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If Trump wants to work with Russia on cybersecurity, here’s what he should do
Jul 20, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Suzanne Spaulding
As the head of cyber security and critical infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, I was part of similar talks with China. The lessons from that dialogue, which led to a significant reduction in China’s commercial cyber-espionage activities, can teach President Trump much about how to deal with Russia. -
PetroChina unloading first Chinese purchase of oil from U.S. strategic reserves: shipping data
Jul 20, 2017 | Reuters
By Florence Tan
PetroChina is this week unloading the first Chinese purchase of crude oil from U.S. strategic petroleum reserves at a port in eastern China, according to shipping data and two industry sources. -
Russian shippers favoring rail over sea from Asia
Jul 21, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Eugene Gerden
Russian shippers’ use of express and high-priced rail services to move goods from Asia to population centers in the country’s east has risen 30 percent to 330,000 TEU in the first half, according to government statistics. -
China plan to ban waste imports threatens US exports
Jul 19, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Dustin Braden
China’s notification to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it will no longer import solid waste by the end of this year imperils 8.2 percent, or nearly 1 million TEU, of all US exports, according to an analysis of data from PIERS. -
Eastbound trans-Pac spot rates slip in third straight week
Jul 21, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Bill Mongelluzzo
The peak-shipping season in the eastbound Pacific has yet to take off in earnest as spot rates declined slightly for the third consecutive week. -
Fortune Ocean Eyes Up to Six New Bulkers
Jul 24, 2017 | World Maritime News
China’s dry bulk owner Fortune Ocean Shipping is looking to expand its fleet with up to six new bulk carriers to be built by its compatriot yard.
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If Trump wants to work with Russia on cybersecurity, here’s what he should do
Jul 20, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Suzanne Spaulding
Last week, the president tweeted about forming a joint cyber-unit with the country that hacked our election. Now the White House reportedly is considering giving Russia back the compounds it used to spy on us. This latest signal that the United States is moving on, rather than seriously addressing Russian interference in our democracy, should meet the same fate as last week’s bad idea: bipartisan condemnation followed by a quick reversal.
If the administration is set on talking to Russia about cyber security, however, we could consider engaging in carefully limited cyber security talks, strategically focused on our national interests and with a clear-eyed understanding that Russia is not our ally. As the head of cyber security and critical infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, I was part of similar talks with China. The lessons from that dialogue, which led to a significant reduction in China’s commercial cyber espionage activities, can teach President Trump much about how to deal with Russia.
China has a long record of stealing sensitive U.S. business information to help its own industries. For years, China had rejected U.S. assertions that commercial espionage could not be tolerated in a global economy. But the Obama administration remained clear and consistent in communications with China that this kind of activity was unacceptable. In 2014, for example, five members of the Chinese military were indicted on cybertheft charges.
In the late summer of 2015, as President Xi Jinping prepared for his first state visit to the United States, the media reported that the U.S. government was preparing sanctions against China. The White House’s consistent messages and actions up to that point made these threats credible. Not wanting to mar the images of his arrival in the United States, Xi dispatched senior advisers to fly to Washington to negotiate a way out. With that leverage, I joined an interagency team in talks that finally produced an agreement, announced days later by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi. The result was that, for the first time, China agreed that it should not steal sensitive business information to benefit its commercial entities.
Getting caught violating a commitment made at the presidential level raised the stakes for China’s cyberspies. At a minimum, it significantly increased their costs by requiring them to be more stealthy and targeted. They could no longer engage in widespread, unsophisticated smash-and-grab operations across our economy. Private cybersecurity firm FireEye reported in June 2016 that the number of network compromises by the China-based hacking groups it tracked dropped from 60 in 2013 to fewer than 10 three years later.
The agreement also established an important mechanism for regular high-level talks and appropriate working-level communications. I made several trips to Beijing over the next two years, and we hosted senior Chinese cyber officials in the United States. China clearly valued this ongoing dialogue, and we made clear in every meeting that its continuation was contingent upon China living up to its agreements. We never implied that we were ready to “move on.”
In contrast, members of the current administration apparently couldn’t even wait until they were in office to begin weakening their leverage over Russia. Weeks before inauguration, Michael Flynn already was discussing with the Russian ambassador the sanctions imposed by the previous administration. Do we really think that discussion conveyed the incoming administration’s strong determination to keep those sanctions in place unless Russia changed its behavior?
Administration policy since the inauguration is not encouraging to those looking for a more robust stand against Russian interference. Instead, media reports indicate that the White House continues to work to weaken the current sanctions bill in Congress. And Trump says sanctions were not even discussed in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What clearly did come up was the desire to move on and work together to guard against election hacking and “many other negative things.” (We know what Putin puts in the category of “negative things”: free speech, dissent, the open flow of information and true democracy.)
