Global Trade Ports Impact

The Critical Role of Ports in Floating Offshore Wind 🌬️⚙️ As the floating offshore wind sector scales up to meet global sustainability goals, one thing becomes clear: no ports, no projects. At BlueFloat Energy, we see the development of robust port infrastructure as a strategic priority. Ports are not just logistical hubs; they are critical enablers of the floating wind supply chain—from assembly and integration to the maintenance of turbines. The shift from a "one-stop hub" to a "multi-port strategy" is already transforming how we approach floating wind deployment, increasing flexibility and unlocking regional economic growth. In our recent collaboration with Euroports during #EuroportsDay, we discussed the future of port infrastructure and logistics, emphasizing the need for specialized facilities and strong partnerships to support this growing industry. Walid Oulmane and I have co-authored an article diving into this topic and the strategic role of ports in enabling the global offshore wind transition. Read it here 👇 #OffshoreWind #FloatingOffshoreWind #Ports #SupplyChain #CleanEnergy #Sustainability #EnergyTransition 

How Are US Sanctions on Russian Oil Disrupting Global Trade? A Tale of Two Countries New US sanctions targeting Russia’s oil supply chain are reshaping maritime trade flows—hitting China with delays while driving a surge in Indian port activity. 📉 China: A 29% Drop in Russian Oil Shipments In late January 2025, China saw only 163 unique vessel port calls, far below the expected 230. This sharp decline is due to: - New US Sanctions (Jan 10): Many Chinese ports are avoiding sanctioned Russian oil tankers, leading to weeks-long delays at major ports like Tianjin and Qingdao. Freight rates for non-sanctioned tankers have also spiked as demand shifts. - Severe Port Congestion: The pre-Lunar New Year rush and fears of future US tariffs have quadrupled wait times at ports like Yantian, with some trucks stuck for over 24 hours. The impact? With fewer Russian oil tankers unloading, Shandong refineries face potential losses of up to 1M barrels per day in crude supply. 📈 India: A 39% Surge in Russian Oil Arrivals Meanwhile, India is experiencing the opposite trend. From Jan 24-31, 74 tankers carrying Russian oil made port calls—a 39% jump from the expected 53. What’s driving the surge? - A race to unload Russian oil before the Feb 27 deadline, after which new sanctions restrict discharges. - Freight rates soaring, with costs for Russian oil shipments from the Baltic to India jumping from $4.9M to $6M per shipment. - Indian refiners securing supply now while seeking alternative sources for the long term. Bigger Picture: This isn’t just a short-term shift—sanctions are actively reshaping global energy supply chains. China is slowing down, India is accelerating, and freight markets are feeling the squeeze. Sources: https://lnkd.in/eYFSU-6F , https://lnkd.in/ej9b5z4q

Russia’s oil exports are still high, but where they're going has shifted dramatically. What was once focused on Europe (51% in 2020) has now moved largely toward Asia and Oceania, which accounted for 81% in 2024, led by surging exports to China and India. We’re proud that Vortexa’s data helps inform the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s analysis on global oil trade flows. (Full analysis in the comments below)

In January 2024, Ukraine achieved a noteworthy milestone in exports, totaling 12 million tonnes. It's worth noting that pre-war volumes, recorded in January 2022, stood at 14 million tonnes. Notably, that a substantial portion of Ukrainian cargo exports, specifically 8.7 million tonnes, were transported by sea. 📍 Most importantly, in the last days of January, among all the ships moving to the ports of the Great Odesa, there was a vessel that was insured against war risks thanks to the UNITY insurance, created by the Ukrainian government Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine together with a pool of insurance companies. The insurance cost amounted to 0.75% of the vessel's value. Currently, over a dozen additional insurance applications are undergoing processing. The normalization of the insurance market in trade plays a crucial role in the recovery of exports, particularly for value-added products. Our goal is not only to attain pre-war export levels, but also to generate higher revenues. The success of this objective is significantly tied to the revitalization of the insurance market for maritime transport. Hence, the crucial imperative is for insurance to become more affordable and accessible, facilitating the smooth export of Ukrainian products.

