‘Shipshape 10 List’, a list of news and articles published in the current week that a senior executive in shipping, shipping finance, commodities, energy, supply chain and infrastructure should had noticed; news and articles that are shaping the agenda and the course of the maritime industry.

Sometimes seemingly tangential, periodically humorous, occasionally sarcastic, sporadically artistic, inferentially erotic, but always insightful and topical.

And, we take a minute to thank our readers who took time to contact us and let us us know that they missed reading our reports in the past couple of weeks. Delighted hearing that ’Shipshape 10’ indeed has become a quick way of following up the shipping and related industries.

And, this week’s ‘Shipshape 10’:                                                                                               
On the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, and the recently hosted high-profile ‘Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation’ in Beijing:
1a. Lessons for China in failed US Silk Road initiative (South China Morning Post)

1b. China’s Silk Road Initiative Sows European Discomfort (The Wall Street Journal)

1c. Next Silk Road summit set for 2019 as Beijing ramps up global drive (South China Morning Post)

1d. China takes ‘project of the century’ to Pakistan (Financial Times)

Trade agreements can be hard to re-negotiate when economic factors can interfere with politics:
2a. Trump launches NAFTA renegotiation (Politico)

2b. Prospect of NAFTA rewrite gives US farmers a case of jitters (Associated Press)

Not the biggest port in the world, but events in Buenaventura can underline how delicate the supply chain sometimes can be:
3a. Colombia’s biggest Pacific port placed under curfew (Financial Times)

3b. U.S. Ports Need $66 Billion for Infrastructure (The Maritime Executive)

OPEC for sure is winning the shale war…
4. Full tanks and tankers: a stubborn oil glut despite OPEC cuts (Reuters)

What do to with junk…
5. Old Containers Find Out-of-the-Box Second Lives (The Wall Street Journal)

Hopes that there is a recovery and economies will be growing solidly:
6a. Household Debt Makes a Comeback in the U.S. (The New York Times)

6b. The silent sell-off in US Treasuries (Financial Times)

The offshore and ‘brown water’ industries in the US still under pressure:
7a. Tidewater Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (gCaptain)

7b. GulfMark Offshore Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection (The Wall Street Journal)

An old generation Greek shipowner dies
8a. Aristides Alafouzos, owner of Kathimerini, dies (Kathimerini)

8b. Aristides Alafouzos, the founder of Kyklades Maritime, dies aged 93 (Splash 24/7)

There is a price for everything
9. From Deep in Atlantic, Titanic Relics Sail Toward Auction Block (Bloomberg)

Tall tales of drunken sailors no more
10. Terrifying 20m-tall ‘rogue waves’ are actually real (BBC)

A pretty picture of another products tanker in ballast condition. Image credit: Karatzas Images

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