Belgium experienced another year of record seizures of cocaine being smuggled through the country’s ports in 2023, giving it the dubious honor of being the epicenter of the illegal trade from Central and South America. Belgian officials held a news conference along with their Dutch colleagues in the port of Flushing in the Netherlands to highlight their efforts while calling for more coordination to fight organized crime and the massive smuggling operations.

The data released by Belgium’s Minister of Finance Vince Van Peteghem showed just over a five percent increase in the amount of cocaine seized in Antwerp in 2023 as he emphasized the increased efforts by the country’s customs operation. According to his data, 116 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Antwerp up from 110 tonnes in 2022. He highlighted that it represents an increase of 50 tonnes since they began public reporting on the efforts in 2020. A further five tonnes were seized in the neighboring Belgium port of Zeebrugge in 2023.

Citing extraordinary circumstances, Van Peteghem said they would be continuing on the path taken to increase the seizures and work with colleagues in neighboring countries. “The fight against international drug trafficking requires a lot of expertise and energy from our customs,” the minister said during his briefing.

He said the seizures however were evidence of the success of the federal government’s investment in people and resources for the customs bureau. He cites the close cooperation in cross-border operations as well as the efforts working with the police. Yesterday, the police conducted large sweeps across Brussels and Antwerp reporting the arrest of 22 people including three police officers involved in the narcotics trade. They also seized cash, cars, and weapons with the police blaming increasing violence in the cities on organized crime rings such as the one they broke up yesterday.

Belgium cites Columbia, Ecuador, and Panama as the top countries of origin for the smuggling operations with the minister days that the same three countries continued to dominate the smuggling operations in 2023.

While Antwerp has become the main gateway for the cartels smuggling cocaine onto the continent, the problem however is widespread. European Union officials point to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, reporting that three-quarters of the seizures in 2021 happened in the three countries’ ports. A total of 303 tonnes was seized in 2021 according to the latest information from the EU. The Netherlands reported seizures of 59 tonnes in 2023 with almost 27 tones originating in Ecuador.

Port officials highlight that one of the biggest challenges is the perishable trade, which has become a preferred host for the smugglers. They point to the rush to move refrigerated containers through the port and that they have become one of the primary locations for drug smuggling. Several of the largest seizures in Europe in the last years were all made mixed in with bananas.

Belgium recently took its turn at the Presidency of the EU Council and used this role to launch an ambitious plan to increase efforts both at the ports and working with the governments of the Central and South American countries. Belgium intends to leverage the European Commission’s comprehensive roadmap that was launched in October last year during its leadership of the Council to intensify efforts to combat drug trafficking and criminal networks in European ports.

Nearly a month after environmentalists and local officials began calling attention to plastic nurdles washing up on Spain’s beaches, the federal government is opening a formal investigation. The source of the small plastic balls used in the manufacture of plastic water bottles and similar food packing has been traced to a containership operating under charter to Maersk.

Environmentalists working with Spain’s Ecologistas en Accion, an environmental organization, began finding the small plastic bits washing up on the shoreline primarily in the Galicia region as soon as December 13. Volunteers began scouring the beaches collecting the small plastics while fears grew about how much might have been lost into the ocean. The environmental group is saying there could be billions of the nurdles floating in the ocean and coming ashore as they raise the alarm about the impact on fishing and the food chain.

Investigations traced the source of the nurdles to a containership that lost six boxes overboard on December 8 approximately 50 miles west of the coast of Portugal. Due to currents, most of the plastic has been found on Spanish beaches in Galicia as well as some in Asturias, although some reports are saying traces of it have reached the beaches of France.

The ship, the Liberia-registered Toconao (116,000 dwt) was sailing the Bay of Biscay from Algeciras to Rotterdam. It operates between the Mediterranean and Northern Europe currently under charter to Maersk and managed by Columbia Shipmanagement of Singapore.  Built in 2003, the ship has a capacity of 8,600 TEU.

Six of the containers went overboard with Maersk saying that none of the container cargo is officially listed as hazardous material. There is no word about what else was in the boxes, but one of them contained 1,050 bags of the nurdles (less than 5 millimeters in size). Each sack is reported to hold 55 pounds of the nurdles. Greenpeace estimates that are 22,500 nurdles per pound which means there could have been nearly 1.3 billion nurdles in the container. Maersk told the Associated Press that the vessel’s owners hired multiple cleanup specialists to support the efforts to remove the plastics from the beaches.

