This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
MOSCOW, Jan 4 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin sent a frigate to the Atlantic Ocean armed with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles on Wednesday, a signal to the West that Russia will not back down over the war in Ukraine.
Russia, China and the United States are in a race to develop hypersonic weapons which are seen as a way to gain an edge over any adversary because of their speeds – above five times the speed of sound – and manoeuvrability.
In a video conference with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Igor Krokhmal, commander of the frigate named “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov”, Putin said the ship was armed with Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic weapons.
“This time the ship is equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system – ‘Zircon’,” said Putin. “I am sure that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from potential external threats.”
The weapons, Putin said, had “no analogues in any country in the world”.
More than 10 months since Putin sent troops into Ukraine, there is no end in sight to the war which has descended into a grinding winter artillery battle that has killed and wounded tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
Russia has also used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles in Ukraine.
Along with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle which entered combat duty in 2019, the Zircon forms the centrepiece of Russia’s hypersonic arsenal.
Russia sees the weapons as a way to pierce increasingly sophisticated U.S. missile defences which Putin has warned could one day shoot down Russian nuclear missiles.
ATLANTIC VOYAGE
Shoigu said the Gorshkov would sail to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and to the Mediterranean Sea.
“This ship, armed with ‘Zircons’, is capable of delivering pinpoint and powerful strikes against the enemy at sea and on land,” Shoigu said.
Shoigu said the hypersonic missiles could overcome any missile defence system. The missiles fly at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of over 1,000 km, Shoigu said.
The main tasks of the voyage were to counter threats to Russia and to maintain “regional peace and stability jointly with friendly countries”, Shoigu said.
A U.S. Congressional Research Service report on hypersonic weapons says that Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles are designed to be used with nuclear warheads.
The target of a hypersonic weapon is much more difficult to calculate than for intercontinental ballistic missiles because of their manoeuvrability.
Beyond Russia, the United States and China, a range of other countries are developing hypersonic weapons including Australia, France, Germany, South Korea, North Korea and Japan, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, +79856400243; editing by Philippa Fletcher
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LONDON, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Ship insurers said they are cancelling war risk cover across Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, following an exit from the region by reinsurers in the face of steep losses.
Reinsurers, who insure the insurers, typically renew their 12-month contracts with insurance clients on Jan. 1, giving them the first opportunity to scale back exposure since the war in Ukraine started, after being hit this year by losses related to the conflict and from Hurricane Ian in Florida.
P&I (protection and indemnity) clubs American, North, UK and West are no longer able to offer war risk cover for some liabilities in the region from Jan. 1, they said in recent notices on their websites. The clubs are among the biggest P&I insurers who cover around 90% of the world’s ocean-going ships.
UK P&I Club said on Dec. 23 that the issue had arisen because of a lack of availability of reinsurance for reinsurers, also known as retrocession.
“The Club’s reinsurers are no longer able to secure reinsurance for war risk exposure to Russian, Ukrainian or Belarus territorial risks,” it said.
American P&I said on Dec. 23 that it had received a “notice of cancellation” for the region from its war risk reinsurers and was cancelling its own insurance as a result.
Ships typically have P&I insurance, which covers third-party liability claims including environmental damage and injury. Separate hull and machinery policies cover vessels against physical damage.
The withdrawal of cover for Ukraine and Russia applies to some but not all types of policy offered by the P&I clubs, three P&I insurance sources said.
“This is being driven by reinsurance,” said Stephen Rebair, deputy global director, underwriting at North, adding that reinsurers were limiting their exposure to the region and “those exclusions have to be passed down the line”.
The exclusions will make it harder for charterers to find insurance, increase prices and may mean some ships sail uninsured, industry sources say.
Providers of reinsurance and retrocession include global players Hannover Re (HNRGn.DE), Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) and Swiss Re (SRENH.S), as well as syndicates in the Lloyd’s of London (SOLYD.UL) market. The firms all declined to comment.
Reuters reported earlier this month that a proposed contract clause being circulated by reinsurers excluded war-related claims for both planes and ships in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Japanese government has urged insurers to take on additional risks to continue providing marine war insurance for liquefied natural gas (LNG) shippers in Russian waters, a senior official at the industry ministry said this week.
Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Jonathan Saul in London
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Matthew Lewis
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Turkey says out of question to take insurance risk
Yellen says oil from Kazakhstan should not be targeted
Ankara says most of waiting ships are EU vessels
ISTANBUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The number of oil tankers waiting in the Black Sea to pass through Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait on the way to the Mediterranean rose to 20 on Friday, Tribeca shipping agency said, as Turkey held talks to resolve an insurance dispute behind the build-up.
