Surging shipments into the United States are fueling record high freight costs and logjams at seaports, but transportation executives say the rally will lose steam with a second wave of COVID-19 restrictions on the cards. Container shipping companies, which move goods for customers including Amazon.com and Walmart, got stung late last year and early this year when COVID-19 halted trade around the world, and they question whether the U.S. import boom can be sustained. “Let’s not get carried away,” Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of Germany’s Hapag Lloyd, told reporters. ...

The UP World LNG Shipping Index, the world’s only stock index focused on companies in the LNG shipping sector, added 2.88 points, or 4.76%, last week. The largest growth achieved Awilco LNG ASA (ALNG) with 22.6% and Höegh LNG Partners LP (HMLP) with 20.3%. Exmar NV added 16.2%. Both Japanese companies rose for 8.1% (Mitsui O.S.K. Line Ltd.) and 6.2% (Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha). Dynagas LNG Partners (DLNG) contributed the most to the declines, writing off nearly 6%. MISC Berhad, which a week before lost 7%, added 5.5% now. Fearnleys ...

On August 16, 2006, five tugboats dragged Emma Maersk from a Danish shipyard and towed her backward to the sea. The length of four soccer fields, her keel nearly a hundred feet below her deck, Emma was far larger than any container ship ever before ordered and by far the most expensive. She was a bet on globalization: By transporting a container more cheaply than any other vessel afloat, she and her six sister ships were expected to stimulate even faster growth in international trade, lowering the cost of moving ...

U.S. regulators are rolling out on Monday the first of a two-part regime imposing new pollution control standards on ships. The regime will have long-term implications for how shipowners manage vessel discharges. The 329-page Vessel Incidental Discharge National Standards of Performance, issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sets a new framework for regulating discharges “incidental to the normal operation of vessels.” The change is aimed at bringing consistency and certainty to the oversight of such discharges from approximately 82,000 U.S.- and foreign-flagged commercial vessels operating in U.S. waters, including ...

Oil Market close yesterday evening Oil dropped yesterday 3% as virus infections, Libyan oil output rebound. Oil prices fell more than 3% on Monday, extending last week’s losses as coronavirus cases continued to surge in the United States and Europe, while Libya’s rebound in crude production raised fears of oversupply. The United States reported its highest number yet of new coronavirus infections in two days through Saturday, while in France new cases hit a record of more than 50,000 on Sunday. Italy and Spain imposed fresh restrictions to curb the ...

Seafarers continue to face a bleak future in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Seafarers Happiness Index report, published today by The Mission to Seafarers. The survey, undertaken with the support of the Shipowners’ Club and Wallem Group, reports on the experiences of seafarers between July and September 2020. This period saw some welcome action to address the dire situation facing the world’s seafarers in the midst of COVID-19, including the ongoing crew change crisis, but still fell short of the comprehensive response that is needed ...

As one of the world’s busiest seaports, the focus on Singapore is inevitably on big numbers: Global leader in terms of annual shipping tonnage, carried by some 200 shipping lines who make an annual average of 140,000 vessel calls. What the commercial statistics – or most stories on Singapore’s success as a maritime hub – usually don’t include are the crew on board each of those ships. To the casual observer, seafarers are barely visible. Stranded cruise ship passengers made front-page news early in the outbreak of COVID-19 – the ...

Yesterday ABS Nautical Systems® (ABS NS) launched NS eLogs, a powerful digital solution that replaces traditional paper logbooks and brings a new dimension to compliance management through a browser-based experience. The launch follows the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) non-mandatory adoption of electronic record books on 1 October 2020, welcoming digital entries on board. A seamless business automation tool for today’s digital fleet, NS eLogs helps ship owners and operators reduce operational costs, simplify user data entry, enhance data reliability and improve regulatory compliance. NS eLogs can function as a standalone ...

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax and supramax vessels, fell on Monday, on lower rates for capesize vessels. The Baltic index fell 13 points, or 0.9%, to 1,402. The capesize index fell 54 points, or 2.4%, to 2,207. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, slipped $445 to $18,304. Iron ore futures hit a four-week low on Monday, as China’s portside inventory piled up to its highest since February and worries about future demand ...

Upgrading the main engines of very large gas carriers to dual fuel technology using LPG to reduce sulfur emissions would cost more than three times that of retrofitting scrubbers, a senior Dorian LPG official said. Research and preliminary engineering studies by the company to upgrade the main engines of up to 10 of its VLGCs to dual fuel technology showed “significantly higher” capital expenditure than deemed necessary to justify the investment, the company’s chief financial officer Ted Young said. “Capital expenditure for dual fuel LPG upgrade is generally quoted at ...

The operator of an oil tanker stormed in the English Channel by British special forces thanked the authorities on Monday for their timely response, saying help was requested after seven stowaways who boarded in Nigeria turned hostile. Troops from the Special Boat Service, Britain’s elite naval special forces unit, boarded the Greek-operated Nave Andromeda near the Isle of Wight off southern England after the master of the ship said he was concerned about the safety of his crew. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel authorised the armed ...

Amid the criticism of the results of the IMO intercessional GHG working group, the World Shipping Council urges member states to not lose sight of the ultimate goal of decarbonising shipping. A detailed proposal to get us there lies ready for MEPC 75. “Whilst it is easy to criticize the outcome of the intercessional, it is worth remembering that anything short of a global solution represents long-term failure on climate change. We need to stick with this hard work, but the task is urgent, and we must move further, faster. ...

Optimarin has confirmed receipt of a revised IMO G8 certificate for its market proven, simple and robust ballast water treatment (BWT) technology. The news ensures complete global compliance for a growing customer base, with the very latest orders received from Arriva Shipping, for its fleet of advanced dry bulk vessels, and Østensjø Rederi, for four newbuilds currently under construction at Spain’s Gondan shipyard. A total of around 1000 Optimarin Ballast Systems (OBS) have now been sold, of which 700 are already installed. The majority of systems currently being ordered are ...

Aramex (DFM: ARMX), a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, announced today the official go-live of their rollout of WiseTech Global’s integrated logistics execution platform, CargoWise, across its global network. The CargoWise rollout represents an integral milestone in Aramex’s digital transformation journey that strategically leverages innovative solutions to satisfy evolving customer needs and allows the company to swiftly adapt to changing market conditions. The scope of the implementation will cover the freight forwarding product across Aramex’s global network. Aramex’s unique approach sees CargoWise implemented simultaneously across its ...

Bahri, a global leader in logistics and transportation, recorded positive financial results during the third quarter of 2020, compared to those of the same quarter last year. Bahri recorded a remarkable increase of 302% in net profit for the first nine months of 2020 to reach SAR 1.49 billion, compared to SAR 372 million during the same period in 2019. The total revenues for the period increased to SAR 7.12 billion, with an increase of 54%, compared to SAR 4.63 billion recorded last year. For the third quarter ending 30 ...