New York - Designers of folding shipping containers hope there will be more demand for their products because of the backups created by the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues, according to a recent Bloomberg report
Seoul - Hyundai Steel plans to spearhead carbon reduction by replacing its fleet of raw material carriers with eco-friendly ships. Hyundai Steel announced on Nov. 24 that it has started to operate its first eco-friendly raw material carrier, "HL Oceanic"
Genova - New agreement between the Fondazione Accademia Italiana della Marina Mercantile (Italian Shipping Academy, FAIMM), and the Business College of Athens (BCA), Greek Institute of Maritime Education (GIME) for the provision of the online Bachelor in Maritime Business degree for ITS graduates: FAIMM, and BCA GIME aim to foster academic cooperation between Italy and Greece by providing higher education
Athens - The dry bulk market is looking for a steady course of late, as volatility seems to have established itself as the main trend. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “it is rather difficult to describe the current situation in the dry bulk sector, given the disarray that has been noted in the freight market during the past few weeks or so
Tilbury - Climate activists targeted 15 Amazon depots across Europe on Black Friday and the world's biggest e-commerce company also faced protests by workers and delivery drivers in Germany, France and Italy
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) will launch remedial works at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to strengthen an ice wall intended to halt the flow of groundwater after testing indicated partial melting. The work could begin as early as the start of December, according to a presentation from the plant operator dated Thursday, part of a costly and troubled effort to secure the site following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami
Moscow - Russia has agreed to continue selling Serbia gas at the current price of $270 per 1,000 cubic metres over the next six months, TASS news agency quoted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as saying on Thursday after he met with President Vladimir Putin. Vucic asked Russia last month for "favourable“" gas prices
Bari - Mayors in Italy's poor south should be relishing the prospect of billions of euros from the European Union's pandemic recovery fund, but a lack of project management expertise could mean they are unable to take full advantage of the scheme
Copenhagen - A Danish frigate has killed four pirates in waters south of Nigeria in an operation to protect shipping in the Gulf of Guinea, the Danish military said on Thursday. The "Esbern Snare" is deployed last month to the Gulf of Guinea amid heightened security risks from pirates
Beijing - China will look into methane emissions in key industries, including coal mining, agriculture and petroleum, and publish a nationwide methane emission control action plan, the environment ministry said on Thursday
Nairobi - Deep in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old. It's a distinctly low-tech phase for China's Belt and Road drive in Africa to create the trade highways of the future
Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has demanded a ban on issuing and trading mining permits until the country's mining registry has been audited, a measure aimed at combating fraud within the sector
Brussels - A feed additive that reduces emissions of potent greenhouse gas methane from cattle could be the first of its kind to come to market in Europe after receiving a positive assessment on Friday from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Paris - France said on Friday it was still waiting for Britain to issue 150 more fishing licences to French vessels in a post-Brexit row that has strained British-French relations, and that it would "fight every day" to obtain them
London - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd slashed its forecast for annual revenue growth on increased competition and a regulatory crackdown, sending its stock tumbling 11%
Tokyo - Japan unveiled a record $490 billion spending package on Friday to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, bucking a global trend towards withdrawing crisis-mode stimulus measures and adding strains to its already tattered finances
Manila - The Philippines on Thursday condemned "in strongest terms" the actions of three Chinese coast guard vessels that it said blocked and used water cannon on resupply boats headed towards a Philippine-occupied atoll in the South China Sea
Singapore - Governments from some of the world's biggest economies said on Thursday they were looking into releasing oil from their strategic reserves, following a rare request from the United States for a coordinated move to cool global energy prices
London - Amazon.com Inc is considering dropping Visa as partner on its U.S. co-branded credit card after earlier confirming it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the United Kingdom as a dispute over payments intensified. The e-commerce giant is in talks with several payment networks including Mastercard Inc, American Express Co and Visa as part of what it called its standard process for reviewing its co-branded credit card agreement
Berlin - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday Germany should stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe if it wants to work for peace, linking the project to his country's handling of migrants on the Belarus border
