COVAXX and Maersk enter partnership to supply COVID-19 vaccines globally.
The goal is to bring a much needed COVID-19 vaccine to emerging and developing nations. The agreement establishes integrated logistics to enable efficient worldwide distribution of COVAXX’s COVID-19 vaccine. The aim is to distribute up to a billion doses of the COVAXX synthetic vaccine worldwide in 2021.
IMO has issued updated protocols to ensure safe crew change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Framework of Protocols was first issued on 5 May 2020 and has now been revised, with the principle purpose of emphasizing the need for compliance and strict adherence with COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements, reflecting that these are now a reality in many national jurisdictions.
Passenger and repatriation flights are essential to allow stranded seafarers to go home, and for their relief crews to be able to join ships. New guidance issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to facilitate those flights marks a further step to alleviate the ongoing crew change crisis.
Yet another appeal has been sent to Governments to recognize seafarers as keyworkers and address the humanitarian crisis faced by the shipping sector, ensure maritime safety and facilitate economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic..
A humanitarian crisis is taking place at sea and urgent action is needed to protect seafarers’ health and ensure the safety of shipping, the IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim has warned.
In a strong statement issued ahead of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he called on governments to take swift action to resolve the crew change crisis.
Supply chain is often described as the vital and crucial link required to get the product from the manufacturer to the market place for ultimate consumption by the consumers..
While this is a simple enough definition or explanation, it is not as easy as it sounds, especially in specialised industries like Pharmaceuticals..
ShipChain is bringing together some of the experts in the supply chain and pharmaceutical industries to understand the past, present, and future challenges for pharma and medical supply chains in the COVID-19 era..
The expert panelists will examine how supply chains will need to adapt in order to weather the storm caused by this pandemic and the future of pharmaceutical and medical supply chains..
The sheer magnitude and unpredictable nature of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has put even the best, most established businesses on shaky ground.
All the best laid plans have had to be revisited and brought back to the drawing board. Businesses have had to adopt a ‘reactive’ approach and go into fire-fighting mode to stay afloat.
There have been questions like “How can supply chain performance be improved in order to ensure that it is responsive and efficient in meeting the needs of final consumers during the pandemic“.
So, what are the lessons that have been learnt? Are we wiser from our experience of this kind of disruption and can we use these learnings to make our supply chains more resilient?
50% of participants do not use any software for freight management..
This is the result from a Freight Industry Survey that we ran on this site.. The results of the survey seems to highlight the progress that still needs to be made in the industry in this area..
By now, everyone is aware of the plight of the thousands of seafarers around the world who are either stuck onboard ships even after their contract has expired or stuck in countries other than their own due to COVID-19 or in quarantine currently.. It has even resulted in several suicides among seafarers out of sheer desperation..
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it incredibly difficult to facilitate crew changes on ships and despite collaboration and cooperation with many stakeholders in the industry, this problem still remains unresolved and there are still around 200,000 odd seafarers estimated to be trapped on board..
While it is becoming a huge task for any shipowner/manager to get replacement crew, the International Medical Health Association have created an interim paper providing a best practice approach based on common sense to mitigate the risk of transmission of Covid-19 in seafarers joining the ship..
It is alarming when news of suicide attempts, violence and desperation becomes commonplace.
This is, unfortunately, the state of affairs today with seafarers who are tired, on the brink of mental breakdowns (some have already gone over) and very desperate – this desperation is manifesting through various incidents.
Priyanka Ann Saini covers some of these points in this article.
COVID-19 is probably the world’s most disliked word currently due to the rampant economic disruption it has wreaked on the world. All countries and all businesses around the world have been affected by this pandemic.
The supply chain industry is one industry that has also been affected severely. The industry has seen a massive drop in volumes, congestion both on land and at sea, job losses etc, although ironically this is one of the industries that has and is helping to fight this pandemic through its movement of essential goods like medical supplies, food and PPE.
At the end of March 2020, we set up a short survey sponsored by Ocean Insights to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the industry and its preparedness.
12,000 clicks of that survey and the analysis and a 95% engagement rate told us that in times of strife, people want to come together, understand what is going on and help each other out of this situation.
So, we got together a team of executives to discuss these issues in a webinar moderated by an equally celebrated and astute industry journalist.