Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America

US President elect Donald Trump suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and reiterated that wind turbines are “driving the whales crazy. Trump has publicly expressed a desire to taking back the Panama Canal claiming”it’s being operated by China” and also accused Panama of overcharging US ships to use the waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A Hong Kong-based company, CK Hutchison Holdings, manages two ports at the canal’s entrances. In the year 1977 Panamá and the US negotiated treaties under President Jimmy Carter and ceded the land back to Panama. The Western and Eastern ports of the US are not connected by sea. The Panama Canal annual revenues rose slightly to $3.45 billion despite a severe drought that reduced the number of vessels that passed through the waterway also limiting their maximum draft allowed. The restrictions, which caused long delays for some vessels to pass and forced others to seek alternative routes, were removed later this year after rainfall replenished the country’s water reservoirs. The waterway handled 423 million tons of cargo through its locks and saw passage of 27 ships daily on average. The Panama Canal Authority has advanced $8.5 billion in projects for new infrastructure. In an ongoing lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Panama the contract was argued as having improperly transferred the rights of the Panamanian state and affecting public welfare and interest, thereby affecting free competition and demand. Panama’s Attorney-General has agreed with lawsuits filed in its Supreme Court that concessions with Hong Kong’s Hutchison Ports on the Panama Canal are “unconstitutional”. Panama has been compelled to announce an audit of of the Concession and if the concession is nullified it would break a contract that has some 20 more years to run on it and which since 1997 Hutchison has invested over $2 billion in the two port facilities.

Suez Canal Revenues Drop due to Houthi Attacks

The revenues of the Suez Canal dropped to $7.4 billion annually from $ 9.4 billion and the number of vessels transiting reduced by around 5000 after ships started to avoid the Red Sea due to Houthi attacks . Egypt owns the Suez Canal. Several shipping lines redirected ships through South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope as an alternative route which increased the distance, duration and costs of shipping.

Trump appoints Secretary of the Navy

John Phelan , a businessman and art collector , has been nominated by US President Donald Trump for Secretary of the Navy. John Phelan would be the first Navy Secretary in 15 years without any military background and his nomination seems to have been made with a view to revive the US commercial maritime sector on priority. Trump’s maritime approach would impact on trade as commercial vessels continue to avoid the Red Sea. It would be interesting to see whether John Phelan blockades the Houthis rather than the present muted response. Recently South Korea’s Hanwha Systems and Hanwha Ocean have acquired Philly Shipyard and strategic plans are in place to invest $100 million to globally expand defense and shipbuilding operations . Philly Shipyard is a leading U.S. shipbuilder that has delivered around half of the merchant navy vessels in the United States since the year 2000 and operates the largest construction facility in the U.S. The incoming Secretary of Navy would have to propose an economic and commercial strategy in the areas of shipbuilding and ship repair and expanding the present fleet of around 2500 commercial ships registered in the US.

China’s Relentless Maritime Silk Route

 

Credit;AlJazeera

In the year 2114 Darwin Port is due to return to Australian hands after the Chinese-owned company Landbridge 99 year lease of the strategically important maritime asset expires . Landbridge Industry Australia is a subsidiary of Shandong Landbridge Group with vast interests in port logistics, petrochemicals and real estate development in China. The groups close ties to China is exhibited by its billionaire owner Ye Cheng having been formally nominated as an individuals concerned about the development of national defence by the Chinese Government itself. The Northern Territories of Australia (NT) engaged an Australian financial firm Flagstaff Partners to assist in arriving at the winning bid and it received $13 million out of $27 million total in fees charged to Australian taxpayers to mediate the deal. The Australian Foreign Investment Review Board didn’t formally investigate the lease there being an exemption from scrutiny as it involved a private company and a state or territory government. The leases is criticised as mortgaging the strategic security of 25 million Australians just for political financial expediency and the NT received $506 million for the lease of the port which was utilised for general revenue and spent.There appears to be no balance maintained between economic gain and national security concerns. The winner seems the Belt and Road Initiative or the Chinese Silk Maritime Route. The Port of Darwin  website states that the port is strategically positioned as Australia’s nearest port to Asia and the nation’s ‘northern gateway’ for Australasian trade and a key support hub for the expanding offshore oil and gas fields in the Arafura Sea, Timor Sea and waters off the coast of Western Australia.

The Landbridge Group awod objectives are to expand Darwin Port by developing the infrastructure to increase trade with Asia through the company’s extensive business networks in the region about which Australians are sceptical. China’s relentless Maritime Silk Route ploughs ahead much to the chagrin of US economic and commercial interests and security concerns. The CK Hutchison Holdings Limited is a company listed on the board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong being a leading port investor, developer and operator with a network of 53 ports spanning 24 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. China now has a string of ports outside its territorial jurisdiction.

Credit;

https://darwinport.com.au/about/about-darwin-port

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-07/darwin-port-lease-china/101040810

https://www.hphtrust.com/sponsor.html

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ports-logistics/panama-s-attorney-general-backs-claims-to-cancel-hutchison-port-concessions