Sharp surge in port congestion foreshadows Shanghai lockdown
Authorities in Shanghai imposed a strict lockdown on Monday (28 March) morning, following congestion at the city’s port skyrocketing since early March.
With roads, bridges and tunnels between the Pudong and Puxi areas blocked for at least a week, Shanghai International Port Group, which manages the city’s ports, released a statement saying, other than in cases of extreme weather, 24 hour operations would be maintained.
Data from VesselsValue shows an almost five fold increase in the number of ships waiting to load or discharge at Shanghai in the last two and half weeks.
Container News
First attempt at refloating Ever Forward unsuccessful
Ever Forward remains stuck in Chesapeake Bay more than two weeks after its grounding.
The initial effort to refloat the Ever Forward in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland proved to be unsuccessul after tugs failed to dislodge the ship on Tuesday.
Five tugs were used for the operation, which kicked off today at around noon. The configuration included two tugs pulling on the starboard quarter, one pulling on the stern, and two pushing on the port side.
A spokesperson from the Coast Guard told gCaptain at around 7 p.m. local time, several hours after the operation began, that there was no movement from the ship, but they added that the tugboats will be back on scene tomorrow.
gCaptain
Why the global supply chain mess is getting so much worse
Problems with global supply chains were supposed to be getting better by now. Instead, experts say they are getting worse.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which cut off exports from Ukraine and put Russian businesses under sanction, has set off a series of new supply-chain bottlenecks. So has a surge in Covid cases in China, which has led to temporary lockdowns in parts of the country.
No one was predicting that the supply chain would return to normal by this point. Even before these latest crises, shortages of some parts and raw materials had been expected to continue into 2023. But companies had been confident that there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. In early February, three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, GM forecast that it would be able to build 25% to 30% more cars this year than last year.
CNN
SEC proposes 'rules of the road' for climate risk disclosures
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that companies follow detailed rules for reporting on climate risk, saying that businesses and investors will benefit from clear, uniform disclosures on the costs from climate change.
The disclosure rules "would provide investors with consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information for making their investment decisions and would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said Monday before the commission voted 3-1 for the proposal. "Companies and investors alike would benefit from the clear rules of the road."
Under the proposal, the SEC would require companies to describe on Form 10-K their governance and strategy toward climate risk and their plan to achieve any targets they have set for curbing such risk. Companies would also need to disclose data on their greenhouse gas emissions, either from their facilities or through their energy purchases, and obtain independent attestation of their data.
Supply Chain Dive
Norway and Japan seen leading shipping’s zero emissions race
New mapping of zero emission pilots and demonstration efforts in shipping reveals Norway and Japan are out in front in terms of the number of projects underway.
The Getting to Zero Coalition’s latest update on global action to decarbonise shipping includes significantly more projects – up from 106 to 203 – focusing on ship technologies, fuel production as well as bunkering and infrastructure with Norway and Japan the most busy (see map below).
Some of the key findings in this year’s mapping include an increased focus on hydrogen-derived fuels, a higher number of large vessels targeting ammonia and methanol, more bunkering and infrastructure projects, as well as the emergence of fuel production in Oceania.
Splash247
