WORLDWIDE SHIPPING INDUSTRY
Weak iron-ore shipping demand drags down Baltic index
The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index fell for a seventh straight session, as demand for shipping iron-ore fell in the Atlantic. The Baltic index, which tracks rates for ships ferrying dry bulk commodities, fell 1.6 percent, or 31 points, to 1,868 points last Wednesday. The index has still more than tripled since February, mainly driven by strong demand for vessels that ship iron ore from Brazil into China. The capesize index fell 7 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,657 points. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 170,000 tonne-180,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $235 to $26,952. The panamax index fell 78 points, or nearly 4percent, to 1,891 points. The index was down for the sixth straight session.
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Open interest for q4 Singapore 10 ppm/500 ppm spread rises
A rise in open interest trading volumes for the Singapore 10 ppm/500 ppm spread in the fourth quarter suggests there is growing interest in medium sulfur gasoil as a hedging tool ahead of the International Maritime Organization’s tightening of global sulfur limits for marine fuels from 2020, market sources said Wednesday.
Forward trading interest for the Singapore 10 ppm gasoil/500 ppm gasoil spread for Q4 on the Intercontinental Exchange totaled 4.156 million barrels as of July 30, ICE data showed. This was almost double that for Q3 of 2.524 million barrels, the data showed. The IMO will cap global sulfur content in marine fuels at 0.5percent from next January 1, down from the current 3.5percent. It will apply outside designated emission control areas where the limit is already 0.1percent.
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Korea’s port traffic tops 800 million tons in h1
Trade volumes at South Korean ports topped 800 million tons in the first six months of this year, helped by 2.2 percent on-year growth in container throughput.
According to data released by Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Tuesday, Korean ports handled a total of 801.01 million tons of cargoes in the first half of this year, up 0.7 percent from a year ago. Of the total, foreign loads accounted for 699.84 million tons and domestic loads 101.18 million tons. Cargo throughput at Busan Port and Gwangyang Port grew 4.3 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, over the same period, while cargoes handled at Incheon Port contracted 5.7 percent and Pyeongtaek-Dangjin Port 3.3 percent.
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Paradip port trust has many feathers in its cap
The Paradip Port is situated 210 nautical miles south of Kolkata and 260 nautical miles north of Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India. The Government of India declared Paradip Port as the Eighth Major Port of India on April 18, 1966, making it the first major port in the East Coast commissioned after Independence.
Since then, the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) has grown by leaps and bounds and has been maintaining its second position for the past five years, in terms of traffic handled amongst all major ports. It has handled 109.27 million tonnes (MT) of cargo in FY 2018-19. The port is currently equipped with 15 berths, three single point moorings and one Ro-Ro jetty. Paradip Port is well connected with four-lane roads, NH-5A to NH-5 Kolkata to Chennai.
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Guangzhou to build world’s first automated parallel container quay
Guangzhou plans to build the world’s first automated unmanned parallel container quay for the fourth phase construction of the Nansha area of Guangzhou Port by 2021. The fourth phase includes construction of four 100,000-metricton ship berths and 122,000-ton lighter berths.
It will provide an innovative solution for handling and transport automation through automated quay cranes for container handling and automated rail-mounted gantry cranes. With the fourth phase completed and put into operation by 2021, the total Nansha area of Guangzhou Port will be able to handle 20 million TEUs a year. In recent years, Guangzhou Port has seen a steady growth in its container throughput capacity, Chen added. In 2018, the entire container throughput reached 21.92 million twenty-foot equivalent units, up 7.6 percent year-on-year.
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One killed, 9 injured as ship catches fire in Indonesia
One person was killed and nine others wounded as a ship caught fire in Karimun district of Indonesia’s Kepulauan Riau province on Wednesday, a senior disaster official quoted as saying. The inferno happened when Ro-Ro KMP Sembilang ship was being repaired in a shipyard operated by PT Karimun Marine Shipyard, head of emergency unit of the provincial disaster management agency Hardin Nafii said. All the victims were rushed to two nearby hospitals, and four out the nine wounded were in critical condition receiving treatment in intensive care units. The total number of people inside the ship remained unknown.