End-of-year quiz recap
An overview of the maritime industry in 2018
We hope you had fun taking our end-of-year quiz! Here we talk you through the answers to give you more information on issues that played a major role in the maritime industry in 2018.
We put together an end-of-year quiz for 2018 for you to test your knowledge on the maritime industry. Take a look at the answers below to see which answers you got right and to find out more about the topics mentioned.
- While global trade might be changing as a result of digitization, seaborne trade still remains at its core. In fact, 90 percent of the world’s trade is shipped and seaborne trade continues to grow—the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development predicts a growth of 3.8 percent by 2023.
- Between January and June 2018, mergers and consolidation in the container market saw approximately 70 percent of fleet capacity move from 15 top shipping lines to 10. Maersk maintains its lead in the worldwide container fleet, with 639 vessels.
- The shipment tracked using blockchain was in fact 17 tons of almonds. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia tracked metrics such as temperature and location while the cargo made its way from Victoria, Australia to Hamburg, Germany. The experiment demonstrates how the maritime industry can use blockchain technology for more transparency and improved efficiency.
- It is China that ranks highest on the Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (LSCI), 2018. This index indicates a country’s position in the global liner shipping network and is calculated based on container ship deployment. Asian territories have retained a lead in 2018. However, for an honorable mention during the Engineering at Sea advent campaign, Christmas Island is the second to least connected country on this scale.
- The Australian spotted jellyfish, or phyllorhiza punctata, is a wide-spreading invasive species, transferred by ballast water to regions such as the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, and the eastern Mediterranean. The invasive species displaces native populations of shrimp, fish, and crabs and therefore supports the stricter regulations being introduced by the Ballast Water Management Convention. Engineering at Sea will be focusing on this topic in 2019.
- It was in 1914 that the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was adopted in London, after the sinking of the Titanic. This treaty has formed a basis for many of the regulations and maritime laws that keep seafarers safe today, as well as the foundations for the International Maritime Organization which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year.
- Gender equality was a key issue in the maritime industry in 2018—and not without reason. Just two percent of seafarers are female and women only occupy nine percent of executive positions in the sector. The Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) continued to make waves in this area this year, with three new national associations established in Peru, Venezuela, and Portugal.
- Helsinki is the busiest passenger port in Europe with an average of 12.3 million passengers each year. This figure is made up of approximately 11.8 million liner traffic passengers and 478, 000 cruise ship passengers. .
- According to statistics, a plastic bottle takes 450 years to bio-degrade in a marine environment. The legislation from the European Parliament will ban single-use plastic items such as disposable cutlery and straws and implement measures against cigarette filters and fishing gear.
- And, finally; the two Turbulo products introduced by SKF Marine this year will support ship operators with bilge water treatment. The two systems, Turbulo HycaLogger and Turbulo SolidMaster, ease bilge water treatment to help ship operators comply with increasingly challenging guidelines for handling oily waste and bilge water. More information on IBTS can be found here.
Interested in finding out more on what went on this year in the industry? Read our article on successes in 2018. And to keep up to date with maritime news and events, make sure to subscribe.