It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Bolivia To Pay for Energy Imports with Crypto As Dollar Shortage Bites
Bolivia's state energy company YBFB will use cryptocurrency to pay for energy imports amid dollar shortages, Reuters has reported. The shortage comes alongside a fuel crisis spurred by a lack of natural gas exports, which had led to protests across the country.
"From now on, these (cryptocurrency) transactions will be carried out," a YPFB spokesperson told Reuters.
Bolivia is not the first South American country to attempt to use crypto for energy payments. Six years ago, Maduro unveiled the infamous petro cryptocurrency under the so-called PdVSA-Crypto scheme. With Caracas strangled by Washington's economic sanctions, Maduro launched petro as a last-ditch attempt to raise cash, vowing that Petro would "allow new forms of international financing."The embattled president revealed that 100 million petro tokens worth around $6 billion would be issued.
The petro was to be backed by Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, prompting the Venezuelan parliament to label it an illegal attempt to mortgage the country’s oil. Not to be confused with Signal Capital Management’s re-launched (and genuine) crypto thePetroDollar (XPD), Venezuela’s petro crypto was valued at $60 or 3,600 sovereign bolivars, each. As part of commodity-backed cryptos, petro was probably doomed to fail, mainly due to trust issues. Whereas Venezuela is home to the world’s largest oil reserves, few believed Maduro’s government would keep its word and actually maintain the necessary reserves to backstop the petro.
It, therefore, did not come as a surprise when the petro crypto was shattered in January 2024 and all holdings liquidated amid poor adoption and corruption scandals. Petro’s darkest hour came after officials from PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, sold crude shipments and receivedpayments of up to $20 billion in cryptocurrency and other fiat currencies channeled through Sunacrip, the national cryptocurrency watchdog. However, these funds were never reported to the national treasury. This resulted in the arrest of former PDVSA President Tareck El Aissami and former Sunacrip head Joselit Ramirez.
Further, Sunacrip was forced to enter arestructuring period over a year ago. But Venezuela’s crypto crisis did not end there. In 2023, the country’s National Power Ministry seized over 17,000 mining machines in a bid to lower power consumption as the country went through constant blackouts, forcing hundreds of crypto miners to pull the plug on operations.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
Indonesia mulls tax hikes on miners due to budgetary pressures
Indonesia is proposing hiking royalties paid by miners in a bid to bolster public finances that are being strained by President Prabowo Subianto’s spending plans.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is considering increases on the levies paid on the production of everything from copper to coal, according to a public consultation document released over the weekend. Royalties that were formerly flat, such as those paid on nickel ore, may now rise if prices increase.
The proposal comes as Indonesia’s government grapples with the huge cost of Prabowo’s flagship initiatives, including free school lunches and the Danantara state investment fund. Ministries have been asked to cut their budgets to fund the two multi-billion dollar policies after a proposed hike to value-added tax was watered down.
For Indonesia’s sprawling mining sector, which underpins much of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, the potential tax hikes come at a difficult time. Prices of nickel and coal — the country’s two biggest exports — have already sunk to multi-year lows, forcing some producers to weigh cutting back output.
For nickel, the flat 10% tax on ore production will be replaced with levies of 14% to 19%, depending on benchmark prices determined by the government. Taxes on products produced by smelters, such as ferronickel and nickel pig iron, will also be raised, adding to cost pressures that have already caused some plants to slash output.
“The royalty increase might impact Indonesia’s dominance in the downstreaming industry,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Ryan Davis said in a note on Monday. “A generally lower margin in such pricing volatility might have provided further probability of supply response.”
Royalties paid on tin, copper and gold production will also see increases. The impact on coal miners will vary depending on their permit type, with some like PT Adaro Andalan Indonesia likely to pay lower rates, Citi’s Davis wrote.
(By Eddie Spence)
Critical Metals releases S-K 1300 report on Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland
Critical Metals Corp. (Nasdaq: CRML) released on Wednesday its first S-K 1300 technical report summary on the Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland, raising its shares by over 10%.
