Last month, Orolia announced the acquisiton of Netwave Systems, a Netherlands company specialising in the VDR (Voyage Data Recorders) market. VDRs are mandated by the International Maritime Organization on-board every merchant vessel subject to the SOLAS Convention. In an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Chris Loizou, Chief Business Development Officer of Orolia, discusses the scope behind Orolia’s latest acquisition and its future plans, as the company is increasingly looking to lead the industry in terms of high added-value services, like automated vessel monitoring. How does the ...

Dry bulk ship owners must avoid getting “caught up in the moment”, as market rates have improved significantly over the past couple of months, warns BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst, Mr. Peter Sand, in an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com). After all, the market is still not profitable for most owners and with demolition levels already below 2016 levels, it’s the demand side that’s most likely to drive freight rates forward. The dry bulk market has been finding additional support over the course of the past few weeks. ...

The next few years are bound to change a major part of the way that the shipping industry is operating, as there will be a tectonic shift in fuels used and as such, major conversion and retrofit projects on existing vessels, as well as planning for future-proofing current newbuildings, need to be set in motion by ship owners. In an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Ioannis Chiotopoulos, Regional Manager South East Europe & Middle East with DNV GL, said that even if suppliers and yards gear ...

Ship owners and shipping executives in general are often facing challenging decisions, when it comes to vessel employment and strategic planning of their fleet. As such any useful information is in fact added value. To this extent, ship valuations experts VesselsValue just launched a new online product, called VV Trade, which analyzes global trading patterns, starting at the individual vessel level, by using VV’s Deep Sea AIS mapping service to create real time analysis on the speeds, amount of time spent at laden or ballast and even the total Ton ...

A few years back it was Somalia which took the maritime world by force, awakening ship owners to a new reality of maritime dangers. Today, when most people seem to think that these are now perils of the past, the realities of maritime shipping are much more dangerous and complex, just not so much in the spotlight any more, as high profile attacks are now scarcer. In an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Alexandros Theodosios Kontos, Chief Operating Officer with LSS-SAPU, a specialized maritime security company, ...

The latest decision from OPEC to trim oil output and the agreement which followed with non-OPEC members as well is bound to shift trade flows around the globe, posing new challenges to tanker owners. In an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. George P. Los, Senior Market Analyst with US-based shipbroker Charles R. Weber and Ms. Rachel Yew, research analyst with Singapore’s Ocean Freight Exchange, noted that negative pressures on rates and earnings will be shared heavily among the crude tanker size classes, with VLCCs in particular bearing ...

IMO’s recent sulphur cap decision is a positive step as the ship owning community across Europe needs certainty, claims Dr. Patrick Verhoeven, Secretary General of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), in an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), ahead of the European Shipping Week, due to take place in Brussels during the period from 27th of February and until the 3rd of March. Still though, “we have to ensure that there is quality fuel available everywhere in the world and that adequate enforcement measures are in place ...

The recent decision by the IMO to limit the amount of sulphur emissions from vessels is bound to have a significant effect in the shipping market, as it will reduce the global sulphur cap to 0.5% from 2020 onwards. As such, alternative fuels, such as LNG are bound for a take off in the years to come, with industry players ready to implement the changes needed in order to achieve the goals set. Mr. Schaap, Commercial Director Marine, Titan LNG, discussed with us the possible implications, noting that LNG as ...

This year’s Review of Maritime Transport, launched on 7 November, highlights that 2015 was another difficult year for the shipping industry, with continued overcapacity and historically low freight rates. Following the report’s launch, we sat down with Dirk Vande Velde, chief sustainable development officer for Mediterranean Shipping Company, to discuss strategies for overcoming these challenges and for making shipping more sustainable. Q: What has MSC’s strategy been to overcome the challenges facing the shipping industry, such as overcapacity and low freight rates? A: Many analysts are saying that larger ships ...

Ship owners around the world are being faced with a flurry of new rules and standards, which they will have to comply with, in order to be able to trade their vessels. One of the most recent developments includes the ratification of the Ballast Water Treatment Convention, which will officially enter into force in September of 2017. This means that the existing fleet will have to be retrofitted with respective systems, while at the moment none of the existing solutions guarantees that the vessel will be accepted at ports around ...

Scrapyards in South East Asia are in the midst of a significant change, as they are constantly improving their operations, adhering to the norms which have been set in motion by the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. However, as Dr Nikos Mikelis, non-executive director, GMS, says on an exclusive interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), the European Union’s Ship Recycling Regulation will see European flagged vessels only be permitted to be recycled at yards reviewed, accepted and published in the European List ...

The Marshall Islands Registry (RMI Maritime Registry) has kept growing steadily over the course of the past year, continuing its trend of attaining No1 status among the Greek ship owning community. In an interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Theofilos Xenakoudis, Director, Worldwide Business Operations, Managing Director-Piraeus, Greece, International Registries, Inc., talks about its potential, the overall trends witnessed in the shipping market and the challenges lying ahead. In terms of performance, how did 2015 fare for the Marshall Islands Registry, compared with previous years and which were ...

DMCA (Dubai Maritime City Authority) is no stranger to Greek owners, as the Dubai-based maritime cluster has been making huge strides over the past few years, in its attempt to lure ship owners, both from Hellas as well as other locations. In an interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Nawfal Al-Jourani, Director of Communications of DMCA noted that Dubai offers both a stable and investor-friendly business environment, attractive taxation, as well local expertise as more than 3,000 maritime business related services companies are currently operating in the country. ...

Parker Kittiwake has been in the business of monitoring emissions for quite some time now and certainly years before the latest initiatives undertaken by the EU. As such, its opinion matters, given the expertise acquired over the year. Speaking with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Mr. Larry Rumbol, Market Development Manager (Marine) with Parker Kittiwake noted that the lack of standardization process with regards to the latest MRV rules set forth by the EU, is setting the industry up for more confusion. It’s also worth noting the huge satisfaction that ...

In an interview with Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide (www.hellenicshippingnews.com), Michael J. Mitsock, Vice President of Marketing with KVH Industries, noted that a large number of older vessels up to 15 years old, estimated at 40,000-50,000 globally, are currently running outdated systems, in an era when most owners are looking to the cost optimization solutions that the latest high bandwidth technologies like VSAT can provide. Looking ahead, the company will be exploring options to make use of bandwidth to help shipowners optimise their operations, said Mr. Mitsock said. Some recently announced ...