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Stuart Edmonston, Loss Prevention at UK P&I Club, discusses an incident in which crew were injured whilst on deck in heavy weather: “In conditions of heavy weather, a fully loaded bulk carrier was proceeding at full sea speed on a south-westerly course in the Mediterranean sea. A bosun and a cadet had been instructed to wash down the vessels main deck and hatch covers to remove grain cargo dust remaining from the previous loading operations. “The wind was blowing from a south-easterly direction at about 30 knots, equivalent to 4 ...

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has revoked the bunker craft operator licence of Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd (“Inter-Pacific”) with effect from 15 October 2019. Inter-Pacific will not be allowed to operate as a bunker craft operator in the Port of Singapore. As part of MPA’s ongoing efforts to ensure the integrity of bunkering in Singapore, checks were conducted on Inter-Pacific earlier this year. MPA’s checks and subsequent investigations revealed magnetic interferences affecting measurements of bunkers supplied in numerous Mass Flow Meter readings across Inter-Pacific’s fleet of bunker ...

International Transport Intermediaries Club (ITIC) warns agents to respond to shippers’ requests in good time, or face the possibility of financial penalties. The insurer cites a recent case where a container of frozen beef was being carried on a liner service from Australia to China. Seven days after the vessel had departed, the shipper noticed that it had failed to obtain the necessary health declaration from the Australian authorities. The shipper immediately contacted its agent and instructed them to return the container to Australia upon its arrival in China and ...

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. yesterday announced that it conducted a tabletop drill based on an incident simulation involving an MOL-owned containership. MOL holds these drills periodically to confirm its emergency response system in preparation for serious marine incidents. The drill was held on Thursday, October 10, with the goal of raising company-wide safety awareness through the simulation of a serious marine incident. The drill was designed to demonstrate that the company can respond swiftly and appropriately in case of a serious marine incident and maintain the timely flow of accurate ...

The government will put in place a comprehensive ‘Port Grid and Port Development’ plan in six months for 204 minor ports in the country to boost coastal shipping and inland waterways, and bring a Bill in Parliament to provide a fillip to major ports, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday. India has 12 major ports — Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) — and 204 minor ports under the control of states. “A ...

US crude exports could grow from current levels of 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) to nearly 6 million bpd by 2022, according to a new forecast from Rystad Energy. With US production expected to increase by 1.2 million bpd year-over-year (y/y) in 2020, and with domestic refineries already maxing out capacity to absorb shale growth, Rystad Energy expects exports to balloon and reach 4.7 million bpd by the end of 2020 and nearly 6 million bpd by the end of 2022. “Crude exports will grow on the back of ...

China’s biggest refiner plans to reduce operations from next month after a surge in the cost of shipping crude eroded margins, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Freight rates have skyrocketed since the U.S. announced sanctions on Chinese shipowners in late-September, triggering a flight from vessels owned by affected companies and a bidding war for alternative tankers. That’s driven up the cost of importing crude and is cutting into the profits made from refining. Sinopec Corp. is looking to start cutting run rates from November, according to the ...

Iron ore futures in China, the world’s top buyer of the steelmaking raw material, hit a nearly three-week low on Tuesday after Brazilian miner Vale SA reported higher output in the third quarter. Concerns about iron ore demand slowing in China, which makes about half of the world’s steel output, due to its renewed efforts to curb pollution by restricting steel mills operations in some areas also weighed on prices. Dalian Commodity Exchange’s most-traded iron ore contract ended down 1.2% at 644 yuan ($91.05) a tonne, after falling as much ...

International gas and LNG prices have collapsed. For most of 2019, the global market has seen improving gas supply and intense supplier competition result in lower prices. In August 2019, Asian spot LNG prices went below US$4 per gigajoule (GJ), two and a half times less than what they were the same time last year. Meanwhile, European spot gas prices at one stage traded below the Henry Hub and have generally hovered at around US$3.70/GJ this year. An LNG supply wave is the single biggest factor that is causing the ...

OPEC and other oil producers remained commited to maintain oil market stability beyond 2020 despite bearish signs of demand growth, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said Tuesday. “The stability in the oil market will be sustained beyond 2020,” Barkindo told the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek in New Delhi. “All the producers are committed to this,” Barkindo said. While acknowledging bearish views in the oil market supported by slowing oil demand growth, Barkindo said that fundamentals of oil market are showing some tightness. “The physical market of oil is tight, ...

China’s factory gate prices declined at their fastest pace in more than three years in September, reinforcing the case for Beijing to unveil further stimulus as manufacturing cools on weak demand and U.S. trade pressures. The producer price index (PPI), considered a key barometer of corporate profitability, dropped 1.2% year-on-year in September, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Tuesday. That marked the steepest decline since July 2016 but matched forecasts in a Reuters survey of analysts. In contrast, China’s consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in almost ...

The global economy is in a synchronized slowdown and we are, once again, downgrading growth for 2019 to 3 percent, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. Growth continues to be weakened by rising trade barriers and increasing geopolitical tensions. We estimate that the US-China trade tensions will cumulatively reduce the level of global GDP by 0.8 percent by 2020. Growth is also being weighed down by country-specific factors in several emerging market economies, and by structural forces, such as low productivity growth and aging demographics in advanced economies. ...

China’s economic growth is expected to slow to a near 30-year low of 6.2% this year and cool further to 5.9% in 2020, a Reuters poll showed, underlining the stiff challenge faced by Beijing even as it steps up stimulus amid a bruising Sino-U.S. trade war. The median forecast for 2019 growth is near the lower end of the government’s target range of 6-6.5%, and would be the weakest expansion for the world’s second-biggest economy since 1990. The poll of 83 analysts also forecast third-quarter growth at 6.1% year-on-year, unchanged ...

The United States has cleared the final procedural hurdle in order to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of European products later this month, at a meeting of the WTO’s (World Trade Organization) governing body. The administration of President Donald Trump no longer faces any legal obstacles for its set of previously scheduled sanctions against European goods that could now take effect Friday, after a three-person WTO tribunal of arbitrators earlier this month issued a ruling that allowed the enactment of $7.5 billion worth of countermeasures — an historically high ...

International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) and its subsidiary Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) recently reaffirmed their commitment to support and improve Pakistan’s port industry. At a recent call to the Honorable Sindh Governor Imran Ismail Andrew, James Dawes, ICTSI senior vice president and Asia Pacific Regional Head, and Khurram Aziz Khan, PICT chief executive officer, reiterated the ICTSI Group’s support and commitment to the emerging development projects in the region that will benefit the port’s hinterland and stakeholder communities. In turn, Governor Ismail commended PICT for providing value-added services ...