Dismissing pressure from abroad over the lengthening queue, Turkey’s maritime authority said on Thursday it would continue to block oil tankers that lacked the appropriate insurance letters, and it needed time for checks.
The ship backlog is creating growing unease in oil and tanker markets and comes as the G7 and European Union introduce a price cap on Russian oil. Millions of barrels of oil per day move south from Russian ports through Turkey’s Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits into the Mediterranean.
The maritime authority said that in the event of an accident involving a vessel in breach of sanctions it was possible the damage would not be covered by an international oil-spill fund.
“(It) is out of the question for us to take the risk that the insurance company will not meet its indemnification responsibility,” it said, adding that Turkey was continuing talks with other countries and insurance companies.
It said the vast majority of vessels waiting near the straits were EU vessels, with a large part of the oil destined for EU ports – a factor frustrating Ankara’s Western allies.
The G7 group of nations, the EU and Australia have agreed to bar providers of shipping services, such as insurers, from helping to export Russian oil unless it is sold at an enforced low price, or cap, aimed at depriving Moscow of wartime revenue.
However, Turkey has had a separate measure in force since the start of the month requiring vessels to provide proof of insurance covering the duration of their transit through the Bosphorus strait, or when calling at Turkish ports.
KAZAKH OIL
Eight tankers were also waiting for passage through the Dardanelles strait into the Mediterranean, down from nine a day earlier, Tribeca said, making a total of 28 tankers waiting for southbound passage.
Most of the tankers waiting at the Bosphorus are carrying Kazakh oil and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday the U.S. administration saw no reason that such shipments should be subjected to new procedures.
Washington had no reason to believe Russia was involved in Turkey’s decision to block ship transits, she added.
Turkey has had to balance its good relations with both Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February. It played a key role in a United Nations-backed deal reached in July to free up grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Turkey’s maritime authority said that it was unacceptable to pressure Turkey over what it said were “routine” insurance checks and that it could remove tankers without proper documentation from its waters or require them to furnish new P&I ship insurance letters covering their journeys.
Reporting by Daren Butler, Can Sezer, and Jonathan Saul in London
Editing by Himani Sarkar, Clarence Fernandez, Jonathan Spicer and Frances Kerry
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Green light for Cosco investment divides lawmakers
No management or strategic decisions for Cosco
China’s foreign minister: hope for ‘pragmatic cooperation’
Opposition against deal within coalition parties
BERLIN, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The German cabinet allowed China’s Cosco to buy a stake in a terminal in the country’s largest port on Wednesday in a decision pushed through by Chancellor Olaf Scholz that triggered unprecedented protest within the governing coalition.
With the support of Scholz’s Social Democrat-led ministries, the cabinet approved a 24.9% stake investment by Cosco in one of logistics firm HHLA’s (HHFGn.DE) three terminals in the Hamburg port.
The approved investment is less than the initially planned 35% stake that the Chinese shipping giant and HHLA had aimed for and does not give Cosco any say in management or strategic decisions.
But the painful experience of being too dependent on Russian gas has changed many politicians’ attitude towards strategic foreign investment. The foreign ministry was so upset over the approval that it drew up a note on the cabinet meeting documenting its rejection, Reuters was told by two government sources.
The investment “disproportionately expands China’s strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany’s dependence on China”, the document, seen by Reuters, says. It points to “considerable risks that arise when elements of the European transport infrastructure are influenced and controlled by China – while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports”.
In the event of a crisis, the acquisition would open up the possibility for China to politically instrumentalise part of Germany’s as well as Europe’s critical infrastructure, it says. The economy ministry and the four ministries led by the liberal Free Democrats joined in drawing up the note, according to the sources.
Scholz, a former mayor of Hamburg, has once again asserted his will against his coalition partners, the Greens and the Free Democrats. After pushing through a nuclear power extension single-handedly last week, the Cosco move fuels discord at home and among European allies who are against the Chinese investment and already see Scholz as increasingly isolated.
Scholz is scheduled to travel to China next week.
HHLA WELCOMES DEAL
HHLA, which is majority-owned by the city of Hamburg and one of the main users of the port, welcomed the deal.
“We appreciate that a solution has been found in objective and constructive talks with the federal government,” said Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of HHLA’s executive board.
It was working on finding an agreement with Cosco on the new conditions in a timely manner, she said.
With the original 35% deal, the German logistics firm had wanted to tie its long-standing shipping customer to Hamburg port in the face of fierce international competition.