Tanbreez is one of the largest rare earth deposits in the world hosted within – 4.7 billion metric tons of a kakortokite hard rock unit.
The maiden mineral resource estimate of 45 million metric tons resource at 0.4% total rare earth oxides (TREO), includes ~27% of heavy rare earth elements, hosted by the world’s largest currently published rare earth hard rock deposit, Critical Metals said.
Due to the company’s unique ownership structure, it must report all technical reports under the requirements set forth in Regulation S-K 1300 and the JORC Code as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and ASX simultaneously.
Critical Metals acquired a controlling stake in Tanbreez in June 2024, hailing it as a potential “game-changing” mine project for North America’s rare earths supply chain.
“The release of our first S-K 1300 report for Tanbreez is a significant milestone for Critical Metals Corp as we are quickly advancing the development strategy for this game-changing rare earth deposit,” CEO Tony Sage said in a news release.
“We now have independent verification of what makes this asset truly exceptional, and we believe that the S-K 1300 Report’s findings will help accelerate our discussions with strategic partners and government agencies focused on establishing secure, western supply chains for these critical materials,” Sage said.
“We expect to begin our next phase of verification work in Q2 2025, with further resource drilling, an Independent preliminary economic assessment and end goal of completing our definitive feasibility study by year-end 2025.”
The company also intends to finalise the drilling results from the campaign that was completed late in 2024 and finalizing the 2025 exploration program.”
Critical Metals also owns the Wolfsburg project in Austria, which is set to become the EU’s only battery-grade lithium mine by 2027.
By market close Wednesday, Critical Metals stock was up 10.3% on the NASDAQ. The company has a $194 million market capitalization.
Canada’s Barrick Gold must pay British dealmaker Ian Hannam’s firm $2 million plus expenses for his work on the acquisition of gold miner Randgold Resources, London’s High Court ruled on Wednesday.
Hannam was formerly one of JPMorgan’s top rainmakers and nicknamed the “king of mining” for his record of brokering deals in the resources sector, including the merger that created BHP Billiton in 2001 and the 2012 merger of Glencore and Xstrata.
His advisory boutique Hannam & Partners sued over an agreement he says was reached shortly before Barrick’s 2018 acquisition of Randgold.
Hannam & Partners said it was promised a minimum of $10 million, with the figure to increase if the deal was worth more than $10 billion.
After Barrick and Randgold agreed a deal ultimately worth some $18 billion, Hannam asked for $18 million and was rebuffed.
Randgold’s lawyers said there was no written evidence of the alleged agreement and that Hannam & Partners was not due any payment.
Judge Simon Gleeson said in a written ruling that “no contract to provide investment advisory services was ever made”.
But he added: “The claimant’s (Hannam & Partners’) early work in promoting the transaction conferred a valuable benefit on both Randgold and Barrick.
“Both Randgold and Barrick recognized this, and intended to make some payment to the claimant in respect of the value which they felt that they had received. They estimated this as being an amount of $2 million.”
Gleeson said that Hannam & Partners was therefore entitled to $2 million plus its expenses.
Hannam & Partners’ CEO Neil Passmore said the decision was “a seminal judgment for the investment banking industry with a substantial award of fees for work undertaken on a handshake, despite the fact there was no written contract”.
Barrick also claimed the ruling as a victory, saying Hannam & Partners had been awarded “the amount Randgold proposed to pay (Hannam & Partners) in September 2018 for its limited involvement in the transaction”.
(By Sam Tobin; Editing by Mark Potter)
Offline for a Decade, Libya’s Mabruk Field Restarts Production
Libya has resumed production at the Mabruk oilfield after a decade-long shutdown, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) revealed on Wednesday. Production officially restarted on Sunday at an initial rate of 5,000 barrels per day, with plans for an increase to 25,000 bpd by July.
