NEWS FROM MARINE WORLD FOR MHC MEMBERS

10-APR-23 =======================

CMA CGM and CSSC Sign Largest Containership

Order Valued at $3B
=====================================================
CMA CGM is reported to have signed the largest container shipbuilding order placed in China
for a total of 16 new vessels to be built by yards within the China State Shipbuilding Corporation
(CSSC) group. The order was placed as part of a series of agreements concluded by French
companies during a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron and European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Chinese state media is releasing the first news of the agreement which was also reported by the
China Chamber of Commerce to the EU. They are saying that CMA CGM signed an order for
two classes of vessels in a total deal valued at 21 billion Chinese Yuan (nearly $3.1 billion).
Signed in Beijing on April 6, it would become the largest containership building order and a
continuation of CMA CGM’s longstanding relationship with the Chinese state shipbuilder.

The order is also the first for China for methanol dual-fuel containerships. Twelve of the vessels
will have a capacity of 15,000 TEU and use a methanol-ready engine. In addition, CMA CGM
ordered four additional 23,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel vessels, which are likely a continuation of
the Jacques Saadé class built by CSSC with the first vessel introduced in 2020. Indications are
that the order will be split between the Hudong-Zhonghau, Jiangnan, and Dalian shipyards. No
timing was announced for the delivery of the vessels.
Macron was conducting his first state visit to China in three years seeking to strengthen
economic ties and get China’s support for the war in Ukraine. The trip began on Wednesday,
April 5, and concluded today with a rare personal meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.
Chinese media highlighted the visit as an opportunity to strengthen the country's ties with
Europe and counter America’s policies of containment against China.

The South China Morning Post is reporting that France and China have grown their economic
ties exceeding $100 billion for the first time in 2022. France indicated that approximately 20
major economic deals were signed during the visit which concluded today. In addition to CMA
CGM, Airbus agreed to expand production in China and Alstom reached new agreements. The
French Electric Power Company (EDF) signed a new nuclear deal and also will work with China
Energy Investment Corporation for a wind power project. Consumer companies including
L’Oreal and France pork producers also reached agreements.

CSSC highlighted a visit by CMA CGM Chairman Rodolphe Saadé to the company in February
2023. During the visit to CSSC, he met with Wen Gang, chairman of China State Shipbuilding
Corporation, and senior executives setting off speculation that CMA CGM was preparing to
place another large shipbuilding order.
The two companies have worked together for a decade with CSSC reporting that CMA CGM
has ordered more than 70 containerships to be built in China. This includes more than 30 that
have been delivered including the first ultra-large 18,000 TEU boxships built in China and
the Jacques Saadé class which were the first large LNG-fueled containership ships. CSSC’s
shipyards built a total of nine of the vessels which each have a capacity of just over 23,000
TEU.

Container charter market on a visible rising

trend
=====================================================
Activity in the container charter market remains high with one fixture in particular giving
tonnage providers pause for thought.

After being fixed and failed in late March, the 2009-built, 4,253 teu Synergy Keelung has
been fixed for a minimum 24-month period at $23,000 with Thailand’s Regional Container Lines
(RCL), a rate brokers Braemar described today as “remarkably firm” given the fact that last
panamax fixture managed to achieve a 12-month period only and the owner of the Synergy
Keelung, Greece’s Euroseas, was able to achieve a 5% rate increase for a period twice as long.
“Not surprisingly most owners have readjusted their period ideas accordingly – particularlay for
vessels in the 3,000+ teu segment, and given the low supply, other operators are likely to align
with the new longer period trend,” Braemar noted in its latest container weekly report.

The latest report from Hamburg’s New ConTex chartering platform noted that box charter rate
levels remain stable in almost all tonnage segments with rates for feeder ships in the Atlantic
and Asia starting to rise again with owners succeeding in securing longer period commitments.

Charter rates rising markedly for all sizes of ships is reflected in the Alphaliner Charter Index,
which is now, for the first time since June 2022, on a modest but visible rising trend.

