EVEN before Donald Trump pronounced the end of globalisation, the shipping industry was effectively operating in a self-induced state of paralysis.

Uncertainty over a looming trade war, the regulatory cost of carbon and just how long the global current disruption can hide a fundamentally unbalanced shipping market had led executives across the industry to conclude that doing nothing for the moment is likely to be the safest bet they could make.

That pause is now a hard stop.

What occurred last week was not just the US starting a global trade war, or sparking a rout in stock markets. It was the world’s hyper power firmly turning its back on the globalisation process it had championed, and from which it handsomely profited in recent decades.

What is president Trump going to do next? What can Europe realistically do in response? Are we going to have peace in the Middle East and is the Red Sea opening anytime soon? Does Russia somehow come in from the cold?

It’s not just clarity from the International Maritime Organization shipowners are searching for now.

Joining Richard on the podcast this week are:

• Chris Wiernicki, chief executive of ABS

• Knut Orbeck Nielsen, chief executive of DNV Maritime

• Eman Abdalla, global operations director at Cargill Ocean Transportation

• Nick Brown, chief executive, Lloyd’s Register

• Adam Kent, managing director at Maritime Strategies International