ANKARA, April 10 (Reuters) – Turkey launched its first amphibious assault ship on Monday, aiming to extend its drone capabilities from land-based to naval operations amid increased regional tensions as war rages in Ukraine on the other side of the Black Sea.

The TCG Anadolu can handle only light aircraft, chiefly helicopters and jets that can take off from shorter runways. It is 232 meters long and 32 meters wide, and can carry some 1,400 personnel – one battalion of soldiers – combat vehicles and support units to operate overseas.

“This vessel will allow us to conduct military and humanitarian operations in every corner of the world, when needed,” President Tayyip Erdogan said at the launch ceremony in Istanbul.

“We see this vessel as a symbol that will consolidate Turkey’s regional leadership position,” he said.

The amphibious assault ship was built in Istanbul’s Sedef Shipyard by a Turkish-Spanish consortium, based on the design of Spanish light aircraft carrier Juan Carlos I.

Ankara’s original plan was to deploy F-35 B-model fighter jets, which can take off from shorter runways, on its largest warship.

But its plans had to change after the United States removed Turkey, a NATO ally, from its F-35 program over Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 defense systems in 2019. Turkey then converted TCG Anadolu into a drone carrier.

In addition to helicopters, Turkey plans to deploy on the new carrier Bayraktar TB3 and Kizilelma unmanned aerial combat vehicles – both under production by Turkish defense firm Baykar – as well as Hurjet light attack aircraft being developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).

TCG Anadolu will be the world’s first amphibious assault ship whose fleet is made up mostly of armed drones once the plan is implemented.

Turkey, which has NATO’s second largest army, shares a border with conflict-ridden Syria and Iraq and has a long Mediterranean as well as Black Sea coastline.

In the nearly 14-month Ukraine war, Turkey has positioned itself as an intermediary between Kyiv and Moscow, helping to broker with the United Nations a deal allowing for the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports via the Black Sea.

Indian importers and supply chain players are facing difficulties securing customs clearance, due to major glitches on the national electronic data interchange platform, known as Icegate.

As a result, import containers are piling up at port locations across the country, according to industry sources.

Stakeholders are concerned over the inability to make customs duty payments through the electronic gateway, an issue Loadstar sources noted first cropped up when the authorities rolled-out the new system on 1 April.

Many industry groups, including the Brihanmumbai Customs Brokers Association (BCBA) of clearing agents in Mumbai, have raised alarm bells, calling on government policymakers for intervention and a swift resolution.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said it was making every effort to put things in order. It explained: “Our technical teams are working overtime to fix some teething issues and the problems being temporarily noticed will be resolved at the earliest.”

One Mumbai-based ocean freight forwarder told The Loadstar clearing agents were not coming forward to pick up delivery orders for vessels that arrived even last week. Containers overstaying on docks typically run the risk of demurrage fees and other penalties, with disputes often ending up in protracted legal action.

Air freight inbound shipments are also facing similar customs hiccups, a source said.

India’s freight industry has seen a raft of technological change and ease-of-doing-business reforms in recent years as the nation bids to keep pace with evolving global supply chain dynamics.

New Delhi recently laid out a broader digital platform – dubbed the national logistics portal (NLP) – offering a “one-stop shop logistics experience” for users, with visibility and transparency being the key focus.

The government said the platform “aimed at connecting all the stakeholders of the logistics community using IT to improve efficiency and transparency by reducing costs and time delays and achieving easier, faster, and more competitive offerings of services, to promote the growth of the logistics sector and thereby improve trade”.

In addition, efforts are in the works for a new electronic customs programme to tighten export/import cargo manifestations, named the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment [SCMT] Regulations. In broad terms, it is akin to the 24-hour advanced manifest rule for US cargo.

But the current import clearance snags coincide with Indian export flows facing bottlenecks as a consequence of significant berth capacity cutbacks at Nhava Sheva port (JNPT), with perishables movements bearing the brunt of the congestion.

