A further drop in Risavika LNG front month to 25.80 EUR/MWh, a 2.9 % reduction as of Friday last week. European gas prices adjusted lower due to seasonal change and expectations of warmer than usual start of March. Gas storage levels in Europe are currently around 37% full compared to 60% full at the same time last year, based on the latest Gas Infrastructure Europe data. Storages will need to be topped up significantly in the coming months, providing support to gas prices. Oil prices continued gaining as benchmark oil ...

Companies negotiating annual container shipping contracts with shipping lines before the end of the first quarter can expect increases in peak season surcharges and decreases in allowable free time with the container, as shipowners gain leverage from increased demand, industry participants say. The widespread shortage of empty containers in Asia will compel shipowners to use their greater bargaining power to finally slash free time, the number of days a beneficial cargo owner is given to return a container to the owner, Stephanie Loomis, Vanguard Logistics Services vice president, said during ...

BIMCO would like to encourage states and the industry to start a dialogue on how to create a global ruleset for market-based measures (MBM) to support the use of low carbon fuels and to create a level playing field for the industry. “One way we can make the current low emission technologies competitive with traditional fuels is through some form of market-based measure. We need a mechanism that equalizes the cost between using low carbon fuels and traditional fossil fuels,” says BIMCO president Sadan Kaptanoglu. BIMCO would like to stress ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, VLSFO and MGO in the main world hubs) demonstrated slight downward trend on Mar.02: 380 HSFO – USD/MT – 411.49 (-4.09) VLSFO – USD/MT – 514.35 (-6.03) MGO – USD/MT – 584.74 (-2.24)  As of March 02, a correlation of MBP Index (Market Bunker Prices) vs DBP Index (MABUX Digital Benchmark (Digital Bunker Prices)) in four largest global hubs showed that 380 HSFO fuel was undervalued in three selected ports ranging from minus $ 4 in Fujairah ...

HMM is moving to expand its bulk ship business, which is not its core business, in a bid to secure a stable source of sales. The shipping company has recently inked a long-term oil transportation contract worth 630 billion won with GS Caltex for 10 years. The shipping company will lease three VLCCs from GS Energy, the interim holding company of GS Caltex, for 10 years from 2022 to transport crude oil from the Middle East to Korea. The VLCCs are under construction by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries. HMM relies ...

The Republic of the Marshall Island (RMI) published a Marine Safety Advisory (MSA 23-20) on 29 June 2020 warning that shipboard incidents relating to improper entry of and rescue from enclosed spaces continue to occur. According to the flag state’s records, six seafarers died in four enclosed space entry incidents onboard RMI-flagged vessels during 2018-2019. Both tankers and bulk carriers have experienced such incidents and although the details of each incident differ, the RMI has noted that there are some similarities, including: • crewmembers lacking awareness of the potential hazards ...

Aramco Trading Company (ATC) and Maana announced the launch of Fanar, the first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven maritime fleet optimization application on Microsoft Azure purpose-built for the oil and gas industry. Fanar combines the expertise of ATC and the Maana Q knowledge technology. It unifies maritime fleet optimization, planning, management and shipment scheduling on a single platform. The application: • systematically integrates all data sources, constraints, and business rules • automatically optimizes schedules across the fleet with a single click • rapidly processes “what if” scenarios for better insights • dynamically ...

India will invest $82 billion in port projects by 2035, raise share of clean renewable energy source in maritime sector, develop waterways and boost tourism around lighthouses as part of port-led development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Speaking at the Maritime India Summit, he invited global investors to invest in Indian ports, shipyards and waterways. More than 574 projects costing $82 billion or ₹6 lakh crore have been identified for implementation between 2015 and 2035 under the Sagarmala Project, he said. The government, he said, is looking to operationalise 23 ...

Nine coal-laden ships departed from Baltimore in the week ended Feb. 28, up from seven from a week earlier, according to cFlow, Platts’ trade flow software. The total dead-weight tonnage of the departures was 1.04 million dwt, up from 682,634 dwt in the prior week, according to the data. Six of the coal carriers are traveling to Europe, including three that are headed to Gibraltar with estimated arrival dates of March 10, March 12 and March 13. One ship is expected to arrive in Las Palmas, Spain, on March 7, ...

On Monday March 1st, Port of Antwerp will be launching a new shipping guidance system. The new service, called Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), is responsible for safe and smooth vessel traffic at the port. Traffic on the Scheldt and at the Antwerp docks is becoming increasingly busy and Port of Antwerp is aiming to deal with this effectively. The new service will ensure more efficient guidance of shipping traffic. In addition, VTS also guarantees an increase in safety and environmental protection at the port. Smooth traffic VTS provides information and ...

According to the Tianjin Customs, China’s Tianjin Port witnessed iron ore imports increase about 60 percent annual to about 57.06 million tonnes in 2020. The continued improvement in iron ore imports has been accredited to the enormous demand for raw materials from the country’s steel industry that gained momentum as a result of China’s effective epidemic control in last year. The iron ore imports through private ventures increased to 17.59 million tonnes in the period, while that via state-owned enterprises increased 50 percent to 27 million tonnes. The port on ...

Saudi Arabia maintained its position as top crude oil supplier to Japan in January with 36.54 million barrels, or 45.7 percent of the total imports, according to data from Agency for Natural Resources and Energy belonging to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI.) Japan imported a total of 80.01 million barrels during that month. 93.5 percent of those were provided by 7 Arab countries, the agency reported. Imports from the United Arab Emirates amounted to 24.25 million barrels or 30.3 percent, while imports from Qatar equaled 6.189 million ...

Goldman Sachs Commodities Research has raised its forecast for returns on commodities to 15.5% over the next 12 months and said they remained the best inflation hedge. The Wall Street bank also forecast returns of 6.2% and 15.1% on commodities over three- and six-months respectively on the S&P/GSCI Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) in a note dated Monday. Spot-priced commodities have benefited from higher-than-anticipated economic activity as it has created sharp deficits regardless of the growth rate, Goldman said. In January, the bank had forecast returns of 5.8%, 9.5% and ...

China’s National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) updated the country’s crude steel output for 2020 to 1.065 billion tonnes from the preliminary 1.05 billion tonnes, and the year-on-year growth, thus, had been revised to 7% from the original 5.2%, according to the latest release from NBS including all the updates regarding the country’s series of data about economic and industrial performance. NBS usually reviews the annual statistics after having released the initial numbers in January and releases the up-to-date data to the public whenever deemed necessary, Mysteel Global understands. China’s finished ...

Global crude stainless steel production decreased to approximately 50.7 million tonnes in 2020 – down almost 3 percent, year-on-year. This reduction is lower than initially expected at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it is the first decline in world output after four years of consecutive growth. In the main crude stainless steel producing countries, only Chinese and Indonesian output bucked the negative trend. Mill supply in these nations expanded by approximately 2.5 and 15.5 percent, respectively, compared with the figures recorded in 2019. In China, stainless steel production ...