Jim Wilson

A few commentators have gotten the hump about Bell Bay being quite highly ranked (well, highly ranked relative to other Australian container ports anyway) in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index. Bell Bay gets a CPPI 2024 ranking of 196, which leaves behind several more well-known Australian ports. It’s worth pondering on this. Every...

Is Australian container port performance really all that bad despite Australian ports having low rankings in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index? It’s a fair question to ask. Critics of the CPPI have certainly used that argument. The CPPI is a body of work by the World Bank that is based on S&P Global...

“I hate you,” said the orange. “But why?!” exclaimed the apple, surprised, and hurt. “Because you are green! And green is not beautifully orange, like me,” the orange preened, twisting slightly in the early morning sun to highlight its beauty. There was an awkward silence. “Well,” said the apple, with righteous annoyance, “of course I...

Australian ports are unfairly penalised by the World Bank’s latest Container Port Performance Index because it doesn’t take investment into account, or so the critique goes. We’ll skip over the problems of insisting that one thing is bad because it is not some other thing, or that a pure report should be contaminated with nonrelevant...

If anyone suggests that performance, or indeed, anything else needs to be measured, then the next obvious question is: what should we count? There are some fairly obvious candidates: total vessel time in port, the difference between “time in port” and “time at berth”, and crane rates (boxes moved per berth hour). Metrics that count...

As the World Bank indicates in its latest CPPI report, a timely turnaround of container ships keeps logistics costs low and ensures that ports “remain catalysts for development”. As any good manager understands, if we want to know how a thing is performing, then we need to measure that thing. That task has been done...

We have just published our latest Annual Review! Every year in shipping is an amazing year! 2025 in Australia in international shipping was another heck of a ride! A massive break bulk stevedoring strike ground to a halt in early 2025, and that was followed by a series of literal disasters in Queensland and WA....

A group has been set up in the UK to set standards for nuclear-powered shipping. Convened by the Class Society Lloyd’s Register, experts from the nuclear, maritime, insurance and regulatory sectors will meet to set international standards for safe, secure, and commercially-viable nuclear-powered shipping. Members of the group comprise Lloyd’s Register (Secretariat, lead, and safety),...

Once again it was an absolutely packed Christmas Luncheon venue for Shipping Australia’s New South Wales Luncheon! Held this year at the Hyatt Regency, it was a fun afternoon of catching up with industry friends, superb food and top-rated entertainment. NSW State Chair Bill Rizzi opened the event with an Acknowledgement of Country and then...

A set of amendments to key IMO treaties and Codes have entered into force on 1 January 2026. They include the following: Preventing and responding to bullying, harassment and sexual assault Amendments to the Seafarers’ Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code (STCW Code) aim to prevent and respond to violence and harassment in the maritime sector,...