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SHIPPING

Arctic Sea sister ship runs aground off Sweden

A freighter belonging to the owners of the hijacked cargo vessel Arctic Sea has run aground off Sweden, a Swedish coastguard official said on Saturday.

The Liberian-flagged Arctic Sky will now head for Riga, Latvia for repairs.

The Arctic Sky was carrying wood from Finland to Egypt when it ran aground outside of Singö near Norrtälje, north of Stockholm.

“The vessel has passed by the wrong side of the Understen lighthouse and you can’t get through there by ship,” Kenneth Neijnes, at the Swedish coastguard said.

Neijnes said there had been no oil leak and the ship had not been in danger of sinking, while media reports said it had hit rocks. Divers found it was only slightly damaged.

The Arctic Sea, owned by the Finnish Solchart Management company, was allegedly seized by pirates in the Baltic in July and then recaptured by the Russian navy in August off west Africa.

There remains a cloud of mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea amid speculation has raged that the ship might have been carrying a clandestine cargo.

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SHIPPING

Danish shipping giant calls for global carbon tax for shipping

Maersk, the world's largest shipping firm, on Wednesday called for a carbon tax on ship fuel to encourage the transition to cleaner alternatives.

Danish shipping giant calls for global carbon tax for shipping
The Maersk Batam container ship is loaded at the Port of Southampton. Photo: Adrian Dennis / AFP

The Danish firm proposed a tax of at least $450 per tonne of fuel, which works out to $150 per tonne of carbon.

Maersk CEO Soren Skou called the tax proposal “a levy to bridge the gap between the fossil fuels consumed by vessels today and greener alternatives that are currently more expensive.”

The call by Maersk for the fuel tax comes ahead of a meeting later this month of the International Maritime Organization, at which the UN body is due to consider how to reduce emissions from the shipping sector.

The sector is responsible for emitting 940 million tonnes of carbon per year, or about 2.5 percent of the global total, according to the European Commission, as most ships continue to use heavy fuel oil, one of the most polluting fuels.

Maersk would be hit by such a fuel tax as it is a major consumer of ship fuel, but the firm believes the IMO is not moving fast enough and wants to see additional measures to shift the industry towards cleaner options.

The firm, which currently has some 700 ships, has announced plans to launch in 2023 its first ship that will use biomethane or renewable natural gas as a fuel.

The company aims to become carbon neutral in 2050.

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