Cosco did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A German government source told Reuters that the Chinese company had agreed to the deal.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, asked about the deal, said on Wednesday that China hoped “relevant parties would see pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany rationally (and) stop gratuitous speculation”, without giving further details.
Supporters of the HHLA deal say it will allow Hamburg to keep pace with rival ports that are also vying for Chinese trade and some of which are partly owned by Cosco.
Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Jan Schwartz, Eduardo Baptista, Paul Carrel; writing by Rachel More, Kirsti Knolle; editing by Maria Sheahan, Louise Heavens and Nick Macfie
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WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The United States on Friday added China’s top memory chipmaker YMTC and 30 other Chinese entities to a list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing and starting a 60 day-clock that could trigger much tougher penalties.
The new listings were the first of a slew of new restrictions announced on Friday on exports of technology to China aimed at blocking military advances. The crackdown included curbs on access to chipmaking tools for Chinese firms including Yantze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), as reported by Reuters a day earlier. read more
U.S. senators from both parties have been calling for YMTC, China’s fast-growing chip manufacturer, to be placed on a trade blacklist known as the “entity list.” The company, founded in 2016, poses a “direct threat” to U.S. chip companies, according to the Biden administration.
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YMTC and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
YMTC is under investigation by the Commerce Department over whether it violated U.S. export controls by selling chips to blacklisted Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. Its chips also are being evaluated by Apple Inc for inclusion in some of its iPhones in China, a major concern for U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration.
Companies are added to the unverified list because the United States could not complete on-site visits to determine whether they can be trusted to receive sensitive technology exports from the United States. U.S. inspections of Chinese companies require the approval of China’s commerce ministry.
U.S. exporters must conduct additional due diligence before sending goods to entities placed on the “unverified list,” like the 31 added on Friday, and may have to apply for more licenses.
Under the Biden administration’s new policy, if a government prevents U.S. officials from conducting site checks at companies placed the unverified list, Washington will start the process for adding them to the entity list after 60 days.
Entity listing YMTC would further escalate tensions with Beijing and force its U.S. suppliers to seek difficult-to-obtain licenses from the U.S. government before shipping them even the most low-tech items.
Not all the measures announced on Friday were bad news for China. The United States removed a unit of Wuxi Biologics, maker of ingredients for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, from the unverified list. Reuters reported last summer that U.S. officials had been able to conduct an inspection at the Wuxi city site, a stepping stone to removal from the list.
A Wuxi Biologics spokeswoman said the company was pleased the Wuxi site was removed from the list, given the inspection in June. The company looks forward to scheduling an inspection of its Shanghai subsidiary, which also was placed on the unverified list in February, she added.
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Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Gallagher, Chris Sanders, Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter and Richard Chang
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An aerial view of the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal are pictured through the window of an airplane on a flight between Cairo and Doha, Egypt, November 27, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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CAIRO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Tug boats refloated a ship that briefly ran aground in Egypt’s Suez Canal late on Wednesday, a source from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) andstate TV reported.
The vessel had been blocking the southern section of the canal, two navigational sources said, but the SCA source said shortly afterwards that traffic had returned to normal.
There was no immediate statement about the incident from the SCA.
According to ship monitoring service TankerTrackers, the Aframax tanker Affinity V seemed to have lost control in the Suez Canal while heading southbound.
“She temporarily clogged up traffic and is now facing south again, but moving slowly by tugboat assistance,” TankerTrackers said on Twitter.
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Reporting by Yousri Mohamed and Yasmin Hussein; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Porter and Christian Schmollinger
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A view shows stacked shipping containers at the port of Felixstowe, Britain, October 13, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – More than 1,900 workers at Britain’s biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.
The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis.
“Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” said Bobby Morton, the Unite union’s national officer for docks.
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“It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so.”
On Friday, Felixstowe’s operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port’s workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.
Unite, which represents mainly dock workers, says the proposal is significantly below the current inflation rate, and followed a below inflation increase last year.
“The port regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains,” a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said.
The port said it would have a contingency plan in place, and was working to minimise disruption during the walkouts which will last until Aug. 29.
Shipping group Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), one of the world’s biggest container shippers, has warned the action would have a significant impact, causing operational delays and forcing it to make changes to its vessel line-up.
Figures released on Aug. 17 showed Britain’s consumer price inflation hit 10.1% in July, the highest since February 1982, and some economists forecast it will hit 15% in the first three months of next year amid surging energy and food costs. read more
The squeeze on household incomes has already led to strikes by the likes of rail and bus workers demanding higher pay rises.
