LONDON SHIPPING WEEK
VIBRANT SHIPPING DISCUSSIONS London International Shipping Week, in September, featured about 250 in-person and virtual events. Felicity Landon reports on some of the highlights
8 Toft: some “normalisation and cooldown” in the next 12 months
There were physical events, online events and ‘hybrid’ events throughout the week and throughout the city. COVID-19, social distancing, vaccinations and testing were never far from the conversation. However, the dominant feeling was one of delight to be back, with colleagues from across the maritime sector finally able to gather, discuss, debate and network throughout the week. Inevitably, many discussions during London International Shipping Week were focused on the ongoing huge demand for shipping, rocketing freight rates, port congestion and supply chain delays, alongside the urgency of decarbonisation, the debate around future fuels and digitalisation. LISW21 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS Global trade seems to be unstoppable and that is despite the stresses on the supply chain, said Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), at the headline LISW21 conference, “Driving Growth in a Disrupted World”. “On the one hand we see raging demand for trade in physical goods and shippers jostling for capacity, and indeed we are not the creators of the demand – we are the servers of the demand,” said Toft in his keynote speech. “On the other hand, there is a growing knot of disrupted, tangled supply chains.” A recent study showed about two-thirds of companies surveyed had supply chains in their conversations – this must be a world record in that the industry is suddenly getting so much attention, said Toft.
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However, he said, there are still many people unaware of the role that transport, shipping and logistics play in making the world economy function. “We find ourselves having to remind a wider audience of the essential role we play in keeping trade flowing and our role in keeping the global economy functioning.” Shippers were suffering ‘a lot of agony’ not only because of high freight rates but “perhaps more importantly service levels are poorer”, said Toft, noting that the problems started in 2020 “when we tried to ship 12 months-worth of goods in about eight months”.
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. . . there is a growing knot of disrupted, tangled supply chains The first seven months of 2021 saw a 33 per cent growth of imports from Asia into the US, and even compared to preCOVID 2019, it was a 22 per cent growth, he said. “Even though the supply chains are vast, they are not built for such massive changes, partly because capacity is not readily available, container terminals and land infrastructure don’t just expand like that but also because for years our industry has been marred by mediocre returns and that meant we have had to run our capacity at 90-95 per cent
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