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Dangerous goods are in safe hands with us. Transporting them is only risky if they haven’t been declared as such. In the following interview, Ken Rohlmann, Senior Director Dangerous Goods (DG), describes the importance of DG and how the company’s experts detect hidden hazardous material. Hapag-Lloyd plans to expand its business involving dangerous goods transports. How important is this business segment to the company? Hapag-Lloyd is one of the absolute pioneers in the maritime transport of dangerous goods. In fact, our Dangerous Goods Department celebrated its 50th anniversary in March. ...

Diesel and gasoil inventories at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp trading hub increased 2.4% in the week ended April 3 to 2.758 million mt, according to data from PJK International. Compared with the same time last year, diesel and gasoil stocks are 5.2% higher, the data showed. “I think that [demand for storage] is happening here and there but rising freight will limit that on the Upper Rhine destinations,” a trader said. However, many market participants were waiting for barge freight rates to drop before filling up their tanks despite the contango structure, ...

Indonesia’s state port operator Pelindo I has invested S$115m into the Port of Batu Ampar to raise its competitiveness in a move which may pit it against PSA Singapore. The investment plan aims to enhance cargo handling facilities at the port, reported The Strait Times. The port, located on the northern tip of Batam, facing the Singapore Strait and opposite the Port of Singapore, is due to take delivery of three new mobile harbour cranes and 12 terminal tractors, paid for by part of the investment from Pelindo I, said ...

Nigeria is building a new deep-sea port and considering two additional facilities to ease congestion in the main harbors of the commercial capital, Lagos, which currently handle about 80% of all shipping traffic in Africa’s biggest oil producer. A new facility is already under construction in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos through a public-private partnership, while another may be built in the Badagry area of the city, near the border with Benin. A third project, the Ibom seaport, is under consideration in the oil-rich Niger delta, Nigerian Ports ...

The sharp downtrend in Australia’s crude oil exports to China will likely reverse over the coming quarters, as a new petrochemical complex in Fujian province has expressed strong interest in various low sulfur ultra-light crude grades produced in Australia. Australia’s exports of crude and other refinery feedstocks to China totaled 7.32 million barrels in 2018, down 31% from 10.62 million barrels the previous year and down 59% from 17.97 million barrels in 2016, Department of the Environment and Energy data showed. This year got off to a dismal start, with ...

Iron ore prices continued an upward trend in recent months as overseas mine accidents disrupted supplies. Iron ore futures prices have increased nearly 40 percent since the start of the year, and still have room to rise, pushing steel prices higher, experts said. Brazil’s Vale dam accidents and the suspension of the transportation of iron ore in Australia because of cyclones have pushed up prices of the steel-making material. Brazil and Australia account for nearly 80 percent of the world’s iron ore output. China’s iron ore imports fell 1.5 percent ...

Oil prices rose to their highest level since November 2018 on Monday, driven upwards by OPEC’s ongoing supply cuts, U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, fighting in Libya as well as strong U.S. jobs data. International benchmark Brent futures were at $70.62 per barrel at 0716 GMT on Monday, up 28 cents, or 0.4 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude were up 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $63.39 per barrel. Brent and WTI both hit their highest since November at $70.76 and $63.48 a ...

The oil market has forgotten last year’s crash, returning a whopping 39 percent for the year till date. Crude made a steady comeback this year and sentiment has climbed as OPEC’s firmness to control output to support prices worked in the favour of oil producers. The OPEC deal to curb oil production probably will be extended hopefully for another six months beyond the end of June. Since crude oil prices have ended with gains, WTI crude oil experienced the longest weekly winning streak since November 2017 as crises from Venezuela ...

Saudi Arabia is often described as the global oil market’s “swing producer.” But the main driver for oil prices right now is coming from the world’s “marginal producer,” and that happens to be the U.S., says one commodity analyst. But first, what’s the difference between “swing” and “marginal” production? A swing producer is one with ample spare capacity that can ramp up or curtail production virtually at will, without regard to price, something that almost requires a command economy, said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at Wells Fargo ...

Russian oil production may increase again this year if a global oil deal to cut output is not extended once it expires before July 1, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. Russian oil production has been on the rise over the past 10 years thanks to launch of new fields and introduction of new technology. Moscow has signed up to a global deal with members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers to curb oil production and prop up crude prices. “This year, we expect (output) around ...

The rise of U.S. shale oil and gas production is widely known to have disrupted the domestic energy market in a number of ways. But more importantly, it has shifted the United States from being one of largest importers of oil toward becoming a net exporter of crude oil and oil products. These tectonic shifts will change the focus of oil pricing, shifting it to the Gulf Coast and on-the-water crude oil and crude products. In other words, those bound for export. Many U.S. refineries were designed to run most ...

Edward Morse, the global head of commodities research at Citi Group, gave a bullish outlook for global oil markets Sunday, saying that current inventories were at a “constructive” level. Crude futures have surged in recent months, with Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) both rallying more than 20 percent since the start of 2019. International benchmark Brent crude stood at $70 a barrel on Friday, with WTI trading at around $63. Morse believes that more upside is in store with supplies being taken off the market in Iran and ...

Global stocks opened slightly lower Monday as investors took stock of last week’s rally, following progress in U.S.-China trade talks and strong U.S. employment figures, while conflict in Libya sent oil prices higher. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.1% in morning trading. Futures pointed to small opening declines on Wall Street of 0.2% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 0.1% for the S&P 500. In Asia, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was down 0.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.2%. The ...

The euro sat near a one-month low hit last week as investors grew cautious about the outlook for the currency before a European Central Bank meeting this week. Traders cut their long euro positions by their biggest margin in nine months last week, according to weekly positioning data as core European bond yields entered negative territory and as PMI data indicated a euro zone economy struggling to gain traction. “We are seeing more euro scepticism in the market as expectations of an ECB rate hike has changed from the foreseeable ...

China is trying to avoid “debt traps” for the countries that signed up for its Belt and Road initiative, a senior Chinese official said at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa. The remarks came on the back of criticism of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) by some in the US and Europe, and ahead of the second Belt and Road forum, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month in Beijing. “China is trying to find mechanisms to avoid the ‘debt trap’,” said ...