It will clearly take more pressure from all sides for the president’s behavior to change. And it’s not just the White House that needs to start operating from a position of strength instead of as a supplicant trying to curry favor because we need Russia’s help. Congress also needs to assert itself more strongly. All parts of the government need to make clear that existing deterrents will remain in place — and that further punishments are possible. Moving promptly on a strong sanctions bill would be a good start. Otherwise, Russia will continue interfering in U.S. democracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-trump-wants-to-work-with-russia-on-cybersecurity-heres-what-he-should-do/2017/07/20/49e65cca-6cd0-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html?utm_term=.842952149695
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PetroChina unloading first Chinese purchase of oil from U.S. strategic reserves: shipping data
Jul 20, 2017 | Reuters
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - PetroChina is this week unloading the first Chinese purchase of crude oil from U.S. strategic petroleum reserves at a port in eastern China, according to shipping data and two industry sources.
The move comes as China, the world's No.2 oil consumer, steps up imports from the Americas to diversify supply sources.
PetroChina unit, PetroChina International America Inc, bought the 550,000-barrel cargo of Bryan Mound sour crude in a sale from U.S. strategic petroleum reserves in March for $28.8 million.
Supertanker Cosrising Lake, chartered by PetroChina, is unloading the U.S. oil at Qingdao port in Shandong province this week, shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.
The crude has an API gravity of 33.3 degrees and sulphur content of 1.41 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's website, similar in quality to Middle East grades such as Oman crude.
After discharging that cargo, the ship will unload close to 1 million barrels of U.S. Mars crude at Rizhao port for independent refiner Shandong Wonfull Petrochemical, an industry source said, citing Chinese port data. He declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak with media.
The Mars cargo is not from U.S strategic reserves.
PetroChina declined to comment, while Wonfull could not be reached for comment.
More Asian refiners are turning to the Americas for oil after OPEC cuts tightened heavy crude supplies and as governments respond to a call from United States President Donald Trump to buy U.S. oil and gas.
State-owned PetroChina is one of the key players moving Americas crude to Asia. It recently sold India that country's first U.S. crude import via an Indian Oil Corp tender.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN1A80YF
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Russian shippers favoring rail over sea from Asia
Jul 21, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Eugene Gerden
Russian shippers’ use of express and high-priced rail services to move goods from Asia to population centers in the country’s east has risen 30 percent to 330,000 TEU in the first half, according to government statistics. Rather than wait 43 to 47 days for oceanborne shipments from Asia to St. Petersburg, Russian shippers are now increasingly choosing to send shipments into Russia via the country’s Far East ports for shipping by rail to the east, which has a transit time of 22 to 35 days.
The cost of all-water services to eastern Russia is around $2,000, whereas the cost of using inland transportation from Russia’s Far East is around $3,400. The trend has been underway in earnest for some time but has gained much momentum since the second half of 2016, and ports in Russia’s Far East have been gaining market share as a result. Ministry of Transport analysts expect that Russia’s Far East ports will increase their market share 10 percentage points to 18 percent of Russia’s container traffic in 2017. Russian shippers are not the only ones increasingly favoring rail to move goods from Asia to Europe.
Containerized rail now makes up around one-quarter, or 3.8 million TEU of the total 15 to 16 million TEU in containerized traffic shipped from Asia to Europe, according to Russia’s Ministry of Transport. About half of those 3.8 million TEU move through Russian ports and on Russian railroads, according to the ministry.
http://www.joc.com/rail-intermodal/international-rail/asia/russian-shippers-favoring-rail-over-sea-asia_20170721.html
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China plan to ban waste imports threatens US exports
Jul 19, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Dustin Braden
China’s notification to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it will no longer import solid waste by the end of this year imperils 8.2 percent, or nearly 1 million TEU, of all US exports, according to an analysis of data from PIERS. The WTO will accept comments on the proposed ban until July 20, at which point it will begin deliberations on whether or not the ban is allowable under the rules and regulations of the WTO, which allow for bans on trade if those bans do not prioritize domestic industry and producers.
WTO members' autonomy to determine their own environmental objectives has been reaffirmed on a number of occasions, and there are specific carve outs from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade for the environment, according to the WTO website.
The ban would restrict US exports of waste paper; waste from the manufacture of iron or steel; ash and residues containing arsenic, metals, or their compounds; plastic waste; wool and animal hair waste; garnetted stock of wool or animal hair; cotton waste; man-made fiber waste; and used and worn out twine, rope, cables, and cordage. “We found that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials,” China said in its filing to the WTO. “This polluted China's environment seriously.
To protect China's environmental interests and people's health, we urgently adjust the imported solid wastes list, and forbid the import of solid wastes that are highly polluted.” Underscoring just how essential waste exports are to the US export trade, three of the top five exporters on JOC.com’s Top 100 US Exporters rankings ship paper or plastic waste for processing internationally. Recyclables made up 30 percent of Top 100 exporters, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has said it will fight the ban.
The group said it has heard China is considering expanding the ban to include other scrap materials. “Upon receiving this information, ISRI immediately briefed US officials in preparation for tomorrow’s US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington,” the group said. If the ban takes effect, US exporters of these commodities will lose access to the destination where they shipped 77.8 percent of their products last year, according to PIERS. India is the secondlargest market for US exports of these commodities, with a share of 7.9 percent.
