China’s iron ore imports fell for a second month in November, customs data showed on Saturday, pulled down by waning restocking demand at steel mills as profit margins narrow. The world’s top steel producer brought in 86.25 million tonnes of iron ore last month, down 2.4 percent from 88.4 million tonnes in October and down 8.8 percent from 94.54 million tonnes a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. For the first 11 months of 2018, China’s imports of the steelmaking ingredient reached 977.89 million tonnes, down ...

Several tankers carrying diesel fuel are floating off Taiwan and Southeast Asian waters as a steep fall in oil prices kept buyers at bay, trade and shipping sources said on Friday, helping push rates to their highest since January 2016. With tanker rates also boosted by strong Chinese oil exports, it was a big relief for an industry that has been in the doldrums for the past three years. About seven to nine long-range tankers carrying about 5 to 7 million barrels of diesel are currently floating off Taiwan waters ...

South Korea’s major shipyards have shown decent performances this year on the back of a surge in orders to build LNG carriers, industry data showed Sunday. For the year up to Thursday, 52 orders for LNG carriers were received by local entities, with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. bagging the largest figure, or 25 orders, followed by 14 orders for Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. and 13 for Samsung Heavy Industries Co. This is nearly five times larger than the figure for last year, when they secured orders for a ...

Canada’s benchmark heavy crude, Western Canadian Select (WCS), has seen its price slowly slide since mid-2018, trading at a record discount to

Transformation is needed if the world trade system is to cope with the projected impacts of climate change. “The hardest hit areas, coastlines, will affect us all since the lion’s share of trade itself is managed through international shipping and ports,” said UNCTAD’s chief of policy and legislation, Regina Asariotis, at a critical meeting to address this challenge on the sidelines of the COP24 global climate summit in Katowice, Poland in December. This is a fact all actors in the ocean economy must face as it has baring on the ...

ShipsFocus Weekly Chemical Shipping Report, Week 49 2018

To make shipping on national waterways more lucrative, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has taken up a pilot project to demonstrate methanol as maritime fuel, a top official said. The nodal agency for inland waterways has decided to place an order to retrofit work boats and new cargo vessels with engines that can run on methanol. “We are placing order for 3 work boats to retrofit engines and 6 low draft cargo vessels of 1,000-2,000 tonnes capacity to Cochin Shipyard that will use methanol as fuel with technology from ...

India Market: No significant improvements in the local steel prices is holding the buyers to purchase new inventories, prices for new tonnage

VLCC Rates in the Middle East Gulf softened around 2.5 points to WS 97/97.5 for 270,000mt to China, with a run to Japan fixed at WS 96. Going west, 280,000mt to the US Gulf remains steady at WS 43/43.5, basis Cape/Cape. West Africa to China basis 260,000mt came under downward pressure, with last done here five points lower at WS 92.5. The US Gulf to Singapore/China went at $8.4/9.4 million, while Taiwan discharge was fixed at $9.0 million. Suezmax West Africa again saw increased tonnage availability. Consequently, rates eased around ...

November was the worst month for oil indexes in a decade due to fears of oversupply and slowing demand growth. However in the beginning of the week oil and fuel prices have turned into firm upward evolution as growing expectations that major producers, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will agree some form of production cut at a key meeting of OPEC ministers on Dec. 06-07 boosted sentiment. MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, 180 HSFO and MGO at the main world hubs), ...

A no-deal Brexit could cause up to six months of disruption at some ports, a British minister warned on Friday, vowing to prioritise pharmaceuticals as the UK develops contingency plans less than four months before it is due to leave the EU. Members of parliament look set to vote down Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal next week, hurtling the world’s fifth-largest economy into even deeper uncertainty and leaving open a number of possible outcomes including a disorderly Brexit. Health minister Matt Hancock wrote to drugs companies in August to ...

Why does ballast water have to be treated? Many vessels take on ballast water to improve balance, stability, and structural integrity when they are sailing without cargo, for example. When the vessel is loaded, the ballast tanks are then emptied—and this is where problems can arise. As ballast water is taken on, thousands of organisms living in that water are brought on board. Many of these can survive the journeys taken by ships and consequently are released into ecosystems where they are not native when the ship reaches its destination. ...

China’s imports of crude oil hit a fresh monthly high in November, customs data showed on Saturday, beating the record set in October on heavy buying from private refiners and trial starts of new mega-refineries. Crude oil arrivals last month rose 8.5 percent compared with the same month a year ago to 10.43 million barrels per day (bpd), marking the first time China imported more than 10 million bpd. October’s imports were 9.61 million bpd. For the first 11 months, China imported 418.11 million tonnes of foreign crude oil, or ...

In conversation with TU Delft researchers, The Naval Architect explores how incorporating haptic feedback into vessel controls – and ultimately remote control stations – can improve situational awareness, paving the way towards unmanned vessels. Our experience of the world around us depends on a plethora of sensory inputs. When one of these inputs is lost, our situational awareness is diminished. This is particularly true of touch; although its value may be harder to describe than sight, it is an essential interface between us and our environment. Recognition of this fact ...

Starting in 2019, ships participating in the Environmental Ship Index (ESI) in working towards reducing air emissions may apply for up to 8 per cent discount on tonnage fees in the harbours of the Port of Tallinn. The new port pricing system involving differentiated port fees is aimed at encouraging shipping companies to adopt environmentally friendlier technologies and thus also contribute to the health of Baltic Sea ecosystem. “All the vessels sailing on the Baltic Sea must, naturally, meet current applicable environmental regulations,” said Ellen Kaasik, the Head of Quality ...