Thread by @johnkonrad

Gold stars for @mercoglianos @GMJournalist @FreightAlley @typesfast LarsJensen @man_integrated @loriannlarocco but can we pause the container talk for a few days and focus on avoiding famine? Can we focus on #BULKERS? Here’s a🧵on how we can all help. /1

https://twitter.com/mintzmyer/status/1513496396145606660

Everyone tagged in this post is important to world trade. Top CEOs are listening & making decisions based on your work. Right now you are possibly more important than the Fed because a freight recession isn’t going to kill anyone, but starvation because we can’t move 🌾 will.

When I was Captain aboard ship I would sound the alarm during emergencies to order everyone to put down their work and focus 💯 on the crisis. We should probably sound the alarm right now but that’s a big ask so I will make the following call instead : ALL HANDS ON DECK

ALL HANDS ON DECK is called when the situation aboard ship is about to get difficult but you are not in a full blown emergency. (e.g. Arriving in a new port, severe weather approaching, a problem with the cargo) Ideally AHOD is called 30 minutes before the crisis occurs.

ALL HANDS ON DECK IN 30 gives you time to put on your coveralls, slurp down a cup of coffee, turn on your UHF radio, and tune up your situational awareness. It gives you time to chat with the watch and do a round on deck then start thinking through the problem.

If you’re already on deck working ALL HANDS ON DECK IN 30 tells you to pause your current work safely and dial into the new problem the ship is facing. It gets the entire crew - deckies, engineers, and stewards - on the same page and working together.

These are internal facing efforts. External communications are handled by the ship’s bridge. When a captain faces an emergency he communicates with the surrounding ships and Coast Guard by transmitting an urgency call via radio. The three options are: Sécurité, Pan-Pan, Mayday

*Sécurité is the lowest level, its’s used to warn others of a general non-specific or non-urgent threat
*PAN-PAN is the 2nd most important call. It’s for real emergency situations, when there is not immediate danger to life
*MAYDAY is the 🔝 level it says someones in-peril NOW

The coming food crisis is not at MAYDAY level yet and I believe everyone on this thread has already made a Sécurité teeet or two on the topic. Some (@man_integrated) have already called PAN-PAN. As a captain I will make that call official:

PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN/PAN calling all Twitter stations this is the MV @gCaptain. War in Ukraine has crippled food & energy exports from the Black Sea 🇱🇧 has only a few days of wheat left, 477 bulkers are stuck in China, coal is draining bulk capacity, ton-miles are being consumed…

moving commodities around the warzone, Russian ships are sidelined, weather patterns are changing, and ag faces problems like fertilizer shortages. Containerships can’t fill capacity gaps. We need more efficient use of bulkers or people will starve. PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN

How can Twitter #logistics help? By getting everyone on deck and thinking of the problem, new solutions will be found and emergency policy change can start to happen. Move importantly we can help ship owners move away from a few dangerous narratives.

The most dangerous narrative today: Slow Steaming. SS is reducing ship speeds to reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions. It’s dangerous because the same number of ships traveling slower reduces global ship capacity. If we Slow Steam less ships will be available to move 🌾

Highlighting the dangers of Slow Steaming in articles and tweets now (as well as other major food issues like bulker congestion in China, corporate restrictions by the #1 food shipper @Cargill, etc), will put the right information in decision makers hands today!

When PAN-PAN is called the surrounding vessels must record the information and pass the message to relevant parties. In the digital world that means writing about this issue, researching relevant content, retweeting factual information, etc.

Topics we need more articles about and more eyes on:
1) anything about Bulkers and bulk ship capacity
2) intermodal movement of food within net export countries
3) policy/restrictions that restrict transport (e.g. hoarding stockpiles, slow-steaming, navarea warnings)

4) energy shipments that soak up bulker capacity (e.g. 🇿🇦 coal) or effect food output (e.g. LNG for fertilizers)
5) Port facilities and storage
6) Weather at sea and on fields
7) alternate ideas (e.g. using barges to 🚢 grain overseas)
8) food security issues including cyber

9) marine insurance and secondary and tertiary effects
10) we need @man_integrated &s team ag twit to provide more information on changing planting locations & rapidly changing ag trends. (e.g. does surprise rain in🇦🇺double output? Let us know so carriers can start moving ships)

Why is this so important? For the past few decades we’ve had so much spare capacity in shipping that advance planning has been pushed down the list of priorities. Planners don’t fully realize that ocean transport decisions now need to be their #1 top priority.

@Cargill has great people but they are not vocal enough. Many Logisticians don’t realize people may soon die of hunger. Now that you know what info need to be relayed, here’s who can relay the message. (This is an off the cuff list, please tag others I have missed, thnks!)

Twitter Team Logistics @TimothyDooner @EditorFreight @LogisticsLee @LogTechEric @NavyStrang @typesfast @Mr_Supply_Chain @PeterTirschwell @cmroberson06 @Weaver_davidw @LetsTalkSChain @PaulPage @mmcassella @LogisticsMatter @Logisticsexpert @pdberger @TonyNashNerd @chigrl

Team Tweet Ships
@mintzmyer @mercoglianos @GMJournalist @loriannlarocco @frankly_coles @Matt__Heider @mattmrgn @ChrisVonheim @Lloydslisted @HJBirkett @JHannisdahl @XenetaSand @Samir_Madani @SamChambers @cpgrabow @AllVentured @supbrow @MaritimeAmerica @joeriwestland @MarineTraffic

Team Twitter media @JavierBlas @tracyalloway @TheStalwart @jonathan @MessageAnnKoh @stavridisj @tomkeene @JordanHarbinger @joerogan @mikiebarb @jfarchy @SullyCNBC @andrewtghill @zerohedge @biancoresearch Team Ag and Misc
@man_integrated please reply with tags. @PeterZeihan

Team Nav Twit - the safe nav of shipping is critical @cdrsalamander @cgberube @Navy_Hipple @Admiral_Foggo @cgberube @CovertShores @NextNavy @maeday22 @samlagrone @WWATMD @BDHerzinger @GrayConnolly @CavasShips @MEaglen @naval_gazing @ndcarson @kejamieson_ @MAGTravF @DavidLarter

PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN
Let’s focus our efforts on grain and food logistics and BULK SHIPS NOW so they don’t have to sing about starving children later. PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN