Finance

FUELSAVE: Fuel surcharges can be reduced

The recent fuel surcharges from major container shipping companies could be reduced for the mutual benefit of shipowners and operators, as well as their customers, considering the technologies available for reducing fuel consumption, believes Marc Sima, President and co-founder of Germany’s FUELSAVE.

Earlier this month, Maersk announced that the installation of technologies to reduce emissions will increase the cost of shipping a single twenty-foot container to $160, while MSC Mediterranean...

https://safety4sea.com/fuelsave-fuel-surcharges-can-be-reduced/

EU Commission seeks views on future regime for shipping consortia

The European Commission has invited comments on the legal framework exempting liner shipping consortia from EU antitrust rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements between companies, known as the “Consortia Block Exemption Regulation”.

Container shipping organised on the basis of liner consortia accounts for the majority of non-bulk freight carried by sea to and from Europe. Competitive shipping services are therefore essential for the EU’s economy as a whole. EU law generally bans...

https://safety4sea.com/eu-commission-seeks-views-on-future-regime-for-shipping-consortia/

Increased risks and tensions to slow trade growth, warns WTO

Escalating trade tensions and tighter credit market conditions in important markets will slow trade growth for the rest of 2018 and in 2019, according to World Trade Organization economists. Trade will continue to expand, but at a more moderate pace than previous forecasts.

Namely, WTO anticipates growth in merchandise trade volume of 3.9% in 2018, with trade expansion slowing further to 3.7% in 2019. The new forecast for 2018 is below the WTO’s 12 April estimate of 4.4%, but falls within the...

https://safety4sea.com/increased-risks-and-tensions-to-slow-trade-growth-warns-wto/

Escalating tariffs are weighing down world economy

UNCTAD released its Trade and Development Report 2018 noting that the pressures are building around escalating tariffs. This affects financial flows, but behind these threats to global stability is a wider failure to address the inequities and imbalances.

According to the report, the increasing mountain of debt, more than three times the size of global output, is indicative of that failure. While the public sector in advanced economies has been obliged to borrow more since the crisis, the rapid...

https://safety4sea.com/escalating-tariffs-are-weighing-down-world-economy/

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