Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and International Shipping

Daily rates on main tanker routes as compiled by shipbroker Charles R. Weber.

The IMO2020 rule for the use of low-sulphur fuels from the beginning of 2020 is expected to offer a boost in the product tanker market, triggering demand for more cargoes. However, a lot is still dependant on if “the price is right”. In its latest weekly report, Gibson said that “over the past few weeks, the West – East High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO) arbitrage has firmed substantially from a fairly range bound $30/tonne to a bullish $46/tonne, briefly touching a four year high of $50/tonne last week. Several factors ...

Around the world, the environmental agenda is increasing. International focus has been levelled on Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old credited with starting the school strike for climate movement. Extinction Rebellion, which aims to use civil disobedience and non-violent resistance for environmental protest, has received media coverage across the globe. The Ocean Cleanup has become known for its effort to clean the Great Pacific garbage patch, a Pacific Ocean marine debris particle gyre. As resolve to protect the planet has increased, it has filtered into international shipping and as the sector moves ...

In light of the recent attacks on tankers in Fujairah and the Gulf of Oman, and rising tensions in the area generally, the club has issued the following guidance which discusses club cover, risk mitigation and legal implications on contractual issues that members may face. This follows our web alert of 17 June (which can be viewed in the link on the right). Club cover The club’s rules contain no definition of (or exclusion for) piracy and armed robbery. Therefore, the third-party liabilities insured by the club remain covered when ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index climbed to its highest since December 2013 on Monday, pushed by higher demand for vessels ferrying iron ore in the Atlantic. The Baltic index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities, rose about 1%, or 21 points, to 2,191, a peak since Dec. 20, 2013. The index rose for the 10th straight session, mainly spurred by strong demand for vessels that ship iron ore from Brazil into China. Port stocks of seaborne iron ore across China stood at 118.35 million tonnes, ...

A series of mergers between Chinese shipbuilders are threatening South Korean mid-size companies which are already struggling to survive. The mergers are a favorable development for winning China’s approval of the proposed merger between Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), but medium-sized Korean shipyards are concerned that they could lose deals to build oil tankers to Chinese companies as they did for bulk carriers. China’s two largest dockyards – China CSSC Holdings Ltd. (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC) – submitted an application ...

Tankers are offloading millions of barrels of Iranian oil into storage tanks at Chinese ports, creating a hoard of crude sitting on the doorstep of the world’s biggest buyer. Two and a half months after the White House banned the purchase of Iran’s oil, the nation’s crude is continuing to be sent to China where it’s being put into what’s known as “bonded storage,” say people familiar with operations at several Chinese ports. This supply doesn’t cross local customs or show up in the nation’s import data, and isn’t necessarily ...

It’s been an astonishing climb in the dry bulk market these past few weeks. With the help of a fast-paced increase in freight rates in the

Ecochlor is pleased to announce a contract to supply seven Euronav Suezmax and VLCC tankers with a ballast water management system (BWMS). The agreement comes with an option for Euronav to purchase an additional 30 Ecochlor systems for their vessels between 2020 – 2024. Euronav’s fleet consists of ULCCs, VLCCs and Suezmaxes with some of these vessels having the highest ballast water flow rates in the tanker sector. Three of the Euronav ships to be retrofit with the Ecochlor BWMS have flow rates at 8,000 m3 /hr., but will still ...

Since the Fujairah attacks, we have increased our measures to safeguard our owners and crew interest. Everyone is encouraged to heighten their situation awareness to stay vigilant for any abnormalities. The principles of situation awareness require one to observe the situation, understanding it and projecting ahead. Cultivating a culture that encourages situation awareness is an ongoing focus for us to improve decision making processes. Though situation awareness is considered part of basic seamanship, this attribute will only thrive in a suitable environment and culture. To maintain high situation awareness as ...

Oil traders are chartering more ships and snapping up fuel oil storage tanks in and around Singapore, the world’s top bunkering port, to stock up cleaner fuel that will meet new shipping rules coming into force next year, industry sources said. The move has pushed up lease rates for tank storage in Singapore and increased the number of supertankers floating in Singapore and Malaysian waters as traders store fuel months ahead, betting on a spike in prices for low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO). Under new International Maritime Organization rules aimed at ...

A small oil tanker that Iran accused of smuggling fuel was empty of any cargo when Iranian forces seized it at gunpoint in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month, according to the company that chartered the ship. Iran impounded the tanker Riah when it was scheduled to sail to Oman to load fuel for further shipment to Berbera in Africa’s Somaliland, said Rishi Kumar, who heads the charterer, KRB Petrochemicals. He denied Tehran’s assertion that the Riah, with a capacity of 2 million liters, was smuggling 1 million liters ...

Tensions between Iran and the West have escalated since U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports took full effect in May and British naval forces seized an Iranian supertanker. Below is a timeline of recent incidents: May 2 – The United States, which withdrew from a nuclear accord between Iran and global powers in 2018 and stepped up sanctions on Tehran, ends waivers that had allowed eight countries – China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey – to continue buying Iranian crude May 5 – The United States ...

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. reported its results for the three months ended June 30, 2019. The Company also announced that, its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.02 per share on the Company’s common shares. Results for the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 For the second quarter of 2019, the Company’s GAAP net income was $35.0 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, including: a non-cash gain of approximately $52.6 million and cash dividend income of $0.5 million, or $0.77 earnings per diluted share, ...

Azerbaijan’s state oil company is turning to Russia to supply a new $6.3 billion refinery it built in Turkey because shipments from one of its preferred suppliers — Iran — are off the table due to U.S. sanctions. The Star Refinery in Aliaga on the Aegean coast agreed to buy an initial 1 million tons of Urals crude — about one tenth of the plant’s annual processing — from Russia’s Rosneft PJSC, Mesut Ilter, the facility’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “If there were no restrictions, we would ...