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Reporting by Michael Holden
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Average age of vessels up more than two years since 2017
New emissions rules may force older ships to go slower
One-fifth of ships fitted with energy saving devices
New vessels and alternative fuels the long-term solution
LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) – If shipping is the beating heart of global trade, its pulse is about to get slower.
Faced with uncertainty about which fuels to use in the long term to cut greenhouse gas emissions, many shipping firms are sticking with ageing fleets, but older vessels may soon have to start sailing slower to comply with new environmental rules.
From next year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all ships to calculate their annual carbon intensity based on a vessel’s emissions for the cargo it carries – and show that it is progressively coming down.
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While older ships can be retrofitted with devices to lower emissions, analysts say the quickest fix is just to go slower, with a 10% drop in cruising speeds slashing fuel usage by almost 30%, according to marine sector lender Danish Ship Finance.
“They’re basically being told to either improve the ship or slow down,” said Jan Dieleman, president of Cargill Ocean Transportation, the freight division of commodities trading house Cargill, which leases more than 600 vessels to ferry mainly food and energy products around the world.
Supply chains are already strained due to a surge in demand as economies rebound from lockdowns, pandemic disruptions at ports and a lack of new ships. If older vessels move into the slow lane as well, shipping capacity could take another hit at a time when record freight rates are driving up inflation. read more
At the moment, only about 5% of the world’s fleet can run on less-polluting alternatives to fuel oil, even though more than 40% of new ship orders will have that option, according to data from shipping analytics firm Clarksons Research.
But the new orders are not coming in fast enough to halt the trend of an ageing fleet across all three main types of cargo vessels: tankers, container ships and bulk carriers, the data provided to Reuters by Clarksons Research shows.
The average age of bulk carriers, which carry loose cargo such as grain and coal, had jumped to 11.4 years by June 2022 from 8.7 five years ago. Container ships now average 14.1 years, up from 11.6, while for tankers the average age was 12 years, up from 10.3 in 2017, according to the data.
“Some ship owners have preferred to buy second-hand vessels because of the uncertainties around future fuels,” said Stephen Gordon, managing director at Clarksons Research.
TALL ORDER
Orders for new container ships surged to a record high in 2021 and are still coming in at healthy clip this year, but as the appetite for new tankers and bulk carriers is much lower, the current order book across all three types of vessel only stands at about 10% of the fleet, down from over 50% in 2008.
Shipping companies are responsible for about 2.5% of the world’s carbon emissions and they are coming under increasing pressure to reduce both air and marine pollution.
The industry’s emissions rose last year, underlining the scale of the challenge in meeting the IMO’s target of halving emissions by 2050 from 2008 levels. The organization is now facing calls to go further and commit to net zero by 2050.
Some companies are testing and ordering vessels using alternative fuels such as methanol. Others are developing ships that can be retrofitted for fuels beyond oil, such as hydrogen or ammonia. There’s even a return to wind with vast, high-tech sails being tested by companies such as Cargill and Berge Bulk. read more
But many of the potential low-carbon technologies are in the early stages of development with limited commercial application, meaning the majority of new orders are still for vessels powered by fuel oil and other fossil fuels.
Of the vessels on order, more than a third, or 741, are set to use liquefied natural gas (LNG), 24 can be driven by methanol and six by hydrogen. Another 180 have some form of hybrid propulsion using batteries, Clarksons data shows.
Many shipping firms are hedging their bets mainly because prolonging the life span of vessels is cheaper and lower risk than new builds. They also gain breathing space while waiting for the winning new technologies to become mainstream.
“We have a clash between an industry that is very long-term investment oriented and a very fast pace of change,” said John Hatley, general manager of market innovation in North America at Finnish marine technology company Wartsila (WRT1V.HE).
Cargill says that as of now it doesn’t expect to have many new-build ships in its fleet, instead fitting energy saving devices to older vessels and prolonging their use, while there’s still uncertainty about future technology.
They’re not alone, with more than a fifth of global shipping capacity fitted with such devices, according to Clarksons.
Devices include Flettner rotors, tail spinning cylinders that act like a sail and let ships throttle back when it’s windy, or air lubrication systems that save fuel by covering the hull with small bubbles to reduce friction with seawater.
While energy saving devices go a long way to tackling emissions, ultimately, newer vessels are a better bet, said Peter Sand, analyst at shipping and air cargo data firm Xeneta.
“The next generation of fuel oil ships will be much more carbon efficient, they will be able to transport the same amount of cargo emitting only half of the emissions that they did over a decade ago,” he said.
