The tanker market ended 2018 on a soft note, as overall sentiment retreated, OPEC said in its latest monthly report. Following gains in the tanker market registered in November, a softer sentiment was witnessed in December with average dirty tanker spot freight rates relatively stable affected by a drop in VLCC and Suezmax rates from the previous month. Lower rates were seen in the larger dirty classes in December and across all reported routes on the back of limited demand. This was the result of the holiday season that led ...

Looking Back 2018 saw a sea-change in attitudes and actions towards Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a marine fuel. By March, of the 94 cruise ships on the global order-book, 18 under construction were LNG-powered. This represented 20% of all newbuildings for the cruise industry, but 25% of newbuilding capacity due to the size of the vessels ordered. The world’s first fully LNG-fuelled cruise ship, SEA\LNG member Carnival’s AIDAnova entered service in December with a further seven LNG-powered cruise ships ordered by Carnival to be operational by end 2022. More ...

Nowadays, information security is considered as one of the most fundamental and critical factors that evaluates the reliability and availability of a computer system or an ICT environment. Information and communications technology (ICT) has induced a severe revolution in the digital era and the connected network (Internet) has become an integral part of our daily lives. All organizations and industries employ the Internet, computer networks and ICT infrastructure, including industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in order to compete in the markets, increase productivity ...

While the fourth quarter of 2018 didn’t live up to expectations, especially for the Capesize segment, it seems that ship owners can take heart in the fact that newbuilding orders were also significantly reduced, which is a quite significant silver lining. Allied Shipbroking said in its latest weekly report that “given the poor performance noted in the market as of late, a hefty amount of skepticism now prevails, with most now looking to decide where to put their faith in next. Yet it may well be worth taking a closer ...

The shipping industry is rapidly reaching a point of no return: Emission limits and, in the more distant future, complete decarbonization will change ship operation dramatically. The question is: How should container ships be built today? The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to less than two degrees. For the shipping industry, the IMO’s greenhouse gas strategy (MEPC.304(72)) has set three targets: to reduce CO2 emissions per transport work by at least 40 per cent by the year 2030 compared to 2008 levels, pursuing ...

It has come to the attention of the Club that new regulatory requirements concerning the reporting of energy consumption from ships have been introduced for vessels calling at ports in China, with effect from 1st January 2019. Although no official translation of these new regulatory requirements has been published by the Chinese MSA, the Chinese authorities have indicated that the translation contained in this copy of the Regulation on Data Collection for Energy Consumption of Ships, is aligned with the Chinese text. Key points from these new regulatory requirements are ...

It’s taken a couple of weeks, but shipbrokers are now starting to report that the first demolition candidates are emerging, as ship owners have started this year’s process of renewing their fleet. In fact, 2019 is a critical year for scrapping, given that it’s the final year prior to the IMO 2020 rules, which are bound to send some older vessels for early retirement, due to the fact that it will be uneconomical to retrofit them and keep them in service. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Clarkson Platou Hellas ...

As we quickly approach the turning point of a new decade, there is much speculation on what would be decided in terms of regulations imposed on the shipping activity. IMO’s working group has been analysing some future strategic possibilities to be introduced in order to combat the shipping industry estimated 2.5% share of global CO2 greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). This is a prioritised area since without any decisive measure an alarming increase in the sector share of emissions by 50-250% might be achieved within 2050. Although CO2 is a huge ...

Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (NYSE:ANW) (“Aegean” or the “Company”) announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) has approved its revised final motion related to $535 million in aggregate Debtor-in-Possession financing (the “DIP Facility”) from Mercuria Energy Group Limited (“Mercuria”), one of the world’s largest independent energy and commodity companies. The Court also approved the Company’s Restructuring Support Agreement (the “RSA”) with Mercuria, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Aegean, American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., and certain holders of ...

Newbuilding ordering activity has started to pick up pace of late, while S&P deals are also on the rise, with more and more owners looking to conclude business deals. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “despite the persisting pressure that is noted in the dry bulk freight market lately, activity in the newbuilding front remains at moderate levels, with owners foreseeing the stabilization of the rates in the following months. During the past week, 4 new orders were reported across different size segments, with the biggest ...

The IMO considers exhaust gas scrubbers to be an acceptable means of reducing vessels’ sulphur emissions and ensuring compliance with MARPOL Annex VI. A separate guideline, Resolution MEPC.259(68), specifies the requirements for the verification, testing, survey and certification of scrubber systems and sets out the criteria for discharging scrubber washwater into the sea. However, some coastal states and ports have implemented local regulations with more stringent requirements that restrict or completely prohibit the discharge of washwater from open loop scrubbers or prohibit the use of scrubbers. We are currently aware ...

ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) released its Annual (January to December 2018) Report. Highlights of the report, whose information is verified by the respective government agencies, also known as Focal Points, and regional authorities, include: Overall Summary There was a total of 76 incidents of piracy and armed robbery reported in Asia between January to December 2018, comprising 62 actual incidents and 14 attempted incidents This represents a decrease of 25% in the total number of incidents and a 31% decrease in actual incidents compared to 2017 This marks the ...

An increase of supply of crude oil from the Arab Gulf and a resulting need for additional infrastructure in terms of ports and pipelines could result in a heightened use of VLCCs in the region. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “it is fair to say the US crude exports have transformed the global oil markets since the crude export ban was lifted by Congress at the end of 2015. Crude exports have risen at a considerable rate, placing the US in the market as a major ...

Container imports on both the US East Coast (USEC) and West Coast (USWC) had a strong year in 2018, growing 3.7% and 8% respectively in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2017. Record high levels of inbound laden containers were experienced on both coasts in October with the USWC at 1.09 million TEU and the USEC at 0.91 million TEU according to BIMCO’s own data. The first two months of 2018 saw the USWC coast’s laden imports increase 11.7% from the start of ...

“We believe that the industry’s supply-demand balance will benefit from a reduced appetite for Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) among the major carriers, some of which now have their eyes fixed on a bigger prize of becoming global logistics integrators. Aside from feeder ship replenishment, there has been no reaction from other lines to HMM’s mega-ship order and as such we have greatly reduced our projected new orders for 2020 onwards,” said Simon Heaney, senior manager, container research at Drewry and editor of the Container Forecaster. “This subsequently feeds into ...