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Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory.
Jobs, jobs, jobs: this has been a litany intoned by politicians of all stripes and hues the world over as we face the consequences of changing financial structures and conditions, fiscal uncertainty, global unemployment, income inequality, ideological disagreement, and strategies for solution to the serious economic volatility of the past few years. Work lies at the heart of the global economy. We look to governments for the policies and actions, ideas and incentives to mobilize recovery. We look to central banks, legislatures, corporations, and leaders for the capitalization and investment to create employment, expand wages, develop new products, and satisfy the economic and social demands as an essential alternative to continuing worldwide uncertainty and unrest. We look to labor to exercise and satisfy our demands, the too often unrecognized asset value of the men and women whose skill and dedication still makes everything work.
Maritime industry is both signifier and contributor to our security and stability. More than 80% of all international trade moves across the ocean. Consider the extent of this reach: as a global employer in such areas as shipbuilding, ocean transportation, port operations, shipping and cruise lines, offshore energy rigs and platforms for oil, gas, wind, and tidal, underwater pipelines and communications cables, associated construction and support services, coastwise transport, ferries, salvage operators, insurance companies, admiralty lawyers, exploration activities, and all the other endeavors at sea that, not always known or recognized, encompass the vast ocean contribution to the world economy. They are all mariners, and indispensable.
A 2023 UN review of maritime transport describes the current situation as “a turbulent global landscape marked by geopolitical events like the war in Ukraine, as an industry that has showed remarkable resilience, adapting to new, lengthier trade routes. Maritime trade volumes dipped 0.4% in 2022, but are on track for a 2.4% rebound in 2023 and above 2% growth through 2028. A sector-specific analysis shows that containerized trade, vital for transporting everything from electronics to food to medical devices, is also bouncing back, forecast to grow 1.2% this year after suffering a 3.7% drop in 2022. Trade volumes remain, however, below pre-COVID-19 levels. In the energy sector, the oil and gas trades surged 6% and 4.6% respectively in 2022 as pandemic restrictions eased. Tanker and dry bulk rates, key industry barometers, have also shown positive trends. Tanker freight rates, crucial for oil and gas transport, peaked in 2022 and remain strong in 2023. But uncertainties due to the energy transition and new regulatory requirements could limit future carrying capacity. Dry bulk rates, affecting commodities like grain and coal, were volatile in 2022, peaking in May before falling to pre-pandemic levels by the year's end. Rates have since rebounded as demand surged and China’s industries recovered. To sustain resilience against future challenges, especially climate change, the sector must not only accelerate decarbonization but also enhance port efficiency and adopt new technologies, focusing on the needs of developing economies.”
Port operations must be prepared to meet these trends; port facilities must be protected from changing factors, such as sea level rise and changing patterns of extreme weather. Recently, in the US, seafarer and stevedore unions have been engaged in contract negotiations, with threatened strikes suggesting possible supply problems for retailers in the slowly recovering American markets. Oil and gas companies continue to announce new discoveries and expanded volumes from existing wells, and the sudden arrival of significant new supplies of natural gas, from inland fracking operations and tar sands extraction, have suggested the US may be soon transformed from an energy importer to an energy exporter, reversing the direction of exchange but not diminishing the maritime requirements. Finally, the installation of major offshore wind farms, literally thousands of towers projected that must be constructed, delivered, installed, operated, supplied, and maintained by marine services, on shore facilities, and ships and boats of all sizes for all services, will be a formidable maritime driver for the future.
This all adds up to much work to be done, by human hands, enabled by technology, most of it outside normal consumer awareness. Work at sea is a worldwide social endeavor. It is more than a lesser element in the economy of things, but is, rather, a greater force in an inter-connected economy of people, perhaps faceless, but essential to how the world works. Every time you look out to the ocean, look beyond the wind, wave, color, and light, and know that what you are seeing is a massive complex of global activity, of human vitality and value, of jobs, jobs, jobs – of the maritime endeavor that connect all things.
We will disuss these issues and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
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