Jim Wilson

A new regional presence has been set up by the International Maritime Organization, the UN specialised agency responsible for global shipping policy. The IMO inaugurated a new regional presence office in Suva, Fiji, “marking a milestone for regional maritime cooperation and capacity development in the Pacific,” the IMO said. The new office is hosted by...

Putting maritime policy into practice will be the two year theme for  the IMO’s World Maritime Day in 2026 and 2027. Having a two-year theme is highly unusual for the International Maritime Organization. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez, who proposed the two-year theme, talked of the IMO’s commitment to ensuring regulations are put into action. “This...

Shipping Australia was pleased to be invited to make several submissions lately to government bodies on the thorny topic of Australian productivity, which is Canberra’s current policy push. There were common positions across our submissions, so we’ve summarised them here. Ocean shipping is vitally important to the Australian economy – to our imports, our exports,...

A speed limit of 10 knots (about 18.5 km/hr) has been imposed by the Panama Canal Authority on transits in the Gulf of Panama. The Gulf is on the southern side of the Canal. The Authority has imposed the restriction following the recommendation of the International Maritime Organization which States that “to reduce the potential...

CMA CGM and TotalEnergies have entered into an agreement to develop a 50/50 logistics joint venture dedicated to the implementation and operation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker supply solution at the port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. The TotalEnergies-CMA CGM JV will offer a complete logistics service in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region. A...

Lee Tae-Young (South Korea) will receive this year’s International Maritime Organization’s Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea in recognition of his heroism in saving the lives of 12 colleagues “at immense risk to his own life”. He will be recognised by the IMO for his “extraordinary leadership, courage and selflessness”. The IMO reports that, in...

A mixed bag of interesting maritime developments has been revealed by the UK’s Maritime Accident Investigation Branch annual report for 2024, which has just been released. The annual report is extraordinarily wide-ranging, including a range of non-commercial shipping sectors, so there are a scattering of interesting facts, across a variety of maritime domains. We here...

Seafarers from a wide variety of maritime sectors will be honoured by the International Maritime Organization. The seafarers will be recognised for their astonishing acts of bravery, selflessness, and dedication to duty in saving lives and protecting the marine environment during emergencies around the world. The following list of awarded seafarers are organised by the...

Project cargo specialist AAL Shipping has delivered 83 wind turbines, over a two-year period, to the Wambo Wind Farm in Queensland. Located approximately 200km northwest-by-west of Brisbane, the project will add more than 500 megawatts of energy to the Queensland energy system, and will be able to power about 312,000 homes when it is fully...

First prize in the FONASBA Young Ship Agent or Ship Broker Award (2025) been won by Otto Hillerström for his paper on “Navigating AI impacts & transformation of dry cargo shipbroking“. The YABA Review Committee commented: “His study analyses how artificial intelligence is influencing the shipbroking profession, questioning whether AI will replace brokers or rather complement...