AT the top of the list of most-read stories covered by DCN this past week was our exclusive about Auriga Group and Brisbane Marine Pilots joining forces. The news comes as Poseidon Sea Pilots works to train up its team after it won the 10-year contract to deliver pilotage services at Brisbane starting on 1 January 2022. Auriga and BPM said that together they have more than 1000 years of combined on-water pilotage experience.
The second-most read story concerned the tragic death of a seafarer off the coast of Queensland. The seafarer died during a crew-change operation on the bulker Formosabulk Clement five nautical miles off south-east Queensland. The incident highlights the dangers of crew-change rules differing state-by-state. The Formosabulk Clement was not scheduled to berth in Queensland; it was heading to New South Wales, where reportedly a crew change was not permitted.
And it is reporting season, so there have been many stories covering companies’ financial results. The most-read such story this past week covered Aussie rail-operator Aurizon. The company reported a 10% increase in EBIT to $46.5 million.
The fourth-most read story of this past week discussed the thorn in everyone’s side: congestion at ports. Several shipping lines announced a spate of port omissions around Australia and New Zealand as they work to catch up on their schedules. In an advisory, Hapag-Lloyd pointed to the global logistics industry’s “unprecedented strain” as the reason behind the changes to schedules.
And finally, the fifth-most read story of the week concerned Maersk paying nearly US$1 billion for two logistics companies. The companies – one in Europe, the other in the US – specialise in business-to-consumer logistics, or, in other words, e-commerce. This seems to be the latest move in Maersk’s plan to build itself into a fully integrated supply chain company.
