Euroseas Ltd., an owner and operator of drybulk and container carrier vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for drybulk and containerized cargoes, announced that the registration statement on Form F-1 of EuroDry Ltd., its drybulk fleet spin-off, has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company also announced that the application of EuroDry Ltd. for listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “EDRY” has been approved. Currently, EuroDry Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. Shares of EuroDry Ltd. will be distributed on ...

Diesel in the Mediterranean hit a 32-month high at a $13.50/mt premium to ICE low sulfur gasoil futures Tuesday, as cargoes on Handysize vessels were in short supply, sources said. Vessels able to call at many of the Mediterranean ports have been lacking as a result of a closed arbitrage from the US Gulf Coast, regional refinery maintenance, and lower volumes being exported from the Black Sea due to Russian refinery maintenance. Diesel has been entering the region on Long Range vessels from east of Suez but these generally struggle ...

A ship carrying sorghum is literally riding the waves of the fractious relationship between China and the U.S. over trade. The bulk carrier RB Eden was loaded with the grain at Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.’s terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was initially bound for Shanghai. When China announced a 179 percent tariff on imports of sorghum in mid-April, it performed a U-turn in the Indian Ocean, according to vessel data tracked by Bloomberg, and sailed back around southern Africa toward Europe. The vessel’s destination was changed to Cartagena, Spain, but according ...

Pirate attacks around South American and Caribbean waters are growing, and violence is increasingly used during robberies committed on vessels at anchor, a report showed on Wednesday. The Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) non-profit group recorded 71 incidents in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017, a 163 percent increase over 2016. OBP said the majority of the attacks occurred in territorial waters, with around 59 percent of incidents involving robbery on yachts. Anchorages in Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Colombia and St. Lucia were the regional hot spots during ...

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has formally approved Inmarsat’s ‘Fleet Safety’ solution as a new service to support the Global Maritime Distress & Safety System (GMDSS). Ship owners and operators will now be able to combine maritime safety and broadband data services in a single FleetBroadband or Fleet One terminal provided by Inmarsat. Tens of thousands of vessels are already equipped with FleetBroadband or Fleet One, making the adoption of Fleet Safety simple and hassle free. Ship owners and operators currently deploying FleetBroadband or Fleet One ...

Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) is accelerating the expansion of its LNG bunkering business. LNG bunkering, which is to supply LNG to ships on the sea, is regarded as a future growth driver of the global maritime industry as it can help gas companies to effectively respond to regulations. KOGAS announced on May 22 that it would work with the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and the Ministry of Oceans & Fisheries in the field of LNG bunkering so that related laws and regulations allow the use of LNG as ...

In the biggest policy reform yet in the shipping sector, the Centre has allowed foreign-flagged container ships to carry export-import laden containers for transhipment and empty containers for re-positioning on local routes without a licence or conditions. A Shipping Ministry order, issued on Monday, follows intense lobbying by global container lines to ease the cabotage rule and allow them to operate along the country’s coast. This, according to the lines, was essential with India seeking to set up transhipment hubs to reduce dependence on neighbouring foreign hubs to send and ...

APM Terminals, one of the leading global port operators in Nigeria, created a total turnover of about $610 million (N186.05 billion) per year to the Nigerian economy from 2013 to 2016, an impact assessment study conducted by Quantifying Business Impacts on Society (QBIS), a Denmark-based consulting firm, has revealed. The study titled “Nigerian Trade Stimulator – How APM Terminals in Nigeria have Impacted Trade, Creating Jobs and Ensuring a Sustainable Business Environment,” was conducted by Mette Dalgliesh Olsen and Thomas Westergaard-Kabelmann. According to Olisen and Westergaard-Kabelmann, the objective of the ...

Looking to develop its neglected water transport, Serbian government signed an agreement with one of the world’s biggest port operators from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to cooperate on constructing new ports and privatization of the existing ones. The “Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation on River Port Development projects” was signed between the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic and the president of “Dubai Port World” Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. It foresees investments worth more than 200 million euros, government’s press release reads. “Water transport was so far ...

China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose 4.3 percent in April from a month earlier to 3.39 million tonnes, Chinese customs data showed. LNG imports for the first four months were 15.75 million tonnes, the data showed, an increase of 58 percent from the same period a year ago as state refiners stepped up purchases to cover expected strong growth in demand. China exported 1.82 million tonnes of diesel in April, compared with 2.37 million tonnes recorded for March. April kerosene exports were at 1.2 million tonnes, versus 1.34 million ...

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday published the names of 11 private refineries with a plan to allow them to directly import crude oil. The ministry said it has examined the firms’ applications and found them in accordance with requirements. The refineries are located in the provinces of Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan and Hubei. China is one of the world’s largest oil buyers. Over 60 percent of its oil comes from imports. Crude imports are dominated by state-run giants Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. ...

Asian flour millers are set to buy record volumes of wheat from Black Sea producers in 2018 as traditional supplier Australia faces a second year of drought and as demand continues to grow around the region, traders said. Millers in Asia have in the past month or so booked up to 1 million tonnes of new-crop Black Sea wheat for shipments starting in August, two of the traders said, with a wave of similar deals expected to follow. Surging Black Sea wheat sales to Asia threaten to curb Australia’s dominance ...

Iran’s LPG shipments lifted or due for lifting in May fell almost 100,000 mt from April to 400,700 mt, after rising for the past two months, as some refineries in the country were shut for spring maintenance, shipping sources said this week. Ahead of the maintenance during the Iranian spring, which started around late-March till end-June, Iran’s LPG exports had hit 520,000 mt in January, the most since the previous Western sanctions were removed in January 2016. Exports eased to 400,000 mt in February, before rebounding to 440,000 mt in ...

Osaka Gas may sign new long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts as Japan’s second-biggest city gas supplier boosts its trading operations amid a shake-up in the Asian market for the fuel, a senior official said. The comment signals there may be a willing buyer of long-term supplies in Japan, where utilities have been spurning such contracts because of a ready availability of the fuel on a short-term, or spot, basis, excess supplies and falling demand. The resistance to long-term contracts among buyers in Japan, the world’s biggest importer of LNG, ...

Oil prices fell on Thursday on expectations that OPEC members will step up production in the face of worries over supply from both Venezuela and Iran. A surprise build up in crude oil inventories in the United States also weighed on prices, driving the spread between Brent crude and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) close to its widest in three years. <CL-LCO1=R> International benchmark Brent futures were down 37 cents, or 0.46 percent, at $79.43 per barrel at 0610 GMT. WTI crude futures were down 27 cents, or 0.38 percent, ...