Latest Maritime News
January 28-February 8, 2019
Tanker Analysts Shrug Off Market Woes

It’s never ideal if you own a fleet of crude tankers and the world’s oil producers remove millions of barrels of cargo from the market to avert a glut. Nor is a collapse in charter rates normally the best news.

While both those things happened in the past few months, the people paid to evaluate the shipping industry’s prospects are actually turning a little more bullish.

The analysts’ optimism stems from a conviction that the world’s refineries will have to process more crude in order to supply ships with new kinds of fuel in 2020 under rules set out by the International Maritime Organization. On top of that, historic trade flows are at risk of disruption as OPEC and allied producers curb output of one type of crude at a time when American drillers boost supplies of another. Continue reading here (Source: gCaptain).
Reefer Ships Branded an Endangered Species

Analysts at Dynamar expect conventional reefer ships to become an “endangered species” in a new report. An ageing fleet, new IMO environmental regulations and encroaching volumes now shipped on container vessels have all transpired to make the reefer vessel a ship type on the wane.

Last year, seaborne transport of fresh produce carried in both conventional reefer ships and refrigerated containers was estimated to have grown by around 5% to 116m tons
Until the turn of the century, conventional reefer ships were the main fresh produce carriers. That has fallen, considerably, and it was just 18% in 2017, a figure that is set to slide further, in no small part thanks to next year’s start of the IMO sulphur cap on shipping fuel. Continue reading here ( Source: Splash247).
Waiver Uncertainty Complicates IMO 2020 Deadline

Shipping industry executives should not count on receiving a waiver if they are not able to comply with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) marine fuel sulphur cap in 2020.

Some shipping executives expect that ports, which can issue fines for the use of non-compliant fuel, will grant waivers in the initial months after the sulphur content deadline hits, so long as the shipping companies can demonstrate they made their best efforts to comply.

Shipowners have an obligation to report that they could not find compliant fuel to the country on which ports the vessel calls, under IMO rules. Continue reading here (Source: Argus).
744 Ships Scrapped in 2018

744 large ocean-going commercial vessels were sold to the scrap yards in 2018, out of which 518 were broken down on South Asia beaches, accounting for a record-breaking 90.4% of the gross tonnage dismantled globally.

According to new data released by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, at least 34 workers lost their lives when breaking apart the global fleet. The Platform documented at least 14 workers that died in Alang, making 2018 one of one of the worse years for Indian yards in terms of accident records in the last decade.

Another 20 workers died and 12 workers were severely injured in the Bangladeshi yards. In Pakistan, local sources confirmed 1 death and 27 injuries. Seven injuries were linked to yet another fire that broke out on-board a beached tanker. Continue reading here (Source: Maritime Logistics Professional).
Huge Increase in Arctic shipping

Data from Russia’s ports and Northern Sea Route show that the volume of goods being shipped out into the Arctic waterway are up by 25 percent 2018.

According to information from the Russian Transport Ministry, a total of 92.7 million tons was handled by regional seaports, of which almost 70 percent was oil products and liquified natural gas.

The biggest increases came in Sabetta, which sits on the icy Yamal Peninsula in the Kara Sea, according to Bellona. With Novatek’s $27 billion Yamal LNG project now in commercial production, Sabetta has seen a 130 percent increase in the volume of cargo it handles – up to 17.4 tons for 2018. Continue reading here (Source: Marine Link).
Oil Tumbles Again Due to an "Overemphasis" of a Global Recession

The pernicious fear that global demand growth
for crude will lag this year compared to 2018
once again conquered comparatively good news
and on Thursday caused oil prices to tumble by
2.5 percent.

West Texas Intermediate settled $1.37 lower at $52.64 per barrel (a 2.5 percent loss), while Brent tell $1.05 per barrel to $61 .64, in conjunction with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping over 250 points due to a senor administration official stating that a meeting between U.S. president Donald Trump and China's president Xi Jinping is highly unlikely to occur in time to avoid higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Continue reading here (Source: Ship & Bunker).
Current Price Indications
*Prices are indications only. Please  contact us  for firm pricing.
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