacks and territorial disputes. 'From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together,' he said. 'But maritime spaces are increasingly under strain…and without maritime security, there can be no global security. ' Spike in piracy, attacks The Secretary-General pointed to a sharp spike in piracy and armed robbery at sea in early 2025, citing International Maritime Organization(IMO) figures showing a 47.5 per cent increase in reported incidents compared to the same period last year. The rise was most pronounced in Asia, especially in the busy Straits of Malacca and Singapore. He also highlighted continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden by Houthi the Gulf of Guinea, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The debate was a signature event of the Greek presidency of the Council. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held the gavel, and several ministers were in the chamber. A 90-day countdown to collapse Melina Travlos, President of the Union of Greek Shipowners, delivered a stark warning to Council members: if the global shipping system grinds to a halt, the world economy will collapse in just 90 days. She described shipping as 'the silent guardian of global welfare,' noting that 90 per cent of international trade and more than 12 billion tonnes of goods depend on maritime transport each year. ' Shipping unites the world, not occasionally, but consistently, ' she said, calling for greater protection of seafarers and maritime infrastructure amid increasing and more complex threats. One ship, six days, billions lost Christian Bueger, a professor of international relations at the University of Copenhagen, reminded ambassadors that in 2021, a single ship – the Ever Given – blocked the Suez Canal for six days, costing the global economy billions. ' Never before in history have we been as dependent on the sea as we are today, ' he said, citing a 300 per cent rise in maritime trade since the 1990s. Mr. Bueger urged Member States to adopt a more systematic, evidence-based approach to maritime security, urging a global response that is as interconnected as the threats it faces. Uphold law of the sea In his remarks, Secretary-General Guterres laid out a three-pronged strategy to strengthen maritime security – highlighting that decisive, coordinated global action is needed regardless of individual flashpoints or shipping disruptions. These include upholding international law, tackling the root causes of maritime insecurity, and strengthening global partnerships. He called on all nations to uphold international law, especially the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the international treaty that sets the legal framework for all maritime activities and regulates the use of ocean and its resources. ' This framework is only as strong as States' commitment to full and effective implementation, ' he said. 'All States must live up to their obligations.' Prioritise investment On root causes, he urged investment in coastal communities, judicial reform and building maritime capacity in developing countries — from surveillance to port security. Alongside this, weak governance, rising poverty and lack of opportunities must be addressed. The UN chief stressed that lasting solutions would require cooperation from governments, regional bodies, the private sector and civil society – including women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by maritime crime. ' Collectively, we must do more to reduce the likelihood that desperate people will turn to crime and other activities that threaten maritime security and degrade our ocean environment, ' he said. 'The United Nations system stands ready to support Member States to ensure peaceful, secure, and prosperous maritime spaces for generations to come.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Happy Fourth Anniversary Of Big Boat Stuck To Those Who Celebrate
On March 23, 2021, the world awoke to an unfolding drama that would captivate and unite it as few things in history ever had: Big Boat Stuck. MV Ever Given, a 400 meter long Golden-class container ship owned by Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen Marine Corporation, had run aground in the Suez Canal and blocked a non-insignificant percentage of world trade. What followed was a solid few months of memes, laughs, natsec think pieces, and wall-to-wall big boat coverage here on Jalopnik. Today, we're gonna look back on that time, a better time, when smart alecks from around the world came together to laugh at a big boat stuck. The fifth ship in a northbound convoy, Ever Given set sail early on the morning of the 23rd with no tug escort to transit the Suez Canal — the link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea — on her way to Rotterdam, NL. At around 07:42 local time, Ever Given was engulfed in a nasty sandstorm near the village of Manshiyet Rugola. With winds exceeding 40 knots (46 miles per hour) and no tug to keep her on track, the massive vessel was immediately blown off course. Her bow ran into the canal's eastern shore at a speed of 13 knots (roughly 15 miles per hour), her stern swung around and wedged into the western shore while still under power, and all of a sudden she was stuck tight. That, as they say, is when hilarity ensued. Read more: All Aboard South Korea's New $100 Billion Baby-Making Trains At the spot where Ever Given ran aground, the Suez Canal is around 200 meters across, so a fully loaded, 400-meter-long container ship wedged hard diagonally across the canal immediately presented some navigation issues. She was completely blocking the canal, as 300 ships at both ends were attempting to transit. To call the situation a nightmare (as well as an all-hands emergency) was an understatement. The Suez Canal Authority closed the canal to shipping on March 25 as salvage and recovery teams descended on the stuck vessel in an attempt to get her free. Over