According to the Chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation, Masoud Sulaiman, Libya plans to increase its oil output from 1.4 mb/d currently to 2 mb/d in 2028. However, ramping output to that level will require considerable capital outlays: Abdulsadek estimates that Libya needs between $3 billion and $4 billion to reach its intermediate goal of oil production rate of 1.6 mb/d, adding that a new license bidding round is expected to be approved by the cabinet before the end of January. The Libyan economy relies heavily on oil, with fossil fuels accounting for more than 95% of its economic output.
"There is momentum in reconstruction and this can only be achieved by increasing the production," Abdulsadek said.
Libya is not the only OPEC producer targeting higher production: Kuwait has revealed ambitions to nearly double its oil output over the next decade. Speaking at last year’s CERAWeek by S&P Global conference, Sheikh Nawaf al-Sabah, CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corp., revealed that the country plans to ramp up crude production from ~2.4 million barrels of crude per day currently to over 4 mb/d by 2035 by cooperating with international oil majors.
According to Sabah, the emirate has lifting costs onshore of just $10/b but has pumped the brakes on drilling due to OPEC+ production quotas. Kuwait expects the capacity additions to come from the Neutral Zone it shares with Saudi Arabia as well as its domestic fields.
Kuwait is a wealthy petroleum-based economy and the fifth richest country in the world by gross national income per capita. It’s OPEC’s 5th largest producer and is home to 101 billion barrels in proven oil reserves, the 7th largest in the world. Indeed, Kuwait’s oil reserves are considerably bigger than the U.S.’ ~70 billion barrels.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
Video: Seaglider Full-Scale WIG Prototype Conducts First On-Water Tests
First full-scale prototype of the electric seaglider performing in-water tests (Regent Craft)
The first full-scale seaglider prototype using the wing-in-ground effect recently completed the first on-water tests of a prototype with humans onboard. According to Regent Craft, which is developing the new vessels, it was the kickoff of a testing campaign that will culminate with the first human seaglider flight at mid-year.
The company was launched in 2020 to develop the technology which it believes will present a new paradigm in travel. Its design is for an all-electric high-speed vessel that operates exclusively over water connecting coastal destinations. The vessel operates in three modes — floating on the hull, foiling above the waves on hydrofoils, and flying in ground effect within one wingspan of the surface of the water. The company’s first design, the Viceroy, is a 12-passenger vessel that can travel at up to 180 mph and up to 180 miles on a single charge.
The company successfully flew its quarter-scale seaglider prototype in 2022, validating its technological approach to redefining wing-in-ground craft (WIGs), vessels that operate in ground effect low over the surface of the water. Last year, it reported it had received permission to advance to prototype testing while raising more than $90 million from investors to develop the vessel. Regent has also advanced its maritime certification process with the U.S. Coast Guard and with maritime regulators in key markets around the world, in partnership with the maritime classification society Lloyd’s Register.
Paladin was lowered into the water in Rhode Island to start the first trials
Regent christened its new vessel Paladin before lowering her into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The 12-passenger Viceroy seaglider prototype is 55 feet (16.7 meters) long with a 65-foot (approximately 20-meter) wingspan, making it the largest-ever all-electric flying machine.
Officially commencing sea trials, Regent’s test captains completed the first in a series of on-water tests. Sea trials follow months of sub-system testing of the critical onboard systems, including motors, batteries, electronics, mechanical systems, and vehicle control software, and will progress to the first human seaglider flight in the coming months.
The company has attracted strong attention from both regional air carriers as well as the shipping industry. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines made a strategic investment in 2024 and Brittany Ferries is among the companies reporting it was exploring using the vessels. Regent reports its total order book is valued at more than $9 billion.
Construction has started on a 255,000-square-foot manufacturing facility located in Rhode Island. The company expects the facility will come online in 2026 as it moves forward with the commercialization of its seagliders.
Austal Issues Shares to Raise Capital for Alabama Yard Expansion
Austal Ltd., the Australian parent company of defense shipbuilder Austal USA, has announced a capital raise of as much as US$140 million to pay for the expansion of its main shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.