Volunteers have been attempting to collect the balls from the beaches (photo courtesy of Ecologistas en Accion)

Ecologistas en Accion, however, is not satisfied with the slow response to the clean-up process. They are critical of the government as well as the shipping industry. The activist group said in a statement on January 5 that it would file an environmental complaint against the owner of the vessel.

The problem of nurdles is well known, with calls to regulate or outlaw their shipment. Just a year ago, France threatened legal action when the plastics began washing up on the beaches of Brittany. Sri Lanka faced a similar problem in 2021 when the feeder ship X-Press Pearl burnt and sunk off Colombo. They have been cleaning nurdles from their beaches with environmentalists projecting a decade or more of repercussions.

Greenpeace, along with Ecologistas en Acción, Friends of the Earth, SEO/BirdLife, and WWF joined together in calling for greater coordination between Spanish authorities in response to the current pellet spill. At the same time, the groups are using the event to call broader attention to the problems of microplastics in the oceans.

The unions representing dockworkers in Danish and Norwegian ports as well as the workers who transport cars plan to refuse to handle Tesla automobiles bound for Sweden in sympathy strikes supporting the ongoing action in Sweden. The two unions severed strike notices yesterday and today in response to reports that Tesla might be seeking to divert cars bound for Sweden into neighboring countries and drive them across the border after Sweden unions closed all the country’s ports to the manufacturer’s auto imports.

What began as a small strike in Sweden seeking an enterprise agreement for about 120 to 130 mechanics who work in Tesla’s maintenance operations is quickly becoming a regional issue with both sides deeply entrenched. Sweden’s powerful union IF Metall, which says it has over 300,000 members in the manufacturing, chemical, mining, and automotive industries, launched the strike on October 27 after prolonged attempts at negotiations with Tesla.

IF Metall contends that more than 90 percent of Sweden’s workers are covered by enterprise agreements, noting “Collective agreements are the basis of the Swedish labor market. They argue they are fighting for “decent and safe working conditions,” with the agreements covering wages, form of employment, occupational pension, working hours, vacations, and periods of notice. They note with these agreements in place, there is an obligation to maintain labor peace noting there are very few labor market conflicts in Sweden.

Tesla’s flamboyant CEO Elon Musk is an outspoken critic of unions. Speaking with The New York Times he recently said “I disagree with the idea of unions. I think unions naturally try to create negativity in a company.”

After launching the strike, IF Metall appealed to its peers for support. The union representing Sweden’s dockworkers initially said it would not handle the cars at four ports but later widened the ban to all Tesla cars at all ports or entering the country. Other unions across Sweden also joined in support of the strike including the country’s postal workers who are refusing to handle packages including the license plates needed to deliver Tesla cars to buyers. Tesla sued the post office and Swedish Transport Authority, but today a court stayed a temporary injunction leaving it to the appeals court to decide the issue. So for now, Tesla has no way to get license plates in Sweden.

Denmark’s 3F union issued a statement on December 5 announcing that it had filed a notice to stop offloading and transporting Tesla vehicles to Sweden. There had been speculation that Tesla might begin trucking cars across the Øresund bridge from Denmark, which would be about a seven-hour drive to reach its facilities in Sweden. Tesla’s electric vehicles are the most popular models in Sweden with buyers often already waiting for deliveries.

“IF Metall and the Swedish workers are currently fighting an incredibly important battle. When they ask for our support, we naturally back up,” said Jan Villadsen, chairman of 3F Transport. “Even if you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. We have some agreements on the labor market in the Nordics, and you have to comply with them if you want to do business here. Solidarity is the cornerstone of the trade union movement and extends across national borders.”

Reports indicate it is the first time in seven years that neighboring labor unions have crossed borders in support of each other in Scandinavia. Swedish pilots in 2015 supported a strike by pilots in Norway and indications are that the Norwegian are now ready to also provide support in the Tesla strike.

Fellesforbundet, which calls itself the largest union in the private sector in Norway and represents employees in industry, car workshops, ports, and transport, announced today that it has also filed a two-week notice to commence a boycott aimed at the transport of Tesla cars to the Swedish market. Echoing the sentiments of their Danish colleagues and the Swedish union that represents the dockworkers, Fellesforbundet leader Jørn Eggum said in his statement, “In the Nordic countries, there is broad agreement about the importance of a well-organized working life… The right to demand a collective agreement is a natural part of our working life, and we cannot accept that Tesla stands outside this.”