“Demand is strong across the board, with the two liner titans, MSC and CMA CGM active on all
fronts, including in the sale and purchase market,” Alphaliner noted in its most recent weekly
report.

“Carriers’ resolve to maintain pricing discipline will continue to be tested in the coming months
as charter rates and resale prices continue to rise, with vessel availability declining rapidly and
carriers are showing renewed confidence to push ahead with new capacity additions as the
summer peak season approaches,” researchers at Asian box consultancy Linerlytica noted in a
recent weekly report.
LA and Long Beach longshoremen back at work
=====================================================
Workers returned to work on Saturday after two days of intermittent strikes at the ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach in California.
Unions have not agreed new pay terms since an old contract ran out on July 1 last year, making
shippers uneasy about the prospects for industrial action.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the employers of dockworkers on the
US West Coast, said during Friday’s disruption: “These actions undermine confidence in West
Coast ports, and threaten to further accelerate the diversion of discretionary cargo to Atlantic
and Gulf Coast ports. The health of the Southern California and state economy depend on the
ability of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stem this market share erosion.”

Lars Jensen, who heads up container consultancy Vespucci Maritime, said last week’s port
disruption was like “a train wreck in slow motion”.

“Ever since the old contract failed to get renewed in the middle of 2022, the spectre of labour
disruptions on the US west coast has been a constant risk factor. A risk which has kept some US
importers from shiftings parts of their supply chain back from the east coast to the west coast
even though the pandemic-induced issues had been largely resolved,” Jensen wrote in a post on
LinkedIn.

Failure to understand new megatrends will leave

CEOs locked out of world trade system
=====================================================
Understanding the intertwining forces of digitalisation, regionalisation, and sustainability
will be key to survival in the post-pandemic environment, writes Dr Thang Nguyen, lead
economist at Oxford Economics Singapore.
As the Singapore Maritime Week returns in late April, industry leaders in the international
shipping community are scrambling to understand what a post-pandemic global trade system
will look like. A failure to understand the implications will leave their businesses adrift.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated three trends that were already disrupting world
trade. First, the increasing use of digital technologies is revolutionising international trade
especially in issues related to cross-border investment, trade finance, and supply chain
management.
Second there has been a trend towards greater fragmentation. Concerns about supply chain
resilience have led governments and businesses to reconsider their supply chain configuration.
Geopolitical issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China-US tension further breaks
down the global trade and investment system through new economic barriers and sanctions.

Third, the growing focus on sustainability is also having an impact on maritime trading.
Particularly, the International Maritime Organization is leading the discussion for the industry’s
decarbonisation agenda.

Make no mistake: these trends of digitalisation, regionalisation, and sustainability were already
in motion. What is new is that these trends are increasingly merging into each other. For
example, technological sanctions on Russia and major policies such as US CHIPS Act shows that
global fragmentation has shifted from trade wars to technological decoupling.

Monitoring risks, mapping out futures

To harness these trends, businesses and governments must invest in their ability to anticipate
major changes. This investment starts first with the monitoring of global risks and mapping out
alternative futures. The outcome of this exercise can then inform strategic decisions to research
and develop new products, build partnerships with other organisations, and plan for potential
future scenarios.

However, current methods of foresight analysis and scenario planning are often qualitative and
so prone to bias and subjectivity. In contrast, the most successful organisations have ensured
their decision-making process have become more quantitative-driven.

Being able to quantify the trajectories of key business drivers such as domestic income, input
prices, financing, and labour and energy costs can help CEOs better visualise these alternative
scenarios and understand the impact of specific decisions on their organisation’s performance.
Our research suggests that an innovation-inducing Net Zero Transformation scenario would
help lead to a net gain of $3.7 trillion in real global GDP by 2050, with transport to feature
amongst the headline sector while mining being the major loser.