Austal USA is the core of Austal Ltd.'s enterprise, and it is rapidly growing to meet the needs of its primary customer, the U.S. Navy. It holds contracts for an array of smaller auxiliary vessels, along with a large-scale subcontract award for module construction to support General Dynamics Electric Boat's submarine projects.
On Tuesday, Austal announced that it plans to place about 53 million new shares with institutional investors at a price of US$2.40 per share, a discount of about 15 percent compared to the company's last closing price. The funds will go towards construction of the US$300 million Final Assembly 2 complex, which began construction last July and is due for completion in 2026. The infrastructure project is located just south of Austal's current complex, and will include a new assembly hall, a wharf and a new shiplift, which will make it easier for the company to launch newbuilds. The bay will be used for building large modules for the Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutter program and for the Navy's T-AGOS-25 research/surveillance vessels.
With the addition of a shiplift, Austal will also have the capability to bring vessels back onshore for maintenance in addition to its newbuild work.
Austal requested a brief trading halt Tuesday morning pending the announcement. "This announced raise will ensure that Austal is appropriately funded for FA2, which one complete, will facilitate the delivery of large steel vessels in the current pipeline for the US Navy and ensure Mobile continues to be well placed to execute on future opportunities," said Austal CEO Patrick Gregg in a statement.
Austal is widely expected to be a top contender to build additional Constellation-class frigates (alongside Fincantieri Marinette Marine), once the design has stabilized and production of the first hull has gotten under way. It is also well-situated to compete for mid- and large-sized unmanned vessel orders.
“The long-term investment made in developing deep defence relationships in the United States and Australia, founded on product innovation, technology and demonstrated shipbuilding and support capabilities, is starting to deliver increased returns," Gregg said in an earnings statement in February.
Hapag-Lloyd Advances Terminal Strategy Acquiring Stake in Le Havre, France
Hapag's terminal company acquired a controlling interest in a Le Havre facility (CNMP)
Hapag-Lloyd has become the latest of the major carriers to move forward with a strategy to expand its shoreside operations by growing its terminal portfolio. After launching an independent terminal company in 2023, Hapag-Lloyd reports it has acquired a controlling interest in one of the independent terminals in Le Havre, France.
Hanseatic Global Terminals, a wholly owned subsidiary based in Rotterdam, was announced in July 2024. Hapag said at the time the aim was to increase operational efficiency and promote sustainable growth that will benefit customers and partners worldwide. It says that terminal and infrastructure investments represent a crucial component of the strategic agenda for Hanseatic Global Terminals.
The company acquired 60 percent of the shares of CNMP LH from Seafrigo Group, a company specializing in temperature-controlled food logistics. Seafrigo will continue to hold a 40 percent stake in the terminal operator.
“By acquiring a majority stake in the CNMP LH terminal in Le Havre, we are strengthening our position in one of our core European markets,” said Dheeraj Bhatia, CEO of Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT). “At the same time, we are continuing to expand our global terminal portfolio while paving the way for targeted investments to enhance efficiency.”
CNMP (Compagnie Nouvelle de Manutentions Portuaires) highlights that it is a historical stevedoring company operating in Le Havre since 1920. It has a multimodal terminal with river barge access and 1 km (.6 miles) of rail connection. It is an independent service provider to multiple carriers calling at the port.
Le Havre, the companies emphasized numbers among the 10 largest ports in Europe. They called it the most important port for sea transport to and from France reporting it has an annual container throughput of 3 million TEU and offers hinterland connections to Paris.
Hapag called it a strategic acquisition for Hanseatic Global Terminals in keeping with its strategy of expansion. HGT manages a portfolio of stakes in 21 port terminals and complementary logistics services across 12 countries and four continents, with plans to expand its stakes to over 30 terminals by 2030.