THE POSEIDON PRINCIPLES
Shipping firms are set to come under growing pressure to comply with targets set by the IMO, which will rate the energy efficiency of ships on a scale of A to E, as the ratings will have a knock-on effect when it comes to finance and insurance.
In 2019, a group of banks agreed to consider efforts to cut carbon emissions when lending to shipping companies and established a global framework known as the Poseidon Principles.
The Poseidon Principles website shows that 28 banks, which include BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), Citi , Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L), have committed to being consistent with IMO policies when assessing shipping portfolios on environmental grounds.
“Lending decisions on second-hand ships are going to become an issue on older tonnage,” said Michael Parker, chairman of Citigroup’s global shipping, logistics and offshore business, adding that environmental factors would be taken into account when lenders decided whether to refinance vessels.
“Second-hand ships will continue to get financing, provided that the owner is doing the right things about keeping that vessel as environmentally efficient as possible,” he said.
One early adopter of new technology is shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk . It has ordered 12 vessels which can run on green methanol produced from sources such as biomass, as well as fuel oil as there is not yet enough low carbon fuel available.
The Danish company doesn’t intend to use LNG because it is still a fossil fuel and it would prefer to shift directly to a lower carbon alternative.
Wartsila, meanwhile, is launching an ammonia-fueled engine next year, which it says is generating a lot of interest from customers, as well as a hydrogen engine in 2025.
Ship owners are facing a lot of uncertainty over how to “future proof” their fleets and avoid regretting investment decisions now within a couple of years, said Wartsila’s Hatley.
“They would rather wait for maybe the whole life of the ship of 20 years, but that’s even more uncertain now because of the pace of change.”
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Reporting by Sarah McFarlane; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Clarke
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TOKYO, April 24 (Reuters) – Ten people found so far from a Japanese tour boat missing off the country’s northern coast have been confirmed dead, the coast guard said on Sunday.
The boat went missing on Saturday with 26 people on board during a cruise off the main northern island of Hokkaido.
Of the 10, seven were men and three were women, the coast guard said in a bulletin.
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There were 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members on board.
Drift ice can be seen in area waters as late as March, and water temperatures now would be 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (36-37 Fahrenheit), said an official at a local fishery cooperative.
“Just a few minutes in that sort of water would start clouding your consciousness,” he said.
Authorities were using aircraft and patrol boats, including seven ships, three airplanes and four helicopters from the coast guard, to search for the passengers and crew of the “Kazu I” after it ran into trouble off Shiretoko peninsula, famous for its wildlife and dramatic coastline. read more
The coast guard heard from the crew on Saturday afternoon that water was flooding the vessel. It was last heard from around two hours later, when it contacted its operating company to say it was keeling at a 30-degree angle, Kyodo news reported.
The coast guard said it was not clear what had happened to the boat. No one was available for comment at the company.
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Reporting by David Dolan and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Leslie Adler, Jacqueline Wong, William Mallard and Kim Coghill
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TUNIS, April 17 (Reuters) – Tunisia will work with other countries that have offered to help it to prevent environmental damage after a merchant ship carrying up to one thousand tonnes of oil sank in Tunisian waters, the defence ministry said on Sunday.
The ship was heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta when it sank seven miles off the coast of the southern city of Gabes on Friday. The Tunisian navy rescued all seven crew members following a distress call. read more
It was carrying between 750 tonnes and one thousand tonnes of fuel, officials said.
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The defence ministry did not name the countries that had offered to help, but local media said Italy was expected to send a naval vessel specialised in dealing with marine disasters.
A specialised marine diving team has begun work around the ship to check for any oil leakage.
The merchant fuel ship which sank off the coast of Gabes in Tunisia on April 15, 2022 is seen this handout picture taken in Rostov-on-Don, Russia November 12, 2017. Dmitry Frolov/Handout via REUTERS
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“The situation is reassuring and under control, and no leakage of gasoil has been recorded until now from the tank of the sinking ship,” Rabie Majidi the transport minister said.
He said the next stage was “delicate and sensitive” as the ship must be taken out of the water without allowing leakage.
On Saturday, Tunisian authorities opened an investigation into the sinking, which the environment ministry said was caused by bad weather.
“Tunisia will determine later the losses and will demand compensation,” Laila Chikaoui, the environment minister said.
The ministry said barriers would be set up to limit the spread of the fuel.
The coast of Gabes has suffered major pollution for years, with environmental organisations saying industrial plants in the area have been dumping waste directly into the sea.
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Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Barbara Lewis
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