Furthermore, the intensity of risk may also matter as much as its direction—for example, in a
scenario where the US and EU operate in lockstep to shut down Russia and China’s access to all
new technology, and both countries retaliate with the same measures against the West. Oxford
Economics’ research suggests that both sides will suffer a permanent loss to future output.
However, the economic costs would fall disproportionately on China and Russia—reducing real
GDP in 2030 by almost 1.9% in China and 1.3% in Russia. In contrast, it would reduce real GDP in
2030 by only 0.3% in the US and by 0.2% and in the eurozone and UK.

Last but not least, the interconnected nature of global economy calls for analysis that captures
the economic trajectories across different countries and their linkages with each other. The
interconnection of people, capital, and goods flows—and the interdependence of global
production—can transmit and amplify shocks in various shapes and forms. Linear projections
from the past are unlikely to yield the robustness required for decisions that can shape the
future of billion-dollar businesses.

“Ambition meets action” is the main theme at the Singapore Maritime Week this year. However,
to achieve that ambition, policymakers and business leaders that fail to adopt a more robust
and quantitative approach to anticipatory planning risk finding themselves locked out of the
new megatrend global trading environment.

Bulker wreck spews oil as bad weather hits

Gibraltar
=====================================================
Employees of the Gibraltar Port Authority were busy over the Easter weekend, cleaning up the
latest debris to wash ashore from the wreck of the OS 35 bulk carrier.
Bad weather last week saw the stricken ship, lying a few hundred metres off the British
Mediterranean territory, shift and separate further with some residue oil escaping from the ship.
The oil boom surrounding the ship had been removed earlier in the week in anticipation of the
bad weather. Some beaches were closed while cleaning operations got underway from Friday.

The ship came into contact with LNG carrier Adam LNG while manoeuvring to exit the port of
Gibraltar on August 29 last year. The aft of the ship grounded, and a gash opened up on the
starboard of the hull and in the following weeks the ship lost its structural integrity.
Salvors have been set a deadline of the end of May to remove the wreck, an operation that has
been severely hampered by adverse weather this year.

Trident Seafoods Factory Trawler Catches Fire in

Tacoma
=====================================================
On Saturday afternoon, a fire broke out aboard a Trident Seafoods factory trawler at Tacoma's
Tideflats Port Facility, burning through the deckhouse and the wheelhouse. It is the second
major fire aboard a Trident vessel in Tacoma since 2021.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to the Washington
Department of Ecology. The Tacoma Fire Department dispatched crews to the scene to combat
the fire from the pier, and South King Fire and Rescue sent the fire boat Zenith to assist from
the water side. The U.S. Coast Guard closed down the waterway to marine traffic for safety, and
multiple layers of booms were installed around the vessel to contain any potential spill.
The Washington State Department of Ecology set up air monitoring to watch for potential health
hazards from the smoke, and it found pollutant levels at or below the level of moderate concern.
To ensure the safety of the public, the Tacoma Fire Department has issued a temporary shelter
in place order for three neighborhoods downwind.

No injuries or water pollution have been reported. As of Sunday, the vessel continued to emit a
substantial volume of smoke.

“We want to thank everyone for their prompt response and support,” said Joe Bundrant, CEO of
Trident Seafoods. “This has been a challenging containment issue and we appreciate the
ongoing efforts over this Easter weekend.”

In an update Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said that the fire has progressed throughout the
ship and has reached to within about 100 feet of the vessel’s freon refrigerant tanks. The ship
has an estimated 19,000 pounds of freon onboard, and the heat from the fire could cause
pressure to build in the freon tanks.

The freon tanks have heat-activated pressure relief valves, which are designed to vent the
contents if necessary. While freon can be toxic if inhaled in large quantities, the Coast Guard
said, the release of freon into the atmosphere is not expected to pose any risk to the public.

Kodiak Enterprise is a 1977-built factory trawler, originally constructed as an OSV and

converted into a fishing vessel in 1989. She had just returned from her most recent Bering Sea
fishing voyage on March 25, according to AIS data provided by Pole Star.