ALT. FUEL
New Svitzer Tug is First to Integrate Battery with Methanol Fueled Engines
Tug under construction in Turkey will for the first time combine battery power with methanol dual-fuel engines (Uzmar)
A new tug construction project underway at Turkey’s Uzmar shipyard will integrate a marine battery power system with a methanol-fueled engine to minimize emissions from the operations. The vessel is being built for Svitzer and will be launched later this year for operations in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The tug is based on Svitzer’s TRAnsverse tug design and will be used for escort duty. With a gross tonnage of approximately 806 tonnes, the tug will be capable of achieving speeds of up to 14 knots. Delivery is planned in the second half of 2025.
The order for the 6MWh battery went to AYK Energy and is its first contract with Uzmar. The battery will be built at the company’s new facility in Zhuhai, China, and delivered to Uzmar for installation in the tug. AYK attests to having the highest energy density and volumetric density in the industry today. Combined with its Battery Management System) and packaging solution, it reports it has tailored unique solutions for the maritime sector. It claims to offer the safest, lightest, most affordable, easiest to operate, and commission battery with the ability to operate in smaller spaces.
"Battery solutions are constantly expanding, and we are proud to be at the forefront when it comes to providing those solutions to the maritime sector,” said AYK Energy founder Chris Kruger, He said the contract “shows our continuing progress in winning the bigger battery projects.”
The battery power system will be supported for the first time by dual-fuel methanol engines. The engines will be used for backup power and to extend the range of the tug. However, according to the companies, they expect the tug to perform more than 90 percent of its escort duty operations using its battery-electric powertrain. They said the vessel’s design will also allow the battery-powered tug to operate more efficiently than internal combustion engine-powered tugs of a traditional design.
Uzmar says that the combination of battery power and methanol engines will provide a safe, efficient, and reliable solution.
“The launch of a first-of-its-kind newbuild project with our partners at Uzmar Shipyard is a significant milestone for our decarbonization ambitions,” said Gareth Prowse, Head of Decarbonization at Svitzer. The battery electric tug will mean we can deliver our services to customers in the Port of Gothenburg with significantly lower carbon emissions, and still to the highest operational and safety standards.”
Companies such as Svitzer see battery power as becoming an important option in the sustainability transition. Marine batteries are demonstrating that they can play a fundamental role in decarbonizing the industry, as an increasing number of tugs are being built and deployed with battery-electric powertrains.
Odfjell Completes Install of First Sails on Tanker to Analyze Fuel Savings
Bow Olympus is Odfjell's first chemical tanker fitted with wind assisted propulsion (Odfjell)
Global chemical tanker operator Odfjell has joined the growing list of shipping companies that are incorporating wind-assisted propulsion into their operations as they seek to lower emissions. The company’s first sail installation was completed in Antwerp, and the chemical tanker Bow Olympus will now be carefully monitored to observe the impact on operations.
“The five-year-old vessel will soon embark on what could be called her second maiden voyage—this time, crossing the Atlantic towards Texas with four eSails," said Erik Hjortland, VP Technology for Odfjell. “Each nautical mile will be thoroughly analyzed in real-time to document the energy-saving effects. That data will be fundamental in informing future decisions as we continue to improve the environmental performance of our existing fleet.”
Odfjell selected bound4blue’s eSails, a wind foil that it said is best suited to the challenges of chemical tankers. They noted that the deck of the vessel is covered in pipes for multiple cargo tanks. The integration of the sail foundations required careful planning to ensure a seamless fit with tanker operations and the vessel’s requirement for air draft limitations.
Bound4blue says that it was able to minimize the size and eliminate the need for tilting systems because its eSails generate six to seven times the propulsive lift of equivalently proportioned rigid sails. The fully automated eSails generate propulsive force by dragging air across an optimized aerodynamic profile. The Bow Olympus which is approximately 600 feet (183 meters) and 49,000 dwt, was fitted with four 72-foot (22-meter) eSails.
To accommodate the vessel’s operating schedule, the installation was undertaken in two stages. The foundations were fitted during a scheduled drydocking. The sails were installed during two days, March 10 and 11, at the EDR Antwerp Shipyard.
