…Shipping line AAL, which specialises in moving big cargo, has warned customers it may have to raise prices after Fremantle Ports proposed halving the number of days it is allowed to unload at berths.
The West Australian port, which is owned by the state government, has sent shipping lines draft new rules that would limit berth time to five days and force ships back out to sea to wait until other ships have unloaded before coming back in again…
https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/cargo-ships-protest-new-berth-restrictions-at-fremantle-20211003-p58wqq
One may brush this news off as something incidental, as one more Australian twist, because as of recent, nobody takes the country seriously – it’s a breakaway State, competing in insanity and tyranny with North Korea or Venezuela. On a closer look, it’s more than just new escapade of Australian indeed, sick authorities, it’s a trend. There are still idiots around (go check MSM and its’ junior, industry media), who believe or try to believe and convince others, that container crisis is something natural, caused by West (USA mainly) buying spree, thanks to lockdowns and welfare checks. Well, it is not. It’s an artificial crisis, aimed at inciting economy crisis and collapse, it’s as far from being natural, as shot wounds post mortem is from natural causes post mortem. Australian insanities here and there are just part of it.
We’re steaming into economy collapse and world economy crisis of unprecedented in human history scale, and shipping is not an exemption, on the contrary – shipping is one of the most vulnerable industries.
I’d say even more – worldwide shipping may be disrupted any time, any minute actually, together with supply chains. How? In a very simple way – electronic navigation and also, supply chains based on data massive and cloud chains, may collapse or be just shut down, any time maniacs in WEF/UN decide to do so, to speed up their “Great Reset” project. Shipping “leaders” (criminals, as it’s becoming more and more obvious) installed a time bomb long time ago, by implementing compulsory ECDIS, to an extent of making paper charts redundant. Now, imagine modern navigator fresh out of college, on a bridge without ECDIS and paper charts (paper charts not of much use for modern deck officer, anyway), and most importantly, without basic skills of classic navigation – you know, compass bearing; dead reckoning; cross bearing; nautical astronomy, sextant, magnetic compass, things like that. He knows about these relics of a bygone era (or so he believes) a bit more than a social net celebrity, but just a bit.
In my free time, as of recent, I busily rejuvenate my (very solid) basic navigational skills – classic navigation skills. The way I see it, the majority of everything sailing around, will come to a grinding halt (with inevitably, many accidents occurring worldwide). So maybe my skills will come useful, again. It’s a grim forecast, but you know, I am not in MSM or analytic on “leaders” payroll, I describe and analyze what I see, not what I am ordered to see.
Author
My name is Mikhail Voytenko, I’m Russian, professional merchant marine navigator, by education and former experience. I own and run Maritime Bulletin website for more than 10 years. I've been involved in solving a number of piracy hijack cases, including the hijack of ro-ro FAINA, loaded with tanks. It was me who made public, and unravel, freighter ARCTIC SEA mystery. I've been also closely involved in a number of maritime disaster, one of them being MSC FLAMINIA major fire.