Grounded bulker blocking Suez Canal successfully refloated

A Hong Kong-flagged bulker that grounded in the Suez Canal blocking the key waterway for several hours on Thursday morning has been successfully refloated.

Leth Agencies posted on Twitter that the bulk Xin Hai Tong 23 had grounded at the 159 km mark on the canal at 0400 hrs local time.

In a second tweet a few hours later the agency said that tugs from the Suez Canal Authority had been able to successfully refloat the vessel at 0740hrs.

It was reported that a convoy of four vessels was stuck behind the stricken bulker and an ordinary group was set to enter the canal at 0600 hrs. Leth Agencies said that following the refloating of the Xin Hai Tong 23 a northbound convoy was due to enter at 0930hrs.

The Xin Hai Tong 23 is a 2010-built, 56,708 dwt bulker and flagged with Hong Kong.

The vessel has grounded in a narrow section of the Suez Canal and MarineTraffic shows it stranded diagonally across the waterway in similar way to the containership Ever Given which closed the canal for six days when it grounded in March 2021.

The Ever Given grounding caused chaos to the global supply chain. However, the Xin Hai Tong 23 is a significantly smaller vessel than the 199,000 dwt mega-containership and far less complex to refloat.

 

UAE new hub of Russian gold

The United Arab Emirates has become a key trade hub for Russian gold since Western sanctions over Ukraine cut Russia's more traditional export routes.

The records, which contain details of nearly a thousand gold shipments in the year since the Ukraine war started, show the Gulf state imported 75.7 tons of Russian gold worth US$4.3 billion - up from just 1.3 tons during 2021.

China and Turkey were the next key destinations, importing about 20 tons each between February 24, 2022 and March 03, 2023. With the UAE, the three countries accounted for 99.8% of the Russian gold exports.

Ever since the Ukraine conflict started, many multinational banks, logistics providers and precious metal refiners stopped handling Russian gold, which had typically been shipped to London, a gold trading and storage hub.

The London Bullion Market Association banned Russian bars made from March 07, 2022, and by the end of August 2022, Britain, the European Union, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and Japan had all banned imports of Russian bullion.

The data shows Russian gold producers quickly found new markets in countries that had not imposed sanctions on Moscow, such as the UAE, Turkey and China.

Louis Marechal, a gold sourcing expert at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said there was a risk Russian gold could be melted down and recast and then find its way back into US and European markets with its origin masked.

"If the Russian gold comes in, is recast by a local refiner, sourced by a local bank or trader and then sold on into the market, there you have a risk," he said. "This is why carrying out due diligence is instrumental to end buyers wishing to ensure they respect sanctions regimes."

The UAE government's Gold Bullion Committee said the state operated with clear and robust processes against illicit goods, money laundering and sanctioned entities.

"The UAE will continue to trade openly and honestly, with its international partners, in compliance with all current international norms as set down by the United Nations," it said.

In a bid to further isolate Russia, Washington has warned countries, including the UAE and Turkey, they could lose access to G7 markets if they do business with entities subject to US sanctions.

US aircraft carrier sails into Oslo

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed into Oslo on Wednesday, a first for such a US ship, in a show of NATO force at a time of heightened tension between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The ship and its crew will conduct training exercises with the Norwegian armed forces along the country's coast in the coming days, the Norwegian military said.

"This visit is an important signal of the close bilateral relationship between the US and Norway and a signal of the credibility of collective defence and deterrence," said Jonny Karlsen, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the operational command centre of the military.

At one spot on the Oslo fjord, dozens of people of all ages gathered on the shore to observe the vessel as it cruised by, taking pictures and videos.

Norwegian media reported the aircraft carrier would sail north of the Arctic Circle. Karlsen declined to comment on the reports.

The Russian embassy in Oslo condemned the aircraft carrier's Oslo visit.

"There are no questions in the (Arctic) north that require a military solution, nor topics where outside intervention is needed," the embassy said in a Facebook post.

"Considering that it is admitted in Oslo that Russia poses no direct military threat to Norway, such demonstrations of power appear illogical and harmful."

NATO member Norway shares a border with Russia in the Arctic and last year became Europe's largest gas supplier after a drop in Russian gas flows.