“We’ve made some major steps in minimizing our emissions, reducing our fleet’s carbon intensity by 53% against the 2008 baseline,” says Hjortland. “We’ve done this through many operational measures and by installing a range of different energy-saving devices. Wind power was the next step.”
This project is funded by the European Union under a grant agreement from the Innovation Fund program. The tanker company says once results are validated from the operation of this first vessel, the plan is to install sails on more of its vessels.
Odfjell joins owners such as Amasus, Eastern Pacific Shipping, and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs with operational eSAILs. David Ferrer, Co-Founder and CTO of bound4blue notes that other major shipping companies such as Maersk Tankers, Marflet Marine, and Klaveness Combination Carriers are filling the company’s growing orderbook.
Class Societies ABS and DNV Advance Plans for Ammonia-Cracking Bulker
The concept uses ammonia cracking toe release hydrogen energy for electrical propulsion (Pherousa)
An innovative project to develop a shipboard ammonia-cracking technology took a key step forward toward the vision of building a zero-emission dry bulk carrier for the copper industry. Class societies ABS and DNV working with Norway-based Pherousa Shipping and technology company Metacon have issued design Approval in Principle reporting they found “no show stopper conditions” to employing the innovative technology.
Ammonia continues to draw interest with systems in development but so far it has required carbon fuel primers to start ignition and presents the challenges of lower energy density versus traditional fuels. Hydrogen similarly shows potential as a power source but so far has been limited to small near-shore support vessels and inland shipping.
“The Approval in Principle from two of the leading classification societies and certification bodies, ABS and DNV, marks another important milestone for us in the development of zero-emission solutions for the maritime industry,” said Hans Bredrup, Chairman of Pherousa. “By granting Pherousa these AiPs, both ABS and DNV clearly state that there are no showstoppers of the Pherousa technology for marine application.”
Pherousa’s concept working with an exclusive license agreement from Metacon for the application of the technology onboard ships focuses on developing ammonia cracking, the release of hydrogen energy from ammonia as a carrier, at scale to power larger vessels. The ammonia cracking technology would be used with PEM Fuel Cells and a Fuel Gas Supply System generating a fully electrical propulsion plant.
“Ammonia cracking combined with a PEM Fuel Cell has no need for pilot fuel or other fossil sources,” explains Morten Løvstad, VP and Global Business Director for Bulk Carriers at DNV. He called it, “an innovative solution for maritime application towards full decarbonization.”
Pherousa reports that Ammonia Cracking can be applied to a variety of developed technologies, such as supplying Hydrogen to PEM Fuel Cells, replacing conventional fuels with Hydrogen as pilot fuel on Ammonia fueled Internal Combustion Engines, or supplying Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines. It could also be used for supplying Hydrogen to Auxiliary Engines to reduce emissions. According to the company, any of the four alternatives can be fitted onboard any type of vessel and with an engine power of up to 15-20 MW.
“The efficiency of ammonia cracking will play a decisive factor in its ability to contribute to decarbonization of the industry,” predicts Stergios Stamopoulos, Director, Global Sustainability for American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).
Pherousa and Metacon report that have conducted thorough research and tests to develop the Ammonia Cracking technology concept. The companies have delivered a working prototype that demonstrated the practical potential of this approach.
The Pherousa subsidiary, Pherousa Shipping, reports it has worked closely with two major copper miners during the design process of an Ultramax 64.000 dwt vessel, to find the optimal layout for emission-free transportation of copper concentrates between its origin and the smelters. The vessels are intended to be on water in parallel with the new IMO regulative that comes into force in 2030.
They are focusing on the copper industry because the commodity is essential for emerging markets linked to decarbonization. They believe end-users of copper utilized for solar panels or electric cars will seek to build a carbon-free supply chain including shipping.
Having achieved the design reviews from ABS and DNV, Pherousa reports it is now transitioning from concept to scale-up and market entry. It looks to deploy its innovative solution on a global scale.