Maritime security in the Black Sea is an international problem My latest article: UKR has been exposed to a limited maritime blockade (Sea of Azov) since April 2018 and a full blockade since February 2022. Maritime trade and security are by default international in nature. Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade and the global economy. It connects continents, countries, and people. Maritime trade is fundamental to the global economy and, therefore, our security, stability, and prosperity. Since the transport mainly takes place outside the territorial waters of coastal states – on high seas – it is regulated by international law. This is why maritime security in the Black Sea - or rather the lack thereof - has global repercussions. The maritime blockade is both (1) undermining UKR economic viability and, therefore, its sovereignty and independence, (2) increasing global famine and (4) global costs of living, both increasing the risk of demonstrations, riots, extremism and fall of governments, and (3) if unchallenged, undermining universal Freedom of Navigation worldwide. After a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council on Wednesday, NATO announced that the it is stepping up surveillance and reconnaissance in the Black Sea region, including with maritime patrol aircraft and drones. Its response, however, fell short of deploying any of its standing maritime groups to the area. In the article “NATO Convoys Can Protect Ukraine’s Grain Harvest From Putin”, Admiral Stavridis, USN (R), argues in favour of establishing convoys in the Black Sea. Since the UN is rendered unable to take a lead role because of RUS veto right he argues that the mission should be undertaken either by NATO or by a “coalition of the willing” led by the US. Unfortunately, NATO has also been rendered unable to take a lead role because of US “veto right”. Media reports, however, that the UK is negotiating with other countries to form a coalition of the willing that might send warships to the Black Sea to break the maritime embargo. The Montreux Convention does not limit non-Black Sea countries' right to send warships to the Black Sea. Türkiye does. Since war has not been declared, the provisions laid down in Articles 10 to 18 prevail. This means that a Western maritime force might enter the Black Sea to protect humanitarian shipping and uphold Freedom of Navigation provided that Türkiye is convinced that it is in its national interest to support the operation. The West – with or without the US Navy – needs to return to the Black Sea to help break the maritime blockade, protect humanitarian shipping to fight global famine and, not least, uphold universal Freedom of Navigation. Failure to engage will have local, regional and global repercussions. The article elaborates. https://lnkd.in/epU_rZr9 #Russiaininvasion #RussiaWarUkraine #security #strategy #military #Ukraine #Russia

Who Will Build the Permanent Assembly Facilities for Floating Wind? Floating offshore wind is entering a decisive decade. To reach gigawatt-scale deployment, the industry must move beyond prototypes into serialised industrialisation: permanent assembly hubs, just-in-time logistics, integrated quality management & automation. But a key question remains: who will build and operate these hubs? Today’s value chain isn’t set up for it; - Developers are customers, not infrastructure builders. - Turbine OEMs supply turbines, not integrated floaters. - Foundation designers provide blueprints, not facilities. - Fabricators make components, not complete units. - EPC/EPCI contractors assemble projects only project-by-project. This leaves a gap. No current player’s business model is to develop and operate permanent assembly hubs that deliver ready-to-float integrated units. 🔑 The Logical Solution That role will fall to third-party infrastructure operators with very large balance sheets — willing to finance, develop, and run capital-intensive hubs serving multiple developers across markets. Other industries show the way: - Container terminals are run by specialist operators, not shipping lines. - LNG plants are built by infrastructure investors, not gas buyers. - Airports are operated by independents, not airlines. Floating wind assembly hubs could follow the same model. 🌍 A Global Investment Class This gap creates a new asset category: Floating Wind Assembly Infrastructure, attractive to: - Infrastructure funds (stable, asset-backed returns) - Sovereign wealth & pension funds (transition exposure) - Industrial conglomerates (first-mover advantage) 💡 Why It Matters Globally - Unlocks serialisation & automation → lower costs & scale. - Builds industrial hubs → permanent jobs in coastal regions. - Provides bankable certainty for investors & developers. - Accelerates the global race to scale floating wind. Conclusion Floating wind is waiting for its Model T moment. It won’t come from technology alone — but from new infrastructure players stepping in to fill this missing role. 👉 The global question: who will seize the chance to define a new asset class in the clean energy transition? #floatingwind #offshorewind #windenergy

