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Rough seas for dry bulk shipbrokers as commissions tank
It’s carnage out there for the dry bulk shipping market. Anyone and everyone connected to this market are bleeding profusely with freight for moving dry commodities offering negative returns for over a...
View ArticleRomance of the high seas strong in shipping industry hearts
“There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea”. So said renowned Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad in his controversial 1900 novel, Lord Jim. Sailors from decades...
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The Port of Singapore as a barometer of health of China’s economy and global...
Shipping, rather than commodity prices, can often be a good barometer of the overall health of China’s manufacturing and of international trade, so it was quite a surprise to see a large number of...
View ArticleAncient Roman lessons on shipping and logistics
The Ancient Romans were fiercely proud of the network of roads they built across their empire, all of which, as we know, led to Rome. Many of them, from Britain’s Fosse Way, to Greece’s Via Egnatia and...
View ArticleThe Great Masquerade of Shipping at Posidonia 2016
Shipping is a curious industry. It is a marketplace where massive deals concerning the movement of millions of barrels of oil on behemoth ships can be made over a third pint of Peroni at the local pub....
View ArticleConfusion reigns in bunker and shipping markets
Spent June 27-28 at the Platts Bunker & Residual Fuel Oil Conference in Houston, smoothly hosted by John-Laurent Tronche (managing editor, US oil markets). An array of in-house experts presented,...
View ArticleDry bulk market marked by sharp divergence of views
Maritime Strategies International (MSI), an independent research and consultancy firm, has forecasted a rebound in freight rates during Q4 2016 for Capesize and Panamax segments, largely driven by an...
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Dry bulk commodities gripped under the spell of metallurgical coal’s renaissance
It‘s hard to imagine metallurgical coal exerting much influence on other commodity markets. But when the price of a commodity quadruples in slightly over 10 months, its clout amplifies. A range of...
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Zombies or revenants: Who will roam the shipping market in 2020?
Now, if someone, who was long considered dead is suddenly walking around, it is not necessarily a miracle of biblical proportions. So before you raise your hands in joyful prayer for the holy revenant,...
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Container Index Revolution: Should it be embraced by carriers?
It is a fact that the wind of change does not smell the same to everyone. There are clear signs that the container industry is slowly creaking towards using price indexes in contracts, but some of the...
View ArticleHow does IMO bunker fuel reform add up for consumers?
The shipping industry looks set to be shaken up by the International Maritime Organization’s decision to cut global bunker sulfur limits to 0.5% in 2020. Most operators will be forced to buy cleaner,...
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IMO 2020, a shipping regulation that may reshape global coal trade
It is not uncommon for people in various commodity sectors to believe that their markets exist in some kind of a happy bubble, where only the obvious supply and demand forces or targeted regulations...
View ArticleGaspirations: In pursuit of an LNG freight derivatives market
The commoditization of the global LNG market has had implications across several associated industries, ranging from the gas-fired power sector to seaborne gas transportation. Hence, it came as no...
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Why the container industry needs to replace BAF with a new pricing tool
The container industry has an elephant in the room. It’s big, smelly and has some serious boundary issues. Its name is the Bunker Adjustment Factor and recently it has grown so large that market...
View ArticleThe dry bulk freight market: Just treading water?
A decade has passed since the 2008 dry bulk freight rates began a long downturn which coincided with the Financial Crisis and culminated with a historic low in January 2016. And while many are...
View ArticleThe great scrubber conundrum
It’s been six months since my last 2020 dispatch. Since then, I’ve spent time at major industry gatherings in London (IP week) and Athens (Posidonia) and yet I’m just as uncertain about 2020 as I was...
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