German Shipowners Cite Vital Role of Shipping Calling for New Support
German Shipowners' Association calls for support to strengthen the industry (Federal Ministry for Digtal and Transport photo)
The German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) released its annual report on the strength and vital role of shipping in the country’s economy and security. Citing “turbulent times” the group which represents the largest part of the German merchant fleet is calling for new long-term measures to support its smaller shipowners and efforts to reduce bureaucracy to increase global competitiveness.
The group highlighted in its presentation that despite global turbulence and uncertain times in international trade policy, that German shipping remains a key contributor to the country’s economic strength and supply security. They reported that approximately 26 percent of exports and 60 percent of imports are handled by sea.
“Without a strong and independent merchant fleet, there is neither economic stability nor national security – especially in times when geopolitical and trade policy risks are steadily increasing,” said VDR President Gaby Bornheim.
Although Germany remains a strong maritime hub and continues to rank seventh globally, VDR reported that the industry is slipping in key areas. German shipping’s tonnage has declined from a peak of approximately 90 million gross tons in 2010 and 2011 to a current 47.4 million gross tons. While container shipping remains the largest segment, Germany has slipped to third behind Switzerland (home of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company) and China.
German shipping companies purchased 70 vessels in 2024 (1.9 million gross tons) and newbuilds numbered 74 vessels (2.6 million gross tons). However, sales numbered 180 ships (4.1 million gross tons).
“The VDR therefore calls for targeted, long-term measures to strengthen the competitiveness of German shipping companies and Germany as a maritime location to avoid falling behind internationally,” the group writes in its report.
While the total German merchant shipping industry consists of approximately 290 companies and a fleet of 1,764 ships, the VDR’s data highlights just under half are flying EU flags and only 15 percent are registered in Germany. Further, it highlights that 80 percent of German shipping companies are small to medium-sized companies with fewer than 10 ships, with 44 percent specifically operating a single ship.
It cites a broad range of challenges for the industry including Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs which it says are causing uncertainty in the German and global merchant fleet. It also cites the geopolitical disruption to shipping routes and maritime trade. The VDR warns that national interests must not come at the expense of free global trade flows.
In addition to geopolitical and trade policy uncertainties, VDR reports that German shipping companies face an increasingly dense administrative burden within Europe. It says that double reporting requirements and regional special regulations on climate protection unnecessarily complicate ship operations and weaken competitiveness.
“It is high time for Europe and Germany to abandon their dubious leadership in excessive bureaucracy and regional special regulations. Streamlined processes and globally consistent climate protection requirements are essential to safeguard Germany’s economic strength at sea,” warns VDR CEO Martin Kröger.
While highlighting the challenges for shipping, VDR also reports a positive trend in 2024 as more young talent was attracted to the industry. It reports a 14 percent increase in trainees, with 499 training contracts at sea and 214 onshore. It highlights that shipping is attracting more young professionals while saying it is vital to continue to attract young talent into the industry.
ABP Plans to Build England's Biggest Floating Solar Plant
Britain's top ports operator has announced plans to install the largest floating solar project in the country at the Port of Barrow, north of Liverpool on England's eastern coastline.
The port has submitted planning documents for the "Barrow EnergyDock," which will be located in the Cavendish Dock, a former harbor basin and shipbuilding area that is now an enclosed reservoir.
The floating station will generate up to a peak of 40 MW worth of power for customers in the advanced manufacturing sector (BAe Systems' submarine manufacturing plant). It would also benefit the port by providing lower-cost electricity, according to ABP.
The panels will be mounted at a fixed angle on floating pontoons, which will be anchored to the bottom of the dock. The array of 47,000 panels would cover about a third of the entire surface area, leaving the remainder open for leisure usage - notably shoreside and pierside fishing. ABP notes that using the water area for power generation also leaves land free and unencumbered for future port development. All going well, the project could be completed in as little as 9-12 months after planning approval is received.
ABP carried out wildlife surveys and assessments to ensure that the array would have no significant impacts, and it held two public planning meetings to solicit input from residents.
The port company has bigger plans for Barrow's long-term expansion, to include new infrastructure to support offshore wind operations and a new jetty.