South Korea (4.4 percent), Indonesia (2.1 percent), and Taiwan (1.3 percent) round out the top 5. Of the banned commodities, wastepaper made up 88.2 percent, or 1.2 million of the total 1.4 million TEU exported in 2016, with plastic parings and scraps making up 11.2 percent, or 155,967 TEU.
In addition to forcing waste exporters to search for new markets, the ban will make it more difficult for container lines to position empty containers to China to be refilled with goods for export. Rates on some trade lanes could also be impacted depending on how strong demand for space is on certain routes, if US waste exporters are only able to access a limited amount of markets.
http://www.joc.com/regulation-policy/import-and-export-regulations/international-importexport-regulations/china-plan-ban-waste-imports-threatens-us-exports_20170719.html?utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CL_JOC%20Asia%207%2F24%2F17%20%20%20%20%20_PC9156_e-production_E-1891_DB_0723_1805
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Eastbound trans-Pac spot rates slip in third straight week
Jul 21, 2017 | Journal of Commerce
By Bill Mongelluzzo
The peak-shipping season in the eastbound Pacific has yet to take off in earnest as spot rates declined slightly for the third consecutive week. By contrast, in mid-July last year spot rates were moving higher, and they remained strong through the end of the year. The spot rate for shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the East Coast declined 1 percent this week to $2,233. The West Coast rate dropped 3 percent to $1,226 per FEU, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index published under the Market Data Hub on JOC.com.
The rates have been coming down a few percentage points each week after they jumped by double-digits after some carriers implemented a July 1 general rate increase. West Coast rates have already fallen behind the spot rates in mid-July last year. The West Coast rate in Week 29 of 2016 was $1,296 per FEU, 5 percent higher than this week. The East Coast rate in Week 29 last year was $1,744 per FEU. The East Coast rate this week is 28 percent higher than in week 29 last year. Late last June the Panama Canal expansion project was completed, and carriers immediately began to deploy much larger vessels on allwater services to the East Coast.
Any problems the carriers are experiencing with pricing has more to do with capacity than with demand. Containerized imports from Asia have been strong all year, increasing 4.2 percent in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period last year, according to PIERS, a JOC.com. This indicates that the US economy is doing well and import volumes should be good through the peak season, said Ernie Kuo, senior vice president of Pacific International Lines (PIL) USA Agency Services. “We’re bullish on the US economy,” he said. The Port of Oakland, speaking with its carrier representatives, is preparing for stronger peakseason volumes than last year. “We’re hearing that the next two-to-three months could set new containerized import records in the United States,” the port’s maritime director, John Driscoll, said Friday. Therefore, spot market rates this year have followed normal season trends. Carriers such as PIL that are heavily dependent upon cargo generated by non-vessel-operating common carriers feel comfortable with the current environment as they anticipate tighter capacity and rising rates beginning next month. “The spot market is not horrible,” Kuo said.
The problem that carriers have faced since the restructuring of their global vessel-sharing alliances on April 1 is that capacity is also increasing. Total capacity to the West Coast in peak season 2017 will be 4.9 percent higher than in peak season 2016, said David Arsenault, president of Logistics Transformation Solutions and former president of the Americas for Hyundai. That is because independent lines that are not affiliated with the three alliances have deployed most of their capacity to Los Angeles-Long Beach, he said.
By contrast, total capacity to the East Coast will be 2 percent higher than in peak season 2016, Arsenault said. That could help to explain why declines in the spot rate for the past three weeks to the East Coast have been smaller than to the West Coast. Carriers need a strong peak season with rising spot rates in order to make 2017 a profitable year. The service contract rates they signed this spring with their steady customers were generally not break-even, so carriers are looking to a healthy and prolonged peak season with rising spot rates to achieve profitability.
http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/trade-lanes/trans-pacific/eastbound-trans-pac-spot-rates-slip-third-straight-week_20170721.html
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Fortune Ocean Eyes Up to Six New Bulkers
Jul 24, 2017 | World Maritime News
China’s dry bulk owner Fortune Ocean Shipping is looking to expand its fleet with up to six new bulk carriers to be built by its compatriot yard.
Namely, the company placed four firm orders with Tianjin Xingang at a price of USD 23.5 million a piece.
The contract for 82,000 dwt Panamax bulkers includes two more options, according to data provided by VesselsValue.
Under the deal, reportedly signed on July 21, the parties said that the new ships, including the options if exercised, would be delivered by the end of 2018.
The newbuilding orders have a market value of around USD 21.4 million.
Once delivered, these will become a part of Fortune Ocean Shipping’s fleet of 17 bulk carriers. The company also has one Ultramax bulker currently on order at China’s Dalian shipyard, scheduled to be delivered in July 2017.
http://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/225862/report-fortune-ocean-eyes-up-to-six-new-bulkers/
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