Chris Browne has joined Image Line Communications, the specialist maritime and logistics PR agency, as PR Manager. Browne is a former shipping reporter on Fairplay and Safety at Sea International magazines and has had two spells as a maritime and political PRO.  
He is an experienced Fleet Street sub-editor and spent several years writing property and personal finance stories for the Observer, The Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent among others.

Suez Canal revenue and traffic levels last month both fell by around a quarter in comparison with February 2008, according to figures released by the canal authorities. 

The numbers mark the sixth successive decline, with canal revenues hitting their lowest point in the last three years. 

Vessel transits declined to 1,272 compared to 1,676 vessels a year ago. Also, the volume of trade passing through this canal fell to 53m tonnes, compare to 73m tonnes year on year. 

Some reasons to explain that can be the economic downturn and also the reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the

Gulf of Aden, well-known for piracy attacks.

Piracy acts in the

Gulf of Aden had resulted in an intensification of security in this region. 

For the last few months, successful attacks on vessels are running out of steam and the risk-reward balance could be tipping back in favour of the ship-owners. 

However, in this economic context, anti-piracy operations may not seems to be such an urgent priority for governments struggling to bail out their own economies.Without a strong naval presence in this region, all efforts can be lost. 

The hope is that a sustainable solution will be in place, with capacity-building projects on land, regional support and involvement from the United Nations to long-term support for

Somalia, but this can take a long time. 

Until we do, it is likely that both governments and pirates will keep a close eye on the risk-reward balance and keep asking themselves what they can get away with.

Shipping is a dangerous profession.

Safety and security are keys points. You must make sure that your crew has received a high level of safe instructions and your ship has no failure before going.

However, all these measures cost a lot of money. According to a leading classification society report, some owners are skimping on maintenance budgets.

Delaying such work is somehow understandable in this period of credit crunch, but it means endangering the life of your crew. If no effort is made on ships’ maintenance, the shipping industry as a whole will stand condemned.

At present, it is estimated that approximately 1,000 vessels are laid-up around the world’s anchorages. According to the Classification society Det Norske Veritas, the overcapacity of vessels could reach 10,000 with some 6,000 laid up by 2013.

However, this is not bad news for everyone. It can be a business opportunity. Indeed, in Southeast Asia, sheltered bays are being marketed as safe havens of unemployed tonnage. Bays in the Philippines are being touted as ideal low-cost locations to park vessels.

 The Rail Britannia Campaign — some key points for further discussion …

Sea transport

is among the most economically and environmentally friendly transport modes. Retailers and importers want to increase its use in the supply chain, but there

is a current lack of sufficient infrastructure coupled with unreliable or underdeveloped service levels.  In the new era of increased corporate responsibility, more and more major industries, businesses and retailers within the

UK are taking on the initiative to drastically improve their supply chain log

istics. Through more efficient shipping and movement of products via

UK ports and rail freight, these companies are seeing vast reductions in their carbon em

issions and are effectively providing better service options.  Unfortunately, efforts by these businesses to util

ise viable shipping alternatives are being squashed on a daily bas

is by the government’s own lack of direction when it comes to the use of the

UK’s rail infrastructure. 
 In the

UK, overcapacity

is becoming a real problem for many of the establ

ished ports, at a time when sea transport

is becoming more popular. The government needs to support new deep sea terminals to ease the pressure and respond to changing transport needs.PD Ports (PDP) terminal at Teesport North East England, currently handles around 13 trains per-day.  However, following approval of the company’s plans for a deep sea terminal, known as the Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT), rail transport at th

is key

UK port

is set to greatly increase. When the NGCT begins planned operations in 2011, PDP wants to expand rail services.  Th

is will lead to the handling of an additional 10 trains per-day when NGCT

is fully open.  While these extra train paths are available using the current infrastructure, it will not be possible to transport the increasingly popular high cube containers on standard rail wagons.  At present, the government seems to be making no progress toward reducing carbon em

issions from transport and

is blaming increased personal wealth for the r

ise in car use and increased personal travel. While th

is may be true, it should not be used as an excuse for doing nothing to reduce the

UK’s transport em

issions footprint. Greater use of Northern UK ports, plus the use of rail

is a viable option for reducing carbon em

issions from the

UK and reducing transport costs at the same time.