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Pity that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made China's Sino-Europe rail freight service so difficult to manageOne of the more astonishing developments in the shipping world in the last decade has been the moving of goods from China by rail to western Europe. The jury is still out on whether the heavily subsidised China-EU rail route is economical, or ever will be.
The impetus for this development was the Go West campaign of 20 years ago, when the previous more liberal regime of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, as well as the great and the good of the western financial world complained that the beneficiaries of the Chinese economic miracle unfolding since the 1980s were largely confined to the coastal regions while the interior was left to rot. 
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When culture goes woke, does shipping go broke? What happens when feelings no longer care about the facts?
Disruption of supply chains has been the scourge of shipping for two years or more. Mainly, it has been caused by government's fearful reaction to a flu scare, combined with a political lunacy that leaves high court judges unable to tell a man from a woman if pressed to do so at US Supreme Court nomination hearings.
Then there is Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Joe Biden's demand for regime change. A demand made without regard to a pattern of Russian governance of authoritarian autocracy that has dominated for centuries. Short-lived moments of democracy were mere experimental blips in an unbroken run of dictatorship for 600 years. So it seems unreasonable to think that Russia will be ruled any other way in the short term - or for very long.
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Looking at prospects of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in introducing best business practices to Africa
A re-print from US Global Compliance News taken from the Johannesburg office of Chicago law firm Baker McKenzie's report on trade relations between China and Africa deserves attention.
Written by Virusha Subban, partner and head of indirect tax at Baker McKenzie in South Africa, she has more than 20 years of experience in tax issues relating to customs and excise and international trade.
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Giving war a chance: Is there another way to achieve affordable 24/7 terminal operations at major ports?
Now that Covid mania is on the run, perhaps it is time to resurrect thoughts expressed by Jeremy Nixon, chief executive of the Japanese-owned, but Singapore-based Ocean Network Express (ONE), that combination of the container units of Japan's Big Three, MOL, NYK and "K" Line.
Addressing the Trans-Pacific Maritime conference in Long Beach earlier this year, Mr Nixon voiced the complaint expressed by the vast majority in world shipping - the wretched state of North American container terminal operations, warehousing, chassis handling and their lack of 24/7 operations.
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