ShipCrunch

The Happy End of Environmentalism: Whatever Works

 The failure to achieve political consensus at COP15 does away with idealism; hail pragmatism!

By Ryan Skinner (email)

In the last week, both LNG and biofuels have gained ground as plausible drivers for reducing emissions broadly across the shipping industry. Don't count on either of them making much headway, though. In fact, don't count on anything to win out.

More accurately, everything will win out. Shipping will grow greener not by one silver bullet solution to everything, but a very wide range of abatement technologies, new fuels, scrubbing, changes to operations, additives - all in a dog's breakfast.

A grin too wide - Was justice served in Norway?

Retroactive laws are unjust and should be stricken, but why all the big smiles?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

"Whew! This year we'll have enough dough to put salt in our soup, eh, Andreas?" 

"Norwegian shipping lines win back-tax case" was the headline in the Financial Times Friday. Four years of legal battles between Norway's shipowners and its government ended 3.6 billion dollars in the shipowners' favor. Yet the shipowners did themselves few favors by breaking out the fat grins after the verdict.

If I was the Norwegian Shipowners' Association's PR advisor (note: I'm not), I would have strongly advised them to appear just as sober and aggrieved at news of the victory, as they had been previously. They want the point here to be: "The government has tried to get away with a terrible abuse of power. This has now been redressed. During these hard times, this will benefit society."

Instead, under headlines pronouncing the shipowners' victory and multi-billion dollar reward, they smile like they won the lottery. For the 90 per cent of readers who go no further into the story, it looks like the fat cats have pulled another coup over Norway's clumsy socialist government.

The Norwegian supreme court justices who decided this case no doubt concerned themselves only with interpreting the law. But that the back-tax was imposed during high times, when it seemed as if shipowners were amassing tremendous wealth, and is now repealed during a recession, must have had an impact. No matter how you cut this cake, the flavor is politics.

The next time that Norway's shipowners' fate is in the grip of the public will, these shipowners may rue those smiles.

NOTE: It would surprise me very little if Norway's left-leaning press corps skewed the coverage to the shipowners' disadvantage ("quick, they're smiling, take a picture!"), but the shipowners themselves made it too easy for them.

"Sturla, release the pigeons." 

What is Fairplay doing?!

From straight shipping mag to trade/commerce/logistics/shipping mag...why? And will it work?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Fairplay surprised me last week by announcing that it was changing its focus. In a leader that seemed to meander around the point, Fairplay revealed that it's going to be covering more than its usual true-blue shipping beat. It is expanding scope to go into more depth on legislation, logistics, technology and "commerce".

 What's driving the change? A good guess is necessity. The timing of the change seems a bit odd: too hasty to seem planned, and too late for many making 2010 advertising calendars. And the editorial said little about how this impacts advertisers, readership or distribution.

So now Fairplay's trying to metamorphose into a hybrid between Journal of Commerce and the Economist. The new mag's initial editorial certainly aimed high, arcing from the Oracle of Omaha, to Obama, taking a right turn at APEC and quoting both the PRC's Hu and COSCO's Wei, before landing like a plop with DHL's CEO (who offered this revelation: Asia is rich in natural resources, has a large, youthful and increasingly well-educated workforce and a growing middle class. Wow. Stop the presses.)  

What does this mean? To advertisers, it means you're less likely to nail readers whose interests begin and end within sight of a shipyard. But you're perhaps more likely to get the eye of charterers, logistics firms, forwarders and the like. It's a broader audience - take it or leave it.

Even if I sound critical, I think the move's an exciting one. After all, I already love reading the Economist. Now I get an Economist with a greater shipping bent, kind-of, if you squint a little.

The PR Power of Source - Where do things come from?

Global trade will hurt if the absolute good of local supply gains widespread acceptance. A strategy...

By Ryan Skinner (email)

No one knows where anything comes from anymore. The best bet is China, of course. Looking for a new microwave oven recently, I asked the sales attendant where three models were manufactured. He couldn't find out in the chain's ERP system, or on the packaging. It wasn't until I bought one and got it home that I saw it, sure enough: Made in PRC.

People want to know where things come from. Two examples:

1) A Norwegian power supplier recently aired a new, funky commercial that gives a metaphysical, soft interpretation to where its power comes from.

2) Newspapers worldwide recently carried a popular story describing how Sweden has introduced carbon labelling on consumer products. Now buyers can see how much carbon goes into making things.

People want to know where things come from. It's a lesson for anyone in shipping, or global trade.

Working for a major telecommunications company some years back, I covered a story on how RFID tags were being used to track inventories in complex logistics systems. In other words, I understood that things, down to all their essential components, can in fact be tracked.

