The tanker market has been suppressed during the month of January, OPEC said in its latest monthly report. Dirty spot freight rates registered a slow start to the year. VLCCs showed the best performance in January, with the Middle East-to-East route up 38%, m-o-m, amid increasing activities on the longer haul routes. The Suezmax and Aframax markets fared less well, amid more muted activities. Suezmax rates on the US Gulf Coast-to-Europe route declined 11%, m-o-m, while Aframax spot rates around the Mediterranean fell 18%, m-o-m. In the clean tanker market, ...

By early 2025, net supply has declined significantly from the peaks seen in 2023 and early 2024, reinforcing the inverse correlation between supply levels and TD3 rates. The sharp drop in net supply has driven a notable spike in TD3 rates, validating the fundamental supply-demand pricing mechanism in the VLCC market. A major supply peak in mid-2023 (~180 vessels) led to subdued TD3 rates, but recent volatility in Baltic TD3 rates suggests a strengthening trend, particularly if crude oil demand remains resilient. With net supply tightening, demand-side factors—such as refinery ...

The global economic landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation, shifting from the unified globalisation model of the 1990s to a more fragmented system characterised by regional alliances and competing blocs. This shift, highlighted by Gilles Moëc, chief economist at AXA Investment, in a recent World Economic Forum article, is reshaping trade, finance, and geopolitical relationships, presenting both challenges and opportunities for international shipping businesses. Moëc argues that the world economy is “splitting into competing groups instead of a single connected system of globalisation”. This fragmentation, however, doesn’t necessarily spell the ...

With seasonality playing a big part, dry bulk shipping freight rates have taken a significant hit over the past few months. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Xclusiv said that “the dry bulk freight market has experienced significant declines in rates across various vessel sizes since November 2024. According to the Baltic Exchange Timecharter equivalents, the rates have fallen by 56% for Capesize, 18% for Kamsarmax, 20% for Panamax, 54% for Supramax, and 48% for Handysize vessels. However, when examining historical trends from 2018 to 2024, seasonality plays a significant ...

European Shipowners (ECSA), Airlines for Europe (A4E), which represent the shipping and aviation sector at European level, along with the green transport group Transport & Environment (T&E) issue today a joint statement calling on the Commission and the EU member states to ramp up the production of clean shipping and aviation fuels in Europe. T&E and the two industry associations highlight that meeting the targets of the European Green Deal and ensuring that these industries remain competitive requires immense investments. These investments should aim to produce clean shipping and aviation ...

Positive and negative trends in global piracy Global piracy and armed robbery incidents decreased by 3% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC). On an overall basis, this is good news, but a closer look at the figures does show some worrying trends: Reports of Somali pirate activity, for the first time since 2017, raised considerable concern at the beginning of 2024. Nine incidents linked to Somali pirates, including four hijackings, were reported in the Western Indian Ocean/Gulf of Aden between ...

The ship recycling market is still quite slow and uncertain. In its latest weekly report, Best Oasis (www.best-oasis.com), a leading cash buyer of ships said that “this week, the ship recycling market remained slow and uncertain, with all four major destinations—India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Türkiye—struggling to gain momentum. In India, recyclers had pinned their hopes on the Union Budget 2025-26, but with no action against cheap steel imports, domestic scrap prices stayed under pressure. Tonnage availability was low, and the rising dollar made transactions more challenging, dampening market confidence. Bangladesh ...

In a sector deeply rooted in its heritage but increasingly shaped by technological advancement, shipping operations are undergoing a profound transformation. Amidst discussions of digitalisation and decarbonisation, it is vital that the health and wellbeing of the 1.9 million seafarers driving global trade is not overlooked. As the individuals who ensure 90% of the world’s goods reach their destinations, seafarers deserve solutions that recognise their invaluable contributions to our modern way of life, and that help to make seafaring a more attractive career path for mariners of the future. At ...

Most shipping stakeholders expect Suez Canal transits to resume before the end of 2025 and for Trump tariffs to escalate, according to a Drewry survey. The last few years have seen the share prices of container shipping stocks rise and fall as steeply as the ocean waves those companies sail on. It has been a very risky and bumpy ride, but the returns have been truly astonishing. Any speculative investor who had bought and held $1,000 at the start of 2019 on the companies included in Drewry Maritime Financial Research’s ...

Things are heating up in the second hand market for ships, with more deals being reported last week. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “in the bulk segment, Greek based company Seanergy was behind the purchase of the Newcastlemax BERGE KITA 207,850 dwt 2013 Imabari built (SS due Oct 2028, DD due Oct 2026) for a reported price of $36.70 mln. The Kamsarmax PATRA 80,596 dwt 2012 Universal Shipbuilding built (SS and DD due OCT 2025) was sold at $15.75 mln to Greek interests. Indian interests ...

Greece has held a prominent place in shipping for many decades. What makes this more significant is that the country’s considerable role on the international maritime stage is disproportionate to its size. The capacity of the Greek merchant fleet, at more than 5,000 vessels, makes Greece the largest shipowning nation, and its shipping sector (including ships that are Greek owned and Greek managed) collectively accounts for 20 percent of global deadweight tonnage. How does a nation that represents less than 0.5 percent of global GDP come to oversee 20 percent ...

“Since 2019, the global container market has grown 8%, ending at 183.2m TEU in 2024 according to Container Trade Statistics. However, growth has been very uneven and regional imbalances between exports and imports have increased by 33%,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO. In 2019, regional imbalances totalled 58.8m TEU, equal to 52% of inter-regional trade, but grew to 84.9m TEU and 70% in 2024. In absolute terms the imbalance in the East & Southeast Asia region remained the largest at 42.4m, up from 29.4m TEU in 2019. ...

The LNG shipping market has come under pressure lately, as market conditions have been more than challenging. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “the LNG shipping sector has entered 2025 under pressure, amid challenging market fundamentals and significant geopolitical developments. U.S. energy and trade policies, the evolving situation in the Red Sea and the impacts of the cessation of Russian pipeline gas flows through Ukraine’s territory are expected to exert considerable influence over the LNG market. In the wake of President Trump’s recent announcement of 10% tariffs ...

An unusually early Lunar New Year at the end of January set the precedent for a rise in container rates at the start of January before dipping to normal levels at the end of the month. However, with the new Trump administration putting plans in place to introduce new tariffs and the Red Sea crisis continuing to impact commercial vessels, rates are likely to remain volatile in the short term. The Freightos Baltic Index Global benchmark increased 13% in early January owing to pre-Lunar New Year demand, before easing to ...

LR tonne-miles dropped sharply in December-24 and January-25 due to a stark decline in Europe’s middle distillate imports, and shifting export patterns in the Wider Arabian Sea. Due to declining Red Sea exports, and India West Coast exports having stayed within the Pacific Basin amid weak European demand, Europe’s supply is increasingly dependent on imports from the Mideast Gulf. Europe’s combined imports of diesel/gasoil and jet/kero fell in January by 32% year-on-year, falling below the seven-year range. This decline fits with seasonally low European demand for refined products at the ...