In close to 24 years of covering this industry, a constant head-scratcher has been the outsourcing of national shipping registries, an oft corrupt practice that quite literally lets unpleasant folks get away with murder. Over the years, the likes of Cambodia and landlocked Mongolia have made headlines for their shockingly lax approach to ship registration. Since the war between Ukraine and Russia escalated nearly two years ago, it has been flags in Africa that have aided and abetted the Kremlin war chest with the likes of Cameroon and Tanzania becoming homes to some of the most sub-standard tanker tonnage imaginable. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was named last week as the worst shipping flag among more than 100 registries surveyed in an annual report compiled by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). The DRC is joined by Comoros, Togo and Algeria as the worst performers in the ICS’s 2023/2024 Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table. Not in the survey, however, was Gabon, last year’s fastest-growing shipping registry. The ICS told me there was not enough data publicly available on Gabon to be able to make a “robust” comparison. It’s a shame, as this is a flag – along with Comoros – that needs to be named and shamed more. Likewise, and more understandably, there was no mention of Eswatini – that’s landlocked Swaziland for those of you not aware of a name change in this southern African kingdom that now has a three-month old shipping register. In the opening days of 2024, Gabon’s growth has been phenomenal thanks to a massive reflagging operation conducted by Russia’s top shipping concern, Sovcomflot. Last year, the Gabon flag grew by 130.6%, according to data from Clarksons Research. Here’s the bit that galls me the most. Gabon outsources its flag services to a company registered in the United Arab Emirates called Intershipping Services, which is controlled by the Shaikh family from India who also control the poor performing Comoros flag as well as Union Marine Classification Services, a recently created alternative classification society based in Dubai. Likewise, the new Eswatini flag has Indian owners who have a history of running shipping services that have been havens for substandard tonnage. Why on earth aren’t the likes of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in Washington DC taking action against these Indians who are enabling the Russian war machine? Contents Front page: Landlocked shipping registers make a comebackEditor’s Comment: African flags and the Russian war machineJanuary 2024 ReviewMarkets TankersMarkets Dry BulkMarkets ContainersAnalyst AbstractMonthly BrokerFeature: Are seafarers ready to handle tomorrow’s fuels?Interview: Christian Råe HolmDataOpinion: Enter the dragon TagsSplash Extra Archive Splash Extra January 2024