The challenges facing the shipping industry have never been greater, according to International Chamber of Shipping chairman Emanuele Grimaldi.
“Times are extremely difficult,” the Italian shipowner told TradeWinds as he prepared for another two-year stint in his role at the shipping lobby.
Grimaldi’s latest bugbear is the “alarming” rise of protectionism, which he believes threatens to make shipping more costly and complex.
For example, he ridicules calls by US labour unions for the introduction of port fees on visiting Chinese-built vessels.
Grimaldi says this would lead to some owners sending only Japanese and South Korean-built vessel to the US, which would push up costs for US cargoes.
Similarly, Grimaldi — co-managing director of Naples-based Grimaldi Group, which operates a fleet of car carriers and ropaxes — objects to the idea of imposing tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles. He said such a tax would be counter-productive to decarbonisation efforts.
“This protectionism doesn’t lead anywhere,” Grimaldi said.
Changing of the guard
During his first two-year tenure as ICS chairman, Grimaldi also had to deal with issues including decarbonisation, seafarer safety and the Red Sea crisis, among others.
These challenges make it “a very delicate period” for the shipping industry, Grimaldi said, and come as the ICS is on the hunt for a new secretary general from next year.
Incumbent Guy Platten, who has been in the role for seven years, is described by Grimaldi as having done “a fantastic job”.
“I think he has delivered,” Grimaldi said, adding he succeeded in keeping Platten in the position for an extra year to ensure a smooth handover.
Grimaldi believes the secretary general position is one that demands a degree of diplomacy, which reflects the breadth of the ICS membership, both geographically and across the different sectors of the shipping industry.
“This doesn’t mean that we are not ambitious,” Grimaldi said, highlighting that the ICS anticipated the International Maritime Organization’s goal of reaching its net-zero targets by or around 2050.
Shipping has been at the forefront of the search for green solutions that make economic sense, are viable and affordable, Grimaldi said.
He said the ICS will work towards a multilateral solutions rather than unilateral measures such as Europe’s Emissions Trading System.
Grimaldi hopes new “charismatic” IMO secretary general Arsenio Dominguez will ensure progress on that front.
Protecting seafarers
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ICS has been instrumental in helping with the release of seafarers trapped in the country and the creation of a grain corridor in the Black Sea.
Its continued efforts to free “totally innocent seafarers” include those of the hijacked 5,100-ceu Galaxy Leader (built 2002). The Bahamas-flagged car carrier’s crew have been held in Yemen since November.
Grimaldi was unanimously re-elected as ICS chairman in June, with Metin Duzgit, from the Turkish Chamber of Shipping, as vice chairman.
