The dirty tanker market remained soft in September amid a continued imbalance between tonnage supply and demand, keeping rates at low or even loss-making levels, OPEC said in its latest weekly report. However, there has been a definite pickup in sentiment amid hopes for a good – or certainly better – performance in the final quarter of the year. Loading schedules for both Russian and North Sea grades show noticeable increases in tonnage demand at a time of steadily higher flows from the Middle East. As a result, ship owners ...

Imported consumer goods should arrive in the country at least six weeks earlier than normal to make it onto shelves in time for Black Friday, according to JOC by IHS Markit. Due to the continuing delays at US ports consumer goods from Asia will need to have cleared US ports by now, compared to a usual early November cut-off date, or risk not making it into shopping baskets this Christmas. The warning comes as 1.59 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) imports into the US arrived in September from Asia, up ...

Risk is the “big handbrake” on the adoption of new technology in shipping, according to Watson Farley & Williams’ partner Mike Phillips. Speaking at a WFW seminar, Phillips said that shipowners, operators and traders exist in a world of risk and they daily work towards mitigating that risk. “Adopting new technology represents an increase in risk in the first instance,” he said. Within an industry with heavy infrastructure, the scope of that risk is enormous, he added. Phillips was a panellist at shipping lawyer WFW’s discussion on ‘New Horizons: Pitfalls ...

Singapore’s bunker market has tightened significantly this week, after workers tested positive for Covid-19 at Universal Terminal which has delayed barge loading schedules. The terminal is currently short staffed, with the number of barges queued up increasing. As a result, VLSFO supply has become more difficult for prompt dates as there is less available product in the market. Lead times have gone up from eight days to 10-11 days for the low sulphur fuel grade. HSFO380 has also tightened in the bunkering hub with lead times stretching to 12 days ...

The dry bulk market could be looking for at least two more quarters of solid performance, should the futures market prove to be correct. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “following up on our insight on May 2021, where we discussed about the Capesize market outlook for the second half of the year, we are pleased to see that dry bulk Q4 high seasonality has returned after at least 3 years of underperformance, driving also the Q4’21 and Q1’22 FFA curve to multi year highs. Back in ...

After a slow start to the US soya bean export season, partly due to disruption from Hurricane Ida, US soya bean inspections ahead of exports have jumped to 1.6m tonnes in the week ending 7 October. This represents a 90.9% jump from the week before and is the highest level seen since the start of February 2021 which marked the end of the main export season of the 2020/2021 marketing year. US soya bean exports are heavily concentrated at just a few ports. While two of the biggest soya bean ...

Newbuild orders for multipurpose ships (MPV), including both breakbulk and project cargo vessels, are not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels this year, in sharp contrast to the competing sectors of containerships and dry bulk carriers, according to Drewry’s recently published Multipurpose Shipping Forecaster report. Indeed we expect new orders for multipurpose and heavylift tonnage over 2021 to struggle to reach even 2019 levels of just over 200,000 dwt. It is also worth noting that the 160,000 dwt of new tonnage ordered so far in 2021 is all for vessels with ...

Demand for dry bulk tonnage has remained high in the S&P market. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “on the dry bulk side, interest for SnP transactions remained vivid for yet another week, with several units of different size classes changing hands. However, it is worth stating that a strong number of capes were reported as sold last week. The firm freight market and the robust sentiment amongst buyers led to a rise of deals in the segment as a whole. Given the persistent strong buying ...

A rapid replacement of fossil fuels with renewable fuels based on green hydrogen and advanced biofuels could enable to cut up to 80% of CO2 emissions attributed to international maritime shipping by mid-century, a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) finds. Renewable fuels should contribute at least 70% of the sector’s energy mix in 2050, IRENA’s A Pathway to Decarbonise the Shipping Sector by 2050 shows, outlining a roadmap for the global shipping sector in line with the global 1.5°C climate goal. IRENA’s Director-General Francesco La Camera ...

Ports left and right are starting to feel the impact of the supply chain crisis and are showing signs of congestion and long unloading times. One of the latest “victims” appears to be Felixstowe Port in Suffolk, UK, which is starting to divert container vessels away, with chaos starting to take over ahead of the Christmas Holidays. According to Mr. Alex Hersham, CEO and co-founder of London-based digital freight forwarding company Zencargo, “this port congestion at Felixstowe is the logical result of the ongoing HGV driver shortage in the UK ...

Wet tonnage has been feeding towards the demolition market over the past few weeks. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking commented that “the tanker units were once again in the spotlight of the ship recycling market, with owners trying to restructure their fleet in an attempt to avoid further losses in a sector that has not seen any significant improvement in freight rates in the year so far. At the same time though, the rest of the key segments (dry bulk, containers, gas) continue witnessing favorable freight market ...

With the European Union’s carbon trading scheme expected to include shipping from 2023, shipowners should review their contractual arrangements in good time to ensure the liability for the cost of compliance is properly addressed, says North P&I Club’s Alvin Forster and Helen Barden The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is the world’s largest carbon-trading scheme and operates in all EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Starting in 2005, the scheme focused on the power and manufacturing industries, but in 2019, the European Commission (EC) announced its new ...

Will freight rates on Asia-Europe or the Transpacific reach 40.000 USD/FFE in the run-up prior to Chinese New Year 2022? Or will they start dropping already now and be back to a more normal level of 2-3.000 USD/FFE by February? These are extremely important questions to get right – both for a shipper looking to budget his freight costs as well as for a carrier trying to assess not only profitability but also to which degree to lean towards the spot market versus locking cargo up in longer term contracts. ...

An increased crude oil production in the U.S. could offer additional support to the tanker market. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “US crude production has averaged this summer some 600,000 bpd above the level seen in summer 2020. However, on an annual average basis, US crude output in 2021 is still likely to average at slightly lower levels compared to 2020, in part due to disruptions caused by Hurricane Ida. Another key factor why the US is not seeing a greater increase in output is the ...

Setting and raising governance standards for shipping all come back to the charter contract, a panel at London International Shipping Week advised. Panellist Tony Foster, CEO and CIO of Marine Capital, went so far as to describe the most important party in the chain as the charterer. “If the charterer is driven solely by price and that capital is mispriced then everybody in the chain has a problem,” he said, adding that if all stakeholders in all parts of the chain do not participate in raising standards “the whole thing ...