A UMAS report dismissing LNG as “a statistical irrelevance” in the rush to decarbonise shipping, has coincided with a new campaign against its adoption.

However, shipping’s adoption of LNG shows no signs of slowing down, with some 50 new port bunkering facilities planned by 2025, as well as making up 81% of alternative-fuel vessel orders last year.

But campaign group Say No To LNG aims to rule out the fossil fuel as part of any decarbonisation scenario, pointing out that methane emissions – the main component of LNG and some 80 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2 – have increased by 150% in six years as ships and other industries switch to the fuel.

According to UMAS data, despite the enormous research and development cost of developing new engine types, fuel feeds and tank systems, and even new ship designs for burning LNG, its effect on decarbonisation will have been “a statistical irrelevance”.

It said: “LNG provides a negligible impact on well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions… and so there is no material change in the overall WtW GHG reduction, regardless of the take-up of LNG between now and 2030.”

UMAS condemned the “complacency” across the shipping sector, which, it claims, has prioritising adoption of new zero-carbon fuels to the exclusion of improving fuel efficiency.

“Industry is increasingly under pressure to align with 1.5ºC and has broadly embraced that this can only be achieved by a fuel transition,” said Jean-Marc Bonello, principal consultant at UMAS. “However, this may distract from the fact that significant gains in energy efficiency through technologies, including wind assist, and operational measures are needed this decade so start reducing GHG now.”

Though not applicable on all trades, existing sail designs have been responsible for reducing fuel consumption by around 30% in some cases, and some designers, such as Wilhelmsen, anticipate being able to operate with wind providing 90% of their propulsion.

Other efficiency upgrades include air lubrication, hull optimisation, and aft-hull additions such as fins and ducts.

UMAS director Tristan Smith said shipping was “on track for a complacent 2020s, followed by a highly disruptive 2030s, caused by a turbulent, expensive and late fuel transition.”

Instead, he added, an accelerated timeline of investment was needed not only to change fuels, but also to whittle down the fuel use of the average vessel.

However, industry lobby group Sea-LNG, which recently expanded to include another fossil fuel company, Énestas, to its board’s line-up, has criticised what it has called “sensationalist claims” on methane slip, characterising them as “a transparent attempt to distract the industry from investing in LNG”.

Its COO, Steve Esau, called methane slip “effectively solved” in two-stroke diesels, “which make up more than half of the LNG-fuelled vessels on order today”.

At COP 26 in Glasgow at the end of 2021, more than 100 countries signed a declaration to cut LNG use, including the US, UK and the EU. EC president Ursula von der Leyen told COP LNG was “the lowest hanging fruit” – ie, the easiest method to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

A.P. Moller - Maersk has launched two new air cargo services between the US and China.

The services will launch with two weekly flights between Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) and Shenyang Taoxian International Airport (SHE), and with two weekly flights between Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH). From May 2023, both services will be boosted to three weekly flights.

Maersk Air Cargo’s three new Boeing 767-300 freighters will serve the links and will be operated by Miami-headquartered cargo airline, Amerijet International.

Maersk said the new services aim to meet the end-to-end logistics needs of its customers and plug a connectivity gap between the US and China. Connecting the two largest markets for its ocean customers, the air services will add options for high value and time sensitive cargos, it said.

“With the introduction of these new routes, we are further connecting North America and Asia Pacific through regular flights and controlled capacity for our customers. At Maersk, we want to ensure that our customers have the visibility, reliability, and resilience in their supply chains. Air freight continues to be an important asset in our customer´s end-to-end logistics needs,” says Michel Pozas Lucic, Global Head of Air in A.P. Moller – Maersk.

Maersk launched an air service connecting Denmark to China in March 2023, with three weekly flights between Billund, Denmark (BLL) and Hangzhou, China (HGH). Another Asia-US link was also added, connecting Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP) and Incheon, Korea (ICN).