OPINION: Shipowners as political negotiators - about time too
IT IS not uncommon for private citizens to be involved in resolving conflicts between nations. At one time, Scandinavians were often the ‘go-to’ guys. Closer to home, the...
Human factors are not sidelined. They are at the heart of marine safety investigations
A criticism occasionally levelled at transport safety investigators is that we spend too much time examining the specifics of an incident and not enough time understanding the...
Redesigning cargo reporting for modern supply chains
INTERNATIONAL supply chains have transformed over the past two decades. Australia's cargo reporting framework has not kept pace. The current review provides an opportunity to...
DISCUSSION: AMSA’s priorities are well-intentioned but ineffective
AT AN industry Q&A session following an Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) board meeting held in Brisbane I was pleased to have the opportunity to provide some feedback...
DISCUSSION: 2005–2026 - what happened to the liner shipping commercial chain?
ON 30 June 2026, the Australian Shippers Alliance (ASA) lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) requesting an investigation into...
ACFS insolvency issues create confusion and supply chain risk
PARTIES in the commercial world have been exposed to insolvency, which has increased and unsurprisingly spread to the international supply chain. As a consequence, they likely...
OPINION: Force Majeure is a verb, not a declaration
MOST people treat force majeure like a light switch. Something goes wrong, a port closes, a strait gets dangerous, a supplier collapses and someone sends a notice invoking the...
OPINION: 150 Days in: Why carriers are about to start exercising liens
WE HAVE officially passed 150 days of the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Surcharges have been climbing steadily, peak season surcharges, congestion surcharges, bunker adjustment...
INSIGHT: Inside the AGIC international delegation program
WHILE corporate presentations dominated much of the Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC) 2026, the true operational pulse (pun intended) of international grain trade...
Navigating 2026: Head inside, head outside
MIT Sloan Management Review published an article recently that should be required reading for anyone running a cross-border logistics business. What CEOs Need to Know About...
INSIGHT: Strategic and legal status of Bab el-Mandeb
RECENT reports that Iran has requested Houthis forces to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have once again exposed the fragile security architecture governing critical international...
OPINION: Strait of Hormuz blockades, cargo fees and impact upon supply chains
THE US plans to seize the Strait of Hormuz and reimpose a blockade on ships entering and departing Iranian ports. It also plans to impose a 20% fee for all cargo shipped through...
OPINION: Is Australasian shipping ready for the strongest El Niño on record?
El Niño has returned to the Pacific, and while much of the attention has focused on its impact on agriculture and regional economies, its implications for shipping deserve equal...
White elephants: Money wasted on port infrastructure in Timor-Leste
I RECENTLY watched a program on ABC TV about a ‘ghost airport’ in Timor-Leste, which was built in 2017 for the proposed Greater Sunrise gas project (its development is still in...
OPINION: Vessel spoofing - Indonesia’s maritime blind spots and Australian implications
IN ITS Maritime Domain Awareness report launch in Jakarta on 7 July 2026, the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI) findings show that Indonesia’s maritime domain is...
