The tanker market has been on quite some ride during the past few weeks, which offers reason for some additional insight. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “the tanker market has been experiencing an impressive freight market rally over the past couple of weeks, with the current appetite amongst charterers overwhelming the available tonnage circulating the market and cause a fixing frenzy. Seasonality, geopolitics and the enforcement of sanctions on a fair share of the fleet are the main drivers behind these extraordinary highs”. According to ...

Container shipping Despite the unpredictability amid the escalating trade war between the US and China, container carriers performed better in 2Q19 than in 2Q18. Nonetheless, clouds of uncertainty have been hovering around the industry as spot rates continue to decline on major East-West trades notwithstanding better capacity management by carriers. On a positive note, some front-loading surge on China-US trade to beat the latest 15% levy on Chinese imports and stock up earlier than usual for Thanksgiving and Christmas sales could boost Transpacific trade and freight rates. Port operators Slow ...

In the context of materialising the United Nations International Maritime Organization’s (UN IMO) Initial Strategy for the decarbonisation of the shipping industry, Greece, as the leading traditional maritime country, has come forward with a concrete proposal for a short-term, prescriptive measure to improve the operational energy efficiency of existing ships, to be considered at the forthcoming meeting of the UN IMO’s intersessional technical group in November (11-15.11.2019). Greece’s submission, building on an existing proposal backed by the International Chamber of Shipping and IMO Member States, supplements the strengthened Ship Energy ...

Ship owners from the two main shipping “powerhouse” markets, i.e. the dry and wet ones, have been enjoying a period of elevated freight rates of late. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “in perhaps the most interesting market conditions of the past years, the tanker and the dry bulk industry have created a positive sentiment with regards to freight rates. Starting from the early-mid of summer the dry bulk industry followed a significant upward trend and despite some minor corrections that have been occurred lately, the BDI ...

IMO 2020 is fast approaching and it is estimated that nearly 3,000 vessels will have scrubbers installed by 2020. For the majority of owners and their crew members, scrubber systems are new technology and, as with any new system, teething problems can be expected. Compliant fuels too, would bring about their own challenges. Gard has handled a few scrubber related claims and in this article we look back at cases where there has been a breakdown of or damage to or by the scrubber. Fire during retrofitting of scrubber Scrubber ...

Volatility in the global commodity markets is not expected to unduly rattle Australia’s commodity outlook through 2020, but the 2021 picture is less rosy, according to government research. A recent report from Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science maintains a confident outlook for the coming year. Resources and Energy Quarterly, published at the end of September, anticipates that Australian resource exports will hold up in 2019-20, projecting A$282 billion in exports over the forecast period. But with a less stable world industrial production outlook, the demand forecast for 2021 ...

Ship financing has continued to retreat, now at its lowest level since the global financial crisis of 2008, said Petrofin Bank Research, in its latest annual survey. Some of its highlights are the following: – The Petrofin Index for Global Ship Finance continues to decline, down from 75 to 65. – Top 40 Banks’ lending to shipping now stands at $300.7bn, the lowest level since Petrofin started monitoring the global portfolio in 2008. – European portfolios continue their steep decline. – The Far East also marks a small decline during ...

Delivered tonnage of crude oil tankers have grown by +37%, whereas total fleet demolitions for 2019 have slumped to the lowest in a decade with a reduction of 52% from the year before. Newbuilding orders have remained low through the year with contracted tonnage down by 48%. Amidst a market filled with uncertainty and geopolitical unrest, BIMCO maintains its bearings and turns to the market fundamentals to cut through the mist of market speculation and uncertainty-driven hype. Shipping is fundamentally about the balance between the supply of ships and the ...

The Aframax sector has come out on top as having the largest percentage rise in ton miles over fleet growth in the past 3 months. Aframax charter rates have more than quadrupled in the same time frame, starting July at approximately 9k USD and starting October at over 40k USD. A contributing factor to this sharp increase is likely to be the very recent U.S. sanctions that were imposed on two units of Chinese shipping company COSCO at the end of September, squeezing Aframax supply further. Trade data is calculated ...

While interest in the second hand ship market is still quite vivid, there’s a clear difference in preference, when compared to newbuildings. Ship owners seem to favor bulkers for their S&P purchases, while when it comes to newbuilding ordering, the main focus is revolving around tankers and gas carriers. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that it was “an overall interesting week for the newbuilding market, given the good volume of new orders coming to light. At this point, gas and tanker sectors are monopolizing the market ...

On 1 January 2020, the IMO’s global sulphur cap will come into force, and ships will need to burn compliant low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO), unless they are equipped to use LNG or have fitted an exhaust gas cleaning system (also known as a scrubber). This is a massive regulatory change with significant knock on effects for the economics of the industry. It is estimated that by this date, up to 4,000 ships will be fitted with scrubbers, with many more ship operators expected to follow, reflecting the fact that ...

With only a few months to go until the introduction of 0.50% global sulphur cap, club members should have a clarity on their compliance strategy for the IMO 2020. For members who have chosen to achieve compliance by using low sulphur fuel oil, this article serves to understand the specific aspects and variabilities of the 0.50% fuels. Multiple fuels are expected to bring uncertainty post-2020 and running engines reliably/safely will inevitably require greater understanding and more sophisticated fuel handling strategies than today. Members will need to implement a proactive approach ...

Ship owners are investing heavily in the LNG shipping market, expecting a boom in the years to come, thanks to a rise in demand and the influx of a series of LNG projects in the global energy landscape. In a recent note, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “over the last 10 years, global LNG trade grew at an average of +5% y-o-y. The rate of growth however was quite irregular:strong until 2011, substantially flat in the following 4 years (averaging +0.5%) and from 2016 rising again. Between 2016 and 2019, ...

Last week our cross-sector earnings index, the ClarkSea, recorded its biggest ever weekly percentage move (23% to $20,096/day), and this week we have another record, including the biggest absolute increase (55% to $31,207/day). The current spike is very much tanker driven (VLCCs: $307,888/day!) and this week’s Analysis discusses the background, previous spikes, and some of the longer term trends. Tanker Take Off… The main driver behind the dramatic ClarkSea jump has of course been the tanker market, with the tanker element of our ClarkSea Index up 323% over two weeks ...

The crude tanker market is experiencing an unprecedented spike in rates, with the VLCC spot charter market in particular reaching heights not seen before. At the same time, VV values for crude tankers of all ages are on the rise. The below table shows the percentage increase of VLCC values since the beginning of October, and highlights the need for reactive algorithmic driven valuations during periods of rapid and significant change. We have put together the below data to analyse vessel activity during this period of change. Source: VesselsValue