Gulf of Guinea remains world’s piracy hotspot in 2021, according to IMB’s latest figures
The Gulf of Guinea accounted for nearly half (43%) of all reported piracy incidents in the first three months of 2021, according to the latest figures from the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
IMB’s latest global piracy report records 38 incidents since the start of 2021 – compared with 47 incidents during the same period last year. In the first three months of 2021, the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) reported 33 vessels boarded, two attempted attacks, two vessels fired upon, and one vessel hijacked.
Despite a drop in the number of reported piracy incidents for Q1 2021, violence against crew is on the rise in comparison to previous years. Since the start of 2021, 40 crew have been kidnapped compared to 22 crew in Q1 2020. A crew member was also killed in Q1 2021.
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$900 million in electricity bill savings available to households
Electricity prices have fallen almost 9 per cent since the middle of last year and there is $900 million in potential savings for households in eastern and southern states, new figures released today by the ACCC show.
Retail electricity offers now available to households in New South Wales, Victoria, South East Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are, on average, 8.8 per cent lower than they were in June 2020, which equates to an average annual household saving of $126.
Data from ACCC monitoring has revealed that if all customers in National Energy Market regions were to have the advantage of the potential savings by switching to lower offers, or benefitting from retailers lowering the prices of their existing plans, the total annual savings would be about $900 million compared to June 2020.
AusNet Services, the Australian power networks company, and Italian power company Enel earned rapturous responses from investors for euro hybrid capital bond issues this week, even though the trades followed a sell-off in riskier assets.
AusNet Services, the Australian power networks company, got a rapturous response from investors for its rare euro hybrid capital bond issue on Tuesday, as they are eager to buy subordinated debt, even though riskier assets sold off last week.
GSA Drops 5 Vendors, Adds 9 to $5.5B 2GIT Contract Mark Gomez/Shutterstock
email February 24, 2021
The IT hardware and software contract vehicle was built with the Air Force in mind but will be available to all federal buyers.
After protests prompted the General Services Administration last year to pull back the first slate of awards on the Second Generation Information Technology, or 2GIT, blanket purchase agreement, the agency announced it reawarded the contract this week to 79 large and small vendors.
The contract custom built for the Air Force to replace the service’s NETCENTS-2 contract provides access to pre-vetted hardware and software IT vendors. The 79 awards are split between 21 large firms and 58 small businesses, including 8(a), HUBZone, woman-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.