SINGAPORE MARINE FUELS SALES HIT RECORD
Sales of marine fuels in August at Asia’s biggest ship fuelling port of Singapore rose 3.2 percent from a year ago to 4.364 million tons, but were down 0.7 percent from July. The latest sales volumes are the highest on record for the month of August and are the third highest for 2017. By Sept. 11, the Baltic Dry Index, an economic indicator which tracks the demand for shipping raw materials such as coal, iron and steel, climbed to its highest since November 2014 as trade activity improved.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
BALTIC MAIN INDEX EDGES LOWER ON WEAKER CAPESIZE RATES
The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, slipped on Wednesday as rates for capesize vessels fell. The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, fell 7 points or 0.52 percent to 1,337 points. The capesize index lost 96 points or 3.52 percent to end at 2,628 points, marking its biggest one-day percentage decline in two weeks. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tone cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $813 to $19,129. The panamax index rose 35 points or 2.45 percent to 1,464 points.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS BY 50PC STRESSED
The shipping industry must and can play a significant role in addressing global warming by reducing its GHG emissions. That’s the finding of a 4-year research effort ‘Shipping in Changing Climates’, supported by over 30 partners from industry and academia including Lloyds Register, Rolls Royce, BMT, Shell and MSI.
The research concludes international shipping must cut GHG emissions at least 50 percent by 2050. Rising trade and demand means this will require substantial efficiency improvements in the average ship, which will have to reduce in carbon intensity some 60-90 percent by mid century.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
[ads1]
FREIGHT RATES GAIN AS ASIA STEPS IN TO MEET US OIL PRODUCTS DEMAND
With Asia turning out to be an important supplier of clean products to the Americas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the pattern of trade is changing and is pushing up freight rates in the bargain.
Amid a production-and-supply squeeze from the US, contracts to move gasoline and jet fuel from North Asia and Singapore to product-hungry South America, Mexico and the US West Coast have increased significantly. Since the beginning of August, the Singapore-USWC rates for MR tankers have jumped 50 percent to $1.4 million. For the same period, the South Korea-USWC rates are up 36 percent to $1.2 million.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
TOP WORLDWIDE PORTS SEE BOX THROUGHPUT RISE 7.2PC
Global throughput at major ports rose by 6.8 percent year on year in the second quarter driven by 7.2 percent container throughput growth, according to Shanghai International Shipping Institute’s Global Port Development Report for Q2 2017.
Over the reporting period, international trade was active, foreign trade was boosted, and commodity prices were high, thanks to the stable global GDP growth of 2.7 percent. Overall positive trends were affected by developments in the different regions of the world, reported London’s Port Technology International. China’s larger ports accomplished a domestic trade cargo throughput increase of seven percent in the second quarter to 2.23 billion tons.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
SINGAPORE BUNKER SUPPLIERS PLAN EXPANSION
Participants in Singapore’s bunker market are firming up plans to expand this year amid expectations that a robust economic outlook would help volumes to grow, while industry rationalization through the possible exit or restructure of some firms due to stringent rules creates more opportunities for accredited and larger bunker suppliers to fill the void. Industry source told that at least three accredited bunker suppliers are planning to expand their physical supply operations in Singapore — by either time chartering or by acquiring more barges for deliveries — as they remain upbeat about the country’s bunkering prospects.
Singapore is located along one of the world’s busiest waterways, with close to 1,000 ships anchored at any given time. According to data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, vessel arrivals in Singapore last year were 138,998.
[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
JAPANESE LOAN TO UPGRADE INDIA’S ALANG SHIP RECYCLING YARD
The world’s largest stretch of ship-breaking beaches on Alang-Sosiya, in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district of India, will be upgraded through a $76 million soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
An official announcement on the loan set to be made in Gandhinagar as the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on visit to India, this week. The total cost of upgradation is $111.22 million, which would be financed by as much as 68 percent through the JICA loan. The loan will have a tenure of 30 years at an interest rate of 1.2 percent, with a repayment moratorium of 10 years. The loan will be used to upgrade 70 yards over the next five years.