Donald Trump kicked off a month of chaotic tariff announcements, ushering in a period of blank sailings for containerships greater than the covid era. April 2 saw the American president bring in a blanket 10% tariff on every nation, plus varying extra levels on many counties. These extra levies were then given a 90-day reprieve with the exception of China, where tit-for-tat tariff escalations saw levels rise to 145%, effectively shutting off trade between the two largest economies in the world. The 83rd gathering of the Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) at the London headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The final agreement on mid-terms measures sees a fuel standard, as such a mandate on the greenhouse gas intensity of energy used, coupled with a pricing and trading mechanism. Ships that do not reduce their intensity of GHG emissions – including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — in line with two reduction trajectories outlined in the new regulations, which still need to be promulgated at the next MEPC in October, are deemed to have an emissions deficit. This must then be addressed by buying so-called remedial units. IMO Also agreed at this month’s Marine Environmental Protection Committee meeting held at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), was the world’s biggest emission control area (ECA). The new Northeast Atlantic ECA, due by 2027, stretches along coastlines from Portugal to Greenland, joining existing nearby ECAs in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. Belgium’s CMB.TECH and one of Europe’s largest dry bulk owners, Golden Ocean, have signed a term sheet for a stock-for-stock merger that will create a maritime giant with a combined fleet of more than 250 vessels. Under the agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, the shipowning vehicle controlled by the Saverys family would end up as the surviving entity, based on an exchange ratio of 0.95 shares of CBM.TECH for each share of Golden Ocean. The United States will impose fees on Chinese-built ships calling at American ports—regardless of ownership, in a ruling that the global shipping community has been waiting to hear about for months. The glimmer of good news for non-Chinese owners is that the final measure is less severe than the originally proposed flat fee of $1.5m per port call. Chinese owners, on the other hand, are potentially on the hook for millions of dollars more in fees than originally envisaged in the latest example of the Trump administration singling out the People’s Republic for economic punishment. The European Commission adopted another key measure to crack down on the so-called shadow fleet passing through its waters. The amendment to the Vessel Monitoring Directive now requires all vessels, including those merely passing through European Union waters without entering an EU port, to provide insurance information. TagsSplash Extra April 2025