Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a midsized local shipbuilder currently under court receivership, is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, industry insiders said Friday, after it failed to find eligible buyers ahead of a deadline for its sale. The Changwon District Court, which manages Sungdong’s rehabilitation process, rejected bids from three companies on Thursday, questioning their funding capacity. It was the third time that the sale of Sungdong had fallen through since it went up for sale in October 2018. Sungdong was placed under court receivership in March 2018. ...

Dalian iron ore futures surged to a record peak on Friday and posted their biggest weekly gain since February, buoyed by expectations of sustained tightness in supply and brisk demand amid China’s renewed drive to support its slowing economy. The most-actively traded September iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose as much as 4% to 797.5 yuan ($115.20) a tonne, the highest since Dalian iron ore futures started trading in 2013. It ended the session 2.2% higher at 783.5 yuan, posting a weekly gain of 11.4%. It has ...

In this Report, we publish our first outlook for 2020. As we do so, volatility has returned to oil markets with a dramatic sell-off in late May seeing Brent prices fall from $70/bbl to $60/bbl. Until recently, the focus has been on the supply side with the familiar list of uncertainties – Iran, Venezuela, Libya, and the Vienna Agreement – lifting Brent prices above $70/bbl in early April and keeping them there until late May. Not that supply concerns have gone away: yesterday oil prices initially increased by 4% on ...

Analysts have played down fears of a huge spike in oil prices this year, citing the economic slowdown and trade war — but rising tensions in the Middle East could be a threat to the energy markets, according to a U.S.-based think tank. Oil prices rose as much as 4% on Thursday following attacks on two tanker ships off the coast of Iran, which the Trump administration has blamed on Tehran. The attacks in the Gulf of Oman, which involved Japanese and Norwegian vessels, renewed fears of conflict in the ...

Rising natural gas production in Argentina, coupled with competitive global LNG transportation costs, is expected to position the country as an emerging source of gas supply to Asia during peak demand periods, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie. Global LNG demand is showing increasing seasonality, and peak potential LNG production in Argentina during the summer months coincides with strong winter demand from utilities in Asia. This seasonal dynamic could attract Asian buyers and present a strong economic case for Argentinian LNG. In addition, Argentinian LNG liquefaction plants have lower ...

OPEC and other producers including Russia are in final talks for an agreement, that may be signed in early July, to cooperate on oil supplies on a long-term basis, Japan’s Nikkei reported, citing Russian energy minister Alexander Novak. Novak also told the Nikkei that discussions with OPEC on moving the date of the meeting to early July from the originally-planned dates of June 25-26 were nearly finalised. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other producers have since Jan. 1 implemented a deal to cut output by ...

Supporters of Brexit are “completely wrong” if they think recourse to an obscure trade rule will stop tariffs springing up overnight if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Friday. Some British politicians have suggested that in the event of a “no deal Brexit”, Article 24 of the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade can be invoked to keep Britain and the EU trading without tariffs. “It is completely wrong,” Malmstrom told Reuters. “They will have to trade with ...

Oil prices have been crushed by worries about weaker demand and a slowing global economy, but the market could begin to price in greater geopolitical risks if there are more attacks like the one on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday. But even as analysts say oil could rise on Mideast tensions, they also note it could fall back to the bottom of a wide range — between about $50 and $80 for Brent, if the trade war fears dim the economic outlook for the buyers ...

Chinese economic data on industrial output and investment published Friday added to evidence of a slowdown that some economists said risks breaching the government’s 6% bottom line for growth, unless there is more stimulus. The data for May included two key pieces of Chinese gross domestic product: value-added industrial production, which rose 5.0% from a year earlier, and fixed-asset investment, up 5.6% during the first five months of the year. Both increases were slower than prior-month reports from the National Bureau of Statistics. Beijing has targeted GDP growth this year ...

Diana Shipping Inc., a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry bulk vessels, announced that it has signed, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, a Memorandum of Agreement to sell to an unaffiliated third party, the 2004-built vessel “Thetis”, with delivery to the buyer latest by July 31, 2019, for a sale price of US$6.4 million before commissions. Upon completion of the aforementioned, Diana Shipping Inc.’s fleet will consist of 44 dry bulk vessels (4 Newcastlemax, 14 Capesize, 5 Post-Panamax, 5 Kamsarmax and 16 Panamax). As of today, the ...

HullWiper Ltd has launched their first East African hull cleaning solution in partnership with underwater hull cleaning specialist, Immersub. The introduction of a safe and green hull cleaning solution supports the Mauritius Ports Authority ‘Green Port Concept’ for sustainable and eco-friendly port activities. The agreement was signed under HullWiper’s leasing programme, introduced in 2017 to work with partners around the world to offer ship owners and operators a cost-efficient, brush- and diver-free alternative to traditional hull cleaning methods that protects anti-fouling coating on vessel hulls and the ocean. Ship owners ...

Today, Hapag-Lloyd AG has decided to fully redeem the outstanding EUR 280 million in aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 6.75 percent senior note due 2022 (ISIN XS1555576641 and ISIN XS1555576997) on 24 June 2019 at a fixed redemption price of 103.375 percent. The redemption will be done predominantly from available cash. EUR 100 million of the EUR 280 million will be paid from a drawdown of a CDS-based credit facility. The complete repayment of this senior note ahead of maturity is a clear step forward towards further deleveraging and ...

Two “flying objects” damaged a Japanese tanker owned by Kokuka Sangyo Co in an attack on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, but there was no damage to the cargo of methanol, the company president said on Friday. The Kokuka Courageous is now sailing toward the port of Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, with the crew having returned to the ship after evacuating because of the incident, Kokuka President Yutaka Katada told a press conference. It was being escorted by the U.S. Navy, he said. “The crew told ...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the Strait of Hormuz, a key commercial shipping route, would not be closed following attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, or at least not for long. Trump, in an interview on Fox News, blamed Iran for the attack on Thursday. Asked how to he planned to address Tehran and stop any further such incidents, Trump said: “We’re going to see.” Source: Reuters (Reporting by Makini Brice and Susan Heavey Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Iran said on Friday it was responsible for maintaining the security of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, state radio reported, adding that blaming it for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman was alarming. “We are in charge of maintaining security of the Strait and we rescued the crew of those attacked tankers in the shortest possible time … U.S. Secretary of State (Mike) Pompeo’s accusations towards Iran is alarming,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said. The United States blamed Iran for attacks on the ...