Spotlight industry from July 1, while it considers expanding that to include international maritime voyages starting or ending in the UK, with a proposed start date of 2028.

China auto exports to offset new ro / ro capacity

Surging vehicle exports from China to developing markets will offset looming fears of overcapacity in the vehicle carrier market, the head of one of the roll-on / roll-off sector’ s biggest operators said. Lasse Kristoffersen, president and CEO of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, predicted the growth in vehicle exports, especially from China, will match the influx of new vehicle carrier capacity this year based on manufacturers’ sales

Skyshark Media / Shutterstock. com forecasts. He said China’ s top seven manufacturers, including BYD, Geely, Chery and Nio, planned to ship an extra 2.3 million vehicles to overseas markets this year on top of official total vehicle exports of 5.9 million units. That followed a 24 % rise in China’ s vehicle exports to 6.9 million last year, up from 5 million in the year prior, Kristoffersen said during a results briefing. Kristoffersen noted the peak in pure car and truck carrier( PCTC) deliveries last year with 75 ships totaling 600,000 car equivalent units( CEU) joining the global fleet. A further 67 vessels are set for delivery this year, adding to the current fleet of 899 ships, according to figures from maritime consultant AXS Marine and British shipbroking house Clarksons.

This year’ s new vessel deliveries equate to an 8 % rise in total fleet capacity to 5.3 million CEUs this year, adding to the 13 % increase last year.“ This extra export volume more or less matches the extra capacity coming out of shipyards,” Kristoffersen said during the briefing.“ That’ s why we believe China will surprise on the upside.” Both Mitsui OSK Lines and“ K” Line, in February earnings statements, said they expected“ solid demand” for vehicle exports to continue this year.

Epstein-linked CEO departs DP World

The Canadian pension fund that partners with DP World on port projects around the globe said it welcomed the company’ s move to sever ties with Chairman and Chief Executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem following revelations about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Quebec-based investment manager La Caisse announced it would put its future investments with DP World on hold until the company addressed Sulayem’ s relationship with Epstein, which came to light when US Congressional representatives released millions of additional pages of the so-called Epstein files. La Caisse, which manages C $ 496 billion in assets, said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce it supported DP World’ s action against Sulayem and hopes to finance other DP World projects. Although La Caisse has not made a firm commitment to it, DP World is slated to develop Quebec’ s Contrecoeur terminal.“ The company took the appropriate measures,” La Caisse said.“ We will move quickly to work with DP World’ s new leadership to continue our partnership on port projects around the world.” Dubai-based DP World said that effective immediately, its CFO Yuvraj Narayan will also take over as CEO, while Essa Kazim, governor of the country’ s International Financial Center and chairman of its stock exchange, will take over the chairman’ s role. Officially, DP World said Sulayem“ resigned” from the company. He had served as chairman and CEO since 2016.

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