We look back over our most read stories from the year to revisit the topics that your reading habits revealed as key issues in the maritime industry in 2022
Container shipping has seen something of a change in fortunes over the last 12 months. With pandemic-related congestion easing, freight rates have declined, declined again and then declined even further. But sometimes, the more things change in one area, the more they remain the same in another. In this case, that axiom holds true for grounded Evergreen Line vessels.
It will come as no surprise that the most-read story for 2021 in Container Shipping & Trade was the news of Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal, and this year’s most read story concerned another Evergreen Line ultra-large container vessel getting stuck in the mud in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay on the US east coast.
Other stories that made the most-read list cover the aforementioned falling freight rates, a future-proof container feeder ship and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
1. Ever Forward refloated, Maryland asks Evergreen for US$100M to cover costs
Ever Forward grounded near Baltimore, Maryland, on the US east coast in early March 2022 and lodged in several feet of mud, requiring extensive dredging to free the vessel, nearly a year after sister ship Ever Given disrupted global trade by grounding in and blocking traffic through the Suez Canal.
2. Falling freight rates and the congestion conundrum
Is easing supply chain congestion truly the cause of nose-diving rates in the container and bulk shipping sectors? VesselsValue senior trade flow analyst Vivek Srivastava examines congestion as a part of the supply and demand puzzle.
3. Kongsberg Maritime unveils design for a future-proof container vessel
Kongsberg Maritime’s 2,000-TEU open-top container feeder concept adopts the principle of future-proofing from the bottom up.In anticipation of new environmental regulations and customer demands, Kongsberg Maritime has combined existing and new technologies with digital platforms to propose a design for a future-proof cargo vessel that shipowners can order today.
4. Accident report: pilot error caused Ever Forward grounding
Container shipEver Forward’s grounding in Chesapeake Bay on the US east coast in March 2022 was down to pilot error, mobile device use and poor bridge resource management, according to the US Coast Guard.
5. More vessels attacked, detained as Russian invasion’s spillover into shipping expands
Reports of two additional merchant vessels hit by missiles in the Black Sea and merchant vessels detained in the Black Sea and English Channel, as UN and IMO call for ’end to hostilities’. Multiple vessels have now been damaged, with casualties reported and others detained, as the Russia-led conflict in Europe continues to spill over into commercial spheres.
