'Storm approaching': firms fear for deliveries in shipping shakeup
'The tougher regulations, set by the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), come into force on Jan 1. Costs will rise for ships towards the end of this year and there will be a knock on effect for trucks and other transporters that move goods around the world. For shipping companies it is the biggest shakeup in decades and adds to the pressures of an economic slowdown and the threat of an escalating trade war between the United States and China.
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Trucking companies will also suffer. The IMO rules do not apply to them but they will face new competition from ships for lower sulfur fuel. This is expected to push up the price of diesel fuel for trucks by as much as 100 percent. Small to mid-sized truckers may find it tough as they lack the clout to negotiate fuel deals or to recoup the costs.
“I’m at the whim of the market. All I can do is let the customers know what’s going on,” said Mike Baicher, president and chief executive of New Jersey based West End Express, which runs 90 trucks in New York, New Jersey and along the East Coast. '
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A foundational aspect of globalization is cheap transportation. As long as it exists, industry and workers can be anywhere, independent of their markets. But the ecological footprint of many thousands of ships, and hundreds of thousands of trucks and trains —is huge. And contrary to today's neoclassical economics, that footprint is NOT a mere "externality".
- In 2016 BC's Knowledge Network showed Freightened: The Real Price of Shipping. It's on again, for those who can access.
- As the idioT likes to say, "People tell me ..." that it can be found on the internet as an MP4
A good documentary. Review here.
"Through mechanisms such as the “flag of convenience,” ships avoid the higher taxes, environmental standards, and minimum wage payments of developed countries, lowering costs by up to 65%. As ships age, their environmental impacts become more severe: Most shipwrecks involve vessels—often oil tankers—that are more than 25 years old and are poorly maintained.
Yet the size of the shipping industry is projected to triple in the next 20 years, with new shipping lanes opening up through sea ice loss in the Arctic. Although ships can be retrofitted to avoid the worst effects and reduce energy consumption, change is slow and regulations are difficult to enforce. Given the urgency of the problem, which the film conveys brilliantly, the suggested solutions seem timid: Rating schemes for ships and better labeling of products feel like sticking plasters rather than actual solutions."
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