Interview: Michael Britton, CEO

Michael Britton

CEO Sealand – A Maersk Company

How is the shipping industry handling new regulations focused on sustainability?

One of the largest variable costs we have as a shipping line is fuel, so global fuel prices are a long-term issue for us. On Jan. 1, 2020, all shipping lines around the world switched to using low-sulfur content fuel. That has allowed us, as an industry, to eliminate sulfur emissions from shipping by 80 to 85%, possibly more. That was a great step forward but it came at the cost of more expensive fuel. Today, it is still expensive but the di erential compared to other types of fuel has come down. The logistics industry needs to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels to reduce its impact on the environment and to keep our costs lower for our customers. From now on, further regulation around the types of fuels that can be used, e orts on carbon trading or e orts for decarbonization are where we would expect to see the most significant regulations that a ect the shipping industry. The industry is looking for measures that are broad-based and impact the industry as a whole.

What is your near-term outlook?

We’re expecting global trade volumes to increase versus 2020 but the impact of COVID-19 remains uncertain. Now, the logistics for the transportation of vaccines has come very much into focus. Sealand is a cold chain specialist. We have developed a product for supermarket chains in Canada that provides them transparency and control over the supply chain of perishables from farms in Latin America to stores in Canada. Every week pineapples and limes are trucked in our refrigerated containers from farms to ports, cleared through customs, loaded on our vessels, discharged in U.S. ports, and stored in specialized refrigerated warehouses where they are again cleared through customs and eventually trucked in refrigerated equipment direct to stores. At all times with visibility for the customer on the temperature at which the goods are maintained. We will leverage this experience with perishables and other pharmaceuticals to provide support for the regional distribution of vaccines.

Fort Lauderdale is one of the preeminent aviation hubs in South Florida.

( ) highways are being updated. Besides this, there are many more neighborhood specific improvements that are occurring around Fort Lauderdale, such as bridge improvements, new bypass roads and revitalization projects.

Logistics infrastructure is also in a state of flux. The pandemic caused massive disruptions in the global supply chains as travel restrictions caused a shortage of truck drivers, sea shipping was curtailed and warehouses could not be adequately staffed out of concern for social distancing. These shocks caused a backlog, and, while the worst is over, the effects will continue to be felt moving forward. Added to this is the rapid acceleration of e-commerce resulting from the pandemic. Changed shopping habits are not going away, which is apparent as e-commerce infrastructure continues to expand.

The pandemic also caused major disruptions to the use of public transportation. People were encouraged by the government to stay at home and many employers, where possible, made the transition to at-home work. In Broward County, measures to keep transit employees and passengers safe meant that bus fares were suspended for over a year, from March 24, 2020, to June 1, 2021. This measure, of course, followed efforts by the sanitation staff to disinfect the vehicles after every route and ensure that social distancing was being upheld. Even still, Broward County’s mass transit systems have always been woefully underused, and officials fear what lingering effects the pandemic will have on rider numbers.