The Norwegian military and NATO allies have been patrolling around offshore oil and gas platforms since the autumn, following explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

 

 

Iran hosts Asian Clearing Union summit

The 51st Asian Clearing Union (ACU) summit, mainly focusing on de-dollarization, kicked off on Tuesday at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

On the first day of the two-day event, expert committees from the delegations attending the summit held meetings to discuss preliminary issues.

The summit is attended by the governors of the central banks of the ACU member countries in addition to Russia.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina arrived in Tehran on Monday to attend the event.

In the 51st ACU summit, the members are set to discuss various issues including the amendment of the Union's statutes in order to facilitate the acceptance of new members, and determining the new currency basket of the member countries in order to settle exchanges without the need for euro or the dollar.

Exploring the feasibility of using digital currencies of central banks for cross-border payments and the unveiling of the interbank messaging network of the member states of the Union are also among the major topics on the summit’s agendas.

Asian Clearing Union is a payment arrangement whereby the participants settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a net multilateral basis.

The main objectives of the clearing union are to facilitate payments among member countries for eligible transactions, thereby economizing on the use of foreign exchange reserves and transfer costs, as well as promoting trade and banking relations among the participating countries. 

Currently, the members of ACU are the central banks of Iran, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

The central banking authorities of member countries have issued detailed instructions and modalities for channeling monetary transactions through the ACU. Membership in the ACU is open to central banks located in the geographical area of ESCAP and non-ESCAP.

 

South Africa faces threat of becoming a failed state

South Africa could become a failed state but has yet to reach that point, a senior official of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said. The admission by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula comes as South Africa experiences power cuts, known as load-shedding, of up to 10 hours a day.

“This load-shedding has just made a mess of our country,” he told the BBC’s HARDtalk program.

The power cuts have worsened South Africa’s economic crisis.

The country is also battling high levels of corruption, all of which has damaged confidence in the ANC government.

“If certain things are not resolved, we will become a failed state, but we are not journeying towards that direction,” Mbalula said in an exclusive interview with BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur.

“South Africa is undergoing challenges like many other countries but I think to put it into the category of a failed state is an exaggeration,” he added.

While external forces such as global economics, the impact of COVID and the war in Ukraine had all played a role in battering South Africa’s economy, blame also lay partly with “some of our own weaknesses in terms of managing the economy well”, Mbalula acknowledged.

South Africa has an official unemployment rate of about 33%, one of the highest in the world. One in two young South Africans is unemployed and 60% are living under the poverty line.

Yet Mbalula maintained the country was “recovering well” and defended the ANC’s economic record. The party took power in 1994, following the end of the racist system of apartheid.

“We have been able to cushion our people from the worst,” he said, after a legacy of “300 years of deprivation and a mismanaged country and economy”. But he admitted the power crisis was the ANC government’s “Achilles heel”.

According to South Africa’s central bank, it is costing the country at least 2% of gross domestic product (GDP). “We can’t afford that,” Mbalula said.

With elections due next year, the continued blackouts could have seismic political consequences for the ruling party. “It will affect the fortunes of the ANC to receive just an outright majority... if it is not dealt with decisively,” he said.

South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom has $26 billion of debt, old infrastructure, and power stations that do not work properly.

It has led to South Africa’s worst-ever power crisis, and Eskom has warned that the situation could worsen in the winter months of July and August.

Iran appoints Enayati new ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Iran has appointed Alireza Enayati, Director General of the Gulf Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to the Iranian media.

The Iranian semi-official news agency Fars and Iran judiciary’s news agency Mizan published the report about Enayati’s appointment as Saudi envoy. However, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is yet to confirm or comment over the media report about Enayati’s new assignment.

Enayati had served earlier as Tehran’s ambassador to Kuwait from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as assistant foreign minister of the country.

Enayati, a veteran diplomat who has extensive experience in Gulf affairs, was part of the delegation represented Iran in the rounds of talks with Saudi Arabia held in Iraq and China, to facilitate the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia and Iran signed on March 10, 2023 a historic agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations after a hiatus of seven years of severed ties at the end of tri-partite talks held in Beijing.

Under the historic deal, the two countries agreed to reopen embassies and consulates in each countries and implement security and economic cooperation agreements that were signed over 20 years ago. Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016 following an attack by Iranian pro-regime protesters on its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad.