the course of about a week, a crack team of experts, 18 tugs, and the dredger Mashhour worked feverishly to pull Ever Green out of the mud while international shipping slowly ground to a halt on either side of the canal. A huge traffic jam of more than 400 ships slowly formed in the Med, the Red Sea, and the Bitter Lakes as Ever Given was painstakingly salvaged. On March 29 at around 04:30 local time, Ever Given's stern was floated. Her bow was floated soon after, and she was finally free. This wasn't the end of Ever Given's ordeal, however. She was towed to the Great Bitter Lake to be inspected for damage while the canal was open, then immediately impounded and her crew interrogated. Accusations were made, blame was thrown freely around, and on April 13, 2021, she was seized by a court at the urging of the SCA pending payment of more than $900 million American dollars. That price included, among other things, the cost of the salvage effort and around $300 million for SCA for "loss of reputation". The week that Ever Given spent gumming up international shipping revealed some serious worldwide economic issues. The ongoing Covid pandemic had already highlighted problems with supply chain resilience, and the Ever Given debacle really shined a light on both that and the weaknesses of just-in-time manufacturing. Lloyd's List estimated that the cost of the goods delayed by the blockage was a staggering $400 million per hour as bulk freighters, tankers, and container ships waited at anchor for Ever Given to be refloated. The knock-on effects of the blockage were even worse, and prices of everything from oil and food to kids toys and computer chips rose significantly and stayed there for months afterwards. It wasn't all bad, though. There were, of course, the memes. Internet wags immediately got to work plastering pithy messages over images of Ever Given and her various rescuers. One particularly popular one was a photo of a seemingly tiny excavator pushing Ever Given with its boom arm (that one was my favorite, in fact). There were also Google doodles, a marine tracker built specifically to track Ever Given's adventures around the world, and Microsoft Flight Simulator mods. The event even got a shout out in an episode of "What We Do in the Shadows" when it was revealed that Nandor was delayed because he was stuck in a container aboard Ever Given. Since then, while we've had many good boats stuck here and there, nothing has really captured the world's imagination like Ever Given's plight. Despite the very real economic, legal, and political ramifications of the incident, it was also extremely funny, and we all needed a laugh at the time. At the time of this writing, Ever Given is in port at Port Klang, Malaysia and seems to be healthy and happy with a well-founded crew. So, today, let's raise a glass to Ever Given and her crew and wish them fair winds and following seas. Oh, and captain, watch out for those sandstorms. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
New York Times
12-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Giant Container Ship Got Stuck in the Suez Canal
The Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, careened out of control in March 2021, slamming into the banks of the Suez Canal and blocking the waterway. Nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall, it held up more than $5 billion in trade for each of the six days the canal was obstructed. Day after day, as efforts failed to dislodge the enormous ship, it became a symbol of Covid-era anxiety as the pandemic entered its second year. 'We are all, in our own little way, that ship,' one person wrote on social media. Eventually, though, with the removal of enough rock and sand, and with the aid of tugboats and an unusually high tide created by a full moon, the ship was dislodged. Nearly 400 ships had been stuck waiting almost a week for passage. Once the ship was freed, it was held in Egypt for three months because of a financial dispute between the Egyptian authorities and its owner. Egyptian officials finally permitted the release of the vessel after its owner, the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, and its insurers agreed to pay an undisclosed amount as a settlement for the rescue operation. The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the waterway, said the episode had cost Egypt up to $90 million in lost toll revenue as ships waited to pass through the blocked canal or took other routes. The Suez Canal is one of the most important trading routes in the world, accounting for about 12 percent of global trade. After the Ever Given was freed, Egypt said it would widen and deepen the canal's narrowest passage, where the ship had lost control in high winds and poor visibility. In December, Reuters reported that Egypt had added a new channel near the southern end of the canal that would boost its capacity by an additional six to eight ships daily. The Ever Given finally made it to its destination in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, four months after it got stuck, delivering its delayed cargo at last. That cargo included some perishable and seasonable goods, which were likely discarded or auctioned off, according to The Maritime Executive. The boat then continued to China for repairs. The legal wrangling over which companies should shoulder the cost of the delays caused by the Ever Given's grounding lasted years. Maersk, the world's largest container shipping line, filed a $45 million lawsuit against the Ever Given's owner and its Taiwanese operator, Evergreen Marine Corp. The suit was settled out of court in 2023, according to ShippingWatch, a Danish trade publication. The terms were not disclosed and a spokesman for Maersk declined to comment. In the last four years, the Ever Given has crisscrossed the globe, heading between the Far East and Northern Europe on a route that, yes, includes passage through the Suez Canal.
