With the next OPEC meeting soon underway, tanker owners are looking for the next oil market’s direction. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “in just a few weeks’ time OPEC and its allies will meet again to discuss the oil markets. Analysts are mixed on what the decision will be, with the next few weeks having the potential to influence OPEC’s final decision. At this stage it would seem likely that the current agreement, which expires in March 2020, will be maintained. However, several events taking place ...

Capesize For most of the week the rates were nudging up under a flurry of activity in the Pacific as levels for the West Australia to China C5 route were being fixed in the upper eight-dollar level for usual 170,000dwt vessel, 10% cargo. FMG fixed a Newcastlemax for end-November, loading at $8.65. By the end of the week there was a softer tone and the route ended being marked close to $8.75. Kepco covered a couple of Australia cargos to Youngheung, loading end-November. There was talk of Saldanha Bay to ...

As the shipping industry prepares for a wave of emissions regulation hitting it over the coming years, methanol suppliers are looking to take advantage of the situation to take a share of the 300 million mt/year global bunker market. Shipping companies face a significant rise in costs when the International Maritime Organization’s global 0.5% bunker sulfur cap comes into effect next year, with 0.5% sulfur bunker prices currently at a premium of about $230/mtto high sulfur fuel oil at Rotterdam. Delegates at the European Methanol Summit in Dusseldorf this week ...

With the enforcement date of the IMO 2020 low-sulphur regulation now only 6 weeks away, shippers and forwarders are starting to get their cheque-books out to help ocean carriers cover the additional cost of the cleaner, low-sulphur fuel. On 4 December Drewry will publish the first Bunker Adjustment Factor reference price based on low-sulphur fuel and in line with our independent BAF indexing mechanism. Using this mechanism, the bunker reference price will change from the previous high-sulphur IFO 380 fuel to the new low-sulphur fuel and affect the new BAFs ...

VLCC With at least half of the VLCC market participants meeting in Dubai this week, fixture activity has been sporadic, with rates slipping slightly. However, the market is reported to have bottomed and is now rebounding. This is evidenced by a couple of fixtures reported on subjects at improved levels. 270,000mt Middle East Gulf (MEG) to China was last rated at WS 75, down two points week-on-week, although at time of writing, WS 76 is reported on subjects. Meanwhile, 280,000mt MEG to the US Gulf (USG), basis Cape/Cape, has fallen ...

Big data, AI and the promises of other new technology-enabled possibilities are being talked about all the time. For many of us in the supply chain, logistics and transportation industry, it is hard to imagine the efficiencies tech will bring, as we are still trying to understand how to best compile excel reports and make sense of it all. In the age of IoT, the connectivity of devices is rapidly progressing. In the case of logistics, the end-to-end tracking of cargo in real-time is now a reality. What was once ...

The Shipping Deputy Ministry recently issued the Merchant Shipping (Fees and Dues with respect to Ocean Going Commercial Cyprus Ships) Regulations 2019 (Administrative Act 322/2019), which contain the new fees and charges payable for ocean-going commercial ships registered in Cyprus applicable as of 27 September 2019. The regulations define ‘ocean-going commercial Cyprus ships’ as Cyprus ships which carry out their usual activity outside Cyprus’s territorial sea for commercial purposes. As explained in the ministry’s Circular 16/2019, the aim of the new regulations is to: simplify the relevant fees and dues ...

EuroDry Ltd., an owner and operator of drybulk vessels and provider of seaborne transportation for drybulk cargoes, announced today its results for the three- and nine-month period ended September 30, 2019. Euroseas Ltd. (“Euroseas” or “Former Parent Company”) contributed to the Company seven subsidiaries comprising its drybulk fleet of six vessels, one Ultramax and two Kamsarmax vessels built between 2016 and 2018, and three Japanese-built Panamax vessels built between 2000 and 2004 (the “Spin-off”). The Company was spun-off from Euroseas Ltd. on May 30, 2018. Historical comparative period reflects the ...

The China Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) reported significant drops in freight indices in the United States routes this week due to slowdown of market shipments. NCFI, a wind vane of China’s busiest port’s freight rates for the international container shipping market, stood at 690.2 points Friday, down 4.9 percent from last week. Freight indices in the routes from Ningbo-Zhoushan port to the east and west coast of the United States quote 829.8 points and 818.1 points accordingly, dropping by 7.6 percent and 12.2 percent from last week. According to ...

Saga Tankers ASA reported a net asset value (NAV) of NOK 309.4 million end of the third quarter 2019, corresponding to NOK 1.16 per outstanding share, excluding minority interests and with Vallhall valued at book value. By the end of the third quarter, Saga had a cash balance of NOK 119 million. All long-term debt are related to the real estate owned by Vallhall (Saga’s ownership is 55%). During the quarter, the net market value of shares held in SD Standard Drilling Plc and Vistin Pharma ASA decreased with NOK ...

China is looking to transform Greece’s Piraeus port into the biggest harbor in Europe — making it the most crucial transit hub for trade between Asia and Europe. In 2016, China’s shipping firm Cosco purchased a majority stake in Piraeus port. Situated in the Saronic Gulf, Greece’s largest harbor — and Europe’s seventh biggest — is at a strategic location between the Asian and European continents. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced earlier this week that Cosco would be investing about 600 million euros ($660 ...

The trans-Pacific container trade from Asia to North America is headed for its first annual decline in a decade, according to Alphaliner. Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO are the carriers that have lost the most market share this year as volumes have contracted. The France-based container shipping analyst predicts that the eastbound trans-Pacific container trade will register its first negative growth year since 2009, with a 2% drop expected for the full year 2019. “While volume growth has remained marginally positive in the first three quarters of this year despite ...

The IMO, which met in London this week to discuss how the shipping industry can continue to decarbonise, has agreed that a goal-setting approach is the best way to reduce carbon emissions in the short-term. Full details of the approach will be resolved next year. States and NGO’s discussed the details and the complexities of the different submitted proposals and how they would cut emissions and impact states. After lengthy discussions it was clear that there was no appetite for prescriptive speed reduction regulation. The IMO concluded that a mandatory ...

Danish shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS on Friday posted forecast-beating third-quarter net profit amid lower fuel costs, but warned that growth in the container market is slowing more than previously thought as global economies weaken and escalating trade restrictions weigh. Maersk MAERSK.B, +4.38% reported a total quarterly net profit of $520 million from $396 million in the year-earlier period. A FactSet analyst poll had expected a net profit of $359 million. Net profit attributable to shareholders totaled $506 million. Maersk, which is considered a barometer of global trade, confirmed that ...

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether tax exemptions granted under Italian law to ports are in line with EU State aid rules. The Commission also welcomes the commitment made by Spain to abolish the tax exemption benefitting Spanish ports as from 2020, allowing the Commission to close the procedure concerning Spain. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Ports are key infrastructure for economic growth and regional development. Our competition rules reflect that and allow Member States to invest in ports, creating jobs ...