The news of Enayati’s appointment came a few hours after the Iranian media denied the reports about appointment of Ali Shamkhani as new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, following his dismissal from the post of secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council.

The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) had reported earlier last month that Enayati was one of the candidates, being considered for the post of Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy that an Iranian technical delegation visited Saudi Arabia on April 12, in preparation for completing the procedures for the reopening of Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh, and this was about a week after a high-level ministerial meeting.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian met in Beijing in their first official meeting between the two countries’ top diplomatic officials in more than seven years. Ahmadian said then that the announcement about appointment of the new Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia will be made in the near future.

Earlier this month, Abdollahian said that Saudi Arabia had introduced its new envoy to Tehran and that Iran would soon reciprocate by introducing its new envoy to Riyadh.

Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan up 41%

The value of Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan increased by 41% in the first month of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the first month of the earlier year, the spokesman of Trade Development Committee of the Iranian House of Industry, Mining, and Trade announced.

Ruhollah Latifi said that importing non-oil commodities worth US$116 million, Pakistan was Iran’s fourth export destination in the month under review.

As previously announced by the official, the value of Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan rose 18% in the Iranian calendar year 1401.

Latifi said that importing non-oil goods worth US$1.488 billion from Iran, Pakistan was the fifth top export destination of the Islamic Republic in the previous year.

Iran imported non-oil commodities valued at US$842 million from Pakistan in the past year, which was 170% higher than the figure of the preceding year, the official stated, adding that Pakistan was Iran’s fourth top source of import in the previous year.

On April 30, Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammad-Ali Hosseini and Pakistani Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar discussed the ways for increasing trade between the two countries in a meeting in Islamabad.

Expressing their satisfaction that the trade between the two countries exceeded US$2 billion, the two sides emphasized the need to take more effective steps to strengthen economic cooperation and help expand trade relations.

During the meeting, the Pakistani minister said that Pakistan attaches great importance to its relations with the friendly and brotherly country of Iran.

Appreciating the efforts of the Iranian ambassador during his diplomatic mission in Pakistan in order to strengthen the brotherly relations between the two neighboring countries, Senator Ishaq Dar praised the measures taken especially in the commercial and economic fields.

Expressing their satisfaction with the value of trade between Iran and Pakistan, which has exceeded two billion dollars, the two sides emphasized the need to identify new ways to help increase trade and develop economic cooperation.

Emphasizing the country's economic outlook, Pakistan's finance minister expressed confidence that despite economic challenges, Pakistan is on the path of progress and development.

Iranian ambassador to Pakistan for his part, appreciated the cooperation and support of the Pakistani government for the development of bilateral relations in various fields, and stated that the potential capacities of Iran and Pakistan are the main factor for the expansion of joint cooperation.

He added that bilateral trade between Iran and Pakistan has now reached US$2.4 billion, but it is not compatible with the good political and people relations of the two neighbors and more efforts should be made to support the business community of the two countries.

Back in January 2023, Iran and Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate bilateral trade between the two countries.

The MoU was signed by the former Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Alireza Peyman-Pak and Head of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Muhammad Zubair Motiwala.

Based on the MoU, which was signed on the sidelines of Iran’s Exclusive Exhibition in Karachi, the parties pledged to exchange business information, support each other’s private sectors, and provide the conditions and context for the presence of their trade delegations in the other country.

It was also agreed that both sides would take all the necessary measures to facilitate holding exhibitions in the opposite country, whenever required.

Speaking in the signing ceremony, Peyman-Pak said that signing this MoU was indicative of the two sides’ determination for removing the obstacles in the way of bilateral trade and prepare the ground for the businesspersons of both sides to bolster cooperation.

He considered the holding of exclusive exhibitions, exchanging trade delegations and investment in joint production units as positive steps for knowing the capacities and needs of the two countries and expressed hope that such events would continue.

The TPO head further mentioned some obstacles and infrastructural problems that are hindering the two countries' mutual trade, including lack of banking relations, problems related to sea transportation and logistics, and tariff-related issues, saying that the Iranian government is willing to resolve such problems in collaboration with the Pakistani government.

Motiwala, for his part, said that the signed MoU is regarded as a major step to enhance bilateral trade to reach the target of US$5 billion annually.