Shipping industry sees a record USD 90 bn in ship orders: The shipping sector — well-known for its “cycles of boom and bust” — is currently seeing an unprecedented USD 90 bn global ship order pipeline, Bloombergreports, citing data from Drewry Maritime Research. There were 890 ships on the global container vessel order book as of 1 July, asmajor companies, including MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, and Hapag-Lloyd, use their pandemic gains to acquire new vessels, mostly from Korean and Chinese shipyards. This could boost net new capacity next year by a record 1.82 mn TEUs, Drewry says.

The rapid expansion of capacity could backfire, experts say: The industry is facing uncertainty due to freight rates dropping and concerns of overcapacity rising, with numerous shipping tycoons making pessimistic forecasts for the upcoming months. “There will be shipowners — tonnage providers — out there that will have stretched themselves,” the CEO of a vessel finance firm told the business news information service. “Although the last couple of years have been profitable for shipping, the accumulated earnings are far from enough to fund the investment in new technology and ships in the coming decade.”

A lot of these new orders are for less polluting vessels: ​​“The supply-demand balance for the next period will likely be under pressure because capacity will grow more than trade,” CMA CGM’s CFO said, who noted that helping counteract that effect is the scrapping of older vessels for new, less polluting ones, and the slowing down of engine speeds to curb emissions and meet the new IMO carbon emission requirements.

Rising temperatures are making logistics workers jobs harder: Rising temperatures are becoming more of a concern for delivery workers and those in the logistics field who face demanding tasks of carrying goods and driving vehicles that often lack air conditioning, causing worker productivity to slump, and sparking health concerns, the Financial Times writes. Some 317 workers from UPS, United States Postal Service and Fedex were hospitalized between 2015-2022 due to heat exposure, according to data from Occupational Safety and Health Administration picked up by the newspaper.

Solutions need to be comprehensive: Some governments — including Qatar, Spain, and California — have implemented regulations governing working during such extreme heat. Companies are also taking measures such as replacing vehicles with air conditioned models, and providing heat related gear, but economics and experts say the problem also requires a bigger, more fundamental change in the industry that would give workers the power — and capacity — to prioritize their wellbeing. Educating employers to identify signs of heat stress and enforcing safety measures on behalf of workers is also crucial, they added.

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