A trio of civilian cargo ships—one each from Israel and #Greece plus one with #Turkish-Georgian registration—ran the Russian blockade in the #Black Sea on Sunday and anchored at one of #Ukraine’s grain ports on the #Danube Delta. Twenty-two days after Moscow canceled a deal with Kyiv—which had allowed Ukraine safely to export tens of millions of tons of grain—and then threatened to halt maritime traffic to Ukrainian ports, the world has called the Russians’ bluff. “Reports of three civilian ships sailing to Ukraine unhindered may suggest that Russia is either unwilling or unable to enforce such searches at this time,” the Institute for the Study of War in #Washington, D.C. noted. As pointed out by Markus Jonsson, a flock of NATO aircraft carefully monitored the ships as they sailed toward Izmail, a small Ukrainian port just across from Romania on the Danube River. The vessels presumably will load grain in Izmail then sail back into the Black Sea and onward to foreign ports. The Israeli vessel with the ship-tracking handle Ams1, as well as the Greek vessel with the handle Sahin 2, sailed north from the Bosporus Strait, while the Turkish-Georgian Yilmaz Kaptan sailed west from northern Turkey. Overhead, no fewer than four NATO warplanes patrolled: a US Navy P-8 patrol plane, a U.S. Army Challenger with a surface-scanning radar, a U.S. Air Force RQ-4 drone and an E-3 early-warning plane from NATO. None of the planes routinely carries weapons, but NATO fighters—including Italian Eurofighters and Romanian F-16s—were nearby in Romania. The three cargo ships made no effort to obscure their intentions. They all switched on their radio transponders, making their location and course visible to anyone with access to the internet and ship-tracking websites. The Russian navy’s battered Black Sea Fleet, which has lost several ships to Ukrainian missiles and has been bottled up in the Black Sea since Russia widened its war on Ukraine 17 months ago, signaled it would stop—or even attack—ships sailing to Ukraine. Shortly after Moscow unilaterally canceled the 11-month-old Black Sea Grain initiative, which had facilitated the export of 32 million tons of Ukrainian grain, the Black Sea Fleet deployed the corvette Sergey Kotov to the southern Black Sea within striking range of the main sea routes from the Bosporus Strait to Odesa, Ukraine’s strategic port. Neither Sergey Kotov nor any other Russian ship intervened as the three civilian ships made their way not to Odesa, but to Izmail. Kyiv has been redeveloping its Danube ports as a wartime alternative to Odesa.

The global business community deeply regrets the suspension today of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.   The contribution that this agreement has made to global food security cannot be overstated – facilitating exports of essential food and fertilizers from Ukraine and Russia that have reduced global food prices by around a quarter since March last year. Critically, grain shipped through the Black Sea has also played a central role in supporting urgent humanitarian operations in six countries in Africa and Asia.   Global food security must not be allowed to fall victim to the conflict in Ukraine. We urge all parties to continue talks on the terms under which the Black Sea agreement can be renewed – fully recognizing the original intent of the initiative to facilitate balanced agricultural trade from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation.   We recognize that restoring the agreement may require compromises on the application of trade restrictions that appear superficially unpalatable. But we urge governments to remember that cutting off agricultural trade through the Black Sea for a prolonged period risks precipitating a food security crisis with truly unimaginable consequences.   Restoring the Black Sea deal must be an absolute priority for the international community in the coming weeks. Global business stands squarely behind the continued and laudable efforts of the United Nations to this end.

After drone attacks in early November, the port in Tuapse, Russia, halted exports and the local refinery shut down, Reuters reports. The publication cites two industry sources and data from the LSEG ship tracking system. It is known that before the attacks, the port in Tuapse was planning to increase exports of oil products in November.