Miscellaneous
On the podcast this week we examine whether shippers’ complaints that box lines are profiteering hold any water. We then turn to the results of the Lloyd’s List Decarbonisation Survey that we conducted late last year in search of some much-needed clarity regarding carbon reduction. xx ARE container lines profiteering? Well the short answer of course is if they are then they’re really not very good at it historically speaking. Nevertheless, shippers are not a happy bunch right now with Asia-Europe rates in excess of $4,000 per TEU. Complaints raised in China, Europe and the US have again raised questions over the performance and practices of container lines, so this week we deploy our own container kingpins – James Baker and Janet Porter to discuss whether sky high freight rates and congestion justify shippers’ ire. We follow that with a look at whether we have sufficient clarity over the details of decarbonisation. To borrow a favorite phrase from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, shipping’s zero carbon project is still riddled with too many ‘known unknowns’ Which is why Lloyd’s list teamed up with classification society Lloyd’s Register to launch a regular Decarbonisation Survey late last year. And the results are in. We are joined this week by our very our climate change consultant to the industry, Anastassios Adamopoulos and the head of Lloyd’s Register’s recently launched Decarbonisation Hub, Charles Haskell to discuss the survey results and what they tell us about the industry’s readiness to invest in a cleaner future.