Media reports indicate that the expansion of the strike and supporting boycotts might reach further. Finland’s unions are reportedly considering launching a similar boycott against Tesla. The manufacturer’s nearest facility to Sweden would become Germany, but reports highlight the impracticality of attempting to transport the cars from Germany. The Danish and Norwegian boycotts will launch in two weeks after the notice period has been completed.

Following years of intensive studies and consultations, the Western Australian (WA) government has unveiled its preferred design and location for the relocation of the container operations currently in Fremantle. The port, which handles nearly all the container traffic for all of Western Australia is quickly running out of capacity and also occupies prime real estate which official highlight could be better used for the city.

The preferred design and location unveiled by the WA government on November 29 calls for the relocation of the container operations from its current location to Kwinana, approximately 15 miles to the south, and uniting the container operations with the existing bulk cargo operations. Known as the Westport Project the container operations would be adjacent to the existing Outer Harbour, which is one of Australia’s major bulk cargo ports handling grain, petroleum, liquid petroleum gas, alumina, mineral sands, fertilizers, coal, sulfur, iron ore, and other bulk commodities.

The planning for the new container terminal has been ongoing for years with officials highlighting the concept of placing containers in Kwinana was first suggested in 2006. Between 2018 and 2020, they report the Westport Taskforce explored 25 different locations ranging from Fremantle to Cockburn Sound and Bunbury for the new container terminal before selecting the preferred location. They started with 30 different design options, narrowing it first to seven and then three before selecting the design that they believe provides the best opportunities as well as environmental outcomes.

Currently, the port which is located in the Fremantle Inner Harbour in Perth, handles imports and exports of around 800,000 containers with terminals operated by DP World and Patrick. However, this port infrastructure and its surrounding roads are expected to reach capacity within the next two decades, hence the necessity for a new terminal. Long-term planning calls for the port to grow to more than three million containers over the next 50 years.

Government officials released the preferred design for the new container port (Fremantle Ports)

The new design includes a container terminal adjacent to the shoreline of the current Kwinana Bulk Terminal. Another aspect is a new breakwater to provide enhanced protection to the port and docked ships. The design will allow the new container terminal to handle larger ships than the existing Fremantle terminal and also incorporates redevelopment of the aging Kwinana Bulk Terminal jetty. The new facility would also be supported by an enhanced multi-modal infrastructure with road and rail links.

“A world-class port in Kwinana is critical for our state to remain a global economic and industrial powerhouse for decades to come,” said WA Premier Roger Cook. “Through this design, we can ensure WA can continue to meet trade demand long into the future while strengthening our supply lines.”

The move to relocate Fremantle Port is also expected to unlock around 260 hectares of prime inner urban land in Fremantle. The state government has indicated it wants to transform the space into a “vibrant precinct” to cater to WA’s growing population. One proposal is to establish a public space and residential facilities. Fremantle Port would continue to be a working port for cruise ships, visiting naval vessels, and recreational craft.

The next step is the development of a project business case report, scheduled to be finalized by mid-2024. Previously the budget for the project was set at A$4 billion (US$2.7 billion) but government officials said that was pre-pandemic and they expect to determine the timeline and cost for the new terminal based in the next phase of the project.

After days of heavy rains in Kenya’s coastal region, the country’s railways operator has announced disruptions in evacuation of cargo from the Port of Mombasa to the inland container depot in Nairobi.

Kenya is currently experiencing heavy rains linked to El Nino phenomenon. This has left scores of people displaced by floods and around fifty feared dead.

According to Kenya Railways, the rains have also led to wash-aways and landslides in various sections of the 300 miles SGR (Standard Gauge Railway) running from Mombasa to Nairobi.

“Consequently, this has affected normal train operations including cargo transfers, loading as well as offloading activities at the Port of Mombasa. A section of the SGR corridor between Mombasa Terminus and Mariakani, has experienced a landslide which has resulted [in] the closure of the section for all freight trains,” Kenya Railways said in a statement over the weekend.

The SGR cargo freight service from Mombasa Port started in 2018. It is mainly used to haul containerized cargo to dry ports in Nairobi and Naivasha. Over time, evacuation of cargo along the corridor has surged from 2.9 million tons in 2018 to over 6 million tons last year.