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China accused the United States on Monday of harboring “extravagant expectations” for a trade deal, underlining the gulf between the two sides as U.S. action against China’s technology giant Huawei began hitting the global tech sector. Adding to bilateral tension, the U.S. military said one of its warships sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea on Sunday, the latest in a series of “freedom of navigation operations” to anger Beijing. Alphabet Inc’s Google has also suspended business with China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd ...

Companies are dawdling in their adoption of the Federal Reserve’s preferred replacement for the interest-rate benchmark underpinning trillions of dollars in financial contracts. Borrowers led by Fannie Mae, the federal mortgage finance agency, have sold $105 billion of floating-rate securities linked to SOFR, the secured overnight financing rate, since it made its debut almost a year ago, according to CME Group Inc. In that period, according to Wells Fargo & Co., companies have sold more than $900 billion of debt tied to the London interbank offered rate, the old benchmark ...

A trade war will solve no problems, only to result in losses for both sides, an economic researcher said in an interview with Xinhua. “From an economic perspective, Washington’s argument that tariff hikes bring benefits is nothing but false,” said Liu Shijin, deputy director of the economic committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former deputy head of the Development Research Center of the State Council. Noting China and the United States account for about 40 percent of the world economy, Liu said that ...

Eighty-four vessels carrying 11.97 million mt of iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports during May 12-18,

The Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) agreed on guidance for a malfunctioning scrubber at a meeting in London last week. If the Exhaust Gas Cleaning System (EGCS) fails, and the ship is no longer in compliance with the sulphur-rules, the ship should change over to compliant fuel oil, if the EGCS cannot be put back into a compliant condition within one hour. The failure should also be properly reported in the EGCS Record Book. The reason for a failure could be either a system error or a failure of a ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, 180 HSFO and MGO (Gasoil) in the main world hubs) changed insignificant and irregular on May 20: 380 HSFO – 442.49(-0.03) 180 HSFO – USD/MT – 477.51(+0.14) MGO – USD/MT – 705.18(-2.97) Meantime, world oil indexes also changed irregular on May 20 after OPEC indicated it would probably maintain production cuts that have helped support prices this year. Brent for July settlement decreased by $0.24 to $71.97 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. West ...

The Jinling Shipyard in China has ordered 4 × MAN 51/60DF engines in connection with the building of 1 + 1 × 230-metre-long RoPax vessels for TT-Line, the German ferry operator. The vessel will feature a complete MAN propulsion package, besides the engines, including propellers, a fuel-gas-supply system (FGSS), and HyProp ECO – MAN’s innovative, fuel-saving, hybrid propulsion system. The newbuilding is based on TT-Line’s ‘Green Ship’ design, developed in collaboration with Copenhagen-based designer, OSK-Shiptech, and is scheduled for delivery in 2022, whereupon it is expected to enter service within ...

IMO 2020 – the global cap on sulfur in fuel and emissions that begins next January – is widely viewed as a positive for this year’s ocean shipping pricing. Hundreds of vessels will be pulled from service to retrofit exhaust gas ‘scrubbers,’ leading to lower capacity on the water in 2019, which should theoretically increase freight rates, all else being equal on the demand front. But in the container shipping sector, there’s a caveat. According to multiple executives of container-ship leasing companies, as well as analysts, the charter rates being ...

Fugro recently contributed more than 110,000 square kilometres of high-resolution bathymetry data in the North Atlantic Ocean to help improve the quality and coverage of seabed mapping in the region. The dataset, which covers an area the size of Iceland, was delivered to two complementary programs: the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AORA) and The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project (Seabed 2030). “As is common across the world’s oceans, much of the Atlantic lacks the modern bathymetry data needed to properly understand the seafloor, its resources, and its processes,” said David ...

A presidential decree has been published in the official gazette on 03.05.2019 marking the date on which the 1999 Convention officially became binding by law upon the Turkish authorities. Turkish Parliament has ratified the International Convention on the Arrest of Ships 1999 (“1999 Convention”) and the International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages 1993 (“1993 Convention”) on 25 March 2017. Although the general sprit of the Maritime laws under Turkish Commercial Code (TCC) which came into force on 01.07.2012, is based on the principals of the 1999 and 1993 Conventions, ...

GTT has received an order from the Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) for the tank design of a new 174,000 m3 LNG Carrier (LNGC), on behalf of the Japanese ship-owner Nisshin Shipping Co. The tanks of the ship will be fitted with the Mark III Flex membrane containment system. The delivery is scheduled during the first quarter of 2022. Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and CEO of GTT, declared: “We are very pleased to receive this new order from Samsung Heavy Industries for the benefit of Nisshin Shipping Co., an owner ...

Australian shipbuilder Incat has secured a contract to build the world’s largest aluminium ship. Incat Tasmania Pty Ltd will build the 130 metre long ship for long standing customer, Buquebus to operate between Argentina and Uruguay. The completed vessel will be the largest aluminium ferry ever built and the ninth vessel for Incat’s valued South American customer. The 130-metre ferry will join the other Incat ships already serving various ports on the River Plate (Rio Plato) between Argentina and Uruguay. At a probable 13,000 gross registered tonnes the 130-metre long, ...

It can be very stormy in the Rotterdam sometimes. The nightmare of many a container depot and terminal, because strong winds can blow over stacked empty containers and cause serious damage. Windbreaker International has developed an effective precaution: a cast-iron coupling that connects the corners of containers, making them less vulnerable. Almost all depots in Rotterdam now use Windbreakers. “And at Mainport Container Services, they have never had storm damage since.” In Rotterdam, the largest container port in Europe, land is scarce and expensive, and container depots use their square ...

Australia’s booming LNG sector is set to benefit from the increasing trade tensions between the United States and China, with potential delays to US projects forcing Beijing to look at Australia to fill the gaps in its rising gas demand. Tensions between the two countries deepened this week after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap China with an additional $US300 billion ($435 billion) in tariffs. China retaliated by raising its own import tariffs, including lifting imposts on US LNG from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, starting on ...

Trading companies Vitol and Unipec are sending around 700,000 tonnes of contaminated Russian oil to Asia in an attempt to place the barrels rejected by buyers in Europe, according to trading sources and ship tracking data. A key Russian pipeline to Europe, Druzhba, and a major port Ust-Luga have been contaminated with organic chloride, which can damage refining equipment. As a result, Russia was forced to reduce exports in the worst ever supply disruption. Vitol and Unipec are mainly targeting Chinese independent refiners, or teapots, which have shown interest in ...