It wouldn't take a genius ERP company to develop an "open source manufacturing" solution, which allows consumers to track down not only the precise source of their product, but all of its constituent parts down to where the raw materials were mined, extracted and refined.

And this is no pie-in-the-sky idealism. Another client of ours is conducting HSE surveys of all of its suppliers worldwide. It's not only a sound working practice; it's protecting yourself from liability. Just ask Nike and Mattel - two companies noticeably burned by bad practices in their supply chain.

This information should be turned over to consumers. Yes, you'll expose that carefully developed supply chain to competitors' scrutiny. But, is that so bad? I mean, if your competitive edge is using a supplier no one else knows about, don't you have bigger problems?

Give people the ability to track products back to the source. People want to know where things come from.

Anybody who knows of a company that offers this kind of thing, please share, or leave a comment.

Being seen to be doing something: OMSA at the gates

Sometimes a press release is an end in itself, as a recent OMSA press release displays

By Ryan Skinner (email)

A few weeks ago I wrote a mildly controversial rebuke of the IMO's passive approach to the media, arguing that its failure to get in front of the news cycle was costing it jurisdictional authority. If the IMO isn't seen to be in control, others will leap to control.

Now OMSA, the US Offshore Marine Services Association, displays exactly what I was talking about. In a recent press release, OMSA "applauds" US government efforts to pursue foreign shipowners for tax violations.

This message is not intended for the IRS, nor for the foreign shipowners themselves (though it will not escape their notice), nor the general public, who - more often than not - could care less. This press release lets OMSA's stakeholders know that OMSA is on top of the situation, and even suggests OMSA is responsible for the government's intensified controls.

This press release required little effort of OMSA, but it reminds all of its stakeholders that the organization is in control. The IMO would do well to take notice.

Emissions reductions in shipping: Where tomorrow's projects are

Is there a better place to see the future of shipping than Norway's maritime R&D funding plans?

By Ryan Skinner (email)

In an article two weeks ago, I talked with a leading newbuilding consultant at Wilhelmsen who believed that those shipyards who will survive this downturn will focus on R&D investments. Whether it is Norway, France, Finland, US, Korean or Chinese yards, much of this R&D funding will come from the government. So what are these countries prioritizing? The answer may be as good an indicator as any of the future of shipping.

Shipping media, tear down this pay wall!

The pay wall in many shipping media titles will fall, but only after a few things happen

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Much good online news is free. News pundits argue that it will stay that way. Then why is so little content from the top shipping titles available free online? Why do they bury their news like some paranoid squirrel under what is called the pay wall - the online subscription barrier?

For the time being, these titles argue that they couldn't abandon the pay wall if they wanted to. And, in many cases and among many editors, they probably do want to, in order to build their readership. Revenue from web advertising just doesn't cover the cost of keeping a modern news organisation afloat.

That isn't the whole story. Given a little trust in the market and aggressive marketing on the part of these newspapers and advertisers, the pay wall will fall. In fact, it must.

Deep waters remain silent: Is the IMO up to the task?

When "on top of the situation" means less than "being seen to be on top of the situation"

By Ryan Skinner (email)

 

Too much time signing meeting minutes, not enough talking to the press?

Sometimes it seems like every jurisdiction that could be, should be or is run by the UN ends up a quagmire, whether it be space, the poles, Afghanistan or the open seas. Over the IMO's 50 years, it has probably never seen as many challenges as today. Piracy, security, climate change, ballast water and maritime technologies are a few of the many areas screaming for increased coordination and government.

Tech threat: How a cheap device could sabotage shipping lanes

An excellent piece of reporting from Lloyd's List uncovers a threat to shipping's digital future 

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Imagine you're driving down an unfamiliar country road, in the dead of night, in a storm. You're tracking your route carefully on your car's GPS, when suddenly the signal begins to jump around the screen. According to the GPS, you've swerved off route and are racing into the forest at 300 kilometres an hour and swinging wildly. Lightning strikes and thunder ke-racks! Your car's warning lamps are now shrieking, and it feels like the gearbox is locking up. Lastly, your steering column ceases to respond, the muffler explodes and the accelerator gives its all, independent of your foot.

It's a nightmare scenario for ships' officers sketched by Craig Eason in an excellent piece of reporting recently in Lloyd's List.

Images to inspire shipping pre-Copenhagen Climate Conference

Satellite imagery has made a powerful case against shipping emissions, by making them visible

By Ryan Skinner (email)

Just ask Ebeneezer Scrooge: Nothing is real until you can see it. No one doubts that merchant shipping creates dangerous emissions (studies date back to 1987), but images obtained from satellites and researchers' studies bring tears to the eyes. These kinds of images will chase the shipping industry all the way to Copenhagen in December, and follow every effort to wrangle regulations into place.