Better days ahead for VLGC shipowners
A slowdown in fleet growth should begin the recovery cycle from the second half of 2018, although freight rates will not reach the levels seen during the bull run of 2014-15, according to the latest edition of the LPG Forecaster published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.
Year 2017 was one of the toughest years in the history for VLGC shipping as ample vessel supply squeezed the freight market. VLGC earnings in the spot market (on the benchmark AG-Japan route) averaged $12,500pd; way below the break-even rate of $21,000pd.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Giant US oil ships to benefit Asian refiners
Big oil tankers sailing from the US are set to bring along some benefits for refiners in Asia while allowing them to sidestep traders serving the world’s top crude-buying region.
The new option to load oil into very large crude carriers at the US Gulf Coast terminal operated by the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, will reduce costs and waiting time for Asian buyers of American supplies, according to shipbroking firm Braemar ACM. It also reduces the need to rely on traders to manage complicated tanker logistics that sometimes involve multiple smaller vessels transferring crude into a bigger boat.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Tepid coal traffic to hit Inda’s ports volume growth till 2022
Cargo growth at the country’s major ports is all set to moderate to 3-5 per cent per annum over the next five years due to the “sedate pace” being logged in by its mainstay commodity, coal, says a report issued last week.
Container traffic will be driving the overall volume growth in the next five years with a 6-8 per cent per annum growth every year, said a Crisil report. The port sector witnessed a compound annual growth rate of 4.4 per cent during the past five years, which is expected to fall to between 3 and 5 per cent, it added. The report further said this will result in the share of coal in the overall pie to reduce to 19 percent from the present 22 percent. The faster paced growth in container traffic will result in its share go up to 19 percent from the present 16 percent.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
[ads1]
Port Virginia’s TEU up 4.4pc in first 7 months
The Port of Virginia, centred on Hampton Roads, lifted 1.67 million TEU in the first seven months of its fiscal year 2018, a 4.4 percent year-on-year increase.
Fiscal-year volumes are ahead of last year, but January cargo totals were less than forecast”, said Virginia Port Authority. In Virginia is a hard reality this time of year of two lost workdays in the early part of January as the result the blizzard that is reflected in our totals. The January 3 blizzard impacted the movement of freight well beyond the Norfolk Harbour. There was disruption and delay to logistics and supply chains, rail and truck movement, vessel calls and to the overall flow of intermodal traffic along the US east coast and in parts of the Midwest.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Supramax index could be entering bullish mode
The index remains on wave 4 of leg C with technical resistance below USD 10,475. Upside moves above this level would have bullish implications going forward as it would create a new high and imply the corrective phase is over.
The March futures are testing the 61.8% Fibonacci resistance with the stochastic in overbought territory. Currently on a leg 5 based on Elliott wave analysis and looking over extended. However, price action remains in bullish territory.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Greece’s Piraeus port enters new era with increasing handling capacity
Piraeus port, the largest harbor in Greece, entered a new era of handling 20,000 plus twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessels last Monday when China’s COSCO Shipping Taurus giga container vessel, one of the biggest worldwide.
The 400 m Taurus is the largest vessel to berth at Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT), opening a new chapter in the history of the port. Several officials and shipping industry representatives attended a ceremony for the welcome of the maiden call of the ship — which set sail from China with a final destination of Rotterdam — and the inauguration of the 3rd berth for 20,000 plus TEU vessels at PCT.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
Expected imo 2020 sulfur cap could shift demand to domestic sweet grades
As the global crude industry prepares for the shift toward the 0.5% global sulfur cap for fuel oil in 2020, sweet crudes including domestic USGC grades will most likely see an increase in price while heavier grades could be hit with large discounts.
This increase will be driven by rising global demand for distillate-rich grades to make lower sulfur fuel oil to meet the new specs set forth by the International Maritime Organization, according to Martin Tallett of EnSys, recently speaking at the February meeting of the Crude Oil Quality Association.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
India to promote methanol as shipping fuel
The use of methanol will soon be promoted as a fuel for shipping in the place of diesel, which could help address the problem of pollution in the shipping industry Minister of Shipping and Waterways Nitin Gadkari said last week. Speaking at an event at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), where he laid the foundation stone for a national technology centre to modernize India’s ports and fast track waterways, he said that Niti Aayog had already undertaken research on methanol and further technological research from institutions, such as IIT-M, on this could help ensure that India manufactured its own methanol for industrial use.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
India’s nmpt container-handling count crosses 1-lakh mark
The number of containers handled at New Mangalore Port crossed 1 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) on February 26 during the current financial year.
The port handled 1,00,666 TEUs of containers till February 26 of 2017-18 as against 82,169 TEUs in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, recording a growth of 22.51 per cent. The port handled 94,939 TEUs in 2016-17.