In June, Chinese shipyards received 75% of the world's shipbuilding orders; Maersk will suspend the recruitment of new employees!
NO.1 Maersk will suspend the recruitment of new employees
A few days ago, Maersk stated that in the face of the current reversal of the shipping market and uncertain dynamic changes, Maersk will suspend the recruitment of new employees, and will think twice about the recruitment of personnel in many offices around the world.
Maersk emphasized that this is not a freeze on recruitment, but a strategic action to reduce costs in today's unpredictable container shipping market.
"We believe that the strategic choice made for the recruitment of new employees is fully in line with the current economic situation. This is also a manifestation of our due diligence to ensure that Maersk can continue to provide customers with high-quality products and services, promote corporate transformation and development, and continue to manage costs to reflect market trends."
However, it should be noted that this measure does not apply to the so-called "front-line employees", that is, seafarers on the company's more than 700 ships and workers in the 76 ports managed by APM.
NO.2 Digital booking platform Freightos announces layoffs of 13%
Source: Freightos official website Invasion and deletion
Recently, Freightos, a world-renowned digital booking platform, announced that in order to cope with the global economic downturn and save money, it decided to lay off 13% of its employees, or about 50 employees.
Zvi Schreiber, CEO of the company, said: "Freightos has made this difficult decision in order to achieve our profitable strategic plan under the weak market economy. However, I believe that as we continue to digitize global freight for thousands of carriers, freight forwarders and importers and exporters around the world, the current adjustment will allow Freightos to achieve sustainable achievements in the cyclical ups and downs of the next few years."
Freightos expects that, according to the current situation, the transaction volume of the platform this year will reach 973,000 to 1.04 million, and the expected revenue is 20 million to 21.2 million US dollars, while the earlier forecast is about 1.01 million to 1.12 million transactions, and the revenue is about 21.2 million to 23.1 million US dollars.
NO.3 In June, Chinese shipyards received 75% of global shipbuilding orders
According to the latest statistics from Clarkson, in June 2023, 105 new orders were signed globally, totaling 3,135,262 CGT. Compared with the 129 newly signed orders in the world in May 2023, with a total of 2,875,379 CGT, the number decreased by 24 from the previous month, and the corrected gross tonnage increased by 9.04% from the previous month. Compared with the 188 newly signed orders worldwide in June 2022, with a total of 5,212,381 CGT, the number decreased by 83 ships year-on-year, and the revised gross tonnage decreased by 39.85% year-on-year.
According to the shipyard countries receiving orders, there were 105 global new ship orders in June, totaling 3,135,262 CGT, of which Chinese shipyards received 75 ships, totaling 2,360,500 CGT; Japanese shipyards received 2 ships, totaling 35,032 CGT; Korean shipyards received 14 ships, totaling 591,088 CGT. Corrected gross tonnage accounted for 75.29%, 1.12% and 18.85% of global new ship orders respectively.
NO.4 SM Line intends to acquire HMM Hyundai Merchant Marine
South Korea's SM Group is preparing to bid as much as US.5 billion for shipping company Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), but if HMM's asking price is higher than that figure, SM Group will abandon the deal. HMM, which has been under state control for years due to financial difficulties, is preparing to be privatized and has links to many South Korean businesses.
SM Group is currently HMM's third-largest shareholder with a total stake of 6.56%, having recently increased its stake in the shipping line. SM Group, which operates SM Line, Korea Line Corp and Korea Shipping Company, has already prepared the funds to purchase a majority stake in HMM and has set up a dedicated team to prepare for the acquisition of HMM.
NO.5 IMO and IAPH signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation between ships and ports
The International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster future collaboration on climate and energy, data sharing, and risk and resilience in ship-to-shore operations.
The MoU will draw on IMO's experience as the UN specialized agency responsible for setting global standards for the safety, security and facilitation of international shipping and the prevention of pollution from ships, working with IAPH's best practices and knowledge of the most advanced and complex ports for sustainable, inclusive and equitable development.