The shipping industry is experiencing the biggest dry bulk market recession since the 1980s. The uncertain global economic outlook and the increased imbalance between supply and demand have lead to historical low freight rates . The downturn seems to continue until 2017 if a viable equilibrium is not achieved.
No system is perfect and risk is everywhere, probably nowhere more so than in shipping, with no guarantees that there will never be an accident, nor that a particular accident will never repeat itself.
As the owner or manager of a beautiful new yacht, fuel testing may not be high on your priorities; however it should be at the very top. The ability to sail safely, independently and at short notice is crucial for the modern day yacht owner and having a fuel and fuel system free from any problems at all times is essential in achieving this.
It is a common experience to hear the phrase “We must learn lessons from this” following a major accident, or a more everyday event such as losing in a sporting competition. Indeed this has become such a common phrase that one may feel that learning lessons is an automatic or natural process.
For the month of May 2015 the majority of the incidents occurred in the Malacca Strait where 12 incidents of maritime piracy and/or armed robbery took place involving various types of vessels. In South China Sea 5 incidents occurred with 3 dry cargo vessels and 2 product tankers. In West Africa 3 incidents were reported, the same figure with Indian Ocean. It is worth noting that no incident was reported in the East African area.
The PSC Report that was published in the past by OOW has been updated and from now on will be released on a quarterly basis. The updated report focuses mainly on the locations where the majority of the PSC detentions took place in the past quarter. As it can be seen from the report the majority of the PSC detentions takes place in the Tokyo PSC MoU, followed by Paris PSC MoU. This is something to be expected taking into consideration the amount of merchant vessels that visit Indian/Pacific ocean area as well as the Europe area.
How much US shale oil production is taken out of service will be a key driver of future tanker shipping earnings, according to the latest edition of the Tanker Forecaster published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.
Dry bulk orders fell during the previous four months to 0.4m DWT/month which is one of the lowest levels since the 90s. According to Clarksons this is something to be expected especially when we are talking about a market with Capesizes earning approximately $4,000/day.
It’s hard to believe that the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) started the year above the 2,200 mark given that now is standing at below 1,100, and having spent most of the late spring and summer below 1,000. A seasonal rally had religiously been prayed for and for a few recent weeks capesize rates improved to ‘high teen levels’ (approximately $18,000 pd on average spot market), but then again, the rally seems to have run out of steam a bit too early. A worldwide bumper crop season of grains, primarily in North America, has been holding the hopes for boosting panamax rates especially in the Atlantic, but it seems railroad capacity has preferentially been tied up to shipments of shale oil, leaving inland seaways transport to cope with the movement of the cargo along the Mississippi River to New Orleans for exporting. China, as this was put into perspective in a recent New York Times op-ed article, has been focusing on clean air and has shut down domestic coal mines of poor calorific quality or high sulphur content, and likewise imposed higher standards of imported coal, which likely would stimulate increased imports and thus help drive higher dry bulk freight rates. There has been speculation that, over the long run, China will be shifting its power generation to natural gas, which is perceived as a negative development for coal miners worldwide, but good for the LNG trade fortunes.
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Officer of the Watch 